Social Media series part 3: how to stand out with photos and videos.

Pictures:
Taking a good photo is key. It will keep you above the rest. Especially of your selling something, it will help the buyer choose your item over a similar one from another shop. Use a nice white back ground. I purchased a white poster board I keep for photos. Have natural light. 12-5 is good lighting time where you should just be able to open the blinds a little and have a good crisp picture on your phone or tablet. Keep the light behind you. If your taking a pic of a person, have he light behind you not the object your taking the pic of because the back light will cause a glare and fuzzy picture. When the light is behind you he item is bright a clear. Eyes shine a twinkle and everything looks a million times better. Be creative in the view your taking. Get down on the ground. Eye level with whatever your taking a pic of. Kids are so much cuter when you get down on their level.   Use the tools in the editing portion of IG. they have updated it so you can adjust brightness and contrast, sharpness and focus. It makes all the difference.

15 seconds of fame:
 Use that video feature. 15 seconds goes a long way when we are such an instant gratification society. Talk to your people, show them your process, show them how an object works. It's fun. Then they can see your real and not a robot. The cool thing is that you can create video that has snipits of a process. You hold in the button then when you let go it stops then you hold it again and it records. That is how I have clips of sewing a skirt or something I am creating. There are cool things you can do with it.

Picture collages and slide shows:
There are other apps out here that you can make a quick slide show of your photos. This is great to show many customer photos in one post and it can be set to music. I use flipgram. You connect your IG account to it and it can be shared though many media sites. I love this as well. Especially when documenting an event. You don't want to over post and flood your followers feed so many a quick slide show. There are various collage apps that allow you to combine multiple photos into one. This is great when documenting an event or a process of something. You can customize the frames and add pic art and word art. It's fun.

What kinds of things should you take pictures of?  Nobody wants to see product shots all day. They know what those are by heading to your website. Some are good sometimes when launching a new product or making a style board etc...  People want to know who you are. This is their way to connect and relate to you. Tell funny stories, share good deals, spotlight your followers, or other shops.  Don't be a selfie taker all the time. The occasional is awesome but there are some that are flooding their feed with selfies.   Let people in to your personal life a little bit. It makes you real and personable. Write what your thinking. And let your eyes be the camera. Snap those moments where you walk into a room and your breath is taken away cause of how clean your bedroom finally is or how sad you are to tackle the 10 loads of laundry on your couch.

Taking great pics goes a long way. Take the time to practice and it will all become second nature. Have fun!!!

To see the other post about social media go HERE AND HERE

Bellapia Designs LLC Fall/Winter Collection Launch

Hey ya'll!  I am so excited to share my new women's collection with you.   I have stayed up many late nights brainstorming and choosing fabrics that I love and I hope you all will love.  I was so lucky to do a photo shoot with some beautiful girls and it went perfect.  We had a lot of inventory to shoot and lucky for me and them I shoot what I need and that's it.  Two hours tops for many outfit changes and 3 location changes.  It was amazing.  Yes, it is still 100 degrees here in Phoenix and I was asking them a lot when I said bring sweaters and scarfs so we can look as cozy as we can, cause the rest of the country is having normal weather for the season.  We Phoenicians don't start wearing long sleeves and scarfs until December.  So lets give these girls a round of applause for looking amazing in such hot heat.  Now I would like to present to you all my Women's collection.  Let me know what you think!  Collection drops Sept. 1st!! and I am gonna let you in on a little secret...Did you know our Handmade Kimonos can also be worn as scarfs?  For reals!  Go look!!!

Who wants some Junk? Some Junk in YOUR Trunk!

Its That time of year again to be stuffing your trucks and vans to the brim with great treasures and keep-sakes from Junk in The Trunk Vintage Market.  You know who you are.  You are the mom who has been telling your husband about it and even put it on his icalander for months now just so he remembers that you will be shopping bright and early at 7:30 am and HE WILL be coming along to carry bags, hold your cash and carry out your neccities at the days end.  You are the Business women who has canceled her appointments for the day just so you can make it.  You are the mom who bravely comes with your child in the stroller and your bag packed with fun games and treats and anything else you can bribe/entertain your child with for the rest of the 6-8 hour day.  You know it.  You have done it.  You have been her.  And if you haven't? Then wake up lady!  It's coming.  Just a few weeks away, here in Scottsdale AZ crafters, vintage experts, artists, and small business owners gather and celebrate the beauty of buying local.  Home décor, Vintage junk, New and repurposed junk, reclaimed wood décor, furnature, even painted pianos.  There is something for everyone. 

I have been so lucky to be a part of this great even for a couple of times now and it is wonderful.  I get just as excited to sell as I do to mix and mingle with some of the greatest entrepenuers Phoenix has to offer.  So let me introduce you to some of my favorites that I have had a chance to meet and mingle with.

Now if you don't already, follow me on INSTAGRAM.  I will be having various giveaways to get ready for the market, including a NEW VIP JITT market ticket.  $40 value.  This gets you right through the fast line, NO WAITING< WHAT?, a fresh tumbler full of mama's cold brew, A shopping bag and discounts and MORE!  So hurry over.  Don't miss out. 

To See a video of just what you are in for, and to see a complete list of venfors, click HERE.

Grungy Galz
J LaLa Designs
Jaxn Blvd
Jitt Vintage apparel
Letter Craft
artful Melange
Purdy Things
Royal Bowtique
Rusty Saturday
The Banner Shoppe
Felt Flower Shop
The White House Designs
Yellow Bungalow Shop

Spreading The Love. Donut style

I go to the UPS store by my house on a bi-weekly basis. They are so good to me and know I just come in and throw my stack over the counter in the mail pile. So today as a lesson to my children about being kind to those people who make it possible for us to do things, we bought a dozen donuts and gave them to the nice people I see ever week. They ship your beautiful orders for me. Cheers to UPS store. You make my world go round.

