consultingwoodworker.com Blog

Social Media sites are a place for casual connections with others. Sometimes we meet new people there, sometimes we can connect with those we know but don’t get to see regularly. We can meet at the water cooler to discuss the weather, TV shows or movies we have seen, last night’s game, our workday, or hobbies.

The real value here is being able to connect with people of like interests and needs. As a cabinet shop owner, you can “meet” people who are remodeling their homes, contractors who are looking for new sources, and suppliers who have new products or ideas on green building practices. Meeting people who you would like to connect with is much easier than you think online.
“Sure’” you are saying, “but how is chatting with someone in Singapore going to help my cabinet shop in New Jersey?” Well, virtually all Social Media sites can be tailored to specific geographic regions, so you can find fellow Twitter users in your city, region or state. You can search contacts on Facebook and Linkedin by area.

And there is one more arena that I consider Social Media that most Web 2.0 experts never touch on: Online Forums. There are dozens of online forums that cater to woodworking. WoodWeb (www.woodweb.com) has a forum for professional shops, where users can post questions in a number of categories, and other wood professionals from all over the country will answer. August Home Publishing, the publishers of WoodSmith and ShopNotes magazines has an excellent forum at www.woodnet.net While it is largely geared toward hobby woodworkers, there are a number of manufacturer’s employees and owners who are regulars and have gained excellent reputations by being helpful and informative on the site. Rockler sponsors the Women in Woodworking Forum (www.womeninoodworking.com/forum) While it’s focus is obviously for women, many men post there as well.

The rules on these forums are much the same as we have discussed before; Be helpful and informative. Build a reputation as a friend of the industry/hobby. Don’t solicit. (some forums do have places to post items for sale or trade, but follow the rules) The reputation you build will speak loud and clear for you. These forums are communities. You simply cannot post your first message telling everyone about your hot new product. I have seen the group react very badly to this. These forums are not another advertising space. Social Media is about relationships, not another screaming commercial. And don’t ever try to pose as a member and slip in sneaky ads that way. The group will see through that and you will never be trusted.
Use the forums properly, and the rewards can be great. I know a representative from a major tooling manufacturer who is a regular on one of the forums. He is always helpful and honest with the group. He is so trusted now that when questions come up about sawblades and router bits, either the poster will simply pose the question directly to this member, or other members will tell the poster to contact this rep! How much do you think that sort of “in” with your target market is worth?

So, try out the Social Media sites. Seek out some online forums where your potential customers may go to find advice and information. Be helpful. Be knowledgeable. Hang out at the World Wide Watercooler and see who drops by for a chat.

Again I invite you to look me up in the Social Media realm. I can be found on Facebook and Linkedin as Ralph Bagnall, and on Twitter as Consultingwood. Come say hello and I will be happy to show you around.

I was going to write some more on using Social Media to connect with clients, but have decided to put it off a bit in order to share with you a unique experience I am having this week:

I write this from Kingston, Jamaica. I am down here working with Jamaica Fibreglass Products, my first and still favorite clients. This time, I am staying at a beautiful new facility in New Kingston. What makes this all notable is that I helped JFP create this room 18 months ago.

Back then, I was down here helping JFP figure out how to improve their CNC output and streamline much of their assembly. We began working toward a single unit production schedule, looking at new tooling and processes, and implementing the Lean Manufacturing techniques that I have been discussing in this blog of late.

The owners at JFP were also preparing for a meeting with clients about providing furniture for an upcoming hotel opening. While JFP is highly experienced at restaurant style seating, this was a pretty big departure from their normal business. Also, the client really wanted solid wood, and JFP is not really set up for large scale production in solids.

That is when the owners of JFP really started to impress me. They knew that getting the hotel project was a long shot. They could not offer the solid wood, and had no prior hotel work to show. They took a bold step and began prototyping the hotel room in full scale. When I arrived, they already had several pieces pretty well done, and were walling off a section of their lobby to replicate the room dimensions. I was able to contribute to the project by showing them how to use their CNC to miterfold the furniture parts, and adapting some of the designs to maximize the benefits of miter folding.

