Instagram Stories - Social Media for Quilters

Social media for quilters... is there anything better than staying connected through social media, when you can't be with your gang of quilters?

We spent some talking about Instagram here and now we are going to touch on Instagram Stories.
I like them as they are fast, engaging and last 24 hours on the platform. The best part is they are easy to do. Go to your account and hit the home button and see all the Instagram stories on the top of your screen! This is where you go to add your story! See your profile pic? That can be your story!

You can create a live video, add text to a picture or simply just type in text to a background. You can also save your stories. Each story lasts a max of 15 seconds.  (An instagram post can have a video from 3-60 seconds in length.)

It is another way to engage with viewers. If you are a business, it is an ideal way to show off a new pattern or new shipment of fabric! Remember quilters love eye candy.

Why Create a Story?
1. Great way to market yourself or your product.
2. Use hashtags in your story as another means for people to find you, an excellent search engine.
3. Another way to use a social media platform to get noticed.
4. It really is fun and addicting!

It is so simple to create a story. I pulled off the instructions right from the Instagram website, and go ahead and give it a try! Here is a short story I created and all I did was take an image from my photo gallery on my phone and added some text to it.

How do I share a photo or video to my Instagram story? (from the Instagram website)

To share a photo or video to your story using the Instagram app:

1. Tap  in the top left of your screen or swipe right from anywhere in feed.
2. Tap  at the bottom of the screen to take a photo, or tap and hold to record a video. To choose a photo from your phone's library or gallery, swipe up anywhere on the screen.
3. Tap ,  or  to draw, add text or a sticker to your photo or video. To remove text or a sticker, drag and drop it on  at the bottom of the screen.
4. When you're ready to share, tap Your Story in the bottom left.

Note: Stories disappear from profile and feed after 24 hours, unless you add them to your profile as highlights.

Go ahead and try creating an Instagram story!

Facebook Groups - A Group for Every Quilter

Social media is a love of mine. One of the best reasons is because I get to be a part of so many different groups that let me express my passion and see what other quilters are doing too!

Groups are the best way to share, interact and communicate with other quilters who like the same style of quilting you do.

Facebook groups can vary in many different ways. But they all have one thing in common, you get to post to a group of like minded people in whatever subject interests you.  Take a look at the different groups.

Open facebook groups
Open groups are public, meaning members can see the group and who else is in it, and can see the posts.

Closed facebook groups 
The name of the group, its members and description can be seen by the public but not the posts.

Secret facebook groups
Nothing can be seen by the public.

Here is an excellent description of the 3 different kinds of groups. 


How do You Find a Facebook Group for You

It is pretty easy actually.
1. You can simply type in a word in the search bar on facebook and see what comes up. Scroll down until you find groups and see what is there. I typed in 'quilting' in the example below.

2. Here is a second way to search for groups.
On the left side bar is a tab called Groups.

Click on Groups and that opens up a page that shows the groups you have requested to join, groups you moderate and groups you belong to. 

Here is where you can create a group as well. Look at the green tab on the right hand side that says Create Group. 

On the  top left hand side is a tab called Discover. When you click on that a whole new world of groups opens up! It shows you suggested groups based on your profile, what groups your friends belong to, local groups and recent interest.  Look at the top tab and scroll through to find even more groups based on different categories!   

Why Create a Group?

As I mentioned, groups give quilters a chance to show their own work, ask questions, listen and see what others are doing. Groups can also be fun to use when doing a quilt along or launching a pattern or getting ready for an event. They can be long term or short term. Groups are also great for a guild to get information or share rather than waiting for a once a month meeting, it promotes continuous communication and fosters growth and new friends! 

Groups can be deleted when they are no longer useful by the owner of the group. 

My favourite groups

I have so many different loves in quilting that I am guilty of belonging to several different groups.  And I love them all!  I learn so much from them and I do enjoy sharing my quilt work within the groups as well. 

I have to say this one as I created it=)  Modern Quilters of Canada, it is a closed group so you need to ask permission to join. 

Quilting in Canada is a larger group that shares so much in terms of different quilting genres. 

