Tips on Instagram for Business.

Is Social Media important for businesses?  Yes it is, and maybe soon people will stop asking that question. By now it should be a part of all marketing, advertising and PR plans.

Importantly, if your business is marketing to Gen Y or Millenials (those with birth years starting in 1980s to early 2000s), Instagram is an easy way to reach this audience and should be included in your business marketing strategy.

Is Instagram here to stay? Who knows, maybe not. But for now it's here and it's big with over 200 million users worldwide. So get on board.

Here's a quote by writer Lisa Hoover McGreevy from her article on "How to Rock Instagram."
"In a recent study of how users interact with brands’ social media posts, Forrester Research found that when it comes to engagement, Instagram is far superior to any other social network. While six of the seven social networks Forrester studied had an engagement rate of less than 0.1%, Instagram’s engagement rate was 4.21%."

The audience reach with Instagram can be huge. Some celebrities have over 12 million followers each, (@justinbieber and @kimkardashian, for example).  Major brands such as @starbucks and @adidas have 2 or 3 million followers.

What Is Instagram.  Instagram is an online photo sharing, video sharing social media platform.  You can use filters on the pictures to create all sorts of effects, put comments on pictures, tag people your pictures, and use hashtags. You "follow" accounts and get followed by others. You can comment on or "like" other people's pictures and videos, and you can share them too across other media outlets, such as facebook and twitter. It's fast moving in that people are uploading multiple pictures all the time. In Instagram time, yesterdays picture could be old news.  There's a hashtag for that, #latergram.

For just pure fun use, Instagram is easy and can be very entertaining. However, using Instagram effectively for your business takes some planning and thought.

Here are some basic steps that will help you get started:

Complete your profile. Your profile tells the world who you are and what your business is. Yes, you can write cute stuff here, but be sure include the important things such as your website, your phone number and your location. Instagram is global. Not everyone knows where "Your Town" is. Also use an appropriate profile picture, something that you want people to recognize your business with. Usually that is a logo.

What to post.  You should post images relevant to your business of course, but general interest pictures are also a good way to engage your followers. For example, if you are a chair manufacturer, don't only post images of chairs. That can get old after a while. One idea is to use "behind the scenes" content. Post pictures of what goes on in your chair factory, behind the scenes. Where does the wood come from, how are designs created, what are your employees like? The beauty of social media is getting a glimpse behind the curtain of peoples lives, or businesses.

@Oreo, the cookie, is often used as an example of a company that does its Instagram marketing well by "telling a story", using their brand in a million different ways.  Their message is not just "here's an Oreo cookie", but it's shows all the different ways their cookie is in our lives.  Their Instagram profile says, "OREO, see the world through our OREO Wonderfilled lens."  

Post Frequently. Schedule your postings, if you have to. Find what works, the more you post the more traction and publicity you'll get.  Remember, not everyone is viewing Instagram all the time, so your can get lost in the hundreds of other images on every one's feed. Don't hesitate to repeat a post; Chances are many of your followers didn't catch it the first time around and now maybe they will.

Write a caption for each image you post. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but it's better if you use some words. It's your first chance to write something about what you are showing. Don't let your clients/customers guess what you are posting about.

Use hashtags wisely. Hashtags are used for searching out topics and categorizing each post. If you're a realtor or a real estate agency and you keep using #oaklandrealestate for relevant posts, chances are, a potential client might find you when they search for "oakland real estate" in Instagram. So while #thisweatheriscraycray might be cute, it doesn't really serve any function to promote your business. Always use a hashtag for your product name or any relevant words for your business and/or tag your business name in your own post.

Take a good picture. Instagram is pretty amazing in that it can transform almost any bad picture into a work of art. But it can only do so much.  Make sure your product is clearly visible and in focus. Many of the filters Instagram provides will actually brighten up your picture significantly, making it pop.

Give photo credit. If you use someone else's picture, give them credit by tagging the photo or at least giving their name in the caption. It's an important courtesy that is easy to forget about.

Respond to comments. It is "social" media after all, so be social and interact with your followers whenever you can. Try to be interactive with others and always respond to direct questions, promptly. Depending on how busy your account is, you can also respond to non question comments. Use the "@" when responding so that the commenter knows you have responded to him or her. The beauty of social media is that customers can get an immediate response from you, and all the other viewers can see your interactions.

