North Brooklyn offers a cozy mecca of studio spaces for artists to work, live in, and Instagram. While the app has earned a reputation for promoting endless boredom check-ins and vanity selfies – plenty of artists are taking advantage of the platform to promote events and shows, document their work in various stages, and link with other like-minded creatives.
I scoured the ‘gram to find my top 8 pick of talented painters in the neighborhood with impressive archives, all for your viewing pleasure. Continue reading →
Gosh there are just way too many social media outlets, right? That being said they all serve very different purposes and as an online business owner the best way to have a far reach on your potential audience is to have a presence where those users are.
For Greenpointers we are heavy hitters on our facebook. It drives a huge amount of traffic to the website and it’s also where you can find some rich anti-“yuppy” sentiment. (For real, people still use that term.) And going off original blog owner Justine’s recommendation – the H bomb is still blocked.) Facebook is also great resource for local happenings and serves as the website for many Greenpoint businesses – which I believe is totally acceptable if your goal is to get customers in your door and not necessarily to drive traffic to your website.
It took a while to get used to Twitter, but it’s a great real-time news source from people experiencing situations first hand and it’s also where lots of followers give us great tips and boss us around, which is much appreciated. “Write about this…” “Go eat here…” “Look at this…” It’s also a good place where you can “get the attention” of bigger news outlets (ahem New York Times) which usually means you tip them off (ahem Killer Mockingbirds) and they pay a real journalist to cover the story and do a better and more in depth write-up. Then every other blog picks it up and there is not one link back to the original source – us! (I’m just a little bitter about that one. Just a link is all I’m asking for! The decency of a simple link!)
By far Instagram is my baby. Not only can I in real-time share images from my vantage point in Greenpoint, but even better I can see through everyone else’s eyes. A reader recognized me in Met Food once because of a photo I had shared of the amazing nail job I got at Ria’s Nailz. And I’m not so sad now that Vine doesn’t work on my phone because Instagram has that covered. Instagram is my phone’s g-spot.
I have only more recently become obsessed with Tumblr because (surprisingly) I have two other blogs there: JenniferGalatioto.Tumblr.Com (abstract / urban landscape photography, etc) and MorningRidgewood.Tumblr.Com (a photo blog that was a compromise between my personal life – aka Jon, the cats and my sanity – and my crazy blogger self. It’s JUST a photo blog – just a photo blog.
I like Tumblr because there is an “anything goes” “get weird” vibe. A younger crowd with more bold and higher quality visuals abound, and it’s a great excuse for anyone who wants to happen upon “artsy bordering on lewd” porn nudes in their dining room while there partner cooks dinner. “It’s not like I was looking for porn, but there is it! Look at that!” There are no rules, but you do have the option to block adult content. And it’s meant for content regurgitation.
This occult candle gift, which I shot in an occult bookstore in Bushwick called Catland – just seemed right on Greenpointers.Tumblr
Here is a great opportunity for a local business or startup!
Cardwell Beach, a Brooklyn creative solutions and digital agency, is spending it’s Fridays going where very few marketing agencies go during the summer: to the office. Cardwell Beach’sSummer Fridays contest will award free marketing services to one deserving New York City company. The grand prize includes in-house consultations every Friday in June, as well as free website development or other marketing solutions that are specifically tailored for the winner’s business needs.
But wait, there is a catch!
Cardwell Beach is particularly interested in working with a growing business in New York City that sees itself as a positive influence in the community. The business doesn’t need to be a nonprofit, but it does have to care about more than dollar signs. Cardwell Beach is an innovator in the advertising and digital world, and it wants to partner with a company that shares its enthusiasm for collaboration and teamwork.
Here is how it works:
Head over to Cardwell Beach’s Facebook page, click LIKE, and fill out a submission form. Every type of company or organization—from community gardens to new iPhone apps— is encouraged to apply.
Cardwell Beach’s team of designers, producers, developers, copywriters, and strategists is an eclectic and dedicated group that has helped launch major campaigns for E*TRADE, The NFL, Hercules Trophy, Lumineye, and more. Now they are looking to help one great NYC brand truly take off this summer!
Sometimes getting pissed off can do the trick, especially when millions of “users,” or the “products,” start bitching. As user/products, we know how much we were worth ($1 Billion!) when Instagram sold us all to Facebook, but we have rights and a voice. And we can use the very tools they give us to communicate our outrage. I love internet mutiny!
In a post titled: “Thank You. We Are Listening,” Instagram Co-Founder Kevin Systrom promised to “modify specific parts of the terms to make it more clear what will happen with your photos,” then went into specifics about the sale of photographs for advertising purposes stating that, “it is not our intention to sell your photos,” and most importantly:
Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed. We respect that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos are your photos. Period.
Do you think that Instagram will keep their promise?
