Is it good to submit your products to social networks?

Hey everyone,

I just thought it was time to see if advertising your items on social networks is working or not? the reason I ask is because I have spoken to lots of different people that say its a waste of time and they rarely will your friends or potential friends on those sites buy something. So with that said has anyone on this site tried submitting your feeds to social networks and have you had success doing it?


Just thought I would create this post so we can either encourage or downplay this strategy.

Hi DWM....I link my eBay account to my Facebook page & sometimes put direct auction links on there too. My network makes lots of encouraging comments but no sales because of it. Kind of a waste of time I think.

Hey Designerthriftshop I agree I tried doing that a year ago and got positive comments too but no sales. I think the social network strategy can have potential but its got to be up to those sites to offer a better way to pull your feeds and showcase them.

Yep. How's the Paymate thing going?

I'm one that believes that Social Networking sites should be used, but you can't just set up a profile and then wait for them to come to you. Of course you can't simply spam other members on these sites neither, so you have to approach it in a stealth like manner, make your friend requests personal, but with a strong business theme.

I'm about to launch one of my new ventures for this year, and Social Networking is going to play a major role, although we will be using it slightly differently.

We want to use the sites to market our own website to our ebay traffic. So in essence we will be trying to get our ebay traffic to join our social networking sites, Facebook and MySpace, and sweetening the deal if they do with some friends only only bonus offers.

Once we have them on our social pages we then have the ability to market our own site to them, and that will be done by once again, getting them another more instant platform in Twitter.

So we are more reverse marketing to what you are talking about here, so the traffic we do get will be target specific.

If you are just trying to use the social pages to generate traffic to your ebay, then try offering them a sweetener. Hook them up to your Twitter account, then once a week have a happy hour where you will give all your friends 5 or 10% your listed ebay prices, or some other type of bonus.

Perhaps buy something within the next hour and get a discount off your next purchase, that type of thing. Don't just create a static networking page because the chances are it will attract dust, actively market it to your friends and create special offers for new friends who ad you.

There is gold in them thar hills, you just have to dig deep enough to find it!

: )

The Paymate is going great so far....had 2 more sales and no problems at all. However I don't really like the fact that you have to wait a few days to have the payment clear and I think its still worth it instead of worrying that PayPal would close down a persons account and freeze things.



Mark that sounds like an awesome plan you've got going there I hope it works great for you and keep us posted!

While Paymate has 24 hours clearance here in Australia, same day if payment processed by 4pm Sydney time, in the US they offer their services through a third party (US banking institution), and that is unfortunately where the clearance delay in the US comes about.

Regarding the social networking plan Don, it's a very basic plan, and can be implemented by anyone wanting to market their own website to their ebay traffic.

Of course the more ebay traffic you generate with your products, the more beneficial using this type of social network marketing has the potential to be.

The turn over generated (in terms of sales) by ads you make through social networks may not be as high or as expected but it is a FREE way to let more people learn about you and your products.

Also you have to take in consideration the number of people posting ads through social networks and selling the same products as you are. So most likely (although I may not be entirely right) there is a diffusion of actual sales among the many sellers out there.

From the many different forums/blogs/business sites I've been on, social networking is still the thing to do. So I guess it won't hurt if you continue to promote through social networks - its FREE any way.

Cheers :)

My 2 cents worth: I think that social networking sites are best used as a way of building & maintaining relationships with your existing customers rather than as a way to make sales. People don't really go to Facebook in a buying frame of mind, however they may have questions they want to ask about your business or feedback to give, which is still very valuable. And responding to them personally gives them a good reason to visit your business when they are ready to make a purchase.

I will say that in my eBay About Me page I have a facebook badge that will link my customers directly to my page. I've gotten some new contacts that way.

That ebay About Me page is really underused by sellers, and it's the most important page for those wanting to direct ebay traffic to their own site.

