“Engineers don’t do social media.”
That’s a phrase we hear a lot and frankly, we just don’t buy it.
Far from being the unsociable, lacking in basic communication skills-type geeks that the design engineering community is often labelled as, we think that this group of people were actually one of the early pioneers of social networking.
In a time when Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was barely out of short trousers and a tweet was something of interest only to an ornithologist, the engineering community were already engaging in online conversations; using wikis and forums to post questions and answers, providing support and advice to their respective peers. More recently, a number of engineers have begun to find Internet fame through blogging about their work and passions, with some even embracing rich media by broadcasting their talents through online shows and weekly podcasts.
So, in an attempt to prove that an active online engineering community does exist, we have launched the Design Engineering Social Media Survey 2011. Aimed specifically at engineers, the survey seeks to answer the big question once and for all – do engineers do social media?
What do you think? Have we asked the right questions? Take the survey or give us your comments below.
