Week 3 Post 2 | Stained Glass + Social Media

As I will be focusing on the social media for my stained glass business this semester, I’ve researched the social media habits of a variety of companies within the stained glass market.  For reference, the term “art glass” refers to manufactured decorative glass intended to be cut further and assembled into glass works.  The term “glass art” refers to any art created from glass, such as stained glass, kiln-fired fused glass, blown glass, or lampwork pieces.  My list of companies is as follows:

Kokomo Opalescent Glass

https://www.kog.com/

Kokomo Opalescent Glass, based in Kokomo, IN, is a leading manufacturer of art glass and is a medium size international company.  They utilize Facebook and Twitter for their social media, and I also found their unadvertised channel on YouTube.  However, their social media links on their website point to the platforms themselves – not their business pages – leading me to have to search for them.  A simple oversight that is surely hurting them from a SEO standpoint!  Their social media metrics are as follows:

Social Platform	Date of Last Post	Average Posts/Day in 2020	Number of Followers
Facebook	February 6, 2020	2.05	15,731
Twitter	February 3, 2020	.2	860
YouTube	September 6, 2016	0	146

As you can see, they are focusing their SEO labor where it matters, which is Facebook.  However, in scrolling through their posts from this year most of them were simply event pages for classes they were putting on.  As a follower from a more than a thousand miles away, posts about classes don't do much for me.  And, clearly not for others either as the posts that were not geographically limiting had much higher engagement.  Their Twitter account is fairly quiet as well, and their YouTube efforts are dead.  I find the last one a bit disappointing because the process of making art glass is actually pretty neat to watch - they could certainly drum up interest in the company by posting neat videos about their product!  However, I think what's at play here is their target market.  Stained glass crafting is predominately done by retirement-age people, and they don't really hang out on Twitter or YouTube.  But everyone has a grandma on Facebook.  If Kokomo had to choose one platform to focus on I agree, Facebook is it.

Delphi Glass

https://www.delphiglass.com/

Delphi Art Glass is a leading vendor of art glass and supplies for making stained glass panels.  They are a Lansing, MI – based medium size international company that has a local storefront (that also offers classes) and a robust online sales business.  They utilize a variety of social media platforms for their business (easily found on their webpage); Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.  Their social media metrics are as follows:

Social Platform	Date of Last Post	Average Posts/Day in 2020	Number of Followers
Facebook	February 4, 2020	.28	28,133
Twitter	June 30, 2019	0	1,530
Instagram	February 4, 2020	.15	6,992
Pinterest	dates not listed	dates not listed	2.5 million "monthly viewers"
YouTube	October 24, 2019	0	19,200

Delphi has similar metrics to Kokomo, and I think for the same reason of their target market being more on Facebook than anywhere else.  I did notice, however, that their Instagram posts got much more engagement than on Facebook, and perhaps that's because the platform forces them to focus on sharing quality photos of finished works instead of sales notifications and the like.  Their YouTube channel could be much better utilized as well, as I have most certainly turned to YouTube for a technique tutorial or to better understand a new product.  YouTube videos cross post to Facebook very nicely, and this would in turn drive engagement and interest in their product (especially if they were showing off new glass!).

Blue Dolphin Stained Glass

http://www.bluedolphinglass.com/

Blue Dolphin Stained Glass is a San Diego-based “mom and pop” art glass and stained glass supplies store that also offers classes on-site.  They do not ship products and are a small, local business with only about five employees that I’ve seen.  They utilize Facebook for their social media promotion and their page is not advertised on their website.  Their social media metrics are as follows:

Social Platform	Date of Last Post	Average Posts/Day in 2020	Number of Followers
Facebook	December 25, 2019	0	140

There is not much going on here, unfortunately.  And, in scrolling through their posts it's mostly "business-y" type content.  No pictures of students' works, profiles on their employees, or showcasing new products.  The biggest advantage to their store is being able to select your pieces of glass (they are each unique!) and it would do them well to showcase that, plus you get the satisfaction of supporting a small business.  And, I'm sad to say, the last few times I've made the 40 minute trek down to the store I've not been able to find what I'm looking for and have had to turn to Delphi and wait a week for it to arrive.

