When Google+ was first released in 2011, there certainly was a lot of buzz in the marketing world.  However, for many of us, the reaction was this: “Oh no; do we really have another social network to worry about?”

Well, if you have been neglecting adding Google+ to your marketing activities up until now, you may want to re-think that approach! Here’s why.

Search Plus Social

Last week, Google announced that they were going to make some fairly significant changes to their search engine. They labeled these changes “Search, plus Your World”. These enhancements would dramatically change the search results that were presented to logged-in users. The results presented to people would now greatly incorporate the social networking data that a person is connected to — at least the social networking data that Google had access to.

Users would notice this difference throughout the links, images, and videos that were presented by Google’s search engine. Yes, what a person saw two weeks ago as the #1 result when they searched for “printing services” could now be radically different, based on their social network connections.

Since Google only has access to the data within so many social networks, Google+ is playing a major role in the changes that they’ve made to their search engine.

This has caused a number of debates to arise as to whether their actions are fair and justified. But for people like us — those that are looking to do whatever we can to grow our business — we must react to the reality.

And the reality is this: If we want people to find our business online, we need to be on Google+!

How to Get Started with Google+

Google started rolling out these changes to users last week. Thus, chances are very good that you have access to them.

Below are a few things that you can do now to take take advantage of these enhancements:

• If you don’t already have one, create a Google Profile.
• Once you have a profile, make sure that you log-in to Google before you run your next Search.
• Get on Google+! It’s free to create an account.
• Google+ allows you to have a personal profile, of course. But you can also create Pages for your Business, Products & Services, Events, and more.
• Start creating and publishing content on your Google+ profiles and pages
• Build your Google+ community: Take the time to add people and Pages to your Circles and invite others to do the same for your accounts.

It certainly will be interesting to see how companies adapt and benefit from these changes.

Once you’re logged in to your Google profile, start running a few searches. It can be quite fascinating to see how the “Personal Results” change what is presented to you.

If you have a free moment, check out the video that Google has released regarding the “Search, plus Your World” functionality below. I think it does a great job of demonstrating the importance of using Google+ in one’s marketing efforts.

P.S. These changes have absolutely motivated me to increase my personal Google+ usage. Feel free to “Circle” me there!

When people talk about how they are using social media in the marketing efforts, Facebook and Twitter are often the first answers given.

Sure, they might be on LinkedIn. But they may currently only view it as a way for them to “collect people” – i.e. to amass connections.

If that sounds similar to how LinkedIn is utilized in your business, here is one idea for converting that connection data into a way to build relationships and generate sales.

Connections and Job Status

When someone experiences a change in their employment status, LinkedIn is often the very first social network that they update. Depending on our relationship with that person, taking action on that information can be valuable to them… and us.

I recently talked to a service provider that told me how he acts on that type of data. Here’s his story:

His company helps clients reach their marketing goals with design, print, direct mail, email, mobile, landing pages, and more.

While they have had success launching campaigns for a number of companies, they sometimes run into trouble because of high-turnover among the marketing departments that they work with. Lately, this has often occurred because of budget constraints, rather than performance.  But either way, the path to creating long-term, recurring business with those companies is not always easy when the employees change frequently.

In order to capitalize on the successes that they have helped marketers achieve, this company actively seeks to connect with those folks on social networks. Primarily, they try to do this on LinkedIn.

How LinkedIn Helps Deepen the Relationship

If a once-happy customer experiences a job change, the company still has a connection with them. For example, the company may:

• Use LinkedIn to send a personal note when the job change does occur.
• Offer up a recommendation for the person.
• Refer the person’s profile to companies where there may be a fit.

Along with those one-time actions, they will make an effort to stay in touch with them in the weeks and/or months that follow.

By staying connected and engaged to these folks, they create opportunities to receive future sales and jobs once that person is in place at a new business.

How so? Well, they were already a fan of the services provided by that company. And their appreciation of them will no doubt be deeper because of the conversations and actions that took place during the process of changing jobs. Thus, they may be apt to highly recommend that company’s services to their new employer.

Can it Help You?

Certainly, this effort takes a bit of time and determination on behalf of that service provider! But in their words, “it’s helping me grow my business!”

