From the desk of the DesignMind Community Manager

Activity on DesignMind over the past few weeks’ shows that our design and specification community are now all back at work! If the trend continues through Feb, we’ll be hosting nearly 20 000 unique visitors on the site by the month end! This makes the DesignMind community the largest and most active on-line building industry networking service in Southern Africa. And it’s all thanks to you!

By all accounts, many of our members are anecdotally indicating some comparative increase in project opportunities in the opening months of the year – suggesting that the market is starting to dust off the negativity of the recession and is aiming to get on with it.

Social media and search engine integration have been in the news a lot this week, reminding us that the explosive connectivity trend, driven by powerful leaps in social networking and search technology, continues to irreversibly change the way people get and share information. A staggering 1 in 6 billion people in the world are now connected to an on-line network and get their information this way. In SA, nearly 20 million people get information and connect on-line daily. AC Nielsen’s latest market pattern research reports that people turn to their on-line networks for information first and trust that information a whopping 8 times more than any form of advertising! And yet amazingly, despite huge evidence of a big step change in the way people get information and make decisions, many of SA businesses continue to market the same old way – hoping for different results. Strange thing this!

Back here, we’re seeing encouraging signs that our ‘Facebook for the building design and specification community’ is getting valued more for it’s true purpose: instantly connecting people involved in the building design and specification business to the people and information they need at no cost. Great to see that our constant twittering on about smarter ways to connect with building people in a closed network - and rants about easier and cheaper ways to get and distribute information is now delivering an ROI to our community.

If you’ve logged-in recently, you’ll notice we’ve added a smart instant messaging function to the site – making it simple for members to communicate and collaborate with network members in real time. Members can now chat privately or interact in the main chat area for free.

The sites powerful search engine is now being used substantially more to find and engage the suppliers of products in real time – saving designers the time and effort required to get product specification information and support. Because the site’s search engine was upgraded substantially in December to push profile data to Google, Yahoo and Bing, you’ll need to ensure your profile is up-to-date to ensure you get found in searches for your solutions on the wider net. Test the search function to see if you get found in searches for the solutions you supply. If you don’t, add key words to your profile and update your profile selections. [Take 30 seconds to visit your profile to check. Use the edit function to add key words to your profile. And don’t forget to save! Forgot your password? Use the ‘forgot password’ function on the site to get a new one.]

Make your life easier. Get people to join you on www.designmind.co.za.

Latest Members

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Bosco Verticale in Milan Will Be the World’s First Vertical Forest

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Due to environmental concerns around these lamps, Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps are beginning to come to the fore as the most eco-friendly, energy efficient solution for lighting.
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A tough year for the Building & Design industry but not without promise

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Get more bathroom for your buck – bathroom remodelling tips

Remodelling your home’s bathroom is a popular trend that can add to the resale value of your property. However, it can be a costly project.
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