One of my favorite Lynne Goldman designs

I don’t feature our wonderful clients on the blog often enough! Today I wanted to congratulate Lynne Goldman Studio on their recent Facebook success! When we first met they had two accounts floating around and weren’t sure where to start.  In just a couple of weeks, they are now up to 110 fans are having some great conversations online with both their customers and colleagues.  We also just completed a very successful Wildfire Promotion for them which we promoted through their facbeook fan page.  They gave away a beautiful pair of sterling silver earrings and had 364 entries!

Often, we consult with businesses on social media only to see them not follow through with it down the road.  This is a great example of the success that you can see in a short time! Next time you’re in Barracks Road, stop in to say hello!

If you’re interested in social media for your business, check out out upcoming workshops!

Pufferbellies Toys and Books in Staunton, VA

Congratulations to Erin at Pufferbellies Toys and Books in Staunton, VA who won the drawing for Garnet’s birthday cake after submitting a marketing question on our first birthday!

If you haven’t been to Pufferbellies it’s worth a drive ‘over the mountain’! They offer specialty toys and books and the last time I was there they had some really awesome stuff that I wanted to buy even though I don’t have kids! Congrats Erin! We hope you enjoy the $25 gift certificate to Chandler’s Bakery! YUM!

Some great questions were submitted and we promise to answer them all over the next few weeks so keep checking back!

Wow.  Thank you so much to everyone who attended, sponsored and supported Get Engaged yesterday! I think it  was a great day of learning + networking for wedding + event professionals from the Charlottesville area and for it’s first year, Claire and I couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out. When she approached me about this almost a year ago I had no idea what it would really turn out to be but the location, speaker line up and list of sponsors that we ended up with was pretty amazing! And, you really can’t go wrong when you arrive at 7am to find a hair & make up artist, a model bride in a super cool dress, and the most beautiful ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’ dessert buffet I have ever seen.  Only at a wedding professionals workshop… I can’t say THANK YOU enough to everyone who helpd us to pull it off!

It was a pleasure to share the podium with Chris Jaeger, Rick Brewer and Meghan Ely.  For those of you who weren’t able to attend, details are coming soon about a DVD that you can purchase of the day.  In the meantime, here is a link to my presentation.  I was a bit sick yesterday so if you read it here at least you don’t have to deal with the coughing! Enjoy…

photo from mashable.com

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about setting up Google Places for your business.  If you haven’t done it yet PLEASE do! Have you noticed that when you do Google searches now the maps usually come up at the very top?  That could be you!!

Anyway, following that post several people told me that they could not do Google Places because they don’t have an actual location and don’t want their home address posted.  We solved that one in the blog comments but when I saw this story about Foursquare I figured that it would apply to a lot of my readers as well.

Check out 6 Way to Market on Foursquare without a Location from Mashable for more on how to use Foursquare even if you work from your home office or the local coffee shop.

Happy Saturday!

Do the 5 photos on your profile best represent you?

Remember the days when a friend had a terrible photo of you (or at least one that you wouldn’t want shared with the world!) and it really wasn’t a big deal because it was tucked away in a photo album somewhere?  Well, if you have seen the new Facebook profile you know that is no longer the case! The 5 photos that are front & center on your profile are photos that your Facebook friends have ‘tagged’ you in at some point (typically most recently).  Let’s face it, our friends aren’t always careful taggers and I am guessing there may be a few popping up that you don’t want to share with the world.  Until now, they were fairly hidden but with the new profile you should take a close look at what your family, colleagues and even employers and business contacts are now seeing.  I know I did a little hiding and untagging when they first showed up!  Do you need to do the same?  Here is how:

Problem: You actually like the photo and don’t mind being tagged in it but would rather it not be one of the five on your profile

Simply scroll over the photo and a small ‘X’ will appear in the right corner.  Click on that ‘X’ to hide the photo.  This means that you are still tagged in the photo so it will show up on your main photo page but just not on your profile.  One you hide a photo, another one shows up in it’s place.  So, just keep hiding until you have 5 that you are happy with.

Problem: You really dislike the photo and want to completely remove it from your Facebook profile.
Click on the photo so that the larger version opens.  Find your name at the bottom in the list of people who have been tagged.  Click on ‘remove tag’ next to your name.  This will remove the photo from your profile AND your photos page.  But, it will not remove it from the page of the person who posted it.  If it’s really that bad, you will just have to ask them to totally take it down.

