Social Media is Essential to Customer Communications

Printers have seen an impact on printing from YouTube because of QR (Quick Response) codes. Printers can create and print a special bar code that mobile smartphone users can scan and then be taken directly to a YouTube video. Many companies include training and product information videos on YouTube. Printed QR codes are used to drive viewers to the sites.

Start with social media by learning the mechanics. Printers must learn how to set up accounts and post information. They must learn how to interlink the various social media so a post on one will populate the others. They must learn the third party add-ons that automate the process so posts can be written and scheduled for posting later. Printers need to know how to build followers, friends, and fans for the various social media platforms.

After the mechanics, the printer must start using it to create an online presence and generate leads and top-of-mind awareness in their local market. Printers will have to learn how to engage their followers, friends, and fans with interesting and valuable information. The ultimate aim is to generate new business. If a printer can learn how to engage and then convert his followers into customers, he will have a knowledge base he can sell to his customers.

What Do I Say?

The biggest challenge in using social media is coming up with the message. What can a printer talk about? My suggestion is to go back to basics and use your 30-second elevator speech, mission statement, or whatever you call the short speech you use to describe your company. That message should tell the customer why he should buy from you. It should stress the benefits of using your company. Once you establish the message, then you will find that social media is just another vehicle to trumpet that message to your local market and help you sell more printing.

Businesses need social media to reach a new audience of buyers, and they need print to help get them there. Social media is a part of the communication process that still includes print. The printers who can master both print and social media will be the ones who prosper in the future.

John Giles is the author of “12 Secrets for Digital Success” and “The DTP PriceList”. He is the technology director and a consultant for CPrint International. He can be reached at 954-224-1942 or john@johngiles.com. You can also find John on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JohnG247 and on Linkedin.com. To order John’s books, visit www.cprint.org.