tHE tECH ISSUE

ADVANTAGES
JULY ’11
THE
TECH
ISSUE
102
Social Networking
Boot Camp
We matched three floundering social media newbies with top, savvy strategists
who offered excellent advice for their social networking plans, including: “Don’t
use Facebook to pimp business to your friends.” Here we check in, assess their
progress and give you ideas you can implement now.
By Jean Erickson
W
hen we offered Advantages subscribers a four-week boot camp
for social media rookies, we were overwhelmed by the volume of
responses. Our inbox was flooded and our phone rang off the hook
with reps begging us, “pick me, pick me!” Their messages were
nearly all the same: “I know I need to start using social media, but
I have no idea where to begin.”
From that vast pool of candidates, we chose three fearless and motivated sales
reps, paired each with a separate social media “guru,” and put them through some
paces for four weeks as they implemented their experts’ advice. With a little bit of
sweat, but no push-ups, all three have gotten a social media workout and are up and
running. The results are in.
Our three boot campers are: Melanie Hady, president and owner of Yorktowne Graphics (asi/365000), Ron Baellow, president and founder, Bright Ideas
(asi/146026), and Tim O’Neill, founder and CEO of Image Masters (asi/230071).
“The profile of our buyers is getting younger and younger, and they definitely
understand this media,” says Baellow. One of his most recent hires, a 22-year-old
salesperson, asked during the job interview why Bright Ideas didn’t have a Facebook
page.
A significant portion, 30%, of O’Neill’s business comes from colleges and universities, and he says the students, as well as the staff, expect Image Masters to be
active in social media. “The timing of this invitation is perfect,” says O’Neill, as he
just launched his Facebook page a week before signing on.
Yorktowne Graphics’ Hady had a Facebook page, LinkedIn account, Twitter
account and blog in place before joining the crash course, but knew she wasn’t maximizing these tools. As the sole sales rep at her firm, with a very limited marketing
budget, she hopes to use social marketing to increase sales at a reasonable cost.
BOOT CAMPER: MELANIE HADY – YORKTOWNE GRAPHICS
Not Just Apparel
Her mission:
Despite having some social
media presence, Hady is
unsure how to connect with
potential customers. She wants to drive people to
her website (www.yorktownegraphics.com) so they
can shop and buy, but doesn’t know how to go about
it. Yorktowne currently gets about 60% of its sales
in apparel and has 150 customers. Hady is looking
to reduce her dependence on apparel sales, a highly
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competitive and price-driven sector, and increase
sales of other advertising specialties.
Her social media guru is Justin Kownacki,
social media strategist at Creative Concepts
LLC, video director and creator of Web sitcoms.
He evaluated Hady’s social media channels and advocates a three-pronged approach: Attract new leads,
provide resources to convert new leads into sales,
and create a community that generates positive
word-of-mouth recommendations.
The drill sergeant says:
Kownacki encourages anyone starting out in social
media to state their goals – establish why they’re
investing in social media and what they expect to
accomplish. Explore the various social networking
tools and see how other people, especially your competition, are using them. Pay attention to what gets
your attention. Which links are you most inclined to
click on? Feel free to experiment. Either set up one
continued on page 104 >>
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BOOT CAMP
Go for a
Blog
“A blog is a forum where you can tell your company’s story
from a number of different angles,” says Jennifer Kane, principal of social media marketing and PR firm, Kane Consulting.
Blogging can be one of the most effective tools for generating leads for your business and traffic for your site, she says,
but notes its biggest challenge is that it continually needs
fresh content.
Justin Kownacki, social media strategist for Creative Concepts LLC, compares a blog to a magazine – “You need to
publish engaging content on a regular basis that people like,
comment on and/or subscribe to in order to build a widespread readership about your specific topics.” The more
often you update your blog, the higher your blog shows up in
Google search ratings, he points out.
Using specific keywords and phrases will help Google find
you, so that headlines such as “Ten Things You Didn’t Know
About Ordering Custom T-shirts” can be great traffic drivers
once your blog starts to gain long-term traction, Kownacki
says. “These can be cornerstones of your promotional strategy that you can link back to all your social media channels,”
he adds.
How to get started? Kane says to start reading industry
blogs to get a sense of best practices. “Get your feet wet by
commenting on those blogs and building exposure online,”
she offers. Kane advises those interested to read up on how to
construct a powerful post, and incorporate photos and videos
to make the posts even more compelling.