If you are looking for ways to use social media to create and deepen relationships, paying attention to your LinkedIn connections might be a perfect place to start.

P.S. If you’d like to connect with me on LinkedIn, here I am!

“Tactics, Tactics, Tactics…. Everywhere I look, all I see is tactics!”

Perhaps you have also felt that same way recently. We hear about tactics across nearly every marketing channel out there. QR Codes. Personalized URLs. Augmented Reality. SMS/Text-Messaging. Mobile Email. Social Media Advertising.

Those are just a few of the terms that we hear and talk about quite frequently in the marketing world. I know that I can often get quite excited about them!

But, while there is nothing wrong with diving in and understanding specific tactics, we run the danger of thinking of those things as bright and shiny objects that can solve all of our problems!

Instead of falling into that trap, we must be willing to increase the amount of effort and focus that we put on having a strategy.

Long-Term Solutions Come From Having a Strategy

If our business primarily consists of providing marketing services to our customers, we certainly need to pay close attention to new tools and technologies that could improve our offerings.

However, we must ensure that the things we do add (for example, a QR Code or PURL on a postcard) are not treated simply as add-ons. Rather, we should focus on integrating them into the overall marketing strategy that supports our customer’s goals.

Often, the development of a strategy will consist of us asking critical questions. The answers to those questions will not only help us decide which tools and technologies should be used, but also, how should we best use them.

Yes, I realize that some clients may come to you with a fully thought-out marketing strategy. But in today’s world, many CMO’s are running around at a frantic pace; thus, they could benefit by having a service provider offer some consultation and suggestions. If you do find yourself in that position, here are 4 steps that could help you develop and/or analyze a marketing strategy for your clients:

• Describe the Business: This sounds simple, but it’s crucial. It may help you to define key characteristics that affect branding and messaging.
• Define the Goal: The goal will help us to avoid using a new tool or tactic simply because it’s new. Rather, it will help us to ensure that the reasons we decide to do (or not do) something are done for a reason.
• Understand Who the Audience is And Where They Are: Think about QR Codes for a second. If your client is going to be placing print advertisements inside of a subway station where there is no cell service, do QR Codes really make sense? Or, if you are going to send information that is highly sensitive or private in nature, will a personalized URL actually cause people to not respond?
• How Will You Measure Success?: As a service provider, we may be constantly looking for ways to demonstrate and prove our value. However, in the rush to incorporate a new tactic, we may overlook what steps are necessary to help us measure the effectiveness of a specific tactic. By answering this question ahead of time, we will increase our chances of being able to present valuable data to our customers during the marketing campaign.

These are just a few of the questions that can help us to develop and deliver solutions that increase our revenue now and in the future. I hope that you find them find helpful! Yes, there will be always be new tactics that catch our attention, create some buzz, and get us excited (me included!). But no matter what the tactics are, having the right strategy will help to put us on the right path.

From the day Google+ was released a few months ago, it has made quite an impact on the world of social networking. Many reports indicate that 50 million users signed up for the service within the first three months.

Yes, it’s true that there is still quite a gap between Google+ and Facebook and Twitter. However, Google helped to solidify the relevance of its social networking by releasing its Pages functionality this week.

If you are looking for ways to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts through social media, you should certainly take a look at whether a Google+ Page could benefit you.

Here are few things that we have learned so far that may help you in that process:

What You Might Like About the Page Setup Process

It is quite easy to do! You should be able to create a Page in a matter of minutes. Here are the main steps:

• Log-in to Google+
• Go to https://plus.google.com/pages/create
• Choose which category you would like to assign your Page to. Options include “Company”, “Product/Brand”, “Local Place”, and others.
• From there, you will simply need to enter in values for a few basic fields, including Page Name and Website URL.

Once your page has been created, take the time to fill out your profile. This may include:

• Using the “Recommended Links” section to share other URLs that are relevant to your business. This may include other social networks, a Newsletter Sign-Up form, and even a way for people to access an online storefront for products that you may sell.
• Take advantage of the content that can be entered into the “Introduction” field. Google+ provides plenty of space for you to share a compelling story about your company. You can also add links to relevant sites here as well.
• Utilize the “5 Photos” Area on the Home Page! This space does give companies a chance to be creative. When done properly, you can provide a great image of your company through the photos that you share there.

