Backdrops Beautiful Blog

Maximize Your Business Exposure On Facebook

Posted by Jonathan Goldstone

Claim Your Business on Facebook and Offer a Deal

If you own a local business with a physical location that your clients can shop and haven’t claimed your place on Facebook, you are missing out on a great opportunity to promote your business. In addition to Places, Facebook has now launched a new service called Deals and it is currently available for free. Similar to Groupon, you can create special offers for your customers. Having recently learned about Deals myself, I was inspired to show everyone just how to do it.

To do so, you first have to check in via your mobile device through Facebook app. (If your smart phone is not equipped with the Facebook App you can download it from your smart phone app store or simply use touch.facebook.com) Similar to Foursquare, you need to check in via your mobile device.

Open your Facebook App
Choose Places
Choose Check-In
Do a search for your business to see if it’s been added. If your business is present move on to step 6. If not, you will need to “Add” it.
Add Your Full Business Name and include a business description and press the add button. Your business will now be visible to anyone that visits your business.
Your business will now be in Places and is ready for you to check in. You may check in alone, or check in with your friends by tagging them.
You must now login your Facebook account via the web. Click on your profile tab and locate your business check in.
Once your business has a Facebook Place, you will see the following screen. There is a link at the bottom left side that states “Is this your business?” Click on the link to begin the verification process.
You will now get the following pop up:
Upon certifying that you are an official rep of your business you will need to complete the next step/form. Please note that claiming your Place on Facebook does require some supporting evidence including document verification to prevent from strangers trying to claim your business. (Unfortunately, there will be a waiting period of about a week before you receive an approval email from Facebook.)
Once your claim has been reviewed and approved your page will look like this and you will be able to add a photo, edit your details and create deals for your customers. Click on “Create a Deal”
You will get the following box:

You are now ready to create you Deal on Facebook Places.

Click on “Create a Deal for this Page”

You have 4 different types of deals you can offer: (deal descriptions via Facebook Help Center)

Individual Deal: Reward individual customers when they check in at your business. Best for simple discounts or gifts with purchase.
Friend Deal: Reward individual customers when they check in at your business. Best for simple discounts or gifts with purchase.
Loyalty Deal: Reward customers for visiting your business a certain number of times, similar to a traditional punch card.
Charity Deal: Pledge to donate to a charity of your choice when customers check in at your business. A win-win for everyone!
For demonstration purposes I will walk you through the steps in creating an individual deal.

For an individual deal you will need to define your offer, explain how to redeem, enter the dates you plan on running your promo, maximum number of redemptions if applicable and the number of times it can be claimed by the customer. Proceed to clicking on Save.

You will then be prompted with the following screen. You have now successfully submitted your deal to Facebook and it will take an approximate 48 hours for them to review and approve. Please note that your page may have only 1 active deal at a time.

When your customers now check-in via Places on Facebook your deal will display in the following manner:

I hope this “How To” post helps you on improving your business presence on Facebook. Even if you decide not to participate on Facebook Deals, it is imperative to at least clean up your listing on Facebook Places with a proper description and photo so that it is branded properly.

Check out Facebook Deals Video:

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Tags: backdrop, backdrops, branding, business, facebook, marketing, public relations, small business, social media

Brand your Facebook Page with a Unique Username

Posted by Jonathan Goldstone

I often get asked for help on how to set up an assigned username for Facebook pages. In fact, the question of how to setup a username came up via twitter in last night’s #eventprofs chat. So I thought I put a quick post together and show everyone how to do it step by step.

Why setup a username you ask? For one, it will make it easier for your clients to find and like your page. It is also a great way to brand your work and provides accessibility for search engines to index you properly. It’s important to capitalize on all the features Facebook offers to set your brand apart from your competitors and what better way to start than by claiming your own brand name.

A default Facebook page url (username) will appear like this:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/backdropsbeautiful/106828624998

Make sure you log-in to your profile page and that you are an administrator of your Facebook page.

