United Linen Does Social Media Right

By Scott Hepburn | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)



A tip of the hat to Shel Israel for uncovering United Linen, a 73-year-old uniform and linen laundry service harnessing the power of social media.

I have to give a shout out to UL’s marketing director Scott Townsend. Scott gets social.

Not long after I mentioned United Linen in a post about B2B social media, I received a Facebook Friend request from Scott. Turns out Scott was listening to the conversations about his company and discovered my post.

We struck up a conversation on Facebook, where Scott shared some great thoughts on B2B marketing. He expanded on those thoughts in the comments section of my post. Then he Tweeted a link to my post, driving blog traffic and new Twitter followers my way.

Not once did he ask me if I needed my tablecloths cleaned.

I popped over to United Linen’s blog, and it’s full of useful content: napkin folding how-to videos, delivery delay updates, linen trivia, and more.

To borrow from sports lingo, Scott (and by extension, United Linen) is putting on a clinic in social media mastery. Here’s a recap:

  1. Listening/monitoring
  2. Participating
  3. Sharing & promoting others
  4. Valuable content

Scott never asked me for anything. And he doesn’t have to. If I ever meet a Midwest business owner who needs linen service, I know exactly where to send them: United Linen.

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Topics: Social Media
  • What a terrific example of an everyday business doing it right. Love the napkin folding hints! Social media isn't just for the big guys, and any business can provide helpful content to draw in potential customers. Thanks for sharing, Scott.
  • Scott:

    You are very generous and kind. Thanks for the mention and for using your platform to help businesses learn how to use social media tools to add value and stay relevant. You can teach an old dog a new trick.
  • Great reminder, Scott! Any company can dive in to SM and add value. It would be interesting to see a list of established (read: older) brick and mortar companies that get it.
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