LupRocks Gossip

Getting started with social media for your small business

Most small business owners know that social media can help their business. Unfortunately, the world of social media comes across as so complex, ambiguous and wide-reaching (not to mention dorky), that either actions are never taken or the wrong moves are made.

So, before you start a blog or build a page on Facebook, take a look at these resources to get familiar with the landscape.
 
1. Common Craft's "In Plain English" Videos   
These three minute videos are perfect for demystifying those terms that you've never fully understood. RSS, Social Bookmarking, Wikis and more are all covered to perfection.

2. The Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff 

Hands-down the best book on social media ever written. This book will open your eyes to the vast potential of social media for businesses through great case-studies and a no-nonsense writing style.
 

3. Dell's Social Media for Small Business Facebook Page  
In my opinion, Dell is utilizing social media more effectively than any brand out there. They've created a nice resource for small business owners who want to use social media. They do a great job keeping the site up to date with new videos, articles and tutorials.  
 
4. Let's Talk: Social Media For Small Business e-book by Josh Jantsch 
A nice, free resource for anyone looking for practical advice on how to utilize the following: blogging, RSS, social search, social bookmarking, social networks and microblogging.
 
5. LinkedIn Answers 
LinkedIn Answers is a question and answer destination similar to Yahoo Answers, but with a focus on business. If you want a thorough answer to a social media question within 24 hours, this is the place to go.
 
These resources will give you solid understanding of the world of social media, but figuring out where to start is still a difficult step to take. Every business requires a unique approach to social media. My suggestion is to spend some time looking at success stories in your industry and talking with a digital marketing professional before taking action.
 
Jesse Pickard
http://www.jessepickard.com
http://twitter.com/jessepickard

'Tis the Season of Electronic Greetings

We've noticed a significant drop in the number of physical holiday cards we've received this year, which is fine with us since in our mind, unless it's a basket of chocolate in the vein of Pier 60's annual holiday gifts to their clients (which they neglected to send us this year, the nerve!!), it's probably a good time to go green and save postage by sending an electronic greeting card.  We're aware that not all e-cards can be as good as this one from our favorite electronic greeting card site, someecards.com,

but really, they don't need to suck.  While we've definitely gotten some really sweet e-cards, we've also gotten some really crappy ones.  Without disparaging the crappy card senders, we're going to highlight a few of the good ones and anonymously bash the bad ones. 

Obviously, at the top of our list of favorite e-cards is our very own Lup Libs that we sent out this morning.  Hopefully a few people will actually fill it out and send it back to us so we can post the most creative answers here.  I don't know when you last did Mad Libs, but we find ourselves doing it quite often around Lup HQ and it really is the world's greatest word game! 

Platinum Guild International sent us a very nice e-card--it was simple, elegant and sophisticated and totally consistent with all of PGI's marketing materials.  Kudos!   Lots of designers send e-greetings with just a picture of their designs.  This is totally fine, we understand designers taking every opportunity to showcase their work, but it is SO MUCH better when they've actually taken the time to create some sort of stylized jpeg image rather than inserting a picture of their product into an email like they're sending a pitch to an editor they are REALLY good friends with.  Our favorite though, is major film studios and major publishing houses sending us the lamest duck emails we've every received.  A dog licking the screen to uncover the words "Happy Holidays" from one of the biggest movie studios in the world??  Really?! 

I guess the long and the short of it is, if you can't take the time to put something together for the holidays, skip it.  Send out a Valentine's Day card instead.  I swear, nobody will notice the absence of your poorly executed holiday greeting in the jumble of all of the rest of the poorly executed holiday greetings that are clogging up their emails.  Of course, if you've taken the time to put something together nicely, by all means, send it out and let yourself stand out from the crowd.  Alternatively, pick out your favorite someecard and stand out by either being really offensive or really hilarious, depending on your audience.

