This week, I have a guest blogger: Helen Fang. Helen is the social media expert at Vendio, an ecommerce software company that enables online businesses to sell on Facebook, eBay, Amazon, and Google from one platform.

It is no secret that the popularity of social media sites continues to grow. Smart online
businesses are taking advantage of the ability to sell through social media sites like
Facebook and Twitter. Even businesses that do not offer products can still leverage
social media to build brand awareness or increase the number of leads or sale for a
service.

The power of social media is that it enables businesses of all sizes to play on the same
field and compete for the same customers. Anyone who would like to find easy ways to
sell online can do so very easily with the help of an ecommerce website and social media
marketing tools.

If you’re a small business looking to get started, but feel overwhelmed by the number of
options – then look no further. We’ll break it down for you in four easy steps.

1. Create an ecommerce website.

You have two main options: first, you can add a “shopping cart” to your existing website. This enables you to create online transactions. PayPal and Google Checkout are two very easy options. If you don’t have an ecommerce website or if yours currently needs an upgrade, do some research before you commit to buy. There are many ways to get an ecommerce website for free or for very little money. The most important question to ask an ecommerce website provider is if your new website can grow with your business? For example, if you have 10 products now, but hope to grow to 100, will your website be able to handle it? Will you be charged a much higher fee? What other charges could there be (e.g. hosting, bandwidth, images, SSL)?

2. Build a strong social brand by developing your ecommerce friendships online.

To build your social brand online you will need to establish a strong presence. One way to
do this is by developing a following online in the social media sites. Start engaging others
regularly in conversations and work in ways to talk about your business. The number
one mistake that businesses make is to simply “join” a social network versus “creating
a presence” on a social network. Know the strengths of each social media channel and
think about it as a marketing channel. Remember that social media is simply a way to
engage with your customers. You still have to close the sale.

3. Increase your social presence with help from your existing customers.

One great place to start is to leverage your existing user base. Tell your customers via newsletters,
blogs, and on your website that you’re on Facebook or Twitter and give them a reason to
follow you. These are people who are already interested in you and will probably help
you spread the word about your business. Simple offers like free shipping or customer
appreciation coupons really help to drive the message home. Make your customers your
best brand ambassadors.

4. Sell directly to your customers on social media channels.

While Facebook commerce or F-commerce is still relatively unproven, the possibility of selling to 700 million users can’t be ignored. Therefore, after you have started (because social media an ongoing strategy that never stops) steps 1-3, the next thing to think about is getting your Facebook fans to buy from you. By engaging others in conversation, befriending them and sharing with others people will begin to build up a trust in you and your ecommerce business. If you’re wondering about how to sell on Facebook, there are many providers who can help – many that are free.

5. Define your strategy and stick to them.

Too often small businesses want to hop on the “newest” social media channel. Keep in mind that this channel may not work for your business. The best way to succeed in social media is to stay focused on your end objectives and always calculate your return on investment. If you’re spending 10 hours a week on social media, how much is that worth per hour? Would that money have been better spent on paid search or a new web design? These are all things you should continuously evaluate because social media, but its very nature, is social. This can result in a huge time suck and you have a business to run.

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There are a lot of change happening in the world of mobile. No one would have believed you could make payments with a phone 10 years ago. I hope you enjoy reading about these as much as I did, it’s pretty exciting to see how the world is changing and adapting with different technologies.

As Ferris Buhler said it best “Yup, life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and take a look around once in a while, you might miss it”.

Digital Stamps: The Denmark Post now has digital stamps available and can be purchased via text message. A simple code is sent to the customer and it can be written on an envelope instead of the old fashioned stamp.

Euro McDonald’s are adding a point of sale touch screen to 7,000 European stores. The screens include swipers for cards, reducing the need for human cashiers and speeding up transactions. Burger King is also following suit.

Google Wallet, an Android App, allows someone to make payments with their phone. Users pay by tapping their phone on a Mastercard paypass terminal. Users can also receive offers and loyalty point with the app.

In developing countries, mobile is playing a huge role. South Africa’s First National Bank has a service that allows customers to take out cash from an ATM using their mobile phone. The customers receive a text message from the bank with a temporary pin that allows them to use an ATM within 30 min.

