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09-28-2021
05:00 AM
This week, Audrey Tracy joins Griff to kick off a three-part series on using social media to promote your business. Rebecca and Griff answer two seller questions on Returns.
You got questions? Call us at 888 723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com.Join the conversation
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Rebecca: This week on the eBay for Business Podcast:
Audrey: I think there's so much potential out there in terms of reaching your market, that you should probably be on social media. And it's, it's a really great way to get your brand out there. Get your business out there and kind of reach an audience that you're not reaching either on eBay or your other marketing channels.
Rebecca: I'm Rebecca
Griff: I'm Griff. And this is the eBay for Business Podcast, your weekly source for the information and the inspiration you need to start, run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. This is episode 158. Welcome back to the hosting desk Rebecca.
Rebecca: Thank you Griff. As always I am delighted to be here.
Griff: It's been a special week.
Rebecca: Oh, has it? Tell me what's going on?
Griff: Well, for the first time, since March 12th, 2020 Audrey, and I will be recording in the campus studio.
Rebecca: That is Audrey Tracy, who's going to be joining us in a little while.
Griff: Yes. That's true.
Rebecca: That's the studio right on campus that you actually built out, maybe not with your own two hands, but for the purpose of this podcast, is that right Griff?
Griff: Yes. I gave instructions and threw money at it.
Rebecca: For our listeners to know I actually started since the pandemic. So I've never been to this studio that Griff is talking about, but someday I hope that we'll be recording in there as well Griff.
Griff: I had to do a little work. It got a little dusty in there. There were cobwebs and papers and things not working, but it took a day. We got it ready, mostly for anyone who is on campus and wants to come in and record with me while if I'm either there or at home. It's just that resource is now back and available. , I'm very pleased about that.
Rebecca: That's great. Well, if you or Brian record there or you, or I record there, we will definitely have to let to all our listeners know.
Griff: There'll be able to tell, and I think they'll pick it up later. The audio will sound slightly different between our regular segments now and what we do in the studio, because the acoustics are very different.
Rebecca: Interesting. Yes. I think the acoustics from my closet are probably not that great.
Griff: They're pretty good. They're very stylish acoustics.
Rebecca: Well, So I see that this week, we're talking about creating a social media marketing campaign and it's an interesting topic.
Griff: Yes. In fact, we have part one today of a three part series on that very subject. And as we mentioned earlier, an old friend of the podcast, Audrey Tracy, who's very expert at social media is going to join us for that series.
Rebecca: What is part one is about?
Griff: Part one is about planning a social media campaign.
Rebecca: Give us a preview for parts two and part three.
Griff: Well, part two, we will talk about the types of content that you should create and have ready and then the execution of your plan. The day to day execution so you have a schedule. Part three will be about utilizing all of the social media channels if you approach them and use their business pages. They all provide some really deep analytics that can help you figure out if what you're doing is working and if it's not and make adjustments to your social media campaign accordingly. And learning to read those analytics is really fascinating. So that'll be our three part series.
Rebecca: And those other segments will be coming up on future episodes of the podcast.
Griff: Yes. And there'll be next episode and the episode after that.
Rebecca: What else is on deck this week?
Griff: We will have seller questions too, but first what's in the eBay news Rebecca?
Rebecca: First in the news, starting on September 21st eBay is lowering the final value fee rate to 2.3, 5% on the portion of Parts and Accessory sales over a thousand dollars. For eBay Basic premium anchor and enterprise store subscribers. So that's good news for people who sell in that category of Parts and Accessories.
Griff: We always like a fee decrease.
Rebecca: And then more in the news, USPS and FedEx have announced increases to shipping rates and surcharges for the upcoming peak Holiday season. While UPS has also announced peak rate surcharges for many customers. When you ship with ups using eBay labels, peak surcharges will not apply.
Griff: Oh, that's good news for UPS.
Rebecca: That is, and for eBay sellers.
Griff: Too bad, they're raising their rates for the Holiday season, but I think this is going to be par for the course now.
Rebecca: I think so the news goes on to say, peak season rate increases will be updated in the shipping calculator. If you use calculated shipping, you don't have to make any changes to your existing live listings. For listings, where the buyer pays a flat rate, or if you utilize free shipping, you might decide to increase your flat rate or increase your item prices to reflect and absorb these carrier rate increases over the Holiday season. To learn more about the carrier updates, including the amounts of the increase and the dates they go into effect check the Seller News Board, and we encourage you to read through it carefully.
Griff: Yeah, I, I don't know if you're picking up on it yet, but one of the things we like to use the news for is to keep reminding people check the Announcement Board, , check the Announcement Board, check the Announcement Board. It's like a broken record.
Rebecca: Well it is a great way to have content that you can read and go back to refer to again and again, when you need to. And it really is where we announce everything new and interesting that's happening all around eBay. And speaking of which, for anyone who's interested in meeting up with eBay at an actual live, not virtual, but actual live events, our VP of seller experience Jordan Sweetnam has posted news about eBay's return to the live event circuit. You can see upcoming events schedules and learn more at ebay.com/announcements. And of course, we'll put that link in the transcript for the show.
Griff: To be clear, we're talking mostly about trade shows. eBay is going to be very upfront and present at a lot of trade shows this coming year. When it comes to actual eBay seller events, you will have to stay tuned. Well, thanks Rebecca. I have three questions here. Well, actually I've got two questions and an accolade and we'll read them at the end of the episode. So if you want to look them over and meet me back here later, but for now I got to go into the campus studio for the next segment.
Rebecca: All right, I'll be back soon Griff. Thanks.
Griff: Thanks Rebecca.
Griff: According to 2021 statistics, the average person spends about 145 minutes on social media every day. And they spend almost 17 hours every single week I'm included, on social media and every year those numbers keep growing. And here in the United States alone, over 223 million Americans were using social networks in 2020. Considering those numbers it's only makes sense that businesses would be eager to utilize social networks and markets to promote their products and services and access to those potential shoppers, by the way, is available to every business, big or small, and virtually for free. I think you see where I'm going with this. And for a small investment in time and funds you, my crafty eBay seller can take advantage of this ocean of potential customers as well, but doing it right is important. You need a plan. This is the first of three parts of a series called Creating A Social Media Campaign For Your Business On eBay. So joining us to help with part one and part two and part three later is our very own Audrey Tracy, welcome back to the podcast Audrey.
Audrey: I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks so much for having me.
Griff: For those of you who have listened to all of our episodes, you may be familiar with Audrey. She was a big part of our podcast for the first year or so before she got moved to another team and hopefully she can do more of this, but right now, what we're focused on is what we're going to do here. And you move around in the company a lot. What's your current role?
Audrey: Right now I am seller marketing for a few specific categories. I am reaching out to sneaker sellers, watches sellers, handbag sellers. Those and trading card sellers. Those are kind of my key markets that I'm going after in terms of marketing. My role is to inform those sellers on how to be successful in the category, tell them everything they need to know about those categories on eBay.
Griff: Prior to that, you did have some experience with eBay's social marketing.
Audrey: Yes, I've actually had three roles at eBay. The first one was standing up the eBay For Business channels back in 2013. So that was Facebook, Twitter at the time we had a blog. Tons of social experience there reaching out to of course our small business sellers on eBay. And then for about two years, I was on the buyer facing social team.
Griff: That must have been interesting.
Audrey: Yes. I learned a ton about social media, all the various channels. It was a wonderful experience and I just learned a ton.
Griff: So you come back to us with a suitcase full of experience and knowledge. So first off Audrey in your mind, does every seller need to be marketing their business on social media?
Audrey: I think there's so much potential out there in terms of reaching your market, that you should probably be on social media. Unless you're in some weird nichey, itty bitty, tiny business where nobody's talking about it on social, but I doubt that's actually true. Then there's probably an audience out there for you to grab.
Griff: At best what we're recommending then with this series on social is that you at least need to test it out. And it's something that every seller should consider.
