Update On Our Store's Social Networking

You may know after I discovered that when I Googled "tansitional furniture Portland" and couldn’t find Landfair Furniture, I got on the phone with Leslie Carothers (@tkpleslie) and asked her for some help.  We decided to revise our website, make it Search Engine Optimized (SEO), and employ the new social media networking tools, such as Facebook, Linked in and Twitter.  Every day I learn something new about this new media and right now I’m feeling a little overwhelmed.

I opened a Twitter account, @movermike, first for me and my personal blog, Mover Mike, which posts about politics, economics, geology, weather, even American Idol.  I would announce on Twitter a new blog posting, while hoping to build more traffic to my blog.   That leads to other twitters following me and I in turn would follow them.  Some have thousands of both.  Every time any one "tweets", I get a note of no more than 140 characters.  The volume or noise can be disconserting at first.  Next I set up a Twitter account for the store, @landfair.

Carothers advised me to tweet about who we are, what we do, why designers use us, where we are, what we sell and how they can reach us.  She advised me to look for other Tweeters that are interior designers and ask them to follow me.  It’s all part of the branding process.  I’m not alone.  The big and small stores across the country are stepping into the pool.

I have set up accounts with Facebook for me and for Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery, but don’t know how to use them well.  And I’ve set up accounts at LinkedIn.  Let me add all these are free! 

Linkedm in is a special place to me.  I can see a huge potential.  I am inviting interior designers in Oregon to link to us.  We think we can develope closer contacts with our customers and have more immediate contact.  It is viral, too.  Imagine your business links with one person who has 400 Linked in connections.  If that designer says something nice about you 400 people have access to that information and each one of those people may have  multiple connections.  Well, you see you can get information out into that community very fast.  Good or Bad! 

BTW, Google is now including Linked in in your search.

It’s is still too early to know how it is working.  The new website will be up no later than Tuesday.  I tweet others about posts on the Landfair Furniture (Blog) and The Landfair Retail Focus.  I can tell you that this blog just had its heaviest monthly traffic ever and I sure an pleased that you stop by and read these words.  Some of the words come in a deluge.  Other times I feel like I live in a desert of words and I’ll never write anything again.

Thought?  You can add comments or email me at landfair3554@comcast.net.