Penick Landscape Design: New website & Facebook page
Over the holidays, the website for Penick Landscape Design, my garden design and garden coaching business here in Austin, got a much-needed facelift and redesign, thanks to hours of collaboration with my computer guru (aka tech-savvy spouse). Yippee! I’m still working on the portfolio page and will have before-and-after pics up soon, but I’m really happy with the new look and additional information I was able to include.
Setting up a Facebook page seemed like the next logical step to help promote my business. So now you can find Penick Landscape Design on Facebook, which I keep updated with new blog posts about gardening from Digging. If you’d like to become a Fan, I’d be ever so grateful!
You can also follow me at Twitter under the username PamDigging.
I can’t help wondering: Whether or not you blog, have you paddled into the social-media tidal wave too?
All material © 2006-2010 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Congrats on your new site! Great design!
Technology was my career, so I’m not opposed to any of the social media if it works for folks.
I quit Twitter! I was on there for awhile and had several thousand followers. However, I felt like nearly every tweet was someone trying to sell me something. It was like driving down the freeway and having billboards jump out at me all the time! LOL I started having a lot of problems with Followers who were of the type that have nothing at all to do with gardening or travel or greyhounds. Some rather embarrassing followers who I had to block all the time. Too much overhead with not enough benefit.
My other problem with Twitter is that I don’t sit at a computer all day. I don’t want to Tweet on my Blackberry while I’m out in the garden, either. So, there would be Tweets of interest that I didn’t see until late at night that were so far down the pages that it was just crazy to try to respond to the credible folks and pickup the conversation… that train had left the station. So, I don’t find it useful for communicating with folks who I really enjoy — like other gardeners, travelers and greyhound owners.
My two cents worth!
Cameron
I don’t twitter. I just don’t have time. I don’t need that kind of communication. I do use Facebook to keep up with some of my out of town friends,however an email is just as quick for me because I don’t look there often. So I guess I am not too techy.
I was coerced by friends into joining Facebook. Admittedly it’s a great way to stay in touch with far-flung friends and relatives. I joined Twitter a few weeks ago and I’m still trying to get the hang of it. I think Twitter works better for those smartphone-attached-to-face sorts; sorry, my job doesn’t allow that! As time goes on, I’ve learned to be more selective in my social networking. I will readily accept Twitter followers and FB friends, as long as they are someone I know, and not a one-post, 1000-followers, 0-following scammer Twerp. But if all I get in return are ads, shameless unrelentng self-promotion or yadda-yadda-yadda about ‘activities of daily living” (eating, sleeping, personal hygiene), mundane chores, or groaning about general aches, pains and fatigue (unrelated to meaningful projects), I have no choice but to hide (FB) or unfollow (Twitter) that individual to preserve my sanity! I don’t routinely accept or extend follower/friend requests from/to celebrities or corporations. It’s important to tweak your FB privacy settings, too — there are many good articles online about how to go about this. Facebook and Twitter are tools which can be used for good or for evil; it’s all about learning to make the tool work for you.
Looks beautiful Pam!
Pam, It looks great! I wish you the best of networking! I’ve been flirting with Twitter, but, right now keeping up with blogging is about all the energy I have. gail
Wow, It looks great! Very professional & inviting at the same time.
Congrats-a good online presence is key to keeping the business going-and I’ll “fan” your FB page.
Nice website Pam. Hope it brings in the customers. You certainly are the one to promote natives in Austin. As to me. I am just content to be blogging (thank you). Right now I have neither the need nor time for twitter or facebook. I barely have time to clean the house, which is always last on my list of things to do! Of course, the garden comes first.
As a garden designer and coach as well I must say that your new website is absolutely gorgeous. Its so great that you have a tech savy hubby.
Sorry but I dropped Facebook. Just can’t keep up with it.
You go girl! I don’t do Twitter but I’m on Facebook. I’ll add you.
The opening paragraph of your website ad is very well executed.
