The Yellow Pages are Done: It’s All in Social Media
A couple of months ago I walked into a shopping center and saw a pay phone. It seemed awkwardly out of place, like a relic in the wrong era. In a day where our mobile phones can play games, pay for items and buy coupons on Yelp, this pay phone could only push numbers and call people.
Attached to this pay phone was a copy of the yellow pages. The yellow pages hung off the phone booth, lonely as ever and the pages fluttered in the wind.
Truly obsolete.
In this day and age of social media, Yelp and Google search, searching through the Yellow Pages is a dirty process, right down to the ink on your fingers at the end. In the time it takes for anyone who can type on a keyboard to find a business, Yellow Page users are still flipping through the alphabet to see if their business is under a letter or a particular category.
In just a few short years, social media has:
- Made the Yellow Pages search an inefficient one, compared to social media
- Consumed excessive amounts of paper, even recycled - Millions of pages are printed each year to be put on the steps of households that never even look at them, but turn them into high chairs for little kids instead.
- Given businesses and consumers a chance to engage in real time on social channels. On the Yellow Pages, you cannot Tweet or share the business you found unless you physically clip out the ad. Do you have time for that?
- Lowered the barrier of entry for advertising. If you advertise in the Yellow Pages, the costs are crazy. A one inch spaced listing can range from $252 to $2,500 depending on location, and there is no guarantee that someone could see that small text when glossing for businesses. A larger page listing can run you anywhere from $10,000 to $90,000 depending on your location, and you don’t even get the chance to change the content displayed. A Facebook page is free and you have the opportunity to add content of your own from photos to videos as well as partner with other businesses over social media. Can your Yellow Pages do that? Imagine what an investment of $10,000 could do for your social media presence and bring in more business. The gains would be substantial.
- Created viral brand campaigns that really, really allow for more reach. Neither you nor I may ever visit Chuck Testa in Ojai Valley to have anything taxidermized, but we know about his services through the viral video he created with the help of Rhett and Link and the help of Reddit. Yellow Pages are static. Social media moves mountains.
Don’t be that business that advertises in the Yellow Pages. Join the future of marketing and customer engagement. Let me know how I can help you transition into the future of marketing, content management, video production and social media.
Albert Qian writes for Albert Qian: The Social Media Dude and has not used the Yellow Pages seriously in 10 years or more. Join him and move your business forward today.
Pinterest: Social Branding for Businesses
On Wednesday, I discussed the rise of social scrapbooking and social sharing. Pinterest, and how scrapbooking and sharing is the next level of personal relationships. While Pinterest can be used by individuals, brands can and should definitely take into the phenomenon as well. Why? See my three reasons:
1. Humans are visual
This one is as much obvious. Men and women when looking at another individual judge others by their appearances, above all else. Photos are just as much, and create memories with people and places. Pinterest takes advantage of that and does just that: create a visualized perspective of a brand, from the office to the employees to the events that the company is putting on. If you are Disneyland or a professional sports franchise, or even a college, with upcoming travel seasons, games and needs to recruit new students, there is definitely no hurt in implementing a strategy to put your best visual foot forward.
2. A picturesque experience
The social media experience is of course social, but also very experiential. One of the beauties of Facebook is that it has brought in an extra added flair to being at one place without actually being there. Being able to browse photos of a friend being in a foreign place is great, and Pinterest takes that to the next level. “Wish you were here” takes on a new meaning when you can like, comment and re-pin to another person’s wall, without the fear of seeing your picture going to all of your other friends’ walls by way of Facebook’s EdgeRank system.
3. A social experience
Tweets make it readable. Facebook makes it a relationship, and Pinterest makes it pinnable. Imagine if you were a restaurant and you posted each day’s special to your Pinetrest page. The potential of that is not only tasty, but sociable as well, and if you are a popular restaurant, a re-pinning of each day’s special adds flavor, meaning and fun - no pun intended.
What reasons do you think that businesses should use Pinterest for? Let me know in the comments below or tweet me @albertqian. Let me know how I can help your business become social, using Pinterest, as well!
