August 15, 2019 • 51 mins
Do you want to increase your engagement on Instagram?
Doing so might be the jumping off point for your crochet or knitting business. No doubt t's the place many of us hang for the community and inspiration (and we've developed "Instagram skills" in the process), using it for business requires a different approach than a casual user. To get the most out of the time and effort you'll put into it, you'll need to master some business basics first.
In this episode, you'll hear from Instagram savvy maker, April from OTH Crochet Nook. She's been using Instagram to promote and grow her crochet business and blog for years. Today, she shares her best tips for increasing engagement on Instagram so you can up your maker business game!
About The BHooked Podcast
Brittany's primary goal is to inspire you and help you grow in your craft with The BHooked Podcast. Through her own stories and the stories of each special guest, you'll discover tips and tricks to improve your crochet and knitting skills and find inspiration to achieve your hobby goals. When you want to kick back and learn from yarn industry experts, grab some yarn and turn on The BHooked Podcast. There's never a shortage of all things crochet, knitting or yarn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brittany (00:00):
You're listening to the Be Hooked Podcast, episode
129, with Brittany.
Oh yeah, we're talkingInstagram today.
Well, hey there, and welcome toepisode 129 of the Be Hooked
(00:38):
podcast, the place where we loveyarn, we love to learn, and we
believe yarn can do more for usthan just make pretty things.
Well, today's episode is just alittle different than usual, so
if you're brand new to theshow, well, first of all,
welcome.
I'm really glad that you'rehere.
You'll typically hear episodesthat will inspire you in some
way and help you be a bettercrocheter.
(00:58):
Well, every now and again, wehave an episode like this one
that'll help those withyarn-related businesses or
makers in our community.
Now, if this is you, I thinkyou're in for a really big
treat.
I'm pretty sure I don't have toconvince you how important
Instagram is as a makerbusiness, right?
I know it's been a huge dealfor me, but it's a platform like
(01:22):
any other social media withalgorithms and lots of noise, so
it's really hard to get yourstuff seen.
Well, April from OTH CrochetNook is here to share her wisdom
about Instagram, and I can'twait for this one.
We get into quite a few tacticsfor increasing engagement,
which really is the key to beingsuccessful on Instagram.
(01:44):
So are you ready?
Here she is.
So April, hi there.
Welcome to the Be Hopedpodcast.
Thank you for being here today.
Thank you so much for invitingme.
I'm so excited.
I am really excited too,especially about our topic.
When you let me know that thiswas something that you're really
passionate about, I wasthinking, yes, this is so needed
(02:05):
in our community becauseInstagram is kind of a big deal
and it's not going away.
It's only getting bigger.
And I know it helps so manymakers and then so many
crocheters and knitters ingeneral just make connections
with one another.
So I'm pumped.
Absolutely.
Yeah, me too.
Let's get to it.
All right.
So before we get to Instagram,I would love to know a little
(02:27):
more about you.
So can you tell me just how yougot into all of this and maybe
how you learned how to crochet?
April (02:33):
Yeah, sure.
So my grandma has beencrocheting her whole life.
When I got pregnant the firsttime with my first daughter in
2013, on mat leave, I kind ofpicked up a crochet hook again,
and I started crocheting usingjust the basic skills that she
had taught me when I was like 10years old.
Then when you learn the magicof YouTube and you kind of get
(02:57):
lost in the tunnel of YouTube,you can see that you can learn
basically anything and anytrade.
So I learned all the stitches.
I learned how to read patterns.
I just got really obsessed withit, and I realized that yarn
was...
something that I really reallylove to do and to make things so
I started pretty basic justdoing orders for family and
(03:19):
friends and then I started myblog and I started Instagram in
2016 and it just kind of wentfrom there and I have not
stopped and my yarn collectionis pretty I overflowing and I'm
kind of obsessed with it.
But beyond crochet, I'm a momof two daughters.
(03:42):
I work full time for a morningTV show.
I'm a producer on a localmorning show in Toronto.
And that's what I do during theday.
And at night, I crochet.
Oh very cool. I wonder if you're able to pull some of that knowledge from your day job to help you with the promotional aspect. I know there's not a ton of video on Instagram, but I'm sure that you know more than the typical person as far as marketing and that sort of thing goes.
(04:18):
Yeah, I've been doing live Marketingon TV, doing pitches every day,
reading through pitches everyday.
Those qualities definitelyhelped working through
Instagram, working through myblog, working through everything
you need to do to help promoteyourself and your business.
I definitely used skills thatI've used over those years for
sure.
Yeah.
Brittany (04:37):
Very cool.
So you said you started yourInstagram in 2016, which is
about three years ago as we'rerecording this.
When did it become a thing?
I'm sure you maybe started itjust because it was kind of a
shiny new object around then.
Tell me the story of how itdeveloped into more.
April (04:57):
Yeah, so 2016 September is when I started my Instagram.
And I would have to say, Ithink for anyone listening that
is just starting Instagram willknow that the first six months
to a year is quite difficult.
Instagram is a black hole.
It's like you want to benoticed.
How do you be noticed?
And all of this huge sea ofpeople and influencers and even
(05:19):
just for us listening, the makercommunity is huge all over the
world.
So it's a really hard thing toget through.
And I think the first year wasvery difficult.
I mean, when you hit your firstthousand is very accomplishing.
You feel like it's amazing.
And it really is because justto get your first thousand, I
think is a big deal.
It's hard navigating and it'shard learning what to do and to
(05:43):
find your niche and to reallyunderstand.
And I hope people get this whenthey listen, that it is really
a lot of work.
If you want to be noticed, ifyou want to, you know, become,
quote unquote, an influencer orto be, you know, something in
Instagram, it's definitely a lotof work.
You can't, you know, sit backand just kind of assume that it
(06:03):
will happen and people will seeyou.
You definitely have to get outthere.
So the first year, I think, isdefinitely the hardest.
And then as it picks up fromthere, you kind of understand
that.
how it works and how it worksfor you in your life.
Because I think that's reallyimportant to balance it if you
have other things going on inyour life other than Instagram,
right?
Brittany (06:22):
Yes, that is so true.
I know when I first started myInstagram, I did it specifically
for the things that I wasmaking.
So I didn't bombard my familymembers who are following my
personal account.
But I quickly abandoned mypersonal account.
I haven't used that.
And gosh, I think the last postwas in 2015 or 16.
(06:43):
I could have the dates wrongthere, but it's been a long time
because like you said, it's alot of work to manage a profile
that's interesting that peoplewant to see and to interact
with.
April (06:57):
Definitely.
I think what helped me the mostis I kind of turned to I want
to call them quote unquotesocial media experts, like
people who do like marketing andand they, you know, kind of go
through.
I listen to a ton of podcastsand watched a ton of YouTube
videos on influencers and justkind of.
together things that worked forme because I think it's
(07:18):
important for anyone to kind offigure out what works for them
because everyone's doingsomething different on Instagram
even you as a maker you mightcrochet but me and you don't do
this exact same things we don'tlike maybe the same hook or we
don't like the same yarn andthat's okay we need to figure
out kind of what your thing isand I think that's what helped
(07:39):
me the most I kind of grabbedyou know a little bit from here
a little bit from there and Iwas like you know what this that
I have collated Yeah, let's,let's
Brittany (07:58):
dive into that a little bit that aspect of it
because I don't know if I'm justprone to overthinking things.
I think it's part of mypersonality style.
But I tend to really questionmyself and question, well, just
(08:18):
question everything in general.
Not necessarily bad or good.
But the bad that comes fromthat is questioning my own
style.
Like, how do you know...
what your own style is.
How do you know where yourplace is on Instagram and what
you have to offer?
Do you have any advice on howyou figured that out?
April (08:38):
Yeah.
So I think one of the keypoints that I really put
together when I started myInstagram was I read a blog that
was talking about finding atheme for yourself, not a theme
for your page, but a theme foryourself.
And that's writing down, youknow, five to eight different
things that that you would wantto post?
(08:59):
What would you want to post?
Like one, your dog, two, yourkids, three, your crochet, four,
your yarn pile, like whateverit is, you write kind of a list
of things that kind of defineyou that you are interested in
people learning about you.
I think it's really importantto to break Instagram in a sense
(09:20):
that people want to see who youare.
They don't just want to seeyour projects.
They want to see you.
They want to see, you know,where are you going today?
What are you doing?
What did you make your kids forlunch?
What, you know, you're not justa person that's a maker.
You're a person that has a lifeand people like that.
It's personal and it connectsthem to you.
So that was definitely a keything that I did.
(09:42):
I kind of wrote down thingsthat mattered to me that I
wanted to share with Instagramthat I was like, you know, this
defines me and I want to sharethese things.
And I kind of stuck to thosethings.
And once you do that, that willkind of give you your own theme
for your feed, it willessentially just kind of go
there, because your feed willconsist of only those things.
(10:03):
And it will kind of help you,you know, work towards getting
that, that perfect feed, righton Instagram.
So I think that really helpedme a lot.
Brittany (10:12):
Okay.
Yeah, that's really greatadvice.
If that blog post is stillaround, I would love to maybe
include that in the show notes.
What if somebody already has anInstagram account started and
they don't feel like they reallyhave that narrowed down yet?
Is it okay to evolve yourInstagram page or is that sort
of a bad idea if you alreadyhave some followers and then all
(10:34):
of a sudden you do something alittle bit different?
April (10:36):
I love seeing, and I've done this before, going on
Instagram and kind of scrollingand seeing where people started.
I feel like that is soinspiring to me.
I don't think anyone shoulddelete things.
I know you can archive posts.
Maybe those are pictures maybeyou don't like or the lighting
was bad or, you know, thingslike that.
But I really feel like seeingsomebody, how they started and
(11:01):
how they became famous you know,something like, for instance,
yourself, you have a hugefollowing.
And for me to see if I went allthe way back to your feed, just
to see like your initial post,just see how you how you evolve,
I think is really cool, becauseit shows new makers and new
people that are coming into theindustry and into Instagram kind
of where they can become it'salmost like really inspiring.
(11:23):
I feel like we should notdelete posts.
Yes,
Brittany (11:28):
I agree with that too.
And I have done that a fewtimes on my own account, just
because it's sort of like atimeline of my entire journey
with BeHooked.
It started very different.
And you can see that in thosefirst couple of posts, I wanted
to sell finished goods.
And then I realized over timethat that wasn't really my
thing.
And over time figured out whatwas my thing.
(11:49):
And you could sort of see thiswhole journey.
And even now, I would say thisyear, I feel like I'm making
some more changes, notnecessarily in what I post or
how frequently I post, but Iguess sort of an underlying
theme.
And honestly, what sparked thisis my husband and I moved to a
(12:10):
new house late last year.
And so we're still goingthrough the motions of making it
our own, right?
Doing some personalization,decorating, and that sort of
thing.
