At a recent chamber luncheon, a simple question was asked that, upon answering, sparked a flurry of additional questions surrounding the importance of Facebook and Twitter for businesses.
The question went a little something like this, “I know what social media is but why exactly would any of my customers care what I had for breakfast this morning or that I was upset when (insert name here) was voted off American Idol?”
The short answer is that most of your customers don’t care that you ordered the three-egg omelet or what you thought of American Idol. But there’s a lot more to these applications than you may think and by using them effectively, you can enhance the awareness, image and impact of your business. More so, you can keep in contact with customers, better understand their needs, quickly adapt to changing circumstances and increase clientele within your community.
The one constant between all social networking sites is that you get out of them what you put in. In that sense, social networking is like a garden. It will flourish based on the amount of care and effort you put into helping it grow. Simply planting the seed isn’t enough and the same can be said for the social networking sites. You must work to grow them in the right direction so that they yield the desired results.
Facebook as a business tool helps you connect with customers, pass along news, maintain open lines of communication and even attract new business. Facebook is simple to use (once you get the hang of it) and requires a larger upfront investment of time but less continual maintenance. By increasing the number of “friends” you have on Facebook, you can reach a larger audience and pass along pertinent information about your business. A restaurant, for example, can list daily specials while stores can announce sales. Where Facebook excels in communicating with the masses, it often lacks the “personal touch” as your posts generally go out to everyone…but no one in particular. Since it’s inception, Facebook has been used as a social tool amongst friends. Its capability on the business side is still being tested.
In a nutshell, Facebook is about people you have already met and desire to keep in touch with, whereas Twitter focuses more on the people you’d like to meet, who may have similar interests. Additionally, Facebook updates go out to a crowd, whether they care to hear it or not. Twitter updates still reach a crowd but one that has an implicit interest in what you are saying.
Twitter, from a business standpoint, is a simple tool that helps you communicate with likeminded individuals. To be effective, Twitter must be maintained and updated at least once a day. But fear not as your updates can’t be more than 140 characters in length, which is the length of this sentence, when I add these extra words. Communication on Twitter is much more instantaneous than on Facebook. If you ask a question or make a point, you can expect responses to arrive quickly. Think of Twitter as the modern day water cooler where you can discuss last night’s game or comment on the newest trends impacting your business. Twitter enables you to reach past your circle of friends and speak to larger groups. A search feature on the site enables viewers to search topics where they just may stumble upon your posts and begin following you. Businesses not offering tangible products may find Twitter more useful. It can effectively market a person or service, whether a lawyer or a trainer.
While there are some inherent differences between the two, in the end, they are both social tools that help you better connect and communicate with your desired audience.
To learn more about these social sites or to schedule a meeting to discuss how your business can benefit, please contact:
Reid Harper
Client Relations Manager
SG&D Communications & Design
rharper@sgd-communications.com
Phone: 412-375-7601
January 25, 2008, Moon Twp, Pa. – SG&D Communications & Design, a full-service marketing and design agency, announced the addition of Reid Harper as client relations manager. In this role, Harper will assist current and future SG&D customers with a variety of communications and creative services to help improve visibility within their respective marketplaces. Harper will also serve as a business developer for SG&D where he will work to grow the agency’s presence within the region.
Prior to joining SG&D, Harper worked as a public relations manager at the Brandon Agency in Myrtle Beach, S.C. where he led communications efforts for several national, regional and local clients. Harper has specific expertise the healthcare, education, consumer and business-to-business markets and brings to SG&D an array of traditional and social media relations skills.
Harper was born and raised in Pittsburgh and received a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University and a master’s degree from the University of Tennessee.
When SG&D first sat down to discuss their website in April 2009, Pittsburgh Mailing expressed concerned that it was no longer communicating the company’s mission and vision for the future.
SG&D recommended a bold new design and multiple content features that would ultimately define Pittsburgh Mailing as Pittsburgh’s “One-Stop Shop” mailing fulfillment company.
Pittsburgh Mailing and the website are off to a great start in 2010, providing existing customers, as well as prospects, with many reasons to frequently visit the website: bold visual impact, easier navigation, important mailing information, and much more. To offer a more personal approach to better customer communications, SG&D implemented a social media plan with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
To check out Pittsburgh Mailing’s new website, click here: www.pittsburghmailing.com
UPDATE: Miss the show? Listen to the segment HERE!
It’s the busiest time of the year, it seems, between the holiday shopping and office parties and family gatherings.
But it’s also time to start thinking about 2010, believe it or not.
And what better way to start thinking than to take a little bit of time out of your Tuesday afternoon and listen to the radio?
SG&D President Donna Barger will be a guest on this week’s Pittsburgh Technology Council’s TechVibe broadcast on 1360 AM WMNY at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
TechVibe is hosted by Jonathan Kersting and Audrey Russo of the Tech Council and airs every other Tuesday from 2 to 6 p.m.
Donna will be discussing a little bit about what SG&D does and how we can help with your marketing efforts, whether large or small, in 2010.
So, grab a cup of coffee after lunch tomorrow afternoon, and tune in!
Just in time for the big holiday shopping season, major retailers are starting to take advantage of the social media tools available to connect better with customers.
As Doris Hajewski of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel recently reported, large-scale retailers like Kohl’s and Best Buy are using Facebook in particular to connect with customers, getting feedback – both positive and negative – and reacting to it in order to better communicate with those likely to spend dollars in their stores this holiday season.
