This was touched on on a recent thread--the idea that it's not as easy as having a good website + photographer and keyword search links. The internet has changed.

Try searching "online marketing styles"--you'll see a bunch of ideas that revolve around what I'm tempted to call indirect marketing. Things like paying bloggers to help you get to the top few results on a search, hyperlink manipulation, and online pro presence.

There's of course the direct marketing like e-letters, paid ads and email blasts...

Recently visited a friend who is a paid blogger. She isn't paid to directly promote product--mentioning it with hyperlink is enoughto a) attract traffic b) get further up the google search page.

There is also prosumerism--the idea of people nerding out online into topics before purchasing, or even searching for the sake of searching, and posting, tweeting, etc, good blog posts to their social media. Traffic is good so they say.

Just scratching the surface on this... anyone else looked into this sort of stuff? Any of you guys tried this sort of thing?

I know of a website developer in NYC that has about 20 'socials' on staff, part of a group of about 40 total. The socials are young people that spend their days posting good reviews, likes, etc, and making up entire personalities and hyperlinking on Facebook and other locations to maximize benefits and search results and minimize any negatives.

Since they use developers/coders in India, they tried the low cost way and used Indian sources for this job, but they could not keep up with the cultural evolution and language shifts that this 'cutting edge' of the culture represented, and were easily outed.

This is mostly for a large financial institution with hundreds of products in all sorts of markets, in North America and Europe. He hinted at more insidious activities, but I have no info on that.

I have no idea how any of that can be incorporated by the average wood shop. Maximizing word of mouth has always been the most successful marketing I have ever seen. Pretty old school.

Yes Mel, I am tired of all the social media hype. I am on a few but don't have the time and don't want to spend the time required to constantly be posting something. I don't think it has any impact on my business, I get tire kickers. I can't afford a full time blogger, to make it work (if it even will). I'm with David, word of mouth is the best. I've tried all the other advertising methods, excluding TV/radio, which are too expensive and, again, I don't think they are suited to my business.

I think we should concentrate on the "old ways", word of mouth being the most important. So, a better question maybe, is how to increase word of mouth advertising?

Okay ..... I've got it now. Mel is short for millennial, eh? That excruciatingly hard to define demographic that is the heir apparent to all that matters. And as the appointed/anointed one, you ask these questions whereby we try to fit our world of shavings, oil stones, plane techniques and spokeshave management into the world of digits and sites and all things future.

The trouble is that so much of what we do, who we are in fact, does not fit into those damned little boxes. It is a lot like the question "Have you stopped beating your spouse?" The question -or box- presumes the anticipated answer, and will not allow expansion or proper response.

We find ourselves boxed in, trying to justify a lifetime of passionate work within some damned digital reference point that at its best will miss the entire point of my career.

Damn millenials! It's all your fault Mel!

Hi Mel,

"the idea of people nerding out online into topics before purchasing, or even searching for the sake of searching"

So, for this to happen, you have to get the good content about those topics onto your site, and see that it is optimized to show up in search. So the good website is sort of a prerequisite.

Syndication to content curators and social media sites, groups, communities takes a dedicated campaign, IMO.

And it depends on where and how your target prospects get and share their information. I get zero from Facebook for example. My clients are on it, but for THEIR friends and family and not for bleating about service providers like me. It just doesn't happen.

But they Google like crazy when considering a project.

Mel- see Pattern Recognition by your fellow Canadian resident William Gibson.

" The future is already here; it's just not evenly distributed"

Mel is for sure for millenial!!! Wasn't before, but it sure is now! Guessing there isn't a whole lot of other kiddos in the biz section... All good, you folks have good patience :)

So this is what I'm thinking... Woodworking has a story to tell. People watch shows about tattoo artists, custom bike builders, dirty jobs, etc. And lets face it, woodworking is downright cool for a wide variety of people. Men and women, young and old, get immediately very interested when I tell them what I do. And a surprising amount of people tell me about the Wood Whisperer guy.

I don't think just showing product on social media is the way. I think writting up blog posts that get circulated on social media is where it's at. And to do that, for sure you need to know how to keep people interested.

About word of mouth... Internet offers word of mouth on steriods. Just not that way you think when on customer refers you to a friend.

As Jim points out-- there is a bit to this. Entire companies offer this service. But often the product is rather synthetic-- nothing beats a write up from a real person who is actually into it.

Almost forgot-- Al, I'm always up to discuss anything! So old fashion business generation... I know a sales team in the electrical industry. They take contractors out to lunch and what not all day, everyday. Help them spec, plugging in their product, lightening their work load.

That's all I got on the subject :)

I guess I'm just a little bitter as to where the internet has driven consumers. I "participate" on some other sites and am really tired of all the internet "experts" telling everyone how it should be done or arguing with a pro as the best way to do it. I've moved to offering advice off line if the poster is interested to avoid the "internet experts". Just recently I had a couple come into my shop to ask for my advice. It ended up them telling me how it should be done based on their internet "research". There is so much bad info out there, how does a consumer sort it out? Especially when they believe everything the read. After all, if it is on the internet, it is true, right?

Oooo I could go on about that for ages... People keep saying how it's "the age of information". Maybe so--but is it the age of good information?

Silly example--but I cook a lot. And by a lot I mean, anything and everything under the sun, from French to Japanese to Balinese. Looking up recipes/techniques online actually requires a very good culinary background--crap from non-crap has got to be 10 to 1.

There is such a thing as people pumping out untested recipes for the sake of web content. And I can tell you--food just doesn't work that way. Like a lot of things really.

I've had a hobbyist turner try to lecture me about machinery. A hobbyist boat builder tell me the school I studied joinery in is "useless". The big disconnect is that there is a heck of a difference between pumping out product to pay your bills and nerding out in your garage. I have a garage shop--I use my jack plane all the time there. Don't even bring one at work.

That said tho--it doesn't matter. People are interested. From business to tools, there is an audience for sure. Guess it's a matter of noticing what people in your life are interested about hearing and formatting it in such a way that an outside user can understand?

I've recently begun exploring all that great internet expert advice as a source to blog counter expert advice - from an actual practitioner. Grab the topic, grab the keywords - refute or expand the content.

I'll never outrank the HGTV authors (for example). But I can out-detail them.

Here's my first foray into that - find the refutation in the first body sentence.

Average Cost to Reupholster?