Hi everyone, so I’m a newbie 
and as Im just starting out, I don’t want to spread myself too thin or overwhelm myself eith all the different social media out there.
If you had to pick one, which one would you choose and the reason why.
I just want to get an invite to the best parts of each. I currently just starting to use Pinterest.
Thanks in advance
I have Instagram and Facebook creating and scheduling a post in the business suite, posts to both of these at the same time. I use Pinterest from the item page in my shop.
Have also started YouTube as on 2 Design Trams, which involves videos. Funnily enough videos on fb and insta bring in the most views. Buyers like to see things in 3d. Only been on YT a short time but average about 10 subscribers signing up each week, which is not bad.
Everyday I join in the Daily challenge thread on here, at the same time post to Pinterest with the scheduled post going live at 10am. The challenge is hard work as you have to go to everyone’s shop, via the link posted and heart that item each day.
Thank you for your post. Alot of great information.
Will make sure to visit your social media 
Instagram is really the SM platform I prefer to use…I prefer how it works and find it quite intuitive to use and like how it looks…I also feel that I have a more engaged following on IG. I definitely get sales via IG and make sure my shop links are easily accessible in my bio. (That said, even IG is starting to become a bit overloaded with stuff I’m not interested in).
I post automatically from IG to Facebook (I always go and edit the FB post thought once it’s posted to make sure it’s relevant to the slight differences in platforms), but find FB a real drag…just so much stuff I didn’t ask to or even want to see. That said, I definitely get sales via Facebook, so will continue to use it. I get bored scrolling FB very quickly!!
Pinterest…well it’s not really social media. I do use it and can see from the stats that I get visitors to my Folksy shop, but I don’t think it drives sales at all so I don’t spend too much time on it.
Twitter - I gave that a miss once it became X…it used to drive sales, when it was Twitter, but for me I think that ship has sailed now it’s X.
Thank you for your insight, very much appreciated x
You’re very welcome, and thank you for the follow 
Hi Saskia, I have Instagram and Facebook and find Instagram much easier to navigate I only engage with facebook occasionally but there are useful groups to sell through on FB. They all take time and effort but they will drive traffic to your shop. Good luck
Hi, thank you for your post it’s greatly appreciated x
I use instagram and Facebook for my shop but am pretty burnt out with all social media. It is so difficult to get seen right now and I hate to keep posting as it is just my followers that see my posts and I hate to feel like I am pestering them.
If I kept posting I am sure I could get more traction but as I said, I am feeling low and burnt out.
Hmm, well me and social media have a bit of a tortured relationship! I deleted my Instagram a couple of days ago because Meta as a company is frankly horrible - the story that came out the other day of their leaked internal memo about chatbots and kids was the last straw. I was hardly using it anyway, as its functions are really limited if you don’t use a smartphone. I haven’t used Facebook or Twitter for years.
I use Pinterest, though I don’t think that brings much traffic - I’ve never been confident that I’m doing it right. And I recently started a Youtube channel (@HighlandPedlar), though I’ve only made one video and I’m not sure I’ll make any more! I’ve just noticed that there’s no field for adding a Youtube link to our About section - that’s a shame!
So yeah, the online world isn’t my favourite place tbh. I’ve had my shop on Holiday mode a lot over the summer as I’ve been selling in person and it’s hard to keep track of stock, but I’m about to update everything and open up again for the winter. Time will tell whether the Instagram deletion makes a difference.
Does anyone use Substack for promotion?
I added my YT to the blog button as do not use the blog now.
Ah yes, I had forgotten about YT. I am still pretty active there, I share tutorials and sewing machine maintenance. Lots of shorts as they are quick and easy to do.
I don’t think I gain sales from YT, but I actually really enjoy sharing stuff there.
I agree totally about Meta.
Thank you @frutejuce and @TheHermitsBothy for both your inputs.
I don’t think i have ever heard of Substack though, I will have to have a look at that one too. There’s just too many of them. Lol
Substack’s more of a writing platform but it’s really gaining in popularity. I only read articles there, but I think people do use it for blog-style posts. I know of one Instagram user I used to follow who started using it to share her photos when Instagram switched to portrait mode.
Hi Definately Instagram for me, I have some lovely followers and repeat customers from instagram. I like the layout and the fact I can glance at all of my posts especially when I’m stuck for things to put on as I can see which have been most recently shown. I get more interaction on instagram than facebook nowadays and I find it easier to navigate. Facebook use to be my preferred site but the past year or two I’ve found I’m not reaching many accounts and don’t have the same interaction with followers that I use to so I devote most of my time to IG with less frequent visits to FB. I do post on pinterest but don’t really use it otherwise, I started threads but never got into it and was just posting the same as IG so don’t bother with it very often. I also use messaging on Instagram quite a lot, FB seems to be full of adverts nowadays, to be fair they are now coming through on IG as well but not yet at the same level. I think the search facility is much easier on IG than FB and I hate having to swap between my own acc and my page on FB.
So I decided to take the plunge and set up an Instagram account yesterday. After following a few Folksy sellers, some creators I follow on YT and uploading 7 posts, my account was suspended. I appealed and my account was deleted/deactivated. I tried again this morning to ‘re-authenticate’ or whatever and nope, still a hard no from Mr Meta.
So Instagram is now off the table for me. Somewhat confused and disappointed as I have NO IDEA what it was I did that breached their community standards. I did research online before signing up as I’d never used the platform before so I thought my due diligence would see me right but clearly, I missed something.
Not sure if Facebook is worth a try? I stopped actively using it in 2018 but I dip in every now and again to keep up to date with creatives I like/follow.
The ultimate goal is to establish a YouTube channel one day but I first need to learn how to edit videos (and what software/app to use), but also make sure I have the time to dedicate to it.
It might be that 7 posts on one day was considered spam. Often quickly set up accounts with lots of posts on the same day are suspicious ones…the ‘trustsworthy’ surgeon, the lonely US marine, the poor fella who’s only trying to look after his young son 
…all looking for love of course 
Maybe try again but only posting every couple of days to start with, then building from there.
Good luck.
I will agree with Alison, it was more likely that the bots got you for too much activity, too quickly and at the very beginning. A general rule for all the socials to keep in mind, is that “too much and too fast” will flag you as a spammer. I had my insta account deactivated after a few days, but it was automatically back to normal once I went through their steps for authenticating my account. But there was already a facebook page to match with, and normal activity for a new insta account. Facebook also does the same if you post or comment much and fast, their robots think you are a robot (ironically 
).
Thanks for the feedback/insight. Lesson learned