Do They Know What You Do?

During my morning reading today, I read a very thought provoking blog that Jane Pollak wrote. Jane titled her blog What You Don't See. As you read you kinda chuckle, thinking about the people you know or really don't know. Maybe we really don't know how much knowledge our friends possess on a specific subject or how amazing they are in their field of expertise. Which brings me to Jane's final question . . .

Do Your Clients Know How Good You Really Are?

If you don't tell them who will? Many of our clients have only seen a limited scope of our skills and talent. It is easy to share little bits and pieces of your knowledge with your clients and potential clients. All you need to do is begin writing weekly newsletters or blogs. Make sure your articles automatically feed to Facebook and Twitter. Remember, your articles should be short, sweet and have photographs. Many times longer articles are put on the back burner to read later, when the reader has more time. When will that be?

Jane you're right, your friend Katie Settel is a remarkable photographer. I love the theme song she selected for her website Just Like Heaven by Katie Melua. To read Jane's entire article click here. . .

Don't have a blog? We can help. Minutes Matter offers a Blog Design service that will get you up and running in no time.

You're the Expert, Let the World Know!

There is an enormous amount of talent in the interior design industry and everyone wants to know where we go, what we have to say, and what we do. People stop and listen when designers speak!

The Internet has made it so easy for us to share our knowledge with our local community, as well as the world. You can become an expert in no time! I highly recommend creating a blog as one of your "Top Ten Tasks for 2010!" Since interior design is all about creating a custom look and feel, blogging is a perfect (and free) solution for attracting and keeping new clients. While I still firmly believe that every business should have a website, a blog is a less formal way to communicate your thoughts and ideas to clients online. The content on a blog is dynamic and is always changing.

Blogging is fun and easy. At first it may seem like it's overwhelming, as you start thinking about what are you going to write about or how much content should you put into your blog. Once you begin to blog, you'll find there is an unlimited amount of topics you can blog about. Some of the blogs I write take only 20 minutes, like "Tis the Season!"


Click on the picture above to see my blog, "Making a difference in a community!" that I recently posted regarding our local Middle Tennessee WCAA Chapter involvement with Habit for Humanity. Everyone loves to hear how businesses give back to the community. At the same time, I also mentioned the non-profit WCAA organization, in which I am a member. Mentioning organizations that you are a member of will give your company another stamp of professionalism in a customer's eyes.


Above is another example of a blog, "Tis the Season," with decorating tips for the holidays and how Casey was inspired by the Anthropologie store.

Take time to skim over all the different topics I have posted for my own design business, Dandelion's Blog. You will see I blog about everything from technology to designs tips. I even posted a blog about adding beauty to your backyard with Yellow Finches! I use my iPhone and take shots of interesting things at conventions or seminars that I know will be of interest to my readers.

The most difficult part of blogging, by far, is getting started. Fortunately, Minutes Matter has made starting a blog super easy. We offer a ONE-TIME blog setup for only $327. We register and completely set your blog up and even add the first post! Be sure to read the entire list of features and benefits of setting up a blog through Minutes Matter. Once your blog is set up, all you need to do is add one interesting topic per week. How much easier could it be?!?

Blogging ~ The Real Facts (Part One)

I am sure you have heard the term Social Networking. Even if you haven't heard that term, I'm sure you are familiar with Facebook, MySpace, or blogging. In this article, we are going to discuss blogs. We will discuss Facebook in a future ezine so don't miss it! Let me give you a little insight on why this topic is extremely important to our industry and, most importantly, YOU as a business owner. This past January, I joined a webinar which confirmed to me the fact that times are changing. It started with this shocking statement, "If you as a business owner are not on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter and don't have a blog then your business will be dead or dying in three to five years." I was astounded at that statement. (Oh, and he had already stated that he assumed everyone that had a business has a website.) I knew right then it was time to stop putting it off and I began to create my Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Of course, miracles don't happen overnight, but you DO HAVE TO START MOVING toward technology and you MUST to do it NOW! If you continue to wait, your competition will be moving forward while your business remains stagnate.

The REAL FACTS: The last three Dandelion Interiors clients were direct results of Google searches. In fact, we just had another caller today who said she found us on the Internet. We asked what specific search engine she used and she said Google. Then we asked her for her search words and she said "cornice boards, window treatment, and Nashville." Had we not had a website, we never would have received those calls! If you were visiting a company's website, interested in doing business, and ready to spend thousands of dollars, wouldn't you check out that company's blog? Of course you would! In a world of instant gratification, your potential clients now research a company before they ever pick up the phone. So why should you have a website and a blog? A website gives your customers a general company overview; however, a blog is key to developing a relationship with your client. As Jeffrey Gitomer says, "If they like you, and they believe you, and they have confidence in you, and they trust you - then they may buy from you."

As I began writing this article, I realized this topic requires a considerable amount of content so I decided to break this article into multiple parts. In part 2 we will share more technical information on creating a blog, this week we will discuss our recommendations for the "best choice" when starting your blog.

We receive tons of questions regarding which blog is the best: Wordpress or Blogger. Both of these companies offer free blogs and both have their pros and cons. We actually created two company blogs (Dandelion Interiors & Minutes Matter) on both blogging sites (Wordpress & Blogger). After comparing the two, we ended up selecting Blogger since it was a little more user friendly and much more customizable.

Here is why Blogger won us over:

• Design: Blogger has more customizable templates. Since our industry is all about "design" this is a very important factor.


• Colors: The subject line, hyperlinks, and font colors can be customized to match the branding of your company.


• Anti-spam: Includes an anti-spam feature when visitors post article comments.


• Dashboard: You are automatically logged into your Dashboard allowing you access to multiple blogs that you have created.


• Easy Edits: Edit tools (pencil & wrench) are viewable on blog for owner & authors to make it very easy to edit an article or add another link to your sidebar. (You will not see these tools when viewing our blogs, since you are not an author.) (See screenshot)


• Postings: Post dates can be edited as needed.

Blog Images: To sign up for Blogger, you will be prompted to create a Google account. Once this account is created, you will automatically be signed up for Picasa Web Albums. Picasa Web Albums stores all the images for your Blogger. Eventually, you will need more space to store your images; you can purchase 10GB for only $20 per year.

Posting: Once your blog is created, it is very easy to add articles. When you sign into your Dashboard, simply select "New Post" and you are ready to begin. Next week we will focus on how to keep content fresh and to entice readers to keep coming back.