Big News at FlowerChat

[theRKF]

Big things are happening at FlowerChat! We want to make you aware of three major developments.

1) FlowerChat Member Blogs
2) FlowerChat Image Gallery
3) FlowerChat Member Directory

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1) Blogs (slang for Web Logs) are like online journals or note pads. A blog is a useful and simple way to publicize short thoughts and marketing messages for the world to read. Blogs have become a major marketing tool as a source for driving traffic to retailers websites. The FlowerChat "Real Florists Blog" has jumped to the top of search engines, benefiting all participating members.

Now, each FlowerChat member has their own blog! You can post whatever you like (about flowers or not about flowers - just no pornography, please!), whenever you like, using our simple blog interface.

Visit www.flowerchat.com today and click on the Member Blogs link at the top-left of the page.

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2) The FlowerChat Image Gallery is a chance for you to show off your design chops, post cool floral images that you find, and view and rate other images. Each FlowerChat member has their own Gallery to hold their images.

There are also Galleries for images submitted for FlowerChat marketing products, such as the recently completed Spring Postcard. Projects soon to launch are the Winter 2006 brochure / postcard and the 2007 Wall Calendar.

Visit www.flowerchat.com and click on the Image Gallery link at the top-left of the screen.

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3) The FlowerChat Member Directory is a publically accessible directory of FlowerChat retail florists and vendors, categorized by Country and State / Province.

List your business today in the FlowerChat Member Directory and enjoy the benefits of more exposure for your website.



It is our hope that all members will contribute to these projects and help make FlowerChat a more product, cohesive and beneficial community. Please direct any questions to the FlowerChat Administrators through the Suggestions forum. If you cannot log in to FlowerChat for any reason, please email [email protected].

Regards,

Ryan Freeman
FlowerChat Administrator

 

[clay]

Big things are happening at FlowerChat! We want to make you aware of three major developments.

1) FlowerChat Member Blogs
2) FlowerChat Image Gallery
3) FlowerChat Member Directory

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There are also Galleries for images submitted for FlowerChat marketing products, such as the recently completed Spring Postcard. Projects soon to launch are the Winter 2006 brochure / postcard and the 2007 Wall Calendar.

Visit www.flowerchat.com and click on the Image Gallery link at the top-left of the screen.

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Ryan Freeman
FlowerChat Administrator

I like the image gallery. I was engineering something like that for flowershopmarketing.com...but since you have this one going, I have put it on the back burner. Serveral things...features if you want to call it that...that I was going to put on the FSM.com version was a field on where the unique container (or bird bath in Bosses case) came from (company), and possibly a product/sku number if they wanted to offer it. Not sure how may florists contacted Mark on his bird bath (like I did), but it might save some time for the posting florist. Another optional feature I was looking at providing was a field for SRP that you sell the item for at your shop. For me (and our customers), part of the "rating" of a floral item is it's value....or at least Perceived Value. Anyway, just some ideas.....

 

[CHR]

I was going to put on the FSM.com version was a field on where the unique container (or bird bath in Bosses case) came from (company), and possibly a product/sku number if they wanted to offer it. Not sure how may florists contacted Mark on his bird bath (like I did), but it might save some time for the posting florist.

The gallery and blog posts are viewable by the public. My suggestion is to keep the B2B info within the password protected area.

The FlowerChat Image Gallery is a chance for you to show off your design chops, post cool floral images that you find...

Just a reminder to take care if posting images belonging to others since the galleries are viewable to the general public. I'd suggest obtaining permission from an image's owner prior to posting it, and also giving proper attribution (designer's name, link to website) in the source information. IMO we need to be respectful of copyright issues when posting images belonging to other floral artists.

 

[clay]

The gallery and blog posts are viewable by the public. My suggestion is to keep the B2B info within the password protected area. Just a reminder to take care if posting images belonging to others since the galleries are viewable to the general public. I'd suggest obtaining permission from an image's owner prior to posting it, and also giving proper attribution (designer's name, link to website) in the source information. IMO we need to be respectful of copyright issues when posting images belonging to other floral artists.

Cathy-

Had not thought about that, FSM is not for unregistered users (except forum..which I plan to change). I agree about the B2B stuff, container info and especially the comments and the rating....I personally would not have a problem showing a SRP of the floral product...same as you would have on your public website.

