Eugene Brill

Looking to hire a Social Media Marketer

Eugene Brill — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:54:23 +0000

Rio Grande Jewelry Supplies is looking for a creative writer and marketer with a passion for social media! Join our Content Team and leverage multiple social media platforms to grow our business. You’ll also write copy for email campaigns, landing pages and web ads. You should be enthusiastic about customer interaction, highly collaborative and have demonstrated experience with social platforms and tools – including experience blogging, tweeting, Facebook, etc. Having an understanding of jewelry making and our customer base could seal the deal!

What you’ll do:

• Engage with the jewelry community on Rio Grande’s Facebook page, Twitter page, YouTube videos, Riogrande.com reviews, survey feedback, Google+ and any other electronic/SM platform
• Work with linked teams to ensure technical questions, suggestions and feedback are responded to in a timely manner
• Write email and web copy in close collaboration with the Electronic , Content and Supply Chain Teams
• Optimize YouTube video descriptions, titles and transcripts in collaboration with the Content Team and videographer
• Optimize Facebook fan page to increase new friends and drive acquisition targets to riogrande.com and into our email marketing funnels
• Manage the social media calendar and plan discussion starters that will engage fans and increase reach
• Collaborate with other marketing channels to communicate messages that are in alignment with marketing programs, product launches, campaigns, tradeshows, etc.
• Leverage social media and web marketing to aid new item launches, new projects and other new content as it’s created
• Maintain knowledge of social media platforms and SEO
• Consolidate and report on customer feedback and identify customer impacting opportunities
• Evaluate effectiveness of social media strategy on overall company performance

What you’ll need:

• Knowledge of social media platforms and their marketing best practices
• Product knowledge and familiarity with Rio Grande’s customer base is a plus. Training will be provided to a dedicated quick learner.
• Creative writing/marketing experience. Email campaign and web marketing experience a plus
• Basic knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
• A creative, marketing mindset and willingness to take risks and experiment
• Be a tinkerer, ready to test and adjust strategy as new data comes in

Apply here!

Rio Grande is a growing, 68-year-old manufacturer/distributor with thousands of valued customers worldwide. We’re a principle-based company with a highly evolved team-based environment that is based on joint accountability. In addition to a unique work environment, we offer flexible hours, competitive compensation package and excellent benefits. Our benefits include: Medical, Dental, Vision, 401k, generous paid time off policy, Life Insurance, Short and Long-Term Disability Options, Gym Membership Discount, Associate Discount, Tuition Reimbursement, robust Wellness program, an in-house gym and more!

Last year our company was recognized for being one of the top three Best Places to Work in the state by New Mexico Business Weekly. We were also named New Mexico’s Healthiest Employer in the medium-sized (100-1499 employees) category!

Rio Grande Web Site Evolution

Eugene Brill — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:46:28 +0000

2011 was a huge year for riogrande.com, and 2012 promises to be just as big. We rebuilt our site into the best place to shop online for jewelry-making tools and supplies AND the best place to learn how to overcome any tricky bench technique you might encounter. As we were reworking pretty much every online feature of our site, we came across some screen captures of our website in it’s formative years. Take a look at our website timeline below and have a laugh with us! You’ll see our first stab at the internet, then follow along into those awkward teenage years of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Of course, just because we’re all grown up today doesn’t mean we can’t make our website even better! Please tell us how we can improve riogrande.com by filling out a brief survey about our website functionality and features. Participate and you will enter to win $100 in Rio Grande credit! We’ll pick a winner on January 17th, so give us your thoughts and good luck!

And the timeline begins…

1996

Best feature : “This site has been optimized for Netscape Navigator.” Whatever happened to Netscape, anyway?

1998

Best feature: “Online Order Form” and “New Addition, Precious Metal Clay.” Wait, we had a website for two years before you could even order online? What was the point before?

