WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START YOUR BUSINESS?
I have wanted to open a Kumon center for a long time now. I started out as a
Kumon student when I was in 7th grade and stuck with it for four years. When I took
geometry and higher math courses in high school, I realized I had a huge advantage
over my peers. Understanding new concepts came easily to me, and I was able
to calculate solutions to problems mentally. When my classmates had to use their
calculators to fi nd the square root of a number, I could blurt the answer right out.
The work skills and confi dence I gained from the Kumon method also made studying
for the SAT, and eventually the GMAT, signifi cantly easier as well. Additionally, the
Kumon program taught me essential life skills, including time management and the
importance of consistency. Just as becoming a star athlete requires daily practice,
learning new academic material also requires continuous practice. Because of my
positive experience with the Kumon math and reading programs, I decided the next
best step for me would be to share it with members of my new community.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT DOING BUSINESS LOCALLY?
The children of our community are our future. I believe that being able to help develop
and cultivate the future of the greater Scranton region is inspiring and worthy. It’s
an honor to watch my students grow and become independent individuals who will
contribute to the greater good of the place we all call home.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO JOIN THE CHAMBER?
Rati Kanani
Kumon Math and Reading
Center of Clarks Summit
Member since 2018
www.kumon.com/clarks-summit
I joined the Chamber for several reasons. First, I’m not only new to the Scranton area,
but I’m also new to Pennsylvania. Joining the Chamber seemed like a great way to
network and get to know people and businesses in my new neighborhood. Also, I
honestly believe that I can be valuable to the Chamber both as a resource and as a
volunteer. It brings me great joy to participate in community service initiatives, and I
also have job opportunities available at my center. Working at a Kumon center is an
excellent experience for anyone interested in teaching or working with children. It’s
quite rewarding to be able to help students become successful, no matter where they
are in their academic journey.
RYAN HERTEL
Socialocca
www.socialocca.com
Any business that’s truly succeeding today is using
Instagram. With constantly changing algorithms depleting
the amount of attention your posts organically receive,
brands are looking for dependable tips and tricks to get
their posts seen by more and more people. Ryan Hertel of
Socialocca provides us with some tips to increase Instagram
visibility in this month’s Ask The Expert.
Post Frequently
It might seem obvious, but posting more content on Instagram is one
of the most important practices to increase engagement. Studies
are showing that posting once per day (be sure not to overdo it) is
optimum, and the top social media agencies are recommending this
as well. You can even look into your Instagram insights (you need
to be a “business profi le” to do this) and monitor what time of day
is best to post by observing when your followers are most active!
Content is truly king.
Like for a Like
No, we don’t mean to use the #likeforalike hashtag that you did
when you fi rst started Instagramming and wanted to increase
your photo likes. We mean to, quite literally, like photos in your
feed and they’ll be more likely to like yours in return! Instagram
rewards users who engage with others in the app by putting
that user’s photos in front of others.
Comment. Follow. Engage.
After you’ve “liked” a fair amount of your friends’ photos, add
“commenting” and “following” to your immediate “to-do” list.
Be sure to take the time to comment on photos you fi nd cool,
interesting or that complement your brand, and follow other
engaging users who would be interested in your brand.
Quality > Quantity
Yes, we did say to post on Instagram once per day, but you don’t
want the quality of your posts to slide as a result of digging for
more content. With how quickly phone camera technology is
advancing, there’s no reason to post blurry or pixilated pictures
on your professional Instagram account. Take the time to
properly light and stage your photos, fi nd the best editing apps,
and put the time in on the post-production end of things.
Use Varying Hashtags
There’s a new obstacle diminishing post interaction for many
users more and more every day. Yes, unfortunately, the rumors
of “shadow-ban” are true. Using the same hashtags on your
photos over and over can cause your photos to eventually not
show up under those select hashtags. You can easily avoid
shadow-ban by using varying hashtags per post. For example,
when posting food pics, use food-related hashtags.
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