The first iteration
This is something I have to do for work - slab together a solution as quickly as possible and say ta-da! I used to hate the term minimum viable product (MVP), because it just seemed to be a fancy name for shoddy solutions delivered by a bunch of amateurs. The more I learn about it though, the more I realise it isn’t the MVP that I have a problem with, but the way we’ve been prematurely moved off projects and we never follow through with the rest of the development process. So for my business, I am going to try to do it properly. I am going to build some MVPs too, but I’m going to test them and work on improving them, again and again. This will take a looooong time, maybe forever, and I’m only at the start of it, so this post will only be on what I’ve managed to cobble together from scratch in the fastest manner, a sprint and a half.
The wait
In my previous journal post, I’ve already mentioned I have two designs on the platform and I’ve splashed out on getting the samples but not enough for express delivery. While I anxiously wait, I try to prepare for the two scenarios:
(i) The designs come out horribly wrong and I’ll have to redo them immediately. This is the more likely outcome, because I did read the guidelines when I uploaded the image files, and I knew my lines were too thin. Part of me regrets not redrawing the images straight away, but part of me has no qualms with that. This is supposed to take minimal efforts, though in all honesty, my decision of going ahead was less rational and more emotional than that - I was just tired of fixing the pngs and simply needed to move on. Somehow, going through with the order gives me a boost in motivation to finally look up how to use my graphics software properly, and this is going to be useful regardless of how the designs turn out.
(ii) The other scenario is that the products look fine, in which case I’ll need to launch into marketing. There’s an awful lot to do here, so even though this is deemed to be the less likely outcome, I’m actually doing more of the prep for this. Given that I already have a few webpages on the platform, I’m making the various social media channels my priority. (In hindsight, I probably should have invested some time in learning about photography, but I was considering using Reddit, on which I’d need to build a presence). Personally I’ve been trying to stay off them, because the interactions just don’t feel authentic to me. I’d much rather have back-and-forth conversations with individuals than to broadcast bite-sized updates to everyone, but the latter is precisely what you have to do in business I hear.
Social media
Instagram seems like an obvious platform for Tubetiquette to get onto. Our products are visual and fun, and they don’t cost big sums of money. The problem is that I’ve never used the platform, and I’m not used to the hashtag culture. I see posts littered with them, but they all seemed to be swept to the end, sometimes pushed further down with lines of full stops or tucked inside of a comment. Fortunately, the marketing webinar I went to gave me a few pointers to get me started.
First, compose a mix of popular, specific and unique hashtags. They should be how a customer would describe the business. What I didn’t realise was that hashtags are used to search for products and services nowadays, and they also act as mailing lists with people following certain hashtags. Those that are in a lot of posts are likely to be followed by a lot of people, but the posts will be among so many others that it is hard to stand out. The geographical or thematic ones would help in searches, as people tend to be more specific when they’re shopping for something. The unique hashtags are really just an informal way to get more exposure. The users who might have been gifted your product or have attended to one of your events may not necessarily follow your account, but may use your hashtags.
Mostly, hashtags are for reaching new audiences, so the advise is to keep swapping them in and out. People who’ve read your old posts would only get tired of seeing your updates instead of suddenly start to engage, so there’s no point in spamming them. However, users on different platforms may have different levels of tolerance and expectation, and I spend a few days just scrolling through to try to get a sense of this. To be honest though, I’m not sure if that’s a good investment of time, as I don’t feel I learn much from the activity and I can’t say I enjoy it.
The main reason that I’ve signed up for an account is really just to claim the username I want, but then a bunch of strangers start to follow it. Apparently that’s to do with brand new accounts being recommended on the platform, and that wave will only last for a short while. I was only going to lurk around in these early days, but now I actually feel under pressure to get posting in hope of getting some followers that aren’t bots!
Content
My next step is admittedly a little illogical, but let me explain why I choose to look into tailoring next. I know the t-shirt dress I’ve ordered and model in is not going to fit, because I’m a size smaller than the smallest size available, and importantly, I refuse to buy from the kids section. The dress will have to be taken in, and I have a vague plan of filming that process because everyone loves a video…
But that hasn’t worked out. It isn’t to do with the quality of the samples that I’ve been worrying about, but the quality of my filming which I haven’t even considered. The room looks too cluttered, the light is hitting on the garment wrong, and I’m just not pointing my phone at it from a good angle. With absolutely no idea how I can rectify these, the sewing goes ahead undocumented.
