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 .

About Social Media Marketing: The DesignSherpa Perspective

We believe that the core of a powerful social media program is content. The development of targeted content that is consistent with your brand story, which is distributed through social media platforms that align with your customers and prospects preferences, will generate measurable results in your business performance.

Social media marketing requires expertise and management, and at DesignSherpa our mission is to do the heavy lifting associated with building content and managing the distribution through social networks and increased Google recognition. This work doesn’t remove you or your marketing team from the process: it enhances your resources and focuses you and your team on the work of identifying and engaging high-quality prospects and staying connected with your current customers.

Our Chairman & CEO, Dan McCarthy, has been an early adopter of social media as an internet marketing strategy. In his personal blog, ViralHousingFix, Dan has shared many of his observations about the application of social media to marketing and has articulated some foundation principles.

To better understand our approach to social media marketing and to gain additional perspective, you may want to read Dan’s following posts:

Migrating a brand strategy from marketing to content: A case study

My two principals of social media marketing

Online content isn’t just consumed…it can be transformed

An organizational shift to social media: Project Massive Network

Social media can be a marketing platform: It starts with brand evangelism

New Report Has Implications for Local Home Design Professionals

Small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) are embracing social networking in growing numbers.  A recent survey by Internet2Go outlines just how prevalent social media based internet marketing is ultimately going to be for small businesses.

While it is indicative of where saavy business owners are focusing and where the overall market is heading,  the study is most likely not a current representation of the broader population of small businesses.  The 2000+ businesses surveyed are out ahead of their competitors and selected from a pool the most active content contributors to a business- to-consumer social network site.  Internet2Go says:

45 percent of respondents have a presence or profiles on Facebook and Twitter to promote their businesses…… [yet SMBs'] marketing efforts have lagged consumer adoption of digital platforms, because of inertia, confusion and a lack of resources.

Here are a few highlights outlined in another report on this research that underscores the attractive budget characteristics of social media marketing compared to other forms of internet marketing.  Most importantly, it points to the importance of a  fully developed social media system in order to realize the benefits of the kind of engagement and marketing outcomes social media tools enable;

79% of respondents report annual marketing budgets of less than $5,000 per year with the 44% spending “less than $1,000” annually on advertising and marketing

Asked about their “biggest complaint” regarding online marketing the top two were “too costly” (26%) and “there’s not enough time to do it well and still run a business” (15.9%)

Despite its popularity social media showed the biggest gap between SMB adoption and perceived effectiveness as a marketing platform.

DesignSherpa has begun helping local home design businesses, through an affordable turnkey social media based internet marketing system, realize the benefits and outcomes of a well executed social media program.  For more information on the trends and power of social media for local design businesess contact Adam Japko at ajapko@nci.com or your local NCI Home Design Magazine representative.

What to Expect as a DesignSherpa Customer

We retain more than 50 acclaimed Design Industry journalists and photographers across the country to provide a unique content advantage that allows your business to develop a social media footprint that is supported by the highest quality underlying content.

In addition to the Content Advantage, when you become a client of DesignSherpa through any of our programs you will benefit from the expertise and focus of an experienced team of account management, customer service, and social media implementation professionals.  Your primary point of contact will be your DesignSherpa Account Manager.

The Account Manager will be intimately involved in the creation and implementation of your social media marketing campaign. From working with you to develop your business blog’s look and feel, to pinpointing the right kind of content to drive your content marketing strategy, to coordinating the introduction and creation of your social networking presence, your Account Manager will ensure that you don’t have to sweat the small details and will be able to focus on the important issues of running your business and overall marketing plan.

Supporting your Account Manager and managing the daily tasks associated with your DesignSherpa account is an experienced team made up of Social Media Coordinators, Content Managers, Social Network Managers, Search Engine Optimization Specialists, Web Developers and Web Designers.

These individuals are members of the DigitalSherpa Operations Team, headquartered at NCI’s operations center in Lawrenceville, GA. As a DesignSherpa client, you benefit from the experience and expertise of a team that has worked on developing internet marketing solutions for thousands of companies in the home design, multi-family, real estate industries.

The DesignSherpa Customer Service Promise

We understand that our customers have busy and demanding professional lives. We also understand that a key to the success of a social media marketing program is engagement, focus and conversation.

Our promise to every customer is that we will make the process of managing a social media marketing campaign as painless and simple as possible.

To help accomplish this, we have a Customer Service Communications Program that helps you stay on top of the important details related to your account.

The program includes:

Weekly social marketing tips.

Weekly Content Idea Sheets, complete with reminders to update important information in your DesignSherpa blog, such as events, sales, products of the week, etc.

On-Demand Conversation Alerts, which are sent to your appointed contact whenever a question or sensitive topic is tracked on your blog or within your Business Social Network.

Monthly Marketing Consultations, which include a review of your DesignSherpa activity, including leads generated for your business, and a fine-tuning of the different elements of your Social Media Marketing Program.

What You Get

For a low monthly fee, Design Sherpa will develop and execute a complete social media Internet marketing program.  This is a fully integrated approach with a custom blog at the core.  Content management,   social newtork identities,   tools, SEO  and reporting analytics are all included.

