In every job, even a dream job, there is probably something that you would rather not do, and for a lot us who choose to sell online, it is the social media thing. But I look at it that I have an online business and it is therefore part of the job. If you opened a shop in the High Street, you couldn’t expect to have people flocking in without doing some sort of promotion. At least social media is free and you can tailor it to suit yourself. I agree with Heidi, allocate a little time each day for it, make it part of the working day. Probably in the morning so that the rest of the day is for doing stuff you love.
hi Julie,
it’s worth having a look through posts where people ask for feedback on new shops as some will be useful I think.
My recommendations are:
look at photos again (they get cropped, so make sure you have extra round the edge)
Relist frequently using Folksy plus - this helps you refresh on the pages
Tags: you make jewellery, so make sure jewellery is one of your tags use all 15 available
Prices: make sure they reflect the % taken off, postage, and time and materials. My thinking is they are a little low.
I get sporadic sales through Folksy tbh, but I keep plugging away :). Jewellery is a busy market too.
I took the plunge and started a twitter feed … I’m here https://twitter.com/helenwi30182274 if anyone wants to follow and I’ll do the same for you, did get a sale yesterday after using the gift hour hashtag suggested so many thanks for the help and tips
That’s great Helen. I’ve followed
Thank you for your handy hints and tips.
I realise this is an old conversation, but I don’t know where else to go or how to start a new one!
I am basically a-social media! I am of a ‘certain’ age and have never used any of the sites that people talk about. I use Ravelry and, for the past two weeks, Folksy. I have, today, just joined tiktok - but only because of recommendations from Folksy. But now I have ‘joined’ I don’t know what to do! I am trying to follow the Folksy beginner’s guide but find the terminology and jargon daunting. I have noticed that I have followers … but I have nothing to follow! I cannot even change my profile picture - nothing seems to be clear and I am about to give up!
Any help, or an ‘idiots guide’, would be much appreciated.
I’ve never heard of Ravelry. Looks to be maybe specific to your sort of craft ?
Tik Tok is the very last Social Media platform I would join. I did once and promptly unjoined after being constantly presented with ladies in lingerie.
Get yourself an Instagram account, join Pinterest and once you are more confident you could risk Facebook too. You might find you enjoy it.
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I use Ravelry a lot and have for years.
Agree with Joy start off with Pinterest and Instagram, easier to navigate.
I’m currently trying to put more effort in to Pinterest and reading up about it etc. the key thing for Pinterest apparently is that it’s not actually social media it’s a visual search engine, so basically Google but for imagery. Another big thing is consistency so don’t pin 1 thing and then leave it for months pin regularly maybe even just once a day., not even 7 days a week if you don’t want. Hope that helps a little bit.
I don’t use social media at all personally or professionally, and never have, but many people use it very successfully to publicise their work. Based on my own experience which started about a decade ago, Pinterest was originally just an online personal scrapbook to collect pictures of things you were interested in, from recipes to art, and I began using it years ago simply for that purpose - a notebook of things I wanted to keep track of as inspiration or making methods or anything else that interested me. However it changed ownership years ago and has become a promotional tool, so that people can ‘pin’ their own work to publicise it to the world in general. It’s really good for that too, so now I use it both ways - inspiration (via a ’ private notebook’ board that only I can see), and as a promotional tool via public boards that show up in searches. It’s picture based, rather than a conversational platform and there are lots of videos online on how to use it effectively to promote your work. Hope that helps!
Yes, Ravelry is aimed at knitters, weavers, spinners and dyers.
I joined tiktok only because it was recommended to get crafts seen … and I loved watching the videos that Folksy put on. I haven’t seen any ladies lingerie yet!
I joined Pinterest many years ago, but only use it to look at interesting crafts and for inspiration - I don’t know how else to use it. I have no intention of ever joining any other social media groups.
Thanks for your reply.
I will look into how to use Pinterest … properly!
Thank you!
Thank you! Yes, I will try to get my head around Pinterest.
Judy … Yes, I will definitely pursue the Pinterest route.
It is refreshing to see that I am not the only one who avoids social media as in facebook, Instagram and the like!
Thank you!
Sorry, I am not using this correctly as I have just had a message to say that I should reply to all, in one post. Oops. I will learn these things eventually!