Hobby Oriented Social media...turned side hustle?

I will admit that I am still doing the readings for this week. However, one of the readings I chose from the list was the article  Teens and social media: A case study of high school students’ informal learning practices and trajectories. One thing I noticed about the case studies about these teenagers was that most adults follow similar patterns with social media. 

Case in point..

While I started with email, text and the other smaller tools, I began like most older adults of my generation with exploring MySpace. This didn't last long though. Eventually, I discovered Facebook and I too was concerned with connections and privacy and mostly because of the fact that I am a teacher. Like most I used the internet to search for lessons, ideas, and creative approaches to planning and activities. Eventually I stumbled upon YouTube and Pinterest. While I view YouTube and use videos in the classroom- as a consumer, I am not a producer nor do I usually contribute via comment threads or follow YouTubers. On Pinterest, I have more of a presence and collect numerous 'pins' and create many public and private boards. I share some of those boards also. I have followers I know and some I don't. I have 10,105 Pins as of right now and 100 boards. Do I sometimes just pin things and not look at them again? Probably. Have I gone back and used some of these pins and boards? Yes, often. 

Let me give you my own case study so to speak. When my children were first born, I only worked Part-time teaching and needed something to bring in another form of income (and a craft to keep me sane so to speak). I started by making tutus and bows after creating some for their 1st birthday party. After using Pinterest for inspiration and a lot of trial and error, I got pretty decent at the tutus and bows. Friends and family started asking for me to make them for their children. So I started a side hustle. Soon social media posts started happening with me being tagged. Eventually, it was suggested that I do some 'vending' shows and start an Etsy business. A Square was purchased and mobile purchases were started. I had a business Facebook page and a following. Eventually, I bought a sewing machine and taught myself to sew from YouTube videos. Being the Type A person I am, I got really good at sewing through the use of the videos and ended up being able to create products I could sell on my Etsy platform. My business grew more. My Pinterest boards did too as I was pinning ideas and patterns. We even had photoshoots done for the Etsy page and my Halloween costumes won a costume contest at a comic con and were featured in the Boston Globe . I eventually even began to ship items internationally. Truth be told, until I read these case studies, I didn't realize how much of a social media presence I already had. I also didn't realize how much of a presence I could've had and how much better I could've done at marketing if I simply understood the tools more. 

                      (This is one of my promotional pictures from my shop and FB page)

Eventually my kids turned 3 and I needed to go back to work full time. So I closed the Etsy shop and went back to teaching full time. I sold all my inventory and gave the left over bows and such to my friends and family and of course my girls. Let's just day my girls have more bows and headbands than they know what to do with :) 

I didn't make much of a profit so to speak in the online crafting world, but I gained a world of knowledge.