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Grittyrustic

Contributing Member
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    32
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About Grittyrustic

  • Rank
    Member
  • Birthday 03/13/1983

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://www.grittyrustic.com/

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    California
  • Interests
    Full-grain leather work, top-grain leather work, distressed leather, leather bags, coffee, hiking, e-commerce, graphic designing

LW Info

  • Leatherwork Specialty
    All of the above!
  • Interested in learning about
    Leather work
  • How did you find leatherworker.net?
    I think it was from Google

Recent Profile Visitors

3,832 profile views
  1. That's a very uneducated thing to say, and most of which is laughable. Again your missing the the subject of the entire thread. The Instagram post that I used to explain "how to post something on Instagram" was a successful one. It had a fair picture of interest, an opening sentence about the picture and some hash tags to really bring in people interested in the post. It did everything that my tutorial explained to do. And keep in mind there buddy, It was I who had the motive to help out and give some simple tutorial about how to possibly get your products in front of a larger crowd by using Instagram. "People might take me more more seriously if we hadn't payed for followers........" Anyone can pay for followers if they want, anyone can buy anything they want. And you think your single individual opinion or "judgement" carries some serious value, that's lame man no one cares what you say. No one needs to take me serious either cause the world already knows about Instagram. Now you know where to go when you need a simple easy to find tutorial Come to truth, I looked at all of your posts and it doesn't seem like you have even come close to stepping in the light and sharing how to really do something, better gets to typing. Why don't you go and donate some money to the healthy minded people who maintain this thread. Maybe you can open an Instagram account and make some extra sales to cover the cost while your at it.
  2. We have two accounts, a guerrilla marketing account that our marketing debt. used to use, and then our basic account https://www.instagram.com/grittyrusticleather/ enjoy the feed. Still missing the heart of this entire thread, damn glad it's just a couple of you that are bitter about your situations. Cause I am not just making good quality leather goods, I am also placing these works in the possession or many people all around the globe and building up brand awareness. If your interested to know, we invested in a simple Canon camera and spend time taking glorious imagery outdoors and in coffee shops with some few hired models. Our work doesn't just end after we have crafted a nice bag, we then take it to another required professional level to get it seen by the right people, that's where Instagram comes in. But I think I'm starting to understand you more, you just can't comprehend the whole marketing thing can you. That's ok because I completely understand, I have friends that are similar to you and they are satisfied with life, flipping burgers or whatever. It's no wonder you can't get the message. I was trying to be helpful, but since you think your a waste of time then I guess your right. No point in But I know one thing, anyone truly passionate about what they do wants nothing more than to share it with others.
  3. I was hoping you could read between the lines there and get the message but nope, so I guess ill just spell it out for you. Companies like Saddleback utilize many marketing avenues like Instagram to increase their brand exposure and turn a profit and because of this they are well known and a house hold name. Hell I'm sure you got friends or family somewhere who own some saddleback leather goods. But I'm sure your quality is as good if not better, just your strategy for marketing isn't a clever one. You should know, the smarter smart phones get the less people walk into stores to buy these luxuries. That's the foreseeable future my friend. To be honest, your here ranting on as if there is a difference between this thread and Instagram. Why not take all that big talk and pour it into Instagram and make some money for your hard work, or build your brand awareness out of the local community. Cause there ain't no difference between posting in this thread and posting an image on instagram. Everytime you post in here and put down the use of Instagram it's just a big fat contradiction, hypocrisy.
  4. Cheers everyone! This thread is for Instagram and how to use it and for giving advice about it but all I see are posts about why Instagram and other social media platforms are useless. I stand by what I said, so if your not going to make a contribution to the topic then stop discouraging others from using it. Also, I never directly insulted anyone, just expressed my feelings about how you all sound. And it seems like I hit a nerve, well good. I hope I did some small damage to your discouraging point of views. FYI we do produce leather products, and we are quite established in doing it. Quality isn't top of the line but neither were 1900's split leather swiss satchels, but they still got salvaged from the Titanic in mint condition. You don't need to take any advice from Gritty, but you could also stop being so pessimistic about this topic.
  5. We just love to go out and take high quality pictures of our freshly finished leather bags and wallets. And then of course add some sweet filters to enhance the setting. Enjoy the feed!
  6. Goodness! After reading all of your stories I actually feel like I'm on Facebook. So go right on ahead and keep pretending like your a Neanderthal in these modern times. You must think it makes you sound special or different, well I assure you it doesn't. If anything it makes you sound ignorant. Now go ahead and manipulate my words and accuse me of calling you stupid. So I guess this ain't the place for cutting edge or having an entrepreneurial spirit or being an innovator of leather, is it? All this "I don't use Instagram or Pinterest because yadda yadday yadda" is just pure lazy self centered talk. It comes down to two kinds characteristics in the world of business. Those who are remembered because they strived to share their passion and those who are forgotten because they didn't have the courage to take on change or were simply outwitted. I'll remember Saddleback Leather Co. for sure. Sweet Jesus, you should see their Instagram profile.