DesignSherpa provides the following services for an affordable, fixed monthly fee:

Content Management

• Blog hosting and maintenance for your single location business, or a network of blogs for regional and national businesses with multiple locations.  
• Ongoing content creation and management; regular blog posts with content written specifically about your products, events, promotions, projects, and business highlights.  Also relevant content created by our award winning home design journalists along with additional sources we identify and source for you
• NCI supplied content is selected and developed to establish community engagement around the design sensibility, budgets, and project scope of your target prospect and existing customer;
• Emphasis on photo presentations to define your business’ unique design perspective;
• Interactive content;
• Helpful design resources, tools, and answers to FAQs;
• Content that you want to share about personal local favorites, tips, and favorites that define you, your community, or your business.

Social Network Development Maintenance

• Creation of social identities for your business on Facebook and Twitter
• Development and publishing of content for your social identities
• Recruiting and development of your social network connections among your clients and prospects
• Monitoring of your social network activity for problematic or sensitive issues and dialogue

Internet Tool Development / Search Engine Optimization

• Periodic enhancement and upgrade of social media tools, such as blog platforms, interactive widgets, etc.
• Analysis and refinement of Search Engine Optimization performance for your professional business blog in search engines such as Google,  to increase traffic and raise your business and personal brand’s profile.

Reporting Analytics

Monthly reporting and analysis will include:

• Measurement of how many members of your network interacted with your program
• Report on traffic and leads
• Referal activity measurement
• Measure business activity among customers who are participants in your social network vs. non-participants

Getting Started

Three unique programs available

All three programs develop and execute a full-service social media marketing plan for  your business.  All three provide customized content tailored to the voice and image you wish to communicate to your market.  There are slight differences in content presentation based on whether you are primarily a service and project oriented business, a product or showroom oriented business , or a multi-location business.

I. Design Professional Program

Recommeneded for all styles of design professional:  builders, architects, interior designers, landscape architects, remodelers, etc.   In this program, we recognize the importance of showcasing projects as well as educating, informing and entertaining your prospect community with relevant news and information.

Using an extensive interview process, we will work with you to hand select categories of content to populate your blog and social media.  Content for your program is overseen by experienced home design professionals who draw from NCI  home design brands as well as from carefully selected online resources.

A few examples of content categories you can select

-         New and archived projects / before and afters

-         Home design news and trends

-         Helpful tips and resources

-         Local events and insights

-         Inspirations and ideas

-         Green living

What you get:

Content management: hosting, creation, distribution
Social network development: identity creation, content population, audience development, activity monitoring
Tool development:  Search engine optimization, system and platform upgrades, performance analysis
Reporting Analytics: traffic, audience interaction, leads and referrals

Pricing:  There is a monthly maintenance fee and fulfillment begins on the contract start date.  Program will be up and running within 45 days.  Program continues for 13 months from the contract start date.

II. Shop / Showroom Program

Recommeneded for stores and showrooms that feature primarily products and that hold inventory of some kind.  In this program, we recognize the importance of showcasing products as well as educating, informing and entertaining your prospect community with relevant news and information.   Also included is an e-commerce option allowing you to list products with pricing for online selling direct to consumers.

Using an extensive interview process, we will work with you to hand select categories of content to populate your blog and social media network.  Content for your program is overseen by experienced home design professionals who draw from NCI  home design brands as well as from carefully selected online resources.

A few examples of content categories you can select

-         In Store Promotions

-         Design Trends

-         Helpful tips and resources

-         Local events and insights

-         Inspirations and ideas

-         Design tips

What you get:

Content management: hosting, creation, distribution
Social network development: identity creation, content population, audience development, activity monitoring
Tool development:  Search engine optimization, system and platform upgrades, performance analysis
Reporting Analytics: traffic, audience interaction, leads and referrals

Pricing:  There is a monthly maintenance fee and fulfillment begins on the contract start date.  Program will be up and running within 45 days.  Program continues for 13 months from the contract start date.

III. Multi Location Program

The Multi Location program is available for a minimum of 10 locations.

With the Multi Location program, you are able to customize the basic template and design of your DesignSherpa Blogs to match your business’ design sensibilities. In addition, each DesignSherpa Blog will have a custom-designed header and marketing web pages.  (You may submit pre-designed pages for these elements, if you desire.)

As a Multi Location client, you will have the opportunity to customize the functionality of your blog. Your Account Manager will detail the various functions that can be added into your blog, including interactivity with your customers and prospects, enhanced photo galleries, integration with your social network platforms and video.

As a Multi Location client, you will have a central marketing resource at your company, who will be the key point of contact for developing the Social Media Marketing plan. In addition, you will appoint a contact person at each local dealer or location who will interact with the DesignSherpa Operations Team on a weekly basis in order to supply key content and handle engagement with the users of your program. Each month, the central marketing contact at the Company will receive a report detailing the performance of the program.

Pricing:
For more information, contact:

Adam Japko
President, DesignSherpa
ajapko@nci.com

-or-

contact your local NCI Home Design magazine and social media sales professional

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Boston Design Community Gathers for Social Media Primer

NCI’s Chairman and CEO recently gave a presentation about social media outside Boston to a group of design professionals.  The event was sponsored by New England Home and Kitchen Views.  Here is a link to Dan’s really compelling and eye opening presenation on ways to think about harnessing social media as a new internet marketing tool for the design industry.