This image from the creative team at Vistaprint showcase some additional creative ways that businesses can utilize their business cards beyond the contact data.

Some of my favorites include:

• using the reverse as an appointment reminder (my dentist does this and I love it)
• showcasing customer testimonials
• leveraging the reverse for coupons

How do you use your business cards?

Key takeaways include:

• What can be measured
• All measurement is not equal
• Evolving your metrics
• Tracking sales to your social interactions

1. Traditional and non-traditional measurements
2. Measurement is not one-size fits all
3. Social customer personas
4. How Vistaprint got started in the space and what we measure

Some key takeaways included:

1. Understand your business goals
2. Understand your customers’ needs
3. Set rules of engagement
4. Be rigorous on your measurement
5. Choose the right tools for the job

I got into it three years ago when I was handed a magazine article and given the ultimatum of figuring it out.

At the time, I was content with public relations. Social media was still being called Web 2.0, but in our weekly PR team meeting, social media nearly hit me in the head. As the meeting closed, our then Vice President of Public Relations tossed the June 2, 2008 edition of BusinessWeek at me with Stephen Baker’s cover story entitled Beyond Blogs which focused on Twitter. She told me to figure out if and how our company should get involve in social networking.

It wasn’t love at first sight as Twitter was a new technology that I wasn’t sure could be used for public relations or reputation management. It was kind of scary and the premise of using 140 characters to communicate and giving up control was intimidating.

After a few months of playing around, I had met some folks and dropped all preconceived notions of spelling, abbreviations and punctuation. From a business standpoint, our team was figuring things out and establishing a strategy that would continue to grow and evolve to this date and gain Vistaprint exposure in national publications and a few books. Sure we made mistakes along the way, but by asking the folks communicating with us to give us advice as to what they wanted.

Looking back I have to laugh that it actually took a magazine being tossed at me to get into the social media space. Hell, now I can’t imagine life without being connected on the social interwebs.

There’s my story, how did you get started on social media?

Image - pl1602

Facebook admits hiring PR firm to smear Google – yes I know you probably ready this already and are sick of it, but it hits both key focuses of this blog. It also baffles me that Facebook’s PR team thought that they could get away with it. Hopefully this is the first of many interesting twists to the feud between these online giants.

House Speaker John Boehner’s Chief Page Administrator Shares Facebook Strategy – I know that it is impolite to talk politics at dinner, but hey you came to my joint so I am sharing. There is no question that social media was huge in our last election and looks as if it will continue to grow. This is an interesting interview with the top Republican’s communications director Don Seymour, regardless of your party affiliate it’s worth a look.

The Difference Between Engaged and Engaging – This is a great post from Danny Brown, short, sweet and to the point. I only wish that other folks who write about engagement could do it in so many words.

Influence: The Face of the Facebook Revolution? – The revolutions in the Middle East were filled with everyday people who used social technologies to get their voices out there. This piece from Geoff Livingston explores this good phenomenon.

Nobody cares about your damn blog – This post should be a must read for anyone thinking about starting a blog or anyone who owns or pens one.

For more information on the stats, check out the full release here.

Many of these people are not familiar with the space and question metrics that they cannot understand. It’s often hard to satisfy their question as to how do you know you are doing things the right way.

Instead of having to search for an answer, Marie Wise of Kalama, Washington said it for us beautifully in this Tweet:

@jeffespo you are doing a great job on @Vistaprint PR, Im a customer because of it!

December 14, 2010 11:08 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@artsylady

Marie Wise, APR

Marie on behalf of the entire Public Relations team (Jason Keith and Nick Gosselin) at Vistaprint, I’d like to say thank you for the Tweet. We’re very happy that you’ve chosen our company for your marketing materials and the Tweet made our week.

You’ve helped us see that the work we’ve been doing in the social realm for the past two plus year are resonating with the community at large.

Vistaprint: Earning Revenue Through Social Media

Now my part of the campaign had nothing to do with TV – I am working on a contest for micro-businesses that launches on June 4 – it is still exciting to see the company roll out the campaign and be there with the rest of the US office as it aired on TV yesterday afternoon.  The commercials help reinforce the important of making the right first impression and that business owners might be more than meets the eye.

So when you are vegging out on the couch watching the idiot box, keep an eye out for these spots.

What do you think of the commercials?

Tweets emerge as a serious business tool – This article is a wrap-up on some of the companies in the Boston area using social media. I am quoted in the article and I wanted to plug it.

Stop the SPAM – This quick video from Gary Vaynerchuck is really something that I always wonder about while engaging in social media. Why do some companies think that it is kosher to just hit up peoples’ walls and accounts with useless junk?

The “problem” with authenticity: you’re still being watched – This article puts into words what I discussed with my boss a few weeks ago. No matter how much we want to say what we feel on social sites, the fact of the matter is that if you are engaging on behalf of a company, there is a good chance that no matter how unrelated a tweet or blog post is, it can be tied back to your company. So some self-editing is needed at times.

McDonald’s Names First Social-Media Chief – It is always good to see news like this. A large corporation acknowledging the need for a SM person not just someone who does it as an add-on to their daily job functions. So congratulations Rick Wion.

How to Write Under Pressure – We all face writer’s block every now and then. The question is how do we deal with it when it comes at a bad time when we need a release 20 minutes ago? Some great tips to peep out in case you missed it.

Bonus – Charities in general are near and dear to my heart, so it makes the new #America Wants campaign from the guys over at USA Today truly awesome. I love the fact that they are crowdsourcing an ad for a good cause. Have you stepped up to nominate someone?

The contest is pretty straight forward, head over to http://vistaprintgiveaway.com and enter via email and Tweet about it (for an extra entry) for your chance to win some pretty sweet prizes including:

• Dell Mini NetBook (5)
• Nikon CoolPix Camera (2)
• Email Marketing for a year (2)

Everyone that enters is also also eligible for the grand prize of a MacBook Pro that will be held on February 5.

Sorry for the brief advertisement, now back to your regularly scheduled programing.

Don’t lie, I know you were watching this.

The cat actually used the litter box right after the card was added to his box.