If you’re monitoring Twitter and Google for mentions of your brand or website, you’re probably only seeing half of the conversation. What about people that shorten your URLs and share them without linking to your Twitter profile? What if someone mentions your brand name in the comments of someone else’s blog? Do you even know where to go to find this kind of information. We at Magicomm run into this problem from time to time and have adopted a small set of tools as part of our monitoring strategy to help keep us in the loop.

To solve the problem of not getting notified when people link to our blog using a shortened URL, we use a service called BackTweets. It basically shows us everyone linking to our site or specific pages on Twitter. It’s also a great way to surprise people by thanking them for the RT when they never mentioned your Twitter handle.

Now what about comments scattered across multiple forums and social media sites. SocialMention is an all powerful mention aggregator. You can search for mentions across blogs, forums, micro-blogs, Q&A sites and more. It’s one of the better free tools out there for monitoring your brand.

These two tools in conjunction with Twitter search and Google search should give you a more realistic picture of who’s talking about you and sharing your content. So don’t listen to just half of the conversation. Become the ultimate eye in the sky and really see what’s going on.

- Photo by BL1961

I see most businesses approaching social media the same way. The first thing they look for is a standard set of best practices and social media etiquette. Then they might go off and find some case studies or social media marketing examples. If they aren’t overwhelmed by the diverse results they receive they will most likely adopt the best social media strategy for their business.

But is this enough?

Some of the best social media campaigns and strategies are those where someone wasn’t afraid to tread new ground. Social Media is really just the word that describes a collection of websites that help us communicate and share information. It’s what we share and how we are sharing it that really matters.

Be original

Any time you post something, first do the proper research to see if someone else wrote about the same topic. Be sure that your unique point of view is adding to the conversation and not just echoing the thoughts of others. This happens more commonly than people think and a few simple google searches can clear the air and possibly even help you push the subject further.

Experiment

Wordpress, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter aren’t the only social media sites out there. There are hundreds if not thousands of niche networks out there you could be using to target a more precise audience if necessary. Furthermore, there are a number of ways you can use your existing networks to get more exposure and encourage the sharing of your content or message. You often see the more creative of these messages surfacing to the top. Try something different and you will be more likely to be heard.

These tools are all still in their infancy and no one really knows the best way to use them or where they’ll be in a few years. There is no need to leave it up to the “experts” and “influencers” to lead you on your journey when you can very well create your own path to success.

- Photo by Alejandro Hernandez

Given the increasing pressures on printers to control, if not reduce their costs, during these trying economic times, I felt that the time was right to provide them (including dealers and independent services organizations) with the ability to extend the usefulness of their existing equipment. Many will decide to purchase the latest and greatest technology available, because that is what they have always done to maintain their competitive edge. But most will want to spend their limited resources in new growth areas that will provide them a higher margin and expanded business opportunities while maintaining their existing infrastructure and core business (Can’t kill the cash cow, ya know!). Replacing an existing platesetter with one that is shinier, faster, and more automated may not provide them with the biggest bang for their buck. Purchasing a system that allows them to automate and connect their internal processes may be a better place to spend their money. Or, expanding into fulfillment…Or, providing a web-to-print portal for their clients…Or, purchasing a digital press that is variable data capable…Or…Or….Or…You get the picture.

Additionally, the existing manufacturers of this equipment have gone through significant cost reductions (laying offs) and there are many highly qualified technicians that are looking for ways to support their families. Many are providing support to the clients that they had worked for through the years by servicing them directly, which would mean that they need a resources, besides the manufacturer, to help them with access to quality parts. AND, there are no organizations that will provide used parts (which means lower cost) available to them today(that I know of).

I know that many are leery of used parts, which is why we have provided a warranty that is even better than what you get with purchasing some new parts from the manufacturer. How do we do that, you may ask. Well, with our access to used equipment, we can use their parts at a fraction of the cost for us than by purchasing them separately. Also, we have extremely low overhead that is difficult to the larger manufacturers to match. It just seemed like a service like ifix.com that was right for the times, therefore we decided to take advantage of this changing environment that printers, dealers, and manufacturers are experiencing during these difficult economic times by providing them with a needed service that is not available anywhere else. A tsunami is hitting our industry and when it is over, we will look extremely different that we were back in the “good old days”.

What am I doing with Magicomm?

iFix.com is a natural extension of Magicomm. I hope to do many more of these type of business ventures in the future. With Magicomm being a innovative marketing solutions provider that is focused on leveraging all media and building integrated marketing solutions, I felt that by starting a ecommerce company that would provide a much needed solution to the graphics industry was a “no brainer”.

I was talking to a buddy of mine last year about the need for a resource that he could purchase reliable laser imaging parts for his clients platesetters….thus the idea began. We decided to use the resources of Magicomm to build the site (still working on it, but it is good to go now) that the industry could trust to purchase BOTH NEW AND USED PLATESETTER PARTS from. Took us almost a year, with no marketing, to fine tune our internal processes and sources for parts before we decided to “formally” launch the company. I have working in the industry for over 30 years and have been lucky to get to know people in the industry from all over the world, printers, dealers, and vendors. So, by leveraging my industry insight and experience with my contact base and what I have learned with Magicomm, it just made sense to start this business. I expect to be expanding into other areas, such as used equipment and software solutions, in the near future. Magicomm with ALWAYS be at the center of these efforts, because of the resources that we have and the knowledge we have developed during our marketing efforts in the graphics industry.

