Dan Nenni on Blogging in EDA

(EDA blogger Dan Nenni talks with Liz Massingill about how he approaches his blogging. First of two parts.)

Liz: Welcome, Dan. Thanks for coming down to chat with me today. I’d like to start by asking….Why do you blog?

Dan: I started my Social Media experience on LinkedIn a few years ago and blogging was the natural next step. I also use Twitter. Right now the three are integrated, with LinkedIn and Twitter being the delivery systems for my blog. Since I own my blog domain (http://danielnenni.com/) I get to see search terms, views, what is popular and what is not, where people come from and what links they click on. If they come from LinkedIn I get to see what they have done professionally. You are a LinkedIn fan I believe?

Liz: Yes.

Dan: A LinkedIn profile is a great source of information and hopefully it is up to date since it is transparent and seen by all. I’m also a member of LinkedIn groups for semiconductor design enablement. Once you join a group you can profile other members and see who your audience really is.

Liz: What topics interest your readers most and least?

Dan: Semiconductor topics are interesting, EDA topics are not. Financial/Economic topics are interesting, Social Media is not. Semiconductor yield is a VERY interesting topic, my blogs on TSMC 40nm yield get lots of views. Blogs on Global foundries are also popular, my TSMC vs Global Foundries is the most viewed blog to date. My blog on ICCAD was not so popular and got very few clicks. The most popular EDA blog I have done is EDA is DEAD, probably because of the word “dead.” Dead things get clicks.

What I have learned blogging directly correlates to my professional experience: Foundries are the center of the semiconductor universe and will continue to gain strength in driving EDA, IP, and Design Services. The best example is the TSMC Open Innovation Platform forum where TSMC clearly spelled out the future of EDA.

Liz: Who is your audience?

Dan: Friends and family mostly! ☺ I get the majority of my views from fabless semiconductor companies around the world, EDA and IP people, TSMC and the other foundries. More than half of my blog views come through LinkedIn and the people I am connected to. There are 50M+ people on LinkedIn and my connections link me to “5,422,800+ professionals”.

Liz: Let’s talk about “Social Media.”

Dan: The big EDA companies are already into Social Media, Synopsys, Cadence, and Mentor all have corporate bloggers and thousands of employees on LinkedIn. Blogs are now featured on the front of all three corporate websites. Synopsys had a nice social media program at the last Design Automation Conference. I blogged about it in “Twitter #SNPS #TSMC #46DAC” I’ve pushed Social Media to quite a few small and medium sized companies in the semiconductor design enablement business, with little success however. ☹

Liz: Well, it’s like Twitter. Not everybody is ready for it. It’s new, and takes a person out of her comfort zone.

Dan: People are scared because of the transparency, the same thing with blogging, fear-uncertainty-doubt. It concerned me as well but I think the rewards by far outweigh the risk. Blogging has many side benefits: My IQ has probably doubled as has my ego. If I ever take another VP of Sales and Marketing job I would only hire sales people with a LinkedIn profile and 500+ connections. My product marketing people would be required to blog and participate in LinkedIn groups. It keeps them close to customers and the market segment they serve.

(End of Part One.)

Tags: “Twitter #SNPS #TSMC #46DAC”, Dan Nenni, EDA, EDA blogger, Global Foundries, ICCAD. EDA is dead, Lee PR, LinkedIn, semiconductors, social media, TSMC, Twitter, www.dannenni.com, www.leepr.com

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