Tag: Social Media

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Unlocking Social Media Success: Content Ideas

social media content

Last week, we delved into the process of creating a social media calendar. This week, we’re taking it a step further by providing you with exciting content ideas to fuel your social media presence. Let’s dive into the world of engaging content that will captivate your audience.

For more insights on how to create an effective social media calendar, be sure to check out our previous blog post, “Manage Social Media With a Calendar.”

The 5 E’s of Content

To bring order to the chaos, let’s begin by organizing our approach. The 5 E’s of Content offer a fantastic framework for small business owners to leverage:

  1. Education: Start by sharing valuable content that educates and informs your audience.
  2. Entertainment: Tap into the power of humor and share amusing memes and content that resonates with your audience.
  3. Engagement: Encourage interaction by using polls, calls to action, and other methods to engage your audience.
  4. Exchange: Collaborate with fellow small business owners to expand your reach and connect with a broader audience.
  5. Emotion: Craft compelling stories that evoke emotions and allow your audience to connect with you on a personal level.

Getting Started

Need some inspiration to kickstart your content creation? Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

  • Transformations: Showcase before-and-after photos of crafts or projects that highlight your brand’s unique offerings.
  • Pick-me-up: Share what inspires you to keep going and spread positivity among your followers.
  • Advice: Offer relevant tips and insights that can also be used as part of a simple campaign to engage your audience.
  • Call to action: Include a sale code or special offer in your social media posts and track its success to evaluate its effectiveness.
  • Quotes: Share impactful quotes that have made you pause and reflect, inspiring your audience in the process.
  • Share influencer content: Curate content from influencers who align with your brand’s values and aesthetics.
  • Support a cause: Advocate for a cause you believe in and encourage your followers to contribute as well.
  • Run a contest: Engage your audience with contests that may not always result in immediate sales but can help grow your follower base.
  • Host an AMA (ask me anything): Conduct Q&A sessions to share your expertise and provide insights into your industry.
  • Social media takeover: Collaborate with influential individuals or brands for exposure and cross-promotion.
  • Create short-form video clips: Experiment with engaging video formats like glitter video filters to showcase your products.
  • Share a milestone: Celebrate your achievements and share your success stories when you hit significant milestones.

We hope these content ideas energize your social media strategy and engage your audience. Happy content creation!

Inspiration for this post comes from “Take the Guesswork out of Social Media Planning” by Tracy Walker published in the April 2023 issue of Creative Retailer.

If you found this blog post helpful in managing your retail business, we invite you to subscribe to Creative Retailer for more valuable information and guidance. Already a subscriber? Join our Facebook group, where industry specialists like yourself share insights and engage in meaningful dialogue. Additionally, if you prefer a specific topic or want to explore our previous articles, you can always purchase single issues of Creative Retailer to access the content that interests you most.

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Manage Social Media with a Calendar

social media calendar

As a business owner, staying on top of social media can sometimes feel overwhelming. In this blog post, we will guide you through the process of effectively managing your social media presence with the help of a social media calendar.

Benefits of a social media calendar

  1. Strategic Planning: A social media calendar serves as a strategic and detailed plan for your upcoming posts. It ensures that you have a clear overview of what content will be shared, including important information such as the social channel and optimal posting times.
  2. Time-Saving and Consistency: By organizing your social media content in advance, a calendar saves you time and effort. It allows you to schedule posts in advance, ensuring a consistent presence across your social channels.

Conducting a social media audit

Before diving into planning your future posts, it’s essential to conduct a social media audit to gain valuable insights into your past content. Here are key aspects to focus on during your audit:

  1. Assess Metrics: Analyze the metrics of each social media account to define success criteria. Pay attention to engagement levels, reach, and conversion rates. This analysis will help you understand what’s been working and what needs improvement.
  2. Evaluate High and Low Performers: Identify your highest and lowest performing posts and campaigns. By understanding what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t, you can refine your content strategy moving forward.
  3. Define Your Target Audience: Review your existing followers and target audience. Understand their demographics, interests, and preferences. This information will guide your content creation and help you tailor your messages to appeal to your audience.
  4. Identify Areas for Improvement: Based on the audit findings, identify areas where you can improve your social media presence. This could include refining your content strategy, exploring new platforms, or engaging with your audience more effectively.

In our next blog post, we will dive deeper into the different types of content you can consider for your social media strategy. Stay tuned for valuable insights and ideas to enhance your social media presence.