Go to the Facebook username assignment page: www.facebook.com/username it will look like this:

Next, select the page name from the drop down box:

Enter your custom name in the right hand box that appears once you’ve selected the page name you want to assign a custom name:

Finally, press the “Check Availability” button (it will warn you if the chosen name is not available). If available, a pop-up disclaimer will advise you that once you set your page with a username, it is final. Accept disclaimer if you agree. Upon confirmation your username will be assigned and you can now promote it.

http://www.facebook.com/backdropsbeautifulfanpage

Please note that your fan page must have more than 25 fans (likes) in order to assign it a custom username. This is a big change from a year ago when Facebook required you to at least have 1,000 fans.

For FAQ Facebook Pages questions click on the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/help/?search=usernames#!/help/?page=900

I hope this tutorial helps you effortlessly setup your custom name and that you see the benefits of doing so. If you disagree, I’d like to hear why.

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Tags: backdrops, branding, facebook, marketing, social media, tutorials

Is Stealth Marketing Unethical?

Posted by Jonathan Goldstone

I’ve been a fan of Demi Moore and David Duchovny for many years now; Demi as early as Indecent Proposal and David from early childhood watching the X-Files. Upon receiving “The Joneses” via Netflix (my promotion of Netflix) I was excited to learn they were in it. To be honest, I had no idea what the movie was about until reading the movie description on the sleeve. However, I was quickly enthralled by the concept and kept me interested. The movie’s main storyline focused on the extremities of stealth marketing. The notion of marketing being subliminal is spot on for our generation as we live in a material world.

Stealth marketing is deceptive when personal interest is not being disclosed. In this movie, Demi and David are part of a massive scheme to push out various products to their community while staying under radar that they are being paid commission to do so by their employer. This movie portrays the well known phrase “Keeping up with the Joneses” as it drives a neighbor into bankruptcy and eventually suicide. We encounter this type of marketing in our own lives, at the stores we shop in, even though we might not realize it. For example, many nutritional products that are sold at our local vitamin stores have a kick back incentive for their sales reps that have been set up by the vendors. In addition, electronic stores have similar programs to push out certain brands or extra warranties.

Perhaps most importantly, this movie was just plain interesting to watch because it exaggerated what seems to be the obvious. Maybe it wasn’t an exaggeration at all. Maybe it’s reality that we don’t think about because we are consumed by our possessions. It made me think of how we subliminally pitch the brands we utilize in the various facets of our lives to our family and friends and sometimes even strangers. But we do this because we truly enjoy the products and are not being paid to like them or promote them. I believe stealth marketing is only ethical when it is genuine, such as word of mouth. Word of mouth and buzz has longevity when it is second nature and not promoted with a personal motive. It is important to engage your brand with social media and have nature take its course with brand ambassadors and it will be rewarded with brand development.

Is stealth marketing part of your marketing arsenal?

Flickr photo courtesy madmolecule

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Tags: backdrops, covert marketing, marketing, sales, stealth marketing, The Joneses

Can Too Many Choices Be A Turn Off?

Posted by Jonathan Goldstone

Who doesn’t love The Cheesecake Factory? Most of my friends and family love The Cheesecake Factory and frequently suggest going there for lunch, dinner and sometimes brunch. Don’t get me wrong, I love their food, drinks and of course cheesecake. What I don’t like is their catalog of food. I always try to mentally prepare myself before going there so that I don’t end up being frustrated. I can never avoid feeling overwhelmed when I eat there. The problem is that there are just way too many options for me. I go in feeling like a Cobb salad and the next thing I know; I’m browsing through their entire menu and end up confused with what I feel like eating. My first choice now becomes blah and I feel like everything else sounds and looks tastier. And then to add more options, the server comes around and throws in the specials of the day. By the time she comes to take the order, I’m always the last one to order and end up settling on the first thing that comes to my mind!

I started to think about this and how relevant it is to any business. Can giving your customers too many options become an over kill for them? There are many customers that like hand-holding through the entire process, but there are those who are straight to the point. The customer that will give you an outline of what they need and will almost demand 1 or 2 choices from you upfront. And I can completely understand. After all, we are the experts in our business. In our industry we offer many different themed and scenic backdrops and get a variety of different requests. We have learned to work with many different buyers that upon conversation we know what kind of service they need. Sometimes it is best to give your honest opinion about what direction might work rather than bombarding them with a dozen options and overwhelming them with your service.