And I have been working on myoffice or my studio area for a
couple of months and I am soindecisive or have been so
indecisive about how I want todo it.
(12:32):
So I'm afraid to put things onthe wall because I know that
I'll change my mind.
But something happened in thepast couple of months, I would
say, where I just figured it outand I can't really describe it.
I've got a color that Iabsolutely love and I've
developed this really weirdobsession for like champagne
(12:52):
color and more like warmneutrals, which is out of
character for me, and blush pinkand rose gold, just completely
out of left field for me.
And I just love it.
I absolutely love it.
And I'm seeing now that myInstagram is sort of changing in
that direction.
The colors that I'm using aremore neutral in that sense.
(13:15):
And I think it's okay.
I haven't had anybody post orsay anything about it.
So I think it's...
completely safe for somebodyto, like you said, figure out
what their style is, and let itevolve over time.
Definitely.
April (13:32):
Yeah, no, I think it's really important to kind of to
show that journey, because Ifeel like people are very
inspired by it.
And I know I know a ton ofpeople that do that, that kind
of see where that successfulmaker kind of started.
I know people that have donethat and I think it is really,
truly inspiring.
Yeah.
Brittany (13:50):
Yeah.
Now you've used a term a coupleof times and I'm sure many of
us have heard it, the terminfluencer.
But for somebody who's just newto that term, can you tell me
just what that means exactly?
April (14:02):
Yeah.
So it's kind of funny that youasked that because when I think
about myself.
The first time I actually haveever been called an influencer
was just recently, and I did notsee myself as an influencer.
I'm proud to say that I workwith Yarnspirations very
closely, and I've been workingwith them for this entire year.
And when they were talking inlike a kind of a conference call
(14:26):
we had, and they wereintroducing me to somebody, they
said, April is our influencer,and she is, you know, blah,
blah, blah.
And it was It kind of hit meand I was like, I'm an
influencer.
It's interesting because Idon't see myself that way, but I
see myself looking to otherpeople as influencing me and
kind of giving me direction andshowing me what's cool and
(14:48):
what's not cool.
But I think in our makercommunity, as opposed to like
fashion bloggers and beautybloggers as influencers for
products, I feel like our makercommunity is more...
influencing um creativity andinfluencing like how we see our
projects and we see the thingsthat we make and and yarn in
(15:10):
general i feel like that weinfluence how we can take
something and make it tosomething amazing and it's not
about copycatting it's not aboutsaying well that person made
that and i'm influenced to makethat because they're an
influencer it's more like i lookup to that person And that was
so inspiring to me that I amfeeling really creative today.
(15:31):
And I'm going to be making anawesome project.
And this is what I want tomake.
So I feel like our makercommunity kind of has their own
really cool definition ofinfluencer.
And I feel like very gratefuland very proud to say that, that
I am one, I guess.
Brittany (15:45):
Yeah, yeah, I know.
It's, it's interesting.
Somebody who Usually is aninfluencer.
They don't really think ofthemselves as one either You're
not the first person I haveheard and I didn't really feel
that way either.
I was just doing what I love todo It seems like the term came
about and is used often bybrands So, I don't I don't know
(16:08):
if that's just an observationbut it seems like brands use
that as a way to describe peoplethat they're working with and
you know supporting and thatsort of thing to help inspire
that community
April (16:24):
yeah yes exactly well we're helping them market their
products and doing things forthem so we are definitely
influencing um i just i feelamazing to be part of a maker
community that kind of hasinfluencers that are just more
than brands i think it's reallycool
Brittany (16:39):
Yeah.
Now, do you think the end goalfor anybody trying to increase
their engagement on Instagram isto become an influencer or is
there another way that somebodycould use Instagram?
April (16:53):
Yeah, I think when you're starting Instagram.
I feel like different peoplehave different goals.
Either the goal is to get a lotof followers or to get a lot of
likes on pictures, to getreposted by celebrities, to get
verified.
I feel like people havedifferent goals depending on
what they want their Instagramto be.
(17:15):
I feel like the platform ofInstagram kind of gives you that
access to everything else.
It kind of branches everything.
uh, open to all other socialplatforms and, and kind of
leverages you to, to help kindof understand what your main
goal is.
I don't know if you had thegoal to, to gain the following
that you had.
I don't know if that might beinteresting to talk about, but I
(17:37):
feel like that is, it's areally big accomplishment.
I think it's very successfuland it's something that I think
people will definitely look upto.
And I don't know if, if that'sthe, was the most important
thing to you, but, uh, youdefinitely accomplished it.
Brittany (17:50):
Well, thank you.
Yeah, it's an interesting storybecause I never set out to be
an influencer.
I didn't even know that thatwas a thing or that that
existed.
I just really loved theplatform and I understood it.
I've gotten on Facebook beforeand I try to sort of like do
similar things and I've triedTwitter.
(18:12):
I'm still trying Twitter.
I'm not giving up on that one.
But Those platforms, they justdon't click for me.
And Instagram did.
And I just started seeingsuccess and it just kept going.
And then it became just a funchallenge to see those numbers
grow based on what I was doingin order to increase that
engagement.
But it was nothing more than achallenge with myself.
(18:35):
I didn't want to necessarilyinfluence anybody in one
direction or another.
I just wanted to share what Iwas doing because I wanted to
have somebody to talk with aboutit.
I wanted to have somebody be asexcited about crochet as I was
and still am at the time.
(18:55):
I really was there for thecommunity.
And like I said, the growthhappened just from me trying
things and seeing what workedand continue to do what worked.
April (19:07):
Yeah, I think exactly what you're saying and sharing
and talking to people about yourpassion, I think is the key to
engagement.
And I know we were going totalk about a few tricks about
engagement.
And I think the main thing andyou just nailed it right on the
head was showing up is thebiggest way to increase your
engagement showing up.
If you want likes, you got tolike other people's posts.
(19:29):
If you want comments, you gotto like comment other on other
people's posts.
You know, kind of posting andjust kind of checking your
Instagram four hours later isnot something that will increase
your engagement.
So I think that that's soimportant that you said that
because sharing is also you wantto share other people's
experiences.
You want to show your love forthem as much as you want them to
(19:51):
show love for your posts.
So I think it's reallyimportant for people to
understand that.
And from what I said from thebeginning of this podcast is
that it's really a lot of work.
And if you want to, you know,get noticed, if you want to
increase your engagement, it'simportant for you to do the
same.
Right.
Brittany (20:05):
Exactly.
I have spent an embarrassingamount of time on Instagram.
pockets of time here and therethroughout the day where I could
(20:38):
hop on Instagram for fiveminutes.
And I don't seem to have thator schedule that for myself
nowadays.
But because I'm not spreadingout those smaller interactions,
I usually will set up like onetime block for maybe like 30 or
45 minutes to just be onInstagram, just be social and I
(21:02):
don't really have a goal inmind.
Sometimes I post something new.
Sometimes I don't and I justengage with others.
But I think that has been areally big help just scheduling
the time for it because I knowwe're busy and it is a big part
of being successful onInstagram.
And for me personally, I needto have a schedule or a little
(21:24):
bit of structure.
That's just how I am the mostefficient.
So for me, if it doesn't getscheduled, it doesn't get done.
April (21:31):
Right.
Yeah, that's definitelysomething to keep in mind if
you're not as organized, youknow, to keep reminding yourself
to do that.
I think I do want to point outthat I feel like in the
beginning of Instagram, whenyou're first starting out, it's
really important to be verystrict on yourself if you want
to increase the engagement andget the followers and to get
(21:51):
noticed that you need to be veryorganized post the same time
every day or you know do twoposts a day or make sure you're
doing posts on monday wednesdayfriday or you know i think once
you kind of hit that platform oryou hit the over 10k or
whatever it is your goal is youdon't have to lean on it as much
(22:12):
but people will expect youmaybe to be doing them at the
same time but again in thebeginning I feel like it's you
need to be strict on yourselfwith that if you do want that
because it is work and I thinkit's important to get there like
we do an extreme example likeKim Kardashian it doesn't matter
when she posts she'll get fivemillion likes on anything so
(22:33):
yeah she doesn't have a scheduleright so once you like kind of
hit that celebrity status youmay not have to work as hard but
in the beginning it isextremely important if that's
your goal right
Brittany (22:43):
yeah i completely agree if you think about it
instagram wants you to use theirplatform that is their number
one goal and they have peoplewhose job it literally is to
figure out ways to keep youthere so when you're on
instagram if you're trying togrow they're going to reward you
for being there it's in theirbest interest
April (23:05):
Oh, for sure.
It's a business.
At the end of the day, it's abusiness.
And I'm always thinking, if oneday Instagram disappears, what
would we all do?
Brittany (23:13):
Right?
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't know what I would do.
I would have to find somethingelse to that's like my fun
place.
You know, that's the placewhere I go when I'm checking out
of work.
I don't really consider itwork.
I consider it a place where allmy friends hang out.
April (23:29):
Yep.
Yeah, you're so right.
I feel like it's kind of likethe hub where everyone kind of
is and then they veer off todifferent things, you know, from
there.
I feel like Instagram is likethe beginning and the start.
Like you wake up in themorning, you might check your
email and you check Instagram,
Brittany (23:43):
right?
Uh-huh.
For sure.
Yes.
So let's get into some of thosetactics because there are a lot
of things that you can do toincrease your engagement on
Instagram.
So for somebody listening whohas a pencil in hand and give it
to me?
What are some ways, some thingsthat they can do in order to
increase their engagement orjust overall to help them
(24:04):
achieve that goal that they'veset out for themselves?
April (24:07):
Yeah.
So I'm going to be a littlerepetitive, but the first one
for sure is showing up, makingsure you are there.
You want likes, you like otherpeople's posts.
You need to follow otherpeople.
If you want followers, you needto comment on other posts.
If you want comments as well,using hashtags, is a big thing.
I think it's 32 hashtags youcan use.
You should be using all of themin the beginning because that
(24:29):
is how people will find you.
I don't know, as a maker,sometimes I'm thinking of things
and I do hashtag crochet top orsomething that's so random, but
you just kind of, I usehashtags to look at others, to
find inspiration and to findcreativity and how else will
people find you if you don't usehashtags?
You're just kind of in the seaof nothing.
(24:50):
So hashtags is reallyimportant.
a theme is really important.
I think your feed is, you wantpeople to, you have to think
about yourself as not just thepicture that you're posting, but
as kind of your profile as awhole.
Because if someone wants tofollow you, they physically have
to go to your profile and clickfollow.
So when they go to yourprofile, you want them to be
(25:12):
like, wow, this is a really nicefeed or wow, these are great
pictures.
And you want them to hit thatfollow button.
So I think it's important foryou to look at your profile as
one thing instead of justlooking at one post.
