A lot of sellers on
Folksy have talked about viewings lately, what time is best to list, how to get more views etc. I have been lucky enough to be one of the top most viewed shops on Folksy for the past few months so I thought I would try and share some of what I do to get those views.
I am not the worlds most technical person and getting to grips with social networking has been a struggle for me, but Im getting there.
For me my first challenge was
Twitter. So I signed up and started following a few people and having a chat. Soon I got some followers and then some more. I have over 2000 at present. Now not everyone is going to click your links, but lots do. I have had quite a few sales from there. And if only 1 of each of the followers friends then follows me I would be up to over 4000.
Try and be sociable, dont just tweet links and do help other people out by re-tweeting their links too, soon people will be retweeting yours and thats going to all their followers too.
I signed up to
Tweetdeck as it is much easier to see what is going on as you can have lots of columns open for different things. I have the timeline, my mentions, my followers, a search for #folksy, #junebugs (the folksy listing club this month) and I do sometimes open a column and search for people mentioning things that are relevant to my shop ie. #purses. If someone mentions they are looking for a new purse I tweet them a link to mine.
Once I felt I had got to grips with twitter it was time to concentrate on
Facebook.
I already had a personal profile, but had seen that some people had a business page too. So that seemed like a great idea. I created my
Pantsandpaper page. Each time I list I pop a link on facebook, again this has brought in lots of views and sales. I enjoy looking through peoples pages and like those that appeal to me. The more pages you like, the more that will probably like you back and then their followers like you too, again its rolling. Now I have over 1000 'likes' and more followers each day.
I also use
Craftjuice. You sign up, and submit an item. It then can be seen by others who click if they like it, when it has had so many clicks Craftjuice then tweets it. You can also re-tweet it and other peoples. Craftjuice also has a facebook page, so your item will also appear on there. Dont forget to click on other people items and that will build some followers and people who will then click on yours. Dont forget each of these sites are about networking, so make sure you help other people out too.
The latest site I use is
Pinterest. You can have a number of boards which you fill with whatever takes your fancy. I have a board for Folksy Shops and add things that I have seen that I like. I have another which is things from my shop. I have one for things I see that are gorgeous etc etc. Again, dont just pin your own items, pin other peoples and not just other Folksy shops, but try looking through Etsy etc. If you pin something from etsy and people like it, they look at your boards and they follow you maybe and then you have perhaps some international followers.
This is also true on other sites. Dont just think GB think global. I have just stocked a shop in Portugal, which I believe found me on Facebook. You have the whole world to socialise with.
I also use
Stumbleupon I am just getting to grips with this site and am not quite sure what to do, but there is some advice and info about it to be found on the Folksy Blog.
Advcrtising. I do also advertise. To do this I use Project Wonderful. This is a great site where you can place ads on other peoples blogs, websites etc. It can cost very little. You can also arrange advertising space on your own blog, which people pay for, it then gives you money to spend on your own advertising. You dont need to be a wizz kid to set up an advert. Mine is simply a photo which links to my folksy shop. I only advertise in a couple of places at weekends, when I think most people have got time on their hands to sit and browse some blogs. This usually brings in around 100 views.
There are lots of handmade directories. Have a search around and add yourselves to the lists. There is sometimes a very small charge for this. Try this one Shop Handmade UK.
Of course there is also blogging, which I am particularly bad at doing. So cant give much advice in that direction but today there is a great bit on the Folksy Blog all about getting more comments and followers to your blog.
When you are doing all of the above think about timing. Dont just charge in stumbling, tweeting etc. It is no point tweeting early morning if your followers are all asleep. Again there are very quiet times throughout the day, like school run and tea time. Think about when people are likely to be looking. I use craftjuice around lunchtime on the basis that by the time it is tweeted it will be evening and busier on twitter.
Also, if you are looking at USA viewings on your shop, then dont tweet when they will all be asleep, remember time zones.
The best thing to remember is have fun,enjoy chatting and meeting people. Dont try and do it all at once if like me you struggle with working out how to do it all. Concentrate on one thing at a time and build it up.
Join in, there are plenty of giveaways, chat forums etc to meet like minded people.
If you want to see how your doing check out this site Social Mention. Pop in the name of your shop and see where you have been mentioned. It is great fun. I have found out that I was on The Altoid Mint Website for a while. I am listed in Ben & Jerry's top fav twitter names and one of my silly conversations I had on twitter was even mentioned in the Seattle Times.
I wont offer any advice on how to use all these sites, but there is plenty of help out there.
Have fun, enjoy chatting, and see those views go up and hopefully more sales as well.
Sam x
