Social Media & Promotional Products

Social Media & Promotional Products

Mark Graham

June 2010

Mark Graham• Founder of Distributor,

RIGHTSLEEVE.COM

• Social media and technology enthusiast

• I am one of you

#promotionalproducts

@RIGHTSLEEVE

I want you to consider 3 things

#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

#3. Buying behaviour

People trust their friends more than

institutions

In the next 75 minutes …

1. What’s all the fuss about?2. Specific social media tools3. 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

Network effects

Thought Leadership in your Niche

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

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• Product Information Tool

• 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

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

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

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

@RIGHTSLEEVE