You can't directly link your off-ebay store to that page, but that's where social networking sites play the role of the link. You can use use them, as dts has done, and direct traffic to your facebook, or where ever, and from there you have the ability to market your own website to them.

Big trick here is getting people to your About Me page, and that's actually extremely simple. Limit the amount of information you provide in your actual listing itself, keep it to the description only.

Generic information, such as payment options, shipping costs, despatch times, and all other information then gets listed on the About Me page (where you have your social network links set-up.

Setting it up like this generates traffic flow to that page, as in the listing you send them there for further information. I have a link in my listing template simply called 'Answer Centre'

The moment anyone wants any information outside of the item description, they have to hit that link and I have them on my About Me page.

From there you can decide to just post your social networking links, sit and wait, or market them by offering an inducement for those who ad you to their page.

Btw, when people email for information you have contained on that page, send them the page link, don't waste an opportunity to market the page to a customer by answering the question in the reply.

If you want to get ebay traffic off ebay, utilize that page to its full potential, or as I like to say, exploit that little loop hole ebay has left open, because they don't miss much lol

One of the important things that you must remember when working with Social Networks is that in order to have any success you must not introduce your already established friend network with something that they never knew you for.

They (your friend network) will most likely see you as someone who is there to push merchandise and not someone to share things that have to do with 'friend'. You didn't before so why now. Think like them.

The best way to get good a good feel is to check out well known companies on these social networks and see how people interact with them.

Then you sign up for new account under your business name and offer new customers a way to stay updated by following you on Twitter or joining your 'club of monthly specials' on Facebook.

A new YouTube account with videos showcasing your products and reviews will also boost your subscriber base that could eventually follow you anywhere.

Try TubeMogul.Com to distribute your videos to different video sharing sites. It free. Of course you have to have an account with each video site, but it works.

And last but not least, write a review for your products and post them to social networks using SocialMarker.Com, but don't write a call to action. Just write it with the intentions of informing potential customers. Leave a link that goes straight to the product page.

Remember: To use TubeMogul and SocialMarker.com you have to have an account with each video sharing site and each social media site.

Just wanted to second Bert's suggestion of Twitter to advertise specials. It's especially good if you do short-duration auctions or sales.

I've been experimenting with Google FriendConnect and like what it's doing in terms of traffic, but have not yet figured out a way to monetise the traffic on a meaningful level. But I like GFC because it creates what amounts to a 'mini social network' on your site to which no one has to remember to check your site -- if they have a Google account they can receive updates about site activity (including your own advertised specials, new items etc.) which is a big boon. Think of how many sites to which you've signed up or bookmarked, but never visit because you have such a huge list (I'm like that with forums, hence my long disappearances from this one.)

One of the most important things to remember about marketing on social networks is that they are an evolutionary descendent of internet forums. If you just blast ads out on your feed, then you'll get marginalised just as quickly as you would spamming forums back five years ago. Anyone who signs up to your Twitter feed, Facebook page, FriendConnect box or other social medium is probably interested less in your specific product/service than they are in the general niche in which you are selling -- so be sure to share relevant news, tutorials/tips etc. as you come across them (or even create them yourself) which builds credibility and makes readers more amenable to seenig the occasional ad from you.


Frank

Hey Guys!

I saw this recent post on PracticaleCommerce.com and after reading it, I figured this may help us all understand better the true essence of Social Media Marketing...

The opening line is quite catchy: 'There was news this week that Pepsi planned to forgo a Super Bowl Ad in favor of investing $2 million into social media marketing. ' - Even BIG companies are using social media as well so I don't see why we/you shouldn't.

Anyway to read more about it as well as listen to the recording of the free webinar they had, Social Media 201: How to Use Social Media Sites to Increase Traffic, please click on the link below:

Link hidden: Login to view

Cheers :)

That's amazing about Pepsi -- funny enough, the article you linked got the amount wrong: it's not $2 million, it's $20 million. Not that that diminishes the news lol


Frank