Social Networking....Do You?

Retro 80s Computer Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 16.00

With the dawn of the computer era being a great place to shop, it seems that most of our advertising if not all should be online. There are just such a sea of places, it's difficult to know where to start! The easiest of all of these was the blog! It's easy to set up, but the difficult part about it, is keeping it fresh daily! I usually spend breakfast time and clean up of the dishes thinking of what to blog about. If I have a thought in mind, but i've blogged that day, I will usually type it up and save it for posting another time :)

On to happier thinking! There was once a time that I had no clue what-so-ever Myspace and Facebook were and in fact I really wanted nothing to do with them, they were a hodge podge of stuff I just didn't understand. Then there is Flickr, Of course just as I get into the swing of it all a new thing comes up and it's called Twitter. I feel like they are popping up everywhere and anywhere! (feel free to add me on anything by just clicking the links to my profiles).

The question then becomes, how do I make these sites work for ME? I know you all are thinking that! To me, Myspace is still a black hole and I needed a lot of help for my site to still look as less-than-stellar than it does :) To make this site work for me, I really had to find someone that knew the ins and outs way better than I did and that's my cousin! I have several people that are in my niche market that i'm related to and see quite often, so in exchange for putting my Etsy mini in their profiles they get free goodies every now and then. This has helped me a TON! They have loads of friends and the time to spend hours on this site! For my part, I send out bulletins on sales or really interesting blog posts, but I try hard NOT to spam my friends with too much of the bulletins. I remove people that seem to post them non-stop. The newest thing i'm trying is switching around my profile picture every now and then, What make some people click may not work with others! I'm going to start copying and pasting my blog posts from here onto the blog there too, just to give it a little more of a not abandoned feeling! Myspace gets me some pretty good sales from first time Etsians.

Typewriter Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 10.00

With Facebook, I feel a bit more comfortable, though this is NOT the place to start if you don't have anything else. People cannot view your profile unless they are your friends and customers usually don't want to add you as a friend since Facebook is a lot more personal than any of the other sites. I pretty much use this site to connect with my friends (old and new) Family (far and near) and Etsy shop owners. To get the word out about sales or new items I use the status bar at the top and I also post a NOTE to my profile. Facebook gets me a lot of blog traffic in the end and a few sales if that from sellers.

Camera Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 13.00

Flickr is defiantely my friend and where I have been most successful! Be sure to follow the rules though! No shop information or links, no for sale verbiage (sold, see my profile, for sale) and not a strictly commercial site (only things for sale photographed). If you break these rules, you risk getting shut down. YES it happens, and it has happened to friends of mine. AND I was one of the lucky ones that got a warning before being shut down. I was able to fix it all up straight away and i'm doing much better now! Just keep it personal too! There seems to be no rhyme or reason for the warnings vs. the shut downs, so play it safe. The admin on this site is verrrrrrry verrrrrrrry slow in getting back to you about anything, so be sure you allow yourself enough time if you need to get a hold of someone. It seems that my studio shots and ones of my supplies seem to get me the most traffic and people into my store that do in fact lead to sales. (remember my previous post about where my sales came from). I keep alot of my family photos visible to only certain people though, just to keep it on the safe side. The key here is to be active in the community. Don't be greedy! I love to join groups, add my photos (Not millions at a time, that is a huge turn-off) and chat in the discussions! (I really dislike seeing tons of photos from someone in group pools and no active participation at all in the discussions). COMMENT on other peoples photos! If you like when people write nice stuff about your goodies, wouldn't you want someone else to say the same about yours? It's common courtesy online people :) That's all! I think the networking aspect of this site is what makes it my favorite, but oft neglected little pearl in the oyster.

Tweet Tweet Bird Bath Ring by MichellesCharmWorld 7.00

Finally Twitter! This one is super easy to use, once you figure out there is no deep down secret! haha! You just post what is on your mind, what you are doing, what you re looking at etc. and read what everyone else is doing. Tweeting is a lot fun this way. I can say for sure this one has lead to 5 sales in the month or so that I have been there. With here try NOT to spam everyone with your shop link and items 24-7. That gets annoying and gets you unfollowed. Don't add people and then unfollow them and then add them again when they unfollow you. It's not a game on who can add the most people.

Movie Queen Video Camera Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 15.00

Next on my list is testing out You Tube, I need to make a video first and then I will see what happens from there! That's about it for me! Have any other sites that I should be checking out????