Engaging Social Media for Rockwell Automation

Each year, Rockwell Automation hosts RSTechED — a week-long event that educates and trains manufacturers on automation software. Strained travel budgets, however, were threatening attendance.

Rockwell Automation turned to Padilla to reinvent how it delivered RSTechED. By deploying the very tools used in advanced manufacturing — hardware and software combined — the company more successfully reached the growing younger engineering workforce of its customers.

Through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, SlideShare and a smart phone app, combined with publicity and customer stories, RSTechED reached 18.2 million people, or 400 people per dollar spent on the entire event. That's a non-attendee/attendee ratio of more than 12,000 to one. And the event continues to live on the Web: 560 Facebook likes; 1,900 Twitter followers; 17 Facebook shares; 1,900 YouTube views; and thousands of print and online magazine readers.