IN AN INDUSTRY TRADITIONALLY built on face-to-face relationships and the sparkle of gemstones under showcase lighting, independent jewelers are discovering that social media, particularly video content, has become essential to survival and growth. Jewelers embracing these platforms aren’t just posting pretty pictures; they’re developing comprehensive strategies that are yielding remarkable results: substantial follower growth, increased foot traffic, higher average sales, and even customers willing to travel across state lines for their services.
Independent jewelry store owners are pressed for time and pulled in a lot of directions, so it’s not surprising some have been slow to experiment with the nuances of social media. They may be stuck in a rut of doing the same things that seemed to work 10 years ago.
“It’s the same as anything else,” says Chae Carter Wooton, second-generation owner of Carter’s Collective Fine Jewelry in Petal, MS. “Why were our showcases dark and scary? Why did we all have maroon carpeting for so long? There are so many moving parts to owning a jewelry store, and everything is so important that it’s hard to implement anything new. But things are moving so fast now, and I’m afraid for businesses who cannot adjust fast enough; they will be so far behind.”
The jewelers finding the most success aren’t just posting sporadically — they’re committing time and resources, experimenting with multiple platforms, and leveraging the unique storytelling capabilities that only video can provide. Whether it’s viral videos that rack up six-figure views, educational content about gemstones that builds trust, or behind-the-scenes looks at custom design processes that humanize the business, these retailers are finding that authenticity and creativity drive both engagement and sales.
Finding Your Social Media Strategy
Chris James Boehner, a graduate gemologist, private jeweler and appraiser based in Nashville, TN, has built a following of more than 100,000 on social media. He emphasizes that effective social media requires commitment and clarity of purpose.
“The hardest thing is it’s a job and you have to dedicate time to it. And put a strategy around it,” he says. “Do you want to increase awareness locally, sell things online, or become an authority? Once you know what the goal is, you need to keep that in mind.”
For some jewelers, that goal might be establishing expertise. For others, it’s showcasing inventory or building a community. Grace Barretti, marketing director for Greenwich St. Jewelers in New York City, sees social media as essential to their customer journey.
“It’s a window into our products, people and services. The more platforms you’re on, the more windows you have,” she explains. “The work you put in on social media has a long footprint. People bring in posts from five years ago.”
Barretti notes that social media brings in new customers regularly because they research Greenwich St. as well as its competitors before choosing to visit. “People want to know what they’re walking into, and so they heavily research a place, the vibe, the staff; do any of these people look like me? Do they seem like they know what they’re talking about? Can you find examples of custom styles?”
Her advice is simple: “You want everyone to have the best view of you.”
For Susan Kauffman, owner of Black Dog Jewelry in Lewisburg, PA, social media was a lifeline during the pandemic. When COVID hit in 2020, the business was under a mandatory shutdown from mid-March until June. “We flipped to having online auctions on Facebook,” she says. “We would post about 100 items, and it was wildly successful. We could order high-margin jewelry, post it on Facebook and people were buying it. People had discretionary income, and earrings were huge. It kept us going and got our name out there.”
When her store reopened, this online engagement drove traffic to the physical location. In a town that once had three jewelry stores, Black Dog is now the sole survivor, a success Kauffman attributes largely to their social media presence. “This past year, we gained a lot of new customers and our numbers were off the charts,” she says.
Allison Love, owner of Allison Love’s Fine Jewelry in Rockhill, SC, has found that consistency pays off, even if results aren’t immediate. “It’s like radio, it takes a while for people who like the posts to actually show up in the store,” she explains. “It’s important to live up to their expectations in person. Offering some unexpected fun is important, too! We invested in a slushie machine.”
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Video: The Essential Element
While still images have their place, video has rapidly become the most engaging format across platforms. Joseph Denaburg of Levy’s Fine Jewelry in Birmingham, AL, has mastered the art of creating video content that stops the scroll.
“It’s more important to post once a week and have it really be cool than to post something every day and have it be lame,” he advises.
