Print media uses social media

Source: http://www.mphpl.org/newSite/newspapers/index.html

Despite the decline of sales over the past decade, print media (e.g. magazines and newspapers) has found ways to engage subscribers and readers using social media.

While it is naturally easier to use and incorporate social media with online publications, more and more publishing companies are using it to enhance print publications.

Here are a few interesting ways that print media use social media:

1.     QR Codes – Unless you live under a rock, you’ve seen those cool little matrix barcode squares everywhere. With a free QR reader app, all you do is point your Smartphone at the QR code and it takes you to the landing page. It’s a great way to incentivize readers to “Like” a Facebook page or “Follow” on Twitter for a prize.

2.     Hashtags – Incorporate Twitter hashtags in articles and have readers “tweet” a comment or post using that hashtag to be entered in a drawing or simply just because. Readers love to be involved in social media and offer their opinion about what they just read.

Source: www.resonancecontent.com

3.     Feedback – a great way to do the reverse is to incorporate feedback from social media into print advertising or as a sidebar with opinions on a particular topic of interest. This is a great way to merge the two mediums.

4.     PURLs (Personal URLs) – This is great for writer’s of newspapers and magazines to build a niche following based on an article they wrote or even a topic that they typically cover.

5.     Cross-promotion – using print to market the social media side and visa versa can be a valuable asset to a publication and a great source of advertising. There are actually a few additional benefits to promoting on print rather than online for advertisers. Two major benefits are unlimited exposure and non-intrusive space, whereas, online advertising changes constantly and can create annoyance and disruptiveness for readers trying to read an article.

Incorporating social media could be the livelihood of many publications, especially those geared towards the younger demographic. With Smartphone’s in hand at any given moment, having QR Codes, PURL’s, Twitter and Facebook accounts easily listed in print media, it creates more opportunities of connecting with the reader than ever before in the history of print.

While online publications are growing at accelerated rates, print publication has never had the access of communicating more with the reader than now with the availability of social media.

Use it to its fullest potential!