A series to get your creative juices flowing for your interior design firm’s blog.  Read the introduction here.

1. Choosing towel colors.  How to use a spa-like approach or to accent with your bath towels.
2. 5 favorite pedestal sinks.
   

   Photo: Better Homes & Gardens

3. How to tell good upholstery from bad.  Possibly show pictures that will educate your reader on what they can look for when selecting a piece of upholstery.
4. Effects of glazing cabinetry.  How different glazes change the natural colors of woods.
5. Choosing the right area rug.  Size, style, and more.  Do you put the sofa legs on it?

Photo: Apartment Therapy

Be sure to check back next Monday for five more blog post ideas!

I am fairly transparent…with my social media profiles.  I don’t mind that people I know professionally see the more personal side of me.  Most people know I love martinis and Boise State football.  I tweet things that are not work-related and may sometimes border on unprofessional but I think it actually helps sculpt a fuller picture of who I am.  People want to do business with people, and not with logos.  May I turn a few people off by a few things that I say?  Maybe/probably.  However, I hope to endear more people by being more personable, by showing a sense of humor, and by being a real person–flaws and all (I know, you’re probably asking “what flaws?” and if so, you’ve been talking to my grandparents too much).

I do not limit who can see my tweets and our blog is completely open.  I only limit my LinkedIn account to people that I know, especially from school or professionally, because I think that a LinkedIn connection is somewhat an endorsement in and of itself.  However, on LinkedIn, I’m on my best behavior because that’s what people do on LinkedIn; they sit in their virtual suits with their virtual resumes and they virtually shake hands.  They don’t fist pump, take tequila shots, and wear jorts (jean shorts).

Facebook is another story.  When Facebook started showing business potential, we quickly jumped on the bandwagon with groups and then later with business pages.  However, I always kept my Facebook personal profile for me.  While it will not surprise any readers, there are probably pictures on there that I don’t want broadcasted to everyone and their mother, literally, and I have friends that post things on my wall that I might not want our banker to read.  That’s okay- I use privacy settings for anyone who is not a friend.  As Facebook has become more and more prevalent amongst professionals, I have started receiving many friend requests from people that I know purely in a professional capacity.  I used to never accept these; I made a conscious rule that my Facebook profile was for me and I could share it with whomever I wanted (that would also like to be my friend in return, of course).  A couple of months ago, when privacy settings became more robust, I started accepting purely professional contacts and put them on limited profile.  I broke my own rules.

Is your personal Facebook page under lock and key?

I immediately felt weird about it, but I felt worse denying someone that I do like “friendship.” As a result of breaking my own rules, I paid the price.  It was a minor incident and, for all intents and purposes, a miscommunication.  However, it was my fault and I knew better than to break my rules and boundaries.  I knew what I was comfortable with and I should not have wavered.

Since then, I “defriended” everyone that I previously had on limited profile.  If you are one of those people, I apologize.  It has absolutely nothing to do with how much I like you or a change in the “status” of our relationship.  I feel the same about you before the defriending that I feel about you now.

Is it not enough to connect with someone on LinkedIn and to follow them on Twitter?  Can’t they like our Facebook business page? My Facebook profile is for me, and if it means that my friends get to know me better and end up referring business to us because they like me, then that is tremendous.  Am I still friends with some people on Facebook that I first knew, and may primarily know, professionally?  Yes.  However, I feel comfortable with those people seeing more of my life.  I won’t give you reasons and I don’t have to give reasons.  It is my prerogative.  It usually has to do with how cute your profile picture is.  Of course I’m kidding but if I want that to be my friend guideline, then that is my guideline.  It is not our company rule–it is my rule.

The bottom line that I’m making here is that even the most transparent of us social media people might want to have a sacred online place too.  Don’t be offended if someone that you know does not choose to connect with you on a certain platform.  Everyone has different rules and guidelines and we don’t all need to be hyper-connected.

This is obviously my opinion considering I started about 80% of the sentences in this post with “I” but “I” would be curious to know what you all think.  Do you keep anything sacred or do you let it all hang out there?

Whenever I ask people what their main concern and block is for social media, a majority of them say producing content.  This is true.  All of a sudden, businesses that never had to write before are now tasked with being editors and journalists for their online diaries.  Blogging offers great opportunities to establish yourself as an expert, show your company’s personality, and be more searchable, but it can be overwhelming to think about coming up with a new idea 2-5 times per week.

