Hey Parents! We are having a colouring contest for the kids. There are 2 age divisions: 4-7 & 8-12. The winner of each division gets a colouring book that I illustrated as well as a full colour caricature. Drop off or mail in the submissions off at the Electric Paper Company before the draw date is December 13th. Have fun and good luck! Have your child's awesome artwork decorate our walls this season :)

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: JUST A FAD? Not in the least bit. Facebook has been and is the fastest growing internet phenomenon in history and is here to stay. Here are some stats that come directly from Facebook Statisitcs: * More than 500 million active users * Average user has 130 friends * People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook * There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and
community pages) * Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events * Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month * More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo
albums, etc.) shared each month. * More than 70 translations available on the site * About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States * Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application Does this sound like a fad to you? You may already be using Facebook as a networking tool but are you doing it right? Here are just a few of many Do’s and Don'ts when it comes to social media marketing. BE POSITIVE! If you don’t have to say anything positive don’t say it at all. Whatever goes live on the internet remains there forever. Be careful what you say. BE CONSISTENT! Don’t flipflop on your views or opinions. Think before you speak (or type) and be prepared to backup any opinion that you share with the world. Be TRUE! IT’S LIKE A GYM PASS! If you buy a gym pass and don’t go, you’re not going to have those buns of steel that you desire. The same goes for using your social media...if you’re not actively using it correctly it won’t work for you. PARTICIPATE! If someone takes the time to comment on your posting - respond. The whole idea behind social media is to ENGAGE. Keep the threads alive! Think it out. Will others find what you are submitting interesting? If not, then submitting it to a social news site will not going to be effective. POST ONCE A DAY! One good, thought provoking post in the morning (that engages your audience) keeps you in the news feed longer and doesn’t overwhelm. It’s also a good idea to vote or submit on other people’s posts more than you post. DON’T SPAM! It’s annoying to go onto your “personal” Facebook page and have somebody try to sell you something when you don’t want it. You are faced with that all day. It reminds me of a recent episode of the “Office”. Dwight Schrute stood up during Pam & Jim’s daughter’s christening and began a prayer to the congregation that was self promoting his services at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company . Although the context of the show was funny, in real life it’s invasive and tactless. Social media is about drawing people in to you, not pushing yourself upon them. DON’T SPEAK LIKE UR TXTING :) If you’re going to write, take the time to write thought out words. AVOID NEGATIVITY! Don’t bash your competition in social media sabotage. If they decide to do something negative or wrong, let them. Don’t fall into an online battle of ethics. When using social media as a marketing tool, there are tons of tips and tricks out there that will make or break you. Be careful that you are making “friends” and not having them want to delete you. Posted 3 hours ago • Like • Comment Lyle Doucette Electric Paper Company

The 4 Letter F-Word: FREE!

The 4 Letter F-Word: FREE! 250 FREE BUSINESS CARDS! FREE WEB DESIGN!! FREE HEADACHES!!! ALL IT WILL COST YOU IS TWICE THE NORMAL PRICE!

Over the last 2 weeks I have been in contact with close to a dozen of different people who have come into my business to get their business cards reprinted. All clients, in these cases, were former patrons of online print services and big box stores. Three of these clients, in particular, have used an online service that offered 250 free business cards to prospective clients with an option of 42 template designs to choose from. What a great deal you say? Here are three examples of those customers experiences.

Brian just dealt with the cards he was given even though the design had nothing to do with the business that he was in or the fact that his personal email address was spelled incorrectly on the cards. Brian said “Oh well, they were free and I can always write my real address on the back of the card”. Brian tried to get this change fixed by the company but they said that they were going to implement a charge for the changes and charge for the re-shipping. Brian decided to live with the error for now and got us to do the redesign for him for next time.

Alex, like Brian, had a similar experience but wanted the company to fix the errors. Alex was aware of the extra charges and didn’t care. The issue that had Alex disgruntled was the fact that the 10 business day turnaround time turned into 20 business days, nearly one calendar month, to get his desired result.

Carrie was happy with the template design that she was offered and loved the colors that showed up on the screen; the issue was the fact that the cards that came back were on a thinner card stock than what was expected, the colors on the screen didn’t match what the print produced and the font was so small it was hard for a person with 20/20 eyesight to read. Carrie, deflated from this experience, came to us for the reprint as the changes, adjustments and re-shipping would have cost her more money than what she was willing to spend and she really wanted to be proud of what she hands out to her prospective clients.

Here are two dirty little secret that most online and big box printers wont tell you:

1. The value added incentives and that great (sometimes free) price that you are being offered isn’t necessarily going to be the same when you reorder your product. Some printing companies put on rock bottom prices that are designed to get clients through the door (this is called a lost leader). When you go to reorder your price is sometimes doubled.

2. Sure you may be getting a super price on a set of big box business cards from the big box store but did you know about the hidden costs that come with it? An extra charge for a heavier card stock, extra charges for turnaround times within 3 days, extra charges for design alterations, plus, plus, plus...you get the idea. Also, they rarely ever print right there in that particular store. They are shipped there from another location. So much for reducing your carbon footprint!

When you are given a FREE service or FREE product, you have to really be careful that you are actually getting a VALUABLE product or service. In a lot of cases, you get what you pay for: Nothing for Nothing!

Be careful using the 4 letter F-Word!

Lyle Doucette