According to figures from We Are Social, over three quarters of South Koreans have active social media accounts. Although the UK is not quite at that usage level, for nearly six out of every 10 of us (59%, the same level as in the US) social media plays a part in our lives. And for a great many of us, business decision-makers included, a daily part. 

As the audience is there, the marketing opportunities are self-evident. The challenge for businesses in the print sector lies in developing marketing activity that not only hits home but does so cost-effectively. 

 “I think it’s fair to say that there are lots of case studies and accepted practice for B2C marketing on social media, but there is no doubt in my mind that B2B social marketing is a much tougher nut to crack,” says DigitalPrinting.co.uk founder and chief executive Gary White.

White says his aim with social media marketing is to build brand awareness with a prime focus on instilling and nurturing trust in the business. To date, he has found Facebook to be the most successful medium for his company. Choosing when to pay to ‘boost’ posts on Facebook has been a learning curve, he adds, although cost has been quite minimal and has led to modest social referrals back to the site.

“The social media audience certainly appear to be more interested in the human side and most of the posts that produce a higher engagement rate, other than straight offers or discounts, are human interest pieces on customer stories as opposed to content based purely on products,” says White. “How people have used our products within their businesses is a much more interesting read compared with an article about leaflets and the paper weights in which they are available!” 

Human touch

White says his business posts on Facebook and Twitter every day, essentially trying to “humanise” its brand. There is also an automated feed to these platforms from DigitalPrinting.co.uk’s chosen independent review collection partner, Reviews.co.uk, intended to reinforce trust in the business. 

RT Litho sales & marketing manager Clair Trebes says that alongside Facebook and Twitter, she rates Google+ and Instagram as the most effective social media channels for marketing. Google+ she feels is still very much underrated as creating a free G+ page and then linking it to your local business address “instantly populates on search engines, and the more reviews that gains, the better your traction for when people are searching.” 

In terms of minimising costs, the integration between Facebook and Instagram has, says Trebes, made using their paid adverts facility much more cost-effective. “In comparison to using Adwords, for example, it’s literally worlds apart. So, for those with a limited budget I would be looking at what is the best value for money, and a well-orchestrated campaign across both Facebook and Instagram can provide excellent return on investment.” Trebes adds that although she is personally a fan of LinkedIn, its advertising costs are quite high. 

Clearly, it is vital to assess different channels on the target audience they deliver rather than just on cost. It’s not a case of one size fits all.

“Variation is definitely the key to using social media effectively,” says Blake Envelopes director Tim Browning. “For example, Pinterest, Tumblr or Instagram will not appeal to the same audience as Twitter or Facebook. Getting to know your audience and how this is segmented is the key to success; understanding why, how and when people use each media is critical.” 

At Marstan Press, director Martin Lett Jnr takes charge of social media marketing as an add-on to his major responsibilities. For the main business, he finds Twitter is the best channel for interacting with suppliers, customers and through which to share interesting print and finishing items, while Facebook delivers hardly any user interaction. 

That said, it’s a different kettle of fish in the case of its Marstan Christmas Cards for Schools work. Heavy use is made of Facebook to engage with the target audience, which tends to be primary school mums. “They like to tag each other in our posts to draw attention to what we are saying or promoting,” says Lett Jnr. “It is an active communication channel. Facebook also allows us to target users very specifically to grow our audience. Conversely, we get hardly any Twitter interaction despite posting similar things.”

Marstan Press and Marstan Christmas Cards for Schools both have their own Twitter handles and distinct Facebook pages to ensure relevance of material posted and appropriately tailored content tone. With the Christmas Cards, there is generally a call to action on most posts, for example to sign up for an information pack or confirm a school’s participation. 

Different strokes

It should be borne in mind that different businesses in the same industry can make successes of different channels. What works for a broad-based market leader may be less effective for a niche player with a narrowly defined offer, and vice versa. 

“I generally believe that you should try as many as you want, test and measure the result, and then adapt what you do, based on those,” says RT Litho’s Trebes. “If Facebook isn’t working for you, don’t waste time working on it. 

“Some people say you should ‘duplicate’ the success of others in business, which I tend to agree with. But if you are looking at a market leader or a biggest competitor, and they have the edge over you, it can be difficult to emulate. Do your research, look at your current best clients, ask for feedback – where are they spending their time online? – and use that to help gain more of the same type of client.” 

In terms of achieving standout in a busy online environment, images can deliver huge impact. Especially moving pictures. If you thought the people who most relate to online video were teens watching their favourite YouTubers give make-up tutorials, think again! Research for business magazine Forbes found that 59% of executives would rather watch video than read text. 

Hopefully, dear reader, you are not feeling that same impulse too strongly right now. 

At heart, whether via video or other means, social media marketing hinges on content creation. It comes down to finding and fine-tuning stories that will resonate with potential customers and a wider audience.

“It really has to originate from within the business,” argues Webmart projects director Richard Biltcliffe. “I don’t think you can get agencies to really do it effectively because you have to be authentic, don’t you? If you keep the content coming from in-house it speaks with a true voice and you can back up everything you are saying.” 

Biltcliffe explains that Webmart has its own “quirky take” on things and aims to set a tone that is vibrant, youthful and occasionally a bit irreverent. “We find not being too formal helps us connect better with people. Too stuffy and you end up with corporate speak all the time, which switches people off. You need to be personable and speak in a real voice.” 

