Four Social Media Strategies to Reel In Jewelry Clients

Many jewelers recognize the power of social media to promote their designs, reach new customers and interact with those they already have. But with algorithms ever changing and new features regularly emerging, it can be tricky for brands to maintain reach and engagement unless they adapt their strategies. While priorities vary between platforms, authenticity is a key trend across social media this year. Here, we look at four different approaches that are finding traction in jewelers’ social media marketing.

1. Founder-led content

“I’m really about relationship-building with my clients,” says New York-based jewelry designer Jade Trau. “It’s never about the quick sale. It’s really about how can I be a partner to you and [be] the person you’re going to come to for all your jewelry needs.”

That’s why the content her self-titled brand puts out includes Trau herself talking about her personal relationship with jewelry. It’s something that “creates a lot of relatability,” she says, adding that “people will come out of the woodwork” and reach out to her on Instagram after seeing such content — as they did when she spoke with her mom for a Mother’s Day reel. The energy it creates “is very different from a traditional reel or post,” she explains.

An Instagram reel in April about Trau’s personal ring stack attracted 127,200 views, which is nearly eight times the average for the brand’s content. Featured pieces included one of Trau’s discontinued designs, the oval-shaped gold-and-diamond Adele ring that she wears on her pointer finger and has engraved with her mantras. After receiving custom orders for the Adele following the reel, Trau is thinking of adding the design back into the collection.

The brand’s fine jewelry is not a seasonal product, she says. “You’re buying it and you’re wearing it and owning it; it becomes a part of you. So I think people want to feel connected.”

2. User-generated content

Customer-created content is a core pillar of British fine jeweler Annoushka’s social media presence.

The company has been working recently to “bring the brand to life a little bit more” and “create a greater sense of community,” says CEO Zia Zareem-Slade. “The move from broadcast to really understanding the need for engagement and creating interaction has been a big focus for the last year.”

The company grew its combined following on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok by 41% to 154,349 in the 12 months that ended August 11, with engagement up 1,192% in the same period. In the US, which Zareem-Slade says accounts for “about 30% and growing” of online sales, there was a 78% uptick in followers.

“Obviously the more thumb-stopping the visual is, whether [it’s] a real close-up on a piece or something that creates a level of curiosity…the better it performs,” she says. “And — maybe unsurprisingly in the jewelry world — the more emotionally connected to the moment something is, as opposed to just how to wear it, [the more] we see that content…perform better than anything else.” A post in July featuring photos from a newly engaged client attracted more than 225,000 combined impressions over a four-week period. 

Showing the emotional connection behind a bespoke piece leads to inquiries about other commissions, adds Zareem-Slade. “[User-generated content] helps people understand the power of jewelry to really help you capture memory, and that’s why it elicits such [a] great response.”

3. Reality series

Shahla Karimi had long thought there needed to be a jewelry-themed reality TV show — and this summer, she created a proof of concept. In June, the designer’s self-titled brand launched Diamond Divas, a vertical-format comedy reality series for social media that it describes as “Say Yes to the Dress meets The Office.”

Shot over three days in the jeweler’s New York showroom, the series features eight women, including Karimi, interacting with “customers.” Unbeknownst to most people involved, those customers were improv actors, but Karimi says the encounters “replicated real people” and their love stories. “We wanted to show not only what it’s like to work with us and the type of people that come in, [but also what love and commitment look like] through the lens of a jewelry showroom.”

The brand spent almost $80,000 — including the cost of hiring a stylist — to film 40 one-minute episodes, which Karimi says was the “entire marketing budget for the year.” Diamond Divas-related content, available on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest, accounted for four of the jeweler’s five best-performing Instagram posts in the three months from mid-May to mid-August. Diamond Divas has been building the brand and its social media following, according to Karimi, who expects the series to garner five million views — mostly on Instagram — by the end of the year.

Clients have mentioned the series when making purchases, and it might lead to the TV show Karimi envisioned. She says the brand has signed an “exclusive shopping agreement” with entertainment-investment firm The Tornante Company to develop the concept into a standard-format series for streaming or television. 

4. Instagram broadcast channel

In June, British demi-fine jeweler Monica Vinader launched its MV Circle Instagram broadcast channel — a messaging tool that lets brands share content directly with followers who join — to run parallel to its email loyalty program of the same name. Member perks of both include early access to sales, collection previews, and behind-the-scenes content.

In return, Monica Vinader can capture “real-time feedback” from its most engaged customers, says Ali Leier, assistant vice president for brand activation at the jeweler, which has two standalone stores in the US plus an offering at high-end department store Nordstrom.

In the first 10 weeks, the channel attracted about 1,400 members from the brand’s 839,000 Instagram followers. The aim is to grow this significantly before the holiday season.

“While the numbers are lower overall…those people in there are highly engaged,” says Leier, reporting that the engagement rate in the broadcast channel is about 150% higher than in the public grid. Once the channel has more members, it will be “a way to maintain engagement, [which is] a little harder to do on Instagram now that the algorithm’s become more like TikTok.”

Follower count is less important than it was, she elaborates, as the algorithm will serve quality content to followers and non-followers alike. And while posts, reels and stories don’t necessarily reach followers, a broadcast channel can message members directly.

“Dark social” — referring to interactions that aren’t publicly visible — is gaining more significance on Instagram, she adds. The main metrics “used to be likes and comments, but now shares are huge, as [are] saves, so [the broadcast channel] is a way to engage with how users are engaging with the platform now.” 

Main image: (Annoushka)