A well-connected Blogger can generate exposure for brands and Social Media professional’s will connect with and follow industry Bloggers to stay informed and help to promote the brands they manage. In return, Blogger’s connect and follow Social Media professionals because their blogs are promoted via top social networking sites.

Small businesses should take advantage of popular blogs. When the blog world connects with the social networking world, the combination is a win-win opportunity all around for increased website traffic, analytics and site visits.

Here are some suggestions to finding and working with a professional Blogger.

1.  Look for a Blogger who has similar core values both professionally and personally to the brand. How the Blogger leads their life offline is just as important as online. Research a blogger on their personal Facebook pages, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.  Look at the links on their websites and blogs to see who they connect with and how they share personal interest.

2.  Look for a Blogger with the ability to influence the reader to take an action on behalf of a brand. They can blog all they want to about a specific industry, but can they influence the reader and a specific brand?

3.  Look for a Blogger with influence in a specific geographic area and “reach”.  This can be a big benefit for a brand who has multiple store locations. Reaching customers in different geographic areas can be a challenge and can determine the types of products sold at those locations. This is also important for smaller brands in niche markets. A brand with a single location needs the benefits of social media and the relationship of online bloggers. Take a look at Hashtracking for Tweets, reach, and impressions. We like Aspen Real Life as a blog with a local focus and with the ability to be true to oneself.

4.  Number of followers should be significant. A blogger’s unique site visits should be high. Some larger brands will only work with a blogger who has upwards of 100,000 unique site visits per month. You should determine what is important to your brand. If your business is in a niche market the numbers can be lower without compromise. For Twitter look at Twello to find some great blogs on various topics and get analytics from Quantcast to measure site information.

5.  Blog should be well written, unique and have the ability to introduce small markets and businesses.  The blog should provide a snippet into the brand without being too short and just providing a picture. They should tell enough of a story to get the reader hooked.

6.  The blog is not about gimmicks. Blogger’s will occasionally promote a giveaway, but they should not over sell.

7.  The blog should give credit where credit is due.

Green Girl Media, LLC often looks for bloggers with all of the above and who can help promote the businesses we work with.  As social media professionals promoting business in eco living / environmental / healthy lifestyles industries, the blogs we like are fresh, inspiring, and on the edge of new trends. We work in a niche market and rely on bloggers to help with our marketing efforts.  A good relationship can go a long way and social media professionals are more likely to know which blogs to follow.

Since 2008, Nancy Kenney has worked as a social media manager promoting businesses in the eco living / environmental / healthy lifestyles industries. She can be reached at nancy@greengirlmedia.biz. Twitter: @greengirlmedia @futuresfurnitur

Futures Furniture will continue on this current path. Our goal has never wavered and will remain focused on marketing and promoting designers, manufacturers, and retailers of eco home furnishings and interior design products. We have never been just a web directory and believe a membership listing should be more that just a coalition of businesses joining together for the greater good.  Everyone should promote each other.

Futures Furniture has relied on social media for over three years to spread the word and promote the wonderful businesses in the directory.  To further expand on our marketing efforts, Futures Furniture will work under the label of Green Girl Media, LLC.  Green Girl Media is a social media company whose focus is on marketing businesses in the eco, sustainable, green, and healthy living lifestyles industries.

We are very excited to offer this extension to our current marketing strategies. Changes you will see include a new website for Futures Furniture in the near future.  You can still find Futures Furniture on  Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and LinkedIn.

 Working with Green Girl Media and Futures Furniture:

With our standing commitment to the eco industry we can help promote your eco brand!

• We can manage your online media campaigns
• Daily/Weekly/Monthly conversations on your social networks
• Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Website management
• In-store Promotions
• New Product Launch Parties
• Holiday Media Campaigns
• Trade Show Campaigns
• Grand Openings
• Anniversary Parties
• Event Media Promotions
• Fundraising Assistance

Get the benefit of Green Girl Media and Futures Furniture working together on all social media platforms. To find out how we can help you email nancy@greengirlmedia.com for more information.

Follow Green Girl Media – Twitter and Facebook

Futures Furniture:  What inspired you new designs?

