Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The power of Twitter - watching a sale happen in minutes

I took the plunge and have now made two of my photographs available for purchase.  I had some printed in various sizes to be sure I was happy with the quality.  I'll admit, I was impressed even if it's with myslelf.  I think it's okay to pat yourself on the back every now and then, especially if you are usually hard on yourself.
Anyway...even more fun, I've enjoyed tweeting about my new listings and watching my "views" on Etsy climb in seconds.  This reflects the amazing power of Twitter for small businesses.  I could see that within seconds I had close to 20 people look at my photo.  Overnight, the number climbed to over 80.  Very quantitative evidence that it works.
For my readers who may be unfamiliar with Twitter:

"Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers."  - Wikipedia

Here is another first hand example of what Twitter can do:

My friend/neighbor just opened an Etsy shop, Rosenlof Photography, featuring some of her photos and photo cards.  [BTW, you should check them out.  They'll make you smile.  She has a sharp sense of humor].  I've been helping her with the nuances of Etsy and decided to tweet about one of her cards.

I sent a tweet to my 760 some followers.

One of my followers, @Waterrose, retweeted my tweet to her 4,390 some followers.

Within minutes, and as I picked up the phone to tell my friend to watch the views increase, she made her first sale.  AND, it was from someone in the UK.

This all happened within a few MINUTES!  It was so fun to watch.  Twitter works.  It may not be for everyone, but it can be a very useful tool. 

Do you have any Twitter stories to share?

5 comments:

  1. Well I was checking in to see if you were ok...since there is so much flooding in your part of the country. What did I find...a cool twitter post. Your fire hydrant photo is incredible and so deserves attention and I'm so glad that I helped your friend in some small way.

    I have made some really good connections because of Twitter that would have been impossible otherwise.

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  2. I have oh so many fun/funny twitter stories! I just love how I can reach out and connect a human being while staring at this computer screen!

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  3. Most of RI is flooded. I'll update in a bit. Thanks for checking in, @Waterrose!

    RE: Twitter. I speak of it as a necessary evil. It can be both a time suck and a wonderful tool. Our job is to find the happy medium. :)

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  4. Love the new Blog look! Also, thanks so much for tweetin' my stuff! Thanks to "Waterrose" for the retweet, too!! I guess I better get on the Twitter bandwagon soon!

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  5. I have more or less stayed away from twitter thus far, but is is fun to hear this success story! Social networking is an incredibly powerful tool.

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