  7. Well, if you would take a small leap of faith into the world of technology, it may prove to be just what you need. I worded the tutorial to the best of my ability, and I am sure you have a smart phone. Give it a go, if anything it is the same as Facebook only pictures do most of the story telling. Be sure to add a hashtag of your city and state eg. #LosAngeles #California in every post and use the location function in every post as well. You want that local patriotic traffic walking in your front door. But none of this will make any sense until you got the hands on and the visual. Start with downloading Instagram and give it a quick spin, then read this and the tutorial. And a friendly caution, Instagram is extremely addicting. As addicting as making good leather goods, only you get to show them to the world.
  8. An "advertising formula" and a "how to use Instagram" tutorial are two completely different things. Lets stay on topic here. My original post wasnt about my account in general or how or why I have folowers. So I don't find it too relevant to make personal attacks. My original post was just a basic tutorial about how to use Instagram and drive traffic to a website for someone who isnt sure how to. If you find you have questions you can ask. But since we are on the topic of real and honest why dont you shed some light on everything that you feel is real and honest in relation to Instagram. I also have an Instagram ad running which loads up on followers every hour all by itself. Would you consider that real and honest? If not then please explain how paying for followers through these two "advertising formulas" is different. And why one is not real and honest and why one is. Also, it helps to acknowledge that people have different motives, agendas, financial situations, intentions and plans when doing things and not all are subject to being dishonest.
  9. Another great way to build a strong fanbase and brand awareness on Instagram would be to use Facebook ads. Many people don't know that Facebook bought Instagram and through Facebook ads you can advertise directly on Instagram. The advertisement will appear on Instagram as a normal Instagram posting from your Instagram account, only there will be a "shop now" link on the Instagram posting allowing potential customers and interested followers to be redirected to your website. This alone is equivalent to posting a new Instagram image every hour. We do this and we average about 15 to 30 new followers everyday with the added addition of driving traffic to our website. So in doing this, you can develop many new followers and customers without the need to pump out images on a timely basis. I recommend this over Google Adwords because it costs less and you have direct engagement with your audience and you have a better idea of who is interested.
  10. Hey there, good points! This was just a simple tutorial for beginners. If you could elaborate on some more technical points that would be great. I understand there are many who aren't familiar with how to use these kinds of platforms for marketing and I didn't see anything posted on the leatherworker website about it. Hopefully I was helpful to someone. Booster companies offer services that send followers to your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest accounts and are a great way to increase brand exposure! They give off the impression to viewers that you are an established brand because of the amount of followers you have thus increasing in more followers. People like what seems popular. Of course there are pros and cons like everything has but its no different than using google adwords to increase website traffic and conversions. I understand what you mean by "real honest organic growth", but thats not always the most efficient approach to building brand awareness. And not everyone has 18 months or years to build up a strong honest fanbase on Instagram or other fanbase platforms. The whole moral standpoint of "real honest organic growth" shouldn't limit your actual potential or ability to make a sale. In my opinion, return customers converging on your website is your primary goal and thats worth bragging rights.
  11. If you are looking to increase your company exposure, increase local traffic to your leather shop, traffic to a link, promoting a product or even promote your start-up company or blog. Then I would recommend the almighty little Instagram. Instagram is a mobile phone app that allows you to take pictures of things and share them with the Instagram community which is massive and still growing. Currently Instagram has over taken Facebook as the biggest platform for building a fan-base and driving traffic to websites. It costs nothing and is the biggest trend for companies and individual people wanting to promote. All you need is the know-how. If you have never used Instagram before or have and need some tips then here are some steps I have prepared that I think make a successful Instagram post. 1. Download to your phone and create an Instagram account. Filling in all the account details like, website, name, email and so on. Use a good business name user I.D. You want to come off as a business or someone with a brand or leather shop. 2. Post an image. The image should not be a graphic designed image but an interesting photograph of something related to your field of business or an image of the actual product itself or just about anything that seems to do the trick. 3. While posting the image you will be promoted with adding a filter that changes the attitude of the image by giving it a splash of vintage or monotone colors. I prefer to use nothing at all when posting product images, just because I want viewers and followers to see the actual product I am showing. However If I am posting an image of a scene that is not directly related to the importance of showing the product then I will use a filter to enhance the scenery. 