So that kind of branches off ofplanning your posts.
in the beginning when I startedmaking projects and I don't
know if you felt the same wayBrittany but I'd make something
and then I'd be like oh I shouldhave took a picture of me doing
(25:34):
this or you know progresspictures right it happens all
the time or you finish a projectand you're so excited and then
you realize you didn't even takea picture of you know halfway
through and it would have beencute if I put a little coffee in
it and took a picture of it forInstagram for tomorrow and I
didn't so yeah it's important toplan stuff and to take pictures
of everything if that's whatyou want to do and you want to
(25:55):
show progress of your top oryour sweater that you're making,
it's important to take thepictures and to be consistent.
A really interesting thing thatI never forgot that I read in a
blog post a while back was whensomeone looks at your picture,
they should already know, oh,that's April from OTH or that's
Brittany from BeHook.
They shouldn't even need tolook at your name.
(26:16):
And that is That is hugebecause that means you are
either showing somethingconsistently, whether it's a
ring on your hand, whether it'sthe same coffee cup, whether
it's the same backyard that theysee all the time.
Those are the followers thatyou want to be like, I love that
picture because I lovefollowing Brittany and they'll
just hit like because they likeit and they know that it's her.
(26:36):
So that is really important.
And I think that keeps yourselfconsistent and it keeps your
feed looking consistent becauseit looks like you and not like
anyone else.
Brittany (26:46):
And they know exactly what they're looking for or what
to expect when they go to yourprofile.
That's right.
Yeah.
Okay.
So those are some really goodentry-level tactics, I would
say.
Just, like you said, beingconsistent, posting all the
time, liking, commenting.
Those are things that youshould be doing regardless of
(27:06):
what your goal is.
Another thing I would add tothat too, I think the image
quality on Instagram is evolvingtoo.
I would say put your best photoon Instagram.
Give yourself a situation whereyou have some either bright
light or natural light.
Natural light's best.
Photography is a skill that youjust have to learn over time.
(27:27):
And I really have learned a lotof it the hard way.
But you can see that evolvethrough my feed as well.
Not just...
how I was changing and thethings that I was doing and
caring about.
But my skills as a photographerand the composition of the
photo, those are things that aresort of next level.
(27:49):
I would say to set the barreally, really high, to get
people to want to follow you andcontinue to engage with you.
I tend to see...
better results if I have abetter photo, something that has
something else in it.
There's an interestingexperiment.
It wasn't really an experimentwhen I was doing it, but I'm
(28:12):
thinking of it as one now.
I posted a photo of just alittle swatch that I was working
on I was doing a stitchtutorial, and it was pretty
basic.
A lot of my backgrounds arewhite, and that's just what I
like because I really want theproject to stand out, and that's
sort of just been my style overtime.
Well, I had this, I think itwas a gray yarn on a white
(28:35):
background, and it was reallyplain and simple.
It was just, I think it waseven knitting, a knitting needle
and the stitch pattern.
swatch and that got pretty lowengagement because there wasn't
a whole lot going on with it.
It was just a swatch and itwasn't thought-provoking or it
didn't catch anybody's eye.
It was just there.
(28:57):
But then I made a later postwhere it was the same stitch
pattern but I had differentstuff in the background and that
post got a lot more engagement.
So I think a tip that I wouldadd is just to think about the
photo composition and make itinteresting.
If you're taking a photo of aproject you're working on and
(29:19):
it's not super interesting,right?
Because some of them, Theystart out pretty basic and then
they get better as you get moreto the project.
But maybe in those early stageswhen it's not quite so
interesting, add some parts ofyour life, what you see as
you're sitting there working onthat.
And I think you'll get moreengagement.
April (29:37):
Yeah, I definitely agree.
That is a huge point.
It's pictures.
And I have definitely gottenbetter.
And that is very true that youwill get better as time goes on.
But pictures is huge.
Picture quality is huge.
And there's so many.
I encourage everyone listeningto go on YouTube, go read blogs
(30:01):
of how to take better pictureson Instagram.
There are millions of posts andthey give you really amazing
tips on what to do and how to doit.
And they're really simple.
You don't need all of ourphones these days.
It's 2019.
All of our phones have amazingcameras.
I just use a pixel.
I do not use a professionalcamera or SLR or anything.
(30:21):
And I always get comments of,what camera are you using?
Is that a Canon?
Blah, blah, blah.
And I'm always like, no, it'sjust a phone.
So it's about, you know, yeah,getting the right lighting.
You don't need to spendthousands of dollars getting a
studio or, you know, use yourwindow and use your phone.
Brittany (30:38):
Yeah.
Honestly, I do have somelighting that I use for when I'm
filming different tutorials.
And I hate taking photos underthat light.
April (30:48):
Yeah.
Brittany (30:49):
It looks so much better with the window.
April (30:51):
Yeah.
And there's a lot of shadow andit's really bright.
I agree.
I know natural light.
When it's raining, like todayin Toronto, when we're talking
right now, it's pouring rain andthere's no natural light.
So there's no crochet pictureshappening in my house today.
Brittany (31:05):
Right.
It's actually raining here forthe first time in three weeks
too, which is pretty nice.
But it just so happened to fallin a day where I needed to take
some photos and now that willbe pushed off until tomorrow.
April (31:15):
which is actually a good point like I try to do as much
as I can if I have reallyawesome natural light on a day
and I have time like if my kidsare at school or if they're
napping or they're playing and Ihave an opportunity I kind of
grab as many things as I can andtry to bank photos I think that
that's a huge tip to save youtime um and like you said to
(31:36):
schedule posts there are tons ofapps that can do that for you
and that kind of leaves the workout for you right
Brittany (31:42):
Yeah, it does.
Now, since you do a lot ofbatching with your photos, too,
and you mentioned scheduling orjust having a plan in general,
do you use any tools or anythingto help you keep track of what
you're going to post and whatyou have pictures of and what
you need pictures of?
April (31:58):
Yeah, so I kind of have this way of organizing my
pictures.
I do a ton in advance.
Like right now I'm working onmy September project.
pattern, which is well inadvance, but I'm taking all the
pictures.
And what I do to help myselforganize them is I email them to
myself with the subject line ofwhat it is, and what day I'm
going to post it.
(32:18):
So that way, one, if my phonegets lost, I'll still have the
picture.
That's good.
And then second, if I'll justfind it very easily to search
through my email when I knowwhat pattern I'm going to be
promoting more, or what patternI'm going to be posting about
for the next like, you I'll justgo in my email and kind of
search it.
That's kind of how I organizeit.
(32:40):
I don't use a scheduler, but Ijust find it that I'm able to
remind myself and I kind of knowwhen I post things, but I
wouldn't, I would definitelyencourage it if you need it and
you feel like you might forgetor might not be as organized,
but that's kind of how Iorganize my posts.
my patterns and my posts.
Brittany (32:56):
Yeah.
my downtime from work.
(33:26):
I didn't want to make it work.
But what I found is that in therush of fixing dinner and
straightening up and doing allthe things that it would be
eight o'clock and I would say,oh no, I didn't post that photo
on Instagram that I was supposedto post.
And so now I'm using that toremind me.
So the way it works is there'san app on your phone And
(33:50):
there's, of course, the softwarethat you use on your computer.
You schedule it using thecomputer version.
So I'll upload my photo.
I typically like to use GoogleDrive, so I'll snap a photo.
I use a Pixel as well with myphone.
And I'll upload that to GoogleDrive.
And then I'll dump it in myCoSchedule account.
And from there, I will just setthe day that I want it to go
(34:16):
up.
And this thing, this feature...
Well, one of the features thatthis has is it will allow you to
post at the most optimal time.
So I'll let it tell me likewhat's the best time to publish.
And that's basically just basedoff of my followers and when
they're typically active.
So I think that's a sort of ahidden tip for increased
(34:36):
engagement there if you're usinga scheduler.
But I will get a notificationon my phone that says, hey, it's
time for you to schedule thisInstagram post.
And because I don't like to...
make it seem scheduled orstructured.
I like to be very in the momentwith Instagram.
I won't include any text oranything like that.
So what I'll do is justschedule a blank post and it'll
(35:01):
send it to my phone and say,hey, like it's time to post
this.
And so I'll sit down for a fewminutes and write my description
and share it out.
And that's been working reallywell for me.
April (35:10):
Yeah, I like that because that still makes it personal of
what's going on in the momentlike you might say like oh I've
warmed up my coffee four timestoday and that's that's real
like you might be writing thatand then saying I'm working on
this project I do like that ofwriting your own instead of
pre-writing it I love the ideaof doing it in real time as well
and I think that's why I don'tschedule my posts I have that in
(35:30):
common with you but I um thatapp sounds cool because it
sounds like you can stillpersonalize it it's just kind of
like a reminder like a littlepoke like hey
Brittany (35:39):
Yeah, it's a great tool.
I speak very highly of it herein several episodes, mainly the
ones that are related to makersand businesses because that's, I
mean, you don't really have ause for it if you don't have one
of those, but it is amazing.
It's really been a gamechanger.
But another thing that comes tomind when being in the moment
(36:01):
is Instagram stories.
And since that's a a big partof Instagram and that has, has
changed even just in the lastprobably year or so.
Well, has it even been out fora full year?
I think so.
Yeah.
I could remember when theystarted it.
I think I really started usingit last year, which is why it's
a little bit fuzzy in my mind,but how do you use Instagram
(36:24):
stories?
Do you think that that is a keyto increasing your engagement
or is that just something that'sto share some of those more
personal moments or things likethat?
April (36:35):
I think it absolutely does increase engagement.
I think that it shows a side ofyou that may not be polished,
which I think people really liketo see sometimes.
I know we can use like cutefilters and stuff like that, but
we're still doing ourday-to-day things.
Like if I'm playing with mykids or, you know, something
that's not crochet related, I'mat an amusement park with them
(36:58):
or I'm grocery shopping or...
That just goes back to thepoint where people like to see
you as you.
Like, who are you?
You're not just be hooked.
You are, you know, moving oryou're decorating or you're
buying a new house or, you know,that's part of you.
So I think people love to knowabout, you know, who you are.
And I think Instagram storiesis an amazing way to show that.
(37:20):
And it kind of shows the rawversion of you and yourself.
once I passed 10 K and we hadthat swipe up feature, I think
that definitely benefited onethat directs, um, your followers
to your blog or to whateverlink you're doing.
Um, also sharing in yourstories, your post where they
just have to click on the postthat I think is huge.
(37:43):
And you can do that with anyamount of followers.
You just add it to your story.
Um, add a little like emojithat'll say like tap here and
it'll take them right to thepicture.
Um, I think, Instagram storiesis huge and you have to take
advantage of it.
When I see that little plussign, like my, my stories have
all expired.
I don't like that.
I need to put something inthere because I feel like it's a
(38:04):
constant, constant, like evenif it's just something small,
like sharing a picture ofanother maker, I love doing
that.
