social media marketing

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

IN 2014from luxury to necessity

web4retail.com 14131 Bay Drive Westford, Ma 01886 1-877-536-4786web ecommerce seo social email

web ecommerce seo social email

Web4Retail is an internet marketing agency that works with home

furnishing, textile, and interior design businesses.

Our philosophy is simple: create and maintain comprehensive and effective

online marketing programs and provide our clients with superior service

while doing so.

We believe that to make substantial gains, a business, no matter how large

or small, must seize the vast opportunities of internet marketing.

We’ve proven this through our own success, and we guarantee

that our clients will experience the same prosperity.

WE DON’T JUST TALK THE TALK, WE WALK THE WALK

WHO WE ARE


ABOUT THE AUTHORS

CEO of Web4Retail and a Social Media expert,

Denise Keniston is responsible for building many successful

online marketing programs with the use of platforms like

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others. She specializes

in working with retailers and designers within the home

furnishings, interior design, and textile industries.

Initially a Social Media skeptic, Ian Savage has been shown the light. As

Web4Retail’s assisstant designer and developer, he works with Denise

on many projects, including this webinar, and helps her turn her many

marketing ideas into graphic reality.


OUR VISUAL INDUSTRY

MAKE WAY FOR MOBILE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

PINTEREST

HOUZZ

INSTAGRAM

VINE

EMAIL NEWSLETTERS

CONCLUSIONS

OVERVIEW


OUR VISUAL INDUSTRYThere’s no doubt about it, the Home Furnishings, Interior

Design, and Textile industries are all visual in nature. Your

clients and customers want to see beautiful photography,

captivating videos, and interesting captions. Because of

this, visual Social Media can be an extremely effective

marketing tool.

We’re already seeing social networks that feature images

and videos increasing in popularity. But before you flood

Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram with your content, make

sure it’s of a certain quality. Paying a professional might

seem unecessary, but you can rest assured knowing you’re

giving the best possible photos and videos to your audience.


MAKE WAY FOR MOBILEComing into 2014, we’re seeing a massive increase in Social Media access and

engagement from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Statistics show

that almost 60% of users (4.2 billion people) access Social Media on a mobile

device! Check out the statistics below for a breakdown of mobile use by platform:

189 MILLION OF FACEBOOK’S USERS ARE ‘MOBILE ONLY’, AND BECAUSE OF THIS, FACEBOOK GENERATES 30% OF IT’S TOTAL AD REVENUE FROM IT’S MOBILE USERS

OF IT’S 288 MILLION ACTIVE MONTHLY USERS, 60% ARE ACCESSING TWITTER VIA THEIR SMARTPHONES OR TABLETS

MORE THAN 75% OF ALL USERS REPORT ACCESSING PINTEREST VIA A MOBILE DEVICE, WITH 40% SAYING THEY ARE ‘MOBILE ONLY’

BEING A MOBILE APP, INSTAGRAM SEES ALMOST ALL OF ITS USE VIA MOBILE, BUT HAS SEEN A 66% GROWTH IN THE PAST YEAR


FACEBOOK

While Facebook is celebrating it’s tenth birthday this

year, it’s still the biggest contender in the world of Social

Media. With more users spending more time on it than

any other social network, it’s a clear choice for any

marketer to start working with.

That said, it’s easy to think that it all comes down to

acquiring the most likes, shares, and fans. And while

these are certainly important to have, they’re not the

only factor that influences a smart marketer’s strategies.

Perhaps the most important part of being a successful

social marketer is offering your audience quality content.


FACEBOOK cont.THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN USING FACEBOOK:

• Try to post at least once every other day, if not daily

• You’ll get the best user response from photo albums, videos,

articles, and other creative and interesting content

• Avoid repeat posting about the same thing, like a promotion or sale

• Utilize Boost ads and target specific areas for things you want to

heavily promote, like sales or events

• Respond to comments and answer questions as quickly as you can

• Facebook’s general audience is the 25-65 demographic,

both men and women


TWITTER

With over 400 million tweets every day, no marketer

should underestimate the potential marketing power

of Twitter. It’s a good place for furniture retailers and

interiors designers alike, with flourshing communities

of people who are interested in these industries.

A good place for Interior Designers to start is

‘Interior Design Chat’, as it has over 23,000

active users who are always looking for new

designers and enthusiasts. Be careful though, you

don’t want to tweet about yourself or your

promotions too much or you’ll come off as heavy

handed and disingenuous. Instead, become part

of the community by tweeting quality content and

interesting conversation starters.


TWITTER cont.THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN USING TWITTER:

• Try to tweet at least once every day

• Twitter is best used to promote events, campaigns, and sales

• You only have 125 characters to get your message across, so

codense and abbreviate as much as you can

• Use relevant and easy-to-remember hashtags in your tweets,

especially ones promoting a sale or sweepstakes

• Respond to retweets and answer questions as soon as you can

• Twitter’s general audience is the 25-54 demographic,

both men and women


PINTERESTWith it’s heavy emphasis on interesting visual content

that can easily be distributed amongst a large audience,

Pinterest has become a natural marketing outlet

for many designers and retailers within the industry.