If you found this blog post helpful in managing your retail business, we invite you to subscribe to Creative Retailer for more valuable information and guidance. Already a subscriber? Join our Facebook group, where industry specialists like yourself share insights and engage in meaningful dialogue. Additionally, if you prefer a specific topic or want to explore our previous articles, you can always purchase single issues of Creative Retailer to access the content that interests you most.

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Part Two: Creating a Social Media Strategy

social media strategy

Social media strategy consists of three elements: content, management, and giving. Last week we covered part one, content. This week we’ll tackle the next two elements, management and giving.

Social Media Management

Once your content is live it’s important to check your metrics. But first, you’ll want to set some goals. We recommend three-month, six-month, and annual goals. These can vary including increasing your newsletter subscriptions, to having more sales on particular items, or expanding your audience. Create a spreadsheet to track how past posts are performing.

Content Strategy and Giving

The next step is to keep the conversation going. That’s what we call giving. This means interacting with your posts (responding to comments, following other businesses, and commenting on other people’s content).

If any of these pieces seem too much for one person, remember you can pull in help from your team. You can also save time by grouping all of these into different chunks. One chunk to batch edit photos, another to interact with content, and so on.

Inspiration for this post comes from “Develop a Social Media Strategy” by Anneliese Johnson, account manager for Stitchcraft Marketing, and published in the December 2022 issue of Creative Retailer.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to Creative Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

If you still can’t get enough, register for the Creative Retailer LIVE Spring 2023 event May 2-4 in Pawhuska, Oklahoma for opportunities to learn from peers and network with industry professionals.

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Creating a Social Media Strategy

social media strategy

Since 2020, quilters are spending 30% more of their time online. Follow these tips to tackle the seemingly daunting task of social media.

Social Media Strategy

Social media consists of three elements: content, management, and giving. Over the next three weeks, we’ll tackle each one; starting with content.

First, you need to plan your content instead of posting on the fly. At the beginning of every month, brainstorm ideas. To get ideas, start with checking last month’s schedule. Then think of what you’ve seen other businesses post.

Did you know you can schedule your social media posts? Once you have the ideas, take the photos (in one session, preferably at the beginning of each week), write the content, and upload into a social media scheduler. Many schedulers show the time your customers are most active so you can plan your posts around the same time.

If this still seems like a lot, check out the free Time Management Outline available at Creative Retailer to help get you started.

Inspiration for this post comes from “Develop a Social Media Strategy” by Anneliese Johnson, account manager for Stitchcraft Marketing, and published in the December 2022 issue of Creative Retailer.

Creative Retailer Roundtable

Join Publisher and shop owner Heidi Kaisand this Thursday, January 26th at 3:30 p.m. CST for a personal, hands-on roundtable.

Each month, retailers will celebrate wins and tackle topics through a presentation and discussion. Each session will conclude with any challenges you’ve experienced to be discussed with the group.

Register here or email info@creativeretailer.com to be added to the group. You can also email info@creativereatiler.com to register for all 12 sessions and pay as you go.

If you’re unsure if this is for you, schedule a consultation with Heidi.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to Creative Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

If you still can’t get enough, register for the Creative Retailer LIVE Spring 2023 event May 2-4 in Pawhuska, Oklahoma for opportunities to learn from peers and network with industry professionals.

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Creating a Customer Avatar

customer avatar

Why do your customers chose to shop with you? If you don’t know the answer to this question, practice the below exercise to keep differentiating yourself from the pack.

What is a customer avatar?

A customer avatar represents your ideal customer. Creating a customer avatar is important because they are the type of person that purchases your products.

To design your company’s avatar, consider your customer’s demographics, characteristics, hopes, and fears.

  • Demographics: What is your customers age, location, gender, job status, education level, economic status, etc.
  • Characteristics: What are your customers habits, skills, and skill level? Are they in the market for bulk fabric at low costs, or artisanal fabrics for a range of crafts? These are two very different types of customers.
  • Hopes: Your customers hopes are the benefits they receive from your business. Are your customers experienced quilters, or wanting to learn?
  • Fears: Your customers fears intersect with your business’s solutions. How can you address your avatars pain points?