Audrey: Exactly, Exactly. And it's, it's a really great way to get your brand out there. Get your business out there and kind of reach an audience that you're not reaching either on eBay or your other marketing channels.
Griff: Right. So if I turn off this podcast right now as a listener, I'm going to miss something.
Audrey: You are. You are going to miss a ton.
Griff: All right. I think we want to explore using social media to market my business say for example. We're gonna use me as an example because I got to tell you, I had never used it for my business. So I'll be the test case.
Audrey: Fresh meat. So to speak.
Griff: Exactly what should I do before I jump in?
Audrey: You want to think about how you're presenting yourself to the world. You want to think about your brand. You want to think about your business or your store ID or your eBay ID. You want to think possibly about a logo. I would consider this almost like a little branding package that you want to put together, right? You want your brand, meaning the name of your business and the visuals associated with your business. Like a logo to be very understandable. You want them to be consistent across channels. So whatever you name your store on eBay, you should probably use that same name for your social channels. And then you want to develop, I say logo, but you really want to develop some sort of visual identity for your business. And all of those should really make it obvious as to who you are and what you do. You want to make sure that all of your branding easily conveys what you're all about. And if the idea of making a logo kind of scares you, there's a ton of great resources out there. You can DIY it with Canva. Canva is a very easy kind of drag and drop graphic design app I would say.
Griff: I'll put the link to these, by the way, you're going to mention a few. I'll put the links in the transcript.
Audrey: I haven't been on Fiverr in a long time, but that is a cheap outsourced way of getting a logo. And there may be other providers out there, but Fiverr is like, you basically, you hire a freelance graphic designer at a pretty reasonable rate. And you say, you want a logo. You explain what you want. And typically, you know, they'll give you like three choices to choose from. And then you kind of refine it with a couple of rounds of revision till you get what you want. And then you've got this logo that you can use on your eBay store on all your social channels, any sort of marketing that you want to do.
Griff: All right. So I have to admit that I actually did this about 10, well, less than 10 years ago. I think it was about 2014, 13, where I renamed my store and made sure it was consistent. I had a friend of mine who's a designer named Sandro, actually do a logo for me. I have some design experience, but I wasn't, I didn't trust my own experience. I wanted to give it to a professional. That's probably a good idea, unless you're comfortable doing yourself.
Audrey: You don't want to make a logo in you know, Microsoft Paint and throw it up there. Your brand is everything that people see and feel about your business. And if it looks a little childish or amateurish that doesn't give the best impression, I would really spend some time on a professional logo.
Griff: There may be some challenges here because if you've been using a user ID and it's different than your store name and your store name, you're kind of tired of, and or maybe your store name and user ID don't match, or maybe your user ID is like, XMS 1, 5, 1, 3, that eBay suggested you're going to have to go hunting for something a brand. And it might not be easy.
Audrey: Yeah. This is one challenge with setting up social media channels is, you know, you want your brand and your name to be consistent across all of them. And if you've got something, a little wacky on eBay, you may want to spend some time redoing that.
Griff: Okay. I've got this all done. And now I'm going to plan which channels I'm going to use. And their social media is not just one channel, which ones are potentially useful for an eBay seller. And what are the strengths and weaknesses of each one?
Audrey: I'm going to give you a bit about each channel's kind of purpose and demographics to give you a sense of where you should put your business, right? What channels you should be on for your business. Of course, Facebook is kind of the granddaddy of social media and its purpose is really engagement. When we think about these channels, many of them are either visually driven or engagement driven. We're kind of going to break these up into which ones are appropriate for your business. Facebook, like I said, granddaddy 2.7 billion, I think is what you said at the top. Basically everybody's on Facebook, right? And Facebook is pretty much a safe bet, but you do want to look at the demographics, the largest demographics on Facebook, which is about 20% is males 25 to 34. So I did not know that I thought, I thought it would be more women focused. And I thought it would be older because you've heard of Mom Book, right? Like everybody calls Facebook, Mom Book.
Griff: Kids, won't go on there, say, oh, mom's on there.
Audrey: Right, Right. But again, almost everybody's on Facebook and that's probably a safe bet for your business. The next one is Instagram that as you know, is a very visually driven platform. And the purpose there is inspiration. People go there to be inspired, to look at beautiful photos. There's actually a fair bit of shopping that happens on Instagram. People go to Instagram for purchase intention is what I'm trying to say. They want to be inspired. They want to find something interesting and beautiful. And the demographic there skews pretty young. Not the youngest, but younger. It's an even spread of male and female mostly 18 to 34.
Griff: Again, that group that's interesting.
Audrey: And then Pinterest, also a visually driven platform. And again, the purpose there is inspiration. People go there. When they're planning a party, they're looking for an outfit. They want to do something. They have some sort of intention. And that is very heavily female, 77% female. And the average age is 40. If you're in women oriented categories, you probably ought to be on Pinterest. Almost 90% of users use Pinterest for purchase inspiration.
Griff: 90%?
Audrey: Yes. So people are actively looking for things to buy on Pinterest.
Griff: I am on the wrong social media.
Audrey: And then of course there's Tik TOK. The young upstart that's short form video driven platform. Its purpose is engagement and virality. Tik Toks Algorithm will pick up some random video and show it to everyone. And then all of a sudden this person is super popular and getting a ton of virality.
Griff: They get their 15 minutes of fame.
Audrey: Believe it or not. The largest demographic on Tik TOK is 10 to 19 years old.
Griff: They may have some money to spend.
Audrey: Maybe a little. And then the second largest is 20 to 29. So this whole platform skews very young. So if you've got kind of youth oriented, for lack of a better term categories, you might want to be on Tik TOK.
Griff: And eBay's moved to tick-tock as well, right? With the focus on these verticals like sneakers.
Audrey: We launched with sneakers. And I'm not sure if other categories, if we're representing other categories on Tik TOK, but yeah. Go check out eBay sneakers on tick-tock.
Griff: What about Twitter?
Audrey: What about Twitter? Twitter? I love slash hate Twitter. Twitter is really an engagement and enthusiast conversation platform. It's not a visual platform. I wouldn't throw your pretty pictures up there. I think that's more about conversations and hashtags and like for lack of a better term, like enthusiast conversations. There's political Twitter, there's car Twitter, there's all these different kinds of Twitter that you can engage in. And that skews older, that demographic is 40% on Twitter are ages 25 to 34 and the older age groups outnumber the younger ones. So in other words, people on Twitter are usually 25 Plus.
Griff: That fits me. There's other channels and we we've left them out. We didn't really talk about YouTube and we're not going to talk about LinkedIn or we could, but LinkedIn always seems to me like the last place I'd want to conduct business.
Audrey: Linkedin is really like a B to B, a business to business platform. So if you are an eBay seller that sells, maybe I'm just making this up, but like janitorial supplies or something that another business can buy, you may want to consider. But if your target is an average consumer, I wouldn't be on LinkedIn.
Griff: Okay. That makes sense. All right. So we've learned a little bit about the demographics and these strengths and weaknesses of each of these channels. I would assume then that some channels might work better than others based on what you're selling. Like the category of items. Like for example...
Audrey: We've got a couple examples here. Car parts, apparel, and collectables. Let's take those three kinds of sellers and talk about where they might be successful in social media. Car parts. I would really recommend Facebook and Twitter so long as you're good with the hashtags because hashtags are how enthusiastic find their particular topic. Car parts seller wants to use Twitter to engage in those enthusiastic conversations that people, that restore cars, people that care about cars, people that are in that kind of subculture will find you on Twitter. Also think about Instagram, but only if you have a sexy car to show off, right? Like a muffler on a white background is great for your eBay listing, but that's terrible content for Instagram.
Griff: I don't get inspired by that.
Audrey: But if you've got a beautiful restored car and you want to show the exterior and the interior and all the things that went into it, Instagram might be a good channel for that.
Griff: So focusing on the bigger picture in that category and not on the details, like the car parts, right?
