The New Collector | Old Stuff, New Tricks

It’s super hot around here so I’m taking it easy and photographing inside stuff this week. I figured it’s about time to introduce you to a minor obsession of mine – Pez dispensers. Remember those little plastic tubes with funny heads that shoot candy when you tip the head back? You probably got one as a kid and never really thought about again? I have boxes of those things. Numerous plastic boxes that form a small wall in our basement. I’ve been collecting Pez dispensers and Pez branded items for over two decades! I started young because it was something I could look for when my parents dragged me to auctions and antique shops. Pez is a great thing for kids to collect because they’re cheap, small, and easy to find both new and vintage. Although my buying and selling has slowed over the years, I still appreciate a good Pez buy. Pezhead for life, yo.

So let me tell you about my newest purchase! A few weeks ago I bought a plastic three-dimensional Peter Pez head from the top of a retail Pez display. Who is Peter Pez you ask? The PEZ wiki (yes, it exists) explains that “Peter Pez is the PEZ mascot. He is depicted on the sales displays, as well as numerous other forms of advertising. Often, Peter PEZ is depicted as a real clown, holding in his left hand a Peter PEZ dispenser.” True to the description here’s the display:

Originally, this Peter Pez head would have been mounted on the top of a circular rack that would be filled with hanging Pez dispensers. At the bottom of the rack were plastic clown shoes to match the head. They stopped using this display in stores sometime in the 1990s. There was a great discount department store called S&R in Kingston that had the full display with plastic head and feet. When S&R was going out of business a few years ago I BEGGED them to sell it to me. I was willing to come all the way from Toronto to get my hands on it. After a few calls back and forth, they stopped communication and sadly the store closed. I know the employees had a lot of things on their minds and it was easy to forget about me, but I just hope that some other misguided soul was able to purchase the display and it’s not sitting in a dump somewhere.

If you can find the six-foot tall display intact including head and shoes it can set you back as much as $300 – $500 dollars from sellers. It’s quite the rare item and honestly it’s a pretty cool way to display your own Pez dispenser collection. The head alone is usually worth about $100. I found this one on kijiji from a man in Scarborough who was asking for $50. Coincidentally, I had just sold a used air conditioner on kijiji for $50 so it was cash in, cash out. My husband Anson drove me to pick up the head and asked me if I was attempting some type of opposite bartering system where I take an air conditioner and eventually trade it down to a toothpick. Funny guy.

Here are a few more photographs of Peter Pez in all his glory. In case you’re wondering, yes, the other side of the display is the same image. You cannot escape the clown.

How big is Peter Pez in relation to the average house cat? This big:

This display has real value to me as a part of my collection so I will want to show it off. The bottom has a hole in it from where it was connected to the rack so I’ll probably try to put something in there and mount it on my wall. Most terrifying idea would be to stick a light bulb in this thing and make it glow. You see so few clown themed night-lights these days.

So I guess in summary while I am not the biggest fan of clowns I am very happy with my Peter Pez display head The cat, however, remains unconvinced.

Normally I’m pretty open to Facebook’s endless tinkering with their system. They give us a powerful and free service, so who am I to complain when my personal profile looks a little different? Sure, my home news feed is still a bit confusing to me (and it seems to change the day after I’ve finally figured out where everything goes), but for my casual banter and Gardens of Time addiction, Facebook serves my personal needs quite well.

Professionally, however, I have a gripe. I have a Facebook company page that serves as Collectivator’s official Facebook presence and it uses the new (now mandatory) Timeline format. As the site administrator it’s my responsibility to create content as well as encourage others to post their ideas, questions and opinions. In the old non-timeline days, people would sometimes post a photo of an antique just to show it off or ask a question about it. This post would be displayed with as much space and importance as anything I would post. I liked this. It was democratic and it gave more spontaneity and surprise to our Facebook page. It was also frankly easier for me because I had other people fueling the discussions.

