There has been a lot of talk lately about whether or not Twitter and other social networks are great marketing tools or whether they are much ado about nothing. I’m on the side of those who think that social networks are an increasingly important part of the mix.

So here it is. If you’re not incorporating social media — at least in some form — in your own marketing, as well as taking it into consideration in the marketing of your clients, you’re blind spot is showing. 

In today’s MediaPost Search Insider, I clicked through to an interesting post about how Twitter and Facebook broke the news about the death of Michael Jackson, while the mainstream media was still scrambling and the mainstream search engines were oblivious. 

Loren Baker points to recent events to squash doubts that real-time social media keeps people more informed about breaking news than traditional news outlets — while search isn’t always up to the challenge. When the news broke that Michael Jackson had died from cardiac arrest after being rushed to the hospital, celebrity Twitter streams and Facebook users had the news. 

Google Search lagged in breaking news coverage — and Microsoft’s Bing “absolutely failed,” Baker writes. He provides screen shots of search results after the first reports of Jackson’s death: The first three listings in the query “michael Jackson ” on Bing returned information on concert tickets, Wikipedia, and Michael Jackson News — Yahoo Music, respectively. 

Sure, you can argue that, while social networks and blogs aren’t held to same journalistic standards as mainstream media and therefore can worry about reporting things quickly rather than reporting them right. However, that argument misses the point. Social networks got it first because they have become such a critical part of the social fabric. It’s just more evidence that we need to take them seriously. 

Social networking like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook have become part of the fabric of our culture. You can love them. You can hate them. But you can’t ignore them or dismiss them. As marketers (and unless you are a manufacturing only print business—and who is these days?— you are a marketer), we need to understand and incorporate these media as part of a broader multi-channel strategy. Anyone who writes them off as irrelevant is showing their marketing ignorance. 

I look at my own business as a microcosm of the larger issue. Gone are the days when trade magazine bylines alone established your industry credibility. My stature in this industry has become largely influenced by my activity on industry blogs and social networking sites. People contact me on a regular basis because of comments I’ve made on LinkedIn discussion boards. When people ask me for the URL to my blog, I give them my Twitter ID instead. 

The major brand marketers aren’t spending millions of dollars developing social networking strategies because it’s a waste of money. They are making the investment because this is where the eyeballs are, both business and consumer. If you want to know where the movers and shakers of this industry are, you can find them in the social networking world. If they aren’t there in person, they have people monitoring the social networks for them. There is a reason for it. 

When Twitter and Facebook get the Michael Jackson news first, it’s a wake-up call to the rest of us. If we’re not paying attention to social networks—if we’re not incorporating them into our own marketing strategies and the strategies of our clients—we’re making a huge marketing mistake.

I wanted to get this on the radar of the print professionals on this blog. It would be very helpful to find out whether I am merely drinking my own kool-aid or have stumbled upon something useful.

To be clear, I’m retired and no longer in the game. These days I’m working on a non profit to find, fund and mentor proof of concept projects to demonstrate how Print can radically improve learning and high school education.

At any rate, following is a post I did at my blog. If you think it makes sense or is just blablabla please let me know. Best would be if there are parts that make sense and others that are blablabla. As a retired printer, I have a pretty thick skin. Plus it’s much easier to say what you think you see when you aren’t trying to sell anything to anyone.

Assumptions:
1. Print and TV are the mass media.
2. The internet is to buy things,store, search and talk.
3. The business rules are buy, store, search, and talk for free and pay for stuff.
4. Print, t shirts, posters et al. are information rich stuff.
5. The printernet has the speed and scale that can bring Print back into the game.

Printernet
Massive parallel local/global print manufacturing .
At the MFP or CRD or PSP or a gezillion PSPS.

Mosiac
Easy access to the internet

Clickable print(Print + 2d Codes + PC cameras or Smart Phones)
Easy access to the printernet

Some use cases:
Clickable maps connected to OnStar or Sirius Radio.
Clickable TV guides to find just the right video at just the right time.
Clickable club cards and postcards to support viral marketing.
Clickable club cards, postcards and flyers to support political campaigns.
Clickable newspapers to replace high school textbooks.
Clickable labels in museums and art galleries to find out more.
Clickable supermarket shoppers to carry through the store.
Clickable menus to get the ingredients and the chain of production of the food.
Clickable production machines to get the carbon footprints.
Clickable manuals for doctors, plumbers and electricians.
Clickable drug labeling to monitor compliance.

And my personal favorites:
Clickable curriculum guides to get just the right video on the flat screen in the classroom and then the kids watching the video on their smartphones and then the family watching the video in the living room. And then talking about it.

