Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Facebook Cover Photos

I've got a number of cover photos for my Facebook business page and I was wondering which might be the most eye catching.  What do you think?  And how often do you think a business should change their cover photo?

Number 1 is some of the raw materials I use to make my jewelry:


Number 2 is a particularly gorgeous custom piece of jewelry:


Number 3 is a picture of part of the interior of my store:


Three totally different approaches to what I do.  Which to you like the best, or which do you think is the most effective?

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Saturday, January 8, 2011

New Year


I love the new year. New Year's Day is actually one of my favorite holidays. I can't help but get inspired by all the possibilities. Yes, I know January 1st is just another day, following all the other days before it. For me it's psychological, I guess. The beginning of a new calendar. The first week of the first month of the year. My Quickbooks program has the same year-to-date comparison numbers for the day, the month-to-date and the year-to-date. The only day of the year that that is the case. It's the "newness" of a New Year!

Now, I don't make resolutions per se, but I do always evaluate where I am and what goals I'd like to work on accomplishing. My intention this year was to write my email newsletter more often, to post on my Facebook business page more often, and to blog more often. You can see how well that's working out so far--it's the 8th and this is my first blog post of the year! Ack!

Although all those "more often"s are specific steps toward my goal, the actual goal itself is to interact more with my customers. I'm a one-woman operation, so when you deal with Contemporary Concepts you deal with me. The world is getting smaller, you know, and I've been at this jewelry thing a long time. I have friends, fans, and customers all over! I want to hear from all of YOU more often, and I intend for you to hear from me, too. Yay for the internet and social networking!

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Monday, May 24, 2010

Summer Schedule

The thing I love most about summertime is that I get to sleep in a little longer each morning, since I don't have to take my son to school. Not TOO much longer, because I do have to take him to the day camp he attends at his karate school, but long enough for it to feel indulgent. The downside of that lovely sleeping in is that I get to my store later in the morning, and have that much LESS time to get everything done that I need to before I open my doors. Like this, for instance. I'm blogging, and it's already time to be opening my store. I did list some new items in my Etsy shop, but I still have to update my Facebook Fan Page. I did take care of my eBay sales and made a new listing there, but I haven't written the bill payments that need to go with the mailman today.

Adjusting to my summer schedule will require a bit more focus than I am sometimes inclined to have. Today is only the first day. I'm not totally displeased with my progress so far this morning. I'll go update my Facebook Fan Page, write the checks to pay the bills, and then get to work on the gigantic pile of special orders on my clipboard! Since my doors are now open, there's the possibility that customers might walk in, but being in business to sell to the public is what makes all those other things even necessary, right? So if I have to get up from my desk to take care of a customer, that's a GOOD thing! The rest...I'll just keep muddling along!

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Facebook Fans!


Are you on Facebook? If you've read some of my previous posts, you know I am. Probably too much! (Some of those games are quite addictive.) But lately I've been paying a little more attention to my Contemporary Concepts Fan Page. I've been posting a little something nearly every day. Not being spammy, I promise. Just little nuggets of information that I hope will be interesting. And pictures. And I finally got around to adding my Artfire Kiosk. That's a tab at the top of the page where you can instantly check out my jewelry in my Artfire studio and even purchase items without ever leaving Facebook! It's a very cool app, and it was embarrassingly easy to set up. Made me kick myself for putting it off so long.

So "fan" me today, and look for my avatar in your News Feed...it's the bright orange-and-yellow sea glass pendant I have pictured here!

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Monday, February 9, 2009

Online Venue #10 -- Facebook

A few months ago I had three different friends send me invitations to Facebook. I knew what Facebook was, but it seemed like it was primarily for a younger crowd, with lots of games and applications that I wasn't sure I could get into. Personal computers came along after I was already out of school, so I've always felt like I was "behind the curve" when it came to learning and using all the stuff they can do.