My biggest problem with Timeline is that it forces all posts by others into one small box in the top right corner of the page. The comments are abbreviated so you need to expand the window just to read them, as well as see any pictures or other media. My theory is Facebook did this because they thought companies wanted to limit the impact of other people’s content on their brand page. If I was getting a bunch of “you suck!” messages, I guess I would want to limit that too. The fact is, however, that even negative feedback is important for companies to hear, and many companies like Collectivator actively seek opinions and comments from others. We are trying to create a community for our fans – not just an official Facebook wall for our press releases. More input is more entertaining and interesting for everyone! Where is the discussion? A good conversation is not just one person making all the announcements and everyone else nodding politely. It feels like on the new timeline I get the podium and everyone else is sitting on the floor.

In my quest to find any way to give posts by others more prominence, I did find a work-around (of sorts) on Alaina Wiens blog. The only option is for the site admin to change each individual post (one at a time) to be “highlighted” on the page. This puts the post across both columns of the page and right at the top. However, even if I take the time to do that to every post other people make, this elite status will still not show up in the default view of the page. The only way for posts by others to show up with any prominence is for each person who views the page to change their own viewing preference from “Highlights” to “Posts by Others”. So the options are really either see all me or all everyone else, but not both together. Default is always going to be the most popular view and I’m going to guess fewer than half of all Facebook users even know how to change their viewing preferences! This slight concession by Facebook to give us flexibility is really a weak solution.

So that’s my gripe. If you have any experience or thoughts to share about Timeline I’d love to hear your comments. Facebook is still a great tool but I think until they give equal space and importance to everyone’s posts their new Timeline has made pages less interesting, less vibrant, and ultimately less social.

Wow. Over three weeks have gone by since my last post! One of the reasons I haven’t posted about antiques in the garden is because I’ve been too busy spending time planting in my garden. That’s ironic or something. Check out my first peony of the season. This was taken a week ago and the whole plant is flowering now:

Between the garden, working, spring cleaning and a super fun cracked molar incident, I haven’t been blogging nearly as much as I should. I’ll try to turn that around with this installment of Antiques in the Garden. If you haven’t already, you might want to check out Part 1 for more ideas on how to use antiques & vintage items in your outdoor space.

First upon our return to my parents’ garden is this lovely large stone bowl. This is actually a crucible used for melting glass. It was the years of use that gave the inside of this object its complex blend of colour. It’s hard to see here but the bottom of the crucible has layers of dark green and brown glass. My mom usually keeps some water in the crucible and uses it to house a few floating plants and flowers:

Near the crucible are these two giant iron wrenches (you can see how tall they are compared to the normal shovel leaning next to them). These are a bit of a mystery, but the most popular idea is that they were used on steam locomotives. I guess the wheels on those giant trains required some pretty serious torque!

The next object is near and dear to my heart because it reminds me of trips to Biarritz France, near where my mother grew up. It is a segment of antique concrete fence in the form of branches. This object was actually made by the same artisan who crafted some of the similar fence work still found on the beachfront in Biarritz. It was made by a process called sand casting. The process began by first creating the shapes by pressing real branches into sand. Then the wood was removed, wires were added for stability, and concrete was poured into the sand molds. Texture details were added before the concrete hardened. Sand casting is often used in foundries for metal but it also has a long history with concrete. Here is the fence in my parents’ garden:

And just to compare here’s a photo I took of the fence in Biarritz. This particular section of fence is probably quite recent, as they replace segments as needed, but many parts are still vintage to at least the 1950s:

What an elegant and whimsical way to add texture to your garden, don’t you think? Here are a few more nice antique and vintage pieces I found around the grounds:

Now, for the big exciting finale, I’m going to show you the famous President Taft doors:

I love the little duck silhouettes!

Please don’t crowd – there’s room for everyone. Okay, so the story is these green shuttered beauties were once part of a cabin nestled into the scenic countryside of rural Quebec. The cabin was a summer-house for none other than 27th President of the United States William Howard Taft. In the 1990s the cabin was renovated or torn down, and my parents were able to buy these doors on one of their many picking trips to Quebec. They now mark the entry to the compost pile which is admittedly not the most noble of places but makes them very useful nonetheless.

