There is a new social site creeping into our awareness.

Perhaps, if I suggested you look at another social network (which I am about to), you would throw your hands up in exasperation and say “I don’t have time!”

But I promise you, this is worth it. Especially if like us at TLD, you are in the business of being visual and creative. It’s called “Pinterest”.

For Pinterest, you need an invitation, so leave a comment below if you would like one and I can send it to you.

If you can show your work in a visual way – this means designers, illustrators, artists, wedding planners, photographers, interior designers, property developers – all of these businesses are based on visual asthetic. This is not just to say you only put in your portfolio and that’s in. The point of Pinterest is to find and share things you like  and then you can also create your own.

Content Curation vs Content Creation

Just like with all the other social networks, successful users mix these two up. Content curation means you find things online to share. With Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Plus, most of the time these things will be blog posts. Content Creation means writing and posting your own articles – which can be your own unique statement status updates, but really would be blog posts.

The idea is, if you spend time on social media talking to people, sharing what they post, and then finding new things to share, you cover all the bases and are more likely to be paid attention to – when you create your own content!

So, bringing this back to Pinterest – like all the networks it’s important to put a little bit of time setting up your profile.

You can then browse other people’s boards, “repin” or “like” things you want to share. If you are active you will see pretty soon, people will repin and share your stuff too.

It can be a mixture of business and social – for example you can have boards on:

• Places you want to travel to
• Things you want to buy
• Inspiration for your office
• Your favourite foods
• Theme based (eg I did an Owl one)
• Moodboards
• Photography

Quality still counts – you need to make an effort to find things to share that you know would represent you.

If you are in business, think of it as part of your online profile. Like all social media tools, it’s not there to “sell” for you. But you can use it to showcase your work, your taste, your approach to live, and raise awareness. Then it’s up to you if you want to use it to network, proactively, or if you would like to share your boards on other social networks (for example I have shared my Owl board on Facebook and Twitter and many of my existing contacts have followed me on Pinterest as well. 

This means that you think about the “boards” you create, and what you name them and make sure that what you pin fulfills the following criteria:

1. Within your niche

2. You find it interesting and think your followers will too

3. You think it’s worth people’s time.

Within each board, you can include your own portfolio work (or visual representations of your own work).
Think about themes and how this board will appeal to others. Look at others and see how they do it, and if you see anyone who you feel has the same tastes as you, reach out and say hi!

Now it’s your turn

1. Ask for an invite (yes, you can ask me!)

2. Setup your profile

3. Create a few boards (you can delete or rename the default ones)

4. Come back here and comment on how you find it!

Happy Pinning!

Being in the business I am in, I find I often get into conversations about social media. There are still loads of business people who find the world of Social Media alien and overwhelming.

It seems strange to people who are so used to using social media (like us Twitter Addicts)  that there are people out there who are not participating. But “not having time” is an excuse to not get involved – as anyone who is involved will understand!

I run a busy design agency and have a lot of tasks and responsibilities and “unexpected” situations that happen on a daily basis, and somehow I manage to DO social media every day! This means I am on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, our blog and even a bit of YouTube. And I am going to be increasing this activity, because it’s worth it.

Am I superwoman? How do I do it?

Aha, I bet you want to know! And if you think it’s all automated, you are wrong.
I am consciously and personally update all posts, status updates, tweets and even featured newsletter topics for Top Left Design.

I am holding a seminar on the 8th December with Alicia Cowan – “Social Media for Professional Services”. Can you come?

If you feel like the headline of this post resonates with you, here are 8 reasons to come along.

1. Alicia and I will show you at least 8 time saving tips
2. You can learn what to focus on, and what to not bother with – and how to create a proper Social Media strategy.
3. You will see WHY you need to integrate Social Media properly into your marketing for your business
4. You can learn where you can get content to share and ideas for your own content
5. You can practice over the holiday break, and get up to speed before 2012 comes rushing in!
6. You can learn why this can be a way to reach entirely new audiences
7. You will find out what resources there are for you to keep learning
8. You can learn what NOT to do –  which means you will save LOADS of time NOT doing those things!

Whew! So, there’s your list of 8 things. Hope to see you there!

The “Pre-Holiday Facebook Game of Like” is an idea from two US based social media strategists Dorien Morin-van Dam (originally Dutch, now based in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina) from More in Media and Keri Jaehnig from Idea Girl Media (based in Ohio). I learned about it from my friend/client/co-speaker/social media expert Alicia Cowan.

The purpose of the game is to rev up your Facebook Business Page by joining to an online event which is essentially – a game – and also a competition.

The Pre-Holiday Facebook Game of Like has been runnning since the 18th October and is ending on the 28 October. So, we are really on the home stretch! This game is amazing for those who have a Facebook Business Page and are serious (but not too serious mind you!) about making the most of it! Like anything worthwhile in marketing, there is a learning curve but it pays off.

And at the time of writing I have noticed on Facebook Insights that we got 76 new “likes” on our Facebook page – but really it’s not about that! I have also visited lots of new Facebook page and talked to people all over the world I wouldn’t have otherwise met!

