0:00

Hello and welcome to Designer Discussions with

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Jason , miriam and Maria . Today

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we are talking about Are Blogs

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Dead ?

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Welcome to the Designer Discussions

0:11

podcast with Jason

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, maria and Miriam

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Tune in each week , where

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we talk about marketing , pr and

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business advice for design professionals

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.

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All right . So , miriam , I'm going to put you on the spot

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on this one why

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were blogs popular

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, what was the intent of having them

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and what's happened since

0:36

blogs first became the

0:38

hot topic ?

0:42

Well , I was just trying to think back

0:44

to that and

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I remember so when I moved to the US in 2003 , blogs

0:51

were really hot

0:53

and it really it started like in the

0:55

late 90s when people

0:57

started to have and they were like

1:00

they were called personal web

1:02

blogs right , that's what it stood for

1:04

. So it's almost more like a sort

1:07

of a form of public journaling

1:09

is how people used

1:11

to use it . But then in the

1:13

early 2000s people

1:15

started to get a lot more

1:17

professional about it and there was

1:19

software that made it easier

1:23

to blog and distribute

1:25

the blog . When I

1:27

came here and I started working for

1:29

Kohler and I know that we

1:31

really were paying attention to especially

1:34

the designers in the space

1:36

that had successful

1:38

blogs , and there were a number

1:40

of them that really

1:42

basically made a career out of it

1:45

and they almost became like

1:47

. They were like half journalists

1:49

and half designers

1:51

, and some of them moved on to

1:53

pretty much become content

1:56

creators . There's also blogs

1:58

that turned into media

2:01

platforms . If you think of Design Milk

2:03

, it started out

2:05

as a blog , a personal

2:07

blog , and then it turned basically

2:09

into a website . Apartment therapy is

2:12

kind of the same deal

2:14

. So there's

2:16

a lot that has happened

2:18

in the blogging space and I

2:20

think when people first started blogging

2:23

, the blog was the medium

2:25

right and that's what people read and you

2:27

would sign up and have like an RSS

2:29

feed or something so you could get the

2:31

most recent episode of the blog

2:33

. And that has changed

2:35

significantly over the years

2:38

because now the blog and I

2:40

know Jason's going to talk more

2:42

about this aspect of it but

2:44

it's more like one

2:46

piece of content that people use

2:48

to distribute on all these different platforms

2:51

. But it was very different at

2:53

that time . The blog

2:55

really was the thing and

2:57

if you had a large blog following

2:59

, that meant a lot . That

3:02

meant a lot . And in the home

3:05

design space it's like brands

3:07

really loved the bloggers

3:09

, you know , and having a successful blog at

3:11

that time put you in a prime

3:14

position to get premium

3:16

brand deals really , because

3:18

everybody wanted to

3:20

work with you and be featured in your

3:22

blog , like with your products or your brand

3:24

, and the

3:27

media also were really paying

3:29

attention to the bloggers and a lot of bloggers

3:31

would get so much media

3:33

coverage because they would be pulled in

3:35

as experts or you know , even

3:38

like they would write

3:41

a story , and it's like

3:43

the equivalent of going viral

3:45

these days , like if a

3:47

popular blogger talked about this , all of a sudden

3:49

everybody else was talking about the same

3:51

topic . So really

3:53

having a blog and consistently

3:56

publishing good blog content at

3:58

that time was a great

4:00

way to be noticed

4:02

by the media and it

4:05

pretty much had a multiplying

4:08

effect and you could get exposure

4:10

and deals of different kinds of sorts

4:12

in all areas of your business

4:14

pretty much .

4:16

So then it moved right . When would you

4:18

say that the Instagram

4:20

celebrity thing

4:22

kind of kicked into play celebrity

4:28

? Thing , kind of kicked into play because Instagram started to

4:31

carry the weight of that popularity .