Sure, I can run my business, send and receive emails, even do some pretty cool desktop publishing. But the "fun" stuff? Can I figure it out? Do I even have time to take advantage of it?

After some more nagging and encouraging by my friends, I did set up a Facebook account. I've even explored some of the features and taken a quiz or two. But I really DON'T have the time to delve into it very deeply. I will say that in addition to the friends who invited me, I've rediscovered a few old friends from high school that I can now touch base with from time to time, and that's kind of cool!

Right now, Facebook is strictly a social site for me. I haven't even posted any pictures of my jewelry, let alone tried to "market" it in any way. For one thing, Facebook frowns on using its site for strictly business promotions, plus I'm pretty sure all my Facebook Friends know what I do and could contact me directly if they needed anything. I've only managed to find time to get on Facebook once or twice a week, and at one point I didn't log on for over a month!

Just over a week ago, both my friend Beth and my friend Kay "tagged" me with a little note called "25 Random Things About Me". It sounded like fun to participate (and it was fun), but it took me a week to even think of 25 things! In fact, my first thought when I saw it was "am I even that interesting?" But I managed to finish it, and posted it yesterday. I'll share it with you here:

1. I’m adopted.
2. I hate being cold. And anything below 65 degrees is COLD!
3. This is my 25th year in business. I established Contemporary Concepts on April 14, 1984.
4. I love good landscape photography.
5. I got my first grey hair at 23. My hair color has been out of a bottle ever since!
6. I’ve always had a powerful attraction to the number 8.
7. I’m very right-brained, and I think in three dimensions (hence my innate ability to create beautiful pieces of jewelry…? But don‘t ask me to draw anything more complicated than a stick figure.)
8. It makes me crazy to see advertisements or billboards (or anything else, really) with words misspelled. Get a dictionary, people…and PROOFREAD!
9. My favorite author is Orson Scott Card. He sucks me into a book so deep that I absolutely CANNOT put it down until I’m finished reading it. I’ll also read anything by Roger Zelazny or Michael Crichton.
10. My favorite colors are green, purple, and yellow, in that order. Any combination thereof is also highly appealing.
11. When I was younger, I wished I had been born a brunette with brown eyes. And that I was taller and thinner. In the last several years, though, I have come to terms with all my “imperfections”…yes, ALL of them!
12. Sometimes I wish I had finished my college degree.
13. I’ve never had a broken bone.
14. I really hate being wet. I’m not a big fan of swimming, and when I shower I always dry off immediately.
15. My son Ricky was conceived through in vitro fertilization, and I gave birth at the ripe old age of 40! No morning sickness, I only gained 16 pounds, and my labor was about 5-½ hours from start to finish. An awesome experience!
16. The downside of being pregnant at 40 was that everything that was going to sag, droop, spread, or otherwise go to hell in a hand basket as I got older, did so…quickly and irreversibly! Consequently I now wear bifocal contact lenses and my feet are a full size bigger than they used to be. (I’ll let you take a wild guess at what sagged and drooped!)
17. Ricky was over a year old before I realized that diaper packages come with a perforated side that you can easily rip open. Now there was a “duh!” moment!
18. It blows my mind that I’m going to turn 50 this year! Inside my head I still feel about 28. Only maybe a little wiser!
19. I am mesmerized by moving water: ocean waves, small creeks, even my washing machine and jewelry tumbler. But I especially love waterfalls. (Have you ever seen pictures or video of the Iguazu Falls in South America? Breathtaking!)
20. I love penguins and giraffes.
21. I have a tattoo of a seahorse on my right ankle.
22. My favorite flowers are yellow roses.
23. I love the smell of pine needles (like Christmastime!) and orange blossoms.
24. When I was younger I enjoyed traveling. At one point or another in my life I’ve visited 36 of the 50 United States. Nowadays I’m the consummate homebody--there’s no place I’d rather be than home.
25. My husband is nearly 10 years younger than I am. Grab ‘em young and train ‘em right, I always say!

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