The basic rules are:

• You log in as your personal profile on Facebook and join or “RSVP” to the event.
• On the wall, you can write a message, introducing yourself to everyone. Here, you need to “tag” your Business page. To do this, type the @ sign and then start typing the name of your Facebook business page. This then should come up.
• Then go and “Like” More in Media and Idea Girl Media and say hello on their walls.
• You basically then go and look at other people’s pages, and if you want, you can “like” others in the game and leave a friendly message on their walls – also tagging your business name there. If you look on their walls you will see other examples of this.
• Participate in “Like Achievements” – these are great to try even if you don’t play the full game

You get points for doing things like tweeting about the game withe #gameoflike hashtag, doing “Like Achievements” and participating in daily challenges.

Well, there are only a few more days left until the game is ended, but I have to say even for those of you who have a Facebook business page and are reading this, there is are many valuable tips right there for you. It has even meant that I (in order to get some points) updated our Facebook page too with Halloween theme! And I wrote this blog post too!

Learning by doing
If you want to really learn Facebook (for business), meet lots of friendly people and new businesses and really get stuck in on your marketing activity, have a look.

Even if you have just found out about this and feel it’s too late to get properly stuck in, I really would like to see some of you try at least one Like Achievement – even if it’s an easy one like reading the free chapter of the book “Launch” by Mike Stelzner – it’s going to help!

Thanks Alicia for introducing this to me, it’s been fun so far! Now off I go to Facebook to share this post! Please comment below with your thoughts and if you try anything on your Facebook business page please leave me a link!

Following on from my last post which was all about the “do’s” of Twitter – I wanted to ensure you all know about the “don’ts”. Feel free to add more – especially if you have seen people do things on Twitter that annoy you!

Twitter Don’ts:

1. Don’t constantly tweet about what you are doing or links to YOUR special offers and YOUR blog – people are more interested in things that are useful to them. Twitter is not about advertising yourself, it’s about marketing and communicating in a helpful and friendly way. Instead, mix up your tweets with links to useful articles, retweets of other tweets, quotes, comments, and SOMETIMES – stuff about your blog and offers.

2. Don’t be an “egg” – ie leave the default picture thumbnail of the little egg and the default background. Instead take the time to upload a good thumbnail cropped picture of yourself (a person to person connection is what it’s about) and aim to have a customised background. Ask us if you would like one created for you!

3. Don’t just follow celebrities and journalist/news Twitter accounts. Instead follow people in your own field, suppliers etc. You can look for lists of these people on Listorious and look at who the people you follow are following, who they talk to on Twitter. Once you follow these people, then follow lots of other people.

4. Don’t go without tweeting for too long – Twitter takes commitment to work – although of course you are allowed to take holidays, you need to answer each tweet, participate regularly and keep tweeting! There are ways to schedule tweets and our favourite is Buffer.

5. Don’t swear – If you are using Twitter to market your business, it’s best to appeal to the largest percentage of the population – those who probably think it’s not professional to swear online! However there are many people who do swear on Twitter – some of whom have good success with it. I personally prefer to err on the side of caution!

Hope that is useful to you! Be sure to book into our Social Media – Can You Afford To Ignore It? seminar – this Friday!

We are working on a project to design a book cover for Tamsin Fox-Davies’s new book “The Essential Marketing Habit – 3 months to put your small business promotions on autopilot”

A little bit different from how we normally different but still the same

Normally when we work with clients on designs we show then 3 different designs and then tweak them according to their feedback. We end up with a more or less final design which our clients can take back to any other decision makers in their companies and get a final design decision. Or, the client decides which design they would like within the first design presentation meeting.

With Tamsin’s book cover, we started off in a similar way. We got a comprehensive brief from Tamsin – including Tamsin’s typography preferences, the idea of the string around a happy finger, and a colour scheme which Tamsin had done by our client, colour psychologist, colour blogger and interior designer Karen Haller!.

Then with this information Amy worked on 5-6 initial ideas.  Tamsin came to our office (on a Saturday!) and sat with me and we combined elements, tried different colour combinations, moved things around and kept comparing and eliminating options until we had not one final but 3 final different ideas!

We kind of did this on purpose

And here comes the crucial difference. In the name of market research, or social media and of “walking the walk” we then posted these on Facebook and created a Facebook poll. We each asked our facebook friends and fans to VOTE for their favourite. The responses and comments  have been so helpful!

We also each tweeted on Twitter and updated LinkedIn to ask people to vote. And we are asking again at different times to get the message to different people.

And now we need your vote too!

Would you help out? Click on the link to Tamsin’s Facebook wall and vote for which of the 3 designn you like – feel free to comment on the designs in general.

Vote now for your favourite of the 3.

We hope you like our experiment and – and just want to say THANK YOU – for your time and your vote! Comments below welcome as well!

As the majority of your clients will not pro-actively check your website daily for updates, you sometimes need to reach out to them to get the information across.

A good newsletter can not only inform, but also convert readership into sales – you should use a combination of striking graphics, pertinent information, and (depending on your brand) humour.

