But the cost to Small Business in time and money can be prohibitive.

Images are needed for:

• Web sites
• Digital marketing Catalogues
• Even for HTML email campaigns
• As well as traditional media advertising

Not having images or having low quality images can seriously detract from a Small Businesses Marketing effort.  Detraction that in a competitive market can directly impact on sales.

A key cost driver is often the high volume of product images needed

Many small businesses, particularly rental and hire can have hundred’s if not thousands of products.  Hence paying to have each product photographed is literally cost prohibitive.

Taking adhoc images or using supplier product photographs can create an inconsistent image appearance.

Images with different sizes, backgrounds, borders, orientations etc when placed on a web site or catalogue can look terrible.

Creating a negative perception in the client’s/ prospects mind.

The issue becomes how to create consistent looking photographs/ images that enhance your brand’s advertising appeal and impact regardless of the advertising medium.

Creating Low Cost Quality Product Photo’s

However there are some very effective ways of creating your own consistent high quality images.

Creating you own in-house photography studio is actually far easier than your think.

In a series of step by step video’s you can see how to create these product photographs.

We have collated these from YouTube and all are accessible on our YouTube channel – how to photograph your own products

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

Its great as they take the time to interview and canvass the opinions of some of the World’s best social media thought leaders.

Our Prediction for Equipment, Party, Event Rental / Hire

Our prediction is that in 2010, the hire and rental industry will begin to actively start to use Social Media.  At present analysis shows that most are only putting a toe into the water.  However there are some real social market leaders out there in the industry.  As their success becomes more apparent, we believe others will begin to follow.

Social media aligns naturally party rental and party hire as well as event rental and event hire sectors.
We offer a free advisory service to hire and rental companies considering social media marketing, simply email us.

Now for the Social Trends of 2010 by TrendSpotter

 Yes we make it easy with HireEzy 2.1 to manage your blog from your hire and rental management system, but you still need good images and content.

Free Image Sources

Often finding images and other multi-media can be difficult and expensive.

This list below is excellent and a great resource for you.

26 Places to Find Free Multimedia for Your Blog

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Yes make it easy with HireEzy 2.1 to manage your blog from your hire and rental management system, but you still need good images and content.

The tough times create the business circumstances that foster necessity. Businesses are forced to be both more creative and at the same time more brutal in their decision making. Innovative ideas whether:

• market solutions,
• business models or
• technology will be created.

Whilst many of the ideas in this post are applicable across all business sectors, the focus of this article is on the Equipment Hire and Rental market.

Social Media as Basis of Innovation Ideas

The range of ideas that may be implemented can not be predicted. However it can be confidently predicted social media will form the basis of many innovations, around areas such as:

• Revenue Improvement: Marketing areas such as lead generation, customer service, customer retention;
• Cost Reduction: In marketing budgets by reducing expenditure on traditional marketing methods
• Mitigation of Risk: Such as in areas like Product Damages and Safety through use of YouTube, see post.

At the end of this post is a series of examples of how to use each of the major Social marketing tools.

Where to Look for the Innovative Ideas?

Where will the innovation emerge from, large corporations or small rental or hire business?

Let’s look to what has happened over the last thirty years as an indicator of what may happen. Consider this, that since 1980, Corporations have completely lost their monopoly on new ideas. This change in innovation sources ended the era of IP monopolization.  We are no longer in the era when “feudal lords” (i.e., a small handful of large “old economy” companies) controlled all the (intellectual) property and those who were without property had no rights. [1]

In 1980, Corporations accounted for 80% of all innovation (research and development outcome), they now account for under 20%. The beneficiaries have been small to medium sized companies who now account for 80% of innovations.

A key trend emerging in the knowledge economy is the change in the sources innovation. Prior to the 1980’s, large corporations dominated US research and development, with over 80% being undertaken by companies with more than 5000 employees. However since 1980, this has completely inverted, with small companies accounting for almost all the growth in R&D. [2]

Hire Rental Industry Innovation

The discussion above may not sound applicable to the Rental and Hire Industry but it is. For example in the 1980’s only the large Corporations could afford the innovation R & D expense of developing computing based management systems. Such rental software or hire software management systems are now powerful and affordable to businesses of all sizes.

Importantly though even more powerful tools such as Social Media are available (in may cases freely) to any business.

Innovation in the use of these tools is not constrained by not having financial resources but more by the extent of the will and imagination of companies.

It is in the area of will that the true constraint may appear. Major Brands have demonstrated in some instances a reluctance to engage in social media for fear of losing control of their brand. This is understandable as the brand is an asset that could well appear on the balance sheet. Hence taking avoiding perceived risks with the brand is understandable. Numerous articles in this subject.

Smaller hire and rental businesses whether though the pressure of necessity or less attachment to a brand are therefore more likely to undertake innovative social marketing ideas.

