We are coming up on our 3rd anniversary as being a brick and mortar boutique that caters to plus size women and couples. We educate, entertain and provide advice and products to help plus size people to have lots of hot sex and enriched, sexy romantic lives! That is always my goal, anyway, to help everyone and anyone I come across to have lots of hot sex. We opened on Oct. 11, 2012. (10/11/12 for your numerology peeps!) and have been going strong ever since. (My boutique is in San Jose, CA.)
When I first opened my boutique, I received SO MUCH social media love from all of our supporters and some from our haters. (Haters come with the territory when you work with people of size.) Who knew so many trolls would get their proverbial panties in a bunch about my lil’ ol boutique toiling away quietly trying to help us fierce fatties to look beautiful, sexy and get it on.
I am so grateful for all of the love we still continue to receive from all of you. I tell everyone that listens that my boutique is NOT about me or what I have done here ; it’s more about what all of you have done to create our boutique and our Curvy Girl community. It’s noting short of miraculous, honestly.
Independent businesses like mine REQUIRE a lot of social media support. No lie. There is only so much we can do, especially when we are new. I can only cover so much ground and I only have so much money to advertise, sponsor, boost and share. I truly cannot do it without all of you and I have a feeling other independent business owners like me feel exactly the same way. WE NEED YOU. And, when you strip it way down, what we really need is your ENGAGEMENT on our pages. (And, it’s our job to give you fascinating, engaging and very sexy (in my case) information to engage with.)
WHY do COMMENTS matter? Why do SHARES matter? You may be askign yourself “Isn’t it just enough to LIKE your page, Chrystal?” The short answer is no. Of course, it matters immensely that you have liked my page and my brand. It is my baby and it means the world to me. But, in Zuckerberg’s world, the COMMENTS and SHARES carry so much weight when it comes to their super secret proprietary algorithm. The more comments and shares, the more relevant my page looks to be in their eyes. (And, I will not bore you with how they changed everything last Fall which literally almost squashed my business and I struggled for a good 6 months while we re-tooled everything to make sure we were getting our posts in front of our LIKERS / FANS.)
It’s like sex, right. The more sex you have, the more sex you have. The less sex you have, the less sex you have. In the Facebook engineer’s world, it just looks like we know what in the heck we are talking about when it comes to Plus Size Lingerie and Sex Toys for plus size people when “they” see a lot of COMMENTS and SHARES. They see the comments and shares and that equals, POPULAR, RELEVANT and ENGAGING to them… even if it’s total bunk… like those posts you see from time to time where we ask you “Roll call. Which city are you in?” Those posts create a lot of engagement even though the really are not that meaningful.
The same is true on Instagram (owned by Facebook). The more LIKES or “hearts” you give our posts, the better our rank. The more relevant and topical we look to be. It’s sort of like a popularity contest. The page with the MOST social love moves up in the social media world, unfortunately. And, in their minds, your ENGAGEMENT through COMMENTS and SHARES are what makes us “popular.” (http://instagram.com/curvygirllingerie )
When you COMMENT or SHARE on Facebook or LIKE our posts on Instagram, it keeps our content in the various feeds all over social media. It’s like your comment or share give our “old” stuff new life. So we really love it when you see something that is a few days old and you comment or share those. THAT IS LIKE GOLD to indie businesses like mine.
It’s the same as on Google. When you, as a consumer, go searching for stuff, Google only wants to show you the very UP TO DATE and RELEVANT stuff in your search terms. And, the social pages are the same.
And, to make this all even more complicated, your COMMENTS and SHARES and your likes or hearts on Instagram also actually also help our GOOGLE RANKINGS. See, I told you that you are very important to our business and our success.
Nowadays, in 2015, when we have your COMMENTS and SHARES and other social media love, that is now also taken into consideration when it comes to people who search GOOGLE for plus size lingerie or sex toys, they actually see your comments and shares. See how much we need you! You are a part of our business success. If there are no recent comments and shares, it’s like having a boutique but with all of she shades drawn and the neon sign off….. even when you are actually open.
If you have INDIE businesses, bands or brand that you love – one of the most helpful things you can do besides buying stuff from us – is to COMMENT and SHARE on our social posts. I don’t know about other indie brands, but I only have so much budget for ads on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. (www.Facebook.com/CurvyGirlInc / http://instagram.com/curvygirllingerie and www.Twitter.com/BlissConnection )
So, if you want to do Curvy Girl Lingerie a solid, next time you see something in your feed, throw us a “YES” or a “HEART” or a “WOW” on the post. It doesn’t have to be a novel. Just any comment or share is super duper valuable and useful. And, as you might know, any time you comment or share, that means everyone in your circle of friends can see what you are commenting or sharing which means now my brand – my baby – is introduced to your circle of friends. (On my page, you might want to be careful about COMMENTING or SHARING on our naughtier posts because than the world would know you are naughty, too? )
If you know bloggers, bands or have other brands you just LOVE and ADORE, be sure to do the same thing for them, too. COMMENT and SHARE. It is SO hard to be an independent business owner or blogger. It’s a HUSTLE and there are some days when you are not sure how you will pay your bills. Your social media love can make the difference between your favorite brands staying in business and fighting the good fight … or going out of business.
Thanks so much in advance for LIKING and SHARING and COMMENTING on this topic, too. (Oh and if you really love your local boutiques, be sure to give them a review on GOOGLE or YELP, too. So meaningful and helpful for indie biz owners! We are blessed to have some really fab reviews on both and we get so many new customers because of them. Thanks!) http://www.yelp.com/biz/curvy-girl-lingerie-san-jose
Muah, Chrystal Bougon
If you like my blog and want to become a Curvy Girl Insider, please text us the word curvygirl (one word) to 22828 and you will get our newsletter that we send out about 1 to 3 times a month.
This is me with my BIG HAIR DON’T CARE hair for a recent photo shoot. 🙂
Big Hair Don’t Care – Chrystal Bougon