David Stine: My inspiration for my new designs comes from previous custom pieces I have made in the past. The line is inspired by custom pieces from client request over the years.

Futures Furniture: What are some of the materials you are working with?

David Stine: I am using 2 different metals which creates a lighter, more modern design.  For instance, the Lowder Table is a traditional table top made from a single board of Black Walnut, extremely rare for its size and soundness. The top features hand cut inlaid Black Walnut keys and spectacular flame crotch graining. Just six boards were milled from this tree, each with its own spectacular grain patterns. The new Lowder Table II incorporates an aluminum base and is also available in other materials..

Futures Furniture: You have an upcoming Show in St. Louis.  Why is this one of your favorite shows?

David Stine: Laumeier Sculpture Park’s annual Art Fair, Friday, May 6 through Sunday, May 8 in St. Louis. The Park was donated by an Estate and its just a cool place for families. You can spend the whole day there and chill out with your kids and have a picnic and enjoy the sculptures.  It is Mother’s Day weekend as well and just a great way to spend the weekend.

Visit Dave’s booth at the Laumeier Sculpture Park’s annual Art Fair, Friday, May 6 through Sunday, May 8 in St. Louis. Dave will be showing pieces from his new 2011 collection. For more information on the show and to view David Stine Woodworking’s 2011 portfolio, please visit www.stinewoodworking.com.

You are invited … Opening reception Friday, May 13th for
“Second Nature” by Living Home Furniture at Tart in the
Emerson, Bozeman, MT   May 13 – June 8, 2011

From ASID:

You’ve seen great design on TV. You’ve seen it in magazines and on the Internet. But have you ever been at the center of the action, working alongside New York’s top design talent?

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) NY Metro Chapter
invites you to enter the first annual

DREAM TEAM DESIGN CHALLENGE

at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, March 17–20th 2011 at Pier 94 in New York City

If selected, you will be one of four lucky attendees to be paired with one of New York’s finest interior designers to create your dream room. Here’s your chance to work with Bjorn Bjornson, Jamie Drake, Barbara Ostrom or James Rixner, the four ASID designers lending their expertise to this unique challenge. Each designer/consumer team will create a dream room for the Architectural Digest Home Design Show.

The challenge? Teams must creatively incorporate the products of 6 sponsors and at least 3 show exhibitors within their 10’x 10’ exhibit.

One month to design. Two days to install. Four days to display your design project at the Show. A lifetime of memories!

For the full list of rules, as well as information on how to enter, visit http://www.asidnymetro.org/members/competitions

Deadline to enter is February 18th—don’t miss out on this opportunity to make your design dream a reality!

Sustainable

Being almost edible, the Yube outer panels you see are made from Sugarcane, only someone got there first to extract the sweet juice! Rather than burn the remaining fiber as waste, it’s pulped for reuse and pressed into Yube panels. As with many natural materials, each panel displays it’s own unique pattern.

The frames of the Yube are made from Woodlite, a proprietary compound of non-toxic moldable plastic mixed with Bamboo, the planet’s fastest growing renewable wood resource. Woodlite utilizes 20%-30% less non-renewable resources than similarly molded products. It even smells good unlike regular plastic, there is a pleasing light sweet aroma to remind you this is no ordinary material.

Check out their video on assembly of this unique eco product. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter and on Futures Furniture.

Link to the Press Release: Hickory Springs Kicks Off Nationwide Competition Celebrating Earth-Friendly Projects in Schools and Communities

Following the 2010 EarthCare Challenge which chronicled individual contestants’ quests toward a greener lifestyle, this year’s competition will bring together communities and school groups in search of the best green projects presented by teams.

Lance Hosey moderated the ceremony and introduced the judges and finalists. Hosey, who is president and CEO of GreenBlue, a nonprofit that works to make products more sustainable, and the author of The Shape of Green Design, said this year’s theme was quite a complex challenge. “The competition asks a deceptively simple question: ‘How little material can you use to make the most of a chair?’” said Hosey. “It’s counterintuitive to think you can make more with less, but the most compelling designs manage to do so very elegantly.”