As in my constant struggle with eating at The Cheesecake Factory because of the huge catalog of food they provide with many options, do you agree or disagree that having too many choices can sometimes drive a potential sale away?

Flickr photo courtesy andres.thor

Posted in Business, Customer Service | No Comments »

Tags: backdrops, business, customer service

Bringing Us Closer One Tweet At A Time

Posted by Jonathan Goldstone

Social Media continues to provide us with the opportunity to meet amazing people. We recently exhibited at Dance Teacher Summit in New York and it was wonderful to see how many internet friends came up to our booth and introduced themselves. I commonly heard, “Hi, are you Jose? The person behind the company’s Facebook page?” or “Hi, we’ve connected on Twitter. I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself.” Social media takes away the awkwardness when meeting people you already know so much about because of a virtual network. Having a presence on social media has facilitated the way we meet each other and connected us with many incredible people. While at Dance Teacher Summit, I met new people for the first time, but as I mentioned, I also got to meet many individuals I knew from Twitter. And even though we didn’t plan on having an official tweet-up, our twitter community did end up hanging out together. Suzanne Blake Gerety, business owner of DanceStudioOwner.com, put it best in her recent note on facebook, “The ripple effect of a tweet can’t be measured.” She’s spot on! Some of us see the benefit beyond the advertisement of our product or services and trying to gain new business. Social media continues to function as an everyday tool to establish new connections and grow them.

People who are only pitching their services or products are missing the overall picture. Social media is a platform to meet and greet people. It helps us connect and build relationships that in turn can lead to business. It is important to be accessible and resourceful to as many individuals as we can, regardless of industry. In the end, you don’t need to pitch to anyone; in wanting to return the favor, they gladly become promoters of you and your brand. Social media definitely enhances our relationships and expands our knowledge all around.

We all get asked from time to time the million dollar question, have you seen a ROI in using social media? My answer to them has always been the same; yes, we have acquired new business, but not because we are constantly pitching, but because of the relationships we make and the interest we spark in people to see what you do for a living. I know I put a lot of time into social media, and my time will never be compensated monetarily, but the new friendships it brings me is much more than I can ask for on a personal level.

I’d like to close my post with the following thought: The most important thing you can do on social media is to be yourself. Everyone can see through fakeness. I’ve encountered my share of superficial people only looking out for themselves and I rather not be part of their world. My solution is to un-friend, un-follow and/or block. My experience at Dance Teacher Summit was real; online friends turn into long lasting friendships. I met real people behind their brand and people who I can continue to learn from no matter what industry they find themselves. I’d like to hear your personal experience whether good or bad with meeting new people you’ve engaged on social media.

A big thank you to the following people for making my time at Dance Teacher Summit that much more memorable:

Marc Kirschner from TenduTV, Suzanne Gerety from Dance Studio Owner, Chad Michael Lawson from Real Deal Dance Marketing (congratulations again on your newborn baby girl Jay Leigh Bella Lawson), Leslea Clark from Uptown Dance, Maria Hanley from Maria’s Movers, Nichelle Strzepek from Dance Advantage, Patty Rose from Dance Meets Fitness, Ashani Mfuko from Kiner Enterprises Inc. and Lori Incardona from Seton Hill Dance Academy.

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Social Media as the Essence of Communication

Posted by Jonathan Goldstone

I define social media as the essence of communication. It provides a playground for creativity and non-conventional methods of self expression. It motivates individuals to reinvent themselves and move past traditional approaches. It is new media without boundaries.

My educational background at UCSD consists of Sociology and Visual Arts with an emphasis on Studio Art. I love to create things that are abstract and sometimes have no reference to anything but my mind. I am bilingual; I can speak and write both in English and Spanish. I am misunderstood for a lot reasons, but my top 3 favorite are: I have an accent, I speak super fast, and sometimes I just don’t make any sense, but it doesn’t stop me from being creative and producing new things. Just as I speak fast, I am thinking twice as fast, which sometimes hinders me from being able to put my thoughts down on paper. By the time I’ve thought of it, I’m already on my next idea.