Art Quilts is a group with talent that boggles my mind. 

The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters is also so unique.

What is your favourite group? 

How to Use Social Media Graphics For Quilters

I think we know that for a quilter, a picture is worth a thousand words!
As a quilter on social media, we want our pictures to convey what we are doing, what we want the post to say and most of all, we want it to engage our viewer.

But not all the time do we have a picture in our gallery or repetoire of photos to use. But we do have a message we want to get out there to our readers. What can you as a quilter do?

Use some great tools to find free images and other tools to design a graphic that will work for you!

When sourcing out images, I stick to the free ones that are copyright free, so I don't have to worry about anything.

Here are some good places I go to get images for my social media at no cost:


Pexels allows for the images to be used for commercial and non commercial use. They have a good search tool and an extensive gallery.

Unsplash is one I have just started using and am impressed with it. It has collections you can look through or use their search tool to find something specific. It also allows for use for commercial and non commercial use for free and no credit has to be given back.

Enhance

Enhance app logo

Enhance is super for several reasons, not only does it have a great search engine, but it is an app I have on my phone so I can do posts on the go. It is free and you just download it from the app store. 

Excellent search engine for copyright free images on Enhance.

The key components of Enhance are:

1. Searching  is excellent and fast.
2. I can edit with borders, filters, and text quickly and easily.
3. As each social media platform works with different sizes for their images, Enhance let's you choose which platform you are working with and helps you crop that image to fit that platform!
4. Sharing, when your image is done with your edits, you can share it right to facebook, twitter, Instagram or schedule it for hootsuite right within the app. Or simply save your image for later.

Editing Images

Once you have your image, it is sometimes not quite what you want. You may want to edit it by cropping a part out, enlarge it, put it on a background or add text to it. The two sources I go to are Enhance and Canva.   I will be honest, I seem to be spending most of my time either on Enhance or Canva. Both are free.

I like Canva because it also has images to draw from but has backgrounds, text, shapes and alot of flexibility. Canva, like Enhance also lets me pick what type of post I am creating so the image fits the social media platform.

A sample of what you can create on Canva.

When I am on my phone, it is simpler for me to use Enhance to get my image done quickly and efficiently.

What is your favourite tool for creating graphics?

10 Tips To Get the Most From Instagram

Do you love instagram as much as I do?

As a quilter, I am completely in love with this social media app. It is fast, easy and so engaging. Whether you do it to try and drum up quilt business for your store, teaching, or for your own pleasure, these tips will help.

1. Take the time to find your theme.
That doesn't mean that you can only post things that are pink if that is your favourite colour! What that does mean is take a moment to find out what you want your Instagram account to do for you, and try and stay within that boundary. For example, for the most part mine is on quilting. I try and keep a consistent light background with my images and since I love pink, if I am designing graphics, I throw that colour in there. That doesn't mean that you never see a pic of my kids or a sunset, absolutely you will. But for the most part, you will get a feel when you scroll through my account.
Another one so you can get a feel for the theme, is Amanda Herring Designs. She is a fabric designer and you can see her color palette as you swipe through her feed.

2. Good Pics Make for Good Posts
It doesn't matter what social media platform you are using, pictures make the story. Ensure your pictures are clear, concise and tell the viewer something. Watch too much clutter in a background and your lighting as well. There are some wonderful apps that can help brighten up and edit your photos. Use them, they make all the difference in the world.  Instagram has some editing features built right in, don't be afraid to play around with them.

3. Add your name/watermark/logo.
I will always add my quilt name when posting pictures of finished pieces. It is one way of making it more difficult for someone to 'borrow' my photos.  I will often use an image resizer like Image Size to bring the image quality down. It doesn't show up on a screen, but if they went to print it, they would get a very grainy and blurry copy.

4. Write good content.
Along with having a fabulous picture is the story you write to associate with that image. Make it meaningful, share a bit about yourself, and make it genuine. Readers want to relate to you, that keeps them engaged.

5. Be Sure to Like and  Leave Comments 
While it is always fun to see who liked your post and what comments were left, it is equally fun to return the favor. Be sure to check out your feed and like posts that you find interesting and leave comments often. Plus it is a great way to make friends and have more people follow you.

