Episode 159 || Creating A Social Media Campaign Part 2: Putting Into Action!

[podcast_team]

Audrey Tracy returns with Part 2 of our 3 part series to explain how to put your Social Media Plan into action with content, scheduling and engagement tactics. eBay Seller Don Vigeant aka Garbsafari on eBay converses with Griff about his approach to social. Brian and Griff answer two sellers' questions about offering buyers a choice of colors in lots of items in a single listing and turning on and off the Out of Stock option.

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Show Links:
8 Facebook Competition Rules You Should Never Ignore
Buffer.com for scheduling and distribution social content to multiple platforms
hootsuite.com for scheduling and distribution social content to multiple platforms
Don Vigeant aka Trad’r Don on eBay (Garbsafari)
Trad’r Don’s Instagram
Trad’r Don’s Facebook for Garb Safari
Creating a Listing with Multi Variations
Volume Pricing How To
eBay Out Of Stock Option Help Page
Savvy Social Podcast
Social Pros Podcast

Brian: This week on the eBay for Business podcast:

Audrey: “We want to use social media to kind of establish your business and establish your credibility. And it's not about outright selling. My kind of rough rule of thumb is 80/ 20. 80% of the time, you're talking about your category. You're talking about what you're an expert in. You're talking about maybe things that are happening in your industry trade shows or whatever it may be. And then 20% of the time you are doing some selling of your items. It's like going to a cocktail party and you're standing next to someone and all they can talk about as their Tupperware business, right? Like you're just getting that hard, sell all the time. How much do you want to hang out with that person?”

Don: “I'm of the school, about not over spamming your audience. I'm aware that I want to space out product pitches here and there, but make them interesting. In the meantime, you have that 80% content that you want to put across that presumably would stay interesting if it's things you're involved in and inspired by. I approach everything I share with the idea that content should either inspire, amuse or inform, even when it comes to the product pitches. I try and lean on the fact that, you know, here's an interesting thing about this product that I didn't even know about. So it's about curiosity and discovery and just sharing with your audience.”

Brian: I am Brian.

Griff: I'm Griff and this is the eBay for Business Podcast, your weekly source for the information and inspiration to start run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. This is episode 159. Welcome back, Brian, not just to the coast, but to the studio.

Brian: To the studio. It's like an exciting day today. We're in the studio.

Griff: When's the last time we recorded face to face?

Brian: Well, probably March of 2020.

Griff: That's what the log book says. It's been a long time.

Brian: Could have even been February of 2020 for me.

Griff: It depends on who was in. I can't recall now.

Brian: Might've been Allen.

Griff: Allen? I think Allen was around. I'll go look at the episode number.

Brian: Griff. Who is on the podcast this week?

Griff: Audrey Tracy returns for part two in our three part series called Creating A Social Media Campaign For Your Business On eBay. Part two will cover putting your plan into action. And we'll talk with a good friend of the podcast. eBay seller, Trader Don also known in real life has Don Vigeant. And we're going to talk about his kind of light touch approach to social media. It's a little bit different than what we've been talking about in this series.

Brian: And I see we have two questions as well.

Griff: Yes, we have one about selling lots of items. That's, you know, an item that has a lot and there's many quantity and then offering buyers a choice of different colors in those lots. It's a little confusing. I think we've got the answer we hope. And the other question this week is the perennial out of stock option question. You know that one. But first before we do anything, do we have any news this week?

Brian: No eBay news per se, but I do want to share some news about the world of commerce overall, since it impacts all sellers and buyers, including those on eBay.

Griff: Okay. I'm intrigued.

Brian: We've seen this on the news or read about it online, but there are warnings coming from many sectors of trade that the nation's supply chains of goods are experiencing a significant slowdown. It could be at risk of total collapse, already stores like Costco and Walmart have warned of near term shortages of goods like toilet paper and some household products. Some of the slowdown is obviously pandemic related but there are other factors now in play. The energy crisis in China is growing. They have instituted power rationing in some areas of the country, and that is only slowing down production. This combined with the worldwide shortage of workers at ports and the shortage of truck drivers. We could see a serious lack of sought after goods during the fast approaching Holiday shopping season.

Griff: Yeah, this is sobering news. I've seen mentions of this. And of course, this sort of bad news about supply chain shortages could also present some excellent opportunity for eBay sellers as always that silver lining around the dark cloud. There could be some, for example, great sourcing opportunities, searching out liquidation and discount sales in your local area or at least domestically. But at the very least, if you haven't already, you should be ordering your inventories for the Holiday season now. Not later. And in fact, for some inventory like that manufactured in say countries like China or even another international countries, it may be too late to take delivery of those goods in time for the Holiday season.

Brian: Yeah. And it's interesting that we have this topic. I remember I was down in Southern California a couple of weekends ago and driving up from Orange county into the LA area, you actually see all of the ships lined up for the port of Long Beach. And there must've been, if I counted them, there probably were 50 to 70 ships just waiting to get a port.

Griff: And that could be on that ship. That could be some eBay sellers merchandise.

Brian: So it's a constantly changing situation out there. And sellers who run small businesses on eBay can be positioned better than any big business to take advantage of the situation by sourcing as much as they can now, locally and beyond. Part of the shortage is already happening is in the toys category. The backup could last well past the end of the year.

Griff: Yeah, I've seen this repeated over and over since so many toys are manufactured and either in part or whole in China, this is having a holdup and of course toys are the focus. Really Christmas is about the kids and adults too, adults buy toys. So it's time to start looking for domestic sources for toys. Then I would think.

Brian: Maybe it's a time for some people to get creative and buy some collectible toys. I know a place you can get them.

