Bottom Line May 2013

Don’t Be Antisocial

Having a social media presence isn’t just a nice extra—it’s essential. Read why. p. 11

B O T T O ML I N Ep r o v i d i n g b u s i n e s s i n n o v a t i o n s

Case Study

Custom Publishing Helps a Small Hospital Foundation Raise its Profile. p. 18

The Buzz Industry Trends That Your Business Needs to Know to Survive. p. 21

F e e l t h e P o w e rSmart marketers use textured paper to stimulate response. p. 2

LEarn how you can gEt rEsuLts! contact: 989.893.2083 | greatlakesbaypublishing.com

80%of readers prefer receiving information about a company through custom content. Roper Public Affairs Custom Publishing Survey

Fact:

The challenges we, as CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, and other business leaders, face today are multifaceted and complex. We’re often asked to do more with less. That’s where maximizing return on dollars invested in marketing and business development efforts is crucial. In Bottom Line, we present a number of practical, innovative ideas that can help you drive revenue and reduce costs.

Think back to the last time you held something made of wood…the feel of the grain across your fingertips, the weight of it pressing in your hand. A simple touch creates instant connections in your mind. Strength. Durability. Quality.

Our sense of touch is powerful, and this issue of Bottom Line puts the proof in your hands. In “The Power of Touch” (page 2), we’ll show you how two completely different organizations are using unique-touch papers to get their marketing communications collateral noticed.

But it’s more than just paper. Studies show custom-designed boxes of unusual shapes and dimensions used as mailers (see “Cardboard Cutouts” on page 7) grab more attention and boost campaign response rates.

Speaking of touchy subjects, “Don’t Be Antisocial” (page 10) delves into the world of social media and what your business may be risking if you don’t have a clear strategy and effective tactics in place. Not sure what social media is right for you? No worries. We’ve broken the most influential social media channels down in chart form (page 16), showing when and why you would use them.

Then turn to “Ideas That Work” (page 18) for a great example of how a custom published annual report raised awareness (not to mention potential fund donors) for one innovative hospital foundation.

Finally, in “Overheard” (page 9), a Michigan State University business communications professor tells why it’s so important to your branding efforts to have a corporate elevator speech—and to train your employees to use it.

This issue of Bottom Line is packed with tips, strategies, and insights designed to strengthen your bottom line. As always, we welcome your thoughts and feedback.

Bui ld Your Bottom Line.LE TTER FROM THE PUBLI SHER

Contents

OVERHEA RDWhy every company needs an elevator pitch

9 THE BUZZDon’t write off paper just yet

21CASE ST UDYIdeas That Work: An annual report raises awareness and expands reach for one hospital foundation

18

Bottom Line, Volume 2, Issue 2, May 13 (ISSN 1550-8064) is published by Great Lakes Bay Publishing, 401 Saginaw St, Bay City, MI 48708. Periodicals postage pending at Bay City, MI. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Great Lakes Bay Publishing, P.O. Box 925, Bay City, MI 48707. Copyright © 2013 Great Lakes Bay Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is prohibited.

Fritz [email protected]

PUBLI SHER: Fritz Horak, [email protected] | ED I TOR: Mimi Bell, [email protected] | A R T D IREC TOR: Alayna Partaka, [email protected] IATE A R T D IREC TOR: Chad Hussle, [email protected] | PHOTOGRAPHER: Doug Julian, [email protected]

MA RI SA BELOTTI, PRE SIDE [email protected]

BOTTOM LINE V2:2 | 1

THE POWER OF TOUC HMarketers use tactile papers to create positive impressions2

D ON’T BE A NTI SOC IA LIf social media isn’t part of your company’s marketing plan, your brand may lose visibility

10

THI S I SSUE PRINTED ON:

Cover: 80# Opus Matte PS Cover by SappiText: 100# Flo Matte Text by Sappi

FRI T Z HORAK

2 | BOTTOM LINE V2:2

T H E P O W E R O F T O U C H

Of all the human senses, touch may pack the biggest punch.

After all, it’s the function of the body’s largest organ—big enough to securely wrap up all the others, with room to spare for muscles, bones, and even too many meals. If you get someone’s sense of touch going, you are moving him, big time.

So is it any wonder, then, that sales people and marketers can use the power of touch to try to elicit positive feelings—and responses—from their audience?

