I wish I had all the answers to these questions, but I have learned a few things along the way. Mostly, I learned that this is an ever changing venue, keeping me on my toes, always searching, always learning, but a hopeful journey that can be fun and profitable.
Please feel free to travel along with me and to respond and share your own adventures.
Questions: (just a few)
1) Does being active on social media sites increase our sales?
Yup. Even though I have had sales through direct searches into my shops looking for items I've tagged, Social Media sites DO help to increase your sales.
The idea is this. The more people see you the more they have access to your merchandise, the more chance you have of a sale.
You can have a beautiful shop with great items, and give outstanding customer service (always a must!), but if only a few get to view them and experience this, you have less sale potential than if thousands/millions of people view your shop and your merchandise.
You tell two people, they tell two people, and so on and so on, but in this case it's hundreds > thousands > millions of potential buyers... in every city, state, country throughout the world! Ain't it Grand!!
2) Does quanity equal quality?
Yes. (to a point) Search engines like it when you are active on numerous sites. It makes them look good to have quality active sites to send their users to, so the more active you are the more visible you become, Reward!.
The problem arises when All these sites become too time consuming and we can't keep them current so they get muddied and unkempt with listed Sold items and not enough of our New listings, posts and retweets.
Not only is this unproductive, it becomes overwhelming, and decreases the quality of all of the sites we are on, which in-turn decreases our views when we are no longer followed. Which leads me to #3.
3) How do we manage our social media sites?
We manage them by tracking our Views, Followers Tweets, and Referring URLs on all our active sites. My advise is to Organize! Use lists, charts, and all the free programs you can find to keep control of followers, tweets And Your Time! Each of these components are important to your Success and Sanity.
If you are going to jump on the social media wagon (I highly suggest you do) make it as hassle free as you can by organizing and taking control of how much time you have available to make it successful.
And, have fun with them...
Happy Sales!
Barbara
AVintageJourney
