More comparisons - social networks

Comparisons-social networks

To follow up from my earlier post about different selling venues, there are also advantages and disadvantages of free ways to promote your items.

I'll start with Twitter.

Twitter seems to get the most eyes on my items, but only in my Etsy store.  I'm sure this is because Etsy is the most popular selling venue right now.  Every time I use the 'tweet' button on an item, I get a spike in views.  Any where from 6 to 20.  I'm not sure how many of these views are bots, but regardless, they're views.

I seem to get a lot of views from Twitter on my Storenvy store, as well, but since the numbers are so much off from the Etsy views, I'm guessing the majority of these are bots.

Twitter is nice because when you use the 'tweet' button on your item or store, it will add '@etsy' to the end.  People know Etsy and will often click on the link to view your store or item.  Same with Storenvy.  I highly suggest using Twitter like this to increase awareness of your items.

Facebook is also a pretty good way to get views for your items, so I hear,  but I haven't had much luck with it.  Maybe I need to be more interactive with it, but I'm starting to hate Facebook and I think I'm only using it because I'm trying to sell my items.

Tumblr is a great way to get people aware of your items.  If you remember the pic from my last comparison post, there was one particular item of mine that got a lot of attention. No one bought it, though.  Tumblr allows searchable tags, as well, so people looking for Etsy shops and items will be able to find your products.

Lastly, I want to discuss Jux.  Jux is a newcomer to the scene and I totally love it.  Your items won't get many views from Jux, yet but I did manage to generate a bit of traffic from writing a post on Jux and then tweeting it, then Jux replied and plugged my Jux account.  They definitely listen to their users and are working on getting their stuff up and running.  I would expect you should watch these guys.  I think it has the potential to be quite popular.

In the picture below, you can see my top traffic sources from the last 30 days and the top ways people find my items within Etsy.

On the left, the 'Direct Traffic' entry is mostly from Tweets, as far as I can tell.  It is the one that jumps right after I tweet an item.  Facebook is a dismal 3rd in views.  As popular as Facebook is, I would have expected this to be much higher.  Most everything else is pretty self explanitory.  The Etsy Mini is a widget you can put on your website or blog or wherever. People click on it to get to your store.

Eventhough it says I've gotten much less traffc from Tumblr than Facebook, I still feel that Tumblr is superior over views from Facebook because there seems to be much more interaction on Tumblr.

I guess that concludes my social networking comparison. Let me know what you think in the comments.