Audrey: And you're in all of this, you're kind of establishing yourself as an expert in cars. You're not saying, Hey, come buy this muffler. You're saying, Hey, I'm an expert in car restoration and look at my beautiful project. And if you were to come to my eBay store, I could help you out with selecting the right muffler. We can talk about restoring cars. Like I am an expert, come to me and buy from me.
Griff: Help us in our next installment. When we're talking more deeply about the content that you're going to use.
Audrey: Yes, exactly. Yeah. So next example is apparel. And I'm assuming that this is women's apparel.
Griff: It could be any, but go on.
Audrey: Yeah. Let's pretend it's women's. So Instagram and Pinterest are like, no-brainers right, because of the demographics number one and because they are visually driven mediums, I think apparel is really smart there. I wouldn't do things like Twitter, not very visual. And you might want to consider Tik Tok maybe if you can produce good content on Tik Tok.
Griff: Yeah. And that's going to be hard. And we'll talk about that because it may involve you modeling your wares. That's sometimes not a good idea. There's a reason why models get paid millions of dollars.
Audrey: Exactly. You want to represent that apparel in the best way you can. So if you maybe don't have a model and you're, you know, hopefully you're not like shooting a dress on a bedspread, but right. Like that is not compelling Tik TOK content. And then our last example is collectibles. And I'm assuming that this is kind of an older demographic. Maybe. I don't know.
Griff: Well, I think it depends, right? Because mid-century modern is skews very young.
Audrey: Yeah. And I'm thinking also like trading cards and comic books are kind of every age range loves those.
Griff: Victorian Tea cups maybe that's our older seniors.
Audrey: Exactly. So Facebook for sure on collectibles, probably Instagram, if you can get those great visuals and then Pinterest, if the demographic makes sense.
Griff: I use Pinterest more than any of them when it comes to items. I have my entire, it's not my rug collection, but I really love old. And I'm talking about 18th century or older Oriental textiles, like rugs and carpets. And I collect photos of the rarest of the rare, and I compile them on my Pinterest page in case anyone wants to repin them or learn more about them.
Audrey: That's a good example of kind of establishing your expertise in the category.
Griff: Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't say I was an expert, but I'm definitely an aficionado.
Audrey: You know more than me.
Griff: I already have a Facebook, Instagram and a Pinterest account. As I mentioned, I use them, but not so much for business or at all. I actually don't use them at all for business. Do I need separate accounts or pages on each of the channels from my personal accounts? So that, you know, I keep business and personal separate?
Audrey: Yeah. I recommend keeping them separate for a number of reasons. Occasionally it's okay to give a little glimpse of your personal life on your business page. If it makes sense, you know, if you are showing something off from like, I'm just making this up, but if you're wearing the dress that you want to sell and you look great and it's a photo from your personal life. Go ahead and put that on your, uh, on your business page. But I think the biggest reason to separate the two, well, there's two reasons. Number one is you don't want any of your personal opinions or kind of world views for lack of a better term kind of seeping into your business. So you don't want to, you know, politics, religion, all those things. Number one, I don't think you should discuss them on, on social, but if you do keep that on your personal page. And then the second big reason is analytics. Every one of these channels has a for business side of it. So Twitter for Business, Facebook for Business, et cetera. And all of those have analytics. When you set up these accounts, you're going to want to go for a business account because the business account will include kind of some access to analytics.
Griff: And we're going to need those in the third installment cause we're going to talk about tracking your business.
Audrey: Exactly because eventually you're going to want to look at your metrics and figure out what's working. What's not. And how to optimize.
Griff: That makes sense. You mentioned that these, uh, different channels have there's the civilian options, which most of us know, but I checked as well. And each one of them has a business aspect and they don't cost any money, at least initially.
Audrey: No, no, no. The only time that it would cost money is if you were to buy ads, right? Facebook for Business, Instagram for Business, Tik TOK for Business, all of those are " free".
Griff: I have a whole list of links here that I'm going to put on our transcript that go directly to things like the Facebook for Business page, Instagram Business, Tik TOK for Business, Twitter for Business Pinterest for Business. And I'll even include the one for YouTube for Business because it's kind of interesting and you can check them out and open new accounts where necessary. And by the way, YouTube, we didn't talk about that. That seems to be more work than the other channels because YouTube is not only visual it's video, you know, there's production you have to do. Maybe some editing. Do I have to make my own videos?
Audrey: Yes and so I caution folks on YouTube. YouTube is best for long form video. And when I say long, I mean more than a minute because everyone's attention span is so, so very short, but production, I think does matter on YouTube. I'm not a huge YouTube fan only because I can't stand bad production. There's a lot of bad production on YouTube. If you do want to use YouTube, it's best for, like I said, long form video, make sure your production quality is good. And I like to use YouTube for what I call explainer videos. So that is like how to do something, how to explain your product. So it's not the hard sell of come buy my muffler, right? It's here's how to select a muffler. Here's the best muffler for your car. Here's how to install the muffler. It's not a direct sales pitch. It's a, how do I say this? It's like a side sales pitch. If that makes sense.
Griff: I just used this, . I forgot totally about this but about two months ago I was fixing or attempting to fix one of my old vintage cameras an old Canon. And I knew I could probably pull it off, but I thought I'll check out some YouTube videos. And I found a really good guy who does YouTube videos about restoring. And of course he links to his eBay and other stores. And I ended up buying something from him.
Audrey: See it works. So going back to our examples, if I'm an apparel seller, I might do a video about how to style a scarf or a dress or how to make this outfit look great. Right? Car parts, we just talked about, it's more about explainer. And then given our collectibles example, you might want to maybe talk about the history and origin of the piece or how you found it or maybe why it's special or unique in it's genre. Like why is this Oriental rug different than the others? Why is it special?
Griff: Because it caused a lot of money. Okay. All right. So these are a lot of options and I think I'll put the YouTube option aside right now. I don't see how I actually can pull that off.
Audrey: Yeah. That's kind of a heavy lift. So I would start with these other channels.
Griff: Do I need all of them or should I just pick and start with one of them?
Audrey: Depends on how much resources and time you want to put into this. If you don't have a whole lot, then maybe just start with one channel. And for the most part, Facebook is probably where you want to start.
Griff: That is what I was thinking. I am so familiar with it.
Audrey: Yes. But think through all of the demographics and other channel kind of characteristics that we just talked about to decide what channel is best for you. Yeah. Maybe start off with just one, start slowly, start to test, figure out what works. We'll talk about metrics later, but you want to understand what's working and what's not. And start to notice those trends.
Griff: Let's say that I've got this far in the process and I promise I will. I'm going to use myself as a Guinea pig. All the channels and pages are set up and I'm ready to go. What else do I need to get started?
Audrey: You want to have a content strategy and what that means is why, should anybody listen to you on social? Right? What's your expertise? What do you offer that no other business offers? How can you leverage what is special and unique about your business to create a online persona for lack of a better term.
Griff: I'm very snarky.
Audrey: So a snarky rug channel. Is that what we're going with here?
Griff: I don't think it's going to work.
Audrey: You would not believe what works on social media.
Griff: I'll give it a try. What about just putting links to my listings?
Audrey: Throwing link to a listing without any context or explanation or storytelling. I consider that spam, right? That's just shouting into the void. And why would anybody listen to you? But if you have, let's take a rug example. If you have this beautiful rug and you make a beautiful Instagram or Pinterest post about it, and you talk about the origin and why it's special, and then you link to it. Now we're talking.
Griff: So I got a lot to consider here. I won't put links to my listings, but I might have separate images of my inventory for Pinterest. I don't think I'm going to do it right away, but you know, I love to teach. Maybe there's a video aspect for some of the stuff I got to test out what works best. Oh, Audrey helped me.
