Kieffer Ceramics

An Advanced Ceramics Studio: Keiffer Ceramics 

Kristen Kieffer is a full-time studio potter and sole-proprietor of Kieffer Ceramics based in Massachusetts. Ms. Kieffer’s primary form is functional pottery with a Victorian modern twist. Kristen Kieffer is influenced by the 18^th Century service pieces, Nouveau illustrations, and even contemporary cakes. The Kieffer Ceramics on-line gallery showcase displays the same quality as her Etsy Shop (exhibit 1) and museum pieces (exhibit 2) seen below:

Exhibit One

Image Provided by Kieffer Ceramics

 

Exhibit Two

Image Provided by Kieffer Ceramics

Cross Channel Promotion on Social Media Platforms

Kristen Kieffer is not a typical potter. Most concentrate on only the production side of their profession and not the social side of ceramics. Within the ceramic industry, Ms. Kieffer is known not only for her quality pieces but for the remarkable way she has been able to promote herself as a brand in social media. Ms. Kieffer maintains an extensive website, a monthly blog, an e-newsletter, and postings on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Ms. Kieffer has made it easy for the consumer to connect with her through cross-promotions of these digital platforms which also increases her discoverability. The consumer and fans of Kieffer Ceramics can see that within Facebook and Twitter, Ms. Kieffer is posting the same type of material such as announcements with reciprocal links between both channels. A Kieffer Ceramic’s blog viewer and follower can read within a blog about a ceramic topic, which then links this person to Kristen Kieffer Ceramic Etsy store.

Ceramic Branding

Ms. Kieffer has been able to provide some of the best social media practices such as the expansive social media presence mention above; additional practices which impact her social media efforts include consistent branding, relevant content, and building social relationships through engagement. Whether on her blog, her social media channels, or in her Etsy store, Ms. Kieffer has been able to visually and consistently represent her brand with the same type of photographs emphasizing her style of work and personality as seen above. Her content is relevant to the ceramic industry as well as collectors of the style of pottery she offers. Ms. Kieffer explains ceramic processes she uses, new techniques she brings to the studio, and valuable tips which provides a value added to consumers and fellow potters when visiting her digitally. Ms. Kieffer responds to mentions, questions, and comments encouraging on-going engagement. Her blogs are often of current ceramic topics which demonstrates she is listening to what the social media community is talking about.

Ms. Kieffer presents the same clear headers and backgrounds across the different digital media channels building a consistent brand image. Within the digital platforms, Ms. Kieffer offers relevant ceramic content, which she creates as well as shares from other notable potter or ceramic industry companies. Ms. Kieffer maintains up-to-date conversations with followers and consumers as well as demonstrates listening and observing on the social landscape. Ms. Kieffer has established how maintaining an expansive social media presence through cross-channel promotion has a direct impact on discoverability, engagement, brand awareness, and return on investment. Click here to own on of Ms. Kieffers ceramic pieces.

 

Future Implications

Humans have been creating with clay as early as 24,000 BC and functional pottery such as vessels for storing food and water has been noted as being present since 10,000 BC. This ability to create plates, bowls, and cups to use, trade, and sell makes ceramics one of the most ancient industries. The core of pottery: sculptural forms, decorative pieces, and functional ware have been re-invented time again. Even how potters have promoted their works, through traditional marketing tactics including word of mouth, trade, pictures, books, galleries, museums, have been consistent and one-sided. Today, digital marketing through a potter website, his or her blog, and social media channels such as Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook, has widened exposure instantaneously and globally as well as a two-way form of communication. With changes in human behavior and technology, the ceramic industry will have move towards future trends such as mobile brand messaging, social media real life integration, and co-creating with brand advocates. These changes will generate financial and physical growth for company brands willing to evolve and participate.

Mobile Brand Messaging

Just as industrial revolution ignited the forward movement for ceramics with the creation of electricity for safer and faster kiln firings increasing production drastically, the growth of smartphones is driving consumers into the hands of brands. Mobile brand messaging will enable personal interactions between brands and consumers. A new study about retail mobile messaging was released by OtherLevels documenting that messaging frequently, especially through a brand mobile application, can provoke the consumer to engage more with the brand. For instance, a potter can send a message announcing a holiday oriented promotion or offer app features such as list generation, product finder, and real time in stock inventory. By 2017, it is projected that over 50 percent of commerce will be conducted on mobile devices. This will result in the more a brand send messages, the more it will sell. As technology changes, options such as mobile wallet will take brand messaging one step further enabling the consumer to instantly by a product from a push message before he or she arrives at the brand store.