With 24,000 followers on Facebook and more than 70,000 on Instagram, Denaburg has found a formula that works. His videos often feature slow reveals of jewelry pieces from boxes, and his approach is strategic: “The reason all of our videos get six-figure views is the people who are going to scroll within one second, 50% of them stay four seconds because it takes four seconds to open the box for an eight-second video.”
This engagement prompts algorithms to serve the video to more viewers. Denaburg hasn’t bought paid ads in five years, finding that organic reach works better for his brand.
Perhaps most surprisingly, he believes that the jewelry itself isn’t the primary draw. “What people actually want is to be entertained,” he says. “I try to make videos where even if you don’t care about jewelry at all, they’re fun to watch.”
His attention to detail sets his content apart: “How I got good at social media is that occasionally at night, I will look through hundreds of videos of ours and notice small details that could be better. I obsess over doing things better. Better zoom here, less focus on something there. That obsession with improvement is why we’ve gotten to where we are on social media.”
Storytelling That Connects
Zach Emigh, owner of Emigh Jewelry Company in Butler, PA, has built a following of 700,000 across platforms by focusing on storytelling. His breakthrough came when a customer brought in a ring that had been cut off in the emergency room after a bee sting caused his hand to swell.
The video telling this story garnered 20 million views.
“It clicked at that point that I should start sharing some interesting stories that I come across,” Emigh says. “Once I started focusing on the storytelling aspect and kept things relatable to a large audience, it really took off.”
His most popular content features emotional stories behind jewelry transformations. One told the story of an engagement ring client who was riding a motorcycle when he was in an accident and the car behind him crushed a ring box, causing damage to a newly purchased engagement ring.
Emigh has found particular success with videos about remodeling inherited jewelry. These videos have drawn customers from Florida, Chicago and New York, who will travel to work with him. (He doesn’t accept client jewelry by mail.)
Emigh makes a complimentary video for each client, detailing the story behind the piece. For one client, Emigh combined her late husband’s thumbprint pendant and his wedding band into a new pendant. “She loved the piece, but she had more of a reaction to the video,” Emigh says.
Inspired by his viral videos, Zach Emigh gives each client a video telling the story of their jewelry’s reinvention.
“She broke down in tears. She can share that video with her family and friends to tell a story about the piece she wears every day. The video is the extra cherry on top.”
For another project, Emigh is working with a client whose young daughter died of cancer. Her daughter’s wish was that her mother continue to wear her mother-daughter necklace. “She’s afraid the original will fall apart, and so she’s going to send me photos and we’re going to re-create it in platinum,” Emigh says.
The hundreds of videos showing his craftsmanship have built tremendous trust with his audience. “I have a decent track record now,” Emigh says.
Overcoming Video Reluctance
Despite the clear benefits, many jewelers hesitate to put themselves on camera. Chae Carter Wooton has been creating videos for a decade despite not considering it her favorite activity. “I do it as a means to an end. I enjoy it a little bit. But I love designing jewelry and the business aspect, and that’s what I want to spend more time on.”
She originally embraced video marketing to differentiate her store from competitors, “especially male-dominated stores with the reputation of being stiff and unapproachable, with intimidating price points to match. I used it to humanize and connect with people, so people would think, this is a real person I’d like to have brunch with,” she says.
More recently, she’s worked with her husband, Drew Wooton, a video strategist, to elevate her approach. Drew produces both short clips and longer 10-to-20-minute videos about a variety of businesses, with the primary goal of humanizing the business owner. Drew encourages Chae to tell the stories behind her custom jewelry pieces, giving viewers an inside look into the process and allowing them to learn more about her as a person.
“That’s very important with millennial and Gen Z purchasers,” Drew explains. “They want an in-depth way to know what you’re about and who you are from a business standpoint.”
One of their most successful campaigns was a tongue-in-cheek video about what they decided to call a “pickleball bracelet” instead of a tennis bracelet, recognizing the immense popularity of pickleball in their community.
