One of the main reasons we decided to share the progress of our renovation project online had to do with my job. I am a brand and marketing strategy consultant. I love my job, and am very passionate about helping my clients evolve both in real life as well as on the web. In this respect, bringing my professional knowledge of social media and the web in general closer to my personal life seemed totally natural and also very exciting.  Within the first three days of launch, our home renovation blog as well as a freshly set-up Twitter account was receiving about 150 unique visitors per day. By watching the statistics of our blog, we got a confirmation that people were in need of practical advice on home renovation. Apart from simply reflecting the main steps of the renovation project, we wanted to create a useful source of information for just about anybody involved in similar projects, particularly in Belgium.

We know it's hard to find a lot of relevant information on the web, navigate through endless brands of kitchen and bath accessories and especially make choices fast - so we simply wanted to share our story on our blog and Twitter account so that others could rely on this source of information.

Another purpose was to generate web visitors' comments with tips and recommendations in response to the concrete questions posted on the blog.   We received many very useful comments from friends and people we did not know. Some of these tips really helped us in our planning work. For instance, we received precious feedback when we were comparing prices and functionality of various brands of kitchen appliances. Without this great feedback, we would not have been able to navigate through the cluttered market of kitchen appliances, but with the help of the comments left on our blog and emails we received, we quickly got a feel for which brands to use for which kitchen appliances.

Since the blog attracted the attention of some industry professionals, we decided to give a lot of “link love” and blog mentions to those who provided the most useful information. Casius.be, a Belgian internet platform which assists home owners in realising their construction and renovation projects, sent us invitations to Batibouw (a major Belgian home construction and renovation trade show in Heysel) and let us talk to their interior designer to help us specifically with bathroom design.

The move is planned for August so until then the project is open – don't hesitate to visit the blog and give your thoughts! But actually, is a home renovation project ever over? We are sure there will still be plenty of aspects to think about once the basics are in place, so we hope people will keep checking back. It also helps us answering questions about how the work is going, and will be a great resource when others ask us how we went about it in the future.

Olga Slavkina
Brand & marketing strategy consultant
www.schmoozyfox.com

See also:
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How to prepare your house for sale