Who knew it would ever be possible to share a plethora of informational content, upload photos, alert every Facebook and Twitter friend where you are and tweet about what is on your mind- all within seconds just by using a phone? Today, technology is excelling at pushing the possibilities of what smart phones can do in terms of how people communicate, promote events and places, and share whatever it is they want to post to the world. Because of all of these amazing abilities a cell phone now has, not becoming a user of social media would be foolish.

Social media on a phone has become such a convenience that now it will no longer take up time to skim through your newsfeed at work, post pictures you have taken days ago or other time-consuming tasks. A smart phone now makes it possible to be interactive with your fans simply by pressing a few buttons whenever you have a few seconds to spare. When you are at an event, you can check-in to FourSquare, along with adding tips about your location and to see who else has checked in there that day. This will also simultaneously promote that event because now anyone who is following you will see you are attending and it may spike interest for them to attend. If we continue with this example of attending an event, you can also take photos and video using your smart phone’s camera. Smart phones make it possible to immediately post this content to anything, such as E-mail, text-messaging, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr- you name it! You can then add a description of the picture or video you posted. This will allow you to feature live content from anywhere you are, which makes the amount of promotional possibilities skyrocket.

We all know that a big reason for people gathering at business events is to network. Social media takes networking one step further by allowing you to interact with new contacts on a casual day-to-day basis after meeting them. This is made possible by sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Don’t exchange business cards that may get lost, discarded or added to a mile-long Excel spreadsheet of contacts. Instead, digitally connect with the people you meet through social media using your phone. It is a fresh, interactive way of staying in touch. Being able to ask, “Are you on Facebook or LinkedIn?” and then friend them using your smart phone makes networking easy and fun. Connecting with contacts through social media will allow you to exchange information in the future, see who their contacts are, gain a better knowledge of their work experience, learn what future events they are going to and more.

Cell phones are no longer just for calling and texting.  They now offer the ability for people to share their experiences with others through photos, videos, announcements, links and more. Smart phones are helping people become more connected in incredible ways, and this is just the beginning. If you have a smart phone but are still hesitant about stepping into the world of social media, jump in now. It is easy to learn and use and you would be blown away with what your smart phone is capable of doing!

Editors Note: Heidi Tolliver-Nigro posted on February 6 about SmartPhones and Phonebooks and the generational gap. John’s post is a timely reminder that we need to become users of the channel so that we can better understand how to support the channel for our customers.

I just returned from the PODi 2011 AppForum in Las Vegas.  It was a great event and my colleagues and I had an opportunity to meet with many of our customers in addition to many Print Service Providers (PSP’s) trying to find the “silver bullet” for new revenue growth. During my flight home I was thinking about the many attendees that regularly attend events like AppForum and get all fired up about exciting new opportunities for growth and then go back to their business and continue to do the same things, day in and day out.  By doing so they miss out on the success that others enjoy.

I thought about this and I identified a possible reason that Print Service Providers (PSPs) don’t “embrace change” and continue to use the same approach for their business.

I call it – The Fear Factor!

Let me explain.  During this year’s PODI AppForum there were many excellent presentations where PSPs demonstrated how they had embraced new solutions and were growing their business in many new, exciting areas of opportunity.  Several Print Service Providers (now Marketing Service Providers) introduced example after example where they had generated millions of new printed pages (higher value pages with new services) as a result of embracing change in their business and building new capabilities.

Was it easy – NO!  But is it possible – absolutely!

Why is it so difficult to embrace change?

