Hey everyone! Welcome back for another Silver Fox Shares! Today I'll be sharing another one of my favorite #craftrebels Zei! I can't wait to tell you more about her, so onto to the sharing! All About ZeiZei is the rock star stay at home/work at home momma of Pelhuaz by Red, previously a Project Manager on a self proclaimed 'permanent vacation' of motherhood and small business. She's the mother of two kids who she home schools in Puerto Rico while designing gorgeous jewelry, clothing and accessories. With English as her second language, she's still a sarcasm pro and all around fun chick to know. I really enjoy interacting with her through social media, she's extremely talented and makes beautiful graphics for her blog and site in addition to her gorgeous wearables. What She MakesZei creates designer apparel and handmade indie jewelry that is absolutely stunning. She pulls from her own style which is simple and modern. Her style is very bohemian chic and classic with bold text and ideas she makes pieces that are the perfect addition to any wardrobe for all ages. Pelhuaz by RedPelhuaz by Red was born in 2013, and her blog, which I loooooove, shortly thereafter. Her shop is full of unique items and fun apparel. English is Zei's second language and she pulls it together beautifully for her English speaking audience. True to her Project Manager roots, she starts the week off with her Perfect Monday, a progress report of Pelhuaz by Red. Every Wednesday Zei promotes other handmade shops with a Handmade Favorites post and a Crafty Rebels link up as shown below every Friday. For this one, we got to collaborate with Zei to choose our favorites! You can click the image to visit this link up. So what are you waiting for? Go visit Pelhuaz! She's got some amazingly beautiful handcrafted boho jewelry, sassy tees for all ages, some really great leggings and then some. And I absolutely adore what she does for the handmade community! Check her out!
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Hey guys! Welcome back, if you checked us out last week you've probably learned all about loop giveaways and how to be a successful participant. If you didn't read last weeks post - you can check it out here. So once you've participated in at least one loop giveaway or more, maybe you're ready to host your own. Well, you're in luck - Imma tell you all about it. So, here's what you do: Think of a themeTo me, first things first is think of a really great theme. Find a theme, maybe it's as simple as a season, maybe it's a specific food, one of those silly 'National Days' or a real holiday, a mom tool kit, a new baby giveaway, a wedding set - really anything, but you get the point broad enough that you'll have lots of entrants but with slight direction. Do your research; make sure there's an Instagram following for it. One more thing to check, is it something that ties in with your brand? This may not always be the case, but make sure there's a least a few products. If your hosting, it's a lot of work so you want to make sure there will be something cohesive about the giveaway to your brand. I'll tell you a little bit about two loop giveaways I recently participated in that did this right: Coffee Lovers Giveaway hosted by WanderlustBee on National Coffee Day She picked a silly National Day that everyone will be talking about - it has a good enough niche in a big enough topic. Hello - coffee! I'm a fan. And - so is the Instagram community, with the hashtag for coffee boasting a massive total of over 54 million as of October 2016. Probably extremely importantly she chose a topic that relates back to her business. She makes really sweet crocheted goodies, specifically lots of extremely cute coffee cozies. Our next example is The Nightmare Before Christmas Giveaway hosted by Here Comes the Nerd She picked a totally awesome classic movie that a lot of people really love. The question I always hear about The Nightmare Before Christmas is people aren't sure when to watch it Christmas or Halloween - the answer is yes. I mean both. So she chose to host this giveaway in October, using it's very Halloween tie ins to the time of year. Not only is it popular this time of year, it's very popular on Instagram. It's tough to gauge just how popular as it has varying hashtags people will use for it but it the main ones #thenightmarebeforechrismas has approximately 225K and #nightmarebeforechristmas totaling almost 850K. She makes beautiful and nerdy paintings with the Nightmare Before Christmas being among her designs, lovers of this movie will easily find other things they like in her store. Find some friendsOk, so now that you have your totally awesome theme zeroed in, it should be easier to pick your other brands. This is why I think it's important to pick your theme first, I like to either seek out people who I know have products that could fit, or come to them with an idea already in mind. Especially if you're trying to gain participation of larger brands - spell it all out - or at least as much as you possibly can. You want to look for others that compliment your brand, see above in the WanderlustBee's post, she had a painting, leggings, a coffee cozie and a glass. Complementary products. Again with complimentary, find brands that are similar to yours, are they funny and quirky? Hey me too! Are they sassy with the occasional potty mouth? Same. Do they sell religious products or are their posts heavily faith based and PC? Probably not a good fit with the first two I just listed. Again, those are my criteria. Personally, I think it's more important to have a bunch of brands with similar but different followings than it is to have a bunch of different brands that may have no connection at all other than wanting to gain followers. I don't have statistics on it yet but I would venture to say, the way I'm suggesting has more staying power. Don't get me wrong - if you can find some larger accounts that fit your style AND they respond AND