Marketers use tact i le papers to create posit ive impressions.BY ILE NE WOLFF

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he biggest partner in touch marketing? Paper and printing. Most folks don’t think about it that way, but smart marketers and savvy businesses do. There’s a whole world of paper and printing out there that’s not just about look. It’s about touch, too: classic linen and laid finishes; newer, suede-feeling Soft Touch aqueous coating stock; bumpy or reticulating paper; and 3-D printing.

It makes a big impression even before the eyes and brain have decoded what they are looking at. It’s a distinct first impression, and impression is the linchpin of persuasion.

That’s exactly what people at two very different organizations—a boat manufacturer and a college—had in mind when they stepped into the next dimension of printing and publishing.

T

One was Jim Wolf, president, CEO, and co-owner of Avalon & Tahoe Manufacturing Inc., located in Alma, Mich. Wolf ’s company makes luxury pontoons and each year contracts with The F.P. Horak Company, in Bay City, Mich., for catalogs of its two lines of boats. This year, he decided to use 3-D printing on both the front and back covers of the company’s catalogs to better match the high-class quality and image of the boats he builds.

The hard-charging, silvery craft on the catalog cover—Avalon & Tahoe’s award-winning Deco Series Ambassador pontoon boat—pops off the page. Touch the boat’s chrome and feel its grill or rail rise beneath your fingers. “The boat reminds one of an old Oldsmobile,” Wolf says fondly.

The raised effect also highlights a headline, an endorsement, Avalon’s logo, craft details like the wake board tower, and even some of the happy people enjoying the ride.

“It’s unique and different, and that’s what sets us apart in the world of pontoon boats,” says Wolf by phone from Miami, where he was attending an annual boat show. “That’s what we do—we keep pushing the envelope to stand out from the competition.”

An F.P. Horak representative suggested the 3-D effect and Wolf decided to give it a try. Wolf says “they are the professionals when it comes to printing,” he has a great relationship with his rep, and is very happy with the end result.

Wolf is hard-pressed to put into words his reaction to the effect, now that he can hold a catalog in his hand, but he knows he’s happy with it and considers the extra expense as money well spent.

“It’s just the perception,” he says. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. I think anything new is refreshing: It brings another dimension to what we do and how we

The wow factor is what Jennifer Compton wanted for Adrian College, in Adrian, Mich., too. The public relations director was looking for a way to elevate a key project, The President’s Report 2011-2012. It’s an upscale informational and “thank-you” piece for the college’s donors, with stories about students who’ve benefited from philanthropic financial aid, statistics about giving, and lists of people who’ve made monetary gifts.

Compton and her department’s graphic designer, Joshua Morey, wanted to produce something that would lead readers, who are donors, to do more than flip to the section listing givers’ names, find their own name, and then discard the piece.

“The idea was to produce something that they would keep on the coffee table and share with their friends,” says Compton.

She and Morey also had something else to consider: College President Dr. Jeffrey R. Docking wanted them to feature a new campus fountain on the report’s front cover.

With the president’s eye directly on them, and with Morey now tackling his first-ever president’s report, he wanted to do his best on the project.

“We tried to think of a way to make it pop,” says Morey.So he and Compton started looking very closely at

options for cover paper stock. “In a technical society, we are still obsessed with the tactile

quality of paper,” Compton says.Marketing and sales people know that more than a little

of that is about human nature: We respond very differently to touch than to sight, which is all that digital print has to offer.

But some of the fascination with the touch of paper can also be about technology. Today there are papers that feel like plastic, metal, leather, rubber, rose petals, skin, and more. Designers and their clients are finding new and innovative ways to use the power of touch to reach customers.

A BOAT POPS OFF THE PAGE

OBSESSED WITH PAPER

“It’s unique and different, and that’s what sets us apart in the world of pontoon boats.”~ Jim Wolf, president, CEO, and co-owner, Avalon & Tahoe Manufacturing Inc.


market our products. It’s just another example of how we pay attention to detail in everything we do.”

Wolf ’s company prints about 50,000 of its catalogs and sends them to 180 boat dealers across the country. The reaction from dealers and customers has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We get statements such as ‘Wow, that’s really cool!”’ he says, “or ‘What is that on your brochure? It really stands out.”’

“To sum it up, it boils down to the wow factor,” Wolf says.So, with what he knows now, would he ask F.P. Horak

to go the extra mile again next year? Would he pay the added expense for the same look, or go deeper again with another tactile application?

