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usiness advicethe right messageFiona Pullen, founder of The Sewing Directory, gives you the low down on creating a strongonline pressence by advising you on what to write about via your social media channelsPeople are always saying you should set upan account on Facebook and Twitter or setup a blog to help build your business. This isthe easy part, the struggle begins at what todo next. Most people know you shouldn’t goon about your products all the time, so whatshould you talk about?Related products/servicesIf you sell fabric then why not share projectsand tutorials showing people what to do withthe fabric they buy from you? Discuss sewingmagazines or books. All these things arecomplementary to your products and will helpto engage your followers. If you have the time,try and find projects made up with suppliesthat you sell so if someone loves the fabricfeatured - they can buy it from you. Or whenposting a link you could say ‘this would lookgreat made up in this fabric’, and include a linkto your site.Tips and ‘how to’ guidesPeople always appreciate advice; if you sellbeads why not tell people about differentstorage options, different beading techniquesor write a tutorial to share with people. Ifyou stock art supplies, explain the differencebetween the different types of paint and whenbest to use them, demonstrate techniques,interview artists to get advice to share withyour followers.Show who is behind the businessPeople love to know who they are doingbusiness with, try running a profile of yourcompany owners and staff on your blog, sharepictures of them at shows or in the shopon Facebook. Let people know about thehistory of the company, celebrate milestoneswith them and make them feel a part of yourbusiness. It’s a lot easier to relate to a personthan to a faceless business.Industry news and eventsKeep an eye on key industry sites andmagazines so you can share details ofupcoming shows, new products and industrynews with your followers. If people knowyou are a good source of information theywill keep coming back to you.Your products and offersOf course it is expected that you will also talkabout your products and offers sometimes,just be careful to keep it to a minimum so youdon’t ‘spam’ people and chose your channelwell. For example, Facebook is ideal for sharingpictures of your new products, blogs give you aplace to tell your friends and followers what iscoming soon or just in stock and tempting oneliners on Twitter will get people clicking to seemore. Try something like, ‘Wow wait until yousee what just arrived today...’Promote othersIt’s nice to promote businesses that arehelpful to your own through your socialmedia. Often these companies will return thefavour and therefore get both of you new fansand hopefully new customers. For instance ifyou sell quilting fabrics but not wadding, youcould point people in the right direction. Youcould also tell your customers where to gettheir quilts long arm quilted and then hopefully,the businesses that you’ve promoted will sendcustomers your way when they’re looking forfabric, as well as promoting you via their socialmedia channels.General chatSocial media is all about being social, thinkabout what you would discuss with someoneyou just met in real life – the weather, whatwas on TV last night, what is in the news?Personally I think business accounts/blogsshould be kept mainly to business but thatdoesn’t mean there’s no space for a little bit ofgeneral chit chat, and ironically those kinds ofposts tend to have a good response rate!Hopefully the above will give you a fewideas about what content you could usefor your updates. In time you will find whatworks best for you.Finally, keep an eye on your stats (followernumbers, views per post on Facebook,Twitter interactions and retweets, page hits onyour blog and whether your web stats increasefollowing your posts) to see what topics giveyou the best results. CFURTHER INFORMATIONFiona Pullen is the founder of founder ofThe Sewing Directory website. The sitehelps people source sewing suppliers,sewing courses and sewing groups.Find out more by visitingwww.thesewingdirectory.co.ukcraftfocus 97
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