Main Street Calumet offering business and social media program

CALUMET — Keweenaw area businesses who use social media will be enhancing their posts and pics in the near future, thanks to a training series offered by Main Street Calumet. The organization will be launching it’s Caffeinated Conversation series that allows business professionals to gain further insight on successful practices including the use of Facebook and Instagram.

In a digital world where the marketplace has become global, many small business have turned to the use of social media to help reach their customers.

“Having conversations with people and looking at social media, you know, wow, ” said Leah Polzien, the executive director of Main Street Calumet. “We all need to market ourselves, and we want to do that as cheaply as possible. Most of us don’t have a lot to spend on a marketing budget and this is a tool that we can all take advantage of and do so regularly.”

That’s the initial focus of a new program offered by Main Street Calumet.

“Caffeinated Conversations program is a business education series,” said Polzien. “We want to support our local business and help them grow. And we known that we all need continued education.”

The events will be held at Keweenaw Coffee Works in Calumet, with the first of the series begins on the 16th of March.

“We’re going to have an event once a month, the third Saturday of the month,” Polzien said. “March, April, and May, and we intend to go beyond that of course, but that’s our start, and we’re starting with social media. We’re taking those first three installments of the series and breaking things down into social media etiquette, guidelines for your employees, and then social media photography.”

Polzien says that just a few corrections to amateur photos can usually make a huge difference when marketing a product and that will be the subject of April’s session.

“In April our seminar is going to be photography and we’ve brought in a photographer who is going to teach you how to use your phone to take great pictures for social media,” Polzien said. “So we will ask them to come with their phone and something that they would like to take pictures of. When you leave at the end of the day, you’re going to know how to take a picture for social media, promote yourself, and promote your business.”

It’s anticipated that future sessions will touch on other pertinent business issues as well.

“Right now we ‘re starting with three sessions on social media, but beyond that we would like to move into other areas that are important for business,” said Polzien.

Pre-registration can be completed at www.mainstreetcalumet.com.