Here’s a short list of PSP Fear Factors that have been shared with me over the years:

• The FEAR of failure
• The FEAR of change on their business
• The FEAR of change on their customer
• The FEAR of their competition
• The FEAR of change on their employees
• The FEAR of a new technology impact in their organization
• The FEAR of commitment to something new and the learning curve
• The FEAR of “can the sales team sell new offerings”
• The FEAR of any change on core offerings

Every one of these concerns is valid and worthy of further analysis.  Rather than viewing these concerns as threats what if we viewed them as opportunities? As executives continue to face the fear of the unknown they will just as quickly tell you that they are working hard for business improvement. The executives I have spoken with will typically tell you that they would like to achieve improvement in the following areas

• Grow top line revenue
• Secure new customer wins in new areas of opportunity
• Improve shop floor efficiencies
• Lower production costs
• Grow bottom-line profit
• Grow the business with new capabilities

If executives seek business improvement, but at the same time, fear the changes that drive it, what should they do?

Here’s a short list that might help answer that question.

• Identify market opportunities that complement your business capabilities
• Identify services that are an extension of your business
• Build capabilities that your customers are investing in
• Seek market opportunities that are generating significant growth
• Invest in the necessary resources for success
• Make the time to meet with others that have made the journey successfully – learn from them
• Identify partners that have the means to help you achieve success
• Do the research, embrace the change and develop a plan for success

There are just too many examples of new growth in our industry to not pay attention to how this is being accomplished and to learn from it!

In closing, there are a number of significant growth arenas available to every Print Service Provider in the industry.  The growing number of successful companies achieving business transformation is a reality!  Fear is good as a guide to what you need to plan for but not if it leads to paralysis.  Embrace the growth opportunities in front of you, learn from others and find the right partners for success!

There is an old adage that says, “Never trust a chef that doesn’t eat his own cooking.” You might think that the problem for the cook would be making sure that they don’t eat too much of their own cooking. But, if you’ve ever been a professional cook or chef as I was many moons ago, you know that sometimes you get so tired of being around food you don’t eat. I once cooked for an Italian restaurant, Café Amalfi, and I couldn’t eat red sauce for about a year after I left.

I have to wonder if printers and agencies feel the same way. They spend all day cranking out communications for clients and rarely do any marketing for themselves. It’s amazing to me how few companies, desperately seeking to deliver marketing services for clients, actually conduct ongoing campaigns for themselves.

Service providers – it’s time to eat your own cooking!

In prepping for this post, I called several service providers around the country, primarily regional firms that I’ve known for a while. I tried to focus on companies that used to mail to me when I was with Art Plus Technology or at Insight Forums. I started working on this thinking I would get a whole bunch of great examples to show. Instead, I got several types of responses to my request to “speak to the person who handles internal marketing for the company rather than marketing services for clients:”

1. A receptionist who told me that “we don’t have any one here who does that.” (Folks – an unhappy receptionist is not a good thing for your business – but I digress.)
2. A receptionist who told me that there was one person (sometimes two people) who does that, “but he spends most of his time on the road.” You know what? That sounds like a sales person – not a marketing person.
3. If I made it past the receptionist (typically by cheating and calling someone I already knew there) the answer was, “we used to do that – but we haven’t in a long time.”

Wow! “We used to.”

Used to have more business too – hmmm? See a corollary there? Sarcasm aside, I do understand. The economy is slow. Maybe  you’re short staffed. The cobblers children have no shoes etc. etc. But haven’t we been telling our clients and prospects that a downturn is the right time to get more attention for your marketing dollars because there is less activity out there? Telling them that you can’t afford to go silent just because things are slow? Telling them that direct marketing is important for maintaining your brand equity?

I repeat. Service providers. EAT. YOUR. OWN. COOKING! (and stop whining about the vegetables.)

One bright spot in my research efforts was Wilde – one of my local suppliers here in Boston (ironically I know them through restaurant connections as well – go figure.) I had been to a marketing seminar that Wilde offered in partnership with 3 other agencies last year (held at a restaurant ‘cause they’re foodies.) and I called to find out how often they did that kind of stuff. Clearly they are not only doing a lot – but tracking it too because Julie Sullivan and Liz Swanson were able to get info to me within hours of my request (and lookee – two live marketing people actually in the office –even during a snow storm!) Here’s what I found out:

Wilde has a formal   lead generation program to support their sales force. For the past year, they have had campaigns dropping every four to six weeks,

The campaigns promote downloadable content (white papers, tips sheets), webinars, and in-person seminars that showcase their direct marketing capabilities though thought-leadership (from creative strategies to operations best practices).

