I’d like to ask Folksy why they haven’t tweeted promotions on their twitter since November 2nd? Why aren’t they tweeting every single day?
Gail First of all I need to explain about Social media : Instagram and Pinterest as connected to your Folksy account. I hope I’m not making this too simplistic or telling you too much you already know but hope it will help you understand a little better how everything works
Instagram, Pinterest, (and Facebook, Twitter) are all completely separate programs, pieces of software or in terms of a tablet / mobile phone - Apps. They are not in any way connected to Folksy or your account there and run completely independently.
Once you have an Instagram account then you have the url
(URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator - had to look that up 
)
for that account and that is what you put into the Shop Appearance social media entries in your Folksy shop dashboard.
My url is https: //www.instagram.com/joysofglass/?hl=en
Yours is https:/ /www.instagram.com/demelzadesigns/
(had to add a space in those as it converted them otherwise )
i.e The instagram prefix and your instagram Id.
(that is what you have set up in your Folksy account and it takes me straight to your Instagram page, it is just the link from your shop on the Folksy program to your account in Instagram).
So you’ve done that right and do have an Instagram account so I think your problem now is simply getting into that account on your new tablet. ?
To get into Instagram you need:
a. The Instagram app installed on your tablet
b. To open the app once it’s installed and sign in using your Email address and your Instagram password.
So I could see what happens if you install it from scratch I wanted to install a nice clean and new Instagram onto my husband’s tablet as he doesn’t have it on there there but the tablet said NO this tablet is Full and no room for any more Apps.
So instead (I carefully changed my password so I now know what my password is ( 
) and I uninstalled the Instagram app from my phone and then reinstalled it by searching the Play Store App for Instagram and hit install.
I then opened the new Instagram App icon and signed in.
This needed the email address I used when I signed up to Instagram and the password. That is it. Now able to use Instagram on my phone.
Does that make sense? I’m not sure if you have the app on your tablet yet but if not you need to install it from Play store and then as I said above sign in using email address and password and everything should be fine. If you don’t know your Instagram password there is undoubtedly a request password reset screen which pops up which will send you a reset email… it didn’t do it to me as I knew mine.
If that works the same should apply to Pinterest. To use it on your tablet you need to have the Pinterest App installed and be signed in using your email and Pinterest password.
Let me know how you get on and if it works.
Apologies if i have gone off completely on the wrong track as to what your problem with these is.
Joy xx
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We have had an issue with Twitter over the last week as we changed our social media scheduler. We should be back up and running again now. However, we tend not to focus too much on Twitter as a platform, as it doesn’t work convert well into sales. It’s much better for conversations or news stories. We tend to focus much more on Instagram and Facebook which are much more visual and lead to more sales.
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Camilla. Agreed. Twitter is my least ‘productive’ platform for generating shop visits. Pinterest is very good though. x
Hi Joy
I now have the Instagram icon on my home page.
I can’t remember my pass word!
Laura is hoping to come up one evening if she’s up to it. Now over four months pregnant and not able to keep hardly anything down other than week tea. She was going to be admitted into hospital two weeks ago but Royal Cornwall Hospital was at crisis point with no beds at all. There were 150 people in A&E awaiting admission with only 40 hopeful beds! It hit the main news two days in a row. Cornwall only has one main hospital. Only the emergency theatres running as now staff and no beds to run all 18 theatres.
I sort of understand what you have written down for me. I will try and have a go myself tomorrow after my 3 hours work.
Thanks so much for your patience and help. It’s very much appreciated.
Kind regards
Gail
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Gail
Good luck. Hope Laura is OK. My eldest sister lives in Launceston and has had quite a few visits to Truro hospital in recent years. Shout if I can help.
You can easily ask for a password reset. Just make sure you make a note of the new one you set up.
xx
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Thanks for explaining.
That’s the complete opposite for me - I’ve just about given up with facebook which shows my posts to a random 3 of my followers, but twitter is much better.
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But do you get sales or views back to here from them ?