Almost too much excitement for one garden tour right? Oh but there’s more. Not only did my parents get the doors, they also ~~bought an entire small shed from the Taft property~~. EDIT: Turns out I was wrong! My dad left a comment to explain the origins of the shed. Here is his quote: “I have to clarify that the small Taft “shed” you illustrate is actually something I made from four Taft shutters (presumable from the same guest house as same color and construction) and a tin shingled top of some birdhouse or something, Bought on a different trip to Quebec. I noticed one day that the shutters where the same width as the top sides, and I had a screw gun in my hands so I put it together. People have had many interesting theories about its use. Ventilated out house, smoke house, threshold to another dimension. It’s good to have theories.” Thanks dad! That’s actually a much more interesting origin story for this unusual piece:

How about them apples? How bout them somewhat historically interesting apples? And yes, while there is no official certification to prove the President Taft story, my dad says it’s true so that’s good enough for me. Even if it wasn’t true and those Quebec dealers used the pure unadulterated excitement of President Taft to sell these things, they would still be worth the purchase. They are lovely antique objects that are durable, decorative, and still very useful in the garden.

You may now return from the edge of your seats. The garden tour is over! Thanks for coming along and I hope you enjoyed it!

The weather is warming up and that means I’m starting to think about the garden. Even though we have a small space I find it very satisfying to dig in the dirt. I’m a pretty easy-going gardener. If something works, great. If not, oh well. Dig it out and try something else. I educate myself through the internet and books here and there, but my most important go-to expert is my mother. She’s an amazing gardener and with the help of my dad she cultivates a number of vegetable and flower gardens. My mom’s advice for the novice gardener is pretty straight forward: It takes five years to establish a perennial garden, so patience is key. Plant a mix of foliage, colours and heights to create interest. Most of all, enjoy the process and understand that gardens change so trying to create a static “perfect” garden is silly and frustrating. It’s one of those journey and not the destination things.

Gardening is quite the popular hobby these days, and along with it the desire to create outdoor “rooms”. Gliding chairs, sectional sofas, fire pits, elegant lighting and even rugs are now common elements in the outdoor living space. As we attempt to include more decoration in our outdoors, antiques find a new home. Many antiques are durable enough to grace the outdoors year round, especially industrial or architectural pieces. I looked around my parent’s garden and found many antiques that work perfectly amidst the flowers. I took a lot of pictures so I’m going to break it up into two blog posts.

The first item I noticed in the garden was this vintage plant stand made out of chain. The paint is wearing off, which I quite like, but you could easily spray paint a metal object like this if you wanted. I love the idea of using a plant stand for a birdhouse too. This stand creates a nice tall focal point in the middle of the yard:

Near the plant stand are two large concrete urns or planters. These are from the Victorian period, and I love the classic shape and weathering on them. They look softer because of their age. A nice thing about planters is that you can change the plants inside them whenever you wish to suit the season.

Another item in the antique concrete category are the two balls that sit near the entrance of the garden. I think the moss and speckled surface of the concrete is quite lovely. These may have perched on the top of a stone fence at one time, perhaps flanking the gate to a grand estate.

These items are wonderful but they take up ground space. What if you are like me and have to make every inch count? Well, you can still use antique items on the walls of your outdoor space. Check out what I found on the back fence:

It’s a piece of gingerbread trim from a house. When old houses are renovated or torn down, architectural elements like this are sometimes thrown out. Thankfully there are many people who salvage these items and repurpose them. In this case, trim that decorated a house for a hundred years finds an excellent second life as a backdrop in the garden.

Along another section of the fence, I found these two antique grates. These durable cast iron beauties were probably used over heating vents.

