How To Link Your Facebook Page To Your Twitter Account

This quick tutorial will show you how to link your Facebook Page posts to your Twitter feed. This way every time you post on your Facebook Page you will automatically tweet it from your Twitter account. This really helps you to be more active in your social network without having to do double the work!

Make sure that you are currently logged into both Facebook and the Twitter account that you want your page posts to show up on.

Step 1: Go to http://www.facebook.com/twitter and you will see that your profile page is first in the list. Under it you should see the following with a list of your pages:

Step 2: Choose the page you want to link to your Twitter account and click the Link To Twitter Button.

Step 3: You will be transported to the App Authorization page on Twitter. Authorize the app on Twitter.

That is it! Now, every time you post on your Facebook page you will automatically send a tweet with a link to your Facebook post. It really is that simple! Now you have doubled your social networking efforts. Enjoy!

BTW- I am still working on getting the new blog and website up and running. I will be announcing the date soon. I have already moved my Etsy shop to http://CraftKraken.etsy.com and have a couple of my eBooks up with more on the way. Check it out and favorite the shop!

The Secret To Advertising Your Etsy Shop On A Small Budget

It's no secret that advertising can be very expensive and hard to track the results. Today I will talk about three low or no cost advertising techniques that will help you to advertise without going broke. Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook are all ways to advertise your shop with little or no money. We will start with Twitter.

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to tweet 140 character or less messages. The beauty of Twitter is that, like other social networks, you have an audience. You can grow your audience. You audience can share what you post. Your 'ads' can go viral. I have a great eBook on how to set up your Twitter account and how to use it here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/163120645/twitter-guide-for-etsy-shop-owners The guide will walk you through each step of setting up and getting your first followers along with some information on Twitter etiquette. In the works is my eBook for advanced Twitter marketing topics. Twitter accounts are free, Yay!

Pinterest is another type of social network. This one is more about sharing photos and videos. It is unique and has taken the country by storm. I am in the process of writing an eBook on how to make it work for you. The basic idea is that you have several 'boards' where you 'pin' pictures and videos to share with the masses. It is a great way to share your art, supplies or vintage goods. Best of all it is 100% free!

Facebook Is one of the greatest ways to get information out there about your shop and products. You can use it free but gaining followers isn't always easy like with Twitter and Pinterest. Paid advertising to get people to like your page helps matters along. Fortunately you can target your ads with great precision. If you are going to spend any money on advertising I suggest doing it here. I have an eBook on how to advertise on Facebook here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/99617992/facebook-ad-guide-for-etsy-shop-owners

The thing that all of these social networks have in common is that once you get followers you have them for a while and can put an ad in front of them over and over again. Whereas, if you put an ad pointing people to your Etsy shop they may only go there once, seeing your shop and products only once. The secret to advertising your Etsy shop is to collect people that will see your ads multiple times. This gives you the most impact for the least amount of money and or effort.

Thanks for stopping by today (or reading your email) I hope this info will help you out. Please feel free to leave a question or comment here or email me at MarketMyShop@gmail.com

Twitter Marketing For Etsy Users

As promised I have created the first of two Twitter eBooks. Book one is Twitter Marketing For Etsy Users and it runs through the basics of setting up your Twitter account and getting it ready for public view. The second eBook Advanced Twitter Marketing For Etsy Users will be ready next week and will go into detail on how to gain followers quickly and free!

If you are new to Twitter or never have used Twitter I recommend you purchase this $5 eBook from my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/listing/163120645 and put it to good use! It is an instant download so it is ready to go as soon as you purchase it!

Twitter is one of the three social networks that I use personally and do very well with. The other two are Facebook and Pinterest. I do have a great eBook on starting a Facebook ad campaigne here:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/99617992 I am working on an eBook to help you out with using Pinterest for marketing your Etsy shop. It should be done in a week or two.

I hope your week is going well. Come back tomorrow for a few tips and a recap of the week. In the meantime if you have questions please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email to MarketMyShop@gmail.com

Etsy and Twitter - A Good Match

By now we have all heard of Twitter and hopefully we are all using it to its fullest potential. I am working on an eBook geared towards using Twitter to get more views and exposure in general to your shop. I should have it done by next week. In the meantime I thought I would just say don't forget the old #FollowFriday or #FF tag. Many people still use it and it is a great way to gain a few followers.