So if you are looking for new innovative ideas in the equipment hire and rental industry look to the Small business sector rather than corporations – the results may surprise you.   Below is a list of how equipment hire and rental  can use of each of the main social marketing tools.

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies.  Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration.

How to Use Social Media Tools

Marketing Problem

[intlink id="246" type="post"]Hire Rental Advertising Considerations[/intlink]
[intlink id="572" type="post"]Why Traditional Marketing Fails[/intlink]
[intlink id="875" type="post"]Yellow Pages Versus SEO[/intlink]

Creating a Digital Marketing Platform

[intlink id="254" type="post"]Creating a Digital Marketing Foundation[/intlink]
[intlink id="294" type="post"]Hire Rental Web Lead Statistics[/intlink]

Marketing via Twitter

[intlink id="592" type="post"]How Rental Hire Company can use Twitter[/intlink]
[intlink id="607" type="post"]Business Reason to Use Twitter[/intlink]

Marketing via Facebook

[intlink id="990" type="post"]Using Facebook for Business[/intlink]
[intlink id="781" type="post"]They worried about Social Media in the 1930′s[/intlink]

Marketing via YouTube

[intlink id="507" type="post"]How Rental and Hire Companies can use YouTube[/intlink]
[intlink id="481" type="post"]Big List on How to Use Social Media[/intlink]

Marketing via WordPress

[intlink id="641" type="post"]Why Blogs are Effective for Small Business[/intlink]
[intlink id="762" type="post"]Why Small Businesses Should blog[/intlink]

Hire and Rental companies have been in the main relatively slow to adopt to social media as a marketing tool.

This is despite the sector probably being one that could benefit most from using Social Media as a marketing tool.

Those Hire and Rental Companies who have adopted social media as a marketing tool have realized the benefits, particularly in lead generation.

The benefit of social media marketing is now becoming apparent to most business sectors, as evidenced in the article link below.

Hiring strategies shift toward social media – Mass High Tech Business News

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HireEzy 2.1, business management software for hire and rental companies, makes social marketing easy for you – with its inbuilt and easy to use tools

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• Social Media Marketing Findings (biztipsblog.com)
• Why Kodak Thinks You Should Use Social Media (kylelacy.com)

Getting it wrong can be a limitation on growth – or worse!

There is quite some theory behind naming, logo design and colour.

We have put together this list to help you get to grips with some of the theories.

Spending time on name, logo and colour is well worth the effort.

Examples of Getting it Wrong

Here are some examples of getting it wrong:

List of bad logo design’s and names

The Worst Bad, Ugly and Horrible Designs

What Makes A Good Logo?

What Makes a Good Logo

Top Ten Logo’s of All Time

Thought Provoking Logo’s

50 Clever Logo’s

Developing an Image

Logo Design – How to design a logo

Colour Theory – Theory behind Colour

Color Symbolism - What Different Colours Means to Different Cultures

Colour Considerations – What different colours mean for business

Thinking of a Company Name

Considerations – What You Should Consider

A Process – An approach to developing a name

Name Generator – Automatic Name Generator

SEO Impact – Think SEO Before You Name

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• Why Revamp Your Brand Design (wealthyways4you.com)
• Our logo through the ages (ycorpblog.com)

Many already question whether it is a fad? And if these risks are not addressed then it could well be perceived as a fad?

The hype that presently surrounds Social Media marketing has many of the hallmarks of the late 1990′s and its hype regarding integrated business systems.

The Chasm

Social Media Marketing has its basis in technology arguably web 2.0 tools. Therefore it is considered that some aspects of Geoffrey Moore’s, Crossing the Chasm (1991) could be applied to Social Media Marketing.  (note image source wikipedia)

Early Adopter Stage

In life cycle terms Social Media Marketing for business is very much in its early adopter stage.

Early adopters, like us, are the enthusiasts who see the business potential. To businesses like us, we see the potential of Social Media marketing as a way to achieve our business goals. We are driven by dreams and aspirations for improving our business marketing using Social Media marketing without the need for definitive proof that it will work before we start.

However this is the stage at which results must begin to match dreams.

visionaries are easy to sell but very hard to please… because they are buying a dream…

This is where the real risk for Social Media lies!

It must be seen to deliver the results expected. And it is this expectation that it at the very heart of the risk facing Social Media marketing’s future.

Hype Setting Unrealistic Expectations

Social Media Marketing has certainly been hyped up in some many quarters as the new marketing approach for the new age. Whether deliberate or not, expectations are being set that Social Media marketing will deliver above average returns on marketing effort.

If visionaries can only achieve average results or arguably even slightly above average results, their perception may be that their Social Media marketing experiment has failed. Based on the concept that satisfaction is achieved when perception exceeds expectations. For example if you have really high expectations but perceive only above average results then you will be dissatisfied.