Real Life Integration

In the process of eliminating the gap between “technology” and “life”, social media will launch the opportunity to connect the consumer with the brand seamlessly. As advancements in technology rise, QR codes will become more visually product enhanced. This means the QR code could launch product information instantly including features like product history, product reviews, social media friends and family members who have used the product, and suggested related products. This feature could boost brand transparency and consumer trust. BUY IT buttons will become more embedded in social media promotional ads on networks like Facebook. This would allow, for instance, a potter to collect revenue from social media channels, blog, e-commerce store, and mobile messaging.

Co-Creating with Brand Advocates

In the ceramics industry, niche markets will excel. In a world where there is a plethora of product to choose from, potters, like brands, will need to stand out from each. By evaluating data from social media tools such as Google Analytics, and listening to consumer chatter with a dashboard monitor like Hootsuite, a brand will embrace co-creation. An example of co-creating is a potter makes a bowl. He or she evaluates keywords, search terms, and other data extracted from Google Analytics to design content to be used to promote the bowl on the social media landscape. Since about 25 percent of all branded search results are user-generated content, listening to and engaging with the consumer develops a partnership directly with the potter to co-create. This user generated content can lead the potter to develop product to fit exactly what the consumer needs, happier buyers, brand loyalty, and the potential of financial growth for the potter.

Ancient Concept

Personalization and brand experience are an ancient concept stemming back to the beginning of the ceramic industry. Traditional marketing strategies have reinvented themselves to a newer, more efficient, and engaging level with social media marketing. The change in human behavior to instantly connect with others and brands and the constant evolution of technology to accommodate consumer needs will allow for brands, like potters, to capitalize on trends including mobile brand messaging, social media real life integration, and co-creating with brand advocates. In the future, with a swipe of a finer across a smartphone, a consumer can connect on the social media landscape, search for a bowl, learn about one he or she likes, press the BUY IT button, pay from his or her mobile wallet, and boast about the purchase on a social network in less time than it took for the potter to make, fire, and package the bowl.

Viral Marketing Initiatives

Ceramic Arts Daily is the largest interactive ceramic and pottery online community and resource including tools for learning and improving skills, and a platform for artists to display his or her work. The online company offers a plethora of valuable information for consumers, hobbyists, ceramicists, and artists involved in the ceramic industry or have an appreciation for ceramics and pottery. Ceramic Arts Daily’s traditional marketing efforts include the company magazines Ceramics Monthly with a paid subscription circulation reaching more than 108,000 readers and Pottery Making Illustrated with 60,000 readers. The digital marketing energies expand to social media networks such as You Tube with 24,270 subscribers and the Ceramics Arts Daily website with 197,000 users. This gives the company a strong potential to launch a marketing initiative that could go viral. Incorporating viral campaign characteristics, such as interactivity, relevancy, social media optimization, widgets, and badges, could generate the momentum needed for the Ceramics Arts Daily targeted audiences to want to share, engage with, talk about, and re-watch a ceramic related video over and over.

Ghostly Interactive Relevance

In 1990, the movie Ghost sensationalized a potter throwing clay at a potter’s wheel with the infamous sensual scene between the two main actors, Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze. Since then, many parodies of this scene have appeared in television shows, cartoons, and YouTube videos. Ceramics Arts Daily could create a video that contained an interactive component, intriguing beginner potters, hobbyists, and students to become involved and create a personalized ceramic experience. An example of a viral campaign utilizing interactivity and relevancy was Breaking Bad Name Lab on Facebook. The drama television show spawned a Facebook app that transformed a person’s name with element icons and allowed fans to set it as their Facebook profile photo. The success of the campaign was calculated by the 4.1 million impressions and was used by over 800,000 people. Ceramics Art Daily could launch an app like Let’s Create It which allows students, hobbyists, potters, and ceramic fans the ability to make a pot, glaze it, and post it on social media networks.

SMO, Widgets, Badges, Oh My!

Cross promoting a marketing campaign on social media networks is a necessity. Today, social networking is considered to be one of the top online activities in the US. In addition, forty-six percent of the online consumers are using social media to search for products before making a purchase. Therefore, social media optimization is imperative. To intensify the integration of social media to launch a campaign, Ceramic Arts Daily could use widgets on the company blog, such as Simple Social Icons and the YouTube Channel Gallery. For instance, this widget allows Ceramic Arts Daily to display the latest videos posted on the company YouTube channel. Widgets make it easy to share videos, blogs, and web pages. A collection of badges implemented on Ceramic Arts Daily website proposes engagement and brand loyalty. Foursquare, a location-based social network, offers mobile users a variety of badges for participating at various destinations through the app. For instance, if someone uses Foursquare at several different airports, he or she collects a Jetsetter badge. Ceramics Arts Daily could create badges such as “A-Glazing” for ten or more downloaded glaze recipes or “On Fire” for researching five or more firing techniques from the website as seen below.

Badges keep the consumer and artist excited and frequenting the Ceramics Arts Daily website.