Finally, this selection of interesting shapes were mounted on the storage shed. The wooden rectangular piece is another architectural remnant, perhaps from a house but I’m not sure. The wooden “X’s are even more mysterious! I had to ask my dad what they were. Any guesses? They’re used in fishing to wind up the nets. I think originally there were rods in each arm (you can see the little holes), connecting two “X” pieces together, and the net would wind up between them. I searched for more information or images of these things but without luck. If you know anything please share because I’m curious!

So that does it for part one! I love my parent’s garden and there’s so much to see. The next part of the tour will feature giant locomotive wrenches and a set of doors that may have once belonged to former US President Taft. I’ll post that soon. Until then, I have some weeding to do Enjoy the weather!

Hey it’s me! I’m back from two weeks in sunny beautiful Southern California. I had a lovely vacation with my husband’s family. We stayed for a week right next to the ocean in Solana Beach, and then drove across the Nevada desert to Las Vegas. For a Canadian girl, the palm trees and tropical gardens of California seemed very glamorous. I was also happy to see I could eat my weight in fresh local avocados. California is really just a great place to relax, shop, and get those omega 3 levels up.

Anyway, while travelling around the area I kept an eye out for antiques. I found a charming store, House Vintage, one day with my mother in law. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to look around with family in tow, and the next time I got to that part of town it was Easter and the shop was closed. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my brief look inside and the outside of the shop was fantastic. Here’s a photo:

House Vintage is Solana Beach, California

Check out the purple sign. This is a message every antique shop owner can appreciate:

If you’re here to just pick up random stuff and say “I threw out of dozen of these when I cleaned out the attic” then keep walking looky-loo! I wasn’t able to meet the owner, but I tracked down her blog The Mermaid’s Mercantile and I would definitely recommend a visit to her shop if you’re in the Solana Beach area.

Along the same street (known as the Cedros Design District) you can find lots of great group shops including SoLo where new funky stuff is mixed with mid-century vintage smalls and furniture:

The Cedros Design district also has a large Antique Warehouse, and a huge marketplace called Leaping Lotus. If you’re in that part of California and you like shopping, I would give the whole Cedros Avenue a visit.

So do you like vacation pics? Sure you do! Here’s some other cool stuff I saw:

The mermaid door at House Vintage

Hippy transportation in Venice Beach

Building in LA

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre

He was great in Rocky, but for me he’ll always be the Penguin.

Balboa Park, San Diego

And in case you thought the cool vintage stopped in California, check out this window display I found in the heart of Las Vegas for the All Saints Spitalfields store :

Can you see what’s in the window?

How bout now?

Sewing machines!

Antique sewing machines are perfect for a trendy clothing boutique. They’re graphically interesting (especially all lined up) and they give a strong industrial vibe that is also very au courant in vintage. If I’m judging this store by its cover, I would have found plenty to buy inside. Alas, sometimes on vacation you get distracted, and in this case the family wanted to keep moving to dinner. So much to look at and so little time. Next time Vegas and California! Next time!

This week we launched new social media buttons on Collectivator. At the bottom of every item webpage are “Like” “Tweet” and “Pin It” buttons. Now anyone looking at an item on Collectivator (including the sellers) can use these buttons to easily share an item to their social network. I’m very excited about this improvement, but social media does raise some questions. One seller asked me to explain Pinterest in particular, and how the “Pin It” function works. The seller questioned if a pinned image of their stock would remain credited to them. Unlike Twitter and Facebook which display obvious links, Pinterest is all about images. The seller was unsure if an image of one of their items would benefit them or potentially lead to a sale. Basically, would people know where to go if they wanted to buy something they saw on Pinterest?

These are excellent questions but I want to start with a basic description of Pinterest for those that haven’t been formally introduced. Pinterest describes itself as an online pinboard for things that you love (you “pin” things of “interest” – see what they did there?). It is a free social media website that focuses entirely on images. Users create “pinboards” that they populate with images they find online. Pinterest makes pinning images easy using their “Pin It” button that you can add to your web browser, or (as we did on Collectivator) to individual web pages. You can also “repin” an image already posted on Pinterest to use on your own boards. When you pin an image it becomes public for your followers, and anyone on the Pinterest homepage, to see. As a way to organize and curate collections of things you want to share, Pinterest works really well. It has a nice clean design and it’s very intuitive, so it’s no wonder it has already captivated 10 million users.