Griff: The, your inventory source could be staring you right in the face on eBay, looking for things to buy and resell.

Brian: It makes me think I should go through my kids' closets.

Griff: Well, they're all at college now right?

Brian: I know that's why I should go through their closets and sell their old toys.

Griff: Put them to good use.

Brian: Exactly.

Griff: Well, I don't mean to laugh at this. It is a dire situation. This is something I don't remember anything like this happening in my lifetime where supply chains are starting to freeze up. Like they're stuck in ice somewhere. Hopefully this will eventually sort itself out and we can get back to commerce.

Brian: Yeah. Let's hope. Well, enough bad news about supply chains, right? Okay. I'll be back, I think after Audrey. And I'm excited to hear the second episode with Audrey.

Griff: Yeah, me too. We're going to record it in a second. Also have a conversation with Don Vigeant on schedule too. So there'll be two things to look forward to, yeah.

Brian: Don, he hasn't been on it a little while, so that is great.

Griff: Yeah. He's such a good guest. He's a perfect example of somebody who has his own unique way of approaching everything he does. And I don't think he realizes how engaging he actually is. Hopefully this will give a chance for listeners to go check out his presence, not just on eBay. He always has some interesting stuff. I've bought stuff from him in the past, but also how we approach his social media. It's one of the more personable approaches I've ever seen. So it'll be fun to talk about that.

Brian: Follow him on Instagram.

Griff: Well, thanks, Brian. I'm going to let you go. I know you have meetings upstairs. This is so unusual. You have meetings upstairs.

Brian: It's not, but it's nice to be in the office for me personally. I like it.

Griff: Yeah. I can tell we have two questions coming up and you'll be back to help us answer. Thanks again, Brian.

Griff: Today we continue with part two of our three part series entitled Creating A Social Media Campaign For Your Business O n eBay and rejoining us is our good friend and social media expert and guru. Audrey Tracy. Welcome back, Audrey.

Audrey: Glad to be here. Hi everybody.

Griff: In part one last week, we talked about the preparation or planning of the campaign. In part two, we're focusing on the execution of that campaign, specifically three important components of a campaigns execution, putting it in action. The first one is content and then scheduling and engagement. Let's start with content Audrey. Last week, we went over the types of content that worked best for each of the separate platforms and channels from a high level view I think. Let's dive a little deeper into what types of content work best for specific categories of merchandise on specific social media platforms.

Audrey: The headline here is you want the right content for the right audience. And that also means the right channel. Channel and audience are very deeply linked. You want to think about your images and your text, both should excite focus on the visuals and keep texts short and sweet and to the point.

Griff: No long paragraphs, try to be brief. Audrey: Well, yes. And just edit, be a kind of a ruthless editor of your own work to kind of get a very concise caption. And then do you want to talk about the category or do you want to talk about specific items that you're selling? I would recommend a blend if you're an expert in your category, talk generally about your category and then every once in a while, throw in an item that is, you know, something unique and special in the category or something that you really want to show off and then hopefully sell.

Griff: Does it help sometimes to maybe point to an item or somewhere else that isn't necessarily your inventory?

Audrey: Yeah. If you, for instance, if you're in the collectible world and you've just read a blog article that is related to your category and you're like, oh my gosh, this blog article is saying exactly what I would say about the category, then I would share that. And maybe do in the caption, give a little spin, give a little what your take is on the article, but by sharing the article or the blog, there's two things going on. You're kind of endorsing it. This is what I believe about this topic and kind of getting that kind of borrowed credibility from that expert. If that makes sense, you're kind of identifying yourself with that content and saying, this is what I believe, or this is, this is my point of view on the world and then apply your brand to your assets. But lightly I wouldn't go too crazy with like the watermarks on your Facebook image, that sort of thing, but do apply maybe a little bit of light branding to your assets.

Griff: What would be an example of that?

Audrey: Maybe you have a small watermark in the corner or you've somehow incorporated your logo into your posts, but not in like a, in your face on the nose way.

Griff: I know there's some people that actually have something in their videos or photos, that's part of their real set, which always kinds of set them apart.

Audrey: It's a visual clue versus an outright logo.

Griff: Right. That's important. Yeah.

Audrey: The other thing is don't create on the fly.

Griff: What do you mean?

Audrey: Don't feel like, oh my gosh, I have to like make this post in five minutes and I don't have a whole lot of time for it. Really give yourself the time to create good content. The only exception to this is maybe when you're at an event, if you want to do a real quick live Instagram from the floor of the trade show, that sort of thing, that can be fun and engaging, but generally I advise, take your time to make good content.

Griff: Right? It's part of the planning process that happened last week we talked about.

Audrey: And then finally match all content to the channel. And what I mean by this is know your channel specs. For instance, Instagram in feed is square, but Instagram stories are vertical and each clip has a certain time limit. Facebook, resizes, larger photos into smaller sizes. And some of your profile items like your picture or your background have specific sizes that you're going to want to match up to. And all of this is on Google, by the way.

Griff: Really so it is like everything else. I just have to Google to get that information. Like how big should my picture be from my Facebook page banner?

Audrey: I think it's like, you know, I'm making this up, but it's like 1200 by 400. It's a long rectangle.

Griff: You can't use a square image in the long rectangle. Let's either gonna stretch it out or it's going to crop it or it's going to look horrible.

Audrey: Yeah. And that's kind of amateur hour. You want to look like you're a professional and know what you are doing.

Griff: Welcome to the eBay for Business Podcast, amateur hour, we have to do a segment on that one. I noticed that from many sellers and merchants, the content that they present on their Facebook or Instagram, it does not obviously, or overtly connect directly to the merchandise they sell. And sometimes I've noticed there's not even a link to like their eBay store. What's behind that?

