When I recently decided to turn my serious jewelry-making hobby into a business opportunity, I thought, well ok, I’ll create my designs, post them online, do some word-of-mouth and email marketing, and the sales would pour in. Yes, I’ve got quite the sense of humor.
A quick Google search of Handcrafted Jewelry Designs turned up 11,800,000 hits. Narrowing that down to Handcrafted Beaded Jewelry which is more specifically what I make, didn't help much -- 5,660,000 including mine. Big problem but I've got some ideas.
Professionally, I’m a public relations consultant, working for more years than I care to count for large corporations and small, local businesses. (Bear with me, there is a connection here). The industry has changed dramatically from the old-school practice of writing a press release, sending it out to contacts at various media outlets and getting a story written about whatever it was I was pitching. But that was then.
Today it’s all about online social marketing which is vast and overwhelming but I’m going to figure it all out and sell some jewelry. I'm an eager student determined to be an expert at Twitter, FaceBook and the rest of them to see if all this new stuff actually works. I'll routinely post my results and let you know the good, the bad and the profitable.
Any comments, suggestions, advice, opinions are always welcome.
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