Now let’s get back to the question of links and image credit. The general rule of posting an image online is that you should always credit the image and link back to the original source. Pinterest makes it easy by automatically linking back to the webpage where you found the image. This link is a part of the image and remains unchanged even if your image is repinned by someone else. Easy breezy right? Well, not always. What if the webpage where you found the image didn’t own the image in the first place? Hypothetical situation: You googled “McCoy Pottery”, and found an article on Bob’s Blog that had a nice image of some green McCoy pottery. Unbeknown to you, Bob had found that image on my blog and used it without giving me credit. If you pinned the image, the link Pinterest would use would go back to Bob’s Blog, and not to me (the original source). This situation happens more than it should and it can be a major problem for people who make a living from their intellectual property. It’s a reason movements like Link with Love started, and why I recommend if you do use Pinterest to always pin the image from the original source. It makes the internet better and it’s much better karma.

So keeping in mind that anyone could take an image from Collectivator and use it on their own website without credit, why do I think Pinterest is good for my sellers? Because most of the time people will be pinning directly from Collectivator and therefore creating links directly to the item listing. Take a look at this screenshot from my personal Pinterest account. This is an image I pinned from an item listing on Collectivator:

It’s a little hard to see because I had to shrink the image, but it shows the basic elements. At the top there is the image with a caption I wrote saying “Flamingos” by 6 Nations artist Chief James Beaver. Captions are required for all images on Pinterest and are usually quite brief. Below the image you see it was pinned onto my board “Great Folk Art”. Below that it reads “Originally pinned by Cassandra Ross” and (most importantly from my business point of view) “Pinned via pinmarket from collectivator.com”. Finally, below there is 1 repin from another user onto her pinboard “FLAMINGOS”.

The image is the link so if you click the image you go directly to the item’s webpage on Collectivator. Anyone who repins the image is now essentially promoting the link to their social networks, and as it gets more exposure and repinned it always links back to the original item listing. Pretty good free advertising, right? Also, note that the little thumbnails you see as pinned from collectivator.com were not pinned by me. These were pinned by our visitors. So now we’re getting more awareness for those items in particular, and our website in general. Win win all around.

Hopefully now you see some advantages of Pinterest from an online business point of view, and might be ready to start pinning. Great! Here’s some pointers to get you started:

Pinterest is free to use but it is invitation only. Don’t worry – they’re not snobs. Just follow the clearly marked “Ask to Join” link on their homepage and give an email address. Within 24 hours you will receive notice that an account has been created.
If you’re a seller on Collectivator posting images of stock, remember to first post the item on Collectivator, then “pin” the image from the item’s Collectivator webpage.
When you create your pinboards, give them good descriptive names and be specific. You can easily make more boards as you go along.
Don’t be shy! “Follow” other people (either all their images or select boards), as well as “like” and comment positively on any image that strikes your fancy.
Even if you’re using Pinterest to post images of stock, remember that Pinterest is a place to get inspiration. Create pinboards dedicated to gardening, cooking, decorating, art, fashion or anything else you want to share.
I assume all my readers are proper ladies and gentlemen, but some people on Pinterest leave rude comments or post inappropriate images. It’s rare but it happens.
Finally, image is everything. Even your loveliest item will go unnoticed (and unpinned) if the image looks bad. Spend the time and effort to properly photograph your items. If you need some examples, just look around at what other people are pinning. Pin images of items that are visually interesting, and don’t feel obligated to pin everything. A little editorial discretion and effort will pay off when the selection of items you share are admired and repinned by others.

If you’re interested you might also want to check out my earlier post on social media for business. Enjoy exploring Pinterest & if you have any questions or tips please share them!

