The Top 10 Best Etsy Social Media Posts

Selling on Etsy logo

Selling on Etsy logo

What are some ideas for keeping fans engaged and coming back to your Etsy social media channels for more?  Put yourself in the shoes of one of your fans.  That should be easy to do, as you are also a fan of the subject matter in your shop.  Otherwise you would not be selling what you sell, right?

Of course, one of the main reasons that we started our social media pages for Etsy is to sell our items.  But, we have to be careful about how we offer items to fans.  We cannot cram the items down their throats.  We cannot keep posting simple ads over and over again.  So, how do we get people to buy our goods, without making them uncomfortable?

As part of our discussion on branding, we talked about the importance of treating people like friends and not sales targets.  This is even more important on Etsy social media sites, as people already see tons of spam ads each day.  They do not want to see more in their favorite hang-out area.

Etsy provides very easy avenues for sharing new item listings with your Facebook and Twitter accounts.  There is nothing wrong with sharing several of your new items on your pages.  BUT, make them personal.  Post a comment under each one on Facebook, or send a second tweet on Twitter.  For example, “Hello friends!  Here is the newest addition to your shop name.  We got the inspiration for the item from blah, blah, blah…” – you get the point.  Don’t just spam your peeps.

We are going to talk about the specifics of each social media site in this chapter, but here are some general ideas for posts that will keep fans engaged.  Keep your posts as diverse as possible, while staying focused on your subject matter.

The goal is to promote your products and shop to people without them realizing it.

  1. The number one rule of Etsy social media is to engage your fans and interact with them. When people post personal accomplishments, congratulate them heartily.  If they discuss a topic, offer your opinion.  Respond to as many posts and tweets as possible and make them personal.  Not only will the person you are responding to appreciate it, but other fans will also notice that you care about other people.
  2. The best advertisement is to get customers and fans to post their own photos of them using or wearing your products! Encourage people to leave review or post photos with your items in them.  Offer a 50% coupon for posting photos, or hold a contest for the fan with the best photo.
  3. People love “behind the scenes” photos and anecdotes, but keep them short. Don’t write a book.  Pinterest is great for these types of photos.  You can provide a link back to your shop in the comments section.  Facebook fans also enjoy these photos and they only take a couple of seconds to post.  Post photos of you making your items, partially completed crafts, vintage items before they are prepped for sale, a photography session, or anything else people might be interested.  Provide a short blurb about what is going on in the photo.
  4. Short history lessons related to your subject matter with vintage photos can be very interesting to fans and start discussions.
  5. Ask your followers questions. What new product would they like to see?   What is their favorite existing product?  How are they using your product in their homes?  It’s even better if your followers post their own photos.
  6. Network with other sellers. Provide recommendations on other shops to your followers and have the other seller do the same for yours.  This works best if you are not direct competitors, but their subject matter is similar to yours.  Always post photos – Etsy shoppers are very visual people.
  7. Post “extreme close-up” photos of one of you items and have people guess what the item is. Give them a link to your shop, so they can look around and try to find the item in the close-up photo.  This is a GREAT gimmick.  It gets people back into your shop and browsing.
  8. Consistently post photos of you and/or your assistants with your products over time. You want people to feel like they know you.  Make sure that there are lots of happy, smiley photos.  People like that.
  9. One way to make some quick sales is to post seasonal offers, such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day sales. These posts work even better if you make them exclusives for social media followers.  Everybody loves a sale.  Just do not make them too frequent and make them good deals.
  10. Hype new products by posting release dates and posting photos of partially finished products. Get people excited.  This works really well, if the items are new editions of a numbered product line, or they are seasonal releases such as an annual Christmas ornament that you release only once a year.

 

Visit your social media sites and page down through old posts.  You want variety.  You also want to visually stimulate your followers with original and/or vibrant photos.  We want people to come back to our sites because they have developed a relationship with us and other fans on the site.  When you look at your prior posts, do you feel like you are valued as a person and not just a sales target?

Again, you want your social media pages to be part of your Etsy shop’s brand.  The best way to accomplish the visual correlation is to have the same designer create all of your headers.  I used Fiverr.com and paid $20 to have the same graphic designer make my Etsy shop header design and then use that same image by resizing it for my Pinterest photo and Facebook and Twitter business page headers.

Make sure that you use create a business page for each of the “Big 3” using your Etsy shop name (or as close to it as you can, if somebody else is already using your shop name).  You should launch social media business pages on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter immediately after you build your shop and have a small inventory of items listed.   All of your business pages should look and feel like your Etsy shop.  Cross promote your business pages by posting links on the other pages.  For instance, announce your new Twitter business page on Facebook and provide a link.  “We’d love to see you on our new Twitter page!   Please Follow us on Twitter by visiting us at (your Twitter URL here).”

You should also be consistent with how you interact with your customers.  Use the same enthusiastic language that you use in your shop, in item descriptions and inside product packages on your social media pages.  Use the same lingo and keep the same tone across all of your social media outlets.

Summary
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Top 10 Etsy Social Media Ideas for Sellers
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Top 10 Etsy social media ideas for engaging fans and selling your Etsy creations to your best fans by Eric Michael, author of Etsy Empire
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