Celebrating My 57th Birthday Day 7

Hi All!


I am winding this celebration down, today is the last day. I hope I have given you greater insight into me the person. The Internet has been a very different kind of venue for me. I am an opinionated and PRIVATE person that does not mesh with the current  mindset of the Internet. All the social media guru's will postulate that you must be transparent and your authentic self. Yet, that's not the true picture. We all have good and bad days. We all have our individual life experiences and quirks that make us unique. What I see happening with the Internet is that folks are afraid to speak their minds, that they self censor so afraid someone will be offended. The fact of the matter is that You have the right to your opinion. I have the right to disagree with you. When we become so afraid to speak our minds than we lose that which makes us Americans.


I have had to skip around this journey of 57 years to try and give you some insight about me. I left a lot off the table like the 1995 White House conference on Small Business where I authored three issues. One issue dealing with international trade received the highest number of votes in the eight state Great Lakes region. So many things I had to leave off the table for the sake of brevity. 


Going forward I am moving back into international trade and reconnecting with individuals and organizations in  this arena.  Amazon Trading Company (amazontc.com) will be my vehicle to accomplish this. I will be offering marketing and contact services for companies that want to expand their customer base. 

I hope the Creator will bless me an additional 43 years to see my girls grown and successfully on their life path. Heck, I might even get grandchildren. Smile


Whatever the Creator has in store for me I will meet it head on and give thanks for the opportunity to learn and grow.


Peace.


Michelle

Using Pinterest for Business?

If you're thinking not another social media site, then think again. This one is free and may yet rival Youtube. Why? Because its visual and extremely easy for folks to share. 


Here is an interesting example of how one company is using Pinterest for business.

Source: delicious.com via Julie on Pinterest

What do you think? Do you see a way Pinterest can be used to extend your brand? I'd love to hear how?

Interesting Article on Marketing to the Chinese

Marketing to the Affluent Chinese: Target the event, not the individual !
Targeting a specific type of consumer or client when designing a product for China can cause serious headaches. Indeed, it is common knowledge that there is no single « Chinese Consumer », but rather a multitude of Chinese consumer types. The Northern Chinese may be opposed to Southern Chinese, East Coast Chinese to Chinese from the backward central regions, New Money to Old Money, “hard-earned” money to “dirty” money. Is there a key to targeting potential clients in this extremely fragmented market?

For over six years, we have been interviewing affluent Chinese of all sorts about their lifestyle and associated product purchases, and this has convinced us of the following: there IS a common denominator among all the affluent Chinese. For all of them, social events in China are extremely codified and require the display of specific categories of luxury products.

For example:
Rich Chinese often display numerous, expensive luxury watches, which makes us smile and think that the Chinese are avid watch collectors. In fact, during our interviews, the Chinese explain (quite logically) that each watch fits a specific event and therefore multiple watches are necessary: one for the workday, which will be common / low profile i.e. a Rolex or a simple Omega; one for the Board or Communist Party meeting i.e. a premium watch such as a Patek Philippe with complications or an Audemars Piguet ; one for sports activities – a Tag Heuer or a diving watch like the Omega Submariner ; one for parties with sophisticated friends – a diamond watch from Piaget or Cartier… And as people get richer, the events subdivide, specific sports will require specific watches i.e. a diving watch for diving, a Jaeger Lecoultre Reverso for Polo, etc …

The same pattern exists in the women’s universe, clothing for example: at work (all the women work in China) a skirt and a sophisticated top, for shopping a casual outfit which may include trousers, for an evening event a evening gown, for a Charity lunch among women a very sophisticated but this time short dress, for sports – sportswear, for golf – golf apparel, for yoga an indoor outfit made of expensive fabric such as single thread cashmere…

Events are codified and the Chinese are very formal. While it is difficult to describe a « typical » Chinese, all the Chinese across the country will agree on the same attributes to wear at the same types of events. This flows from the strong influence of Confucianism, which dictates what is called Chinese « good taste », or rather the importance, as taught by Confucius, of behaving in the appropriate manner in each specific circumstance. What the Chinese call « Good Taste » today is nothing more than what Confucius called the « virtue of the gentleman ».

The key to marketing a luxury brand or product in China, therefore, is to find the related event, rather than to determine the type of client or consumer. Once you’ve identified the event, you will be able to roll out a lifestyle-marketing plan that will be simple, effective – and very lucrative.

The site can be reached by clicking on the title.

How is Blogging For Your Business Going?

Well how's it going? I started out playing with my Blog, now I'm serious. I started out posting pictures and events my daughter and I were going to here in Scottsdale, Arizona. Spa Valley as I jokingly refer to it. I wasn't even posting about my jewelry nor was I consistent. Did not have a plan in place. Now I'm the SEO Queen. Google loves me, I generally keep five pieces of jewelry on the first 1 or 2 pages in their category. I'm all over Google. Type my name in or wirequeen and see what I mean.


Now that I started consistently post I getting more repeat views. I've had over 700 people come to my blog since I added the flag counter about 2 months ago. I challenged myself to post everyday in November and I did it. I announced the challenge and I what day and subjects I would be posting after the challenge. I 'm an early riser between 3-5am, but I have people at my blog before me. I had to learn how to schedule my postings. Scheduling posts was the easy part, that's why I had to set up a schedule of what I was going to post on specified days. Hard for me because I was doing a breaking news kind of format. Now I am using the tools and trying to stay on track about my subject matter. I will have to start a wordpress blog for my information,grant,job and other communtiy awareness news. That blog will go live this month (michelleshawkins.com)


So where are you with your Blog? Is it getting your brand before the public? Or are you just having fun.?


Inquiring minds what to know. SMILE