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.

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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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If you are gonna pick a email newsletter service, get the chimp.

I’ve worked with a bunch of different email newsletter systems, some having nifty features, but my favorite is Mail Chimp.

It might be how friendly and easy it is to use. It might be the cute Monkey who greets you every time you login. Here’s just a few of the awesome features:

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-it has tons of tutorials to help you get started
-when you first sign up, you can try using it for free if you have under 100 subscribers
-they have free live chat and email support
-they promote best practices for your email lists which includes building an organic list and ALWAYS getting permission to use anyone’s email address
-lots of great tracking tools to see who opened your newsletter
-helps you test what your newsletter will look like with other email software such as Outlook, AOL, and many more

Read about more reasons to check them out (if you weren’t already convinced). I was sold after using it for a client and will continue to suggest it as a great tool for freelancers and small businesses. Be consistent and start an awesome Mail Chimp newsletter today!

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