“I would definitely consider it,” Wolf says. “It’s hard to quantify, but from a gut feel, I think it was the right thing to do, and we are definitely pleased with the end result.”

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The special technique that was used on the 2013 Avalon & Tahoe Manufacturing Inc. catalogs gave the covers a 3-D effect that stands out from competitors’ catalogs.


TIM DUST is the president of The F.P. Horak Company. He helps clients enhance

their brand on an array of specialty print projects by recommending attention-getting

textured paper stocks, custom die-cutting, foil stamping, embossing, folding, and bindery.

Contact Tim at 989-891-1801, or by emailing [email protected].

For the president’s report, with the fountain, Morey decided to stay away from anything that exotic. In fact, he had a particular paper stock in mind. But he was disappointed to find that it had been discontinued.

So he and Compton turned to their F.P. Horak Company representative for help. The rep dug deep and found a similar stock for them to consider: Raster Cover Constellation Jade Embossed. The texture instantly drew both of them in: Morey says the paper almost has a mesh feeling to it.

“When you put it in your hand, it just feels like quality,” says Compton.

The Raster stock also delivered the effect Compton and Morey were seeking for the fountain photo. Morey snapped it at twilight, and the paper, which has a subtle sheen to it, makes the fountain’s water, lights, and wet rocks shine. So, they got the pop they were looking for.

They also got a result they were not looking for, and it came as a pleasant surprise.

The college’s seal had previously been printed on foil. But when the two looked at how it would display printed directly on the Raster, they realized that its sheen was, in fact, metallic—and would do the seal proud.

Adrian College was so happy with The President’s Report’s 16,000-copy run that it chose the same cover stock for a companion piece on the state of the college, which goes to the college’s donors, as well as others.

Messages sent to President Docking from those receiving the reports have been positive, Compton says.

“The general consensus is that the level of quality of the pieces is superb to publications from larger institutions,” says Compton. One person said it was better than anything he had ever seen from one of Michigan’s largest universities.

The college’s development team, the people who work hard to keep donors happy and donations flowing, says people are actually reading The President’s Report and commenting favorably.

So Adrian’s PR department has a few more highly attractive samples to add to its bag of “showcase features.” Compton and her team have previously employed foil stamping, debossing, embossing, and both rubbery and gritty-feeling paper for print projects.

And the search continues.“It’s not uncommon for our rep to come back [from F.P.

Horak] with something and say, we found this!” Compton says of the new papers the firm brings to her attention.

Turnabout is fair play, of course: Compton and Morey bring ideas of their own to their F.P. Horak rep. Compton recalls a project that they wanted to do on non-coated paper, but weren’t sure of how photos would reproduce on it. Their rep helped them figure it out.

“We have a great relationship with Horak and can say ‘how will this look?’”she says. “They encourage us to think outside the box.”

FEELS LIKE QUALITY

“When you put it in your hand, it just feels l ike qual ity.”~ Jennifer Compton, public relations director, Adrian College

The special paper stock used for Adrian College’s The President’s Report made the water, lights, and wet rocks in the cover photograph shine.

CARDBOARD CUTOUTS

When direct mail marketing expert Paul Adler works with a client on a mailer, he knows the expected response rate from a cold-call list is usually 1 percent, tops.

But when the mailer is cardboard designed to look like a toolbox, and contains a Swiss Army-style knife multi-tool, that conventional wisdom is wrong. In fact, that promotional mail piece earned a remarkable 7-percent response.

“When you’re sorting through your mail, packages attract attention,” says Adler, director of marketing solutions for The F.P. Horak Company. “If you want to get more people to respond, this is the way.”

Of course, Adler, who established F.P. Horak’s engage! Relationship Marketing Solutions program, also uses other tricks from his marketer’s bag to help his clients: a quality list, a good offer, and personalized messaging, among them.

Adler uses other “dimensional mailers” besides boxes, including clear tubes and padded envelopes. But when he’s working on a particularly complicated box mailer, he might call Gregg Wyzykowski, account executive at Westcott Displays in Detroit.

The 93-year-old Westcott is nationally known for its point-of-purchase displays,

Think ins ide the box for direct mai lBY ILE NE WOLFF

but Wyzykowski and his colleagues love a good box challenge, too.

“If it was easy, everyone would do it,” he says.