4:32

Yeah , I , you know I am really bad with time

4:34

, like especially in the past

4:36

, but I didn't have

4:38

to do did it have to do with , like HGv

4:42

and the like

4:44

whole magnolia

4:46

uh group thing ? I mean

4:48

, to me it seemed like

4:52

more recently , um , probably

4:54

within the last six

4:57

to seven years , like 2000

4:59

I'd

5:01

say the blogs had a heyday

5:03

for a number of years

5:05

and

5:09

then

5:11

, of course , they started to monetize in

5:13

different ways through ads

5:15

. That was another way to

5:18

generate income with blogs . I

5:20

think it's gradually happened

5:22

as people

5:25

started using social media to

5:27

promote the content

5:30

that they were already creating

5:32

and they started creating original

5:34

content on the social media

5:36

platforms . And I'd have a hard time to

5:39

put my finger on what year exactly

5:41

it was , but I think you're probably about

5:43

right that it was . You

5:45

know , and I don't know .

5:47

2016 is what I'm thinking

5:49

. It was like the 2016 yeah

5:51

it's like the people who had it under

5:53

wraps at 20 in the 2015s

5:55

were starting to teach people how

5:57

to grow their instagram following yeah

6:17

, and probably around 2016

6:20

.

6:20

Of the latest and greatest , that has the trendiest

6:22

content ? Right , and for a long

6:24

time , it was the blogs , and

6:26

then it shifted to

6:29

Instagram and like

6:31

, if you're a journalist and you're looking for

6:33

a trend story , where are you going to do your

6:35

research ? Right , then

6:37

they started going to Instagram . So

6:39

if you had a big Instagram

6:41

following , you had good engagement . You know you

6:44

generated interesting

6:46

sort of out there

6:48

content . There's a good chance

6:51

that you might

6:53

have been picked up . It still can happen , by

6:55

the way , too , but the Instagram

6:57

age has then morphed into

7:00

the TikTok era

7:02

, which is really where most like

7:04

if you watch or listen

7:06

or read media

7:09

and there's stories like there's

7:11

this and these entire stories that were

7:13

generated through a tiktok um

7:16

video that went viral

7:18

, like the octopus story we

7:20

were talking about a little while

7:22

ago , which that seems surreal , I

7:24

know right , I think it's because they're

7:26

immediately getting like 15 000

7:29

comments .

