Brand Interview – Shasta Nelson, GirlFriend Circles
How long has your company been in business? Please tell us a bit about your company, its mission, goals…
GirlFriendCircles.com was launched in late 2008 in response to repeated statements I heard from my life coaching clients along the lines of “It’s harder to meet platonic girlfriends than it is to date!” and “I know there have to be other women who are ______ (fill in the blank: new to the area, just gone through a divorce, just had their kids move out) and value new friends, but how do I find them?” In trying to sleep one night, I started brainstorming about how I could play friendship matchmaker for a few of my awesome clients in other cities… the next morning I had a business idea that I felt compelled to follow through. GirlFriendCircles.com is now the only online community that matches new friends offline by connecting circles of women in local cafes and wine bars in 35 cities in the U.S. Everything is done in small groups and designed around meaningful sharing, to get to know other local women who are open to new friendships. Not surprisingly, research now shows that women are replacing half their friends every 7 years—a woman looking for new friends is not alone in that search.
Do you donate to charities? Tell us about that also and why.
Yes. I tithe (10%) of my personal income to non-profits. And on a business level, I recently came up with what I think is a creative idea to help support charities and to back up the values of GirlFriendCircles.com. Now, if a woman commits to attending a ConnectingCircle and pulls a no-show—she will make a $5 donation to our “Show Up or Save the World” pot and every quarter we donate that to a new charity. Some women whine about it—but I personally love it. I love that we redeem something inconvenient (whatever reason we have for not attending our commitment) with something helpful and meaningful.
How did you know what typeface (font) would be right for your company wordmark or logo? If your logo has an illustration, describe why that art was the right thing, animal, place, object, etc…
I trusted my designer, Rachel Orrison, to only give me options that she felt matched my values and feelings—and then I went with my gut. It’s trying to find a mood… a feeling… something fun, and yet professional. Something feminine, and yet not too sappy. I chose the concept of circles over the images of women in order to keep it clean, inclusive and iconic.
How did you decide on the right color palette to fit your company look and feel?
Well I knew I wanted brown as a warm and basic color. At first I didn’t want any pink, but ended up finding a hot shade I liked, since, like or not, pink does still help specify the gender I want to attract. But it was important to me to stick some other fun colors in there too, so a little green and orange rounded it out nicely. I avoided pastels, and went bold. It felt fun, courageous, and friendly to me.
How did you decide which type of designer to work with, or did you design your own identity and web presence?
I feel super lucky in that I asked several friends for referrals and loved Rachel’s design work. I initially figured I’d hire her for a one-time set up of the logo, but ended up loving her so much that she’s my go-to designer and is now working on my upcoming re-design of my web site.
In what order did you present your company to the world? Did you start with marketing and products, or website, blog and social media?
Website. I didn’t even do business cards for almost a year. And social media didn’t really become important to me until last summer. My, how times change, huh? Now it’s a pretty huge part of my online presence. It’s really my social media, blogs and interviews that create my “brand” more than anything tangible ever could.
Did you do research or study any software, take webinars, teleclasses, before approaching any area of your marketing or web presence?
I did learn a lot from Inc. magazine and startupnation.com in walking through their “how to create a marketing plan” section which helped me become more intentional and strategic.
Do you advertise locally in newspapers and/or nationally in magazines? Are they effective?
I chose the P.R. route over the Advertising route. I have been mentioned or interviewed for several national magazines such as Parents, Essence, More, and Redbook. And yes, it’s super effective as that adds a level of safety and credibility to my audience who are not used to looking online for friends.
Do you advertise online using Google, Facebook or on other company sites? Are they effective?
Google advertising has been effective—I love how specific I can be. Facebook hasn’t been… but that may be because people feel less need for making new friends when they’re online with friends. Of course, nothing replaces local, face-to-face friendships, but it does go to show that it’s not only finding your target audience, but finding them at the right time!
When you printed your products, packaging, business cards and other print marketing did you choose an online printer or visit a local vendor?
I went online. And cheap. I just rarely use printed stuff so it’s not worth it to me to spend a ton on business cards.
Did you know anything about different types of papers, when you wanted to print your marketing materials?
Nope. Just went with recycled for the value.
Have you ever used “green” technology in printing, using FSC certified papers or recycled paper and if not, how likely are you at trying this on a next project?