I will continue to look for opportunities to partner with other companies and individuals to develop new businesses and revenue streams for Magicomm. After all…Isn’t the goal for us all is to “Make money while we are sleeping?” and the ONLY way to do that is through the Internet and through the use of automated workflows. Stay tuned for the further adventures of Rick Littrell, Magicomm, and iFix.com!

With the Internet moving at the speed of light it is important that companies keep up in an age of on-demand lifestyles. It may not be for everyone, but for most it is essential that you be kept up to date in the latest communication methods. Furthermore it is more important than ever that your company is only clicks away from your next most valuable client.

Here are a few things companies need to know these days:

1) Your website is more than a business card. The days of static websites floating out in the Internet are gone. Websites these days need to be focused on providing the most appropriate and up to date information to it’s viewers at all times. This is why it is almost essential that your website be on some sort of content management system that allows your most qualified staff to update your site with ease. It’s also important to have some sort of analytics in place so you can optimize your site based on it’s usage.

2) Position your self. Forget the yellow pages, is your site optimized for Google searches? Like I said before, we live in an on-demand world now and you need to position yourself to be found by your target audience. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website with keywords and easily indexable code. Some content management systems help with the SEO by cleaning up the HTML and linking structure of your site so it’s important to take into consideration when choosing the best platform.

3) Communicate. Who needs cold calling or newspaper ads when you have services like LinkedIn and Twitter ready and willing to facilitate your business networking at lightening speed. The mind shift has already taken place and people are openly talking about their lives with millions of other people from around the world. Learning how to use and leverage these tools to expand your business’s potential is a necessity in this economy.

4) Embrace your community. Companies are starting to submit to the candid discussions happening in social media. It’s no longer about controlling your image but rather responding to your communities feedback to make it better. This is a great reason to start blogging and monitoring the blogosphere for relevant conversations in your industry.

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The times are changing fast and you can either get on board and ride a long or you’ll get left behind.

Contact Magicomm today to learn how we can help you make the transition.

- Photo by boboroshi

A lot of businesses have made the initial move online with some sort of company website however few have made the leap into the blogosphere. Hopefully by the end of this post you will see the benefit of maintaining a blog for your company.

First let me introduce you to the elephant in the room that is Social Media. The internet has changed the way we communicate from emails to IMs but within that last couple of years we’ve started to see communities of people emerge from the interweb. These communities encourage a whole new train of thought as to how we interact and ultimately trust each other. Social Media marketing involves giving back to the community in hopes that people will ultimately look to you for answers to industry specific questions. Now there are a couple of ways to accomplish this.

First there are Social Networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo where anyone can join an online community and immediately connect to thousands if not millions of other users. Within these communities you’ll tend to see alot of guerilla marketing and spamming while people try and make their brand known. The successful social media marketers are the ones who only give positive feedback to other people’s questions and ultimately become a resource to the community. Its all about establishing yourself and your company as leaders and experts within your field.

Another popular approach is through Social Bookmarking sites. These dynamic directories of information change based on the general consensus of the greater population. To have your company, or blog post, featured on the front page of one of these sites is guaranteed traffic in your companies direction.

Now both of these social media marketing approaches work on their own however there is one key component missing that helps retain your online following, your blog. A blog is pretty much an online journal where you are putting out information into the web. There are popular blog directories and indexing sites that will take your blogs RSS feed and share it with the rest of the world. The great thing about RSS feeds is that they are cross media ready. They allow for people to easily subscribe to your blog so they can view it with their favorite feed aggregator, wethere it be online, on their desktop, or on their phone. Over time you will see your subscriber base grow and as a result more business opportunities will begin to unfold.

Now the key thing about blogging it to be sure you are putting out quality, on topic, content and that you post regularly. This may seem like quite a chore but in reality it should only take up a half hour of your day.

One concern many companies have about blogging is how to control unwanted comments on their blog. Well, ultimately you can delete these entries however i would consider addressing them. This could be a great opportunity to clear the air on a touchy topic within your industry.

What you are doing is putting a face to your company. Your giving your company an existence that can act and react and it will give your business the human touch that social media revolves around.

Please feel free to comment, rant or complain and I’ll be glad to converse with you :)

Well it seems as if there are multiple cross-media technologies emerging from the web to help engage, interact and even entertain the user, therefore increasing conversions. We’ve seen how XMPie can personalize images with its powerful VDP engine, but what if the user could change their name at runtime? Furthermore, what if the users name wasn’t in an image, but in a short movie? This is the future of PURLs and will be a hit in the social media world.

I received a link through Twitter for a website about a TV Show on FX and I was amazed at what they had done. Here is the PURL someone made for me. This type of PURL has both a viral marketing factor to it and a huge fun component. Everyone wants to be the star of their own movie and show it off to all of their friends. Personalized video could very well be a key component in the future of PURLs as VDP in images becomes all too familiar.

Another key component will be the “on demand” factor. General URL’s are limited in how they perform once you leave the realm of your database. So how do you appeal to the masses with personalized landing pages? Well, why not have the website change at runtime. Here’s something my own company put together. Basically I wanted the user to be able to interact with the flash movie in real time from outside of the movie via the web-form. Using JavaScript, I was able to insert the users name into the newspaper at runtime and it’s had an amazing response. Using this method there are endless possibilities to creating unique personalized experiences where everyone has their own PURL.

People need a break from their everyday activities and these fun side trackers give them this opportunity and not only will these methods produce higher responses, but they’re great for PR. So the future is about Interactivity and Engagement, have fun!