1.06.2013

Pinterest Users - Win iPhone 4/4s Art Cover

It's My Birthday - Win a Present!

One of a kind clip on cover for your iPhone 4/4s.
Win one right out of my Etsy shop, your choice.
Here is all that you have to do.
  1. For this to work, you must be a Pinterest user.
  2. Go to my Etsy shop called ArtisticallyNclined and take a look around.
  3. Find any item that intrigues you and LIKE it if you are on Facebook OR Tweet if you prefer Twitter.
  4. Then PIN it to Pinterest with descriptions used in my product, including a mention of the name of the item with my store name.  
  5. Contact me and let me know that you followed these directions.  
  6. Ready, Set, Go Pin!

Whichever PIN I find first using key words that are in the description of my product...wins any choice of the covers that I have in my Etsy shop.

I will begin my search on my birthday, January 11th.....so enter as many times as you would like before then.  First one to pop up on my Pinterest search wins!
Happy Birthday!






1.01.2013

What I Learned About How to Use Social Media to Generate Interest ...

...or How Should I Use Social Media to Generate Interest in What I Do? 


Happy 2012...wait....2012...typed it wrong again!
Happy 2 0 1 3!  It's going to take a bit of time before my fingers get used to typing that.  I haven't written a check yet but I foresee a lot of corrections being made.

I've only had my Etsy shop for about a month.  Not very long but long enough to keep me in a steady panic about how to generate interest in my little, virtual shop.  This new year I am devoted to the concentration of promoting myself via social media.  This is not a strong point in my personality, it takes a bit of effort.
I Tweet, have a Facebook Page, am a Pinterest user, and I am trying to Blog in order to generate interest.  

Gypsy Wagon that I would totally buy.
However, after awhile, unless you are giving back, people lose interest in your endeavors.  So, not only does the info that you put out there on the internet, for the sake of promoting your business, need to be really interesting, engaging, and informative but it also has to be done well enough to look grab attention and LOOK professional too.  Some days, it is daunting enough to make you want to erase it all and go back to the days of cart and horse going door to door to peddle your goods.  I think that this cart would be a good representative of my artistic works, what do you think?
I could probably sell a lot of art out of this colorful storefront. 


No, not really.

I've learned that keeping the attention of potential buyers/clients involves giving physical items, as well as knowledge and ideas.  The problem is that I am a plethora of ideas that I am not sure if anyone cares about.  I have a few products that I can afford to give away, and I just need to figure out which of all these items that people are really interested in having.

Interaction is key to figuring these things out.  How do you get the interaction?  I am in the middle of this crazy learning curve.  This is hard stuff, especially when your product is one that isn't constituted as a need.  I have to make my potential customers, "ooh" and "ahh" and do more than just PIN my items.  I need to figure out a way to make them WANT my items enough to get off the sofa, go get their wallet, and click to place that order, then RAVE to their friends that they want to do the same thing too.

I've had one little contest, this was the source of my followers on my newly established Facebook page.  I encouraged my FB friends to go to my page and LIKE it, then SHARE it with their friends.  In just a few hours, I had quite few more followers than I thought I would.  I still haven't cleared the amount that I need to really get the traffic I need to my Etsy shop, but one of my FB friends got very excited and SHARED quite a bit and my reach is totally outside my social circle now and my friend won this cute set of original illustrated cards and a little promo for her own business!  

Goldygates Photography in Chattanooga

She SHARED my site, I SHARE hers in return.

What I learned:

The best way of using social media to the benefit of your business is
to
benefit the business of others.