And I love, um, if people shareyour mind, I think it's great
to do that because, um, there'samazing makers out there and
they're doing amazing things andthey need to get noticed just
like you should feel like, youwant people to notice your
things too, right?
Brittany (38:25):
Yes, I agree 100%.
I wish that I had started usingInstagram stories sooner
because it provides a way tosend people to your website or
your post.
And for somebody like us whoare sharing patterns and
tutorials, that makes sensebecause it was so frustrating.
Remember in the early days, youwould make a post and you you
(38:47):
had like a new pattern thatwould come out and you would
share about it but you couldn'tput a link anywhere you could
only put it in your profile andthat still exists today you
still can't put a link in a postbut it was always such a big
headache to try to explain howsomebody can find that and
That's just not a good userexperience.
(39:08):
So being able to have theInstagram stories where you can
say, hey, I have the link in myInstagram stories, it's so much
easier to direct people therebecause they actually know how
to find that.
And I don't know, it just hasmade life so much easier for me.
April (39:23):
Yeah, definitely.
And I think to add to thathighlights is I think great
because highlights is a goodplace for people to see things
quickly.
I have all my patterns in onehighlight.
I have all my, you know, makerphotos in one highlight.
I have all my communitypictures, my yarn versus
everybody stuff like alleverything about me.
You can kind of click.
People could put their kids,they could put their dog.
(39:44):
And I think it's a cool placeif somebody wants to check out
your feed to kind of do a quickexactly what it means highlight
of a certain thing in your lifeor something about you.
I think highlights work just aswell as because it kind of
lives there forever.
Whereas in your story thatexpires after 24 hours.
So if they're in yourhighlight, they're there
(40:05):
forever.
So I love highlights.
I think those are awesome.
Brittany (40:08):
Oh, yeah.
They're a great way to formcollections almost.
I use highlights to have all ofthe information for my
patterns.
So I'll have a highlight for mypatterns.
I'll have a highlight for thepodcast episodes and for the
tutorials and that sort of thingthat come out.
So if you...
come to my profile and you likewhat you see, all you have to
(40:29):
do is tap on those highlights.
And it's still a work inprogress adding some of those
older ones, but you can prettymuch find everything that you
would need.
And now, I honestly, I justlearned, I would say within the
last month, that you could sharea post, like a photo post, to
your stories.
And I can see this being reallybeneficial to to use for
(40:53):
highlights because if you have apost of a finished pattern that
you made and you want to put itin your highlight you can just
share that post directly to yourInstagram stories and if they
tap on it they'll see theoriginal post they can get more
information on it but then inthat story they'll have the
swipe up so they can go directlyto the pattern
April (41:16):
yep it's so accessible and Makes everything very
accessible and keyword easy sothat you're not kind of looking
when you had to do link and bio.
Some people may be like, well,what is that?
I don't know where you're like,you know, some or where is
that?
So, yeah, Instagram stories andhighlights makes everything
very easy and quick becausepeople want things quickly.
(41:37):
That's just kind of.
how things are these days,right?
Brittany (41:40):
Yeah, completely.
I still answer that questionevery single week, where's your
profile and how to find it.
And gosh, I wish Instagramwould just make it a little bit
easier for everybody.
Right.
Right.
You're right.
It's true.
Well, we've covered a lot ofground here as far as engagement
tactics.
Are there any others thatpossibly we haven't covered,
like any ninja tricks oranything like that?
April (42:03):
think we've done I think it's it's been a lot I think as
long as you don't ghost and postI think that's what the summary
is we don't want to like postsomething and then leave and not
do anything you have to beengaging to to get engagement I
think that that's the key yeah
Brittany (42:19):
Yeah, I agree 100%.
There have been times where Ihave posted and totally forgot
that I posted.
And then there are days where Iremember and I stay active on
Instagram.
You can see a difference.
You really can between thoseinstances where I forgot and
ghosted or the ones that I wasactually there and interacting
with people.
So I think like you said, thebottom line is Instagram wants
(42:42):
there to be engagement on theirplatform and you have to engage
to be Engaging or to be engagedby others.
Yeah, exactly.
All right.
Now you mentioned something amoment ago, you said you started
yarn versus everybody.
And I knew that was somethingthat was a result of just the
amazing community that's onInstagram.
(43:03):
I think all of us can agreethat the maker community on
Instagram is an amazingcommunity to be a part of.
So tell me a little bit aboutthis and why you started it.
April (43:13):
So I think I met you actually for the first time at
Our Maker Life, which a lot ofpeople know about.
And that was a couple of yearsago when it was in Toronto.
And when I was sitting there atthis amazing conference,
meeting all these amazing peoplethat you're only commenting and
sending DMs to on Instagram,you're seeing them face to face.
And I was in love with that.
(43:35):
And I loved the experience.
And I was kind of sad to thinkthat I'm in this big city of
Toronto and I wanted to havesomething that was there for
people that were locally in myarea that wanted to get together
and kind of make it like a bigthing.
So that was when I firstinitially thought of the idea.
It didn't come into play orreally like into planning
(43:59):
process until like a year later.
But Yarn vs.
Everybody is really...
Exactly how it sounds.
No one really understands thelove for yarn like us in the
maker community.
And I feel like it's kind oflike us against everyone else.
But it's something that Ireally wanted to start so that
people in the community thathave the same passion and the
(44:21):
same likes, we can physicallymeet together and talk face to
face.
And I know there's like littlemeetups and sip and stitches and
things like that that people dohere and there.
I kind of wanted to make it acommunity where people We do
something all the time.
Like it's kind of like a funget together where we can, you
know, get free stuff, get freeyarn, get awesome swag, but also
(44:42):
talk to each other, compareneedle sizes, hook sizes, um,
I've done five so far.
The last one I just did wasthis past June.
It was the biggest one I'vedone.
It was a lot of work.
But every single second I putinto planning it was so much fun
for me.
I loved it.
And the energy and the idea ofall of us meeting together was
(45:06):
such an amazing time.
And there's nothing like thatmeeting someone who just loves
something so much exactly likeyou do.
And they just understand like,I don't know if if People are
listening now and they're intheir house, you know, with
their yarn and talking abouttheir projects to, you know,
their family that has no ideawhat they're talking about.
So it's nice to be aroundpeople that know about stitches
(45:30):
and hooks and projects.
And I want to do it as long asI can because I love doing it.
And I think it's reallyimportant in, you know, in our
world of social media and evenjust phone calls.
We don't do that anymore.
The only person really I talkto on the phone is like my mom.
Right.
I don't like.
Right.
So it's something that we needto do more of.
(45:53):
And I think this community isreally awesome.
And meeting face to face isjust such an amazing thing.
So that's really the mainreason why I started it.
Brittany (46:01):
Well, that sounds like a lot of fun.
Is it mainly there?
Like, does it mainly happenthere in Toronto?
April (46:05):
Yeah.
So this is Toronto based.
Like, I mean, of course, I'dlove to expand it, but it is
just me.
I'm just a one woman show here.
So I try to do as much as Ican, but it's just Toronto and
the surrounding area for rightnow.
Brittany (46:19):
Yeah.
Well, that sounds great.
I know I have a lot oflisteners who are in Toronto.
So if those people want to getin on this, do you have maybe a
website or something where theycan gather more information?
Yeah.
April (46:30):
Do we have an Instagram?
It's at yarn versus everybody.
There's also a website linkthere as well.
If you just go to that page onInstagram and you can also, if
you follow me at OTH crochetnook, you'll find all the
information.
You'll see the videos and, andall the stuff that happened in
the last Yarn vs.
Everybody meetup.
So,
Brittany (46:47):
yeah.
Okay, awesome.
Now, I know you do other thingsas well.
You said that you are workingwith Yarnspirations this year.
So I know there are otherthings going on.
If somebody wants to connectwith you and see some of the
other things that maybe you'reteaching or the projects that
you're working on, I know yourInstagram is probably a good
place to go.
Is there anywhere else maybethat you would direct them to?
April (47:08):
Yeah, just my blog, othchristianik.ca.
It has all my patterns.
All my patterns are free.
And they've always been likethat.
And I have many there and I,everything is linked there, my
Instagram and yeah, on my blog.
So, and there's a new patternevery single month, sometimes
two a month.
Awesome.
Okay.
Brittany (47:28):
Right, right.
It, it takes a little time toput that stuff together, but
it's totally right.
Okay.
Well, I will have links to allof that in the show notes page.
So if you're listening andyou're curious about yarn versus
everybody and going to one ofthose meetups, you can find the
info there.
And the question I didn't askhere, do you have any idea when
the next one might be?
April (47:48):
Well, I think I'm planning on doing them once a
year so that I can make themreally big.
So probably summer of 2020 isgoing to be the next one.
Brittany (47:56):
Okay.
Good to know.
And yeah, like I said, I'llhave all that information in the
show notes.
And April, thank you so much.
It has been so much fun.
I love talking about Instagramand it's really great to find
somebody who's just asinterested in Instagram to share
some of this with our makercommunity.
So thank you.
April (48:14):
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for invitingme.
This was awesome.
I had so much
Brittany (48:17):
fun.
All right.
was April from OTH CrochetNook.
Now don't forget to check outYarn Versus Everybody or her
profile at OTH Crochet Nook onInstagram if you're in the
Toronto area and you want toattend the next Yarn Versus
Everybody meetup.
I'll also have the informationfor you on the show notes, which
by the way is behooked.comslash 129.
(48:38):
So if you go there, you can seeall of the information there.
One last thing I want tomention before we wrap up today
is the sponsor for today'sepisode, which is my blueprint
course, Tunisian Crochet forBeginners.
I turned to Tunisian crochetwhen my hands and wrists needed
a little break from those usualcrochet motions.
You know that hand and wristfatigue?
(48:59):
Well, it uses a different hookand a different stitching
technique, which meant themotions were just different
enough too.
So nowadays I pick up aTunisian crochet project when
I'm feeling a little hand andwrist fatigue, but I still need
my creative fix.
Well, as the name of the courseimplies, this online class is
(49:20):
perfect if you have never triedTunisian crochet at all, or if
you've tried and you justcouldn't quite pick it up.
I'll walk you through thebasics as well as your first
three projects.
So to sign up for the TunisianCrochet for Beginners online
course taught by me, just visitbhooked.com slash tcfb, which
(49:40):
will redirect you to the courseon Blueprint's website.
And by the way, they'reformally known as Craftsy.
And you can sign up for theclass there.
All righty, next week, we'll doanother Your Questions Answered
episode because so many of youloved it when we did it back in
episode 124.
So here's what you need to doto potentially have your
(50:01):
question answered in next week'sepisode.
Well, first, you'll have tofollow me on Instagram if you
don't already.
My handle is at bhooked, that'sB-H-O-O-K-E-D.
And then look at my Instagramstories today, August 15th,
2019.
If you're listening to it theday it comes out, As you know,
and as you heard from today'sepisode, that Instagram stories
(50:22):
are only available for 24 hours.