For store owners who say they’re too busy for such an undertaking, Drew offers an efficiency perspective: He can get 30 to 50 clips and a month’s worth of social content from just one hour of a store owner’s time on camera.
“People fear putting themselves out there, and seeing yourself on camera is unsettling,” Drew acknowledges. “It takes a certain type of person to take that leap.”
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Chae offers practical advice for the camera-shy: “Sometimes the pressure doesn’t have to be on you. It can be interviews with team members, your jeweler, customer testimonials. You can get creative.
“Instead of struggling to create content, my strategy continues to be talking about what I’m working on: what it’s like to go to a show and source gems, what it’s like to meet with a client, etc.”
The results speak for themselves. While planning a new store opening in Hattiesburg, MS, Chae’s videos about the demolition and interior design of the building had garnered 100,000 views by March, months before the August opening. “People have always seen me locally, but now they feel like they’re watching TV,” she says. “They’re invested in the store and what’s going on. They feel like they’re watching a reality show.”
Platform Strategies That Work
As social media has evolved, jewelers have found that a one-size-fits-all approach no longer works. Different platforms attract different demographics and require tailored content.
Dianna Rae High, owner of Dianna Rae Jewelry in Lafayette, LA, works with a social media agency to maintain consistency and stay on trend. The specialists visit weekly to establish monthly themes, handle photography and video production, and ensure alignment with the store’s identity.
“You can’t do one thing anymore and post it on different formats,” High explains. “It takes a little extra work and a little extra money to differentiate. For a while, we were spending so much time on Instagram and building our bridal business that we were alienating our old crowd on Facebook.”
Her team now tailors content for each platform’s demographic: “On Facebook, where people are not generally buying an engagement ring, we’ll talk about remounting or restyling, our repair business, featuring a lot of before-and-afters. Instagram is more for our young brides. We do put colored gemstones on there too because that’s us, we sell a lot of colored gemstones. TikTok is more video-based, and appeals to younger bridal customers, too.”
Pop culture tie-ins have proven particularly engaging. A “Bridgerton” social media series paired colorful jewelry and gemstones with TV characters in costume, while a “Wicked”-themed series featured pink and green jewelry with content from the movie. Videos of both Dianna and her daughter Ronni offering educational tips also receive strong engagement.
While their social media efforts don’t directly generate much online business, Instagram engagement converts to in-store sales, especially during holiday seasons. “The website is very active, but people look at our website and bring in screenshots and say, ‘I want this,’” High notes.
Greenwich St. Jewelers has organized their content strategy around three distinct pillars: inspiration, education and awareness.
For inspiration, they showcase how jewelry can be worn. “Our stylists are excellent. We have gorgeous videos of custom engagement rings, love story proposals, and amazing, high-quality images of fine jewelry,” Barretti explains. “The goal with choosing images is to make people feel something and to make their eyes open a little wider.” Their approach to photography has evolved with the platforms. “It used to be that professional photography was a given. Now it’s a spectrum. You can use lower resolution iPhone cameras with what you’d consider bad lighting to convey a lifestyle or a mood a customer identifies with. It feels true to life and realistic.
Having a balance of the two is the idea. The best photography is a lot of photography. Quantity is better than quality.”
For education, they use written captions to describe designer stories and gemstone information, while video format allows the owners to offer details about responsible sourcing. “People are surprised when you tell them you can know who mined your gemstone, you can see the rough diamond. Our in-house jewelry is made by our jewelers. We found that teaching people helps us stand out a bit.”
Finally, awareness content ensures followers know where to find them, especially important since they moved to a new location in Tribeca.
The COVID years accelerated Greenwich St.’s devotion to virtual clientele. “We realized that social media is not just important for people far away, but also for people right in your area as well,” Barretti notes. Their goal is to convey the same ethos online that shoppers will find in the physical location: “Luxury without pretension. And making sure everyone feels welcome.”
