The Place To Be (And Be Seen)

Righto - the biggest thing I've discovered since launching One Little Chickadee is that you really have to get out there on social media. You have to engage. Yes, there are obviously some people who launch and from the word go they are fulfilling orders, they're popular and everyone's talking about them.

But let's be real: that is probably not going to happen for everyone within a month of launching, within 6 months, maybe even within a year!

As I've said before, I am not an expert. And though I am a beginner who is finding her way through the social media marketplace, there are a few things that I am noticing here and there. A few tips and tricks that I think are worthy of passing on.

I think it's important that you cover all your bases: if you can devote the time to all the main ones, do it!

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. To me these are the 4 big ones and  if you can spend some time on them you should do it. I'm not gonna lie, it can be really overwhelming and I still have not found my marketing groove. I worry all the time that I'm not posting enough and I'm probably not.

There are ways to make this easier: scheduling! I've mentioned this before but TweetDeck is your friend. You can also schedule posts on Facebook. Do it! As far as I am aware you cannot schedule posts on Pinterest and Instagram - I could be wrong so if you do know of a way, please leave a comment!

The second big thing is participating with others, not just posting your stuff here and there and that's it. You have to interact with the community you are a part of. It just makes sense! By creating friendships or connections with other similar businesses, you are creating links: each person is a potential liker, commenter, sharer, customer of your goods.

I don't advocate doing dumps of your pictures in other people's links or adding the same comment as if you're copying and pasting. You should be genuine and interact with people you really want to interact with: like their items, links, photos, etc. Engage in their posts that ask questions of their audience. Share their contests, etc. Sure some of these people may be your direct competition but I truly think it's better to foster a positive environment. What I have seen so far on Instagram with the people I follow is a community of mumpreneurs who lift one another up: they chat, share one another's pages and photos and just seem like a lovely bunch. I was very hesitant at first to sort of insert myself in some of these situations but if you don't put yourself out there first, you may be waiting a verryyyy long time for someone else to do it for you. So get chatting!

The last big point is finding pages that will help you achieve your goals and can help you with finding your community. So far the two big pages that I have seen are Hike Those Likes Market Place and Craft Hour.

Again, still a newbie here, so I do not completely know the ins and outs. But both pages do similar things: they have a schedule for posting certain things on certain days (Tuesday are #TreasuryTuesdays on Craft Hour for example). They share pages and they really help promote your stuff. You've got to be vocal and participate but it's worth it.

I shared something with HTLMP and although it didn't result in a sale (yet), I had so many people commenting and asking the price of the item I was beyond thrilled because I had yet to have that happen. I also had an item chose by Craft Hour as part of a group of cute items for baby. The exposure was fantastic and more than that, it was a boost I needed to remind myself that "Hey, you're doing good things!"

That's my bauble!
Image via Craft Hour

To sum it all up? Networking is your bestest friend!

Running A Competition On Facebook

I'm not an expert when it comes to running a business page on Facebook - I'm very much a beginner! Finding useful blog posts and articles as well as seeing how other businesses operate their pages has been extremely useful in how to run mine. Does this mean you should go out and copy a bunch of posts? NO! But I would have had no idea where to start if I did not look to my fellow crafters for guidance.

I have been very interested in running a competition from my page but felt a bit overwhelmed when I first contemplated it.

Do I open the competition internationally? What if I get 14,000 entrants (Hey! A girl can dream...)? What if I get *no* entrants? How do I pick a winner?! These questions made me put it off as I didn't have the confidence. 

After ruminating a bit I decided I wasn't going to let this put me off as a running competition seems to be a really good way to generate likes for your page, get your name out there and I think overall shows that your business is fun and cares about its fans.

After doing some proper research I found that running a competition is not that hard and there are tools out there to help you make it that much easier.

1. Pick a product that you'd like to use in your giveaway and if you can pick something "relevant". For my competition I have decided on a custom Christmas bauble - as we're nearing Christmas, I think it just makes sense!

2. Make a fun and interesting image to go with the competition: make it bright and cheerful! This is the best way to grab someone's attention. I used my go to image editing site, PicMonkey, to create mine.

The image is bright, showcases the prize
and it's clear what it is all about.

