The headline on your new profile is important — it is that first impression. Make it say what and who you are in 120 characters including punctuation.

Example for Joe Contractor: Decorative Concrete | Engraving | Staining | Polishing | Finding Existing Concrete’s Low Maintenance Beauty (this is only 93 characters)

Use the SUMMARY area to describe everything you can do with concrete. Don’t expect people to read your mind. You can add sections, then lift the things you do the VERY best out for the Specialties area.

Your experience is valuable — people can look at your work history as you list it, plus see the continuity of your experience through employers to being self-employed.

Connections and recommendations will come as soon as you have completed your account.

The website listing space is something that is often misinterpreted. Where LinkedIn has a default “Company Website,” they intend for you to put your company name. Doing so  helps reinforce your name with one more mention instead of a default faceless link. If you have a Twitter account, you can list it here to extend your marketing efforts.

A great deal more can be done with LinkedIn, but it all takes time and planning. For the beginning, simply use LinkedIn as another Internet Billboard and let it work for you 24/7.

If you have questions about LinkedIn profiles, just ask in the comments section below. Or, ask at our Facebook page “Engrave-A-Crete Decorative Concrete Engraving Tools and Supplies”

Setting up an account for your business (no charge) at http://local.google.com is one of your first steps to help people in your neighborhood find you. That account will get you on the Google maps with a description of your business and the contact information. As people use the computer or their smart phones more to retrieve directions or a phone number, being where they can easily find you is extremely useful. The guy they can find has a head start on getting the job. Plan to be that guy!

Google+ goes hand in hand with Google Local. I confess to being a beginner with Google+. I know for certain the profile is available, working for the account holder. There are many businesses who are working with their Google+ accounts to post images, updates and blog posts, just as we do with other social media sites. Aim for the target that you want — getting your profile out there in public.  The direct connection between Google+ and Local is still in development. However, savvy local businesses will be seeking connection with you and will covet a +1 rating from you. Some of them are potential customers who can give the +1 rating back to you.

Social media sites are connections for real people. They work best for your business when you put some networking effort into them. Getting your profiles built solidly is the place to start. Those profiles will work for you as much as they can with as much social fuel as you can give them. Turn them loose in your neighborhood.

If you have questions about your profiles with the Google options, please feel free to ask them at the comments area for this post. Or you can ask at our Engrave-A-Crete Facebook page. Engrave-A-Crete Decorative Concrete Engraving Tools & Supplies

The hottest new social bookmarking tool is Pinterest (Pinterest.com). Dedicated to the visual, members collect images and videos of items they want to bookmark.

Social bookmarking takes the idea of saving a website for later to higher levels than than the browser’s bookmarks/favorites option. The site you save on a resource like Pinterest.com or Delicious.com or StumbleUpon.com is shared in a directory with others who have accounts at that resource. Besides saving a website address, Delicious or StumbleUpon (and others) let you add a description about the site. That information adds to appeal for other people and reminds you why it was bookmarked in the first place.

Pinterest has us build Boards representing collections of pages that have caught our eye and organize them into favorite books, art, home and family items, health…you get the picture. You are welcome to look at my Pinterest page at http://pinterest.com/gjudy6/

This infographic from Linchpinseo has marketing tips for Pinterest

Pinterest Infographic, an Infographic by Linchpin SEO

Are you getting a glimmer of how your images on your website, or your videos imbedded into your website could be bookmarked and shared? Other creative businesses are adding their information and items. Etsy.com claims to be “the world’s handmade marketplace.” Shoppers at Etsy.com (and sellers) are bookmarking Etsy-linked images of favorite items on their Pinterest page. Others see that image, click the link and are taken the the Etsy page where the item is offered for sale. Etsy.com reports impressive traffic from Pinterest.com.

As with anything online, there is some well-advised Pinetiguette. Pin other things in addition to your decorative concrete pictures or videos. Try to be humble while you are pushing your product. Add the URL and some description for your pinned item. It helps to name your image….the letters and numbers that come from the camera are not helpful. You can name picture files using your business name, with no spaces. The picture file name should read something like this: garage-yourbusinessname.jpg.

