PPB December 2018

Social Media | FEATURE by Kyle A. Richardson “ T here’s a hot new marketing platform called social media,” is how this article would have started if it were written in 2008. Ten years later, the phenomenon needs no introduction. Social media is the de facto face of the internet today and represents one of the primary ways people interact with each other—and with businesses. The Pew Research Center reports that approximately 75 percent of U.S. adults use at least one form of social media on a regular basis, with most using multiple platforms several times a day. The average user will spend five years and four months on social media in their lifetime, according to Social Media Today, compared to just one year and three months socializing directly with people. In other words: your customers are using social media, and you should be too. You already know that, of course, and you have all your accounts up and running. The question is, are you doing it right? How should suppliers and distributors be using social media today? To find that out, PPB spoke with some of the most prolific social media users in the promotional products industry to learn what you should—and shouldn’t—do to make the most of your online image. Do inform and entertain. Despite what you may think, the key component of social media isn’t two-way communication. When people click their Facebook or Twitter app, they’re looking to be entertained, so your posts should be designed to grab and keep their attention. There are many ways to capture eyeballs, but Mark Graham, founder of Toronto, Ontario-based distributor RIGHTSLEEVE and chief platform officer of business services company commonsku, has found a strategy that he thinks works best. “If you look at anyone in the industry—or anyone outside the industry—who is really effective at social media, chances are you are going to see people who are nailing it when it comes to education and inspiration,” he says. “Good ideas spread very quickly on social media.” Things like infographics and informative TED Talk-style videos are perfect for capturing attention while selling the most important thing you can on social media: yourself. Speaking of which … Don’t sell. Whatever you do, resist the urge to pitch products. It may be tempting to show new releases, but that’s the quickest way to get someone to swipe directly past your post. “Today, newer generations openly detest traditional invasive advertising,” says Mary Ellen Sokalski, MAS, CEO of The Scarlet Marketeer in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. “They are born of the generations where they can shut off and avoid ad messages, and view content they want, when they want it.” Product posts on social media are treated like ads: they get in the way of what the user wants. Worse, they can reduce a supplier or distributor to just another vendor. “The minute we just feature pictures and descriptions of products, and not include why and how the ideas can be used strategically, we’re putting ourselves on the same level as the internet sources who sell cheap items, not strategic branding campaigns,” Sokalski says. | DECEMBER 2018 | 27