Audrey: Let me say one more thing, which is, think about kind of seasonality and where we are in the year. And if do you have, like, if you are a seller where Holiday is big for you, then think about maybe doing some promotions in your social channels in the Holiday period. Look at your business over a year and think is mother's day big for me. Okay. Then I'm going to do some activities around that. Is back to school or fall important for my business? Then maybe do some activity there. Just think through kind of your editorial calendar.
Griff: Calendar. And we're going to talk more the editorial calendar in part two of this next week. In the meantime, there's a lot here that I have to think about. All of this stuff and content and execution will be in our second part of this series next week. Audrey, I want to thank you for joining us. It's wonderful to have you back in the studio.
Audrey: I'm so happy to be here. This is great. Thank you.
Griff: And I look forward to our next installment. Next week. If you have a question that you'd like to ask either me or our expert, Audrey, please send it to podcast@ ebay.com and we'll try to get it into a short Q and A on our next installment, which we'll have ready for you next week. Audrey will be back then and the topic will be putting your content and plan into action.
Audrey: Looking forward to it.
Griff: Me too.
Rebecca: You've got questions.
Griff: We've got answers. And our first question this week is from eBay seller Grady 812 who writes, Hello, love the show. I'm a long time listener. Can you guys go into a deep dive on the subject of returns, especially Global Shipping Program. It gets very confusing. Every time I call it and get a different answer from reps. How do I go about getting a shipping label out of the USA? How does eBay cover the seller? Thanks Grady 812.
Rebecca: Those are good questions. Thanks Grady 8 1 2. How to handle an international return is definitely a complex process, but you'll be happy to learn that we did cover it in depth in episode 122, back in January of this year.
Griff: And that information I double checked from that episode is still relevant today. So we'll put the link to that episode in the transcript for this episode 158. And I actually answered your email with a response that has that link in it. Listen to it. If you have any questions, feel free to email us back at podcast@ebay.com. So our next one was an email written to podcast@ebay.com by Jason. And he wrote, HI podcast team. I love the podcast and I've learned so much. My question is I accept returns up to 30 days. So why does eBay allow almost two months for the buyer to return the item? I had a customer start a return on September 5th and they had up to October 31st to ship the item back to me. I feel as though I may receive the item damaged or if in good condition I missed out on the sale opportunities. Thank you, Jason, whose eBay store is Crookstown 4 1 2. And he says, PS, if I happen to get a mug, here's my address. Keep up the awesome work. And yes, we will ship you a mug. So thanks Jason. The time for a buyer to return an item is approximately 30 business days, which does calculate as about six weeks .
Rebecca: Is that too long? Maybe. eBay could shorten it, I suppose, but in the meantime, sellers should not worry about the buyer's intentions. In fact, some buyers actually changed their minds about returning the item if they have the longer return window.
Griff: Yeah, in fact, it happened to me a few months ago. I, I had a buyer who wanted to return a shirt because the colors were not what he saw on his computer screen. And I said fine, but after a few weeks, he left me positive feedback and told me he decided he liked it and he was keeping it after all. And remember you aren't required to issue a refund to a buyer until the item is actually returned to you. So yes, it may be off the market for a period of time, but that's just the status of eBay returns.
Rebecca: And correct me if I'm wrong. Griff, if any returned item is returned damaged, you can always report the buyer to eBay and withhold up to 50% of the refund.
Griff: That's correct. If an item that you shipped out comes back in a condition that was different from what you shipped it, for example it was sealed in the box and it was opened. You can withhold up to 50% of the refund and eBay will back you and I actually had this one happen as well. Very recently, a buyer returned a new and sealed package, electronic item claiming it didn't work. It actually worked perfectly, no argument, but I did hold back 50% of his purchase price from his refund because it's now no longer sealed in box. So I can't really sell it as new.
Rebecca: And returns. Totally understand. They are frustrating. I've been through it myself, but it is a good chance for sellers to look at their pricing strategy and make sure that beyond the frustration, making the right choices about pricing, to cover any, you know, minor losses from returns should be, it should be something that sellers consider. Is that right?
Griff: Yeah. Cause it's part of doing business on eBay anywhere else. There's always a business cost to selling merchandise, which is occasionally you're going to have to take a return.
Rebecca: Exactly. And then I do want to mention before we move off the topic of returns that there have been some questions about it from sellers lately, because there was a technical issue in the middle of the month, around the 17th of September that was causing sellers to see a extended date for buyers to ship their returns.
Griff: Well, this is what could have happened here then .
Rebecca: it absolutely could have. I want to emphasize that was a technical issue that now has been fixed. Everything that people are seeing now should be correct.
Griff: Well, that's good to know. Thank you for pointing that out.
Rebecca: Yes. We know that there were questions out there and I just wanted to repeat that and you can read more news about that. You can read that announcement again on that Seller Announcement Board that we'd like to mention so often.
Griff: Exactly. We only have one left and I said, it's an accolade.
Rebecca: This is that email. And it's not a question, but I'm going to read it anyway. So there! All right. This email says, Hello. I just wanted to say hello from the UK and Griff. I am not going to try and read this in an English accent. I would be terrible for everyone. I just wanted to say hello from the UK. I have been running my account for about 12 months now, and it has grown so much. And eBay employee Louise in Merchant Support has aided me so much. I love your podcast. And often discuss it with Louise. I listened whilst walking or on my commute, although 99% of the time I run the account from the shed at the bottom of the garden and pick up key points to raise with her and implement to my running of the account. I don't have any questions at the moment, but if I do, I will fire them over. We have our UK eBay Open next week and a note to listeners. Now that the time that this is posted, that eBay opened for UK actually happened last week. The note goes on to say the eBay Open UK is next week, which is a hybrid event two days online. And one day in person, which I'm looking forward to, it will be good to meet in person, the eBay staff, who I talk with regularly over the phone. I am excited about where our account can go. 588,000 pounds. Wow. In my first 12 months. And hopefully I can hit the $1 million mark for 2022. Kind regards, Tom Holton, eBay account scheppach-direct I'll spell that. S C H E P P A C H dash direct D I R E C T. Griff. You got to get this guy on the podcast. I want to hear his story and how he grew his eBay business in the UK in those first 12 months. I wonder if we can get ahold of him.
Griff: I can get ahold of him. Trust me.
Rebecca: I think that would be amazing, Tom. Thank you so much. We appreciate your kind words of support. And if you send us your mailing address, we'll ship you a mug.
Griff: Yeah. And Tom, remember if you do get a question and we got the answers, so don't fail to send it along. And that goes for all our sellers, both here in the U S and across the world, no matter where you are, we'll try to get you a mug.
Rebecca: Absolutely. And the answers and the answer that's right for your location. There are some tools and some policies and some laws that are different for different countries. And we will always try to answer your question for your location. Anyone else out there have a question or a comment we'd love to hear it. Send it to us. You can call it in at (888) 723-4630.
Griff: Yeah. We're not immune to praise. You can shower it on us. (888) 723-4063. You can call that hotline anytime of the day, any day of the week, leave a question or a comment and we just might put it on the air. And in fact, we love when people call in and we would encourage you to do so. We'd love to get your voice on the podcast. I think that's even better than us reading your email.
Rebecca: Absolutely. We'd love to have seller voices here on the podcast, asking your question so we can respond to them. So please leave a message. And if you are not a call on the phone person, you can always email us at podcast@ebay.com that's podcast@ebay.com. And don't forget to include that shipping address even overseas. So we can send you an eBay for Business podcast mug.
Griff: Now don't forget your daily podcast to do list.
Rebecca: Number one, check the Announcement Board for up-to-date Seller News,
Griff: Start putting your social media marketing campaign together today.
Rebecca: Third. Check out the transcript for this and all episodes to follow up on what you've heard and to see the links we referenced during the episodes.
Griff: On our next episode, we'll have part two of our three part series on social media marketing campaigns with Audrey Tracy, we'll speak with eBay seller Trader Don about his approach to using social.
