Perspectives From a Twitter N00b

How does that Pink Floyd song go..."Twitter and waste the hours in a off-hand way..."

Not quite?

Oh...I think, quite. But perhaps not as you might be imagining.

Social Media continues to be a top buzzword in marketing, and until something bigger, better, faster, and somehow...more... comes along, Twitter does seem to be leading the way. Even grandmoms are Tweeting these days. So too, of course, is every business, organization, club, and other entity out there!

My GAWD, what a traffic nightmare - if you don't know how to navigate the webways of Twitterville!

Not that I am a Formula 400 driver, by any means. My rig is more likely to be a little pony cart with a load of hay, trying to get to market.... But even so, I have seen some things. And in the seeing, I have also learned. I'd like to share my experience with you, in the form of "Do's, Don't and Suggested Methods of Operation."

1) DON'T Follow Indiscriminately! ~ Just because someone has done the favor of Following you does NOT mean they deserve the same courtesy. Look at that user and see just what they are after; if it's only you cold body, why would you want to accommodate?

I go over my Followers first thing when I check my page. Opening each of the new ones in a separate Tab, I check them pout one by one. First, I look at the numbers on their Follow/Followers. Users with thousands upon thousands in their list are either saints, like Greg Mortenson,(who doesn't even have such numbers and HE almost won the Nobel Peace Prize last year), or sinners. OR - even worse- SPAMMERS! For gawd's sake, don't eat it!

If I see high numbers and there isn't a darned good reason for me to investigate further, I not only Block the user; I click that little "Report for Spam" Action button. Oh yes I do!

Why not simply ignore them and let them stay on my Followers List? Because. They are going to use my list to Follow each and every one on it. And other spammers will cull THEIR lists to up their own ante. Friends don't let friends(or Followers) be used. Plus, you'll be floated about the Twitter Spam World like chum being dragged for sharkbait. If you are too timid to report them as spam, at the minimum you should Block them.

Next, I click the website in their profile. Why? To make sure it is a legitimate website, related TO the Twitterer they purport to be! Spammers are not stupid people(they just aren't very ethical). They will make up a profile(or more likely, many profiles) that would appear to be of interest to you - so you will Follow them back out of courtesy). Say you are into rock climbing, like I am. FancyFreeClimber has a cute profile pic - they certainly LOOK like a climber! They even have climbing Retweets posted in their stream... if you don't look too far downriver, that is.

But when you click their website - you get an Amazon.com Affiliates Page, or a Get Rich Quick pyramid scheme advertisement...

And finally - look downstream, as I said. You may see the first few posts seem genuine. But then, posts with link after link. All pointing to their scheme. Look before you leap!

2) Do Create Lists! ~ Twitter, not so long ago, devised a way to organize those in our Twitterverse, via Lists. I'm not entirely sure what good putting my people in piles like "Phtographers, DotOrgs, and Esty Shops" is going to do me, but I thought I'd better do it sooner rather than later. If you know how the lists are useful, feel free to leave a comment and clue me in!

My thinking was "Suppose I discover the "magic of list use" at some point when I have many, many, more in my little world? How cumbersome the organization would be!" So - I set aside some time, and went through and sorted things out. Now, whenever I Follow a new user, or they Follow me, I classify them straight away. It feels good, if nothing else.... Besides, there are times when I really want to see what the "Photographers" are going on about, and now I can just click on that list and hide everything else.

3) Suggestion: "Secret Lists" ~ Your Lists can be viewed by others, or not. I am considering making all mine private, so as to throw a wrench in the Spam List Gatherers machine... Something to consider.

But! I discovered a useful tool, in the making of private lists.... For one, I have "Real Friends" - This is a private lists so I can click it and see what the people I REALLY know are up to, yet at the same time not offend those who don't quite qualify. For example, I have "Climbers" which is a public list, and includes plenty of people who...climb. But I also have "Climber Friends" as a private list.... I'm glad you sent 5.12, Climber, but I'm moire interested in seeing that my good friend from SoCal struggled up a 5.8 a week after getting the cast removed from her broken leg! Know what I mean???

And now - the dirty little secret about the private list.... If you Followed me, and I sort of feel I ought to return the favor - but you have an annoying tendency of some sort..... Say, it looks like you might have a tendency to post links to your Etsy shop every half an hour, for example. Well then, you might go on a private list titled something like "Keep an Eye on This One."