So you need to get in today inorder to submit your question.
So the way this works is whenyou tap on my stories, you'll
eventually see one post or onestory that'll ask for your
question, and you'll have alittle box for you to type it
in, and then you have to hitsend.
From there, I'll receive it,I'll gather all of your
(50:45):
questions, and I will answer asmany of them as I possibly can
in next week's episode.
Alright, thank you so much fortuning in today.
I hope you have a wonderfulweekend, and I'll see you next
week.
You're listening to the Be Hooked Podcast, episode
129, with Brittany.
Oh yeah, we're talkingInstagram today.
Well, hey there, and welcome toepisode 129 of the Be Hooked
(00:38):
podcast, the place where we loveyarn, we love to learn, and we
believe yarn can do more for usthan just make pretty things.
Well, today's episode is just alittle different than usual, so
if you're brand new to theshow, well, first of all,
welcome.
I'm really glad that you'rehere.
You'll typically hear episodesthat will inspire you in some
way and help you be a bettercrocheter.
(00:58):
Well, every now and again, wehave an episode like this one
that'll help those withyarn-related businesses or
makers in our community.
Now, if this is you, I thinkyou're in for a really big
treat.
I'm pretty sure I don't have toconvince you how important
Instagram is as a makerbusiness, right?
I know it's been a huge dealfor me, but it's a platform like
(01:22):
any other social media withalgorithms and lots of noise, so
it's really hard to get yourstuff seen.
Well, April from OTH CrochetNook is here to share her wisdom
about Instagram, and I can'twait for this one.
We get into quite a few tacticsfor increasing engagement,
which really is the key to beingsuccessful on Instagram.
(01:44):
So are you ready?
Here she is.
So April, hi there.
Welcome to the Be Hopedpodcast.
Thank you for being here today.
Thank you so much for invitingme.
I'm so excited.
I am really excited too,especially about our topic.
When you let me know that thiswas something that you're really
passionate about, I wasthinking, yes, this is so needed
(02:05):
in our community becauseInstagram is kind of a big deal
and it's not going away.
It's only getting bigger.
And I know it helps so manymakers and then so many
crocheters and knitters ingeneral just make connections
with one another.
So I'm pumped.
Absolutely.
Yeah, me too.
Let's get to it.
All right.
So before we get to Instagram,I would love to know a little
(02:27):
more about you.
So can you tell me just how yougot into all of this and maybe
how you learned how to crochet?
April (02:33):
Yeah, sure.
So my grandma has beencrocheting her whole life.
When I got pregnant the firsttime with my first daughter in
2013, on mat leave, I kind ofpicked up a crochet hook again,
and I started crocheting usingjust the basic skills that she
had taught me when I was like 10years old.
Then when you learn the magicof YouTube and you kind of get
(02:57):
lost in the tunnel of YouTube,you can see that you can learn
basically anything and anytrade.
So I learned all the stitches.
I learned how to read patterns.
I just got really obsessed withit, and I realized that yarn
was...
something that I really reallylove to do and to make things so
I started pretty basic justdoing orders for family and
(03:19):
friends and then I started myblog and I started Instagram in
2016 and it just kind of wentfrom there and I have not
stopped and my yarn collectionis pretty I overflowing and I'm
kind of obsessed with it.
But beyond crochet, I'm a momof two daughters.
(03:42):
I work full time for a morningTV show.
I'm a producer on a localmorning show in Toronto.
And that's what I do during theday.
And at night, I crochet.
Oh very cool. I wonder if you're able to pull some of that knowledge from your day job to help you with the promotional aspect. I know there's not a ton of video on Instagram, but I'm sure that you know more than the typical person as far as marketing and that sort of thing goes.
(04:18):
Yeah, I've been doing live Marketingon TV, doing pitches every day,
reading through pitches everyday.
Those qualities definitelyhelped working through
Instagram, working through myblog, working through everything
you need to do to help promoteyourself and your business.
I definitely used skills thatI've used over those years for
sure.
Yeah.
Brittany (04:37):
Very cool.
So you said you started yourInstagram in 2016, which is
about three years ago as we'rerecording this.
When did it become a thing?
I'm sure you maybe started itjust because it was kind of a
shiny new object around then.
Tell me the story of how itdeveloped into more.
April (04:57):
Yeah, so 2016 September is when I started my Instagram.
And I would have to say, Ithink for anyone listening that
is just starting Instagram willknow that the first six months
to a year is quite difficult.
Instagram is a black hole.
It's like you want to benoticed.
How do you be noticed?
And all of this huge sea ofpeople and influencers and even
(05:19):
just for us listening, the makercommunity is huge all over the
world.
So it's a really hard thing toget through.
And I think the first year wasvery difficult.
I mean, when you hit your firstthousand is very accomplishing.
You feel like it's amazing.
And it really is because justto get your first thousand, I
think is a big deal.
It's hard navigating and it'shard learning what to do and to
(05:43):
find your niche and to reallyunderstand.
And I hope people get this whenthey listen, that it is really
a lot of work.
If you want to be noticed, ifyou want to, you know, become,
quote unquote, an influencer orto be, you know, something in
Instagram, it's definitely a lotof work.
You can't, you know, sit backand just kind of assume that it
(06:03):
will happen and people will seeyou.
You definitely have to get outthere.
So the first year, I think, isdefinitely the hardest.
And then as it picks up fromthere, you kind of understand
that.
how it works and how it worksfor you in your life.
Because I think that's reallyimportant to balance it if you
have other things going on inyour life other than Instagram,
right?
Brittany (06:22):
Yes, that is so true.
I know when I first started myInstagram, I did it specifically
for the things that I wasmaking.
So I didn't bombard my familymembers who are following my
personal account.
But I quickly abandoned mypersonal account.
I haven't used that.
And gosh, I think the last postwas in 2015 or 16.
(06:43):
I could have the dates wrongthere, but it's been a long time
because like you said, it's alot of work to manage a profile
that's interesting that peoplewant to see and to interact
with.
April (06:57):
Definitely.
I think what helped me the mostis I kind of turned to I want
to call them quote unquotesocial media experts, like
people who do like marketing andand they, you know, kind of go
through.
I listen to a ton of podcastsand watched a ton of YouTube
videos on influencers and justkind of.
together things that worked forme because I think it's
(07:18):
important for anyone to kind offigure out what works for them
because everyone's doingsomething different on Instagram
even you as a maker you mightcrochet but me and you don't do
this exact same things we don'tlike maybe the same hook or we
don't like the same yarn andthat's okay we need to figure
out kind of what your thing isand I think that's what helped
(07:39):
me the most I kind of grabbedyou know a little bit from here
a little bit from there and Iwas like you know what this that
I have collated Yeah, let's,let's
Brittany (07:58):
dive into that a little bit that aspect of it
because I don't know if I'm justprone to overthinking things.
I think it's part of mypersonality style.
But I tend to really questionmyself and question, well, just
(08:18):
question everything in general.
Not necessarily bad or good.
But the bad that comes fromthat is questioning my own
style.
Like, how do you know...
what your own style is.
How do you know where yourplace is on Instagram and what
you have to offer?
Do you have any advice on howyou figured that out?
April (08:38):
Yeah.
So I think one of the keypoints that I really put
together when I started myInstagram was I read a blog that
was talking about finding atheme for yourself, not a theme
for your page, but a theme foryourself.
And that's writing down, youknow, five to eight different
things that that you would wantto post?
(08:59):
What would you want to post?
Like one, your dog, two, yourkids, three, your crochet, four,
your yarn pile, like whateverit is, you write kind of a list
of things that kind of defineyou that you are interested in
people learning about you.
I think it's really importantto to break Instagram in a sense
(09:20):
that people want to see who youare.
They don't just want to seeyour projects.
They want to see you.
They want to see, you know,where are you going today?
What are you doing?
What did you make your kids forlunch?
What, you know, you're not justa person that's a maker.
You're a person that has a lifeand people like that.
It's personal and it connectsthem to you.
So that was definitely a keything that I did.
(09:42):
I kind of wrote down thingsthat mattered to me that I
wanted to share with Instagramthat I was like, you know, this
defines me and I want to sharethese things.
And I kind of stuck to thosethings.
And once you do that, that willkind of give you your own theme
for your feed, it willessentially just kind of go
there, because your feed willconsist of only those things.
(10:03):
And it will kind of help you,you know, work towards getting
that, that perfect feed, righton Instagram.
So I think that really helpedme a lot.
Brittany (10:12):
Okay.
Yeah, that's really greatadvice.
If that blog post is stillaround, I would love to maybe
include that in the show notes.
What if somebody already has anInstagram account started and
they don't feel like they reallyhave that narrowed down yet?
Is it okay to evolve yourInstagram page or is that sort
of a bad idea if you alreadyhave some followers and then all
(10:34):
of a sudden you do something alittle bit different?
April (10:36):
I love seeing, and I've done this before, going on
Instagram and kind of scrollingand seeing where people started.
I feel like that is soinspiring to me.
I don't think anyone shoulddelete things.
I know you can archive posts.
Maybe those are pictures maybeyou don't like or the lighting
was bad or, you know, thingslike that.
But I really feel like seeingsomebody, how they started and
(11:01):
how they became famous you know,something like, for instance,
yourself, you have a hugefollowing.
And for me to see if I went allthe way back to your feed, just
to see like your initial post,just see how you how you evolve,
I think is really cool, becauseit shows new makers and new
people that are coming into theindustry and into Instagram kind
of where they can become it'salmost like really inspiring.
(11:23):
I feel like we should notdelete posts.
Yes,
Brittany (11:28):
I agree with that too.
And I have done that a fewtimes on my own account, just
because it's sort of like atimeline of my entire journey
with BeHooked.
It started very different.
And you can see that in thosefirst couple of posts, I wanted
to sell finished goods.
And then I realized over timethat that wasn't really my
thing.
And over time figured out whatwas my thing.
(11:49):
And you could sort of see thiswhole journey.
And even now, I would say thisyear, I feel like I'm making
some more changes, notnecessarily in what I post or
how frequently I post, but Iguess sort of an underlying
theme.
And honestly, what sparked thisis my husband and I moved to a
(12:10):
new house late last year.
And so we're still goingthrough the motions of making it
our own, right?
Doing some personalization,decorating, and that sort of
thing.
And I have been working on myoffice or my studio area for a
couple of months and I am soindecisive or have been so
indecisive about how I want todo it.
(12:32):
So I'm afraid to put things onthe wall because I know that
I'll change my mind.
But something happened in thepast couple of months, I would
say, where I just figured it outand I can't really describe it.
I've got a color that Iabsolutely love and I've
developed this really weirdobsession for like champagne
(12:52):
color and more like warmneutrals, which is out of
character for me, and blush pinkand rose gold, just completely
out of left field for me.
And I just love it.