In 30 minutes, I developed 35 ideas for blog posts for your interior design firm.  I realize I am leaving this to you to do the hard part—the writing!  Most of them are residentially-inclined, but I know that they will spur ideas for the commercial folks too.  You are more than welcome to use these blog post ideas verbatim.  However, you will also be thinking about your own spin so don’t let these limit your creativity.  Hopefully this list will help you think of even another 35 things that you want to write about.  If it does make you think of some posts, will you share them in the comments?  Remember that posts don’t have to be long, but they have to be interesting.  What is interesting to your reader?  They’ll tell you by what they retweet on Twitter, link to from their own blog, or comment on your blog.  It’s a learning experience and you’ll probably end up being surprised at what they most want to hear about.

I’ve divided this list into groups of 5.  It will give you enough to think about for the week and we will post them every Monday for the next 7 weeks.

1. Pantone color of the year and its uses.  Show ways that it can be used as a base color or as a subtle accent.

2.  Outdoor living rooms.  The change in fabric technology and options are amazing.  Highlight this or something similar for your reader.

Photo: Martha Stewart

3.  Window treatments and appropriate uses.  Educate your reader on the different window treatment designs and when each might be used.

4.  Ceiling fans– not from your first apartment.  Choosing a fan with style.

5.  Painting floors.  What to consider with color and sheen.

Photo: Design Sponge

Stay tuned for five more blog post ideas for interior designers, every Monday!

For those of you who have iPhones and frequently want to take pictures to post on your blog, Facebook page, Flickr, or other platforms, you may have previously been disappointed in the quality of the photos. In many cases, the contrast and color of the iPhone photos do not do the design justice. There are two iPhone apps—AutoStitch and Touch FX—that I recently started using that have significantly changed the quality of the photos that I can take with my phone.

AutoStitch:

AutoStitch allows you to take multiple overlapping photos that you can then “stitch” together for a panoramic view.  This is great for getting more of a room into the pictures.

One part of the image, before AutoStitch

And again, after AutoStitch

I am typically very stingy with spending money on apps, but I found the $2.99 for this app to be a well-spent business expense.  Now, when I take photos of any of our design projects in process or when I want to photograph the entire vignette at High Point Furniture Market, I am not limited.

Touch FX

For 99 cents, this photo editing app for your iPhone is also business money well spent.  I find most of my iPhone photos to lack contrast in color.  With Touch FX, you use your finger as a brush to touch up your photos.  You can also use your “brush” to make your photo sepia, black-and-white, posterized and more.  I particularly think that the “Contrast” tool is the most important for taking design photos and really punching up your colors and textures.  In the photo below, I used the contrast tool to doctor the left-hand side of the photo and the right hand side is untouched.  You can see the brightness and difference.

Left side– Touch FX contrast tool used; Right side– untouched

Todd Whiting, one of our GDM advisory board members, is the creator of Touch FX so that is how I found out about it.  I must say that I went kicking and screaming to actually spend money for an app (even an app made by someone I know- sorry Todd).  However, I can honestly say that these two apps, often combined, have made a huge difference in the caliber of photos that I can take and post with just my iPhone.

Happy picture taking!

I’m currently sitting on an Alaska Airlines flight, flying from DC to Seattle.  It’s a long flight, the seats are average size, and the paid snacks are average too.  However, there are some remarkable things about this flight that do not just have to do with Alaska Airlines.

This plane has WiFi.  Yes, I realize that this technology exists but it’s surprising how many planes do not still have the service (come on airlines, get with it).  I was excited to learn that we would have WiFi, but imagine my glee when I found out that Bank of America (who is the credit card backer of the Alaska Airlines Visa) would be covering the cost of the WiFi for all Alaska flights this month.  Typically the WiFi is up to $12.95 for a flight of this length.  I have a Bank of America credit card, and now I’m more likely to keep that card and to consider B of A for other banking and credit card needs.  I don’t know how the deal worked between B of A and Alaska, and I don’t really care.  I do care that I have free WiFi right now; my experience with Alaska is better and I like Bank of America more.

Bank of America win.

Alaska Airlines win.