Of course, you are still on my "Esty Sellers" public list. And since I pretty much allow my post stream to run au natural, I still DO see your posts. But every so often, it's my intention to click that private list, and get an idea just how much drivel is being drooled by those who I was concerned about.... It's easy to not notice, when there are hundreds of interesting posts surrounding such crap. But by boiling the mix down...the sauce thickens, you see. I get a much clearer picture of what is being posted, and whether or not it pollutes my river of thought.... I give a hoot; so don't pollute, or you'll end up UnFollowed!

4) Suggestion: Speaking of Following ~ To Be Continued! Follow this blog for the next installment, or Follow me at Twitter!


For Updates on Special Offers, our Fashion Perspective and More ~ Follow Talisman Studios on Twitter!

Open To the Trade!

I'd read about bartering within, and beyond, the Esty website community and filed the information under "keep in mind." It's easy for me to go surfing off tangentially on the web and I have learned - that is NOT the way to get my projects done.... I can wile away plenty of time, hopping from one intriguing site to another. And so, I filed that memo to myself and promptly forgot about it, safe in the understanding that when I decided to look into the idea, I would be able to.

This morning, analyzing the viewer statistic for my shop, I noted a referrering site, called EtsyTraders on Blogspot. "Well, I thought, "What do you know! My memo has popped up just at a time when I have a moment to address it!"

Off to check out this trading concept. Clicking to the site, I found quite a well-organized list of Etsy shopkeepers happy to trade merchandise with each other.
The list is maintained by members of the Etsy Trade-a-holics Team, which hosts a blog along with the previously linked list. You can find them at etsytradeaholics.blogspot.com. It's a clean, well-designed site that features the work fo the Team members.

Think you might be interested in trading? Check them out!

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Esty Sellers - Scroll to the lower portion of this page to get links to helpful marketing/selling tool/informational sites sites.

Esty Shoppers - Scroll to the lower portion of this page to get links to blogs from Etsy sellers!
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Traffic Direction

As a shopkeeper on Etsy.com, one limitation that I find issue with is that we may not have working links within our shops, unless they direct traffic to other Etsy pages.

Most shopkeepers have some sort of personal website or blog that can be an excellent selling tool. We use these sites to provide more information to our customers than is plausible within our shops. Instructional videos, photographs and stories about our working days and creative inspiration, details on special promotions, and interesting anecdotes that provide a sense of who we are as artists, business people and crafters; these are integral to our message as sellers.

Currently, we may include urls to these adjunct sites within our Esty shop, but they may not be working links, and that creates, in my opinion, a massive limitation. For starters, our customers need to take the time to copy and paste the link in order to view the adjunct pages, and in this age where time passes in nanoseconds, that is simply a cumbersome task many people will not make.

Should a viewer make the effort, the chance are high that they will not open another tab to view the page. They'll copy and past the url in the one they are currently in. When this happens - guess what? Elvis has just left the building.... Will I see him again, and get a chance to sell him my goods?

I'm not holding my breath for a policy change within Etsy that allows us to provide working links to our outside selling tools. But I find it essential that I provide a forum where my clients can develop a relationship with my company. So, this morning I came up with an idea that may or may not prove useful.

I've created an illustration that provides the url to my blog and added it to each of my listings as an adjunct photo. For my product line, 5 photos are not necessary. They are one of a kind items which really only need one or two shots. I can add in another photo that shows a model wearing the items, or even two photos, but I certainly feel a little "advertisement" for my blog is a worthwhile use for one of those photo slots.

Now, each time a customer views an item, they see a second photo to click on. When they do so, they get a crisp, clear direction to proceed. It should be interesting to watch my stats to see how my blog views change due to this.

There are problems, of course. The person must actually type in the url - they cannot even copy/paste from the illustration. It would be SO nice if they could click a hotlink that opens the page in a new tab.... But one has to work with what they have!
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Esty Sellers - Scroll to the lower portion of this page to get links to helpful marketing/selling tool/informational sites sites.

Esty Shoppers - Scroll to the lower portion of this page to get links to blogs from Etsy sellers!
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Copy Listings - For Shopkeepers

I came upon a tool created by a fellow Etsy shopkeeper to copy listings within your shop. For me, this is going to be a HUGE timesaver, because my items all have nearly identical information - shipping, names, materials and tags are nearly identical.

You need to be running Firefox/Greasemonkey to install the item. It's a click of a button and done - so easy to install! Here's the link; it's called, obviously enough Copy Listing.

Thanks to Ehax at Etsyhacks.com for this!
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Esty Sellers - Scroll to the lower portion of this page to get links to helpful marketing/selling tool/informational sites sites.

Esty Shoppers - Scroll to the lower portion of this page to get links to blogs from Etsy sellers!
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