Monday, March 14, 2011

Crash Course on Twitter

This is an article written by Anna Pereira with great tips on how to use twitter to promote your shop.


Many of us are on Twitter either for our business, personal or both! (Personally I have a little of everything going on when I tweet)

For all Etsy sellers who are on twitter, you may or may not realize the value of it. It is a great tool to get your shop lots of exposure and lots of views to your items. It is like a big networking party where you shake lots of hand say hello to many people, but at the end of the day may or may not become more 'intimate' friends with other tweeters. I have been very lucky to have become 'real friends' on twitter through Etsy and twitter. What I mean by this is the same relationship you develop in the forums or on the teams - a sense of promoting each other and personal attachment to individuals through getting to know them - CAN happen on twitter :)

Ok let me start out for those who know nothing about it... Basically it's like text messaging for the world to see. However, you need to get people to follow you for you to get exposure or with hashtags or keywords you can be seen.

What's a hashtag? On twitter, commonly searched terms that are used like this #Etsy can be searched boy the globe of twitter users. So your tweet can be seen if you use hashtags. A typical tweet for me to send would be something like:
http://etsy.me/hHGwBv Received lots of views and featured in many treasuries. Would love to see it sold :) #LACWE #Etsynj #fashion #moms
I used #LACWE as it's our team and we can search and RT each other this way, #EtsyNJ my other team #fashion as it's a commonly searched word and #moms as it's commonly searched as well

What is that short link above? Once you set up your twitter and get into it - poke around you can't break it - you will see twitter links are short because best tweets are quick and short (My bad habit is long tweets) But that link leads right to the item I promoted. Tweetdeck automatically shortens my tweets or there are services you can use to shorten your tweet (Search google for these link shortening sites)

Once you have an account, make your profile as human as possible. If you are part of the handmade community, follow other handmade community members. A nice way to start building relationships on twitter is to follow someone, comment on one of their tweets (composed of by them, not a RT or ReTweet) and also RT their tweet. You will almost guarantee a 'follow back' from those Tweeters that have good twitter etiquette.

What is a ReTweet or RT? THIS is the big deal. As you are new to twitter and you are trying to build up your friendships, there is a fine line between shameless self promotion and promoting oneself with taste. Herein lies the golden nugget - You want to make friends on twitter so the established tweeters will ReTweet or RT your tweets giving your tweet exposure to many more people. You will understand better once you are in full twitter mode and start tweeting.

*IMPORTANT* Etiquette : Always thank anyone who has mentioned you or RT'd you. The BEST WAY to thank someone is to RT one of their tweets, their Etsy shop link with a comment or BEST OF ALL a link to a specific item in their store with your little 'Love it!' or something sweet like that. You will gain respect and friends by doing these things.

When people see you are active and have good etiquette, you will gain more followers, views, inclusions in treasuries, and sales. It is a lot of work! But worth it and something you can give as much or as little of your time too.


The numbers go way up for views but sales go up too! You will get many views and more sales but the ratio is skewed for the number of shop visits vs sales via using twitter than if you just let your shop sit on Etsy with no promoting at all. Maybe it takes 400 views to get the sale ... but you got the sale where you may struggle to get 30 views but on the 31st view you sell your item. It's massive exposure, which at the very least will increase sales but not through the numbers alone. Did I make sense there?

How can I make my tweeting life easier? There are services that can help you get organized. I use TweetDeck (Tweetdeck.com to download) You can schedule tweets and make columns to see at a glance important things. For example, I have a column for #LACWE and one for Lacwe team members so if they use the hashtag or not, I will see the members who I have added to my list tweets.

Another great service I use is Twitterfeed.com I have my shop, blog and many friends, who I support and who support me, RSS feed of their Etsy shop on there. ANYTIME they list a new item or relist an item on their shop, the item (usually no more than 2) is sent through that service and tweeted automatically for me!

Do you want to be added to my twitterfeed? Please follow me and I will follow back and DM me on twitter set up TwitterFeed and reciprocate ....

This is just a small taste of twitter. Once you begin, you will see the value. The key things are:
1. Remember, the world sees your tweet! Good OR Bad ... so make sure you say something you wish you could take back later
2. Use twitter to promote yourself as well as build relationships.
3. Thank and reciprocate on twitter will always lead to success
4. Building your account will be slow - FRIDAYS are a great time to pick up lots of followers.
5. Be as real a person as you can!
6. Make it easier by finding new ways to organize and stay social through my suggested links or a number of others.
7. If you shout out to people they will answer you! If you find someone interesting - say Hi! It really is a lot like text messaging on a global scale :)

http://twitter.com/AnnaPereiraEtsy
Follow me I follow back


Anna's shop is here


5 comments:

Art and Sew Forth said...

Hello to Anna and Rose! I echo what Anna said. I have met so many great friends on Twitter including these two. My sales have benefited, I've received new ideas, helped others in need, learned of new shops....I love it!

Creative Minds said...

Awesome post! I am such a slacker on twitter. Shame on me! I need to pick it up again. lol

Finding Charm said...

I echo all that Anna says. I'm very active on Twitter and can attribute most my sales to it. I do need to devote the same amount of time to FB.

The etiquette is very important to me. I always RT for RT. I go so far as to not follow self promoters. That's not what it's about...SOCIAL media!!!

See ya on the Tweet side!

Anonymous said...

Hi!!! this instructions are great! I am new to twitter and didn't really got into it yet, but i really want. I will check tweetdeck and twitterfeed this evening and learn more. I've been invited to te lakwe team just a few days ago and found the discussion with all the blogs. GREAT IDEA! now i will find you all on twitter and on the blogs, its sooo nice, but i didn't knew very much how. your post helps a lot!:D

devorelebeaumonstre. said...
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