We have had an overwhelming response to our Social Media division of Gibson Design Management.  In just one day recently, we added four social media clients who are interior design firms across the country. 

Chances are, these designers may be your competitors. 

If you understand the necessity of integrating social media into your business to stay ahead of the curve, see more information about our Social Media Starter Package here.

The social media and networking starter package is $695.00.  If you sell one sofa, your mark-up should pay for this so no excuses.  Don’t be a dinosaur.  You can’t afford to not be educated about the new way of marketing. 

Here is a great testimonial from one of our social media clients:

Alexandra and Amanda are great to work with.  They were with me every step of the way.  They had me tweeting right away!  They helped set up my Facebook profile and company page and helped me get started with my blog!  They made this process that would have been stressful and intimidating a very enjoyable and stress-free experience.  I still can’t believe I have accomplished my social networking goals in just a matter of days.  I would still be an “unknown” in the social networking world if I did not sign up for the starter package. Great investment and worth every penny!  – Linnore Gonzales, CID, Denver, Colorado

Click here to learn more and to sign up before the early bird pricing expires.  If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to email me at alexandra@gibsondesignmanagement.com.   

I’m off to Los Angeles on Friday, May 29th through Monday, June 1st!  While in LA I will be meeting with some business associates but also have openings.  Let me know if you need to see my smiling face while I’m out there!  Send me an email at alexandra@gibsondesignmanagement.com.

On Monday, June 1st, I fly to Denver and will be there until Thursday, June 4th.  While in Denver I will be doing a social media workshop for some of the lovely ladies at Southern Living at Home and then will be presenting on social media for interior designers at the Denver Design District on June 2nd at 5 pm.  Thank you to the Denver Design District and especially the Whitney Evans showroom for hostessing.  If you’re interested in the presentation and are going to be in Denver, click here for more information.

As a designer, you have undoubtedly faced the challenge of finding that perfect piece for a project only to learn that it won’t work.  Maybe it’s the price point, maybe you are looking for an eco-friendly option or maybe your client has fallen in love with a particular fabric and you have just been told it has been dropped by the mill.  These are all great opportunities to utilize your Project Sourcing team.  Our team will research the options and provide you with alternatives that meet your needs; meanwhile, you can continue to focus on other matters and keep the project on track.  You’ll have a solution to design emergencies before a client meeting, keeping things positive and moving along.

“My client will NEVER go for the price tag on that piece!”

For your client’s new dining room you have chosen a Grange Louis-Philippe 2-Door China Cabinet, a beautiful piece.  When the price quote comes in, retail is almost $9000.  Knowing the budget constraints on this project you realize you need to find a more affordable alternative.  Fortunately, your Gibson sourcing specialist is able to locate a similar look in a piece that retails for about $5600 from Woodbridge Furniture – savings for your client of more than 35%.

“I love this fabric, but my client prefers to work with green materials”

You have found the perfect fabric,Glant Couture Herringbone N. 4/Parchment. However, you need to locate a green alternative.  Not only is your Gibson sourcing specialist able to locate an eco-friendly fabric, they’re able to save you money as well.  The original fabric you selected retails for $220/yd.  The green selection from OEco Textiles  retails for 20% less. 

 “We have fallen in love with this fabric for the window treatments in the dining room, and now find out the mill has dropped the line”

Imagine having found the perfect fabric, introduced your client to your vision and watched them fall in love only to find out that particular fabric is no longer available.  You can put your Gibson sourcing specialist to work locating an alternative and have the sample in hand for your next meeting with your client.  Crisis averted!    

With both of our offices (Charlottesville and Portland) in the throws of some lovely spring weather – we felt like a tropical martini was in order this month.  This tropical martini is like a sophisticated pina colada, with an extra vodka kick! 

Coconut Martini

Ingredients:

-         1 ½ oz Citron Vodka

-         ½ oz Malibu Rum

-         ¼ oz Coco Lopez, cream of coconut

-         2 lime wedges

-         Ice

-         Sugar for rim

Preparation:

1.      Use lime wedge to wet glass and dip in sugar

2.      Muddle lime wedges

3.      Add Citron, Malibu Rum, and Coco Lopez over ice in a cocktail shaker

4.      Shake well and pour into cocktail glass

Enjoy! 

We have started working with a lot of great interior designers all over the country to integrate social media tools into their marketing initiatives.  Social media is not easy and many interior designers feel overwhelmed, especially by the time commitment.  Some common phrases we hear from our clients are:

“How often do I have to tweet?”

“How am I going to find the time to update all of these things?”

“Wow!  I have all of these followers, now what?”

“TAKE A DEEP BREATH” is my usual response.  A few days ago, Leo Babauta wrote a post for Mashable.com called HOW TO: Simplify Your Social Media Routine.  As he can explain it more succinctly than I, take a look and, again, take a breath.

From Mashable.com:

These days participating in social media such as Twitter, Facebook, blogging and more is almost required for any entrepreneur or business, small or large.