Get more followers.  The more followers you have, the bigger your audience is. You can pay to get followers or you can get them naturally. Following others will help you get followers. Apparently #followforfollow is the most commonly used hashtag of all hashtags.  Follow those that compliment your business and those that interest you personally.  If you are a realtor, you might want to follow architects, stagers, developers, home inspectors, other realtors, restaurants, etc.  Often if you follow someone, they will automatically follow you back. If you comment on other accounts, all those followers see your account. This increases your own account visibility and allows you to get more followers.

Here are my own favorite Instagram pictures that I have posted on my account @lwhitney25:

#lakemerritt #companymeeting #highlandpartners

#openhousesunday #piedmonthomes #realtorsigns

#highlandpartnerads #newlook

#cupkatestruck #saltedcaramel #schoolpicnic

#mylisting #oaklandrealestate #oaklandhills

Urban Chalet.

If I ever have a renovation, remodel or design project to do, I know who to call.

Angela and I met as cubicle neighbors at our banking jobs, in San Francisco, back in the heydays of the late 1990's.  We were in our 20's, single, and executive assistants to investment bankers.

She was a great assistant, because she was so good at organizing all the high end functions like closing dinners and client events such as trips to Napa Valley wine tastings, and "roadshows", where bankers traveled, looking for investors. She had endless energy, tons of ideas, very high standards and nothing threw her off.

While she had her day job in banking, she was busy remodeling her old Victorian house in the city. At one point she and her husband had the whole thing lifted up to fix the foundation.  They pretty much did it themselves.  I was impressed then.  She also did endless decorating and improving everything in the house, from bedding, to flooring, to window coverings. She liked things custom, high quality and unique.  It wasn't surprising that on her honeymoon to Indonesia, she ended up buying a crate full of custom made ultra heavy, solid wood furniture, (oh, and she did this while battling a horrible intestinal illness she pick up there, putting her in the hospital.)

People noticed her style and her work ethic. While she was still working at the investment bank, (she eventually became a financial analyst), clients and co-workers wanted her help and hired her to get things done.  She had high-end clients who needed high end help, whether it was party planning, decorating or organizing.  Word spread and she got busier and busier with bigger jobs, eventually leading to remodeling and designing multi million dollar homes.

She left the investment banking world and started her business which would be called Urban Chalet, www.Urban-Chalet.com.  From out of her San Francisco living room she helped clients with interior design, site design, project management and custom furnishings. She took on assignments in California, to Park City, New York and beyond.  She got her clients purely from word of mouth.

Urban Chalet kept growing, Angela's living room hasn't been large enough for her business for a while, and so Urban Chalet has expanded to several office spaces in San Bruno, San Francisco and New York City, with a total of 17 employees, including her brother and sister.

Angela, and some of her ideas...

Displays of design projects, ideas and concepts.

They are currently designing and managing over 25 projects annually, with budgets ranging from $10 thousand to $45 million.

I visited her recently at their San Bruno offices.  The last time I saw her office it was in her living room, and now it's in a large office complex with several rooms, everyone sitting at open desks, with large tables, shelving and walls full of samples and drawings and ideas.

Things to come; Urban Chalet is designing their own line of furniture. Miniatures on a shelf.

A beautiful coffee table book, of course.

Angela has an amazing sense of style, is one of the hardest working people I know, with incredible amount of responsibility and stress and yet she is always happy and laughs at everything. (I remember once I was with her when she got a call that a shipping container of materials she had to have at her work site in the Bay Area, pronto, was stuck in customs in Los Angeles, holding up the entire project. I was so stressed out for her when I heard this, yet it didn't phase her one bit. She got on the phone and worked it out.)

Angela and I are now in our 40's, have been in each others weddings (she did my flowers!) and have had a few kids.  But other than that, not much has changed, she's still the same hard working, positive person I always new.

I look forward to working with Angela and Urban Chalet one day.  Either for my own project or with a client. I know we'd all be in good hands and get amazing results!

Ideas on large tables.

The Lowdown on Upper Rockridge.

Here's how it goes for many families who live in the Bay Area...

You're younger and maybe single and move to San Francisco. You live in the city and you're living it up. Working, enjoying the nightlife, amazing restaurants, arts & entertainment and all your friends. Then you settle down and eventually your family grows, you have children and may realize you don't want to be in the city long term.  You start thinking about moving away for more suburbs, better school selections, larger living space for less money, easier parking and... more sun and less fog, perhaps.

