5 Ways Etsy Sellers Get Social Media Wrong
26. Aug, 2012 
9 Comments
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MAGNETS: Safari Jungle Animal by: OriginalAnimalMagnet
Social media has quickly become the place for creative business owners to promote their products and connect with their customers. Social media marketing provides Etsy sellers the unique opportunity to have a direct relationship with their customers who love their products. It’s not a matter of if you do social media, it is how well you do social media that counts. Social media can benefit Etsy sellers greatly, but only one misstep can leave a long-lasting, negative impact. Here are five things to consider with promoting your Etsy shop on social media sites.
1. Unfinished Social Profiles With Lack of Design
Filling out your social profiles completely and having a professional looking Facebook Fan page will let your customers know you are serious about your Etsy business. Your profiles are there to let your fans and customers know more about you and your Etsy business. They are looking for you on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites. Get creative with your Facebook cover photo, profile picture and wall posts!
2. You Don’t Have to be Everywhere
Luckily, doing social media does not mean you have to be everywhere all the time. It is more about picking the social media sites that are right for your business and sticking with them. Limiting yourself to 1-3 sites will help you grow your social network faster. Don’t spread yourself too thin.
Don’t forget that neglecting your social media presence can hurt your Etsy business. Don’t sign up for that new site if you don’t have time to manage and engage with your followers.
3. This is Not All About You: Too Much Self-Promotion
The quickest way to lose fans and followers is to constantly push your products on them. Just broadcasting about your business and products will just become annoying white noise to your followers and they will eventually get fed up and leave. The business that succeeds on social media sites posts on a variety of topics that can inform and engage their fans. Create value for your fans that will keep them coming back to your fan pages and profiles for more.
Let your fans know that you are an expert in your niche. If you are a knitter, post articles about knitting that you have found around the web. Your fans probably enjoy knitting, so teach them more about your niche.
4. Lack of Consistency
The key to long-term social media success is being consistent. The lack of a well-laid out, consistent posting schedule on social media sites can leave your fans looking for more and even wondering why you are leaving them hanging.
Things to consider for your social media marketing schedule/plan.
- Do you have a marketing plan or strategy in place or are you just posting away on Facebook and Twitter just hoping that someone is listening?
- Do you have goals set for each day, week, month, or even the year?
- Who is my target market?
- When should I be posting on social media sites?
- I am posting enough variety… a good mix between promoting, informing, and engaging content?
- What will keep my fans coming back?
- Do my fans see me as an authority in my niche?
5. Social Media is Not FREE
Yeah sure it’s free to sign up and free to post, but like I said, social media marketing takes time and your time is worth something. Actually your time is worth way more than just something! You are in charge and running every aspect of your Etsy business, so your time is priceless.
Spending multiple hours per day on social media sites “networking” is not helping your ROI (return on investment).
How Can Promotesy Help Etsy Sellers Marketing Their Shops.
- Help create a social media presence when you can’t be there. Through this powerful scheduling system, you can automatically post your Etsy items and any other status update on Facebook , Tiwtter, and LinkedIn any time of the day. Keep your customers engaged with what is happening with your Etsy shop, and articles from your niche. Ask your fans and followers questions and keep the conversation going.
- Create a consistent posting schedule, so your fans can expect to see your posts. At the same time you will be improving your Google ranking, cause Google is putting more of an emphasis on social proof.
- Save time! Promotesy is fully integrated with your shop and your items are right there in the visual dashboard. It is designed to save Etsy sellers time. More time means you can create more and have more time to run your shop…thanks to lightning quick posting and scheduling!
For just $5 per month, Promotesy can help Etsy sellers get on the right track with their social media marketing.
Check out all the details on Promotesy including walk through videos HERE.
About The Author
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Your 5 points are very true. Moreover, the ‘not being everywhere’ is such a great point. Something I wanted to bring up is that you want to certainly go to all the social media sites and get your name to be sure you get it right from the start, even though you might not use it immediately. Also, play around with the different social media avenues and see which one brings you the best ROI. Another thing to consider to hit 2, 3, or 4 birds with one stone is to use a site like Hootsuite where you can post, say a listing or something you like, to more than one social media outlet right from there. This saves a LOT of time and it gets you out there from one click.
Just my two or three cents … LOL!
Thanks so much for this post!!!
Taradara
Great tips, especially about spreading yourself too thin!
It took me a year to sign up for Facebook and I’ll be taking my time perfecting my page and posts until taking on a new media outlet
Great ideas, I will start right now. Thanks!