2012
Design Inspiration for Saturday
some design inspiration
www.aqua-velvet.com
www.graphic-exchange.com
www.lovelystationery.com
www.maythorpe.com
www.derrickclee.com
www.beastpieces.com
www.septemberindustry.co.uk
2012
10 things small businesses should know about using Twitter
via: www.zdnet.com By Heather Clancy
” Summary: From when and how to use hashtags to advice about tone and personality, the social network has published a guide to help business owners get more comfortable as tweeps.” .….
“ For example, here are some terms you’ll need to know, if you don’t know them already:
- Tweet — The term describing a 140-word-limit comment sent out over Twitter. (Can also be a verb!)
- Tweep — Someone who uses Twitter.
- Hashtag — Twits rely on a hashtag, aka the # symbol, to reach certain audiences. For example, there may be a community that likes reading all tweets about #greentech. You can set up a custom search and follow all comments related to a certain hashtag.
- Retweet — This is a noun or verb to describe when someone passes one of your tweets along to his or her followers in its entirety.
- Mention — When someone mentions and comments on something you’ve broadcast without necessarily retweeting the whole tweet.
- Links — To get around the 140-character limit for tweets, you can add a link (which WILL take up space). So, you might comment on a new promotion and include a link that can be visited for more information.
- Meetup — When tweeps who converse regularly over Twitter get together “live” to continue a conversation or attend an event of mutual interest.
- Direct message — When you follow one of your followers, you open the door to receiving direct messages from that individual.
Aside from these basic things, here are some best-practice suggestions that bear reporting for those of you who haven’t lived in Twitterdom as long as I have (working on my fifth year).
- Keep it simple. Pick a Twitter handle or name that is easy to find and remember (and that doesn’t take up too much of the 140-character limit you will have to make comments). It’s great if you can use your company’s name, but if you have to shorten it, pick something simple. So, for example, “Sightglass Coffee” becomes @Sightglass on Twitter. You can use your profile description to communicate the full name of your company (it will come up when someone looks at your profile). Use the description wisely to say what you want to say the most.
- Listen. What you say is what you are. Take time to “listen” to other businesses like yours before you dive into making your own comments. Use search.twitter.com to find and follow (become a subscriber) to the comments of business owners like you. Also be sure to look at the hashtags they are using, because you might want to use them, too.
- Seek. Identify and follow conversations that are already happening about your business. You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you but you definitely want to follow those people that you might want to have a direct conversation with over time.
- Share. Don’t forget to follow your employees, so that you can retweet them or mention them when they are talking bout things that relate to your business. It will make your company seem more human.
- Don’t be too formal. Could someone respond to what you want to say easily? Does it invite conversation?
- Establish frequency. There is no hard and fast rule about how often you should send out tweets. Some businesses schedule or time messages to go out over a period of time. Others only send out messages occasionally. The more frequently you tweet, the more likely you are to build a network of followers. So, while sending a tweet every five minutes might be annoying (and might get lost), once a week just isn’t enough.
- Interact, don’t just broadcast. The best way to come to the attention of others is to participate in conversations they are having, if they are relevant. That means retweeting their comments, reply to things they might be saying about your business, or answering questions.
- Take it direct. In its guide, Twitter offers the reminder that sometimes conversations should be taken private. If a customer has a specific problem or question, for example, it might be better handled as a direct message exchange rather than a public interaction. Then again, if you think the resolution might interest everyone, you can solve it publicly.
- Be relevant and interesting. This is my favorite part of the Twitter guide, because it cannot be understated. The more you are willing to share with your followers, the more engaged they will become. I can say from experience that this is true. Sending photos (maybe of a new store?) will inspire retweets and comments, as will relevant links to thought-provoking news articles and videos. Twitter is a great place to ask questions, because questions will almost immediately engage the reader. Offers and discounts are also likely to be passed along, which can help increase your Twitter following.
- Promote your Twitter identity in the real world. Include your handle on business cards, advertisements, on your Website and blog — even on your packaging or bags.”
read the article on (source): www.zdnet.com
2012
How to Present like Steve Jobs
via: blog.kissmetrics.com
” Steve Jobs’ presentations have become the stuff of legend.
Inspired by his presentations, customers flocked to Apple stores waited in line for days to be the first to buy the newly released product. And his presentations left the media salivating over his every word.
You may not have the huge fan base or the media clout of Apple, but you can still use several strategies that Steve Jobs employed to kick-start your product launch.
Every presentation that he gave followed a specific formula that you can use for your:
- Webinars
- Product Videos
- Launch Events
First, you need to build the structure of the presentation. Then you need to incorporate a powerful message. And finally, you need to tell a memorable story that your audience wants to hear. Let’s get into the details of how Steve executed this wonderful presentation recipe…”
read more/ source: via How to Present like Steve Jobs. by: blog.kissmetrics.com
Photo Credit: Charis Tsevis via Compfight
2012
What I do at the moment:
Photo Credit: Werner Kunz via Compfight
Most of my experience in the graphic industry is useful for the hotel –and catering branch as well. In the moment I’m working as a freelance marketing advisor for a medium sized hotel in Germany, near Berlin. This is my main project in March and April 2012. I realized where the main problem zones are in the hotel, because luckily I know it from the past, back to 2007/2008.
To create a good working concept incl. a new web design is at least a 10-week full time job for one person.
Starting with the redesign of the corporate identity of the hotel incl. the restaurant and ending with a lot of consulting hours I have done so far a good job there. My main focus after finishing the design work is to teach the staff how to work with social media accounts and how to improve the customer service. This is one of my main focus when I do a project for a company.
A basic thinking should be: only if the colleagues are happy, the customers and guests will be happy as well.
I learned a lot from Sainsbury’s and I’m thankful that I’ve got the opportunity to work in this company for over two years.
Especially in Germany we can learn a lot from the UK in the customer service field. Back in Germany I see every day a lot of mistakes, also after got spoiled in England and in Asia in the last 4 years.
What else can I tell you? I realized that not many small German companies take the advantage of social media opportunities to get more out of their marketing efforts and public relationship.
If you find some mistakes in the this article — I say sorry, my English is not perfect, please feel free to tell me what I did wrong.
There will be soon a German version of this website available. This will be much easier for me to write some articles.
