Moving into the 2010s, the dominance of smartphones meant that accessing social media sites and apps became much easier, and this undoubtedly helped to fuel the growth of Twitter (rebranded as X in 2023) and Instagram.

The Covid pandemic in 2020, meanwhile, thrust a growing TikTok even further into the consciousness of millions of new users looking for escapism and entertainment.

The social media landscape has continued to evolve rapidly in the last few months, with Bluesky and Threads gaining popularity in some quarters as swathes of users and businesses have left X in the wake of various changes introduced by Elon Musk, who bought the platform in 2022.

Free to use – save for premium tiers and options available on some platforms for users who want increased functionality – social media was unsurprisingly quickly harnessed by business owners as a new way to get their names, brands, and ideologies out into the wild without incurring much more investment than time.

While Facebook has been particularly popular among local businesses and tradespeople for a long time, LinkedIn has proved the platform of choice for larger businesses and individuals looking to expand their networks.

This is particularly true in print: 41% of respondents to our Printweek poll that asked, ‘Which social media platforms does your business use?’ said they used LinkedIn, way ahead of Facebook and Instagram, which were tied on 17%, with X next on just 13%.

Bluesky polled 4%, TikTok 3%, and Threads 2% while 3% selected Other, which could include YouTube. The video sharing site is commonly used by industry manufacturers and suppliers who might showcase new products or machinery demos – although they are perhaps just as likely to use LinkedIn for this these days.

Deborah Corn, founder of Girls Who Print US-based print advocacy group Print Media Centr, harnessed the power of social media to launch the annual International Print Day celebration in 2014.

In 2024 the day generated around 9.6 million impressions on print-related social media posts, including exponential growth in LinkedIn activity while Instagram also had a bump.

Corn says each social media channel provides an opportunity to engage and make new connections that may or may not become customers in the future.

“If they don’t, was the effort unsuccessful? For any success to be measured, success must be defined. There are many possible results: growing the audience, creating engagement, converting the audience to conversations, website visits, and other enquiries, and, yes, sales,” she says.

“Each channel and each share can be used to generate the targeted results and adjusted as needed by measuring the success you are after.”

She notes that businesses should use their social channels to attract, educate, engage, and communicate with the customers they want to do business with by sharing what those people care about.

“Each share should be crafted for the social media channel used and the specific audience in that channel. In this case, the danger is promoting your business, making everything about you, and expecting sales to roll in.

“Social media has a long tail from interest to action. Invest in engaging with customers at every step of their journey, especially when they aren’t buying.”

Some industry names have experienced success on TikTok – Fastsigns Manchester has racked up hundreds of thousands of views with a series of football team and band-related videos, while Jemima Neal, daughter of Geoff Neal Group CEO Sam Neal, uses the platform – as well as Instagram – to promote her apparel business, racking up tens of thousands of engagements.

But it is currently very sparsely used by print and Corn believes the lack of printers on it is the biggest opportunity out there.

“If you can use it, empower a Gen Zer to make videos of what they think is cool and start investing in future customers, partners and business owners on the channel. And please send me updates on the skateboard-riding turtle and his best friend, the cat,” she quips.

The likes of Gelato and Printify have integrations that enable creators and e-commerce sellers to sell print-on-demand products via TikTok Shop, but it is still generally perhaps an area of untapped potential – particularly for those operating in direct B2C areas like merchandise, promotional print and personalisation.

Corn says many brands have left, or are leaving, X and Facebook over a lack of moderation and polarising ownership.

This is true of Stockport-based magazine and bookstore Rare Mags, which went viral with a post on X in 2023 that has been viewed nearly 180,000 times. It stopped using the platform in November 2024, but still uses Instagram and now Bluesky.

Design and marketing agency Nutshell Creative decided to leave X and Facebook just over a year ago after it noticed low engagement on both channels.

Sales and marketing manager Rob Flannery says: “We are now currently only operating on LinkedIn and Instagram. We had four key channels and we made a conscious decision through some analysis that we were not getting any engagement and wasting our time on X and Facebook.

“But we still felt that there was some value in LinkedIn and Instagram. We see LinkedIn as very much our core channel. We are a business-to-business company, and so addressing people in that corporate space is what we aim to do, and discuss things that are relevant to businesses and brands. We can talk about our work in that space, and it’s all very relevant.

“Our audience on Instagram is much smaller, but we still find value in it because, more than anything, we see it as a future resource for talent. We have had a fair bit of interaction from designers or people that admire our work from a more visual and design point of view.

“And then when we have spoken to candidates in the past, they will often cite what they’ve seen on Instagram on what we do, rather than LinkedIn.”

Proving how much a company’s social media output contributes to its success can be difficult to quantify, however.

“Social media often doesn’t lead directly to a click that directly leads you to a sale, unless you’re talking e-commerce retail, which might be slightly different,” says Flannery.

“But in our world of print, creative and marketing it’s about ‘super touchpoints’, which is a lot of ‘littles’, as a speaker at recent JICMail event said, and I think social plays a part in that. It’s a couple of touchpoints across a week if you posted a couple of times, and then if you’ve got your employee posting, there’s another touchpoint.