A Spanish based clothing company called N-spired Story encourages people to send in interesting photos, stories, news or videos. One of those stories is printed as an image on an short-run edition t-shirt each month. Users can then use their phone to link to the story online.

Don’t have time to shop? How about for just 4 seconds? That’s the amount of time a sale is listed. A Swedish business called “Papercut” launched a site called Speedsale, offering discounted books, DVDs, and more for only 4 seconds and then the sale is over!

Don’t have time to read all the reviews of a product? Just Buy This One takes care of it by gathering an average rating of product reviews and offers a single recommendation. Includes 9 categories overall.

Want to buy your friend a drink without being in the bar? You can in Germany, a company there called frinXX lets users buy drinks at any bar and you don’t have to be there. A code is generated from the transaction and sent to the recipient’s cellphone with a custom message.

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Bill Trammel is the man behind the Pad Grip, the first iPad stand that can also mount the iPad nearly anywhere. It’s a clever device they sell in their website using Shopify. Find out how Bill markets the product and gets the word out.

1) What is your business and how did you get started?

We sell the Pad Grip, the tilting, swiveling iPad stand that mounts anywhere.  We got started in June of 2010 after searching for an iPad mount that we could mount next to our computer monitor, and not finding anything that had the features and flexibility we wanted. So we made it.

2) Why did you decide to sell online? How did you choose your ecommerce cart?

We decided to sell online because of the low barrier to entry.  I’d had experience with Shopify before with a T-shirt company, and already knew they had good customer service and a simple setup.  We looked into a lot of other options just to make sure we were making the right choice, but nothing out there came near Shopify’s simplicity and power.

3) What are some of the methods you are using to market your site online? What’s been the most successful?

We have given product away to influencers, done Google Adwords, and purchased a paid press release from PRWeb.  The press release generated the most benefit for us in terms of volume and industry contacts, but we value Google AdWords as a consistent way to generate targeted traffic.

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I got a chance to talk with Meredith Miles, the lady behind Floating Owl Designs.  She’s a great storyteller and describes how her business originated and the success she’s had with Etsy. Meredith has been successful in finding a niche and a knack at promoting it.

My business name is Floating Owl Designs. I make anything creative but right now, name hangers are most popular, as well as name ornaments during the holidays. These consist of wire bent into names and inserted into wooded hangers or made into a holiday ornament with a jingle bell, great as personalized gifts.

The inspiration for starting this business came from being laid off a year ago this April from doing an accounting job, which paid but made me miserable. I happily got married last year, 3 months after losing my job and had all the time on my hands to plan out my wedding. Instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on decorations someone else can make, my family, husband and I designed and made everything. That resulted in numerous compliments of our wedding having lots of personality, separating it from other weddings people had attended. I enjoyed the whole process even after the wedding ended, that I started to wonder if it was really possible to do these things full time, like a, “real job,” with “real money.” My sister and I had always pondered if it was possible to support yourself being creative for a living whether doing it from home in a spare room or being lucky enough to find a job that you can stretch your creative legs AND be an asset to a company.

I started looking into seminars, inspiring websites, talked to friends who had started their own companies on their own. All I kept hearing was, “It IS possible! Don’t “try” to do it, DO IT!” I started realizing you have to change the way you think, surround yourself with supportive influences, start moving, and keep moving. I made a calendar of the future and worked backwards, starting at December 31st, 2011. What will I be celebrating on New Years… Having my own business? My website up and running? Converting our spare room full of useless stuff into a home office? Hitting a target from the profits I made? Then I made a target of what had to be completed by September, 2011. Then also June, 2011, then March 2011. It all sounded fantastic but dreamlike. But with my mind numbing background working behind a desk, working for people who were crazier than my most craziest thoughts, and having a husband and sister telling me, “Go! You can do this, we’ll help you!”, it was time to stretch my creative legs on my own time.

It took less than a day to convert the spare room into an office, complete with large Ikea table to work at, shelves displaying my own creations for inspiration and a place for supplies. Well that was easy. Huh. The thought of, “will this really work?” started to become a memory instead of a reality.

To promote my business, I’m a part of Etsy, a handmade marketplace website. I had been intimidated to sign up and see what it was all about as a seller. I signed up, perfected my skills as a, “wire bending machine” and posted some ornaments at Christmas time, hoping my shop would be found from such hits as simple as, “ornaments.” Sure enough, I was found, and had an original, personalized idea people wanted to give their loved ones for the holidays. I depended on search terms to get the customers into my shop. Once in, I had to keep their attention with decent photos of my work and reasonable prices. It was quite a successful holiday season, all from including, “ornament” as part of my product name.