6. When To Post
This can be debated till the cows come home, but get to know your audience. Use your insights on Instagram and you can learn alot about your activity, content and audience.

You can find it at the top right corner, the 4 little lines that look like a graph. Take a look around.
You can see that Fridays, noon and 9 pm are good times for me to post.

7. Use hashtags.
Those pesky little # signs are vital in Instagram. It is the search engine that allow people with similar interests to find you, and for you to find them. Instagram allows you to search by people, tags or places, making it easy and fun. Take some time to figure out what hashtags work for you. As well create your own specific hashtag. Make sure no one is using it and then use it so you can easily find your own work. If you are a part of a contest or quilt along, or group project, often a hashtag will be created just for that project so you can use it so others in that group can see what each person is doing.

8. Tag
Don't be afraid to tag others on Instagram if it is relevant to them. When I use a specific fabric  for a project, I tag that company by using the @ sign and the name they use on instagram. It alerts them that their product is being used and often they will like or comment on it, thereby increasing engagement.

9. Be Regular
Try and post on a regular basis. If you set out to do it once a day, try to ensure you have content built up in advance so if life gets in the way, you have something to fall back on. That doesn't mean you have to create a quilt every day. Use progress shots, or images of your favourite threads, tools etc. And that 'Repost' app can come in handy on occasion as well. Don't post to simply to throw a post up, while being regular is important, being authentic is more important.

10. Be You
Your Instagram should be a reflection of the story you want to tell, whether you are an online quilt store, or a quilter at the North Pole, figure out the story you want to portray and work on that. Nothing is more important than being genuine and honest. Only you know you, so don't try and copy the instagram icon that has 40,000 followers. Be You. Because that is pretty awesome!

How Quilt Guilds Can Use Social Media

Do you belong to a guild? No doubt if you do, you love it for so many reasons, and one huge part of that is probably the social!

The downside of that is many guilds only meet once a month. 

How nice would it be to stay connected to your guild every day, when you want!

Enter social media for quilt guilds. 

Social media has so many extraordinary tools that guilds can capitalize on to make the most of your guild!

Instagram

Have your guild set up an Instagram account. You can read about it here.  Post pics of your guild's show and share so those that missed the meeting can see the eye candy. And if you shared a quilt, you can share on your instagram account by using 'repost'. You can post up to 10 pics at a time by simply hitting the little pic icon at the bottom right of this pic that will then allow you to select up to 10 pics from your gallery. 

I love scrolling through a guild's instagram post to see the great quilts shown at their meeting.

Facebook

What a fantastic way to reach your members and keep socializing long after the meeting is over!

You can create a page that allows everyone on facebook to see what you are up to and to really hilight your guild and events. With a page, only the editors and administrators can post. But you can add comments. An example of a page is mine  at Jackie's Art Quilts. You can see that only I create posts but anyone can comment. 

 A group is often a great way for guilds to communicate and it can be open or closed. Regardless if it is open or closed, anyone can post in the group. Which is a fabulous way to ask questions, show your quilts , send meeting reminders etc. 

Open meaning that anyone on facebook can view the group's content. 

Closed meaning, a person must get permission to join and you can then share pics, post guild reminders, events etc within a network of people.  The Modern Quilters of Canada is a closed group but you can ask permission to join and then see and post pics of quilts, ask questions, comment etc. 

I love facebook groups for guilds as it encourages dialogue and continues to build communication and friendships.

Blog

Blogs used to be very popular and some guilds still use them as a tool for their guild. It is like writing a small story on a timely basis. Some guilds will post once a month and hilight the activities of the guild, pics of the quilts, and promote shows etc. You can often sign up to receive an email notification when the blog has been updated. The drawback is that this doesn't allow for much engagement by the reader. They can leave a comment but that is pretty much it. 

E-newsletters

I find this is a great tool to share the guild newsletter, remind members of a guest speaker, what to bring etc for guild meetings. I like this used in conjunction with another social media platform that allows engagement or conversation back and forth. 

