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Oh, my, how the internet has changed our lives. Who would have imagined years ago that we could construct beautiful pieces of gemstone jewelry through a website? Gemkitty has tapped into this niche and has become a destination for ladies to create their own stylized jewelry.

How do they attract followers to come make a necklace? Check out my interview with Arwa Jumkawala, one of the owners.

What’s your business?

Gemkitty, Jewelry Designed by You is a online jewelry retailer, where you can customize your own gemstone necklace with a few mouse clicks. Your design is then handcrafted especially for you.

When did you start using social media and why?

As a web-based business, we knew we needed to be involved in social media in order to truly engage with our audience. Primarily, we use Twitter and Facebook, which we set up as part of our launch. Social media gives us a chance to have conversations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, and the real-time nature of the feedback has been fantastic.

Has social media changed your business?

Yes! In addition to being able to build relationships with our customers, it’s also helped me keep connected with fellow entrepreneurs. And it’s proved really effective at keeping me in the loop with jewelry fashion trends and local events.

How to you envision social media changing in the future?

I think companies engaging in social media will become smarter at actively engaging, rather than just broadcasting messages to their audience. We’re already seeing that trend, but it’s surprising to me how many people still don’t seem to understand why fans might be annoyed if all you tell them is: buy me, buy me, buy me.

Have a social media story you’d like to share?

Recently, we wanted to thank our earliest Facebook fans for their ongoing support. So we messaged them and offered them two pairs of earrings for free. No strings attached.  One pair was for them and one for a friend of their choosing. We received a lot of positive feedback, including emails from fans sharing who they decided to give their second pair to and why. Our fans seems to really appreciate the ability to treat a friend and we got a chance to expose our brand.

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One of my fascinations with the latest version of the IPhone was an app called “Foursquare“.  I constantly see updates on Twitter about someone checking in at a location around town, maybe a restaurant or coffee shop, using this app.

Ok, so how does Foursquare work?  The idea is that the app helps you explore your own city or a new place you might be checking out, using the internal GPS system.  You can let your friends know where you are by “checking in“. Each time you check in,  you earn points. Ultimately, the idea is if you earn a certain amount of points or checkins, it can add up to badgets or free food/perks and becoming a mayor of certain bars/restaurants. (I’m still not clear on what advantages a mayor has, please email me if you know.)

On the flip side, if you own a bar or restaurant, Foursquare wants to help you to connect with your customers buy rewarding points.  As a restaurant, for example, you could offer a free appetizer or drink after someone’s 3rd checkin and any other kind of promotion you can think of. I’ve only noticed a few places around Portland giving discounts so I’m not sure if it’s a working model.

I’ve noticed how easy it is to check in to any place if you are in the vicinity. When I first used the app to do a “checkin”, it searched for the nearby businesses in the vicnity of around a few miles. There’s nothing preventing me from checking in to all of these businesses except my honesty.  Cheating, to me, seems like it could be a potential issue -  here’s an interesting article about how one guy learned to hack his way through Foursquare http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/foursquare-cheating/

What does the future hold for Foursquare – it sounds like they’ve made an interesting deal with Zagat  (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/foursquare-inks-a-deal-with-zagat/) which hopefully will launch into a better situation and could provide some groundwork on taking their business to the next level.

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How to define Google Buzz?  Basically it’s a social networking tool which allows for the sharing of links, pictures, videos. Hey, doesn’t that sound like Facebook or Twitter? Right now, in all the reviews -that’s what everyone is trying to determine.

Sadly, I haven’t gotten a chance to check out Google Buzz. I’ll do a follow up post with my overall assessment – but here’s some interesting feedback on the scoop so far this week. Overall, it looks like Google’s doing a good job of turning people’s heads.

PC World asks some big questions:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/189005/google_buzz_ten_pressing_questions.html

Info World ponders how can Google compete?
http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/google-buzz-brings-social-networking-and-sharing-gmail-743

Lifehacker sums up the features through slides and videos
http://lifehacker.com/5467841/google-buzz-explained

What do you think? Is Google trying to copy features of Twitter and Facebook? Is there room for another social networking tool?

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Bridget Benton is a super busy lady. She’s a mixed-media artist, art teacher/facilitator and creativity trainer – supporting people in the care and feeding of their own creative spark. If you need inspiration or instructions for numerous art projects, check out her website: Eyes Aflame. Bridget and I crossed paths when I attended a mentoring session offered by a local business education program. Thanks to Bridget’s mentorship and encouragement, I took charge of my passion for social communication for businesses and educated myself about social media by attending classes, etc.

What’s your business?

I’m an artist and an art teacher – I work in a wide range of media, so my
teaching isn’t very media-centric; it’s much more about process.  I really
believe that everyone is creative, and I love to help people find that spark
in themselves during my workshops.  I work with adults – there are a lot of
great folks out there working with kids.  I feel like my job is to help
those grown-ups who did have a bad art experience as kids rediscover their
joy in making stuff!

When do you start using social media and why?

I first joined Facebook with some reluctance because I had classmates in
grad school who were using it to stay in touch; and I signed up on Twitter
because a lot of the people whose blogs I followed where also tweeting, so
it seemed like a good way to stay in touch and find out what was going on!
What I discovered was that Facebook connected me to a lot of my friends and
family, and that Twitter kept me in touch with a lot of resources and events
in the arts, crafts, and creative community.

Has social media changed your business?

The way that I market my classes and my artwork is constantly shifting; I
used to rely a lot more on flyers and list serves. At the heart of it,
though, I believe that marketing is about building relationships.

Social media, especially Facebook and Twitter are a new way for me to build
relationships – and it makes keeping my friends and family up to date on the
classes I’m offering and the shows I’m in a lot easier.  My friends and
family are on my e-mail newsletter list, but a lot of them don’t really read
it.  This gives us an easy and low-key way to talk about our mutual creative
endeavors.

When I tweet and post on Facebook, I try to consider whether the information
I’m sharing has some interest or entertainment factor – I ask myself, “Will
this be of interest to or entertain my potential clients, my friends and
family?” My clients are like friends who are looking to get something very
specific out of our relationship – creative inspiration for their personal
and professional lives.  One of the things I discovered by engaging more
fully in social media is that my friends and family often look to me for the
same thing – they get curious about my new artwork, or the new classes I’m
offering. They’re just as interested in the resources I pass on about the
entrepreneurial climate or a great craft project I found on-line. Now I
don’t feel so embarrassed about “marketing” to my friends and family,
because it’s just one one more component of my life that I share, and it’s
one more component of our relationship.  And frankly, that makes it a lot
easier to “market” to my clients, too, when I consider that much of why
they’ll choose to take a class from me is because they feel comfortable with
me or identify with me in some way.

What are you looking forward to social media changing in the future?

I almost have to laugh at this one – I’m not much of an early adopter when
it comes to new technologies, and have no idea how things might shift in the
future.  I do know that blogging and engaging in social media is keeping me
in touch with people all over the country – so one of the big questions for
me now is how to offer courses, services, and creative inspiration to those
people outside of my immediate geographic area.  There are lots of ways to
do it – e-books, on-line classes, etc.  I just have to figure out the way to
do it that fits best with my personality, style, and mission.

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