A Spoonful of Sugar

Make. Bake. Create.

SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER
×
Menu
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Press
    • FAQ
    • Disclosure
    • Grab a Button
    • Contact Us
  • Crafts
    • Crochet
    • DIY
    • Embroidery/Cross stitch
    • Gift Wrapping
    • Knitting
    • Miscellaneous
    • Paper Crafts
  • Holidays
    • New Year’s
    • Australia Day
    • Back to School
    • Valentines Day
    • Easter
    • ANZAC Day
    • Mother’s Day
    • Father’s Day
    • Halloween
    • Christmas
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers
    • Bars & Slices
    • Bread & Pastries
    • Cakes
    • Cookies
    • Confectionery
    • Cupcakes & Muffins
    • Desserts
    • Drinks
    • Ice Cream
    • Jams/Preserves
    • Main Meals
  • Sewing
    • Sewing Tutorials
    • Quilting
    • Sewing & Quilting Patterns
  • Family
    • Back to School
    • Family Fun
    • Our Home
    • Parenting
    • Travel
  • Shop
    • Pattern Store
    • Etsy Store

Social Media and Craft Blogs in 2011

October 26, 2011 By Spoonful of Sugar - 10 Comments

{source}

Since starting A Spoonful of Sugar in 2008, we have learnt a thing or two over time about blogging, building our readership, and engaging with our lovely readers. We often get emails from new bloggers asking for advice on how to build up their blogs. We will be putting together a few posts over the next few weeks that look at various aspects of blogging for crafty folk with some of our top tips, insights, and things we have learnt along the way. We hope you gain some valuable ideas that you can implement on your own blogs. We would love you to share your own experiences in the comments.

I had the mindset of “if you build it they will come” and focussed all our efforts on sharing lots of crafty ideas, free tutorials, and recipes on our blog. This has worked well, and over the past three years our readership has slowly grown. I didn’t think I had time to get involved in social media as well as a blog so avoided facebook, twitter and the like. However I noticed we were getting left behind by not embracing these mediums and since becoming more active in recent months in various social media, we have noticed a huge increase in our traffic, and have been able to “meet” and connect with many new readers. At the end of the day, you only have so much time so it is about using your time wisely and getting a good balance between designing projects and writing posts, and connecting with people through emails, comments, and social media.

Here are our top 4 Social Media sites for Crafty Bloggers:

1. Facebook
I have discovered that facebook is not just for teens. In fact a recent study showed that 72% of users are aged between 25 – 54 years. We started up A Spoonful of Sugar facebook page in July, and now have a terrific group of lovely readers there. It is a good way to let readers know of updated blog posts, and we love when our readers share photos of things they have made from our tutorials and leave comments for us. You can find our facebook page here.

2. Pinterest
Pinterest is a lovely place to hang out and admire all the wonderful inspiring photos that people have pinned. It is a great way to bookmark projects that you hope to make one day, and to catalogue all the inspiring ideas that you can find on the internet, especially whilst browsing craft and food blogs. You can follow people’s virtual pinup boards and see what lovely treasures they have found which is a terrific way of finding lots of new blogs and to follow trends in crafting and design. If you click on a photo that has been pinned it will give you the details of the original source. I have managed to find lots of new blogs this way, and it has also promoted our site to lots of new readers, and is now one of our main referrers. You can find out Pinterest page here if you would like to follow us.

3. Stumbleupon
Stumbleupon is a discovery engine that finds and recommends new content for its users. When a web page comes up, you can “like it” and it will then find other pages for you based on your preferences. It is a fun way to discover new sites. You can follow people on stumbleupon and see the web pages that they have reviewed and liked. We have had a few of our tutorials and projects “stumbled” and it is now one of our main referrers. You can find us on stumbleupon here.

4. Twitter
We only joined twitter three weeks ago so it is a bit early to comment on how many connections we will make this way. We have noticed some traffic coming through from twitter already – and our twitter followers are slowly growing. Whenever we do a new blog post, we “tweet” it so we can alert our twitter followers that there is new content on the blog. When you follow someone on twitter it also suggests, based on your preferences, others you may wish to follow. As a result we have discovered quite a few new bloggers. Due to time constraints I don’t imagine that we will be tweeting all that much but it is proving to be a good way to provide short updates, and to connect with other people interested in quilting, sewing, crafting, and baking. You can find us on twitter as aspoonfulsugar and we would be delighted if you followed us there.

Sharing Content
Now it is all very well and good having accounts on all these social media sites, but you also need to give your readers a way to easily share your blog posts to all their followers. We were using the blogger share buttons at the end of each post but they were quite small and didn’t really stand out that much. More recently we have installed the Share This buttons which show up at the end of each post and make it easy for readers to share the content they like (Look at the bottom of the post to see what the buttons look like). It also makes it easy for you to share your own blog content easily between your social networking sites. As a result you can easily share your blog posts to facebook and twitter so that your followers there can be updated.

If you have any comments to make about how social networking has worked for your blog or crafty business, please feel free to share your experiences in the comments. Have you found other social media sites to be effective  (eg tumblr)? What works well for you?

If there are any other topics you would like us to address, please let us know.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Never miss a post.

Get fresh new ideas delivered right to your inbox!

« Winter Forest Tea Towel
Home Made Apple Sauce »

Comments

  1. Sophie-Charlotte Chapman says

    October 26, 2011 at 2:13 am

    great idea ! cant wait to read more !