Once, for a project for one of the world’s largest search engine companies, Wyzykowski blew up the middle panel of a tri-fold capacity folder to hold an iPad with a preloaded video. The other panels contained pockets for more typical print collaterals, plus a rectangular cutout for the laser-inscribed address of each of the 300 corporate CEO and CFOs who received the piece by mail.

The account exec recalled another box, for a car dealer to give to new buyers. The dealer came to Westcott with two boxes in mind, one for summer-related gifts and another for winter giveaways, depending on when the sale is made. But Westcott came up with one box that could accommodate items for both seasons—an ice scraper fit in the same slot as an umbrella, for example. He saved the client about 30 percent on the job.

“They were like, okay then, we’ll probably do more and more often,” says Wyzykowski with a satisfied smile.


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t’s a truism: Everyone needs an elevator pitch—a way to describe what they do that takes no longer than the average elevator ride. But every company needs an elevator pitch, too.

Why?Obviously, salespeople must be able to state their

organization’s significance succinctly. But an elevator pitch also helps reinforce the company’s value with existing customers, says Richard T. Cole, a professor at Michigan State University’s College of Communication Arts & Sciences. Beyond that, it can help inspire the employees who give the pitch, which can affect the company’s bottom line. Gallup research shows that highly satisfied, loyal employees usually have a strong understanding of the enterprise they work for, Cole says. Employee satisfaction, in turn, has been found to be strongly linked to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Listen in as an industry expert discusses a business trend

Why Every Company Needs an Elevator PitchVenture capitalists and job seekers have them; businesses need them, too.

BY MA R THA SPI ZZIRI

“Whether you’re in the mailroom or the boardroom, it’s really important for the employee to understand the role that he or she plays in achieving the mission of the organization,” Cole says.

What makes a good elevator pitch?An elevator pitch may sound similar to a mission or

vision statement, and those certainly can inform the pitch. But an elevator pitch is more specific and immediate. It communicates the company’s unique selling proposition and—this is key—how that proposition can help the listener.

Composing the statement should probably begin with the CEO, who might delegate it to the chief PR officer, says Cole, “but it’s not something that can be created in a vacuum.” Soliciting employee input helps ensure a good pitch. Avoid buzzwords, like “world-class,” he adds.

“[The pitch] can’t be hyperbolic or overstated,” he says. “Something that…people aren’t comfortable saying is not going to be said with the kind of passion that you need to make it an effective statement.” And, he adds, “it has to be well-enough rehearsed to appear spontaneous.”

The measure of a good pitch? The listener should feel as if he or she needs to hear more, “at the risk of otherwise not having some need met,” Cole says.

Ultimately, says Cole, “If you can’t say what’s important about your organization and how it makes a difference in 30 seconds, it’s probably not worth saying.”

overheard


“ It has to be well-enough rehearsed to appear spontaneous.”~ Richard T. Cole, professor, Michigan State University

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D O N ’ T B E A N T I S O C I A LI f social media isn’t part of your company’s marketing plan, your brand may lose vis ibi l i ty. BY MA R THA SPI ZZIRI

A year or two ago, companies may have been able to treat social media as an afterthought in their marketing efforts. But no more. If your organization isn’t integrating social media into its marketing plan, it’s a pretty sure bet your brand will fade into the background in consumers’ minds.


“It’s really not something you can ignore any longer, because [for] the younger demographic, this is their primary source of information. And if they can’t find it on your [social media] page, then they’re going to go to a company where they can find it,” says Jeff DeHaven, a social

media impressionist at Impress Horak Creative Group in Bay City, Mich.

Even busy people manage to squeeze social media into their day, he points out. “For example, my wife is always on Facebook when we’re driving. We’re on Facebook while waiting at a restaurant, for our food to come, or when we’re waiting in line somewhere,” he says. “People are really going to be talking about your brand on social media, because that’s where people are used to now sharing their life. And once you get used to that lifestyle, that’s not something that changes too easily.” Weaker brand loyalty among young consumers makes it even more crucial that your message is where they’re sure to see it.

But if you think you can ignore social media because your target audience skews older, think again. “The older demographic is the highest-growing fan base,” says DeHaven. “They are getting on board with technology, they have more time to learn and be online, and they want to see what other family members are doing.”

There’s another compelling reason to go social: negative feedback can spread quickly on social sites. If a company has built up a following there, it has a platform from which it can react quickly and reach people in that same venue to address any negative perception.

