We just launched our brand new https://shop.bzfurfur.com and we’ve learned a lot in the process. We are launching this five-part weekly series, every Tuesday starting March 21, as a way to help other makers on a similar journey.

When you are trying to drive traffic to your site you want to make sure that you are not focusing on only one channel. As we saw last week paid search and organic search can drive traffic to your site. Remember, though, not everyone starts on Google. There are roughly a dozen sites that get over a billion hits each per month. You want to make sure you have an active presence on those sites. Social media sites like Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, TikTok, and Twitter are the big ones that you want to be considering.

How to market on social media

  1. Know your audience. There are target demographics for each of these social media sites. Understand them and try to line up with the demographic you are targeting for your product. Are you marketing to an older crowd? You might want to target Facebook. Sites like Instagram and TikTok trend with a younger audience. Do you have something very niche? Sites like Twitter and Reddit can help you reach those unique audiences.
  2. Use hashtags effectively: Hashtags are keywords you add to your post that help people discover your content. It’s a way of categorizing your post. For example: Using the hashtag #TeacherAppreciationDay will cause your post to show up alongside other similar posts which could be useful if that topic is popular at the moment (e.g. on Teacher Appreciation Day). Be judicious with them as too many hashtags, irrelevant hashtags, or overly generic hashtags can look unappealing and, in some cases, result in the algorithm penalizing you. Search for trending hashtags that target your specific product and the audience you are trying to reach. Sites like Hashtagify and Hashme can help tremendously in finding what’s trending now.
  3. Tag people but don’t spam them: If you collaborate with someone or if you are doing a market with a group of fellow makers make sure to tag them in your posts but don’t overdo it. Remember that those tags end up on their page. This may clutter up their feed frustrating them. Always ask permission before tagging and offer to let them tag you in their posts. If you are using a product from a company or manufacturer consider following them / tagging them in your posts. Many of these companies have very large followings and if they share your post it will get a lot more visibility.
  4. Images are king. Using an eye-catching image as opposed to just a link or a wall of text is going to get you noticed much more quickly. Make sure you research the optimal size for images (every social media outlet has its own preferred sizes), try not to stretch or skew your images, and be cognizant of image quality. You want the image to be small enough that it doesn’t bog down a user’s download speed but is high enough quality so that your image does a good job reflecting the quality of your work.

Remember, these are just guidelines. There are no hard-and-fast rules for social media. Companies change their algorithms, and new companies come into favor while others go out. Keep on top of it as best you can. Knowing how to get your content in front of the right demographic can make all the difference in your traffic.

Next Week

Next week is the conclusion of our series. If you haven’t been following along go to https://blog.bzfurfur.com and catch up on our first three posts. We’ll be ending our series on how to stay connected with your audience. See y’all next Tuesday.