Greenpointers’ facebook page will no longer be being used as a hate page for so called, “hipsters.” There is always room for joking and light hearted fun, but explicitly violent comments, for example in response to the “Casting Call For Hipsters” poster will be reported as abuse, which may affect your facebook account status. Some of the disgusting comments included: John: “In local news, 200 people artists, baristas, and other creative types between the ages of 19 and 34 were found dead in Midtown this morning. More on this story as it develops.” Pete: “What a great place to throw a grenade.” Chris: “Brooklyn Yuppie Killer….pay for one get another dirtbag knocked off for free…….1800-Break-a-Hip.” This is three out of hundreds of comments that have been specifically blocked for this type of language. When I reported these comments as abuse and clicked on the “Hate Speech or Personal Attack” drop-down, there was no line for hipsters, baristas, creatives, yuppies, etc.” Discrimination and outright violence toward a group of people, who cannot be defined by race, gender, religious affiliation is still a form prejudice and will not be tolerated in the Greenpointers community.
Greenpointers.com is very excited to be an online affiliate of our favorite local bookstore WORD. I am a major blog and online marketing nerd and read a ton of books on the subject. In an effort to monetize the website, I learned about affiliate marketing. After interviewing author Robert Anasi, I asked myself, if I write a great book review about a book I love, why not get a commission from the sale of the book?
I looked into it and via Amazon.com we can do this, but I want to keep it local! After some research I discovered that WORD has an affiliate program, so I put together a Books We Love page, where you can browse through titles we love that inspire this website. This page will grow as we review more books, but in the meantime, we have a few categories: Brooklyn & Beyond, Food (obviously!) and Blog/Social Media.
The idea is that “outbound marketing” is for people with a lot of money and no brains. A great example is commercials during the Superbowl. While these ads are well done, they are extremely costly and the method for reaching out to potential customers is in the form on an interruption. Inbound Marketing on the other hand is for the people like you and me: people with not a lot of money and a lot of smarts. With Inbound Marketing, using blogs (hey hey – you’re reading a blog!) and Social Media, you can cleverly get customers to come to you.
The warehouse space the size of Rhode Island that served as mothership for the Northside Festival was the perfect place to first experience TheHÜB.
A striking modern sculpture and interacting (as opposed to interactive) space where participants of [email protected] could take a seat, drink free beverages, ask each other a million questions, check out trending topics, or be accosted by a blogger in search of quotes, TheHÜB calls attention to a need we didn’t know we had: The need to look up from social media and speak directly to the people around us more often (even if they appear to not be very into it at first).
When those people around us are obsessed with the same things we are it isn’t hard. Peter Raymond, the organizer of TheHÜB, says about Northside, “What we did was host impromptu gatherings and after speaking engagements. It was received very well and we have been invited to as far as Jordan and Greece to exhibit.”
This past week I attended a Social Media Workshop. The workshop was mostly an eye opener but at times a snoozer. The most ironic part was there was no wi-fi! Which may have been intentional because all the time spent doodling would have been spent on Instagram.
Don’t have Instagram yet? Get it! There is a reason that Facebook just bought it for $1 billion: because it is the best photo sharing app ever, and I sincerely hope they will leave excellent alone, but my hopes are low considering timeline.
We’ve all been there, working away for hours, focused on only the task at hand – maybe staring at a computer screen as we write, maybe it’s hours bent over jewelry wire, or time spent standing in front of a canvas. And then we look up and realize it’s 4PM and all we’ve eaten all day was that bagel with our morning coffee. That we’ve been in the same position for hours.
Friends, this is no way for a creative entrepreneur to live!
Whether you freelance, working from home or coffee shops for multiple clients, or are starting your own business, like so many of the members of Work It Brooklyn, you’re spending a lot of time focused on the business you’re trying to grow. But how much time are you spending focused on yourself?
Our next event, April 18th from 7 to 9PM and graciously hosted by our friends at Human At Ease in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, is centered on how to stay healthy and well while you are focused on growing your business, and the best way to make all the parts of your life balance while you are doing this.
We’ll have a discussion, led by our own Aja Marsh, of North Brooklyn Runners, and with panelists includingDishan Elise, a certified personal trainer and the founder/owner of Human At Ease, and Kim Ann Curtin, a life coach who is founder and CEO of The Wall Street Coach.
Whether you’re working on starting your own business, freelancing from the cramped confines of your studio apartment, or a member of our community with a focus on food, health and wellness, this event will provide answers to achieving a better, healthier, life balance.
Don’t worry – we’ll also have our signature speed-networking!
About our Host: Human at Ease is a fitness and wellness studio whose goal and desire in strengthening the “whole” person is to facilitate an overall sense of well-being & fulfillment, and to improve overall quality of life using one or more of our various offerings. Their objective is for the community to recognize [email protected]’s name for what it is- a haven for strength & serenity. A place where we can all learn to “Love Ourselves”. At [email protected] we all share in a common vision of positive human change.
Gosh there are just way too many social media outlets, right? That being said they all serve very different purposes and as an online business owner the best way to have a far reach on your potential audience is to have a presence where those users are.
