Week 8 Part B

 As I am reading through the Real Purpose of Blogging for Your Business, I immediately realized that our small interior design business lends itself well to Blogs and especially Vlogs. Before and after videos, mishaps and challenges during renovations, occasional awe inspiring projects or simple back stories to design inspiration can all become engaging content. To take this idea further one can approach a producer with the idea of a well polished design challenge/ reality TV.

However, there are times when maintaining a professional or serious tone might be more appropriate, especially if the goal is to emphasize reliability and expertise. For example, a detailed post about selecting the right materials or adhering to building codes or finances, requires serious language to relay the seriousness of the topic and build confidence in our abilities.

successful brands often blend personal stories with practical information to create trust and appeal emotionally to their customers. Yet a legal, or engineering or medical firm can't benefit from personal content in their social media presence.

Week 8 Part A

 During this week, I set up a posting schedule for Leyli's interior design Instagram page, sharing content three times: Monday morning at 9 AM, Wednesday afternoon at 1 PM, and Friday evening at 6 PM. Each chosen based on Instagram analytics, which suggested peak engagement around these times for people interested in lifestyle and interior content.

I used several hashtags, including popular ones #InteriorDesign, #HomeDecor, and #DesignInspiration. These were discovered using Instagram's Explore feature, checking competitor posts.

In addition, I created specific branded hashtags to reinforce my business identity: #DesignByLeyli and #InteriorInsights. These branded tags help followers easily find and engage with our content.

From this exercise, I learned that early mornings and early evenings on weekdays were most effective, especially Friday evenings, likely because my audience is more active and responsive heading into the weekend. Additionally, reposting Instagram content to Facebook broadened my reach significantly, connecting me with a different demographic who interacts more frequently on Facebook.

Overall, strategic timing, targeted hashtags, and cross-platform posting proved invaluable for enhancing engagement and expanding our brand's visibility.

Week 7B: Hashtag Hacks from the Pros

1. Studio McGee (@studiomcgee)

• Followers: Over 3.6 million

• Posting Frequency: Regularly: project reveals, product features, and lifestyle content

• Engagement: High likes and comments, strong follower base

• Hashtag Strategy:

  • Utilizes branded hashtags like #SMMakeLifeBeautiful to foster community engagement

  • Incorporates popular industry hashtags such as #interiordesign and #homedecor

• Effectiveness: most effective

2. Amber Interiors (@amberinteriors)

• Followers: Approximately 1.5 million

• Posting Frequency: Consistent. Project highlights and product promotions

• Engagement: Strong, with numerous likes and comments per post

• Hashtag Strategy:

  • Employs unique project-specific hashtags like #ClientCanyonCool

  • Hashtags are typically placed at the end of captions

• Effectiveness: Their hashtag approach enhances brand identity 

3. The Novogratz (@thenovogratz)

• Followers: Over 300,000

• Posting Frequency: Regular updates of eclectic designs and family life

• Engagement: Strong

• Hashtag Strategy:

  • Uses branded hashtags like #thenovogratz to promote their unique style

  • Incorporates general design hashtags to broaden reach

  • Hashtags are included at the end of posts

• Effectiveness: Their consistent hashtag use resonate with their target audience

4. Sarah Richardson Design (@sarahrichardsondesign)

• Followers: Approximately 200,000

• Posting Frequency: Regular, featuring elegant designs and behind-the-scenes content

• Engagement: High, with active participation

• Hashtag Strategy:

  • Utilizes a mix of branded and popular hashtags to increase visibility

  • Hashtags match the content

  • Typically placed at the end of captions

• Effectiveness: Her strategic hashtag use and high-quality content is very effective

5. Hibou Design & Co. (@hiboudesignco)

• Followers: Approximately 50,000

• Posting Frequency: Consistent posts about Montreal-based projects

• Engagement: Strong local following with active engagement

• Hashtag Strategy:

  • Incorporates location-specific hashtags like #MontrealDesign

  • Uses a combination of broad and niche hashtags to attract a targeted audience

  • Hashtags are placed at the end of captions

• Effectiveness: Their localized hashtag strategy reaches their regional market

  These companies have between 50k and 3.6M followers. They all post & use hashtags consistently, with different strategies. Most of the posts that I looked at had a lot of engagement (likes, comments, etc.)

