Week 13 | Post A

Our assignment this week was to find sponsored posts, and fortunately Facebook and Instagram delivered:







In these examples we have Martha Stewart selling us digital assistant compatibility with AT&T service, new beds, and M&Ms.  I have to admit though, I loathe being "sold to" on social media.  I feel it's intrusive (like someone leaving a junk flyer under your windshield wiper) and as it is I don't "like" things on Facebook or Instagram in an effort to interrupt the metrics.  I'm sure it's not effective though, haha.  I'm on social media to keep up with friends and businesses I care about, not buy things, so I generally find all ads annoying, especially when they repeat.  I should also note that the AT&T ad was served up because a friend of mine likes them.  I don't follow them nor any cable/cell providers on Facebook.

In these ads, however, we have a variety of things to consider.  The AT&T ad caught my eye because I happen to like Martha Stewart so even though her face is cropped she's still recognizable.  And, she's not known as a tech-forward celebrity so it works on the premise that the digital assistant feature of AT&T services is so easy that she can do it.  The call to action is to enroll in AT&Ts services and use their digital assistant integration.

The Tempur-Pedic ad caught my attention because I am a huge fan of comfy mattresses, and their call to action is to take advantage of their sale.  However, their mattresses have always seemed overpriced to me.

And finally I do enjoy M&Ms now and then, and this animated Instagram story (which was slotted between my friends' stories) wants me to swipe up to buy M&Ms.  It featured bright colors, movement, and prominent placement of their logo which should be ubiquitous at this point.

Advertising has had a huge shift in the past decade or so since social media has ramped up.  Previously, advertising was an intensive process that took hand work, setting type, shooting to film and more.  It'd take weeks to prepare an ad and there were notable names in advertising whose work is still studied.  Now, with the digital revolution bringing computer-based design ads can be prepared and either ready for press or deployed within hours.  And social media has that ad in front of audiences within minutes.

Print media is, unfortunately, dying.  It is expensive, not agile, and suffering from declining readership due to the internet.  Many ad formats have converted to digital methods, such as billboards, environmental ads, and pay per click ads.  Radio and TV ads are also suffering due to the increasing popularity of streaming services such as Spotify and Hulu that offer ad-free subscriptions.  I don't think I've even listened to the radio in years because of Spotify Premium and following my favorite bands on Facebook so I can know when they have new music out.  And, Hulu seems to play the same three ads over and over (I'm cheap and have the ad-served plan).

These digital methods are finding much more success than print ads now, and social media ads add another layer of customizability in that they can be served based on an incredible dataset of user metrics.  This agility offers much more targeted reach to the types of people most likely to buy, and therefore offers businesses more bang for their ad buck.  I don't think it'll go away anytime soon.

Week 12 | Post B

I opted to create a Pinterest account for my business, despite the fact that I despise the platform :)  In reviewing options for additional social media for my business, Yelp seemed to be a good fit but I'm not exactly "open" right now.  Quarantine, homeschooling, and dealing with 4 huge orders due by November has me pretty locked down in more ways than one, and Yelp would just invite problems plus would open the opportunity for bad reviews when I turn down work.  Plus, as a home based business I'm not comfortable blindly casting personal contact details to the world.

So, Pinterest it is.  I've resisted because about 10 years ago I ran a little craft blog and encountered a lot of theft of my photos and ideas on Pinterest, and had a deluge of people demanding free patterns from me (WHY?).  I've considered it my little devil, lol.  However, I've found it helpful for little bits of ideas for cakes here and there, and have actually found that a good portion of my Etsy traffic comes from Pinterest.  So, in a way it's redeeming itself by driving a bit of business.  We'll see how it goes.

I also signed up for a Meetup account - this can do two things for me:

• Connect me with other stained glass artists to help me build my skills and potentially market my patterns
• Connect me with people who appreciate art and may be interested in purchasing a finished piece.

Plus, it looks kind of fun!  I'll see if this little introvert can get brave and actually go to something.

Week 12 | Post A

Many businesses find social media to be a huge boost to their marketing efforts, and additional tools can help boost these efforts.  Resources like LinkedIn, Yelp, Travel Advisor, and Google Maps can help to share more information about your business as well as give potential customers a glimpse into what they can expect when they do business with you.

When it comes to my stained glass business, a resource like Yelp would be a good fit because stained glass pieces are often a large investment and require a lot of interaction with a customer.  People want to be sure about spending that kind of money, and to build that trust they will want to hear from previous customers.  This can help them identify if my product meets their quality, customization, and aesthetic standards.  And, if I have the personality that they think they could work with.  I have certainly evaluated Yelp listings of businesses I've researched before and have generally found it fairly reliable, but as with any platform, it does have its flaws.

While my stained glass business is currently shut down due to homeschooling during the pandemic, when it's back open I could build up a Yelp presence by asking previous customers to give me a review and see where it goes from there.

If my business had a storefront a Google Maps listing would also be helpful, but not mandatory (but for now my business is run from my home so I don't want to advertise where I live).  Google Maps listings tend to favor more spur of the moment "find a gas station near me" type searches.  Stained glass purchasers are generally more willing to drive a distance and plan their trips to your location, but still, getting your name out there in whatever ways you can is helpful!