However, just because it makes sense to market on

doesn’t mean there aren’t some things you should know

in order to maximize the potential of your pinning.

For starters, as with the other social networks, quality

content is a must. Don’t plaster your boards with

bad photos or obnoxius promotions. Take the time

to snap a few quality photos of your product, showroom,

or design project and add a rich description. And

remember, you can use hashtags on Pinterest too!


PINTEREST cont.THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN USING PINTEREST:

• Pin at least 5 quality photos every day

• Continously build out interesting, entertaining, and

eye-catching beauty boards

• Use hashtags in your pin descriptions when appropriate

• Engage and encourage your followers and fellow

pinners as often as you can

• Utilize Rich Pins when pinning product or merchandise

• Pinterest’s general audience is the 25-54 demographic,

though it tends to be mostly women


HOUZZ

Though Houzz is a relatively young social network,

it’s emerging as a leader for the home and

garden community. The majority of its members

are comprised of professional architects, interior

designers, decorators, and landscapers who can

share their portfolios and projects with others in a

creative and collaborative environment.

Again, the visual nature of Houzz makes it an

ideal fit for an Interior Designer looking to make

a name for themselves, showcase their portfolio,

and get some feedback from fellow designers.


HOUZZ cont.THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN USING HOUZZ:

• Update your page on a weekly basis

• Add as many quality portfolio shots as you can

• Try to get positive reviews from fellow users

• Work towards acquiring Houzz badges, which show that you’re a

respected member of the community

• Create inspiring Idea Books using a mix of your own portfolio

photography with other designers’ shots

• Houzz’s general audience is the 25-54 demographic,

though it tends to be mostly women


INSTAGRAMInstagram has grown from a simple phone app into

a massive social media community, and is now one

of the biggest photo sharing sites on the web.

Part of it’s success can be attributed to it’s purchase

by and intergration with Facebook in 2012. It’s key

feature is that it allows users to snap photos on their

phone and then run them through different filters,

giving their pictures a vintage feel.

As with Pinterest and Houzz, Instragram can play a

vital role in helping to market a furniture or interior

design business. It makes sharing snap shots of

your projects or showroom a no-brainer, and helps

reinforce your presence on Facebook. by providing

your clients and customers with interesting visuals.


INSTAGRAM cont.THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN USING INSTAGRAM:

• Try to post around 5-10 photos a week

• Instagram is centered around its app, and is almost

always accessed via mobile

• Attach relevant and catchy hashtags to your photos

• Don’t always use a filter. The most popular user choice

is actually not to use any filter at all

• Instagram’s general audience is the 19-30

demographic, both men and women


VINE

Something that’s taken the social media scene by

storm recently is the ‘micro-video’. This is just a very

short video, usually around six seconds, in which

the user has to get his or her message across.

The main reason for this popular new form of video

sharing is a mobile app and social network called Vine.

Vine took something an existing medium that was

already dominated by YouTube, Vimeo, and other video

sharing sites, and reinvigorated it, simply by reducing

the length of the clips their users could upload. If you

want to help attract new clients or customers that you

might not otherwise reach, try creating a few Vine

videos promoting your store or business.


VINE cont.THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN USING VINE:

• Try to post at least one video each week

• Like Instragram, Vine is centered around its app, and is

almost always accessed via mobile

• You’ve only got six seconds of video, so make it count

• Get creative and fun with them and you might find that they

become a hit, or even go viral

• Vine’s general audience is the 19-30 demographic, both

men and women


EMAIL NEWSLETTERSLast, but certainly not least, are email newsletters.

While they aren’t technically a type of social media,

they serve as a fantastic follow-up strategy for

your other social media platforms and whatever

promotions you’re running on them.

Collecting people’s emails is easy enough,

especially if you already have a sign-up list in your

store. If you don’t, consider starting one, and try

to find a way that will allow you to start collecting

email addresses online. You want to accumulate a

big list, but you don’t want it to be full of users

that will unsubscribe or bogus addresses that

will bounce the newsletter back to you.


EMAIL NEWSLETTERS cont.THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN SENDING EMAILS:

• Don’t send more than 2 newsletters a month. Any more

than that, and you’ll start to see people unsubscribe.

• Email is an extremely viable marketing tool because you

can get your newsletters out to a lot of people

• Use them to follow-up on the promotions you’ve already

posted about on your Social Media

• Get creative with the design, and you’ll see more users

clicking on and engaging with your content


CONCLUSIONSWith all the different platforms and mediums out there it can be tough to figure out how best to adapt your marketing to this

new age of social media. But based on what we’ve covered, here are the things to remember:

• The home furnishing, textile, and interior design industries

are 99% visual. Start becoming familiar with image and video

related social media and use them to your advantage.

• If you’re going to post photos or videos, make sure they’re not

crooked, blurry, or otherwise poor quality. Take the extra few

minutes to set up a shot, or hire a professional. To your social

audience, it makes you more engaging and more reputable.

• Mobile is on the rise, and requires a bit of extra consideration.

Keep this in mind when creating and distributing your content.

• Don’t spam yourself or your sales. No one likes getting

bombarded with heavy-handed promotions. The smart

marketer posts about their own content along with interesting

and relevant photos, graphics, or articles.