NICHE magazine » Social Media

Building on Community Support

Kat McKerrow — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:22:11 +0000

What’s the buzzword among NICHE magazine’s 2011 Top Retailers? “Community.”

“Our goal is to strengthen the community,” says Meghan Blake-Horst, owner of Absolutely Art in Madison, Wis. “We felt a strong sense of community support,” reports Fransien Schuller and Terry Brown of Morganton, N.C.’s Kala Gallery. “It makes sense to be a part of the community,” declares Ingrid Brown, owner of The Villager in Auburn, Ala.

The galleries and craft retailers featured in the pages that follow promote American-made products, celebrate local artisans and improve their neighborhoods. They’re active in their communities: participating in arts walks, hosting social events and collaborating with other businesses in their areas. They’re hosting charity events to support a wide range of causes. They’re also providing their towns with just plain fun—girls’ nights out, live music and wine-and-cheese events.

This year, NICHE magazine also honors two nonprofit organizations and a U.S. senator for making a difference in the American art and crafts community itself. Whether through political action, connecting networks of galleries or by helping artisans market their products, they’re all working to promote handmade craft.

Our 2011 Retailer of the Year is the Don Muller Gallery in Northampton, Mass. The gallery has been a mainstay of Northampton’s art scene for more than 30 years, and Don Muller’s vision and dedication to American-made art have kept the gallery prospering even through a challenging economy.

Success Is No Secret Here
For more than 30 years, the Don Muller Gallery has thrived on a combination of vision and hard work.

Winning by Doing
The 2011 Top Retailers and Honor Award Recipients all have one thing in common: they’re “doers.”

Winning by Doing

Karol V. Menzie — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:21:28 +0000

The 2011 Top Retailers and Honor Award recipients all have one thing in common: they’re “doers.” Whether promoting artists, selling crafts or hosting special events, they’re actively transforming their businesses and communities. Click on the links below to read the full interviews

Kittrell/Riffkind Art Glass

Karol V. Menzie — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:10:06 +0000

TOP RETAILER/GLASS GALLERY

Kittrell/Riffkind Art Glass
Barbara and David Kittrell, Michael Riffkind, owners
Dallas, Texas
www.kittrellriffkind.com

What influenced you to open a glass gallery?
We love glass. We had a glass studio for more than 10 years before we opened the gallery. Now it’s 21 years later, and we still love glass. It’s amazing how synergistic the studio and the gallery are.

What do you do to get people into your gallery?
We have a very limited advertising budget, so we’ve gotten very creative. We’ve developed relationships with freelance writers, newspaper editors and writers, and editors at magazines. And people call us. We have a lot of longtime customers. We’re also on Facebook. Word of mouth is the best thing you can do—now they call it social media. We always try to give people what they ask for.

Tweeting Not High on Some Retailers’ Lists

Caitlin Fultz — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:19:32 +0000

It may appear that we live in a society obsessed with the latest celebrity tweet or Facebook status update, but according to a recent study, certain forms of social media have yet to win over some business owners.

Small business insurer Hiscox Insurance Company commissioned online interviews in late May with 304 U.S. business owners and managers. Each business had fewer than 250 employees.

The survey found that only 4 percent said they couldn’t do without social media as a marketing tool, compared to 50 percent who said the same about word-of-mouth recommendations.

Of those who do use social media for their business, 28 percent have a company Facebook page, 18 percent have a company LinkedIn page, 6 percent employ a YouTube or video-streaming channel, and only 2 percent have a company Twitter feed.

According to this research, the majority of owners haven’t yet fully embraced social media as a vital part of their businesses. But don’t delete your profiles yet—social media has shown no sign of slowing down.