Overwhelmed by Social Media

Is your head is hurting from trying to keep up with the whirlwind developments in the socia media world? Here are two articles from Swiftpage that can help you make sense of it and begin productively using social media in your work life.

Social Strategy Checklist for the Litte Guy
Where Your Business Should Have Presence


While social media can be intimidating if you follow the advice in the articles you can dip your toes in now and grow into being a power user.  Personally, I have found that:

• If you have a retail division Facebook is a good way to engage with transactional clients
• Twitter is a great way to share news and interesting links
• Linkedin can be useful for finding clients and service resources
• You can use Google+ to improve your search results.  I also think it will replace Facebook use for contract dealers and corporate users in general.  Circles is a vast improvement on friends.  Plus, it looks a hell of a lot better.
• Pinterest is a way to increase your visibility and showcase projects and products.

Swiftpage is a great email marketing service that integrates seamlessly with ACT CRM software.

Apps for the Design Community

Interiors and Sources has a great article in this months edition about useful and time saving mobile apps.  Be sure to check out the collaboration apps in the Useful Apps box.  There are extremely useful when interacting onsite with clients. I have found the manufacturer's iPad apps to be a great way to share ideas with clients as well.  AIS has a great one.

Everything Pin - Pinterest and your business

This is an absolutely fantastic article from Copyblogger about how to use Pinterest to market your business.  This visual oriented micro-blogging phenomenon is blowing up in social media circles and popular culture.  I think it will be the most useful social media tool for the design and office furniture community since Twitter.

Power Up on LinkedIn

This is a great article from Bloomberg News Businessweek about how to get the most out of your LinkedIn account.

Of the 25 great tips in the article here are my favorites.  People Search is great for prospecting.  Following Companies is a good way to stay up to date on what clients and potential clients have going on.  Answers is an excellent advice/how to resource.  Also, be sure to use the Additional Information field and check out the Applications that are available.  Happy Linking!

To see these features in action click on my LinkedIn profile button to the right.

How AutoCAD uses Facebook for marketing

Here is an interesting article from Social Media Examiner about how AutoCAD - a product we are all familiar with - uses facecasts on facebook to market to its users.  The facecasts sound like a great resource for interior designers as well.

Customized search engine for your website

Buying a customized site-specific search engine from Google is not only a good way to help people find what they are looking for on your site--it is a great way to drive clients, potential customers and even employees to specific blog posts. Rather than sending a visitor to a manufacturer site for product information via a link, send your visitors to a blog post on your site.

This keeps them engaged, on your site, and likely to contact you for more information rather than your vendor.  It also is a good way to drive traffic to the products you have been successful with in your market and want to promote.

For more information click here.  To see an example click here and use the search box in the lower right corner of the webpage.  There are many ways to customize the look and results of your search page.

Don't let your website cost you business

From Interiors and Sources magazine, a great resource for designers, this article is spot on.

01/24/2012

Study Emphasizes Importance of Maintaining Strong Web Presence for Small Design Firms. Study finds that 35% of potential customers have walked away from a small business because of a poor website.

PHILADELPHIA—A total of 46 percent of U.S. consumers have cancelled plans to spend with a small business after discovering a poor quality website, according to research recently released by 1&1 Internet Inc., www.1and1.com, a web hosting company. From a study of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, 35 percent have walked away completely and an additional 7 percent have opted to spend less as a direct result. Many consumers feel that small business websites today are mostly unattractive and often contain errors.

The majority of US businesses have now taken steps to launch a website and battle for valuable online visibility. However, 1&1’s "2011 Virtual Main Street Audit" finds worryingly low levels of consumer satisfaction with the small business websites available for them. The risk to SMBs from providing a bad online experience is clear—45 percent of consumers believe that a bad website makes a worse impact than a business having no website at all. This conclusion has led 35 percent to walk away from companies completely, in favor of using a competitor. An additional 7 percent of Americans have found themselves reducing their spending with small companies as a direct result of being deterred by a poor company website.

Oliver Mauss, CEO of 1&1 Internet, Inc. says, “Research shows that keeping an unattractive or badly functioning website online can comprise a risk to sales revenue. Consumers have increasingly  high expectations, and it is essential that every company website inspires confidence. Businesses that invest carefully in their web experience will see higher levels of customer spend, retention and referral.”

Many business websites have not evolved as they should have in recent years. One third of consumers surveyed (30 percent) believe they most often lack essential features, 28 percent find that  the small business websites they use are “unimpressive,” and 29 percent frequently find errors such as typos or broken URLs.

Mauss added, “Firms must not shy away from addressing their website’s weaknesses. For all business owners, customer feedback can be a hugely effective weapon for ensuring that the Web is performing for them.”

Click here for the entire article