7:30

So they're getting like . I feel like the media

7:32

can see a TikTok video , see

7:35

that it's immediately highly popular

7:37

. Then see 15,000

7:40

comments and that's really easy

7:42

to build content around , like

7:44

the episode where we talked about like what's

7:46

going on in the market . I actually

7:49

saw news articles

7:51

in newspapers where they

7:53

referenced numbers generated

7:55

on TikTok instead of actual

7:58

factual numbers that

8:00

you would have had to have found online

8:02

. I know I was like holy cow

8:04

and I consume enough TikTok

8:07

that I understand that the numbers

8:09

that they were using in their article

8:12

came from a TikTok and

8:14

not from you know . They just weighed

8:17

that that communication was

8:19

accurate instead of doing background

8:21

research in that media publication . But

8:24

because I think there is

8:26

this like immediate communication happening

8:29

on TikTok you don't have to be a celebrity

8:31

to have a large following and

8:33

on Instagram they're at the place

8:35

now where it's like , if you're not already super

8:38

fabulous and you already have

8:40

this huge following , you're not important

8:43

to us . But over on TikTok

8:45

. They're like you just have

8:47

to have an interesting concept

8:49

and if your , if your thoughts

8:51

are interesting

8:54

, you can get picked up by the media and

8:56

they aren't really , um , as interested

8:59

in just before and after pictures . I

9:01

have a lot of very fabulous

9:03

interior designers on Tik TOK . They're

9:05

posting amazing before and after

9:07

pictures and people just

9:10

are like it's not a video , it's not a person

9:12

talking to me and teaching me something , cause we've

9:14

discussed that TikTok's an edutainment

9:17

platform . You got to educate and entertain

9:19

and that's how people follow

9:22

you . But I have a great example

9:24

. There was this . I

9:26

think she's an architect or she may be an interior designer

9:28

and she came on and she showed four

9:30

pictures and each one of them were

9:32

these like beautiful rooms , where they

9:34

had one item

9:37

in the room that was like a cadmium red color

9:39

, like a really intense , bright

9:41

red , but tiny Like if you were to

9:43

do a ratio on a photograph

9:46

, it would be less than 2% of that image

9:48

would have a little bit of red and it would either be a really

9:50

small side table or a

9:53

very open metal

9:55

light fixture and that would be the only red

9:57

thing in the room . And she called it an unexpected

9:59

red theory . Is

10:02

this going to make her business blow

10:04

up ? No , but she got like

10:06

a ton of press just

10:08

discussing why having

10:11

a little bit of unexpected red and

10:13

calling it a theory made

10:16

her so interesting and that the

10:18

media was fresh , right .

10:20

So the what the media are always looking

10:22

for . It's like they don't love highly

10:24

curated content . That's

10:27

kind of boring . They're looking

10:29

for fresh content , for new ideas

10:31

that have not

10:33

been talked and

10:35

written to death . Basically , that was exactly

10:38

one like that .

10:39

Because , if you think about it , every year they're

10:41

doing a content calendar and it kind

10:43

of looks the same every year . We even covered

10:45

that we have a download on our website

10:48

, where we show you what you

10:50

would be putting together each year for

10:53

the media or for your audience

10:55

as a content calendar because it's the same

10:57

. It's the same every year seasonal

10:59

content , how to organize

11:01

yourself in January , how

11:03

to start decorating your house for Christmas

11:06

in October . So it's they're used

11:08

to very redundant

11:11

content . It's probably pretty mundane

11:13

for them at this point . And

11:16

so they are looking for

11:18

something that's a little bit like out

11:20

there , an opinion that

11:22

gives you something to

11:25

think about , right ?

11:27

And it grabs attention . You know it's

11:29

like people think , oh , I never thought about that . You

11:31

know , let me let me read this article

11:33

. You know it's like people think , oh , I never thought about that . You know , let me let

11:35

me read this article . You know , and they can turn around articles

11:37

in a day today . Okay , if there's a viral TikTok video

11:39

the next day , you know you're going to have a new

11:41

story about it . It's not like you have to wait

11:43

for a magazine to come out three months

11:46

down the road .

11:47

Correct , and so

11:49

I I

11:51

get why people are on

11:54

TikTok . You can still

11:56

get a million followers on

11:58

TikTok that are actual followers

12:01

you do have to deal with like a whole lot

12:03

of mean people . Instagram

12:06

tends to hide the mean

12:08

people from people who are fresh and new to the

12:10

platform , but at TikTok they don't care . They're like

12:12

a couple of mean people in there and

12:14

you know they'll

12:16

give you some negative comments and then

12:18

people will comment on the negative

12:20

comments and tell them that they're terrible people and

12:22

the next thing you know , your video has gone viral

12:25

and so it's like you have to

12:27

understand the game over there on

12:29

that platform . But

12:31

that's how . That's how it works . You may

12:33

get a huge response

12:35

, but you need to be talking about stuff . There's

12:38

a few people that I follow that I absolutely

12:40

love , and what they do is they're

12:42

like let's redo the exterior of this

12:44

house , and then they change the exterior of the

12:46

house in Photoshop and explain why they

12:48

did the things that they did . And

12:51

tons of followers because

12:53

they just want to see how she redoes every

12:55

single one of these houses and it's not

12:57

like the same as going here's

12:59

a before and an after picture . She's kind

13:02

of engaging them in

13:04

her process and showing what

13:06

that looks like . And then there's a couple of other

13:08

people who take average ordinary

13:10

homes with yellow

13:13

oak cabinets and yellow oak floors

13:15

and like these are the things that you could

13:17

do to make your house look better

13:19

, and they talk about using a

13:22

different color

13:24

.

13:24

I should follow them .