Kownacki says, “Show off your products – and happy customers – at every turn.” He recommends using Google Analytics to help determine which keywords people are using to
locate your blog, and which referral sources (like Facebook
or LinkedIn) are driving the most traffic to it. Once you know
what works, you’ll know what kinds of content to develop
more of.
“Cook up an editorial calendar featuring the hot topics that
you are passionate about or that your audience responds to,
such as “Seasonal Tie-Ins” or “Happy Customer Anecdotes,”
says Kownacki. He suggests brainstorming three to five possible posts for each category, and posting content at least
once a week.
Among the many types of posts that work well on a blog
are Q&A interviews, lists of resources, practical advice, “best
of” lists, news updates, reviews, and opinions and analysis,
Kane says.
“Ask other bloggers to write guest posts on your blog. For
example, ask a local graphic designer to write a post about
the best way to create vector art,” suggests Kownacki. Then
the post becomes an asset that works on many levels, as you
link yourself to the designer and vice versa, exposing both of
your audiences to one another.
Kane points out that blogging is an evolving platform for
communication, so don’t get hung up if your blog is not perfect right out of the gate. She says, “Think of blogging as
planting a very important seed for your business – one that
will continue to grow and blossom for years to come.”
channel at a time, or multiple channels and experiment with the kinds of messages you
think you should be sharing.
“What you’re really doing with social media is using your own personality as a sales
tool,” says Kownacki. “People love deals, but they also love doing business with friends.
Social media lowers the wall between you and others so that they see you as more than
just a vendor; they see you as a person.” Hady needs to set herself apart from her competition by convincing potential customers that her products and services will be of the
highest quality and that the experience of buying from her will be enjoyable and mutually rewarding, Kownacki offers.
Based on his advice, Hady linked her blog to her website, moved her Facebook and
Twitter logos higher up on her website home page and mentioned all the social networking tools she’s using on her contact page. This will lead potential customers to more
information about her company, and hopefully to a growing community of satisfied customers, offering more visible proof that can help sell them on Hady’s services.
Kownacki suggests posing a different question at least once a week to generate discussion, such as “What’s your favorite color pen?” or “Family reunion season is right around
the corner. How often does your family get together each year?” and spread it across each
channel.
Kownacki likes that Hady is posting images of her products and satisfied customers in
action. He recommends including personal information to help build relationships. For
example, Hady is a big fan of Eli and Peyton Manning, star football quarterbacks. Kownacki suggests she do a “Manning Special,” for example – offer a discount on the next
order when the Manning brothers both win in the same week. People are more likely to
build a business relationship and recommend you to others when they’ve connected on
a personal level, he says.
If she wants to reduce the company’s dependence on apparel, Kownacki advises Hady
to revise the tagline on her logo and her home page photo, which feature wearables.
Also, the search keywords that many people use to find Yorktowne on the Web are often
garments, which is another thing she will need to revise over time if she is serious about
expanding beyond wearables.
Hady says she will continue to offer the garments, but at a more “retail” rate to new
customers, and stop promoting them as her specialty. While admitting she may lose
some new apparel business, she hopes it will free up more time to sell and promote the
items she does want to sell, that are more profitable and less labor-intensive.
Since working with Kownacki, Hady has cleaned up her fan page, removing the discussions tab (the page had no active discussions) and requesting reviews for her review page.
Also, she created photo albums and uploaded more pictures to post. Kownacki had suggested she subdivide her photos into albums based on content type (such as Products in
Action, Another Happy Customer, Hard at Work, Living and Loving York, PA). She also
posted a May pen promotion on her website specials page.
Kownacki says Hady is on the right track including order information on the productrelated photo descriptions, but he says she should also link to the specific pages where
customers can place an order for those products, if applicable.
He suggests she join relevant professional groups on LinkedIn, and then, once
a member, post information, questions and links to her blog articles for the group.
