With the struggle of bricks and mortar book stores and the reported eclipsing of the sale of ebooks by some sources, printers of all products shouldl be keeping abreast of the news. Some in the book industry predict the transmforamtion will happen faster than expected when compared to the music and movie industry.  http://prnt.in/ZJx   24 Months?  12 months? In my observations while traveling, I still see more hard copy books than digital readers, but the volume of ereaders is definitely increasing. With the demographics of internet users constantly increasing, the cost of Kindle, iPad and other devices decreasing no one doubts the direction.  Probably the “when” is the question.  What are printers doing about this direction is of bigger concern.  What new revenue streams are being developed?  How are printers serving their customers who choose  to publish digitally?  Savvy printers are offering to digitize magazines and books as a service.  Other printers are moving into a broader role in working with customers.    What are your thoughts?  When will the transformation take place?  What should printers do about...

Along with following the latest trends in digital printing, we at the Digital Printing Council also keep our eyes on innovative developments in social media and marketing technologies.  When we heard about an upcoming event at the New York Public Library (NYPL) called Find the Future: The Game we were so intrigued that we knew we had to share it. Find the Future is a combination interactive online game/real-world scavenger hunt that will coincide with NYPL’s Centennial Festival weekend, which begins on May 20. The custom designed game will have players collaborating and solving clues with the aid of laptops and smartphones. The goal is to locate 100 significant artifacts from NYPL’s collection—and to write about them. Before the game opens to the public, a group of 500 players will have the chance to participate in a “Write All Night” lock–in event. These selected players will be assembled into groups to search for the hidden artifacts among 70 miles of books—including 40 miles of underground stacks not normally accessible to the public—at NYPL’s landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. After finding each artifact, participants will record their discoveries using smartphones and a custom built iPhone/Android QR code App. Furthermore, each hidden artifact will present players with a specific writing prompt. Then, players’ responses to these prompts will help to create a collaborative book  that will be published and added to the Library’s public archives. As stated in the FAQ section of the game’s website “It is the first game in the world in which winning the game means writing a book together—a collection of 100 ways to make history and change the future, inspired by 100 of the most intriguing works of the past.” To be considered for a chance to participate in the “Write All Night” event, prospective players (18 years or older only) must register on the game’s website (http://game.nypl.org/) and respond to the following prompt: “Just imagine who you are ten years from now. What do you want for the world? What extraordinary goal do you want to achieve? When you have a vivid picture of your future, just fill in the blank: In the year 2021, I will become the first person to_______________.” The responses to this prompt will be judged based on creativity, originality, and determination. The game will also contain a unique social component. Right now, you can visit the game’s website and read and vote on entrants’ responses to the initial query about where they see themselves in ten years. Then, once the game has been “unlocked” by the participants in the overnight event, players’ responses to the writing prompts for each artifact will appear online as well. Understandably, few details are available...

This month Julie Shaffer presented a program at the Vision 3 Summit  (see www.vision3summit.org) on social media entitled, Social “Security”–Cementing Client Relationships with Social Media.  This was attended by a large group which had many questions.  Also, Julie Shaffer and I presented three webinars on social media topics.  The three topics were Using LinkedIn as a Sales Prospecting Tool; Monitoring Your Online Reputation Using Social Media Tools, and Putting Your Business on the Map with Geo-Social Tools.  It was fun to deliver and the follow up questions were really good. Also we have several microlessons on the topics that people can use for written background.  See www.printing.org/microlessons Have you participated in social media learning events?  What were they?  What were your thoughts on needed programs?  Let us know. Any ideas are welcome. ...

In SMFG we talked about the Old Spice Guy. Julie Shaffer has used the Old Spice Guy example in most of her Social Media sessions for our industry.  Old Spice has actually increased sales as a result of the ad which is amazing, I believe.  According to Mashable, sales of Old Spice body wash increased 107% in one month (from Nielson) as a result of the YouTube campaign.   Now that’s a social media marketing success! But just as I was thinking of this stat, another site (MSNBC,July 20, 2010 www.msnbc.msn.com) contradicted the stat by saying sales did not increase but actually decreased for the specific product.   I will go with the success story.  Also,   YouTube has a great “behind” the scene on the making of the latest ad.  Check it out:  http://prnt.in/Zoq   I found the behind the scene YouTube more interesting than the original final product.  What do you think?  (I also want to know how Isaiah  keeps his body in such excellent condition…OK, that is another blog…maybe not on social media but on fitness!)      ...

http://social.printing.org/page/9159   Keeping up to date with Social Media is a challenge and some books are “must reads.”  This is one of them.  Groundswell is a foundational book and helps to clarify social media strategy and tactics.  Read the reviw and if you have a suggestion or want to contribute a book review, let me know ...

For any social media buffs, you know The Social Media Bible written by Lon Safko. Today, I was pleased to have a conversation with Lon to hear about his future plans for a PBS program and tour related to social media. I had an opportunity to share with him my points on b2c2b ….we are always selling to people and if selling to a business you must sell a person (c) and they must sell to the business (b). We also talked about the potential for geo tools to multiply big time with workers who indulge in geo games to transfer the practice to businesses. Any thoughts to share about b2c2b or geo tools? Yes, geo tools webinar is today!...