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 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?

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.

You might have heard mentions of our sibling company, OttoPilot Media, through the Twitter grapevine, but perhaps you’re wondering what OttoPilot Media is all about.  Make sure your tray tables are in the upright position– here’s the rundown:

In short, OttoPilot Media helps fly your business to a higher level through non-traditional marketing… but that’s more than just a catchy tag-line.  We work with companies to determine which social media platforms will be best for what they want to achieve.  Once that’s defined, we enhance and customize the necessary tools (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, and more) so each social media platform accurately reflects the brand or business.  We want our clients to look like the experienced pilots they are.

Plus, we take care of the hard part: effectively managing these platforms.  Signing up, refueling and applying a fresh coat of paint to these social media accounts isn’t enough– so we generate content, schedule posts and tweets, and make sure you’re always up-to-date, knowledgeable, and engaged with your online communities. You won’t have to worry about a thing– it’s like sitting in first class all the time!

Now, we all know that if a pilot got distracted while flying, the results wouldn’t be too favorable.  To avoid this, we stay focused and alert while your company runs on its familiar schedule (we know that can be a big distraction)– in order to deliver the best in-flight service and turbulence-free ride for you and your clients.

Moreover, we are specialists when it comes to helping our clients develop ideas and get people talking about their brand (and saying good things, of course).  We work with companies to define a manageable flight plan, and then implement our revolutionary tools  (i.e non-traditional marketing) to ensure our clients are visible across online platforms, and consistently sharing their unique brand with others.

Are the skies a little clearer now?  We hope you’ll get in touch to learn more about how OttoPilot Media can help your business fly to new heights!

Find us here:  and here:  

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.

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.  Furthermore, they responded to the people that commented on their post- “Wow!  Thanks for all of the feedback!  May is going to be contest filled so keep an eye on this page!”

What did I do???  I wrote this blog post.  For a moment, I thought about alerting Facebook.  Hell hath no furry like a social media girl scorned!

What is the appropriate way to deal with comments on your Facebook page or blog?  Unless it is vulgar or slanderous, NEVER delete a comment by someone who has taken the time to write it. This is a great opportunity to respond and to make things better.  It may be an opportunity to turn a poor customer service experience around or, in this case, it may be a chance to thank someone for giving your business a head’s up, whether you choose to follow it or not.

What did deleting this comment do for my fondness and future evangelism for this company?  It ruined it.  Poor form.

For a limited time, we are offering our Social Media Launch Pad at a discounted price

Our Social Media Launch Pad sets up your firm’s presence on all appropriate social media platforms. This starting point allows your company to jump into social media and learn along the way.

The Launch Pad includes:
• Kick-off call to explain the different tools and briefly discuss strategy
• Setting up profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Ava Living
• Adding photos, information, and all other necessary details to the above platforms to create pages that will show that you not only have a presence, but have a robust presence and want to encourage engagement
• Creating a blog for your firm, using one of hundreds of wordpress.com templates that work aesthetically with your current web site
• 1 month of “co-piloting” to ensure that you have a resource for questions as you begin using the different tools
• 6 months of unlimited Flight School classes that teach you about how to use Facebook, Twitter, Ava Living, blogging, and LinkedIn for business

Special Discount from December 11-December 31, 2009!

Cost: $695 $595

To learn more about the Social Media Launch Pad, please contact Martha at martha@gibsondesignmanagement.com

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

- Posting links, photos, videos, and events to make your page more effective

- Security of information

- Getting fans for your page

- Encouraging fans to interact once on your page

- How to use Facebook ads

- Resources required to keep a Facebook page going

- Using basic analytics to track results

- Does this really work?

Each online Flight School class will be limited to 12 participants.  This will ensure that people can ask questions and there is interaction between you and your Social Media Flight Instructor.  Register below and you will receive a confirmation within 24-48 hours.  Classes are 60-90 minutes and include a Q&A session.

Cost: $47.00 per class

We look forward to flying with you!

Date

Tuesday, Oct 6, 4 pm EST Wednesday, Oct 21, 2 pm EST

When you click Buy Now, the screen will look like the shot below.  If you don’t have a PayPal account, click the link shown.

If you have not become a fan of Gibson Design Management on Facebook yet, hurry up!  Today I am writing about a great gift app that we added to the page called “Send a Martini!”.  Through this gift app, you can send any of your Facebook friends a martini (there are currently 4 choices) to help them virtually celebrate a birthday or anniversary.  I frequently send them to friends who seem to really need a drink–even if it is only 10 am.

So, go to the page, become a fan, and then click on Send a Martini! tab and start your friends’ Fridays right.