The clients, where ushered into the hotel room they had envisioned, sat on the bed, tried out the chairs, and really got the feel of the room. JFP did not have to convince the buyers that miterfolded furniture would look like solid wood, the clients could not ignore the parts they were touching.

Eighteen months later, I sit in the hotel and type this blog. I hope that you take the proper lessons from this unique company:

They decided to get the sale first, then figure out how to build the job. They could take this risk because they have structured their entire business to remain flexible. They know they can find a way, either in house or outside. That’s the second lesson:

JFP certainly does not suffer from “Not Invented Here” syndrome. They are willing to pay for outside expertise, and quick to respond to the fresh ideas presented to them.

And the last lesson is that they were ready to run with their plan. Completely on spec, they designed the furniture and began prototyping it. Since I was already there, they enlisted my help in detailing the construction to best utilize their capabilities. The client was presented with the exact design JFP was prepared to build. By the time the clients had finished moving the pieces around in the “room”, the deal was pretty well set, and here I sit.

This incident was not a fluke. JFP has gotten several large jobs since I have been working with them in the same manner. Does your company have the corporate mindset and will to go for the brass ring this way?

Isn’t it time?

JFP: www.jfpmfg.com
See the room here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/furnituremaker/sets/72157615520823654/

Ralph Bagnall
www.consultingwoodworker.com
On Linkedin
Follow me on Twitter as Consultingwood

Let’s face it. As woodworkers, and cabinet makers, we are something of an old fashioned bunch. If you have taken my suggestion from the previous blog post and delved into the world of Social Media, you may well be confused and concerned. At first it all seems sort of pointless and out of touch with our business. I’m here to show you that you are wrong. If you primarily work with designers, architects and contractors, it is highly likely that your current clients, and others that you want to work with are already on Social Media sites. Linkedin has any number of groups devoted to cabinet making, furniture manufacturing and other wood related fields. If your client base is professional, I highly recommend Linkedin. Linkedin is one of the most structured and formal sites. You have to ask people to join your network, and while there is a good search function, much of people’s profile information is hidden to you until they are a part of your network. A good way to get introduced to people and ask them to join your network is to ask and answer questions. Linkedin has a really big board of open questions being asked and answered by members. You can view questions by category, and by participating, you can build your network. Most folks are very polite on Linkedin, and will send you e-mail (through Linkedin) thanking you for answering or discussing your answer. This gives you an opening to then ask them to join your network. Since Linkedin is all about networking, this process is pretty painless. Like most Social Media, being helpful is the key to building a quality network.

If you work with homeowners, then you need to be working more with Facebook in my opinion. Facebook is much more of the social in Social Media. You can search people in many ways, and finding people in your geographic area is possible with most sites. A surprising number of middle and upper income adults are on Facebook. Facebook is a bit more open and freewheeling than Linkedin. Yes, your first impression is correct. There is a LOT on Facebook that is useless to you, but again, the point here is to be helpful and friendly and drive traffic to your website. Answering people’s questions about cabinets, remodeling, and hardware gets you a lot of exposure really fast. On Facebook, most interaction is VERY public. Every member has a “Wall” where things are posted publicly. People you have “friended” can write comments on your wall, and you can write on theirs. The really effective part is that you can read all comments on their wall, and your posts on their wall can be read by all their friends even if you don’t know their friends. See where this is leading? A polite, knowledgable person, being helpful to their friends online, can really help you build a reputation online as a go-to company.