“So I think it’s very hard to allocate an exact business case and direct ROI to social posts. But I think when we get inbound enquiries, I always talk to them about how they found us, or what they know of us, and they might say that they’ve seen our social – suddenly you hear it all come back to you where they’ve been exposed to the brand in the past.”

While social platforms can clearly offer a lot of benefits, they can also present risks for printers if used by employees posting on the company’s accounts or their personal profiles to express views and opinions that might be at odds to what the wider company – and the majority of its clients – stand for.

Brendan Perring, general manager of the IPIA, suggests that before posting anything on social media, there is an easy rule that should be applied.

“Imagine standing up and reading out your post to everyone in your office. If you would be uncomfortable to do that, don’t post it. It’s that simple.”

The IPIA has also been using the power and reach of social media to promote print’s unique benefits over digital platforms.

The printing trade association recently launched its new national print research and advocacy project, ‘A New Narrative for Print’, with which it aims to permanently shift the perception of print across an end-user and consumer audience, partly by reaching out to key influencers who have the power to sway the perception of the industry and its products.

It has also launched a social media campaign – ‘Print Made This’ – to point to the role of print in our lives.

“We’re also doing sponsored posts where we’re specifically selecting our demographics of marketers, designers, higher level education institutions, and events – any print buying market – and investing money into targeting our ‘Print Made This’ post directly at them,” says Perring.

“We’re trying to get the message across to them that print has got an incredible ability to affect emotion and effect action with the consumer in a way that digital-only is really struggling to do because it’s so oversaturated.”

Ultimately, social media platforms can be useful not only for business promotion and to encourage custom, but also for sharing examples of work, attracting new talent, being seen as a thought leader or influencer in your space, and much more.

But choose wisely the platforms you decide to invest time and money into, as it is better to use well those where your audience is most engaged rather than spreading yourself too thinly and leaving some accounts empty or infrequently updated.

Perring concludes: “For so many brands, marketers, and procurement people now, if they’re looking to use a particular supplier, one of the first things they will do is look you up on social media. And if they see active, vibrant, varied content then their estimation of you as a print service provider is going to go up, and there’s more likelihood they’ll engage with you.

“But if they go to a page where you posted once, a year ago, then their estimation of you will drop. So it’s not just a proactive thing, it’s also about almost having a shopfront of who you are, your brand, and what you do.”

OPINION

Social media can change the sector for the better

Rachael Hunt, marketing manager, Reuseabox

For too long, the print and packaging industry has been seen as one full of, well, stuffy old white men. While diversity is improving, the sector still struggles to attract fresh talent. According to the BPIF, the UK print industry remains dominated by men (69% male), and the next generation isn’t exactly queuing up to join.

The real issue is the industry’s stubborn attachment to ‘the way we’ve always done it’. Clinging to that mindset won’t help it diversify or grow.

We all know print and packaging is more than just cardboard and paper, but we’re not telling that story well enough. That’s why social media should stop being seen as a ‘nice-to-have’ for a company and be used to transform the sector for the better.

Reuseabox has built a strong social media presence by simply focusing on storytelling, community engagement, and purpose-driven content. I rarely post that we sell used cardboard boxes, because, honestly, no one cares. Yet too many print/packaging companies flood LinkedIn with dry, sales-driven content that lacks strategy, consistency, or engagement. If your content isn’t shareable, it isn’t working.

Print and packaging businesses need to take social media seriously and do more than just ‘check in’ now and then. The industry has relied on word-of-mouth and direct sales for too long, but social media channels offer untapped opportunities for companies that are willing to experiment – not just for generating leads but attracting new talent.

Frankly, we need to stop playing it safe. While LinkedIn is the obvious choice for B2B engagement, TikTok and Instagram have huge potential, especially with user-generated content (UGC) on the rise. I’ve even seen US print companies go viral simply by filming an industrial guillotine at work.

With the industry getting more competitive day by day, it is those who refuse to adapt that will be left behind. The choice is simple: evolve or disappear.

READER REACTION

How does social media help your business?

Graham Hunstone, managing director, Visual Print and Design

“We actively use LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook to showcase our work, connect with clients and engage with a wider audience. A standout moment was when one of our TikTok videos went viral, reaching over 1.1 million views! Another fun highlight was our Christmas video, shot in the summer, which perfectly captured our team’s spirit and creativity. This exposure boosted our visibility, brought in new enquiries, and highlighted the creativity and fun members of the team that are behind our services.

Maisie Greenfield, marketing manager, Webmart

“Social media is great for reaching your audience in their downtime. They might not be in work mode when they browse, which is why personal updates can resonate the most. LinkedIn is great for sharing helpful tips/articles, whereas Instagram is ideal for live posting video content during events. It’s also a great way for your team to build their personal profiles. Some brand guidelines and advice on what to post can help build confidence in your team, especially if you have an account management style approach with your clients.”

Will Willson-Davies, head of growth, Artworker.com

“As a startup, social media has been an incredible way to raise awareness of who we are and how we help printing companies. Our big focus is on LinkedIn. It’s great because it puts a face to a name, and it allows you to keep a dialogue going with potential new and existing clients. So much of our current tool is shaped by the conversations we have with users. We also plan to use YouTube to share demos and tutorials, showcasing how companies are currently using Artworker in their day-to-day.”