And if those reasons aren’t convincing enough, here’s another: People have become immune to online advertising. There’s a phenomenon known as “banner blindness,” whereby people tend not to even look at the parts of a website—such as the right-hand column—where the ads usually are. With social media, you can get users’ attention back—if you do it right.

Which platform should you use?If you’re just starting to get serious about social media, it’s important to consider who your target audience is, which platforms they’re using, and which are best suited for your

product. For instance, the food industry thrives on photos, so image-heavy sites, such as Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram, work well in that sector, says John Riordan, web/user experience designer with Impress Horak Creative Group. But there’s no need to be on every platform out there. “See which ones you can manage and do those ones really well, instead of trying to be on all of them and do them all not very well,” says DeHaven.

Almost always, Facebook is the place to start, says DeHaven. “It has over a billion users, and half of those billion users are actively involved on a mobile platform,” he says. And Facebook provides the most possibilities, he adds. It can be configured with multiple tabs so that it’s almost like a website. “[That’s] great, because when people are searching for that information, they want to be able to quickly click and get additional information,” he says. If people have to visit your main website or another page to find what they want, you’re likely to lose them. Another plus for Facebook? “It also allows you to do contests and campaigns really well,” DeHaven says. “Twitter doesn’t have as much design element as Facebook does. So you can really get those visual images that impact and grab people’s attention to get across your message,” he says.

Learn the social gracesSocial sites create a space where people can talk about your brand and you can interact with them. “You can build a loyal base and educate your fans on why they should do business with you,” says DeHaven. But you have to do it subtly. “You can’t just say, ‘Hey, buy my product,’ because that would still come off as blatant advertising,” says Riordan. Instead, companies should provide useful information, promoting good content and good causes—“and not necessarily just your own,” Riordan says.

A case in point is McLaren Bay Medical Foundation. The foundation uses Facebook and Twitter to further its mission of promoting good health care in Michigan’s Great Lakes Bay Region communities. In September 2012, Matt Felan came on board as executive director and decided to beef up the foundation’s activity on those sites. So the foundation launched a promotion: For every new Facebook like or Twitter follower, it donated a food item to the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission of Bay City, Mich. That helped build awareness—and

“You can bui ld a loyal base and educate your fans on why they should do business with you.”~ Jeff DeHaven, social media impressionist, Impress Horak Creative Group


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If you’re just starting to get serious about social media, it’s important to consider who your target audience is, which platforms they’re using, and which are BEST SUITED FOR YOUR PRODUCT.


SOCIAL SITES CREATE A SPACE WHERE PEOPLE CAN TALK ABOUT YOUR BRAND AND YOU CAN INTERACT WITH THEM.


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providing food to people in need fits with the foundation’s mission of helping people stay healthy.

The efforts seem to have helped build a sense of loyalty for the foundation, and for the McLaren Bay Region medical center that it supports. Its Facebook page now has more than 800 fans. Some of them post messages of appreciation on the Facebook page. One patient even posted from the hospital on Christmas Day to thank the staff for his care.

The foundation is about to build a new cancer center, for which it will solicit donations, and social platforms will be key to that effort.

“Oftentimes when a hospital does any fundraising through a foundation, you think of major donors and major players that give money,” explains Felan. “In this instance, especially in a small community, a five-dollar check is just as important as a five-thousand-dollar check. We want everyone invested in this, because cancer is something that really affects absolutely every family. We want people to realize how important it is to have modern cancer care here in our small town.”

So the foundation will reach out to the community it has built up online. “We’ll use Facebook and Twitter very aggressively to make sure that people are very aware of what we’re doing, when we’re going to get the cancer center up, what we need to complete it,” says Felan. The foundation will also post testimonials about cancer care and explain what the

new center will mean for the community. “People are going to see…this very increased level of cancer treatment available here in their own backyard,” Felan says.

So far, the foundation has taken the approach DeHaven suggests, getting started with just the two major social sites. But as the cancer-center initiative gets underway, Felan envisions posting video of the building progress on Vimeo and photos on Instagram.

