Instagram for Small Business

Instagram is a social network that allows users to take, share and collect photos, and is one of the biggest social media sites in the world. While it’s popular with just about everyone with a smartphone, it’s also been used by businesses since almost the moment of its creation.

While the internet is a massive place, it’s done wonders for local small businesses, and Instagram does a fantastic job of helping that. The article here gives three examples of small businesses using Instagram in order to:

1. Connect with clientele

2. Communicate with existing customers

3. Create an online portfolio of their products and services.

Every business tries to accomplish these goals, and Instagram has made it much easier to do it, and in an artistic way. The photographic filters that Instagram uses have been hugely popular among its users, and can give a distinct look to your products. The visuals of the app are great, as showing people you and your business does a lot more than telling them. Who knew something as common as a smartphone could do so much for your business?

photo courtesy of JAMoutinho, under the Flickr CCL.

Arts of Greater Lansing

Don’t worry if you missed out on the East Lansing Art Festival last month. There are plenty of other art oriented opportunities in the Greater Lansing Area this summer and all year round. Here are a few options definitely worth checking out:

• Summer Solstice Jazz Festival – http://eljazzfest.com/

• 2013 Sculptures in the Park - http://ow.ly/m5vak

• Old Town Scrapfest – http://oldtownscrapfest.friedlandindustries.com/

• Broad Art Museum – http://broadmuseum.msu.edu/

• Common Ground Music Festival – http://commongroundfest.com/

• 40th Annual Island Art Fair - http://ow.ly/m5v6M

• MSU Museum – http://museum.msu.edu/

It was 79 and sunny in East Lansing on Saturday, May 18. It was the perfect day to venture out into the streets of East Lansing for this annual outdoor artistic marketplace known as the 50th East Lansing Art Festival. Held each spring the 2013 festival took place May 18th and 19th, as always it was a great jump start to the variety of arts and cultural festivals held here in the Greater Lansing Area.

The sense of spirit and excitement could be seen and heard all around. The sidewalks of East Lansing were lined with over 320 tent-like booths full of art and exhibits to be explored. From stones to soap to squirt guns, each booth housed handmade items completely different from the one before. On first glance into a booth, the vendor, most often the artist himself, would be there offering a smile and warm welcome to step inside.

Not only were the streets filled with booths and people, but music could be heard around almost every corner.  Live bands and performers took to the sun filled streets, exhibiting their own artistic expression for spectators of every age.

Among the booths along Albert Street, a festival hosted tent offered free hands-on arts and crafts activities for children. A one of a kind food court featured foods from almost a dozen restaurants and caterers.

With thousands of festival goers, it’s nearly needless to say the East Lansing Art Festival is an enjoyed experience by people from all ages and artistic interest.

Business Feature: Red Cedar Cafe

“If your name is Amanda or Andy come in for a free cookie today!” As seen from a twitter post earlier today, Red Cedar Café tweets daily to draw customers in with this clever name for a cookie special. What a great way to get customers anticipating the day their name is the lucky winner, and attract attention to the business.

 

The Red Cedar Café is located on the corner of Hagadorn and Grand River Ave in East Lansing. A perfect café for a campus town serving homemade baked goods, soups, salads, sandwiches and coffees. Their menu serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. “We are more than just desserts… we also cater!” said owner and operator, Angie Anderson.

 

Owner, Angie Anderson, in front of the delicious homemade baked goods.

Just opening up around a year and a half ago, this cozy café has already boomed with success. With the use of social media, Angie has creatively and effectively attracted loyal customers. With the RCC’s Twitter page having 954 followers and their Facebook page having 643 “likes”, Angie has really created a following for her company. It was her idea to start the daily tweets with names to receive free cookies a couple weeks ago, and it has already proven to be a great success! Besides Twitter and Facebook, Angie also uses FourSquare, QR codes, and texting to reach out to her customers notifying them of the soups of the day, new items, gluten free options and the infamous free cookie name of the day. Angie’s active use of social media has proven to be a great success, so much that she just today hired in an MSU intern to help advance the social media for the RCC even more.

 

The atmosphere at this spacious café is so welcoming and friendly. The artwork decorating the place is actually all done by Angie’s mother-in-law, who comes in seasonally to change out the photography pieces she’s taken for the café. This keeps the customers interested in what new pictures they’ll see hanging as the months pass and adds a personal touch to the café. All the employee’s welcome customers in with smiling faces, and Angie recognizes her regulars by name. With Valentines Day coming up, signs announcing personalized Valentine orders are hanging. Heart-shaped cookie cakes are a must for that special someone!

 

Come in soon to experience the Red Cedar Café for yourself! The creative social media is what will draw you in, the taste and smell of the treats is what will make you stay.

Throwback Thursday

Who Will Come Out On Top This Sunday?

Superbowl Sunday is right around the corner, but many of us aren’t looking forward to the action on the field. We’re excited for the hard-fought battle between the advertisements.