I hope your guild considers using social media to benefit their members.

Jackie

4 Easy Steps To Create Friends Lists on Facebook and Why That Benefits Quilters

Do you have quilting friends and 'other' friends on facebook? And by other friends I mean those that don't quilt? (heaven forbid!)

I do have different groups of friends on facebook, and I was having some concerns that my non quilting friends were being inundated with quilt pics and my quilting friends probably didn't care about me asking what time hockey practice was for my son on facebook.  

Friend Lists

I did what every conscientious friend does, I created friend lists on facebook. With friend lists you can take all your friends and put them in special lists according to topics or things you have in common with them. And you can have them on more than one list. 

For example, I have a 'local' list which has all my friends in my community on it. And I have a 'quilt' list that obviously has all my quilting friends on it. 

Only Me So when I create a post, I pick which list sees the post. Sometimes I pick the 'only me' choice too if I want to save it in my feed. When would I use this? If it is a special post that I am sharing to my timeline that was on someone else's newsfeed that I might not want to share ie. a recipe or a great craft idea.

Are you convinced that friend lists are awesome?

Here are some easy steps to follow to create a Friends List.

How to Make a Friends List

1. 1. Click  'Friend Lists' under 'Explore' on the left side of your News Feed.

2. Click 'Create List'

3. Name Your List

Enter a name for your list that will give meaning to you, and then enter the names of friends you want to add. I often just type in the first letter and a whole list of names comes up. Hit 'Create' when you are done. 

1. Also note, you can go and edit these lists anytime and add or remove friends. And friends can be on as many lists as you want. 
2. 4. Make a Post Using Your Friends List
3. Now when you go to post the practice schedule for your kid's hockey or your amazing quilt, you can choose who sees the post. If you want every facebook friend to see that you just got your quilt juried in post, you hit 'Friends'. 

1. Let me know if you like Friends Lists!
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Pinterest - Why Quilters are Obsessed With It

Pinterest

Why are some quilters in love with pinterest? What are those pins and boards they spend all their time on?
Read on to see why quilters adore pinterest!

What Is It?

Pinterest is where people discover new ideas and find inspiration to do the things they love! Pins or pictures of items are saved to boards, keeping your ideas organized and easy to find. 

How Do I Use It?

1. Create a profile. 
Similar to facebook and Instagram, work your way through the profile steps. Here is a great 2 minute video.


2. Create a Board

To create a new board on your account, click 'Boards' button in the middle of the page and then click the big red '+' button on the page. Select the option to Create a Board and give it a good name. As an example, I created one called 'Beginning Quilting'.

3. Add a Pin
To add a pin to one of your boards, use the search engine in pinterest to search for  a topic you like. I typed in beginning quilting in the search bar and then hit enter. 

Hundreds of 'pins' or pictures will show up. By clicking on the image it will open up another screen to give you a close up and description. By clicking one more time, it will take you to the website the picture came from. 

As you hover over each picture, in the top right hand corner will be a small red box with a picture of a pin and the word 'save'. This will give you the opportunity to save the pin or image. You can also click on the pic and still have the opportunity to save it on the next screen. 

Once you click on the 'save' button, you will then be guided to see what board you want to pin your image in.

If you want to add your pin to a new board, you can create one directly from the drop down menu as well. Once you've selected the board, write a description of your pin. Your boards can be public or 'secret'. Secret means only you see them. I have used this when planning a surprise party and one of my followers was the person I was planning the party for, so I didn't want to tip them off on ideas I was collecting for the party. 

I love pinterest as I not only have boards for all the different genres of quilting, but woodworking recipes, gardening, you name it, pinterest has it! 
To get you started, take a look at the different boards I have created. 
One of my favourite followers is Jina Barney. She has a board for everything! 

4. Follow People, Boards and Topics

You can also follow people on pinterest and they can follow you. When you click on the image, at the bottom it will tell you who saved that pin to their board and name their board, you can click on their name to see their profile and if you like what they are pinning you can follow them. Or you can even just follow one or two of their boards if you like. Again, look for the red 'Follow' button on their profile and on their boards. 
Once you follow a profile or boards, on your own profile, if you hit Following, you have the option to look at the people, boards and topics you are following. 