Please feel free to email me with questions you have about Pinterest, other social bookmarking projects or your online strategy. judy@engraveacrete.com

As 2011 winds to a close, it’s good to take another look at what we’ve offered to help you become the solution to your customers’ concrete problems.

Among other things Engrave-A-Crete developed four small packages that take decorative concrete to the next level. Each package contains the tools and supplies to create a project.

An elegant border can change the character of concrete edges on sidewalks, halls, rooms or sections of rooms. So, we put together The Border Package featuring a Mongoose 411, a Barracuda, a Wasp and 16 of our most popular border templates. With this package you are the answer to boring, borderless concrete.

The expandable Artisan Package includes a Mongoose 411, a center pivot system plus connecting rods, a Barracuda, and a Wasp. With the Artisan Package you’re set up to cut circles, brick and other geometric designs. Add templates for logos, wildlife or custom designs and you can offer customers elegant, one-of-a-kind flooring solutions.

Meeting a customer’s need for permanent basketball court layouts for their active kids with the Basketball Court Creator Package is a slam dunk beginning for you in the decorative concrete business. This package includes a Mongoose 411 with a center pivot, connectors tubes, a Wasp and templates for basketball hot spots – center hoop, free throw line, and block.

The Paver Engraver Package is the newest addition that makes it possible for you to engrave on pavers either in place or at your shop. A Barracuda, Wasp, air reducer and templates join four metallic stencil spray stains that will complete the engraving with stunning color. No need for your customers to live with plain pavers or pry them up to send away for engraving.

Each package alone is intended as a launching tool for a new engraver…overlap can be controlled by ordering the parts of some packages that you don’t have. You would still be able to offer your customers the variety of the small packs, but not have the higher initial investment. Your customers may come to you with a concrete problem — no borders, a wish for a logo, a basketball court for the kids or an idea to create donor memorials on pavers at a local park. You, as a solution source for concrete problems, will have access to each setup that you need.

Decorative concrete is headed into 2012 prepared to solve concrete issues for people.

The holidays are a busy time of year, with most communities scheduling special events, programs and periodicals around the holiday festivities.

Taking advantage of these events in the community where you offer decorative concrete services is a great way of marketing your business, and puts you in contact with potential customers.  Three possibilities for networking through holiday community events include parades, vendor malls, and printed event guides.

Utilizing these opportunities to keep your business in the minds of your market will pay-off when you attend local home improvement or home decor shows.

Parades are a good place to be in front of your potential customers.  There may be more than one parade in the area where you serve and you should plan to be in all of them.

Maybe you won’t have a float ready for the parade, but you could always pull your rolling billboard (aka your trailer) decked out with lights and garland, of course. Offer the use of the bed of your pickup to drive the parade-pageant entries, organizers, officials, or better yet, Santa Claus in the parade.

If you don’t want to pull your trailer in the parade, then offer to pull a float for another organization. Ask that your brochures or cards be included in whatever their ‘outriders’ are handing out while the float goes by.  Some organizations give away bottled water.  Ask if you can have a label on the water bottles.  A label that reads “Please recycle this bottle. Thank you, XYZ Decorative Concrete, sponsor” can fit on an inexpensive address size label that you can print in sheet quantities, then stick them onto the bottles.

Vendor malls are a good networking opportunity. Vendor malls are like mini trade shows with each “vendor” manning a table offering product sales or trials. Deck out your equipment with bright holiday decorations, and come up with some items to give away — holiday plants, floral arrangements, engraved pavers, etc.

Organizers for any of the events you enter may produce an event guide which will have advertising spots available for sale. An ad purchased in the guide will continue producing leads and sales long after the holidays.

Be ready to make that first contract appointment with interested people, but also have a plan for repeated contact with them till they make their decision.  Some will want decorative concrete soon, others are still dreaming and won’t be customers for awhile. Collect their name and contact information, and don’t let them forget about you because when they’re ready to decorate their concrete, you want to be the first solution that comes to mind.