Shrink the world whilst expanding horizons — harnessing social networking platforms to create new commercial opportunities

It's a strange contradiction that in so many ways the oil and gas industry operates at the edge of what's technically possible, whilst in others it can act like a relic of the last century.

The individuals that make up the global oil & gas industry are a transient, disparate but remain tight nit community that is used to operating in all four corners of globe. 

New networking platforms is just such an area where, whilst other industries are fully harnessing this new technology to drive new sales opportunities, the oil and gas industry is dipping its toe in the water, rather than jumping straight in.

It's frustrating for a marketeer who preaches the importance of getting close to customers, that this technology (much of it free at the point of access) seems perfectly suited to the transient, disparate but tight-knit nature of an oil and gas community which spans all four corners of globe.

An ever growing black book of contacts

So how big is your contact list, and how much effort do you exert in keeping it updated? 

It's staggering that 20% employees at the top five service companies are reported as having their own Linked-in accounts (the largest professional social networking platform).

It's even more staggering that Linked-in recently passed the 100million user mark and that the biggest growth area for new user sign-up's came from Brazil, Mexico and India.

Harnessing the marketing potential

For marketing and business development executives, an ever expanding globally connected community enables instant access to an online world of influences and decision makers.

Being able to build a network on this scale used to take months if not years. Harnessing the power of industry forums and other forms of online networking can mean that, with an intelligent approach, this process can now take weeks. 

By informing the debate around an industry challenge, and by illustrating new technological developments through case studies, we've been able to greatly enhance the business' power to influence decision makers and compliment the overall marketing mix. 

Take a look at one of our portfolio companies, Guardian and its participation in the "wireline forum" for example.

Our goal is to ensure customers receive more relevant, timely and useful engagement from us than they do from their competitors. This market understanding and accessibility is a key value-adding differentiator. 

Get connected and stay in the game

Instant open global communication channels are here to stay, how companies and marketers react to this opportunity will determine if this new connected network is a friend or foe.

For Epi-V, it is becoming an increasingly strategic and useful tool in our marketing armoury as well as an efficient and effective means of positioning our portfolio businesses on a global stage.

Agree? Then why not practice what we both preach and take our discussion online.

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