While LinkedIn isn’t a sales catalog, it is a place where connections can be created that
lead to word-of-mouth referrals down the road. For example, if she has a big seasonal
sale, she could send messages to her groups and connections letting them know about
the sale, with a note: “If you know of any organizations in your area that need a great
deal on custom apparel, send them my way.” Also, she could offer added incentives
for referrals, perhaps an extra discount to the person who refers them if the customer
mentions his or her name.
continued on page 106
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BOOT CAMP
BOOT CAMPER: Ron Baellow – Bright Ideas
Social Media – Online Cocktail Party
His mission:
Bright Ideas, based in Troy,
VA is 12 years old, with $2.7
million in sales. Before this
project, the company did not have a Facebook page,
and Baellow did not know what to post on Facebook
or LinkedIn, or what and how often to tweet. Though
knowledgeable about social media, he hasn’t been
able to successfully formulate a plan for his company.
His expert, Mark Graham, president and
founder of Rightsleeve, an online promotional
design agency, guided Baellow in creating his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/bright ideasva). Graham says it is critical to understand your marketing goals at the outset in order to drive your social
media content.
Key point? Graham says any online content should
contain a “secret sauce,” that ingredient that is of
interest and relevance to Baellow’s customers. “Our
secret sauce is our people,” says Baellow. “We sell
100% based on our relationships. We are about people, relationships and customer service.”
Social media is a communication platform, not a
direct sales platform, says Graham. Often, beginners get on social media to blast specials to their
fans, but he says this usually backfires. Think of
Facebook and Twitter as a two-way conversation
between your company and its followers/fans, he
explains. Success is measured by the number of
comments or re-tweets (RTs) you attract.
He compares Facebook and Twitter to being at
a cocktail party: “Are you the guy talking about
yourself all night, ultimately driving people away,
or are you the one asking engaging questions,
commenting on what other people are doing, asking others their opinion and raising interesting
topics for discussion? I think we all know who we
want to party with!”
The drill sergeant says:
Graham encouraged Baellow to show the company’s
personal side by posting photos of its employees,
buildings or relevant events. He praised one of Baellow’s Facebook posts, in which students and staff at
Miller-Motte Technical College modeled T-shirts
designed by Bright Ideas that said “Got Motte?” (like
the “Got Milk?” slogan).
continued on page 108
Shake Things Up
Julie Stark, account executive at Manhattan-based Kritzer
Marketing (asi/245947; www.kritzermarketing.com), has
a Facebook account, but that is as far as her participation
in social media goes. She knows she needs to embrace
social networking but is not sure where to begin. We
recruited Jay Wilkinson, founder and CEO of Firespring,
a website and marketing services firm, to offer advice.
1. EXTREME MAKEOVER. Julie’s first priority should be to improve the
look of the company’s website, says Wilkinson. There are too many elements on the home page competing with each other, and the eye doesn’t
know where to go, he points out. The white text on a dark background is
hard to read. “Reversed out type is a big no-no in Web design,” he says,
adding that the all-bold text is also hard on the eyes and makes everything
“important.” If everything is important, says Wilkinson, “then nothing is.”
Consequently, when visitors come to the site, they’re not immediately
drawn in. The laundry list of products on the left side of the page is too long
and cumbersome, notes Wilkinson. “Your website should be the center of
your marketing universe.”
2. CONNECT ON LINKEDIN. “How does LinkedIn help me?” asks Julie.
“I’m not sure what to do with my connections.” Wilkinson offers three
basic ways to get the ball rolling. Step one: Find and connect with everyone you’ve done business with, including customers, colleagues and other
industry professionals. Step two: Recommend some of your connections.
LinkedIn is a great place to give and receive references. Step three: Participate in the discussion. Make sure your profile is complete, then search
for and join groups where your prospects and clients might be lurking.
Get involved in group discussions, and offer insights and answers in your
area of expertise.
3. DON’T POST SALES PITCHES ON FACEBOOK. Julie asks, “Is it OK to
post ‘deals’ as my personal Facebook status? I don’t want to be tacky and
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try to do business with ‘friends.’ ” Wilkinson responds, “In
a word, no. Don’t use Facebook to pimp business to your
friends.” Instead, he recommends this approach – be
interesting. Post updates that are fun, engaging, entertaining and provocative. “Whatever you do, don’t make
them cringe with a constant stream of sales pitches,”
he adds. Instead, get more mileage out of posting entertaining captions
and photos of unique promotional products on the personal profile page
without “asking for the sale,” he says. He recommends Julie adjust her
settings on her business Facebook page so that when people click on
her page, they land on her “information” page rather than her wall. The
information page has all the contact information that customers need,
along with a link to the company website, the center of the company’s
marketing universe.