Some hashtags that I can use for my business:

#InteriorDesign, #HomeDecor, #DesignInspiration, #Dubaihomes, #Socaldesign, #Socalhomedesign, #MinimalistDesign, #LRInteriors, #LeyliRafiyanInteriors

Week 7 part A

 Our business has an existing Instagram page that can be viewed here.

our page has some pictures as method for keeping an active portfolio. However both stories and reels reach more people.

 We are occasionally contacted by new clients for projects. Most of the work comes from either the previous clients or people introduced by previous clients, kind of like word of mouth.

  I haven't really used #hashtags before, but now am convinced they are going to connect us to potential customers and am going to start utilizing them.

https://www.instagram.com/leyli.rafiyan/#

Week 6 Part B: Creating and Scheduling FaceBook Posts

 For automated Facebook post project I chose to at the following hours when Meta business suite recommended. With 40 followers, the algorithm knows best when our they are most active and it seemed wise to try to build on the momentum that's already there.

Week 6 Part A: Engaging Your Customers - Facebook Strategy

For this assignment I chose these businesses to follow:

1. Architectural Digest, Est. 1920, Self proclaimed International Design Authority. Publication with pictures and short videos and links to articles on the website with a solid 5.1M following. I can potentially share a lot of content from here.

2. Luxe Interiors + Design, another famous magazine can be source for a lot of shared content, It would be crazy to get featured here one day.

3. Natuzzi, A well known Italian furniture brand, globally. Clean presentations of their products can be shared. Includes both short videos and photos.

4. Moooi, Holland based manufacturer of lighting, seating and accessories, great reels and videos.

5. Karim Rashid, award winning industrial designer with designs ranging from furniture and lighting to cutting edge speakers, corporate identity and package design. Great videos and content. Interesting personality. Great source for materials to be shared. 

6. Kelly Wearstler, Designer and lifestyle blogger. I like the vibe that her page has. Maybe we can emulate similar energy on our page. Or maybe have my designs featured on her page, one day!

7. Bond Interiors, not a well crafted page compared to others on my list, but one of the leaders of the industry in the market I'm hoping to break into.

Week 5 B Facebook Data Collection Metrics

   Facebook has two metrics for businesses posting content on the platform that is a clever way of getting feedback on what happens after one hits post, and adjust strategy to gain maximum efficiency.

  The "reach" metric shows the number of people who see your post on their feed and the engagement is people who liked, commented, shared or just clicked to check it out further.

  If I wanted to borrow analogy from my beloved sport of tennis: Everyone talks about how beautiful and natural looking Roger Federer's one handed backhand was. The part they forget to mention is the strong and quick footwork that allowed him to be in position in the first place to then execute the beloved stroke. If you have just started playing the game and have problems getting to the ball, it would be a wrong strategy for your coach to work on your groundstrokes. However If you are agile and quick and get to every ball but your shots end up in the fence or over it, now we can try to fix the strokes.

  Similarly, on the Facebook platform, if your posts don't reach your audience, maybe you should stop posting at 5 AM and pay attention to when they are online and engaging more with your content. Or if you reach plenty of people but fail to spark interest (in the form of engagement) maybe you should rethink your strategy and change your content or format- like switch to reels and videos.

  The positive side of the data collection is that Meta ads and content, will be aligned with your interests and you won't be shown endless discount car insurance or dating site ads. Small businesses won't need extravagant advertising budgets and can reach their potential customers very cost effective. Some negative sides are the normalization of surveillance in the society (How many people do you know who would give up their privacy in exchange for comfort?) also manipulation of public opinion and corrosion of societal trust in institutions.