What You Might Not Like About the Page Setup Process

Google might certainly make changes to the items mentioned below sooner than later, but we just want you to be aware of them right now:

• There can only be one Page Administrator right now.
• It’s not exactly Facebook. This can be a good thing! We are all excited to see what opportunities Google+ may open create for businesses. However, since many of us are very familiar and comfortable with managing a Facebook Page, we may struggle a bit as we look around for similar capabilities within Google+.

Moving Forward

One of the best, but yet, most challenging items of being in the world of social networking today is that things change very quickly. Many companies are still trying to figure out how to grow their business through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Thus, some might look at the process of adding Google+ to their marketing mix as a burden.

However, we must keep in mind that success in marketing truly comes down to being where our customers and prospects are. In the case of the print industry, many of us are trying to reach marketing departments so that we can offer solutions to them. Google+ is already the home of a lot of forward-thinking marketing professionals!

Creating a Page now while the Feature is relatively new might give us a tremendous opportunity to increase awareness of our brand and attract some well-deserved attention!

At the end of June, search giant Google unveiled its new social networking site, Google+ (phonetically pronounced “Google Plus”). Google+ is the company’s attempt, albeit not its first, to create a social network that rivals dominant services like Facebook and Twitter. Google is trying to differentiate itself from those networks by providing robust tools for managing friends & followers and the type of content that you can share with them. This control is accomplished through a mechanism called Circles, where contacts can be categorized as “Friends”, “Acquaintances”, and whatever other custom categories you’d like to create. When you post messages or share content like photos, links, and videos, you can choose which Circles can view that content.

There are two other primary functions of Google+ that are new: Hangouts and Sparks. Hangouts is a group video chat tool that allows up to ten people at a time to have a conversation. We tried it out at the InfoTrends office last week and it is indeed a pretty cool experience. Also, if you don’t have a webcam handy (like myself), you can still participate in a Hangout via audio. Just one week after Google+ was announced, Facebook announced a partnership with Skype that enabled one-on-one video chat within the Facebook network. The general reaction has been that Google has a leg up due to the group functionality (which can only be enabled in Skype through a paid “Premium” subscription). Sparks is essentially a news feed you can add to Google+ based on your interests. If you find an interesting piece of news or content in your feed, you can instantly share it with your Google+ friends. It has been rumored that Google will integrate and rebrand its blogging service, Blogger, and its photo hosting/sharing service, Picasa, into Google+ in the near future.

Previously, Google launched a network called orkut, which is still in operation and is popular in India and Brazil. In addition, the company tried its luck with social collaboration and messaging through its Google Wave tool, but failed to gain widespread traction. The launch of Google Buzz in February 2010 was marred with privacy concerns when the company opened up Google users’ account information without warning or permission. Did Google learn from its past experiences with its new foray into the lucrative world of social networking?

For the most part, I think it has, and here’s why:

• Testing and Feedback: When Google+ launched, it was made available to Google employees and a very limited amount of journalists and analysts, with the intent of ensuring that proper, controlled testing was conducted before rolling it out to the masses. Over the past few weeks, the company has opened up invites for longer periods of time, enabling it to quickly amass over 10 million users, which speaks to the exponential inertia of the social Web.
• Content Control: Google+ is certainly not the same as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other specific social network due to the control it provides over how content is shared. Nevertheless, I think it does take some core elements from existing social networks and implements them in a unique way. There are no such things as friend requests; anyone can add you to their Circles, just like anyone can follow you on Twitter (if you have a public account) at will. Like Facebook and LinkedIn, there is a rich stream of content and information that you can view; Circles act like Twitter’s List feature, enabling you to view this information based on the way you categorize your friends.
• Preemptive Release of +1: At the end of March this year, Google released “+1″, its version of the Facebook “Like” button or the Twitter “Retweet” button. The button originally premiered in Google’s search results as a way to recommend content and make search results more relevant. In June, +1 was made available to the entire Web, enabling sites to implement a +1 button on all content for sharing purposes. The button has popped up on sites like The Huffington Post, Reuters, Mashable, and many others. The roll-out of +1 before launching Google+ was a smart move as it provides users with an instant way of sharing content on the network.