Give it a try, although you may want to set a timer. Friends have told me they get lost on pinterest!  
Let me know what you enjoy most about it!

Jackie

Instagram - Why It Is the Fastest Growing Platform for Quilters

What is Instagram
How Can I Connect It With Quilting?

Instagram is a photo and video sharing network connecting people. Quilters so far, mostly use it as a photo sharing tool.

It is a platform (app) that you can use with your mobile device, (phone) to take and upload a picture, give it a description and use some hashtags and you are off and running. If you aren’t comfortable or don’t have a phone, you can still enjoy looking at Instagram on your ipad, or laptop or desktop.  

How Do I Use Instagram?

Similar to facebook, you set up a profile after you have downloaded an app, complete with login information. Simple instructions are found here. A nice thing about Instagram is you can keep your account private if you want, meaning only those you choose to allow as your ‘followers’ can see your pictures etc.  Kids often use this privacy setting. It still allows you to explore the platfiorm and follow whom you wish.

If you have a public profile you can follow and can gain followers to your page.

You can find industry leaders in quilting on Instagram, your favourite quilters and so much more!
  Kathleen Riggins for example, one of Canada’s leading long armers posts wonderful pictures of her quilts and how she is quilting them. Stacey Day a well known pattern designer is also on here.

Benefit of Instagram for Guilds

Many, many modern quilt quilds also put up there show and share from a guild meeting on Instagram. Look at Vancouver MQG.

Instagram is great because you can put one picture up or up to ten photos and the viewer just swipes across to see them all. You can also post videos up to one minute in length as well.

Instagram also allows for 15 second stories that stay on the top of the screen for 24 hours.

For the average quilters to use, you will most likely use the upload of pictures of your quilts.

Do I Need to Add a Description and Hashtags?

Adding a description is basically telling the story of your quilt. Which as you know quilters love to learn what the picture of the quilt or block is all about.

Hashtags are wonderful search engines and are mostly found in Instagram and twitter. By putting the pound sign or # in front of a word or group of words with no spaces, it allows people to use it to search for topics.  As an example try searching #modernquilt or #quiltsofinstagram and as you can see in the example 80,017 posts used the tag #modernquilt in Instagram and you can search through them... maybe not all 80,000, in one night=)

I use  Instagram to show my work and will use tags so that others that like the same thing I like can see it. Some will follow me and I have the opportunity to follow them. You can also use it for brands as well. I often use #janome or #rileyblakedesigns when I have used that product in my work. Most brands have their own hashtags and will look for those using that brand. If I enjoy a product, I like to tell others about it.

On one such occasion I used #janome and Janome America contacted me and asked if they could put one of my pics on their site… that was fun!

How Do I See All the People I Follow on Instagram?

You will get a newsfeed similar to facebook by pushing the little house or home button at the bottom of the screen and it will show you your feed of all those you follow.

As you scroll through your feed you can hit the heart found at the bottom of each post, showing you like the post and also add a comment using the bubble button. You can see below I have liked the picture by Sue Daley.

How Do I share a Picture?

On each post you see  the heart, comment bubble and an arrow, by hitting the arrow, you will be able to find whom you want to send the post to and add a comment. So I could send this post on to my friend 'myquilts' and tell her how much I like this colour combo.   It is a private message between her and I.

What is Tagging?

Tagging is simply identifying someone in a post. You can do it in facebook, Instagram and twitter. By using the @sign and adding their name, it will alert that person that they have been tagged in a post.

What quilters can find lots of fun is if for example they used WonderFil threads in a project, when they post a pic of their quilt, they can add their description and within it say used @wonderfilspecialtythreads and then WonderFil will get a notification and most likely will go and like or  leave a comment on your post! On occasion they will post your work to their site, which can help you gain followers if you are interested in that and if not, be flattered they loved your work!

Regardless of what your motive is for using Instagram, it is a wonderful platform for being able to see the quilting world.

What are your favourite features about Instagram?