Customer data points

We already have demographic information on over 29,000 quilters thanks to the 2021 Quilter’s Survey. The average quilter is a retired female in her 60’s. She already knows how to quilt and starts nine to 11 quilts a year, working on them about 6 hours a week. She shops based off fabric choices and location (around 30 minutes away) and has increased her online shopping about 30%.

To get your business’s demographics, check out your social media analytics, or consider adding Google analytics to your website for additional data points.

Inspiration for this post came from “Customer Avatars and Generosity Marketing” by Flossie Arend published in the October 2022 issues of American Quilt Retailer. Next week we’ll cover the second part of this post: marketing to your avatar.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to Creative Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

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Online Advertising with Digital Agencies

digital agency

Here at AQR we believe in providing you with all of your options. If you’re looking for help with digital advertising consider looking into a digital agency. Read on for what digital agencies are and how they can help you.

What is a digital agency?

Digital agencies help you advertise digitally. There are three primary ways to advertise online:

  1. Social Media: Social platforms allow paid advertising to help you get your message in front of new audiences, generate new leads, gain page likes, or increase website traffic. This is the easiest option of the three.
  2. Search: Search engines (like Google or Bing) allow advertisers to pay to show ads above or below organic search results. Bids are placed on keywords so when searched, you show up on the results page. Advertisers are only charged if the user clicks the ad.
  3. Website Remarketing: Website remarketing is a great trick to reengage past website visitors. This tactic places ads in front of a targeted audience and is a great cost-effective tool for small businesses.

Why do I need one?

In a sentence, digital agencies outsource online marketing for you. This means you can continuously advertise, even when you’re on vacation.

Additionally, the process can be time consuming. Setting advertising goals can be outside of your scope of knowledge. Search advertisements use detailed data and analytics. A digital agency will do all of this for you as well as use the data to optimize campaign results and keep track of status updates.

In conclusion, if this sounds like something you can benefit from, make an appointment with a trusted digital agency to receive advice on what would be best for your business.

Inspiration for this post came from “Get Vacation Ready” by Lillie Huhndorf in the June 2022 issue of American Quilt Retailer.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

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Think Outside the Box: Embracing Social Platforms

Social media platforms

Believe it or not, there actually are social media platforms other than Facebook and Instagram!

Whatever social media platforms you spend your time on doesn’t necessarily reflect the same alignment as social platforms your customers spend their time on.

Read on for a list of other social media platforms to check out, and what sort of content applies.

Social Platforms

  • Pinterest: Covered in an earlier post, Pinterest is the digital mood board to end all mood boards! What’s nice about this platform is users can be as engaged (following entire boards) or indifferent (repinning ideas to their boards) as they want.
  • TikTok: TikTok is easily the hottest social platform right now, and some of it may have to do with TikTok’s advanced algorithm. And what makes it so great? Essentially the algorithm does the hard work of putting your content in front of the right audiences.
  • YouTube: Everyone knows what YouTube is, but this platform has the second most users (after Facebook) for a reason. YouTube is a great place to organize long-form videos of recorded Zoom calls, how-to videos, or livestreamed Q&As.
  • Reddit: If your customers prefer text to visuals, Reddit is the place for them. You may be thinking none of your customers prefer text to visuals, but when it comes to AMAs (Ask Me Anythings), Reddit is a great way to consolidate those.
  • Spotify: Last but not least, companies have been getting incredibly creative with sharing music. If music is a big part of your life, consider sharing the playlists you create for the store and/or classes in your newsletter.

Inspiration for this post came from “Embracing Social Media Platforms,” by Sommer Leigh published in the February 2022 issue of American Quilt Retailer.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

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Pinterest for Business: Part 2

Pinterest

In part two of Pinterest for Business, we start pinning! Read on for best practices and everything you need to know to start creating boards.

Pinterest Best Practices

Remember that Pinterest isn’t social media, but it does operate similarly. Pinterest also utilizes algorithms, and like social media, it changes all the time. While this post isn’t evergreen, it will provide a good foundation.

When you log into your business account of Pinterest, the user interface will take you to the business hub. To see your boards and pins, click on your logo in the right-hand corner. This will take you to your profile page.

To see your boards, click on Saved.

Creating Boards

Now that you’re in your boards, we can start building them (remember, boards are ways to store and organize individual pins).

To help you think of board ideas, think of your shop and the products you carry. When you’re ready, click on the + sign and select “Board”.

You’ll have two options. The first is “Name.” Although it’s tempting to come up with something cute, stick to three or four descriptive words so customers can have a clear search.