Rebecca: We’d like to thank again, our guests this week, Audrey Tracy,
Griff: The eBay for Business Podcast is produced and distributed in part by Libsyn and podCast411.
Audrey: I think there's so much potential out there in terms of reaching your market, that you should probably be on social media. And it's, it's a really great way to get your brand out there. Get your business out there and kind of reach an audience that you're not reaching either on eBay or your other marketing channels.
Rebecca: I'm Rebecca
Griff: I'm Griff. And this is the eBay for Business Podcast, your weekly source for the information and the inspiration you need to start, run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. This is episode 158. Welcome back to the hosting desk Rebecca.
Rebecca: Thank you Griff. As always I am delighted to be here.
Griff: It's been a special week.
Rebecca: Oh, has it? Tell me what's going on?
Griff: Well, for the first time, since March 12th, 2020 Audrey, and I will be recording in the campus studio.
Rebecca: That is Audrey Tracy, who's going to be joining us in a little while.
Griff: Yes. That's true.
Rebecca: That's the studio right on campus that you actually built out, maybe not with your own two hands, but for the purpose of this podcast, is that right Griff?
Griff: Yes. I gave instructions and threw money at it.
Rebecca: For our listeners to know I actually started since the pandemic. So I've never been to this studio that Griff is talking about, but someday I hope that we'll be recording in there as well Griff.
Griff: I had to do a little work. It got a little dusty in there. There were cobwebs and papers and things not working, but it took a day. We got it ready, mostly for anyone who is on campus and wants to come in and record with me while if I'm either there or at home. It's just that resource is now back and available. , I'm very pleased about that.
Rebecca: That's great. Well, if you or Brian record there or you, or I record there, we will definitely have to let to all our listeners know.
Griff: There'll be able to tell, and I think they'll pick it up later. The audio will sound slightly different between our regular segments now and what we do in the studio, because the acoustics are very different.
Rebecca: Interesting. Yes. I think the acoustics from my closet are probably not that great.
Griff: They're pretty good. They're very stylish acoustics.
Rebecca: Well, So I see that this week, we're talking about creating a social media marketing campaign and it's an interesting topic.
Griff: Yes. In fact, we have part one today of a three part series on that very subject. And as we mentioned earlier, an old friend of the podcast, Audrey Tracy, who's very expert at social media is going to join us for that series.
Rebecca: What is part one is about?
Griff: Part one is about planning a social media campaign.
Rebecca: Give us a preview for parts two and part three.
Griff: Well, part two, we will talk about the types of content that you should create and have ready and then the execution of your plan. The day to day execution so you have a schedule. Part three will be about utilizing all of the social media channels if you approach them and use their business pages. They all provide some really deep analytics that can help you figure out if what you're doing is working and if it's not and make adjustments to your social media campaign accordingly. And learning to read those analytics is really fascinating. So that'll be our three part series.
Rebecca: And those other segments will be coming up on future episodes of the podcast.
Griff: Yes. And there'll be next episode and the episode after that.
Rebecca: What else is on deck this week?
Griff: We will have seller questions too, but first what's in the eBay news Rebecca?
Rebecca: First in the news, starting on September 21st eBay is lowering the final value fee rate to 2.3, 5% on the portion of Parts and Accessory sales over a thousand dollars. For eBay Basic premium anchor and enterprise store subscribers. So that's good news for people who sell in that category of Parts and Accessories.
Griff: We always like a fee decrease.
Rebecca: And then more in the news, USPS and FedEx have announced increases to shipping rates and surcharges for the upcoming peak Holiday season. While UPS has also announced peak rate surcharges for many customers. When you ship with ups using eBay labels, peak surcharges will not apply.
Griff: Oh, that's good news for UPS.
Rebecca: That is, and for eBay sellers.
Griff: Too bad, they're raising their rates for the Holiday season, but I think this is going to be par for the course now.
Rebecca: I think so the news goes on to say, peak season rate increases will be updated in the shipping calculator. If you use calculated shipping, you don't have to make any changes to your existing live listings. For listings, where the buyer pays a flat rate, or if you utilize free shipping, you might decide to increase your flat rate or increase your item prices to reflect and absorb these carrier rate increases over the Holiday season. To learn more about the carrier updates, including the amounts of the increase and the dates they go into effect check the Seller News Board, and we encourage you to read through it carefully.
Griff: Yeah, I, I don't know if you're picking up on it yet, but one of the things we like to use the news for is to keep reminding people check the Announcement Board, , check the Announcement Board, check the Announcement Board. It's like a broken record.
Rebecca: Well it is a great way to have content that you can read and go back to refer to again and again, when you need to. And it really is where we announce everything new and interesting that's happening all around eBay. And speaking of which, for anyone who's interested in meeting up with eBay at an actual live, not virtual, but actual live events, our VP of seller experience Jordan Sweetnam has posted news about eBay's return to the live event circuit. You can see upcoming events schedules and learn more at ebay.com/announcements. And of course, we'll put that link in the transcript for the show.
Griff: To be clear, we're talking mostly about trade shows. eBay is going to be very upfront and present at a lot of trade shows this coming year. When it comes to actual eBay seller events, you will have to stay tuned. Well, thanks Rebecca. I have three questions here. Well, actually I've got two questions and an accolade and we'll read them at the end of the episode. So if you want to look them over and meet me back here later, but for now I got to go into the campus studio for the next segment.
Rebecca: All right, I'll be back soon Griff. Thanks.
Griff: Thanks Rebecca.
Griff: According to 2021 statistics, the average person spends about 145 minutes on social media every day. And they spend almost 17 hours every single week I'm included, on social media and every year those numbers keep growing. And here in the United States alone, over 223 million Americans were using social networks in 2020. Considering those numbers it's only makes sense that businesses would be eager to utilize social networks and markets to promote their products and services and access to those potential shoppers, by the way, is available to every business, big or small, and virtually for free. I think you see where I'm going with this. And for a small investment in time and funds you, my crafty eBay seller can take advantage of this ocean of potential customers as well, but doing it right is important. You need a plan. This is the first of three parts of a series called Creating A Social Media Campaign For Your Business On eBay. So joining us to help with part one and part two and part three later is our very own Audrey Tracy, welcome back to the podcast Audrey.
Audrey: I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks so much for having me.
Griff: For those of you who have listened to all of our episodes, you may be familiar with Audrey. She was a big part of our podcast for the first year or so before she got moved to another team and hopefully she can do more of this, but right now, what we're focused on is what we're going to do here. And you move around in the company a lot. What's your current role?
Audrey: Right now I am seller marketing for a few specific categories. I am reaching out to sneaker sellers, watches sellers, handbag sellers. Those and trading card sellers. Those are kind of my key markets that I'm going after in terms of marketing. My role is to inform those sellers on how to be successful in the category, tell them everything they need to know about those categories on eBay.
Griff: Prior to that, you did have some experience with eBay's social marketing.
Audrey: Yes, I've actually had three roles at eBay. The first one was standing up the eBay For Business channels back in 2013. So that was Facebook, Twitter at the time we had a blog. Tons of social experience there reaching out to of course our small business sellers on eBay. And then for about two years, I was on the buyer facing social team.
Griff: That must have been interesting.
Audrey: Yes. I learned a ton about social media, all the various channels. It was a wonderful experience and I just learned a ton.
Griff: So you come back to us with a suitcase full of experience and knowledge. So first off Audrey in your mind, does every seller need to be marketing their business on social media?
Audrey: I think there's so much potential out there in terms of reaching your market, that you should probably be on social media. Unless you're in some weird nichey, itty bitty, tiny business where nobody's talking about it on social, but I doubt that's actually true. Then there's probably an audience out there for you to grab.
Griff: At best what we're recommending then with this series on social is that you at least need to test it out. And it's something that every seller should consider.
Audrey: Exactly, Exactly. And it's, it's a really great way to get your brand out there. Get your business out there and kind of reach an audience that you're not reaching either on eBay or your other marketing channels.
