Promotional product distributors and decorators share their tips for using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to successfully market your business:

LinkedIn:

• Stay relevant. “Make sure you do updates and stay in people’s minds,” says Anna Johnson, owner of Phoenix-based Super Embroidery and Screen Printing (asi/339634).
• Contribute. “Be part of conversations, be helpful, and don’t just lurk and sell,” she says. “Be positive.”
• Don’t get overzealous. “Don’t try to befriend too many people you don’t know because Linkedin will put you on notice for it,” Johnson says. “When you want to add someone, write them a short note to remind them who you are.”

Facebook:

• Celebrate your clients. “If a customer sends in a photo of them in their Sparkle Plenty wear, I’ll post it to our page and send them a link, too,” says Lee Romano Sequiera, owner of Philadelphia-based Sparkle Plenty Designs (asi/88444).
• Network as much as possible. “You can become friends of other embroiderers, or friends of your customers and friends of their friends,” Johnson says.
• Keep your personal life personal. “I have a personal and a business account,” Johnson says.

Twitter:

• Provide brief, succinct business updates. “It could be a sale on a particular shirt, or just any news item about your business,” says Mike Angel, vice president of marketing and U.S. sales for Melco Industries Inc. “Or, for a new client you’ve landed, use it as a news blast concerned to business or the industry.”
• Provide links to relevant information. “Decorators might post a link to an interesting article their customers might like,” Angel says.
• Use the search option. “Let’s say you serve fire departments,” he says. “You can search for those terms that reflect what your interests are.”
• Add followers. “Once you build a network, you can produce updates yourself, and hope people will begin to follow you and share,” Angel says.