Made in Devon Team – developments.

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

This is to give you the heads up that I am working of a survey/questionnaire that I would like to send round to all of the Made in Devon team members.

WHY -

Some of you will be aware that I attended the Etsy Team Captains Summit last weekend – where everything, of course, was awesome...
I had a great time and met lots of people (from 30 teams)and my brain has been so stuffed with stuff that it has taken me several days to try and digest it all.
I was made aware of opportunities for regional teams that I wasn’t aware of, and was blown away by what some of the other teams get up to.
The focus of the weekend was Etsy endorsed “Craft Parties” leading up to UK wide pop-up Etsy Team Christmas Markets at the beginning of December. All with Etsy publicity and support.
This has made me think seriously about what the team might like to do, and what the team actually has the capacity to do.
The Made in Devon team is a good team with a helpful level of interaction. But I think with the geographical spread and moderate interaction, we would be hard stretched to put on a pop-up market. In fact we find it challenging to get together for tea and chat!

AIM for the questionnaire –

To find out how the team as a whole would like the Made in Devon team to develop. To find out which of all the possible things the team could do would actually have support from the team.
Would people like the team to be more active; have regular meet ups, perhaps on a regional rotation; stay as we are as a friendly on-line meeting point; would you like craft parties and skills exchanges; would you like pop-up venues; would you be willing to take an active role on a committee to make such things happen; would you like a team facebook page or group....??

Purpose for starting this thread –

Other than just giving you the heads up that there will be a questionnaire coming at some point. I would like to encourage people to use this thread to chat about how you would like this team to develop (or stay as it is), suggest some questions you think I should ask about what people want, and contribute your ideas whether half-baked, off the wall or totally practical.

One of the hardest things about questionnaires is asking the right questions – so I appreciate all input.

Cheers

Lynn
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Here’s a few examples of what other teams do -
Brighton Team blog - https://brightonetsyteam.wordpress.com/
Etsy Cambridge facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/EtsyTeamCambridge?fref=ts
Etsy Manchester welcome post gives an idea of what they do - https://www.etsy.com/teams/5149/etsy-manchester/discuss/15854420/?ref=team_page
As an example of what Glasgow Etsy Team do, here’s a link announcing #GETHour on Twitter - https://www.etsy.com/teams/8931/glasgow-etsy-team/discuss/15438480/?ref=team_page
...... These examples are just to inspire and stir-up thought....

[Lasercutz]

Thanks for this Lynn, I'm sure the rest of the team also appreciate the time you have put into this and look forward to seeing the survey. I will have a look at the examples once a get a few minutes and see if there is anything that pops out ;)

As I have mentioned before - my client base here is aimed mainly at the soap making crafters so my requirements are slightly different to the rest of the team but there may well be opportunities that arise were the networking aspect would be invaluable.

Best
Dave

[FloraBubble]

Hi Lynn,

I've been observing some of the things that other Etsy teams get up to via social media for the last few months and thinking how well they seem to be doing. I'm definitely up for taking an active role in helping to organise a craft party/pop up venue and I think it would be fab to have our own Facebook page.
Sarah

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Thanks for the responses so far - that's encouraging

Hope you all had a good Easter weekend.

It will take me quite a while to compose the questionnaire, so plenty of time for more input.
I don’t think there is such a thing as an “average” team member Dave, so you thoughts and reactions are as vital as anyone else’s.
Good to hear you would be inclined to help things happen Sarah, neither myself or the team leaders (both of whom have other pulls on their attention at the moment) would be able to manage without other’s being actively involved.

I look forward to hearing more ideas.

Cheers
Lynn

[Former_Member]

I think a facebook page would be a great idea and in the future a pop-up market. I am finally back on Etsy after having a break and keen to get involved.

Tabitha

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Thanks - I have been overworked, then off sick and now off to visit family in Suffolk!

But I hope to get the questionnaire out to everyone after the weekend.

Sorry for the delay...

Cheers

Lynn

[DamianMilesJeweller]

Great. Look forward to the questionnaire. I'm scratching my head trying to think of questions I'd like answered, but there are so many. Give me a couple of days.

Thanks.

[DarMsallema]

Look forward to the questionnaire x

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Yay!

I have started to send out the survey...
Because I have to contact everyone individually this will take some time.
I have done about a 1/3 of the team members so far, but have to go off teaching this afternoon. I shall return to this tonight.

This highlights why I've added a request that people sign up to a mailing list so that such messages can be sent in one go.
But because Survey Monkey only allows 10 questions before it start charging an arm and a leg, I have added this to the intro convo.

I will let you know when they are all sent so that If I have missed anyone (so easy to do like this) you can let me know.

Thanks - I'm off to work now...

L

[AnimalGlassDesigns]

Thanks so much for doing this Lynn and no need to apologise for delay. Appreciate you giving up your time to help the Devon team.

I've received and completed my questionnaire and look forward to the results. Due to our geographical spread I think regional activities may be the way to go but of course depends on interest within areas.

[YellowT4Studio]

All filled in.
Good stuff Lynn.

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far.

All the team members have been sent a link to the questionnaire and to the MailChimp mailing list now. So if you haven’t seen it let me know.

