Several of the fastener industry publications do a nice job of using Twitter to publicize articles from their sites or magazines. I was just scrolling down Twitter and saw Bazibaza Tweeting links to articles from their site, which seems to happen pretty often on Sunday evenings. LINK frequently put up links (no pun intended) to articles from their most recent publication, and Fastener News Desk has made an art form out of this with more Twitter links than most. Yet, the one that caught my eye this morning was a Tweet from Global Fastener News. The link was to an article, “47 Years Later, Articles Give Glimpse of NFDA’s Role in Industry History”. I’m not entirely sure why I clicked on this one as I am not an NFDA member, but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Rather than talking about the NFDA, Global Fastener News listed 30 different news headlines from past articles that had some connection to the NFDA. The dates of the articles ranged from 1979 to 2014, and by clicking on the headline you could pull up the old articles.
The first headline from 1979 stated “329 Attend NFDA Autumn Meeting”. 329 to a meeting?? Wow, that better than most regional trade shows. Very interesting.
The next article from 1983 read “10 Fastener Associations Representing 1,000 Companies with 30,000 Employees Hold First Joint Meeting”. So, our industry has been trying to do this since 1983?? The Fastener Industry Coalition (FIC) is still working on this today. Check out their website at www.fastenercoaliton.org to see more about this organization and their current efforts at “working together” as the 1983 article put it.
The list of headlines was like a walk down fastener memory lane. A 1994 article headlined “Marbacher & Unferth: Metric is Coming” made me smile. I remember the countless “Metric is Simple” seminars I sat through with Bruno Marbacher, back when Bossard, Metric & Multistandard and maybe Zeleda were the major metric suppliers. While two of those companies were absorbed into other companies, Metric & Multistandard is still around supplying fastener distributors with those pesky, difficult to find metric parts.
How about this one from 2002: “Why Does The Internet Scare Distributors?” In 2003, there was an article “Enter the Dragon: China Emerges as Industrial Superpower”. Yeah, I’d say that article accurately foreshadowed some things to come. As recently as 2006 there was an NFDA panel discussion that caused FIN to write the headline, “NFDA Panelists: No Question About Globalization”. You think?? But it 2006, I guess there must have been questions about this before the panel set everyone straight.
Almost all of the major fastener industry publications do a nice job of using Twitter to direct readers to specific articles. I enjoy reading from all of them, including Fastener Technology International and American Fastener Journal, which I had not mentioned earlier. But, for looking back at fastener history, I have found Global Fastener News to be particularly enjoyable. And, I suppose as I grow older and have more history in the fastener business, these articles become more interesting. Nostalgia!! Please let me know if the other publications have similar archival capabilities because I do find it enjoyable to look back and see what has changed and what continues to stay the same.
Hi TS,
Thanks for mentioning all different Media, publishing on twitter on a daily basis news about fastener industry.
As Lisa mentions, it is time consuming, but it is very important to keep informed our readers. Education is part of it, as well as motivating them.
Being multilingual adds up to the challenge for us, but is necessary to bring real worldwide coverage.
What’s happening with the bankruptcy of Whitesell fastener branch in Germany is little known for those who don’t read german (ex Acument – ex Ruia).
Very often, it is through news of local newspaper that you get most accurate insights of what really is going on when trouble occurs.
Fortunately, for our hard job we get the great reward of receiving regular thank you emails and private messages! Thank you to you too Traveling Salesman, for supporting us!
And yes, you are right, we publish also every sunday evening, before finalizing the weekly newsletter, to gather the latest news from friday to sunday.
Daniel Rivalin
Hello Traveling Salesman,
Thanks for the mention in your latest blog about Twitter links to fastener industry articles. Social media has certainly changed the way our news gets delivered. @FastenerNews is delivering the content from the all of the magazines to a very broad audience. By the time the hard copy of the magazine hits the desk we have already circulated and shared the content for more than a month. We spend many hours compiling and circulating stories that will educate and inform our industry peers. The FastenerNewsDesk.com website advertises and promotes all of Fastener Industry Magazines as well as other publications that pertain to manufacturing, aerospace, additive manufacturing and more. We have a section dedicated to industry reports that allows companies to do market research and evaluate new up and coming industries where new business leads can be found. We provide links to industry organizations, scholarships, publicly traded fastener stocks, the fastener quality act, Fastener training info and schedules, and we recently added a jobs section. We would greatly appreciate and encourage guest writers who may be interested in covering a story for our blog. It is a great opportunity to collaborate and promote your company. Sign up today for our Fastener Industry blog at http://fastenernewsdesk.com/ or simply join the conversation by following us at https://twitter.com/fastenernews, or by using the hashtag #Fasteners in your tweets.
Thanks Traveling Salesman!