Social Media is everywhere. It’s growing into the primary marketing channel of our generation and for small business owners it’s indispensable. Facebook alone would apparently be the third largest country in the world, in terms of population! So in this article ,we’ll be looking at the pros and cons of it: what to use, when to use and how to use. I’m not saying I’m by any means an expert, or that I’ve cracked it as a tool, but I’m learning all the time and I know what I want from it as a business owner and what pleases me/irritates me as a consumer.

The Conversation Prism – yes, there’s a LOT of social media sites and it’s changing all the time. This graphic is a little over-detailed but it makes the point of just how much is out there and how impossible it would be to attempt to keep up with even a fraction of it. So narrow it down to suit you.

So what is it?

Well, given we’re here on a website with an attached forum and interactive comments, I’m going to take your knowledge of that as a bit of a given - but of course the clue is in the ‘social’ part. It’s all, or it should be all, about interactivity. One of the key values is that it gives you the opportunity for direct discussion and feedback, and a direct link to clients and potential clients.

Where do I start?

You start by sitting down and thinking about what you need from it and what you can do. If you hate writing, then blogging is pointless. If you can’t take a photo to save yourself, then avoid Instagram. How long can you spend on it and can you indulge in some real time interactivity? Or would it suit you better to come back to it at your leisure? Do you want the posts there for a long time for people to find? Or do you want the buzz of short term, bite size chunks?

What do I use…. There’s so many!

There are a lot and nobody can cover them all. It would be (and is for some) a full time job. So using the criteria above that you’ve thought over, pick what works for you and suits the time you can give it.

Blogging

The wordiest of the lot. If you like writing and have a lot to say then this could be for you. It's a great way to build up a real voice for your brand and attract loyal followers. If you want to put over a lot of information, even educate, to some extent, and have that content last for a reasonable period of time - then blogging is ideal.

That's the pros. The cons are that it needs regular time commitment and you do have to do it regularly... and it’s not just a dip in and out as you can on other platforms. It takes time to write interesting content.

Blog readers allowing lots of blogs to be kept track of - including yours?

Micro blogging

Whether photo-based Tumblr or snappy to-the-point Twitter - it's less time consuming, but hard to ‘get’ until it all clicks into place. Twitter gives you the opportunity to speak directly to some amazing people but you’re shouting above a lot of others. It’s all in the timing too.

Twitter home page screen-grab

Communities

LiveJournal, despite being more of a blogging platform, spawned the corsetry forums that linked up so many of us and in it’s heyday made a lot of names and businesses. However it’s decline has been notable and is a good example of why not to depend too much on one platform.

Social Networks

Like the ever present Facebook and also Google+ and Linked In: a huge topic in themselves. Facebook has a massive membership. Google+ less so, and doesn’t seem to be fulfilling it’s potential, but don’t rule it out. Everyone was on MySpace and then just shifted like a tidal wave to Facebook.

Facebook

Social Bookmarks

Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.

Media Sharing

Flickr, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram: these are worthy of a lot of consideration. Pinterest is brilliant for gathering inspiration. Get your photos on there, make sure they’re labelled and they can potentially spread virally through a huge number of people's boards. YouTube is hugely underused by most of us, but has a lot of potential and enormous audiences. Instagram is very appealing to people’s intrinsic nosiness, so post those in progress shots and give people sneaky peeks; it works really well for many people.

Pinterest

Do I need to use them all!

NO! Don’t even try. It’s impossible. Look into the various platforms and have a think about who uses them and with what you want to do with it. Pick a few things that suit you and try them out. Concentrate on one or two main platforms and use them regularly. Perhaps have others for occasional use, but there’s nothing worse than a profile that lies neglected. I have to confess I’m guilty of letting my good intentions take over sometimes. I have two blogs (one general, one for a specific ongoing project) that are sadly neglected - I just don’t have the time. I find Facebook works well for me, and I use Instagram and occasionally Twitter; I mean to use the latter more. You can of course link accounts and cross-post, but that has drawbacks which I’ll come to further on.

My poor neglected blogs! Both of them!

Is it really all free?

Yes and no. Yes in that there are no monetary costs in setting up a profile. But no in that the amount of time they consume in the upkeep should not be underestimated, and that time has value. These are the things that small businesses find hard to keep on top of and that we all tend to just not allow for, but keeping on top of social media postings can be very demanding.

