Over the past decade or so, social media has become an invaluable tool for business marketing. Companies of all sizes can use platforms in this category to communicate directly with consumers and to spread information and message in ways that would once have been unimaginable.
There’s also a good chance that soon, social media will become even more crucial to modern marketing, as people embrace digital lifestyles in the aftermath of COVID-19. The Deputy Head of Business Administration at Swiss German University says, we could see a “huge positive shift towards the digital world post-COVID,” which will see people “craving for more social media content.” This university official noted that even older generations are now keeping up with social media trends in part because of the pandemic. These changes expand potential audiences and make marketing in this medium all the more important moving forward.
To succeed, you should use this trend for advertising your business as well. Even if you have a small operation or a side business you focus on primarily in your spare time, there are numerous ways you can use social media to promote your art and generate more sales.
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Convey Your Worth
Our article “4 Unexpected Tips to Increase Your Crochet Sales” touched on the importance of recognizing your worth. This tip was about truly understanding that you’re making amazing creations and should value them accordingly if you’re hoping to profit from your work. And rest assured, this is an important internal effort! If you’re selling merchandise, your success depends on your understanding that you produce a valuable product.
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Social media, however, helps you to take that internal recognition and convey it outwardly. Through platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and more, you can showcase your creations. Even beyond photos and price listings, you can include videos of your creative process, different examples of products in use, endorsements and pictures from customers, and so on. You can design social media outreach in a way that exhibits the value of your hard work and justifies the worth of your products.
Increase Your Traffic
If you’re new to the concept of social media marketing, it’s important to think of it less as an isolated medium and more as a road to your platform (presumably, your website). On social media accounts you set up, include a link to your site, such that anyone you engage with via those accounts has a natural path toward your primary platform. Once you set your accounts up this way, you can use your social media activity specifically to drive more traffic to your site — say, by announcing new products, special promotions, and so on.
Put Your Data Into Action
In social media marketing, customer data has increasingly been used to improve engagement, drive sales, and generate higher demand for products and services. In turn, this has increased the demand for data-driven social media strategists. And in response to this demand, both beginner and veteran marketers in the remote working era have looked to convenient online training options for using social media to put data into action. Indeed, those pursuing the online marketing degree at Maryville University undergo intensive, web-based training to become expert data-driven social media strategists.
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Well-versed in both traditional marketing concepts as well as data-driven digital social media trends, these future experts are paving the way for enterprises to properly leverage their data through social channels. And by having one or a team of these data specialists by your side, you can more easily pinpoint the best methods for selling products or services, the ideal channels for your target market, and other ways of putting business data into action.
Understand Your Customer Needs
The notion of understanding your customer needs ties into the data conversation. But in this case, the idea is more that you can also use social media to gather data rather than just put it into action. Through both general observations of relevant consumer markets on social media and direct engagement with potential and existing customers, you can always gain a deeper understanding of what people might want from your business. Whether that means specific design ideas, new product lines, or anything else of the sort, it can help you to tailor your business (within reason) to meet demand.
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Maintain a Culture
Last but not least, you can also promote your merch by establishing and maintaining an attractive business culture through social media. Think about using social media to grow your business with this idea: letting audiences see the human side of you.
It is almost a counterintuitive idea given that we’re talking about engaging via digital means. But the truth is, showing some personality in your social posts, answering customers’ questions or commenting on their conversations, and generally keeping things personable can go a long way. Particularly for a craft-oriented or artistic business like an independent boutique, consumers appreciate getting to know a company. Your effort to maintain an appealing culture and persona on social media helps them do just that. Here are 13 amazing tips to help.
Through these relatively simple efforts, you may be shocked at just how much social media can boost your business!
Be sure to visit Happily Hooked on our social media channels to see how the strategies in action!
Author Info
Rosel Jarielle
Rosel Jarielle took up crocheting during a self-improvement kick when quarantines started up. It's one of the few hobbies she actually held on to, and now she feels like she can't stop! She's always got a new project in mind — be it amigurumi, a new shawl, or a new top — and she can't wait to give her new crafted pieces as Christmas presents this year.