Despite that, I feel reasonably confident about the photoshoot. I patiently wait for the prime time - not the golden hours, but when my models have been fed and are happy to venture out of the cosy den. The weather is nice, and the park is not too busy. We take a few snaps, and we take a few more. As easy as that.
Back in the office, I pull our shots up on the computer, and reality hits. Somehow the colours just don’t look as vibrant as the ones I see in my feed. There are photos that are back-lit, and in those that aren’t, the darker parts of the prints show up reflective. To top it all off, my poor sewing is evident in these pictures and no filters could hide that… But you know what, we just make do with what we’ve got because, yes, we’re making an MVP!
So I try to put up one of the badly taken and badly post-processed pictures as soon as I can, but picking the hashtags takes surprisingly long. I search for the ones that come to mind, to check if they exist and also to see what others there may be. This I really should have done during the week, because I’ve only come up with 10 in a few hours. In the end, I have to be content with #catmischief making it into my list, and I hit the button.
Failure to launch
Nobody has warned me that’s just the beginning of a painful process of obsessively refreshing the insights, to see the number of reach slowly climb, and wonder why the other numbers remain low… Yet I go on and kick this process off on another platform, because the cross-posting function doesn’t work in the way I expect it to. And there I learn that it’s National Ice Cream Day over in the States, so I edit the post on the original platform to include the trending hashtag. Then I find out that editing is bad because it wipes the stats.
Another thing I’m finding out is timing. I was rushing my first post partly because I thought the weekend would be good, but I’ve since read that the hours before work starts are the best (according to the data collected before COVID). So I’ve tried to plan ahead, but between me making last-minute changes and the app crashing, I never manage to get the posts out when I want. There are apps that’ll schedule your posts, but I’ve been told to still get online anyway to engage. This I now see is almost a full-time job.
As I try and fail to get a following on social media, I decide to attempt to establish an online presence by building that website I have been excited about. Still I’m not getting a domain name yet because that’d be an outgoing that I currently can’t cover. Instead, I’m going with Github Pages by setting up Jekyll. To my delight, there’s a responsive design theme for free! Such is the joy of open-source. It’s amazing what people put out there. The repository is fairly extensive, but I eventually manage to get my head around it enough that I’m able to adapt it to make it orangy-yellow to match my store.
As with the social media posts, it’s the marketing bits that catch me unaware. The content has pretty much been written, so the part that requires thoughts is the metadata for search engine optimisation. For now, I’m just writing placeholders, as Google still hasn’t indexed my sites even though I’ve submitted a site map. Nothing really seems to be working, but eh well, I plough on.
Comments
Not sure if this is an actual strategy, but I’m posting updates into the big void because I’m hoping this will help me gain future followers. Imagine that you’re checking out an account and it’s just empty. I’d say you wouldn’t follow it. So I’m working to build up my profile pages. Having brainstormed some ideas, I’ve decided that I should put together an animation to announce the website. With the tools I have been using so far, there doesn’t seem to be a straight-forward way to produce the file in the right format. I’m worried that if I mess up something like the dimensions, it’ll be a pain to fix, so I cave and I download some apps to help.
The one I keep hearing mentioned is a bit of a let-down to be honest, but I think it’s mainly for photo editing instead of creating videos. Also, as the business isn’t doing so well, I’m only using the free version. Fortunately, the other app works a lot better, and I’m in fact rather surprised by the output. The only criticism there is actually the resolution of the screenshots I myself have taken, but meh it’s good enough to be shipped!
So I’ve drafted my messages, trimmed the videos, and picked the cover to be displayed on the platforms. But just as I’m about to post it, my partner sends me comments on the site and everything else from his friends. Previously I’ve asked for feedback, especially negative feedback, but I wasn’t sure if they were going to respond. I am overjoyed that they have because that’s the whole point of producing an MVP! It does mean that I have to put the posting of the announcement on hold.
However, it’s the free shipping weekend, and I feel I have to post something about it, so I head out to get a picture of a postbox taken, research a bit into postboxes, and write something rather unrelated to the company. Guess what though, that is actually the most popular post to date! Maybe it’s time to re-think my entire approach, eh!