Social Media, Awesome Colors, and My Awesome Network

I have to share a recent experience that began a few weeks ago on social media. 

June 24, 2013: my friend Jennifer Marsik Friess shares on her Facebook page: "Look what Patty Buccellato at Refined Images sent me! Since she's set me on my correct path, if the duds doesn't match a color in this wheel, I don't buy it. Thanks for the updates, PB! I'm gonna pop some tags." 

I jump into the discussion, asking about the color wheel she has posted and how one goes about getting one from Patty. I'm one of several women in Jen's friend list who responded to the post. I think we're all intrigued with looking our best. For me, I'll admit I'm frugal and practical when it comes to wardrobe shopping. I've learned to only buy something I love and that includes colors I love. 

(Full disclosure: Patty asked me to blog about my experience, which I'm happy to do!}

Patty and I exchange a few emails, and we set an appointment at her Rochester Hills studio for a color drape. Patty reminds me to allow at least 45 minutes for the appointment, and that dress is not important since my outfit will be covered by the drape. She also suggests I bring makeup with me, since I'll have to remove it as part of the session. 

Eek. Did you read that last part? I have to remove my makeup in front of one of my professional friends? Yes, this gave me some anxiety. 

I arrive at Patty's office and we chat briefly before the draping begins. 

She asks about my experience with color consultations and knowledge of color overall. I mention I had some past knowledge of the "seasons" color approach but haven't really followed it. 

Prep. Patty hands me a few makeup remover tissues and sends me to the ladies room down the hall to remove the makeup. I return sheepishly feeling exposed. 

The next step was Patty draping a cape over me, covering my top. 

Hair. We then talk briefly about hair color. Patty notices my hair color is different and I explain my recent home coloring experience, followed by a salon color correction because I was not happy with the results. Yes, the grays are slowly starting to pop up, too. She shows me a swatch of hair colors and asks me to select what I think is my true, natural hair color. I flip through the ring and find one that is close, and she agrees. She explains that my natural hair tone is more on the ash scale and the color treatment I'm working on correcting had more of a brassy look to it. I agree and make a mental note to talk to my stylist about this at my next color correction appointment. 

The whole time, I'm trying to pretend that having a conversation without makeup on is not bothering me. 

Next, Patty helps me into a hairnet to pull all the hair off my face. Keep in mind I'm already draped, with no makeup, and now my hair is all pulled back. 

You know that feeling you get when you're at the hair salon and they ask you to look in the mirror at yourself? I don't know about you, but this makes me uncomfortable and I'd just as soon not look at myself in a mirror in front of someone. I'll wait until I get out in the car or home to inspect the cut. 

So I'm feeling quite exposed and anxious (Patty does not realize any of this!). But we begin!

The Colors. Patty begins by showing me a drape with a different variety of striped colors on each side. She asks me to select which one I prefer, side one or side two (think of an eye exam). I immediately am drawn to a brighter set of colors. 

She then asks me to not look at the colors, but to focus on my face instead with the colors next to it. My perspective immediately changes. The color stripes with softer colors actually look much better against my skin. 

We go through this process with several drapes. Patty asks me to focus on my eyes, my teeth, and those imperfect areas of my face (blotchy, dark circles, etc.) when evaluating the color options. Through the process, it becomes easier to make the selections. 

Guide. Patty helps to guide me through the process gently by helping me to arrive at the solutions on my own. By the end of the appointment, I'm no longer aware of the fact that I'm exposed and makeup-less, but rather I'm inspired by this new found knowledge about color combinations that work on me.   

My Color Wheel. At the end of the appointment, Patty selects a color wheel based on the color combinations which I indicated a preference for through the appointment. We review the wheel together and I immediately find a few colors I will never wear. Green, for example, is not a color I'm overly fond of nor do I think it looks good on me, despite what the wheel says.  

Educated and knowledgeable. I leave the appointment with my custom color wheel and a spring in my step. I can't wait to raid my closet to remove clothes that aren't in the wheel. In the weeks following this appointment, I've made wardrobe changes and have noticed the impact. I've received compliments on some of the new color combinations and have shared my experience a few times. 

I think the consultation was time well spent toward the a wardrobe that will make me look and feel my best. 

Thanks Patty! And thanks Jen for the inspiration!

stay tuned - I'll add a few pics of my color wheel and a few "corrected" color outfits here soon...

p.s. Check out Refined Images at www.facebook.com/refinedimages. 

Marketing Tip: Facebook Pages

I've been blogging for a while about marketing tips. Usually my inspiration comes from things I see, experience, need, or sometimes from other people. One thing I've noticed is that there's a lot of integration and places to find people and businesses on the web.