1999

Best feature: “Catalog Express” and “www2.riogrande.com,” which to my best guess is a subdomain we used to manage the giant influx of online shoppers. Perhaps this internet will stick around after all…?

2002

Best feature: MSDS sheets offered online and finally, a search bar! Like most sites, the search bar is now the favorite place for our customers to start when shopping online.

2006

Best feature: Member logins arrive along with Live Chat – the same live chat we use today. Try it sometime if you haven’t – you’ll chat with the same great customer service people from our phone lines.

2009

2011 –Before improvements

2011 –After improvements!

Be sure to tell us how riogrande.com serves you by commenting here AND filling out the website survey! Remember, you could win $100 in Rio Grande credit!

‘Rich’ Content is King

Eugene Brill — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:43:05 +0000

Wikedepia defines ‘rich content’ as …. “In media production and publishing, rich content is information and experiences that may provide value for an end-user/audience in specific contexts. Content may be delivered via any medium such as the internet, television, and audio CDs, as well as live events such as conferences and stage performances.” In plain English, and as far as websites go, rich content means finding everything you need in one place. We all love to ‘surf the web’, but let’s face is, that is so 2008! Now we want everything that is relevant to us, in one place.

I would like to share what Rio Grande, the industry leader in anything and everything jewelry related, has done by bringing Rich Content to their web site. By introducing a second ‘search pyramid’, customers now have the ability to search for product and/or content.

Rio Grande Jewelry Supply introduced five new elements to their product pages: (1) they went with the ‘tabbed content’ look together with Recommended Products and ‘Must Have’ products 2) the description tab covers all ‘rich content’, including How To’s, Instruction Sheets, Material Safety Data Sheets and Relevant Charts & Graphs 3) customers Ratings, Reviews & Profiles, 4) Hosted Video’s (and NOT YouTube videos – but on the Content Delivery Network (CDN) of BrightCove that identifies the speed, player and operating system of the viewer and 5) product related do-it-yourself projects, with the ability to monetize these projects with a ‘add-to-cart’ feature.

Using Social Media to Capitalize on National TV exposure

Eugene Brill — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:11:24 +0000

Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded. One of these popular reality TV shows is Project Runway. Project Runway is an American reality television series on Lifetime Television, previously on the Bravo network, which focuses on fashion design and is hosted by model Heidi Klum. The contestants compete with each other to create the best clothes and are restricted in time, materials and theme. Their designs are judged, and one or more designers are eliminated each week.

A spin-off of Project Runway is Project Accessory. Lifetime proves attitude is the best accessory with the new series Project Accessory. On this show, hosted by actress and model Molly Sims, 12 designers will compete and showcase their unique vision for accessories and show audiences how to transform any outfit. The designers must dazzle Sims and the judges — designer Kenneth Cole and InStyle Editor Ariel Foxman — with their one-of-a-kind jewelry, belts, bags, shoes, headpieces and other wares, with the help of lifestyle expert Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti as their mentor. Emmy Award–winning actress Debra Messing and fashion critic and television personality Kelly Osbourne will appear as guest judges this season, among other fashion luminaries.

Rio Grande and Project Accessory

Rio Grande is supporting Project Accessory by providing the tools you see each week on the show, and each Friday they’ll have another jewelry project inspired by the same challenges Molly Sims pits the designers against!

So, how do you capitalize on this kind of national exposure? This is where Relationship Marketing really plays a very important part…Social Media. Let’s look back to the basics…

1. Listen

2. Join

3. Participate

4. Create

Hopefully you are already listening and have joined in the conversation. Once you have your bearings, you’re ready to participate in the community. Participation can include posting topics in online forums, replying to topics in forums and blog posts with your opinions, reviewing products or services, and even just bookmarking web sites you like. By building an online brand for yourself—by way of contributing to the social networks and forming connections—you now have an audience to share your content with. After you’ve built that online brand and online reputation, you can leverage it to help spread the word about content you create.