Audrey: Like we talked about in the first segment, you want to use social media to kind of establish your business and establish your credibility. And it's not about outright selling. My kind of rough rule of thumb is 80/20. 80% of the time you're talking about your category. You're talking about what you're an expert in. You're talking about maybe things that are happening in your industry, trade shows or whatever it may be. And then 20% of the time you are doing some selling of your items. You're showing a specific item and talking about why it's important or special. It's like going to a cocktail party and you're standing next to someone and all they can talk about is their Tupperware business, right? Like you're just getting that hard, sell all the time. How much do you want to hang out with that person at the cocktail party?

Griff: I'm going to go with the Ziploc bags after that.

Audrey: I'm going to go to the snack bar, anyway. So what I'm trying to say is you don't want to be that annoying person. That's only talking about giving the hard sell, instead of talking more about the industry, what you're an expert in and kind of your wider worldview of what you said.

Griff: And as we're going to find out in our next segment, we're going to talk to a seller, Don Vigeant who has a very specific approach to social media. It follows more what you're saying, but even more so he hardly ever talks about or promotes a single individual listing. He promotes the lifestyle that he loves.

Audrey: Thank you. That's what I'm trying to say.

Griff: Let's say I have all my content and my assets are built. We call them assets in the business, right?

Audrey: Yes.

Griff: I just saw that on a email from the seller marketing team. And I thought I'll stick that in. So all of my assets are built and ready to go. I have my images. I've actually written out the text I'm going to use and how I'm going to approach it. It's time to start posting.

Audrey: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold your horses there. You need one more thing. A schedule and a calendar.

Griff: Oh, come on. I already have a schedule here at work for the podcast. Why do I need a schedule?

Audrey: Because you've just created this batch of incredible content and you don't want to post it all at once.

Griff: So I'm going to post it a little at a time. Do I still need a calendar?

Audrey: Yes. In fact, I would argue that you start with a calendar and then create your content based on a calendar, not the reverse, because you want to be thinking about things like what we call retail moments here at eBay. Like, do I have a mother's day post? You want to think about what is happening in the world and what can I attach my content to. Hashtag holidays, national pizza day, national puppy day, national bagel day, whatever. You want to kind of look ahead and say, what does my editorial calendar look like? And then develop content based on that.

Griff: I may actually not have an interest in or sell anything related to a bagel, right? So is that one retail moment I can kind of get out of?

Audrey: You can skip. Only pick hashtag holidays that relate to your business.

Griff: Don't try it. Don't try to force a connection.

Audrey: Right. But let's pretend you've built the editorial calendar. You've built a big batch of content and now you're getting ready to post. Some social media platforms will allow you to schedule in advance. I think one of the challenges as a small business owner is trying to figure out when and how to post and social media can take up a fair bit of your time if you really let it. So you want to be able to kind of schedule your posts in my opinion it's better to sit down for half an hour and schedule all your posts for one week versus doing that seven or five days a a week.

Griff: And the platforms allow you to do this?

Audrey: Some of them do. And some of them don't. Facebook allows you to schedule your posts. I don't believe that Instagram or Twitter does, but what I recommend is actually a third party tool.

Griff: Now you've got my interest. I love third party tools. What is it?

Audrey: There are programs like Buffer or Hootsuite that are basically platforms where you load your content and then it publishes it to the various channel at your schedule.

Griff: Hootsuite?

Audrey: Hootsuite is actually more expensive. Buffer has like a $5 a month I believe option that fits nicely for small businesses. And I believe there's also some analytics that they provide too.

Griff: I'll explore this and put the link for the buffer third party service for scheduling in our transcript for episode 159.

Audrey: Great. And then the other thing is, think through your schedule. You don't want to put a bunch of content up and then not have anything next week. Figure out what's the right cadence. Are you going to post daily? Are you going to post every other day? Are you going to post three times a day? I don't recommend that, that's too much.

Griff: Three times. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I assume your audience is on Facebook all the time and why would you need a regular cadence. How does that help?

Audrey: It keeps them engaged. If you publish everything at once. You've only gotten those eyeballs that happen to be on Facebook at that moment. And maybe a little virality depending on reactions and engagement. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But generally speaking, the shelf life of a social media post is probably 24 hours.

Griff: Because the feeds and all of these tend to move so quickly and people don't scroll that unless you only have three people you're following, it's going to be hard to see them. And a lot of these platforms actually will insert things into your feed that you didn't ask for maybe ads or maybe posts from groups that they think you'll like.

Audrey: You'll like this, or suggested posts, that sort of thing.

Griff: And that could push posts that you're really interested in farther in the past and harder to find. It's interesting. I see some businesses like they post every day and others that post in a frenzy for a few days, and then they disappear for days or weeks. And you're saying that this is not a good approach.

Audrey: No, define your cadence. Figure out how often you're going to post and some tools. I don't know if Buffer has this, but other social media tools that I have seen actually give you recommended times and days to post.

Griff: Based on what?

Audrey: Based on they know how many people are on the platform at certain days and times.

Griff: Oh, I want that in the old world of advertising, primetime advertising slots on television and cost a lot more than, you know, late night, early morning or mid day.

Audrey: Yeah. It's kind of thinking that those are called day parts in TV and it's kind of the same idea.

Griff: Day Parts? No. I've never heard that. God, I'm glad you're on the show. I've learned all this new stuff. What about cross-promoting content or events or scheduled posts? I mean, can I utilize two or more of my social platforms to get people to cross over and maybe go to one place that they're like, I'm on Twitter. And I want them to go to Facebook. Is that affected?

