Events @ GTS Blog

Free GlassBuild 2009 Admission

mikej — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:41:19 GMT

Please visit us at booth # 1711 at GlassBuild America: The Glass, Window & Door Expo, Wednesday, September 30 – Friday, October 2, in Atlanta, GA.

Last year, GTS rolled-out GlasPacLX Glazier Edition complete with a Job Management module. Keeping with our commitment to continually improve and evolve GTS solutions for the retail flat and commercial glazing markets, GTS will be announcing significant GlasPacLX and Microsoft Dynamics product advancements at this years' GlassBuild show.

GTS Internet Marketing Division will also be in attendance to evaluate your website with www.ScoreMyWebsite.com and talk with you about increasing your sales through an effective on-line strategy.

As our valued customer, we’re pleased to offer you a FREE registration admission to the trade show – a $70 value. To pre-register and to find out everything this industry event offers, visit www.GlassBuildAmerica.com . Use our Customer Guest Pass Code: 09GTS.

Attendees must pre-register by September 24, 2009. After this date, FREE Guest Pass Codes expire.

We look forward to seeing you in Atlanta!

Social Media Best Practices

wendym — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:00:58 GMT

With social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter being all the rage lately, there are bound to be questions about how these popular online tools should be deployed in a business environment. Some companies fully embrace social media, creating Facebook and MySpace profiles and pages, Twitter accounts, and using them to interact with customers, as well as advertise to potential customers, and manage their online reputation. Here are some best practices for implementing social media in your company.

DO use Social Media as a customer service tool. Your customers—and potential customers—are already talking about you online. To their Facebook friends, on their blog or via Twitter. Why not become a part of those conversations? If a customer has a gripe, they are much more likely to post something about it online, and social media is an increasingly popular place for online rants, especially about customer service. Social media is a great way to manage your online reputation. By engaging people who may have experienced a less than optimal situation with your company, you can greatly reduce the amount of negativity associated with your company and brand. Resolving issues in plain view of the general public goes miles towards building a reputation for transparency, as well as building trust in your company/brand. Comcast has been particularly successful at using Twitter to resolve customer issues.

DON’T use social media for recycling data or automated feed dumping. Nothing is worse than a company reposting the same thing that is on their website on their Facebook page or Twitter feed all the time. Linking to the website or blog post from your page/feed is great, but always save some unique information for social media. You want to engage your audience, not recycle information. One recommended use would be posting an online coupon just for your Facebook friends/fans, or Twitter followers. Make sure it is a ‘limited time only’ offer, to ensure the coupon isn’t abused. Some other potential uses would be “web only” deals or specials, free gifts, or complimentary services and perks.

DO be conversational. Monitor your pages and feeds (most social media sites offer email notification for this), and interact with your customers. With Twitter, use “@username” replies and “re-tweet” interesting and relevant posts as much as possible. On Facebook, respond to questions or requests for information on your company or its products. When someone has a gripe, respond publicly, and use the opportunity to show you are human, and willing to work with someone to resolve an issue.

DO have fun and be human. Give your customers some personality to enjoy. Being a social media automaton is not going to get you any fans or followers, and could even hurt your potential to gain new customers. Make social media fun and interesting to your fans and followers, and they will think of you first when they need your product or service.

DON’T be rude or condescending to people online, even if they are a troll or are trying to flame you. Most things posted online can remain there indefinitely. Having rude interactions with people online won’t win you new customers, and will just remind everyone that you didn’t handle a situation appropriately. If needed, you can always appeal to moderators or help staff of the social media platform for help with trolls and people who flame you online.

DON’T share sensitive information. If you are managing a social media presence for your company, you definitely don’t want to post things about layoffs, gossip, and other sensitive or potentially harmful information. Avoid things that could put your company in a negative light, or cause distrust among your potential customers. That’s just common business sense!

DON’T let your page, profile or Twitter stream go stagnant. Social media is all about engagement, and creating a profile or page, and then letting it sit there, is not going to do you any benefit. Post links to interesting articles in your industry. Ask questions, post surveys, contests and/or special offers…anything to engage your fans and get them thinking about your company and its offerings.

Use of social media is growing at an exponential rate. What are you doing to capitalize on these exciting new online tools? Are you doing enough?

NACE (International Autobody Congress & Exposition) 2008- Las Vegas

wendym — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:16:16 GMT

It is hard to believe NACE was a month ago already! I had hoped to post a recap for everyone as soon as we got back to Portland. It’s been a whirlwind since we returned, partly because NACE was such a great show for us.

Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week (AAIW) took place in Las Vegas November 3-8. AIA consists of three main shows: AAPEX, SEMA and NACE.

To kick the week off our friends at Aquapel were exhibiting at AAPEX and allowed us to spend time in their booth to meet with customers and prospects. Anyone who hasn’t already really needs to check out Aquapel rain repellant. I’ve tried the others, and they don’t come close to stacking up! Aquapel is amazing! www.aquapel.com

We were able to slip away and spend some time at SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association). What an overwhelming spectacle SEMA is: 2 Million square feet of exhibits, well over 100,000 people and all kinds of outrageous hotrods & parts that I can’t even describe. The one that sticks in my mind was this crazy motorcycle meets batmobile thing (like I said hard to describe).

With the week in full swing, NACE began November 5^th. GTS’ Internet Marketing Services team had a lot to show off:

· ScoreMyWebsite – This tool continues to be a wealth of information for our customers and prospects. If you haven’t already, check it out now. You can read more about it here

· Speaking engagements—It is great to share our expertise with the industry, and it is always well received.

o NACE- 11/5 We focused on strategies for using online marketing to push offline success.

o NWRA- 11/7 We focused on ways to get immediate return on your Marketing dollar

o IGA- 11/8 We covered advanced strategies for gaining online presense

If you are interested in viewing any of these presentations, please let us know.

· Sonic Rocks- GTS gave away “Sonic Rocks” at our booth. What are Sonic Rocks?

They’re fun and addictive magnetic rocks that you toss in the air to make noise. They were a huge hit! People were coming from far and wide to find GTS to get noise makers. No matter where you were on the NACE exhibit floor you could hear someone playing with their Sonic Rocks.

How is this relevant to GTS’ Internet Marketing Services? It’s simple. Marketing is all about getting noticed. We did it! We have new customers coming in the door today, because we got their attention. Are you doing enough to get noticed? Are people able to find you?

A whirlwind week to say the least!