4. In the text area for the image posting you want to be a bit radical in a positive way or make a strong point about the image or be humorous. Instead of saying something common like "Genuine leather backpack" in all of your posts, you should mix it up and say something like "The first and last bag you will ever need", “20 years and counting, almost like it was never used”. 5. Followed by the text you want to write your website web-link of importance. Example: www.leatherworker.net 6. After you have written the text you want to begin adding hashtags. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags. Hashtags make you discover-able through Instagram's search function and some other unknown functions. Your first hashtag after the text and web-link should be your company or products unique name hashtag. Example: #leatherworker. Yes, use your company name to make a hashtag. 7. After your company hashtag, you want to add 29 more. These 29 more hashtags should be related to your product and its scope of business. I usually add 14 hashtags directly related to the product itself and 15 hashtags related to the industry. As you input hashtags into your Instagram postings you will be given random lists of different hashtags showing the amount of users who have used these hashtags in the past . This is important because the more people using your choice of hashtags basically means the more exposure you will get from using that hashtag. Example: 14 hashtags related to the product itself would be #backpack #briefcase #bag #messengerbag #satchel #laptopbag etc...and then 15 hashtags related to the industry #menswear #mensfashion #mensstyle #businesscasual #travel #hiking #business #mensaccessories #leathergoods #leatherwork etc... Here is an example posting from my Instagram account. At the bottom it shows the amount of people who have liked the posting. It doesn't show the amount of followers you obtained from the posting, but once people follow you they will see everything you post in their home feed and in search as well. Example Instagram Post This is my personal way of posting on Instagram and it has played a decent role in giving my company and product extra exposure. I hope this post was very helpful to you. If you have any question about this feel free to reply.
  12. Hey there, I looked at your website and I must say I really like your design concept. It surely works for both your casual and professional life. I think there are a couple of avenues out there that you could use to get this idea commercialized and going.
  13. Best free program I know of is photoscape. You can batch watermark over 100+ images at a time and batch edit all image sizes in a single folder with the click of a button. Try it out, you will be happy you did. And it costs absolutely nothing. 1. After downloading this free program go to "Batch Editor", drag and drop every file you want in there and then in the right side pane under the "home tab", set your dimensions. 2. Then in the same right side pane select the "object tab" and then add your logo. Place your logo in the respective location you want it to be (it will appear on all images in the same location). Right clicking the logo as it is on the images will give you options to reduce the clearness/opacity and size of the logo making perfect for your intended needs. 3. Then in the top right hand corner select convert. After that you can choose to change the title of each individual image in a counting manner if you want. A new folder will be produced with all converted/edited images. This is the single best image editing software I have come across. Oh and the "filter tab" located in the right side pane allows you to add some really cool graphics to all images added to the batch editor. Have a go at it!
  14. Hey there I get your point, it makes a lot of sense. Although I believe leather shops and the business of leather comes in all shapes and forms as does any other field of business, trade or hobby. Some of us have websites and some of us have physical retail shops and both of which sell leather products made by ourselves and made by others. Maybe for you our services aren't needed, but for others, extra products on the shelf might spur up some positive commotion in their local communities increasing traffic and transactions. This is the bread and butter, the basic fundamental for any business to survive, and it might just be a really good thing for some. In any case, we aren't into limiting ourselves or others and so we believe that a well informed community makes for the best. Also you should know, it's more than just trying to make a sell or make money. We just want to help and be helped, mutual gaining partnerships with other retailers of fine leather goods.
  15. Modern Design Tool Tech Craft Backpack, only $147 usd PRODUCT DETAILS: Material: Distressed leather Colors: Dark Brown / Dark Chocolate. Sex: Unisex Style of Bag: Backpack, rucksack Weight: 1.5kg / 1500 grams Length: 13.38" / 34cm Height: 17.32" / 44cm Width/depth: 5.11" / 13cm FEATURES: Interior zipper pocket. Interior wallet slot. Interior cell phone slot. Two interior pen / pencil slots. Interior laptop sleeve protection. Interior tablet sleeve protection. Large internal compartment. Five external front side extruding pockets. One external hidden backside zipper pocket. Two adjustable leather shoulder straps. Topside leather handbag handle. Durable polyester inner lining. Accented with stainless steel plated hardware. Handmade with industrial strength thread. Our products are located in our China warehouse where they have each already been handmade, quality checked and packaged. Each leather article is shipped from our China warehouse with DHL Express and Fedex International priority. We accept paypal for direct purchases or there is the option to check out on our website at the link provided below. http://www.grittyrusticleather.com/collections/backpacks-rucksacks/products/copy-of-genuine-vintage-brown-leather-school-backpack-rucksack If you are interested in this leather backpack please just send me a private message or send me an email. Thanks for looking, Noah Nichols noah@grittyrusticleather.com Gritty Rustic Leather
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