want to participate - DO IT! It never hurts to build strong relationships with larger brands. After all, more followers generally equals more exposure. Confirm your groupOnce you have your group of radical makers and/or bloggers, create a group message on Instagram. Here is where you'll confirm everyone's continued participation, work together to determine a date and time that works for everyone, and a deadline for any necessary product images or gift amounts if doing a gift card or store credit. Plus you can all introduce yourselves and get everyone comfortable with each other and follow each other if you choose as well as make sure all new to looping understand how it works. I recommend starting this no later than two days before your tentative date and no earlier than two weeks as soft timelines. Create engaging image(s) for the postEveryone participating in the loop giveaway will need to post the exact same first image with the exact same wording. You can use Photoshop, Canva, or my favorite Bazaart just to name a few. If you like the collage look Instagram has it's own app called Layout that's pretty sweet too. A good idea is to do one teaser graphic which can be different for every shop or all the same, one main graphic which can be simple like the one pictured above from the Nightmare Loop Giveaway or any other style you choose, and one graphic that shows everyone what they're winning like the collage from the Coffee Lovers Giveaway pictured above. Make sure they are all sent to the group via the message and everyone is able to save them. Generate a caption and taglistA couple days before the loop goes live create an instructional caption for the entrants (we'll give you a template next week so stay tuned), instructions for your brands including date and time (include all zones), and a tag list (more on that in a minute). It is VERY IMPORTANT that everyone post at the EXACT same time. I don't normally use caps lock, so note, EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO POST AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. On to the tag list -create a list of all the brands involved. Let everyone participating know the person directly below them if whom they will be tagging. Have everyone double and triple check spelling and that their tag buddy and themselves are clickable and working. You can either choose to tag the next brand in the caption, in the actual image or both. Remember to make it as easy a possible for the entrants. Contest DetailsWe'll be doing a giveaway soon, so we'll share our exact template next week but if you just cannot wait until then here's the details you'll want to include in your caption:
Post the giveaway and then someCheck in with everyone a few minutes before in the group DM - I like to do a 15 minute check in and stay with everyone until the loop goes live. This way I know who's potentially missing and can try getting a hold of them to make sure prior to post time or be prepared to skip (see the next section). And.....everybody post! Use all 30 hashtags relative to your giveaway in the comment immediately after posting. I like to use Gethashtags.com or their app. You can supply the group with hashtags but it's good to have some differing ones throughout the group for maximum exposure. Test the loop to make sure there were no issues. Check your messenger for everyone to make sure they had no issues in posting and help out where needed. What if someone doesn't post on time?Well, I'm glad you asked. Hey, we're all human here so accidents can happen. Someone misses the time. You'll want to make sure you have a plan set in place such as, how long before you skip that person and how you'll handle it. I usually try to keep it within 5 minutes or less to skip someone. If you need to skip someone, the person who tagged them will need to tag the next person after them in order to close the loop. If they pop in later, you as the host will have to tag them in - this means you would swap out the brand you've tagged for the missing looper and have them tag who you had to re-complete the loop. Note that should this happen, some followers may not be following this person for picking your winner. So who won???The timeline for the giveaway should be included in the caption. Everyone will want to close the loop by swapping out their tag buddy with the word CLOSED and/or un-tagging them from the image. No one is to remove the image until all the winners have been announced and either shipping information has been provided by them or they have been gifted their store credit. This a more soft timeline than posting, although everyone should close no earlier than the set time. If it's one winner takes all, I like everyone to randomly select a winner and then a winner is randomly selected from that group. For more than 5 gifts, a good rule of thumb is each store gifts their own winner. The same rules apply, everyone should be using a random number generator from either their likes or tag list and then ensuring each brands winner is following everyone. Count up all your entries then choose a random number. You can use a family member as a random number generator, excel or Random.org. I prefer Excel or Random.org because you can either video tape or capture the image of obtaining the random number just in case anyone questions your methodology or fairness it's backed up. Can you tell I used to work in corporate America? If it's not documented it didn't happen. Once everyone's winners are confirmed by at least a couple others in the group, they can each announce by tagging the winner in a comment on the original post to contact them for their details. It's over - what now?Should go without saying, but if you're socially awkward like me remember to thank everyone who participated in the loop. Welcome everyone's feedback who participated. Plan for working together again. You can either reach out individually or in the group to see if it worked out well for them or not.