Yep… and happy with it!
If you sell products, are they produced in the U.S.A. or abroad?
N/A
Is there anything you haven’t yet tackled, but will want to do soon?
Oh yes! The list is long! I want to redesign my homepage, pitch a book proposal to an agent, organize an overseas travel trip for girlfriends, and start video-logging!
To learn more about Shasta Nelson and GirlFriend Circles, visit the links below:
Website: http://www.GirlFriendCircles.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GirlFriendCircles
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ShasGFC
Blog: http://www.girlfriendcircles.com/blog/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/girlfrndcircles
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shastanelson
Social Media Business Effectiveness: Tips For Engaging Interaction
August 31st, 2011 | Posted in Blog, marketing | No CommentsTags: commenting when interested, following and friending, friends sharing content links, gaining interest on social media, how to social media tips, linkedin groups to build connections, shout outs in foursquare, social media tips, tagging on Facebook for comments, tips for Facebook Twitter LinkedIn, tweetadder software, Twitter hashtags used properly
We’re all in business for a reason. Some may have a mission, some may have sales goals, but the one thing we all need is interested people. Without people discovering us and if they need our products and services and then sharing our capabilities with others, our businesses wouldn’t succeed.
One of the most fascinating advancements to help businesses has been social media because it makes it so easy now for anyone including your friends to follow and share your pages, blog posts, videos and tweets.
The true problem today is… is anyone actually seeing what you’re writing?
“Social” Media is exactly that, social. If no one is engaged in the discussion by commenting or sharing your information with others, there’s nothing “social” about it. Then you are just talking into the wind.
We also have the added problem of an overload of community websites, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, FourSquare, InterNations, and the list continues.
So here are a few tips that I guarantee will help engage more people. When there are more responses, there’s more interest, and more interest leads to more clients and customers.
1- From today onward when you add a post to Facebook, I want you to tag 1-2 people who you think will want to discuss your topic. Without tagging, no one may see the post, and by actually tagging, you are asking those people to comment. This is how Facebook becomes social instead of a list of random thoughts. In addition when you tag others, your post appears on those people’s walls as well as your own and this gives you an even bigger chance of engagement. (To tag someone, you must of course either be friends, or have liked their fan/company/cause page. Just type @ (and then the name.)
2- When it comes to Twitter, the true way people discover your tweets are through searches. The #hashtag is a great way for your posts to come up in those searches. So before you send out the next tweet, do a search on a few hashtags, find the ones that will help others find you, and see who is using them (to connect) and be sure to include different ones or the same one in every post. For example: some of the tags I use in different tweets are, #brand #branding #creative #socialmedia #entrepreneur #startups #biz #art #artists and for my environmental cause I might use, #ecofriendly #eco #green #frogs #amphibians. You get the idea.
I also highly recommend buying and downloading “TweetAdder”, once set up (and I have a tutorial video on this) it’ll really help you find others and them find you. Plus, you’ll have the added bonus of all the functionality it can do, saving you lots of time.
3- If you have a blog, I recommend adding the “Tweet Old Posts” plugin. Once set up, it will breathe new life into all the posts on your blog, sending out tweets directing people to them. Also install “Kstats Reloaded”, and it will give great stats on your blog visitors and interaction in Social Media. (Extensive WordPress series of posts with Tips and Videos!)
4- If you are ignoring LinkedIn, wake up! This social media “business” community is the largest of it’s kind for entrepreneurs and professionals of all industries. There are so many amazing ways to reach thousands of people easily. Not only can you search by company, company type and job titles but the “groups” section is one of the most powerful areas. You can search the groups for say “social media” and it will show all the groups and how many members each has. So let’s say you join a group and it has 100,000 members. You can start a discussion and it will be posted in the group, but will also be emailed to all or most (depending on their settings) members. The potential for how many targeted, like-minded individuals you can reach in one post in unreal. Watch this video tutorial on the groups section, and join a group today.
5- FourSquare? Okay not too many people that I know are yet into this one, but it sure is a nice idea to help out your local businesses. When you recommend a shop or bakery and give a shout out, what better way to have them know you and remember you as well as do a nice thing for them.
So remember “social” media is just that, social. Without the interaction, it’s not going to work at all.