I absolutely love it.
And I'm seeing now that myInstagram is sort of changing in
that direction.
The colors that I'm using aremore neutral in that sense.
(13:15):
And I think it's okay.
I haven't had anybody post orsay anything about it.
So I think it's...
completely safe for somebodyto, like you said, figure out
what their style is, and let itevolve over time.
Definitely.
April (13:32):
Yeah, no, I think it's really important to kind of to
show that journey, because Ifeel like people are very
inspired by it.
And I know I know a ton ofpeople that do that, that kind
of see where that successfulmaker kind of started.
I know people that have donethat and I think it is really,
truly inspiring.
Yeah.
Brittany (13:50):
Yeah.
Now you've used a term a coupleof times and I'm sure many of
us have heard it, the terminfluencer.
But for somebody who's just newto that term, can you tell me
just what that means exactly?
April (14:02):
Yeah.
So it's kind of funny that youasked that because when I think
about myself.
The first time I actually haveever been called an influencer
was just recently, and I did notsee myself as an influencer.
I'm proud to say that I workwith Yarnspirations very
closely, and I've been workingwith them for this entire year.
And when they were talking inlike a kind of a conference call
(14:26):
we had, and they wereintroducing me to somebody, they
said, April is our influencer,and she is, you know, blah,
blah, blah.
And it was It kind of hit meand I was like, I'm an
influencer.
It's interesting because Idon't see myself that way, but I
see myself looking to otherpeople as influencing me and
kind of giving me direction andshowing me what's cool and
(14:48):
what's not cool.
But I think in our makercommunity, as opposed to like
fashion bloggers and beautybloggers as influencers for
products, I feel like our makercommunity is more...
influencing um creativity andinfluencing like how we see our
projects and we see the thingsthat we make and and yarn in
(15:10):
general i feel like that weinfluence how we can take
something and make it tosomething amazing and it's not
about copycatting it's not aboutsaying well that person made
that and i'm influenced to makethat because they're an
influencer it's more like i lookup to that person And that was
so inspiring to me that I amfeeling really creative today.
(15:31):
And I'm going to be making anawesome project.
And this is what I want tomake.
So I feel like our makercommunity kind of has their own
really cool definition ofinfluencer.
And I feel like very gratefuland very proud to say that, that
I am one, I guess.
Brittany (15:45):
Yeah, yeah, I know.
It's, it's interesting.
Somebody who Usually is aninfluencer.
They don't really think ofthemselves as one either You're
not the first person I haveheard and I didn't really feel
that way either.
I was just doing what I love todo It seems like the term came
about and is used often bybrands So, I don't I don't know
(16:08):
if that's just an observationbut it seems like brands use
that as a way to describe peoplethat they're working with and
you know supporting and thatsort of thing to help inspire
that community
April (16:24):
yeah yes exactly well we're helping them market their
products and doing things forthem so we are definitely
influencing um i just i feelamazing to be part of a maker
community that kind of hasinfluencers that are just more
than brands i think it's reallycool
Brittany (16:39):
Yeah.
Now, do you think the end goalfor anybody trying to increase
their engagement on Instagram isto become an influencer or is
there another way that somebodycould use Instagram?
April (16:53):
Yeah, I think when you're starting Instagram.
I feel like different peoplehave different goals.
Either the goal is to get a lotof followers or to get a lot of
likes on pictures, to getreposted by celebrities, to get
verified.
I feel like people havedifferent goals depending on
what they want their Instagramto be.
(17:15):
I feel like the platform ofInstagram kind of gives you that
access to everything else.
It kind of branches everything.
uh, open to all other socialplatforms and, and kind of
leverages you to, to help kindof understand what your main
goal is.
I don't know if you had thegoal to, to gain the following
that you had.
I don't know if that might beinteresting to talk about, but I
(17:37):
feel like that is, it's areally big accomplishment.
I think it's very successfuland it's something that I think
people will definitely look upto.
And I don't know if, if that'sthe, was the most important
thing to you, but, uh, youdefinitely accomplished it.
Brittany (17:50):
Well, thank you.
Yeah, it's an interesting storybecause I never set out to be
an influencer.
I didn't even know that thatwas a thing or that that
existed.
I just really loved theplatform and I understood it.
I've gotten on Facebook beforeand I try to sort of like do
similar things and I've triedTwitter.
(18:12):
I'm still trying Twitter.
I'm not giving up on that one.
But Those platforms, they justdon't click for me.
And Instagram did.
And I just started seeingsuccess and it just kept going.
And then it became just a funchallenge to see those numbers
grow based on what I was doingin order to increase that
engagement.
But it was nothing more than achallenge with myself.
(18:35):
I didn't want to necessarilyinfluence anybody in one
direction or another.
I just wanted to share what Iwas doing because I wanted to
have somebody to talk with aboutit.
I wanted to have somebody be asexcited about crochet as I was
and still am at the time.
(18:55):
I really was there for thecommunity.
And like I said, the growthhappened just from me trying
things and seeing what workedand continue to do what worked.
April (19:07):
Yeah, I think exactly what you're saying and sharing
and talking to people about yourpassion, I think is the key to
engagement.
And I know we were going totalk about a few tricks about
engagement.
And I think the main thing andyou just nailed it right on the
head was showing up is thebiggest way to increase your
engagement showing up.
If you want likes, you got tolike other people's posts.
(19:29):
If you want comments, you gotto like comment other on other
people's posts.
You know, kind of posting andjust kind of checking your
Instagram four hours later isnot something that will increase
your engagement.
So I think that that's soimportant that you said that
because sharing is also you wantto share other people's
experiences.
You want to show your love forthem as much as you want them to
(19:51):
show love for your posts.
So I think it's reallyimportant for people to
understand that.
And from what I said from thebeginning of this podcast is
that it's really a lot of work.
And if you want to, you know,get noticed, if you want to
increase your engagement, it'simportant for you to do the
same.
Right.
Brittany (20:05):
Exactly.
I have spent an embarrassingamount of time on Instagram.
pockets of time here and therethroughout the day where I could
(20:38):
hop on Instagram for fiveminutes.
And I don't seem to have thator schedule that for myself
nowadays.
But because I'm not spreadingout those smaller interactions,
I usually will set up like onetime block for maybe like 30 or
45 minutes to just be onInstagram, just be social and I
(21:02):
don't really have a goal inmind.
Sometimes I post something new.
Sometimes I don't and I justengage with others.
But I think that has been areally big help just scheduling
the time for it because I knowwe're busy and it is a big part
of being successful onInstagram.
And for me personally, I needto have a schedule or a little
(21:24):
bit of structure.
That's just how I am the mostefficient.
So for me, if it doesn't getscheduled, it doesn't get done.
April (21:31):
Right.
Yeah, that's definitelysomething to keep in mind if
you're not as organized, youknow, to keep reminding yourself
to do that.
I think I do want to point outthat I feel like in the
beginning of Instagram, whenyou're first starting out, it's
really important to be verystrict on yourself if you want
to increase the engagement andget the followers and to get
(21:51):
noticed that you need to be veryorganized post the same time
every day or you know do twoposts a day or make sure you're
doing posts on monday wednesdayfriday or you know i think once
you kind of hit that platform oryou hit the over 10k or
whatever it is your goal is youdon't have to lean on it as much
(22:12):
but people will expect youmaybe to be doing them at the
same time but again in thebeginning I feel like it's you
need to be strict on yourselfwith that if you do want that
because it is work and I thinkit's important to get there like
we do an extreme example likeKim Kardashian it doesn't matter
when she posts she'll get fivemillion likes on anything so
(22:33):
yeah she doesn't have a scheduleright so once you like kind of
hit that celebrity status youmay not have to work as hard but
in the beginning it isextremely important if that's
your goal right
Brittany (22:43):
yeah i completely agree if you think about it
instagram wants you to use theirplatform that is their number
one goal and they have peoplewhose job it literally is to
figure out ways to keep youthere so when you're on
instagram if you're trying togrow they're going to reward you
for being there it's in theirbest interest
April (23:05):
Oh, for sure.
It's a business.
At the end of the day, it's abusiness.
And I'm always thinking, if oneday Instagram disappears, what
would we all do?
Brittany (23:13):
Right?
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't know what I would do.
I would have to find somethingelse to that's like my fun
place.
You know, that's the placewhere I go when I'm checking out
of work.
I don't really consider itwork.
I consider it a place where allmy friends hang out.
April (23:29):
Yep.
Yeah, you're so right.
I feel like it's kind of likethe hub where everyone kind of
is and then they veer off todifferent things, you know, from
there.
I feel like Instagram is likethe beginning and the start.
Like you wake up in themorning, you might check your
email and you check Instagram,
Brittany (23:43):
right?
Uh-huh.
For sure.
Yes.
So let's get into some of thosetactics because there are a lot
of things that you can do toincrease your engagement on
Instagram.
So for somebody listening whohas a pencil in hand and give it
to me?
What are some ways, some thingsthat they can do in order to
increase their engagement orjust overall to help them
(24:04):
achieve that goal that they'veset out for themselves?
April (24:07):
Yeah.
So I'm going to be a littlerepetitive, but the first one
for sure is showing up, makingsure you are there.
You want likes, you like otherpeople's posts.
You need to follow otherpeople.
If you want followers, you needto comment on other posts.
If you want comments as well,using hashtags, is a big thing.
I think it's 32 hashtags youcan use.
You should be using all of themin the beginning because that
(24:29):
is how people will find you.
I don't know, as a maker,sometimes I'm thinking of things
and I do hashtag crochet top orsomething that's so random, but
you just kind of, I usehashtags to look at others, to
find inspiration and to findcreativity and how else will
people find you if you don't usehashtags?
You're just kind of in the seaof nothing.
(24:50):
So hashtags is reallyimportant.
a theme is really important.
I think your feed is, you wantpeople to, you have to think
about yourself as not just thepicture that you're posting, but
as kind of your profile as awhole.
Because if someone wants tofollow you, they physically have
to go to your profile and clickfollow.
So when they go to yourprofile, you want them to be
(25:12):
like, wow, this is a really nicefeed or wow, these are great
pictures.
And you want them to hit thatfollow button.
So I think it's important foryou to look at your profile as
one thing instead of justlooking at one post.
So that kind of branches off ofplanning your posts.
in the beginning when I startedmaking projects and I don't
know if you felt the same wayBrittany but I'd make something
and then I'd be like oh I shouldhave took a picture of me doing
(25:34):
this or you know progresspictures right it happens all
the time or you finish a projectand you're so excited and then
you realize you didn't even takea picture of you know halfway
through and it would have beencute if I put a little coffee in
it and took a picture of it forInstagram for tomorrow and I
didn't so yeah it's important toplan stuff and to take pictures
of everything if that's whatyou want to do and you want to
(25:55):
show progress of your top oryour sweater that you're making,
it's important to take thepictures and to be consistent.