They use email,  direct mail pieces and are branching into inbound marketing channels, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and their blog (and providing content to 3^rd party blogs such as thedigitalnirvana.)

 70% of leads generated in 2010 were deemed “marketing qualified,” meaning they met the ideal customer/ prospect profile. Almost 30% of qualified leads led to a sales opportunity and half of those 2010 opportunities have already led to closed business (and more may convert since the sales cycle can be as long as two years). 

One of the other, less quantifiable benefits of this marketing effort has been an overall perception lift for Wilde. Because their lead gen campaigns centered on value-added direct marketing content, as opposed to pushing products,  clients are recognizing them as being experts in direct marketing—not just your run-of-the-mill lettershop.

That, my friends, is the value of eating your own cooking!

 I am sure that there are other companies out there investing in their own marketing well-being, but I sure couldn’t find them last week. If you’ve got some good examples to share – please get in touch.

If you haven’t already checked out Twitter and created a profile, what are you waiting for? Twitter is an excellent micro-blogging platform for you to spread the word about company news, special events, discounts and more. Want to connect with prospects? Want to display your expertise? In 140 characters or less you can “tweet” tips, coupon codes, links to press releases…the sky is the limit. Here are some tips on how you can set your marketing services provider business up for success on Twitter:

Setting up your profile

Make sure you complete your profile. You want to have it represent your company and further your brand, so upload your logo to use as the avatar. Choose a Twitter name that is either your actual company name, or an easy to understand shorter version of your company name. Your online bio allows for 160 characters only, so try to use keywords that make your profile searchable, rather than a vague tagline or slogan. You may want to create a custom background for your Twitter page that utilizes your logo in some way and clearly shows the URL address to your website.

Finding people to follow

After you set up your Twitter profile, you want to “follow” other Twitter users. This allows you to see their tweets from your home page. As you follow others, you will find that many follow you back. You want to build up your list of followers, because these are people who will be able to regularly see your tweets as you make them.

Finding people to follow isn’t difficult. Some of your customers may actually invite you to follow them, by placing a twitter badge on their website or adding their Twitter profile url to their email signature. You can also click on the “Find People” link at the top of the Twitter page. From there, you have four options: find people on twitter via their name, business name, brand, keyword or twitter handle; find people via other networks such as Google, yahoo or AOL; invite people via email; look at suggested users.

After you begin following people and businesses you already know of, your best bet may be two-fold: One, check out the followers of those Twitter users you admire. If you are following someone or a company and you like their tweets and admire the way they handle themselves online, then it makes sense to see who they are following and do so as well. Two, use the “find people” search option and use keywords that your target market would use in their twitter handles and profiles.

Tweet responsibly and responsively

You’ll find you have to be creative at times to get your message in 140 characters or less. In fact, you will want it to be shorter so that others can “re-tweet” your message…getting it more exposure. It’s okay to toot your own horn, but try to make sure your twitter stream isn’t a constant barrage of sales pitches. And make sure to keep an eye on your messages. You may receive private messages via the “Direct Message” system, or you may receive a public tweet when someone includes your twitter handle in a tweet. You should respond in kind when appropriate – no one likes a tweeter who only tweets about their own stuff. So keep in mind that Twitter is a conversational tool, not a one-way onslaught of your promotional tweets.

What to tweet about

There’s plenty to tweet about. Here are some ideas:

• Links to your blog posts
• Links to your video or audio offerings
• Links to other online information (stats, blog posts, news articles, videos, etc.) that you feel is relevant and useful to your followers
• Company announcements – from employee of the month to hitting your latest sales goal
• What you are currently working on
• What you are currently reading
• Events you are attending or organizing
• Retweet other tweets to cultivate relationships and help disseminate useful information
• Answers to questions that relate to your business, products/services
• Ask questions and invite commentary