There are many things you should include in your newsletter to make it stand out from the crowd – here are 5 of the most important:

A good title

This is one of the first things your readers will see and is likely to be in the subject line of your email so make it fun and intriguing! Just naming your newsletter ‘Newsletter’ isn’t going to interest anyone or persuade people to read on or even open it - be inventive.

An eye catching picture

Visuals are always the first thing people see before they start to read your newsletter, a good image/s and good graphics will always catch someones eye and should convey what your newsletters about. Remember always make sure your images are relevant to what your talking about.

Relevant and interesting information

Don’t just talk about absolutely anything, its important that your newsletter is all about your business, subjects related to your business and the people in your business. Your newsletter can be personal, light hearted and you should always bring it back to what you do – afterall people signed up to your newsletter because there interesting in hearing about what your companies up to!

A call to action

As well as sharing interesting information your newsletter is also the perfect platform to encourage people to do something, be it signing up for an event with a discount or simply directing them to view the latest work on your website. Always encourage and direct people to get involved with what you do.

Links to social media profiles

What are social media profiles for – networking and communicating of course! If your involved with social media make sure you let people know, always include links to your social media profiles in your newsletter, you’ll be surprised at the amount of people which will regualrly click on these and follow what your up to.

5 examples of fantastic newsletters

Top Left Design

* I believe we included all 5!

The Bespoke Wedding Company

Carmen Bar De Tapas

Northstar

Caldesi

My brother has written a list of 10 things he has learned about Twitter and I thought it would be useful to share.

1. There is too much information out there and Im guilty of perpetuating this just as much as the next twit.
2. People genuinely appreciate connection.
3. It doesn’t take long to make someone your friend on twitter.
4. It doesn’t take long to loose a friend on Twitter
5. Twitter is much much more than a tool to advertise your wares
6. The tweet with the smile wins
7. Twittering can take all of your time – if you let it. Keep a healthy distance.
8. Less is more – Tweet with clarity and intent. People will thank you for it.
9. You can never tell a persons facial expression from the font. Sarcasm is completely and utterly missed in text.
10. Every good list has ten things on it – if you only have nine – just say anything.

I regularly train people on the amazing tools available to businesses today – Blogging, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

I wanted to share some general guidelines which all of you can use right away in order to make the most of these free ways to enhance your online marketing beyond just your website.

There are really just 4 points which I feel will “sum it all up”. Have a read, have a think and let me know if you agree!

Fill out your profile properly. This is your public persona, so– include a proper description of yourself. I am amazed how many people have signed up for Linkedin and haven’t uploaded even a picture of themselves. Fill in the bio on Twitter. Upload a good quality picture – I recommend a cropped head and shoulders as usually you will be seen as a little thumbnail!

Vary your updates. When you are blogging, utilize all the different types of blog posts you have, not just news, but interview, reviews, best of’s how to’s, think about things which will be useful to your audience, the type of things they would share around. When tweeting on Twitter mix it up – links to useful articles, replies to other people, RTs, mentions. On Facebook keep things visual but still varied.

Don’t sell. These are not sales tools: They are social, so they allow you to make new friends, contacts and connections. They are networking, so you can use them for business. And they are marketing, so you can use them to raise awareness. But you will do this best by being generous and sharing, not salesy.

Keep learning. Read other blogs, follow other people in your industry, read other people’s profiles on Linkedin and check out how people are using Facebook for business. A great place to start is on Mashable, the leading blog for Social Media. See what you can get from the information they post online, and try and make yourself look as good as possible by emulating the best. there is so much information out there – I have run full day courses on this and still not covered all there is to teach – and not even come close to covering everything!

Overall the idea is to not get overwhelmed – follow these basic rules – and you will see the magical things that can happen with social media! Please comment below if you have ANYTHING to say – even if you WHOLEheartedly agree with ALL your HEART – or if you want to add anything!

We are very lucky to have met the lovely people who work at 38 Devonshire Street. It’s a Dental Practice and Seminar Venue. The venue provides a lovely large room and AV equipment and delicious catered lunch. It is there where this coming Friday I will be joined by Tamsin Fox-Davies for one of our famous joint seminars!

“‎Keren Lerner and Tamsin Fox-Davies make a great team!” (actual quote from Karen Haller who attended our last talk)

Both Tamsin and I constantly learn and keep up to date with latest in the world of social media, SME marketing, online marketing, blogging and design.
Those who have been to see us work together have been impressed by our on-stage chemistry! We hope you can join us and learn about the do’s and don’ts of social media impressions and behaviours, how to become effective influencers, and discover more about the overall magic of social media. it’s going to be information packed and interactive and we have both worked hard to put together valuable and useful information which can be applied to all businesses.

To book visit this link and for the especially observant of you, we are offering a 2 for one deal for those coming in pairs – just email me to ask how to get this!

The nice people over there thought that our readers could benefit from these and use them on their own blogs and websites. How nice of them!

So we thought it would be great to post a blog about the icons so that all our readers could take a look.

The icons come in 3 different sizes, .png and .SVG so that designers can edit them as they need to!

Hope you like them as much as we do here at Top Left Design.