A really interesting thing thatI never forgot that I read in a
blog post a while back was whensomeone looks at your picture,
they should already know, oh,that's April from OTH or that's
Brittany from BeHook.
They shouldn't even need tolook at your name.
(26:16):
And that is That is hugebecause that means you are
either showing somethingconsistently, whether it's a
ring on your hand, whether it'sthe same coffee cup, whether
it's the same backyard that theysee all the time.
Those are the followers thatyou want to be like, I love that
picture because I lovefollowing Brittany and they'll
just hit like because they likeit and they know that it's her.
(26:36):
So that is really important.
And I think that keeps yourselfconsistent and it keeps your
feed looking consistent becauseit looks like you and not like
anyone else.
Brittany (26:46):
And they know exactly what they're looking for or what
to expect when they go to yourprofile.
That's right.
Yeah.
Okay.
So those are some really goodentry-level tactics, I would
say.
Just, like you said, beingconsistent, posting all the
time, liking, commenting.
Those are things that youshould be doing regardless of
(27:06):
what your goal is.
Another thing I would add tothat too, I think the image
quality on Instagram is evolvingtoo.
I would say put your best photoon Instagram.
Give yourself a situation whereyou have some either bright
light or natural light.
Natural light's best.
Photography is a skill that youjust have to learn over time.
(27:27):
And I really have learned a lotof it the hard way.
But you can see that evolvethrough my feed as well.
Not just...
how I was changing and thethings that I was doing and
caring about.
But my skills as a photographerand the composition of the
photo, those are things that aresort of next level.
(27:49):
I would say to set the barreally, really high, to get
people to want to follow you andcontinue to engage with you.
I tend to see...
better results if I have abetter photo, something that has
something else in it.
There's an interestingexperiment.
It wasn't really an experimentwhen I was doing it, but I'm
(28:12):
thinking of it as one now.
I posted a photo of just alittle swatch that I was working
on I was doing a stitchtutorial, and it was pretty
basic.
A lot of my backgrounds arewhite, and that's just what I
like because I really want theproject to stand out, and that's
sort of just been my style overtime.
Well, I had this, I think itwas a gray yarn on a white
(28:35):
background, and it was reallyplain and simple.
It was just, I think it waseven knitting, a knitting needle
and the stitch pattern.
swatch and that got pretty lowengagement because there wasn't
a whole lot going on with it.
It was just a swatch and itwasn't thought-provoking or it
didn't catch anybody's eye.
It was just there.
(28:57):
But then I made a later postwhere it was the same stitch
pattern but I had differentstuff in the background and that
post got a lot more engagement.
So I think a tip that I wouldadd is just to think about the
photo composition and make itinteresting.
If you're taking a photo of aproject you're working on and
(29:19):
it's not super interesting,right?
Because some of them, Theystart out pretty basic and then
they get better as you get moreto the project.
But maybe in those early stageswhen it's not quite so
interesting, add some parts ofyour life, what you see as
you're sitting there working onthat.
And I think you'll get moreengagement.
April (29:37):
Yeah, I definitely agree.
That is a huge point.
It's pictures.
And I have definitely gottenbetter.
And that is very true that youwill get better as time goes on.
But pictures is huge.
Picture quality is huge.
And there's so many.
I encourage everyone listeningto go on YouTube, go read blogs
(30:01):
of how to take better pictureson Instagram.
There are millions of posts andthey give you really amazing
tips on what to do and how to doit.
And they're really simple.
You don't need all of ourphones these days.
It's 2019.
All of our phones have amazingcameras.
I just use a pixel.
I do not use a professionalcamera or SLR or anything.
(30:21):
And I always get comments of,what camera are you using?
Is that a Canon?
Blah, blah, blah.
And I'm always like, no, it'sjust a phone.
So it's about, you know, yeah,getting the right lighting.
You don't need to spendthousands of dollars getting a
studio or, you know, use yourwindow and use your phone.
Brittany (30:38):
Yeah.
Honestly, I do have somelighting that I use for when I'm
filming different tutorials.
And I hate taking photos underthat light.
April (30:48):
Yeah.
Brittany (30:49):
It looks so much better with the window.
April (30:51):
Yeah.
And there's a lot of shadow andit's really bright.
I agree.
I know natural light.
When it's raining, like todayin Toronto, when we're talking
right now, it's pouring rain andthere's no natural light.
So there's no crochet pictureshappening in my house today.
Brittany (31:05):
Right.
It's actually raining here forthe first time in three weeks
too, which is pretty nice.
But it just so happened to fallin a day where I needed to take
some photos and now that willbe pushed off until tomorrow.
April (31:15):
which is actually a good point like I try to do as much
as I can if I have reallyawesome natural light on a day
and I have time like if my kidsare at school or if they're
napping or they're playing and Ihave an opportunity I kind of
grab as many things as I can andtry to bank photos I think that
that's a huge tip to save youtime um and like you said to
(31:36):
schedule posts there are tons ofapps that can do that for you
and that kind of leaves the workout for you right
Brittany (31:42):
Yeah, it does.
Now, since you do a lot ofbatching with your photos, too,
and you mentioned scheduling orjust having a plan in general,
do you use any tools or anythingto help you keep track of what
you're going to post and whatyou have pictures of and what
you need pictures of?
April (31:58):
Yeah, so I kind of have this way of organizing my
pictures.
I do a ton in advance.
Like right now I'm working onmy September project.
pattern, which is well inadvance, but I'm taking all the
pictures.
And what I do to help myselforganize them is I email them to
myself with the subject line ofwhat it is, and what day I'm
going to post it.
(32:18):
So that way, one, if my phonegets lost, I'll still have the
picture.
That's good.
And then second, if I'll justfind it very easily to search
through my email when I knowwhat pattern I'm going to be
promoting more, or what patternI'm going to be posting about
for the next like, you I'll justgo in my email and kind of
search it.
That's kind of how I organizeit.
(32:40):
I don't use a scheduler, but Ijust find it that I'm able to
remind myself and I kind of knowwhen I post things, but I
wouldn't, I would definitelyencourage it if you need it and
you feel like you might forgetor might not be as organized,
but that's kind of how Iorganize my posts.
my patterns and my posts.
Brittany (32:56):
Yeah.
my downtime from work.
(33:26):
I didn't want to make it work.
But what I found is that in therush of fixing dinner and
straightening up and doing allthe things that it would be
eight o'clock and I would say,oh no, I didn't post that photo
on Instagram that I was supposedto post.
And so now I'm using that toremind me.
So the way it works is there'san app on your phone And
(33:50):
there's, of course, the softwarethat you use on your computer.
You schedule it using thecomputer version.
So I'll upload my photo.
I typically like to use GoogleDrive, so I'll snap a photo.
I use a Pixel as well with myphone.
And I'll upload that to GoogleDrive.
And then I'll dump it in myCoSchedule account.
And from there, I will just setthe day that I want it to go
(34:16):
up.
And this thing, this feature...
Well, one of the features thatthis has is it will allow you to
post at the most optimal time.
So I'll let it tell me likewhat's the best time to publish.
And that's basically just basedoff of my followers and when
they're typically active.
So I think that's a sort of ahidden tip for increased
(34:36):
engagement there if you're usinga scheduler.
But I will get a notificationon my phone that says, hey, it's
time for you to schedule thisInstagram post.
And because I don't like to...
make it seem scheduled orstructured.
I like to be very in the momentwith Instagram.
I won't include any text oranything like that.
So what I'll do is justschedule a blank post and it'll
(35:01):
send it to my phone and say,hey, like it's time to post
this.
And so I'll sit down for a fewminutes and write my description
and share it out.
And that's been working reallywell for me.
April (35:10):
Yeah, I like that because that still makes it personal of
what's going on in the momentlike you might say like oh I've
warmed up my coffee four timestoday and that's that's real
like you might be writing thatand then saying I'm working on
this project I do like that ofwriting your own instead of
pre-writing it I love the ideaof doing it in real time as well
and I think that's why I don'tschedule my posts I have that in
(35:30):
common with you but I um thatapp sounds cool because it
sounds like you can stillpersonalize it it's just kind of
like a reminder like a littlepoke like hey
Brittany (35:39):
Yeah, it's a great tool.
I speak very highly of it herein several episodes, mainly the
ones that are related to makersand businesses because that's, I
mean, you don't really have ause for it if you don't have one
of those, but it is amazing.
It's really been a gamechanger.
But another thing that comes tomind when being in the moment
(36:01):
is Instagram stories.
And since that's a a big partof Instagram and that has, has
changed even just in the lastprobably year or so.
Well, has it even been out fora full year?
I think so.
Yeah.
I could remember when theystarted it.
I think I really started usingit last year, which is why it's
a little bit fuzzy in my mind,but how do you use Instagram
(36:24):
stories?
Do you think that that is a keyto increasing your engagement
or is that just something that'sto share some of those more
personal moments or things likethat?
April (36:35):
I think it absolutely does increase engagement.
I think that it shows a side ofyou that may not be polished,
which I think people really liketo see sometimes.
I know we can use like cutefilters and stuff like that, but
we're still doing ourday-to-day things.
Like if I'm playing with mykids or, you know, something
that's not crochet related, I'mat an amusement park with them
(36:58):
or I'm grocery shopping or...
That just goes back to thepoint where people like to see
you as you.
Like, who are you?
You're not just be hooked.
You are, you know, moving oryou're decorating or you're
buying a new house or, you know,that's part of you.
So I think people love to knowabout, you know, who you are.
And I think Instagram storiesis an amazing way to show that.
(37:20):
And it kind of shows the rawversion of you and yourself.
once I passed 10 K and we hadthat swipe up feature, I think
that definitely benefited onethat directs, um, your followers
to your blog or to whateverlink you're doing.
Um, also sharing in yourstories, your post where they
just have to click on the postthat I think is huge.
(37:43):
And you can do that with anyamount of followers.
You just add it to your story.
Um, add a little like emojithat'll say like tap here and
it'll take them right to thepicture.
Um, I think, Instagram storiesis huge and you have to take
advantage of it.
When I see that little plussign, like my, my stories have
all expired.
I don't like that.
I need to put something inthere because I feel like it's a
(38:04):
constant, constant, like evenif it's just something small,
like sharing a picture ofanother maker, I love doing
that.
And I love, um, if people shareyour mind, I think it's great
to do that because, um, there'samazing makers out there and
they're doing amazing things andthey need to get noticed just
like you should feel like, youwant people to notice your
things too, right?
Brittany (38:25):
Yes, I agree 100%.
I wish that I had started usingInstagram stories sooner
because it provides a way tosend people to your website or
your post.
And for somebody like us whoare sharing patterns and
tutorials, that makes sensebecause it was so frustrating.
