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Fall 2013 Events

There are several community events coming up. We’re glad to be involved in them!

Tonight & Tomorrow – Nov. 1 & 2 – 6:30 pm – The murder mystery dinner theater, The Fourteenth Annual Genealogy Society Meeting and Potluck Supper by Vicky Town presented by Alleghany Community Theatre, will take place at the VFW Hall in Sparta. Proceeds will benefit the Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society, and the Northwest Regional Library System, to which the Alleghany County Public Library belongs. Tickets are $20 each.

For this event, ISI printed programs, designed flyers, and put together the cast board. (Most of ISI is also volunteering, as club members.)

Tuesday, November 12 – 6 pm – Claire Halsey will give a presentation on ancestry.com & rootsweb.com at the Alleghany County Public Library.  This is a free event, but the Library appreciates advance registration.

Saturday, November 23 – 11 am-2 pm – BookFest in Sparta – Regional authors will be appearing for book signings at downtown shops.  The complete line-up will be announced soon. This is a free event, but the authors & store owners appreciate purchases. ISI is the sponsor of BookFest.

Friday, November 29 – Grand Opening for Sparta Revitalization Committee‘s Christmas Tree Gallery, next door to the Chamber of Commerce. ISI, with other downtown businesses, will have a tree. The Tree Gallery will be on display through Christmas, with free admission. This event is part of the Good Neighbors Choose Local campaign. For GNCL, we printed bumper stickers & tent cards for regional businesses.

Saturday, December 7 – 3 pm & 8 pm & Sunday, December 8 – 3 pm – Christmas with Elvis – Wayne Euliss will perform at the Priser Theatre (22 South Main Street) in downtown Sparta. Tickets are $12 each, with limited seating. To reserve tickets, call 336-372-2039 and leave your name and number. For this event, ISI printed designed and printed table tents and tickets and designed flyers.

If you have an event, need marketing materials, or want help with project branding, contact ISI.

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Limitations of Social Media Marketing

We recently saw this story on Social Fixer and want to share it with our readers.

If you aren’t familiar with Social Fixer, it’s a browser extension that “fixes” facebook. It changes how the site is displayed in a user’s browser. Social Fixer doesn’t do anything to harm facebook or alter the site – it only changes the way user-generated content displays.

Not long ago, Social Fixer’s page was suddenly “unpublished” by Facebook. It was totally removed. The page was not a small one- it had 34,000 “fans” and had been growing for years. They weren’t spamming people. They hadn’t violated the terms of service. There was no advance notice, or warning of any kind. No “stop doing X, Y, and Z.” No feedback on how to change.

Luckily, the business owner is able to contact his users in other ways, including through the extension itself. It’s just more difficult.

It’s important to remember that, while Facebook is a good way to stay in contact and find new potential customers, it is not a public service.  It’s a business. And with no traditional  customer service, user complaints don’t seem to be very effective. At any rate, this fellow’s appeal was ignored.

Facebook profits from the content you share across it. The more time a visitor spends at their site, the more money they make. They “mine” the data people enter, including everything from the time they spend, to their browsing patterns, to their likes and their associations with other users.

Your goal with facebook may be to find new people- and there is a world of potential on facebook- but your facebook and social media marketing strategy should be similar to your traditional marketing strategy. The number of “likes” you get rarely equals the number of sales you close. Neither does the number of subscribers to a newspaper in traditional advertising.

All advertising- whether it’s across a social marketing site, like Facebook, or in the daily news- should point your potential customer to your own site or store, where you have control over your message. Facebook is a valuable tool when used correctly, but it cannot replace a professional, secure site that you control. Your business should be the only one to benefit from your relationship with your customers.

Check out the whole Social Fixer story, and this follow up post. It’s really interesting.