Audrey: I would say not for regular content, but if you're doing something like, Hey, I'm going to do a Instagram live on Tuesday at three o'clock. I'm just making this up. You can post about that in your other channels and encourage folks to come to Instagram at that time. The thing that I don't think works is telling people who are on Facebook to go consume content on Instagram.

Griff: That leads us to the third aspect of execution of the campaign, putting it into action. And that's the actual engagement itself.

Audrey: So now we've got the what and when figured out in terms of content and timing, and now we want to figure out how we'll engage.

Griff: Well, are there more options than me just posting an image and some text?

Audrey: Come on Griff. You know, better than that.

Griff: I do! I do!

Audrey: The first rule to consider is engagement is not just about pushing content. Don't post and run. You've got to stick around to engage in the conversation.

Griff: Engagement is a two way conversation. Someone like myself who tends to hog the stage and be a ham forgets. That it's a two way thing. Of course. And that's on social media.

Audrey: Yeah. And that's what I love and find fascinating about social media is the two way conversation. It used to be old school marketing was one eBay to many, our customers, but now consumers, regular old consumers have the opportunity to talk to brands and engage with them and give them feedback and tell them when they're screwing up.

Griff: Okay. So I've got this now. What are the points that I need to keep in mind before I start engaging? I mean, there may be something about my personality that quite frankly, if I let it loose, it's not so engaging.

Audrey: Yes.

Griff: You agreed too quickly!

Audrey: The old don't be a jerk to your customers. Before we get too much further. Let's define exactly what engagement is, which is the back and forth in comments, either through comments or through likes and shares. This is the reaction to your posts, right? The engagement is the reaction to your posts. Positive or negative.

Griff: Okay. Negative happens sometimes.

Audrey: Yes. So here's how you want to engage. You always want to use your own style and tone and you want to speak in your own voice. You might have to dial it down a little bit Griff, try to sound professional. Don't try to sound too selly.

Griff: Selly?

Audrey: Selly, as in you're selling too hard. And if your merchandise really excites, you bring that excitement into your comments.

Griff: I think I know what you mean because I have a passion for many things and a lot of them have to do with the things I collect and I sell accordingly, like fragrances. I collect old fragrances, cameras. I've been buying and selling antiques for years. And some of them, I love talking about. Whether that's me trying to be a little pedantic and teaching people about why this is a good thing or why this matters to me and how it connects to a part of my life in the past. I love talking about those things.

Audrey: There we go. Well, then your engagement strategy should reflect that excitement and that expertise.

Griff: And these are things I sell by the way. Audrey: That's perfect then. You're showing off your excitement for the category, for the items you're establishing your expertise. And therefore people know that if they are interested in this stuff and they want to buy it, you are a reliable person to buy from.

Griff: What are some other tactics for engaging your audience, besides just what we've talked about.

Audrey: I would encourage a call to action that encourages engagement. Oftentimes it can be as simple as asking a question. If you have two fragrances, you're showing two fragrance bottles, which one is your favorite? Or what's your favorite fragrance or, fragrance can you absolutely not stand.

Griff: There were a few of those that I love talking about them.

Audrey: Sometimes the negative drives more engagement than the positive.

Griff: Yeah. I can see me getting on, on my page and saying, I absolutely cannot stand to smell Christian Dior's Poison. It was overused in the eighties and it made me vomit at dinner parties.

Audrey: And then the pro Poison people...

Griff: They'll come out in droves. Right. I don't believe there are any out there, but maybe there are.

Audrey: They're still holding onto the eighties.

Griff: Yeah I guess they are.

Audrey: Questions are the easiest and sometimes the most effective way to get your audience to engage with you by posting responses or at least giving you a like.

Griff: Okay. I know what a like is our responses in likes important for a campaign?

Audrey: Yes, they're absolutely critical. Engagement is in the industry measured by engagement rate and there's a couple ways to measure it, but it's basically how many people reacted to your content versus how many people saw it. Right? It's a ratio. It's a percentage. And this metric is king in social media and obviously the bigger, the better. So you want to drive engagement with your followers. And I would argue that reactions have different levels or kind of values of engagement. In other words, a comment takes more effort and thought than just a like and a back and forth exchange in the comments is more valuable than just one comment, right? Because all of the social media platforms are watching this. They're calculating how many times somebody has commented, liked on your post and this will drive the virality of the posts. And a share is actually one of the most valuable pieces of engagement. Because if I'm sharing something, it's kind of like borrowed content, right? Like I'm endorsing this and I'm sharing it to my personal page and I've kind of identifying with it. This is me. This is what I believe. This is what I like, that sort of thing. So share is very, very valuable.

Griff: Okay. But knowing all this, should I be begging for likes then? Like my posts. Like my posts.

Audrey: Please no. That's just tacky. Might as well just go start a GoFundMe page and be done with it.

Brian: Okay. Considering that's a ridiculous way to do it. How can I increase my audience reach if I don't ask for likes or shares and I have a very small group of followers to begin with?

Audrey: Find other ways to ask questions and engage with your audience. For example, your Facebook Business page has an option for creating polls. There's all kinds of interesting features, not only on Facebook, but Instagram, et cetera, different ways of getting your audience to engage with you. Think about like when you do an Instagram story, for instance, you can add a poll or a vote or even a comment, you can ask for a comment. Or there's like a little slider bar where folks can kind of vote on, how I'm just making this up. But like how rad is this outfit for instance.

Griff: Is this dress blue and white or black and gold?

Audrey: God no. Not that! But my point is that you can ask your audience a question and they can kind of vote with the slider bar to kind of gauge how interested they are.

