It’s a win/win for everyone involved. We aim to choose blogs with a similar size of audience and reach through social channels like Facebook and Twitter. Blogger’s enjoy these hops because it introduces six new potential audiences to their blog, while providing a really fun to follow seven-day feature for readers. We’ve found it to be a great way to introduce Olioboard to the masses, while garnering viral buzz for all of our partnering bloggers.

Emails started coming in at the end of the seven-day challenge from other bloggers requesting to be part of the next hop (The Holiday Decor Challenge). The moodboard focused blog hop concept is catching on. We’ve had requests from bloggers asking permission to run similar blog hops of their own, using the Olioboard platform. Remodelaholic is currently running four of these moodboard blog hops a year with aproximately 15 bloggers per promotion.

FMM: How does a brand get its products on Olioboard?

Black & White By Panache

SM: Any brand wanting to share their product line on Olioboard must have an online store and work with an affiliate program like Google Affiliate Network, Commission Junction or LinkShare. Uploading their products to Olioboard is free (we only charge a small referral fee for each item that is purchased). The affiliate programs provide Olioboard with a datafeed containing all the brand’s products and key information for each item. These datafeeds include a snippet of code added to each product’s URL that allows us to track the purchase of items on the retailers site.

Olioboard also provides a variety of sponsorship and advertising options to further integrate the brand into the Olioboard community. One of our most popular ad products is the three week sponsored contest. Members are challenged to create a moodboard using the sponsoring brands products and enter the design to compete for cash prizes. Members are encouraged to share their moodboards through social channels like Facebook and Twitter to garner more votes. These contests create a large amount of viral buzz for the brand and allow the community to interact with their product lines in a more creative and engaging manner.

FMM: How do you see digital impacting the ways designers, design enthusiasts and retail trade in the next several years?

SM: Good question. For designers and design enthusiasts, digital means always available, limitless resources at your fingertips, and for the most part it’s free. That’s a tough combo for everyone to ignore.

From a purchasing perspective, sites like Fab, One Kings Lane and Gilt Home provide users with amazing deals on premium products that they cannot find in their local stores. This is by far one of the most financially strong business models to emerge in recent years.

Web properties like Olioboard allow users to get their daily dose of inspiration, experiment with the products, obtain all the necessary information and shop the items all in one location. It’s the ease of use that’s transforming the industry in favour of digital options. The best part is you don’t have to go anywhere to get it–it’s at your fingertips as long as you have a laptop, tablet or smart phone. Digital tools allow you to envision how items work together without having to drive all over town taking pictures of products from various stores.

Sites like Olioboard are also becoming a practical tool for professionals in the industry for many of the same reasons that attract the average home owner. Digital moodboards can be created in minutes, allowing designers to quickly piece together design concepts, source products and present their ideas to their clients.

When it comes to retail, it just makes sense to invest heavily in digital. It is much more cost effective, especially when comparing it to the standard media buy options like television, magazines and newspapers. Not only is it cheaper, the traditional methods don’t provide an engaging, interactive and viral experience like digital does.

Additionally, digital fosters community like no other medium can. For the average DIY’er, online communities are a source of information and support, giving them the confidence needed to move forward on most design projects. For professionals, these communities are an excellent networking tool. Designers can connect with other professionals, new clients and manufacturers. Furthermore, retailers, brands and manufactures can benefit from these communities by creating friendly and more closely knit relationships with their customers.

FMM: Let’s talk about privacy. Do you use community member’s boards in your marketing or brand promotions? Do you request their permission first or notify them?

SM: It depends on the type of promotion. For any major advertising opportunities we always use moodboards created by the internal team. If we felt that a member’s board played an integral role in promoting Olioboard, we would absolutely ask for full permission in using their creative.

For instance, we will be showcasing member’s boards on both the “Nate Berkus Show” and the “Today Show.” We’ve asked permission from all the members and are very excited to provide this opportunity for them to gain some great exposure for their businesses and careers.