Vintage Wedding Weekend at Crompton Collective
May 4th and 5th

After speaking to Worcester Magazine last week, Boston Business Journal last Summer and helping a couple of my vendors set up profiles this weekend. I was inspired to put together a few Instagram tips for small business owners.

Instagram tips for Small Business

Complete your profile: this is the best place to leave a first impression. Your place to define who you are, what you do and how people can find you. Leave a link to your facebook page or website and an address! If you intrigued them, they will want more information about you. Don’t give them a dead end.

Find your customers: search for people already talking about your business or your field. Find people in your city (#worcester) or people that share your interest (#antiques). These are your potential customers. Find them, follow them and engage them.

Make your captions count: they make you stand out and let your personality shine through, keep it short, funny and use appropriate hashtags.

Be engaging: tag others, talk to others, check in to other businesses, use your location. Adding layers to your posts give people a better feel for who you are and spreads a little Instagram karma.

Use your location: If you are selling items select a location where your items are sold! This is a tool that a lot of business forget to use. Which is to bad  because it launches a map with directions to get people right to your door.

Be consistent but not spammy: post frequently, but not to frequently (if that makes sense). Consistency keeps your followers engaged. Depending on the type of business you run, 2-3 posts a day is a good limit ! If you have quality material, share it…just spread it out!

Keep it creative: it’s not enough to post a picture, post a pretty, inspiring, bold, funky picture! Or else it’s still just a picture!

Be unique: much like my advice for Facebook. I think you should showcase what no one else can. Give your followers a behind the scenes look in to the daily workings of your business. Document YOUR work, show off YOUR quirky moments, and tell YOUR filter-filled story.

Have any tips that have worked well for you? We would love for you to share them!

My lovely new intern Claire and I have been busy playing around with visual merchandising at the shop. While I have no official training in this field. My two mobile shops have given me the design bug. I now love any chance I get to make a space beautiful. Hope you like our DIY!

Materials:
-Sheet music
-Needle & Thread
-Curtain rod
-Scissors
-Patience!

I. Trace and cut your feathers from the sheet music (about 8 feathers per string will do)

II. Measure your string and snip! (We did about 8 feet each, stringing the needle in the middle and tying a knot with the two ends)

III. This knot will be your first ‘feather stopper’ so string your first feather
IV. Make another knot about 8inches above the lower feather and string your next feather
V. Continue this until your string is almost full of feathers, leaving enough room at the top to tie it to the curtain rod
VI. Viola! You’ve just made your first string of feathers. Continue until your rod is full enough to your liking.

As a small business owner, I know how frustrating it is to see all of your hard Facebook marketing work go to waste. So, I put together a list of proactive ways to get your posts showing back up in the feeds of your fans. Warning: It’s going to take a little more work than posting “Add my page to your interests” to your Facebook page. Facebook uses an algorithm called EdgeRank. It sorts through posts and determines which ones are most relevant to the reader. The more a user interacts with your page, the more posts of yours they will see.

Reach is influenced by these factors:

• Liking, sharing or commenting on a post
• Clicking on a link
• Viewing the full size of a photo
• Watching a video
• Clicking the “See More” link at the end of a long post

Be visual
That old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” is especially true on Facebook! Photos automatically get much better placement in your customers newsfeed. All other things being equal, adding a photo to a post will increase engagement on its own. Photos also take up more space in a newsfeed. If you get creative, you can find a way to add photos to just about anything.
Be Bold
Start your post strong, get to the point quickly and wrap it up in a few sentences or less.On your website, you have just ten seconds to grab your customers attention, on Facebook you have even less! Remember that users have dozens of items in their newsfeed to go through. If you don’t capture their interest in the first few words, they’ll just move on to photos of cats.
Be Transparent
If shares are what you want, try asking people to share your post! Sometimes people just don’t know what to do with a post after they’ve seen it. Adding a simple call to action gives them some direction for what to do next. You’d be surprised at how well this works!
Be the expert
People “like” Facebook pages because they want more information about products and services. This gives you the chance to be a resource for your Facebook fans by giving them the information they need! Use your knowledge and expertise, to provide helpful solutions to your customers. Teach them something new and watch your likes and shares rise!
Be Engaging
Everyone likes to be heard. Let your customers know you hear them! Try to comment on or like every interaction your fans have with you! Not only is it important to do that, it’s important to do so within the 3 hour period following the post while your Edgerank is still building. It will also show your fans that you care and you’re listening!
Be yourself!
I find this to be the most important thing in marketing (and life). Your unique voice and personality is your branding. There is a lot of competition out there looking to grab attention of consumers. Remember, no one can be you!