A Brilliant Bet?

Written on Jan 22, 2010 by in All Print, Process Automation

Mix one part cloud computing, one part social media, a dash of digital printing, a bunch of experimentation, and you get a start-up digital printing company in San Diego using the moniker, The Social Print Experiment.

The idea is to leverage the power of Web 2.0 and social media as a solution for two common small business needs: minimizing overhead costs and generating sales. There is a socialistic element to this social experiment from the intention to disclose all successes and failures publicly. The plan originated with one of the principles, Andrew Simmons, who has set ambitious goals for the first year of operation. The company wants to reach $1 million in sales with at least a 30% profit margin, which is a lofty goal compared to the single digital average of most printers.

A digital press, web enable software, and the freeconomics of the Internet will be used to test the power of this business plan. To put idea into action, software offered as a service (SaaS) from many different companies will keep overhead costs extremely low while offering a sophisticated level of automation where one system directly feeds another. Marketing efforts will primarily focus on the big three social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Video postings, ala a reality TV print shop, will push the marketing even further. Conceding the need for somewhat traditional methods, the company also plans on a direct mail blast using trackable pURLs.

Regardless of the first year outcome, this is an experiment worth following. My guess is that there will be equal parts of challenges and successes with a healthy dose of freshly minted best practices that any printer could implement. The timing and conditions may be optimal for the shop to find success beyond experimentation. Ultimately, the gambit could be a brilliant bet toward the future direction of print shops and other small businesses alike.

Track the action on Facebook, Twitter, or this LinkedIn group.

Shout Back: Do you think this will work?

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3 Comments - Leave a comment!
  • http://profile.typepad.com/6p01053690ac10970c Michael Josefowicz

    I think this one is most definitely worth watching. Just a quibble with the phrase “socialistic element” I think a better description is transparent. In some ways that may turn out to be the big deal.
    Printers, since the “black art” was invented tend to be remarkably and unreasonably protective of what they do and what they know and who they are talking to.
    Perhaps it made some sense back in the day when each shop had it’s “secret” to make a hard to manage manufacturing process work reliably. But with the improvements with technology, those days are long past.
    There are no longer any trade secrets. Just better implementation in various niches. Transparency is not a nice to have. It’s just a much cheaper faster way to get from here to there.

  • http://profile.typepad.com/1229300852s23985 Ryan McAbee

    As posted on their site, it already appears that the transparency has generated a disproportionate level of publicity, good will, and economic benefit (vendor support) for the “experiment.”
    Increased levels of transparency and interoperability are probably the new norm for a lot of industries, including print. (The financial industry is another!) Just look to the level of vendor coordination and increase in printer peer groups within the past year. After all, printers are facing just as many, if not more, challenges outside of the industry than within.
    Thanks for the shout back!

  • http://www.socialprintexperiment.com Andrew Simmons

    Thanks for the article, Ryan! To take it a step further, I think that the transparency is the key, not just from our perspective but from that of the vendor technologies we choose to work with.
    For example, the MGI press is a relatively new product in the US, and doesn’t work on the same business model as a Xerox or HP Indigo (i.e. no click charges). So, as an armchair quarterback visiting our site, you can drill down into the cost of a job we sell and what the components to manufacture it cost. How much did the toner really cost? What kind of waste was there? How profitable was it really? How much was spent to market the product, to acquire the customer.
    All of these things become questions you can ask in your own acquisition sales cycles to ensure that you have the full picture before making a decision (and thus, help turn your single digit profits into something more meaningful). In theory, anyways.
    We’re also publishing articles on how we acquire the business, both through social media platforms and also traditional means, like direct mail.
    It’s a fun adventure, and I hope you’ll continue to stop in and see our progress!