Kohl’s has adapted its Facebook page to match its more traditional holiday advertisements, and has assigned a specific marketing team to monitor that page for customer feedback.
Bill Emerson, a former retail executive turned advisor, told the paper that leaving criticisms on retailers’ Facebook pages isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
To read Hajewski’s full article, click here.
What are your thoughts on using Facebook as a retail communications tool? Will you visit a store’s Facebook or Twitter page before shopping this holiday season?
One of the fun parts about moving into a new area is getting to know your new neighbors.
But when it comes to moving a business, meeting your new business neighbors typically requires a whole lot of networking.
Fortunately there are many really fantastic organizations in the Pittsburgh area to help us do just that, and SG&D is very excited to recently have joined two of them.
Right while we were in the process of moving, SG&D joined the Pittsburgh Technology Council.
Through our membership, we’ve met a ton of really great people and been introduced to some fantastic businesses in the Pittsburgh area who are doing some pretty amazing things in the fields of technology, manufacturing and higher education. And we’ve gotten to know the folks who make the Pittsburgh Tech Council run like a well-oiled machine.
And it was very exciting to see our SG&D markevation ad in the Tech Council’s membership directory … which is on page 11, if for some reason you hadn’t noticed it yet.
Also, a bit more recently, SG&D has become a member of the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce, (now marketed as “The Chamber” as per their recent rebranding effort), where we’ve come in contact with some of our more immediate neighbors and have found a new networking group to meet with on a weekly basis.
We’ve really enjoyed getting to know members of both organizations, and we look forward to meeting more of you in the future at events!
For 26 years, the borough of Sewickley had been the home of Sewickley Graphics & Design.
Today, Moon Township is the new home of SG&D Communications and Design.
SG&D has moved up in the world, 
quite literally, as it moved its office last week up the hill to the airport area into an office building where it resides on the top floor.
The new office space is fantastic. And there will be internal pictures forthcoming, but we wanted to wait until all the boxes were unpacked before doing that.
Anyhow, moving a business turned out to be quite an interesting challenge, especially when that challenge included crossing an extraordinarily busy bridge multiple times a day and carrying really heavy furniture up three flights of stairs to its new home. The men truly worked hard on Friday getting everything up here. But they did a great job, even if we did make them move the conference room table one too many times.
Some of the rest of us, 
who knew better than to attempt carrying heavy furniture, kept ourselves busy packing, carrying, and unpacking the “little stuff,” including office supplies, paper, and more shelves than I’ve ever seen in my life. Who knew a business needed 437 shelves? (I’m exaggerating a bit there, but as you can tell by the picture, there certainly were a lot of them. And I think I carried most of them.)
It was hot. It was humid. We were all very tired. But we think you’ll be pleased with the final result.
We’re very excited to be beginning this new phase of business as SG&D. Our new contact information is:
SG&D Communications and Design
Airport Professional Office Center
900 Commerce Court, Suite 910
Moon Township, PA 15108
412.375.7601
Our new web address is sgd-communications.com.
So, if you’re in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by and check out the new digs! And we promise we won’t even make you unpack anything. Although, if you’re interested in some shelving …
~ Carla
Be sure to tune in to Pittsburgh Business Radio 1360AM this Friday, June 19, from 3 to 6 p.m., as Ron Morris interviews SG&D President Donna Barger live on the air!
As of this posting, Donna is scheduled to appear during the 4 p.m. hour.
The discussion will focus on the challenges of owning a business and the strategies used to tackle those challenges.
If you’re out of the area or can’t receive 1360AM, the audio stream will be available live online at the Pittsburgh Business Radio website all afternoon.
It appears that there’s light at the end of the advertising and marketing tunnel, at least to those attending this week’s Association of National Advertisers conference in New York City.
According to Advertising Age’s Jonah Bloom, major players like Dole Food Co. and Dunkin Donuts have plans to ramp up their advertising spending in the latter part of the year, focusing primarily on rebuilding their respective brands.
“The cost of raw materials is going up, and marketing is the only thing that offsets those increases,” said Richard McDonald, the senior VP-global marketing of the musical instrument brand Fender, according to Bloom’s article. “You have to build brand value and spend on marketing.”
To read the entire Advertising Age article, available until May 20, click here.
Happy Wednesday to everyone!
OK … really? It’s a cool, cloudy day. Kind of depressing. So, why not have some fun to get us through the mid-week doldrums, right?
This post is the first of a semi-regular Wednesday series to help us all keep conversation going and our minds thinking as we reach the halfway point in our workweek.
So, let’s start with the seemingly “trendy” topic of the moment in social networking. First it was MySpace, then Facebook and LinkedIn. But now it seems like everyone is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.
Here’s the conversation starter:
How are you currently using or see potential in using tools like Twitter in your workplaces? If you’re using it already, have you discovered any benefits or drawbacks?
Or, if you have questions about Twitter or any other aspect of social networking, feel free to ask them here as well. We’ll do our best to find an answer for you!
My thoughts? I’ve found Twitter to be remarkably useful, as it’s essentially created a “help network” for me. The people I follow on Twitter have a wide variety of interests, work in a wide range of professions and in multiple neighborhoods in and around the Pittsburgh area. It’s great to have people at my fingertips that can help me find a unique place to eat with a client or get better directions in a neighborhood that I’m not as familiar with.
So, what are your thoughts? Leave a comment on this post to continue the conversation.
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