Be Viral

In a niche markets, such as the ceramic or television industry, a company like Ceramic Arts Daily, can benefit from ability to target audiences with viral marketing initiatives that are interactivity, contain relevancy, and use social media optimization, widgets and badges. Fans, followers, advocates, consumers, readers and viewers have the potential to become excited about an unexpected video like the Will It Blend  or Alek Sings Let It Go:

on You Tube or a mobile app game like features like Breaking Bad Name Lab. Providing a marketing tactic that can be entertaining or useful on social media platforms, like social networks, blogs, and websites, can generate an instantaneous and globally reach leading to a viral marketing sensation. Viral marketing is the most effective and efficient way for a brand to gets its message heard. With the click of a share button any brand can be viral.

 

Differentiation

Big Ceramic Store and Bracker’s Good Earth Clay are two influential ceramic stores within the ceramic industry. BigCeramicsStore.com was founded by a husband and wife team in 1999 when the ceramic industry was just getting involved on Web 2.0. In 2013, the couple sold the business to Vertana, a NYC based e-commerce company. Bracker’s Good Earth is also owned by a husband and wife team that starting selling ceramic supplies in 1985 and began a web presence in 2000. Each company has a e-commerce website; however this is where they begin to differ. Big Ceramic Store (BCS) website is a traditional e-commerce store with links to Facebook, Pinterest, and the company blog. Bracker’s website is enriched with offering an extensive collections of social media networks and it provides content rich information presenting them as a ceramic industry leader. Each company uses social media to create brand awareness, drive traffic to the company website, build relationships with consumers but they have different goals.

BigCeramicStore.com

Big Ceramic Store is known for selling “big” ticket items, such as a pottery kiln or wheel, with free shipping. This is an alluring marketing tactic in a niche industry. Big Ceramic Store has created a 1950’s diner style website that directs the consumer right to products they are looking for as seen below:

The BCS social media strategy is apparent as soon as the consumer lands on the front page. BCS has invested in driving business through the store e-newsletter which pop-up instantaneously. The goal behind collecting emails is to turn potential leads into return customers. BCS e-newsletter is focused on conversion which is apparent with an immediate sign-on bonus of 15% off. Once the consumer joins the BCS e-newsletter, he or she will continue to receive frequent incentive discounts especially based on areas within the store where the consumer has visited. The BCS e-newsletter is designed to increase web traffic and sales through conversions while building brand awareness and communicating directly with the consumer.

Big Ceramic Store also uses the social media networks, Facebook and Pinterest, to post sales; however, Pinterest has a stronger impact with 1.6K followers, 29 boards, and 862 pins. A popular board on Pinterest is called BCS Announcements linking viewers to BCS blog and discounts. The Pinterest boards and Facebook link the consumer back to BigCeramicStore.com to watch ceramic videos, read the BCS blog, or make a purchase. Both social media channels support the company goal to convert the potential lead into a sale by driving the consumer to the website.

Brackers.com

Bracker’s has a distinctively different approach to socially engaging the ceramic consumer. The Bracker’s website is overwhelming the consumer with a large volume of ceramic content earmarking them a leader in the ceramic industry. In addition, Brackers.com offers repetitively links to the social media channels with banners as noted below that the consumer is lead to believe Bracker’s is super social

This extensive presence promotes the Bracker brand to a wide audience and can leave the consumer feeling compelled to click through to one of the networks. The Bracker’s website offers upcoming events which can be conveniently added to a consumers Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar; it has informative video’s educating the ceramic consumer on relevant content. Bracker’s is using the tactic of search engine optimization (SEO) with keywords and the repetitive social media channel with reciprocal links to earn ranking organically on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Since the actual Bracker’s e-commerce store is hard to find, the company goal is education and brand awareness as a ceramic industry leader.

Consumers Vs. Industry Leader

Big Ceramics Store is branded for “big” discounts and offers constant contact with the consumer through an e-newsletter. The company’s goal is to drive traffic to the e-commerce website, develop brand loyalty through social media channels, such as Facebook and Pinterest, and convert leads e-newsletter subscribers into sales. Bracker’s Good Earth Clay is recognized as a ceramic industry leader by offering a plethora of high quality content, informational videos, an educational blog, an extensive presence on the social media landscape, daily listings of ceramic events, and uses search optimization tools to increase web traffic. Both companies use their website to connect and communicate with the consumer, however Big Ceramic Store is effectively building a relationship with the consumer through the e-newsletter and discounts. Bracker’s is branded as a ceramic industry leader and used a reference and resource more so than generating a return on investment. What do you want from your ceramic supplier, “big” discounts or a social calendar?

