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Looking for PR for your Design Company?

We have a fabulous new blog that's embedded into our website (which we strongly recommend for everyone) that has lots of news, lifestyle trends and other ideas ... please join us at http://leberpr.com/blog

Check Out The New Blog!

After 4 long years of having this blog on typepad we're moving over to a different platform at http://leberpr.com/blog/ ~ I think you'll notice immediately what a fresh look the new site has as well as many other features that will make cataloging and presenting relevant information about our company and clients much more organized.  

Social Media Impact Explained

This is a clever little YouTube infomercial argument for social media that is very compelling - I hesitate to agree with the producer's enthusiasm for Gen X driving the way the trend is evolving, and I think their concept is a bit reductive in terms of scope, but it does offer great food for thought - especially with the notion that brands need to drive their message directly to their customers.

Video | Do You Need A Social Media Recovery Group?

If you erupt into a mini giggling fit when you watch this video (from Sony Vaio) about Social Media, you may need to seek counseling (like I do).

Design PR | Apartment Therapy's Hot House Tours

Apartment Therapy's daily House Tours seem to be really kicking it up a notch lately.  Today's home is this wonderful 1700 square foot flat in Chicago that belongs to designer Francesco Bilotto.  This is a remarkable venue for showcasing Bilotto's work, staging, styling and interiors.  And with Apartment Therapy's 17 million page views per month (about 65,000 per day) the exposure is remarkable.  

Sites like AT, Design*Sponge, Contemporist and SFGirlByBay really have an insatiable need for fabulous interiors and gardens to feature on a daily basis, which is no easy feat. 

Unlike design magazines which may feature between 3 - 7 homes monthly - each deliciously styled and dreamily photographed - these popular blogs have a run of about 60 interiors a month (AT probably many more through its various divisions).    These blogs also feature a very dedicated readership, with viewers returning to the sites daily to read, comment and reblog creative and well illustrated posts.

Links | Now On Our Other Blogs

Now on our other blogs, these scintillating stories that I know you won't want to miss!

On Bloomacious: 

Bebe's New Fall Ad Campaign is inspired by The Tudors

Chrisitian Siriano Rolls Out a New Collection (of color!) with Victoria's Secret

The US v. John Lennon ~  a VH1 Documentary you'll want to see

Basking in the Dog Days of Summer ~ some end of Summer ideas to max out the fun!

on Bloomacious Digs:

Monte Design has a very cool glider for the nursery ~ rockers have never been this cool.

on Bloomacious Cafe:

Member Pooja Renee Motl discusses the new film, Julia & Julia

and offers a recipe for Heirloom Tomato Salad that looks just scrumptious!

Social Media Marketing ~ How To Infuriate Your Fans & Friends on Facebook pt. 1

About a year ago if I mentioned the concept of harnessing the power of Facebook and Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, ect as a realistic strategy for marketing a brand, I would generally get a very long "hmmmmmm ....." followed by a very pregnant pause from many of the people I talked to.   A massive question mark would float over their heads as, more often than not, they just couldn't grasp the concept. 

Magically within the past six months however all that's changed with virtually every person I've ever known jumping on (at least) the Facebook bandwagon.  Unfortunately, rather than adopting the evolving norms of social media into the platform, which BTW are based on (1) actual human contact (2) original and interesting ideas (3) reciprocation ~ most Facebook newbies have attached dusty old marketing ideas to their shiny "new media" programs.  

As a result Facebook in particular is being used in some very annoying ways.  I thought I'd start tracking the most insidious behaviors and note them down here (mostly as a venue for venting my angst about the situation)....if you want to annoy on Facebook, here are some ideas:

1)  Businesses who want to really tick off their Facebook fans should be sure to send incessant group emails announcing minor sales, bland product announcements, and other information that is of interest only to their internal sales staff.  As a blogger, I'm used to getting press releases from other PR firms emailed rapid fire via specific email accounts, as such I really have little patience for this type of information sent to my Facebook in-box ~ and I'll lay you odds that I'm not in the minority here.  Even the most casual Facebook user is most likely not interested in being spammed about your 5% off sale once a day - if they are they'll visit your page to see it.  Facebook by definition is a "FACEBOOK" ie: people attached to faces, and personalized messages should only be sent this way. 

2) Keep requesting your friends "fan", join a group, or attend an event 0ver and over and over - even though they've probably repeatedly chosen to ignore your previous attempts for a reason.   Once is more than enough.

3)  Repeatedly poke, send game requests, gift requests, and all manner of the embeddable widget nature to people you've never had any sort of correspondence with and to whom you're a complete stranger - they love that.

4) Post only the dullest and most narrowly defined product photos and information about your company on your Facebook page so that instead of a lively interactive forum with an array of accessible ideas and information, it resembles a yellow page ad.

5) Never correspond with your fans or friends when they post info of their own (you know - the stuff that comes through on your homepage news-feed from them) ~ we know you're the only one that matters!  And when they comment on your posts or go so far as to post items to your page or wall, be sure to ignore them.  People love being treated solely as "consumers" and not individuals - isn't that what "social" means?  Oh it doesn't??  It means engaging and talking??  Whoa ....

Oh....there will be more .... stay tuned.   Yes, the Medium is the Message, but only if you know how to use it.  Otherwise it's just another cyber-armload of junk-mail to toss in the trash unopened.

Design PR | check into our [design] Sketch Pad

We curate a number of lovely little web galleries on tumblr that are just fabulous - one of my favorites is [design] Sketch Pad which features great picks from around the web of interiors, gardens, products and art that we just love. 

While we could easily host this project as an independent website, Tumblr makes a great spot for it.  If you're not familiar with Tumblr, basically it has four very attractive elements for promoting image rich products and projects: 

(1) The public page, which is the screen shot above - there are a good number of prefabbed templates as well as those than can be super customized as ours is.