The new Bay Bridge span. Connecting San Francisco with Oakland.

That was our story anyway. I remember having just given birth to our first child, ten years ago, and lying in my hospital bed at California Pacific Medical Center, just two blocks from our apartment we rented in San Francisco, and getting a call from our realtor that we got the house we bid on in Upper Rockridge, Oakland.  I was living in San Francisco for the past six years and really loved it there, but once baby #1 came along, we knew it was time to move away.

My husband and I had spent months before then cruising around Oakland, looking for homes. We wanted Oakland because we owned a business there and we were not ready to let go of urban life completely and go any further east for more suburbia.  Because he worked there, he knew Oakland pretty well, I didn't know it at all.  All the neighborhoods blurred together for me, and as I heaved myself out of our car, way pregnant, looking at all those open houses, I started to not really care anymore where we'd end up.

But luckily both of us were not pregnant, and his mind was clearer and so he insisted on really thinking about which neighborhood we wanted to end up in.  I even remember not really paying attention what school district the house was in, because I just couldn't wrap my head around caring about schools when I felt like I was so far away from being a Mom of a school aged child. I also didn't realize how different all the schools could be within the same public school system.

I'm glad we ended up with our first home in Upper Rockridge, an area as I describe as next to Rockridge, Piedmont and Montclair.  The lower side of where Highway 24 and 13 connect. Upper Rockridge is at the base of the Oakland Hills, the hills that overlook all of Oakland and the Bay.

This home we bought was about one block away from highway 13.  Our back deck had a view of a small valley, with houses all over the opposite side, facing us, and the highway buzzing down below.  I remember standing in the nursery, right by the window on the highway side, before we decided to put an offer in on the house, and listening for the highway noise and wondering if that would bother me. It's hard to predict those things, and ideally, before you buy a house, you could have a trial week living in it.  It turned out, the highway noise never bothered me, as it was a constant consistent hum.

We moved in with our little family, and it was the perfect house for us.

At first we were really worried if Oakland would bore us.  Would we miss the restaurants, the friends, the street fairs, the urban living of San Francisco?  The truth is we never looked back. Because unless you are ultra hip, your life with a baby and children changes and other things become important. I was now interested in visiting playgrounds, children's classes and meeting other Moms and having friends over at home.  (But of course it turns out Oakland has amazing restaurants and endless amounts of things to see and do. More on that in other posts.)

We only had one car then, because that's all you need in San Francisco.  And we lived for a whole year with one car in our Upper Rockridge home.  Husband would take it to work each day and I went on my way with baby and a stroller.

I walked to Montclair Village often.  I even did my grocery shopping that way; (Safeway and Lucky's are there), stuffing the stroller basket and a backpack with groceries. Montclair park was a few blocks from our house, with two playgrounds, a pond, (geese, ducks and turtles!), a sports field, the Wells Fargo carriage to play on, and a skating ramp. The park also has the Montclair community center, with lots of interesting classes for kids.  Most Montclair families with young kids know Miss Marilyn's dance classes there.

Wells Fargo stage coach play structure at Montclair Park.

Montclair has it's own little library, in an old tudor style house, where I spent many hours for Toddler Reading time.  The Village itself is unusual, in that it really is like a little village, about four blocks long, with lots of stores and restaurants and services.  I think the Village is pretty unique to the Bay Area.  It's gives the area a nice community feel with fun annual events like their Holiday Stroll, Halloween Parade and Art & Wine Fest and a year round farmers market on Sunday. When you're in the village you are bound to run into a neighbor or someone you know. It's that kind of a place.

I also literally stumbled onto Lake Temescal park one day.  A total surprise park, in our neighborhood, hidden off of Broadway Terrace, in a little valley, with grassy fields, a lake for swimming with a beach and lots of paved paths for biking or strollering.  A popular spot for birthday parties, play dates, fishing and walks.

We bought into this neighborhood because we liked the house we found there, but also because of the public schools. The three public schools in this Upper Rockridge area are Hillcrest (k-8th), Montclair Elementary and Thornhill Elementary.  All three of these are excellent schools (go to greatschools.org to see the details) and all the families attending put in tremendous effort and many volunteer hours to make them so.  Major fundraising happens at these schools, to raise money for things such as teacher aides, libraries, art, music, physical ed and more.