I’m back! I’ll leave my absence unexplained but let’s just say it involved espionage and sports car chases through exotic locales. It was definitely not due to tax preparation.

I thought I might dip my toe back into blog writing by introducing yet another of my collections – vintage McCoy pottery. Vintage McCoy planters to be exact, and in this entry at least, green planters. Here’s the small assortment I have right now:

Those colours are a bit brighter than normal. Guess who has two thumbs and recently discovered all the settings on her new camera? This girl!

As you can see, I haven’t actually planted anything in my planters, but rest assured these vintage beauties are fully functional. I hope to install narrow glass shelves on our dining room window and display some of my McCoy collection with plants. I love the idea of having partial privacy from the planters, while at the same time allowing light to filter into the room. The plants should do well in the light and the shelves will be in a corner so they won’t be in the way. I know this type of window shelving was more popular in the 1950s but there’s no reason not to revive the trend today if it fits your space! Even Martha Stewart is a fan, as you can see from this photo I found on her website:

Mmmmm. That’s tasteful.

Even if you’re not at the point of renovating the windows, McCoy pottery is still a very approachable and affordable brand to collect. McCoy started back in 1910 in as a sanitary and stoneware company in clay rich Zanesville, Ohio. The wares first made by the company were more utilitarian in nature, but then in the 1930s they began to market more decorative pieces for the home. Much like the Shiny Brite company, McCoy pottery became very popular with middle class families in the 1950s due to their quality workmanship and mass-produced price. McCoy branched out from mugs and kitchen ware to include planters, cookie jars, jardines, wall pockets and vases. The items came in a huge variety of shape, colour and glaze. I collect pretty much exclusively the planters, but even in this one area I can easily find shapes ranging from flowers to animals, birds, fish and even boots. Take a look at the variety in my small collection of green, standard shaped planters:

Notice the glazing on the bamboo planter (vintage from the 1960s):

The beautiful variations in colour and glaze make every piece unique. The more common shapes and colours are still found for affordable prices. For instance I found this chalice inspired planter at my local thrift store for $10:

Try to find something this nice at Walmart for ten bucks.

You ever hear the expression “the real McCoy”? Well, that’s actually a very old Scottish saying and nothing to do with pottery at all, but it does serve as a memorable warning about McCoy knock offs. The brand is so popular that newly made reproductions have been found in many styles. Collectors who buy pieces worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars must carefully inspect the mark and the quality of the clay before purchase. The marks varied throughout the years, and some items were never marked in the first place. Marks can be convincingly replicated on reproductions, but what is harder to replicate is the heavy clay used in real vintage McCoy. New pottery is more brittle and less dense. The glazing might not be as expertly applied, or cover the proper amount of the surface as well. In general, the knock offs look and feel cheaper than their authentic counterparts. Try to get your hands on some real ones and inspect them carefully to know what feels right.

You can see the variety of McCoy marks on even this small selection of items.

Don’t let the fear of knock-offs stop you from picking up one of these delightful pieces if you find one at an antique show or in your local SallyAnne. Online sales can be a bit tricky, but this is where feedback and reputation are important. I’ve bought from reputable dealers online with no problems at all. The real McCoys are still available and affordable in many styles. If you are in doubt about making a substantial purchase, you can use the links below to help guide your decision. I’ll profile more of my McCoy pottery later, as well as any updates on those dreamy glass shelves

Real McCoy Links (about real McCoys!):
Chiquita’s McCoy Pottery – Chiquita likes McCoy a LOT. Great photos of her vast collection, as well as collecting tips and historical information.
McCoy Pottery Online – Marks, history, photos, auctions and all things McCoy.

This week I’ve been working with a Drupal developer to make some improvements to Collectivator. One of the changes we will soon implement is the addition of “Like” “Tweet” and “Pin It” buttons to every item webpage. For some of you, these buttons are familiar necessities for any online presence. You expect that every bit of information you consume online – no matter how serious or trivial – will be easily sharable with your social network. For others, these buttons are internet fads connected to websites that waste time at best, and promote group think at worst.

