What prompted me to write this post today is that I finally understand a new and potentially dangerous feature that Facebook added this week called, Facebook Places. Not only did I not know about it but I didn’t realize that by default my Facebook friends could easily announce where I was to the world without my knowledge or permission!

If you stop and think about the ramifications of this, I think you’ll want to watch this video on how to alter your privacy setting so this won’t happen to you!

I have to add that I can see where Facebook is going with this. Imagine the ads that will be targeted at you once they know where you are at any given time. And think about all the data you’ll be adding to what they know about you already. But that’s a subject for another post, really my purpose here is to help you protect your privacy for your own personal safety reasons!

Many home stagers are using social media to help build their businesses. I recommend this and have talked about various techniques in Staging Diva Dialog, my monthly coaching calls. I am also the author of the Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter.

Social media is great, but don’t forget that it’s important to still protect your privacy! There are lots of unsavory characters out there who can use your own information against you.

For example, to protect my own privacy, I don’t “tweet,” blog or make Facebook or LinkedIn comments about where I am, though I sometimes write about a place I’ve visited after the fact.

A good example of that was my June trip to New York City. The public didn’t know when or where I was going (why would anyone in their right mind announce to total strangers that they’ll be out of town?), but upon my return I posted a photo of my evening out with Staging Diva Graduates Susan Atwell, Jodi Whalen and Donna Dazzo, along with a mention of the places we went.

But, there was no need for people to know where we were while we were still there!

I’d love for you to share your comments about how you protect your privacy online or any problems you’ve run into by not doing so. Please add your tips to this discussion, I know others will appreciate it!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc.

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love.

Hopefully Monday’s post about how social media can help grow your home staging business has motivated you to get out there and try some new things to market yourself this year. (Catch up by reading that post now by clicking here.)

The example I shared in that post was centered around Facebook, which is more familiar to most people. Today, though, I’m going to focus on a tool that can be even more powerful in growing your business – Twitter.

This social networking site has taken the world by storm. Millions of people around the world use Twitter to communicate with others in short, 140 character sentences or status updates.

You can think of Twitter as your own micro blog with each status update being its own mini blog post. The people you communicate with on Twitter, your micro blog readers if you will, are known as your followers and their feedback on what you have to say will be instantaneous.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s much less complicated than it sounds. All you need to know is that in order to compete in business in 2010, you must have a Twitter account.

Here are six reasons why you need to get your free Twitter account today:

1. It’s quick and easy to get started, especially compared to Facebook. It will take you about five minutes to set up your profile and start “Tweeting.”
2. You’ll be saving your identity. It’s expected that by the end of this year there will be 100 million people using Twitter. Even if you have no plans to start Tweeting in the near future, you should join now if only to save your business name so nobody else grabs it first.
3. You’ll  be proving that you’re current. You can’t listen to the radio or watch TV without hearing somebody asking you to follow them on Twitter. When you have a Twitter account, you’re demonstrating that you’re keeping up with trends.
4. You’re demonstrating your expertise as a home stager. The sooner you start using Twitter, the sooner you’ll have a history of “tweets” that will be positioning you as the home staging expert in your market. With Twitter growing at its current rate, it’s a matter of time before other stagers in your market are using it, if they aren’t already. Get there first so you appear to be ahead of the game.
5. It helps show your passion for home staging. You can use Twitter to share your passion about your industry. Allow your potential customers to get to know you and your design style giving them the chance to like and trust you. That will make them more likely to hire you when they need a stager.
6. You’ll be helping your customers find you. Twitter is becoming more and more mainstream. Many homeowners and real estate agents in your market are already on there. Twitter is a whole new way to get your business in front of people in your town. And you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your home!

You can find out more about these six points as well as six more reasons to sign up for an account in the Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter. You’ll also learn exactly how to sign up for your account, how to set up your profile, how to start finding people to follow and even ideas about what to post.

This 100+ page resource will navigate you through the entire process of using Twitter to build your business – no home stager should be without it. Order your copy today and before you know it, you’ll be an expert Twitter user!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. Debra has been writing about marketing since the 1980s and has operated her own home staging business for 7 years. The Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter is her fourth home staging guide.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home stagers, home staging business, home staging courses, twitter for home stagers, staging diva, debra gould, home staging resource

A year or two ago, if you thought things like Facebook and instant messaging were only for teenagers, you might have been right. But if you still have that same attitude in 2010, you have a lot of learning to do about the power of social media!

As a home stager, or any type of business owner, social media is the ideal way to grow your business.

Let’s use Facebook as an example. If you’re already on Facebook for the sole purpose of communicating with friends and family, you must not realize how this tool has the power to grow a business.

When you have a Facebook account, you basically have a big, interactive database of your friends, acquaintances, past colleagues, family members, etc. You can send a “friend request” to anyone else on Facebook, so you can build a big list very quickly. Most of the world is on Facebook so you’d be surprised at who you will find.

This database of contacts gives you access to your friends’ photos and you can read your friends interactions with their friends on their “wall” (the place where most discussions happen on Facebook).

That means your friends’ friends can see what’s going on over on your wall as well. Think about the power of this if you’re talking about your business.

To promote your home staging business, all you need to do is publish a new set of before and after photos of a home staging or decorating project and write a couple of sentences about the transformation, and all of the people on your list can see them. If they comment on your photos or on your wall, their friend lists can see that information as well.

All of a sudden, you’ve exponentially increased the number of people who are aware of your services and have seen a sample of your portfolio.

So while Facebook is a good way to waste time (especially if you’re doing all those silly quizzes or playing FarmVille), gossip and peruse your friends family photos, if you use your time differently there,  it can also be an outstanding way to grow your business.

Twitter is an even more powerful marketing tool for a home staging business. On Wednesday I’ll share half a dozen reasons why you should have your own free Twitter account, but in the meantime, I encourage you to check out the Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter.

You’ll learn everything you need to know to get started quickly on Twitter, and use the minimum amount of time to get the best business results, in this comprehensive and easy-to-read guide.

We’re at the beginning of a new year – the perfect time to try out some new marketing techniques for your staging business. You can’t beat the costs either because the only monetary investment you need to boost your business with Twitter is the cost of the ebook that will teach you how to use it most effectively.

Have you been using social media to grow your home staging business? Please share your experiences by leaving a comment below.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. Debra has been writing about marketing since the 1980s and has operated her own home staging business for 7 years. The Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter is her fourth home staging guide.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home stagers, home staging business, home staging courses, twitter for home stagers, staging diva, debra gould, home staging resource