Chapter three of the #craftrealtalk stories is live now! While the first and second stories tackled “knowing your audience” and “finding your audience”, this chapter helps your audience to find YOU, by optimizing hashtags. Whether you are familiar with the concept of hashtags or not, we’ll have good advice for you to implement in your social media strategy (advice that is specific to craft). See the full story on our Instagram now.

Perhaps you’re wondering where the inspiration for the #craftrealtalk series came from? It’s something we’ve been working on for some time – part of a much wider digital research and digital literacy project. We’ve done a lot of listening, learning, and behind the scenes research to find out what craft artists want, need, and how they continue to grow their work in the digital landscape. Our big-picture #10digittech project has already included a conference and internal reviews, paired with our current development of digital literacy tools. Next, we’re launching formal research into the experiences of craft artists and consumers to get even more in-depth. All this work combined will prepare us for the final outcome of this project: a digital strategy to help craft organizations move forward into the future.

With many thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts for their financial support, we will continue to produce tools and conduct research, helping the sector evolve and excel while celebrating the continuing beauty and skill of all forms of contemporary craft.