Social Media Engagement Tips 2021

By Julie Siomacco | May 14, 2021 |

Most of the time I see handmade businesses only use social media to sell but social media is not made for selling! It’s made for people to people interaction.  So as Etsy shop owners, we need to remember to engage with people and not sell to them (all the time). It’s hard especially for an introvert like me, but if you always remember your Ideal Customer Profile, it makes a little easier.

First think of your social media as a pool. And in the pool, you pour from 3 buckets. These 3 buckets represent three things in your brand you want to be known for. This is where knowing who you serve (your ideal customer) is important. 

Use this worksheet to brainstorm and write down three things you want your brand to be known for.

For example as wreath seller, I want to be known for quality and original wreaths, home decor made with silk flowers, a place to help with seasonal decorating, etc. And we already discussed who Beth is for my Ideal Customer Profile, so if I know Beth needs seasonal decorating help, she will follow me on social media where I can provide tips as well as develop a conversation around around services I provide for her.

Also you can take your ques from keywords on Pinterest. Example, if you see entryway flower arrangement ideas pop up as a keyword suggestion or trending, try to incorporate this into your engagement post on other social media platforms.

Under each bucket, I try to think of engaging questions I can use on social media when posting.

Wreaths

  1. how do you know when you have purchased a quality wreath?
  2. When referring to quality handmade, what does quality mean to you?
  3. Where would you hang this wreath?
  4. When sending a gift, have you ever sent a wreath?
  5. Which do you like better? Wreath A or Wreath B?
  6. If you could have a wreath for any occasion, what would that occasion be?

Home Decor

  1. How are your silk flower arrangements in your home different than what your mother had?
  2. Where would you put this arrangement?
  3. Do you like your arrangements to fit within your decor or to match the season of the year?
  4. Do you put arrangements in your powder room?
  5. What’s over your fireplace right now?

Seasonal

  1. Who’s started Christmas decorating?
  2. Do you decorate for Easter? If so, how much?
  3. What is your favorite fall flower?
  4. How many wreaths do you hang for fall?
  5. Pumpkins…how many do you display before your husband starts to look at you sideways?

Then I like to add a me too bucket. This is when I try to get my follower to relate to me more because I’m like them.

Me Too

  1. Memes about late night amazon shopping,
  2. anything regarding my pets,
  3. my faith,
  4. love of Disney, Boating, hate for exercise, latest trending Netflix obsession, my favorite online wine delivery service, etc.

Again, this is where you must know your customer. Do not use my ideas that would relate to my customer, develop your own. Sometimes this is trial and error too. If you post about forgetting to fill the coffee maker with coffee in a rush to get out the door and your followers don’t respond, it could mean they don’t relate to coffee or having to rush in the mornings (perhaps your followers are retired). 

The purpose of this exercise is to brainstorm topics to post about.

What’s getting most engagement now on Facebook?

  • Memes
  • Facebook Lives
  • Facebook Videos
  • Stories
  • Images with questions
  • Hashtags (according to experts) but I’m still trying to find it working on my Page
  • Responding to comments

What seems to throttle post of Facebook?

  • Using sales words like buy now, on sale, join now, etc.
  • Links off of Facebook
  • When you ask people to share, comment and like

What’s working on Instagram?

  • Reels (more info on reels here in the portal)
  • Carousel posts (more info on Carousel posts in the portal)
  • Lives 
  • Using 30 hashtags on very post
  • Niche hashtags to be more specific #summerwreath vs. #homedecor (more training in portal here)
  • responding to comments
  • hearting the comments from day before after posting
  • sharing posts to Stories with a hook

What’s not working on Instagram (Click here for Instagram Best Practices from Facebook)

  • Using the same hashtags over and over
  • Using hashtags with post over 100K
  • Using hashtags that aren’t relevant to the photo
  • Follow, unfollow 
  • Not captioning videos

What’s working on Pinterest

  • Stories (more info on Pin Stories in the portal)
  • Posting content 6 weeks in advance (example in May posting 4th of July)
  • Video (training in portal here)
  • Posting multiple times a day (10 or more)

What’s not working on Pinterest

  • Posting the same image over and over
  • Linking to many different platforms

What’s working on YouTube

What’s Not Working

  • Repurposing FB lives

Remember

With each of your social media accounts, your channel should be clear as to what your brand is about and occasionally have call to actions and a way to gather emails.

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