Do you use Instagram to reach your customers?
J’aime Crochet sure does and she has become a pro at it! With more than 20,000 Instagram followers, Metasebia Talma has developed an Instagram Strategy to benefit all entrepreneurs.
Elaine’s Caribbean Crochet was happy to partner with her to bring together crochet artists from around the Caribbean to discuss how Instagram could be used to increase customer sales.
Attendees from Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago expressed great appreciation for the information shared. Registrants were encouraged to submit questions prior to the program. A selection of the questions and answers are listed below:-
1. How can I increase my following?
– you can create an Instagram competition where you can give away something as a prize. In order to win, the person must be following your page and this boosts follows.
– you can follow similar pages to yours or any page you like for that matter and some persons will follow you back.
– you can collaborate with other brands, for example if you make a swimsuit and you collaborate with a jewelry maker and do a photoshoot. When photos have been posted on the jewelry page, there is a high possibility you will receive followers from that page.
2. How do I transfer followers into customers?
– once you have strategically set up your profile in terms of lay out, posting photos and videos of your work, persons who come across your page and like your work will be willing to give you sales.
3. I want to gain knowledge on a crochet defined project.
– if you want to gain information on a particular project, there are several things you need to first consider.
• Know what type of wool you need to use
• Know how many reels of wool you need to use.
• Know what size hook is best for the given project
• Know what stitches to use.
NB. YouTube has a wide variety of tutorials on stitches that would be helpful.
4. What challenges do you face sourcing materials?
– I haven’t had any problems sourcing materials over the years I’ve been crocheting until last year with the pandemic. Usually I just buy based on my orders but last year the wool ran out regularly and the shipments took very long to arrive. To alleviate the problem of not having wool, I decided to buy in bulk, especially colours that I know are highly requested.
5. How regularly should a beginner create new content ?
– I believe that both beginners and seasoned crochet artists should constantly create content. Instagram is a content based platform and favours your page when it is active. You must always keep your audience engaged.
6. How to handle managing time when crochet is time consuming?
– for me, I try to organize my work load at the beginning of every week. I even go as far as to average how much time I need or should spend on a particular project to ensure that I finish all of my orders in a good time. I do know that each one of us has different lifestyles but once we are able to identify what works, we can schedule to suit.
7. How to use caption writing to get purchase and shares?
• know your target market
• Look at your image, look at your caption and see if the two compliment each other
• pose a question – questions normally makes it very interactive
• tag relevant persons in photo so that they can reshare and give your post more exposure and reach.