After the holidays, I had to think up a new product and had name/bridal hangers in the back of my mind. They seemed easy to make, I had the wire bending down and brides are one consumer willing to spend money. I did have to do some research on quality, wooden hangers, a drill, packaging, etc. I looked up the competition, how their quality compared to mine. I felt I had a fair chance, some of the wire handwriting was hard to read. And me being a perfectionist might pay off in a craft like this.

Again, all in the search times, particularly on Etsy, I was found through terms like, name hanger, wire hanger, bride or bridal hanger, mother of the bride hanger, etc. I posted some hangers, they sold out in hours. Inquiries poured in for custom made orders. I began a list of what, who, which type of wood for the hanger and when needed by. I had become an online crafter. I had no idea brides were crazy, Crazy, CRAZY over these name hangers. I had found a niche that has a huge demand.

One of my biggest challenges has been staying motivated that this will work, that I will be, “successful.” But I had to assess what successful meant to me. It came down to 2 things, doing something that made me happy, and, making money from what I created. The day I finally posted hangers I made to Etsy, I had a really good feeling, a feeling of, “I think this might actually work!”

And that feeling felt good. It felt different. And when I got payment confirmation emails from Paypal, it got exciting real fast. The more sold, the more I made. I got faster at bending the wire, perfected how to manipulate it into married names like Mrs. Schnittker. I have been lucky. I haven’t had to market my products very much, I’m found even off only a few listings on one site.

Some goals for this year are to get my website… floatingowldesigns.com up and running. I’d like to be able to change it up as often as I need, keep up with what sells, keep taking better pictures of my products. I would like to start the process of having a business, apply for a business license, be tax ready by end of this year, and see where this all takes me. I used to settle on jobs that paid the bills at the expense of my sanity. Doing something (accounting) for someone else (fire breathing bitchbag of a boss… my sisters term), resulted in growing health problems. I hated who I was becoming, I was miserable, coming home every day to my supportive, then boyfriend now husband, in a terrible, toxic mood. I let my day job run my life. Now, I have goals, I’m being creative every day and I’m making money. I have options, and I’m more creative in other aspects of my life. I love to cook again.

This all hasn’t been easy, some days I’m working over 12 hours, but it beats the 8 hour shifts behind a desk, processing invoices. I finally want to work and it’s my products I’m selling. I’m still not sure where I’m going with this, but I’m sure my quality of life has gone up, while finding I can make money creatively and be happy. Who knew.

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Here’s Part 2 of my 10 Common E-commerce Mistakes You Can Avoid! I posted last week….

#6 Displaying out of stock products

Don’t disappoint your customers, get them all excited and list a product that you no longer have in stock. Have your inventory set up so it’s synced with your online store. Manage expectations of your customers, it makes all the difference

#7 POP-UPs Annoy

Lots of websites try and lure customers in with pop-ups, but they cause the opposite effect. It’s intrusive,
usually looks ugly, and slows down page load time. Don’t make your customers want to hit the back button or run away
from your site. Unobtrusive, easy-to-use, and friendly is a much better tactic.

#8 Asking for too much or unnecessary info

Sure, sometimes you are tempted to gather info from your customer for marketing purposes when they
are registering, but if you attempt to ask too much, they may abandon the whole process.

Just stick to the necessary details to complete the purchase which are-

Delivery Address
Contact Number
Card Details

#9 Poor Customer Service

Treat your customers with the golden rule. Listen to them and be there for them which
includes answering emails, helping with returns, returning/answering phone calls. Providing a FAQ and and a return policy on your website that’s easy to find can go a long way as well.

#10 Plan for Growth

Before you begin selling anything online, talk to your web firm and web hosting about
how to prepare for:

-high traffic on your website
-high sales

You might consider what the costs are to upgrade your current web hosting plan and know at what point in your business’ growth that you will have special needs. Plan for peak sales around holidays and sales and know how to avoid traffic and bandwidth problems. vLearning what your options are early on will help your business grow faster.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, there are many more mistakes to avoid. Let me know if I need to mention others mistakes that are just important to avoid.

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