Caitlyn Scaggs is the Director of Communications & Marketing for Polymer Solutions Incorporated . Polymer Solutions was highlighted by Hootsuite this week for use of social media by a B2B firm. Tweet to @CaitlynScaggs & @PSITestingLab.
Recently I let my mind wander about the amazing possibilities of social media marketing and how it can be used to elevate ANY other marketing activity—without exception. Any time I hear absolutes like, “never”, “always” , or “without exception” the first thing my mind does is race to find the exception. With social media though, I just can’t. I believe that any marketing activity you can come up with can be leveraged across a social media platform. Budgets are always tight so it is necessary to find clever ways to make your marketing dollars stretch as far as possible. I’ve come up with three marketing initiatives one might think would be out of bounds for a social media strategy—but in fact they are not!
Print ads:
Print ads aren’t digital, so surely this is an area of marketing that has to exist out of the digital world…right? Wrong! Next time you run a print advertisement try this: Take a picture of your print ad, share it over Twitter, and @mention the publication in which the ad is running. The publication will appreciate the shout-out from a customer, you will get to share your ad to the world at large, and the ad lives on beyond the printed version. This is a great way to leverage the time and money spent perfecting the print ad. Here’s an example: “Did you see our ad in @MPO_Magazine? We do it for the love of great #science!”
Marketing Swag:
Do you regularly send your customers marketing collateral or freebies in the mail? Craft a Facebook post asking your clients to post a picture of themselves with the collateral. Did you mail a coffee mug? Let them know you would love to see a picture of them enjoying their morning coffee with your mug. You could also use the swag as an incentive for interaction: “These new coffee mugs are looking sharp—the first 10 people to retweet this post will receive one!”
Logo wear:
Do you love it? Do you hate it? Either way, most of us have to embrace it. Logowear is a great way to represent your company and make it abundantly obvious who you work for when at tradeshows, conferences, or other professional events. It would be fun to take a #selfie in logo wear or a group photo in the logo wear and share the picture in a clever way over you social media platform of choice. How about this: “Check out our team looking #snazzy in our company shirts! #triplets.” This will bring an element of humanity to your brand, show your company in a fun and engaging light, and show off those custom embroidered shirts in which you invested a portion of your budget.
These are just three examples of way to transform a seemingly non digital, non social media marketing efforts into socially sharable material. Maximizing your company’s presence over social media comes down to creative thinking, willingness to try new things, and the desire to have fun with it. This epitomizes what I love so much about social media marketing; there is nothing out of bounds!
Guest author Caitlyn Scaggs is the Director of Communications & Marketing for Polymer Solutions Incorporated . Her specific areas of interest include social media marketing and creative content marketing strategies. Connect with Caitlyn and Polymer Solutions via twitter: @CaitlynScaggs & @PSITestingLab.
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ProfessorGary on Innovation and Marketing 