I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I enjoyed getting to spend time with my loved ones.

The Chamber held its annual holiday mixer December 10^th. It was great to see and meet so many new people and as always wonderful to reacquaint with old friends. We had a great turn out and appreciate all those who came and celebrated the holidays at the Chamber.

The Chamber has a busy year ahead, starting with the Installation Dinner and Civics Award Ceremony January 14^th. This is a great event where we get to recognize some of our outstanding city volunteers.

We will continue to offer Rise and Shine, Business to Business, Government Review and of course ribbon cuttings and grand openings.

I am very proud of the Chamber’s efforts and success with the Energy Upgrade California Grant from 2015. And I’m extremely pleased to announce that we have been selected to participate in the Energy Upgrade California 2016. Only 20 partners throughout California were awarded this grant for 2016.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and successful new year. I look forward to meeting and working with you throughout the year.

 

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY DISCOVERY SHOP
Angela Simpson
1534 Barton Road
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 307-8900

AMERICAN PAYROLL COMPANY
Ericka Gray
1255 W. Colton Avenue
Redlands, CA 92374
Phone: 335-5457

BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF REDLANDS
P. T. McEWEN
1251 Clay Street
Redlands, CA 92374
Phone: 798-4599

C-21 LOIS LAUER REALTY
Freda England
1998 Orange Tree Lane
Redlands, CA 92374
Phone: 800-5054

COVENTRY PET RESORT & TRAINING CENTER
Deborah Salow
412 Tennessee Street
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 792-1163

DARBY’S AMERICAN CATINA
Jon Darby
1 State Street
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 792-2119

DEVI FOR MARIO’S OF PALM SPRINGS
Debbie Foland
109A East State Street
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 792-9789

EMPIRE BOWLING CENTER, LLC
Will Mossonette
940 W. Colton Avenue
Redlands, CA  92374
Phone:  793-2525

HOMEWOOD SUITES BY HILTON
Alyssa King
885 E. Hospitality Lane
San Bernardino, CA 92408
Phone: 799-6500

INLAND VALLEY BANK
Amy Owings
1200 California Street, Suite 240
Redlands, CA  92374
Phone:  583-9150

JUICE IT UP
Cathy Griffin
1275 Alabama Street
Redlands, CA 92374
Phone: 335-8400

LIFESTREAM
Jill Eaton
384 W. Orange Show Road
San Bernardino, CA 92408
Phone: 885-6503

MICHAEL REYNOLDS
ASSOCIATE MEMBER
Mike Reynolds
Redlands, CA  92373
Phone:  793-4757

MUFFIN TOP BAKERY
Emile Maamari
233 E. State Street
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 792-9911

OFFICE SOLUTIONS LLC
Chris Mellgren
23303 La Palma Avenue
Yorba Linda, CA 92887
Phone: 800-859-0128

OZEL JEWELERS OF REDLANDS
Emanuel Jacobson
2 East State Street
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 793-7986

P & R PAPER SUPPLY
Joseph Maiberger
1898 E. Colton Avenue
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 794-1108

PCH ARCHITECTS, LLP
Greg Chapman
30 S. Center Street
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 792-7397

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS
Cathy Bates
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 810-3719

REAL ESTATE BROKER-MARSHA GEBARA
Marsha Gebara
Redlands, CA 92373

REDLANDS AUTO BODY & FRAME
Tim Brown
705 W. Colton Avenue
Redlands, CA  92374
Phone:  798-1388

REDLANDS SPINE & SPORT
Michael Donia, DC
219 E. Olive Avenue
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 793-2225

REDLANDS SUNRISE ROTARY
Micah White & Kelley Bowden
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 793-1966

SENZA MEDICAL CORP
Stephanie Tickemyer
226 Nordina Street
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 793-3563

SOREN McADAM LLP
Joseph Horzen
2068 Orange Tree Lane, Suite 100
Redlands, CA 92374
Phone: 798-2222

SUPER 8 MOTEL
Vissal Patel
1160 Arizona Street
Redlands, CA 92374
Phone: 335-1612

UNIVERSITY OF REDLANDS
Dr. Ralph Kunci
1200 E. Colton Avenue
Redlands, CA 92374
Phone: 748-8390

WATSON LAND COMPANY
Pilar Hoyos
22010 Wilmington Avenue, Suite 400
Carson, CA 90745
Phone: 310-952-6417

ZIPRICK & CRAMER, LLP
William Ziprick
707 Brookside
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 798-5005

 

 

Build Your Page

First things first, if you don’t have a Facebook business page, it is pretty self-explanatory, just make sure your business information is correct and you have a phone number on there. A good technique to gauge page performance is to put a unique 1-800 number on the page that you only use for Facebook, that way you know who is calling you from Facebook as opposed to your actual website.

Once you fill out the basic business information, all you have is a blank template. Start out by uploading your business logo or some other relevant thumbnail picture. To make your page a little more visually appealing, take advantage of the cover photo feature, and upload a high-quality cover photo cropped to 851px wide by 315px tall. While you can just upload a nice snapshot of your storefront from your iPhone that you cropped in iPhoto, I would recommend hiring a designer to make a nicely presented cover photo with some design features and ad copy relevant to your business. Now that you have the shell set up, you probably see that your page is still devoid of any content. It’s good practice, even before you start marketing your page, to at least put 3-5 posts or photo galleries on there for people to see when they get to your page. Good starter posts would be a well-written link-back post to your website’s main page, a couple photo galleries of different products you offer, and other content that shows the best about your business.