Clay, Blog, Tweet

            Clay flows naturally. The feel of moist de-aired stoneware being manipulated by my fingers, awakens me. The smell of wet earth saturates my soul and elicits me to listen to the clay body. As I slowly pull the malleable form from the left lower bottom, the energy between my fingers and the clay gently guides me along the inner thigh, over the slightly curved belly, and finally gliding up to the neck of a now ceramic berry bowl. Clay seduces me. So do words. My traditional approach of using a medium blue ball point pen embracing the white writing paper engenders fluidly with a soothing current rushing with salacious content. Words impassion me when my fingers frolic across the laptop keyboard with a click chasing echo, enticing readers with the slightest familiar visual touch, the breeze of a seasoned woman’s inflection, and the well-crafted sound of strong punctuation. Taking clay and transposing it into words is like developing a blog for me with a ceramic twist. Clay blogging implores tweeting. And Twitter, a micro blog (Rogers, 2012), puts my clay in the hands of the reader.

A rubber band snuggly keeps the clay bag sealed from the Florida humidity. Before I take to a 2” wedge of clay, I determine the goal of its form. Like blogging, I focus on what I want to announce or produce. I research and listen to what my competitors are creating (Li & Bernoff, 2011). I etch out a plan targeting a season, a celebration, a purpose for the consumer to purchase perhaps my berry bowls in various colors. Like in blogging, I “ask for participation” (Jantsch) on the style, are they too short or too wide? I invite feedback on color combinations, are they too bright or too dull? I organize my space, my time allotted for the project, and then, I begin. I construct the berry bowl. After glazing and firing the bowls in the kiln, I list them on my Extrudergirl shop. Just like in my blog, I give the reader a visual focal point to accompany my words (Egan, 2015). I display the completed piece with a crisp eye catching photo to lure the Etsy viewer to buy it.  Like the personalization of content in a blog (Sprung, 2015), the mark of the potter can be seen and felt. The Etsy buyer can appreciate the quality of the craftsmanship as they unpack the berry bowl from the box and it is in their hands.

I often hear quality is better than quantity (Schaefer, 2012). This is especially true when it comes to clay and tweets. I could cheaply mass produce my ceramic pieces but it would diminish the level of expertise it takes to create the bowl, choose the correct color combination, and dazzling presentation on the Extrudergirl shop. This focus on quality starts with the name for a berry bowl or a headline for a tweet. The description of the ceramic piece or the main topic keywords of a tweet should be in the first three to five words (Schaefer, 2012); “red berry bowl” doesn’t capture an audience like my “Handmade Fifth Avenue Christmas Red Ceramic Berry Bowl”. Engaging content can capture a buyer or lose the viewer. With a 140 characters for a tweet on Twitter (Jantsch), it is a little harder and exemplifies the craft of listening to what followers like and want. I recently tweeted the following which achieved 67 Twitter Impressions:

This meant that 67 people were interactive or engaged with the Tweet (Doctor, 2013). On the listing page of my berry bowl, I am not as limited to specific characters. However, I want to swiftly engage the consumer with clever wordage and provide a purpose for them to buy the bowl as noted below:

If  “tweeps” (Schaefer, 2012), fellow twitters, send me a direct message on Twitter or  a consumer starts a conversation with me on my Etsy account about the berry bowl, it is imperative to have a “timely response” (Li & Bernoff, 2011). Good communication delivers authenticity and demonstrates that you are listening to the consumer and your tweeps.

            Clay, blog, tweet is a powerful combination that has helped me and fellow potters build our personal professional brand identity and acknowledgement of expertise. Potters can reach an audience with not just their ceramic pieces but words about clay production, life as a potter, and ceramic technical information (Schwartz, 2015). The ceramic world has a vast presence on Twitter. With the use of hashtags, Twitter networking, lead generation, and a platform for quick product development feedback, Twitter can get the potter back in the studio and not consumed by the social media landscape. A consumer can look at my berry bowl and recognize the quality once they own it. A reader can read my blog and become engrossed with the craft of my words; and Twitter followers can retweet my context that they like. I implore . . . clay, blog, tweet, repeat. It works.

Works Cited

Doctor, V. (2013, July 13). Understanding Twitter Impressions: Why Are They Important? Retrieved from Hashtags.org: https://www.hashtags.org/platforms/twitter/understanding-twitter-impressions-why-are-they-important/

Egan, J. (2015, 1 6). 9 Tips for Making Your Blog Better in 2015. Retrieved from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-egan/9-tips-for-making-your-bl_b_6397640.html

Herzog, A. (2014, 2 24). 10 Best Practices for Tweeting in 2014. Retrieved from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ari-herzog/10-best-practices-for-twitter_b_4834232.html

Jantsch, J. (n.d.). Let’s Talk Social Media for Small Business. Retrieved from Duct Tape Marketing: http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/socialmediaforbusiness.pdf

