Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
What Social Media is To Me
Posted by 
on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 
at 4:18 PM 
in I am certainly a huge fan of Social Media. Over the past few years, it has helped increase awareness of our company, its employees, and our products. I recently commented on a post in PrintJunkie.net, and I wanted to share those sentiments here as well:
The core to Social Media for me is this: Trust is earned, and relationships are built over time. So in this sphere of marketing I try and use the tools to gain trust and build a relationship. I try my hardest to put information out there to help others grow their business.
I’m a marketer and a business fanatic. I greatly enjoy the prospect and opportunity of helping others as well.
I’m posting and sharing information that is not always about me or my company, (99% not) but rather information that may be relevant to people that matter. Even the 1% or so is about sharing information that I still think is relevant even though another employee wrote it on behalf of the company. I’m hoping the information I share exposes my knowledge, and also our employees knowledge which can be picked up over time. If folks want to learn more about my company so be it. But they do know firsthand my thoughts on the subject matter, who is behind the company, what our employees do, the inner workings of who we are, and yes, interested folks can go find out what we do.
So it is myself and these folks… The employees in our company are empowered to use Social Media. NO policies either! This is not a leap of faith, this is part of today’s business. Iit is not discretionary in my mind. The funny part is we have been doing this all along in other marketing channels and using different medias. Yes before these tools came along, it was never sell – sell – sell for us. The difference is this environment allows us to possibly build more relationships in a broader and more meaningful way.
So — use social media to build relationships trust. And as @chrisbrogan put it, “Stop talking about yourself!”
Have a great, productive day folks!
If you wish – follow me on twitter
http://www.twitter.com/johnfoleyjr or @johnfoleyjr
Tags Tips for Using Our Software – On Twitter
We are certainly big believers that social media can assist people with their marketing efforts.
Sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc., are helping people to find and communicate with prospects. They help people promote events. They help people “listen” to what is going on in their industry.
Social media sites can also help companies with customer service initiatives.
At interlinkONE, we have recently launched a special Twitter profile that is devoted to providing customer service. The account is http://Twitter.com/ilinkService.
The account will primarily be used to provide quick tips and tricks to help people get the most out of our marketing software.
For example, here are a few of our recent tweets:
Recent Tweets from ilinkService
We truly hope that by posting tips on Twitter, you’ll be able to find help when you need it. But we also hope that these tweets expose you to capabilities in our system that you may not have been aware of previously.
Of course, we still provide customer support through the phone, email, our ilinkProjects tool, videos, our Marketing Resource Center, webinars, and other methods.
Twitter.com/ilinkService is just one more channel to help.
John Foley Jr. speaking on Social Media at NAPL Conference
John Foley Jr., President and CEO of interlinkONE, inc. will be speaking at the NAPL Conference on Tuesday, February 16th on the subject of “How to Use Social Media to Build Your Business.”
The conference will be held in Marco Island, Florida
Here is an overview of what John will be discussing:
LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook- these sites are growing in popularity in all vertical markets and are being leveraged to promote printing and marketing services. In this session John presents advice on how to use these social media sites to grow your print and marketing services provider business. He presents real-world scenarios and shares the pros and cons of each of these popular sites.
For more information about the NAPL Conference , you can visit their website at http://www.napl2010.com/tmc/
At a loss for words? Here’s what to say.
If you are currently wondering whether it would be valuable for your business to have a social media presence, the hen is out of the gate.
Today, your competitors are having success with Twitter and Facebook. They are making connections on LinkedIn. Their prospects are enjoying the content pushed out on the corporate blog.
Perhaps you realize that you need to also be doing these things… You know you need a Twitter account and a Facebook page. However, once you do that, what will you actually say?
eMarketer.com published a chart that may help.
If people follow your company on social media, you certainly should look into ways to reward them with specials and deals.
But it can’t just be about the dollar.
Find ways to share your company’s personality, whether it’s through pictures, videos, or anecdotes. Provide general information that will help people grow their business – even if it’s through a tool that is not provided by your company.
If you share information, people will be pleased. If you share information that they want and that will help them, you will have a fan and friend that keeps coming back for more.
Original URL for that Chart: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007476