Remember in the early days, youwould make a post and you you
(38:47):
had like a new pattern thatwould come out and you would
share about it but you couldn'tput a link anywhere you could
only put it in your profile andthat still exists today you
still can't put a link in a postbut it was always such a big
headache to try to explain howsomebody can find that and
That's just not a good userexperience.
(39:08):
So being able to have theInstagram stories where you can
say, hey, I have the link in myInstagram stories, it's so much
easier to direct people therebecause they actually know how
to find that.
And I don't know, it just hasmade life so much easier for me.
April (39:23):
Yeah, definitely.
And I think to add to thathighlights is I think great
because highlights is a goodplace for people to see things
quickly.
I have all my patterns in onehighlight.
I have all my, you know, makerphotos in one highlight.
I have all my communitypictures, my yarn versus
everybody stuff like alleverything about me.
You can kind of click.
People could put their kids,they could put their dog.
(39:44):
And I think it's a cool placeif somebody wants to check out
your feed to kind of do a quickexactly what it means highlight
of a certain thing in your lifeor something about you.
I think highlights work just aswell as because it kind of
lives there forever.
Whereas in your story thatexpires after 24 hours.
So if they're in yourhighlight, they're there
(40:05):
forever.
So I love highlights.
I think those are awesome.
Brittany (40:08):
Oh, yeah.
They're a great way to formcollections almost.
I use highlights to have all ofthe information for my
patterns.
So I'll have a highlight for mypatterns.
I'll have a highlight for thepodcast episodes and for the
tutorials and that sort of thingthat come out.
So if you...
come to my profile and you likewhat you see, all you have to
(40:29):
do is tap on those highlights.
And it's still a work inprogress adding some of those
older ones, but you can prettymuch find everything that you
would need.
And now, I honestly, I justlearned, I would say within the
last month, that you could sharea post, like a photo post, to
your stories.
And I can see this being reallybeneficial to to use for
(40:53):
highlights because if you have apost of a finished pattern that
you made and you want to put itin your highlight you can just
share that post directly to yourInstagram stories and if they
tap on it they'll see theoriginal post they can get more
information on it but then inthat story they'll have the
swipe up so they can go directlyto the pattern
April (41:16):
yep it's so accessible and Makes everything very
accessible and keyword easy sothat you're not kind of looking
when you had to do link and bio.
Some people may be like, well,what is that?
I don't know where you're like,you know, some or where is
that?
So, yeah, Instagram stories andhighlights makes everything
very easy and quick becausepeople want things quickly.
(41:37):
That's just kind of.
how things are these days,right?
Brittany (41:40):
Yeah, completely.
I still answer that questionevery single week, where's your
profile and how to find it.
And gosh, I wish Instagramwould just make it a little bit
easier for everybody.
Right.
Right.
You're right.
It's true.
Well, we've covered a lot ofground here as far as engagement
tactics.
Are there any others thatpossibly we haven't covered,
like any ninja tricks oranything like that?
April (42:03):
think we've done I think it's it's been a lot I think as
long as you don't ghost and postI think that's what the summary
is we don't want to like postsomething and then leave and not
do anything you have to beengaging to to get engagement I
think that that's the key yeah
Brittany (42:19):
Yeah, I agree 100%.
There have been times where Ihave posted and totally forgot
that I posted.
And then there are days where Iremember and I stay active on
Instagram.
You can see a difference.
You really can between thoseinstances where I forgot and
ghosted or the ones that I wasactually there and interacting
with people.
So I think like you said, thebottom line is Instagram wants
(42:42):
there to be engagement on theirplatform and you have to engage
to be Engaging or to be engagedby others.
Yeah, exactly.
All right.
Now you mentioned something amoment ago, you said you started
yarn versus everybody.
And I knew that was somethingthat was a result of just the
amazing community that's onInstagram.
(43:03):
I think all of us can agreethat the maker community on
Instagram is an amazingcommunity to be a part of.
So tell me a little bit aboutthis and why you started it.
April (43:13):
So I think I met you actually for the first time at
Our Maker Life, which a lot ofpeople know about.
And that was a couple of yearsago when it was in Toronto.
And when I was sitting there atthis amazing conference,
meeting all these amazing peoplethat you're only commenting and
sending DMs to on Instagram,you're seeing them face to face.
And I was in love with that.
(43:35):
And I loved the experience.
And I was kind of sad to thinkthat I'm in this big city of
Toronto and I wanted to havesomething that was there for
people that were locally in myarea that wanted to get together
and kind of make it like a bigthing.
So that was when I firstinitially thought of the idea.
It didn't come into play orreally like into planning
(43:59):
process until like a year later.
But Yarn vs.
Everybody is really...
Exactly how it sounds.
No one really understands thelove for yarn like us in the
maker community.
And I feel like it's kind oflike us against everyone else.
But it's something that Ireally wanted to start so that
people in the community thathave the same passion and the
(44:21):
same likes, we can physicallymeet together and talk face to
face.
And I know there's like littlemeetups and sip and stitches and
things like that that people dohere and there.
I kind of wanted to make it acommunity where people We do
something all the time.
Like it's kind of like a funget together where we can, you
know, get free stuff, get freeyarn, get awesome swag, but also
(44:42):
talk to each other, compareneedle sizes, hook sizes, um,
I've done five so far.
The last one I just did wasthis past June.
It was the biggest one I'vedone.
It was a lot of work.
But every single second I putinto planning it was so much fun
for me.
I loved it.
And the energy and the idea ofall of us meeting together was
(45:06):
such an amazing time.
And there's nothing like thatmeeting someone who just loves
something so much exactly likeyou do.
And they just understand like,I don't know if if People are
listening now and they're intheir house, you know, with
their yarn and talking abouttheir projects to, you know,
their family that has no ideawhat they're talking about.
So it's nice to be aroundpeople that know about stitches
(45:30):
and hooks and projects.
And I want to do it as long asI can because I love doing it.
And I think it's reallyimportant in, you know, in our
world of social media and evenjust phone calls.
We don't do that anymore.
The only person really I talkto on the phone is like my mom.
Right.
I don't like.
Right.
So it's something that we needto do more of.
(45:53):
And I think this community isreally awesome.
And meeting face to face isjust such an amazing thing.
So that's really the mainreason why I started it.
Brittany (46:01):
Well, that sounds like a lot of fun.
Is it mainly there?
Like, does it mainly happenthere in Toronto?
April (46:05):
Yeah.
So this is Toronto based.
Like, I mean, of course, I'dlove to expand it, but it is
just me.
I'm just a one woman show here.
So I try to do as much as Ican, but it's just Toronto and
the surrounding area for rightnow.
Brittany (46:19):
Yeah.
Well, that sounds great.
I know I have a lot oflisteners who are in Toronto.
So if those people want to getin on this, do you have maybe a
website or something where theycan gather more information?
Yeah.
April (46:30):
Do we have an Instagram?
It's at yarn versus everybody.
There's also a website linkthere as well.
If you just go to that page onInstagram and you can also, if
you follow me at OTH crochetnook, you'll find all the
information.
You'll see the videos and, andall the stuff that happened in
the last Yarn vs.
Everybody meetup.
So,
Brittany (46:47):
yeah.
Okay, awesome.
Now, I know you do other thingsas well.
You said that you are workingwith Yarnspirations this year.
So I know there are otherthings going on.
If somebody wants to connectwith you and see some of the
other things that maybe you'reteaching or the projects that
you're working on, I know yourInstagram is probably a good
place to go.
Is there anywhere else maybethat you would direct them to?
April (47:08):
Yeah, just my blog, othchristianik.ca.
It has all my patterns.
All my patterns are free.
And they've always been likethat.
And I have many there and I,everything is linked there, my
Instagram and yeah, on my blog.
So, and there's a new patternevery single month, sometimes
two a month.
Awesome.
Okay.
Brittany (47:28):
Right, right.
It, it takes a little time toput that stuff together, but
it's totally right.
Okay.
Well, I will have links to allof that in the show notes page.
So if you're listening andyou're curious about yarn versus
everybody and going to one ofthose meetups, you can find the
info there.
And the question I didn't askhere, do you have any idea when
the next one might be?
April (47:48):
Well, I think I'm planning on doing them once a
year so that I can make themreally big.
So probably summer of 2020 isgoing to be the next one.
Brittany (47:56):
Okay.
Good to know.
And yeah, like I said, I'llhave all that information in the
show notes.
And April, thank you so much.
It has been so much fun.
I love talking about Instagramand it's really great to find
somebody who's just asinterested in Instagram to share
some of this with our makercommunity.
So thank you.
April (48:14):
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for invitingme.
This was awesome.
I had so much
Brittany (48:17):
fun.
All right.
was April from OTH CrochetNook.
Now don't forget to check outYarn Versus Everybody or her
profile at OTH Crochet Nook onInstagram if you're in the
Toronto area and you want toattend the next Yarn Versus
Everybody meetup.
I'll also have the informationfor you on the show notes, which
by the way is behooked.comslash 129.
(48:38):
So if you go there, you can seeall of the information there.
One last thing I want tomention before we wrap up today
is the sponsor for today'sepisode, which is my blueprint
course, Tunisian Crochet forBeginners.
I turned to Tunisian crochetwhen my hands and wrists needed
a little break from those usualcrochet motions.
You know that hand and wristfatigue?
(48:59):
Well, it uses a different hookand a different stitching
technique, which meant themotions were just different
enough too.
So nowadays I pick up aTunisian crochet project when
I'm feeling a little hand andwrist fatigue, but I still need
my creative fix.
Well, as the name of the courseimplies, this online class is
(49:20):
perfect if you have never triedTunisian crochet at all, or if
you've tried and you justcouldn't quite pick it up.
I'll walk you through thebasics as well as your first
three projects.
So to sign up for the TunisianCrochet for Beginners online
course taught by me, just visitbhooked.com slash tcfb, which
(49:40):
will redirect you to the courseon Blueprint's website.
And by the way, they'reformally known as Craftsy.
And you can sign up for theclass there.
All righty, next week, we'll doanother Your Questions Answered
episode because so many of youloved it when we did it back in
episode 124.
So here's what you need to doto potentially have your
(50:01):
question answered in next week'sepisode.
Well, first, you'll have tofollow me on Instagram if you
don't already.
My handle is at bhooked, that'sB-H-O-O-K-E-D.
And then look at my Instagramstories today, August 15th,
2019.
If you're listening to it theday it comes out, As you know,
and as you heard from today'sepisode, that Instagram stories
(50:22):
are only available for 24 hours.
So you need to get in today inorder to submit your question.
So the way this works is whenyou tap on my stories, you'll
eventually see one post or onestory that'll ask for your
question, and you'll have alittle box for you to type it
in, and then you have to hitsend.
From there, I'll receive it,I'll gather all of your
(50:45):
questions, and I will answer asmany of them as I possibly can
in next week's episode.
Alright, thank you so much fortuning in today.
I hope you have a wonderfulweekend, and I'll see you next
week.
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