5 tips for loving the online presence side of your creative business
05. Mar, 2013 
13 Comments
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Pastel Sherbert Set of 3 Skinny Colorful Layered Bangle Bracelets by: theglossyqueen
Does your brand speak, “virtual”?
Since most all creative businesses set up shop in their spare bedroom or the basement, customers rarely get to watch the magic happen. This means they also have to virtually decide if they want to be a part of your world. Utilizing your online presence is about building up your virtual brand so that your potential buyers become long term investors in your work. And these potential buyers you want to stop by your virtual shop–well they will start with Google to find you, will you show up?
Building an online presence is a tad daunting and overwhelming, it makes you want to just focus in on filling your e-shop, right? You can pour just as much creative energy into your online marketing world as you do your products–I’ll show you.
5 tips for loving the online presence side of your creative business
Tip #1: Determine your outlets first and be real about your time!
There are too many social media sites you can join today–but don’t feel like it’s necessary! I highly recommend two, that’s it! Sign up for Twitter to chat with colleagues and industry folks and Facebook to connect to your customers. If you are ready to take it a step further I love what a blog can bring to a brand. Either way be realistic about your time–don’t spend all day there!
Tip #2: Decide your purpose before you start talking
When you start out building your online presence willy-nilly you will feel scattered and quickly burn out. Have purpose with your online presence and determine that upfront. What do you want to get out of being there and who are you trying to attract? Also, think about your ideal customer. Are they likely to be checking their Facebook or are they more likely to want a personal email from you?
Tip #3: Build a 2-way street to your customers and colleagues
Online presence is mostly about building a 2-way connection between what you do and who is buying it. Your customers are proud to buy local, handmade, and sustainable products. They are also proud to be able to say hello to the maker! Keep an open door and be personable–use your real language, you are human after all.
Tip #4: Quality always over quantity
If you don’t have 5 stellar things to post to your Facebook everyday don’t try to! If you are inspired to post 1 idea every couple days then you know you are only posting things of real quality and it will show. Online presence is not about selling yourself, it’s about sharing your brand and the world you spend everyday in. You can’t force that!
Tip #5: Make it a scheduled habit
Build social media and online presence into your everyday work life. If you feel more comfortable around 3pm to chat on Twitter or write a blog post then 3pm it is! The more habitual it becomes the more natural it will feel, I promise.
Building your brand into your online presence takes time and consistency, but it will pay off and your customers will get to adore you more frequently.
Adoration is oh so nice-
Andrea
About The Author
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Managing my time on social media sites is the hardest part for me. It is so easy to get caught up in what everyone is saying and posting and clicking link after link after link that it can quickly eat up 15-20 minutes of my day without me even noticing! Do you have any tips for scheduling out your time in an effective manner?
this is a very useful and informative post. i really appreciate how you pointed out there are way too many social media sites to join, but just pick a few and build from there!
and i wanted to say thanks SOOOOO much for featuring my bangles in this post – i’m honored!
PS – Skye, there is software which can block the social media sites eating all your time for an allotted time that you set. you can also try to use an interface like hootsuite to manage all your social sites in one place. hope that helps!
As I’ve been focusing on reinvesting in my online presence over the past week, I’ve found it gets easier with practise to say what you want to say in an authentic voice.
I love what you’ve said, Andrea, about quality over quantity. People are much more attracted to someone talking about what they truly feel instead of posting a link to 10 items they’ve renewed recently.
Also, I’ve been following Etsy Admin, @DeMarko, on Twitter for a long time and tonight he was complaining about there not being any cool stuff online, no matter how often he refreshed. Someone responded:
“@DeMarko be the content you want to see in the web.”
Deep stuff for 1 AM, but I’m glad to have seen that right before reading this great blog post.
Thank you so much for this article! So true that social media will eat up your time if you’re not careful, but it has also been very useful for learning and sharing information and networking.
Great tips, I love that you get straight to the point!
I really needed to hear #4. There are times when I feel like I should be saying, sharing or posting something, but it feels false. I definitely am more comfortable when it comes naturally. Thanks.
Wow- I really needed to hear this today. I’ve been grappling with how much or how little I wanted to be on social media and wasn’t sure how to balance it. I definitely want to make my presence known but don’t want to get burnt out in it and appear un-authentic. Thanks for the great advice!
I also needed to hear it. I just ‘unliked’ two shops that were posting things they liked on Pinterest all the time.. ALL the time. Torn between what was driving me nuts, and wondering if THAT was what I was supposed to be doing. THANK you !!
I really appreciate the advice, sometimes it’s really hard to manage everything and I do feel a little scattered trying to make it all fit in, Thanks so much for sharing that!
With a creative business I would add Pinterest to your Social Media mix. I also highly recommend a blog as mentioned in the first tip.
Good input. I’m trying to find the social media balance. It is overwhelming at times.
Thank you, I appreciate your sharing. Quality over quantity is my focus but I do become scattered with the Social Media. Developing a schedule is great!