I recently got an opportunity to interview Amy Ambroult of AG Ambroult Jewelry. Amy designs and crafts these amazing silver jewels such as necklaces, rings, bracelets, and other pieces are literally. Visit her website: agambroult.com to see her amazing jewelry line.

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Please describe your business and what you offer:
AG Ambroult jewelry is a line of contemporary silver jewelry that explores the link between industry and nature.  I (Amy Ambroult) am a jewelry designer and fabricator — which means I make all the pieces by hand, using traditional metalsmithing techniques.

Yes–Facebook, Twitter, and I have a blog (http://agaelemental.blogspot.com)

I think they have all served a purpose. I wouldn’t  say any one doesn’t “work”. In terms of sales, Facebook has definitely been the best. I have a fan page for my business and invite all my personal “friends” to become fans. This brought awareness of my business to long lost friends and acquaintances that wouldn’t have otherwise known about my jewelry line. As a result, I have had a good handful of orders through Facebook contacts.

Twitter has been great in bringing awareness of my business to perfect strangers. I have tried to create an interesting “persona” through my tweets. It has brought a good amount of traffic to my blog and Etsy shop (where I sell my jewelry online), though I couldn’t say for sure if this has resulted in any online sales. Either way, it is helping to reinforce the “brand” of  my company–which could only be a good thing.

The same goes for my blog–reinforcing my “brand” and “persona” by not only posting about metalsmithing and my jewelry, but also about recipes, gardening tips, craft projects and other thoughts of interest. This brings people to my blog who might not otherwise be interested in knowing about my jewelry. Creating a following on my blog will bring a feeling of community, trust, and credibility, which will (hopefully!) transfer to the public’s opinion of my company.

In the next 6 months I will continue using these forms of social media to bring awareness to my business, reinforce my company brand, and continue to create an interesting online presence and persona that will become synonymous with my business, AG Ambroult.

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Squidoo is one of those marketing tools you don’t hear too much about in all the social meda hype. It’s almost a secret to some, but I’ve been curious about it for a while.

Basically Squidoo is made up of single lens (a free web page) that you can edit and draw people to (for example, linking it through your Twitter account).

For example, I created a lens labeled “Why Portland, Oregon is so great” inserting my own text and Portland photos from Flickr.

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The main modules that make up your page are:

-Text ( basically chunks of text created by you)
-RSS (just like a blog)
-Photo (bring in photos from Flickr and other photo sharing sites)
-Guestbook (get feedback from others or turn it into a Q&A)
-Amazon (choose products and make $ when products are purchased through you)

There are other modules as well, but these can get you on your feet.

You are encouraged to write about your passions, hobbies, yourself, etc. These lens are just another great way to generate traffic to places you like to funnel followers and customers.

How does Squidoo stay afloat? When a money changes hands through your lends -  you receive 50%, 5% goes to charity and the rest to Squidoo.

Squidoo provides tons of suggestions on ideas, ways to improve your lenses, a newsletter for tips/tricks, and much more. Overall, it looks like a great tool to take advantage of amongst all the social media tools.

I also have the option to add modules such as Amazon products (one of the ways to make money through Squidoo). Other modules include guestbook, other text inserts, and linking to other lens. Squidoo provides complete stats about who is coming to your lens, etc.

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Biznik – one of the essential tools for small businesses (or as their moto goes -business networking that doesn’t suck). I love sharing this website with other small business owners in Portland.

Biznik.com is a smaller, but upcoming social media website that allows businesses to create online profiles (the basic one is FREE) and connect with other small businesses. But it’s so much more that that!

1) It’s divided up by cities and most of the major ones are represented: New York, LA, Chicago, Boston – even Portland, Oregon has it’s own section! This help you narrow in on business people within your metro area (if you so choose too)

2) Have a question that you would love feedback on or want to join a discussion? Under “Biz Talk” – you can ask questions of your peers and get feedback on marketing, ideas, trading, starting a business, just to name a few.

Visit one of many groups on  a variety of topics such as “The Marketing Group”, “Digital Freelancers”,  “Creative Professionals”. All lead by Biznik members, these groups focus on a particular topic which can include events, discussion, and other features that make up Biznik.

I know, you are probably thinking, another social marketing tool, but it works and is perfect for the small business owner. Try it today!

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I have an aunt who is a Mosaic Artist and has been using Flickr as a way to connect with other artists. It’s really simple – they share photos of each other’s work on a Flickr group and give comment/suggestions. They also share tips and techniques with each other in a very supportive environment. My aunt has met artists around the world, been introduced to unique contests, and overall, has noticed she’s more excited about her work. Getting instant feedback is just amazing as well as learning from other’s with the same passions as you.

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By Cindy Monica

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• Web 2.0 tools to die for

We want to help you learn to use the right tools to help promote and communicate with your customers! We’re excited to cover topics related to blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and much more. It’s an exciting time in the communications world, but it can be overwhelming to know where to start.

In addition to blog posts, will be also be sending out the top 2-3 posts each month through our email newsletter.  Please feel free to leave comment or email us, we need to hear from you!

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