PSA: You don’t have to sell your soul to sell your shit on social media… 😻😹

Selling can feel icky in itself but add on all the complexities of being on social media and it can quickly turn into a frustrating experience. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Instagram for years–I love the community it has the ability to create, but I also see the destruction it can cause when people fall into the comparison trap. For SO LONG I tried to emulate other beautifully crafted & curated accounts and always felt like I was falling short. My photos weren’t good enough, my captions weren’t clever enough, my stuff just wasn’t as cool/clever/creative as theirs… 😭

If this sounds familiar I need to share something with you…

STOP TRYING TO BE SOMEONE ELSE.

Seriously!! Embrace the ONE N’ ONLY YOU! Create what makes you happy, share your creations in a way that brings you joy, get to know your audience & spend more time connecting with them (whether you’ve got 5 followers or 5,000!) and FORGET EVERYTHING ELSE!! For me, these are the golden rules for actually taking back my enjoyment of social media instead of it feeling like a storm cloud hovering in the distance.

What am I going to post? What and I going to say? Is anyone even listening? Does anyone even care? How do I feel my stuff without feeling sleezy? All of these questions would ping around in my head day after day, and like many other before me, I ended up feeling the need to step away from my instagram account altogether. I believe I stepped away for a few months and put my account on “hibernate”. When I decided to come back I knew things had to be different. I focused more on what I truly wanted to post about and share versus trying to emulate other accounts. I also took more time to connect with the followers and supporters I already had rather than chasing more likes and more followers. Heck, if you can’t show up for 50 people how can you expect to show up for 5,000??? It is actually easier to get to know your audience when you have less of them to talk to and get to know!

If you struggle with the social media stress-monster like I did for YEARS, I would love for you to join in on one of my upcoming Zoom workshops on creating a social media strategy that won’t leave you stressed out, comparing yourself to others or doubting yourself!! I want you to be confident in JUST BEING YOU-–and by doing so, find the people who will love you SO much for who you are that they’d support you even if you were selling them last months leftovers!! 😹😹 For now, I will share FOUR of my favorite (quick) ways to make social media and content creation a little easier!

Use Categories When Posting.

This makes it easier to create content for future use AND come up with captions. One or two of these categories will be the things that you create or provide (products and services). You can share about new things you have in the works, shop updates, sales, fun new items or services you’re offering and be sure to include a little backstory with them so the caption is not ONLY “Hey buy this new thing I just posted in my shop”. Instead talk about how this new thing you have created was really a highlight of your day/week and you are so excited to finally get to show it off to the world (p.s. – if you need it in your life you can snag it by visiting my shop because it is now listed/live) – find a way to connect and share something a little above and beyond just a product pitch in each of these posts!

Your next category (or two) should be something more personal. What are your hobbies and true loves outside of your craft? In real life, the things we do & love (the things that make up a huge part of who we are as humans) tend to attract like-minded humans into our lives! Maybe it’s your kids, your family, a love for the outdoors or conservation, fashion or makeup, yoga or fitness, food or cooking, whatever it is–these things attract “our” people and the same thing goes for your social media audience and supporters! If you love talking about being a mom or a fitness buff, a cook or a photographer, a teacher or a gamer, a tattoo collector or a doodler… SHARE IT! Share these passions that lie outside of your main business in order to create a connection. You can choose a photo of you out doing some of these things or you can still share one of your product photos but maybe with a spin. For example, I have shared photos of my crocheted coffee cat cozies in my tattoo shop while being tattooed. It still highlights my product but I got to share something more personal about me in the process.

Be sure that you take time to introduce yourself at least every 9 posts! This does not always have to be a headshot or a selfie, it could be a photo of you working on a new product but share a little something about you! Don’t feel too much pressure to share a ton of info on one post and don’t be afraid to repeat yourself! People aren’t going to remember everything you have shared about yourself in the past so don’t be afraid of sounding repetitive! If anything it will help solidify the connections that you have with your audience! You also don’t have to share a life story, it is enough to share a few tidbits about yourself and don’t forget to ask your followers to share something about themselves with YOU in the comments of the post!

It’s easy as ABCC–Always Be Creating Content.

This is SO IMPORTANT! This and #3 really go hand in hand but the first thing to remember is to always be creating content! Every time you are creating or working on something, shift your mindset and see it as an opportunity to create content. Your cell phone should be your best friend! You don’t need a fancy camera to take great photos for social media, it is more about finding the best light and using it to your advantage! You can read all about my tips and tricks for taking better product photos on my blog post here! Take photos of yourself working, go live on Instagram while you are working, create a time lapse or boomerang (HAVE FUN WITH IT!). Now that you are taking more photos than you know what to do with it is time for step #3!

Get Organized!

Here’s the caveat to step #2–don’t share everything immediately!!!!! Instead, build up a stockpile that is ORGANIZED and easy to access! This may mean creating a special image album on your phone or on a cloud service like Google Drive or iCloud where you can upload photos quickly and easily to then come back to them later when you’re in a pinch and aren’t sure what to share! If you have 10, 20, even 30 photos & video clips that you’ve stored over time i’s much easier to get inspired and create a caption that will connect with your audience!

I hope you found these tips helpful! I will continue to share more tips and tricks here on my blog so be sure to subscribe and never miss a blog post!!!!

Remember, you can always connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! I love making new social media friends!!!

× The Pink Sheep ×