Metric’s Needed to Moderate Expectations

The second problem is the absence of benchmarks or metrics to moderate or help define a reasonable set of expectations. Moderation of expectations may be needed by Social Media, given the hype especially by those who advocating the wonderful benefits of “going viral”.

However there is an understandable paucity of metrics to gauge the success of social media marketing due to its infancy. Some research is being to emerge to help guide and even moderate expectation thinking. However such research is still limited, effectively meaning that a real risk exists of visionaries having unrealistic expectations of success hence being disappointed when those expectations are not met.

Risk of Focusing on Applications (Tools) Not Strategy

The next risk element facing Social Media marketing is the focus on tools (applications), ie Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Linked in etc rather than a coherent strategy. Twitter and Facebook’s dominance in the mainstream media may lead to some visionaries building business dreams on the basis of just using one or two of these applications. Such an approach to those of us who are beginning to understand Social Media marketing is fatally flawed.

Social Media marketing requires a coherent strategy with a defined purpose, such as increasing web traffic, increasing sales leads, improving brand awareness or customer retention. Flowing from the purpose objectives can be set. Knowing both the purpose and objectives means that the appropriate applications and resources can be determined. Whilst the absence of metrics (as discussed above) may limit the hardness of objectives this should not be used as an excuse not to create a strategy.

Pressure is On Social Media Marketing

Finally the pressure is mounting on Social Media marketing and with it the risk of perceived failure in the broader business community. In addition to the risks discussed above is the pressure coming from the volume of companies who are planning to undertake Social Media marketing. The Center for Media Research found that…

After surveying more than 1,000 people with media buying or planning responsibilities, the center found that “having a presence on social networks” is one of the top priorities for media plans in 2010.

As Sean Carlton (former Dean of Philadelphia University’s School of Design + Media) from Clickz.com puts it many of these companies are creating a presence with out a strategy.

Bad Publicity will Create a Bigger Chasm

It will take time for Social Media marketing advocates to develop case studies proving the benefits, plus defining the metrics as well as providing the infra-structure of education, consultants, resources etc to teach the “how to’s”.

The clock is ticking though as the high volume of “newbies” entering the social media marketing space creates a real risk of bad publicity. Newbies who fail will be quick to tell the world, “oh we tried that and it didn’t work.” Bad news always travels faster and wider than good news, its human nature.

To cross the chasm, ie to start to become part of the main stream marketing, Social Media marketing needs third party referencing. The early majority, that segment on the other side of the chasm, look to others in their industry for proof that something works:

Pragamatists tend to be ‘vertically’ oriented, meaning that they communicate more with others like themselves within their own industry than do technology

If some in the industry have been early adopters who have failed to be successful then word will spread. This will have the impact of slowing the adoption of Social Media marketing in that industry. Effectively deepening or widening the chasm depending upon your perspective.

Social Media Marketing is at a Cross Roads

Social Media Marketing has a future and it will in time become a standard component of marketing strategy. However it does face risks to its short term future from over hyped expectations and the focus on tools not strategy.

Greater emphasis needs to be placed on developing strategic frameworks/ guides and as well as metrics, case studies and other reference material to help support the successful use of Social Media marketing.

If you believe in Social Media, and we do, then we need to focus less on hype and more on the tools to help support its growth!

About Us

Making Life Ezy provide business management solutions with integrated web and social media solutions to the Hire/ Rental Industry.  For more information email us at sales@makinglifeezy.com.au or visit our web site www.makinglifeezy.com.au

Related articles

• Social Media and Socialising…Let’s not muddy the waters. (socialmediatoday.com)
• Establish the beachhead (marsdd.com)
• Why Social Media Measurement needs to Catch Up to Adoption (visinsights)

There appears to be a perception amongst some that social media marketing and traditional marketing are unrelated.

This is not the case!

The following well written article explains how traditional marketing still has an effective role and how it supports social media.

Is Traditional Media Still Relevant In A Social Media World?

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• Why Measure ROI Of Social Media? (regulargeek.com)
• Twitter Isn’t Over-Hyped; It’s Just Misunderstood (markevanstech.com)

The primary purpose of most Marketing for most Small to Medium Businesses is to generate leads.

However many of the traditional Hire and Rental Company marketing techniques and tools that have been the bedrock of the industry are now being challenged.

• Yellow Pages.  Yellow pages is declining
• NewsPaper.  There very existence is under threat
• Television. Advertising decline

The problem faced by traditional media is substantial and in some cases probably terminal.

To understand the problem traditional media faces,  view the slide deck below.

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• New Survey: The Impact of Sales 2.0 Tools (thecustomercollective.com)
• Cost-Per-Lead Figures Vary by Vertical (marketingvox.com)
• Why Internet marketing is just getting started (mikemoran.com)