(2) the tumblr page, which is a feed of posts from the tumblr blogs that each individual follows - this is very similar to the feed you see on Facebook or Twitter, but it includes photos and more expanded text. 

(3) An option to reblog posts - so a product posted on a Tumblr page can be reblogged hundreds and thousands of times through the Tumblr community.   Posts also are automatically tweeted on Twitter and can be sent to Facebook as well.

(4) A very user friendly feed that can be converted into a widget - see our combined widget in the left hand column of this blog for an example - and feel free to grab that and incorporate into your own publishing project or blog.

If starting your own design blog seems daunting - we invite you to submit design links to [design] Sketch Pad - just add the info here and we'll put it on (providing you have a great pic and the right link info).

Design PR | Architectural Digest's Reader Submitted Rooms Contest

As long as I've represented designers, contractors, furniture manufacturers, and architects, one of the main professed goals of almost each and every one of these clients has been to get into Architectural Digest in some capacity.  The magazine's reach and influence is legendary - but the collection of designers and projects that it publishes to date has been an intentionally exclusive and cloistered club - one into which very few gain entry.

So naturally I was quite intrigued when I saw that the AD website has now launched a rather egalitarian design contest.  More than 150 reader rooms have been submitted and are now being voted on.  According to AD, the images are being divided up at random into groups of 10 and are being posted this and next week.  The winner will be announced on July 31st - no telling what they win, other than exposure on the website - which in and of itself is its own prize. 

So far the entries range from professionally designed rooms to kitchy, fun spaces that could only have been created by light hearted homeowners.

Hop on over to their site to put in your two cents! 

Bloggers Beware ~ The FTC is Watching.

 
In an announcement that will surely send a ripple of terror through the mom and beauty blogging business in particular, the Federal Trade Commission has accounced it will soon be cracking down on blogs that offer "reviews" in exchange for free merchandise, as well as those that make affiliate commissions without revealing the arrangement.

Troubled by what seems to be a lack of journalistic ethics, the FTC cites the practice that many bloggers employ in which free merchandise is exchanged for positive reviews. 

"If you walk into a department store, you know the (sales) clerk is a clerk," Rich Cleland, assistant director in the FTC's division of advertising practices told the Associated Press recently. "Online, if you think that somebody is providing you with independent advice and ... they have an economic motive for what they're saying, that's information a consumer should know."

"Journalists who work for newspapers and broadcasters are held accountable by their employers, and they generally cannot receive payments from marketers and must return free products after they finish reviewing them," the AP article continues...

"If the guidelines are approved, bloggers would have to back up claims and disclose if they're being compensated — the FTC doesn't currently plan to specify how. The FTC could order violators to stop and pay restitution to customers, and it could ask the Justice Department to sue for civil penalties."

The situation does remind of the Napster flap up a few years back and I predict that a few specific violators may find themselves being held up as unfortunate examples.

Read more about it here>>

Food PR | Appleton Estate's Drink Generator

 
I thought this online drink generator from Appleton Estate was pretty nifty when I saw it this morning.  I was cruising the site after Forbes emailed me with a recipe for a Royal Apertif which is a blend of Appleton's Rum, syrup, lemon juice, and champagne.  It looked good but I was hoping for a larger picture - and then I found the impressive drink generator - sort of a fun mood ring for partiers. 

 

Basically you click on the site, and then pull levers in answer to questions like: 1) How are you feeling right now?  2) What are your plans for the evening? 3) what smells and tastes attract you? 4) How would someone describe you? 5) How do you deal with a rainy day?  and so on ... my answer the first time was the Planter's Punch shown above, which does indeed look like something I would enjoy. 

The Appleton Estate Drink Generator is an interesting, unilaterally accessible version of the personalized cocktail creation service from Liquid Relations that I wrote about a couple weeks back.  It gets consumers involved with the brand in a way that informs them about choices and asks questions in a conversational manner.

This is a great concept for cocktails, but it could also successfully be applied to a range of consumer goods, such as customized fragrances, salad dressings, candles, room fragrances, floral arrangements, china patterns, art work, cake flavors, ect. ect...!  Great concept!

Technology Trendcaster | Become a Sociopath ~ It's the Latest Thing!

I recieved an invitation this morning to join the new social network StyleCaster (which sounds suspiciously like a column that I write called Trendcaster on Bloomacious.com) - naturally I immediately zoomed over to take a look and post my mug on my own page.  

While the site doesn't seem all that different from our own network Bloomacious Cafe it apparently is embedded with lots of watching and listening devices that when explained in the video below makes me yearn for a nice long nap. 

Terms like "associated neuro network"  and "associative dynamics" are a far cry from my favorite phrase "me likey!"  but they mean similar things.

If there's any doubt after listening to this explanation that networks are the new blogs (which are the new magazines) then take a sneak peek at Fashionair which is girding up to launch soon.

Broken down gently, networks allow companies to watch the patterns and flows of their members - whom they friend, what they comment on.  We've done the same thing for the past 6 months through our networks and it's not quite as scientific or reliable as the Sociocast guys would like you to believe. 

Networks do provide a venue in which individuals can enjoy a club-like camaraderie- they also can serve as a TV station, a community blog, a messaging system and a newsletter - and are the next step beyond Facebook and Twitter.

Fashion | Marina and Susanna Sent's Bubble Necklace

 
This gorgeous murano glass Bubble Necklace is amazing isn't it?  It was designed and created by Marina and Susanna Sent whose family has worked for generations in Murano.  The sisters are continuing in the ancient tradition of hand making Venetian glass, giving a contemporary edge to the timeless art form.  This eye catching piece sparkles and shimers in the light. Gorgeous!!

Available at the MOMA store.

via ChicSensibility