But there’s so much info and chatter coming in through social media that it can overwhelm you, eat up your time, and ruin your productivity.

Simplifying will help you stay in touch, and continue to participate in the conversation, without losing sight of your mission and the important work you need to get done.

Read more…

It came to my attention this morning that another company in our industry created a knock off of our social media starter package for interior designers.  I must admit that I was appalled that 1. someone would have the audacity to use our title, our pricing, our process, and some of our wording and that 2. this person was someone who had misled me and had phone conversations with me under false pretenses.

In response, I did what any social media maven would do, I tweeted about it.  I posted the two links to show the comparison between what we advertised as our package on our website, starting in February 2009, and what this person is now advertising.  As many said, the similarities were uncanny.

Upon confronting this person via telephone, I was told that there was no way that he would ever copy anyone.  When asked what I would like him to do, I merely said that if he felt like he had done nothing wrong, then he should leave the page up as it stands and he had nothing to worry about.

Needless to say, the individual’s page came down, the pricing for the package was changed to FREE and the individual began a Twitter crusade to align his troops against us.  I did not participate in this nor will I.   This is not how we work.  We work collaboratively internally and externally.  We can sleep at night.  We are not okay with imitation and plagiarism.  The Gibson Design Management team works too hard to have someone copy and paste, change a few words, and then call the work his own.

Below is a screen shot of the page that was put up as this person’s own “original idea”.

To see the description of our Social Media Starter package, please click on the box on the right of our blog entitled, “Introducing our New Social Media and Networking Starter Package”.  You too will recognize the “uncanny similarities”.

Our company’s stance on this incident is that we are disappointed that someone would not use his own ingenuity to develop a better mouse trap.  We are also very disappointed that he is now trying to smear our good name when we have done nothing more than let him know that we will not stand for this type of unprofessionalism.

The interior design industry does not stand for knock offs.

Chances are good that you are not familiar with the term “teamsourcing.”  While outsourcing professional services is nothing new, we feel the word outsourcing doesn’t quite capture the innovative essence of what Gibson Design Management is all about.  Our goal is for our members to view us as a part of their team.  Traditionally, when most people think of outsourcing, there is a lack of personal connection.  Our team genuinely feels excited to help our designer members grow and prosper in their business; our members are not just another client that we process a job for. 

We’ve come up with our own official definition of our new word – Webster’s hasn’t quite caught on yet to our cutting edge way of thinking…so straight from the “Gibson” dictionary:

teamssourcsing (noun)  teamssourcsing [teem sawrssing] the innovative, strategic utilization of a fully staffed team of professionals to increase a design firms’ efficiency, profitability, expertise and versatility. 

Now that we all understand just what Teamsourcing is, let’s talk about some of the ways teamsourcing can help you run your interior design business.

Technology – Recently my daughters were moaning and groaning while using our family computer because it is “so ancient and slow!”  Since my husband and I both have our work laptops we don’t end up suffering the perils of this 3 year old computer very often; therefore, we haven’t felt the need to upgrade yet.  It seems like with anything in the technology realm you are constantly feeling out of date and under equipped.  With Teamsourcing, you have the benefit of an expert team who are continually learning the latest and greatest, while investing in the necessary equipment to deliver it.  You are able to offer your clients the most up to date technology without large expenditures on equipment and training.

“Thanks so much for your team’s work on our project. The kitchen designs were immaculate,3D work was stunning and the client is now very happy.” -David Bassett-Parkins, CEO, Ava Living

Time – The commodity most of us are probably most lacking in today’s world is time.  Try as we might, we haven’t figured out how to invent a 30 hour day.  However, by teamsourcing some of your responsibilities and tasks you are able accomplish much more with the 24 hours that are in a day.  Delegating tasks to a team that can handle them quickly and proficiently allows you the time necessary to focus on the aspects of your business that you enjoy.  We can’t create more hours in the day, but we can certainly maximize each hour we do have.

“I was at a conference all day on Friday. When I returned from the conference I had all of my proposals ready and waiting for my next client meeting thanks to Gibson Design Management. If I wasn’t a GDM member, I either would not have been prepared for my client meeting or I would have had to miss my conference to prepare.” - S. Lee Wright, Allied ASID, Holistic Designer New York, NY

Expertise –Let’s face it, we can’t all be experts at everything.  To be honest, I wouldn’t even want to be an expert at everything because quite frankly there are jobs out there I would not enjoy.  A major benefit to teamsourcing is the ability to call on your specialized teams that have the expertise (and passion) for what they are doing.  In our own homes most of us don’t try to take care of everything.  We have trained professionals we call on for assistance with at least some of those tasks (plumber, electrician, handyman, landscaper, housecleaning, etc.)  My landscaper and his crew take really good care of my yard!  Yes, I am capable of doing it myself, sort of, but it sure doesn’t look nearly as good and takes me at least twice as long.  Teamsourcing affords your design firm the advantage of expert teams available to take care of those areas of your business where you lack the proficiency and enthusiasm.