13:26

She does a great job . She

13:28

talks about you know you change your color palette

13:30

, she gives them space planning ideas and

13:33

that's a very beloved person on

13:35

the platform because she's helpful

13:38

, she's helping people , she's

13:40

not making people feel

13:42

ashamed or bad about their house because

13:44

their house isn't all white and white oak

13:46

and you

13:49

know 100% brand new , right , and

13:52

I do think that that's what people independently

13:55

are looking for . And then you

13:57

know , the people who are going to be the flash in the pan

13:59

are going to be your unexpected red theory

14:01

. It's going to be your any

14:04

concepts you have about design

14:06

that you think you're predicting and you have visuals

14:08

to go along with it . That is new

14:10

and interesting that other

14:12

people may not have thought of . If you

14:15

have a house where you had you put

14:17

in pink tile and you put a wallpaper

14:19

with it and you show how beautiful it is and

14:21

you can say remember that pink

14:23

tile that people are painting white

14:25

these days can really be

14:28

showcased or featured in a bathroom

14:30

because that's not an

14:33

old color and it can be

14:35

kept and used in a modern way . And

14:37

this is the example of that . And that's a very

14:39

niche content concept , talking

14:42

about how to revitalize your

14:44

pink tile in your bathroom . But you think about how

14:46

many houses have pink tile in

14:48

their bathrooms and how they have been told over

14:51

and over and over again to just paint it

14:53

white and that once it it's painted

14:55

white , they're going to be happier . Those types

14:57

of concepts do really well over

14:59

on tiktok , because you're helping people

15:01

. So One thing

15:03

we do want to say about TikTok is yes

15:05

, they're talking about a TikTok ban

15:07

. That ban is

15:10

that they're going to not

15:12

have it available in the United States

15:14

if they don't divest from a

15:17

small portion of the company being

15:19

owned by a software development

15:21

company in China . Are they going

15:23

to like get rid of it ? I don't think

15:25

they are , because there's like a huge

15:28

sales platform attached

15:31

to TikTok . It's basically like

15:33

HSN or QVC

15:35

, basically online , and they

15:37

post huge numbers for

15:39

small businesses and it's becoming

15:42

like one of their number one selling

15:44

resources and in doing that

15:46

they're going to be causing a

15:48

pretty big upheaval amongst members

15:52

of society and so we

15:54

don't see it getting banned . Miriam's kind

15:57

of on my page too , that I don't see it

15:59

getting completely like deleted and kicked

16:01

out of the Internet . As a techie person

16:04

, it's pretty easy for them to

16:06

duplicate the platform and

16:09

run it somewhere else

16:11

and have a different group of people as

16:13

the so-called owners

16:15

of that version of it . There's a

16:17

thousand ways that they can get around this and

16:20

I just don't see with it infringing

16:22

and our right to free speech

16:24

, that that's going to be how it's

16:26

going to end our

16:30

right to free speech , that that's going to be how it's going to end . So don't be afraid

16:32

that TikTok is going to be done and you're investing time over there and it's

16:34

just not going to work out for you . I

16:36

think it's a great platform to try out new

16:38

things and see if your voice

16:41

, your true , genuine voice

16:43

as a designer , is compelling to

16:45

a larger audience because , like

16:47

Miriam said , this is where people are being

16:50

found , and so if

16:52

you're wanting to change

16:54

how you present yourself from

16:56

, you know , just being a curated look

16:58

on Instagram to sort of being

17:01

a compelling and interesting conversationalist

17:03

over on TikTok , you just might

17:05

be able to get more media placements

17:07

as a thought leader versus

17:09

just someone who

17:11

creates pretty spaces . So that's

17:14

where we get from blogs blog

17:16

, instagram , tiktok . So

17:18

now that we're wondering if

17:21

blogs are dead or not , let's talk to Jason

17:23

, because blogs are attached to our websites

17:25

and we're wanting to get found on

17:28

our websites . So let's just talk about

17:30

this , jason . We'll take it from here . What

17:32

do you think about blogs on websites ?

