Week 16 | Post B

Let's wrap up the semester of learning about social media for businesses!

Over the past few months my business social media efforts have ticked up a bit and I've investigated some new content ideas (such as Throwback Thursday, workshop photos, and more).  I also looked into the less obvious methods of social media in blogging and email newsletters.  I've also gained some new followers outside of other students in the class, which always makes me happy.  One company whose glass I use (Oceanside Glasstile) actually followed me back on Instagram and shared one of my pieces in their story.  For someone running with some talented artists that was certainly a highlight brought about with some extra social media effort!  Unfortunately my interaction outside of likes remains a bit stale, so I'll have to put some more trial and error into figuring that out.

Going into this class I was already familiar and comfortable with the popular social media platforms, and I'm leaving it with a bit more knowledge about the business side of things.  I'm glad that I took this class alongside the intro to marketing class, as it helped me to understand what drives people to make the purchasing decisions they do and also how to better understand those groups of people.  That has helped me to refine my markets and clearly define my targets as other stained glass artists looking for good patterns as well as non-artists looking to purchase finished stained glass pieces.  By clearly defining and separating those groups I can market to them on social media more effectively.

In all of this my viewpoint of social media hasn't changed - I've always considered it a good way to keep up with the people and businesses that I care about.  I do have to admit that I've always been reserved on it though - I don't like "feeding the metrics" and being seen as a product and to then start looking at how to create ads to target my markets felt a little weird.  I try to not let onto Facebook too much about what I'm into, but it figures it out anyway.  But, there is that adage that if you aren't giving a company money then you ARE the product!  And that's social media :)

I feel that I have a better understanding of the different platforms for social media, as well as the more DIY approaches such as email marketing and blogging.  I feel like I better understand their strengths and weaknesses and how each caters to a different type of company.  I do, however, need to do more work into learning how to drive engagement and attracting new followers and business.  Over the past few months I've been watching the social media of successful business friends as well as that of the company I'm contracting for right now (we have a contractor handling social media in his spare time) and seeing what works and what doesn't.  I'm learning to pay attention to post content, timing, and photos/videos used to see what works.

For now I feel that continuing to use Facebook and Instagram for my business are the best strategy for the reasons I explained in my previous post.  However, that's not to say that I won't try new things in the future.  I think that developing an email newsletter would be a fun adventure when I "retire into" my business.  That taps into my love of teaching, career as a graphic designer, and can help build the stained glass pattern side of my business.  I could supplement this with a blog if I'm able to dream up enough content to keep it fresh.

While I've mentioned in a few of my blog posts that I've had to drastically scale back my stained glass business due to now having to run my nephew's Covid distance learning as well as work an honest work week in a VERY distracting home office, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to ramp it up again soon.  And, what better way to do that than with social media :)

Week 16 | Post A

At the end of this course it's now time to ponder how to move forward with my social media strategy for my stained glass company.  After the research of the past few months, it's clear that Facebook and Instagram are the best social media platforms for me to use.  My reasoning for this is as follows:

• Both platforms support images and short videos well.
• Facebook is favored by an older demographic, which constitutes most of the stained glass artists today who might be interested in my patterns.
• Instagram is favored by a younger demographic that may be interested in my more modern pieces and is also home to younger stained glass artists (who may be interested in my patterns), however some of the older demographic is migrating to Instagram.
• Instagram offers good reach for new followers by way of hashtags.

In the future, I might also investigate using ads on either platform.  Email distributions or a blog might also be something to explore in the future, but not until I have the content to support them.

As for my favorite platform - I feel that Instagram is the most effective because of its better organic reach, but I really dislike not being able to post from a computer like I can with Facebook (typing hashtags is annoying).  Facebook is wildly convenient to use, but it doesn't have the reach that Instagram does.

Ideally, if I were looking to transition into making stained glass full time I should be posting at least daily about works in progress, finished pics, tips, and more to draw that interest and to keep my metrics saying that I'm interesting and worth showing to potential new followers.  However, since this is a side hobby I don't want to overpromote - posting weekly about what I'm working on and my finished pieces should be a good start and then I can adjust from there.

My goal is to post weekly over the next month on Instagram and Facebook, on Monday afternoons (since I do most of my stained glass work on the weekends).  The actual posting takes only moments, but I'll need to plan about 4 hours each weekend to work up a new stained glass pattern, post it to Etsy, and then make an example of the piece to show on social media as well as to list for sale.  Right now I am not trying to grow my business due to my time available, but I would certainly be ok with more pattern sales since they do not require additional time.

