This past weekend, Christy and I have been out in Anaheim at the CHA show announcing CraftyCon. It’s been a great and exciting time, and we are so pleased at the reaction. Everyone is pumped! And I can tell it’s going to be an incredible event.
And this Saturday marks Awesome Camp. And boy, are we pumped! Check out the details here and if you are thinking about speaking, check this out. Hope to see you this weekend!
This weekend we are kicking it out in Anaheim, CA at the Crafty & Hobby Association SuperShow and Trade Show aka craft heaven. Today is a really exciting day for us!! We are announcing the biggest and baddest project we’ve worked on to date…. CraftyCon. It’s a craft conference that you won’t want to miss.
It is going to be in Chicago, October 21-23. It will be plum chuck full of craft celebrities and inspiration. Consider it the chance to earn your crafting MBA. Toolulu is partnering with Craft Critique (the Consumer Reports of craft products) and Schlosser Designs (the amazing clear stamp designer and future Martha) to plan the kind of event we’ve been hoping for.
If you are serious about crafting, check it out. Registration will open soon. Make sure you sign up with your email address and we’ll let you know as soon as you can register! We’ll have a great early bird deal you won’t want to miss out on.
image via flickr, copyright stevendepolo
Gone are the days when you need a SuperBowl commercial, a multi-million dollar marketing budget, or big booths at trade shows to launch your brand. Now many people can launch a successful company/brand with very little overhead. A laptop and a good social media plan can work wonders.
Developing a social media plan is crucial. So many businesses realize they should be on Facebook or Twitter and they just jump right in. Sometimes jumping works out well. Sometimes companies don’t realize they’re in the deep end without a floaty. Learning how to use these sites effectively for your particular business will save so much time and money in the long run. Many businesses might not realize the time commitment involved to maintain an active twitter account. Sure, you’re on twitter, but it doesn’t do you any good if you aren’t using it to engage and listen.
Do you have a social media plan for your business?
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When you think about the state of marketing or public relations, say 100 years ago– is it really that different from today? The local blacksmith would spread the word about Bob’s new grocery store in town by telling everyone he knew about the store. What great produce it had, and how reasonably priced it was.
The blacksmith of today is on twitter and facebook, telling everyone about Bob’s new store– how great the produce is and how excellent the customer service is. Social media is a tool in our tool box and shouldn’t be ignored. We are able to reach a more targeting and widespread audience than ever before.
Our delievery has improved. And I think it’s going to continue to do so. We will become more efficient and effective communicators throughout time. Working together and collaborating in new ways that seems impossible 100 years ago. Could you imagine having a business partner 1,000 miles away 100 years ago? It would have been impossible to be efficient! And now it is completely feasible.
How has social media made you more efficient and effective?
There is an endless amount of inspiration and information that we can glean from the web. I love it!! So many talented people sharing their thoughts, visions and realities. I thought I’d share some great articles I’ve seen lately.
How about you? What great articles — informative and inspirational are you seeing out there? Please share them in the comments.
{inspiration board by Clever Karen}
image via flickr, copyright JonDissed
I’m hoping predicting that 2010 will be the year that changes blog giveaways. A couple of years ago, blog giveaways started to pop up. They were few and far between but they had amazing results for the products involved. Let’s face it…companies want exposure and blog readers love to be “in the know” on all the hot, new products. Running a successful blog giveaway isn’t difficult but in the past few months, it has been getting out of hand. I call it: Blog Giveaway Media Overload.
I’m sure you have seen it. A blog is giving away a toaster. It’s a toaster that is really cool and everyone is excited to hear about it. To enter the giveaway you have to comment on the blog post. You have to get your friends to comment to win and they should mention your name because you sent them there. You have to tweet a special tweet about the toaster. You have to follow the blogger on twitter. You have to become a facebook fan of the toaster***. You have to become a facebook fan of the blogger. You have to write a blog post about the toaster. You have to use a Mr. Linky to say you want the toaster. You have to do all of this every day for 10 days because the giveaway lasts that long.
As a marketer, I understand the allure. You want as many people to hear about the toaster as possible. You also want as many people as possible becoming a facebook fan so you can build up a community around your toaster. But is it too much?
As a consumer? Yes. I don’t mind reading blog posts about products. I don’t mind giveaways. In fact, I love entering giveaways. But I’ve found I’m more selective now. I don’t just enter for the sake of entering. I do it because I believe the product is something I could truly use and enjoy (or know someone else that could).
I have some suggestions.
1. Make it easy to enter. Choose one way…two tops.
2. Make it easy to find more information about the product. Go ahead and link to all sorts of fan pages, twitter streams, etc… If it is something I’m truly interested in, I’ll bite. This gives the marketers quality over quantity.
3. Choose reliable bloggers to run the giveaways. Make sure they stick to a schedule and are ethical in their methods.
4. Have a product that is “worth it”. You want to make sure the giveaway is worth the extra effort of the blogger and his/her readers.
5. Follow through on the promise. I’ve won many giveaways and have yet to see the prize. If the companies are going to take the time to run blog giveaways and promotions, they should take the time to make sure the products get to the winners.
Do you have something you would add to the list? Think I’m being too harsh? Tell us about it.
***We know this isn’t allowed per Facebook guidelines. However, I haven’t seen any drop off on this kind of behavior since the guidelines have been in place.
A typical sales job hires individuals for its book of contacts, and their power of networking. Most salesmen or saleswomen have the gift of gab and persuasion, but really, it’s their contacts that are valuable. They know how to connect, bring people together, and make things happen.
They can spread the word about a product through their contacts and keep breaking down barriers by having their contacts introduce them to new contacts. And so on, and so forth. Having a great network, no doubt, will get you farther than if you are the only one working towards something. Asking friends and close contacts a favor will get you a long way. And it helps if you have a killer product too.
The online world has made that so much easier to connect, pass the word along, and network. We can connect and build relationships with people we’ve never met in real life. Amazing, right? On LinkedIn, you can ask a close friend to introduce you to someone they know. On twitter, you can follow and respond to the people you want to connect with. On Facebook, you can join groups or fan pages and find people with similar interests. It’s amazing how the online world is helping us make stronger connections faster.
When you are about to go to lunch with someone you’ve never met, do you research them online before meeting? There is no longer a “first date” in lunch meetings. You can save yourself the time and research the person online so when you meet with them, you can get to the meat of what you together want to talk about or work on. I am constantly amazed by the people I have met online and the various doors that open just due to connecting, and building a web.
I know we aren’t salespeople, and aren’t all online to sell something, but there is something to be learned from salespeople and how they leverage their contacts to make things happen. I hope you are building your web and network and making the world a better place.
Have any stories you’d like to share about how the online world has made your world better? I’d love to hear them.
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