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Rogers, J. (2012, April 5). The Social Media MBS: Part 3: Social Media Landscape. Retrieved from Maximize Social Business: http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/social-media-mba-part-3-social-media-landscape-6443/

Schaefer, M. (2012). The Tao of Twitter. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Schwartz, B. (2015, Jan 3). Top Pottery Blogs 2014. Retrieved from Pottery Making Info: http://www.potterymakinginfo.com/news/top-pottery-blogs-2014/

Sprung, R. (2015, 1 15). 4 Ways to Create an Engaging Blog Experience. Retrieved from Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/create-engaging-blog-experience/#more-76151

Watch Out for the Mud Sharks

One of my favorite tools to recommend at Christmas time or when a newbie potter comes in to the ceramic store is the Mudshark. Michael Sherrill designed as series of tools called MudTools which he created out of necessity to suit his ceramic needs. For non-potters you might not see the brilliance in this tool name and design or understand the versatility of its tail, nose, and mouth. The tail is used when throwing a pot to trim or create a 45 degree footed angle at the bottom. This part can cut away any waste sitting at the bottom of a pot or on the bat which the pot is being thrown on. The needle, or nose, can be used for trimming the top of a pot. It can be used to make designs on a pot or plate and for the artist to sign their name on the bottom of their handmade piece.  The mouth of the tool can be used to make the rim of a pot, bowl or pitcher. When your done using the tool, the needle nose folds inside and can slip into a pocket, clay bag, or into a tool caddy. Another cool feature like many of the other Sherrill Tools is it comes in six different colors.

Mudtools has gone to great lengths to take their brand social. It was going to be hard bait for Sherrill to get into the ceramic tool market swimming upstream against established companies like Kemper, Dolan, and Chinese Clay Art.  They needed social media to snag consumers with videos and pictures of their tools not just typical word of mouth promotion or traditional marketing strategies. The company wanted to turn tool trollers into loyal buyers.

Demanding a strong social media presence, every page on their website lures the consumer to the social media landscape to support their brand image (Agius, 2015) as seen here:

Michael started out his a social media campaign as his bite indicator on Facebook with pictures of his product. Over the years, Facebook has become his honey hole with a strong following and the launching pad to the other social media networks. He incorporated videos on creating with different Mudtools on YouTube channel and crossed over onto Twitter with tweets of pictures of potters using their favorite Mudtools. Google+ is alongshore of Facebook reiterating special promotions, pictures of their product line, their blog, videos and customer’s working with their tools. Their LinkedIn presence is more lie bank-fishing with a specialized traditional slant of Press Releases emphasizing their support to social and global responsibility. Instagram intertwines their professional and personal side giving a human approach to the company image. Although Michael has a Pinterest account, it is not directly related to MudTools. It is a minnow in the social media marketing strategy at this time.

By uniting product pictures, product how-to videos, and advertising promotions on the social media channels, the Mudtool brand identity has defined its value and the company ideals (Botts, 2014). The success of branding can be seen through consumers endorsing the tools and inviting prospective buyers to use them as well. MudTools consistency and frequency on the social media networks allows for credibility, authenticity, and likability. Capitalizing on the mud aspect of ceramics and the quality of the tools became the neutral buoyancy to sustain the brand. Social media branding keeps Mudtools consumers restocked with the necessary clay studio tools as seen below.

Mudtools has remained in the uprush of growth by concentrating on increasing Facebook followers, optimizing YouTube videos, and maintaining Instagram attention. They assist consumers in navigating to their website, product pages and social media platforms. Michael spends time interacting on Instagram, Twitter and Google+ with their followers (Hemley, 2014). There is no daily limit on how brand social can make a company and its products. Once a consumer gets bitten by a MudTools brand, it’s hard to forget how great the tools are.

Resources:

Agius, A. (2015). The 4 Essentials to Building Your Brand on Social Media. Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved from: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244677

Botts, S. (2014). Building Identity Loyalty Through Social Media. Thinking With Google. Retrieved from: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/building-identity-through-social-media.html

Hemley, D. (2014). 26 Ways Brands Succeed With Social Media Marketing. Social Media Examiner. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-ways-brands-succeed-social-media-marketing/

Sherrill MudTools Page (n.d.). SherrillMudTools. Instagram. Retrieved from: https://instagram.com/sherrillmudtools/

Mudshark Product Page, (n.d.). Mudshark. Mudtools. Retrieved from: http://www.mudtools.com/product/mudshark/

MudTools Facebook Page, (n.d.). Mudtools. Facebook. Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/Mudtools

MudTools Twitter Account, (2013). Mudtools. Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/Mudtools

Sherrill Studios Page, (n.d.). Michael Sherrill. Pinterest. Retrieved from: https://www.pinterest.com/SherrillStudios/