There’s no excuse not to partic ipateAlthough retail and service industries tend to generate more fans and interaction than other businesses, it doesn’t mean you’re not benefiting if your page doesn’t achieve similar levels. “Every business has a fan base. It’s just [a matter of ] finding those organic fans who want that information and appealing to them, and going to where they are going to be,” says DeHaven. You can accomplish that through cross-promotions with traditional marketing. “Social media should be on everything: business cards, flyers, magazine ads, billboards, TV, etc.,” he emphasizes.

But what if your staff is just stretched too thin to take on another project? DeHaven has an answer for that: “If you don’t have the passion, time, or dedication to run these social platforms, then outsourcing is a must.”

MA RI SA BELOTTI is president and COO of Impress Horak Creative Group. So they’re not left out of the

conversation—and so they can control their brand—she recommends that her

customers develop a social media strategy. Contact Marisa at 989-891-1707, or by

emailing [email protected].

“We’l l use Facebook and Twitter very aggressively to make sure that people are very aware of what we’re doing.”~ Matt Felan, executive director, McLaren Bay Medical Foundation


Google Plus

Twitter

An excellent way to communicate with your followers, unique Google+ features include Hangouts, enabling face-to-face chats that can be used in a variety of ways. Circles provide a way to place people in relevant groups.

It’s advisable to use keyword and brand search monitoring through programs such as Social Mention and HootSuite to track what people are saying about you and your competitors. Find where these mentions occur to increase frequency of tweets.

The social network is stellar for engaging people who like your brand, want to share their opinions, and participate in giveaways and contests.

Whether you seek to entertain, inform, or both, video is a powerful channel for quickly engaging your customers, responding to complaints, and demonstrating your social-media savvy.

With Google’s new update to its algorithm, the majority of searches for brands are showing Google+ pages near the top. The same goes for all content and pages that have received +1s. Google+ now estimates it has 90 million users, of which 65 million are active.

The microblogging network offers unique opportunities for website integration and to engage with customers in a viral way. Twitter has become a must for all companies—both for branding and PR management.

You can jump-start your brand exposure through the ad platform, or hire a Facebook consultant to help you grow your brand presence.

YouTube can be one of the most powerful branding tools on the Web when you build your channel, promote via high-traffic sites, and brand your videos.

Content is heavily shared and has an excellent chance of receiving traffic to individual posts. Also, the more +1s to your content and pages, the more likely you will reach the top of the SERPs due to Google’s favoring pages and sharing.

The potential can be large, but promotion is an art form: Promote your brand too heavily and turn off followers, yet don’t promote enough and receive little attention.

Like Twitter, sharing on Facebook is increasing rapidly and providing both traffic and exposure for content. Traffic is on the rise thanks to share buttons and counters.

Traffic goes to the videos. If the goal is to get traffic back to your site, then add a hyperlink in the video description.

Receiving +1s to both content and pages has shown significant SERP increase. This is an excellent tool for brand management as well as content promotion for SEO purposes.

The value to your site’s SEO is limited, but tweets will rank high in search results—good for ranking breaking news, though shortened URLs are of no benefit. Your profile page will rank high for its username. If you are a company or consultant with a brand or name to build, then use your name as your username because it will rank highly for your brand/name.

Liking content and business pages has shown an effect when searching on Bing. However, with Google, shares and likes of content seem to help in the SERPs for only a couple of weeks because of Google’s freshness update. Of note, the platform can help you gain insight about user intent, which could aid SEO efforts.

The video network is very good for building links back to your site because videos rank high. It’s also a tried-and-true way for your brand to gain exposure.

CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION

BRAND EXPOSURE

TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE

SEO

YouTube

Facebook

No communication exists within the site itself.

This serves as an excellent way to show images of product and/or services. The API allows images to be displayed on websites. It’s also great for a promotional campaign or contest.

Nonexistent. None. Most sharing of images will be to the Instagram site rather than your own.

Instagram

THE CMO’S GUIDE TO:


Pinterest

Pinterest is not a platform used for directly engaging in conversation with new or existing customers.

The site can be very good for brand exposure. Users can follow your account and share your pins with their followers. This site is an absolute-must for brands involved in food, fashion, and art; if your company can share itself through visual methods, then you need to be on this site. Contests also have started catching on, encouraging visitors to pin their favorite products from their websites.

With proper technique, Pinterest traffic can generate immense amounts of traffic to your site. Adding “Pin It” buttons to your pages is key in getting people to share it with their friends and followers.

Pinterest recently “no followed” its links, so any link value has significantly decreased. As of publication, the links added in the description box are still followed, but they will likely follow the no-follow suit.