Take me for example. You can find me on:

Bloggers should consider setting up a
Facebook page to cross-promote your blog. ~ Brenda Meller

• LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/BrendaMeller
• Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrendaMeller
• Facebook (sorry - I'm not sharing my personal page here. I only accept friend requests from people I know. But now thanks to my FB friends you can follow my Meller Marketing blog by liking the page www.facebook.com/MellerMarketing)
• YouTube at www.youtube.com/TheBrendaMeller
• Pinterest at  http://pinterest.com/summerbren/

Plus on my two blogs. The one you're reading now, http://mellermarketing.blogspot.com/ or my LinkedIn blog, http://15minutesadayonlinkedin.blogspot.com/. 

I started poking around my marketing blog the other day and discovered I have one blog post that has over 18,000 views. I'm still trying to figure out how/where it might have been picked up. The blog topic was about a great experience I had at a Tim Horton's drive-through, so my guess is they may have shared it somewhere. 

But this got me thinking about how I'm promoting my blog. Right now, I mainly do cross-promotion on LinkedIn, Twitter, and occasionally Facebook. My blog is just a hobby for me. I enjoy marketing and like helping others. I'm not using it for serious business promotion like others are doing. 

This got me thinking -- what if I really wanted to make my blog more widely read? And what about the other people out there who want to gain blog readers, but really aren't sure how to do it? 

Which led me to my next conclusion - Facebook. It's where people hang out. If you're reading this, there's a good likelihood you found this post on Facebook. (tell me if I'm right by posting a comment to this blog)

I'll admit - I log and check into LinkedIn maybe once every day or so, poke around, read some posts, look in the groups, then I'm outta there. Twitter is something I dabble in from time to time and lately I've been using for digital notetaking (that's a blog topic for another day), but I don't spend a great deal of time there. 

But Facebook - what fun! I can have virtual conversations with all of my 498 closest friends. We share stories, highlights of our day, posts from other websites, jokes, pictures of our families, videos, etc. etc.  And I will proudly admit when I have the time, I'll spend (not waste) a good hour on Facebook just hanging out. It's kind of like eating junk food though - I can take it only in small doses at a time, but I'll indulge when I can. 

My guess is you're like me when it comes to Facebook. There are a whole other active/inactive group of people on Facebook whom I'll call "readers" (rather than lurkers). They see the value of Facebook, but either for personal/privacy or professional reasons, are only a spectator and don't participate in conversation, "likes" or any of the other stuff we do while on Facebook. That's totally okay, too. These people are among my FB friends and might be blog readers, too.  

So back to Facebook page for your business. If you aren't a marketing professional, why set up a Facebook page if you're only using Facebook on a personal level? 

Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your business?

Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your blog?

Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your organization?

Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your cause? 

Do you see a pattern here? You pick what you need to promote. Facebook gives you a place to do it free.

And if you're like me, you may not want to accept friend requests from people you don't know, but you use FB for personal and professional reasons, and you want to provide a way to engage with people you don't know well. 

PLUS: If you struggle with website design because you're too small, don't have a designer, or don't have the desire to spend (not waste) the time and money into creating a website, use a Facebook page instead. 

It's really easy to do. 

1. Start by visiting www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. Click the obnoxious green button that reads "Create a Page."
2. Follow the step by step instructions. Facebook makes this process super easy. And if you make a mistake, you can always go back and edit your information. You'll choose a major and sub category, then select a product or company name, then agree to terms and conditions.You an upload a picture or skip it for now, write a short description in the "about" section, add in additional address, website info (I pointed my page to my blog), or skip this for now. Choose whatever best matches your business / blog / cause. Facebook will not deny you access if you choose the wrong category. :)
3. Save your changes.
4. Gain page followers. After you save your changes, you'll now be able to start inviting friends to your newly created page. You'll want to promote on your personal page and encourage people to give your page a "LIKE." 
5. Give your page a simplified username. Once you get to 25 "likes" on your page, you can personalize the page address to something that is easy to remember. As a page manager, you'll see in your "Insights" section at the top of the page how many people have liked your page. And once you receive 25 likes, you'll see the link to give your page a username. Choose something that is as short and easy to remember as possible, like this: www.facebook.com/MellerMarketing 
6. That's it! If you're a blogger like me, consider reposting a summary of the blog topic and a link to the blog in your Facebook page. 

What's a Username on Facebook?
It's a simplified page address.
~ Brenda Meller

As of right now, I have 39 likes on my page. That's in just about 3 hours. And I promised I'd give a shout out to the 25th person who liked my page. It was pretty close, between my friends James and Christy. Christy works for Gift of Life Michigan, which works with the organ donor registry program. Please consider signing up with them if you can, and give their page a like: https://www.facebook.com/GiftOfLifeMichigan

Now I have 41 likes on my page. This is more exciting than an ebay auction! In comparison, prior to posting this blog, I had 15 followers. I'd say my blog test was a pretty successful project. Hope it provided you with some insights, too.

Please share your FB page in "comments" and I'll give your page a "LIKE" on Facebook, too.