From Viral to Profitable
Chris James Boehner’s social media journey demonstrates how quickly things can change. He grew his Instagram following from 300 to 100,000 in just a few months through educational content about identifying real vs. fake jewelry.
His breakthrough came with a video about a $1 brooch he found at a flea market that could potentially be an antique. During the video, he accidentally mispronounced the word “brooch.”
“I don’t want to come across as an idiot, and I know people do that just to get people riled up and commenting. But the mispronunciation helped the video take off.” More than 665,000 people ultimately saw the video. Three days after posting, he had gained 30,000 followers. His next big hit was a video exploring whether a ring given to his wife as a child was costume jewelry or genuine, which garnered over 2 million views and pushed his following to 100,000.
“That one did resonate because it had more of a story behind it,” Boehner explains. “All of us are given things by our parents and we may wonder is it a family heirloom just because it is in the family, or could it be something of value? Real or fake has become my bread and butter. That’s what people know about me.”
This rapid growth required a business pivot. “I went viral and thought, I have to put a business model behind it. I was building the airplane as it was taking off.” While appraisals were previously his main source of revenue, he now sells sponsorships, jewelry through an online store, and an online course teaching flea market shoppers how to identify real metals and gemstones.
Boehner’s advice to jewelers is to start with the basics: “You’re just one video away from blowing up on Instagram. Go to YouTube and search how to edit a video, how to structure an Instagram reel. You will find hundreds of videos teaching you how to do this. That’s initially how I did it.”
He recommends a smartphone, a ring light with stand, and free editing software like CapCut, which is “the easiest free video editing platform for short-form content.” For growth, he suggests aiming for “three quality Reels a week” as a baseline goal.
“The best thing about bad content is no one sees it,” he says. “Start experimenting, get it out there, check your analytics. If it’s working, double down on that and you will get crazy growth.”
To create engaging content, Boehner suggests starting with a strong hook: “Don’t make these three mistakes when buying your engagement ring” or “This feels illegal to know” or “This might shock you, but…” to create curiosity. He emphasizes that consistency matters more than perfect timing. “If you have good content, it’s going to push out no matter what time or day you post.”
Collaborations That Convert
Beyond creating their own content, some jewelers are finding success through carefully cultivated collaborations with influencers and content creators.
Greenwich St. Jewelers partnered with TikTok influencer Xarissa B. (of Jewel Boxing), to design a 15-necklace capsule collection. When first posted, the collection sold out in 45 minutes. Later, Xarissa worked with Greenwich St. on a custom necklace for herself, sourcing the gemstone while Greenwich St. created a unique design. To make the necklace available to her followers, Greenwich St. hosted a meet-and-greet during which Xarissa’s followers could try on the necklace and custom order a piece in the same style.
“To see this digital community come together was a moment of jewelry joy,” Barretti recalls. The success stemmed from an authentic relationship: “It was not just a typical affiliate arrangement.
It was a real friendship and partnership we had that was years in the making with this content creator. People can tell when a collaboration is purely transactional. It works when it’s really intentional.”
Barretti notes that TikTok in particular offers opportunities for authentic connections: “It’s about connecting with customers who have a genuine experience in your store, and they post a video. “It’s something they’re talking about. Like a hot take. It’s a great experience.”
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Just Get Started
For jewelers hesitating to embrace social media, Kauffman offers a reality check: “In my own town people complain about not having business while not posting on social media. It’s a lot of work, but the payoff is worth it. We’re in the middle of Pennsylvania and we have customers coming from New York and Maryland.”
Posting eye-catching photos of moissanite and gold rings has transformed her business, boosting the store’s average sale from $1,500 to $8,000. “We can’t keep them in stock. It’s a big flashy ring for a good price point.”
Social media resonates with digitally connected consumers. The key is consistency, authenticity, and the willingness to share the stories that make jewelry so meaningful.
As Boehner puts it, “People spend an average of 144 minutes per day on social media. Why not have some engaging content? I like to teach people, build trust and turn them into customers.”
