South by Southwest, the huge tech/film/music conference that takes over Austin every March, has been going for a week now. While I didn't shell out the big bucks for a badge this year, I was happy to see that many of the keynote speeches have been posted online. I just finished watching one from Tina Roth Eisenberg, the creator behind the design blog swissmiss, "designy" temporary tattoo company Tattly, and the Creative Mornings series. In her talk, Tina outlines the rules that she lives by personally and professionally. I found her talk so encouraging for a creative business owner like myself - acknowledging the joy that comes in being about to do what you love and confronting the inherent risks, challenges, and opportunities that arise. Check it out!
Of the various elements that must come together to exhibit at the National Stationery Show, I think one of the most daunting is putting together a wholesale catalog. First of all, creating a 12+ page catalog is time consuming and requires painstaking attention to detail. Secondly, your catalog is one of the most important, if not the most important, marketing pieces that buyers see.
Easter comes early this year (March 31) and I'm excited to share two new Easter cards I've designed.
The design for the Happy Easter card first popped into my head back in November. The idea came from memories of a large Easter egg hunt my family threw every year at my grandmother's house when I was little. Colorful hand drawn decorative eggs and little bunnies peek behind grass.
The second card is a cross made up of tiny hand drawn flowers and vines set against a pale minty green background. While appropriate for Easter, it can also be used for baptisms, confirmations, and other religious occasions.
I've shared my tips for using Facebook to promote your business and interact with your supporters on this blog before.
If you are a Facebook user, you may know that Facebook is always changing the way the site operates and how users interact with one another. One more recent change that direct affects how any small business owner uses Facebook is the introduction of the promoted post.
Now when you create a post through your business page, you have the option to select "Promote" at the bottom of the post and, for a certain dollar amount, Facebook will promote your post in others' news feeds. What exactly does this mean? According to Facebook: "Every day, News Feed delivers the stories you post to your friends and followers. Promote important posts to help people notice them. Promoted posts appear higher in News Feed, so there's a better chance your audience will see them."
So what's the deal? Why choose to promote a post? If you share a regular post, due to Facebook's algorithm that decides who sees what, people who like your page still may not see your post as it may fleetingly appear buried in your followers' news feeds. Pay to promote your post and the number of people who see your post will grow exponentially - not just your current page followers (people who have "liked" your page, but their friends who have no connection to your page.
This is somewhat of a game changer for small businesses who use Facebook as one of their main sources of free advertising and promotion. I have experimented a few times with promoted posts to see what happens when Facebook prioritizes my posts over others.
The post below is an example from the Happy Cactus Designs' Facebook page of a non-promoted post. I shared a photo of my cards on display at one of the retailers I work with in Dallas. According to Facebook Insights, 98 people saw this post.
Last week, I shared a picture of and link to one of my new birthday card designs that I had just added to the online shop. I chose to promote the post, setting a budget of $5.00.
Because I paid to promote it, 1,295 people saw the post. That is hundreds of more people than I actually have following my page, so clearly it was hitting the feeds of friends of my page's followers. I saw a slight uptick in new likes and visits to the site after this promoted post, but nothing truly significant. That said, it did seem slightly exciting that over a thousand people were seeing an image of my cards on Facebook.
This change by Facebook certainly causes dilemmas for small business. How do you decide what to promote? Is it annoying to your non-followers to see a sponsored post by your company appearing in their news feeds? Does it make a significant difference - in terms of number of likes, visits to your site, purchases made, etc. - when you promote a post?
It's not surprising to me that Facebook is making new attempts to monetize the news feed and generate revenue from small businesses like my own wanting to get my name out there. At the same time, it's irritating that for my posts to be seen I need to pay to promote them. While $1 to $10 per post may not seem like a lot, it adds up over time! What are your thoughts on promoted posts?
I love Bob Dylan and am so in awe of and inspired by these creative interpretations of his songs I've come across.
The first is Jason Holroyd's music video for "Like a Rolling Stone" using an overhead projector and photographic and typographic transparencies.
The second is Leandro Senna's hand-lettering stop-motion masterpiece of "Subterranean Homesick Blues." I've watched this video numerous times. Her hand-lettering is amazing!
Finally, you have to check out "Typo Dylan" - a website experience set to "It Ain't Me Babe." Watch Dylan's face appear as the lyrics are typed out on screen. Check it out here.
Image found here
I'm always searching for ways to boost my productivity and have mentioned on the blog here before how I've streamlined my to-do lists process. I recently heard Bob Pozen, the author of Extreme Productivity, mention on during a television interview that he has a process for tackling email: "the OHIO method." OHIO stands for "only handle it once." When you receive an email that you need to react and respond to, do it right away so your inbox doesn't pile up. Pozen says:
"No 'I'll respond later' is allowed," Shapiro says. "Responding later means you take three times longer to get through your email than taking care of it the first time, because responding later means you have to waste time finding and rereading that email... or even worse, the time wasted reminding yourself over and over to get to that message."
How often do you open your inbox and see numerous emails just sitting there waiting for a response? It sure happens to my email inboxes (both professional and personal). I've recently benefitted from setting aside a few chunks of time each day to respond to emails and get rid of others cluttering my inbox. There is less time lost to sorting through emails as well as rereading emails I've already received and figuring out if I need to respond and what to say. Adopting the OHIO method isn't easy - and I'm still sorting out how much time I spend conquering email - but I think it's a simple step towards becoming more productive. Would you try the OHIO method?
A few weeks ago I made a quick trip up to Dallas and was able to visit The St. Michael's Woman's Exchange, a gift shop in the Highland Park Village that carries Happy Cactus Designs card. Here's a photo of Happy Cactus Designs boxed notes on display in the shop!
Seeing my cards on display in shops can feel surreal at times, but also a reminder of all of the hard work and passion that goes into growing my company and sharing my work. I've been so fortunate to work with The St. Michael's Woman's Exchange. While many in Dallas know that it is the perfect shop to visit when you need a baby, wedding, or hostess gift, many may not know that is almost exclusively staffed by volunteers and that their profits are given back to the community through grants - over $4 million since their founding! Thank you to The Exchange for supporting Happy Cactus!
I've been spending the long weekend pouring over some typography and lettering books I got and am so in awe of many of the talented artists I've come across. Here's some favorites...