As for your new followers, read our last post about continuing to hold their interest. So that's it, come back next week for a free caption template! Did we miss anything? Any questions? Leave a comment! Hey guys! Welcome back! Something I always wanted to be able to do was share other handmade businesses. So today is our first ever Silver Fox Shares post! I'm really excited...can you tell by the exclamation points?!?! I couldn't be happier to share with you a really awesome chick who makes some totally rad earrings and jewelry. She's also someone I network with and I really enjoy talking to on a regular basis, so that makes this even more exciting for me to share her and her stuffs with you! With that said, let's talk about her and her pretties! Who is Imy and MeImy and Me is run by a totally awesome chick (see above) who is also a mom of two girls, soon to be wife to a wonderful and understanding man (does it get any better?), friend, volunteer and all around FUNny woman. If you check out her about me page, she describes herself as complex human who likes her coffee and silence although with her two little girls she probably gets more coffee. She's been at this handmade hustle for five years! And draws from the love and strength of those she admires to create beautiful pieces to share with the world. She also is a firm believer in all things made in the USA (girl after my own heart) and all of the items she sells are made and/or purchased from shops within the United States. About Imy and MeImy and Me is a Rhode Island based jewelry collection aimed at modern, trendy, fashionable everyday woman. From what I've found, I love that Cheryl keeps her sense of humor and has the occasional sassy funny pieces thrown in there. She definitely keeps things lively and interesting while maintaining gorgeous everyday pieces to elegant evening wear or wedding pieces. Basically you can find something for every age level of sass or runway you're looking for in her store. My favorite that I absolutely have on my Christmas which list are her new fossilized mermaid earrings. <-- You'll have to click that link to see them, and if you do, you might as well grab me a pair. Another one of my favorites is her Green Leopard Glitter Earrings (below) can you tell my favorite color is green? Where can I get these beautiful baubles?!?!Well, you don't have to go to Rhode Island to find her! Super exciting, because I really hate leaving the house unless it's to go to the fabric store. You can snag these gorgeous earrings and while you're at it you might as well grab more because I don't think you'll be able to stop once you get there.
You can find these pretties and more about her at: imyandmeshop.com What do you think of Imy and Me? Have you checked out her shop yet? Leave your review in the comments! Want us to share your awesomeness with the Silver Fox Community? Click here!
Hi Y'all! Today I'm writing to let you in on my experience with participating in and hosting loop or collaborative style giveaways on Instagram for handmade or creative businesses. It's no secret, if you know me, that Instagram is my ultimately favorite social media platform. I guess that vibes with my artsy visual side. Through the small businesses we've run together, I've learned a lot through trial and error of what works and what doesn't and how to use certain tools to your advantage.
A few fun facts...
According to Instagram's own statistics it has over 500 million active accounts, with over 300 million users checking in daily and almost 100 million photos and videos posted per day as of today. You can check that link anytime to check out their press kit which includes up to the minute statistics if you like your data fresh - like me. I kind of really heart data - but alas another blog another day.
Back to the point - with all those users it's no doubt an excellent place to market your beautiful handmade business. But with all those posts - woo - it's a sea of content. So, as we progress here on this little blog, we'll talk about the many ways to harness Instagram as a tool for your business. Today we'll specifically fill you in on the beauty of our experiences with collaborative give aways! On to the deets! What the heck is a loop giveaway?
