Thinking About Social Media

For those of you wondering what this writer looks like, here is our new video produced by our partner Video Slim. We shot this to help with our 2011 push into social media marketing.

For promotional item distributors there are two sides to social media, using social media to communicate about ourselves, and using social media to help our clients communicate about themselves – which of course serves the same goal as traditional promotional items such as apparel, brochures, totes, etc., to help our clients define and communicate their brand.

An example of a promotional vendor that “does” social media very well is Dana Zezzo, Vice President of Sales for ProTowels Etc. Zezzo seems to be everywhere, updating his every move on Twitter and Facebook, mixing information about his day, his company, and the industry, all at the same time, working to establish the ProTowels Etc. brand online. Indeed Zezzo is listed on the 2010 ASI Hot List as The Branding Magnate for his use of social media.

An example of a promotional vendor helping others with their online branding are our partners at Video Slim, who work to help clients craft, shoot, and distribute their brand message online. The Video Slim production for the Lewisville Honor Guard is an excellent example of how powerful a well done video post can be. With basic videos (like mine) at $799 to more robust projects with green screen effects and paid talent under $5000, videos like this often cost way less than an average national postcard mailing, and can reach a larger audience as they are passed around the internet.

So, is all this new stuff green? Certainly there are environmental costs to video production, and running the server farms needed to keep Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc., alive is a huge energy consumer.

But if you think of social media under the banners of reduce (less real world stuff made, consumed, and discarded), reuse (one post/video can be seen again and again), and recycle (one article/video can be used in a host of different locations on and off-line), there is certainly a case to be made for social media’s green credentials.

From marketers and vendors discovering apps, to communicating with video, to running online contests via Twitter, this is truly a new world for an industry with roots in the printing and distribution of paper.

This is going to be fun.

Tags: Dana Zezzo, protowels etc, social media, Video Slim