The Google+ interface is very clean; vacant of the targeted ads that exist across the social network landscape. Expect that to change fairly quickly. Google plans to soon offer brands their own tools to create a Google+ presence, which will likely rival Facebook Pages. Additionally, there’s no doubt that, over time, Google will implement contextual, targeted advertising in Google+. After all, it was calculated that it cost Google close to $600 million to build its social network. As we’ve seen, every social network needs a business model at some point or another, and advertising seems to be a winning route to take in most cases.

I’m a big fan of social networking via mobile devices, so when the Google+ iPhone app is finally approved for the App Store, I will likely become much more active on the site. I’ve already connected with a number of folks from the printing industry via Google+, and hope to see many more (you can connect with me on Google+ here).

With all the questions and mystique that seems to still exist around social networking, my suggestion is always to try it out and get a feel for it. Google+ has gained a lot of traction in a short amount of time, in part because I think it does indeed have some differentiating factors when compared to other networks. The key question will be whether the hype can be sustained. There are only so many hours in the day, and there needs to be clear value and a continually evolving platform to keep peoples’ attention. While it remains to be seen if that will happen, Google is certainly off to a good start.

In the social media marketing world, there are plenty of tradeshows and events that you can be a part of to help further your company and network with prospective partners. You can benefit your company if you attend these events. But there are some ways you can really maximize your presence at the next big event, especially if you take the right promotional steps by utilizing social media.

On your corporate Twitter account, create a special hashtag for the event. Use it a couple times a day in the weeks leading up to the event, to generate some buzz about your presence there. Hashtags categorize tweets and make it easier for users to find similar subjects among tweets. Make sure the event also has its own Facebook event page. Post on the page, tweet to the event’s account and retweet relevant tweets.

Think beyond Facebook and Twitter as well. Make sure your colleagues and peers blog about the event and have an e-mail blast focused on it, or maybe even a webinar. The more diverse the methods of distribution, the larger the audience you will reach.

Be sure to ask questions that can spark a conversation. Social media lends itself incredibly well to conversational interaction. Ask questions that will garner some responses, and field questions from followers as well. This is a great way to gauge interest in the event and for companies to have interaction with users that they can retweet and survey. And make sure to keep a countdown to the big day! No need to overwhelm anybody, keep your social media efforts business as usual with just that daily reminder of the event added to it.

So you have done your preparation leading up to the event. The day is here! Now what?

Take pictures! Lots and lots of pictures. Borderline on taking too many. Pictures can be put on all of your social media networks. Make your followers feel like they are right at the event with you. And archive everything; it all becomes great blog content down the road. Also, video is very effective in making your audience feel like they are right with you. Beef up your YouTube channel with some great video content and also use it to spice up a blog in a post-event recap.

When you are in your event, make it very clear where you are at all times. Explain what booth you are viewing, the room you’re in, and always use hashtags. Make yourself noticeable! Use the hashtags that others are creating for the event and interact with them on Twitter. Start conversations and compel people to come to your booth. And when you do meet someone, make them remember you. Exchange social media in a way you would exchange a business card. This is important because exchanging social media accounts can lead to immediate interaction. A business card can very easily slip through the cracks and a contact can be lost.

When it’s all over, make sure you write detailed blogs and use all of the great content you generated to make all of your efforts at the event translate into a great online presence.

Yesterday, I returned from the Print Solutions 2011 Conference and Expo where one of the over-riding themes was, not the death of print, but how digital content is driving print.

• Did you know that eight of the top 10 bestselling books in Japan are print versions of mobile novels (novels written in 200–300 word chunks on mobile phones)?
• Or that Justin Halpern’s bestselling book $#*! My Dad Says (now a sitcom starring William Shatner) was printed because of his success on Twitter?
• Or that Zappo’s — the 100% online merchandiser — uses a printed book to build its brand?

“If print is dead,” said Andrew Davis, owner of Tippingpoint Labs in his presentation “Positioning Print for Today’s Customer” (from which these examples were taken), “then why are Google and Yahoo! using direct mail to promote Internet search?”

