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

Social Media Series: What Can Facebook Do For You and Your Online Business?

We all know facebook as the tool to reconnect with family, friends, and other acquaintances. But, this just in, there are ways to use facebook to market your online business! We all know that starting an online business is difficult and requires a lot of time and patience. Your family and friends were probably some of your very first customers, as were mine. Because of this, we need to market to our friends and family on facebook, as well as other people that we haven't met yet. How do we do this?

Start by creating a fan page for your business! Your fan page operates as a business marketing tool where you can show new products, giveaways, etc. You can also keep your fans up to date on what is going to be coming up in your shop. To start a fan page, simply go tohttps://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and follow the steps listed on the screen. It only takes a few minutes.

After creating a fan page, now we must promote it! First, invite all of your friends and family to like your page. Go tohttp://www.ehow.com/how_8131628_invite-friends-fan.html and follow the steps. You will have a lot of followers in minutes, if your friends are constantly on facebook like some of mine are. Now that you have your friends and family covered, lets use those Etsy teams to our advantage! Go to each individual team, click on the thread in the team that says social media links or facebook links and go through each of the fan pages. "Like them" with your personal facebook page and leave a comment telling them that you are a new fan from (your business name here) and give them a link to your facebook fan page. Most fellow Etsians will like your page back. A lot of them will like and share your posts, which helps you reach more people! You can also do this with Facebook Groups such as Fan Page Promote. Fan Page Promote lists several fan pages for you to "like" and in return those businesses will follow your fan page. Make sure you tell them where to go to "like" you! I also leave my other social media contacts (twitter, pinterest, tumblr, blog, etc).

Now that we have discovered the free way to build your facebook empire, let's explore the paid way. Facebook has its own marketing system called Facebook Ads. You can run ads for your business that will show up on the right hand side of pages who match the criteria that you establish during the create an ad phase. If they like your ad, they can like your fan page. Facebook Ads sometimes runs promotions, so make sure that you keep looking back at them, and sign up for their promotions so that you can get free ad space. You can also place ads on your posts. If you want a post to get to a lot of people, you can pay for facebook to promote your post to your fans and other random people. I personally have never used this feature, as it is new.

When posting on your fan page, make sure that your post is relevant to your business. Don't use it like your personal facebook page! You want to let your fans know a little bit a bout you and get to know your personality, but they don't need every detail. Try to stay positive, but you can always make jokes out of things that you messed up on or a bad day that you are having. I joked about messing up three batches of fudge before getting the perfect batch and received a lot of feedback. Know your audience!

Happy Sales and Happy Facebooking!

Natalee

Etsy Shop Promotion Series: Francesca's BNS/BNR Experiences

Are you a newbie to the BNS world, not quite sure if it's the thing for you? I hope sharing my experience will help you decide.

When I first heard about BNS/BNR treasuries I was greatly confused. Reading forum discussions about them only made it more confusing and difficult. I then contacted one of the people who had replied because she invited questions and seemed really friendly. She straightened out my questions, and I decided to give it a chance and see for myself how good or bad these treasuries really were.

It took me some time to understand everything going on. But the one thing I noticed immediately was how incredibly welcoming and supportive everyone is!  These people really care. Of course, I got some sales too and many more since then, but the best reward is the friendship I have received.

Bella's BNS Team is by far my favorite. Our leadership is awesome and dedicated, doing so many things to promote the treasuries, items, and shops, and to encourage us to be involved, all resulting in boards that fill up fast (translation: sales!). The members are friendly, fun, and creative, and genuinely desire success for everyone. The support system of this team and others like it are incredibly valuable to me. To me, these are great reasons to participate in BNS/BNR treasuries!


Francesca

Etsy Shop Promotion Series: Natalee BNS/BNR Experiences

Anyone who is new to Etsy will tell you that one of the most confusing things about it is the BNR/BNS. I'm not going to lie. I was lost when I first saw those acronyms, but I knew that I had to be a part of them! For some reason, I just knew that it would bring sales. I asked a teammate in one of my teams what the mysterious letters meant and she was nice enough to thoroughly explain it to me.

