Social Media Poll / Discussion

[Former_Member]

hey Everyone.

I poste din main forum but I know some people just stay in the teams so thought I would ask here as well.

I am curious about your social media efforts. SO I am wondering if you would discuss them here. Maybe a poll?

no links please so the thread doe snot get closed :-)

1. What social media outlets do you use
2. what is your favorite
3. what is your least favorite
4. Biggest challenge.

[Former_Member]

I will start:

1. I use twitter, Facebook, pinterest and Instagram
2. I like the social on twitter but love the visual of IG
3. facebook is my least favorite of all
4. my biggest challenge is TIME! I get sucked in sometimes. but also scheduling posts has really helped.

what about you?

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

For Me:

1. I have a FB, Twitter, Instagram, and Pintrest. Twitter and Instagram I use the most at the moment.
2. I use Instagram and Twitter the most because its easier to get interaction there. With instagram, with just a few hastags, I get a bunch of people coming and liking things, even well after its been posted. On Twitter, theres great marketing accounts I follow and tweet too that get noticed.
3. FB is the worst with just getting any kind of attention. If you don't pay for the views, you're pretty much invisible, even with trying to hashtag your posts.
4. For now, translating the "likes" and "retweets" into actual clicking of my links is a challenge. I appreciate people coming by and liking my stuff that much, but to actually be like, "OH, let me swing by your shop!" That part is hard.

[Former_Member]

1. I use FB, IG, and I sometimes pin my products on my personal Pinterest but we don't have a Pinterest account specifically for the shop.
2. My favorite is probably IG, although I enjoy FB a lot too. It's just harder to get seen on FB.
3. My least favorite is Twitter, I guess? I don't really know how to use it for this kind of thing so I just don't.
4. My challenge is figuring out the right amount of stuff to post. We seem to get good feedback when we post things, but I don't want to be annoying and spammy so I tend to hold back a bit. But posting on social media really does up our views so that's good, maybe I should be doing it more often.

[hooknsaw]

We don't use any social media sites for our shop. However, we do get traffic and sales from pinterest and facebook.

I don't have the time or patience to learn (or understand) how social media works and Don rarely gets on the computer.

[WoodBeJewels]

I have Facebook and twitter but we mainly use Facebook.

[LovgrenandDaughter]

We have FB, Twitter (newly) and Pintrest.

1) FB has lost all it's discovery from their insatiable need to control people's feeds and charge out the behind. I do post when new items go up
2) Twitter I'm newly on. Remember when FB used to be ppl discovering the pages and liking them and it was interesting and fun? Twitter took it's place.
3) Pintrest I post on but never really took off.

now I'm spending most my time on twitter easier to find an audience and the audience is more open to trying new things.

Ours is a niche market but one that has been dominated by the 100 year old manufacturers so my customer is into vintage and an early adopter. Which, as I write could be why establishing a new business has been a challenge. lol.
Thanks! K

[GardenoftheKing]

1. I use Facebook and Pinterest (gonna try Twitter)

2. Facebook so far, because I find local groups and post there as well. Half of my sales have come from local FB groups.

3. Pinterest, no luck with it so far though I'm still trying.

4. Getting more of a response from Facebook fans. Most people view, but don't interact or even respond to giveaways.

[Former_Member]

Interesting. It seems Facebook is the big draw.

[Former_Member]

I use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and MeWe.

My favorite and most active is Instagram. The live likes and feedback are well worth the extra effort for an appealing photo. I do have noticed I must upload at least daily to keep the momentum going.

What I do is share my daily IG post on both FB and Twitter, and manually into my group in MeWe.

My least favorite is Twitter. I constantly share all my IG post , and even manual upload with the photo (which attracts more attention, if any) and seldomly my posts get retweeted. I have no clue how to attract followers even when I'm using hashtags... I also have a hard time making the most of the 140 characters for tweets...

Facebook is SO hard to get followers. I also use hashtags, but FB doesn't always keep appropiate record when you search hashtags, so it is very deceiving to attract followers via hashtags. Plus shared photos from IG get ruined with awful resolution on FB. Totally opposite from IG who doesn't fail for me.

[Former_Member]

ContraryCanary, I have the same issue with poor interaction on Facebook :-(

[LeedsRadio]

I use twitter plus a little pinterest and facebook
Doesn't seem to do a thing. I am about to delete my facebook page - I just read that thing that says facebook believes that any photo you post on their site belongs to them.

[Former_Member]

1. facebook, twitter, pinterest and instagram (but also some art communities where I post my stuff)

2. twitter
Mostly because that actually gives clicks. Otherwise I like instagram to show previews of stuff to come or things I am making.

3. what is your least favorite
facebook, with their change I barely reach 1/4 of the followers there.