Good point. As I sat in the presentation, I thought about the multiple direct mail pieces sitting on my own kitchen counter at home. They were from Google, with integrated cards inviting me to expand my AdWords account. Haven’t gotten anything from Yahoo! yet, but it’s probably a matter of time.

When I got home from the trip, I was going through my mail and I had to smile and think of Andrew. Yet another direct mail solicitation from Google.

Have you gotten direct mail from Google lately? If so, what does this say about the viability of print?

As MSPs (marketing services providers), printers need to encourage their customers to move into social media and must be prepared to help them implement it, too. But social media isn’t a one-way street to success. There can be surprises and drawbacks, too. Do you know what they are?

At its most basic, social media marketing costs nothing but your time. When handled well, you and your clients can reap tremendous results, especially if the campaign goes viral. I think of The Ace Group’s Calvin Klein QR code campaign in which 28% of the seven-figure hits to the mobisite were from Facebook and Twitter. I also think of a Dunkin’ Donuts SMS campaign in which 17% of recipients forwarded the offer to a friend.

In social media, viral is king. But viral isn’t always a good thing. Recently, I came upon something interesting on SunChips’ Facebook page that reminded me of one of the risks.

As you may know, SunChips introduced a 100% compostable bag last year. It was a huge hit and got national media attention, but the bag was so noisy that it was deafening. In fact, social media ultimately caused the demise of the bag: an explosion in the blogosphere, ubiquitous YouTube videos with ear-ringing audio, and mass Twitter and Facebook wall postings (so much for concern about the environment being greater than personal convenience!). The bag was pulled from the market.

A new, quieter bag introduced earlier this year. I decided to go to SunChips’ Facebook page to see what people were posting about it. There I found something else SunChips probably isn’t very happy about — several discussions (right on SunChips’ own Facebook site) about whether the SunChips bags were biodegradable at all. What I discovered was that many people been attempting to compost the bags to no avail. There were quite a few angry SunChips fans who had attempted to compost their bags for months. Turns out, the “right” composting environment isn’t something nearly any household can do at all, and when these enthusiastic SunChips customers found this out, they were not happy. SunChips had likely set up these forums to be able to monitor consumer reaction to its products and serve as informal focus groups, but in the end, it exposed itself to charges of greenwashing and misleading the public.

So much for a happy social media ending.

As you encourage your customers to move into a multi-channel marketing environment that includes social media, remember that social media has both pros and cons. It offers tremendous opportunities and significant risks, too.  Helping your customers understand and balance those risks is what being an MSP is all about.

You may have noticed that more and more URLs are being shortened with bit.ly. If you’re still using TinyURL or other non-trackable shortener, you’ll want to check this out. Not just for your email marketing, social media, and e-newsletter efforts, but also for creating QR codes to add to print.

Log into bit.ly and put the URL into the box. Hit “shorten” or, better yet, “shorten and share.” The “share” option allows you to automatically post the shortened URL to your Facebook profile or Twitter account. Built in social media marketing!

Now sit back and watch. Bit.ly not only shortens and posts to social media, but it also tracks. It provides you with the number of clicks to each link, when those clicks occurred, and where they came from. It gives you referring sites and the countries where the clicks came from. On the reports page, there is also a QR code you can download to add to blog posts, email, print, or any other marketing medium you might be using. It’s all free.  (Google offers goo.gl, a trackable shortener, too.)

For my previous Digital Nirvana post on mobile websites, I created QR codes for readers to check out the differences between traditional and mobile sites themselves. I used bit.ly to do it. Not only did I add the QR codes to my post, but I also used bit.ly to share the mobile link on my Facebook profile and my Twitter account. By the time I uploaded the post (about 40 minutes later), bit.ly told me that I had 5 clicks already — 40% direct, 40% Twitter, 20% from Facebook — from two different countries. Not from the post itself (since it was scheduled for two days later) but from my social media connections.

As John Foley of interlinkONE / GrowSocially likes to say,

“In marketing, if you can’t measure it, don’t do it.”

Bit.ly is a powerful tool that allows you to measure the success of your marketing efforts. Instantly, you know what’s working, what’s not, and what’s working better than something else. Not only this, but it has sales implications, too. Imagine the value to clients in saying, “Sure, you can create your own codes for free, but we’ll create them for you and provide you with tracking and results measurement.” It’s a powerful value-add.