Griff: Right. So if I turn off this podcast right now as a listener, I'm going to miss something.
Audrey: You are. You are going to miss a ton.
Griff: All right. I think we want to explore using social media to market my business say for example. We're gonna use me as an example because I got to tell you, I had never used it for my business. So I'll be the test case.
Audrey: Fresh meat. So to speak.
Griff: Exactly what should I do before I jump in?
Audrey: You want to think about how you're presenting yourself to the world. You want to think about your brand. You want to think about your business or your store ID or your eBay ID. You want to think possibly about a logo. I would consider this almost like a little branding package that you want to put together, right? You want your brand, meaning the name of your business and the visuals associated with your business. Like a logo to be very understandable. You want them to be consistent across channels. So whatever you name your store on eBay, you should probably use that same name for your social channels. And then you want to develop, I say logo, but you really want to develop some sort of visual identity for your business. And all of those should really make it obvious as to who you are and what you do. You want to make sure that all of your branding easily conveys what you're all about. And if the idea of making a logo kind of scares you, there's a ton of great resources out there. You can DIY it with Canva. Canva is a very easy kind of drag and drop graphic design app I would say.
Griff: I'll put the link to these, by the way, you're going to mention a few. I'll put the links in the transcript.
Audrey: I haven't been on Fiverr in a long time, but that is a cheap outsourced way of getting a logo. And there may be other providers out there, but Fiverr is like, you basically, you hire a freelance graphic designer at a pretty reasonable rate. And you say, you want a logo. You explain what you want. And typically, you know, they'll give you like three choices to choose from. And then you kind of refine it with a couple of rounds of revision till you get what you want. And then you've got this logo that you can use on your eBay store on all your social channels, any sort of marketing that you want to do.
Griff: All right. So I have to admit that I actually did this about 10, well, less than 10 years ago. I think it was about 2014, 13, where I renamed my store and made sure it was consistent. I had a friend of mine who's a designer named Sandro, actually do a logo for me. I have some design experience, but I wasn't, I didn't trust my own experience. I wanted to give it to a professional. That's probably a good idea, unless you're comfortable doing yourself.
Audrey: You don't want to make a logo in you know, Microsoft Paint and throw it up there. Your brand is everything that people see and feel about your business. And if it looks a little childish or amateurish that doesn't give the best impression, I would really spend some time on a professional logo.
Griff: There may be some challenges here because if you've been using a user ID and it's different than your store name and your store name, you're kind of tired of, and or maybe your store name and user ID don't match, or maybe your user ID is like, XMS 1, 5, 1, 3, that eBay suggested you're going to have to go hunting for something a brand. And it might not be easy.
Audrey: Yeah. This is one challenge with setting up social media channels is, you know, you want your brand and your name to be consistent across all of them. And if you've got something, a little wacky on eBay, you may want to spend some time redoing that.
Griff: Okay. I've got this all done. And now I'm going to plan which channels I'm going to use. And their social media is not just one channel, which ones are potentially useful for an eBay seller. And what are the strengths and weaknesses of each one?
Audrey: I'm going to give you a bit about each channel's kind of purpose and demographics to give you a sense of where you should put your business, right? What channels you should be on for your business. Of course, Facebook is kind of the granddaddy of social media and its purpose is really engagement. When we think about these channels, many of them are either visually driven or engagement driven. We're kind of going to break these up into which ones are appropriate for your business. Facebook, like I said, granddaddy 2.7 billion, I think is what you said at the top. Basically everybody's on Facebook, right? And Facebook is pretty much a safe bet, but you do want to look at the demographics, the largest demographics on Facebook, which is about 20% is males 25 to 34. So I did not know that I thought, I thought it would be more women focused. And I thought it would be older because you've heard of Mom Book, right? Like everybody calls Facebook, Mom Book.
Griff: Kids, won't go on there, say, oh, mom's on there.
Audrey: Right, Right. But again, almost everybody's on Facebook and that's probably a safe bet for your business. The next one is Instagram that as you know, is a very visually driven platform. And the purpose there is inspiration. People go there to be inspired, to look at beautiful photos. There's actually a fair bit of shopping that happens on Instagram. People go to Instagram for purchase intention is what I'm trying to say. They want to be inspired. They want to find something interesting and beautiful. And the demographic there skews pretty young. Not the youngest, but younger. It's an even spread of male and female mostly 18 to 34.
Griff: Again, that group that's interesting.
Audrey: And then Pinterest, also a visually driven platform. And again, the purpose there is inspiration. People go there. When they're planning a party, they're looking for an outfit. They want to do something. They have some sort of intention. And that is very heavily female, 77% female. And the average age is 40. If you're in women oriented categories, you probably ought to be on Pinterest. Almost 90% of users use Pinterest for purchase inspiration.
Griff: 90%?
Audrey: Yes. So people are actively looking for things to buy on Pinterest.
Griff: I am on the wrong social media.
Audrey: And then of course there's Tik TOK. The young upstart that's short form video driven platform. Its purpose is engagement and virality. Tik Toks Algorithm will pick up some random video and show it to everyone. And then all of a sudden this person is super popular and getting a ton of virality.
Griff: They get their 15 minutes of fame.
Audrey: Believe it or not. The largest demographic on Tik TOK is 10 to 19 years old.
Griff: They may have some money to spend.
Audrey: Maybe a little. And then the second largest is 20 to 29. So this whole platform skews very young. So if you've got kind of youth oriented, for lack of a better term categories, you might want to be on Tik TOK.
Griff: And eBay's moved to tick-tock as well, right? With the focus on these verticals like sneakers.
Audrey: We launched with sneakers. And I'm not sure if other categories, if we're representing other categories on Tik TOK, but yeah. Go check out eBay sneakers on tick-tock.
Griff: What about Twitter?
Audrey: What about Twitter? Twitter? I love slash hate Twitter. Twitter is really an engagement and enthusiast conversation platform. It's not a visual platform. I wouldn't throw your pretty pictures up there. I think that's more about conversations and hashtags and like for lack of a better term, like enthusiast conversations. There's political Twitter, there's car Twitter, there's all these different kinds of Twitter that you can engage in. And that skews older, that demographic is 40% on Twitter are ages 25 to 34 and the older age groups outnumber the younger ones. So in other words, people on Twitter are usually 25 Plus.
Griff: That fits me. There's other channels and we we've left them out. We didn't really talk about YouTube and we're not going to talk about LinkedIn or we could, but LinkedIn always seems to me like the last place I'd want to conduct business.
Audrey: Linkedin is really like a B to B, a business to business platform. So if you are an eBay seller that sells, maybe I'm just making this up, but like janitorial supplies or something that another business can buy, you may want to consider. But if your target is an average consumer, I wouldn't be on LinkedIn.
Griff: Okay. That makes sense. All right. So we've learned a little bit about the demographics and these strengths and weaknesses of each of these channels. I would assume then that some channels might work better than others based on what you're selling. Like the category of items. Like for example...
Audrey: We've got a couple examples here. Car parts, apparel, and collectables. Let's take those three kinds of sellers and talk about where they might be successful in social media. Car parts. I would really recommend Facebook and Twitter so long as you're good with the hashtags because hashtags are how enthusiastic find their particular topic. Car parts seller wants to use Twitter to engage in those enthusiastic conversations that people, that restore cars, people that care about cars, people that are in that kind of subculture will find you on Twitter. Also think about Instagram, but only if you have a sexy car to show off, right? Like a muffler on a white background is great for your eBay listing, but that's terrible content for Instagram.
Griff: I don't get inspired by that.
Audrey: But if you've got a beautiful restored car and you want to show the exterior and the interior and all the things that went into it, Instagram might be a good channel for that.
Griff: So focusing on the bigger picture in that category and not on the details, like the car parts, right?