It does seem like it to me. It’s hard to track the exact chain of events sometimes - my stats show over 100 visits via “misc” this week.
But I don’t do huge amounts on social media, so if I haven’t sold a pink tea cosy for a month, then today I do a tweet about a pink tea cosy and an hour later I sell a pink tea cosy - it’s likely to be cause and effect.
Using that kind of observation the number of sales linked to facebook posts are very few, maybe because only about 1% of followers get to see my facebook post. Twitter users don’t have to choose which 5 tweets they are allowed to see.
Of course there are times when my tweet mentions Folksy, #newonfolksy, URL to item on Folksy shop, and the customer buys it on Et** instead!
Thank you so much for making some of my photography look fabulous. I am going to have to try and re photograph all my remaining shop. You made my jewellery look as beautiful as it actually is in real life.
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Glad to help.
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HiJoy
Laura has looked at what you kindly posted for me. The problem is not linking my Folksy shop to Pinterest. She did that months ago. It’s just not working. Laura just can’t find the problem and she is really good at technical issues like yourself.
Last week poor girl waited ten hours for an ambulance to arrive as 911 requested one for her. Cut long storey short emergency mid wife got her seen by the maternity unit at 3.00am in the morning last Tuesday She had a terrible kidney infection, but correct antibiotics are now working.
I don’t want to worry the girl about me not being able to get on social media!
Something I am wondering…
This year I have sold very few of my Christmas decorations compared to other years. I am wondering if this is because Folksy have put a big button on the front page to take people to ‘Shop Christmas’. This must be a curated selection of items as it definately isn’t everything ‘Christmas’. In the Christmas decorations section there are 9 pages of items and not 1 of my items is included, but other shops have many items there. If most customers are using that button to shop Christmas then it’s no wonder I’m not selling much… 
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I was wondering the same thing. I thought maybe it was just that sales are very slow but it doesn’t help to have a shop Christmas button if your Christmas items aren’t shown.
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I have never made ‘Christmas’ themed items before but thought I might give it a go this year to boost my sales. However, I haven’t sold a single one, despite being in the Christmas decorations section, so you’re not missing much!! I think I made the mistake of making labour intensive (therefore pricier) items. Will keep it simple next time! You have some lovely Christmassy things, no idea why you’re not included, but I’ve given up trying to work out what’s popular/what sells on here.
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Yes, I think my sales are slower in this year’s Christmas run-up. Perhaps it’s because people are able to get out to bricks-and-mortar shops this year?
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The problem Folksy has is the heavy reliance on sellers to promote the platform. This creates a double whammy - 1) invisibility due to the randomness of individual sellers trying to advertise themselves piecemeal, and 2) the psychology of the public perception this creates.
A good comparison is eBay and eBid. eBay uses omnichannel advertising to market itself as a corporation with a professional marketplace for people to buy from, with sellers being a shadow in the background (even though eBay obviously wouldn’t exist without sellers). The way eBay advertises itself also creates a perception that gives the public confidence to shop there.
eBid wants to be a serious competitor to eBay but does not advertise itself and relies on its sellers to bring in buyers in a haphazard fashion. This is why eBid is largely unknown and accordingly lacks sales. It also creates the public perception that the site is just random amateur sellers trying to flog their wares. People don’t have any confidence to shop there.
The reason people go to Et… and spend more money on a product listed there by a seller who is also selling their product here on Folksy for a lower price, is because Et… does what eBay does - it invests in omnichannel advertising of itself as a corporation with a professional marketplace for people to buy from. It is therefore well known and creates a public perception that gives people the confidence to shop there.
Sales and marketing 101: advertising your platform in the most effective and consumable way so that potential customers know it exists. eBay and Et… have the money to do this, and until Folksy has more money to invest in an effective advertising strategy, it will remain as it is with individual sellers doing the best they can.
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I’m quite confused about how I’d get any of my cards considered for the “best” Christmas card section as there is no gift guide post for Christmas cards generally, only the eco-friendly one. A couple of my cards have a jewel stuck on them so I assumed that’s not eco-friendly.