Benefits

Interactivity!
The biggest benefit is being able to reach your customer directly and quickly and get instant feedback and market research. Being able to ask questions and get instant answers can be really useful and of course you can keep a track on which pieces get the best reception, which photoshoots are most liked and so on. The downside is that your social media audience may not be your customers, so it may not be the best route for actually directly finding clients. Readers may turn into clients eventually but many of them will be peers, hobby makers and people that just like looking at the pictures and are interested but not purchasers. Meanwhile, the potential customers with money to spend may not be on Facebook reading your posts. However, you are raising your profile and that has a knock-on effect. You may not be speaking to your clients but you may be speaking to someone who can pass your name on, so keep that in mind.

Clients can share their happy moments with you

Getting a message across.
Perhaps you have strong ethical or environmental goals, or a specific and unusual vision. Social media allows you to get that across directly and reinforce it with regular updates, relevant links and suitable discussion.

Networking.
Social media is great for making contacts and building on them. I have made some fantastic corset-making friends through social media that have developed into ‘real’ (as in offline) friendships. I’ve also made some excellent business links. Stylists, models, photographers and hair and make-up professionals are all there and active. Setting up a shoot is massively eased by social media contacts. You can find out about wedding shows and fashion events super quickly, and find potential collaborators and get in front of people who can promote you. Also, there's just that massive network of mutual promotion and backscratching; you promote someone’s project or business and they’re more likely to promote you back. After all, it’s nice to be nice and it means you both reach more people. Of course, that relationship only prospers if it’s reciprocated. Promote someone who never promotes you back and you’ll soon tire of it and tire of them.

Magenta corset copyright Duncan Holmes – Take part in an event and the images accumulate from many sources on social media, allowing you and your potential clients, to see far more than ever before

LinkedIn seems the obvious choice for networking as it’s based around professional contacts, but to be honest, this is when Twitter comes into its own. The potential contact base on Twitter is massive and if you catch someone when they’re online, chances are you’ll get a response there and then... and bang! A contact has been made.

Aim for reposts, not the babble

Facebook is also useful, especially the 'groups' feature. Look for local network groups that will help you find photographers etc. close to you. And of course, on the topic of shoots, model sites like Model Mayhem give you access to other creatives and lets you keep up to date with a very fast moving industry.

Etiquette in the digital age

This is a huge part of the experience and a bit of a minefield. The internet is notorious for misunderstandings based on mistaken tone, cultural and language differences. Maintaining a level of etiquette helps avoid some of that. Basically it’s down to plain old good manners and thinking before you post to maintain a professional demeanour. And oh boy, can that be hard when the arguments break out and the temptation to say what you really think becomes overwhelming? But don’t. Being snide, nippy or downright aggressive is only going to backfire on you. Walk away, make a cup of tea and calm down before you respond - or often better, don’t respond. Always remember there are lot more people reading than those you’re conversing with, and some of them may be putting your name on a mental list of people never to work with, buy from or sell to. It’s hard to judge what will bump you into some people’s dislike category and I’m not saying remove all trace of personality and opinion from your persona, just to avoid shooting yourself in the foot unnecessarily. Remember people’s memories are long when it comes to things that vanished into the internet ether relatively quickly; I can still remember meltdowns from LiveJournal from years back that are long since deleted.

The basics (in no particular order):

1. Walk away and come back if something is getting heated,
2. Don’t make personal comments about people or photos,
3. Remember a page is representing someone’s business,
4. Don’t post on someone else’s page using your own business page if they’re in a similar line of work,
5. Don’t advertise someone else on someone’s business page,
6. Avoid debates on contentious subjects, keep them for your personal account. If you must then do it politely and fairly.

Many of those are things you’re more likely to be on the other end of, rather than the offender. There is a big problem, on Facebook in particular, of people seemingly forgetting that a page is someone’s business and being a bit careless in their comments; either being a touch too critical or mentioning a competitor. I think it’s often because people have become used to chatting in a community group and then forget themselves and don’t change mode when they post on a businesses' page. Also the level of body 'snarking' on corset pages can be awful, usually from people unused to corsetry. I’ve had to delete a few ‘freaky’ comments and my corsets are quite mildly shaped on the whole.

This pic received the classic ‘freaky waist’ comment! Copyright Louise Cantwell, with Kasumi Noir.