It’s a great tool that doesn’t cost you a dime!

Last week, I posted about my action points from DSCOOP. I’m happy to report that the number one item on my hit list — making my newsletter social media enabled — has been accomplished. This required firing my email service provider and moving to a new one with a deeper commitment to social media.

Now at the footer of both of my newsletters (one B2B and the other B2C) are icons for Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn. When readers get the bottom, if they like what they’ve read, they are encouraged to share it. I also have the ability to automatically Tweet the newsletter when it goes out. As I’ve heard from others, my B2B site posted to my Facebook page and my LinkedIn profile, as well.

Just by making this simple change, I have the basics of a social media program. I can multiply my time investment far more easily than I could in the past. If I’ve done a good job with the content so that subscribers find it of value, they can help me along by sharing the content easily, too.

Where I’m really going to grow as a social media marketer, however, is through link tracking. On one dashboard, I can see not only the opens, bounces, and opt-outs, but also which links were clicked. If people shared the newsletter with others, I can see which social media options they chose. This is where I’m really going to focus.

At DSCOOP, Val DiGiacento, vice president of technical sales for The Ace Group, shared in one of his sessions how the ability to easily share a Calvin Klein video (accessed via QR code on a Houston Street wallscape) gave the campaign a 36% lift. As he spoke about the critical role of social media in this campaign — and how crucial social media are to the success of all marketers, whether you are marketing your own print business or helping customers market theirs — I about jumped out of my seat. I wanted to shout “That’s me! That’s me!”

What hit home so deeply was when Val talked about how this QR code was printed on one wallscape, hanging on one buildin, on one street in New York City. Despite this limited exposure, the campaign went viral and hit seven figures — in large part due to social media. That resonated with me. My subscriber base is tremendously valuable, but I am only one person with one list. As a marketer, I need my subscribers to share it. I need to make my content so valuable that they want to share it. The Ace Group helped Calvin Klein do it. I can do it, too.

That’s where link tracking comes in. I have two audiences. The needs of both are different. As I learned from the link tracking, their social media activity is different. I need to interact with each audience differently. Watching the click-throughs, the social media activity, and new sign-ups gives me marching orders for how to improve content and better interact with those on my list.

I’ve been active in many social media outlets for a long time, but it’s always been haphazard. With the investment in a new email provider and a commitment to really mining the metrics and acting on them, along with a commitment to spend a certain number of hours per week solely on social media marketing, I suddenly have moved from random social media activity to having a strategy. John Foley would be proud.

What’s your social media marketing strategy?

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.

Are you “Facebooking” your prospects and customers? With today’s technology and the multiple ways you can interact with your prospects and get your message across, it’s important to take advantage of the more popular social media sites where your prospects and customers hang out. Did you know that Facebook has over 200 million active users? Don’t you think your current and future customers are among them? So stop putting off the inevitable and set up a Facebook business page so you can connect with prospects and customers, promote your products/services, and also the content you put out (articles, videos, audios, etc.) about your products and services.

Personal versus Business

Keep in mind that there is a difference between personal and business accounts on Facebook. Business accounts are limited in the information they are able to access compared to the standard accounts. You can’t send or receive friend requests. However, this shouldn’t prevent you from creating a business page for your company. In fact, there are benefits to business pages, where you can designate multiple administrators to manage and post to the account. Also, the pages are public and therefore will attain rank in Facebook and search engine results. A business page can garner “fans” and you can still post events, pictures, videos, polls and other interactive ways to promote your business and build the buzz.

So remember: profiles are personal but pages are business in Facebook world. So you’ll want to set up a page (not a profile). And remember to only create one account, because Facebook doesn’t take kindly to those who create multiple accounts.