Just pick out a few of your favorite tweeters and list their names with the #FollowFriday or #FF tag. It goes out to all of them and they may very well pass it on. It can gain you a few extra followers and make for a nice day. Plus, everyone likes to be mentioned on Twitter!

That is all for now. I am in the middle of dealing with a historic snow in North Arkansas. According to the records this is the first recorded snow in history in Arkansas for the month of May. I am not snowed in but it sure puts a damper on shop sales in the brick and mortar today.

I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend. I will see you all on Monday! In the meantime, if you have a question or comment feel free to leave it here or send me an email to MarketMyShop@gmail.com And remember if you'd like to help support this free blog you can buy one of my very reasonably priced eBooks here: http://MarketMyShop.etsy.com

What Not To Talk About On Facebook And Twitter

There are a couple of things you need to avoid when it comes to Facebook and Twitter for your business. Religion and politics. These are huge topics that can alienate your audience. Stay away from them at all cost. That is, unless your business is selling religious or political art!

If you run out of interesting topics I have come up with a few for you:

Baby animals.

Mamma and baby Otter

Baby Hedgehog

Landscapes.

Beautiful Marsh

Very Old English Wall

Of course there are many other things you can post. Witty quotes, funny pictures, and the like. Just shy away from anything that might offend someone. That is it for today. I hope you all have a great weekend!

It is Follow Friday

I am super busy today and do not have time for a long blog. I just wanted to remind all of you that is Friday and you can still #followfriday #ff on Twitter. Many people still play. Help keep the tradition alive! You can follow me here: @MarketMyShop but I do not post much other than updates to the blog. My other Twitter account is @TangledMetal where I do tweet a lot!

I hope you all have a great weekend! See you on Monday. I will be continuing the series on branding.

Twitter Revisited: Part Five Tools

There are dozens if not hundreds of Twitter tools out there designed to make your life easier. It is just a matter of finding out what tools are best for you. Do a Google search for Twitter Tools and see what you come up with. I personally no longer use anything but the Twitter website but that is just a personal preference.

I have heard that Hootsuite is an all in one that will help you schedule tweets, manage multiple Twitter accounts, set up automatic welcome messages and more. There is a free version but the paid version isn't too much. You need to figure out what you want and look for a program that will do what you want it too.

Many of the tools out there are either free or at least have a trial version to see if the tool is right for you. For the last couple of years I used Social Oomph, they used to be called Tweet Later and have a wide range of tools.

I am going to cut it short today because I have been following my own advice and it has lead me to some new accounts. These are wholesale accounts and I will be talking about wholesale next week. I am off to make a lot of chainmail. Let me know if you have any questions.

P.S. You do realize I provide all of this information for free, right? At some point I will more than likely offer some expanded lessons and information for download for a small fee. I would really be interested in knowing what type of information you'd be interested in. Shoot me an email at marketmyshop@gmail.com

Twitter Revisited: Part Four Tips and Tricks

This week we have been talking about Twitter. By now you should have an account set up, your profile pic and brief profile up. Hopefully you put in a link to your website or shop in the website section of your profile. Now it is just a matter of gaining more followers and converting them to buyers.

There are a couple of things that you can do to help increase your followers. Be an expert and be personable. If you are a jewelry designer, talk about your techniques. If you sell vintage items, talk about the thrift store or yard sale tactics you employ. When someone asks a question and you know the answer feel free to answer. Got nothing to say? Post an inspirational quote.

Be sure to follow the 10 to 1 rule, sometimes 15 to 1 rule. For every business tweet, post 10 to 15 non-business tweets. Don't overwhelm your followers. Tweeting is like blogging, if you are inconsistent people will just get bored and ignore you. Tweet at least once a day, no, seriously, it will help. It is best to tweet when people are around. You may be awake at 3am but the majority of your audience is probably still sleeping. Tweet to them when they are awake.

Following these tactics you will start to gain a following of people who respect and like you. People will ask you questions and answer questions when you ask them. Try to treat Twitter as more of a social networking platform than as a business advertisement and you will find people will enjoy reading what you have to say. They will be compelled to click your link in your profile and visit your shop. And if you weren't the pushy salesperson they will be more inclined to support you.