LupRocks.com Designer Mentioned in Wall Street Journal

LupRocks.com designer Judith Bright received an enviable plug in last Thursday's issue of Wall Street Journal.  The article focuses on local designers and their appeal to the current shopping environment, likening the trend to the locavore food movement.  "The clothes are exclusive, and the designers often offer alterations and special orders -- as well as the pleasure of personal interaction with them" the article notes, calling this type of shopping "true luxury."  Memphis based Bright was quoted, saying she can customize her jewelry on the spot to fit her client's size.  As a personal fan of her line, I can see the appeal in having one of her chunky, color gemstone cocktail rings or sexy, fluid bangles "bespoke" specifically to fit my taste and style.  Wait a minute, when is Judith Bright's next appearance at Bergdorf?? 
 

We here at Lup HQ just love all things high-maintenance--men, clients, hair....okay, not really, but we do love the concept of high-maintenance design!  Herein lie some of our favorites: 

Iclandic product designer Hafsteinn Juliusson has taken conceptual jewelry design to the next level with his Growing Jewelry Project.  They come in several styles, but all feature Icelandic moss that needs water and sunlight.  Why create such high maintenance jewelry?  The designer explains, "The collection of this hand jewelry is designed for people in metropolitan cities and is an experiment in drawing nature toward man, as nature being the presupposition of life." 

Another product designer stretching the definition of jewelry is German designer, Jennifer Flume.  Her PICTURINGS and PICTUCHARMS literally allow memories to be worn on the body.  Different souvenirs can be combined to like charms on a bracelet or fanned out in a ring.

Marie-Pierre Flori de Pulcini's pieces look more traditional, but they are every bit as interactive.  Her sterling silver and sunset topaz ring is wrapped onto the finger.

Not all product designers are just driven by art.  Japanese designer Ryoji Takahashi designed his Info Jewelry to help blind people enjoy the fifth sense of a meal.  A ring and earpiece work together to help one see without sight by adding distinguishable sound to objects that can’t be identified by sound. 

What other innovations have you seen in the name of wearable art?

Lazare Kaplan Featured in JQ Magazine

LupRocks.com designer Lazare Kaplan is the innovator of ideal cut diamonds; jewelry designer Michael Bondanza is the Prince of Platinum.  They've joined forces to create an amazing bridal collection called "Simply Lazare" and one of our favorite writers, Ms. Lorraine DePasque wrote about it in this month's issue of JQ Magazine.  Congratulations Lazare Kaplan International Inc!

Time to Think

Hi all. First off I have to say I am incredibly excited to be blogging for LupRocks.com. Michelle and Jessica are geniuses and I’m honored to be in their company!

Admittedly I was a little freaked out by being asked to blog (in a good way) especially since I had no idea what I would talk about. Photography? Design? Life? Sigh… so many options. However, in a bit of an eureka moment, I decided to wax poetic about a web video I ran across called No Time To Think: Well, to be honest, it wasn’t an epiphany that lead me to the video. I ran across the link MONTHS ago and bookmarked it, but ironically enough never took the time to actually sit down and watch the damn thing (story of my life). And ironically, I have been working like a demon for the past month (those of you who know me know that that’s not really quite out of the ordinary), so I said to myself, NOW is the time to sit down and do this.

I highly suggest you take some time and watch the video. It’s a bit techy (it’s a talk from the Google campus, after all) but it touches upon the unending chaos of information overload that we have to deal with every day and the detrimental effect it has on our ability to be…human. Newspapers, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, BLOGS (the list goes on and on)! It is so hard to turn off in general, never mind remove all this extraneous information. I find it impossible to step away and just let my brain be.
It’s fascinating really…have you ever stopped reading the newspaper for a while? It’s liberating. Yes, I know the Dow is down, but is reading about it incessantly going to change anything? What about not listening to NPR? Or (egads!) not checking email every five minutes? What about opening your brain up to…well…your brain?

