Harnessing social media is important for the graphic arts industry.

By John Foley Jr.

In-plant Social Media Strategies

Here are some practical ways social media can help in-plants achieve success.

Connect with customers, prospects and key decision makers on social networks. Friend them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter and connect with them on LinkedIn. Then, actively pay attention to what they post to learn more about their interests, concerns, and potential printing/marketing needs.
Post regularly from your social media accounts to increase the chances that they’ll see what you are up to. Include a mix of recent jobs, technology news and personal updates to help humanize your brand and educate them as to what you can do.
Engage in your parent organization’s internal social networks to promote your services. Many companies use tools such as Facebook Groups or Yammer to host social networks for internal use only. Participate and engage with people in those groups to increase awareness of your shop and the services you can provide.
Use them as inspiration for integrating print and social media. If your organization currently has a Facebook page or another major social media profile, I’d be willing to bet that they wish they had more fans, “Likes” or followers. Demonstrate to them how print can be used to help them accomplish that goal. Produce a poster or flyer that uses the social networking URLs of your organization as the call-to-action. Add the social networking icons to the direct mailers that you produce. Create a handout card with a QR Code that directs people to “Like” the organization’s Facebook page. Then, get those pieces in front of your potential customers to demonstrate how your services can help them achieve their social media goals.

The times," as Bob Dylan once sang, "they are a changin'." It almost goes without saying at this point, but the printing industry cannot go on doing business as usual anymore. Print can absolutely still be an important part of the marketing mix, but there are other channels and methods that also bring benefits to businesses.

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John Foley Jr. Author's page

John Foley Jr. is the CEO of interlinkONE and Grow Socially. John and his team help printers get on a strong path to marketing success. Their approach includes software solutions, consulting, Website development, marketing audits, and strategic marketing plans. interlinkONE’s software solutions for the print industry include their marketing automation platform, MAX, and ilinkONE V8. Learn more about MAX: Marketing Automation. Executed. by visiting MarketWithMAX.com, John at JohnFoleyJr.com, and his companies at interlinkONE.com and GrowSocially.com.

Mastering Social Media