Craft And Social Media

     I had a great time yesterday at the Social Media workshop for Craft and Design Enterprises in Ireland  facilitated by Mary Carty and organised by CCoI, Carlow and Kilkenny CEBs. I found it very informative and thought I would like to highlight few things  that in my opinion can help to improve  and at the same time ease my efforts on social platforms.

 

Image source from Pink Mustche

 Tell Your Story.

     It is great that creative people don't need to look too far.  They can talk about creative process, their inspirations, attention to details or even about some fun accidents in their practice. Our experience is unique  and it is a fact that creative people has greater chances to tell their story much better than  for example company that sell screws. It can take time to find your voice and the way you would be comfortable doing it. It may not necessarily have to be  a post written by yourself from first to last paragraph. You can make a list of next seasons fashion trends gathered from different designers around the world, share expert reviews about new tools in your craft or maybe you would like to try video blogging. After this workshop I have already thought about couple new things I would like to try, but it is very important to keep in mind who is your audience and which social media platform they use, so we are not looking for them in the wrong place!

 

Customer Journey.

     It was simple drawing how Mary explained us customer journey experience.  Ideal situation is that at the beginning of this journey customer have heard about you before and all the following steps will be based on how good or bad experience customer will have, how you will be able to support decision customer will make, will it be in craft shop in Kilkenny or on your website online. Interesting note Mary made about  using your own image as a profile image rather than image of your work or company logo. I guess people like to visualise the person behind the screen, especially if they haven't met before.

 

Social Sharing.

     It may sound a little bit frightening and the video The Stolen Scream was very impressive example Mary showed us how far sometimes things can go without you knowing anything about it. But then discussing the benefits your business can gain from this free social advertising made me rethink couple things about my social sharing habits or actually lack of them.

 

     The good news are that more workshops for craft and design enterprises are organized by Craft Council of Ireland and County Enterprise Boards. Check their websites for details if you are interested. I will definitely take part in more workshops over next three month time so there could be more blog posts like this again.

 

     I hope some of my notes from this workshop were useful and feel free to leave a comment if you would like to share your views.