So my brother recently started his own 3-D printing business (he prints miniature figures for nerdy games like D&D and Warhammer), and it has been such an interesting process watching him create his online presence. First, he built his website, then he created an etsy shop, and finally he created Facebook and Instagram accounts for his new company. Every day, he likes to alert me how many followers he has gained; he gets as excited as a kid on Christmas morning as the numbers slowly increase -- and with the likes, he has started to see orders come in as well!
My brother is increasing his presence organically -- no "buying" followers, though he has purchased ad space on Facebook to increase his visibility. He was so pleased with the return from the ads that he recently purchased a second week of ad space to run through Facebook. on top of that, he has begun strategic use of hashtags that align with the market of gamers and collectors he is trying to reach. He even ran a giveaway encouraging people to follow both of his accounts, which has encouraged interaction across both of his platforms.
Before launching his business, my brother reached out to similar businesses on Facebook to understand some of the work that goes into running such an operation, and he was pleasantly surprised by how supportive and forthcoming they were in providing him with tips and best practices -- it seems that even among competitors, there is a spirit of collaboration and support for small businesses utilizing online platforms.
I would be so curious to know if any readers have started their own online businesses, and what positives and negatives they have experienced while using social media to advertise and/or sell!
Cheers!
-Ello (he/him/his)
P.S. This post is NOT an ad or sponsored post, but rather my observations of the use of social media in the building of a small online business. However, if you are interested in 3-D printed miniatures, I definitely invite you to check out 3dprintalchemy.com!
Hello! Enjoyed reading your post today. In the past I worked for a startup company for a new online school as an outreach director. Part of my responsibility was to recruit students to our school. I came up with a campaign to reach out to potential students via social media, including Instagram and Facebook. What I found is that using hashtags was very helpful in this endeavor and was able to reach potential students from various networks. I was also able to reach out to these potential students and communicate via private message. As a result, I was able to increase enrollment. A companies online presence is very important to be able to reach a large audience. Glad to hear about your brothers success and hope it continues!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like such an interesting role -- Who would've thought that social media would one day be used to recruit students! Did you find that you were interacting more with prospective students directly, or with parents? (I know you mentioned above that it was students, but I wasn't sure what sort of engagement you had with parents and guardians as well)
DeleteThis was such an interesting read! I have an etsy shop for ornaments and watercolor prints that I created during undergrad and didn't care much about my following until recently. The use of online platforms for putting your product out there is so important when building a following.
ReplyDeleteEKD, that's amazing that you're selling your work! What sort of strategies have you been using now that you are trying to build more of a following? also, feel free to share the link below!
Delete