We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lorrie Dixson Griggs a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lorrie, 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?

In addition to owning Drifter Merch, have owned Eskimo Advertising for 20 years. So, it only makes sense that I manage my own social media. For others, though, it is really up to what works for the individual or business. Often people do not understand how social media works or may not have the time to commit to handling themselves. Many do not understand that successfully using social accounts goes beyond just making posts. You must create a strategy, post engaging commentary that provides value regularly and interact with your audience by responding to comments and questions as well as analyze social insights.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

Our premium apparel and accessories company Drifter Merch was started after I was cleaning out my late husband’s t-shirt drawers as they would not shut. Several of the tees that I loved, he said that he created for his friends for fun before concerts as his buddy was a printer. Being the marketer that I am, I thought we should start a website and sell them as I knew others would be interested in buying them too. Within a year, we had formed the company and were offering three t-shirt designs online. As those items sold quickly, we expanded to other merch and started selling our goods at concerts, festivals and other events. It was here that customers kept asking if we could print and embroider custom merch for their businesses, schools and events so we saw the need to add personalized orders to our offerings. Additionally today, we have over 50+ music-inspired designs available and also sell on Etsy and Amazon.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Like most businessses, we set up accounts and posted daily on the main three: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, You Tube and later TikTok. We started growing our following with friends, ran contests and giveaways to increase our fan base. It is key to target the proper demographic on the social networks. So, we joined and started likeminded groups where our wares could be shared and sold. We not only posted about what we had for sale but also posted music-related news, tour dates and other topics that related to our audience. Social is all about connecting with your audience, not just always selling. It is also important to see what people like, read the responses and interact when comments are made. Another way to grow your following is to use hashtags and actively comments on others’ posts regularly.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

We primarily sell on our own website at driftermerch.com. However, we also utilize Etsy and Amazon. Etsy is great for added exposure since it is a shopping site that many go to look for music-inspired merch. While Etsy is a added resource, it does take a percentage of sales. On the other hand, Amazon is a platform where we have always tested our designs as well as showcase retired designs. This is a really great avenue for selling as it reaches the masses as well as offers free Prime shipping. Customers have the capability for our designs to be printed in multiple colors and in various styles from tank tops, long sleeves and hoodies to phone cases, pillows and tote bags. The downside, however, is that Amazon is a print on demand service. It tends to print larger than we prefer and doesn’t use the ink used in screen printing so the images do not last as long on the fabrics.

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Image Credits
Drifter Merch