Week 15

This week was a bit interesting on my page, as I had some new likes without any effort on my part!  However, I can't find out much information on these new likes - however I don't recognize them as being names of other students in the class.  I already had more than 30 likes, so I didn't seek out any new likes.

Overall, my Insights were about what I expected - low engagement, and low page views.  We all know what's going on right now and how it's affecting those who work full time and now have to deal with distance learning...and I just haven't been able to make much in the way of new content.  Still, I was happy to have some new likes.  In poking around the datasets it does appear that they are organic likes and my page is being suggested to Facebook users, so we'll take what we can get I suppose.

I did enjoy clicking through the various options to see different factors affecting my page, and appreciated that organic and paid elements are clearly separated (though I'm currently not doing any paid promotions).  I'm looking forward to demographic data being available soon though!

Week 14

This week I created three Facebook ads that promoted my business:

An ad targeting other stained glass crafters that promotes my patterns.  This ad would be effective because it targets the appropriate age group, the right interest, and also highlights a major selling point of my patterns (the commercial license).



An ad targeting those who like "fine art" that promotes my finished and custom pieces.  This ad would be effective because it targets those who like fine art (so people who appreciate the handmade nature of art) and points out some differentiating features of stained glass that make it an ideal gift.



And an ad promoting my business page as a place for inspiration and unique pieces - targeting those who like stained glass and mosaics.  This ad would be effective because it targets the right group, and appeals to both those looking for inspiration and handmade art pieces.

Given the current situation with the virus and needing to temporarily shut down the sale of custom pieces, I did not launch these ads.

When it comes to ads, the objective has to be clear.  An objective is a defined goal, as in "what do I want the end result of this effort to be?"  Am I trying to make sales?  Bring foot traffic in?  Increase awareness of my brand?  The strategy for each type of ad will change, as will your messaging for different target markets.  In my case, the best objective would be to promote the sale of finished pieces (either ready made or custom).  The reason for this is that there's a better market and profit margin in selling finished pieces.  Plus, finished pieces get more exposure in people's homes, which ultimately help passively advertise my business.

Week 13 | Post B

Facebook ads have become a major player in the social media marketing space, and for good reason.  Boasting billions of users, Facebook has an extensive market of targets, and even more personal data on them to help refine ad targeting.

Facebook offers a variety of ad formats available for business pages.  They describe them as follows:

Image: We recommend using images of your product or brand.
Video: Adding movement to your ads can make them more eye-catching in News Feed.
Carousel: Carousel ads showcase up to 10 images or videos in a single ad, each with its own link.
Instant Experience: Instant Experience is a fullscreen experience that opens after someone taps your ad on a mobile device. Create an Instant Experience to visually highlight your brand, products or services.
Collection: The collection format features multiple products and opens as an Instant Experience when someone interacts with it. Your customers can discover, browse and purchase products from their phones in a visual and immersive way.
And, they also offer boosting of existing posts, which appears to simply feed your post into the newsfeed of your set target demographics.

For my business, I feel that an image or image carousel ad would work best, as stained glass is a very visual art and relies heavily on that connection between the piece and the purchaser.  Or, when considering my other target market of stained glass pattern purchasers, perhaps a video ad showing a time lapse construction of one of my patterns would help to get their interest.  We artists love to see works in progress and this could help to show that my patterns are accessible to all levels.  Or, if I were to ever have a studio and ran children's mosaic classes, I could show a time lapse of a group of kids constructing their projects (with appropriate model releases, of course).  Perhaps if I had a piece that I was proud of and wasn't having luck selling a boosted post would do the trick.

As for frequency of posts, I think that I would need to tinker with that and figure out what works, both for my finished stained glass buyers and pattern buyers.  I would start with ads once a week and check the response and adjust from there.  But!  It's important to not overdo it because then you're asking for more work than you can take on!  It'd be safer to market patterns more frequently, which is a nice bonus because if they are purchased through my Etsy site they require basically zero effort on my part, so there's no worries of overdoing it.

However, there's a factor to consider here - stained glass as an art caters towards an older demographic that isn't always tech or social media savvy or willing to purchase things online.  Because of that I would certainly start my marketing small and find where my sweet spot is.  However, I could certainly market my more modern finished pieces more aggressively since they cater to a younger demographic.

Ads are most effective when they're simple, memorable, and include a call to action, and Facebook ads are no exception.  My ads would likely do best when they're of a finished piece that's tastefully lit and beautiful.  In essence, I'd let it do the talking and let my copy support the image with something simple like "Bring the light in your home alive with custom stained glass from Shellebelle Designs."  Or, for my pattern buying market, "Unique, impressive, and accessible stained glass patterns for all levels - all with commercial licenses for resale."