Print buyers, printers, and all other business communicators need to appreciate the power and the reach of social media. Even if you're not into them, you should understand how they're used by millions of people today.

I believe that social networking sites are among the strongest assets available to ambitious professionals. They've certainly impacted my business. When I built the Conference program, I naturally included sessions on new media.

One of these sessions will be given by Peter Muir, president of Bizucate (www.bizucate.com). On Thursday, November 5th, Peter will deliver the breakfast keynote entitled, "Professional Social Networking: How to Leverage Facebook & Other Social Networking Tools." He's an entrepreneur, business educator and yes, an RIT grad who has expert knowledge about print manufacturing.

At his keynote, Peter's going to expand our minds (uh oh, having a '70s flashback) as he explores ways to optimize our social networking skills for business and industry.

I asked Peter 5 questions about his presentation.

MD: It's unnerving to jump on board Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook if you've never done it before. Do you have a simple game plan for the uninitiated?

PM: You can sit around and hear about it, you can get an account and watch OR you could get active in a few ways that work for you. Social networking can be a black hole of time but not if you follow a few steps I’ll share in my session on how you can get started and really leverage how to make these tools work for you as part of your social networking strategy.

MD: Will you be sharing a few examples of how professionals like print buyers have used social media to benefit their businesses?

PM: Media buyers, print buyers, communication coordinators and more are starting to purchase services from outside vendors when it comes to social networking. I will share lots of examples on how professionals inside and outside graphic communications are leveraging these tools to benefit themselves, their organization and their customer/members/constituents and so much more!

MD: Everybody loves resources. Please say your handouts will include resources for the audience's benefit.

PM: Well, they teach you when you put together presentation slides to have as few words as possible. My slides may have few words, but my handout will be packed with resources to help you expand your mind and make you dangerous if you take the time to check them out. I’m also interested in your favorite resources, bring them with you and share them with me after the session. I’ll pull them together and update the materials to reflect them!

MD: Surely you're using various social media to grow your business. What can you share with us about that?

PM: I’ll be showing my new/old business cards which include 16 channels or ways to reach me/see what I’m doing. They’re already old because I added a few more. There is a core I use actively in my business and many other businesses use too and we’ll be defining and focusing on them in my session.

MD: What's difficult for all of us is figuring out what portion of one's business development and/or marketing efforts (time and budget) should be earmarked for social media as opposed to traditional media like print. What's your take on this?

PM: I believe the relationship between social media and print isn’t an either or…it’s all about a case that can be made where a collection of multiple mediums can have a greater impact than just one. Depending on your current and future demographic, this can change, and we’ll be talking about this specific point more than once during my talk. I look forward to responses from the audience on questions like this.

Thanks, Peter!

Join us for Peter's keynote at 8 am on November 5th at the 4th Annual Print Buyers Conference in Westford, MA. If you haven't seen Peter in action, you should be forewarned: he's a natural speaker who studied acting (as well as philosophy). He's animated and exhilarating, and his handouts are chock full of content and practical ideas. Don't miss him. Check out his video on our conference video page.