Open Forum

  • 1.  Who's using social media to help grow their business?

    Posted 06-06-2017 11:41 AM

    If anyone has any success stories how they are using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat et, al, to help grow their print business I'd love to hear how you're doing it.

    Do you think every business needs a social media strategy? 



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    Scott Eganhouse
    V.P. Business Development
    TEC Mailing Solutions, LLC
    Sun Prairie WI
    (608) 825-8525
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  • 2.  RE: Who's using social media to help grow their business?

    Posted 06-07-2017 08:24 AM
    Hi Scott, 

    There may be success stories out there, but I think that would be hard to measure. How do you know for example that the initial seed of interest in your product came from a particular social media post? I think the best you can do is see, how many people may have viewed an item or clicked on the content. If you are seeing an increase in the amount of traffic to your posts on a particular venue, you could conclude that your message is reaching a larger audience. 

    For me Linkedin is the one I look to for work related information. I subscribe to companies I am interested in, and I follow what new technology or stories come from them. I will watch a video or read a story if it is something that I want more information on. Does that lead to a sale, maybe, maybe not, but it does allow me as a consumer, to review what a company is up to and what is new in the market, from a place that is easily accessible.

    Maybe a better way to look at it is, if you are not using social media to help promote your business, what other outlets are you using to present your message to a potential audience. Today's world is cell phones and iPads and most people are connected to these devices like it is a life support system; they are on these all the time, even when the light turns red they just have to look at the phone. Presenting your message on these devices via social media, seems like it just makes good business sense, even if you are just pushing traffic to your web site, or eCommerce site, or collecting contact info.  Every little bit helps.

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    AllenFilson
    Sr. Manager Professional Services
    Canon USA
    Boca Raton, FL
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Who's using social media to help grow their business?

    Posted 06-07-2017 10:39 AM

    Yes every business needs a social media strategy. We started ours in 2009. I have customers that came directly from Twitter. We have also gotten business from LinkedIn connections. We use social media as a way to brand ourselves as a good knowledge and thought leader. We push out content that is full of tips to help our prospects and customers do better marketing. Through social media we have increased our exposure, increased leads on our website and gained customers. I recommend you put a plan together and a person who is in charge of making it happen. Feel free to call or email me directly my info is below.

     

     

    J

     

    Summer Gould

    President

    Eye/Comm Inc.

    10960 Wheatlands Ave #108

    Santee, CA 92071

    619-448-6111

    619-448-6153 Fax

    Summer.gould@...

    www.eyecomm.org

    twitter32 Linkedin32 facebook32 

     




    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Who's using social media to help grow their business?

    Posted 06-07-2017 09:21 AM

    Scott,

    It depends on your business and your market. I have lots of customers, in B2C businesses, that use Facebook and Instagram as their exclusive marketing channels. Some of them have achieved incredible results.

    I use LinkedIn as a way to market my brand and our company. Indeed, it is hard to measure directly, but with so many of my customers involved in social media, it would seem a requirement to be there.

    A great mentor of mine put it this way. If your customers are gathering in certain places, it only makes sense for you to be there too. If your customers are active on Facebook and you are not, how can you expect them to find you?

    I talk to people who tell me that they don't have time to experiment with social media. My reply is you don't have time, not to. The world is passing you by and you won't know until it's too late.

    Cheers,

    Marc



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    Marc Zazeela
    APC Postal Logistics, LLC
    East Rutherford NJ
    201-372-9700
    marcz@...
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Who's using social media to help grow their business?

    Posted 06-07-2017 10:32 AM
    There are many reasons why you need to effectively use social media. Building stronger relationships, humanizing your brand, etc. But even more basic is the fact that people expect you to have a presence. It's about differentiation. How does your brand compare to the 3-5 others in the prospects recall. Not having an active presence puts your brand at a competitive disadvantage to those that do. 80-90% of the sales process is done before they reach out to you and 67% (probably higher in B-B)  of that is done online. 


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    Patrick Whelan
    President
    Great Reach Communications
    Dracut MA
    978-332-5555
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Who's using social media to help grow their business?

    Posted 06-07-2017 02:46 PM
    Wow.  Some great responses!  

    And Yes if you're not doing some type of social media to help build your brand I would encourage you to do so.  I'm not surprised to see so many familiar faces I see on social media platforms; Summer Gould, Marc Zazeela and Patrick Whelan nice job.  As an Idealliace community it's a privilege to share ideas with other entrepreneurs that are working.  We had a nice write up about our social media strategy that I'll recap to provide some ideas for those still sitting on the fence:  

     

    • Branding: Keep the story consistent throughout your social media and advertising. This allows people to see any of the pieces in the campaign and associate it with your company.
    • Community: "We focused heavily on the audience we serve, and in particular the analyst and thought leaders in the segment that can carry your water," says Eganhouse.
    • Consistency: Publish content on a regular basis and think about using a unique tagline or hashtag that you'd like people to recognize.
    • Effort: Nothing is going to magically happen because you start posting on social media channels. Personally reaching out to industry leaders and other members in your field is the only way to build followers. Only when you have built your followership will you be able to drive engagement.
    • Acknowledge other people and their successes: Whenever you have the chance to pump someone else up on social media, do it! If you get a chance to take a picture at a trade show or event, make sure you tag everyone in the photo. People love when other people give them credit, and the best part is it doesn't cost a thing.
    • Don't depend solely on social media: While social media is a great and powerful tool to gain brand awareness, do not think that you can depend on it alone. Using other forms of contact (direct mailers, drip marketing email campaigns, and other communication) is equally important in gaining brand recognition.

    If you're curious about the whole story you can read it here: http://www.ibmadison.com/Blogger/SocialBiz/May-2017/Sun-Prairie-business-excels-through-real-life-social-media/index.php?cparticle=2&siarticle=1#artanc

     



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    Scott Eganhouse
    V.P. Business Development
    TEC Mailing Solutions, LLC
    Sun Prairie WI
    (608) 825-8525
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Who's using social media to help grow their business?

    Posted 06-08-2017 11:42 AM

    Scott,

    Great write up in In Business Magazine on your cloud suits and the principles you are implementing to build brand awareness, which includes a consistent social media strategy.  Thank you for sharing.

    In response to your questions, while I recognize everyone's business is different, AccuZIP has seen tangible success (sales) promoting our business via Social Media but it has taken some time. You need a dedicated strategy that is consistent.  There are several tools and marketing automation platforms that help businesses incorporate the integration of social media platforms effectively with the other forms of contact you mentioned such as direct mail and email marketing drip campaigns.

    As other forum members pointed out, we have found that having an individual or department focused on actively monitoring Social Media as part of the overall brand awareness strategy is important as well.  Fellow Idealliance member Tom Glassman has wisely stated in the past when discussing data and the Mailers Scorecard "you can only manage those things you can measure" and we have found that this statement extends to all things business, including Social Media marketing strategies. Evaluating what is working, reaching out to connections personally and keeping peoples' interest in the content is imperative. There are several ways to leverage Social Media as it is an extremely cost effective marketing tool compared to other efforts. In recent years, we have seen high engagement and interest in our video content.  We're about to release some fun content in this arena so stay tuned.



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    Kristen McKiernan
    President
    AccuZIP, Inc.
    Atascadero CA
    800-233-0555
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    Original Message