Griff: After we talked last week. And I was considering the different ways of engaging. Cause I know we had to put it together for this episode. I thought about putting a poll up on our Facebook page for the podcast. It's a group, actually. It's not a page. And we got lots of engagement considering how many people normally engage with the things I post. So I'm seeing it even work on our podcast group page at Facebook. So it can work for anyone. Yeah. People like to be asked their opinion. People like to be able to comment. They want to let you know what's on their minds. Don't stop them.

Audrey: My uncle has a famous saying, I have an opinion. What are we talking about?

Griff: I'm going to steal that, you know I am going to steal that.

Audrey: Another way of engaging is with contest, but you do have to be a little careful there.

Griff: Okay contests, like what?

Audrey: Like maybe a giveaway or something along those lines. They are a really great way to drive engagement, but you do need to be careful. There are some rules around it.

Griff: Where do I find out these rules?

Audrey: You're going to have to do a little research because this changes by platform. You're going to want to figure out how are you going to kind of collect your entries, quote, unquote, into the contest. How are you going to pick your winner? How are you going to notify them? That sort of thing. And what are you going to give away?

Griff: And you have to be upfront about all this. This is how you have to let the audience know this. And in fact, I did find a page that explains at least the Facebook rules about running contests. And I'm going to put the link into the transcript for episode 159, it's called eight Facebook competition rules you should never ignore.

Audrey: You don't want to get into legal trouble with your contest.

Griff: Are there other possible ways to engage and grow an audience we haven't talked about?

Audrey: I think of what about online events or live streaming. Live streaming is huge. It could be as simple as a Facebook live stream or even a Zoom meetup. If you want to do that. This could be ideal for maybe somebody like an auto part seller. Maybe you want to show off your latest classic car restoration or with a live stream, or maybe you want to take questions from the audience or you may be outsourcing for product and you want to show your audience how you do it.

Griff: I know I can think of a lot of sellers who've done this in the past with great success actually. I like this. All right. So I think if I had to, based on my own personality, I'd want to use online events a lot, I think.

Audrey: Yeah. Just make sure that you've got the right personality for it. Believe it or not being on camera takes a lot of energy to have a personality and deliver your messages. Think through if got the right personality.

Griff: I'm pretty sure I got the right personality because I'm such a ham.

Audrey: For sure but if you're a little quiet or afraid of the camera or concerned about getting negative comments. Just think that through.

Griff: Okay. That's important. There's a guy out there who I wanted to get in. It is somebody who I started following a couple of years ago and his name is Charles Phoenix. You can find him on Facebook, just look for Charles Phoenix. He is one of the most exuberant online personalities I've ever met. And it's all real. It's not fake. He has a passion, a lifelong passion since he was a child for mid-century Americana design architecture, architecture, but cars, especially. And he has become famous for his videos where he'll go through and around a classic car and talk about it. He has a very, very definable personality. His enthusiasm is absolutely infectious and he's funny and the videos are well shot. I think most of them, he just holds his own iPhone and he's just very good at doing it smoothly and showing all the details and he's built up an entire business and it's not easy to see what he sells. You have to do a little hunting to see that he has two books, that he actually has an ongoing online series, where he meets with people who are aficionado's his followers and for a very small price, he's part of the live stream. And you can ask him questions. I've been watching. I think this guy is brilliant at marketing because it doesn't feel like marketing.

Audrey: It feels like content that you want to consume because you are a fan of the same thing that he's a fan of.

Griff: Well, and I was, but now even more so.

Audrey: Yes, yes. And I love talking to people or getting content from people that are like that, that are so passionate about something that they're deep in the weeds, deep in the subculture, and they can teach you all kinds of interesting things.

Griff: And I'll put a link to his webpage. He's just a joy to follow. I recommend following him. All right, let's summarize. Cause we're almost out of time. These are the top line points for part two in our series, build your assets that's content. And that means images and text copy all in advance.

Audrey: Have it formatted to fit the channels that you'll use.

Griff: And create a schedule.

Audrey: And stick to it.

Griff: And use as many methods of engagement as you're comfortable doing.

Audrey: That's right. It can be posts, questions, polls, comments, events.

Griff: And you, dear listener might be a little overwhelmed, but remember you can always read through the transcript for this part two and last week part one, and have it on hand as a checklist of sorts to help you stay on track. Audrey, what can we expect in part three next week?

Audrey: In part three, we'll go over ways. You should track the results of your campaign using the analytics and metrics that each platform provides.

Griff: I love metrics I didn't before I started working at eBay, but you work at eBay long enough and you see the value of them. We live on metrics. We live and we breathe on them. Audrey, before we go, I see you have a list in front of you. I assume these are some resources you want to talk about?

Audrey: Yeah. Not to send our listeners to another podcast, but...

Griff: That 's Okay. We can do that. We love sending people to other podcasts.

Audrey: Okay, good. We're not selfish. There's room for everyone. Okay, good. Cause there's a couple of social media podcasts that I enjoy. One of them is called Savvy Social Podcast and the other one is called Social Pros. They're just really great. I listened to one on Tik Tok probably a couple months ago. And I learned so much about Tik Tok and Tik Tok is its own world and a growing world and a growing world. And so these podcasts can really help you go deep on a particular topic within social media.

Griff: You piqued my interest and I'll definitely find them and put the links to them in our transcripts so people can check them out. Audrey, thanks again. This has been a lot of fun and we'll see you next week.

Audrey: My pleasure. Glad to do it.

Griff: Audrey Tracy will be back next week for part three of our three part series on Creating A Social Media Marketing Campaign For Your Business on eBay. If you have a question for Audrey about Social Media Marketing, why not send it to us here at podcast@ebay.com and we'll include it in our next episode for part three.