These schools are popular, and they are pretty small with just a few hundred students each. With the neighborhood demographics changing over the past decade, the schools are getting fuller and it's not always a guarantee that every resident will get to attend their neighborhood school.  It's always good to find out directly from the school what their enrollment situation is for that year.

One of the many schools in Upper Rockridge.

Besides these three public elementary schools there are also some great private schools within just a few miles of each other; including Aurora, Holy Names High School, and St.Theresa.  And there are lots of preschools and day cares, including Montclair Community Play Center (the preschool my three kids attended. The oldest co-op preschool in the West.), The Cottage Play House, Smile's Day School, Apple Garden School (Montersorri) and lots of others.

This area of Oakland was hit hard by the Oakland Fire Storm of 1991. A devastating fire that destroyed over 3,700 homes.  Large patches of Upper Rockridge had to be completely rebuilt. Sometimes you can see the fire line, by noticing where the older homes were spared. In some cases, like on Proctor Ave., one side of the street has new homes, and the other side of the street has the original 1940s era homes, (or "pre-fire" homes, as they are often referred to), which are usually smaller.  There are lots of beautiful tudor, cottages and colonial style homes in Upper Rockridge.

Upper Rockridge homes; a mix of new and old.

Now ten years, and two kids later (that's three total), I'm still happy in Upper Rockridge.  I love the weather, usually sunnier and clearer than across the bay in San Francisco. I love the people, the parks, and that it's centrally located to Berkeley, Lamorinda and San Francisco.

There's so much to do and see right here... I go months and months without ever going to the city. The incredible restaurant choices are endless, with College Avenue and Rockridge right down the hill from us. College Avenue, is a long road (going all the way to UC California Berkeley, thus the name), lined with fun shops, (luxury consignment shop I wrote about, Labels is here) gourmet food markets, and the Rockridge BART (train) station is there too.

Views from Mountain View Cemetery. 

Hiking in Upper Rockridge.

I'm glad we found our spot right here, for now I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It's a big decision to decide where you want to start your journey of family life with kids, schools and new friends.  Do the research, ask around, hang out in neighborhoods that you are considering. You'll be able to tell if it feels like home.

Cocktails and Luxury Consignment

It turns out that school fundraiser parties can rule your social life, and it's a great way to get you out, be with friends and raise money at the same time.  You bid on being a party guest, and the parties have all sorts of themes, from Mardi Gras to Beer Ping Pong and others.

For two years now I have happily partaken in the Mimosa & Mingling party at Labels, a luxury consignment shop on College Ave, in Berkeley (accessories only) and on Main Street in Walnut Creek (clothing and accessories).  The owner, Lynn, my friend and a preschool Mom is one of the most happy, energetic, fun persons I know.  And as a Mom of three, a successful  family business owner, she amazes me at how she does it all.  She runs both stores, with her husband and has three kids.

Labels, Berkeley location.

Lynn

Her beautiful shop opens for just us small group of moms, browsing around, sipping drinks, nibbling food and trying on things.  It's like being in a giant rich persons closet.

Last time, I scored a 1960s yellow crystal bead necklace and a green patent leather clutch. 

The store interior is beautifully custom designed and all the inventory is nicely categorized by color, style and size, making it fun to look at.  Shoes, bags, jewelry, scarves, hats, all accessories are at the Berkeley store.

There's my yellow necklace in the bunch.

Shoes on the second floor.

Bags in cubby holes.

Scarves

Labels in Walnut Creek is their original location.  It's bigger and also beautifully designed with gorgeous tables displaying tons of shoes, and their signature square cubby hole bookcases housing their luxurious bags. 

The second time I joined their party was at their Walnut Creek store.  Cocktails, food, friends, trying on Chanel dresses and vintage furs...  I can't wait for the next one!

Shoe display

Rows of shoes...

My cocktail, with furs, bags and shoes in the background.

For those who do not want to pay full price, consignment is the way to go, especially luxury consignment.

Oakland Art Murmur - First Fridays

An especially fun event to go to is the monthly Oakland Art Murmur - First Friday, held on most first fridays of every month.  It's a great example of what makes Oakland great.

It's a night time festival (5-9pm) in Uptown on Telegraph Ave. between Grand and 27th, featuring open galleries, live music, food trucks and other vendors.  It's a constant scene of people watching and senses overload. Great fun.

Art Murmurers on the street.