Yes, the "obtaining permission" was a major discussion when I started with the Flowershop Marketing Gallery.....some would not post images without a watermark. Some people did not care, some REALLY did care....so we make the image watermark feature optional.

Good points.

 

[theRKF]

FYI - We will be adding a watermark feature soon ... just need to get the watermark image

Ryan

 

[BBJ (Big Bad John)]

Big things are happening at FlowerChat! We want to make you aware of three major developments.

1) FlowerChat Member Blogs
2) FlowerChat Image Gallery
3) FlowerChat Member Directory

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Regards,

Ryan Freeman
FlowerChat Administrator

I've been otherwise occupied the last couple of weeks and just got a chance to look at the new additions to flower chat and must say they are GREAT...........but here is what really stared me in the face when I checked things out. Almost 1000 members yet only 45 have bothered to take the time to list their shop - yet 13 members have submitted images (and that's great), but dang it when someone offers free advertising......a web link and description of your shop you'd think more than 5% would jump on the band waggon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What's wrong with the REAL FLORISTS today?????? B*tch...B*tch...B*tch about wire services OG's and no business etc....etc....etc.----------yet haven't got 2 minutes to cash in on FREE advertising!!!!!

Come on folks let's take our business back and list your shop here and while you're at it you can also list for free at http://locatealocalflorist.com
The more listings you have the better the chances of selling one of those beautiful creations shown in the image gallery!!!!!

 

[BOSS]

Yep John....

It does boggle the mind:wide:

I think alot of it is that the members of our community are all good florists, and are for the most part busier than their competition because of all the cool things we share here, and may not have the time to git-r-done...

We'll see increased interest after Mothers Week...but folks should try to find the time to at least sign up now, as the added listing will help to boost their sites page rank in local searches when folks go looking for Mothers Week flowers/plants....

It's a free thing...maybe folks would sign up more if we charged for the boost it will give their site

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

I think alot of it is that the members of our community are all good florists, and are for the most part busier than their competition because of all the cool things we share here, and may not have the time to git-r-done...

I disagree......this is a VERY TYPICAL reaction by florists, and THE VERY REASON why even wire services turn AWAY from taking care of them!! Ryan, BBJ, and others et al have tried and tried and tried again, to get florists up to speed, and EVEN FREE won't get them off their arses...it's pretty pathetic.

 

[12BucksFor2Dozon]

I disagree......this is a VERY TYPICAL reaction by florists, and THE VERY REASON why even wire services turn AWAY from taking care of them!! Ryan, BBJ, and others et al have tried and tried and tried again, to get florists up to speed, and EVEN FREE won't get them off their arses...it's pretty pathetic.

Mikey, I couldn't agree more...this is the primary reason I have not worked harder on getting my osFlowerCart project online quicker, because I feel that hardly anyone in this industry would even take the time to give it a try, and it represents a significant (as Ryan and Mark surely know) investment in resources and time JUST TO MAKE IT AVAILABLE, much less the support and further development issues that would come with it.

My take on the apathy issue is this...most florists are just hobbyists keeping busy with no real concern about the bottom line, except for the couple of dollars they make during holidays, so why bother with "blogs" and modern internet marketing? And the sad thing is these operations make it that much more difficult for those of us trying to run a florist as a REAL business, as if there isn't *enough* problems already...

 

[CHR]

Agreed that too many florists are slow to embrace opportunities - even free ones. Go figure. (Maybe it's because 95% of the time in this biz the 'free stuff' has a $1K price tag hidden somewhere.)

On a more positive note, I want to give an 'atta boy' to K A Hall for suggesting their two shop sites to the directory and writing lovely, useful descriptions that even make me want to buy flowers from them.

Linda's Flowers - Republic MO, We live and do business in the city we serve, and care about our reputation and our customers. Our goal is to make the recipient of your flowers into another one of our satisfied customers.

We all feel that way, but he said it first. :bouquet2:

 

[deflorist]

important question

I just received an order from someone searching in the florist blogs. Thank you but she said my local number was incorrect. I am not sure how to access this spot to change the number the customer told me the local number was 403-288-1424 when it is really 403-288-1421 She did have my 800 number tho. If someone can get back to me asap on how to change this I will do so immediately You can email at [email protected] or [email protected] Thanks again

 

[theRKF]

Corrected - thanks for the update.

Ryan