Holdman Studios

https://www.holdmanstudios.com/

Holdman Studios is a Lehi, UT based glass art production studio that specializes in manufacturing and restoring stained glass.  They are a medium-size international company and are well known for manufacturing the stained glass panels used in the construction of Mormon temples.  They utilize a variety of social media platforms for their business promotion, such as Behance, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, which are all easily found on their website. Their social media metrics are as follows:

Social Platform	Date of Last Post	Average Posts/Day in 2020	Number of Followers
Behance	February 8, 2017	0	n/a
Instagram	February 6, 2019	.07	2,903
Pinterest	dates not listed	dates not listed	66,700 "monthly viewers"
LinkedIn	n/a	0	55 connections
Twitter	February 3, 2020	.21	172
Facebook	February 3, 2020	.21	6,541

Unlike the other businesses I've listed, Holdman does a good job of mixing up their social media content.  There's news articles, photos of installations, pieces in progress, and finished works.  This keeps their social media interesting and engaging, despite not posting very often.  In fact, they have pretty good engagement compared to the other companies (especially on Instagram) despite having only a fraction of the followers.  The thing about artists is that we like to see the work of others and appreciate it (and hit Like), and finally a stained glass company is giving us that!

The Season of Glass

No website

The Season of Glass is a business owned and run by sole proprietor Heidi Weghorst Stanhope in New Hampshire.  She sells her pieces through a local gallery and an Etsy page that ships worldwide.  She does not have a website - I only know about her because she followed my Instagram and I was impressed by her work and followed her back.  I was only able to find an Instagram and Facebook page for her business.  Her social media metrics are as follows:

Platform	Date of Last Post	Average Posts/Day in 2020	Number of Followers
Instagram	February 8, 2017	.5	1,933
Facebook	February 6, 2020	.57	127

In comparing her social media efforts, her Facebook page is much more interesting in content, but it gets hardly any engagement.  Her Instagram does decently though, and it features lovely photography that shows off her skill (I will nerd out for a second here and say that her lead work - the shiny parts - is legit).  I actually asked her for simple advice once and she kindly responded with a helpful suggestion quickly, which was a good effort on her end.

Thoughts

In all, I feel that most of these businesses could be doing social media "better".  And by better I mean posting either more often, or posting a greater variety of content.  Or, they could be taking advantage of what video would do for their sales and run with it.  I feel that many of them are just slapping up ho-hum content and not getting any traction and saying "oh well".  Or, another issue could be one that plagues all small businesses on Facebook - the fact that unless you give the mighty Facebook money they won't serve your content to your followers.  This is a really discouraging tactic of theirs and it frustrates me to no end.  I don't want to run ads - my products sell just fine when people see them.  Plus, plenty of my business followers are my actual friends who just want to see what I make because I don't post every last thing to my personal wall.  It's interesting comparing the same posts between Instagram and Facebook - the Instagram posts always do better.  That's likely because they're served properly, and on top of that a lot of new content can be browsed easily - and that makes for better engagement and more followers.

Of the grouping, I feel that Holdman Studios and The Season of Glass are having the best results with social media despite not posting constantly.  Both post a good variety of interesting content as well as eye-pleasing pictures.  As I mentioned before, the key to keeping artists as followers is to give them inspiration.  You can do this by posting about work in progress (Holdman), or even new ways to use stained glass (The Season of Glass).  Heidi's work has got me looking closely to inspect her lead work and dissecting how she makes her glass orchids because I kind of want to try one myself.  She also doesn't do the traditional "church window" stained glass style and I try to work in more modern styles too.  And Holdman tells a good story.  The rest of the bunch just post about sales and closures and classes.  Nothing to inspire me as their target market, or engage me into their production process.  Kokomo and Delphi would definitely benefit from short videos showcasing their products, but I recognize there's a big time and cost commitment to making those videos look good.

The additional issue of this all is that stained glass crafters as a market are pretty small.  A majority of them are Baby Boomer age and older, while there's us young crafters taking new approaches to the ancient art.  I do not personally know anyone else who makes stained glass, and it's not really an art that you casually ease into.  It's expensive - you're either all in or not.  And with such a small market, a majority of which is traditionally limited in their participation with social media, it's hard to market.  This isn't a Nike-level fanbase and these are quite often small companies that don't have the budget for serious social media professionals or slick videography.  Honestly, it's a tough market, and I've seen it myself.