Clickable ID’s for High School kids to make it easy to send an SMS to mom when junior acts up. It will fix the “attendance problem” in about 2 weeks. It should fix the “stop acting like an asshole problem” in about a month.

Data points:
1. The new iPhone sold over a 1 million units in a couple of days.
2. Social marketing is marketing.
3. Whispernet + Amazon makes one button purchase of books easy.
4. Automobiles are connected to the Cloud.
5. Textbooks are disappearing from California.
6. The newspaper industry is coming back from the “end of the world.”
7. HP TouchSmart is connected to HP Apps.
8. The global economic engine is moving to BRIC and G20.
9. The person who sells mobile phones at my Costco referring to his cell phone with a 2″ by 5″ keyboard said, “This never leaves my hand. I spent last weekend watching the Mets on the flat screen and Family Guy on my phone. It was the best vacation I’ve had in a long time. I used it type my resume.
10. A couple of my high school students used their cell phones to write the essays that appeared at the class wiki.
11. Barack Obama is number 6 on twitter with 1,573,800 followers as of this morning.

Likely data points:
1. Apple will release a big iPhone which will be the killer app tablet computer.
2. Newspapers will find a business model enabling commerce in addition to advertising.
3. Legacy video will be tagged for educational uses.
4. High school education will get much cheaper, faster and better.
5. Newspapers will publish versioned papers for communities of interest.

Maybe future data points:
1. Android, Apple OS ,MSFT will compete to be the OS of the mobile web.
2. Smartphones, netbooks and X+whispernet will be the access points to the web.
3. Thirty second commercials will be harnessed to help fix high school education.
4. Clickable newspapers will publish versioned papers for the communities of learners, starting with high school, then moving to everyone.

Printcasting, the Knight News Challenge project that aims to “allow individuals to easily create ad-supported, customized publications with a mix of local news and information” has announced a partnership with MediaNews Group. The partnership expands the reach of the publishing platform.

The Press Release from Printcasting:
Read the rest of this entry »

Springer Science+Business Media the publisher of science, technology and medicine books, manuals and journals has announced its eBook catalog is now available in print at participating libraries in North America that have have purchased Springer eBook Collection. According to the company, “All registered library patrons will be able to order a softcover copy of a Springer eBook for their personal use the Springer platform www.springerlink.com..” The books format is perfect bound with a color cover and monochrome interior.

“We tested and evaluated market acceptance. The test phase was a complete success, as the libraries and their patrons confirmed,” said Dr. Olaf Ernst, President of eProduct Management & Innovation at Springer. “The order processing, rapid delivery and attractive price of the books convinced library users that this is a good deal. The logical decision for Springer was to offer MyCopy as an extended service for our library customers and their users. It makes the steadily growing eBook range even more attractive to the science and research market.”

The print production for the MyCopy service will be handled by Lighting Source, a unit of Ingram Content Group. Ingram Content Group comprised of Ingram Book Group, Lightning Source and Ingram Digital was recently formed.

In recent video interview Cary Sherburne, Senior Editor at WhatTheyThink as digital printing guru Roger Gimbel of Roger Gimbel & Associates if TransPromo is real. Here’s what Roger had to say:

What do you think? Is TransPromo real? Is TransPromo a service offering any printer can provide to customers?

It is rare that new printing methods are introduced, but it happened last week. The announcement came in the form of a press release that described a joint venture between MDC Max Daetwyler, the Swiss firm that pioneered the first successful laser gravure system, and Interprint GmbH, the German-based printer of fabrics, carpets, and wood for interior design. The two companies are planning to install the first press based on the technology at an Interprint plant about a year from now.

 It is clear from the press release that the LaserSonic technology is not related to either inkjet or toner-based printing. It uses “ordinary gravure and flexo inks,” including metallics, which can be either water-based or solvent-based. Because it uses standard inks, the press release says, running costs are low and the environmental impact is minimal.

The press release is available only in German, and it provides no details about the technology. It can be found here:

http://www.interprint.com/de/news/index-111.html

 Because there will probably be broad interest in this technology, I have posted an English translation of the press release at Beyond-print.net. It is here:

http://beyond-print.de/site/content/en/channel_news/news_1205.html

On June 8 the Governor of California announced that the state would no longer purchase K -12 textbooks. On June 10, Adam Dewitz started a thread at Print Ceo Blog that has attracted 21 responses as of Sunday morning, June 14 . Clearly this is an interesting topic in our print centric world.

While many reactions will be more End of Print blabla, I would like to share a path that allows printers to benefit from the deep troubles in the textbook industry.

