Private employers hired the most workers since last April and the nation’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in nearly three years, according to the Labor Department.

Whirlpool’s fourth-quarter net earnings increased to $205 million, compared with net earnings of $171 million during the same period last year. Their North America region reported operating profit of $202 million for the quarter, compared with $53 million in the previous year. And for the full-year 2011, sales reached $18.7 billion, up 2% from the prior year.  Have you been watching the stock? Shares are up a full 20 points since mid-January!

In more general channel news — according to the U.S. Commerce Department — construction spending across all sectors reached an estimated $816.4 billion in December 2011, a 1.5% increase above the revised November estimate and 4.3% above the December 2010 results of $782.9 billion. Spending on residential construction was reported at $241.2 billion in December, 0.8% above the November 2011 estimate of $239.4 billion.

As the much-anticipated annual Builders’ Show opens its doors in just a couple short days, we’ve got our schedule filled with people to see, new products to admire and tweet-ups in which to partake.

A few brands to watch out for:

• Feeney: Proving that cable rails provide great design in addition to structure, Feeney will showcase its wide offering of custom cables, rails and hardware for commercial and residential applications.
• Masonite: Want to experience “Art in Doors”? Stop by Masonite’s booth at IBS to check out how doors are so much more than mere portals. The company’s new West End collection appeals to those with great design taste who seek modernity.
• Amerec: Anyone looking to add some luxury to their bathroom should check out Amerec’s booth at IBS, where the brand’s new T100 Touch Control panel will surely be the center of attention. The touch screen panel provides easy access to and control of steam and time settings.
• Gerber Plumbing Fixtures: Celebrating its 80^th year, Gerber will feature the Viper 1.28 high efficiency toilet, which provides exceptional performance paired with smart water savings, among the full line of vitreous china and brass offerings.
• Nuheat: Though the Orlando weather may not call for it, surely heated floors are irresistible. Nuheat develops custom and luxurious electric floor heating systems that provide comfort through virtually any flooring material.
• Danver: Ever expanding its product offering for the outdoor living trend, Danver will have on display EcoSmart outdoor fireplaces in addition to the stainless steel cabinetry they’re known for.
• Viance: Introducing its 2012 “Fish-More” promotion, Viance helps contractors gain more business by recommending the brand Ecolife for deck building.
• The Fortress Company: Fortress fence and railing products not only create safe surroundings, but contribute to the beautification of any property.

The K&A team will attend IBS this week in Orlando and would love to see you. If you’re attending and would like to participate in a short meet-up, (we could even feature your brand on our YouTube channel)… let us know here!

Yesterday, we dove into Search Plus Your World (catch up here if you missed it).

Here’s how this new social searching platform can have great potential for your brand:

Let’s say John Doe is looking to remodel his bathroom. Because Google is the largest search engine, we’ll assume he uses Google to search out how-to tips and product recommendations. For now, let’s assume that John Doe has a Google account. On his personal search page he sees a few of the people in his circles have +1’d a particular brand of paint and added photos to Google+ of remodeling projects they have completed using certain floor tiles. John Doe also added The Home Depot to his circles and sees posts from them about bathroom remodeling tips including videos they posted to YouTube.

Now let’s assume that John Doe doesn’t have a Google account. He searches for the same keywords and in the right hand side bar he sees several Google+ profiles from prominent remodeling companies and DIY stores. Next to some of the search results he sees a picture of the person or brand who authored the post.

Because people trust people they know and because the human eye is naturally drawn to pictures as opposed to text, the search results that are associated with a Google profile will most likely get more hits than those that are not. If your brand has a Google profile and is using it to its full potential, you could start seeing the benefits of Search Plus Your World very soon.

It seems like every few weeks there’s something new from Google to talk about. This week’s hot topic is Search Plus Your World. You’ll recall that when Google Plus was introduced there was a lot of talk about the concept of social searching, the idea that search would be about more than keywords; it would integrate a person’s social network into the search experience to deliver better results. We first saw this take shape in the form of the +1 button on Google and Facebook Likes displaying in Bing. Search Plus Your World is phase two of the social searching phenomenon.

Search Plus, as most are calling it, will deliver personal search results for anyone logged in to their Google account, including photos and information shared by their contacts on Google+. In addition, a list of related people and pages on Google+ will appear in the right side bar even if the searcher is not logged in to their Google account.

Google also has been slowly adding use of the rel=”author” HTML tag. This tag is designed to designate who is the original author of any content on the web and link it to their Google profile, which Google hopes will one day serve as the central location for information about the author/brand. What this means right now is that, if set up properly, when a post you write or a page you authored shows up in a search result, your picture will display next to the result with a link to your Google profile. For well established brands and thought-leaders, this can add instant credibility to the search result and increase the likelihood that someone will click through to your website. This feature is still being phased in and there’s no word yet on when displaying pictures will become standard issue for anyone with rel=”author” added to their page, but it is starting to show up.

