Archive for Branding
How to Use Social Media to Build Your Wedding Business
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Become the Wedding Expert
Myspace, Twitter, diggIt, Stumble Upon, and other social media sites have built online businesses from zeroes to heroes. Brick and mortar businesses are not too shy from experiencing the same result. In reality, a majority of today’s businesses are found in the midst of one or more social media networks with thousands of followers/customers interested in their businesses. Consider the possibilities waiting for your wedding company? Weddings are a universal event in which families join from different backgrounds to unite for a union between their sons and daughters.
Thousands of weddings are announced online within your state per year. How many of these newlyweds to be have Twittered you for help?
Social media is growing into a massive aspect of online marketing initiatives. The communication between businesses, customers, and prospects have changed the image of online communications. With the growth of business images, the use of social media is inevitable in establishing online presence.
Integrating social media into your marketing plan should have happened ‘yesterday’. If you don’t take responsibility of your business’ image, the media can catapult your establishment in the wrong direction. With social media heading the communication sector of your wedding business, you can help newlyweds-to-be by investing in a relationship, working closely with their needs, and helping them to help your business.
Today’s business scene involves developing relationships with people from all over the world. Wedding professionals have the same responsibilities. If you want to explore challenging work, you have to work in diverse surroundings, with different couples, and integrate those experiences into your repertoire.
Your company can harness a remarkable power over the wedding communities online by participating in each discussion diligently. If you don’t have enough time for this kind of commitment, you can work with a Social Media specialist to manage the accounts, build relationships, and improve your wedding business’ image online.
Social Media specialists are skilled in creating strong relationships with individuals in your target market. If you hire wedding specialists, they will manage and develop profitable relationships online with affiliates to improve your business. The average wedding consultant has at least 30+ affiliates to help referrals, sales, and business opportunities. Imagine maximize your company’s image by 10 times the amount of promotion you complete right now.
What can you expect from your social media specialist?
It depends on the flow of your business. Some wedding consultants want to earn recognition in certain communities while others would like to flourish within their local market. National wedding consultants use social media marketing to create a well-rounded appeal to a target market. The markets in which you choose to participate determines the approach your social media specialist will take on your behalf. You can hire someone with the experience in multiple wedding markets or someone to establish an up-to-date, marketing-savvy approach in one sector.
The approach you take is the approach you will get. Social Media specialists work off the vibe of their clients; are you spiffy? Are you fun and entertaining? Or are you dull and predictable? Think of the brand your business has at this point. Integrating a solid social media plan can improve, change, and ultimately rejuvenate your current business brand into a profitable one with integrity.
Who benefits from all this?
Wedding consultants of all sizes can use social media marketing for their business. The benefits are everlasting, time-consuming and well worth the investment. Marketing, as a whole, requires knowledge and people skills. Your specialist will tap into a market with your needs in mind then create a memorable image to thousands online.
Your business’ facelift to the online audience is one step towards conquering the wedding industry; with a little faith, consistency, and the help of a social media specialist, you can watch your business evolve into a leader in your industry.
Gravatar Icons & Avatars – How to Use for Mainstream Comments
Posted by: Dawn | Comments (1)Gravatar Icons & Avatars
Gravatars. Don’t feel stupid if you don’t know what they are; I didn’t recognize gravatars for what they were or how to use a gravatar until a little more than a year ago. Gravatars have been with us since at least 2004 (or at least, that’s what most web archives show), but they have yet to go mainstream, even though the Gravatar service was acquired by Automattic back in October 2007.
What is a Gravatar?
The idea behind the Gravatar service was to host a globally-recognized avatar that is tied to an email address on one system to be recognized on most websites, blogs, message boards, and forums. Gravatar is as simple as using the same email address that you used to sign up with Gravatar.com on any site that supports Gravatars.
Great Idea?
If Gravatars are so great, why haven’t they caught on with the mainstream public? Because so many platforms have their own versions of avatars (sites like Twitter, Facebook, phpBB, .ning) and have their own way of handling them. Usually, it’s just “upload a profile photo”, which can vary from site to site, depending on the mood of the user at the time they sign up for these services.
Are we better off with each system managing avatars in their own ways? Will Gravatars go to the wayside while each system manages their own avatars, or will Gravatars take over the way systems manage profiles? Personally, I don’t think so; I think there needs to be a balance between the two. I don’t think developers should ax their own avatar management system, but at the very least, make their systems Gravatar-compatible. I think then, there will be more people willing to use this awesome shortcut when posting to sites.
How to Use Gravatars, and Why You Should
To create and use an avatar, simply go to the Gravatar site. Pick one of your email addresses, assign it a photo, and whenever you go onto a site that is Gravatar-enabled (like this blog) and use the email you signed up with, your avatar will automatically show up. It’s as simple as that!
Guess what? It’s F-R-E-E, and you can have more than one! I have two Gravatars; one for business use (my Dawn@DawnLambe.com addy) and one for personal (I keep that private). If you have more than one business, why not create a Gravatar for each business, with a separate photo for each? However, I would NOT use a trademarked or copyrighted image, like my favorite Star Trek Icon or my favorite beverage; those images are protected, and could also make you look untrustworthy if you’re ‘borrowing’ images.
Using Gravatars can help your business by helping to establish the “Know, Like, & Trust You” in your marketing efforts. For example, let’s say you’re selling insurance. You happen to notice an article on a national or your local news website about how many new parents are under-insured. You read the article and the comments others have made and you post a comment yourself on the article (without making it an advertisement for you!). On many sites, you will be asked for your email address before posting your comment. Some sites will also ask you for your website as well. Once you post your comment with your email address, your photo or avatar that you assigned to that email will show next to your comment, building recognition. You may even pick up a fair bit of traffic to your site as a result. You don’t have to comment only on topics related to your business, either; I’ve picked up traffic and clients by posting comments unrelated to my niche (when posting under my business email).
For examples of gravatars, take a look at some of my past posts and comments. Get out there, experiment a bit, and I’ll see you on the other side.