4. MANAGE SOCIAL MEDIA. “What tool is the best one for me to start
with, given my company’s small size and nature of my business?” Julie asks.
Wilkinson says the best tool for Julie is www.hootsuite.com, which is actually not a social media site, but rather a tool that will help her manage her
social media. Hootsuite basically serves as a control room for all of your
social media channels, allowing Julie to manage her Facebook, LinkedIn
and Twitter accounts all from one location when she posts an update. With
Hootsuite, Julie should be able to manage all of her social media in just 15
minutes a day, he says.
5. WHAT ABOUT GROUPON? Julie asks if she should be joining Groupon, an online group buying site that offers coupons to consumers in a
local market. Wilkinson says Groupon is not suitable for resellers, so it
would not be a good fit for Julie’s business. Groupon is ideal for companies that manufacture a product or offer a service directly to consumers. In order for Groupon to make sense for Julie, she’d need to offer a
highly desirable product or service that has a profit margin of 75% or
more, he explains.
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BOOT CAMP
“This is great content, as it shows your work and
references a client,” Graham says. He recommends
tagging the photo if Baellow is friends with anyone in
the picture, to enhance the social interaction and get
the comments going.
“Great work going from zero to 67 likes in less
than two weeks,” Graham said midway through boot
camp. He also suggests Baellow send out a blast
to his client base announcing that Bright Ideas is
on Facebook, an easy way for the company to gain
“likes.” Make sure you give the customer reasons to
like you, and perhaps consider running a contest as
an additional incentive, he says.
It’s critical to be patient, and recognize that sales
on social media come in slowly in the beginning, just
as sales come in slowly when you begin cold calling,
Graham notes. It requires patience, persistence and
a commitment to understanding your audience. Reps
should stick with social media; it could be at least six
months before you start seeing any traction. And the
time commitment depends on the rep, but Graham
says an hour a day is a good starting point, though it
can go up from there.
Photos can spice up content on Twitter, says Graham, but he recommends adding a comment so people will actually click on the photo. “Think of Twitter
like reading a newspaper – it’s all about brevity and
headlines,” he says. For example, one of Baellow’s
photos shows a group on Camelback Mountain, but
no caption. Graham suggests adding “Scaled Camelback Mountain in scorching 90-degree weather” to
give a sense of drama to the tweet.
Baellow is a big fan of quotes. Graham says if
he wants to post a long quote, don’t put it on Twitter. Rather, write a blog post (can be set up quickly
on www.tumblr.com) and explain why it is meaningful, then post the link to Twitter. Or take a photo of
the quote (perhaps handwritten on iPad for dramatic
effect) and post to Twitter with a comment like “This
quote is so inspirational.” Also, Graham says to ask
questions on Twitter, as people love to give answers,
which enhances engagement.
BOOT CAMPER: TIM O’NEILL – IMAGE MASTERS
P2P – Person to Person
His mission:
Image Masters is a 16-yearold company with 2010
sales of $1.6 million. O’Neill
has been seriously thinking about social media
since attending a workshop at The ASI Show in
San Diego in 2010, and has attended some others
since then. Just before signing on for Advantages’
social media boot camp, O’Neill launched Image
Masters’ Facebook page. We paired him up with
Mark Schaefer, executive director of Schaefer
Marketing Solutions, and an internationally
recognized blogger who is among the top five
“influencers” on Twitter.
The two discussed social media strategy and the
new role Tim’s website should play in the mix. “Tim
is an ideal candidate to market his business using
social media,” says Schaefer, adding, “he is a natural
networker … he knows how to build a business built
on relationships.”
The drill sergeant says:
Schaefer encouraged O’Neill to simply extend those
strengths into the online world.
You Oughta Be On YouTube
Parodies of the LOST TV series and a video featuring an aggressive company logo that literally packs a wallop – Motivators Promotional Products
(asi/277780) has come a long way from its first product video in April
2008. “A lot of our customers couldn’t understand the functions of some
of our products,” so video was a great way to demonstrate the items and
their uses, says Kimberly Laffer, director of strategic development.