Using Your MudTools, (n.d.). Do All Demonstration from Michael Sherrill and MudTools. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/1GAWTZWY4Z8?list=PLLfY3U1eRSVgNJYEX41VIZNUHgahEu4Lw

White, C. (2011) Branding: How It Works in the Social Media Age [Infographic]. Mashable. Retrieved from: http://mashable.com/2011/12/15/branding-and-social-media/

Soaking Up The Mobile Ceramic Rewards

In 2012, Daily Clay, a mobile off-spring of Ceramics Arts Daily and produced by The American Ceramic Society, hit the iPhone mobile application market. I, like many other potters who use Ceramics Art Daily as a ceramic resource, were hopeful that the app would prove to be beneficial. The extensive website offers books, magazines, videos, educational, blogs and forums. Instead, the mobile app became a daily posting of a handmade piece of ceramic art. Although inspirational, it didn’t serve the same grandeur as the parent website. Daily Clay had a strong potential to be a useful tool integrating mobile ability and social media with the Ceramics Arts Daily website.

Increasingly, I find Instagram connecting potters with their audience and consumers. Instagram is a mobile-only network which means you create and publish from the mobile app only. You can view and  a picture from a laptop or desktop but that is it. Instagram has gone to great lengths to offer the user high quality resolution ensuring the visual of ceramics pictures and videos are inviting. Instagram offers “filters, special effects, and editing tools” (daCunha, 2015). If you download InstaCollage, an app that compliments Instagram with special effect, layouts, and borders, you can create eye captivating pictures instantly as seen here:

It also offers easy “sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and Foursquare” (Hemley, 2013). This allows a ceramic business owner to expand his or her audience in vast numbers from one mobile social media application.

The Instagram platform used hashtags from its first inception, known as the symbol”#”, to expound on the content of pictures and videos posted (Gonzalez, 2012). It is best for a potter to hashtag their pictures to identify the place it was taken, subject, and description. Some popular ceramic hashtags are #ceramics, #potter, #throwing, #stoneware, and #loveclay. #clay is the most tagged at 1,172,085 posts. If a potter was looking for inspiration from other fellow potters, they could search #cone6, a type of glazing firing range, and find 4,382 posts. If they wanted to find a ceramic supply brand from a picture posted and  with a hashtag such as Amaco, they can use the spyglass on the bottom of the app. Once they find AmacoBrent, one of the largest ceramic supply company’s, they can click the name AmacoBrent which brings them to AmacoBrent’s Instagramer page.  The potter can start following AmacoBrent as well as view pictures they have posted. On AmacoBrents Instagram page they cleverly posted their website www.amaco.com drawing the viewer to their shopping cart website as seen here:

Instagram helps businesses like a small ceramic studio like Extrudergirl or a large company like AmacoBrent. Gerry Moran suggests building a strong profile on Instagram as noted in detail below (Moran, 2013):

A well-developed profile becomes the foundation for Instagram as social media strategy. Posting pictures of handcrafted ceramic pieces or products a ceramic supply business is selling to potter allows the business to cultivate a following not just through Instagram but with the cross posting capability to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Foursquare. As a ceramic business builds their brand awareness, they can start following back their new audience. As posted pictures become visual commentaries with hashtags, a potter can create a theme or capitalize on current trends to complement his or her brand and increase credibility. They can engage viewers and consumers with consistent images and by leaving comments on follower’s postings. Developing a posting schedule will entice followers and inspire potential consumers. Over posting could cause followers to abandon your business. It is best to analyze how many posts, the kind of pictures, hashtags followers are relating to, and comments consumers are leaving. Iconosquare is a free tool to measure your Instagram success. It will give you a snap shot of the percentage of followers, lost followers, follow growth, likes, comments, and overall engagement (Lawrence, 2014).

Instagram is a visual experience for your followers, consumers, and perspective fans to learn, like, and buy into your business brand. Instagram will help promote your business, build a community around your photographed work and hashtags, generate leads and encourage conversation with your audience and consumers. I like to think, that with my Extrudergirl shop, once I get attention from my customers with a sponge holder photo on Instagram, I soak up my ceramic rewards.