Only 12% of the possible respondents have filled in the questionnaire so far, but there are some patterns beginning to take shape.
I will feedback results in a week or so when most people who are inclined to respond would probably have done.
Then I think we will see which items would be best to put our efforts into, to start with, and see what happens next.

Thanks again.

L

[Former_Member]

regarding social media I'm happy to discuss more of my experiences etc. and get involved with the social media side

most people now have facebook pages, but because facebook has severely hindered people who don't pay, and favours people who pay for advertising and sponsored posts, it's getting harder and harder to reach people

so, in my opinion, time is better spent using twitter and pinterest

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Thanks Rachel,

You are right about FaceBook wanting to encourage people to pay to have posts promoted, but I still believe you can get a faceBook page to work for you so long as you keep it fresh and interesting so that people want to interact with it.

From reading various threads in various Etsy teams, (a popular pastime with me) it seems that the social media that works for anyone is the social media that they actually like using!

Time and again I've seen people commenting on an "I love instagram" or "I love facebook", by saying "that one doesn't work for me, I prefer the other, but then I don't put so much effort into that one anyway".

Interestingly Karen from One Dotty Duck has 1.7k facebook followers and says that she has made more sales via fb than Etsy. She has fewer than 200 followers on Twitter. Who knows - if Karen put as much effort/enjoyed interacting with twitter, that might have been just as good or better...

Survey replies still slowly coming in. Will probably go with where the most interest is and where there are most people willing to take part.

At the moment both facebook page and pinterest are top. Others have interest too. But we might spread ourselves too thinly it we got them all started at once.

Thanks - and all comments welcome about anything that pops up in response to the survey.

Cheers
L

[OneDottyDuck]

Hiya, I am definitely a FB fan (as you mention Lynn ;) and would love a FB group. I am really struggling with Etsy, I mean, REALLY struggling to the point of giving up and putting efforts in else where. Admittedly I have put lots of time and effort into FB which is why I do so well on there, but am working on Twitter (no sales there yet) and Instagram (a couple of sales there). TBH my biggest earner is fairs anyway. Social Media tends to swallow up so much time and the competition out there is so intense now.

I will pop off and do your survey now Lynn. Sorry for the delay. x

[Lasercutz]

Thanks Lynn - just responded ;)

I am on Twitter but don't use it out of principle now due to the many trolling and hate post stories - the trend of 'text' speech also drives me mad. I may be out of date but as a business I think it is worth taking time to think and review any public correspondence.
Pinterest is ok but rarely use it.

Facebook is my preferred choice but agree the reach is weird. Post a link to someone else's site/page get few views, post a picture of you own work gets more but post a video of a cat/dog doing something cute/funny and the views go through the roof.

Best
Dave

[Former_Member]

Hi Lynn, i don't seem to have recieved a survey yet, how would it have been sent? Very interested in joining in with meetings, fairs, but my problem is that I'm in North Devon, so you might as well all be in London when you talk about meeting at Exeter! My fault for living here i know! I do have a facebook page with about 700 followers, but i haven't actively tried to sell on it, as only MY FRIENDS seem to respond, and they are not buyers. Interested to hear what Dotty Duck said. Maybe need to put more effort into fb sales.
Regards Susan

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Thanks Susan & Martin,

I had to send out the info via nearly 200 individual convos. A bit easy to slip up and miss someone. I will send it to you now.
There is also a link to a mailing list sign up form that I hope will make the occasional mass communication easier.

Re meetings. I'm hoping that there will take place in different regions of Devon on a rotation so that people can get together in their areas... But this will depend on sufficient number of people being interested in hosting & organising.

Re FaceBook – do you have a separate page for your artwork, rather than using your personal page for business? I can’t find a link from your Etsy shop. I only have a relatively small number of FB friends for my personal page, but have 785 “likes” on my art page. I fine its helpful to keep personal life and professional life separate.

L

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

I shall end the survey soon and analyse the results after the weekend!

If you haven’t received an individual convo from me, can’t find it or whatever – here is tthe link to the survey itself. - https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WNHR3CZ

The message that I sent to each member also included a link to a MailChimp mailing list for ease of future mass messages – it really was quite painful having to send out nearly 200 individual convos.

Only a small % has chosen to sign up to the mailing list so far. Can I please urge you to do so. Mass messages will be few and far between and mainly used if/when we organise a pop up event where urgent messages might need to be sent to all members quickly.

To ensure that you don’t miss out on receiving such a message here’s the link to sign up to the mailing list - eepurl.com/bktqLf

It is very easy to unsubscribe from MailChimp list if you decide that you would rather opt out or if you choose to leave the team.

Back to you soon with the survey results!!! :-D

Cheers

Lynn

[DarMsallema]

Hi Lynn - have completed the survey, and sent you a message
Liz

[cleancropsshop]

Have just filled in the survey - missed it somehow, so I'm probably too late - never mind - hope to participate online and maybe at craft markets anyway

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Thanks Nigel - never too late to participate!
I'm not sure that I know how to close the survey anyway.

The problem with the survey is that I hadn't realised that it would be anonymous and unless people respond in threads here to say that they are interested in helping with meet-ups or in getting a pinterest board going (etc), I have no way of knowing who to nudge.

Progress might be slow - but there's a lot of potential here.

Cheers
Lynn