Alaska Airlines also has these cool electronic devices called DigEPlayers.  This means that for a fee, you get your own digital player that is preloaded with several movies, TV shows, music videos, music, and more.  This is mentionable in and of itself because I like that I can choose what I watch and I don’t have to strain to watch a movie that I didn’t really want to see in the first place on an overhead screen.  I mentioned that these DigEPlayers have “More” and this is where we find another joint venture win.  I scrolled through the menu and found that the player has Soundview Executive Book Summaries.  I have seen these advertised in a magazine, and they did not look inexpensive, but imagine my glee (AGAIN) when I found that I could choose from over 45 business books and hear the executive summaries during my flight.  Now I’ve been able to try out this service, while I’m a captive, bored audience, and now I will be more likely to actually purchase this summary subscription

In-flight boredom eradicated... (at least on Alaska Airlines!)

from Soundview because I recognize the value and I like that they entertained me.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries win.

Alaska Airlines win.

Since I really enjoyed listening to a couple of these executive summaries, I found that I wanted to know more than just the 20 minute soundbyte on a couple of them.  This means that I opened my Firefox, went to Amazon, and bought the books…from the sky.  I’m sure this is SkyMall taken to a whole new level.

Amazon win.

Author win.

Alaska Airlines win.

So, the next time that you are thinking about running your company as an island, think about how much happier you could make your customers or clients if you give them things that may not cost you any extra but mean a lot to them.  People remember what made them happy and when they were happy.  Shouldn’t that be in your store, in your office, on your website, or on your flight?  I’ve almost even forgotten about the $20 that Alaska charged me to check my bag.

By the way, for inquiring minds that may want to know, I bought Seth Godin’s Free Prize Inside and Rohit Bhargava’s Personality Not Included.  I will keep you posted.

With all of the shiny new tools out there, many of our small business clients ask whether they still need use email marketing to reach their communities and audiences.  A few months ago, I would have said “yes”, but not as emphatically as I say it now.  A few months ago, I would have spouted off something about how your clients, influencers, and potential clients like to receive their information in different ways.  Not everyone is going to be on Facebook, reading your blog, etc. but they might actually like to hear from you by email.  I believe that this is still the case, however now we have some metrics to back it up.

Last week at the Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius conference in New York, Olivier Blanchard from The BrandBuilder not only gave an incredibly robust presentation on determining ROI from social media efforts but he also gave a REAL LIFE (these exist!) example of a small business who used different digital and print avenues to promote his business.

From Olivier’s presentation:

Example of spend justification — A retailer suspected his print advertising wasn’t helping. 90% of spend was on print, 10% was on email, blog, and in-store. We embedded unique promo codes in each channel. We did sales as tests. We didn’t need to measure all the time, just slivers of time. Of all promo codes, 4% of sales came from print, 69% came from email, 17% came from Facebook, and 10% came from web and blog.

In our own experience, we have also found that our clients have highest direct sales from email marketing compared to other platforms.  One of the design firms that we work with in Montana held a large sale on all furnishings from one of its manufacturers.  The firm printed and mailed postcards about the sale and….crickets.  For the same sale, we developed an email marketing campaign as well.  At least three large furnishing purchases were attributed directly to the buyers receiving the emails (side note: margins on furniture are large). Emails are sharable too.  For your list of 500, you may reach 1,000 when people forward on something good to their friends. That’s much more difficult with a hard copy mailer.

By what I’ve written in this post, I would imagine that several of you are thinking- “Well then why do we waste our time with Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and the other things that are about to make my brain explode?  Why not just put all of our resources into email marketing if we want to make more money?”  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, vlogging, etc. are important for the new way that we, as consumers and as sellers interact; we expect that interaction and it’s an important fundamental piece of our new marketplace.  On the digital marketing scale, email marketing is much less conversational. Conversations are important in building the bridges for future sales and future brand development.  Don’t give up on the other platforms, but especially don’t think that email marketing is now obsolete.  Just like each of the other tools, it has its place in your tool belt.

Practical, judicious and well-dressed, Scarlett O’Hara embodies more than just the charm of a Southern belle.  Her character gives us plenty of business-savvy lessons to work with– applicable to any time period, and regardless of proximity to the Mason-Dixon Line.