Well, if you've never entered or seen a loop giveaway, the first thing I suggest you do - after reading this of course - is search the hashtag #loopgiveaway on Instagram and pick one that's open and try it. Explaining it is one thing, but I'm a very hands on learner, so entering one was my aha! moment. There's only about 44K posts for that hashtag so you should be able to find something you want to win.
If you've left and came back after entering one, I like you, you little rebel! And - I'm glad your back, this will make perfect sense. If you didn't leave, hey I like you too- you listen to me. On to the explanation: A loop giveaway is a contest that one or more shops/brands participate in together to give something away to those who enter in exchange for gaining followers. I've seen the numbers over 40 in one loop, but I don't recommend them that large. Personally, if your loop is that big, I give up about halfway through which means half your hosts won't gain the same following. I think you'd find your sweet spot around 20 or less. But, please note everything I say here is solely my opinion/experience. So if you participate in one, you'll either be pitching in money to have one large prize, pitching in a gift card or store credit for your store, or my favorite an actual product from your store. In exchange, everyone in the group will feed everyone else's followers in turn more followers for everyone! Yay! Why should I give my stuff away for free?
This is the question that Mr. Silver Fox inevitably asks every time. He hates doing freebies. He's like the grinch of marketing - which is also why I love him, because if it was up to me I'd be all -
and then all...
But that's me I love *endless women screaming* and giving people things...to a fault...
So if your not like me - this section is for you. Loop giveaways are helpful to small businesses and new small business especially because it allows you to work with other brands with different followings and in some cases larger accounts which then you'll gain following from. In addition to gaining following -
That's why I recommend gifting a product or gift card. You can join loops that pitch in to giveaway one big prize, and they do have higher success rates in large amounts of followers (no stats on this yet, just guestimating) - but the thing is - if you don't sell iPad's in your store - those followers you gained by giving away the latest model aren't going to bring you the followers you want. Heck, you'll probably even loose some after because they just don't dig your product. Maybe if you make iPad accessories they might stay - but chances are they wanted that big prize, not what you make. Now, it's not that you won't get people that just want the freebs and will peace out when they did or didn't win, you'll still get those. But, from what I've seen, you'll gain followers with better engagement and staying power if they want to win something from your store. How to Harness Your New Followers
We're going to skip around a little bit because this kind of flows with our last statement. Picture this - your in the thick of your loop giveaway and everyone is looped (we'll get to how they work in the next section) and the followers are coming in hot - at least hopefully - a medium slow trickle is good too, followers are followers when your an up and coming small biz. What now?
The biggest thing I see with small businesses on Instagram is expecting people to just like you. That's it. So let me ask you - if I just sat near you in real life, would you like me? I mean literally just sat there, not smiling, not frowning, not talking - and in a bland outfit. Maybe, maybe you would cause you just like everyone and everything or because I'm just that awesome. And if you do, you're awesome! But you're probably not the majority. If you want engagement you have to put the effort in. Engage! Engage, engage, engage! I'll save some for another blog where we'll talk about how to build your following, but for loop giveaways engagement is an integral piece to keeping those followers. Pick some of your new followers, check them out and if you think their interesting or your target market - maybe follow them back, more importantly like and comment on some of their photos. Back to me sitting next to you, if I sat next to you, was smiling and possibly gave you a compliment - there's a better chance you might think I was kind of cool or at least nice and interesting. See what I mean here? Another way to maintain that following - try to find other products or things they'd be interested in to keep their attention. They keep liking what your doing, they keep following you and you stay in their feed. I'll give you an example of this one, I started a new funny t-shirt store, I wanted to use the larger following that Silver Fox Fabrics has to build my new Instagram account. We did a giveaway together giving away some Halloween fabrics and a Halloween tote bag. Majorly, the followers are coming for the fabric since people follow Silver Fox Fabrics because they like to buy fabric - or at least drool over it - I mean look at it. So, to keep those new fabric loving hobbyists I gained, I created funny t-shirts about DIY type things, sewing jokes, knitting jokes, ect. and I've been incorporating them into my posts ever since. And lastly - during your loop giveaway or shortly there after, run a flash sale, give free shipping or offer 20% off for your new Instagram followers. Something to thank them for following you, keep their attention and entice them to stay and maybe even do some shopping. So, how does it work?