Griff: As you know, we're talking about social media marketing campaigns in the use of social media to help boost your business. When I was talking to Audrey on our first installment, you may have heard me ask, is it really important to use social media for your marketing campaigns for your business? Then my conversations with different sellers, there's some sellers who are really they're so gung ho about being on social media. And there's some sellers who have a different approach. I call it the light touch. And right now we're going to talk to somebody who's a friend of the podcast he hasn't been on for awhile. I think since we stop recording in the studio, just when the pandemic broke, but it's nice to have you back Don Vigeant. Trader Don. Hello.

Don: Hey Griff. How is it going?

Griff: It's going great. It's very obvious if you just watched a few of your posts, what interests you. Which seems to be a combination of eBay, all things TiKI and your job, what you do for your day to day work. What is your approach to social media?

Don: I'm of the school about not over spamming your audience. You know, I'm aware that I want to space out product pitches here and there, but make them interesting. In the meantime you have that 80% content that you want to put across that presumably would stay interesting if it's things you're involved in and inspired by. I approach everything I share with the idea that content should either inspire, amuse or inform. And even when it comes to the product pitches, I try and lean on the fact that, you know, here's an interesting thing about this product that I didn't even know about. So it's about curiosity and discovery and just sharing with your audience. And then, you know, like you had said, I've got some weird foundation of things that interest me. There's the Tiki culture. There's cocktails. There's my other job, which incidentally I run their social media account. But sometimes these are just a little bits of bait to get you to jump over and follow that account. That's the hot tub installation actually. And then I have a third account, which is strictly Tiki things centered around my backyard bar. A lot of followers get kind of fussy about mixing it up and want it to be just about one thing. And a lot of, a lot of Tiki followers don't like the other thing. So I curate certain topics and put them in different accounts, but my garb safari page is all about everything. And every three, four, or fifth post is about an item I want to feature. And then in between, I'm also given behind the scenes and reseller life as well, displaying my methods of customer service and connection to all the various platforms. Cause it more than just eBay, there's four or five other platforms I sell on as well.

Griff: So what are the different platforms that you use for social media? I know we see each other a lot on Instagram. Are there other places where we can find you or is that your main focus?

Don: That's the Genesis where everything happens and really where it goes from there is just, I get redundant cross posting to my Facebook Business page, with what I put on my Instagram account for the most part. I mean, you get the full uncut story if you follow Instagram and there are certain things I'll hold back on, putting on the Facebook page. The Facebook page, I'll also share interesting article links and everything, which I don't do on Instagram. Actually it falls off in there. I have done some Twitter occasionally in conjunction with some items, sharing reseller groups that I've been in and also with Pinterest, but it doesn't incorporate the day to day of what interests me and the editorial, you know, cause it's really firing on all cylinders of images and writing and you know, quirky observation, that sort of thing.

Griff: How deep is your engagement with your followers? Do you answer questions? Do you have conversations with them or do you just push the content to them and let them discuss?

Don: Oh, I, I absolutely try and engage. I mean, my following is not overwhelming. It's kind of crazy that I lose a lot of people because I'm not consistent about the one thing or, you know, I'm just a little too esoteric for them, but those that hang in there. There's a few dozen that, uh, are, are, uh, dependable people I respect and like, and encourage me along. So I'm absolutely there to interact and I'm trying to constantly follow other like-minded people. I've been involved in these reseller gain trains they've been having lately where you put your name in there and then you, you follow other people and they follow you back sort of thing.

Griff: How's that working?

Don: It does. All right. I don't really focus on the numbers because again, it's more, even if I wasn't selling, I would be sharing as I have this need. You know, my creative mojo is kind of rusty since I kinda got out of the more creative environments that I was in outside of college. So this is just a way to stay fluid and just visual exercises, written exercises. It's sort of like microblogging, if you will, or just kind of like a low-key art form.

Griff: What were these creative universes that you used to operate in out of college?

Don: Um, I have a degree from San Jose state university in analog photography, which I received it probably a year before digital took over since the mid nineties. So talk about one obsolete thing. Then I entered the printing industry for 13 years until a 2008 downturn wiped that out. And you know, digital was kind of doing away with printing too. So that's two obsolete fields that I have emerged from.

Griff: You have the magic touched Don. That's interesting how that has recently rebounded. There's a lot of interest in film cameras again.

Don: Yeah. I still have my Twin lens reflex that I swear one day and then my enlarger still beckons from the shed, but, I, I think that's probably highly unrealistic than getting a dark room going again.

Griff: I think most analog photographers now just go as far as developing their negatives and then they digitally scan them. They don't go through the printing process. How did you get started in the whole Tiki subculture? Was that always a part of your life or was there a time when it suddenly popped in?

Don: It seems like it's always been there. I've had people going back 20 years and so that we're more into it when it was really underground. So it was always kind of a germ in the back of my head, people that make craft cocktails and we listened to like exotica and bachelor pad music and it was always something that didn't really grab me necessarily. And then in the late odds, a trip to Hawaii sort of cracked that open, even though there's a disparity between sunny paradise and the dark Tiki experience that a lot of the mid-century aesthetic is built on. It seemed organic. And I operate as what I call like a sleeper cell for a couple of years, perfecting drinks for friends and stuff. And then you have these other enclaves that are nearby you and through chance in this case, it was a son's little league. It's like, oh, do you know this other Tiki guy? And suddenly that really snowballed because there was connections there and we're lifelong friends. I've met more friends in my forties at any point in my life and they're like a large contingent. We call it the Ohana. There's a lot of documentation with colorful characters and clothing and mugs and drinks and environments, backyard, environments, and lounges.