Check in tomorrow to learn how this can have great potential for your brand.

The concept of “home for life” has become an increasingly prevalent trend for the home building industry. Homeowners have redefined their idea of a “dream home” and have made it clear they’re staying put… literally. In fact, 84% of the respondents in a Hanley Wood survey said they would like to remain in their current homes through retirement. Instead of moving to a larger home, homeowners are taking matters into their own hands by redefining the quality of an existing space. This presents a unique and profitable opportunity for remodeling companies to take advantage of; the key is to recognize exactly where.

Jeff Shea, owner of The Siding Doctor, has been involved with the home building industry for the past 30 years and has noticed the upgrades in which homeowners place value.

“Homeowners today are working their way through the house with small high-end upgrades like windows and doors, and installing other items to reduce energy use,” says Shea. “They are trying to avoid debt. The available resources for homeowners to upgrade are much more limited than they were ten years ago.”

This presents a challenge for remodelers looking to give business a boost. It is important for businesses to think of their consumer’s needs and where the home is most likely to expand. In the past decade alone, the U.S. census has reported an increase of multigenerational family homes by 30 percent. As a result, families are remodeling not only to upgrade, but to increase the overall comfort level within a home. Homeowners, therefore, redefine the value of their space in places like the basement and the outdoors.

To begin with, the most commonly thought-of area for remodeling would be the basement. Most homeowners in the past saw this area as a “work-in-progress” type of space. Now basements are being turned into budget-conscious “apartment style” living spaces as a way to adapt to their new multigenerational family demands.  With the economy still in recovery, homeowners are looking for efficient remodeling that doesn’t require undertaking a major project.

“There is a growing market of do-it-yourselfers in search of practical improvements that add real value,” said Jonathan Zublena, product manager at Sauder Woodworking. “Sauder anticipates that many home improvements will include upgrading existing ceiling systems as a means to improve the overall value perception of a room or a home.”

Another option for changing the perception of a home is to transform an outdoor space into an outdoor living room. Homeowners have discovered that their backyard is more than just an area for kids; it is an area for entertaining as well. As a result, remodelers are receiving more requests from homeowners for direction on creating outdoor kitchens, entertainment areas and fire pits. Admittedly, in terms of time and resources, outdoor kitchen construction is the most demanding aspect of the outside space; however, an outdoor kitchen traditionally garners the largest return on investment. Companies like Danver offer a one-stop shop of appliances and products equipped to handle the outdoor conditions from stainless steel cabinetry to pizza ovens, outdoor heaters, insect systems, cocktail stations and more.

Most – if not all – home renovations today occur to achieve one goal: to increase the quality of living in a house as homeowners readjust for long-term occupancy. Home and building product manufacturers and remodelers alike understand this critical pivot in home trends and have thus far adapted quite effortlessly.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about the future of smart homes that give consumers the ability to control all of their home’s systems from their mobile devices. Networking all your systems together into a central control system makes a house more energy efficient because the systems communicate with one another to avoid using energy when it is unnecessary. But now there is a study out that shows these systems also makes homeowners more inclined to actually use their energy saving features.

Programmable thermostats have been around for some time, but surveys have shown that only about 10 percent of consumers use the programming features to automatically adjust temperatures during certain parts of the day. However, consumers who have a Wi-Fi enabled thermostat – allowing control of the thermostat from any PC or mobile device – used the programming features of the thermostat 85 percent of the time. EnergyHub, the maker of the Wi-Fi thermostat used in the study, attributes the high usage rates to the interface of the thermostat’s Wi-Fi access.

“We’re not changing the way the thermostat works. We’re getting it to do what it was designed to do 30 years ago,” EnergyHub CEO Seth Frader-Thompson said. “An easier interface is a huge part of it.”

By taking the same technology used today, integrating it with the devices consumers use most often, and giving it an easier-to-use interface, consumers are more inclined to take advantage of energy-saving features. Perhaps this is really what homes and people need today. They don’t need new technology… they need something to make the existing technology easier to use. If the technology were easier to use, perhaps it would be used more often, making us all more efficient.

By now I’m sure you’ve either asked or been asked one of the following questions: “Why should my business be involved in social media?”… “Is my Facebook page really generating more sales?”… and “What’s the ROI of paying someone to manage my presence on social media?” These are all very important questions, but unfortunately they are often very difficult to answer with concrete numbers, unlike the same questions about more traditional advertising methods. Until now.

Previously, these questions were usually answered with a narrative explaining how social media differs from traditional media and that included the words “fans,” “followers,” “comments,” “likes,” “retweets,” and “engagement.” These words however, never conveyed concrete figures that could be turned into ROI. And, inevitably, a few weeks or months later the same questions were being asked.