This is how Rio Grande is capitalizing on their Social Media presence to promote not only the show Project Accessory, but also the company Rio Grande Jewelry Supplies. The jewelry artists at Rio Grande will create similar projects as the designers on the show – participating each week like they are on the show. Then, they will invite their social media followers to do the same. Rio Grande supplies detailed project instructions and material lists each week. They are encouraging their followers to “put yourself to the challenge!” and sign-up to receive e-mail notifications as new projects are released. Every Friday (for 8 weeks) a new project will be posted on their web site, followed by a blog post and daily conversations on Facebook and Twitter. A weekly blog and Facebook competition will give away prizes for the best entries for that week. Participants will be encouraged to read and write product reviews on Rio Grande upload images of their own creations to the blog - The Studio, Rio’s Blog, and share on their Facebook walls, Twitter feeds and to their circles on Google+.

The core of any good plan is a set of goals. We all enjoy the success of hitting or exceeding a target and such an achievement stimulates that ongoing desire to succeed, as well as helping to maintain high levels of motivation and determination. Goals also allow you to establish your priorities and maintain your focus, as everything you do in a campaign must in some way be linked back to your singular objective. During the planning phase, achievable and realistic goals were set (increase in e-mails subscribers, blog, Facebook and Twitter followers, etc.) and progress will be measured against the baseline that was established before the campaign started.

Stay tuned for a wrap-up and assessment of how Rio Grande’s social media helped them spread the word about Project Accessory. Follow Rio Grande on Facebook at, Twitter at and the Rio Grande Blog at …and play along!

The Online Buying Journey

Eugene Brill — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:29:13 +0000

Marketers are used to talking about the online purchase process as a funnel: consumers are driven through the broad opening by ads or other stimulus, whittle down their choices, and then drop out the narrow bottom with a purchase. It’s a very linear way of thinking.

Things are changing…ZMOT happened. ZMOT is that moment when you grab your laptop, mobile phone or some other wired device and start learning about a product or service (or potential boyfriend) you’re thinking about trying or buying. I’m sure you know what I mean — you probably do web searches like this every day. Shoppers don’t always move through a funnel, narrowing choices as they go; at ZMOT, they can actually widen their choices. The more they learn the more options they consider.

71% of online shoppers read reviews; making it the most widely read consumer-generated content. (Forrester)

eCommerce Ratings and Reviews
Ratings and Reviews allows you to enable, encourage, and analyze customer ratings and reviews on your eCommerce website. You can empower your customers to share honest opinions and influence each other to make more informed and rewarding purchase decisions. You benefit by creating a credible and reliable customer-to-customer community without having to delve into complex IT work or the laborious process of content moderation.

58% of online shoppers prefer sites that feature ratings and reviews. (Marketing Sherpa)

Business Benefits

Engagement of your most loyal, active and influential customers and the ability to leverage their input to drive overall conversion
High buyer confidence and lower return rates
Moderated consumer-generated content that can be leveraged on the site and in multi-channel marketing assets, product development activities, and customer support
Positive brand awareness, as average product rating is over 4.3 out of 5 stars!
Increased natural search traffic via keyword-rich consumer-generated review content

Shoppers who read reviews had a 21% higher purchase satisfaction and an 18% higher loyalty score versus other survey respondents. (Fore See Results)

SEO Benefits

To help unlock the substantial amount of search engine optimization (SEO) potential that is associated with user-generated content (UGC), BazaarVoice includes Smart SEO Basic as a standard feature. Smart SEO is the next-generation version of Search Voice Inline (SVI), the method that was used previously to index UGC on product pages. By using a patent-pending combination of client- and server-side technologies, Smart SEO increases the amount and freshness of rich content that resides on the product and category pages of your website.

Who is BazaarVoice?

Along with key industry partners, BazaarVoice is building next generation social commerce applications that deliver immediate success by minimizing implementation risk and maximizing the strategic impact of consumer-generated content.