Here are four lessons to be learned from Scarlett:

1. Be resilient. Scarlett did not have an easy go of it after the Civil War.  She was forced to work the fields and manage the house after the death of her mother and the onset insanity of her father.  Furthermore, she had not a penny to her name and was deeply indebted to the tax collectors.  However, she pushed through.  We’ve all lived through the last 2 years of a terrible economic storm.  Even without poor market conditions, businesses will go through very tough times.  Resiliency, and will power, can often be the only thing to push us through the difficulty when it seems like everything is going to mud.  Sometimes it is about putting one foot in front of the other when things are really dismal.
2. Dress the part. When Scarlett goes to Atlanta to visit Rhett Butler in jail and ask for money to pay the taxes on Tara, she dresses the part despite being destitute (and wears the velvet drapes that Mammy fashioned into a gown).  As Thomas Fuller said “Good clothes open all doors.”  When you want something from someone—a sale, an investment, etc.—you need to look and act like you will survive without it.  Dress the part, inside and out.
3. Think about it tomorrow. Some days are overwhelming.  If you think about eating the whole elephant in one sitting, you will be sick thinking about the enormity of your task.  Not everything has to be done today.  Don’t bury your head in the sand but give yourself a break and realize that you are one person with the same 24 hours that everyone else has.  As Scarlett says, “I’ll think about it tomorrow.”  Some days you should do just that.
4. Don’t be foolish chasing after something that is not meant to be. Occasionally, we all really believe that a certain product or service is what is going to be our savior for our company.  We continue investing money and time, putting other lucrative services and products on the back burner.  Be honest with yourself about what areas of your business are really producing revenue.  Focus a majority of your efforts there.  Don’t spend your business life chasing after Ashley when Rhett is really the best fit.

I can already hear the rumblings of controversy based purely on this title.  Over the past few months, our social media division at Gibson Design Management and our subsidiary media company, OttoPilot Media, have been discussing objective ways to measure our social media efforts for our clients.  This has included discussion of customized metrics for each of our clients based on business and marketing goals.

I’m going to say it, so argue away: having more people “like” your Facebook business page is better.  This does not mean that you can just stop there.  You still need engaging content and someone consistently monitoring and responding so that it is a conversational platform.

When I first graduated from college and worked in sales and marketing for NVR, we were taught that a large part of sales is a numbers game.  If you don’t speak to anyone, and you don’t set any appointments, and then you don’t write any contracts, you’re not going to make any sales.  However, the (qualified) leads that you generated and the more appointments that you had meant that statistically you would be more likely to achieve your sales goals.

Don’t get me wrong- it did matter that these leads were qualified and that I was good at my job.  I wasn’t sitting down with 15 year olds who wanted to buy an $800,000 home.  However, these interactions were one-on-one.  It does not cost you any extra money on Facebook to reach 100 or 1,000 additional people via your page.

With Facebook, every time that you post, the number of people that post reaches is purely the number of people who “like” your page.  If that number is larger, you have a greater reach and reach is an important metric.  If your objective is brand awareness, having more people know about and like your brand is important.  If your objective is more sales, you are more likely to sell something with a greater audience.

Tomorrow is National Martini Day, but today is National Splurge Day (or National $plurge Day).  It’s probably fitting that a drinking holiday comes the day after a huge spending holiday.  You will likely need a drink after the fortune that you spend, or at least think about spending, on a great day of stimulating consumption.

I asked a few of our team members what they would splurge on today.

Martha's splurge- a vacation ending in Savannah, Georgia

“A 2 week vacation along the East Coast – New York to Savannah, Georgia, visiting museums, historical sites, etc.”  – Martha Kirkpatrick, Director, Member Services

“Haha I will try to think of something other than the iPad… although let’s be honest!” – Amanda Butterworth, Senior Director, Creative Services

“I would upgrade the rest of my flights in 2010 to First Class.  I might also buy some new Ferragamo shoes so I’m flying in style.”  – Yours truly (Alexandra)

“Prada shoes.” – Andrea Gibson, Advisor

Amanda's splurge- An Apple iPad. Photo: wired.com

On this spending day, I also started thinking about what I would really want to splurge on for Gibson Design Management or any of our other companies.  (more…)

3D renderings are still a very strong tool to use in client and potential client presentations.  However, for those design firms that truly want to set themselves apart, Gibson Design Management recently started offering animated walkthroughs.  This is a true “Wow” factor for your clients.  They are not inexpensive, but they are very powerful.  As we rolled out this new service, I took a step back and put myself in the design firms’ shoes.  I asked myself, “How can this help our members’ and clients’ businesses?”

Rendering by Gibson Design Management

Here are three main ways:

1. Sell emotion. When your client is able to see what their space is going to look like before it is even built or remodeled, they are going to bond.  They will bond with the space.  That bond will extend to their bond with you as the design firm.  Often it is difficult to communicate a visual to a client using words.  Eliminate the need for words and show them exactly what you mean. (more…)