3. Promote yourself! This is admittedly my biggest hurdle: I have a hard time putting myself/business out there. But if you're trying to get new customers and get started, you just have to do a bit of self promotion. Obviously you don't want to go overboard and clog up everyone's news feeds with spammy posts about your competition. A good way to get them out there throughout the day/week/month is to schedule posts. You can schedule posts on Facebook as well as Twitter (using TweetDeck). Spend 15 minutes scheduling posts (changing up the language so they don't appear too "cut and paste") and then you don't have to worry about getting the word out there.

4. Decided on the conditions of your competition: how long will it run? Who can enter? How can they enter? What about posting and packaging - will you include it for all entrants, if the competition is open internationally?

5. Make sure that you follow the rules of running a competition on Facebook. The best place to read the rules is from Facebook itself.

The biggest takeaway from this is: You can ask them to like and comment as a means of entering (or both) BUT you cannot ask them to tag friends or share the post to get an entry in the competition as a condition of entry.

From what I can see from the many competitions by other businesses that I have looked at, is that you can say that people can share the post as it's welcome but NOT mandatory, and to be very clear about that.

It is also very important that you mention the competition is in no way endorsed/affiliated with/sponsored by Facebook.

6. Pin the post! Make sure you pin your competition post to the top of your page. That way, when people visit they do not have to go searching for it and scroll through your page. Also, anyone new visiting your page will see it right there and will *hopefully* enter.

7. And finally, find a good method of choosing your winner. I always wondered how people went about doing this - some competitions have hundreds or thousands of entrants. Do they go through every single one? Do they use an app? How do they make it fair? I found this great blog post about two different apps that help you choose winners. Visit this link to read about both tools in depth.

I've decided to use Woobox as it pretty much does everything for you. It's free and it's really easy to use. All I had to do was sign in to my personal Facebook account, go Woobox's site, create an account (by linking up with my Facebook account) and then it just pulled in all the relevant information. When my competition ends I'll be able to select the appropriate post and then use their tools to pick a winner.

I plan on taking a video as I do this so that all those who participated in the contest can see that it's done by a third party app and in a fair manner. I also think that having a video is a bit different - I've not seen many people do this. It adds a level of excitement to the whole thing!

So there you go - if you're a beginner like me, I hope that this can provide some good information to get started!

Also if you'd like to take part in my competition...you know where to go!

Double O: Order & Organization

Crafting from home, out of your spare room can be tricky. I'm sharing the space with a chest of drawers, wardrobe and a tiny desk. When I get working on a new project I find that before I know it my desk is covered in paint, glitter, and scraps of paper.

The floor is also covered in the same. I start losing track of stamps and my scissors. It can be very frustrating as my goal is to work smarter, not harder! I like order and organization. Which I've quickly figured out is not always conducive to the creative process. Sometimes you just have to get messy.

That doesn't mean I can't try to be more ordered and organized. And that's where the binder comes in!

Apologies for the poor picture quality but trying to take a picture in good lighting in my house is damn near impossible. It also doesn't help that it's now pretty much always gloomy and grey outside.

So far I have sections for my: glitter paper, samples, matte, labels and envelopes.

Ideally I would like to have this bad boy (maybe even two) from Hobbycraft.
Ahhhh, storage dreams!

Until then, make use of what you've got to help create a sense of order with your tools and supplies. It really goes a long way in helping you craft a bit smarter.

The Power of Glitter

My current obsession is GLITTER! Specifically, glitter paper.

It really jazzes things up and I think it adds a certain pizazz without being too much. I also love how it looks paired with the hearts punched from dictionary pages. I like my work to have a bit of sparkle but still remain somewhat "simple" - if that makes sense!

Another discovery has been metallic or foil paper. I've currently got silver and gold, and wow - does it pop! When the light catches it it just flashes, it looks gorgeous! Below is a new piece that will be up for sale on Etsy and Facebook. I'm currently looking into frames as even though I've got my trusty Vintage Grey, I think this needs a black frame. 

I've also decided to use a bit of glitter for the "A is For" Dictionary Name Page Print. The polka dot paper is still on offer but now I've added the glitter option as well as having the two options for additional personalisation: "baby quote" OR "baby name meaning". In the example, my son's name Calvin is French meaning "little bald one". This could also be switched to something like a nickname perhaps as not all name meanings are well, cute (I'm think of my husband's name meaning: gravel yard. Hmm...) Of course if you like simplicity, no additions are fine too! After doing a bit of market research though I think people like being able to customize their gifts.

Sorry for the crap angle and lighting - taking pictures in the evening is ridiculous!