Griff: What's the most interesting, valuable or rare Tiki related item that you've come across?

Don: Oh, that's really hard to answer. I mean, there's probably been more quality items produced in the last decade than there was in the classic period, cause it's really picked up speed and there's been a lot of devotion to making both good and bad quality things. There's some really, really crack artisans that have made some limited mugs in the last couple of years that are total works of art. And you know, there's just things I've bought in the last year that are among my favorites, but I've got some classic pieces out on my lounge, like a, you know, a carved four foot statue that I'm not sure of the origins and everything, but that's one of my favorite pieces that I I have.

Griff: You spend how much time would you say percentage wise out of your week on your social media channels, chatting with your followers?

Don: It's a very cursory engagement, getting questions or support or replying back to people follow. If something is interesting or someone's asking for help, you know, I really like to be supportive to other sellers or anyone helping to identify things. I wouldn't say I've got a wealth of time. There are things I don't highlight that are part of my larger life with family and parenting. And again, with the two jobs, it's, it's kind of a lot to juggle. So with mobile, I'm always kind of thinking ahead and unfortunately I'm put in positions where I see a lot of interesting things and I move around lot with the job, doing hot tub installation, to see some pretty incredible vistas and thrust in various environments where I can, you know, I can find a narrative that I want to highlight that sort of thing.

Griff: Well, Don, I want to thank you very much for stopping by and telling us about your social media accounts. Of course, we'll put your, all of the links to your eBay store and your Instagram and Facebook pages in our transcripts so folks can check you out. Tiki still grows, at least from what I can tell as an area of collecting interest, am I correct? Or is it, has it cooled up?

Don: You know, it's funny. Cause you know, it's been a fad for a while and I felt like the way was cresting a number of years ago, but there's still quality places that continue to open. San Jose is getting one of its first legit ones this month or next month actually, I stopped guessing when it would die and everything because people are still doing it and I'm sort of waiting for it to go back underground kind of thing. It kind of works. You know, we're all just tired X punks and everything.

Griff: Exactly. Well here's to pupu platters in the future then. Don thanks an awful lot.

Brian: Always a pleasure Griff.

Griff: Don Vigeant operates under the persona Trader Don, but he can be found on social media and on eBay under the user ID Garb Safari, and we'll put links to his eBay store and social media presences in the transcript for episode 159.

Brian: You got questions?

Griff: We've got answers. And our first question, Brian, this week comes from eBay seller Andrew who wrote to podcast @ebay.com with the following. Hello, I'm a big fan of your podcast. Very useful information. I sell fountain pen ink cartridges in nine colors. He gave me an item number. So I checked it out. My listings are for a hundred individual ink cartridges that's per the lot and I'm not able to create a listing where buyers can pick the colors themselves. This is what I mean, as an example, a buyer purchases a hundred ink cartridges and somehow he or she can specify that they want 20 in black, 30 in blue, 15 in yellow, 15 in red, 19 in green and one in turquoise. Wait, I had no idea. There was so many colors just goes on to say, as far as I know it, isn't possible to have such a listing best regards Andrew. He's correct is sort of, it is indeed not possible to create a listing that allows for buyer choice. And of course there's a few good reasons for that. It's hard to actually verify what did you choose? Should there be a dispute or a need to return if it's not actually recorded on the listing itself.

Brian: The solution for Andrew maybe to create separate listings with different lot sizes.

Griff: Yeah. That could work. And each listing could have multi variations added for each of the nine colors. So a listing a lot of 10 for each of the nine colors. So it could be 90 different quantity available and the buyers can pick it.

Brian: And it wouldn't allow the buyer to go exactly down to the example that Andrew gave us, you know, like. Griff: 19. Yeah. There's a weird numbers. I wonder if he actually gets those.

Brian: He might because maybe someone's, they're just running through a certain color more frequently than others. I wonder if there's some other way that he could do this?

Griff: Well, he could, he could build the lot sizes based on what his past buyers have most commonly asked for in the way of lot size, right? He could have a listing for single items. That's no lots. So for that person who just wants one and maybe they also want 10 or 30 of another color and he can include variations in colors for that one single listing too. And best of all for each listing he does this he can also utilize volume pricing to entice buyers, to buy more lots in each of the listings.

Brian: So I have a question. If I think about someone who's selling, like say t-shirts and they might have the same situation, multiple colors, the same style of t-shirt, but let's say different colors. The buyer can actually go in and say, I want to buy three of these or four of these, I guess not. They can just say, I want to buy that particular color and how many they want of that particular color. They can't go, I want that color. Plus three of the yellow or the blue. So same situation Andrew's dealing with.

Griff: No they can't and in that situation, you'd have to go back to that listing. You'd put it in your shopping cart, 30 of the blue, you have to go back to the listing search for the red ones and then how many he's offering. If it's a lot of 30 than 30, if he has another listing where it's a lot of 10, then you can select that. But it's not easy to do what he's doing, but it isn't impossible.

Brian: Right. So he could set up some discounts based on the number of lots, the buyer purchases.

Griff: With volume pricing.

Brian: He could alert his buyers that he has other lot sizes available in his eBay store, where he could create a separate store category and list all of them there. You could then put a link to that store category in all his other listings alerting buyers there that other lot sizes available.

Griff: He could do that. But I checked and Andrew doesn't have an eBay store.

Brian: Griff, you're always doing the research.

Griff: I have to, or I'll come out wrong.

Brian: Another excellent reason to have one, right. To have a store. I mean, so without a store, he could just ask buyers to see my other listings for other lot sizes.

Griff: Yeah. And that could work too. It's not as effective as making a separate store category if you subscribe to a store, of course, but it could work just to say see my other listings.