Build Your Audience

Now that you’ve got a good looking business page that tells the story of your business and products clearly to your potential customers, you need to find the people that will actually want what your business offers. While most people would immediately think of sharing links to their friends and family on their personal Facebook page and asking them all to follow your page, that is generally not the best approach. Think about it; your friends and family already know about your business, probably already buy your services and already tell their friends about you. While getting in their Facebook timeline can be helpful, what you really want to find is the person out there who doesn’t even know you exist but really wants what your business has to offer.

This is where Facebook makes their money. For a small daily price, you can sign up for their ad service and start promoting your page to the broadest or most granular audience demographic that a business marketer could imagine. Does your business sell handmade wool comforters imported from the Netherlands with a general customer demographic of married 18-35 year-old females? Facebook Ads will help you find people in your geographic area who fit that exact demographic and have shown an interest in wool comforters, the Netherlands, etc…

Setting up ads can be somewhat complex to get right and not waste money targeting people who aren’t really interested in your products. Facebook has a helpful getting started guide for the uninitiated on their site. Many businesses don’t want to hassle with it and outsource their ad management, which could be an option for you as well. Getting your page promotion in front of your target audience is one thing; getting them to follow your page is another. Whether you do the ads or hire someone else to do them, ensure you have engaging visual content, high-quality pictures, grammatically correct ad copy and a clear call to action in your ads that are going to run. Put your best stuff out there, and inevitably you are going to find the people looking for your kind of business and gain their ever-valuable page like.

Keep a steady post feed to your Facebook page of original and curated content that you compile that is related to your product or industry. It might seem hard to keep posting good content but you can mix it up by linking back to blog posts on your site, or making readily shareable images related to your business/industry with some text overlaying a picture. To gain a real, relevant audience I would discourage, in general, the following:

Engage Your Page

Now that you have a growing following, it’s time to engage your page. There are really two things to focus on at this point. One is staying on top of comment engagement. Your page followers will inevitably make comments on posts and photos. Reply to them promptly, honestly, and with a note of thankfulness in your voice for them engaging your page. A recent study shows that 71% of Facebook users expect a response to their social media comment from a brand or page within one day.

The second thing is engaging content. The burden is on you as the business page to continually supply posts, pictures and links to content related to your product or industry that will keep your audience interested and spark the hoped-for viral sharing response among them. Not every post has to be a home run though, but keep it simple, fresh and relevant. Some suggest a ratio of about 80% related curated content from other sources on the web, and 20% promotional/product related. Frequency varies with your audience; some people want something every day, or 3-5 times a day, others will un-like your page and commit you to the spam graveyard if you fill their timeline more than 2-3 times a week.

What’s The Point?

So let’s say you’ve followed this 3-step process above and find yourself with a couple hundred, or a couple thousand, page followers for your small business. What good will that do you other than the obvious brand awareness and peer-to-peer recommendations? You now have a pool of people with express interest in your product that not only can and will become customers themselves, but are a valuable channel to also reach their friends and others interested in your products. It is not uncommon to promote a page post with relevant content linking back to a small business site, and find a traffic spike related to that promotion providing site visitors for almost 1/10th the cost-per-click of some of the big-name PPC providers, and multiple conversions as well.

But it all begins with the basics of hard work, doing your homework and providing quality content. Ensure you are providing relevant, fresh and engaging content to an interested, real audience and you will undoubtedly continue to see your page, and business, grow!

 

Bon Appétit Management Company is an onsite restaurant company that provides café and catering services to corporations, colleges and universities, and specialty venues. We have over 400 locations in 29 states.

The dream is to be the premier onsite restaurant company known for its culinary expertise and commitment to socially responsible practices.

They are a culture driven to create food that is alive with flavor and nutrition, prepared from scratch using authentic ingredients. We do this in a socially responsible manner for the wellbeing of our guests, communities and the environment.

The kitchen philosophy is simple. We cook from scratch using fresh, authentic ingredients. They start with food in its simplest, most natural form. They purchase local and seasonal products and they make their food alive with flavor and nutrition.

They care about their guests. They care about what they like and they care about their health. Fresh ingredients used in the kitchens are complemented with cooking techniques that preserve nutrition and produce healthy dishes. Their ethnic programs are crafted using hands-on research with real people in real kitchens. The flavors are real and they are authentic.

Bon Appetit is a premier caterer in the Redlands area.  They have gained their reputation by preparing delicious food that is cooked from scratch using fresh seasonal ingredients, taking their role in the community seriously, making socially responsible purchasing decisions, and participating in the “Slow Foods” movement in Redlands and throughout the nation.

Bon Appetit specializes in all types of events, from quaint get-togethers to major productions and banquets serving thousands of people for themed extravaganzas.  Fine catering and creativity are the benchmarks of their service.

Bon Appetit blends a tradition of creative planning and consistent event execution that brings satisfaction to all who experience their exquisite cuisine.

To learn more about the catering services offered by Bon Appetit, please send an email or call 909-748-8970.