The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page A3

The Page 3A ithin minutes of sharing a bright, colorful photograph of a freshly decorated hampagne-flavored cupcake on Facebook, customers were lined out the door of Buttercups Cupcakes to get one or a dozen. The bakery in Shreveport i using social media as its primary method of advertising and getting near instant results. Small businesses such as Buttercups are opting for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter a nd online coupon vendors to advertise more frequently and for less money than ever efore. impact it has is amazing, and Buttercups wner Kim Hand said of her favorite marketing tools. About 11,000 people are in ouch with Buttercups on the three social networks, led by Hand, who before she started er business five years ago had never had much use for social media.

employee who was much younger than me had to show me how to use Facebook. We were so excited when we had 50 followers. Now amazing the following we Hand said. Followers get updates daily, and they seem to appreciate the posts. She only uses traditional advertising about once a quarter, and yet is due in large part to cultivating social media, Hand said.

Volume increases signifi- antly year over year, and followers are opting in themselves and interacting. acebook is venue to advertise a finished product, and Instagram is a ehind-the-scenes look into the bakery kitchen where workers demonstrate finish- i ng decorating touches through videos or photos. Hand has figured out on her wn that her followers would rather have different views of going on at her bakery rather than being subjected to the same message on all platforms. Bistro Byronz, locally owned in Shreveport, Mandeville and Baton Rouge, posts to Facebook several times a week sharing specials, photographs of a packed house and coupon deals from Grou- pon and GoWaiter.com. This Christmas someone behind Bistro Byronz the ac- count jumped on the Elf on the Shelf bandwagon, pairing photo posts with short poems writ- en by the elf himself: famous bread pudding and heavenly hash.

When it comes desserts got quite a good stash. Save room if you dare for some Saturday glee. ecause tonight every table will get one for read a holiday post from the elf. I impossible to know how that poem directed related to cash sales, but those Facebook osts garnered hundreds of likes. media is a huge part of our said Shreveport manager Brandon Candler.

Groupon and GoWaiter work best for attracting new customers, Candler said. The offers are shared on Face- book. go a night without doing 10 or 12 he said. gets people in the door for Candler said social media is the way the business communicates directly with customers, providing them with attractive visuals and updating them on new at Bistro locations. The latest post announces a second location in Baton Rouge and an opening ate paired with a photograph of an inside view of the empty new restaurant.

The post has about 400 likes. Bistro Byronz uses some traditional advertising, but soc ial media and coupons give the best returns, Candler said. Rhino Coffee in Shreveport also has success with Insta- gram and Facebook. Will McGrew, the man behind the Rhino Coffee accounts, keeps a eye on the Rhino hashtag, a tag added to Facebook and Instagram osts that aggregates a list of other social media users contributed to a feed of hino specific updates and photographs. that we see a lot of i n-store photos, people taking pictures of their stuff, what they buy in the he said.

sing a hashtag, the executed a contest that required students studying in the coffee dining areas to take selfies and tag them with The posts entered them into an ongoing contest to receive free drinks each week or gift card monthly. was a huge success because it got people engaged in the product. It really put out name out there even SMALL BUSINESSES CONNECTING, A DVERTISING ON SOCIAL MEDIA STAN TIMES Folks enjoy a meal Sunday at Shreveport's Bistro Byronz. STAN TIMES Chris and Casey David at Shreveport's Bistro Byronz on Sunday. By Courtney Spradlin Courtney.Spradlin@shreveporttimes.com Significant history can be as lose as just around the corner, as people in Highland neighborhood should know.

Consider, for example, a modest wood-framed two-story house, now sublet into apartments, on the southeast corner of Wyandotte treet and Highland Avenue. In front of it is amodest sign erected years ago the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau and historian Eric Brock, identifying it as Pleasant Hall. Other than that, little bears testament to the last remaining house in Shreveport in which a Louisiana governor primarily lived during or after is term in office. That governor was Ruffin Golson Pleasant, who led the state during World War I and after the war opened, with his wife Anne Ector Pleasant, a rivate coeducational school that achieved quite a reputation for excellence in the liberal arts before it closed in the 1970s after more than 50 years of continuous operation. Born June 2, 1871in Shiloh in nion Parish, he attended local schools before starting at Ruston College in 1886, then con- inuing at Mount Lebanon College.

He attended LSU from 1890 to 1894, where he was act ive in football and was the captain of the Tigers in the first LSU-Tulane game in 1893. He a lso helped organize the LSU Marching Band. He attended Harvard Summer School in 1 895, following the next two years with studies at the Yale Law School, while also serving as an instructor at LSU until 1898. That year saw the United States and Spain go to war, one that drew numerous volunteers, including Pleasant, who served as a lieutenant colonel in the First Louisiana Infantry. When that short war ended, he returned to private law practice in Shreveport, and entered public life through work as the city attorney from 1902 to 1908.

He was state attorney general from 1912 to 1916 and was persuaded to run for governor, defeating ohn Parker with more than 62 percent of the vote. At the time, overnors could only serve one erm and could not seek a second term until four years had lapsed. Parker won in 1920 with support. leasant is best known for is work as an educator and for mobilizing state support for World War support some istorians say was perhaps the trongest in the nation. He also John A ndrew Prime Columnist OFFICIAL PORTRAIT Gov.

Ruffin G. Pleasant APleasant interlude ALMOST LOST IN THE NEWS CYCLE WORLD full of I CYMI messages and IMs are ried-and-true programs, such as the American Boys State program and its Auxilia- counterpart the Girls tate, helping young people network and mix with overs and shakers. American Legion Boys State is one of the most respected educational programs for high school junior boys na- says Stephen Lav ery, commander of Lowe- McFarlane American Legion Post 14 on Cross Lake, which his weekend will host a fam- i ly-style fundraiser to help the proragm, which this year will in June at Northwestern tate University in Natchitoches. learn the rights, and privileges of franchised citi- Lavery says. is opera ted by the students in elected positions and centers on local, and state gov- rnment.

The students are se- ected and sponsored by different posts. Being a non-prof- i organization, we rely on embers, businesses and community support to help fund this. The cost is approximately $400 per he fundraiser, a fish fry, ill be Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. in the downstairs ballroom at the post, 5315 South akeshore Drive in Shreve- ort. TO DO WEEK OF JAN.

5, 2015 SeeTO Staff Reports.