I am not interested in Tweeting –I spend too much time in front of the computer as it is. I do have Facebook — started to connect with college roommate then family joined in. I have my blog networked within FB, though I am not actively pursuing lots of followers. Have gradually added more personal information on the blog– where FB is wide open as it started off with people I know. Where to draw the line? Decisions decisions.
HI Pam–The new website looks great. I’m already a fan of your facebook page–I have one there for my blog, too and find that it drives a lot of traffic to the blog. Twitter–I’m there, but still haven’t figured it out completely.
I need to make a fan page for my book, too, I suppose…
Anyway, your pages are looking very sharp indeed!
The new design looks great. Much better use of whitespace which makes it easier to focus and read.
Just beautiful, Pam! I hope it brings you many new customers. You’re a natural, Pam!
Hey, Pam, congrats on the new web design—it’s always good to refresh and renew! I’m new to Twitter and Facebook, too. I’m working into them slowly, and trying to decide how they can be useful tools rather than burdensome chores. I have already chosen to reserve my Facebook profile for family and friends only, and use my Facebook Fan page to communicate with clients and friends in the landscape biz. We’ll see how it works out!
New website looks great (you’re lucky to have a tech-savvy hubby for help!). I do FB and just recently started on Twitter. I’m still up in the air about Twitter. I don’t need to spend MORE time online! I’m considering a FB page for my garden coaching biz. Whether we like it or not, social media is here to stay. It’ll be interesting to see how it morphs.
Great design Pam! And how nice to have tech assistance right at home! I also really appreciate your asking the questions about social media. I’ve avoided facebook and twitter but I think I am about to succumb to the facebook pressure. Not so with twitter though, I just don’t see the value for me personally, like what Cameron says at the top. What about you, what do you get out of twitter?
What I get out of Twitter is part stick and part carrot, so to speak. The stick is, I feel like I’m not being left behind by technology, or left out of interesting conversations among groups I’m interested in. The carrot is, Twitter gives me instant, direct access to people I want to communicate with in the garden writing, editing, blogging, and design world. The key for me is keeping the number of people I follow at a manageable number, and I’m using it primarily for business networking. Right off the bat I was prompted by an editor’s tweet to send in a reader tip to Fine Gardening magazine; I sent two, and they accepted both for publication, so already I’m $50 richer thanks to being on Twitter. I actually prefer Twitter to Facebook, but that’s probably because I have friended so many people on FB that the number of conversations tends to overwhelm actual communication there. Still, so many people use FB that I find it does drive traffic to my blog and, I hope, to my business site. —Pam
I blog, and I’m hooked on facebook now as well, but I don’t tweet. Your new site is fabulous!
Thanks, everyone, for sharing your experiences with or feelings about various social-networking sites. I found all the responses interesting! —Pam
The new site is fabulous! On social networking, as a time-challenged person myself, I can’t spend much time on it, but already I see its value. Also, it’s all in its formative stage. Used correctly, this is a great way to network and follow up (like your Fine Gardening submissions). I figure it’s good to learn to use it now, and as it matures, like a garden, it will become an essential for spreading the word and making contacts.
l do basically what I’ve always done: write columns. It’s just that now they are called blog posts and have more photos than the newspaper could handle. I FB in a modest way; sometimes posting blog entries but more often just making comments on friends’ posts. I really restrict the friends to folks I actually know and care about. No twitter.
Pam, looks like you’re all set for spring customers. Great use of winter time. Best of luck to you.
I think it looks beautiful, Pam, and I hope it brings you plenty of business!
Really nice. Great background color.
Twitter drives me insane. And I think I’ve been the last person on earth to sign up for a facebook page (basically because a few friends have bugged me incessantly). I haven’t sync’ed anything with my blog, and doubt that I will (but who knows, maybe one day). Your new website looks gorgeous by the way!
Great picture of the agave and purple coneflowers! Your garden?
Thanks, Grump. That was my former garden. I moved a little more than a year ago and am starting a new garden now. —Pam