As a small business owner you have to be aware that social media takes time and effort to maintain. If you decide to promote your business through social media you will be bombarded by new websites, and every time you turn around a social network will be demanding more of your already divided attention. Is social media really worth the effort? In my experience, yes. You must educate yourself but with a few rules and limitations, you can make social media work as a tool for your business. It is not a strategy, and it is not a solution, but it can be a great tool.

So let’s start with the basics. Social Media is all online media that connects people together and promotes dialogue and creation of new content. As opposed to old styles of media, for instance television, you do not just receive information. You receive information, respond to it, and create your own. Social Media is everywhere and includes websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, WordPress (the very website I use to write this blog!), and Delicious. Social Media for business works in two ways: it promotes your business for you and it facilitates interaction with your customers. The first part of that equation, promotion of your business, is as easy as putting a button on each webpage you want to promote. Look at the bottom of this blog entry and you’ll see I’ve enabled a selection of social media links. Why wouldn’t I? It’s free and easy to do. If enough people “Like” this article I could even go viral across different social networks and become as popular as an adorably hilarious LOLcat!

It is my dream to one day be more popular than monorail cat.

The second use of social media for business is to facilitate interaction with your customers, and this is more difficult. This side of social media would include your company’s Facebook page, your company’s Twitter feed, and any other site you monitor and build that promotes your business on social media. Many businesses do not know what to say in these forums. They create accounts only to ignore them for fear they won’t use them correctly. It can feel too personal from a traditional business standpoint to use social media. What should a plumber tweet? Why does a consignment shop need a LinkedIn profile? Who wants to spend time maintaining these pages when there’s real work to do and real bills to pay? These are all good questions! When contemplating social media for your business consider the following:

1 – Social Media creates personal introductions to your business: Think about all the ads we see everyday across all forms of media. Most ads are ignored but we place higher priority on those messages that come from people we know. It used to be we trusted brand names but we’re moving towards trusting individuals who share our values. If my friend “Likes” a business on Facebook, I might see it on my Facebook wall, and the connection between my friend and that product becomes an implicit clue that I will like the product also. An introduction has been made between me and a business by someone I trust. That’s very valuable advertising, and it is free on most social media websites.

2 – Use Social Media not just to find customers, but to keep them: This is crucial. Most people do not return to a company’s Facebook page after the first introduction. This is because many companies do not fully realize that the point of social media is not to sell, but to create and encourage dialogue. This is “social” media. It’s supposed to fun and interactive. Ask people questions, answer inquiries, and find creative ways to make your visitors create content themselves. People want to communicate on social media, and if your business does not facilitate communication people will quickly look elsewhere. Encouraging this type of communication is a challenge in Collectivator’s social media. It is where I place most of my efforts, and where I need the most improvement.

3 – If a particular type of Social Media doesn’t fit your customers, DON’T USE IT. Your time is valuable and social media is not free because it takes your time. The best question to ask yourself is “will my customers want this?”. Will a plumber’s clients want to read his or her tweets? Probably not. But they will want to see reviews of that plumber’s work on a social media website like Homestars. Google your business and see what forms of social media your competition uses. If you simply cannot understand how a website could help you, no matter how popular it is, don’t use it. Spend your time on those sites where you see the best return for your efforts.

4 – Link your Social Media together for greater strength: When you have decided to embark in this strange new world of social media, remember the cohesive business image you will be presenting to the world. Business website to Facebook page to Twitter account to Pinterest photos to blog (plus or minus any number of other social media sites). Try to keep the branding consistent, create links between the pages (which will in turn help your search engine ranking) and remember that different social media sites have different levels of professional etiquette.

These are my tips for dipping your toe into social media for your business, and I am happy to share my successes and failures in future posts. You might be surprised how many people want to engage with you, so feel confident to introduce yourself and get started!

