We were lucky to catch up with Shawna Shaw recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shawna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

I own the store “Warrenton Market” in Warrenton, VA which sells home decor and locally-made gifts. I also manage my own social media. While I have had a brick and mortar store for four years, I started my business 10 years ago painting furniture and selling it out of my home. When I first started, the extent of my social media was posting pictures of furniture on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Since then, my business and social media approaches have evolved.

Early on, I learned the importance of staging furniture and getting good pictures. I even joined a Facebook group that would analyze my photos and provide me with feedback. With the help of the Facebook group and online iPhone tutorials, I learned how to edit photos to look good on social media.

Most of the time, I use the ‘portrait’ setting on my iPhone. This helps to focus on a specific piece of decor while blurring the background (this way, the picture doesn’t look too busy). When editing photos, I like to increase the exposure and brightness so the picture doesn’t appear too dark. Saturation, vibrance, sharpness and definition are usually increased a bit as well.

When I finally had a brick and mortar store, I would take a lot of close up pictures and post on Facebook. I would post up to 60-70 pictures at a time. I think people liked the ability to “browse” online – before actually going to a store. I’ve had a lot of compliments over the years on my pictures. I hasn’t been uncommon for people to come to the store to buy a particular item they saw online.

Over the last four years, I have started posting more on Instagram than Facebook. I feel that I get a little more “bang for my buck” promoting Instagrams posts than Facebook posts. Followers are more likely to see your posts on Instagram than on Facebook. Additionally, Instagram has a nice feature that allows you to automatically post to Facebook (that way, you don’t have to post twice). However, I still post to both platforms for the following reason: you have to know your customers and what they use. Funny enough, at my old shop most of the customers followed me on Instagram.  I would frequently hear them say: “I’m here because of your Instagram post.” Now that my shop is located in an area with more of an “old town” feel, more of the customers comment that they saw my posts on Facebook.

In addition to editing photos on my iPhone, I use a lot of different Apps when generating a post or reel. Reels typically get more engagement, so I have been learning how to do those. Some Apps I use include: PhotoShop Express, Layout, Word Swag, Story Swag, Vita, Magic Eraser, Temply, Canva, etc.

My social media approach over the years has been a long hands-on learning experience. I am always looking to improve my posts and to keep up with trends. I am pretty consistent about posting 3-4 times a week and feel that I get a lot of positive feedback.. Financially, I’m not sure if I’m in a position to pay someone else to do my social media just yet. If I did pay for advertising, it would be interesting to see how much more traffic they would be able to generate.

As far as suggestions for new business owners: if you feel comfortable posting on social media yourself – it’s always a good place to start. If you use Instragram, look for other similar businesses and follow them. They may start following you in return. Use hashtags with keywords and your business location. Try to create reels or find reels of products you sell and share them to your story. Try to highlight your key items and what you are about.

Shawna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Warrenton Market is a home decor and gift shop in Warrenton, VA. Our tag line is: ‘New + Vintage + Made-local.’ I started out ten years ago selling painted vintage furniture out of my home and antique malls. I grew to appreciate the quality of vintage furniture and other vintage items. However, I eventually realized that most customers aren’t looking for just vintage items. They wanted a mixture of new and vintage. After years of lugging furniture to mulitple different locations, I had an opportunity to open my own brick and mortar. Not long after opening, I was approached by several local artisans. I recognized that these artisans very talented, so agreed to sell their items in my store. I realized that customers also appreciated the locally-made items, so we continued to add more artisans. We now sell a curated selection of new, vintage, and locally-made items. This combination has served us well so far. I opened my brick and mortar in the Spring of 2020. When there were industry-wide shipping delays, we could still rely on the vintage and locally-made items. The percentage of the three components is able to fluctuate with the times.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I started out about 10 years ago painting vintage furniture. For me, it was an outlet. I enjoyed seeing the transformation that could be achieved with paints and waxes. After initially selling furniture out of my home, I took a small step and rented an antique booth. I enjoyed styling the booth with furniture and accessories. In addition, I would sell my items at outdoor markets and enjoyed styling those as well. Over time, I found myself renting booths and/or rooms at three different locations simultaneously. I felt that I was able to manage the amount of inventory fairly well, but it was taking up a lot of time driving back and forth. When an opportunity presented itself to rent a whole building, I knew I could handle the inventory, the rent would be the same as the three locations combined, and I would be saving a lot of time not having to commute. Overall, my journey was a lot of little steps. Learning, getting experience, building confidence, and saving up over time. I would definitely suggest taking the time to get plenty of experience before starting your own business – or at least taking small steps.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I like to make my customers feel special and to give them a personal touch. If they are buying something for a gift, I will add a gift bag or special tissue or bow to save them the time. Whenever I have provided a little ‘extra’ something for a customer, they usually return. It is hard these days to find stores with good customer care, so those that do stand out.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.Instagram.com/WarrentonMarket

Image Credits
Self photo: Susan Seidel Photography Other photos: S. Shaw