So here's what to expect step by step in a nice little concise list:
So that's it, in my experience. You can have some really great gains in following from loop giveaways, but it's all about what you do with them. Ready to host your own? Click here. Have you done a loop giveaway? Are you hosting one soon? Did I miss anything? Comment below! Hi Everybody! You've most likely found us from our fabric website because you love fabric too! I'm Angie, the wife and mom in the Silver Fox Family and fabric junkie that caused the whole store. I'll be doing most of the blogging on this here site so I figured I'd tell you a little bit about myself, the family and the business I'll be blogging about.
So first off, I'll tell you a little about our family. Mr. Silver Fox Fabric's and I met over ten years ago at work. I remember seeing him walk into work with long hair to work the overnight shift and immediately liking his vibe. I told my friend who was standing with me, "I'm gonna marry that man someday". It was a complete and total joke because I probably never would have spoken to him at work, but I knew I wanted to. Sure enough, the universe heard me and we ran into each other outside of work and started talking and basically never stopped. We got our first house and first child, Frannie, our rescue dog within a few years after that fateful night. Soon came marriage, then mini fox number one, our boy who we'll call J-man in this blog. A couple years later, we had another mini fox, a girl who we'll call the squirrel here. After her, I left the workforce - a successful career that I had worked my way up in as did Eric. So many people tell me I'm a princess because I get to stay home, or think that we're loaded. The honest truth is, even with a successful career at a management level, once we had two mini foxes - to pay for daycare for them would be essentially me just paying not to raise my kids. The money was so close to break even that I did get to follow one of my dreams of being a full time mom. We decided to take our chances at scraping by on one income, so in this blog you may see some money saving tips or tips on obtaining some side cash. As with having two kiddos, any blogger that's a mom will inevitably write about her journey in mother hood, things that work for me as a parent, fun activities to keep them babies busy. In addition to just being a mom, I'm also an autism mom. The J-man is beautifully and wonderfully differently brained, as is my brother so there may be the occasional blog on autism or autism parenting or nuerodiversity. It's my job as someone with a voice to share my experiences and spread the word about our nuerodiverse world the struggles we face but more importantly the wins and how to make the world a better place for all brains. So, back to the fabric and how that all ties in. Remember how I said I was in management? Well, yeah, I sorta liked to work and was relatively good at working - project planning, creativity, having goals and deadlines and meeting them. You might think kids will keep you busy, and they will, but I also needed something for myself. I started my first small business making baby clothing and selling it on etsy. It was short lived, and a definite learning experience which resulted in an excess of fabric. Once we realized that buying fabric at JoAnn's was overpriced and breaking the bank, Eric saw an opportunity to buy wholesale. Which was much cheaper, but as I said my first business, well - it was a learning experience. Maybe eventually I'll share more about those experiences and my current business outside fabric, but for now - I really want to focus here, with you. We wound up with lots of fabric, and being the business man that he is and the lover of fabric that I am - we decided fabric might just be the perfect business for us. And - I'm pretty impressed at the fabric expert he's become, my grandma would've been proud. I've experimented with other handmade businesses and the people I've met and things I've learned in the community have been amazing and beautiful. I love seeing something that is completely awe inspiring that someone in our lovely little handmade community has made with their own two hands. I've been sewing and crocheting since I can remember with help from my grandmother who was a seamstress for many years. You may see pattern reviews here, things I'm making or working on AND I'd love to showcase what you've made. If you want to share it that is. I love helping build this community of small shops and handmade businesses. So that's me and the Silver Fox Family! I hope you enjoy being here with us! |
Mr. & Mrs. Silver FoxThe Silver Fox family was started long before the fabric business. Mr. & Mrs. Silver Fox have been together for almost ten years and have two totally rad baby foxes. Together they've embarked on small business ownership, creative projects, and lots and lots of fabric. ArchivesCategories |