4. Biggest challenge.
Getting more interaction and people actually buying since both are pretty much dead for me.

[Former_Member]

1. Facebook (paid), Instagram, and Twitter
2. Facebook is GREAT for market research.
3. Instagram is a little slow at times.
4. Facebook is pay-to-play. Money is always a challenge lol.

great post. It's interesting to see where the sellers are.

[Former_Member]

1. What social media outlets do you use: Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter
2. what is your favorite: Either twitter or pinterest. Twitter is great because it's easy and quick to use, and I've gotten a decent following through it, but I can't write much about the items I post. I love Pinterest because I get a TON of views from them and have gotten several sales from Pinterest. I can write a lot about my items, get an idea of how popular some of them are, and organize them in good ways.
3. what is your least favorite: Facebook. I deleted my personal account 5 years ago and started a professional account 2 years ago just because I was meeting a lot of artists who said they got a lot of business from Facebook. So far, I get some views from Facebook and I post every time I have a new item or sale, but it's hard because I don't have very many followers at all and have no idea how I'm supposed to get more when I don't have a personal account.
4. Biggest challenge: Keeping up with social media. Having to cross post to 3 different areas when I'm having a sale or list a new item can be time consuming and irritating. But, you don't really get the payoff unless you stay vigilant and make sure you regularly post. So that can be a bit frustrating.

[Former_Member]

love all the responses. Thank you for the input.

for those of you who mention the challenge with time and cross posting, I suggest using the apps and tools that allow you to schedule posts and help curate content. That has been a HUGE help for me and a big time saver.

Facebook is still just a challenge for me though. My page is picking up with the paid ads I am doing, but the interaction is still limited. I am rethinking that ad budget and it may not be worth it. It is very frustrating.

I am getting more and more into IG these days. It is very visual and fun and I like that

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

Yeah, I use IG, and when I post, I also post it to my store's twitter feed, which than feeds into my stores FB page. So doing cross promotions that way aren't hard.

I like IG, I don't think it has brought anyone into my store yet, but I am getting a lot of interaction with it. I'm hoping that that will eventually translate into traffic.

[Former_Member]

Gotta say I am kind of surprised not that many mentioned Pinterest.

@Annie from TheLittlestBigSpoon
I am going through the same Facebook situation and I agree - it is a challenge. I am currently debating on pulling the plug over there.
I did set aside an ad budget for Facebook for a few months to see how that goes.

On another note… I have gotten some DM asking me what apps and tools I use for the scheduling I mentioned. I cannot answer them all so placing the answer here for ALL to see :-) hope it helps and feel free to share yours as well.

Like Nikki said above, the easiest is linking the platforms so when you share ego one it goes to others. That is great if you have different sets of customers, friends, supporters and followers. If not, it may be overload of redundancy for them.

I use Buffer (they do have a "lite" free version) to schedule the bulk of my oats. Buffer may be my favorite app right now.

I also like Klout. Klout helps me grow who I am following and interacting with on twitter as well as provide great suggested content to share. The scheduling feature is super easy to use.

[SpringsteenMania]

Since Feb 14 I've had 6000 favs, and so now feel ready to start promoting outside of Etsy. Seems like everyone has their personal choice. I was going to start with Pinterest because my focus is a superstar so my boards draw lots of repins.

But it sounds like I should first master Twitter, etc all at once so I can cross promote. That sounds like a daunting task.

My poll question is besides Fb, what was ur FIRST venture into social media marketing and did u gain any wisdom from it, whether it was a success or failure?

Thanks

[SpringsteenMania]

Has anyone paid to ad on Pinterest? If so, did it work? I was going too try for a week and then decided it was a waste of money.

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

My first ventrue into social media marketing was FB. I think its a fail for all the reasons already listed.

I didn't even bother looking into pinterest paid ads. I'm trying NOT to pay for any more advertising, especially on platforms that can list things for free, and people have done very well on.

[Orchiada]

1. I use FB, Instagram, twitter, linkedin, pinterest, wanelo

2. my fav is instagram, being a jewelry seller, photos are essential for me, I also like twitter. So Instagram, twitter and FB have been my most used

3. Maybe wanelo and only because I have not invested the same amount of effort there that I have in the others. Also the visual aspect is not as on point as the say instagram to me

4. Not sure about the challenge question.... I have to think that one through a little more

[Former_Member]

Lots of people say Instagram is great for advertising, but in my case, my instagram friends are the same as my facebook friends.

So, how do you get potential customers to follow you on instagram?

[Former_Member]

I just read this interesting FB article - thought you may find it useful

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/cross-promote-your-social-profiles-with-facebook/?awt_l=B.n2.&awt...

[tinoiseau]

1. Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, & FB
2. Instagram
3. Twitter (because I don't understand it...)
4. Staying ahead of myself - I like taking lots of photos and planning out my social media posts in advance, but it's hard to keep on top of it.