Column: Social Media and selling your passion to the masses
Melissa Herrera (COLUMN)
March 11, 2013
366
Column summary: Do you dream of making extra money by selling items you make? Don't be afraid to try. Social media is the way to do it, so pick up that camera and let's start selling.
If you have a dream you have a base to drive all your desires. Sometimes all it takes is a needle, thread, and an iron will to succeed. Sometimes all you need is social media. If you have a computer and the internet, you have everything you need to be successful. Its as easy as making something you are passionate about, snapping a picture, setting a price, and posting it to your blog page. There are so many people who love what they do and need to make money while doing it, so I say, lets play the social media game.
When I say social media I mean any interactive website that you have friends, followers, or are able to interact with others. Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, Pinterest, Wanelo, and any form of blog are the most visible. These should be used without mercy to sell whatever it is youre selling. Do you make beautiful childrens clothing? Buy thrift store threads and turn them into inspired clothing? Do you make jewelry or scarves but not sure what outlet they should be on? Dont be afraid. If you find the time to make them, you will find the perfect outlet to sell them on. Its a no-brainer that will net you cash.
If youre on Facebook then you know how it works. You see a store you like, you click the like button, and then you receive updates from that store. Big name retailers have struggled to make the transition from someone liking their page to turning it into a sale. Not so with folks like you and me sitting at home with our goods and a camera. Consumers on Facebook number in the billions and this source needs to be tapped. I recently read a newspaper article that told about a mom who loved sewing childrens clothing as a hobby. She decided one day to put twenty-five articles of clothing on Facebook to sell. She snapped a photo of each one, posted the picture with a price, and within a short amount of time they were all sold. She now sells over 30,000 garments a month and runs the business she started out with in her own living room. This is passion, and if its a good product, it will sell.
I have sold on numerous sites including Facebook and eBay. If I had to choose I think you have more of an audience with Facebook. eBay is a superb source for the consumer, but as a seller you can get lost in the crowd. Once an item is up for sale, you can advertise by tweeting it, pinning it, and continuing to do this over several days for more exposure. Etsy is a site for hand-crafted items. My daughter in college needed to make some extra money. She works two jobs, but has lots of bills to pay. Her and her friend put their heads together and decided to pick up some clothing at the local thrift shop for pennies. They bought some bleach, beads and started dipping, cutting, and beading away. What they ended up with are funky hippie-inspired clothing that taps an outlet that they know they and others love and will wear. Know your product. They have sold numerous items since opening their Etsy store a few weeks ago. The key to good selling is knowing how to market and expose the item. Once you have an item for sale you must tweet it with hashtags and keywords aimed at who will buy it. A hashtag is this symbol # with a word attached like this #vintage and in the Twitter-verse it is used to draw attention to whatever you are tweeting in 140 characters or less. Therefore if you have a link to the site your product is on, you put that link and a good hashtag and voila – depending on how many followers you have you just marketed that product to hundreds and hundreds of people all for free.
It may sound complicated to those not familiar to the internet and all its various ways. But to those that do know what Im talking about, those that have a dream, or those that simply need another outlet to make money, listen up: Your future can possibly be only a click and a post away.
Are you passionate about turning found objects into art? Do you already have a houseful of your art that are gathering dust in the corner because you dont know what to do with them? Grab your camera, I say, and start snapping away. I am a self-learned computer user. There is nothing I wont Google to find out about. Use the internet to your advantage instead of thinking you dont know how to use it. Its not any bigger and scarier than the world can be so dont let negative words enter your head before you even start. Im sure the mother who sold childrens clothing from her living room had no idea what it would turn into. You can do it. Just believe and hit post.
