Social Media Series: What Twitter Can Do For You

Ah, twitter. The wonderful land of tweets and retweets. Doesn't it just sound pleasant? Twitter can be used to promote your online business in a couple of ways; tweeting and messaging.

The first thing that you need to do is obviously set up a twitter account. Check out this how-to guide to get started: http://www.ehow.com/how_

4612906_set-up-new-twitter-
account.html. Okay, now that you have set up your account. Find people to follow. You can follow your friends and family. Go ahead and add any of your fellow Etsians. Most of all, you want to find ezines and marketing geniuses to follow. It is possible that they will add your items to their ezine, or retweet your tweets for some instant and free marketing!

Most people on twitter will follow you back, if you follow them first. It is nice to return the favor if someone follows you and you are not already following them. Unfortunately, this is not always possible because twitter has limitations to the number of people you can follow based on the number of followers that you have.

Now that you have an account and have started following people, you can start tweeting! Tweet about your giveaways, coupons, new products, and other goodies. Tweet your websites, blogs, and where to contact if someone wants a custom order. Tweet as much as you can! You can also go into your Etsy listings and tweet directly from your item pages. This is a great idea! I try to tweet at least 5 items in the morning, 5 items on my lunch break, and 5 items at night. You will see the difference in page views if you do this.

So, we have covered tweeting, setting up your account, and following. Now let's cover messaging. Everytime I get a new follower, I message them to thank them for following me and offer a coupon code or about my new giveaway or sale. Some followers will retweet your message to their followers. These are the people that you want to return the favor to. You also should go through your messages and tweets and retweet anything that you find interesting.

Though twitter is mostly about tweeting things to promote your shop, you can get a lot of interest in your twitter account by tweeting things that pertain to your craft. If you are a jewelry maker, tweet about an article that you read about the hippest beads that are on the market. If you are a soap maker, you can tweet about the article you read on the benefits of essential oils & aromatherapy. The possibilities are endless. You can even tweet about your latest blog post!

If you use twitter frequently, you will see a rise in page views and sales. 

Happy Sales!

Natalee