I’m just as guilty as the next person – an obsessive email checker (note, I said checker, not responder) but what I find is that when I do step away – especially when I go to London for some reason – my mind opens up. I see things differently. My brain is just as active, if not more. I get IDEAS! I get INSPIRED! I get ENERGY! It’s amazing. I can open up to the thoughts already swimming around inside my head as opposed to covering them up with the latest news-that-I-can’t–do-anything-about!

So here is the hard part. Here’s what I’m going to do. Maybe you can do it with me. Or maybe you think I’m a big fat idiot for even suggesting it. Next time I have five minutes to spare, I’m going to sit. Or stand maybe. I’m not going to do anything else. No Facebook. No YouTube. No NPR. I’m just going to enjoy it.

But wait…maybe I should change my Facebook status first…

Rain Gear on LupRocks.com

What's the best inclement weather accessories?  A taxi cab of course!  But seriously....there are plenty of cute rain coats, scarves and umbrellas out there, I just didn't happen to have any of the above this morning when I left the house.  Nope, I was the one with the crazy, wonky, cheetah print umbrella that I acquired who knows where, fighting the wind so that it wouldn't flip inside out, with no rain coat, no scarf and inappropriate footwear.  Before you start cackling at how silly I must've looked, please remember how painful my bad weather accessories envy must be, given the fact that we've got so many yummy designers on our site that I'm confronted with every day! 

Speaking of yummy, I don't know what possessed me to leave home without my "Buttery Blissful" cashmere wrap from TDM Accessories this morning.  That thing is like a blanket, and what's better than walking around wrapped in a soft, cushy, stylish blanket when it's brick outside?

Instead of donning my impractical heels this morning, I should have walked the Swedish way with a fashionable pair of Cape Clogs.  While these may not seem like the ideal rainy weather choice of footwear, I figure if the Swedes can rock them in Nordic conditions, they should be perfect for the mean streets of NYC.
 
 
The most obvious rain gear I was missing this morning was an appropriate umbrella.  I wanted a clear, over-my-head umbrella for so long and one day, Leah surprised me by giving me one.  Very recently though, the handle broke off (yes, while I was using it) so I've been stuck with whatever cruddy umbrella I've managed to scam from other people.  I'm now eying one of the fabulous designs from Tray 6 at Niche 212 Showroom.  If I had one of these, I might actually look forward to the rain!   

Gossip Girl Keeps it Hot

Part of me thinks that you must be tired of hearing about Gossip Girl, aka The Best Show EVER, but having just spent a weekend in Kansas City, in the heart of the proverbial "middle America" marketing target, I know that's just not the case.  Everyone I spoke to, and I mean everyone (and that's a lot considering I was attending a party with 200 people and, well, I'm pretty chatty), loves that show!  And why do they love it so much?  Across the board, it's Chuck Bass and the fashion.  Which makes Laura James' mention at the TOP of the "Gift List" by Today Style Editor Bobbie Thomas that much more impressive.  Congrats to LupRocks designer Laura, who was highlighted due to her status as "Gossip Girl favorite," and congrats to the many many designers who have ridden this show to enviable success!

Online Design

When Michelle reached out to me to explore my love of all things design on the LupRocks blog, I was both excited and nervous. Excited because I am enormously passionate about interiors and housewares, and can't wait to share even a bit of what I discover on-and-offline every day. The nervous part comes in because it's a tad daunting to start blogging about a hobby when there are so many experts already out there. Having written about fine jewelry, watches and fashion for almost a decade (!), it's definitely time to dip my toe into the wide open seas of interior design. 

As Michelle has been dutifully blogging, I have recently had the pleasure of helping Lüp turn their cozy-but-cluttered office space into a cohesive, comfortable place to work. My main task was to come up with an overall plan and then source the furniture and accessories they would need to purchase to make my vision a reality. Luckily, I am a virtual encyclopedia of affordable furniture and housewares thanks to my favorite home-related blogs. That's why, for this first post, I thought I'd share my wealth of knowledge by passing on four of my favorite sites and explain why they are worth exploring.