Second, is a “Keep this board secret” option. We recommend keeping the board secret until you have enough pins in the board to go live. Then click “Done”. (Note, if you want to go live, click “Create” before “Done”.)

Now, we can get to Editing. To access this, click on the three dots next to the board name.

  • Name: is already completed.
  • Description: Explain your board in a conversational structure. Pinterest uses this to help with search criteria also.
  • Collaborators: This is an option if you’re doing an event, class, or project with another company.
  • Settings: Here you can make the board public or keep it secret. Personal boards should always be kept secret. We also recommend boards that don’t have anything to do with your business (ie recipes) should be kept secret. Remember, the goal is for visitors to shop your product.
  • Personalization: This is more for Pinterest; it doesn’t help with searches so it’s fine if you want to skip it.
  • Action: Enables you to delete your board. This action can’t be undone.

There are three other dots while in your board, but we won’t get into the nitty gritty of those in this post.

Other Tips

If you need to the edit the details of the board, click on the pencil in the lower right-hand corner of the board in the “Saved” page we went through at the beginning.

You can also organize boards on your page so customers can find certain products easier.

Finally, you have an option to separate boards. For example, if you have a board on precuts, you can have a section for jelly rolls, and a section for precuts. Once these sections get too hefty however, consider creating separate boards.

Stay tuned next week for our final installment of Pinterest for Business.

Inspiration for this post came from “Are you Pinterested in Increased Sales?” by Kate Colleran, Joanne Hillestad, and Kris Poor.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

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Pinterest for Business

Pinterest logos

2021 was the year of social media, and we know keeping up with all of your options isn’t easy. Read on for everything you need to know to about Pinterest and if it’s a fit for your shop.

Pinterest lingo

The first thing to know about Pinterest is that it isn’t social media (just like Google isn’t social meda). But unlike Google, a quilter will search on Google when she knows what she wants, and alternatively, she will search on Pinterest when she’s searching for inspiration.

Pinterest is largely visual. Pinners can choose a topic they’re interested in, and Pinterest determines what appears in their feed. Below is Pinterest-specific jargon:

  • Feed: Collection of images based on user’s searches, pins collected, or term entered.
  • Search: Displays images on specific subjects based on terms entered in the search box.
  • Boards: Collections of pins arranged by subject matter and found on the user’s profile page.
  • Pins: Individual images saved on boards.
  • Pinners: Users who save pins.

Pinners create accounts to search for content that interests them and save pins to boards they create. Boards are typically arranged by subject (ie knitting, quilting, cooking, etc). Think of it as a virtual bulletin board.

Pinners can also save images from websites, so be sure to add a save button to your site so users can pin it.

Content, views, and benefits

A great time to make a pin is when you have something new in your store. The goal is for users to be inspired by your pins, click on them, and then shop your store in-person or online.

The more that people view your pins and save them, the more Pinterest will show those pins to even more users. Many factors go into this including the quality of the pin, the interests of the pinner, and how relevant your pin is to the search.

Last but not least, what is the benefit? Pins are essentially evergreen content that works for you around the clock.

Stay tuned; next week we’ll cover Pinterest best practices and how to create a boards.

Inspiration for this post came from “Are you Pinterested in Increased Sales?” by Kate Colleran, Joanne Hillestad, and Kris Poor published in the December 2021 issue of American Quilt Retailer.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

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Partner with an Influencer

Influencer

Partnering with an influencer is a great idea if you’re looking to expand your audience. Read on to find out what a partnership could look like.

Where to Begin

When you hear the word influencer, social media is likely the first thing that comes to mind. And you wouldn’t be wrong! The term influencer stems from marketers who utilize people with a strong social media influence. (Did you know there are now companies that act as agents on behalf of these influencers? Crazy times we live in!)

Just how influential these influencers are doesn’t really matter (and hasn’t really been defined). This is good news. This means you can reach out to anybody in your area with a large following to get your brand to a larger audience. Plus, the same works for them as well!

Influencer Campaigns

Before you reach out to an influencer, make sure you have a campaign in mind. This means your campaign will be different based on who you’re reaching out to. Also be open to their ideas and/or changes.

Starting with a charity event is a great place to start (or any other event without profit involved). This way you get a good idea of how you work together without getting into the weeds. If things go well, you can consider more frequent and larger campaigns.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.