Thursday Feature: Reviews & Interviews - Steve Groenier of Artbeads

Today I present an interview of Steve Gronier, VP of Search Marketing and Customer Service at Artbeads.

I'm so very honored to be part of Artbead's Blogging for Beaders program for almost a year now. While I knew that some of the 'stars' of the beading world did designs for places like Beadalon, Soft Flex, and other suppliers, I'd not imagined that a relative newbie like myself could have this kind of opportunity.

Artbeads was the first to reach out to me and that opened many new horizons. It gave me a chance to explore new materials I might not have thought about purchasing, and provided me a great deal of inspiration via the others in the program whose blogs I now follow. It really was a turning point in my blogging and the start of making jewelry become more than just a hobby for me.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Steve, the creator of, and Duchess, the current community manager for the program, for their support of my efforts and great partnership.

Now, let's learn more about Steve!

Dawno: Your bio on Twitter says "I enjoy amazing beadwork and beaded jewelry, collecting cool beads..." Is this something you became interested in because of Artbeads or is there a story you can share behind it?

Steve: I’ve always admired beaded art that I’ve seen in various galleries or from independent artists at summer fairs and music festivals. But, I had no idea how much I was missing until I started working for Artbeads. I’m still overwhelmed by how many beautiful beads I’ve seen from all over the world and made from so many different types of materials.

Dawno: You've had an interesting career in varied industries - I noted on your LinkedIn profile that you've been with Disney & a wireless company, among others, and now Artbeads.com. What is the common thread that ties these together and what did you learn from your past roles that has helped you be successful in your current role?

Steve: What ties these all together is my work in online marketing and advertising. For the past 13 years, I have been focused on helping companies market online. I think what has helped me grow most in my career is having a passion for learning new things, being creative and taking action. Online marketing is always changing and you’ve got to stay on top of it to get the best results.

Dawno: Do you think businesses, like Artbeads, can improve the customer experience by using social media? How would that work?

Steve: Absolutely! In any business it’s critical to listen to your customers and build strong relationships. Social media has enabled us stay more connected with our customers and listen to what they want and what they don’t want. It’s also allowing our customers to be better connected with each other. Buying beads and jewelry supplies online can be very confusing for people. The quality of products, service and pricing can vary by a large degree. If a supplier fails in any of these areas, people talk. I think this has worked to our advantage because we do put so much time into making sure our products are of the best quality and that our customers are 100% happy no matter what.

Dawno: Do you think independent artisans can/should leverage social media better? How do you think building community or being part of the conversation is important to that.

Steve: I think social media is helping independent artisans get their work in front of more people. Usually when you see or buy something that you’re excited about, you want to tell others and show it off. I see this process happening more and more on social media sites as photos are taken with cell phones and posted to Facebook with the links to an artists site. When artists stay in touch with their fans through social media they increase the chances that word about their work will spread. I would definitely recommend all artisans have a Facebook profile or fan page and a Twitter account and promote those anywhere they can - websites, email, business cards, etc.

Dawno: Should the independent artisan perhaps brand themselves (I'm thinking of Margot Potter, who does this very well) to be more successful in their niche?

Steve: It’s important for people to easily understand what it is that you do, what you stand for and then to be able to connect that with your name. Part of this means carving out that niche for yourself. The other is creating a name for yourself. For jewelry designers, this brand image could be their personal name or a business name. Margot’s got a bit of both going on. She does a great job of promoting her name and explaining what she is about with her tagline, “The Impatient Crafter” which by itself is presented as a brand. She’s then used the “Impatient” idea in her books with titles like “The Impatient Beader.” All of this branding works to help make you more memorable, findable, shareable. So yes, brand yourself.

Dawno: What types of things is Artbeads doing to support independent artisan jewelry designers?

Steve: Independent jewelry designers are really our core customer at Artbeads.com so on a broad level everything we do from products we purchase to our wholesale volume discounts is designed around their needs. Something new that we recently created is a section on our site called Sellers’ Secrets to provide resources that help jewelry designers grow a successful business. It includes things like tips for preparing for the holidays, pricing your jewelry and discounts on services. To get this started we’ve partnered with Ruby Lane who has lots of experience working with artisan jewelry designers.

Another thing we have done is put even more focus on our Learning Center which provides inspiration and education. This section has been given a complete facelift recently and now includes over 500 jewelry design ideas, ideas for upcoming events, handy jewelry making tips and video tutorials.

Something else that’s exciting is to see how the Artbeads.com Facebook fan page has become such a great gathering place for jewelry designers to connect and share ideas. We now have over 7,000 fans posting comments on everything such as how they get inspired, favorite findings, tips on selling jewelry, etc. They also share a bunch of their jewelry photos and links to their Etsy shops and websites. It’s great fun.

Again, thank you, Steve, for taking the time to answer the questions and provide your insights. You can follow Artbeads and Steve on Twitter @Artbeads @BeadGuy.



This post sponsored by:

Dawno

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My First Blog Review on Technorati and Thoughts About Marketing and Social Media

Ok, pictures first - lots of 'em today, so I hope you're not on dial up! Then the post.

Someone special I know has a May birthday, so I got out these emerald Swarovski rounds - not totally sure what I'm going to make, but it needs to be in the mail tomorrow...

My new assortment packs of aluminum jump rings from Blue Buddha Boutique (as mentioned in prior post) - very cool colors, light weight - going to play and play!

I was just going to order eye and head pins, but I saw these and had to have them, too - Angelite - what a lovely blue!

Needed these fire polished Czech Purple/Gold AB rounds in 12mm size to finish my Step by Step Beads Colorworks Contest submission. It's all done now, and I'm very excited to submit it. Just worried about whether or not I can get the photograph specs correct per rules.