#1 APARTMENT THERAPY

Working from the tagline "Saving the world, one room at a time," Apartment Therapy was founded by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan to facilitate a group that could help each other make their homes more beautiful, organized and healthy. This site is really a catch-all that is moderated by editors in different cities around the world (meaning that if you have a question you'd like answered by locals, you can write directly to your closest branch). From member house-tours to new products to store reviews, Apartment Therapy is truly a community in the best sense of the word: It brings people together from all around the world in the name of good design.

#2 Design Sponge
Moderated by Brooklyn-based Grace Bonney, this blog was founded on the principal that the hip and handmade should have a place in the home. Grace regularly covers under-the-radar artists and students who strike a chord with her modern/craft aesthetic, and she employs contributors to cover subjects like recipes and do-it-yourself projects. (Check out her wonderful gift guides searchable by price, up now!) More than just a site, Design*Sponge has become a link to the real world. Grace founded Biz Ladies, a series founded in 2006 to connect local women running their own art and design-related businesses. She also runs a scholarship program created to assist art and design students in the pursuit of their dreams.

#3 DOMINO

Although this site is really the landing page for the magazine of the same name, there are daily updated features and links to a fabulous set of archives that will inspire even the most design-challenged among us. Searchable galleries range from the general (kitchens and bedrooms) to the specific (toile fabric, anyone?) Best of all, everything shown in the images is sourced with prices to make shopping easy. The site's newest feature is called My Deco File, and it allows users to upload or tag images from anywhere on the web and place them in sharable folders. I used this tool when preparing a presentation for Lüp's office redo, and it was both easy and fun.

#4 EDDIE ROSS

I discovered Eddie through Bravo's Top Design, a reality show in the vein of Top Chef and Project Runway. His day job is actually as the Senior Style Editor of Martha Stewart Living (after stints as a caterer and as an editor at House Beautiful), and his absolute excitement about all things design is contagious. He's really a Renaissance man: Eddie arranges flowers with gusto, reworks furniture found for pennies on the dollar, creates beautiful menus for entertaining and then places them all into a context that works for the average reader. I particularly love his little tips and tricks for decorating on a budget, and he even hosts flea market trips where he teaches a small group of shoppers how to find treasure among the trash. 

Hopefully you'll be amazed at all the inspiration that's out there for the taking. To me, decorating your home is just like getting dressed in the morning; it's a way to present yourself to your guests that says a bit about your personal style. A great painting can be like a beautiful pair of earrings: It dresses up a blank canvas with something special. 

Holiday Shopping Event Extravaganza(s)!

As purveyors of LupRocks.com we are fortunate enough to get invited to a multitude of private, holiday shopping events.  The prospect of discounted jewelry, accessories and house wears is intoxicating, especially in light of the fact that we've got lots of holiday gifts to pick up (why do you think we get invited to SO many holiday parties??).  To that end, we want to encourage all of our LupRocks.com Siren Account level subscribers to please, post your special holiday shopping events in our Events section (it's free!), and readers, please check out the opportunities to get a hold of some of your favorite designs in time for the holidays.

To kick things off, we wanted to invite you to the special shopping event on behalf of our absolute favorite stationer, Miss Lisa Hoffman of CeCi New York.  Lisa's fashion-forward handy-work can be seen in virtually every aspect of the LupRocks.com marketing campaign and she is our go-to source for sophisticated and elegant invitation design whenever we host a media event.  Her upcoming shopping event, on Tuesday, December 9 from 6-9pm, will give you an opportunity to check out her newly launched retail stationary line, which includes 48 new designs that would all make the perfect holiday gift (to yourself or someone else)! 

CeCi New York
130 West 23rd Street, 2nd Floor
December 9
6pm-9pm