Inspired by Design, $10,000 and a Trip to Maison & Objet in Paris?

“What Inspires You?” A Design Contest That Just Might Have You Facebooking and Tweeting From Paris

The explosion of social media tools and networks, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, create a unique opportunity for design professionals, retailers, showrooms, service providers and other luxury home design businesses to get active driving their profiles and brands on the web.  DesignSherpa, our revolutionary Internet marketing service for the home design industry from Network Communications, Inc., the country’s largest group of regional home design media brands including Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, At Home in Arkansas, Colorado Homes & Lifestyles, Kansas City Home & Garden, Mountain Living, New England Home, Seattle Homes & Lifestyles, St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles and more, is tickled to announce a new social media contest that provides an opportunity for those in the greater design community – even those who blog about design — to share what inspires them for a chance to win amazing prizes, including a $10,000 cash prize plus a paid trip to Paris combined with a full visit to Maison & Objet in January, 2011. All inspiring entries will be reviewed and judged by an esteemed panel of high-profile stylemakers that reads like a Who’s Who in the design world, including Diane Carroll, Tobi Fairley, Michael Fink, Elaine Griffin, Marcia Sherrill, and Clinton Smith.

Here is how the “What Inspires You?” online contest works:

The Grand Prize winner will be determined by advancing through four (4) phases by a distinguished judging panel of leading design experts.

Phase I: Entrants submit a 100-word post and image on what inspires them.

Phase II: The one hundred (100) entrants with the highest scores will submit a 350-word post about an interior or architectural design topic that communicates their unique passion for design.

Phase III: The top ten (10) entrants will submit a video of no longer than three (3) minutes produced and created by them that is both entertaining and informative about some element of home design.

Phase IV: Three (3) Finalists will each be interviewed via phone to determine the Grand Prize winner of:

• $10,000 cash prize
• Expense Paid 10-day trip for one to Paris, France, with a retail value of $15,000, that includes: round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations at the Jean-Louis Deniot designed Hotel Racamier, and a 4-day pass to the annual ‘Maison & Objet’ trade show in January 2011
• Plus, the opportunity to contribute to the community of DesignSherpa blogs

Social media tools are helping home design businesses organize engaged online communities that drive meaningful leads and referrals for their companies.  Likewise, consumer design enthusiasts have been sharing their design sensibility and building profiles for themselves in the Design blogosphere, an option not unavailable to them before the proliferation of social tools.  So, we thought we would add a little excitement to the talented community of writers that is already generating amazing content on the web, and to those that aspire to inspire, but are undiscovered so far.

You only have until June 21 to submit your entry.  So, “What Inspires You?”  It just might line your pockets with cash, a plane ticket, and the trip of a lifetime to Paris, France.

Welcome to DesignSherpa

Welcome to DesignSherpa, a revolutionary internet marketing service for the home design and remodeling industry from Network Communications, Inc., the parent company of the country’s largest group of regional home design media brands including New England Home, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, At Home in Arkansas, Seattle Homes & Lifestyles, Kansas City Home & Garden, Mountain Living, St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles, Colorado Homes & Lifestyles and more.

DesignSherpa provides a turn key solution to building and managing a social media marketing program for design professionals, retailers, showrooms, and luxury home service providers.  DesignSherpa takes the risk and complexity out of social media marketing, creating a new kind of Internet Marketing presence for your home design business. We will improve your visibility on Google, increase your web traffic, enhance your connection with consumers and other design professionals, and turbo-charge your referral network.

The explosion of social media tools and networks, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, create a unique opportunity for design professionals, retailers, showrooms, and other luxury home design businesses to get active on the web, by providing interesting content relevant to consumers and the  trade who are seeking ideas or resources while they plan enhanced residential living environments.  Social media tools help you get involved in the process that starts with inspiration and culminates in selecting  products and resources, creating an active and engaged online community around your business when your prospects are most active.

Network Communications and its home design media brands recognize the incredible potential of social media marketing to improve your bottom line.  We also understand the time and technology challenges that social media marketing presents to busy design professionals.

DesignSherpa is a monthly subscription service that provides a customized turn-key solution to create active, engaged and effective virtual networks of prospects and influential members of the trade in your market..

Our numerous luxury home magazine professionals from Atlanta to Seattle bring their unique skills in content creation and management, as well as knowledge of social media networks to the implementation of DesignSherpa.

Our teams are all social-media certified. Every member has gone through a detailed month-long training program with Domus Consulting to educate them about the power of social media networks and to give them insight and experience in developing effective and influential networks.  Our teams submitted themselves to several additional months of training in creating and sharing content that drives engagement around their magazine brands and market activity and growth in their own social networks.  They can now share their experiences and help you start to harness the power of social media with benefits best appreciated by getting active with a well thought out complete social media strategy and system.

To learn more about this powerful service, please visit the following links:

About DesignSherpa

About Home Design and Network Communications, Inc .