Brian: So Andrew, we suggest you consider testing separate listings with different lot sizes, including a listing that has a lot size of one. With all of them having multi variations for each color. And as another option to add to your test, try volume pricing to give your buyers incentive to purchase more.

Griff: Yeah, because in a situation like that, they may have to come back for each color, but they can say, I want 30 of these turquoise. And then add that to the cart. Then it can come with the single listing and say, and I want 20 of these red thinking about it. He may be able to just get away with one or two listings or three with a lot size of one, a lot size of say five and maybe 10 for those who are buying in bulk and then nine variations for each of the colors in all three of them. And that would provide buyers with the option to build their own lots and their own colors and that third listing with no lot size, just singles.

Brian: Single in nine colors, he has nine colors. Yeah. And if he did those singles, he could also do like how much quantity they wanted of each.

Griff: They could say I want 30 of this. Right. And then I don't know if he needs to, as price point was actually pretty low. I won't say what it is, but there's always that option of volume pricing to entice your buyer to buy more if they hadn't been thinking about it. And I think Andrew, that the combinations that we provided are probably your best solution. You can always have a separate listing with lots of a hundred, like you do now for those buyers, they sound like they may be a B to B buyers, right? Who are buying a hundred, who uses a hundred ink cartridges? It has to be someone who has a business.

Brian: Someone without a thermal printer.

Griff: (laughter) Just thinking about ink cartridges, for like fountain pens. So someone's really doing a lot of work. I checked your sales history and it seems like he does sell quite a few of those lots of one hundreds with the variations of all nine colors.

Brian: In addition to the store, those are the suggestions.

Griff: Yes. Get an eBay store for Pete's sake!

Brian: Yeah. And we'll put links to the eBay, help pages that explain multivariate options and volume pricing in detail.

Griff: So you can figure out how to do them. I did. I got to be honest to make sure that they were available together. I went to your category and started a test listing using a lot size and multi variations and also volume pricing. And it is possible to do this. And I want you to let us know Andrew, how this works out. Should you consider or end up adopting any of our suggestions. Our next question was taken from the eBay for Business Podcast group on Facebook and there seller Pam put a post that said, can someone tell me why my sold listings remain an active category? Am I to remove them with item no longer available? Thank you, Pam. From the Podcast Facebook Group.

Brian: This sounds familiar. This is the old out of stock option again.

Griff: Yes it is. Pam. It sounds like your stockout option is set to yes. If your inventory is all or mostly multi quantity listings, the stockout option is actually a good one. Otherwise it can be really confusing. And as you noticed a little bit disconcerting, but don't take my word for it. If you search help in contact on out of stock, the help page that explains this should come up. And I will also put a link to that page in the transcript for episode 159. And even if you do have a few multi quantity listings and you want to use it for that, keep in mind that this particular setting out of stock is global, it's all or nothing. It's all your listings or none of your listings. That's it. If you set it to, yes, it will apply to all your fixed price listings, even if there's just one of them. Now, is this a good idea? No, I don't think it's a good idea and we should change it so it can be applied per listing, not all listings. So thank you for asking that question, Pam, because it reminds me to ask our Product Team to maybe consider making this particular feature applicable to just individual listings.

Brian: Or a toggle for all or some. Kind of something that allows the seller to have some control over how it's applied.

Griff: Yes. Make it a true by listing option or all so the seller can select. In the meantime, Pam, here's how to enable or disable the out of stock option. Go to your selling preferences page. And we'll put the link to that, but it's basically ebay.com/uas/selling-pref. It was short enough that I thought we could get away, mentioning it too. That's step one. And then when you're on that page, scroll down to the multi quantity listing section and on the right, select the toggle besides listing stay active when you're out of stock and you can move it back and forth that the slide is gray. Then the setting is off. If you move it to blue, then it's on.

Brian: Sounds simple enough. Well, thanks for your post on the group, Pam and Pam should send us an email with her shipping address so you can send her a mug.

Griff: Send her a message on Facebook. Thanks for reminding me. I'll ask her for a shipping address and to all of you, by the way, who've been waiting patiently for your mugs for the last two months. Good news. They're on their way.

Brian: They are, although Griff's not actually packing them.

Griff: I'm not doing the packing. We have a really great third party facilitator who's doing that for us.

Brian: It, makes it easier. And you'll get your mugs quicker. Thank you Mark. If others want a podcast mug, you have to ask a question first and it's easy. You can call your question in at (888) 723-4630. Leave your question and your shipping address and your shipping address. And if we use your questions on an upcoming episode, we'll send you an eBay for Business Podcast mug.

Griff: That's (888) 723-4630.

Brian: And if you're not a call on the phone person, you can always email us at podcast@ebay.com. That's podcast@ebay.com.

Griff: Well, what an episode it's been Brian!

Brian: It's great to be back in person.

Griff: It's great to have you back. And before we sign off for this week, it's time for your podcast to do list reminders.

Brian: Check the Announcement Board for up-to-date Seller News,

Griff: Put your social media campaign into action today. What you say? It isn't ready. Shocking. Get it ready and put it in place. That's an order.

Brian: And check out the transcript for this and all episodes for follow-up on what you've heard and to see the links we referenced during the episode.

Brian: On our next episode, episode 160. We'll welcome back Audrey for the final installment in our three part series, Creating A Social Media Campaign For Your Business On eBay. And we're going to go over how to measure your campaign's impact on your audience and your sales. We'd like to, again, thank our guests this week. Audrey Tracy and eBay seller, Don Vigeant.

Griff: The eBay for Business Podcast is produced and distributed in part by Libsyn and podCast411.

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