Resources:

Ceramic Arts Daily Home Page (n.d.). Ceramics Arts Daily. The American Ceramic Society. Retrieved from: http://ceramicartsdaily.org/

daCunha, M. (2015) 10 Instagram Marketing Tips to Make People Love Your Brand. Business 2 Community. Retrieved from: http://www.business2community.com/instagram/10-instagram-marketing-tips-make-people-love-brand-01115446

Gonzalez, P. (2012). How to Use Hash Tags on Instagram. Instagramers. Retrieved from: http://instagramers.com/destacados/how-to-use-hash-tags-on-instagram/

Hemley, D. (2013). 26 Mobile Apps to Improve Your Business and Networking. Social Media Examiner. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-mobile-apps-to-improve-your-business-and-networking/

Lawrence, T.(2014). Instagram Analytics Website Review ~ Iconosquare.com (Statigram). Tyler Lawrence. Retrieved from: http://tylerlawrence.com/instagram-analytics-website-review-iconosquare-statigram/

Moran, G. (2013). How to Build the Perfect Instagram Profile Infographic. MarketingThink. Retrieved from: http://marketingthink.com/infographic-to-build-the-perfect-instagram-profile/

Ceramics and Social Media Applications

The ceramic industry includes a diverse group of potters similar to the social media landscape. Most common communication channels will consist of announcements, pictures of work or events, blogs, and videos. The traditional social media landscape comprises of Twitter and Facebook, but over the past two years there has been significant growth on Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google+. Quite often potters will report they don’t own a computer and if they do own one they don’t have an email address, so social media escapes a large majority of the community. But for the potters involved in the social media channels, they are using these tools to show and tell their art as well as develop and discover their talent (Zimmerman, 2014).

The professional ceramicist can be found in museums, art centers and galleries noted in a recent industry poll from NCECA , known as the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (Bracker, 2015). This group of potters favors Facebook and Twitter. This gives them a strong platform for promoting their website and next gallery or museum showings.

There is the production potter, who produces their ware in volume, whom will post on Facebook especially directing fans to their website.  They can often be found on forums and online communities. They are contributing to the ceramic industry evolution with discussions on clay and ceramic issues, offering advice, writing reviews of ceramic products and sharing global ceramic industry news. The production potter would be the known as the Critics on the Social Technographics Ladder (Li & Bernoff, 2011).

The studio potter is not production but more serious than a hobbyist by making a full time living selling their work. They are the Creators on the Social Technographics Ladder making the most contribution to the social media landscape. They will use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to push the consumer to their studio. These social media networks are free and can draw a good amount of interaction. The studio potter might post a promotion on Twitter or Facebook giving away a new ceramic mug like Joel of Cherrico Pottery to engage and invite the consumer to “Like” their page, build their brand, and follow their studio (Birkholz, 2015). The studio potter can be found on YouTube demonstrating, teaching and engaging other potters, artistic students, and viewers such as Master Potter Bill Van Gilder.

The hobby potter or leisure clay artist, one who works with clay for enjoyment, occasionally sells their work on a smaller scale like Etsy or local event. They can be found on Pinterest pinning works of the professional or average potters. Since they are not as involved on social media for promotion of their goods, they would be considered the joiners or spectators of the Social Technographics Ladder. As joiners they are interested in visiting the social networks for inspiration, Facebook pages of ceramic vendors like Stone Leaf Pottery to learn about products, and following their favorite ceramic groups like Amaco’s Potters Choice Exchange for tips and techniques (Sophia, 2015). As a spectator they are more likely to be involved in watching videos of ceramic demonstrations, read blogs from the studio potters, and being influenced by reviews by the professional ceramicist or average potters.

Social Media networks offer potters a vast level of publicity, the widening of consumer target market, and a growth in social interaction for and among the ceramic professionals, studio potters and leisure clay artists. By expanding their social media landscape from the more traditional sites such as Twitter and Facebook, they can amplify their exposure with Instagram and Google+. Not only do social media networks increase the potter’s audience, it offers the building of ceramic communities. Potter Adam Field used Instagram effectively to pull in consumers and widen his audience by creating a scavenger hunt involving ceramic objects. The idea behind the scavenger hunt was “to create a groundswell of community that would encourage sharing information, techniques, and inspiration”  (Johnson, 2014). As more potters become comfortable with the new form of marketing, social media can help them get their name and products out there at a very minimal cost.

Resources:

Birkholz, J. (2015). Cosmic Mug Giveaway, Laughing Squid Feature, And Mainstream Art Ambitions. Cherrico Pottery. Retrieved from: http://www.cherricopottery.com/category/social-media/

Bracker, C. (2015). Who Are We? NCECA. Retrieved from: http://blog.nceca.net/inside-nceca-vol-i-issue-13

Johnson, G. (2014). Hide-N-Seekah!Using Social Medial for a Pottery Scavenger Hunt. Ceramics Arts Daily. Retrieved from: http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-art-and-artists/ceramic-artists/hide-n-seekah-using-social-media-for-a-pottery-scavenger-hunt/

Li, C.  & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Social Media Page. (2015). Facebook’s Potters Choice Exchange. Stone Leaf Pottery. Retrieved from: http://stoneleafpottery.com/category/social-media/

Zimmerman, C. (2014). How Artists Can Use Social Media to Discover and Promote Their Voice. Huffington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carlota-zimmerman/how-artists-can-use-socia_b_4756824.html

Getting Dirty With Social Media Tools

Getting Dirty With Social Media Tools

I spend eight hours a day five days a week talking ceramics. After work, I come home and walk in the countryside of Florida a mile and a half with my toy fox terrier, Puppup. As eight o’clock rolls around, I crack open the laptop and start my Master’s Program term homework. On the weekends during the day, when my hands are not covered in moist clay, I might be packing up an order, designing new plates, or blending glazes to provoke that exclamation “Wow!” from the next group of wedding registry millennials on Etsy.