Keep in mind that you need to stay on top of this because as friends tag you in more photos, the ones displaying on your profile will also change.  I hope this is helpful- please contact me at info@garnet-marketing.com with any questions.  Happy Un-Tagging!!

I just arrived in Raleigh, NC (America’s most wired city according to Forbes) for the Internet Summit which starts tomorrow morning at the convention center. The 2010 Summit will feature over 100 industry expert speakers from such companies as Google, Cisco, Salesforce.com, Go Daddy, Microsoft, Autotrader.com, Yahoo!, Red Hat, Mashable, StumbleUpon, Playboy, Lulu, SkyMall, Discovery Channel and many more.  So far all is good…I checked into the hotel to find that they do not have wireless access in the rooms (really!?) BUT they do in the bar.  And, the bar has Family Guy on TV.  This is my kind of town!

I am sitting here enjoying a glass of wine (and a debate with the guy next to me as to why I would choose a wine glass vs. a pint glass for a nice Cabernet…again, really?!) as I review the agenda for the next two days.  It looks like it’s going to be a busy couple of days! Here is a quick overview of the sessions that I have chosen to attend:

Wednesday
Creating A Powerful Social Media Plan

• Social Media Strategy: The Most Important Elements of Success
• What Social Media Tools Do You Need?
• Making the tools work for you – Part I – Blogging, widgets and wikis, podcasts, online videos
• Making the tools work for you – Part II – Twitter, Facebook.com, LinkedIn.com
• Integrating and monitoring social media

And in the afternoon…

The Future of the Web
Integrated Social Media Marketing
Web Analytics and Measurement
And, of course, a Welcome Reception and After Party

Thursday
Online Advertising
Maximizing E-mail Marketing
Ad Words
Lunch with Keynote Speaker: Bob Parsons from GoDaddy (what I want to know is whether Jillian and Danica will be there?)
Search Marketing
Reputation Management

I will blog as much as possible throughout the conference and look forward to bringing back lots of great new knowledge to apply to future projects!  Keep an eye on the Garnet Blog, Facebook and Twitter for the latest from IS 10 in Raleigh!

You all may or may not know that my husband is currently in Afghanistan.  After about a year and a half of training and traveling and deployment he will be leaving there VERY soon (so soon, in fact, that I can’t even talk dates or times) to return HOME!!! I can’t believe it’s almost over!

This experience has given me more respect than I could ever explain in one blog post for our troops and their families.  I certainly never pictured myself in this situation and although it has been very difficult it has also taught me so much.  No matter how you feel about these wars and the politics behind them, I think it’s important to support the individuals who are there.  Why am I posting this on Garnet’s blog?  Because I just came across a very cool social media campaign being done by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America leading up to Veteran’s Day next week that is doing just that!

Basically, you donate your facebook or twitter status to our troops from November 8-11 just to show them that we ‘have their back’.  Two vets from the state with the most donated statuses will win tickets to the Super Bowl.  Visit their facebook page or this article from Mashable for more details on how you can donate your status!

Photo: www.mashable.com

Remember all of those ‘fans’ you have been collecting since someone told you to get a Facebook page for your business? Now, you can offer them deals! Well, you WILL be able to very soon. Facebook announced today that they are rolling out Facebook Deals in the US over the next several days. It will remain to be seen what this will do to Foursquare but either way, offer them!!

According to Mashable, there will be four types of deals that you can offer:

• Individual Deals (for discounts, free stuff or other rewards)
• Friend Deals (where you and a pal claim something together)
• Loyalty Deals (for the regulars)
• Charity Deals (which allow you to donate to a cause)

Users will just need to check in using Facebook Places, click on the deal (a yellow icon will chow when a deal is available) and then show it to the cashier to receive that deal.  For more info, read about it on the Facebook Blog.

Interested in offering Facebook deals to your fans?  Contact us to find out how.  Or, keep following the blog, we will do a ‘how to’ post on it once we have investigated a little more.

A few weeks ago a friend told be about a great organization called @abolishcancer that is using social media to to raise money which will in turn help to find a cure for cancer.  We have all been affected by cancer in some way and this past year it has really hit home for me as my little friend Edie has been fighting neuroblastoma, a type of pediatric cancer.

I was very curious so I checked them out on Twitter and their Blog.  They basically look for daily sponsors to donate $1 for every Twitter follower that they get that day.  It’s so simple…who wouldn’t follow them?  Maybe social media really will help in the fight to @abolishcancer! Follow them and tell your family & friends to do the same!