Design

Published on October 11th, 2012 | by Guest Author

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How Social Media Can Inspire Your Print Collateral

Social media doesn’t have to remain online. More and more small businesses are using social media to inspire their print collateral. Traditional marketing messages can be spruced up, and integrated with, online marketing efforts to created a seamless marketing campaign. Prospects that are “on the edge” can now interact with your company in a way they never could before. You can introduce them to another side of your business, your customers, and even your critics (yes, that can be valuable too).

Photo by Michael Coghlan

Use Foursquare To Its Full Potential

Most businesses that use Foursquare use it in a simple way: they offer a coupon to the “mayor” of the establishment. However, discounts and promotions can be pushed through traditional print media too. If you already advertise in a newspaper or some other print media, advertise your Foursquare check-in specials. By doing this, you widen your reach and bring more people to your establishment through social media. This is important if you plan on using Foursquare as a new-age customer loyalty program (i.e. offering discounts to first-time customers, frequent customers, or the “mayor”).

Use QR Codes

Some businesses have caught on that using QR codes can boost business. By using QR codes, you can direct users with mobile devices to your website or to a special landing page for a promotion without making the user type anything into an Internet browser. The “cool factor” of scanning a code and having it do something “magical” might wow some of your prospects and it is a great way to track visitors coming to your site from offline sources – something that is notoriously difficult to do.

Send Users To Your Facebook Page

Want to host a special event, give money to charity, or launch a new product? Send people to your Facebook fan page using traditional direct mail or a full page ad. Ask for “likes,” and then spring the surprise on your fans once you hit a certain number of “likes.” Companies like Jack In The Box have used this tactic successfully in the past to give money to store patrons. The fast-food giant offered to give money away to one lucky fan if they hit a certain number of likes. They promoted the event, and some lucky person ended up with over $11,000. There’s no reason why you couldn’t do something similar (even if you had to do it on a smaller scale).

Hire Employees Using LinkedIn

Classified ads are still used to find prospective employees. Why not take out multiple classified ads, or a full page ad, to advertise your LinkedIn page? Allow prospective employees to engage you online while you screen them. With social media, you can preview their resume without having to sort through a lot of paperwork, see what their attitude is like by the way they interact with LinkedIn groups, and even check out their Twitter, Facebook, or personal blogs. Sometimes, reading what other people say about your prospective employee can help sway your mind one way or another. Digging into your prospective employee’s online connections helps you understand the company they keep. You just can’t get this from traditional print advertising and the standard interview process.

Consideration

While social media can influence your print ads, you have to do this intelligently. Don’t integrate the two just for the sake of integration. Have a reason for it. If it doesn’t make sense, users will pick up on it quickly and your marketing efforts will backfire.

Article by Kerstin

Kerstin has a strong passion in graphic design. In between pinning her favourite graphics on her Pinterest account, she has worked in several Sydney printing services designing business cards and marketing collateral for her clients.

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