An outline of the main social media platforms, how they apply to a promotional products company, and what pitfalls to avoid when joining online communities. Mark Graham of RIGHTSLEEVE shares some of his experiences in this space and how they have applied to his promotional distributorship. This presentation was delivered to PPAI's Promotions East conference in Atlantic City (June 2010)

1. Social Media & Promotional Products Mark Graham June 2010

2. Mark Graham Founder of Distributor, RIGHTSLEEVE.COM Social media and technology enthusiast I am one of you

3. #promotionalproducts @RIGHTSLEEVE

4. I want you to consider 3 things

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

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

7. #3. Buying behaviour People trust their friends more than institutions

8. In the next 75 minutes … What’s all the fuss about? Specific social media tools How to do this right

9. 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

10. Why Invest in Social Media?

11. New way of engaging clients

12. Point of Differentiation

13. Builds Trust

14. Cost Effective

15. Communication Tool of Next Generation

16. Network effects

17. Thought Leadership in your Niche

18. Social Media Tools Blogs Online video - YouTube Microblogging - Twitter Social networking - Facebook Professional networking – LinkedIn Product Comments and Ratings Company newsfeed

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

20. blog.epromos.com

21. brandedmatters.com

22. swag20.com

23. Online video platform Free distribution for your content Anyone can be a star Product Information Tool

26. 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)!

28. Proactive Sales Opportunities

29. Fan “shout-outs”

30. Recommendations

31. 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.

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

33. Effective PR Tool/Damage Control

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

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

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

40. 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

43. Company Newsfeed Web 2.0 inside your company (how we work at RIGHTSLEEVE) Critical selling activities displayed in real time Eliminate silos b/w sales and operations Complete transparency Fosters teamwork

44. 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

45. Resources 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 Mashable www.mashable.com ReadWriteWeb www.readwriteweb.com

46. @RIGHTSLEEVE