PrintFirm Creates Social Media Business Cards for PRINT 13

LOS ANGELES—August 28, 2013—Printers across the nation are gearing up for the PRINT 13 industry expo in Chicago, which kicks off on Sunday, September 8th at McCormick Place South. These types of annual events bring tons of networking opportunities for buyers, as well as vendors. Everyone in attendance will be armed with professional print marketing materials; thousands of business cards will change hands over the five-day ink extravaganza. Naturally attendees will encourage their new contacts to maintain the relationships through social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. While most cards feature social icons along with traditional contact info, Los Angeles printing company PrintFirm.com created special Twitter business cards for event marketing purposes.

PrintFirm manager Alex Vartanian explains why he chose to highlight Twitter instead of other sites: "Twitter is perfect for event marketing because you get tons of people talking about a convention online in real time. You're all sharing an experience on an open platform, so why not use this powerful tool to your advantage? Everyone will be tweeting from the floor, which makes it really easy for them to connect with your company right away."

Vartanian designed the creative business card printing campaign with several interactive elements to increase engagement. The two-sided piece, known as 4 over 4 for full color artwork on both sides, measures 2x2" to form a custom-shaped card with modern rounded corners similar to mobile app icons. The front of the card includes a QR code that sends users directly to the PrintFirm Twitter account for fast following. In case the recipient decides to find the account manually, the user name sits above the QR graphic in a highly readable font. Of course, no Twitter theme would be complete without related hashtags, which act as an invitation to join a conversation and show community involvement. Hashtags are usually announced in advance, so savvy marketers can add them to their promotional materials during the planning stages.

Even if the card holder doesn't plan on tweeting, the marketing department back home can use hashtags to associate the company with event activities online. For example, tweets containing the official hashtag #Print13 also appear on the PRINT 13 Website. The Xerox Digital Printing booth will contain a big screen monitor displaying tweets with their hashtag #PrintWins to inspire convention goers to get involved.

PrintFirm CEO Nick Artounian predicts social media business cards will be the next trend for trade shows, conferences, and conventions: "Small business owners always want higher ROI from events. They want to get leads and keep them hot. Cards made just for social media solve this problem and make the business memorable." To demonstrate Artounian's point, PrintFirm will be posting a campaign follow up on their company blog with post-expo results.

About PrintFirm.com
Printfirm Inc., trusted leaders in online commercial printing since 1996.

Source: Printfirm.