Build Your Brand or Risk Extinction!!

Build Your Brand or Risk Extinction

This post is for employees, business owners, recent graduates… Anyone that isn’t planning to inherit their rich grandparent’s fortune… 🙂

Yes the economy is back… My clients are busy no matter their market and there seems to be enough work to go around.

Congratulate yourself for making it to this point, but now is not the time to get comfortable… It’s time to double down!!

Are you sharing content?

Are you creating fans?

Are you building a network?

If you’re not you’re competitor is…

This might not affect your bottom line today or tomorrow…

The problem is that by the time you realize that you need to start creating your army it will be too late…

Want to avoid extinction??

  • Start by taking a look at your social media profiles. Are they complete and current?
  • Is your content appropriate? Does your audience care that Kim Kardashian’s baby just turned 1?
  • Are you sincere? If not your audience will pick up on this right away.
  • Do you share content with a smile? You have heard the expression, you can hear a smile over the phone, well you can hear a smile in your writing.
  • Do you appreciate your network? Always thank your audience for listening to your thoughts and sharing your content.

Your turn – did I miss any?

What do you do to build your brand? I love reading your comments.

If you enjoyed it, please share with your network.

Are you using any other platforms? Let’s connect on Twitter, Facebook or G+.

The Week in Review – 2/1/14

The Mayor week in Review

Yes tomorrow is “The Big Game” and we will all be watching…

More importantly KBIS/IBS kicks off on Tuesday – they are expecting over 50,000 attendees!!

Denise Butchko and I are teaching a session – “How to use Houzz to bring Home Profitable Projects”

We are super excited and if you have time hope that you will attend.

So in the spirit of KBIS…

Here is your week in review –

On Twitter –

All you need to know about KBIS in one place

5 Rookie Networking Fails and How to Avoid Them

On LinkedIn –

7 Ways to Maximize your Sales Results at a Trade Show

Mark Mitchell posted – New Homebuyers Want Upgrades

On Facebook –

10 Questions to ask before you Renovate that Small Kitchen

I’m off to finish up packing…

If you will be in Vegas be sure to reach out to me… I would love to catch up with you!

Safe Travels.

5 Ways to Consistently Curate Content

The word Content on a cork notice board

Say that 10 times fast…

Creating fresh content for your audience isn’t always easy.

Other obligations and/or life get in the way…

Another way to give back to your network is by sharing articles, blog posts or videos that you find value in.

Believe it or not this is a lot more time consuming that it sounds.

In the beginning I would spend hours searching the web for the right article…

Keeping in mind my different audiences on different platforms.

Until I learned a few tricks and came across some websites that help with grabbing content worth sharing.

Best of all – these tools are all free –

Feedly.com is a site that allows you to pick the topics you are interested in.  These topics range from technology to fashion to business.  Within each topic you can than pick the news source that you want to save and feature in your feed.  These are credible sources like Business Week or Fast Company and are usually a good source of information.

Alltop.com is similar to Feedly.com. The amount of information available to you is incredible.  I lean towards Feedly because it easier to scan and personalize, you may prefer Alltop.  Both are worth checking out and bookmarking.

Paper.li is designed to be a digital newsletter.  It automatically searches the web for up to 25 topics and lays the stories out like a newspaper.  The layout makes it really easy to scan.  You can change the topics or content sources anytime.  I like to use Paper.li to save Twitter # “hash-tags.”

A private board on Pinterest.com.  I get a lot of my social media done after hours, which isn’t always the optimal time for sharing…   Pinning the story to a private board makes it really easy to share later.  This tip came from a Guy Kawasaki webinar that I attended.

“Favoriting” tweets on Twitter is similar to a “Like” on Facebook.  I use the favorite button a little different.  If I’m scanning Twitter and see a tweet with a link to an article that I think might be interesting, I “favorite” it.  Twitter saves your “favorited” tweets so you can access later – I find this a great way to maximize my time on Twitter.

Your turn – Are you currently sharing content with your audience?

How do you manage the articles?  What sources are you using?

Do you have any questions?  Post them below, I’m happy to help!

Thank you for reading!!

These Houzz Profiles Rock!

Screen Shot 2014-01-21 at 9.11.55 PMTake a look at these profiles –

You will see that they have spent a lot of time developing and building their brands on Houzz.

I don’t know or work with any of these companies…

I thought that we could all benefit by learning how other people are succeeding.

Martha O’Hara Interiors –

An architectural design firm that is killing it on Houzz.  They have almost 10,000 followers, 83 five star reviews, and have commented on over 2000 discussions.  They show up in the top position organically if you search for a kitchen designer, a bathroom designer or an interior decorator.

They are checking in through out the day, answering questions and giving back to their community.   You can see why they have so many followers and reviews.

John Whipple – By Any Design Ltd. –

John is a bathroom specialist that uses Houzz to show his expertise and personality.  His profile features 197 ideabooks – written like articles or blog posts.  Each one has a ton of great information from floating bathtubs to the pros and cons of ceramic tiles.

While reviewing his profile think about how can add this to your playbook.

Crips Architects –

They design new homes, additions and renovations throughout the Northeast and beyond.  Their profile features 79 projects with hundreds of magazine quality photos.  They have commented on over 2100 discussions, have 33 five star reviews and 4500 followers.

After reviewing these three profiles you can see while this may be a free platform it takes an incredible amount of time and dedication to build your profile to this level.

I’ll bet the SEO benefits, social proof and ROI is well worth it for them otherwise why would they put in so much effort?

Already have a profile?  What has your experience been like?

If you have any questions about Houzz or social media don’t hesitate to contact me at richdemarco@optonline.net

The Week in Review –

The Mayor week in Review

Last night while everyone was sleeping and I was watching ESPN highlights –

I thought wouldn’t it be cool if I did a weekly blog post highlighting some of the more interesting discussions, articles or posts across my different social media communities.

Here are a few things that you may have missed –

On Facebook

I typically share content on this platform that you can turn around and share with your communities.  It’s my way to help with your content creation…

The most clicked articles were –

Original use of space under stairs.

25 ways to repurpose those old toys.

Make sure to “Like” the page so that you can see the articles as soon as the come out.

Mayor[POP]art

On Twitter

I usually tweet social media, marketing and business articles.  Of course sprinkling in hardware posts.

My most clicked tweets of the week are –

24 social media tips for the DIY marketer.

Social media checklist for new websites and businesses.

Are we connected on Twitter?  Follow me, I’ll be sure to follow back.

On Linkedin

My Linkedin Group is Hardware Nation.  Many of the members are closet and kitchen people.  Please join and get involved in the discussions, or start one of your own.

Here is what you missed –

Interesting new product or gimmick?

A link to the new ACSP planning guide.

So there you go – my first week in review.

I’m guessing there is enough content here to keep you out of trouble this weekend – and maybe squeeze in a football game.

Enjoy!!

Let me know what you think – How was the first week in review?