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Social Media is a complete waste of time

That title isn’t to just grab your attention. That’s exactly what many clients tell me everyday. Because Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites need the care and attention of the person the interaction is with, the owners themselves. I teach people what they need to do, then turn it over to them to do.

Social media and online discussions aren’t meaningless, but it’s easy to get swallowed up in the enormity of it all. But if you can limit yourself to keywords or topics in your own particular service sector, then you should find the experience compelling. Since when is talking to people about what you do for a living a bad thing?

If you can have a quality conversation with someone, who cares if you are doing it in a Starbucks or in your PJ’s? How do I know? Because I bet there are a few of you reading this post who said having a website was useless 5 years ago, and now you have one. Guys like Greg at Bergen Decks, Chris at Magic Pools and Justin at Lone Star are all online everyday making their presence known to other contractors, clients and customers.

Now, if you don’t have the time to get into the fray, I offer this little bit of advice. There is no magic bullet, but over time, with a little experience under your belt, the amount of time required to manage your business online will decrease. At the end of the day it comes down to this: If you don’t want to eat your lunch, someone else will. So get to work. And if you need help getting started with social media, then realize you have to get started somewhere soon. Social media isn’t going anywhere, are you going to stick around with it?

social media

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About

Avatar of Darren Slaughter

Darren built a successful offline marketing business for contractors using marketing and advertising techniques before moving to a completely online business model. The result of that move — DarrenSlaughter.com —... Read more

Woodworking in America (WIA) 2011

WIA

Photo by Ajax Alexandre

Those who follow me on twitter noticed that I was at Woodworking in America (WIA) this past  weekend.

I tried to post some photos and articles about it while at the show, but there was so much to see that it was difficult to stay on top of it all. For those of you that haven’t heard of WIA, check out the site here.

Lots of big names in the woodworking community were there, but the one that impressed me the most was Ron Herman of Antiquity Builders, who is based in Columbus, Ohio. Ron is one of those guys who comes from a very long line of house-wrights (I’d call them carpenters) and specializes in restoration work.

Like me, he went through an apprenticeship program, but his teachers taught him all about the old and new ways to build, and helped supply him with a shop full of old and sharp tools.  Read more about the shop here in an article written by Ajax Alexandre about his visit.

I’ve always enjoyed cracking open a wall on a 100+ year old house and seeing the old materials and methods that they used to build it.  Seeing these changes, and learning why we’ve changed some of those methods today, has led me into collecting some of the old tools that were used.  The marketplace at WIA was filled with tool manufacturers who produce high end reproductions of old tools.  Most of these companies are really on top of their game, and it was incredible to see.

Anyone else have a love of old tools, or their modern reinventions?  What were your thoughts about WIA?

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About

Avatar of Joe Sainz

Joe Sainz (Google+) is a union carpenter with experience in concrete construction, landscaping, carpentry and electrical mechanics. In his current role with the accessories group of Bosch Power Tools-North America, he’s... Read more

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