Reddit

The community is fickle, and anything perceived as spam will be destroyed. However, when you look deep into the site’s categorized “subreddits” to unearth small niche communities, you could get surprisingly valuable feedback.

You won’t find much branding opportunity here because most stories are from major news sites, while the remainder are images uploaded to Imgur. Many of the stories that reach the front page are images or memes. Subreddits offer a better chance to promote your story to fewer, more interested viewers.

If Reddit loves you, then traffic is superb. Tens of thousands of old Digg users are finding refuge here, and the site is seeing phenomenal amounts of activity. But be careful: Push too hard for votes from your friends and risk being banned, yet don’t push at all and you’ll wind up with nothing. Karma is a big deal here, so those seeking it as a primary objective will get shunned.

Make the front page and many reputable sites will pick up your story, generating valuable backlinks and extending trust to your site. The downside is Reddit users are notorious for loading your images to Imgur and then resubmitting, leaving you left unattributed.

CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION

BRAND EXPOSURE

TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE

SEO

Quora is an exceptional way to communicate with high-level customers: Those who want or share info will be found here, as will those who want to share their expertise.

The site is a little more of an individual branding tool than one for corporate. So for individuals to brand themselves as experts, Quora gets an A, but as a corporate tool, not so much.

Most traffic will remain on the Quora site. Links can be, and usually are, prevalent in the answers and can lead to traffic if it’s a popular discussion.

All links are no follow, providing little to no SEO benefit. However, questions and answers can provide useful insight on new content ideas, which can be used for promotion via various other social networks for your site.

Quora

Though not LinkedIn’s primary focus, customer engagement opportunities are possible by answering industry-related questions. Doing so can help you establish yourself as an expert in the field.

The platform is effective for personal branding and demonstrating your organization’s professional prowess. Encouraging employees to maintain complete profiles to strengthen your team’s reputation is advisable.

LinkedIn is unlikely to drive any significant traffic to your site. Still, you never know who those few visits might be from, perhaps a potential client or customer.

Expect a very high page rank almost guaranteed on the first page of search results, especially for individual employees’ names. Business pages can also rank well.

LinkedIn

Communication is not the site’s primary strength, though occasionally an objective third-party write-up can serve as a PR effort. The recent addition of Newswire allows users to follow the brands/stories they read the most.

Opportunities are still big, especially for promoting objective press/blog coverage of your brand. It also shows users/readers that you’re active in the social space.

Traffic to Digg (and, subsequently, your site) has continued to decline, even with changes to structure and algorithm. Traffic will still come in a large flux, but not as much as it used to.

Due to decreased activity on Digg, referral traffic from the site has also gone down. An active Digg account can still show in Google’s SERPs for a brand name.Digg

THE SOCIAL LANDSCAPE

BOTTOM LINE V2:2 | 17Excerpts from The 2012 CMO’s Guide to The Social Landscape. Shared, with permission, by www.cmo.com.


The first-ever Hills & Dales Foundation annual report, with patient stories and employee testimonials, was met favorably by readers.

The BackgroundFounded in 1966, Hills & Dales General Hospital is a critical access hospital with 25 beds serving Tuscola County and surrounding areas in Michigan’s Thumb Region.

“We have many, many services that the hospital and staff have been building up in order to keep things here locally, as opposed to people having to drive so far to get those services,” says Danielle Blaine, director of the Hills & Dales Foundation. Blaine was hired in the spring of 2012 to manage the foundation, a separate non-profit entity that deals with charitable contributions to the hospital.

The ProblemBlaine faced two key challenges upon her arrival. The first involved building awareness of the hospital and foundation services in the community. In recent years the hospital expanded its services to include an orthopedic and general surgeon on staff, newly remodeled operating rooms, and an extensive lab where, Blaine says, “people can come and get their lab work done in a professional yet friendly environment with experienced staff.”

The second, more specific challenge revolved around raising awareness of the foundation with lawyers and financial planners in the geographic region who work with individuals on planned giving, estate planning, and setting up wills and trusts. The objective was to help them understand Hills & Dales Foundation as a viable, local giving option. According to Blaine, many of these individuals “would have no reason to know the foundation was here otherwise.”

The SolutionBlaine knew she needed a professional piece that could stand out in her readers’ crowded mailboxes. She opted for a full-color, eight-page annual report that features custom content and vibrant color photography to communicate her messages.

