When it comes to marketing visually, nothing shines in the spotlight like stained glass. Stained glass as an art form relies on the visual dancing of light to make its point. Stained glass does not thrive in darkness, and because of this the photo-based platform of Instagram works extremely well for it.
For this assignment I'll be evaluating the following four stained glass businesses, found through Instagram's Discover feature (so these aren't businesses that I already follow).
In reviewing these accounts, it appears that Instagram is working well for them. Though there's a wide range of follower numbers (173 to 13k), all of the businesses' posts get engagement, largely by likes. Many posts also get comments, but not nearly as many as the likes. In evaluating their hashtags, many are using the strategy of using base "stained glass" hashtags such as #stainedglass, #artglass, and more, and then using additional hashtags to describe the stained glass work they're posting. However, none of the accounts use excessive hashtags - most use no more than 10-15 hashtags per post. The most heavily followed accounts seem to be able to get by with less (likely due to Instagram's metrics showing more popular pages).
For my account I've been using a base hashtag structure of
#shellebelledesigns #shellebelledesignsstainedglass #stainedglass #stainedglasspanel #stainedglasscraft #artglass #glassart #handmade #crafter and then adding Etsy-specific tags if applicable, plus more tags about the content of the piece such as #cat, #nightlight, #beach, and more. However, my hashtags might not be quite right since I don't get the nice engagement that these other examples do. Perhaps I should take more of a SEO approach and move the most important hashtags to the front? And drop hashtags about my business? I'll have to try it.
These accounts also post nearly daily, with a gap of a day or two here and there. This frequent posting, I've found, really helps your content to be seen by others (the hard part is coming up with that much content when you aren't a full time glass artist!). In fact, this frequent and recent posting is probably why I was directed to these accounts through the Discover feature in the first place. In the past when I've had time I've been able to create more and post more often, and there was a noticeable uptick in engagement. I think that's the real trick to Instagram - frequent posting of engaging content.
When it comes to what kind of content gets the most attention, it's largely the tasteful styled photos of finished stained glass pieces that get the likes. Photos about the artists' "life" get less likes. However, some of the artists do post videos of their process and assembly, which get impressive view numbers (probably because artists love to learn tricks from each other).
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