Facebook Challenge – Day 2 (For the Second Time)

As you may know, I gave up on my last Facebook challenge because I had finals for two weeks and was too busy studying and working to be able to do much with my business. So now I’m back, working on growing my business, specifically through my Facebook page.

So yesterday I made 5 new owls, which I’ve been recommended to release one at a time. So yesterday I released this guy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/181449880/stuffed-owl-pillow-navy-blueblack-with? and today I released this one: https://www.etsy.com/listing/181890936/stuffed-owl-pillow-navy-blueblack-with? and I got a few views from Facebook, and a few views from Etsy, which was nice. However, no favorites, and no buys.

I was very excited to get home and start making new owls. I think for some reason I thought when I got home, it would be so easy to sell my owls, but so far it hasn’t been, so I’m a little disappointed. I think I’m not reaching the right customer base still, so I need to figure out how to reach out to parents of young kids. I’m a babysitter, so I should be able to reach out fairly easily, but on the other hand, I don’t want to be pushy and be that person that’s always trying to sell something.

So, if you want to make me excited and buy an owl, or just see the ones I have up, check out my etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/WanderingBlueWhimsy

If you want the latest updates on my business, like my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/WanderingBlueWhimsy

If you have suggestions, questions, or just want to chat, shoot me an email at WanderingBlueWhimsy@gmail.com

Facebook Challenge – Starting Again

Okay, so the last two weeks who has been absolutely disastrous for my Facebook and etsy pages both. So I’m going to start again, but hopefully not entirely from scratch. I am now home for the next 4 months, plenty of time to make many new owls, and in fact, have already made 5 new ones! Although now I have run out of thread and stuffing, and so will have to leave the next seven until tomorrow.

All the sources I’ve read so far say that the best way to get continual views on my etsy page is to continually list items. So the 5 owls I’ve made will be posted one each day for the next 4 days, as one was posted today (https://www.etsy.com/listing/181449880/stuffed-owl-pillow-navy-blueblack-with?).

I’ve already posted that link on both the Wandering Blue Whimsy Facebook page, and my personal Facebook page, and it’s gotten 9 views from that alone, so I think that was quite successful. Hopefully I will have new likes to post about in the upcoming days. I do plan on updating my blog every day, so do be sure to check back in frequently!

To see new listings as soon as they appear, like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/WanderingBlueWhimsy

To see all the little owl cuties, go to our Etsy page at http://www.etsy.com/shop/WanderingBlueWhimsy

To make suggestions or to ask questions, or to just say hello, shoot us an email at WanderingBlueWhimsy@gmail.com

Facebook Challenge – Day too far from the last one

So I sewed a whole bunch of wings onto owls yesterday, and was going to take some pictures of them for my Facebook page, but I was loosing the light, and so I decided to wait until today, when I would have more light. However, now that it is today, my roommate is packing her side of the room, which of course involves taking all of the space I was going to use to take pictures. I suppose I could go outside, but I don’t have anything to put the owls on so they don’t get dirty, nor do I have anywhere to take the pictures. I like in a dorm in the city, I have no personal outdoor space. So for now, there will be no pictures.

I’m come to the conclusion that with my work schedule next week and finals, not to mention I’ve run out of thread, I might just be better waiting until I am home again in a week, and can post owls to Etsy and really kick up my inventory. That way my etsy is getting more traffic, and people can really see all my offerings. I have done enough sewing here that I can put a lot of owls together pretty much as soon as I get home, so it won’t be hard to do that. But I will try to keep posting, just so my base doesn’t lose interest.

Finals Week and…

Well it’s been a while since I last posted, and I apologize about that. I have done absolutely nothing towards gaining new followers, not even continuing to update my Facebook page, which I know is a bad idea, as people will quickly lose interest if they think my page is inactive. But, I think I have a couple pretty good reasons for not posting.

First of all, this is finals week! While I don’t have any finals during my school’s real finals week, which is today and next week, I did have finals this past week, as well as an 8 page paper due next Wednesday, several extra credit papers I can write (and probably should), and a 12 page paper due next Friday which I can’t start work on until I get my comments back from a very snarky and in my opinion downright rude professor who has been absolutely no help in learning how to do research and write historical papers, which was the goal of the class I took from him.

Secondly, my nana died a few days ago. While I wasn’t particularly close to her, it still makes me very sad to know that she is gone. As such, I have been calling my mother every night to make sure she is doing okay, and if she is not, to try and cheer her up. I love my mother very much and I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose her, so I know this must be incredibly hard for her. I have also had to rearrange my moving out plans for the end of the semester so that my mom can go to the funeral, which is in the UK, and it is too expensive for my sister and I to go. So I have also had to walk my father through the process of coming to pick me up. Today I will be calling him to walk him through booking a hotel near my school, which by himself he would quite fail at. 