These conversations are now changing thanks to the new Facebook Insights. Think of it as website analytics for your Facebook page. The new Facebook Insights offers a barrage of data including how many fans you have, how many friends your fans have (the potential number of people you could reach if fans share your content), how many people are talking about your page, your page’s weekly reach, and how each of these numbers have changed from the previous week. You can also see what content was the most effective by looking at the reach, engagement, talking about, and virality numbers for each of your posts.

Digging deeper, the Likes, Reach, Talking About This, and Check-ins tabs break the data down by demographics so you know if you are reaching the right audience. These pages also let you know how you reached people (organic, viral or paid), daily breakdown of page views and unique views, the most popular tabs on your page, external referrers, and how people are accessing your page. You can break all of this information down into whatever time frame you prefer for accurate comparisons.

Taking all of this into consideration you should be able to present some pretty concrete numbers on whether or not your efforts on Facebook are reaching the right people and whether or not they are responding.

Demonstrating conversion rates with these numbers is still going to require some extra effort (like asking new customers where they heard about your company, offering deals only on Facebook and measuring the response, etc.), but it’s a good start. But you should not only be using these numbers for reporting… use them for improving as well. Take a look at what kind of content you get the best response from and do more of that. You should constantly be honing and refining your online strategy (not just on Facebook) by looking at the numbers (Insights, Analytics, or any other reports you generate).

I would suggest that you open up your Facebook page right now and click on the Insights tab. Take the guided tour and if you’re looking for more information and ways to use the data check out the Facebook Insights Guide for Page Owners.

As we look forward to another mutually successful year, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for being a valued reader of our blog, newsletter and social media feeds, and for contributing your opinions… keep them coming!  

For Kleber & Associates, 2012 will be a milestone, as we celebrate our 25th anniversary of building better brands that build a better home.

I’m beyond thrilled and blessed to have seen K&A grow as it has, and greatly look forward to new beginnings not only for the agency, but for our industry and economy as a whole.

The economy added another 200,000 jobs in December – the jobless rate declining to 8.5%, the lowest level in nearly three years. As we ended 2011, predictions for Q4 GDP were increased to 2.8%… I won’t be surprised if we approach 4%.

Consumer spending has exceeded expectations and manufacturing is increasing. Inventories are lean and savings are flush. The share of households delinquent on their mortgages has dropped to the lowest level since late 2008, residential construction is surging and homebuilder stocks continue to lead Wall Street. Previously owned homes for sale are now at the lowest level since mid 2005. The National Association of Realtors reported that the number of people signing contracts to buy homes rose in November to the highest level in a year and a half.

In many cities, owning a home now costs less than renting, while the architecture billings index moved into positive territory for the first time since August. And there’s serious talk of a mortgage re-set to help launder the toxic shadow inventory in the works. But be careful if you’re superstitious… it’s a leap year and we’ve got three Friday the 13ths in 2012!

A few months ago I outlined what I think the home of the future will look like. Now it looks like that vision is one step closer to being a reality for all of us. Lowe’s is preparing to introduce home automation kits priced for the mass market. Using AlertMe’s cloud based Iris system and home networking equipment, consumers will be able to access and control their home’s security, energy and appliances from their computers and mobile devices. This system can be self-installed and will help home owners conserve energy and money through greater control over their home’s systems.

You can read all the details about the system here.

Bob Agnew

(December 2011)- On The House Media (OTHM) is pleased to announce the addition of Bob Agnew to their expanding media communications team. Effective immediately, Agnew will serve as general manager, overseeing all programming and sales operations. Additionally, he will serve as a liaison for marketing and public relations.

On February 2, 2012, the company will also launch a new television show called “On The House”, which will air on PBS KIXE channel 9 in Redding, Calif. KIXE covers a 10 county area in Northern California.

“Our entire team is thrilled to have Bob lead our media franchise as it enters its twenty-sixth year,” stated James Carey, radio personality for On The House Media. “Bob’s unique combination of management capabilities make him exceptionally qualified to guide our team into this new broadcast medium.”

Along with the show’s launch, On The House Media will be collaborating their marketing efforts with Kleber & Associates, an Atlanta-based marketing agency who specializes in representing clients from the home and building industry.

“We are incredibly excited about this new opportunity with PBS and cannot wait to see the results from our expansion,” says Agnew. “I look forward to joining On The House Media and working with K&A to produce a great new TV show.”

To learn more about On The House Media, visit www.onthehouse.com. To learn more about Kleber and Associates, visit www.kleberandassociates.com.

About On The House Media
For the past 25 years, On The House Media (OTHM) has served as a nationally syndicated, multi-media franchise specializing in radio, digital, and multi-media platforms. Based in Brentwood, Calif., OTHM integrates home improvement and lifestyle into insightful entertainment for builders and homeowners. For more information visit www.onthehouse.com.