Here are a few tips that will help you with your Twitter account:
1. Ask questions and opinions.
2. Answer people when they ask questions even if they did not ask you specifically.
3. Talk about what you do.
4. Don't bombard your followers with links to your shop.
5. Tweet consistently.
6. Tweet when your audience is awake and at their computers.
7. Always be friendly.
8. Never get into a public argument.
9. Retweet people when they have something of value to say.
10. Suggest followers for people.

Twitter Revisited: Part Three Followers

Yesterday we talked about how to set up a Twitter account. Hopefully you had some time to explore your account and get some of your profile updated and a profile pic uploaded. You may have even started to follow a few people. Today I would like to discuss how to gain more followers. The first place to start will be Twitter Search.

This is a pretty basic search. Type in some words and hit the Search button. The results will be shown as a listing of tweets with your keywords highlighted in bold. Remember the more vague your key words the more vague your results will be. Searching for "jewelry" or "vintage" will give you a list of tweets that may not be very helpful. Try to target your market here. Searching for "looking for handmade jewelry" or "I want a vintage vase" are better searches. Of course, there is an easier way to do that. Go advanced. Just click on the advanced search link under the area where you input your search.

As you can see you have a lot more parameters for your search now. This should help you to narrow down your search. After you have a list of tweets and or people. Follow the ones that seem like they could be a customer. They may be talking about your product or may be interested in the type of things you do. There is one exception. If you see a little padlock next to their name, do not try and follow them. They have set their tweets to private and most have done that so as not to get spam.

Another handy thing you can do with searches is find your competition. Once you have found them you can follow them or not but you can certainly follow their friends. Let you competition do the work. Ever wonder why you see a Burger King right across the street from McDonald's?  Burger King figured out a long time ago that if McDonald's has a store somewhere they had done a lot of research and they did not have to spend the money doing it.

After following several people, start looking in on their conversations and tweets. Start answering questions if they put them out there. Start talking to them. Start building relationships with them. Even if they are not following you, it is a great idea to start conversing with them. This will cause them to follow you back thus building your list of followers.

Don't be afraid to tell your followers what you do but do not spam them. The rule of thumb for commercial spammy tweets is ONE for ever TEN to FIFTEEN conversational tweets. No one wants to be bombarded by tweet after tweet inviting them to your shop. They want to get to know you.

That is all for today. Tomorrow I will talk about some advanced techniques for building more followers and share some tips that will help you on your way to building a Twitter marketing campaign. As always let me know if you have any questions.

Twitter Revisited: Part Two Setup

Welcome back to the blog. Today we are going to go through the steps on setting up a Twitter account. 

Step one: Go to http://www.twitter.com You should see something like the above image. Put in your Name, Email and a password. Please note that you should have a different password for any and all different accounts that you have. In other words this should not be your email password or Facebook password. Use a combination of upper and lowercase and numbers for a strong password.

After you fill out the info, click sign up.

If all goes well, you should see a screen like above. Here you will enter your desired username. Usernames have to be 15 characters or less.  Remember your branding and try to come up with a username that is the same as your shop name or at least close.

If the username you want is unavailable it will show and you'll have to enter a different username. You may want to break up words by using capital letters like this: MarketMyShop Though the usernames are not case sensitive it helps for people to read your username easier. It can also help search engines to parse the words easier.

I suggest reading the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy because you are agreeing to certain things when you click Create my account. After that, you can go to your account and add a profile pic, write a brief bio, set up themes and much more. You will get an email from Twitter that you have to use to confirm your account.

Explore all of the things that you can do. Fill out as much information as you can. Don't start tweeting yet, because no one is following you yet. Tomorrow we will go into how to get people to follow you. In the meantime just explore. Twitter will probably give you a list of celebrities to follow. Follow whoever you like.

That is it for today. See you all back here tomorrow!

Twitter Revisited: Part One Introduction

Last week was all about relevancy. This week we will be exploring Twitter. Some of you may already be using Twitter so feel free to chime in with your tips whenever you like. Some of you do not have a Twitter account. Tomorrow we will go through the steps to get your Twitter account set up.

Twitter can be a valuable tool or a complete waste of time. What it is for you will be completely up to you. Twitter is a social network based on 140 character posts. It is much like a text message. As with any other social network you build up friends, or in this case followers, and engage them with useful information, fun stuff, quotes, links to your shop and more.

Twitter has potentially millions of customers for you. You just need to figure out how to reach them. There are plenty of tools out there to make it easier to keep up with your Twitter account. From connecting  it to Facebook or your blog to setting up automatic tweeting, there is surely a Twitter tool out there designed to make you life easier.