So really I have been quite busy trying to write my papers, check on my mom, help my dad, and spend my last week with my friends here before 4 weeks of being at home, which I am kind of looking forward to, because I have some really awesome stuff planned, and kind of not looking forward to, because I practically live with my friends here, and I love them all very much, and they all live very far away and I am going to miss them terribly. But hopefully there will be a lot to keep me busy, especially owls.

Thank you all for your patience, and I hope to be back with you consistently soon.

Facebook Challenge – Day 6

So today was another sort-of disappointing day in terms of actually doing things for my Facebook page and it’s popularity. I had finals this morning, so I spent much of the afternoon blowing off steam, because other than two papers, I have officially finished my first year at university! Yay! Although I’m going to miss my friends dearly while I am home, and I’m going to miss living away from home (ugh curfew), so maybe not so much yay.

Anyway, what I did do today was take another look at my insights. I discovered several trends. Most of my followers are online around 4 PM, so I know I should schedule posts to be around then, so that the most people see them. Another trend is that 78% of my demographic reach is women. Now, I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I don’t have marketing data, but I think I read somewhere that women make most of the household purchases, especially when it comes to children, which is a good thing if I want to market my owls to children. It’s also a good thing if I want to market my owls to women to give as gifts to their friends, or to buy for themselves. But I think that men are the primary shoppers at high end jewelry stores, because they buy gifts for the special women in their lives there. So if I want to reach more of that demographic, I’m going to have to market more towards men, and I’m not sure how to do that.

Another rather disappointing trend is that most of my demographic consists of 18-24 year olds, which means college students. College students are always broke, because of the very same reason I started making these owls. Moreover, these specific college students are my friends, and have known about the owls all along, and many of them have already bought owls, and might not be likely to do so again. So that’s definitely disappointing, and part of my goal with this challenge is to move away from just my friends liking my page.

Something else to note was my forum post on etsy, which asked for a critique on my Facebook page. I received a reply that recommended that I post less frequently, i.e. three times a week, instead of the roughly nine that I have been averaging. That might work well for some posts I think, like my picture posts, especially considering I can’t be always making owls, so picture posts aren’t always new and available, but I think for smaller posts, i.e. just text posts, I can post once a day, although perhaps not more. Another thing this responder said was that he follows a page where the curator is quite chatty, and even though she posts more frequently than his desired 2-3 times a week, he loves reading her posts merely because of her tone. So the lesson I got from that answer was post in moderation, and be natural, people want to interact with people, not faceless Facebook business pages.

If you have any comments about this post, this blog, my Facebook page, my etsy shop, or anything else, let me know! Email me at wanderingbluewhimsy@gmail.com

To see firsthand the way I run my Facebook page and join my Facebook community, visit http://www.facebook.com/WanderingBlueWhimsy and like us 🙂

To see the adorable owls I just can’t shut up about, check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/WanderingBlueWhimsy

Also, as of today when I went to the Apple Store and got my phone fixed, we will now have an Instagram as well! So follow us @WanderingBlueWhimsy

Facebook Challenge – Day 5

This is going to be a disappointing post guys, sorry about that in advance.

Today I did nothing that would help me gain followers of any kind, although I did gain a follower on my Facebook, thanks to my friends on etsy. Reason for this inactivity is mostly because I have two finals tomorrow, and then also because this morning I got a call from my mom saying that my Nana was given 24-48 hours to live by her doctors yesterday. So it’s been a little rough with all the emotional stuff, with stress from finals plus distress for my Nana and my mom both, because I know my mom is very upset about this as well.

If you’d like to cheer me up, like my Facebook page and help me decide which owls are the cutest, and what color wings a certain purple polka dot owl should get: http://www.facebook.com/wanderingbluewhimsy

If you’d like to cheer me up even more, buy an owl or a necklace from my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/wanderingbluewhimsy

Thanks for reading my posts, and a special shout out to a certain new follower from etsy on this very blog who commented on my Etsy Teams post, it’s great to know I can be helpful, even when I’m just a beginner as well. It really made my day to read that, thank you.

Facebook Challenge – Day 4

So! Today was a very successful day on my Facebook Challenge! While I did not do too much more research, I did try engaging with my teams, and asking questions on the Etsy forum. The result was I got a lot of advice that was mostly not helpful, or told me things I already know, like that I need to improve my photography skills (I would love to fix my pictures, I really would, I just can’t right now due to the roughly 300 miles between me and my products, which is regrettable).

But! There was success 🙂 Today, I gained 2 more followers on Facebook, bringing my total to 47! Hopefully by the end of this challenge I will have 100, but I don’t care what the number is if they are engaged followers and help me build my brand and my business.

