Digital Strategies for Female Entrepreneurs #SheMeansBusiness Hong Kong

Navigating the world of business in an ever changing landscape is a constant challenge for entrepreneurs. Last week, as part of Facebook's global #SheMeansBusiness initiative, I had the honour of speaking alongside two fellow entrepreneurs; Peggy Chan founder of Grassroots Pantry and Jennifer Margolin of Bydeau, about some simple digital strategies we've used to brand and scale our businesses.

If you've ever googled vegetarian restaurant in Hong Kong, you will have definitely come across Peggy's passion project, Grassroots Pantry. She stresses the importance of authenticity and her mission for better food education. Her dedication to running workshops and brand collaborations has created a strong community. I think this if ones of her keys to staying relevant in a very cut throat industry. She recounted the challenges she faced with unfair social media posts and how one photo of a meal can make or break a business. Despite that, she encourages the dialogue between her customers even though she sometimes can't stand it anymore and has a cathartic rant. All in a days work.

I discovered Jennifer's flower and gifting service, Bydeau, on Instagram and was immediately drawn to the brand's visuals. With Jennifer's background in branding, she shared her storyboards and talked about the importance of using an editorial calendar to plan her social content so there's continuity in the tone of voice. She talked about her Bydeau muse and how she focuses on collaborating with female run businesses (MISCHA being one of them, watch this space for our collaboration next month!)  

For MISCHA, our journey on social media started with the Facebook group and Instagram account. They've been effective and invaluable tools for brand building, raising awareness and harnessing the power of influencers. These tools have transformed MISCHA into an online brand. Over the years, the 

change in algorithms to favour engaged and sponsored content has pushed us to be more creative and resourceful on small ad budgets. Now, social media is more important that ever and has become the channel where we can 

speak directly with our customers; through instant chat, Facebook messenger, Instagram DM and dedicated blog content. 

We now use Twitter, Pinterest, Weibo and WeChat.