As an Etsy Shop owner, getting potential buyers’ eyes on your products is extremely important. Of course, buyers may find your products when searching on Etsy, but utilizing social media can bring potential customers from other platforms directly to your shop, which will help to increase sales!
Social media can also help you to build a lasting relationship with your existing customers which will make them more likely to be repeat customers in the future.
So where should you start?
It all comes down to choosing the right platforms and consistently implementing an effective social media strategy for each platform.
Choosing Your Platforms
First, you need to decide which social media platforms make the most sense for your business.
Your first thought might be to create accounts for your business on all the social media platforms, but you will find that that quickly leads to burnout and inconsistency. It will be a much better return on your investment if you focus on the platforms that showcase your products best and that your ideal buyer frequents.
My suggestion?
For the Etsy shops that I have managed social media for, and most Etsy shops in general, I would recommend focusing on the more visual platforms.
When people can easily see your products, they’ll be more inclined to purchase and follow to see new products you come out with. So since Twitter is predominantly written words and there isn’t as much of a focus on visuals and photos, it’ll likely not be the best choice for your Etsy shop.
Focusing on Instagram, Pinterest, and possibly YouTube will likely do well for Etsy shops. Obviously, there is a big visual component to all of these platforms (through photos and/or videos). But there are even more reasons why these are my go-tos for Etsy shops.
Instagram is a powerhouse. At this point, most people check Instagram at least once per day, and if those people are your ideal customers then you should be on Instagram. Your feed will essentially become a portfolio of the products you sell, so people can browse through your products and decide what they might want to purchase before even opening Etsy. Instagram is also the key place for building relationships with your existing customers so they become repeat customers. Telling your story and showcasing the uses for your products will surely help!
Pinterest works as a search engine, and many people are ready to buy when searching on Pinterest. This is perfect for someone with products to sell! As long as you optimize your Pinterest profile, boards, and pins to be found in Pinterest SEO, and create aesthetically engaging pin designs, you are sure to get link clicks to your Etsy shop!
YouTube can be a very great platform for certain shops. If you are selling a product that other people will use to make crafts, you can feature craft ideas on a YouTube channel that include your products and then link to your shop in the description. In general, you can use your YouTube channel for tutorials to show potential customers how to use your products no matter what kind of products you sell, but certain types of products may lend themselves to more video content possibilities than others. If you can think of a lot of useful video ideas revolving around your products, and if you want to spend the time to create YouTube content, YouTube has a lot of benefits.
Some of the YouTube benefits are ad revenue (if your channel gathers enough of a following to become monetized), so you can make some extra money. People also connect with video content on a deeper level than still photos so you’ll be building an even deeper relationship with potential customers.YouTube also acts as a search engine so your content could be more easily found there than on Instagram. However, YouTube is a lot more work than other platforms when it comes to content creation, so keep that in mind when deciding whether or not to choose YouTube as a platform for your shop.
Strategic Consistency is Key
As with growing any social media presence, consistently posting and engaging on your platforms is imperative. You want to make sure that you’re using all of the different features, and engaging with your audience as much as possible.
Consistency does take a significant amount of time and effort creating content and planning your posting schedules in order to best serve your audience. Fortunately, all of these tasks (content creation, content planning, and scheduling) can be outsourced to a virtual assistant or Social Media Manager who can help you build your brand for you.
Virtual Assistants or Social Media Managers make a point of staying up to date on best practices for the different platforms. This is what I do for my clients so they can spend their time focused on the other parts of running their businesses. A good virtual assistant will work with you to reach your social media goals without you needing to spend all that time doing it yourself!
For anyone who is looking to run a social media account, I highly recommend using a scheduler. Scheduling your posts in advance will let you plan your feed as well as keep you on a consistent posting schedule which will help you grow the account. For example, you can use Tailwind to schedule for Pinterest and/or Instagram. There are actually a ton of apps you can use to schedule for Instagram. Some that I have used and enjoyed are Later, Planoly, and Preview.
Not only is consistently posting important, but your consistent posting needs to be strategic in order to attract and speak to your ideal audience who will be your potential customers.
You will need to come up with a strategy, and monitor how it is working for you over time so that you can adjust your strategy and make it the most lucrative for your business. Every account will need an individualized strategy in order to be its most successful, and that strategy will need to pivot and be altered often in order to refine it.
Again, I recommend involving someone who truly knows what they’re doing with social media and who keeps up with the continual changes that each platform will have.
In conclusion, using the right social media platforms to showcase your products and creating an effective and consistent strategy for each platform you decide to take on will help you to increase the reach and visibility of your Etsy shop and bring you an increased amount of sales!
Sidney Hutchison Social Media Manager
Sidney is a Seattle-based Social Media Manager, Virtual Assistant, and Blogger who uses refined, data-driven processes to let her creative passions flourish. Sidney specializes in helping Bloggers, Etsy Shop Owners, and small businesses grow their reach on social media.
