Hello, Martine from iMake here, this is my interview for Crowd. If you’d like to find out more about iMake please visit www.iMake.gg
Tell us about iMake
I started iMake in 2008, initialling offering creative workshops to the people of Guernsey. I taught knitting, sewing, card making, scrapbooking and jewellery making, that sort of thing. But over 18 months to 2 years the business evolved and I ended up teaching fewer workshops and focusing on my blog and starting a podcast. So today iMake really is all about the blog and podcast and I’m delighted to of established a lovely community around both. I have some fantastic readers and listeners who are often in touch and are very much a big part of what I do now.
In addition to the blog and podcast I have an online shop and I aslo run a local Stich ‘n’ Bitch group which is lots of fun. I write for a number of publications as well wearing an iMake hat which I get a lot of pleasure out of. iMake is constantly evolving, there is definitely more to come so watch this space!
How long have you been blogging and podcasting?
I started my first blog in 2007, this was when I was training for the London Marathon, so as part of my training I joined a blogging community and blogged about my progress, or my lack of progress, depending on how you look at it. I did actually complete the marathon and I have to say that the friends that I made through my training blog really helped me through it, it was incredibly motivational and really helped to get me through the difficult times that I experienced during training. Not long after that, I started iMake and it would’ve been around that time that I started my creative blog.
As for the podcast, the first episode was uploaded on the 17th August 2010 and since then I’ve released 32 episodes, so it’s still going strong. If you’d like to have a listen to the iMake podcast you can download it through iTunes, just search for iMake, or you can visit www.imake.gg and listen online.
How have you been using social media to benefit iMake and which social networks do you use?
I use social media to engage with people who read my blog and listen to my podcast and also to engage with people who might be interested in it, so ultimately to attract new readers and new listeners. The craft community is incredibly generous, so what often happens through social networks is that ideas are generated and shared and we all help each other. In terms of which social networks I use as iMake, well, I use quite a few I must admit. I use Facebook, Twitter, Ravelry, Flickr, Pinterest, LinkedIn and AudioBoo.
I have a page on Facebook for iMake which is reasonably active but no where near as active as my Twitter feed, I am much more of a Twitter girl than a Facebook girl.
Ravelry is a wonderful social network aimed at people who knit and crochet, it’s a huge network of people. I have no idea how many members they have but it is massive! Fundamentally it is a big database of information, it’s people, knitting patterns, crochet patterns, yarn, designers and it’s all very, very cleverly linked. So you could log on, you could have a ball of yarn and you could look up yarn, and you could look up patterns that are suitable for the yarn and then you could look up what people have knitted with that yarn previously and get ideas that way. It also has some very active forums so really a wonderful community for knitters and crocheters.
Photography is a massive part of my blog. I always start every new post with a photograph, and so any photographs that I take, I upload to my Flickr account and that functions as a social network in it’s own right, because people are on Flickr looking at photographs and sharing photographs. I also use creative commons licensed photography in my blog which is another example of sharing in the creative community. Incidentally the vast majority of the content on my blog is creative commons licensed, so this is another way of bringing traffic to my blog if people want to share one of my photographs, for example, they have to attribute it to iMake and there will be a link involved so ultimately the idea is that it brings people back to my blog.
Pinterest is another one of my favourites social networks, it’s relatively new and I believe still in beta stage. But the concept is, massive virtual pin boards, so you can have lots and lots of different pin boards and when you are on the internet looking for creative inspiration you can just pin certain things that you like to your own virtual pin board and it’s really quite addictive and very good fun. If I’m looking at designing a new piece of jewellery for example I will look on Pinterest for a few ideas and a few inspirational photographs.
I am on LinkedIn but if I’m honest I very, very rarely look at it. I’m on it because I feel I should be on it, but I just use it as a way to channel my various social networks into one place and present it to an entirely different audience, so I have to say that’s not a social network that I use a great deal despite the fact that I’m there.
And finally I mentioned AudioBoo. AudioBoo is a fantastic social network which allows you to record snippets of audio and upload it. So it’s a bit like a podcast but it’s not edited, you can only record a maximum of 5 minutes, it’s just little Audio snippets and it’s great fun and I occasionally will record an AudioBoo if the time is right.
What problems have you come across using social media?
The two main problems I’ve come across are the protection of my professional identity and also the time required to maintain my various social networks. I’ll start with professional identity. I’m always very, very careful with any information that I publish to social networks. I’m very conscious of the fact that in my day job I hold a position of responsibility and so just having to think every time you post is not a problem, but it’s a consideration and I do get very frustrated when I see people posting irresponsibly on these social networks. So it’s just something that I’m aware of rather than a problem that I’ve experienced.
Time, however is a genuine problem, I simply don’t have enough of it. If I’m not blogging or podcasting I’m tweeting, I’m browsing Ravelry, I’m pinning on Pinterest, I don’t have enough hours in the day. One thing that I have discovered which has helped a little bit is a Twitter client called Hootsuite and that means that I can post to my Facebook page and my Twitter feed at the same time if I want to. So there are tools out there to help you manage your time in relation to social networking but, not having enough hours in the day is a definite problem for me.
Which platforms have you found the most success with for your blog and podcast?
It depends how you gauge success, in terms of referrals to my website then Ravelry and Pinterest are definitely very, very successful social networking platforms for me. However in terms of engaging with my audience, Twitter is without a shadow of a doubt the most valuable social networking platform that I use.
Has social media got you more success local or from a wider audience?
Social media has definitely brought my blog and podcast to a wider audience. Whilst I do have a very good readership and listenership in the UK and the Channel Islands, I have considerably more readers and listeners in America and in New Zealand, I have no idea why. I wonder if it’s to do with the podcast and the fact that I’ve got a very British accent [laughs] I’m not entirely sure, but it’s fascinated to look at where your readers and listeners come from.
How has social media changed the relationship you have with your readers, listeners and customers?
Well without a doubt it’s improved the relationship, it allows my readers, listeners and customers to connect with me directly, to talk to me, to ask me questions. I think that’s fantastic! For any business that’s got to be invaluable!
Have you come across any misconceptions that you would like anyone getting into social media marketing to understand?
I see a lot of businesses trying to use social media for marketing purposes and getting it wrong and I think the fundamental mistake that they make is that social media isn’t a broadcast marketing medium. It’s about engagement. Don’t forget, social networks are used for social purposes, therefore, people using them don’t want to sold to 24/7. So for example, say you were a jewellery using Twitter to market your products, rather than posting tweets the say “I’ve listed a new pair of earrings for sale in my online shop”, why not tweet about your process? Tweet about a new jewellery making technique that you’ve learned. Anything about you and what you’re doing. If you do this, people will be interested in you, they’ll engage with you and they’ll be far more likely to buy products from you and keep returning to your shop and buying more products. I don’t think this just applies to small businesses either, I think bigger businesses are often the worst culprits of just tweeting “Please pay a visit to our website and have a look at our services” for example. I’m not saying you should never send tweets likes that, but I genuinely believe they should be kept to a minimum and you should focus on engaging with your audience rather than broadcasting to them. So I think that’s probably the biggest misconception I’ve encountered when it comes to using social media for marketing purposes.
So that’s all from me, I really hope you’ve enjoyed my interview and thank you to Crowd for giving me this opportunity, please don’t forget to check out my website: www.iMake.gg