If you own a business, have a hobby or even a remotely curious bone in your body, chances are you have an established social media presence or you visit them from time to time. Heck, my 80-year-old father has a Facebook page. Go Marvin!
Post pros in particular have embraced Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, Tumblr and others. They realize that the reach is long and the information gathered and shared is invaluable.
London’s Berwick Post is one of the many studios @post_magazine follows on Twitter. They are an active participant in the conversation. “Social media is a fast and effective way for Berwick Post to interact with our existing clients and present ourselves in the right way to new ones,” explains Berwick CEO Steve Dann. “It helps get our message across that we are a traditional post facility that is also passionate about, and at the forefront of, new technologies such as Augmented Reality.”
They primarily use Twitter (@berwickpost) to create an initial buzz about new ideas and technology that interests them. They use their Facebook page “for more visually based ideas that can be used as resource by our followers. And Linkedin for a more concentrated B2B approach,” says Dann.
Owner/creative director Chris Downs, at Tube in Atlanta, has found that “by reaching out through a variety of social media outlets (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr) we are able to support and converse with not only our clients, but also designers and other industry folks we collaborate with, and the Atlanta design community as a whole. It’s a great way to spread awareness of Tube throughout our field as well as share what we’ve been up to.”
A year ago we spoke with Minneapolis’s Pixel Farm about how they further their message online — see page 20 for this year’s feature on the topic. While serious about business, they realize the Web helps build community and they have fun with it. “We’ve been further strengthening our current social media channels such as Facebook, Vimeo and Twitter,” says Sarah Edwards, social media/marketing coordinator. “We recently found out one of our senior VFX artists starred in two episodes of Family Feud, and we are starting an online Twitter contest, which is going to be something different and fun! The hashtag for the contest will be #pixelfeud.” Check out their blog for details (and giggles) http://blog.pixelfarm.com.
Product makers also embrace the Web. “I was marginally skeptical when we made our first foray into social media at The Foundry,” says head of marketing Lucy Cooper, “but it has become a key marketing tool and more — our customers also use it as a soft support channel.”