But, lets go into more detail. If you are selling last years iPhone 5s at a competitive price on eBay, then you could probably just list it, do nothing else and it should sell in less than a week. However, if you are selling a used Nolan Miller Women’s cuff bracelet, then you need to get it out in front of your buyers eyes.
Items that are more desired and searched for don’t need as much promoting or advertising as items that I classify as more of an impulse item.
For instance, I listed a 10 year old used Furano marine radar display on eBay. Within a couple of hours it had 38 views and 4 watchers without me doing a bit of Social Media. 24 hours later, I had 3 offers on it. New marine electronics are very expensive and so many weekend boaters are looking for used equipment due to the cost difference.
By comparison, I listed an Ohio State Buckeyes Jacket in the dead of summer. In that same couple of hours without doing anything, I had zero views. I started to use social media and after 4 days, I finally got one offer on it.
So, what is social media to us…. It’s our way of advertising our wares at little to no expense except for our time and effort. The more you can get your stuff in front of potential buyer, the better the chance of it selling. It used to be that you could put it up on eBay and it would just sell. Those days are long gone.
We NEED to drive traffic to our items and not rely on any one marketplace doing it for us. The competition is just to stiff. Too many sellers and too many marketplaces to be complacent.
We all know how important advertising is. In 1984 Apple Computer ran their iconic 60 second ad in the third quarter of Super Bowl XLIX to launch the first Macintosh Computer. The spot cost Apple about $650,000 and resulted in $150 million in sales the first month.
Apple's 1984 Commercial was a Watershed Event
Fast forward 31 years to 2015…. Apple is the most valuable company in the world, being first U.S. company with a market value above $700 billion. The iPhone is a household name and Apple will still spend about 1.2 billion in advertising this year.
Lets touch on impulse sales. When you go into a grocery store, a mall, a boutique or even the local bakery or candy shop, they will have displays in the aisles, on the end caps, at the cash register or in the window in front. They have clip strips of items hanging along the grocery aisles. The bakery and the candy store has all their goods in a glass front display case.
Everyday, millions of shoppers are buying things that they did not go shopping for on impulse because it was placed in front of them. Nobody that goes into the grocery store with 10 items on their list comes out with just those 10 items.
Last years smartphone listed in the online market place is widely searched for by thousands of buyers everyday. If you list it competitively, use good pictures, keywords and item specifics, it should sell in no time at all because people are looking for them.
My bracelet, not quite so easy. This is an impulse item. Not too many buyers are doing a search for a Nolan Miller cuff bracelet. But if i use social media displaying great pictures of my bracelet, it can be seen by a potential buyer that was not even looking for a cuff bracelet.
Picture Tweet of my Bracelet using Promote Pictures for Twitter
How it looks in Pinterest
And in YouTube
This is why we use social media. We want someone that does not yet know they want something, to see it and now want it!
I was at the local thrift shop last year and I found this cool ladies jacket for $10. I figured it would be quick turn on eBay. I was in line to pay for it and this woman walked by me while I was holding it up showing my friend. She fell in love with it and wanted to buy it from me. She knew that I paid $10 for it and when I left the store, she bought it from me out front for $50. That’s a 400% return and it was a complete impulse sale.
Now that we know why we need to use social media, you are going to ask me the how do we use it. At the top or my blog in that red box, I tell you up front that I’m not a guru. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I will however give you a few tips about social media.You will need to pick some platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and there are some others. You will need to build a following on those platforms.
You should join some groups on Facebook that have exchanges. So your postings, get reposted to their followers and you of course repost their postings to your followers. This way you will be seen by more people.
There are hundreds of books on the subject and hundreds of people in the online selling community that are experts in how to use it. Some charge a bunch to teach you and others give up that information because they are nice like that.
I’m not here to tell you the how! There are a lot of thoughts on how to use social media properly. I’m just here to tell you that if you are spending all your time listing and are not happy with the results, then you need to start using social media now. A little bit of something is way more than a whole lot of nothing!
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| Some of my Pinterest Boards |
If you’re spending three hours a day making new listings and editing old listings and not making sales, then you have to carve out some of that time to market your items even if it means that you will get less new listings up.
Last month I was at the eBay Radio conference in Las Vegas and Joel Meek, head of partner online sales and operations at Pinterest addressed us with some really good information.
Since then Shana Champion, who is a contributor to the eBay For Business Blog posted an interview with Joel. I think this is a really good place to start your research.
Check it out here: eBay for Business
Good info!
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