Week 11 | Post A

I have to say, email marketing efforts at previous jobs have not been a fun experience for me.  But, perhaps working with this platform with my own business would net a better result!

When pondering a newsletter for my stained glass business, I think it best to do a monthly newsletter.  However, early on in the process I would need to sort my contacts into "other artists" and "purchasers" because each would be after different information.  Other artists, of course, would be other stained glass artists and purchasers would be people who've purchased my work and would not typically be a glass artist themselves.  Content in my newsletter could be broken up as follows:

Other artists:

• Product reviews - other artists would be interested to hear about new tools and materials to see if they'd be of use in their crafting
• Tips - other artists like learning new techniques and ways to make their work better
• Pattern highlight - simple marketing of my patterns
• Artist highlight - a highlight on other artists who are doing interesting things in glass

Purchasers

• Tips on care and display of stained glass - this would be helpful for purchasers because they would be able to better enjoy their purchases
• Sale notices - who doesn't like a sale?!
• Work in progress updates - sharing information on what's on the workbench to keep purchasers engaged.
• Artist highlight - a highlight on other artists who are doing interesting things in glass

I have to admit that I rarely sign up for newsletters.  I just don't have time to sift though so many emails.  However, I do get a couple for things that I really do care about, and I'm interested in their stories of what's going on in their world.  Plus, I do take advantage of sales promotions if I have a need for that item!

Week 10 | Post B

For a stained glass blog I would produce/source content to fit in the following categories:

• Product releases/reviews
• Tips
• News
• Pattern resources
• Artist spotlight

This content runs the gamut of the content that other stained glass artists look for.  They want to know if new tools and materials are worth it (stained glass gear is expensive!), they want knowledge to help their projects come together faster, they want to know more about what's going on in stained glass, new ideas for projects, and to see what other glass artists are up to.

Organizing my content in this way would help my business to grow because it would be a great, free resource to drive traffic to my website which would hopefully drive sales.  Given that the content would be specific to other stained glass artists, it's likely that they'd only purchase my patterns, not finished pieces (that's a different target market and set of SEO...).  If the blog features content that other artists find valuable then they will return, knowing that they can have questions answered and also discover new materials and tools there.  If my content makes their crafting more enjoyable, they will return.  And, depending on the product vendor, there might be opportunities to be a kickback in exchange for me promoting their product.  Or, I could even set up a small storefront to take advantage of interested buyers (who've just read a blog post) and sell said products right on the site.

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Other blogs commented on:

• Christine Vanderpool
• Elizabeth Spiering
• Janda Slade

Week 10 | Post A

When it comes to pondering the question of adding a personal touch to a business blog post, I say that it's always appropriate!  Why?  Because people (and potential buyers) like to know the face behind what they're reading.  This, especially when there's interaction with other blog readers, helps to drive a sense of community and belonging, which can help customers to feel like they're a part of a brand.  This appeals to their emotions by making them feel as though they are actively contributing to the success of the product/brand/post.

In addition to the community benefits to adding a personal touch, adding that personal touch also does the following:

• Alerts customers to a potential issue with a product.  A beauty product made the blog author break out in hives?  I want to know!
• Finds new ways to use the product.  By not sticking to the script and being honest in their experience, a blog writer can share something neat that they discovered about a product.
• Share a tip.  Suppose a food blogger is reviewing a recipe and knows a shortcut that ensures perfect results.  By sharing that personal info they can help their readers to achieve their goal of tasty food, and everyone comes away having had a better experience.

By adding a personal touch to posts, bloggers are able to be more engaged, informative, and interesting to their audiences.

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My posts for the week:

Week 9 | Post B

This week I made three posts to my Instagram:

For my hashtags I tried dropping my business name from them, and keeping the list of tags short:

• Post 1: Thursday, 12:30pm | #stainedglass #artglass #glassart #glassartist #throwbackthursday #roots #crafterintraining
• Post 2: Friday, 6pm | #stainedglass #artglass #glassart #repair #stainedglassrepair #fail #shippingfail #stainedglassfail
• Post 3: Sunday, 5pm | #stainedglass #stainedglasscraft #mosaics #studio #workshop #organized #glassartist #glasscraft #artglass

These posts are based on my research for my previous post this week - using a few keywords other artists used to describe stained glass as well as other ones to round out the descriptions.  In addition, I fine tuned my hashtags for each post with ones like #thorwbackthursday and #shippingfail that aren't necessarily specific to stained glass, but were relevant to my posts.

As you can see, my Throwback Thursday post did the best (slightly), likely because it was posted at a higher traffic time.  My Friday night post did ok too, surprisingly.  It's been my experience that posts over weekends often fall flat.  This was proven with my Sunday post getting zero traction, even though it was about a solution to a very common stained glass problem (how to store scraps).  It's also the only one that didn't include a picture of an actual stained glass work, and those really do seem to do better.

It seems as though posting during the week gets the most traction, as well as including a finished work in the post.  In my case, I think that timing and content had more to do with the success of the post than the keywords, though I do not discount their use.