After meeting Sarah Bush of Make Great Stuff at a networking event and spending a couple of weeks participating in her famous 20-Minute Club, I begged to interview her on how she uses social media to promote her creative workshops. I actually asked Sarah very coolly for the interview, but if she would’ve said no, I was prepared to beg. She’s that good at marketing her work.

If you use social media to promote your business or your creative work, I strongly encourage you to read on. Sarah shares many tips and insights into how to make the social media machine work. Grab your notebooks. This stuff is gold!

Sarah uses a variety of online tools (e.g., Facebook group , Meetup group, a blog, etc.), which can be difficult to prioritize. When asked how she manages her energies she said that it’s an ongoing process.

“I try to see what sticks and then focus on that,” she said. “I’m on Twitter a lot less now, because I get more mileage from my Facebook group, Creative Women of Facebook.”

Sarah went on to say that the Facebook group has been one of the biggest boons in her social media efforts. The group has shown an intense energy and has served as a place to get ideas, ask questions, and promote her blog and business.

One of my favorite aspects of Sarah’s online marketing work is her “voice.” Everything she writes is very conversational and makes me feel like I’m front row at the show. I asked Sarah about her writing style and learned the tone is completely intentional.

“People who know me say I sound like my blog. What’s been an evolution has been sharing more about my vulnerabilities. It seems the more I do that the better the blog becomes.”

Sarah has helped thousands of creative women (and some men) implement tools to resurface their creative prowess. Between selling creative kits and holding workshops, Sarah has mastered techniques that empower creative people to unleash talents that have been buried for one reason or another.

The image to the left is one of Sarah’s own pieces titled, “But I am the Fire.” (Digital Collage Transfer on Reflective Glass)

One way she reaches those people is through a sign-up page for her Creative Breakthrough Workshops, which are held online and in her Jersey City, New Jersey, studio. The page doesn’t read like a typical long-form sales page, yet it follows a similar formula, and in my opinion that’s the perfect combo. Sarah explains:

“People have heavy feelings about the type of workshops I offer, which makes the purchase riskier than most. If they are going to come and be revealed in my studio or over the phone, they need to feel safe. When I was figuring out my niche I thought about the problems I had and struggles I went through, and while some might think you’re going to lose authority or credibility by revealing your problems, I think the reverse happens. You gain authority when you reveal.”

At the end of the interview, I asked Sarah to share advice for those who are starting to promote a business through social media. She shared several invaluable nuggets. You should seriously thank her for these. Gold!

• Create a Facebook group and name it after the topic your users are interested in. Don’t name it after your business.

• Start promoting yourself on social media before your business/project is ready. Build relationships with those who have similar interests with you, and then when you’re ready you have an audience who is responsive to you.

• Expel a great deal of energy on your blog, but don’t write every day. Daily posts become too much pressure for the reader and the quality of the blog posts usually goes down.

• Humanize your blog posts and other content. If you do, your readers will say, “Wow, that person made all this nuttiness accessible to me, and they helped me through it.”

To learn more about Sarah Bush and her workshops, visit Make Great Stuff.

About Sara Lancaster

Sara is The Condiment Marketing Co.’s founder and creative director. She oversees client relationships, strategic marketing plans, as well as a bit of copywriting and social media management.