After you create your Facebook business page, you want to gain “likes” from your professional network. Here are some ways you can build that fan base:

• Make sure your page is searchable by the general public. This is typically the default setting, but you may want to double-check and look at the Settings on the Edit page. Make sure your page is “Published (publically visible).”
• Announce your new Facebook page on your website / blog with a link to your page and an invitation to become a fan.
• If you have a newsletter, be sure to include the news about your new Facebook page.
• Send out an email to all your existing contacts asking them to check out your Facebook page, become a fan and leave a post.
• Leverage your other social media profiles and invite those connections and followers to check you out on Facebook. For example, if you’re active on Twitter, you should tweet the link to your Facebook page and ask your followers to become fans.
• Post a Facebook badge or widget on your website to let your site visitors know about your Facebook page.
• Think about using Facebook ads. Yes, it costs some money, but the advertising will get your business name in front of a lot of eyeballs.

Of course, it will be easier to get more fans as you build your page and add content that is informative and engaging. Add polls, events, links and videos. Invite commentary by posting questions. Pull in the RSS feed of your blog. Post about special discounts or coupons. As you build upon your page, current fans will share the page with their colleagues and friends and your fan base will grow.

Remember, Facebook is not just about information or entertainment. It’s also about relationship building. Connect with the people who “like” your page and respond to any posts by prospects and customers. It’s important to create a dialogue with your fans, rather than just have a running monologue of business information.

Previously I hit a few high points on what issuers and responders face when dealing with Requests for Proposals (RFPs). One factor that can send the whole RFP process downhill is the issuer’s desire to get the best results with the least amount of work.

In theory, if you really want to find the best solution at the best price, you need to talk to a lot of different suppliers and be willing to review a lot of bids. But who wants to source 100 vendors – or even 20 for that matter? In the past, I have always encouraged my clients to issue a short “Request for Information” or RFI in advance of the RFP process. Some possible goals of the RFI may be to:

• Learn about new services available in the area you are searching for bids on – for example, the latest trends in direct marketing, fulfillment or variable full-color printing.
• Vet the requirements for your upcoming RFP. Are you asking for the right services or are you looking for the best price on the leading edge solution from the 1990s? (You’d be surprised how many RFP’s read like the latter!)
• Cull the list of suppliers who will receive the full RFP by asking just a few key Yes/No questions that are critical capabilities or contracting points that you will require from suppliers.

Now that you’ve read this far, let me confess that I don’t think that social media can actually replace the RFI – but, I do think it can help to make the RFI and the RFP process a lot more effective and efficient. There is a wealth of information out there that can be accessed without 16 advance meetings and a full legal and compliance review!

Let’s look at LinkedIn for example. In the Question and Answers area there are over 500 topics on Request for Proposal (from both the issuer and the responder perspectives.) It’s helpful to look at the questions that other people have asked – but it’s also a straight-out opportunity to ask questions of your own. Naturally a lot of the questions will get jumped on by suppliers trying to present their solution – but often they have some good insights on what makes a good RFP. And – you’d be surprised at how many times peers of yours at other companies log on to share their experiences, recommend suppliers, or share what they’ve learned about new technologies. Many times members will also recommend experts on a particular topic which may lead you to articles, blog posts, or even sample RFPs.

There are also discussion groups on particular topics. For example there is the Print and Procurement (International) Group which has 6,936 members from around the world. I would say that there is more Printing (3,478) than Procurement but it still posts some pretty lively topics. If you post a thread saying that you are looking for companies that can provide a specific service your likely to get a quick response. For example, the post:

“I have a 400 Pg + Cover perfect bound book live project. Quantity = 1,500 and involves spot colors. I am looking for a book manufacturer with digital and offset capabilities.”

. . . received 38 responses within a matter of days. The neat thing is, social media sites allow you to drill down on the responses you get. If someone responds to a post you can click over to their profile and see who has given them recommendations or look at the anwers they have supplied to other questions. Click again to look at the company page on LinkedIn – or go directly to the company website.  You can see who else works there and if they have any interesting presentations or recommendations as well. All of this is available before you have sent any formal communication out from your company.

Potentially, you can quickly identify many new suppliers that you might not have considered, identify experts who can help you define all of the things you should ask for in your RFP and identify ways of making the RFP process much more efficient. I still think that you will want to issue an RFI to narrow the field before you issue an RFP – but maybe in some cases you can get what you need from a bit of online research and networking. Let me know what you think.

And, stay tuned (or stay RSSed or something.) Next time I’m going to talk about why you might want to skip the RFP all together!