    Reply
  2. suzitee says

    October 26, 2011 at 4:00 am

    Hi there girls! Can’t say that I approach my blog in a business-type way, and while I love seeing that people have visited (especially when they leave comments) I don’t have much interest in the stats. It’s more a personal thing for me 🙂

    Reply
  3. Wendy Sice says

    October 26, 2011 at 5:10 am

    I’ll be reading this for sure, now that I’ve decided to get back into my etsy shop. Thanks for the tips! xx

    Reply
  4. Rachael Rabbit says

    October 26, 2011 at 5:51 am

    I was just thinking about all of this this moment – can you let me know where you found the code for the facebook etc widgets at the bottom of your post? Thanks so much. x

    Reply
  5. Rachael Rabbit says

    October 26, 2011 at 5:52 am

    Ignore me – child hanging off my leg – got it – love you – been searching for something like this for weeks. xx

    Reply
  6. Kirsty@Bonjour says

    October 26, 2011 at 6:48 am

    Thanks for this – very interesting. I haven’t got any sort of plan, but I do note that Pinterest is my no. 1 referee. I don’t have a Pinterest account as I am trying to keep life simple (again, I only use facebook for personal stuff, not blog stuff). I really don’t want another interface to manage! That said, it looks fascinating and I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out!

    Reply
  7. Simone de Klerk says

    October 26, 2011 at 7:36 am

    I enjoy three of the multi media you use: blogging, pinterest (thanks to you I joined) and Facebook. I have a twitter account, but that source does not work for me.
    Stumbleupon looks interesting. I think I will have a closer look. Seems a bit difficult.
    It was fun reading this. I wonder how you will enjoy twitter.

    Reply
  8. *Mademoiselle Susie* says

    October 26, 2011 at 9:07 am

    The Best!!
    I use facebook and twitter, and is good to know more about it.
    Thank you
    Susie

    Reply
  9. pasqueflower says

    October 26, 2011 at 2:19 pm

    Helpful post. You nudged me into trying Stumbleupon.

    Reply
  10. Handmade in Israel says

    October 27, 2011 at 8:31 am

    An excellent post! I have found that social media has really worked for me, most noticeably locally amongst my friends. They no longer need to watch from afar. They check out my cards on my blog and then let me know what their requirements are. Brilliant!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
Follow on Bloglovin

My Book

Instagram

{Pattern of the Week} Farmhouse Pumpkin Placemat {Pattern of the Week} Farmhouse Pumpkin Placemat

Quick and easy to construct, and perfect for fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, the Farmhouse Pumpkin Placemat should be next on your sewing list. This pattern is currently 25% off in our Etsy Store and Pattern Shop. Store links are in our profile.

#farmhousepumpkinplacemat #farmhousepumpkin #halloweensewing #fallsewing #thanksgivingsewing #sewsewsew #sewistsofinstagram #sewfun #makersgonnamake #sewing
Are you a button lover? I love to collect vintage Are you a button lover? I love to collect vintage haberdashery and notions, but buttons and wooden cotton reels are my favourites! I especially love old buttons on their original cards. I try and incorporate my collection in my sewing photos.

Tell me in the comments what vintage haberdashery treasures you have in your sewing room. 

I have written a resource guide for lovers of vintage haberdashery. The link is listed in our profile. I hope you will check it out!

#vintagenotions #vintagebuttons #vintagehaberdashery #vintagehaberdasheryandfancygoods #buttonlover #nodtonotions #cottonreelcollection #aspoonfulofsugardesigns #aspoonfulsugar #buttons
{FPP Friday} Twisted Log Cabin Foundation Paper Pi {FPP Friday} Twisted Log Cabin Foundation Paper Piecing Quilt Block in 5 sizes

Gather you favourite scraps and make these addictive Twisted Log Cabin Blocks. They include 5 handy sizes and a colouring sheet so you can plan out the layout for your project. These would be fun to add to a bag, mini quilt, pillow, table runner and more!

Pattern Details: Twisted Log Cabin Quilt Block is available in our Pattern Store and Etsy Shop for immediate download. Store links are in our profile.

#aspoonfulofsugardesigns #aspoonfulsugar #sewistsofinstagram #sewsewsew #sewfun #quiltersofinstagram #quilting #scrapsewing #fpp #foundationpaperpiecing #quiltblock #sewingismytherapy
If you are looking for fun and easy Halloween sewi If you are looking for fun and easy Halloween sewing projects, you might want to check out our Top Halloween Sewing Projects blog post. I have compiled a list of 13 top Halloween sewing projects that are perfect for beginners and experts alike. You will find patterns and free tutorials for making cute and spooky items to decorate your home or to give as gifts. Hope you have a happy and crafty Halloween. 

1. Halloween Sewing Projects
2. Dresden Placemat
3. Hexie Garden Pouch
4. Pumpkin Patch
5. Ghoster Coaster
6. Halloween Cottage

Pattern Details: Head to the link in our profile to head to read our srticle on Halloween Sewing and see our top Beginner friendly patterns.

#aspoonfulofsugardesigns #aspoonfulsugar #Halloweensewing
#Halloween projects
#maker
#Makersgonnamake
Load More… Follow on Instagram

Featured Pattern

Travel Sewing Kit Pattern

Featured Tutorial

Retro Drawstring Bag

Featured Recipe

Lemon Pound Cake


A Spoonful of Sugar on Etsy

Categories

Archives

Connect

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Popular Posts

  • Fall Sewing Projects: Cosy and Colourful Projects for your Home
  • Woodland Wonder Quilt Block
  • The Ultimate Resource for Vintage Haberdashery Lovers
  • Rotary Cutter Sewing Tool Pouch
  • Sunburst Quilt Block
  • Flower Sugar Pouches
  • Top Halloween Sewing Projects

Copyright © 2023 - Powered by Genesis Framework and a Creative Life - Designed by: Bellano Web Studio - Log in