Last week I posted a reel of me putting together an order for 4 Taylor Swift badges, obviously I added some Swift music over the top and hey presto the views started mounting. Anytime a business uses some Taylor tunes their engagement probably increases 1000%!
I was chuffed my reel was getting seen, it means some people are likely to come and see what I'm all about and some of those people would like my vibe and start to follow. I'm no insta expert, if I'm honest it's so confusing, there are so many differing messages of what works and what doesn't work with the algorithms. I just do my thing and hope that people like it. It's not a brilliant approach probably but even if I did do it a certain way the algorithm would probably change the next day. I think unless I get a job at the gram it is always going to be a mystery to me so I'll just keep on plugging away and putting stuff out there that is me and my business and hope for the best.
Anyway, back to the subject in hand. I noticed I had a comment on the reel so I went to look and it and it said "I've seen this on sheen for 2 dollars...", thats nice I thought! I wasn't sure how to respond to this, I'm not one to start bashing away at the keyboard getting angry I did think though "how rude".
Let's break it down; all of my pins are sourced by me, customised and re-sold with some Rainbow Bear Gifting sparkle sprinkled on it. Designing my own pins is something on my list of things I'd like to achieve this year, I have so many ideas for them but it's not something I want to rush and get wrong so it's a work in progress. I love a pin and think they make great little gifts so the second best option for now is doing what I'm doing.
I design all the backing cards, this one in particular one took some time because it was specific to Taylor Swift so there are tiny details on there that the Swifties will love. I'm not claiming I have designed the pin, I will be shouting it from the roof tops when I actually do. Out of curiosity I went and looked on Shein and I couldn't even see one, but thats beside the point. People use Shein for quick inexpensive purchases, they aren't searching Shein for thoughtful gifts sprinkled with kindness!
My response was something like "Thank you for sharing, pop the link on here and people can buy that version if they don't want the personalised gifting approach, thanks for sharing a life hack though" no comment back.
I was discussing this with my friend, she was passionate (more so than me) about the fact this is a negative commentary to my business, I do agree with her but I also think that I'm not hiding the fact that my pins probably could be found cheaper elsewhere but they wouldn't be the same. My pins are a small part of my business right now.
We deleted the comment together after some persuasion from my lovely friend, because I get it, why let someone spread those vibes on my page? But I guess this is part of running a small business, people will have thoughts and opinions on what I say, sell and do and well, at least my products are getting attention, because sometimes that's also hard to achieve!
So here's a wish for the week ahead:
If this week delivers you a troll,
Don't let it get to you, they are the ones with a sad soul!
You keeping doing you, that is what's important,
Listening to negativity and letting it get to you, you oughtn't.
Instead open your ears to those who are to be valued,
Without these kind of people our self worth would be well and truly screwed!