At this point, I think most of our regular readers know my feelings about traditional advertising: TV, Radio, Print Ads – They are just too expensive and you don’t see much return-on-investment. Consumers simply tune them out. With that said, if traditional advertising is part of your marketing mix (in some cases it is still relevant, but those cases are dwindling), I’m a big advocate of promoting your online efforts through your traditional ads. I was watching some HGTV (my girlfriend and I are big fans) this weekend when I noticed the stellar job they do of incorporating their social media into their own TV spots.
On at least two instances, an entire 15 second TV spot for HGTV centered around their social media. Many of the HGTV personalities have their own Twitter and Facebook profiles. HGTV came up with brilliant campaign to incorporate the activity on their hosts’ profiles into their TV ads. Basically the ads go something like this, “Brittany from Georgia wrote the following comment on Sabrina Soto’s Facebook wall, Sabrina, your design-sense is one of a kind and I’ve incorporated many of your ideas into my own home. Thank you!” The TV ad then ends with the following, “Sabrina Sota responded by thanking Brittany and asking her to submit some pictures of her newly updated home. Remember that you can follow HGTV and our hosts on Facebook and Twitter.” I may not have the exact language correct, but you get the gist.
HGTV is not only promoting their social media, but they are promoting their fans as well. It’s adds to the connection. Can you imagine how you’d feel if HGTV mentioned your Facebook comment on their TV commercial? I’ll bet you’d tell a bunch of your friends, both online and offline. In turn, that may increase fans and followers of HGTV social media sites, as well as, possibly increase viewers of their TV programs.
This is just another example of how traditional advertising can compliment your social media marketing. Again, if you have limited spend, you may want to dismiss traditional ads altogether, but if you’re someone who is running some radio spots or print ads, you should definitely find ways to drive listeners/readers to your social media sites.
Since Dell wants to make sure that they get all of their promotions out there, but at the same, do not constantly interrupt their followers with promotions, they’ve created a Twitter account solely for promoting refurbished Dell computers and electronics – @DellOutlet. By following @DellOutlet, twitterers are essentially opting in to receive Dell promotions. Dell makes it very clear that this particular account will be used for promoting their specials. This strategy allows Dell to get their promotions out without offending their followers. Can you incorporate this strategy into your small business? I think you can.
ShareThis is a free plugin that you can download and add to your blog. 
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Here at Catalyst Marketers, we use ReTweet, but it’s really just a personal preference. The button allows readers, who have Twitter accounts, to share your article on their Twitter profile. A few reasons to add a ReTweet button to each of your blog posts are:
It’s really great to see Tranquility LIFE Spa promoting their Facebook fan page in their print ads. If you’re going to incur the expense of print advertising, then you mine as well get as much value out of it as possible. Use this example to think about the different ways you’re currently promoting your products and services and figure out how you can integrate your social media messaging into those existing ads. If you’re getting ready to buy any traditional advertising, then definitely be sure to include information about your social media sites in those ads. I know I just became a fan of Tranquility’s Facebook fan page and I’m sure many others have as well.