Twitter Tip Follow Friday

Follow Friday (Now #FF) is a tradition on Twitter where people would suggest people to their followers so that they may follow them as well. It is not as big of a thing as it once was but there are still many who do it religiously. The format is quite simple: #FF @user1 @user2 @user3 @user4 @user5 @user6 @user7

Some people get quite creative with their Follow Friday. Though you lose room for as many names it gives your Follow Friday a bit of a personalized look and that can be helpful. Being witty and humorous can really help you to gain more followers. Here is an example: If you don't #FF these people you are square @user1 @user2 @user3 @user4

You can post as many #FF's as you like but try not to repeat the user names. I tend to have a text list of all the users that I will FF and mix them up each week, This way you are not listing the same names to the same people week after week.

It is considered good etiquette to thank people when they #FF you. Just remember that there will be some people that will return your FF and there will be some who do not. Thank those who do and for those who don't just don't include them the next Friday.

There are several variations for #FF for each day of the week. People have created all kinds of reasons to follow each other in this manner. One that I saw recently was #SteamTuesday. This is just one of the many ways to get a few more followers.

Twitter Tips And Tricks For Your Business

Twitter provides a few tools to help you out on their website. From adding a follow button to your page to widgets that show some of your tweets. These tools are very helpful. There are a multitude of tools created by other companies for Twitter. Some of these are far more valuable than you can ever know.

Setting up automated tweets can make your life a bit easier, however, it can make you look look a spammer too. Do not get into the mindset that you need to be anything other than yourself on Twitter. You do not need to make money tweeting other people's ads. You are on Twitter to help only one business - yours. I would not set up automated tweets until you have a lot of followers. The exception is if you have a blog I would set Twitter to tweet when you have a new blog post. I will explain how to set that up when I get to the series on blogging.

Another handy but underused automation is AutoDM. Basically you set up a message to be sent to all new followers when they follow you. DMs are, in my opinion, a complete waste of time. Twitter never really intended DMs to be much of a way to have a private conversation and it shows. You can only delete one message at a time, so if you have thousands of followers it is very difficult to keep up.

There are many programs for managing your Twitter account out there. TweetDeck, HootSuite, CoTweet and many more. Each one has its benefits and limitations. Most have a free and paid version. Do a web search on Twitter Management Software and you'll get tons of different tools. Look at each one and see if it is for you. I prefer the "less is better" route myself. I do not do much automation on my account. I feel like I need to just be myself and tweet when I do.

Tweet about the process of what you do. Tweet about a sale you just attended. Tweet about a new product line. Try to just be yourself. When you add a coupon code tell your followers about it. Ask how the weather is where they are. Try to relate to your followers and help them relate to you. Don't post 20 new items in a row. If you are going to add multiple items, list them all and tweet with a link to the category saying you added many new items.

Ask questions and answer questions when you see them in your feed. I sometimes ask people about jewelry shops in their area. That has actually resulted in a new shop carrying my work. Ask for people's opinions on your new items. It will get them to view it without being a push for a sale and seeming spammy.

Add people who have the same interests as you. Twitter has a decent search feature. It has a simple search and a more complete search. Be sure when you are adding people to follow that they have tweeted in the last few days and that their tweets are not mainly just links. You want real people to tweet to. I will leave you with a little tutorial on #HASHTAGS I wrote a while back on another blog. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

"From #followFriday to #tips, hash tags are a great way to organize and categorize conversations on Twitter.Hashtags.org shows the most recent group tweets on Twitter

To see which groups have already been created, visit www.hashtags.org - the official site that creates, organizes and displays these groups. Use the search box in the upper right corner to see if your group name is already available. If it isn’t, you can create it simply by tweeting and including the hashtag (#) within your post.

It is now time to familiarize yourself with hashtag commands, so that you only broadcast a message out to the people you want to receive it, those being the members of your hashtag group. Here’s a quick rundown of the more useful ones:

1. Follow #tag - (example: follow #tip) - lets you follow all updates tagged with #tip. 


2. Follow username#tag - subscribe to all updates from a certain person that are sent to a group. (Example: Follow @ClearNetworking#tip will give you every post by @ClearNetworking sent to the #tip group)


3. #tag message - Send a message or question to the group. (Example: #tip Don't set up an automated message with a web address in it.)


