Guest Post: 6 Ways Social Media Has Helped My Business

Like many of my friends, I met Kimberlie Burkhart via Social Media, primarily Twitter. Kimberlie is a jewelry artist with the business name B.B. Bellezza who loves finding interesting things and using them in different ways to create little wearable pieces of work. She tries to find the usefulness and beauty in items that other people might throw away. You can find her work online or in person in shops around Pennsylvania. In fact, she has quickly become my wife and daughter’s favorite jewelry artist. You can also find Kimberlie on Facebook and Twitter.

When I first started using social media, mainly Twitter to begin with, I joined because someone told me I should because I have a business. Then I was told to follow as many people as possible to get people to follow me. For a while I did that and basically didn’t “get it.”

But, as time progressed I met some people from Twitter in person, really started thinking of my followers as people and started to make meaningful connections with people.

Ways Social Media has helped B.B. Bellezza:

1. I am in the handmade jewelry business, so I follow a lot of people who are also in the handmade business. Most people who I have met in arts and crafts are very supportive of each other. I love to see what others are working on and so I also share what I am working on. When you make and sell handmade items, you are also selling yourself. The more you share about your inspiration and process, the more interested people seem to be in what you have to offer. (And the more likely you’ll be to have a future sale.)

2. My work utilizes mainly recycled materials. I let people know what I am looking for, and they save items that they can’t use and give them to me. In turn, if I have something that I no longer can use, or information that can help someone, I help out others whenever I can.

3. I sell in several shops around central Pennsylvania. I am in a couple of these shops directly from being on Twitter and making connections when the shops were first being conceptualized and started. I am in another because my crafty friends who were talking about the shop and pointed me in the right direction. Probably had I not been on Twitter, I would not have made those connections, nor would B.B.Bellezza handcrafted jewelry be sold in those shops.

4. Of course, I have made sales from my online shop directly from posting on Twitter and Facebook. But I think it’s more because I have gained the trust of my customers by having real connections with them. Many times these customers spread word of mouth through twitter as well.

5. Because of Twitter, I have also been able to meet a lot of local people in person that I may not have normally met. Some of these people have become my favorite customers and are just generally very supportive of whatever I am doing. As I am supportive of what they are doing.

6. The main thing I miss about working for a company outside my home is the social interaction with my co-workers. Twitter and Facebook have become that social interaction throughout the day for me. People cheer me on when I have successes and they commiserate with me up when I am having a bad day.

Social Media can afford you lots of opportunities, opportunities you may not even know exist, but you have to make connections with people and have real relationships. You just never know who you might meet and how you may help each other.

Tagged as: guest blog, Marketing, Social Media