One print industry figure who has made a good fist of building his profile on social media is Matthew Parker, founding director of Print and Procurement. Using the Twitter handle @PrintChampion, Parker has over 16,000 followers. 

Parker believes that print companies should have a social media champion that can help and guide everyone with their social media activity, and to set company guidelines. In his view this doesn’t have to be a full-time or senior role, but sales people should definitely take responsibility for their own activity.

Obvious hazards related to social media marketing include people going off-message or posting inappropriate content. However, Parker warns further drawbacks can extend to people using social media as an excuse not to do other sales and marketing activity and carrying out social media activity if your target audience aren’t active there. 

“If you are selling, the purpose of social media is to generate warm prospects,” he adds. “These need to be approached individually and the relationship should then be taken into a personal conversation.”

But it is a balancing act. One of the great things about social media is it allows you to highlight the people behind your business and by so doing subtly build your brand. In this context, going for the hard sell can be jarring. Plan carefully, so that you don’t overload on the promotion, or even overdo the education element for your audience. 

Trebes has some pithy advice on pitching your message. “Fix a problem they have, don’t ‘sell’ them a product. What solution do you have that they need? Simple. Be the expert, be transparent. I think businesses over-complicate this so often on social media.” 

TOP TIPS

Planning and other fundamentals

Make sure that someone within the business has overall responsibility for your social media marketing activities. 

Create a social media policy/set of guidelines and ensure these are adhered to and updated to reflect changes in the SM landscape – this is after all a fast evolving area.

Plan your campaigns/approach as carefully as you would any other marketing activity. Even if you are not buying advertising space, paying to send out direct mail, etc, it is still costing you in terms of one precious commodity: time. And the creation of engaging  content may also have a cost attached to it. 

Always define your key objectives and keep them in mind. Plan to measure these from the outset. Decide on what success looks like and on the metrics you will use to judge how well you are doing.

Give careful consideration to your chosen tone of voice. Make sure it is in line with your brand/business image and fitting for the social media platforms you are using. Avoid being flippant or rude but try not to be dull or overly formal either. We’re talking about ‘social’ media, not ‘antisocial’ media. 

Bear in mind how what you do on social media fits with your other marketing activity. It should dovetail. Avoid mixed messages and contradictions. Be consistent.

Tricks and techniques 

You don’t need to be Spielberg or Scorsese to harness the power of moving pictures. Make use of video content. It does not need to be lavishly produced. 

Less can be more. Don’t try to deliver every type of content to every social media platform. Focus on what you can do well.

Form and exploit canny partnerships to build your social media following. For instance, you could agree with a supplier or another complementary business locally to share each other’s interesting content. This is known as S4S – which stands for share for a share (or possibly a shoutout for a shoutout, or even support for support depending on which social media guru’s word you take).

Create your own infographics to convey facts in a simple and easily shareable visual. Free infographic-maker apps for social media are readily downloadable. 

Use a simple but smart hack on Google to see restricted LinkedIn profile results. Should you find profile search results are restricted due to your membership level of LinkedIn, you can combine what information you already have with a Google search to unearth more. Let’s say you are trying to find out who is the print buyer at, for the sake of argument, Fictional City Council. Type the job spec and employer into LinkedIn and the result might yield an anonymous “LinkedIn member” with that job title. Having confirmed the existence of a person in this role, enter the following into the Google search bar: “site:linkedin.com Print Buyer, Fictional City Council.” Voila! This should provide you with the name of the contact you want. This is because most LinkedIn profiles are indexed on Google.

Social media management tools such as Hootsuite can take the headache out of posting content to a variety of different platforms by allowing you to engage with your audience using a single dashboard. 

Blogging 

Just about able to conjure up the time to write that fascinating and insightful blog post, but no time in the bag to promote it? You might want to look at automated social media marketing tools like missinglettr.com that drip feeds your blog content onto Twitter.

As with other aspects of your social marketing, use images on your blog wherever possible. Online articles containing images are typically far more widely viewed than those without.

Content is king, as the saying goes. Search engine algorithms are designed to find good content, so don’t put up any old guff – which in any case would reflect badly on you and your company’s brand. In addition to writing well, make sure you include a handful of those important keywords with which you want to be associated. 

A blog gains greater traction if it can become part of a wider discussion. But act judiciously. Post links to your blog on forums and so forth where you are adding something relevant and helpful to the debate. If what you have to say is not relevant to the issue, think twice about posting links to it as you may be perceived as spamming. Clearly, not at all what you would want!

Measurement & evaluation

Don’t confuse followers with those people actually engaging with your content. They are not the same thing. You might have tens of thousands of Twitter followers, but each of your tweets may only be read by a fraction of them. Shares and Likes are a far better guide than potential eyeballs.

Set clear goals and measure them. For instance, if you want to drive potential customers to your website landing page with a view to boosting your conversion levels by 15%, make sure you track the conversion rate of people who land on the page via social channels. 

Audit your existing social media performance to ascertain where you are today, then set targets to outstrip this baseline.

Shop around for the right social media analytics tools for your needs. Type “top social media analytics tools” into a search engine and you’ll be presented with a range of lists offering breakdowns on the leading products in the marketplace.