Monday, March 29, 2010

Social networks - sharing everything even with your clients!


Today I had a call with a client who laughed when I spoke about the my use of facebook during work hours. I said I had it on most of the day to get updates from existing clients and in some cases to even get messages. Turns out he uses it for the same thing.


facebook, Linked In and twitter to name a few have started to cross the lines of social networking vs. business networking. Are any solely used for one purpose or the other? The lines have blurred and so has the rules for using these.


Three years ago a potential employee had added me on facebook after her interview and the status updates started to follow, such as "Out late last night, hungover can't go to work." Other times this person would post photos of herself drinking or using some other types of recreational drugs. Long story short I did not end up hiring her, she told me that her personal life should not have affected my decision, without facebook it would not have.


Now since I have used facebook for personal reasons and crossed over to also include clients I make sure that what I share with them online is the same as if I was in front of them.


Now in some cases I have I found similar interests with clients from groups I have joined or even applications, these have allowed for further development of a relationship, none though are as effective as a face to face meeting. But I have foudn the face to face meetings to be a lot easier since we have established common ground well ahead of time with my recent harvest of crops on Farmville.


Have social networks and online business networking sites started to become blurred for you? What have you learned or seen happen to others that forget that social networks are just the same as an open window in your home?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

10,000 or 100,000 which do you prefer?

Each month we produce around 10,000 printed copies of the Ontario Construction Report along with our regional papers the GTA Construction Report and Ottawa Construction News. Since 2007 when I started with the company the printed circulation has remained the same, however in the Fall of 2008 I had increased our monthly circulation by several thousand without printing one extra copy.

How did this happen? Welcome to the age of online editions of newspapers and magazines.

I was able to find an inexpensive page turning program online that had allowed me to meet one of my goal of increased circulation without increased costs. At first the technology was not appreciated by all, but like sending an email for the first time ever, using the online edition became very easy to do.

Now the Ontario Construction Report has readers in the US and across Canada. Companies with head offices in different provinces can now reach the papers and keep their finger on the pulse of the construction industry in Ontario. US based companies can also see how the better half are doing, especially for residential construction.

New products have started to be developed like the Design and Construction Report Magazine serving the US and the DCN Group established on Linked in. 90% of the publication reaches readers electronically but those who still want hard copies get them. What has separated us from the other start ups of online only publications is our solid foot hold in the printed real world where people can still touch, turn and get blank ink on their fingers. We have grown without sacrificing any of our existing circulation.

What lies ahead now for the Construction News and Report Group of Papers? How about taking the monthly readership from 10,000 of the printed edition to over 100,000 readers? In the next month you will see a new relationship that has been established to market our existing publications to over 100,000 readers each month. Taking the Ontario Construction Report to become a national publication.

Now here is where the fun starts. With the new 100,000 readers I can take the online edition of our paper one step further with the addition of an online exclusive section of the paper with content not available in our papers. The online product has been evolving fast and now we will have 100,000 new readers to showcase your products, services and companies to. Talk about reaching potential customers on a national and even continental basis, across Canada and the US.

Cool Logo!

An advertiser from an article I am doing on STC Construction Group in the March issue of the GTA Construction Report submitted their artwork for the issue the other day and I have say it is the coolest logo I have seen in a while.

I am currently working on a logo for a side project of mine started up with my son and his friend called http://www.kidzcanhelp.ca/ The importance of a logo for a brand is huge as it captures people attention, clearly delivers a message about your company or organization and at the very beast draws out an emotional connection.

The Upper Deck Flooring logo reminds me of collecting baseball cards 20 years a go as a kid. As I work towards the logo for http://www.kidzcanhelp.ca/ I hope we can achieve something similar.

Does your logo appeal to people? Are you doing a new or redesign of a logo? Share your stories.