I’m back! For all my readers (hi mom!), I should explain that I was on vacation last week in lovely, sunny Cuba. It was a wonderful break from our mild but dreary Toronto winter. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, here’s a photo I took looking out my home office window a few weeks ago:

Yipee.

Now here’s a photo of the sunset on our last evening in Cuba:

That’s more like it.

Although it’s good to be home I still feel sluggish. Therefore, today I’m going to ~~lazily post some photos~~ tell you about my favourite Mountie painting. I can’t believe I forgot to mention it when I wrote about my Mountie collection before, since this painting has been on my walls since I was sixteen. If I remember correctly, my dad picked it up at a yard sale. He knew I liked Mounties, and he was smitten by the painting’s iconic image and overly dramatic staging. For me, it was love at first site:

The Mountie and his noble steed.

She’s a beaut, ain’t she? Everything art critics would tell you – that the figures are too rigid, the setting cliché, the whole thing is kitchy – is true. I don’t think that this is a particularly good painting. But, BUT, what it lacks in artistic sophistication it makes up for in enthusiasm. There’s a signature on the bottom that says “J. Hamilton”. I’d like to believe the artist was an older man who was a hobby painter. One day he decided to paint the most noble, upright (very upright – he’s almost jumping off his horse) Mountie he could imagine. He put his subject in the classic Canadian wilderness where grass, meadows, mountains and clouds meet sky.

I love how the clouds arrange themselves with almost heavenly reverence around the Mountie. I love how the horse is restless, but the Mountie sits with complete poise and control. It’s all pretty great. You might not respect me for admiring this painting so much, but that is the risk we all take when we find original art and put it on our walls. At the end of the day, I think it’s much more interesting to have questionable but well loved original art, versus bland and mass produced consumer art.

You sir, are a true Canadian hero.

My Mountie painting is not so loved by my husband, but then again he once bought a frame to properly display an “A-Team” poster so I take his opinion with a grain of salt. He really likes other folk art, and I admit this particular piece has a niche appeal. For the RCMP fan, however, it’s the Mona Lisa of Mountie art. If my hallway were the Louvre, this baby would be the star attraction.

I bet you thought I might not write an entry this week, and then where would I be in my New Year resolutions? Truthfully, I might not reach my goal of two entries, but that’s because I spent my week working hard to realize my other resolution of improving my workspace.

Next month we will move into our new office on the Danforth. To help us get ready, my amazing dad came into the city and helped me paint the two rooms that I will be sharing with my husband’s consulting company. It was hard work with long hours and nothing but a buzzy iPhone for entertainment. Have you ever heard the hits of ABBA through speakers that look like glowing ice cubes and buzz every four seconds? No? I envy you. Anyway, my dad was such a trooper (not to mention an expert painter) and in the end our efforts really paid off. Check out the space before we got our rollers on it:

Burgundy and orange. Together at last.

Quite the colour pallate for a work space. I’ll admit the orange is somewhat stimulating, even if it burns your retinas. We bought the best darn primer we could (at our local Benjamin Moore store – they were really great help) and got down to work. Here’s my dad mid primer:

Ahh. It’s getting calmer already. The white was tinged green to match our final colour, but we still required two coats of primer.

The view from the door. 1st coat paint on the walls.

Finally, to skip to the good part, we finished two coats primer and two coats paint, had the carpet replaced (by local merchants Citi Flooring – also very helpful), and had the two way mirror replaced with clear glass. The end result? FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS:

Oooooooh. Aaaahhhhh.

Oh yeah. That’s the stuff. Hard to tell from these iPhone pics but the green manages to be calm but cheerful. The carpet is an oatmeal colour with flecks of brown and white. Designer favourite “Cloud White” on the trim. I only remembered to take pics in the evening but during the day the window in the front office floods the space with sunlight.

No words. Should have sent a poet.

My arms still ache and there are some touch ups at the bottom of the trim, but otherwise the office is ready to move into and start using. I’m really looking forward to spending time here. Just goes to show how much difference a little effort (and paint choices) can make!