Web 2.0 & Promotional Products - Presentation to MAPPA

Web Marketing And Social Media For Distributors Mark Graham February 2010 Image credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthamm/2945559128

#promotionalproducts
@RIGHTSLEEVE

Years it took to reach a market audience of 50 Million
Radio – 38 years
TV – 13 years
Internet – 4 years
iPod – 3 years
Facebook – 2 years
Source: Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman

Throughout this presentation …

I want you to keep 2 things in mind

#1. The immutable law of sales
People buy from people they like

#2. A distributor’s biggest challenge
Buyers struggle to see the difference between us

In the next 90 minutes …
What’s all the fuss about?
Specific social media tools
How to do this right

A Social Media Primer
Social media consists of online conversations between real people - customers, employees, vendors - using websites or online platforms.
Image credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthamm/2945559128

Why Invest in Social Media?

New way of engaging clients

Point of Differentiation

Builds Trust

Cost Effective

Communication Tool of Next Generation

Distribution platform for your content

Thought Leadership in your Niche

Social Media Tools
Blogs
Online video - YouTube
Microblogging - Twitter
Social networking - Facebook
Professional networking – LinkedIn
Product Comments and Ratings
Photo sharing - Flickr

Blogging Basics
Be a Storyteller
Be Human
Have Fun
Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad

blog.epromos.com

brandedmatters.com

swag20.com

Online video platform
Free distribution for your content
Anyone can be a star

What are you doing … right now?
140 characters
“ You are who you follow”
#Hashtags
Professional/mature demographic
See what people are saying about specific topics (incl. you)!

Proactive Sales Opportunities

Fan “shout-outs”

Recommendations

The New How Shirt w/ Wearing Instructions
Yes, it’s true, no one really needs another t-shirt. But we do wear logos, designs we care about. And we often wear things that embody our values.
So I recently decided to order t-shirts for the #NewHow movement. The process itself was entirely a process of collaboration. Let me share it.
First, I reached out to a person I have only met a few times in person but stay regularly in contact with on Twitter, @missrogue. Having watched her do a #karaoke tour across the US last year, I figured she had to know something about swag vendors. And because I really do still have a day job I wanted to find the vendor to work with, and go fast. No surprise, 5 minutes later, I got an introduction to Mark Graham at #RightSleeve. Within hours, I had a reasonable quote, options to pursue and a rough schedule that would let me take shirts to my #fidelity talk on innovation. Mark uses email like I do — highly efficient, asynchronous conversation to let us move faster and truly do high-baud work.
But at that point, I still hadn’t decided what I wanted the design to be. So I emailed a collaborator and asked him something simple like, “thoughts?” and got back a very fast note that set the theme of the shirt: I am the New How. Which I liked. I asked to see the designs in context with the shirts and color choices. When I got drafts (from RIGHTSLEEVE), I simply forwarded to the #Rubicon team and a few other folks and asked for feedback. 5-10 minutes later, I had what I needed. Decisions were made. Order placed. Literally, the whole process probably took me a total of 30-45 minutes to do. And all in 5 minute increments. That’s a vendor and an extended set of collaborators I want to work with.

Talk about an emotional connection! Audience = 57,500 people Cost = zero

Effective PR Tool/Damage Control

Online community of friends (social graph)
800 pound gorilla
Fan Pages & Groups
Emotional connection with your products

“ Bridging the gap between all generations of Promotional Product professionals”

Online community of business contacts
Online resume
Great prospecting tool
Online recommendations

Product Comments and Ratings
Client ownership
Builds credibility with “real” comments
Ability to quickly react to negative feedback
The products become “yours”
Getsatisfaction.com, Yelp.com

Online photo sharing site
Tagging
Vehicle for promoting your corporate culture

The Big Picture
Beware the Social Media Bandwagon
We are all connected: “The Social Graph”
Credibility and Building Social Capital: “Whuffie”
The Long Tail: Niche Marketing
Exercise some common sense

Trust + Community = ROI
“ ROI in the new economy is driven by how loyal and engaged your consumers are”
Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation

What you can do now
Locate your customers/competitors
Interview a customer and post the content online
Start practicing to find your “voice”
Setup profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube
Create a video (Microsoft MovieMaker, Apple Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Flip Video)
Write about stuff that interests you
Join the conversation

BE WARNED! Social Media is not for everyone.
People will sniff out the fakers. Be authentic.
Be aware of the time commitment
Ensure your marketing is not out of sync.
You don’t want a meatball sundae

A meatball sundae is the unfortunate result of mixing two good ideas.
The meatballs are the foundation, the things we need (and sometimes
want). These are the commodities that so many businesses are built
on.
The sundae toppings (hot fudge and the like) are the New Marketing,
the social networks, Google, blogs and fancy stuff that make people all
excited.
The challenge most organizations face: they try to mix them. They
attempt to slap new marketing onto old and end up with nothing but a
failed website.
Excerpt from Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae

RESOURCES (Web Sites)
Social Media Marketing in a Traditional Industry (Mark Graham) . Click here
My Take on Twitter Click here
Seth Godin www.sethgodin.com
Twitterati www.twitterrati.com
Mashable www.mashable.com
ReadWriteWeb www.readwriteweb.com

Resources (Books)
Tara Hunt The Whuffie Factor
Chris Anderson The Long Tail
Clay Shirky Here Comes Everybody
Joel Comm Twitter Power
Mitch Joel Six Pixels of Separation

@RIGHTSLEEVE

Web 2.0 & Promotional Products - Presentation to MAPPA

by Mark Graham on Feb 11, 2010

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