On the most theoretical level, the idea is to connect Print to Video to create a possibly new communication media. As a robust global distribute and print network becomes operational, there will be the scale to make this media channel interesting to global marketers.

When I was teaching at design school, they always told me it was better to show than to tell. So in that spirit, I ask you to consider the following clickable postcard. The same principle works for clickable A4s, printed in MFPs in school districts and clickable posters, signage and packaging, which are already being used extensively in Asia.

The Front of the Postcard

GOP Activist Makes Controversial Remarks:
Written by Robin Hinson
Saturday, 13 June 2009 22:48

Friday’s gorilla escape at Riverbanks Zoo prompted a prominent Republican to make some controversial remarks about First Lady Michelle Obama.

In an article posted on the website, www.fitsnews.com, Rusty Depass, a former chair of the State Election Commission, commented on the gorilla escape on www.facebook.com.

The post says quote, “I’m sure it (referring to the ape), is just one of Michelle’s ancestors…probably harmless.”

ABC Columbia News attempted to contact Depass, but he did not return our phone calls.

The Back of the Postcard

http://tinyurl.com/qgfwe

created at QR code generator

The video

There are more examples of how this could work at my blog at Clickable Print + Printernet Publishing.

The 2009 edition of InfoTrends’ popular TransPromo Summit is right around the corner: August 13-14 at the Hyatt Regency Boston. The Summit is the place to be to beyond the hype and buzz of TransPromo and see real world applications and discuss TransPromo applications with print service providers, marketers, and vendors.

InfoTrends Road Map 2009: TransPromo Service concluded: “The year 2009 will be an exciting one for TransPromo and will likely include everything from implementation discussions to sales force education to potential mergers and acquisitions. The continued delivery of new inkjet production color devices will certainly have an impact on the TransPromo opportunity, as well as its appeal to marketers. Reductions in overall customer print spend will encourage service providers to get creative with higher-value applications. Effective applications can deliver the return on investment of which customers are becoming ever more conscious.”

According to InfoTrends the market for TransPromo communications printed in full color will reach 12.8 billion impressions by 2012. Their market research found 95% of statements are open and read with an average of 2 to 3 minutes reviewing their statements, with 20% spending more than 5 minutes.

More information about the TransPromo Summit is available at http://www.transpromosummit.com

In a session at the recent Book Business Conference, attended mostly by book publishers, self publishers were derided as being “those people who try to bypass the people in this room”, i.e., the book publishers. It is more likely that self-publishers are those people who were bypassed by the people in that room. Self-publishing is no longer all fatuous self-aggrandizement, much of it is scholarly, artistic,  technically obscure or just didn’t pass beneath the eyes of the right acquisition editor or agent. (Numerous publishers, after all, turned down Dan Brown and J.K. Rowling.) Companies like Lighting Source allow hundreds of publishers (some with very small numbers of titles) as well as individual authors to access the marketplace of ideas without having to print thousands of books.

Instead of producing their non-bestseller titles in lots of 5,000 to 10,000 publishers might be better served to use digital printing technology to produce 500, 1,000 or 2,000 copies of a given title. Get them into the marketplace and see how they do. If they sell, produce more. Use the computerized inventory systems installed in every retailer to monitor inventory and demand levels and develop models to predict demand. Next, use this newfound knowledge to automate reprint orders based on predetermined stock levels and actual demand. Over time, you’re able to build demand curves for books by title, category, by author, even location, enabling just-in-time production and delivery while maintaining minimal inventory levels in drastically downsized warehouses. Yes, it’s complicated to set up, but it’s hardly rocket science and the knowledge and technology from inventory through production is readily available.

The benefits of such a model will take a few years to see, and will result in a more robust publishing industry that runs leaner yet offers a wider selection of titles, brings forth more new authors —and is much more profitable. This is the way publishing can, should, and will be done. The Kindle and other “e-book” readers notwithstanding, printed books are not going away anytime soon, and there is plenty of money still on the table for publishers who see that digital book production is a way to reinvent a business that is in many ways a cornerstone of civilization.

Baker & Taylor, Ingram’s main competitor in book distribution, has announced a book-on-demand operation of its own, scheduled to launch in September. I talked to a B&T spokesperson, who made it clear that like LightningSource (which is owned by Ingram), the B&T service is designed for true run-length-of-one POD book printing. The actual production will be handled by R.R. Donnelley using equipment that RRD is setting up inside B&T’s distribution facility in Momence, Illinois.

This announcement is probably good news for publishers (since the service is likely to give LightningSource some needed competition) but not so good for digital book printers (apart from Donnelley) who may lose a chunk of business to the new operation.

The B&T press release is here