Facebook Cover Photo Features Webconsuls Team

Two weeks ago I talked about adding some finishing touches to your Facebook business page. In particular, I urged you to create your business Facebook "cover photo" and to think through what message you wanted to send with that photo. Of late, I used our Webconsuls Facebook page to feature our clients' Facebook cover photos. All the while, I was working with our Webconsuls' team members to determine what our cover photo should say about us.

Here is a little of how this process went: We are not a traditional brick and mortar business, so we knew we wouldn't present a photo of our storefront. We also knew that our team members live in five different states and three time zones, so getting together for a group shot was not going to happen. Additionally, we felt that taking the approach that we use on our Twitter page, that is listing our services, would not really make us unique or tell our story.

So how do we tell Webconsuls' story? What makes us unique?  I remember when Dick and Dennis first decided to form Webconsuls. They went back and forth about what to name their business, how would they convey their vision.  The good news is they committed this history to a press release and here is what they wrote November 16, 1999.

'The name Webconsuls was chosen very deliberately. A consul is an official appointed by a government to advance the commercial interest of its citizens in a foreign country. Webconsuls is conceived as describing "a firm which advances the commercial interest of its clients on the World Wide Web." As Dick Fay recently remarked, "Web sites do not automatically produce dollars. Success is realized when web sites are carefully marketed and targeted, those activities being integrated into a tailored, well–orchestrated business campaign."'

And so, between a few emails and phone calls the Webconsuls' team decided our cover photo should be a collage of the team members. It is not about being techies or understanding all the latest software and tools, but more about being people who work with other people to promote the success of our clients' businesses. It is a collaborative process and we think that is what our current cover photo says.

Webconsuls' FACEBOOK Cover Photo April 2012 - click on it to enlarge!

What do you think? Notice I said current, because we can refresh it and keep it vital. Like any collage it tells a story...Dennis, Judy and Dick meeting 31 years ago at an ARCO training seminar, Malik's college graduation and enjoying a California sunset, Heidi receiving her master's from NYU and "horsing around", Alycia and Bill celebrating their wedding in Hawaii, Dick supporting his beloved DUKE and the Phillies, Dennis meeting with clients, Daniel working with animals and 'dressing to the nines', Keith enjoying life and supporting the Toronto Blue jays...the story goes on.

We look forward to your comments or stop by our FACEBOOK page and "like" us.

What I Learned from Julie and Julia

Exactly two months ago I wrote a blog about Twitter and the things that I learn from Tweets. That day I made the following observation:

"Here is some other interesting news I picked up by following Rick Klau. On March 11th Blogger announced a new Blogger Template designer. The reviews so far have been very exciting. I am thinking of trying it to create a new personal blog. What do you think of that idea?"

Guess what? Not one of my Webconsuls' readers offered any feedback about me creating a personal blog.

Quite unexpectedly on June 5th, I watched the movie Julie and Julia. Have you seen the movie? What I love is that it tells a true story and allows us to eavesdrop on the lives of two couples from different generations struggling with identity and goals.  And of course, it also tells a successful story of a BLOG.  So, as the movie closed, the wheels were spinning in my head. On Sunday June 6th I joined in a #blogchat and the rest is history.

I invite you to visit Judy's OP-ED blog, particularly the About Judy's OP-ED page where you learn how #blogchat influenced my decision.

But today I would like our clients to mull over these facts:

• Webconsuls has many clients and a good number of these clients have great blogs. These blogs have been customized to match their websites. They actively post interesting news about their business or their industry. You can see these clients on our Blogroll (in the left margin.)
• Many of our clients look for guidance about blogging, both technical and creative guidance 
• Creating a personal blog can serve as a training ground for your business blog, allowing you to get comfortable with the software, adding images, videos, links, etc.
• A personal blog can be a virtual family scrapbook. You can 'turn the lens on your family', involve other family members to participate with comments, be guest bloggers, etc. 
• You can keep your personal blog private, only share it with designated readers. 

I want you to know that I built my personal blog by myself. I was tempted to call Malik Moosa-Soomar, but I felt strongely that I needed to learn how to do this by flying solo. 

Now I hope you will read it, ask questions, post comments, and join in the fun.

And here for today's fun is a trailer for Julie and Julia. 

Indian and Pakistani Weddings

Growing up in the states you see that every little girl dreams of her wedding of how it will be and all the details in her head as she grows up. In India or Pakistan, traditionally, the parents would plan their children's weddings and back in the days arranged marriages were more common. Today, majority of the weddings are love marriages where the bride and groom find each other (the normal way).

A wedding from my culture is a bit more of a headache that will push you to go for a drive-thru wedding in Vegas. Our weddings last for several days. After reading Dick's post on the cost break-down of his and Fran's wedding, I almost felt like crying realizing the difference in his wedding and my traditional wedding. Let me give you the breakdown of what how I have come to see a semi-traditional wedding in my culture.

Mehndi (Henna Tattoo)

Day 1 - Mehndi. The Mehndi (known as Henna) is a temporary tattoo that the bride, family, and friends put on their hands and some on their feet on special occasions (particularly at weddings). I personally hate the smell of it, some people actually like it.

Day 2 - Pithi. The Pithi ceremony is the day before the wedding. It involves rubbing a paste made of chickpea flour, turmeric, or rose water on the bride and groom. This is great for the skin and evens out the skin tone the day before the wedding. The family takes turns in putting some of it on and over the years this tradition has evolved to friends coming together towards the end and egging the groom and messing him up with all sorts of different grocery items such as eggs, flour, syrup, ketchup, mustard, etc... Sad to say only the groom goes through this un-eventful process =/. After all this mess is done, we dance away and in some weddings play Dandiya which is done so with two sticks hitting each other (sounds ridiculous but is quite fun).

Day 3a - Nikah (Nikkah). The Nikah ceremony is simply a contract between the bride and groom in the Muslim religion. I find it to be equivalent to the marriage license from a judge or justice of peace. This ceremony is only for those within the religion and close family and takes place before the reception itself.

Me and Zaheen at the night of our Engagement

Day 3b - Reception. This is similar to how white weddings (traditional western wedding) are celebrated with dinner and dance party. We have the cake cutting ceremony followed by the first dance and a traditional father daughter dance (taken from the American culture) leading to a night to remember (so they say).

Day 4 - Satada (Rukhsati) - Just when you thought it was over there is one final day. This day is for close family only where the bride is acknowledged to have left her family to go in to the groom's side of the family. This day has a lot of crying as the parents of the bride realize her daughter is going away. It's also viewed as the first lunch/dinner with the two families together and the bride and groom have consummated their marriage.

One day I left out which is the court ceremony. We have decided to do our court ceremony on the same week as our reception so that Zaheen (my fiance) could wear a close to traditional white dress at the court room.

So this sums up my interpretation for a five day wedding. I'll be going through this process this April and will write about my experience afterwards.

What are some traditions you follow for weddings?