17:35

So what actually happens ? A lot with that conversation

17:37

, when you hear that blogs

17:40

are dead , it's really

17:42

about who is saying that

17:44

, because what happens is that the content

17:46

that they're generating is not actually

17:48

resonating with their end user

17:50

, and so oftentimes

17:53

, when I have a conversation with

17:55

designer remodelers and they

17:57

talk about , you know our content is not

17:59

resonating . Blogs are dead

18:01

when they just look at tools

18:04

such as Google Analytics

18:06

and just look at where is

18:08

the end user ending up on your website

18:11

? Where do they spend the most time ? That

18:13

is the type of content you need to create

18:15

. So it may be

18:17

a blog , it may not be a blog . It

18:19

may be a FAQ page , frequently

18:22

asked questions , it could be

18:24

it could be a project page , but

18:27

whatever it is , make sure

18:29

that the content that you are generating

18:32

is aimed at your ideal

18:34

client or the end user and it's

18:36

what they want to read , and

18:39

then , when you do it that way

18:41

, then whatever content it is

18:43

will resonate and it will

18:45

have success .

18:46

So what about the whole like creating

18:49

a whole blog , discussing

18:52

you know what's

18:54

the color of the season , these things that

18:56

we're also pitching to media , that

18:59

we're doing with the Harrow

19:01

or Hero requests and then creating

19:03

a Pinterest pin about it and

19:06

then just hoping we can get people to

19:08

our website ? Are we investing

19:10

our time and energy into

19:12

that whole aspect so that one

19:15

day we can become a person

19:17

who gets paid for our content ?

19:19

I would say if you're going to do trendy

19:22

topics like that , make sure that's

19:24

what your audience wants to read , because

19:26

if you're creating content

19:28

for a national audience

19:30

but you're looking for local

19:33

clients , that may not resonate

19:35

with your local clientele , so

19:37

you don't want to spend time on creating

19:39

content that's not going to resonate with

19:41

your immediate audience . Yes

19:43

, it may resonate at the national

19:45

level , but is that your clientele ? So ask

19:48

yourself who is my

19:50

clientele , who am I surveying ? And

19:52

then use tools like I said

19:54

, like Google Search Console , google

19:56

Analytics , to help you determine the

19:58

type of content that they want to

20:00

see or that is actually resonating with

20:03

them , and that's the content you need to create them

20:09

, and that's the content you need to create .

20:10

Miriam , do you have any final thoughts on putting a lot of time and energy

20:12

into your blog , hoping

20:14

that when the media comes across you

20:16

, that they want to pick you up for something

20:18

? And if that's

20:21

not the case , what would you recommend ?

20:23

Tell me a little bit about that

20:26

I

20:28

would not recommend that you focus

20:30

on a blog . I I I

20:33

would follow Jason's advice , you know . I mean , it's

20:35

not a bad idea to have one , but

20:38

if you have one , make it easy on yourself

20:40

. You know , don't think you have to post every

20:42

week or every day or however

20:45

often , but maybe just use

20:47

it as a tool to drive some traffic

20:49

to your website and

20:52

use popular topics

20:54

. I don't think it's the place where

20:57

you can create viral content

20:59

these days

21:02

. It's like we talked before . I think right

21:04

now , that is TikTok . It can still

21:06

happen , it can

21:08

still happen on Instagram , but

21:11

it's definitely way

21:13

over TikTok . So I'd say , if that

21:15

, if you want to get the media's attention

21:18

, focus on TikTok

21:20

and repurpose your content

21:22

on Instagram , and if you

21:24

fancy having a blog , then have

21:26

a blog . But that's not where I would put

21:29

my energy . They are kind

21:31

of half dead in terms of PR

21:34

leverage . Yeah .

21:37

Jason , do you have any final thoughts ?

