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.

If you aren’t able to travel this summer, the French Martini might be a winning substitute for any foreign culture cravings (or, at least it will satisfy your taste buds).  This particular recipe was served as a part of last week’s Denver May Market at the Grange Showroom where Alexandra spoke about the importance of company blogs while the audience enjoyed delicious French fare and martinis. Wish you had been there? Luckily, you can create your own French martini and enjoy it wherever you might be on the globe.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Vodka
• ½ oz Chambord
• 2 ½ oz Pineapple Juice

Preparation:

1. Back a shaker full of ice and add all ingredients
2. Shake or stir (Note: the pineapple juice makes the drink cloudy anyway, so the shaking gives a nice light texture because of pineapple juice’s tendency to froth!)
3. Strain into a martini glass.
4. Garnish with a lemon twist.
5. Enjoy!

If you haven’t already signed up for our monthly newsletter, The Gibson, add yourself to the list and a new martini recipe will be yours every month.

The WordPress name is becoming more well-known outside industries who work with technology. It’s not as popular as the Facebook name, but more and more I run into people who have heard of WordPress. However, many of those people don’t know the difference between creating a website with WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org. It’s not too apparent either when you visit the home page of either site. You have to dig a little deeper to find an explanation.

Before I guide you on which WordPress road to travel, it’s important to know that both the WordPress.com and WordPress.org solutions contain the same core features for blogging and content management. You can create a blog in both. You can create a full-blown website using both.

They are also both free.

The choice boils down to this:

• If you are managing your website and you have no programming experience or desire to learn, WordPress.com is for you.
• If you do not want to pay for and/or deal with hosting, upgrades, and backups, WordPress.com is for you.

Simple enough, right? Aside from techies, who wouldn’t go with WordPress.com? If you dig a little deeper, the decision can get complicated.

While WordPress.com is a robust and fantastic solution, the WordPress.org solution is much more flexible. For example:

1. You are limited to about 70 themes (designs/layouts) on WordPress.com. There are over a thousand themes that can be used with the WordPress.org solution.
2. You cannot install plugins on a WordPress.com site. A plugin is an additional piece of functionality that enhances your WordPress website, which has already been programmed. For example, lets say you want to add a form that people must fill out to contact you. Contact forms are pretty standard on websites. The WordPress.org solution offers plugins that allow you to add a contact form to your WordPress site.

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As our social media and marketing division has grown over the last six months, we have been asked increasingly if we offer classes about how to use the different social media tools for business.  We didn’t…until now!

Our latest structuring of packages for our social media clients has taken on an aeronautical theme.  Coming soon will be the announcement of our Marketing Jetpack, Social Media LaunchPad, Online Community Co-Pilot, and more.  What better name for our new webinars than Flight School!

In the near future, we will offer Flight School classes on the following social media tools’ uses for business: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Ava Living, and blogging.  Our first two Flight School classes will be offered on Facebook 101 for Business.

Agenda will include:

- Why your business needs a Facebook page

- How your personal profile and your business page are different

- The difference between Facebook groups and pages

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We recently launched the social media division of our company and since the launch have received tremendous interest and feedback.  As many of you readers know, I am very excited about utilizing social media tools as a part of a design firm’s greater marketing program.

It’s important to remember that social media and networking are tools.  Much like offline networking and media, you should not expect a magical result after setting up a Facebook page or tweeting for one day.  Would you expect to go to a Chamber of Commerce meeting one time and immediately have clients knocking down your door?  No.  Just like offline marketing, online networking follows a simple rule: You get out of it what you put into it.

Here are some key ways that you can get the most out of your time spent on social media utilization to drive return on investment:

-         Determine your goals. What do you hope to achieve with your greater marketing program, both online and off?  Do you wish for all of your marketing to drive people to your website where you have the call to action?  If so, make sure that you are also using your social networking tools to achieve the same goal.  Don’t just use Facebook or LinkedIn for the sake of using Facebook or LinkedIn.  This is a waste of your time.

-         Join the conversation. With a medium like Twitter, it’s important to not just tweet (post), but to also be an active conversationalist with your followers and those that you follow.  Answer questions, be a resource, and lend a hand.  Similarly, closely follow a few blogs in and out of your industry.  Post comments on those blogs to add value and to become an active participant in the blogging world.  When you join the conversation in these ways, you will have a more active surrounding community and, in the case of the blogs, you will get many more readers due to trackbacks and mentions on the blogs that you comment on.

-         Devote time. Social media tools—like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter—can easily become addictive.  Decide that, like your email, you will check them a couple of times a day and add to the conversation if you have anything valuable to share.

-         Use time-saving technologies. For Twitter, we recommend using TweetDeck to create groups, monitor replies, and manage conversation.  For a free blog interface, we recommend WordPress.  There are many other plug-ins that can save you time.  For example, you may use a plug-in that tweets and updates your Facebook page every time you post on your blog.

-         Be real and have a personality. If you are all business all the time, you will not realize the value of social networking.  People like to do business with people they like and the new market wants the companies that it does business with to have personalities.  While it is up to your discretion how transparent you are, you should not only post as if a robot in your company runs the social media show.  Big surprise that this does not endear people to your firm.  John Byrne, the editor of BusinessWeek, is on Twitter and while much of what he tweets are things that could be found in his magazine, he also adds a human element to it.  As a result, I am more likely to visit the BusinessWeek site and to buy BusinessWeek at the stands.

Utilizing social media can extend your dollar and you can see a significant return on the investment if you follow the key steps.  Do not, however, think that creating a presence on a number of social networking sites will have clients knocking down your door.  It is not pulling a rabbit out of a hat but instead is nurturing a rabbit and then letting it play with its other rabbit friends and help spread the word—and we all know how quickly rabbits multiply.