Saturday, July 14, 2012

It is Just too Easy to Share...

It can make us all squirm – thinking about the threat of a colleague or employee crossing the line with your corporate brand via social media. Social media is difficult to ignore for its power to communicate. But what if it’s not always positive? An American Red Cross employee accidentally tweeted a beer-related post to the charity's Twitter account, rather than to her personal account. Not long after that came the Chrysler Corporation that tweeted about the bad driving habits of people in Detroit.


Freedom of expression and ease of use makes everyone a ‘publisher’ nowadays. Companies have been afraid to open the floodgates on social media in case people say bad things about them because online opinions can spread far and wide – and quickly. But ‘word of mouth’ has always been around – these technologies are just new ways of spreading it. These conversations would be going on anyway, so businesses might as well figure out a way to join in and effectively manage their message.


Whether it’s a disgruntled employee or an unhappy customer, negative posts can be damaging to a brand and business. Here are some tips to prevent an errant ‘post’ and manage your online reputation:

  1. Develop an internal social media policy including who posts for company. It should include guidelines for response comments and privacy rules.
  2. Carry your brand voice and common sense to social media. It’s public!
  3. Know the legal issues around identity disclosure on comments. No ‘fake’ reviews!
  4. Review posts frequently and quickly remove any out of bounds posts. Use online tools to monitor your brand and all activity.
  5. Take a deep breath before responding to comments. If you’re unsure, have someone review your post for tone.

But mistakes happen, even on large companies’ sites, but monitoring often lets you catch mistakes faster and minimize the damage. There are all sorts of new social media tools out there that can automate this process and allow you to respond quickly to negative discussions.

If there is unfavorable chatter, here are some ways to put out the flames. Always own up and admit the mistake. Make sure to apologize publicly and personally to any one harmed by the mistake. The Red Cross has been praised for using humor in response to their employee’s beer-talking tweet and turned it into a way to gather donations.

Then make sure to pull any damaging content offline– but don’t pretend ‘this never happened’. Use the mistake as a teachable moment and don’t stop the conversation or social media initiatives all together. Not everyone is going to love you, your business or your product so pessimism is inevitable. Hopefully any negativity can be easily downplayed and turned into a positive.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

My Digital Wish List

From how far digital presses have come, they still have a ways to go to overcome some common challenges.

I wish digital presses could…


Print letterheads. 
For the small identity project, this would be ideal. For some reason the letterhead isn’t an option because the digital presses leave a slight coating on the paper that makes it hard to rerun it through a customer’s inkjet or laser printer afterwards.

Print envelopes. 
Envelopes, we all know this one. They just can’t line up right unless they are run flat and then converted which is too pricey for most jobs. #10s would complete the identity package or announcement envelopes would be great for party or wedding invitations. Think of the impact of 4-color printed envelopes in combination with variable data?

Print spot colors. 
Ever wish you could match something else that ran offset? Wouldn’t it be great if there were a way to run a spot color along with a digital job? HP just introduced white ink; maybe spot ink is next?

Print heavier stock/130#. 
In the design world, the thicker the better – that’s been the trend. Some business cards are now like chipboard they are so thick. Does heavier imply more expensive or important?

Increase the sheet size to accommodate folders. 
13x19 is a bit limiting right? Folders would be the ideal project to run digitally as many customers tend to not need very many. These are expensive projects as the converting and die costs add up. Many times folders are done with just 1 or 2-color printing to keep the costs down. This is a design challenge, especially for company that uses a 3 or 4-color logo.