On nights that are raining and we are not walking, I am select Etsy shops for my next Treasury on Etsy. This shopping gallery of 16 featured Etsy stores pulls in viewers, favorites, and orders to my Etsy shop Extrudergirl. Once the Treasury is designed, I post a link to it on social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. At the end of the month, I run a traffic source report to see which social media network is working for me as seen below*:

* (Etsy, 2015)

In trying to expand my marketing for Extrudergirl, I have started delve into Twitter, Instagram and Google+. Trying to maintain the different social media networks is time consuming even when I am not balancing work, home, a small business and school.  A month ago, I was introduced to a free social media management site called Hootsuite.  This program allows me to schedule my posts to a variety of social media networks. I can check daily, weekly and monthly scheduled posts making appropriate adjustments with one click.  I have new insight to my posts, followers and content with Twitter, Google Analytics and Ow.ly.  The reports created helped me make better decisions on content I was posting based on what my followers have been responding to (Hootsuite). The dashboard gives me a quick snap shot of my Twitter account when @Extrudergirl has been mentioned in a post, or I have been retweeted or liked as well as any current activity of those I am following.

A few days after Hootsuite, I came upon Klout. The Klout is tool that measures your presence on the social media landscape. When I first signed on my Klout score was an 18.94. I was disappointed. I had read that the average score is 40 and wanted to know how to achieve such notary (Klout, 2013). After following some very simple instructions on post content, time and volume, my Klout score increased within days. I held a new steady score of 48. Combining the results of Klout with Hootsuite helped me to decide to use Facebook for my personal use only and not my Extrudergirl ceramic business.

Using Hootsuite and Klout as my new social media tools for posting to my Twitter and Google+ account, I thought about an article I read by Cindy King where she talked about Social Mention (King, 2011) which tracks “and measures what people are saying about your company” (socialmention). This search reports specific keywords related to your company or products. This unique tool will help me be more conscious of words I wanted related to my Etsy store Extrudergirl when people do searches. I did a search of Extrudergirl. My name was linked to my blog, Extrudergirl, and the word ceramic as seen below.

                This result was startling. I am new to the Hashtag world. Almost everyone has seen and a good handful of you have used the pound sign (#) with a word after it. I thought I would at least have something linked to #extrudergirl since I have been using that to tag pictures on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. In an article I recently read by Cindy King, she recommended Tagbound (King C. , 2015). Tagboard lets you see what is being said related to your hashtag across the social media landscape. I am hoping in the next three months as I expand my Twitter usage and remain consistent with blogging, that the hashtags will be measurable.

My Extrudergirl social media goal over the next three months is to increase my Klout Twitter Score, adding posts to my Google+, and use hashtags and keywords to drive followers, fans and buyers to Extrudergirl. As my blogging grows and tweeting content improves, I am hoping to increase my retweets, tweet likes and Google+1 volume as well. For now, I am heading back to the studio to get dirty.

Resources:

Extrudergirl Stats (2015). Shop Stats 2009-2015 Traffic Source. Etsy. Retrieved from: https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/Extrudergirl/stats?ref=seller_platform_hdr

Hootsuite Platform (n.d.). Everything You Need In One Place. Hoostsuite. Retrieved from: https://hootsuite.com/products/platform

Keath, J. (2015) Ultimate Recap: Top New Social Media Tools for 2014. Socialfresh. Retrieved from: http://www.socialfresh.com/ultimate-recap-top-new-social-media-tools-of-2014/

King, C. (2011). 12 Social Media Tools Recommended by the Pros. Social Media Examiner. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/12-social-media-tools-recommended-by-the-pros/

King. C, (2015). 44 Social Media Tools Recommended By The Pros. Social Media Examiner. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/44-social-media-tools-recommended-pros/

Measure (2015). Mesaure Page Extrudergirl Account. Klout. Retrieved from: https://klout.com/#/measure

The Klout Score (2013). What is the Average Klout Score? Klout. Retreived from: http://support.klout.com/customer/portal/articles/679109-what-is-the-average-klout-score-

Hollow Extruder

I am embarking on extruding my way through the world of Social Media. Although I am used to more predictable dies, I am going to design a  groundswell that will make Extrudergirl a household name.