Need advise using social media as a marketing tool

[DoubleKCustomLeathercraft]

I know I'm way behind on this because I'm stubborn and have been opposed to social media since the days of MySpace. I do use YouTube as a learning source (how I learned this craft) and some entertainment of course.

The local market is a little stale right now and highly dependent on tourists. Tourist season is pretty much wrapped up and all the snow birds are flocking south for the winter (FL, AZ, TX). I've come to realize that I am missing out on free advertising to 2 (IG) to 2.5 (YT) billion people. I really have no clue what to do or how to present my work on platforms such as Instagram. Ican make short videos on the process like I see everyone else doing, but what would stand out? Does anyone have any tips, tricks or techniques to build an IG page that would attract more business? What kind of posts or reels work best for leathercraft? And the algorithm? 

My IG page @doublekcustomleather

I've been signed up to LinkedIn forever it seems, and have grown a decent sized network. So I decided to start writing weekly posts with images to hopefully promote my brand. I can't seem to keep them short and engaging. Although I did get more interest from my second post.

These two, and maybe YouTube are all I would consider using. My problem is I really don't know how to engage these platforms, or how to utilize the algorithm for selling custom leather products. There are plenty of YouTube videos on business, selling and building a following on IG, but it's all premade products. I am a made to order business and don't have an inventory of products. 

I'm just hoping some of y'all might have some advise to share

 

See.... I'm long winded. 

[Mulesaw]

@DoubleKCustomLeathercraft

Our small company uses IG and Facebook, but so far I don't think that we have had any business from IG. But it does help in getting people to know your business.

I looked at your IG account, and the products and pictures look great. But you don't use hashtags. Hashtags I believe are part of what helps the algorithm sending suggestions to other people. 

On your "hand of God" holster post, after your description of the product, you could write #handofgod #3:10to yuma #gunslinger #holster #western   etc.
Lets say someone searches IG for a HandofGod rig, then the search function will show those thigns marked specifically with the corresponding hashtags first. THere is no limit to how many hashtags you can use (as to my knowledge), but I try to limit myself to the most meaningful ones.

People on IG seem to love watching how things are made. So I have had far more views on small videos (reels) also with hashtags. It could be watching your hands do a bit of handstitching, or skiving some leather, using a sewing machine etc. You can edit the reel in IG, and for instance increas the speed or choose only a part of the film. There is also a thing called time lapse, which is good if you want to make a long project very short. Your phone will take a picture every 5 seconds or whatever you set it to do, and the result is that a 10 minutes job is compressed to 20 seconds, and it still looks good. 

I think that it is difficult to sell custom leather products via Instagram, since most people would probably like to feel and touch the products before buying them, but it could create an interest for your business.

By far our best marketing is "word of mouth" So if there's a shooting range nearby or a gun club etc. it might be worth going there and having a cup of coffee and showing your products to them. But that is a whole different subject 🙂

Hope it was of a little help.

Brgds Jonas

[fredk]

Its not a leather business but a car parts business, my son gets plenty of trade via facebook selling pages. He gives very clear descriptions and photos. He'll answer questions reasonably fast, even the stoopid ones

[bruce johnson]

Kevin,
      I am sure not an expert but here is what works for me. I have a website, personal FB, business FB, IG page, and email list. The personal FB page mostly stays personal - what I eat, where I am out and about, not much business stuff. The business FB was kind of poorly maintained by me at the start - started off as leather work and transitioned to tools. I would add content every so often, but not regularly. Once I got on IG I linked the IG page and FB business pages so adding a post on IG automatically added it on the FB page. Over time I have gone to regular updates 5-7 days a week. The frequent updates definitely will drive you up the ladder on what shows on somebody's feeds. It is interesting, this week I have not updated in 5 or 6 days, busy with tools coming in and getting them ready for the Pendleton show in a couple weeks. With no  social media/website updates, I have been getting 3-5 contacts the last few days asking if I am OK. (Yes I am, just busy this week in the background of this one man band). 
     Website - the central focus of everything else I do is my website. That is the catalog of tools and resources. It is the most complete and current place I have. Granted I am bigger in inventory than most any leather business, but I look at a lot of business websites and the social media of my customers. I am truly curious what  they make, level of experience, and a little more about them. Personal bias, but I feel like a website is pretty much a necessity to say "I am serious". They don't have to be fancy, just functional and some eye appeal. There are enough plug and play platforms out there that really it is not hard to set a website up. You may not get the search traffic right off or ever, but you have a place to lead people to from your social media for more information and likely to see things they didn't know they needed. The other thing is that websites don't follow the whims of social media. A few years ago it got tough for several people. Social Media went through a stretch that anything with the word "knife", "pistol", "gun", etc was a weapon and got taken down. OP got banned or a timeout for posting. People started spelling the key words out or incorrectly to get around it, calling holsters a pew-pew holder, no-go after about a week there after the social media enforcers caught up. (no reason to argue the reasons - it happened). Josh at Montana Knife lived it. He was growing on IG like crazy and then in about 2 days, they decimated that. He had enough following to lead them away for his updates and in the long run probably created more interest. Some knife and holster makers didn't have any websites to refer their customers. I was calling leather knives "leather reshaping and resizing tools" for a good while. I had one guy who didn't get it make the comment "That's a round knife idiot, don't you even know what it is?". Thanks to that comment I got a 10 day timeout.     
     Instagram and FB business posts - Short regular posts often help more than a long post less frequently. I have a few reels and they go over well, but mostly I am adding still pictures of fresh tools added that day to the website. 
     Personal FB - I try not overlap much and keep the business/personal separation line kind of there. My high school classmates, old horseshow friends, and old coworkers probably don't care about my latest round knives or splitters. However my business customers sometimes appreciate seeing a glimpse of my personal life. 
     MailChimp - I have a sign up list for emails when I add new tools. Some people just don't do social media at all and some infrequently but want notifications. The nice thing about this is that they have to sign up but have the option later to opt out. That is an intentional act and shows some level of interest, not just clicking a post. MailChimp is who my website guy suggested and has been good. People sign up to receive emails from me. Whenever I add new website content, I send an email. You've all got them from other businesses. The nice thing about MailChimp is that they handle the legal stuff.  There is an opt-out link on every email. They are generally recognized as a safe sender. When I would send out 30 emails from my regular email, I would end up as spam more often by some filters. Now my list is a little over 700 people and usually only 2-3 that aren't delivered. They have a separate SMS service that sends text updates as well. I had people ask for texts and looked into it. That is a whole different deal and much more regulated. There is not a flat rate, you buy credits per month. Someone local might be one credit per send, but someone internationally might be 3 credits. There is a legal time of day window for text deliveries and if you fall out of that, there are lawyers waiting. The SMS services allow for that but I don't want to be "that legal target" when the automatic send messes up and somebody gets a 3:00 am text.