Mike McRitchie | Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer | Telecom Marketing Content Writer

Writing Resumes that Communicate Your Unique Value | Writing Marketing Content for Telecom Business Growth

The Story of Houzz – and how a kitchen table idea turned into an interior design juggernaut

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Houzz Story Pic
Photo credit: Wicker Paradise via Foter.com / CC BY

From time to time I’ve found myself watching the home improvement and flip this house type of show on TV.  They are great shows to stimulate ideas about home improvements you’d love to have in your home.  Whether it is that awesome outside entertaining space with water feature, built in grilling kitchen area and surround sound entertainment system and wet bar.  Or it could be that incredible kitchen remodel or maybe you’ve always wanted to build your house from scratch.

So when Tane came to me with this infographic and “Story of Houzz” I checked out the “Houzz App” and was blown away.  Incredible concept and very user friendly.

And in talking to people after being introduced to it, I found many of my interior design type friends had already discovered it and loved it too.

But beyond that, I also loved the story and it can teach you a lot about starting and running a business.  And how when you’re open to it, opportunities often appear out of nowhere.  And they can be the start of something incredible.  Here’s some highlights of the story.

  • How the couple met on a bus journey from Bangkok
  • How a frustration turned into a business idea
  • How that idea came up while chatting at the kitchen table

So check out this infographic and story provided to me by Tane Clark, Marketing Manager with the home improvement solutions provider HalfPrice.com.au.  And if you haven’t gotten the Houzz app and find yourself watching home improvement and real estate shows and thinking, “I’d love that in my house!” get the app and check it out.  It is pretty amazing.

The Story of Houzz – Home Design Platform

What started as a simple idea has become one of the biggest websites in the world. From a chat at the kitchen table, a community of over 40 million has been created. Houzz’s strength is in the size of its community and it relies upon people sharing their home design ideas with the world.

One particularly effective use of Houzz is in communicating with interior designers. You may have an idea in your head about how you would like your home to look, but explaining this to a professional can be difficult. You may be unaware of the specific terminology that should be used and might completely miscommunicate your message to a professional. The wonderful thing about Houzz is that it has 12 million pictures and the eyes never lie. You can simply show a professional a photograph of what you want and it will avoid any potential confusion.

Check out this infographic and accompanying guide for more information on the growth of Houzz.

Story of Houzz, www.halfprice.com.au

YouTube Video Marketing [Infographic]

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YouTube is the #2 search engine tool behind Google (and its owned by Google).  And YouTube searches are growing at a faster rate than other search options.

Searches related to “how-to” on YouTube are growing 70% year over year, with more than 100M hours of how-to content watched in North America so far this year.

Online videos are one of the most powerful marketing mediums we have today (and they don’t all have to be cat videos).  These videos have been proven to bring marketers solid returns of their investments – whether that is for opt-in forms, tips videos, or video sales letters.

With hundreds and thousands of videos already out there in the virtual world and hundreds more being added with every passing second, beginners can feel overwhelmed and struggle with finding ways to make their video stand out from the  crowd.

To make your life a little easier and generate better results from your video efforts, check out the tips in this infographic from Take1 Transcription.

But before you check out the infographic below…

1) If you are doing “How To” videos to explain how to do a process or how to use your product or service, 74% of those who watched one of those videos ended up buying the product or service.  Definitely something you shouldn’t ignore.

2) In addition to product videos, many companies regularly create industry-specific content and publish it to YouTube. This can serve many purposes:
  • It can boost your brand’s credibility over time as you become a relied-upon source for information on your industry.
  • The content can become the centerpiece of your social media strategy, being shared across other networks.
  • As your content gains traction, it can bring highly targeted leads into your sales funnel.
As you invest into creating great content and promoting it, you may want to track how your videos and paid promotions are affecting subscriptions to your channel in real time. Surprisingly, YouTube itself doesn’t offer this tool. After a quick search, I found this Live Subscriber Count tool that will monitor your channel in real time.

How To YouTube Video Marketing for Beginners

Does Your Brand Really Need a Social Marketing Strategy?

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Social Media Marketing Strategy
Photo credit: greyweed via Foter.com / CC BY
Photo credit: greyweed via Foter.com / CC BY

When it comes to your digital marketing strategy, how important is social media content for mobile users?

According to CMI, 87% of marketers are using social media as a delivery mechanism for content – making it the most common way to get content to an audience.

ComScore reported that mobile engagement on social media has grown by 55% in just 12 months.

Mobile users are more active and are spending increasingly more of their time on their mobile devices browsing content.

In order to connect with a wider range of users in a more intimate way, your brand needs to focus on creating a social media strategy that takes into account mobile users and the other platforms available on mobile.

Using Your Content for Social Media

Many brands turn to social media as a way to gain followers and increase their website traffic.

The benefits of inbound content designed for social media are huge in attracting users that are a good fit for your brand. Content on social media needs to be visually intriguing in order to catch the attention of users that are scrolling on their mobile devices.

