Pinterest

[deanosaur1972]

Not sure whether this has been covered before - there have been lots of posts about Pinterest so I am maybe repeating the obvious.

I just want to encourage you all to do this.

Just uploading your item pics to Pinterest is great - but the effectiveness is somewhat limited without driving through the social media aspect of promotion. Pinterest will create the odd sale but can be more effective for exposure of eBid as a selling site - in the long term this will translate into sales.

The most important thing about Pinterest is following other people - people outside of any connection to eBid. If someone starts following you, what are you likely to do? The answer is almost certainly to have a look who is following you and subsequently have a look at their boards and pics. You can actually target people knowing they are likely to re-pin an item of yours onto their boards, or even better - they go into your shop and start pinning stuff that you haven't even pinned.

Here is example: I have a Cat Postcard Board with some fairly decent cat images - so I go to the Pinterest search bar and type in Cat Postcards (that is my target audience) - I select a few people and follow them.

This is an example of what happens with just one user when I followed her boards of cat items:

She visited - re-pinned one of my pins on her board. Even better she goes into my eBid shop and starts pinning a lot of the cat postcards I didn't put into Pinterest. So the result is that I now have more exposure and the lady is doing my job for me - pinning items that I hadn't pinned yet.

So if you have a knitting patterns board on Pinterest - then search knitting patterns and start following others who are also pinning knitting patterns. And the same for any other area of interest that you have.

eBid themselves should really be following every single person who has a pin which has come from ebay.

An ebay seller who uses Pinterest to promote their items will take a look at who is following = welcome to eBid.
Pinterest users who pin items from the bay are also going to be buyers and will look at who is following = welcome to eBid

This would be an extremely direct way to get to a targeted audience.

And finally - eBid should already be following every single person who has anything to do with Toy Story on their boards - starting with the search Toy Story of Terror.

[purplestevie]

I already pin other peoples items, and have been lucky enough to have sales off the back of all this pinning but i did have to unfollow one pinner (not an ebid member) because they bombarded me with several 100 pins of porn everday!

[bluebedouin]

... they bombarded me with several 100 pins of porn everday!

Shouldn't that be pin pricks?

[HerMajesty]

Good points, dean - I'm pretty new to the pintrest thing, but went on today and started following a lot of people whose items interest me, and also some ebidders who I didn't realize i hadn't been following. Not sure where I am to find them all in one place.....

[sucadot]

Good points, dean - I'm pretty new to the pintrest thing, but went on today and started following a lot of people whose items interest me, and also some ebidders who I didn't realize i hadn't been following. Not sure where I am to find them all in one place.....

You can see who you are following, and who is following you, on the right-hand side of your main page, just above your boards - click on to view ... and to see the pins of those you are following click on the 3 bars at the top left of the same page, and then click home feed

[deanosaur1972]

Good points, dean - I'm pretty new to the pintrest thing, but went on today and started following a lot of people whose items interest me, and also some ebidders who I didn't realize i hadn't been following. Not sure where I am to find them all in one place.....

To give you direct example:

You have rubber stamps for sale. If you had a board Rubber Stamps or Rubber Stamping with your items displayed (I don't know if you have this already?)

Then on Pinterest just go into the search bar and type: Rubber Stamping or Rubber Stamps - then click on boards...

So:


(excuse the wonderful artwork!)

1: Search
2: Boards
3: Follow

There are 100's of users who have boards named either Rubber Stamps or Rubber Stamping - that is a targeted audience for you. Over 90% of those people would have never heard of eBid. Once you click 'follow' they are likely to check you out - they will be drawn to your Rubber Stamping board as that is their interest. There is a chance they may re-pin one of your items - they could end up in your shop - they would likely discover eBid, any of those scenario's is a result.

If eBid members on Pinterest are just following other eBid members then it means no-one is attracting a new audience, new customers, new people to eBid. Yes the items are searchable so that would bring in a few - but by using the search facility and targeting an audience outside of eBid then there is a good chance of a lot of new sellers, new buyers and making people aware of eBid.

[HerMajesty]

Thanks, sucadot - I didn't lnow about the bars.................well, those anyway!!

Deano - Thanks for your tips............I have done searches for things I'm interested in, and then pinned items of other people, and then followed them.......art, Christmas, Fiestaware, kids crafts, lithops, photography, home ideas, etc..........things I don't particularly sell, tho others here might. I get your drift................don't just sing to the choir!! Thanks.......you always have such good tips. I didn't know about the boards below the search (Guess I need to be more observant.....I get carried away with all the sparkley pictures and forget what I'm there for!! )

[gbsbks2010]

Great tips deanosaur, thanks for passing them on.

I was most pleasantly surprised when Am Post Museum pinned some of my Irish stamps on to their board.

[deanosaur1972]

I was most pleasantly surprised when Am Post Museum pinned some of my Irish stamps on to their board.

Having a museum promoting your items is a wonderful result , they are now also promoting eBid. They probably don't realize that they are now doing some of your work for you.

[Oldandintheway]

Great work deano! I will follow your advice ASAP. Cheers!