This is where social media has helped me capture my thoughts a bit more accurately and allowed me to communicate more effectively. I am not limited by social media. On the contrary, I am challenged to be more inventive in putting my point of view out there. For example, twitter allows us to micro blog 140 characters at a time. What’s the point? The point is that we have been given a social network platform to be artistic with the way we communicate. I was once challenged in one of my art classes to create a table from wire referencing my personality. Yes, the medium was wire. The message here is that I was able to show who I am artistically without having to say a single word. My assignment and twitter are similar; we are given 140 characters to express ourselves whether it is a quote, a comment, a re-tweet, or a link referencing something that we think is news worthy.

Social media facilitates communication at all levels and provides new ways to reach your community. How has social media challenged you to communicate more effectively?

(image by frozenchipmunk via Flickr Creative Commons License)

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Tags: backdrop, backdrops, communication, social media, twitter

The Benefits of Social Media in Dance

Posted by Jonathan Goldstone

Guest Blog by Leslea Clark

I wrote a similar post almost two years ago called The Power of the Net , It’s amazing how things change. We had just started our journey incorporating social media within our studio. I am happy to say I have learned a lot in these two years. For example; what works and what doesn’t, what to keep your eyes open for (the good, bad, and the ugly), and social media etiquette. I will speak a bit more about those later, but for now lets talk about the benefits of social media for dance. I will list a few examples, but as most of you already know the opportunities with social media are endless.

A Professional Dancer:
With a few simple tools such as Facebook and Twitter, you can promote yourself as a dancer and connect with several other people in your industry. You can post your performances to get a bigger fan base and connect with those who may have information on the latest auditions in your area.

Dance Teachers:
Similar to the above, teachers can promote themselves and connect with people in their industry. They can share ideas, thoughts, and concerns with teachers from around the world. Teachers can also stay connected with their students, but make sure you check with your studios policy on contact with students online. My suggestion is create a separate Fan page or Twitter account, keep your personal life personal and your contact with your students professional.

Studio Owners:
Can do all of the above plus created networks, blogs and of course websites for their business. Please see my networking list in my previous post for examples. What I have done, and what you will do over time, is narrow down the sites you use for networking. If you have experience with social media you know that it can become a bit overwhelming and time consuming, a great example of less is more and quality not quantity.

Find Out What Works Best For You and What Doesn’t.
For me it’s convenience, that’s why I love and stick to my Facebook Fan page, YouTube and Twitter accounts for networking. What’s great about these three is you can sync your accounts, which saves time. Then of course we have the Blog and Ning Network. What I recommend doing is keeping things clean and simple all on one site. I did this on my personal site and plan on doing it for the studio soon. You will notice that I have a blog and network all in one place on one site, that way it eliminates your customers and fans from having to navigate away from your main site and eliminates you having to post in several places. With my dance studio I would no longer have to have a Ning network or a blogger account, it would be all in one place as I said before.

Narrow Down Your Network
For help and support I’ve narrowed down my list to Dancestudioowner.com and Danceadvantage.net. Now especially, there are tons of sites and blogs to lend a helping hand and give advice to the dance industry. Again, find what suites you and makes your experience convenient.

What to Keep Your Eyes Open For
It’s ironic because at the same time I was asked to be a guest blogger, my circle of online dance buds did a Social Smarts Live Chat . This very informative event was hosted by Nichelle of Dance Advantage, Suzanne of Dance Studio Owner, and Marc of Tendu TV. By visiting the Social Smarts link you can get the opinions of some great people who have experience with Social Media and Dance. Social media is open for anyone, and we are all here for different reasons. My advice would be to surround yourself with people of similar interest and common goals… not to far off from how you would conduct yourself in “real life.”