Twitter is another site altogether. At first glance, Twitter seems totally useless as a business tool. I know, I thought that too. Twitter seems to be nothing more than people posting what their dog did on the carpet this morning. But it really can work for you. I have been surprised at how fast Twitter has been able to drive traffic to my website. Again, the point is to be helpful and knowledgable, and gain “Followers”, who in turn follow you. Twitter is fast moving and brief. All comments, known as “Tweets”, are limited to 144 characters. I use Twitter to broadcast new information on my blog or website, new articles as they come out, and anything that might reasonably be of interest or amusing to my followers. I also respond to others if I have useful information for them. Now as your number of followers grows, you will find that some post a lot of totally useless information and you can get hundreds of tweets per day. I, like you, really don’t have the time or desire to wade through all that flotsam. The good news is that you can simply not follow those people that fill your box with drivel. I follow anyone who follows me, but if they spend all day posting silly stuff, then you can unfollow them. 99 percent of the time, they will not even notice.
I have been able to winnow down my follows to those people that I want to hear from, people who are marketers that I respect, other woodworkers, NASA, the USS Constitution, and just some interesting people. By being helpful and knowledgeable, I have again been able to drive traffic to my site by assisting others and announcing new stuff that may be of interest to them. Just this past week, ShopBot posted a tweet praising last week’s blog. I noticed an instant spike in visits to my blog.

By now, you must have noticed a pattern to my advice here: Be helpful and knowledgable. Be polite and informative. Provide expertise and people will become comfortable thinking of you as an expert. They will visit your site, where they can learn of your services and how to contact you for more information. One more point: Social Media is SOCIAL. There are a number of companies out there that simply post several times a day with product reviews and announcements. They do not converse, they do not respond to others posting, they use their Social Media presence as just another advertisement. This is more harmful than helpful to them. People use Social Media to connect. Sometimes for personal reasons, sometimes for business reasons, but a connection is key. These sites should NOT be viewed as another ad space. I don’t sell on these sites. I build relationships, and when my connections ask, I will sell to them then. Seth Godin calls this “Permission Marketing” and it is very effective. It is not instantaneous, it does take some time and care, but it is free marketing, and over time is highly effective. You can find a link to Seth Godin’s book, “Permission Marketing” on my website, on the “Recommended Reading” page. It is a bit dated by now, but the pricipals are well worth knowing and studying.

Again I invite you to look me up in the Social Media realm. I can be found on Facebook and Linkedin as Ralph Bagnall, and on Twitter as Consultingwood. Come say hello and I will be happy to show you around.

You may have heard the term. You have certainly heard something about “MySpace”, “Facebook”, or Twitter. But these silly websites have no bearing on your business right? Wrong! You need to know about these social media sites, and you need to be thinking about how you might use them to build your business.

Forums too are a form of social media. WoodWeb offers a forum, as do most of the trade magazines through their websites. These are pretty direct ways to communicate with your peers in the industry. People in these forums ask questions, get advice, and even find cooperative work through these forums. It is a good way to stay connected to industry trends and network with others.

Which brings us back to the Social Media sites. Networking is the name of the game here. It is hard to quantify the benefits of expanding your network. I know by now, most of you who do not currently use Social Media sites are groaning inwardly; “I don’t have time to be keeping up with yet another website!” But if you target your efforts, and schedule your time properly, you can reap the benfits without undo time spent.

So lets look at the various sites and which might be relevent to your business. The most known site is MySpace. MySpace typically serves a younger community. I don’t post there, since my clients are business owners and woodworkers. Your target market is probably not there either. I do, however, recommend that you register on MySpace, just as a form of insurance. You want to protect your name online, so registering your company, even though you wont be using the site, keeps others from posting in your name. This is good advice even if you never intend to participate in any Social Media.

Facebook became popular in colleges around the country, and has expanded it’s membership over the years to include a great many adults. I have been surprised at how many of my classmate from high school (25 plus years ago) I have found online there. If your customer base is residential and you want to get information out to people in your area, Facebook may well be a good way for you to communicate with them.

Linkedin is a site designed especially for business to business networking. The rules are a bit stricter, but you can search and connect with people inside and outside your industry. I have met people there from IWF, from the trade magazines, AWI and other people I am happy to be in contact with. This is a good place for you to connect if you want to reach professional outside your normal circle.

Spend a few hours this week looking over these sites. At least register and reserve your name so others can’t. See what they offer, and in the next blog, I will discuss strategies for getting the most from them without spending a lot of time. And feel free to connect with me out there. I am on Facebook as Ralph Bagnall, on Linkedin as Consultingwoodworker, and on Twitter as Consultingwood. I would be happy to introduce you around.