An Experiment in Social Media
Posted on 14. Jul, 2011 by marcrubinassociates in corporate identity, marketing
Although Marc Rubin Associates advises our clients about the importance of using social media, we’ve been pretty slow to use it ourselves. To be honest, I am not yet convinced that social media is the best way to advertise a business like ours, which depends on one-to-one personal relationships to sell its product. However, we’ve decided to (reluctantly) move into the 21st Century and give social media a try.
For some time, MRA has employed two important social media tools: a state-of-the-art website, and this blog. But the reality is that most potential customers don’t know that that we – or these things – exist. How can we introduce ourselves, drive people to the website to look at our work, read the blog, and then contact us for an appointment? In the next several months, we’re going to try two things:
- A LinkedIn page. We’re working hard to get connected to businesses, non-profits, and individuals who we think might be interested in our design services. It’s easy to find potential contacts on LinkedIn, and just about everyone we ask for a connection says “yes”. The page features regular updates, informing the people we’re connected to about a website update, new blog post, newsletter, or local news item about our work. As of this writing, we’re connected to 148 people, and making new connections every day.
- An e-newsletter. Lots of businesses and non-profits use regular or periodic newsletters to market their products. MRA works with one local non-profit whose membership increased 600% in their first year of producing a weekly e-newsletter! We’re going to start with a monthly publication, using the Constant Contact service. Look for the first one at the end of July. Our goal is to provide current and potential clients with an “inside look” into the work we do, and an opportunity to get to know us better. With that in mind, each newsletter will feature a video interview with me (gulp!), and examples of our work and process. We hope the e-newsletter will help communicate the caring way we approach our work.
As we experiment with these tools, we’ll be asking for your feedback. So please let us know what you think!