21:40

I would say , in terms of using

21:42

the term blog , I would change the

21:44

word to content . Blog

21:50

, I would change the word to content . Making sure that you have consistent content on your site

21:52

that is relevant to your end user . If you focus on

21:54

it in terms of content and not just

21:56

a blog , that will help you

21:59

out the most . And making sure that you

22:01

have the tools that will help . Google

22:03

Analytics and Search Console are

22:05

free tools that you should have

22:07

on your website to analyze

22:09

what is working

22:11

on your site and what's not . So when

22:13

anyone visits your site

22:16

, you know what is actually resonating with

22:18

them , where they're ending up on

22:20

your website , what they're looking

22:22

at , what they're reading . Once

22:24

you understand that and you analyze that now

22:27

, you can reverse , engineer and see this

22:29

is the type of content I need to create for

22:31

my audience . So don't just look at

22:33

it as the term of blog . Look

22:36

at it as I need to create content

22:38

, consistent content , on my website .

22:41

And so my piece of advice on

22:43

TikTok would be , if you don't

22:45

have a product that you can sell to everyone

22:48

, going on TikTok and

22:50

investing your time there . When you

22:52

have a business where you need those three

22:54

or four high-end clients , that's

22:57

probably not going to be the

22:59

place where you want to invest

23:01

time . However , if you have

23:03

a really interesting project , you're doing something

23:06

completely different and you're very passionate

23:08

about that concept and it's something

23:10

that you're very unique on . Yeah

23:13

, share that on TikTok because that

23:15

may get picked up by the media . You

23:18

may get some coverage based on that

23:20

project because of its quality

23:22

or uniqueness , but you are going

23:24

to have to present that content in a way

23:26

that it helps educate and entertain

23:29

the people who are following you

23:31

for your content and if it

23:33

feels like extra work , if it feels

23:35

miserable to you . You

23:37

know my piece of advice for all

23:39

the designers who send me

23:41

an instagram and say I'm so overwhelmed I

23:43

I can't take on another platform . I'm so

23:46

overwhelmed I can't take on TikTok

23:48

right now . It's just going to be too much

23:50

for me . If it doesn't move the finance

23:53

needle of your business , don't

23:55

do it . Google business

23:58

profile Is that right , jason

24:00

? Google business profile is where you're going to get

24:02

your local clients , who are going to come

24:04

to you , call your office , want

24:07

to hire you . That's

24:09

where you should be investing your time and energy . We

24:12

believe in repurposing anything that you

24:14

do put together and

24:22

if you are a person that you want to have a presence on shows and podcasts and you are

24:24

willing to put yourself out there a lot

24:26

more than you are right now because your goals

24:28

have changed , tiktok is where you need

24:30

to be , but you have to understand

24:33

that you're going to be working for

24:35

a goal of something that could

24:37

be consumed by our large

24:39

audience and somehow financially

24:42

benefit you moving forward . So

24:44

that's our advice for you Tell

24:47

us , do you think your blog is dead

24:49

? Do you feel like blogging is dead ? We

24:52

think it's half dead , but

24:54

we do want to find out if anyone would

24:57

like to have a content

24:59

review . We are

25:01

looking for people who wouldn't mind submitting

25:03

their websites to us so that we

25:05

can make Jason work extra hard

25:07

and review someone's website

25:09

and let us know what an audit

25:12

would look like for the types of content

25:14

that we should be posting online

25:16

. Where we should be investing more time

25:18

. We want to see those interior design websites

25:21

. Please , please , please , reach out to

25:23

us . You can get to us

25:25

through our website or

25:27

you could just reach out to us through Instagram

25:30

. Send us your website address

25:32

and we'll put you in the kitty

25:34

and have Jason look at the website , and

25:36

then we won't call out your name directly

25:38

unless you give us permission . But what

25:41

we are going to do is use that content and

25:43

go over what you should be doing

25:45

, more of what you could leave out

25:48

, what you could save some

25:50

time . So we want to hear from you

25:52

. Come , follow us on our Instagram

25:54

and go to our website so that we

25:56

can get more information from you .

25:59

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26:01

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26:06

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26:39

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26:41

. Subscribe to our podcast

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