Building A Tribe around Cupcakes


So the other day, my wife was searching Google for cupcakes in our area, she loves cupcakes. One thing led to another and 3 days later were stopping by Retro Bakery in the far Northwest part of Las Vegas…. we live in the Southwest part of Las Vegas… It’s a good 25 minute drive from our house. The good news is that it’s on the way to Mt. Charleston where our family has a cabin so we travel right by this bakery often. We have already been back 3 times for more cupcakes. They are an incredible mix of great cake and frosting, some are dipped in glaze like a doughnut, others have Buttercream. They just celebrated their first anniversary and gave away 1700 cupcakes, the event included a visit by a local news crew, (http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=9823120). This past Saturday, which was Valentines Day, led to their best day ever. So why the success?

Just great cupcakes? That helps, but I’m not so sure, if you take a quick look at their website you will notice that they have a blog, (2 in fact), profiles for Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Zazzle, and Twitter. From the very beginning they started building a Tribe of cupcake lovers. They love their cupcakes and they love engaging others that love cupcakes too. Even though they are located at the last exit on the road to Reno, they have built a Tribe of cupcake lovers that don’t care. What’s really cool is that their online presence began using free tools, I’m guessing they didn’t spend a dime at the beginning to build their online presence, Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Zazzle are all free tools. The only thing required is some effort to get going and build your Tribe of fans around the thing you do. If it’s this easy, why don’t more people try it for their business?

So how did I find out that Valentines day was their best day ever? Facebook.

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  • 7hms7 Feb 17, 2009 @ 17:06

    Great Mr. Internet Guru with cupcake loving wife. Love this little article. The past few weeks we are seeing the result of the last 3 years of participating in free internet services. Yahoo, Yahoo Local Features, GeoCities, E-mail, Instant Message, Web Chat through iChat, Google, MySpace, Facebook, Linked-In, Puregrace.com, and now Twitter, and a few others. I am an internet communication nut, so as you know, if you send me an e-mail, I respond almost as if it’s an “Instant Message”.

    About 5 years ago, when we decided to offer our family music to the world, we felt it would be important to really start developing our web site. A few months after having the site in place, we were disappointed that when typed into the Google or Yahoo search engines, you had to click through page after page of entries to find us, probably about 30 pages deep. The main reason we were so far down on the list is because of the group “Hanson”. There were several articles written about their “Harmonies”…. hence, a search for “Hanson Harmonies” produced hits for their group. The past few months we have intensified our efforts to immerse ourselves in many of the free services offered on the web, not realizing what the impact would be.

    To support what is being said in this article, do a Google or Yahoo search for “Hanson Harmonies”. Then do a Yahoo search for “Piano Lessons Las Vegas”, or “Guitar Lessons Las Vegas”. The new “Hanson Music Studios” site is only a few weeks old, and we have seen rapid growth under the guidance of this “Internet SEO”. Hanson Music Studios has the best Music Cupcakes in Southern Nevada, and we appreciate our loyal Musical Cupcake lovers who are supporting us and helping us grow. Oh, and thanks to you also, Mr. “Internet SEO” dentist.

  • Doug S Feb 17, 2009 @ 17:26

    Thanks Wally, it is cool to actually see the traffic start to drip in….

    • 7hms7 Feb 17, 2009 @ 21:11

      Yes Doug, and even though it may seem like drips, it’s far exceeding my expectations this early on.