4. #tag !message - Send a message only to people who are subscribed to updates from #tag. (Example: #tip !How many tips have you retweeted today?) 


5. Leave #tag - Unsubscribe from the group. If your friends are subscribed to this group as well, you’ll still get messages from them that include updates for the group. (Example: leave #tip will unsubscribe you from the Tips group, but you’ll still get messages from your friend whenever send a message to #tip).


6. Remove #tag Unsubscribe from the group and from friend messages that include this tag. So if @ClearNetworking posts directions to #party010 and you’ve typed Remove #party010 in your Twitter status bar, you won’t see the directions even if @ClearNetworking is on your followers list.

It might be a good idea to print out this list and keep it with you for a while until you remember what command does what. Questions? Comments? We'd love to hear them!"

The Power Of Twitter For Your Online Shop

Twitter is a powerful tool. Those who learn to use it can really bring more traffic into their shop. The problem with Twitter is that most people who use it for business are not using it right. If you constantly post links to your shop or your items people will start to ignore you. They may even report you for spam and Twitter could delete your account.

Twitter is a micro blogging platform that allows you to write 140 characters about what you are doing right now. 140 characters isn't a lot but it is enough to engage your customer base, tell them about a new product and carry on a conversation. Used correctly it can drive a lot of traffic to your shop and help you to convert people into customers.

There is no "fine line" when it comes to Twitter spam. Either you are spamming or you aren't. Twitter should be used as another way to show your customers and potential customers that you are in fact a human artist or someone who seeks out vintage items and puts items out there for people to buy. The key here is the word "human." People would rather hear about your thrift store finds or the process you go through to create an item.

If you don't already have a Twitter account, let me know and I will create a tutorial on how to set up your account, otherwise I am going to assume you already have an account. I am also going to assume that you have your shop URL listed under your website section and/or in your profile. If not, make sure you do that. That way people can get to your shop without you spamming your links.

So, what do you talk about? Talk about the new items you just got at the thrift store or yard sale. Talk about how you choose the color of fall line of crocheted baby hats. Talk about the fluctuating prices of sterling silver. And every 15th or so Tweet you can put a link to your newest item.

Tomorrow I will be discussing some great Twitter strategies, some fun Twitter tools, the Dos and Don'ts of the Twitter world and a few other things. In the meantime you may want to check out my article on Time Management because you can get lost in Twitter and end up tweeting all day instead of working! Be sure to check out the other archived articles as well. I hop you all had a safe and fun Holiday weekend.

Understanding Stats Part 1: Direct, Referral, and Organic.

Before I delve into this week's articles on Facebook fan pages and Twitter I need to explain a few concepts. These concepts are repeated over and over again from Etsy Stats to Google Analytics. These are Direct traffic, Referring Sites and Organic Searches. We'll use Google's definitions as a base.

Direct traffic is defined as having no referring site, meaning there is no way to track where that traffic came from. Someone might be going to your page through a bookmark or favorite set within their browser. They may also have typed the address into their address bar in their browser. They could have also clicked on a link from their email that did not have a reference tag set in it. Or it could be a link from a PDF or Word Document. Basically it means that for one reason or another there is not a way to track where that person came from.

A referring site is when someone clicks on a link from a website. If you were to put a link to your Etsy shop on your Facebook page and someone clicked on it that would show up as Facebook being a referral. The same thing applies when someone clicks on a Twitter link or a link in a blog. If it can be traced to a site it will fall under a referring site. These are generally static links and are sometimes called backlinks. They really help with your SEO and Google Ranking.

Organic is when someone finds you without an ad or a link to your site from another site. Most of the time it is when someone finds you by typing words into a search engine and your site comes up as one of the results. This is the best kind of traffic to have. It means that someone was looking for something you have and they found you. The more relevant your site or shop or page is the better chance you will be found through organic means.

Having your Facebook fan page and Twitter handle found through organic means is one of the best things you can have. It is quite difficult to be found this way because so few people utilize the search features in Facebook and Twitter. Most all of your fans and followers will be ones who were referred to you. For the next few articles I will go into more detail about how to get more fans to your Facebook page and what kinds of fans are the best to have. If you have questions you'd like answered please leave them in the comments so I can address them. (If you are reading this in your email rather than on the blog please feel free to email me your questions at marketmyshop@gmail.com )