Our Social Media Shift, What We've Seen & What We've Learned
We shifted our social media strategy in January, somewhat by accident, and the results have been eye opening.
Here’s a summary of what motivated the shift, how we execute, and the impact this has had on our business. Thanks to everyone for contributing to our growth.
First, this shift was not part of a grand plan. Essentially, as the Founder of Mason Lane, I use Instagram as a platform for sharing an inside look at our business, and I do handle all of our social media myself. I have tried to outsource, though the results felt inauthentic.
Also, I frankly enjoy handling this part of our business because it enables me to consistently think about how to translate what we’re about to our target audience. That thought exercise enables me to better understand, communicate with, and service our target client. It’s a type of business development, and consistently utilizing those skills ultimately translates to better email marketing, website design, written and verbal communications, and our bottom line.
So, why the shift? Well, here is a 30-second video on the topic. Essentially, I’ve received positive feedback on our Stories for years, and the fact that I didn’t know how to do reels, which I knew upped engagement, drove me crazy. One weekend, while hosting a sleepover of many 10-year-old girls where no one wanted me to get involved, I put in a gross amount of screen time to figure it out. I tried out a few apps and watched some video tutorials, landing on CapCut as the app that did everything I needed. Then, I just started to post. Yes, I was nervous, and no, I’m not 100% comfortable with posting videos of myself yet, but I don’t let fear of failure drive my decisions, so here we are. Also, I aim to post a few “safe” videos each week that are well within our business and audience’s comfort zone and I know will perform well, as well as some riskier ones - with my voiceover, a deeper thought, etc. - that could go either way in terms of performance. Most of the time, those outperform the safe videos, and when they don’t, I try to dissect why and pivot going forward.
Ann Purcell in our client's Sag Harbor waterfront dining room.
Since early January, I’ve posted around 4-5 videos per week and 2 of those are often videos of myself sharing insight into how we think about art, clients, the market, and learnings as an entrepreneur and Founder within the art business.
Here are some things we are seeing internally since doing all of this:
Our Instagram following has grown in 3 months ~50% of the entire growth we saw in the 12 months before this shift.
Our monthly engagement went from a steady ~4.5k followers/month to ~10k followers per month in the past 12 weeks.
In the past week over half of the accounts we reached were non-followers.
Reels that we are creating are getting between 1,000 to 3,000 views, compared to the ~150 person reach our videos were getting on Stories before January.
Those who are engaging with our content are actually our target followers - they clearly care about art, business, etc., want to contribute to the conversation, and our interaction with them feels meaningful and authentic.
Videos of myself perform better by multiples across the board. They get more viewers (existing and not-yet followers), more comments, and more saves.
Designer, prospective/existing clients, and others are reaching out, citing something they saw on our IG feed, and are interested in working with us in a greater variety of ways than we had heard before.
We have had more leads and exciting opportunities for partnerships (speaking engagements, workshops, and more) this year than in any first quarter, historically.
Of course, there’s a difference between correlation and causation, but this is enough evidence to support that what we are doing on social media feels authentic to us internally and effectively leverages our ability to help people learn about and collect contemporary art – the core of our business.
A few quick thoughts, noting that I am not a social media expert, just someone who is observant and experimenting within the space:
I think Instagram is crowded with accounts just posting pretty pictures and a peek into their process. Those accounts used to see a ton of growth, but as more people have caught on, growth will be limited for those implementing that strategy.
A key part of growth, as we have seen, is creating Reels. Those Reels have to add value to people’s lives and feel authentic to you – they cannot just be a video with lots of pictures of your life and a catchy tune.
As a bonus, I did recently listen to this podcast and this one that reinforced so much of the above, particularly as it relates to videos I put of myself on Instagram. I recommend listening and always welcome feedback.