AOH June Meeting Notes

AOH MEETING NOTES JUNE 15th

We had another close to record breaking attendance at the June meeting! With several new members and some returning newish members we had a really busy and productive couple of hours.

Mitch Cohen (owner http://FirstSaturdayArtsMarket.com,
stopped in, much to our surprise and delight. He suggested we could go to www.gravyballs.com to sign up for his mailing list with Art Valet.

There were lots of questions and answers for our topic of Marketing our Business through Online Social Media.

Here are a few of the suggestions:
1. Start with two social media (instead of several) such as Facebook or Twitter and a blogspot or a newsletter format such as Constant Constant. Other suggested sites: The Hive – artisans from around - and the Tumblr (microblogging).

2. Utillize the widgets such as Google Analytics on Etsy, Open Graph (open posting) on Etsy, Feed Burner RSS which sends auto emails with real time comments/updates, QR code on Smart Phone (I hope I got that right).

3. Put yourself out there through your blogs, Facebook, Twitter, newsletters, etc. by showing who you are, what your interests are.

4. Various ways to do this: sharing experiences, giving how-to’s with your area of expertise, sharing your successes and failures, networking by involvment in other’s sites/blogs, promoting and showing interest in and promoting other’s businesses, offering/selling e-books. Many people will follow a blog which holds their interest: ex. Cat lovers, travel, social concerns, photography. For those who are allergic to blogging there are those who can be bought to do it for you. I think I fall into that category!

Thanks Amanda Howe, a professional in Social Media, for your very helpful advice and concrete ideas, and those other’s who were helpful.

We voted to have our Fall Show on October 22. I’ve reserved, tentatively, Bethany Christian Church (where we had it in 2010) for this date. If we decide on another place at the next meeting, I’ll cancel right away so as not to inconvenience Bethany. Café Boeme was suggested by several people to be preferable to a church setting – one reason being that the restaurant has their own following which translated into a fairly reliable art show attendees. One or more artisan at the meeting has experienced a successful art show at Café Boeme. Also the location is in an artsy area where there tend to be more art followers and buyers. Valerie will report on this possibility. Other places mentioned for the same reasons above: Griff’s Shenanigans Café, Antidote, Down House, Kitchen Incubator. If anyone else has a strong possibility for a prospective location it needs to be brought forward with details and availability at our July meeting.

Our next meeting will be Wed. July 20th at (again – Yay) The Black Labradore on Montrose, 7:00.

The Topic will be Technical/Computer help for your Online Business. The Black Lab has WIFI so bring your laptops, notebooks, I-Pads so we can be hands-on. If you don’t feel you need help please come to help others and to give input about our October Show! Examples of what we can learn/teach at the July meeting can be found above under Number 2.