Social media series part 2: Posting and giveaways

So last time we talked about some of the first basics of social media. Hashtags and making your profile standout. You can find that post HERE.

Today I am going to talk about how often to post and product giveaways these are very important and will make a good first impression or a bad one. So listen up. Grab your pen and paper and hopefully this will spark some inspiration for you.

How often to post. This one varies by circumstance. A good rule of thumb is once a day. Think about when you check your feed the most. Or what you think people do the most. Me?  Morning and night. To check if I have any questions or comments hat need to be tended to. If I am notifying about an event I do that as often as once a day as a count down thing and then I will post something else throughout the day like I normally would.   Over posting can drive people away especially as a business. Other people will get lost in your feed and one day you'll wonder why you haven't seen anything from Suzy and you head over to her account and see that she has been posting but it is getting lost because of how often people post a day. And we don't want to have to be on IG all day just so we won't miss something. I know I don't like seeing the same people every 5 posts in my feed. So be respectful of others who want to be seen.

Giveaways. They are great and they can travel fast but keep a couple things in mind. Don't have to many businesses be a part of a giveaway. In my opinion 3-4 is a good number. I don't like the ones that have a million people hat you have to go follow and tag and use here different hashtags just to enter and hen comment saying that you did. Keep it simple. It should take 10 minutes to enter a giveaway. Keep your sponsor number under 4 so your viewer can easily navigate to their accounts. Use one hashtag. You will be able to see who has reposted and used the hashtag. No one should have to leave a comment saying they reposted because if they did then it will show up when you track the hashtag. Simple and easy.

Keep those things in mind when posting. You don't want to have people who are going to unfollow you.

Fall Color Trends- Can I wear a maxi in the fall?

I have always been one to just wear what I want to wear.  Be comfortable and look fabulous.  It has been just the past couple of years that I have really tried to do the fun trendy things with each season.  Fall has been a fun one for me but I don't get to enjoy it very long being in Phoenix.  We are still battling 90 degree weather in October.  By the end of September we are all pretty much over it and and new list of bad words come out when we hop out of the shower into a bathroom that never seems to cool off.  We sweat.  All.  The.  Time.  No Bueno. There are colors and prints that are inspiring me this upcoming Fall/Winter season since we all still love our maxis and need to make them work with the heat,  so I will be working hard to coordinate little bits for you and your minis. 

crushing on this Burnt Orang and Mustard coordinates.  From Fine and Feather

Can't go wrong with a classic Nude Skirt.  I love the pop of the black and white.  From The Berry

I Still love me some good Aztec print.  I love the chucky sweater.  This is a great transtition piece because you already have your boyfriend white v neck and your skirt (most likely)  Add that loose over sized sweater and your set.  From Twenties Girl Style

And the ever so classic Black Maxi.  What a great basic and goes with literally everything.  You can find your self wearing this more than any other skirt.  Dressing it up or down, the possibilities are plenty.  You may just want to stock up on a few! From Style Sizzle

So Just a few things that have my wheels turning as I am picking out fabric for my FW2014 collection.  Any suggestions or requests are always helpful too!! 

Tink & Key- A product Review

I love it when I see a great opportunity to reach out to other small businesses and it works out.  There are so many times that I mean well, I mean to get a hold of a certain person from a certain shop, or email this person, try and meet up with this person so we can do a collab.  This time it totally worked out.  Meet Tink and Key.  Home of the famous "Miracle Baby" tee.  There story is great.  Apparel with a purpose.  Spreading awareness through their uplifting, cute, and catchy tees. 

Stephanie asked if anyone was interested in doing a review on product on their blogs.  Amen sister!  I'm your gal.  She shipped a great anchor tee my way immediately.  I couldn't wait to open the package (that was wrapped all cute and amazing BTW)  Have you ever worn American Apparel Brand tees before?  Particularly the triblend vintage tees?  They are a soft, smooth as butter, dream.  Not to mention that it is US made. YAY for the USA!  Come along as I show you a couple of their House Specials and I review their cute Anchor Tee.

 

 

 

I Love the zipper club tee.  For those children who have had open heart surgery.  How cool is that?  I just thinks it helps kids not be ashamed of their physical appearances that are different from others.  Scars are cool.  They tell stories.  This shirt gives them pride.  They conquered a huge mountain just to come out on the other side shining.

 

Now here is the Miracle Baby tee.  I love it.  There is just something about a baseball tell that gets me every time.  I love my baseball tees.  Even better I love them on my kids!  I wanna eat them they are so cute.  Birth itself is such a miracle.  But We all know those special stories of people beating crazy odds, or surviving un imaginable things.  Again, there is a story to be told.

 

 

Now there is the Anchor tee.  I love the simplicity.  The anchor is such a great symbol for so many reasons.  We need to anchor ourselves in so many things in life so we don't loose our way.  It reminds me to find all my little anchors in life that will keep me still and where I am supposed to be.

I love it paired with on of my own designs, the Two faced Pencil skirt.  (Shop on the right side bar)  I love simple, cool graphic tees.  They go with everything.  Even a pencil skirt.  I know they technically don't match, but then again I think anything goes. 

Its a great shirt.  Great message.  Love it.  Go check out Tink & Key.  See what message you can use in your wardrobe.