OK, last picture! A while back Rings & Things sent me some brass frames during the Gluable Challenge month. I never used the square one, although I did try something new with one of the rectangular ones. So I got this punch to make perfect-fit squares of paper that I'll use in a collage inside the frame. I have 72 of these frames, due to a *duh* moment in making my order, so I should be able to experiment freely. Got the punch and other cool stuff from Alpha Stamps, which I had never heard of until I read about them on Barbe Saint John's blog.

That's it for the pictures today, on to the title story.

I recently wrote a very short post referencing Technorati. I've been registered there since October of 2004 with my other blog NVNC ID VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES and decided to register this one as well. In that little post I asked if you'd be so kind as to give my blog a review.

Last night I checked my page, and saw that a dear friend of mine had posted a review. The generosity of her comments left me speechless, honest. This was me: " ... "

I've been thinking lately about how a little-known indie artisan gets the word out that they have things they'd like to share, sell, say... Well, blogging is one way, but people need to know to read your blog. Not easy when there are eleventy gazillion blogs about every kind of craft imaginable. Ok, I Googled craft blogs and there were 19 million hits, beading blogs, 16.2 million hits. Not quite eleventy gazillion, but close enough.

Now, I primarily blog because I like to. I'm a social person, extroverted and the beading thing is pretty solitary, so it's my social outlet. (this explains why it may seem like I'm stalking you when sometimes I comment on your blog, or respond to your comment here, about 3 minutes after you post - it's just that I'm starving for conversation!)

I also like to think there are some people who read this and enjoy my posts. I also realize that there's a marketing aspect to this now. As I was talking to my daughter on the phone we got to talking about why that's important.

I don't think it's enough to just have good stuff out there and hope that people will find it; they won't unless you give them some breadcrumbs to follow through the wild forest of the internet. I think you have to go find people you feel are kindred souls, make connections, share jokes, links, help each other out, pay it forward when you can. It's not that I'm looking for you to be my customers, but that when we share in this online conversation it makes us more visible on the web to potential customers - for *all* of us.

Someone lands here, doesn't really like my styles, but is gaga over Tish's or Lisa's, or anyone else on my blogroll. And, I hope, vice versa. Blogrolls, links, reviewing each other's work...fun for us, good for us. It's why I'm going to do my Sunday Dawno's Wanderings Around the Beadosphere, and I hope that someday some others will share in the fun, too.

And, just for fun - I posted on my other blog about my internet addiction along with a fun video clip about Twitter. Would love it if you'd take a peek!

Hey, Another Contest with A Giveaway Attached...So It's Two Chances to Win!

Read about this giveaway to promote a contest first on Twitter: "@tammypowley New @ Jewelry Making Soft Flex Contest: Soft Flex has an interesting new contest running for.. http://tinyurl.com/cn5yqx" So I went over to Soft Flex Girl's blog and snerched the following from her post "Big Giveaway for Blogger Buddies"

Btw, if you aren't following me on Twitter and would like to, I'm @AWDawno - I don't post a lot, sometimes it's just chat with other folks I know from before Twitter, sometimes it might actually be interesting. One thing I don't do a lot of is push my wares - it kind of bugs me when that's all I ever see in other tweets.

Sure, you should promote your Etsy or ArtFire store, but every tweet is "see my beautiful new listing!" or "buy this!" - all the time? I have to admit it annoys me somewhat. Let's socialize and have some fun, too! Great examples of how to do just that are @beadinpath, @Rings_Things, @BeadGuy, @JustATish and @ABeadADay - to only mention a few. @Rings_Things posts links to articles, re-tweets other Twitterer's news and has made personal connections. That's what I look for in social media - being, you know, social.

Anyway, more about the contest and less my pet peeves. I've only ever bought a few rolls of Soft Flex, but because of the great color assortment they offer, and my new fascination with leaving long swaths of my stringing wire exposed, it's on its way to becoming staple for stringing. The black Soft Flex was featured in my bracelet a few days ago and the bronze Soft Flex in the necklace the following day. I want to get some bright colors next - red, green, yellow, turquoise.

OK, so, per the blog giveaway info, I'm posting about it here, adding a button on my sidebar and may post about it again for extra bonus entry goodness.

Just to tie up the loose ends - the blog giveaway is promoting a Soft Flex contest - two different things. You can enter the giveaway without entering the Soft Flex contest and vice versa (but why not enter both?) Deadline for blog giveaway is July 1, 2009 - enter by commenting at the post. Click here for Soft Flex contest details (link also found below). Everything below this is straight from SoftFlexGirl's blog - I take no credit for the content or art below.

Big Giveaway for Blogger Buddies!

Giveaway prize includes:
3 FREE Trios of your choice!
That's right ANY 3 Trios. You choose the colors!

Here's what you gotta do:

Help us get the word out about our new contest.

To enter to win, please blog about our new "Flex your Creativity" Beading Contest.

Save/Post details:

FIND OUT MORE HERE!
(link to: http://www.softflexcompany.com/BeadingContest.html)

Feel free to expand and say more if you like. The only big rule is that it must link to the details page on our website for your fellow designers to find out more.

In addition, if you use the fancy artwork that Kristen created in your sidebar, I will enter you again. 2 entries!

Grab the html code for the button artwork and display it on your blog at the bottom of the contest page. Then, leave me a comment with a link to your blog! I will enter you to win 3 FREE Trios in your choice of color combination! If you blog about it more than once, let me know. I'll enter you as many times as you mention and link to the details page.

All entries (comments) for this giveaway must be posted by July 1st, 2009.