The 2016 Stone Industry Education seminars, presented by MIA+BSI and Stone World magazine kicked off in Charlotte, NC, on February 18, hosted by M S International, Inc. and featured marketing speaker Marty Gould. For the morning session, Gould discussed with fabricators how to use social media effectively for reaching out to customers. “Right now, four in 10 small to medium size businesses don’t have a social media page,” said Gould. “Social media has become the traditional paid advertising when it comes to reaching customers. It all used to be about how many followers, or likes, you can get on your Facebook page. Now, when you post something on Facebook, only 1% of your followers will see that message. Luckily, Facebook has made it extremely easy, and cheap, to advertise on their platform to reach new customers.”
In the afternoon session, a fabricator forum was held, moderated by Duane Naquin, of Stone Interiors East, and had a panel of, Brian Johnson of Johnson Granite, Hank Strauss of Mountain Marble and Granite, Lauren Grandlienard of ROCKin’teriors and Jon Lancto of Surface Products. The discussion started off with a new tax law in North Carolina, the E505 tax law. “It is my understanding that installation and, or revenue may or may not be taxed starting in March,” an audience member said.