Printers! Take Your Mark! Get Set! GO!

. . . Or maybe I should be saying Marketers Take Your Mark. Either way, I’m seeing example after example of why printed communications need to become increasingly nimble to stay relevant in the marketing mix. I was inspired by a recent post from Pat Allen of Rock the Boat Marketing (and by the Old Spice Guy video embedded in the post)

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According to Pat, “the tilt toward real-time communicating exposes what we believe to be the greatest weakness in investment product communicating: Reacting after the fact and on a delay.” While she is looking at the asset management industry through a marketing lens – you could easily point that same lens at print service providers and in-house shops. “The Old Spice guy work is an excellent demonstration of an emerging communications competency: the preparing to improvise, the organizing to be able to react in the moment to external stimulus,” says Pat.

Old Spice Guy says “Now I’m on a boat. Look in your hand. Look back at me. Now I’m on a ship. Look at your man. Look back at me. I’m on a horse.” Can your communications shift that quickly – and look that good doing it? (Phew!)

There have been several posts recently about combining print and other digital marketing channels. Most frequently referenced is putting PURLs on direct mail. You know what? That’s already old hat. PURLs provide an additional channel for the recipient, which is good, but it is not necessarily preparing the marketer to be able to  react quickly to external stimulus from social media sites, breaking news or other market activity.

We need to enable our print campaigns to launch on a dime in support of trends gleaned from online activity. Of course, we will want to communicate with people who are already online through online means – but why not extend the learning to be able to launch the same great message to the customers we know don’t use our online channels? Or simply reinforce the online message with a tangible printed campaign?

Allen cites a social media presentation by Matthew Guiste, category manager for social media at Starbucks and successful revenue-generating programs that involved a rapid exchange of information, internally and externally. Starbucks identified mini-trends from activity on Facebook and Twitter and worked quickly to syndicate that content across multiple other social media outlets. They could also have launched a direct mail campaign – but sadly – with the response times of most organizations today – not fast enough to ride the wave of the current trend.

For direct mail (and transactional communications) to gain a broader piece of the “social media response” pie it will need to be faster and more collaborative with what is now a social media silo. If the collaboration and rapid publishing tools can be put in place – with workflows that link social media monitoring, analytics, content management, approval and production approvals – social media can be a great friend to digital printing rather than a competitor.

So, look at your social media channels. Look back at me. Look at your direct mail. Look back at me. Anything is possible. I’m on a plane (Seriously, I am.)

When we hear about digital media consumer studies, we’re always focused on the growth in digital media and it’s impact on revenue and print. But to me, the more interesting story is usually buried under the headlines.

That was the case with IBM’s third annual Digital Media Consumer Study. The study is part of a research series that has surveyed nearly 10,000 consumers over the past three years. Like all consumer studies, it reveals that digital media use has grown at a staggering pace.

• Between 2007 and 2009, mobile music and video adoption increased fivefold.
• Online newspaper penetration more than tripled.
• 53% of surveyed users are regular users of social networking sites.
• 40% regularly read online newspaper.

To me, however, here’s the part that’s really interesting. This year’s research shows that growth in more established digital media services such as social networking and online newspapers sites is now being driven primarily by consumers older than age 45. That got my attention.

We think of older consumers as focused on print. We take older consumers for granted. Sure, tweens, teens, twenty- and thirty-somethings are focused on digital media, but — we tell ourselves — at least the more established pocketbooks and purchasing power still love print. At least they haven’t been lured by the siren of digital media.

Now they have.

So while IBM’s report talks about how the shift to lower-revenue digital media is creating a revenue shortfall, I’m stuck on the fact that we’re losing the 45+ age consumer to Facebook and Kindle. I actually had a conversation recently in which the last words I heard from this world-class, internationally known designer (over the age of 50) were, “Facebook me.”

In this industry, we talk a lot about multi-channel marketing. In reality, this is usually limited to direct mail to personalized URLs or a combination of email and print. “Multi-channel marketing” hasn’t yet really extended to online communities and other digital media.

If print is going to survive, it needs to. That means integrating print into the digital world in which consumers — including the 45+ consumers we’ve historically taken for granted — live. If you don’t know how to do that, you might want to bring someone on staff who does.