Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1491557
G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M J U N E 2 0 2 3 • G R A P H I C S P R O 4 5 I was drawn to social media initially to display my crafting business to not just the few people that attended the local popups but to millions of people spend- ing upwards of three hours a day scrolling social media. My timing for this transition could not have come at a more opportune time, as a global pandemic was approach- ing that would force the entire world to go online. In 2020, my sales increased by 200% because of the social media presence and the community I began to build through it. ese are the times in which people aren't looking to just blindly purchase; they want to feel like they're part of some- thing. A lot of influencers name their plat- forms something catchy, which creates that community people are looking for. Looking at social media as just a way to keep in touch with friends and fam- ily should be a thing of the past if you own or operate a business. Networking events aren't completely out of the win- dow but look at it like this: events house a few thousand people, sometimes more, sometimes less. Social media opens doors to millions of people around the world; setting up a page or channel is free, and the ROI is infinite. Having that online presence allows you to capture sales during times you can't be in front of people, like at 2 a.m. In 2020, I created a YouTube video showing how to make order books by hand. After the second day of that video being posted, it went viral during the middle of the night. I woke up the next morning to 50 orders, orders that I would never have been able to obtain elsewhere because it was during a time frame I physically couldn't. Turns out that consumers love to scroll at all times of the night, and there is a group of people that impulse buy in the wee hours. No matter what you sell, you want to position yourself to meet the demand of those buyers. Start from scratch So how do you go about establishing a social media presence? How do you get I use a lot of videos on Instagram and Facebook as well. You can cast a wider net and cross-promote by using multiple platforms and save time posting by repurposing your content for each platform.