In the close-knit communities of Tuscola County, where it seems everyone knows everyone, a focus on local patient success stories was paramount. Beginning with a full-bleed photo of a well-known local farmer and his grandchildren on the cover to several patient success stories on the inside, the publication focused on the quality of care available close to home.

Meanwhile, a calendar of events, employee testimonials, and short pieces on hospital services subtly reinforced the work of the foundation in supporting the mission of the hospital.

Blaine also chose to include a giving envelope and appeal within the report. “We wanted to test the waters to see what kind of response we would have with a direct mail giving campaign. It had never been done in the past and we wanted to gauge what kind of response we’d get.”

The piece mailed to more than 4,000 households based on zip codes and income.

The ResultsAccording to Blaine, feedback was instantly favorable, hitting the mark on her goals of outreach and awareness for both the hospital and its foundation.

“Everyone who received it was very, very impressed with how it looked and all of the content,” she says, noting the patient stories tended to hold the most appeal. “That’s what makes it relatable.”

Response to the mailing was so strong, the hospital elected to transition its quarterly newsletter into a similar format—a format that takes advantage of strong photography, custom content, and engaging design.

And the giving envelopes? Responses were few, although “money is still money,” says Blaine with a smile. She considers it valuable market research for future giving campaigns.

“I certainly had some [fund-raising] goals that I was hoping for, but having never done something like this before, we just did not know what we were going to get. Now we know where to invest the money in that type of thing,” says Blaine.

This year, Blaine plans to connect the foundation annual report with an issue of the hospital newsletter. “The results were there for us very much. It was exactly what we had hoped for and it reached a lot of people for us,” says Blaine.

hen it comes to your reading wish list, most annual reports probably rank somewhere between the telephone book and the owner’s manual on your garage door opener. However, when one small hospital foundation decides to load up its first-ever annual report with engaging patient success

stories, caring employee testimonials, and eye-popping photography, the results are big.

Id eas That Work: An annual report raises awareness and expands reach for one hospital foundation BY LAURIE HILEMA N

case study

MIMI BELL is the editorial director for Great Lakes Bay Publishing. She believes businesses

best tell their stories in a compelling way through branded content. Contact Mimi at 989-

891-1724, or by emailing [email protected].


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Don’t Write off Paper Just Yet

t’s hard to picture today’s youths without their thumbs attached to a smartphone or some other electronic device. Products of the digital age, our young people—labeled “millennials”—often prefer digital formats of traditional paper documents. According to a recent study of 16 – 23-year-olds, 79 percent receive electronic bank statements, 67 percent use digital coupons, and 61 percent say they read newspapers online.

While technology may be the first language of millennials, they’re not writing off paper just yet. Yes, they’re deeply connected through social media websites, text messaging, and email, but the same study shows they prefer paper for basic personal and business communications—a fact that increases with age and employment. Here’s a quick look at when and why millennials prefer paper.

SOURC E: “Millennial Paper Usage and Attitudes (2011),” TRU, a division of TNS Research Global

the buzz


Tech-savvy millenials still opt for paper in matters of trust and sincerity.

A Bond That Can’t Be BrokenMillennials have a powerful attachment to paper.

Millenials still prefer paper over digital when it comes to: books (78%), magazines (71%), and newspapers (52%).

Perhaps the strongest bond with paper is emotional. If forced to choose, the majority would rather receive: a birthday card in the mail than via email (87%), a mailed invitation than an evite (57%), and a handwritten letter than an email (55%).

EIGHT OUT OF 10 say they can’t imagine their lives without paper.

NINE OUT OF 10 say that despite today’s technological advances, they doubt they will ever give up paper completely.

In Paper They TrustMillennials hold their trust in paper, compared to digital documents. According to TRU, a division of TNS Research Global, paper is seen as more official (88%), more trusted (82%), easier to keep confidential (78%), and safer/more secure (74%).

63%Often PRINT OUT D OC UME NTS for their records, even if they have them saved electronically.

77%

65%

Say documents are LE SS TR UST WOR THY IN D IGI TA L format because they can be altered without your knowledge.

Number of millenials that find it EASIER TO VIE W or read something on paper than on a computer screen or other tech device.

Prefer to have HA RD C OPIE S of important documents.

90%

In addit ion:

I

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Bottom Line May 2013