At first, I was not thrilled with the idea that I had to purchase an item that I probably didn't need to get a feature spot. However, the items that I have received from BNR & BNS events have been awesome and everything but needless! It seems that there is always something that can be found in these awesome events! The even greater thing is that you get to be featured on top of getting that new gift!

I have had a lot of success with BNR & BNS events. In fact, the best month that I have had so far can be attributed to being featured in a lot of them simultaneously. They bring in amazing new viewers, customers, and favorites. We all know that new viewers, customers, and favorites leads to increased revenue, search engine optimization, and a lot of other bonuses that every shop owner wants!

If you own an etsy shop and are looking to boost your views, sales, etc., I definitely recommend getting into some of these events. Even if you choose to participate in a BNT, you will still benefit from it! The more exposure you get, the better off you will be!

Happy Sales!

Natalee

Social Media Series: Why Do We Need Social Media Sites?

Wouldn't it be fabulous if images of your products were automatically posted all over the internet as you listed them? If customers were automatically emailed after the start up of your shop? Unfortunately, that is not a reality for those of us who have online businesses! Selling becomes a bit tricky when someone can't stop in and physically handle one of the products that are so lovingly planted on display. Marketing becomes a never-ending job that doesn't typically consist of mailing lists, newsletters, etc. Especially when you have just opened up and have no customer base!

To get your business and your name out there to the masses, you must find a way to speak to them in places online where they already frequent. That's right, social media sites! Not only is it a way for you to keep in touch with your family and closest friends, it is also a great avenue for your business. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and several others, get your products to an audience that isn't going to just show up to take a look at your goods at home, unannounced.

As an Etsy and Zibbet shop owner, I find that it is almost impossible to get my products into the ether without using these sites. Some of them are extremely tedious and demand a lot of attention. Others have very simple steps and only take minutes. However, I can tell you that when I view my shop stats several times throughout the day, I can tell if I have not sent any information to my potential customers and fans via social media. The difference between one tweet on twitter, or one post on Facebook, can make the difference of several item or shop views. It is amazing what a few minutes out of your day can do! I even find myself tweeting and pinning products from my phone during my lunch hour!

Now that you are listening, I want to invite you back to this blog for more details on social media sites and how to make them work for you and your business. In future posts, I will be delving one by one into the many sites that I use to get views. So, don't miss out on the information that could cost or make your next sale! Until next time, happy sales!

Natalee

Etsy Shop Promotion Series: Using BNS and BNR Boards on Etsy to Promote Your Business

If you have ever looked through the list of treasuries on Etsy you have seen BNR and BNS treasuries.  You will also see threads on every active Etsy team's discussion boards with links to these boards.  There are several teams on Etsy built entirely around participation on these boards.  What are BNR and BNS boards?  Well, I already covered that in a previous article.  So let's talk about why these are so popular.  Why do shops participate in these?  What makes it worth their time and money to invest in these boards?

Shops participate in different boards for different reasons.  So let's look at this board by board.  Let's take a moment to talk just about BNR boards and another to discuss BNS boards because both have different pros and cons, as each present different opportunities and challenges.

BNR Boards and How to Use Them

BNR boards are very popular.  I think it has something to do with our love of instant gratification.  You make a purchase and the item of your choice is immediately featured.  It is thrilling to see your shop immediately up on a board that is getting a lot of traffic.  Your adrenaline increases with the number of views your shop is getting.  And it happens instantaneously.  I have sold items in minutes after buying in on some boards.  I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it!  

These boards tend to move fast and have a lot of action.  There are usually several people chatting away and sales can be fast and furious if it is a busy board.  These are very social and fun boards.  There are often games, like trivia games, for a free feature in an upcoming board.  You can buy in several times.  Most boards have a max of 2 spots, but if someone buys from you then you can buy in again.  It is great exposure for your shop, as many people will see it and you have a great opportunity to get your product out there.  Once people see how wonderful it is they will be back for more!

