Have you ever poked a client? Or penned a missive on print’s place in the modern media mix in fewer than 140 characters? Do you know your ‘tweets’ from your ‘likes’ and your LinkedIn from your Second Life? If none of this means anything to you, then you might as well go and live in a cave. Like it or loathe it (and a significant if dwindling number of people do the latter) social media is here to stay. The explosion in popularity of websites such as Facebook and Twitter has made a small number of people incredibly wealthy and left the rest of us wondering how we can get in on the action.

Printers, judging by the websites of many, haven’t been the quickest to warm to the marketing potential of the internet generally and social media specifically and there is a strong argument that, as a largely B2B industry, the commercial benefits for a printer of having a social media presence would be negligible at best. However, the vast and growing audience that can be tapped into via social media is hard to ignore and there have been several recent instances of printers capitalising on that market.

In recent weeks there has been a spate of news stories about printers using social networking sites, such as Business Forms Express (BFE) in Bristol, which has decided to mothball its website in favour of a Facebook page. Although its website will still be available to view, its primary job will be to direct potential customers to Facebook.

Managing director Colin Roberts says: "With Facebook you can talk to people all over the world for free, we have to pay to have our website updated so it seemed to make sense. There is a garage around the corner where customers have started booking MOTs on it; it’s the way business is going. It might not work, but let’s see what happens."

Roberts added that the idea would not necessarily transfer to every business. BFE is a trade print house, so its customers consist only of printers, he does not believe that it could do something like that if his customer base consisted of local authorities or blue chip companies.

Chris Brady is joint managing director at Chingford-based digital and litho business Print 4 UK. Brady says the company has turned to social networking sites such as Facebook to "build relationships" with existing customers and hopes it will attract new business further down the line. "It is still very early days, but it offers us another way to interact with people that we work with," he says.

The company has also taken to YouTube to feature customer testimonials and publicise events the company has held such as its second annual client party.

Another company with a positive experience of Facebook is Blackburn finisher First 4 Print Finishing, which picked up a bargain earlier this year when a secondhand kit dealer offered it a nearly new Heidelberg ST400. The initial suggestion was made over Facebook, in the form of a comment on managing director David Nestor’s page asking if he was interested in the machine.

A point of contact
Despite the positive outcome, Nestor does not believe that his business will revolve around Facebook in the future. He says: "I think LinkedIn actually has more benefit than Facebook. I signed up six months ago and we have already picked up two new accounts through it. Even then, LinkedIn is only really there for that first point of contact. After that I prefer to do things over the phone. Websites lack the personal touch and we are a service provider, so we need that, you won’t replace phone conversations and face-to-face meetings. If you are selling a product, perhaps it will be more beneficial."

The problem with Facebook, as Nestor points out, is that it is much more geared towards B2C transactions than B2B. However, printers should not be too quick to dismiss it as one of its many (often overlooked) benefits, is that it is a goldmine of information. The beauty of social media from a marketing perspective is that people give away far more information on networking sites than they realise.

Look at it this way: befriend a client on Facebook and suddenly you have access to a list of everyone else they are friends with, including other clients, potential new customers and even rival operations. That information alone has got to be worth setting up an account for. For those with the time and inclination, social media gives the opportunity to get a lot more ‘sticky’ with your clients and to harvest information, for free, which could prove valuable to your business.

30-SECOND BRIEFING
• Social media is a relatively new phenomenon, but it is here to stay and increasingly affects everybody
• In recent weeks a number of stories have emerged regarding printers using social networking sites
• Social networking sites can be used to build contacts or maintain relationships with existing contacts
• In some cases they can be used to do business; it is a quick point of contact, an extension of the email in many ways
• While Facebook offers a world of opportunities, its informal B2C nature suggests that LinkedIn may actually be a more viable outlet for companies to do business over a social networking site
• However, it is unlikely that social media will replace the personal touch of a face-to-face meeting or phone conversation, in the same way that the email has not replaced either
• Clearly there are opportunities via social networking sites such as LinkedIn and even Facebook, but it is difficult to ascertain how these opportunities will develop