Crushing On: The House That Lars Built

Some social media skeptics out there like to shout that it’s almost impossible to get users off of social media and over to their website or blog. While I can absolutely sympathize with their frustrations, it is not impossible at all. 

Is it difficult at times? Yes. Is it possible though? Oh, abso-stinking-lutely. 

First, let me remind ALL (myself included) of us that social media is a marketing tool. It is not your actual business, nor is it your business plan, nor is it the sole reason your business exists. Social media is meant to be, and should be used as, a very strategic, engaging, and rewarding form of marketing. 

As brands, if you’ve worked hard to devise an appropriate social media strategy and are putting the necessary amount of thought, time and talent into your content, then you shouldn’t have any issues turning social media followers into paying customers and clients. 

But if you’re just winging it, if you’re just posting a pretty photo of something you found on Pinterest just because you know you need to post something, or you’re confused daily with what to say and what to post, then your followers feel that too. And the chances of, yes, getting them over to your website to purchase, or your blog to engage with, or your restaurant to dine in? Well, those chances become more and more slim the more and more confusing your social media strategy, or sometimes lack thereof, is.

Today The House That Lars Built is about to teach us all a big lesson on why strategic, quality content creation is so important, and how it can turn social media followers into your biggest fans.

Brittany Jepson, the blogger and creative behind the wildly popular blog The House That Lars Built, launched an Instagram and YouTube campaign in the beginning of May about… wait for it …. flowers. Specifically, it’s a 31 Day Drawing Challenge on how to draw flowers.

The kicker here is that Brittany teases and showcases a photo from each daily challenge and lesson on Instagram every single day. 
 

The bulk of her actual content, the YouTube lesson, is NOT on her Instagram. It’s over on her website and her YouTube channel. But she’s providing her followers with such a useful, fun, and original idea that they’re bound to navigate away from her social media account and on over to her website. 

She’s receiving a great amount of feedback and interaction on her Instagram account with simple photos from each lesson. Yet again, if you want the whole shabang (and you do, because her content is so on point), then you have to go visit her elsewhere.

She’s establishing herself as a creator, a designer, and an artist on Instagram with content from her website. It’s the two birds with one stone idea. Your social media accounts and your website or storefront should coincide. They should be bff’s. One should not exist without the other. Your followers or customers or clients should not be aware of one and oblivious about the other. 

But it has to be a two way street. You have to provide quality content on both platforms. You have to market to each platform differently. You have to update both platforms consistently. 

Again, Brittany demonstrates this idea perfectly. Her followers may want to know which daily tutorial to skip or which to tune into on her website, so they follow her for a quick and easy update on Instagram. If the days lesson is tulips and they absolutely despise tulips, then they aren’t wasting their time and searching for that days lesson. They’ll wait for the drawing lesson on hydrangeas instead. And they’ll know their beloved hydrangea lesson is up when they see the post on Instagram. Mini, micro, targeted marketing right there. 

Brittany markets her 31 Day Drawing Challenge on her social media accounts, and the flower obsessed (hi, that includes me) flock to her website. They buy what she puts out. The proof is in the pudding, people. 

That’s all for today’s lesson, folks. But I hope you’ll join me in crushing on The House That Lars Built, and I hope she serves as inspiration to turn up your social media marketing efforts in order to turn those followers into customers. 

Until next time,
VHC