Since launching its first video, Motivators’ video content and quality have
evolved, with a consistent look and application of brand standards, fonts
and its message across all of its marketing channels, she says. Every video
contains the product name, item number, Motivators’
logo in the background, and fonts and styles that
are consistent with the brand. Humor is used when
appropriate. The videos can be viewed on Motivators’ TV website, www.motivators.tv, with a branded
MTV logo reminiscent of the famed music television
station.
In the past year, Motivators has created some
buzzworthy videos to engage its customers, incorporating plot, comedy and wit. The company always
uses its employees in the videos. “We’ve gotten great feedback. People
like the face behind the brand name,” Laffer says.
The impact on sales and brand recognition has been significant. Motivators tracks how all of its videos perform, and Laffer says research indicates that there is a higher conversion rate to sales from those customers
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who view Motivators’ product videos within their buying cycle. “We have
a very high return on investment, and the impact on sales has been tremendous,” she notes.
The videos have also had an impact on company morale. “We have lots
of fun making them. It creates a great sense of camaraderie within the
office,” Laffer explains. Employees come up with the ideas for the videos,
and they also get to act in them. In turn, they share the videos with their
own social networks, spreading the company’s brand and message to an
even greater audience.
The company now has a whole department devoted
to video. They produce six to eight videos a month,
consisting of both product videos and buzzworthy
varieties. One of its most popular videos is for a product called Sonic Rocks, which are magnets that can be
used in a variety of fun ways. Laffer says this is one
product that “you simply cannot explain. You need to
see it in action.” Over 13,000 people have viewed the
video, and it got such a great response that the company created a parody of LOST incorporating the Sonic
Rocks.
Motivators is “definitely ahead of the curve” in its use of video in marketing efforts, says Laffer. The company has created an application for the
iPhone and the Android so customers can download and view its products
on their phones, and it has also created a video promoting the apps.
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nect to them to learn more about their businesses
as well as social media techniques and protocol.
In turn, as O’Neill gets savvier about who he follows and participates in the conversation, he will
get others to follow him. Twitter is really a sharing of expertise with people who will benefit from
that knowledge. While O’Neill has been dabbling
in tweeting, he wants to get more comfortable with
content development before fully committing to it.
“Social media is a marathon, not a sprint,” says
Schaefer, explaining that, like any networking
activity, it takes time to build trusting relationships. He recommends O’Neill give it six months
before he really sees something happen that leads
to new sales. s
Jean Erickson is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.
 Circle 173 on Free Info Card or visit www.advantagesinfo.com
“People buy from people they know and like and
trust,” says O’Neill, citing the importance of relationships in the promotional products business.
While O’Neill sells B2B (business to business), as
a result of the social media project, O’Neill now
keeps a Post-it reminder on his computer: “Social
media is P2P (person to person)” to remind him
that whatever he posts needs to be interesting and
engaging.
Image Masters ran a Facebook
promo as its first social media experiment, inviting fans and friends to
vote on what local restaurant should
cater its next lunch meeting. Over
200 people weighed in; one of the
fans even asked if he could attend
the lunch.
O’Neill then sent out a Facebook
memo to its fans inviting them to
put their names in to win lunch with
Image Masters’ staff or a gift certificate for lunch. Photos of the staff
lunch, which included one of the
winners and a guest, were also posted
to Facebook. “We had great success
with this promo,” says O’Neill. He
adds, “As we get better at it, we’ll
think of even more engaging ways to
connect with each other.”
More recently, Image Masters
added to its fan base when it offered
a limited-edition, free “Thank You,
Navy Seals” T-shirt on Facebook. The
company received over 40 responses.
O’Neill says he is experiencing sales
upticks and a steady growth in Facebook fans, especially when the company does a promo or poll. The number of monthly active users jumped
to 958 for the week of May 9, up 548
from the prior week.
He has developed an editorial calendar, in which he and staffers set
weekly agendas for what content
they intend to put out on Facebook.
On his longer-term horizon, he plans
to use his Facebook page as a platform for informational videos, like
techniques for garment decorating.
O’Neill read and highly recommends Schaefer’s book, The Tao
of Twitter, which he calls a great
primer and an easy read. The three
main points are to develop target connections, create meaningful, interesting content and offer
“authentic helpfulness.”
Schaefer recommended O’Neill
seek out appropriate “follows” – customers, business prospects, competitors and experts in the industry
who have Twitter pages – and con-
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