Audrey: And you're in all of this, you're kind of establishing yourself as an expert in cars. You're not saying, Hey, come buy this muffler. You're saying, Hey, I'm an expert in car restoration and look at my beautiful project. And if you were to come to my eBay store, I could help you out with selecting the right muffler. We can talk about restoring cars. Like I am an expert, come to me and buy from me.
Griff: Help us in our next installment. When we're talking more deeply about the content that you're going to use.
Audrey: Yes, exactly. Yeah. So next example is apparel. And I'm assuming that this is women's apparel.
Griff: It could be any, but go on.
Audrey: Yeah. Let's pretend it's women's. So Instagram and Pinterest are like, no-brainers right, because of the demographics number one and because they are visually driven mediums, I think apparel is really smart there. I wouldn't do things like Twitter, not very visual. And you might want to consider Tik Tok maybe if you can produce good content on Tik Tok.
Griff: Yeah. And that's going to be hard. And we'll talk about that because it may involve you modeling your wares. That's sometimes not a good idea. There's a reason why models get paid millions of dollars.
Audrey: Exactly. You want to represent that apparel in the best way you can. So if you maybe don't have a model and you're, you know, hopefully you're not like shooting a dress on a bedspread, but right. Like that is not compelling Tik TOK content. And then our last example is collectibles. And I'm assuming that this is kind of an older demographic. Maybe. I don't know.
Griff: Well, I think it depends, right? Because mid-century modern is skews very young.
Audrey: Yeah. And I'm thinking also like trading cards and comic books are kind of every age range loves those.
Griff: Victorian Tea cups maybe that's our older seniors.
Audrey: Exactly. So Facebook for sure on collectibles, probably Instagram, if you can get those great visuals and then Pinterest, if the demographic makes sense.
Griff: I use Pinterest more than any of them when it comes to items. I have my entire, it's not my rug collection, but I really love old. And I'm talking about 18th century or older Oriental textiles, like rugs and carpets. And I collect photos of the rarest of the rare, and I compile them on my Pinterest page in case anyone wants to repin them or learn more about them.
Audrey: That's a good example of kind of establishing your expertise in the category.
Griff: Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't say I was an expert, but I'm definitely an aficionado.
Audrey: You know more than me.
Griff: I already have a Facebook, Instagram and a Pinterest account. As I mentioned, I use them, but not so much for business or at all. I actually don't use them at all for business. Do I need separate accounts or pages on each of the channels from my personal accounts? So that, you know, I keep business and personal separate?
Audrey: Yeah. I recommend keeping them separate for a number of reasons. Occasionally it's okay to give a little glimpse of your personal life on your business page. If it makes sense, you know, if you are showing something off from like, I'm just making this up, but if you're wearing the dress that you want to sell and you look great and it's a photo from your personal life. Go ahead and put that on your, uh, on your business page. But I think the biggest reason to separate the two, well, there's two reasons. Number one is you don't want any of your personal opinions or kind of world views for lack of a better term kind of seeping into your business. So you don't want to, you know, politics, religion, all those things. Number one, I don't think you should discuss them on, on social, but if you do keep that on your personal page. And then the second big reason is analytics. Every one of these channels has a for business side of it. So Twitter for Business, Facebook for Business, et cetera. And all of those have analytics. When you set up these accounts, you're going to want to go for a business account because the business account will include kind of some access to analytics.
Griff: And we're going to need those in the third installment cause we're going to talk about tracking your business.
Audrey: Exactly because eventually you're going to want to look at your metrics and figure out what's working. What's not. And how to optimize.
Griff: That makes sense. You mentioned that these, uh, different channels have there's the civilian options, which most of us know, but I checked as well. And each one of them has a business aspect and they don't cost any money, at least initially.
Audrey: No, no, no. The only time that it would cost money is if you were to buy ads, right? Facebook for Business, Instagram for Business, Tik TOK for Business, all of those are " free".
Griff: I have a whole list of links here that I'm going to put on our transcript that go directly to things like the Facebook for Business page, Instagram Business, Tik TOK for Business, Twitter for Business Pinterest for Business. And I'll even include the one for YouTube for Business because it's kind of interesting and you can check them out and open new accounts where necessary. And by the way, YouTube, we didn't talk about that. That seems to be more work than the other channels because YouTube is not only visual it's video, you know, there's production you have to do. Maybe some editing. Do I have to make my own videos?
Audrey: Yes and so I caution folks on YouTube. YouTube is best for long form video. And when I say long, I mean more than a minute because everyone's attention span is so, so very short, but production, I think does matter on YouTube. I'm not a huge YouTube fan only because I can't stand bad production. There's a lot of bad production on YouTube. If you do want to use YouTube, it's best for, like I said, long form video, make sure your production quality is good. And I like to use YouTube for what I call explainer videos. So that is like how to do something, how to explain your product. So it's not the hard sell of come buy my muffler, right? It's here's how to select a muffler. Here's the best muffler for your car. Here's how to install the muffler. It's not a direct sales pitch. It's a, how do I say this? It's like a side sales pitch. If that makes sense.
Griff: I just used this, . I forgot totally about this but about two months ago I was fixing or attempting to fix one of my old vintage cameras an old Canon. And I knew I could probably pull it off, but I thought I'll check out some YouTube videos. And I found a really good guy who does YouTube videos about restoring. And of course he links to his eBay and other stores. And I ended up buying something from him.
Audrey: See it works. So going back to our examples, if I'm an apparel seller, I might do a video about how to style a scarf or a dress or how to make this outfit look great. Right? Car parts, we just talked about, it's more about explainer. And then given our collectibles example, you might want to maybe talk about the history and origin of the piece or how you found it or maybe why it's special or unique in it's genre. Like why is this Oriental rug different than the others? Why is it special?
Griff: Because it caused a lot of money. Okay. All right. So these are a lot of options and I think I'll put the YouTube option aside right now. I don't see how I actually can pull that off.
Audrey: Yeah. That's kind of a heavy lift. So I would start with these other channels.
Griff: Do I need all of them or should I just pick and start with one of them?
Audrey: Depends on how much resources and time you want to put into this. If you don't have a whole lot, then maybe just start with one channel. And for the most part, Facebook is probably where you want to start.
Griff: That is what I was thinking. I am so familiar with it.
Audrey: Yes. But think through all of the demographics and other channel kind of characteristics that we just talked about to decide what channel is best for you. Yeah. Maybe start off with just one, start slowly, start to test, figure out what works. We'll talk about metrics later, but you want to understand what's working and what's not. And start to notice those trends.
Griff: Let's say that I've got this far in the process and I promise I will. I'm going to use myself as a Guinea pig. All the channels and pages are set up and I'm ready to go. What else do I need to get started?
Audrey: You want to have a content strategy and what that means is why, should anybody listen to you on social? Right? What's your expertise? What do you offer that no other business offers? How can you leverage what is special and unique about your business to create a online persona for lack of a better term.
Griff: I'm very snarky.
Audrey: So a snarky rug channel. Is that what we're going with here?
Griff: I don't think it's going to work.
Audrey: You would not believe what works on social media.
Griff: I'll give it a try. What about just putting links to my listings?
Audrey: Throwing link to a listing without any context or explanation or storytelling. I consider that spam, right? That's just shouting into the void. And why would anybody listen to you? But if you have, let's take a rug example. If you have this beautiful rug and you make a beautiful Instagram or Pinterest post about it, and you talk about the origin and why it's special, and then you link to it. Now we're talking.
Griff: So I got a lot to consider here. I won't put links to my listings, but I might have separate images of my inventory for Pinterest. I don't think I'm going to do it right away, but you know, I love to teach. Maybe there's a video aspect for some of the stuff I got to test out what works best. Oh, Audrey helped me.
Audrey: Let me say one more thing, which is, think about kind of seasonality and where we are in the year. And if do you have, like, if you are a seller where Holiday is big for you, then think about maybe doing some promotions in your social channels in the Holiday period. Look at your business over a year and think is mother's day big for me. Okay. Then I'm going to do some activities around that. Is back to school or fall important for my business? Then maybe do some activity there. Just think through kind of your editorial calendar.
