I have to be completely honest with you all right now — I absolutely adore the Yarn Barn of Kansas and regularly tell them they are my favorite client. I really do love all of my clients, but the Yarn Barn has a special place in my heart. That’s why, when they first contacted me about developing a social media strategy and figuring out how to build their online presence, my heart nearly leapt out of my chest. Let me explain why.
I learned to knit when I was little thanks to my great-aunt, who was my grandmother’s older sister. Auntie, as she was affectionately known by our family, was a teacher, and I imagine that’s why she had the patience to teach me the basics of casting on, knitting, and purling. And then, post-9/11, when a knitting and craft resurgence hit, I picked it back up. I organized Stitch ‘N Bitches, followed feminist knitter Debbi Stoller, was an early adopter on Ravelry, and built up a to-die-for yarn stash. When I first moved to Lawrence, KS, I naturally had to explore the Yarn Barn, which is on every yarn lover’s bucket-list destination.
Jim from the Yarn Barn called
Shortly after I launched Sparrow Creative Studios, I noticed I missed a call from a local number and caller ID said, “The Yarn Barn of Kansas.” I’d be lying if I saw I didn’t have a moment where my heart fell into my stomach — especially when I listened to the voice mail that said, “Hi, this is Jim Bateman from The Yarn Barn of Kansas…” He said they were looking for help with social media and marketing. They found me through the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and thought I’d be a good fit for their needs.
We ended up meeting, and they were not wrong. When I explained my background and found out what they were looking for, I was thrilled to be able to offer them help with their needs. We’ve been working together for a few years now, and the headway we’ve been making is pretty incredible.
We developed a plan and strategy
One of the things the Yarn Barn needed was to make sure their brand was properly represented. When I sat down and talked to the team — Jim and his wife Susan (who started the Yarn Barn back in the 1970s) as well as long-time employee Melissa — we talked about what the Yarn Barn needs to show customers. They wanted people to notice that they are like a big family, and that they believe in teaching. We worked on a plan to bring that to fruition and we decided that I would oversee and help train their staff and build up their social presence by creating an ongoing social media strategy.
It truly became a team effort. They already had a great presence online; they just needed to keep it going. So that’s what we worked on doing. The Yarn Barn has a fantastic team that has great ideas. They really just needed help executing those ideas, making sure there was a plan to get it to happen. And from there, we had to make sure we were posting consistently. I’ve been fortunate to be able to work with Rebecca, who is part of their front of shop staff, to tackle much of the work.
Putting the plan into action
I quickly learned — and was not at all surprised — that the Yarn Barn cannot post too much content. But we were really needing to focus on bringing in a newer audience. Because the Yarn Barn focuses on weaving and spinning, as well as crochet and knitting, they have a wide audience for those specialized crafts. The big problem is there are so many crochet and knitting folks on the Internet, we knew we’d have a lot of competition.
However, because we’re focusing on education, we’re able to stand out in the market. They were already active on Facebook and Instagram. But we also realized people were following the brand consistently on Pinterest, which we desperately needed to clean up since they’re getting over 12,000 views each month alone. We also knew we needed to take advantage of TikTok to grow our younger audience. We wanted to begin to use GoogleMyBusiness as part of our digital marketing strategy. And we knew we had a ton of growth to achieve on YouTube, where we had about 20 followers. We decided the in-store team would focus on in-store activities and creating shorts that we could share across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
We’re having incredible success
I have to say, this team is killing it with our social media strategy. We continue to grow by leaps and bounds. I always tell Jim, Susan, and Melissa that the ultimate goal should be to translate to sales. But since we first began, we’ve added over 2,000 new followers to Facebook and around 1,500 new followers to Instagram. We launched TikTok and YouTube shorts, which bring in consistent engagement from the younger demographic we want to attract. Rebecca has completely overhauled Pinterest and we’re starting to incorporate Pinterest trends into our plans.
And we are slaying YouTube. The Yarn Barn has so much knowledge to share, so we’re creating regular content for YouTube. And while I wouldn’t typically tell most of my clients to create hour-long videos, one of our most popular pieces of content has been Susan showing how to prep a weaving project. That video alone led to 118 followers on YouTube and over 600 hours of view time from over 3,000 viewers. YouTube is also bringing in a younger demographic, as well as men, which has been amazing. Now, with close to 1,000 followers, it’s growing every day and we’re close to being able to monetize the channel.
Final thoughts
There will always be work to do for the Yarn Barn, which I’m so happy about. And it’s re-ignited my love of knitting and inspired me to make so many fun things already — plus I get to go in and squish yarns and chat about projects. I’m incredibly grateful that I get to do so many things I love, and for a company I’m proud to work with. But I also want to be very clear: what works for the Yarn Barn won’t necessarily work for everyone. That’s why it’s important to get an assessment of your brand and how social can benefit you.
Do you need a solid social media strategy for your business? Get in touch and let’s discuss how we can make great things happen.