When I went I made it a family affair with my three kids, 2, 5 and 8 yrs old at the time. Although not appropriate for all children, mine did fine and enjoyed themselves.

Cool cats and their hot rods.

The event, although organized by the city, seemed a tad unorganized and really run "by the people", which made it all the more interesting.  The vendors and musicians seemed to set up camp randomly where they wanted to.  Sometimes clashing music would be playing within feet of each other, but it all worked out somehow.

Stand up comedian, trying to gather his crowd.
Not sure what that cut-out monkey is about.

Rocking it in a school bus with strobe lights
and white masks. 

The people watching was great. Every single interesting looking person in the city was at the Art Murmur that night, it seemed.

My kids walked through old school buses converted into mobile art galleries, or little mini rock clubs, with bands in side playing (or on top of the roof), or vans used as a clothing boutiques that you can walk into.  They checked out the various vendors selling things like jewelry, installations, or displaying strange barbie doll art. They listened to tons of music, and danced around.

Barbie doll art.  Barbies on hats, and doll faces on pant legs.
The girls were amazed.

The first thing we did when we got there was head for a cupcake food truck.  And although the cupcakes looked appetizing, they were a big disappointment.

Standing in line at the not so good cupcake truck.

There were other food trucks there, but we had already eaten dinner before at home.

DJ-ing with old school stereos strapped to a frame.

Our friends underneath a dragon/horse/van with a DJ on top.
Still covered in dust from their Burning Man trip.

Dancing in the street.

We got back to our car at 9:30pm, and everyone was in a good mood, even our youngest, Austin who had missed his bedtime by two hours.  I love my kids for being such troopers!

Amazing Napa & The CIA.

The Bay Area is close to the sea, mountains, desert and... of course wine country, or more specifically Napa and St. Helena.  I've been to Italy many times, visiting family there.  And when the light is just so and the smells are just right, I feel like I'm in Italy when I'm looking at grape fields in Napa. 

We live about 45 minutes away from there, and  yet it's been years and years since I have visited.  For many it's one of those places we rarely visit, because we can.  It's there and yet it so far away.  If I had my choices I'd spend a weekend in St. Helena at least once a year.

Then one Friday, a few weeks ago, by strange chance and circumstances, I was able to attend a business lunch at a winery in Napa and have a few hours by myself in the afternoon.

Our lunch and wine tasting table.  

I almost drove home after my lunch, but decided to be spontaneous and continue driving to St. Helena, which is a small town, right next door to Napa and has many of the famous wineries.

I really wanted to visit my favorite place in St. Helena, Greystone winery and the Culinary Institute of America, the CIA.

As my college graduation gift, my parents gave me an unforgettable week at the CIA for a cooking class.  This was 1996, and the school was brand new - the famous original CIA is in New York.  I stayed at a local inn, and for five days cooked all day, ate amazing meals we made, and hung out with my new cooking class friends in the evening.  I think it was one of the best weeks in my life.  I was in absolute heaven the whole time.

Our Chef instructor, was a typical French Chef as you would imagine.  A largish older man, strict yet nice, had a traditional French culinary background, spoke in a thick french accent and knew everything there is to know about cooking.

St. Helena is a dreamy little town.

It's downtown is a few blocks of cute little stores and then the street, lined with big leafy trees, leads you to many of the famous wineries.  It's beautiful country there with foggy mornings and warm days and fields and fields of grapes.

Miles of wineries.

The Greystone winery is an old castle like building, all stone, with dark gloomy insides. The CIA teaching kitchen is on the very top floor, a huge open cooking area with round windows overlooking the vineyards across the street.  When I was there in the cooking class, I remember looking out and thinking it felt just like being in Italy.  It's so beautiful there.

The front entrance.

Their marble sign on the floor.

My memories of that week and that place is one of those memories that is forever lodged in my mind as a time when I was so happy, content and I felt like I belonged right there.  It's a great place to go back to, in my mind.

The Greystone restaurant terrace.  An amazingly beautiful setting.

I walked around a bit, looked around their huge retail store, bought a selection of expensive hand-made-by-cooking-students chocolates, checked out their restaurant, took lots of pictures and then had to head home.

Ultra modern, ultra special hand-made chocolates.  

My box.  Salted caramel and lavender flavored were my favorites.

It was an amazing day at one of my favorite places.  One day I'm going to do another week of cooking classes at Greystone.