Most mobile users are browsing a lot of content while often distracted by other events around them, so content needs to be concise and easy to skim with headers.

Include a blurb and image with your link on social media to better increase click-throughs to your content.

Respecting a User’s Space

Mobile optimized content is a great way to connect with users, but it is sending your content right to your user’s personal device.

With social media marketing, you are able to connect with your users on their own terms and by their own choosing. Your users have to choose to follow you, forcing you to come up with better content that is worth following and sharing.

If you want to get more engagement, you will be pushed to get to know your audience better and create a strong content strategy.

Allow Your Users to Find You

People now fully expect brands to be on social media – especially Facebook.

Most users will look for brands on Facebook when they want to check for brand updates or look at what the brand has to offer.

If you are absent from social media—or, worse, if you don’t update your page consistently—then you will come off as behind the times and may seem irrelevant to users.

If they can’t find you on social media, then your users are likely to turn to your competitors.

Don’t make the mistake of neglecting your social media presence. Use social media to better connect with your users, increase website traffic and get the most out of your content.

 

Author Biography

Ken Rhie

Ken is the CEO of Trumpia, the most complete SMS software with mass SMS messaging, smart targeting and automation

Freelancing Work – Which Kind of Freelancer Are You? [Infographic]

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Freelancing Side Hustle Small Business Baby at Computer

You’re an Uber driver.  Or you work the holidays at the mall to earn extra cash.  Or you do freelance IT work.

Whatever your freelancing specialty, balancing your freelance work with your other job, family and social life responsibilities can be a challenge.  There’s just not enough time to do everything.  So you need to set priorities and boundaries.

With the shift if social norms towards work and jobs, people want flexible work schedules, telecommute options, and ways to earn more money and contribute to their world.  Often this turns into side hustles and freelance works to supplement income and or keep the creative juices flowing.  Things that often aren’t available for many in the fixed salary, repetitive task situation in most people’s jobs.

So if you decided to go the side hustle route.  Whether starting a full-fledged small business, or just adding some light income at nights or on weekends with minimal administrative work required, you still need to optimize your efforts.

Check out this infographic from Invoice2Go. And when you’ve read it, I’ll continue with my insights on how I’ve implemented some of those ideas (or might) and how you might too.

Enjoy!

Freelancing stats invoice2go

Okay.  You read through this.  Interesting, huh?  I think they did a great job with this as it really hit home with me.

Here’s some of my highlights.

Always be prepared to pitch your work, you never know when and where you will meet your next client.

I’ve found clients through family and friends recommendations (I’ve had family refer friends who were being laid off or facing job uncertainty or looking to pursue new opportunities – for me to help with updating their resume or providing career coaching services).

I had a prior client call me six months after I did his resume to get help asking a family member for money to cover crippling student loan debt.  Not something I typically do…but because I was ready and able to help, I jumped on it.  And it was a cool copywriting opportunity.

Become skilled in your niche to attract and connect with your target audience.

As I’ve consistently published hopefully interesting, thought-provoking, and helpful blog posts to you, my fans who enjoy hearing about cutting edge ideas around small business growth (or your freelancing and side hustle versions) or career strategy advice, I now have people coming to me.  Whether it is connecting with my via LinkedIn or my website to have me help them with their business or career needs.  Or if it is other bloggers or content creators in the space who want to get their awesome content out to you, my readers (and hopefully drive some extra business their way), this all feeds itself.

You need to keep learning, growing, and trying things if you’re going to grow your connections (both the number and depth of connection).  And by doing that, the investment you consistently make will then translate into personal growth and business growth over the upcoming year.

Venture outside of your home and find a good cafe or co-working space, it’s a different type of networking.

Being time limited between my job, freelance work, and family, I often find myself on the living room couch – laptop on my lap – typing away while my kids are watching TV or after they go to sleep.  Trying to find quiet time to focus can be a challenge for any freelancer.  If you’re single or just need a break or change of pace.  Or if you’re transitioning into something full time or are a stay-at-home mom who does this and wants to use the business to get out and connect with people (including your future clients), consider getting out of the house.  It will likely spur some new ideas (changing your environment is often the quickest way to mix things up).

Now go tackle your freelance work!

Also check out these related articles:

Ultimate List: 156 Most-Read Marketing Blogs

Side Hustle? Promotion? Why Not Both?

Do Millennials Know the Secret?

Tweet Better Now

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Social Media Infographic
Villanova MS in Analytics

So what did you get out of this?

Are you leveraging those top hashtags?  Are you tracking your analytics to make sure you’re creating the biggest impact with your Twitter and other social media presence?

Here’s an additional resource to check out as you’re optimizing your social media strategy.

7 Social Media Strategies You Need to Know

  • Find out the top times to post on each social media network – so you’re not sending your blog post to the social media black hole.
  • Or check out sneaky social media tips they don’t tell you about – #15 is really cool!
  • How to recapture your time from the Facebook sucking sound.
  • And clear out these words that are making people quickly click past your LinkedIn profile
  • And 9 surprising Twitter stats that will get you saying huh???

Enjoy!

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