Griff: Calendar. And we're going to talk more the editorial calendar in part two of this next week. In the meantime, there's a lot here that I have to think about. All of this stuff and content and execution will be in our second part of this series next week. Audrey, I want to thank you for joining us. It's wonderful to have you back in the studio.
Audrey: I'm so happy to be here. This is great. Thank you.
Griff: And I look forward to our next installment. Next week. If you have a question that you'd like to ask either me or our expert, Audrey, please send it to podcast@ ebay.com and we'll try to get it into a short Q and A on our next installment, which we'll have ready for you next week. Audrey will be back then and the topic will be putting your content and plan into action.
Audrey: Looking forward to it.
Griff: Me too.
Rebecca: You've got questions.
Griff: We've got answers. And our first question this week is from eBay seller Grady 812 who writes, Hello, love the show. I'm a long time listener. Can you guys go into a deep dive on the subject of returns, especially Global Shipping Program. It gets very confusing. Every time I call it and get a different answer from reps. How do I go about getting a shipping label out of the USA? How does eBay cover the seller? Thanks Grady 812.
Rebecca: Those are good questions. Thanks Grady 8 1 2. How to handle an international return is definitely a complex process, but you'll be happy to learn that we did cover it in depth in episode 122, back in January of this year.
Griff: And that information I double checked from that episode is still relevant today. So we'll put the link to that episode in the transcript for this episode 158. And I actually answered your email with a response that has that link in it. Listen to it. If you have any questions, feel free to email us back at podcast@ebay.com. So our next one was an email written to podcast@ebay.com by Jason. And he wrote, HI podcast team. I love the podcast and I've learned so much. My question is I accept returns up to 30 days. So why does eBay allow almost two months for the buyer to return the item? I had a customer start a return on September 5th and they had up to October 31st to ship the item back to me. I feel as though I may receive the item damaged or if in good condition I missed out on the sale opportunities. Thank you, Jason, whose eBay store is Crookstown 4 1 2. And he says, PS, if I happen to get a mug, here's my address. Keep up the awesome work. And yes, we will ship you a mug. So thanks Jason. The time for a buyer to return an item is approximately 30 business days, which does calculate as about six weeks .
Rebecca: Is that too long? Maybe. eBay could shorten it, I suppose, but in the meantime, sellers should not worry about the buyer's intentions. In fact, some buyers actually changed their minds about returning the item if they have the longer return window.
Griff: Yeah, in fact, it happened to me a few months ago. I, I had a buyer who wanted to return a shirt because the colors were not what he saw on his computer screen. And I said fine, but after a few weeks, he left me positive feedback and told me he decided he liked it and he was keeping it after all. And remember you aren't required to issue a refund to a buyer until the item is actually returned to you. So yes, it may be off the market for a period of time, but that's just the status of eBay returns.
Rebecca: And correct me if I'm wrong. Griff, if any returned item is returned damaged, you can always report the buyer to eBay and withhold up to 50% of the refund.
Griff: That's correct. If an item that you shipped out comes back in a condition that was different from what you shipped it, for example it was sealed in the box and it was opened. You can withhold up to 50% of the refund and eBay will back you and I actually had this one happen as well. Very recently, a buyer returned a new and sealed package, electronic item claiming it didn't work. It actually worked perfectly, no argument, but I did hold back 50% of his purchase price from his refund because it's now no longer sealed in box. So I can't really sell it as new.
Rebecca: And returns. Totally understand. They are frustrating. I've been through it myself, but it is a good chance for sellers to look at their pricing strategy and make sure that beyond the frustration, making the right choices about pricing, to cover any, you know, minor losses from returns should be, it should be something that sellers consider. Is that right?
Griff: Yeah. Cause it's part of doing business on eBay anywhere else. There's always a business cost to selling merchandise, which is occasionally you're going to have to take a return.
Rebecca: Exactly. And then I do want to mention before we move off the topic of returns that there have been some questions about it from sellers lately, because there was a technical issue in the middle of the month, around the 17th of September that was causing sellers to see a extended date for buyers to ship their returns.
Griff: Well, this is what could have happened here then .
Rebecca: it absolutely could have. I want to emphasize that was a technical issue that now has been fixed. Everything that people are seeing now should be correct.
Griff: Well, that's good to know. Thank you for pointing that out.
Rebecca: Yes. We know that there were questions out there and I just wanted to repeat that and you can read more news about that. You can read that announcement again on that Seller Announcement Board that we'd like to mention so often.
Griff: Exactly. We only have one left and I said, it's an accolade.
Rebecca: This is that email. And it's not a question, but I'm going to read it anyway. So there! All right. This email says, Hello. I just wanted to say hello from the UK and Griff. I am not going to try and read this in an English accent. I would be terrible for everyone. I just wanted to say hello from the UK. I have been running my account for about 12 months now, and it has grown so much. And eBay employee Louise in Merchant Support has aided me so much. I love your podcast. And often discuss it with Louise. I listened whilst walking or on my commute, although 99% of the time I run the account from the shed at the bottom of the garden and pick up key points to raise with her and implement to my running of the account. I don't have any questions at the moment, but if I do, I will fire them over. We have our UK eBay Open next week and a note to listeners. Now that the time that this is posted, that eBay opened for UK actually happened last week. The note goes on to say the eBay Open UK is next week, which is a hybrid event two days online. And one day in person, which I'm looking forward to, it will be good to meet in person, the eBay staff, who I talk with regularly over the phone. I am excited about where our account can go. 588,000 pounds. Wow. In my first 12 months. And hopefully I can hit the $1 million mark for 2022. Kind regards, Tom Holton, eBay account scheppach-direct I'll spell that. S C H E P P A C H dash direct D I R E C T. Griff. You got to get this guy on the podcast. I want to hear his story and how he grew his eBay business in the UK in those first 12 months. I wonder if we can get ahold of him.
Griff: I can get ahold of him. Trust me.
Rebecca: I think that would be amazing, Tom. Thank you so much. We appreciate your kind words of support. And if you send us your mailing address, we'll ship you a mug.
Griff: Yeah. And Tom, remember if you do get a question and we got the answers, so don't fail to send it along. And that goes for all our sellers, both here in the U S and across the world, no matter where you are, we'll try to get you a mug.
Rebecca: Absolutely. And the answers and the answer that's right for your location. There are some tools and some policies and some laws that are different for different countries. And we will always try to answer your question for your location. Anyone else out there have a question or a comment we'd love to hear it. Send it to us. You can call it in at (888) 723-4630.
Griff: Yeah. We're not immune to praise. You can shower it on us. (888) 723-4063. You can call that hotline anytime of the day, any day of the week, leave a question or a comment and we just might put it on the air. And in fact, we love when people call in and we would encourage you to do so. We'd love to get your voice on the podcast. I think that's even better than us reading your email.
Rebecca: Absolutely. We'd love to have seller voices here on the podcast, asking your question so we can respond to them. So please leave a message. And if you are not a call on the phone person, you can always email us at podcast@ebay.com that's podcast@ebay.com. And don't forget to include that shipping address even overseas. So we can send you an eBay for Business podcast mug.
Griff: Now don't forget your daily podcast to do list.
Rebecca: Number one, check the Announcement Board for up-to-date Seller News,
Griff: Start putting your social media marketing campaign together today.
Rebecca: Third. Check out the transcript for this and all episodes to follow up on what you've heard and to see the links we referenced during the episodes.
Griff: On our next episode, we'll have part two of our three part series on social media marketing campaigns with Audrey Tracy, we'll speak with eBay seller Trader Don about his approach to using social.
Rebecca: We’d like to thank again, our guests this week, Audrey Tracy,
Griff: The eBay for Business Podcast is produced and distributed in part by Libsyn and podCast411.
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The eBay for Business podcast is published every Tuesday morning and is presented by eBay, Libsyn and Podcast411.
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