The Who, The Where, & The What.

Are you familiar with my project Flea Market Love Letters? Flea Market Love Letters is a digital archive of vintage love letters I've been building since 2017. It has had several iterations since its inception but as I write this we're enjoying a healthy Instagram community and website, which has generated a decently sized monthly mailing list.

But how did I turn an Instagram account about old mail into what you'll recognize as Flea Market Love Letters today? If you're not familiar with my Philosophy of 3 Cs: Curation, Community, Consistency I've written about how I apply those principles to my day job and my passion project equally before.

Read on for my bare basics advice on deciding on the "Who" for your passion project, finding "Where" they are (yes, on the Internet!), and "What" they are interested in seeing from you as a brand and creator.

The "Who":

In Marketing there are "demographics", or ways that we classify customers/users/readers etc. Some of these demographics are location, age, gender, etc. How do you figure out your market for your passion project? You experiment! You can create "personas" which are little reports of who you think are your customers. I've included an example here but feel free to get creative. And remember to base these off fictional customers, never friends or family.

Do you make knitted headbands? Your customer isn't necessarily the little girls who will wear them for First Communions and Wedding photos. It's Mom. So who is "Mom" for you? It's much easier to advertise to a face so feel free to spend an afternoon creating a fictional "Mom". Whether you have zero sales or a hundred under your belt, I cannot emphasize enough the value of deciding who you're marketing to before you do anything else.

The "Where":

It can be tempting when you're passionate about something to plaster it everywhere on the Internet. Isn't this wonderful thing I love so shiny? You would love it too, trust me! Just click here! While that's endearing and earnest, it isn't the best way to spend your time. Think of your time as part of your budget. Can you afford to spend time on everything? Nope. So let's figure out where to put your hours.

Keeping what we know about demographics in mind let's take a look at where they're hanging out on the Internet as of 2021 (stats source):

• Facebook: Monthly 2.7 billion users. 44% "female". Largest age group 25- 34.
• Twitter: Monthly 187 million users. 32% "female". Largest age group 30 -49.
• Instagram: Monthly 1 billion users. 57% "female". Largest age group 25- 34.
• TikTok: Monthly 100 million users. 59% "female". Largest age group 18-24.
• Pinterest: Monthly 400 million users. 78% "female". Largest age group 30-49.
• LinkedIn: Monthly 738 million users. 51% "male". Largest age group 46- 55.

The value of platform dedication after you've decided on your target market is one of the most valuable tools in your kit. Use it wisely and for goodness sakes apply strategy to what you're posting!

The "What":

Do you make artisanal bread? Perhaps you're a Yogi teacher looking to expand their virtual classes? How about a boutique looking to boost its online sales? Once you've found your who, decided on your where, the next step is deciding what you're putting in front of your audience.

Instagram and Facebook are natural spaces for products or personal services (think Physical trainer, though I have seen some growing Solicitor accounts recently) to inhabit. Show off your product! You can do some very creative stuff with a cell phone camera and a tripod.

I'd warn against Pinterest for anything but product promotion. Think of it like videogame levels: Facebook and Instagram are Beginner/Medium and Pinterest is the Extra-Hard level. It's my opinion that TikTok will go the way of its predecessor Vine, but if the benefits of "to camera" marketing can't be missed so if you're comfortable experimenting I would recommend trying it out with Instagram's Reels feature before launching into the TikTok

Twitter can be a great place for a growing community but it is not a shopping network. No one will engage with an account you started yesterday and posted 18 tweets about your homemade soaps. Twitter is a great way to connect with business networks to find industry and small business talks, so by all means create a Twitter and use it! But please don't expect there to be a big audience there immediately.

LinkedIn is a tough place to break into. The algorithm can be hard to break and there's a definite confusion among account holders about the use -- some use it for social news, some for semi-annual business updates, others use it as a virtual C.V. Unless you have a Business-To-Business (B2B) service or product, I would warn keeping your LinkedIn presence light. This does not mean ignore LinkedIn. Invest in a headshot, set up a company page, and check-in a few times a week.