The down side of these boards is that one buy in will only get you one sale because once someone buys from you they take your spot and you are no longer on the board.  Unless you buy in again.  Now that sale can be a significant sale, but my experience has been that money wise you usually break even.  People will often, but not always, buy a lesser priced item because their main goal is to get on the board while spending as little as possible.  BNR boards have never been a real source of revenue for me.

So why do I do them?  I consider it advertising.  Several people see my shop and get an opportunity to interact with me and experience my customer service first hand.  If they buy from my shop, they also get to hold my product in their hands and that is so very important.  BNR boards are a great way to get your product into someone's hands.  And that is the obstacle of selling anything.  Your first priority should always be getting your product into a customer's hands.  Once they are holding it, they develop a personal connection to it and can see it as being theirs.  Getting product into a customer's hands is a challenge to selling online and the best way to overcome that challenge is to use whatever tools you can to get your products out to customers.  And it doesn't stop with the customer because they will have friends, family, and co-workers that will potentially see that item and hold it and then they develop that personal connection to it and can see it being theirs.  The circle of life, retail sales version.

I recommend trying these boards out if you are looking to get exposure for your shop.  It will get you out there and known to potential customers.  You will put product into customer's hands.  You may even make a little money.  You might just break even.  But your shop name will be out there for hundreds of people to see.  And all it costs you is a buy in fee that is usually $5 or less.  That is really cheap advertising.

BNS Boards and How to Use Them

I love BNS boards.  These boards run on rounds so you stay on the board until the round ends.  A round is usually around 6-12 sales.  The buy in to a round runs around $5 or less on most boards.  Even after someone buys from your store, you still stay up there until the round ends.  This gives you the potential to make multiple sales for one buy in.  I love getting more for less.

There are often opportunities to get an extra round by buying form a certain row or column.  Sometimes you get extra rounds for buying from the curator or a featured shop.  Often a board will run a referral contest, the person to refer the most people to the board to fave it or once a person gets to 10 referrals or whatever random number they decide will win an extra round.  Sometimes the curator will give opportunities to buy in at no minimum buy in cost.  There is always a coupon list and most shops will have a coupon code for you to use.  These boards are full of great deals.

They are also very social boards at times.  A BNS doesn't have a constant curator.  They are set up to be able to kind of work as self service shopping.  So sometimes a board will be completely dead and you will just see pages of people leaving comments that they faved or refaved.  Or they will say that someone sent them for that person to get a referral.  Or you will see transaction links and the curator updating the list for the next round.  These are slow times during the board when there aren't many people coming in.  I mean this is retail and all stores have their slow times.  I have a friend who works in a shoe store.  When it is slow they all go into a back room and knit.  If a customer comes in one of them stops and goes out and takes care of the customer, but they take turns so no one is having to put their knitting down often.  I think this is awesome!  

That is what our curators are doing too when it is slow.  They may not be knitting, but they are crafting something.  They stop working and check in on the board and update it as needed.  They thank everyone that stopped in.  They may ask if there are any shoppers.  If it is still quiet they will go back to crafting or whatever they need to do and then they will check in on the board again and go through the same thing.  If there are people around that want to chat the curator will often join in.  You will often find chat going on while the curator is out.  If a group of people are on the board at the same time you will often see conversation going on.  There are friendly people everywhere you go on these boards.

These boards are also great exposure because your shop stays up for an entire round.  Usually a full day and sometimes two or three if sales are slow.  This give an opportunity for many hundreds and, occasionally if the board moves a time or two, even over a thousand people a chance to see your shop.  The visibility to your shop is fabulous!

Both boards have their unique pros and cons, but both boards do give your shop exposure.  People see your shop on them.  They will browse through it.  They will favorite items or your shop.  And they will buy from you.  Each person has their personal preferences as to which board they like best, but I recommend trying both out and see how you feel about them.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing our new blog writers Natalee and Francesca's experience with BNR and BNS boards.  I will also go into strategies to employ on both boards to get the maximum benefit of each.  Until then, I hope you will visit these boards and learn more about them.

Love and Peace,

Luci