Another interesting thing I learned, and I’m not sure if I’ve written about this yet, but my followers see my posts that are released in the early afternoon the most. Unfortunately so far, that has been posts that do not relate directly to my brand. One of the pieces of advice I received was to post links to photographers, or articles, or anything else that my followers might find interesting. So I tried it out, posting a link to another Facebook group that deals mostly with animal photography, which I quite liked, and I thought as probable fellow animal-lovers, my followers would appreciate. This post unfortunately got more attention than my post about the 12 owls I sewed eyes onto last night.

That is something else I am finding. As I delve more and more into the wonderful world of social media marketing, I am finding that I am more motivated to work on making more owls! As a result, I sewed 12 owls almost completely last night, all they will need is to be stuffed when I get home, which is fantastic. Although, like posting on Facebook, they should be listed on Etsy one at a time, to attract attention over several days. I have finally discovered the reason why movies and high-visibility products have “release dates”: to build up the hype! While it will be difficult to build up hype with the still meager 47 followers I have on Facebook, it is not impossible, and it is my goal to do so.

If you have an tips for me, email me at wanderingbluewhimsy@gmail.com

To join my growing community of fans on Facebook, follow me at http://www.facebook.com/wanderingbluewhimsy

And to see my owls and my sister’s necklaces in action, check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/WanderingBlueWhimsy

Etsy Teams

So I keep doing all sorts of research for hours on how best to attract customers and turn views into sales and all sorts of marketing things, and I’ve found a LOT of useful stuff. But a lot of what I’ve found says make friends on etsy, and join teams! So I’ve joined a bunch of teams, but I don’t know how to engage usefully with the other members. I’m trying to use these social networking places to connect to potential buyers, which for me is mothers and grandparents of younger kids, as I sell stuffed owl pillows and my sister sells necklaces. But I have almost nothing in common with this target market. I know nothing of how to connect to them. So that is the major dilemma for now

IF you know anyone who could help me with this, or if you have any insights, please email me at wanderingbluewhimsy@gmail.com

Check out my products at http://www.etsy.com/shop/WanderingBlueWhimsy

Like my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/WanderingBlueWhimsy

Facebook Challenge – Day 3

So, I have no new followers so far, and I only got 4 views on etsy yesterday. Bummer. I have however, figured out that my most popular posts are image posts, and they are seen by the most people if they are posted some time during the day, in the 10 AM to 4 PM range. So I’ve set up my posts for a couple of days in advance keeping that in mind, using the post scheduler Facebook has built in. Yay for working ahead!

On that note, I think a big part of what will make my shop, and my Facebook more successful is better photos. I have a bit of a problem right now in that I am at college and so I live in a dorm. There is almost no natural light, and the floor is a disgusting, hide-all-mess kind of carpet. So my pictures are going to be pretty crappy no matter how I stage them, because I don’t have anything not blue to stage my owls on anyway. Oh well for now, I can fix that when I get home.

Another thing I think will be better when I get home is that I will have more products available. Right now, I only have 13 owls up on my site, which is a pitiful number compared to some very successful etsy shop owners. But, I just  sewed eyes onto 12 more owls, which means all I have to do is sew them to their backs and stuff them, and I will have 12 more owls, nearly doubling my inventory! Again, yay for working ahead!

So yes, this post is Facebook Challenge – Day 3, and should be more about how my Facebook endeavors are going, but for right now, I have no news to report, and am a little at a loss as to what to do next. So, I will continue researching, and I will continue sewing, and I will probably continue watching far too much Netflix and eating far too much ice cream, and hopefully for Day 4 I will have news!

For those of you who want to see the work I’ve done for themselves, my Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wanderingbluewhimsy

For those of you who truly love me and want to buy some of my stuff, my Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/WanderingBlueWhimsy

For those of you with suggestions, my email: WanderingBlueWhimsy@gmail.com

Facebook Challenge: Day 1

Okay, so my starting point is:

Facebook Followers: 45

Etsy Admirers: 6

Etsy Sales: 1

Average Daily Views on Etsy: 26

My actual goal is to increase my sales on Etsy, but to do that by increasing my “good” likes on Facebook. That is, likes from people who are interested in actually buying my products, and who will increase my Edgerank, which I explain in this post.

So, plan of action:

– Find target market/audience: who do I think will really be my base customers. So far my customer base has been college students, but that’s because I am a college student, and it’s easiest to market to people I know, rather than people I’ve never met, and rarely see.

– Figure out how to connect to my target audience: where can I post that the people I want to reach will see what I want them to see.

– Make said connection to target audience: have them follow my blog, like my Facebook page, all that stuff, and hopefully, BUY FROM MY ETSY!

That’s the dream folks, people buying from my etsy. Keep checking in to see how I’m doing!