WorkShop, “the creative work place,” is an affordable off-site meeting facility located in Louisville, Kentucky.

The company offers a playful atmosphere where an experienced staff can help teams find creative ideas and solutions. WorkShop’s team building experts work with you to design a program that challenges your team and addresses competencies like influencing, organization, prioritization and “people focus.” The workshops cover a wide range of topics such as strategic planning, conflict resolution and merger management.

One glance at the pictures on their website, and you will quickly see how the physical environment complements their philosophy of energizing participants and bringing out the best your team has to offer. Each uniquely designed room has comfortable furniture, a stereo CD player, games and other props to get the “creative juices” flowing. At the more practical level, the rooms are stocked with tools like whiteboards, a flip chart and wireless internet access, to record the flood of insights.

Stephanie Ringer is a co-owner, operations manager and team building facilitator of WorkShop. She draws on her experience as a motivational speaker and team building expert to design activities that best fit your needs. In March 2010, she was kind enough to answer some questions about where she wants to take her social media strategy. The full text of my interview appears below.

What’s your business?

WorkShop offers a creative meeting facility and team adventure site. You will find space that is different than other places. We are very colorful and have movable fun furniture, wall-to-wall whiteboards and lots of toys and props to bring out your creative side.

What are you doing with social media?

I am personally on LinkedIn and I upload our business newsletters, pictures and presentations on SlideShare. On my LinkedIn profile, you’ll find a discussion group and a blog. I am also on Facebook and have a fan page for WorkShop, the creative workplace. On the fan page, I post all pictures from our meetings and adventures, so that the participants can show others or download them. Twitter is my call to action. I drive traffic to what I want them to see with Twitter–any new information, posts, meetings, etc.,

Why?

It is smart marketing for businesses. Anytime you can market to the masses without cost is a bonus for small businesses.

How  do you measure the payoff?

More people attend our classes and I think it even helps get us some Google hits. We always ask people how they found out about WorkShop, and in the past year, we have had many more people say the Internet, Google, Facebook, etc.

What is the amount of time it takes you to keep your social media program going?

One should really do 30 minutes every morning and about 10-15 minutes at the end of the day.

What are the three lessons you have learned?

Finding out that Twitter is a “call to action” was my biggest “aha” moment. SlideShare was another great gift because it allowed me to share my newsletters without the email process. And probably the third lesson is it takes a long time to get people to comment on what you write, whether it’s a blog, group discussion or whatever. If you just keep writing and posting, you will get a comment here and there and it will eventually take off. I have faith.

What is the downside of social media?

People sharing every detail of their life, from where they are to what they are eating. I just don’t think they realize that criminals are able to use computers.

What is the benefit?

Word of mouth marketing has forever been the number one form of marketing. Word travels faster and stronger through the social media forum. Having a great product, great customer service and something unique, really gets people’s attention. I believe WorkShop is starting to be known in the city as a premier meeting place.

What’s the outlook for your use of social media in the next three months?

Now that we have moved to a new location, I am really going to have to use social media to get the word out. This business was in the same location for 16 years. Jenness Bunn and I bought it in 2007 and have moved it to a wheelchair accessible location with parking. We are going to have to announce it big that we are now wheelchair accessible and talk about The Pointe (which is our new location).

Any advice for a small business wanting to jump in?

Absolutely, get a LinkedIn page first and try to utilize what it has to offer. Get real familiar with that, then put your business on Facebook and start getting some fans. Finally, get on Twitter to drive traffic to your website, your fan page or your LinkedIn profile. Try to engage in one thing at a time so you can get a good feel for what it is and how you can use it. I would be happy to share my experience with other small businesses. I operate on the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Silly.

SSN Comment

Our environment has a great deal to do with how we think and interact. At WorkShop, team members are treated to an ideal meeting space and a dedicated staff of team building experts. The wide variety of classes cover both personal and professional enrichment. WorkShop’s goal is to provide a playful and productive atmosphere that will stimulate creative thinking. The classes cover areas such as strategic planning, product development, team building and training. After 16 years at the same location, WorkShop has moved to The Pointe and is now wheelchair accessible. If you belong to a group or organization that could benefit from an off-site meeting that can challenge, motivate and inspire team members, you may want to take a close look at WorkShop, a creative work place.

David Hardt, March 30, 2010

Note: Post not sponsored.