As a designer, do you find yourself asking “what do they have, that I don’t?”  What makes a well-known, or celebrity designer, stand out from the crowd, receive accolades, book contracts, and the like?  You work your fingers to the bone, burn the candle at both ends to visualize and design thoughtful, beautiful, sophisticated spaces, just as they do.

The difference just might be their mastery of the social media whirl, their presence on the major Social Media platforms; Twitter, Facebook, Ava Living, LinkedIn, or their focus on up-to-this-very-minute trends showcased in twice-weekly blog posts.

Case in point, Tobi Fairley, known for her signature look of fresh simplicity that is both beautiful and functional, launched her blog in September 2008.  Today, it is read in 95 countries!  She is dedicated to timely updates of her business Facebook page, which has just about 3,200 fans, and at least 3-4 tweets per day.  All of which allow her to remain engaged and committed to her base, potential clients, and any publications looking for content.  She has been showcased in House Beautiful, Traditional Home, Better Homes & Gardens, along with other local and national shelter publications.  She is seen as a taste-maker and a trend-setter.

But all of this takes time, energy and the search for trends and topics that are interesting, and if that candle is burning while you are hard at work on a project, how do you do it all?  Gibson Design Management, and our sister company, OttoPilot Media, are experts in Social Media.  We know how to move the pieces around the gameboard to maximize your visibility and your fan base.  We would welcome the opportunity to answer any questions, and help you through the Social Media maze!  Please contact Martha for details.

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?

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.

A salon in our hometown of Charlottesville is doing a great job with promoting its business on Facebook.  They have tremendous fan interaction and loyalty, and you can really see the personality of the salon, without even stepping foot in the door.  In fact, I was so impressed with their company after being a fan on Facebook for the past few months I even considered scheduling my next hair cut there…until today.

I am a fan of their page on Facebook.  A week ago, they posted on their wall that if they got to 1,000 fans (now “likes”) by the end of May, one of their fans would receive a giveaway.  This is clearly against the Facebook Terms of Service agreement which now prohibits contests being held on a Facebook business page unless offered through a third party vendor or approved by Facebook directly.

I felt a bit like a little kid saying “my mom says that you’re not supposed to do that”, but I wanted to make sure that this salon did not get in trouble and have their hard work on Facebook be for naught.  I commented on the giveaway post by the salon and diplomatically told them to be careful about offering contests on their page.  I also said that I was not sure how actively Facebook was enforcing these guidelines, but I wanted to be sure that they knew.

What did the salon do???  They deleted my comment.  They have then proceeded to post more on their wall about this giveaway, even weekly contests to their “likes” group.  (more…)