We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Corey Perkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Corey, thanks for joining us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

I’m a product of a single parent home. My mother did all she could for me and my brother when I was growing up so I vowed to myself personally and professionally that I would always find ways to give back to the community. In the past, I reached out to my friends and colleagues in the industry to support my “Back To School” giveaway for a well deserving single parent family here in Atlanta. I received a big outpouring of support which filled my complete trunk with school supplies, bookbags, and also provided gift cards to the mom. The kids were so happy and overjoyed. The mom said since living in a motel she didn’t know how she was going to provide for her kids that school year. Things like this warms my heart because we never know what people are going through nor do we know when we would ever be in that position as well.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

My love for the arts and performance started in high school. I give credit to DeKalb School of the Arts in Atlanta for helping me discover my passion and start my journey to becoming the founder of IndustryThursday. IndustryThursday was created in October 2012 after being fully involved with the modeling and entertainment industry for years as a model and actor.

IndustryThursday was designed to offer information and resources to people that are looking to get into and expand their skills in the fashion and theatre industry; along with offering details on job opportunities in Atlanta. As the CEO/Founder of IndustryThursday, my primary goal is to give people a chance to be great in their dreams and desires in Atlanta. When creating IndustryThursday, I wanted to continually provide the personalize engagement and connection with all my followers through all social media platforms.

With the advancement of digital media sometimes challenges can occur such as finding the accurate and valid content to provide to your audience. I strive within my brand to make sure I verify all content prior to posting. Business Ethics and Morals is my top priority when managing IndustryThursday brand.

Lastly, my proudest moments with IndustryThursday is reading and hearing the amazing success stories from different people with landing acting/modeling gigs in Atlanta; along with receiving new jobs as well from my postings. I feel I am truly working in my passion and God is allowing me to be a vessel for him to help others in reaching their specific goals. Well helping others, IndustryThursday has expanded their brand and is now apart of a new podcast called Yes….& Podcast in Atlanta.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Reputation is important especially as a small business owner and social media professional. Reputation determines the rate of new clientele that will come to your business and allows your current clients to support you in the most important marketing tool any business can have which is word of mouth. Additionally, IndustryThursday strives to make sure clients are safe at all times.

For example, Earlier this year I received information regarding a model call for a company seeking individuals to be apart of a sport’s campaign. All models involved would receive monetary compensation. Once I shared the post to my audience, I received several screenshots relating to the email responses my audience were receiving from this company. I immediately applied my crisis management strategy and reached out to the company which was a scam company along with reporting them to the BBB, and provided a formal apology to my supporters regarding the posting and company.

My supporters were so appreciative of the quick response and actions provided regarding the scam company and they advised it reflects well on IndustryThursday brand. This provides an increased trust value between my audience and my brand which in turn promotes a positive reputation for my brand in the market.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When starting IndustryThursday I created my audience from individuals who were following me on my personal page. Once my following was growing for IndustryThursday, I created a business page on Facebook and Instagram. Within, transferring my audience from my personal to business page, I dedicated a week long promotional strategy by creating videos and doing flyers to direct individuals to follow the new business page. Additionally, I applied the promotional strategy every two weeks to keep the engagement flowing on my business page. Please know team work always make the dream work, so reach out to your friends, family, and colleagues to spread the word to their followers as well.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Industry_Thursday
• Facebook: IndustryThursday
• Linkedin: Corey Perkins
• Twitter: IndustryThur
• Youtube: Yes…& Podcast