Happy Monday Friends & Familia,

This week, I am fortunate to have a little bit of time off with my family before summer ends and school restarts.  This vacation is not getting in the way of what has been quite an exciting month on the @jaftexpresident Facebook page.  The August 2018 Jaftex Facebook Live Shop Tour Challenge has proven to be an interesting and insightful challenge.  It has also been a learning experience for many, including your’s truly.  I sure hope the challenge has had a positive impact on the industry and each of the challengers’ businesses.  Most importantly, these videos should help to inspire shop owners to embrace social media as an important part of their regular business.

At the time that I am writing this post, there have been over 50 shop video tour submissions.  For me, that seems a little light, but I always have high expectations.  I guess I am of the “go big or go home” mentality.  Maybe I am just an optimist.  In any case, as we Fortunoffs like to say, “It is what it is.”  I guess I need to take some time to recalibrate my expectations and realize that Rome was not built in a day.

IT IS WHAT IT IS

I wanted to express how proud I am of all those shop owners that stepped up to make a video and enter the challenge.  You did it!  Not only did you do it, but you did it well….really well.  I watched every single video and each and every shop had at least one special component that differentiated them from others.  This is what makes every shop unique and special.  This is also why it is so important for you to showcase your shop to the world through video.  Yes, you can get customers to your shop that are passing through your area or are regular customers, but did you think your shop could become global?

Some of the videos were clever and humorous.  Others provided inspiration and eye candy to last a lifetime.  And others had background music, captions and voice overs.  One showed cotton being harvested.  Another had people in costumes walking around.  And another had pictures of me all around the shop.  Yet another had all kinds of signs and messages written to me.  And another offered donations for reaching certain “like” milestones.  The most important thing to me was that just about every video demonstrated the importance of charity and giving back.  This speaks volumes about our industry and our amazing quilting peeps.   This makes me proud and should make you proud too.

Many, if not all, of the videos have received thousands of views.  Some of the videos have had tens of thousands of views.  At last check, the top video had over 500 likes.  For me, my @jaftexpresident page has gained almost 2000 new followers which is a good thing because I want as many people as possible seeing all the great video shop tours.

To be honest, the challenge wasn’t perfect.  For some reason, not all videos were created equally and unfortunately that was beyond my control.  This may have been caused by the different way the types of videos are treated on Facebook.  Perhaps a Facebook live got more love than a non-Facebook live.  Things may also have been affected by the way that I shared the video depending where it came from, a business or an individual.  In any case, I did the best that I could to put everyone on an equal footing.  Again though, it really isn’t about winning the prize for the contest if you ask me.  I hate to be cliche, but everyone is a winner for gaining tons of invaluable exposure.

Today is August 27th and there is still time to post a video before the August 31 cut-off.  Please dig deep and just do it.  You got this.  Even if you don’t post a video @jaftexpresident by August 31, you should do yourself a favor and make a video anyway to post on your Facebook page and website.  This is a great way to showcase your shop and show the world how awesome it is.

That about wraps it up for the challenge.  Please note that the winner of the contest will be determined by the number of likes on my @jaftexpresident page on Monday September 3 at 12 o’clock.  I will make the official announcement on September 4th after I make sure that the winner meets all the requirements.

In closing, I want to thank everyone who participated in this contest in any way shape or form.  This really turned into something well beyond my imagination and expectations.  Also, I think people had a lot of fun and that is so important.  The next big contest will be for consumers and this will be announced on my September 3 or 4th blog post (depending on labor day).  This one will be called the “Scott Fortunoff Sent Me To Your Shop Challenge.”  Although it will be for consumers, I am hoping that shop owners get involved in their own special way.  Stay tuned.

Thank you!

Scott

@jaftexpresident