This year, 30 second ads are going for $3.7 to $3.8 million. Samsung spend a big chunk of money on a two-minute spot that is rumored to feature Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen. Will celebrity credibility overtake the fan favorite, Doritos?

Since 2007, Doritos has placed in the top five favorite ads in USA Today’s AdMeter and three of those years they took the top slot. Yet what’s most impressive about this accomplishment is that those ads were not created by big ad agencies, but by fans in the “Crash the Super Bowl Contest.” Of the five finalists this year, our favorites are Daddy Fashionista and Road Chip.

Who do you think will win the popular vote? Don’t forget about Bud Light, or Volkswagon, whose 2011 spot “The Force” has more than 56 million views on YouTube and holds the title of the most-shared ad of all time.

Dos and Don’ts of Blogging for Your Business

 

Blogging can be a great boost for your business, and it really doesn’t take much work or money at all. Businesses always have a general website that consumers and potential clients can visit for information. On these websites there are restrictions though, you can’t really grasp a culture  or personality from a structured website. If someone’s choosing between two businesses as to which to give their loyalty to, they want to know more about that company. That’s where blogs come in perfectly.

Blogs allow businesses to post daily about their interests, tips, and information; basically anything relevant to their company. Through these posts, their own personality as a business shines through. It’s highly effective for every business to start up a blog. But where to start? Here are some pointers as to how to effectively start your own blog.

 

Dos of blogging:

• Post regularly, at least once a day. People who are interested in the information you’re posting will want to keep coming back for more. If there is hardly ever anything new, people will stop checking back.
• Comment! People like to feel connected and important when visiting blogs. They like a personal experience. If someone comments on one of your posts, be sure to comment back to build that bond. Also go to other relevant blogs and comment on their posts to gain connections that way.
• Be an individual. Readers know that the company as a whole isn’t posting these daily blogs, they know it’s typically one or a couple people writing. So let those individual personalities show; introduce the bloggers. People are more likely to come back for a sincere connection with someone than come back to the face of a company as a whole.
• Vocalize your blog. People won’t know this new blog is out there until they hear or see it. Post the link to your blog or posts on all your social media outlets.

Don’ts of blogging:

• Don’t’ over advertise. Many people see the opportunity to advertise on your blog as a way to make money. Yes, it’s a great tool, but don’t overuse it. People don’t want to come to a blog that’s smothered in ads. Keep the ads simple and minimal.
• Don’t post for posting’s sake. Yes, above it was mentioned to post daily, but these posts need to reflect the businesses personality and interests. Know what the blog theme is and stick to that for the posts.

Hopefully these tips will help your business dive into the blogging world. Blogs are a great way to build further relationships with clientele and prospective buyers. You’re more than welcome to comment back on what works for your personal blog that wasn’t mentioned! Good luck!

The Statistics From Social Resumes

Business Feature: Juice Nation

Taylor Richard is a key member of the family-owned business.

Not only is Juice Nation locally-owned, it’s a family-owned. And they make it their business to make every customer feel like family. Employees are rewarded for memorizing customer’s names and order preferences with contests and incentives.

This may be one of the reasons that Juice Nation has been successful. So successful that Owner Tameko Richard has never had to turn to paid advertising, but she does use social media. Juice Nation has a strong presence on social media with 1,187 followers on their Twitter and 768 likes on their Facebook. “I just try to make sure we have a presence and put information out there that people care about,” said Tameko. She tweets a healthy tip of the day, their weekly/biweekly frozen yogurt flavor, relevant articles, and daily specials or promotions. The store is also on Four Square, as Tameko reported surprise and confusion when a customer came in boasting, “I’m the manager of this place!”

Juice Nation’s products are made with no sugar, no syrup, whole fruit, and organic wheat grass (“I can’t keep wheat grass in the store,” laughed Tameko). The store also sells organic steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast, which Tameko raved about. They also sponsor a reboot program where customers consume only raw juices, fruit, or vegetables for either one, three, five, or seven days. Tameko said that one customer lost 80 pounds from doing two of the 60 day cycles.

Juice Nation participates in many community events from: golf outings, health fairs, Blue Cross events, even business openings. When they close down around the holidays, nothings is wasted– everything is donated instead. “We definitely like to do our fair share of things and like to give back to the community,” said Tameko.

Stop in soon to 111 Washing Square South in Lansing and try something new!

Throwback Thursday

Is Your Business on Pinterest?

Pinterest may have started out as a hobby website, a collection of DIYs, recipes and fashion advice, but it’s advanced into another hot outlet for business growth online. So the question is, do you have your business on Pinterest? Well, the answer is, you definitely should.

Through the info-graphic shown above, there are tips and what not to dos, as well as stats to back up why Pinterest is quickly becoming another great source for brand expansion. The key to this technology age is to simply not fall behind. Stay active in the Pinterest phase, “Pinners” (people using Pinterest) will be more exposed to your brand the more active the brand is on Pinterest. Don’t go overboard, keep it simple; but upload pictures and re-pin relevant pins to your business.

Here is the link to signing up for a Pinterest account.

https://pinterest.com/join/signup/