This document provides tips and strategies for leveraging social media in home design. It discusses how people trust recommendations from other people over advertisements. The top tips are to engage audiences, be honest, focus efforts on select social media channels, and create high-quality photos as visual platforms become more important. Looking forward, social media will involve less text, more photos that can be interacted with, automated shopping options, long-term relationships, and tiny bites of content.
2. +
Top 5 to Know about Social Media
1. People Trust People
3. Use it as a conduit for honest
dealings.
4. Do what you know, do it well.
5. Looking forward: Photolandia?
2. Engage, lead the discussion.
3. +
Over 80% trust people (even
people they do not know)
People Trust People
Only 14% of people trust ads
In America, women control 85% of
buying decisions – $14 trillion.
86% put the most trust in personal
product or service reccommendations
6. +
Singing Hobo
What They Had…
Dummy with garbage
in old monkey cage
Astronaut photo
cutout with NO
STEPS and sized for
big people, so I had
to take a ‘selfie’
photo while propping
up my kid.
8. + Talk to Audience (ask for
challenges)
Engage
Show Insider Status (product
sourcing, local partners, clients)
Give Your Best Advice Away Free
Great customer stories (reviews,
pix, posts)
9. + Inspire with Discussions
SHARE
COOL
IDEAS &
discoveries
* Hint *
They don’t need to be
yours!
12. +BE HONEST
All advertising can be
good advertising.
Amazon.com is a
powerhouse for public
‘converts’ – complaints
that later thank/praise.
Yelp, GlassDoor, Google
reviews, local news site
listing pages (audit)
Respond to complaints.
Keep tone positive, light,
and no defensive play.
Web 1.0 = Visibility
Web 2.0 =
Transparency
16. +
Where Social is Headed…
Less text, more photos (Make them good NOW; can
they be interacted with? Before and After? Many-step-story of
one fabric/space? Asked audience questions about?)
Automated filters, everything ‘shoppable’ Ex:
see new Instagram for example, the click-to-buy options.
Long-term relationships
Tiny bites of content
Visual platforms for marketing
18. +
TAKEAWAYS
1. People Trust People
3. Be good to the reviewers.
4. Pick spots wisely, and focus on
those.
5. Looking forward: Better photos.
2. Engage, earnestly.
19. +
Worth Reading:
Houzz and Home Survey
2014:http://info.houzz.com/rs/houzz/images/Houzz%20%26%20Home%202013%20Report.pdf
The Consumerist: Customer loyalty/relations.
http://consumerist.com/
Fast Company:
Female shoppers no longer trust ads… Sept. 28, 2015 * cited
http://www.fastcompany.com/3051491/most-creative-people/female-shoppers-no-longer-
trust-ads-or-celebrity-endorsements
Winning the hearts and minds of mommy bloggers (GREAT tips)
http://www.fastcompany.com/3049137/most-creative-people/on-winning-the-hearts-and-
dollars-of-mommy-bloggers
Center for Digital Future – USC Annenberg – 2014 report
pp. 78 – 85 Purchasing habits of shoppers, in store and online (and in-store on a phone).
pp 117-120 Consumer habits w. Companies, social media
http://www.digitalcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2014-Digital-Future-Report.pdf
Blog: Using Social in the Kitchen and Bath industry:
http://www.kitchenbathdesign.com/business/industry-trends/article/11978035/social-media-
in-the-kitchen-and-bath-industry
20. +
Customer Review Websites:
• Hubspot: 12 places biz should be getting online reviews
• Vertical Response: Top 20 places biz should be listed
• PCWorld: Beyond Yelp - Which user reviews matter?
• Alexa: Top U.S. shopping sites (it was as close as I could
find to most-trafficked user review sites list)
Social Media Management Tools:
• Intuit: Top 7 Social Media Management Tools
• Brandwatch:Best social media tools for small biz
• Bufferblog: 61 Small business social media tools
Future of Social…
• Evolving relationships with consumers.
• Marketing to increase by 126% in the next 5 years.
• New channels, social commerce to grow (adopting phone
in-store experiences)
Notas do Editor
14 of people trust ads; 80 % trust people. EVEN PEOPLE THEY DON’T KNOW. Front Porch Forum. Angie’s List. Houzz.
We’re going to look at data on how people spend money; and then we’re going to see what we know about how they GET there. Is it going to be a vacation this year, or a tile floor? And unlike a vacation, where flight prices can
1 - People Trust Friends – not Ads.
2007: http://www.amazon.com/Marketing-Social-Web-Customer-Communities/dp/0470124172#
A study released in Sept. 2015 by SheKnows media, using recent years data - shows – women control 85% of buying decisions.
Of the 1,470 women surveyed, 86% said they put the most trust in real peoples’ product or service reccommendations.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3051491/most-creative-people/female-shoppers-no-longer-trust-ads-or-celebrity-endorsements
2 - Go to Places Where Friends Are. See What’s Going On
2 - Go to Places Where Friends Are. See What’s Going On
THEY EVEN HAD A GIANT ICE CREAM CONE at the refreshments booth, BUT DIDN’T SELL ANY ICE CREAM.
Show Insider status: Why you’re so pro, why you’re top of the line, why you’re reflective of their values of buying eco, buying local, refurbing or saving the earth, aesthetic
Talk to them: Find out what they’re dealing with. If it’s financing, offer tips; if it’s how to fit in, offer advice of gifting, etc.
Nail down reviews before they’ve finished their deal. Make all transactions regarding customer satisfaction tie back to social
Give your best away – the beneficiaries will be coming to you anyway.
This is NOT the place to get into an argument. The vocal person about one problem will be the vocal person about the next one.
You don’t need to do them all. Your method may be a stripped down one.
Facebook has “business listings” now, so if your page isn’t off the ground, or hasn’t been helpful in something you can keep up with, change over to a business listing; a place with some basic information, but no expectations of ongoing advice or discussions.
Sources:USC Annenberg Digital Future Report http://www.digitalcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2014-Digital-Future-Report.pdf
http://www.digitalcenter.org/news-facebook-declines-0214/
14 of people trust ads; 80 % trust people. EVEN PEOPLE THEY DON’T KNOW. Front Porch Forum. Angie’s List. Houzz.
We’re going to look at data on how people spend money; and then we’re going to see what we know about how they GET there. Is it going to be a vacation this year, or a tile floor? And unlike a vacation, where flight prices can