Social Media Etiquette
This is something I would like to give my opinion on for those of you just starting out. I know you are excited and see many benefits and opportunities. Just remember that you will build a reputation online just as you do out in the real world. Be polite and courteous of other peoples time and what you ask of them. A few examples…

Do not tweet to often and flood peoples stream with tweets
Do respond to relevant questions or posts
Do not beg for followers or people to participate in what you are doing
Do remain professional at all times

For those of you still hesitant to jump on the social media ban wagon, think of these questions for yourself and ask the opinions of others…

What do you hear of more often, a person reading the yellow pages or a person googling the information they need?
What do you see more often, a person reading the newspaper or someone with and ipad, personal reader, or iphone?
How are the younger generation communicating, through telephone or real life conversations or by Tweeting and Facebooking each other?
How has our lines of communication changed, do we talk on the phone at all anymore or do we just text?
How has our society evolved as far as communication and advertising?
Is Social Media right for you and your business?

I hope this information is useful for those of you just getting started and even those of you who have been here for some time. It never hurts to share ideas, it’s yet one of the other benefits of social media, right? I would also like to say that by creating this post I am by no means categorizing myself as a “social media expert”. I just think it’s nice to hear from others in your field about what works for them.

As I explained before, we will all use Social Media for different reasons. Some are trying to sell a particular product, some simply want to socialize, and some are here just to get themselves out there and known. I happen to like keeping it fun, I’m not pushing my studio or myself in anyway, I just hope people become more aware of my presence and if I happen to get a new student or client this way, then great! Social Media for me is just an addition to the advertising we do already and a fun way to share ideas and meet other great dance industry people.

I shall leave you with two perfect examples of what I’m talking about.

First example, My Ning Network…

“Thank you for your support in my effort to create a positive, motivating, non competitive place for us to interact and share our love for dance. My goal is to be well known as a encouraging support system to our Dance community, and best of all, its Free! Help me in my effort and ask others who love dance in NJ to join too. Get yourself a badge or send them and invite. Questions, comments, suggestions are always welcome. I look forward to hearing from you all. Peace, Love, Dance!”

Second example, Why Dance Matters … a virtual event that rallies the dance community online created by my friend Nichelle of Dance Advantange. This was an amazing event to participate in and witness…the love and appreciation for dance was overwhelming! Below are my contributions to the event…

I hope you find this post and information useful. For me this was just another effort to spread my love and passion for dance. I thank you all for reading and as always…
Peace, Love, Dance!

~ Leslea

(image by Blethery via Flickr Creative Commons License)

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Tags: backdrops, dance, Leslea Clark, networking, social media

Is iPad a niche product?

Posted by Jonathan Goldstone

Over 2 millions iPad’s have been sold already. No contract is needed with AT&T and the user experience this time will be consistent worldwide with much reduced dependency on a mobile provider such as AT&T or some other international wireless provider. So think of the global potential of the iPad. THINK GLOBAL.

People tell me that the iPad is stupid because it’s just a bigger iPhone. And I agree! It’s a bigger iPhone; which means more screen space and a faster processor. That means more potential for apps to do a lot more. Don’t think of the iPad in terms of technology. Think of it in terms of a platform, think of it in terms of potential market penetration and think of it in terms of an apple product. It is going to sell a lot, it is going to have a ton of apps which are only going to get better with time and it is going to create its own consumer market, people that will train themselves to use it just like they did with the iPhone.

I’ve been using my iPad as my primary computer at home. In fact, I have not even gotten on my laptop in over a week now. I can browse (even though I do prefer apps rather than the browser), read my books, watch movies, create presentations and I can reply to all my emails. I am super excited to see all the apps that are coming down the pipeline. They are only going to get better. So whether you are an early adopter or a late one, I assure that most of you at some point will get one, because the apps are only going to get better and are going to give you a more customized experience, one that is rarely provided through the browser. The iPad has a lot of potential and it will be up to the consumer and app developers to continue to explore the capabilities of this new platform.

Some of my current favorite apps are: Evernote, Dragon, iWorks, Tweetings, Barnes & Noble eReader, Analytics HD, Netflix, Scrabble and Wired Magazine.

How are you using your iPad? Do you see iPad as a niche product?

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Tags: Apple, AT&T, backdrops, ipad, iPhone