And that’s the dilemma when you get posts like that: to delete or not to delete. There’s a case for both at times. Not deleting allows you to rebut and shows that you can do so effectively. But to be honest, sometimes it’s easier just to remove a post. It’s not nice to go back to a picture and see a remark lingering there. It’s your page, it’s your business so you’re as within your rights to delete it as a bricks and mortar shop owner would be in scrubbing off graffiti from their shopfront. If the problem is recurring, or you have other issues such as fear of image theft, then block them. That’s what the feature is there for. You’re in control.

Triple corset copyright Clare Coulter for Twinkle Twinkle – Beware the image theifs! This made it’s way onto a Brazilian shop site!

Point 4 and 5 can be a little tricky and one where you must use your judgement. I tend to avoid using my business page to comment on another page unless I’m sure they won’t mind and probably when they’re in a complimentary but different profession. For instance I might comment on a florists page using my name, but not on a bridal designers. After all, you wouldn’t find John Lewis* commenting on Marks & Spencer’s* page, and nor would a post last long if it was recommending Debenhams* rather than M&S. (*all UK mid-range department stores)

A rather well known bridal designer posted one of those Facebook sharing posts a while back where you invite people to comment on your post then go to the pages of the first 5 or 7 or so commenters, find an image of their work you like and share it on your own page. What she clearly didn’t bargain on was that most of the first commenters were designers who partially or wholly did bridalwear. Needless to say the shared posts never materialised, understandably so. So think ahead before trying these things out.

A way forward

So after all that, how to actually tackle the day-to-day running of it? Well the recommended route, and certainly the one that seems to produce results for me, is to give people some value and something that interests them - and that doesn’t have to be all about ‘you’ all the time. There is no more guaranteed turn-off that someone who spams the feed constantly with offers or their current pet project. It will just get you unliked/unfollowed or hidden. These things are all fine in moderation and you need to keep up enough of a level of promotion to be visible - especially on Twitter where it moves very, very fast - but too much noise is counter-productive. Use photographs; people like behind the scenes and in progress shots. Give people a peek into your head. Share things that interest you, whether a catwalk show by a big name or something not directly related but inspirational. Engage your readers in conversation and ask their opinions. Share your views on things, but with care in case you touch on something too polarising. You want to build a brand identity and for most of us, that identity is you – so let people get to know you to a point you feel comfortable with.

Share your news! In this case, me being rather overwhelmed at my outfit being displayed as part of a National Museums of Scotland exhibition in The Dick Institute museum in Kilmarnock.

Key points:

1. Content, content, content,
2. Have a clear logo visible and/or consistent recognisable imagery,
3. Keep a tone of voice that sounds like you (not the place for corporate anonymity),
4. Post regularly… but don’t spam,
5. Respond to comments, interactivity remember,
6. Use good images,
7. Engage, re-pin, share, re-post – don’t make it all about you.

Burberry’s very efficient and creative twitter team managed something like 57% of the tweets from design houses during the SS12 London Fashion week

Quantity – so how much is too much?

The recommended level is to post once a day but that isn’t set in stone. It doesn’t hurt to post a few posts one day and none the next - just don’t fill up someones entire page with your name! I’m rather guilty of underposting. I get tied up in things and forget or if I’m slightly behind I don’t want anyone to think I’m spending time online when I should be sewing, which is daft paranoia really. Basically, you should strive to keep things even, constant and interesting. One thing I’m not keen on myself is linking-up platforms. I think you should tailor your posts to each media as it gets dull if someone has to read the same thing on Twitter as they do on Facebook. Especially these days, with smartphones often gathering all a persons feed notifications into one place, it could lead to real overkill. Linked postings can also look a bit automated and impersonal, and as one person businesses that’s not a very suitable approach.

Keep an eye on your analytics - in this case Facebook's detailed analysis of behavior

Integrate

Remember to link your social media on your website and the other way round too of course. Put it on your promotional materials, leaflets, postcards ads. Give people as many opportunities as they can to find you. Promotion is not a dirty word. Everyone has to do it in some way, even those who think they don’t.

Make sure people know where they can find you by including your chosen social media platforms on your printed promotional items, in this case a postcard back

In Summary

I hope that’s helped you navigate the deep, ever-moving waters of social media. It’s such a fast changing environment that it’s near impossible to pin down constants, but I think the key is posting things you want to read in a way you would want to read them. After all, we’re all consumers as well and sometimes we forget to ask ourselves what we would like or dislike. It's also about remembering that it’s as public as it gets and only post what you’d be happy announcing to room packed with people whilst wearing a big sign with your name on it.

 

 

add