“There is no task too large or too small that the friendly Gibson Design Management staff cannot assist with. The team at Gibson Design Management has made the entire project as effortless & seamless as possible.           -Matthew B. Quinn, Air Sea Packing Group Inc., Long Island City NY 11101

Profitability – One of the most significant benefits to teamsourcing is increased profits.  With most of our services our members can easily mark up our service fees and pass it directly onto their clients, making a nice profit.  Additionally, you also have those hours available to generate revenue yourself, at your hourly rate.  And if you decide you want to celebrate your new profits by taking a trip to the Bahamas, you won’t need to worry about keeping an assistant busy.  Our team is there when you need us; not a financial drain when you don’t.

“Gibson Design Management has taken a burden off my shoulders in a way that allows me to service customers in a timely manner and still profit…THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I look forward to doing more and more with you.” -Valerie Steil, A.S.I.D., Marc T. Nielsen Interiors, Valparaiso, IN

Flexibility – the ability to be nimble, to expand and contract as your projects require is a huge benefit to teamsourcing.   The amount and complexity of projects you are working on is bound to fluctuate; it’s never any fun to have to turn down a project because you lack the team to handle it or to lay off employees because you lack the work to support them.  Teamsourcing gives you the flexibility to handle bigger projects, take a month off in the summer to play with the kids or redefine yourself as a designer.

“Outsourcing to Gibson makes perfect sense because it gives you the ability to handle bigger projects with their help and expertise” -Laurel Quint, Q Interiors in Denver, CO.

Professional Networking – In any business, networking has always been of vital importance.  In today’s culture it’s not only possible, but critical to network with industry contacts around the nation (and beyond.)  When you teamsource to GDM, you have the ability to let our social butterflies handle some of the networking for you.  We are always connecting with industry affiliates to form and strengthen relationships, keep up on all the latest trends and news, and stay informed about information our members need to know.  Our team loves to connect our members with industry affiliates and contacts, open doors, and help our members get and stay connected to the interior design industry. 

“I still can’t believe I have accomplished my social networking goals in just a matter of days. I would still be an “unknown” in the social networking world if I did not sign up” -Linnore Gonzales, Decor and You, Denver, CO.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo – how about a Cosmoquila Martini to celebrate tonight!

Cosmoquila Martini

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Casa Noble Tequila Crystal
• 1 oz Cointreau
• 1/2 oz Fresh Lime Juice

Shake ingredients over ice, then strain into a cocktail glass.

Enjoy!

Upon sitting down to my desk this morning I received an interesting tweet from a USA Today Leadership reporter for the Money section who was conducting a grand experiment.  Del Jones, the Money section reporter, conducted these interviews for a cover story with CEOs entirely via Twitter.  What that meant is that all of our requested responses had to be 140 characters or less, although you could send multiple tweets.  This was quite a task considering the question of the evolution of our economy’s philosophy.  I was hoping for a good warm-up question like favorite color for a spring cardigan.  However, I suppose that does not make front page news.  Below is the conversation thread showing his request to me, followed by my responses and and his follow up questions.

Many people have asked me the $64 million question about the ROI of Twitter and other social media tools.  Twitter and Facebook have provided excellent opportunities to connect with the media in more of a pull-fashion.  Previously, when contacting the media with a pitch, you might worry about calling at the wrong time or being off topic.  With social media, you are able to start or join a conversation.  In the last six months, I have been interviewed for books and magazines by editors and authors whose ears might have been deaf to my otherwise plaintive cries (considering the meek and quiet wallflower that I am).  Twitter provides a much more comfortable forum for offering yourself as a resource and not feeling overly sales-y in the process.

Here are some key takeaways for working with Twitter to connect with traditional media folks:

1.  Follow them.  Read what they tweet and start to gain insight into what they are working on.

2.  If they ask a question to the greater following, respond with something helpful.  Do not pitch them immediately.  If they like what you have to say, they will keep the conversation going.  If they don’t respond right away, don’t give up; continue to try to help and be on topic for what they request.

3.  Reporters and media people need resources.  Be that resource; direct them towards a blog post that might help, even if it is not your blog post.  In fact, it’s even better if it’s not your blog post.  You then appear to be an even greater resource and show that you have their best interests at heart.

4.  Ensure that your Twitter profile is robust.  You only have a few seconds and 160 characters to show who you are and what you do.

5.  Join a Twibe at www.twibes.com.  This is a website for Twitter groups; you may choose to join the interior designer group or the furnishings group, for example.

6.  Add yourself to the WeFollow Twitter directory at http://wefollow.com.  Use three words to describe yourself or what you are interested in.  For example, I have myself listed under #ceo, #interiordesign, and #entrepreneur.  The hashtag is added by WeFollow for help with searching.

The most important things to remember when interacting with traditional media folks is true through regular pitching or through social media interactions–be on topic and be a valuable resource.  If you are genuine and authentic, you won’t go wrong.  At least if you do, they will be much more likely to forgive you.