Social media has been the quickest and easiest way to grow a crochet business for more than a decade. But times are changing, the way these platforms work is changing and they’re not necessarily the best way to grow a crochet business anymore. This was where I found myself not too long ago after successfully building my crochet business almost exclusively on Facebook and I ended up making the decision to leave social media and instead rely on the power of search engines.
What Happened
My crochet business was built on Facebook. Both when I sold the crochet that I made and again when I switched to selling crochet patterns. All of it primarily built using Facebook. And it worked really well, I built up an amazing audience and the sales increased year on year.
Until my personal life went south and forced me to turn away from my business for 2 whole years.
I just couldn’t show up and my Facebook page was in effect abandoned.
2 years later when I returned, I had 2 problems to deal with. Getting my Facebook page working for me again and dealing with the huge changes that social media platforms had gone through in that time.
What had worked well for me 2 years before just simply didn’t work anymore. Add to that the punishment the platform was giving me for neglecting my page, which meant that barely any of my audience were seeing my posts meant that it was an uphill struggle.
Social media just isn’t what it was. The platforms are no longer social platforms, they’re entertainment platforms. If the algorithms don’t see your content as entertaining, they don’t push your posts into people’s feeds.
I’m not an entertainer, that’s just not in my personality, which meant that I was being punished twice over.
I ended up coming to the conclusion that Facebook and social media in general just wasn’t a place that I could rebuild and grow my business anymore.
So I left.
Why Social Media Stopped Working
I know it’s not just me and my circumstances making social media difficult right now. A lot of businesses are reporting the same thing.
What made social media so good for small businesses in the past was that it was free to use and you had access to a huge network of people and you could network in different groups, drop links to your products and you had a fair chance of your posts appearing in people’s feeds.
Now though the rules have changed. Yes the platforms are still free, but your posts get pushed down the feed if they have a link in them. Even worse Facebook is now limiting you to 2 links a month on your page unless you pay them a monthly fee.
Unless you are getting regular likes, shares and comments then your posts are not deemed entertainment worthy and again get pushed down the feed.
Networking in groups is difficult now as many groups don’t allow promotional posts or have become pay to play. You can’t get together with a group of other small businesses to boost each others posts with likes and comments from each other because the algorithm can spot this and penalises you by suppressing your posts and not letting them appear in people’s feeds.
Social media is no longer the easy way and no longer gives you the great return on your time that it used to.
So what’s your alternative?
The alternative is getting your crochet found in search results. Think Google, Etsy, YouTube, Blogs, Pinterest.
All of these have search bars. All of these are driven by what people want to see rather than what some algorithm decides what you’re allowed to see.
Search engines are what I’m now building my crochet business to grow through.
Why I Chose SEO Instead
So what’s different?
SEO doesn’t require performance, it doesn’t need you to show up every day and it lasts for years and not the days or hours of a social media feed cycle.
SEO is not as quick to work as social media, but it is much longer lasting. Best of all, it’s the perfect alternative for introverts like me who struggle to find the social energy to show up on social media each day.
So what is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is basically just the words you use to appear in search results for a specific search term. So does your content contain the same phrase that someone is typing into the search bar?
To appear on page 1 of Google for example, your content has to contain – repeatedly – the same phrase that is typed into the search bar.
- Handmade blue cross body bag
- Crochet pattern for a cuddly frog
- Matching woman’s hat and scarf set
These are the types of things that buyers type into Google, Etsy, Shopify, Pinterest to find the product they want to buy. As they get more specific about what they want, the more likely they are to then buy.
Just think about how you research things you’re preparing to buy. Apply that process to your content.
Search engines work by matching the phrase someone has typed into the search bar to the content on the internet. The search results appear in order of how close the search term is matched, but also takes into account how trustworthy the source is considered to be.
That trustworthy factor is why SEO takes time to work. The search engines take time to decide whether you are a trustworthy brand whose content is safe to deliver at the top of the search results.
So you’re looking at 6-12 months for your content to rank.
This time problem is why using social media became the dominant force in growing a business. It just worked so much more quickly.
Why This Works For Me
So given the timeline problem, why have I decided to switch to this strategy instead of social media? Because I’m in this for the long haul and I want to build a crochet business that works for me and that I enjoy showing up for.
The simple fact is, if you don’t enjoy what you do you’ll end up finding excuses not to show up. My social media was producing so little in the way of results and the feeling of progress that I stopped seeing the point and stopped showing up. That was before I made the decision to walk away. Instead I would spend time working on my patterns, making Pinterest pins, planning out future designs – anything except showing up on social media.
Social media was never designed for introverts or those with low social energy. But it was still possible to make it work a few years ago. But now that the entertainment factor has arrived along with the suppression of links unless you’re willing to pay, it’s just not worth the trade off to me.
Social media isn’t a place I can or want to show up for anymore. So if I want to continue my crochet business then I have to turn to SEO and accept the longer timeline.
But that’s ok, because I’m here for the long haul and I’m willing to put the work in to build that trust factor and rework my content to optimise it for SEO. That meant accepting that I wouldn’t see much growth in sales for 6-12 months, it meant putting in the work without seeing the results. It meant trusting the process without receiving any validation.
The way my brain works means that I can happily sit for ages tinkering with my Etsy descriptions and coming away with a piece of searchable content that will bring me sales. But put me in front of a Facebook screen with a plan to create 3 posts that will grab attention and satisfy the algorithm and my mind goes blank and I’ll take forever to come up with something that is not guaranteed in any way to move my business forward in any meaningful way.
I just can’t do social media anymore – not in the way that the algorithms now want you to do. But I’ll happily create searchable content all day long.
This switch makes perfect sense to me and I’m very happy to have left social media behind.
Does this mean it’s the right choice for everyone? No. But if you’re seriously looking at what alternatives you have to social media and whether it’s possible to build a crochet business without it, then SEO is what you need to look into.
If you need deeper advice on how to promote your crochet business or how to incorporate SEO into your strategy, then you can work directly with me using my private Voxer chat here.
For more crochet business building advice and information then check out my free podcast here, and subscribe to my free Substack here for daily tips too.
