NewsDecember 2010

Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring

Business Development DirectorChuck Fleming

Marketing SpecialistsSara KelschDana PritschetStephanie SinnerChelsea WatterudKatie Meier

For more information on any programs, visit:www.prideofdakota.com

Another Successful Holiday Showcase Season

Technology Tidbit: Facebook Fan Page

Pride of Dakota Annual Meeting

Featured Company: Candlelight Cottage

Featured Store:The Front Porch

In This Issue

Pride of Dakota News

Another Successful Holiday Showcase Season!Pride of Dakota is certainly get-ting in to the holiday spirit and, apparently, so are our showcase shoppers! The Holiday Showcases were very successful this year. We increased attendance at each show with a record total of 28,661 cus-tomers over the four shows. Now, that’s a lot of Pride of Dakota fans! Individually, Grand Forks was up 314 with a total of 5,630. Minot was up 568 with 6,115 total. Fargo was up 1,194 with a total of 7,542, and Bismarck was the first-ever show to break 9,000 with total attendance at 9,374 up 951 from last year.

As you know, the Friday night hours in Fargo and Bismarck were manda-tory this year, and it definitely helped! We had 900 more customers on Friday night in Fargo than last year making a total of 1,400 Friday night alone. That’s almost 500 an hour! Bismarck increased attendance for Friday night too with 1,266 compared to 900 last year – and this year was in a snow storm!

Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about the Pride of Dakota shows. And, of course, thanks for bringing your won-derful North Dakota products! Without all your hard work and quality products, Pride of Dakota wouldn’t be what it is today.

Mable Singer, with Mable’s Taste of Home, visits with a customer at one of the holiday showcases.

Pride of Dakota Featured Company: Candlelight Cottage

Pride of Dakota Featured Store: The Front Porch

What started out as a small group of artists has become a successful and “Unique Boutique” in Bottineau, North Dakota.

The Front Porch was created in 1991 as a coopera-tive of five woman artists combining their talents in a small rented space.

“Artistry brought us together,” said Sue Jacobson, part owner and Pride of Dakota member.

The artists come from all walks of life from teach-ers to business managers to nurses. Eventually, they out grew their rented space, and the co-op was reborn as The Front Porch on Cranberry Creek in a great location in middle of Main Street.

The Front Porch on Cranberry Creek is filled with a variety of locally crafted gifts and food items. Along with craft items, commercial resale and framing are also available. The artists-owners take

The warm glow and delightful scent of a Candle-light Cottage candle will brighten up any home, and they look beautiful too.

Candlelight Cottage creates vibrant colored and wonderfully fragrant, hand-poured soy candles. They even have triple fragrant candles, such as Harvest Festival with layers of ivory crème brulee, orange frosted pumpkin and red cran-berry spice.

Candlelight Cottage pours candles in sugar shakers and mason jars, as well as traditional jars and vases. These unusual containers can be displayed in your home for a long time since soybean candles burn up to 30 percent longer than traditional paraffin candles.

They also burn more evenly, so there is none of the tunneling effect of traditional candles.

Soybean candles burn cleaner and produce 95 percent less soot. Soybean wax is water soluble, biodegradable and non-toxic. In its unscented and

uncolored state, it is even safe to cook with. Buying these candles also helps support American soy-bean farmers.

Candlelight Cottage supports local organiza-tions as well. They offer a customized fundraising opportunity for those in

need. For more information on Candlelight Cot-tage, visit their website at www.candlelightcottage.com.

pride in their state and boutique, so next time you find yourself in Bottineau, make your way to The Front Porch on Cranberry Creek. You will find it at 508 Main Street in Bottineau. The telephone is 701-228-5856.

March 29 Pride of Dakota Day - Bismarck State Capitol

March 30 Pride of Dakota Annual Meeting Doublewood Bismarck

Upcoming Events

Mark your calendars! Pride of Dakota Day at the Capitol will be held March 29 with the annual meeting the next day, March 30.

Due to the legislature being in session, there will only be room for about 30 booths. So, make sure to get your paperwork in quick when registration opens in January!

The annual meeting will be held the next day at the Doublewood Inn in Bismarck. There is a block of hotel rooms reserved for Pride of Dakota members at the Doublewood for the night of March 29, as well. Hope to see you there!

Pride of Dakota Day and Annual Meeting Dates Set

Technology Tidbit: Starting a Facebook Fan Page

You already know your company should be on Facebook, but you don’t know where to start. Here’s a six-step guide:

Step 1: Go to www.facebook.com/pages.

Step 2: Click on “+ Create Page” on the right side.

Step 3: In the “Official Page” box, choose the description that best fits your business (most likely “Local Business”). Then fill in “Page Name” with your business name. Double check your spelling because you can’t change it later! Check the box declaring that you have the authority to create the page and click “Create.”

Step 4: To be the administrator of your Facebook page, you must be a Facebook member. So, in the next step you are prompted to join Facebook. If you’re already a member, just sign in with your email and pass-word. If not, sign up by going to www.facebook.com. You don’t have to use your personal page if you don’t want to, but you must have one. Step 5: The ‘Get Started’ tab gives you a step-by-step guide to setting up your page. It prompts you to add an image, such as your logo that will show up next to your name. You should also fill in the basic informa-tion about your company, post an update on what you’ve been doing and link your Facebook page to your website. Everything you post on your company page will show up as if the company said it. Whatever you post on other pages or profiles will show up as your personal account.

Step 6: After your page grows to 25 fans, go to www.facebook.com/username to set the user name for your page. This allows other people who are not Facebook members to directly access your page. For example, the Pride of Dakota username is www.facebook.com/prideofdakota.

This information is also on a new flyer that we’ll be giving out. Don’t hesitate to contact the Business Development Division at (701) 328-2231 or prideofdakota@gmail.com, if you have any questions. Good luck and happy social networking!