Team Upcyclers: How to Use our Team

Hello Upcyclers! I thought I would write a series of posts on how to utilize the benefits of being on Team Upcyclers. Our Etsy team is an easy going group of shops that love to upcycle.  With a fast growing team of over 2,100 shops I thought a series detailing how to use the team for networking, creating, and promoting would be helpful to our new members and a great reminder for our seasoned members as well.

So let’s get started this week with…

Team Tags, Team Treasuries, and Team Threads

The Team Tag: teamupcyclers

Etsy allows you 13 tags on your listings. If you decide to make one of your tags “teamupcyclers” your listing will be promoted in the following ways:

• listings will show up in the Shop Now! section of our blog
• listings show up in searches on Etsy when making team treasuries
• listings show up in searches on Etsy when our blog writers are writing articles and looking to feature listings. 

It also gives your listings the opportunity to be found with other team opportunities, like team leaders searching for team challenge entries, and by fellow shops wanting to shop their own team.

Some Etsy shops use a team's logo for a visual team tag. Brizel Supplies uses the team logo in one of our her five listing photos. Not only does it show she's part of our upcycled team, but it furthers the message the her buttons are vintage and her shop is eco-friendly.

The Team Treasury Tag: teamupcyclers

Etsy allows you 18 tags when you create a treasury. It is important to use all of your tags in a treasury, just like a listing.  Tags are ways people will search and find your treasuries.  Team leaders use treasury tag searches to feature team treasuries on our facebook and twitter accounts. Treasuries are also used to pin your creations to Pinterest. All of which will be discussed in the next post on team social networking.  The important thing is if you’re going to take the time to create a team treasury, please include the tag: teamupcyclers  

Team Treasuries are a great way to get to know the people you work with on Etsy. They are also a great way to promote your own shop by promoting others, and a great way for the team to share upcycling!

Tips for Making Team Treasuries:

• Not all team shops use their precious listing tags for a team tags, so be sure to check and use our member directory and our New Member Introductions thread to curate fresh team collections.
• Shops don't have to share their team memberships on their Etsy profile either, so that's another reason to visit the member directory. We are a larger Etsy team, so our directory has over 2100+ shops that can be viewed alphbetically or by last updated. Therefore it is much easier for our shops to show their team membership on their profiles.  (I would love for Etsy to create an easier way to sort our members list).
• Create themed collections but don't get carried away. For example, you could curate a treasury by color, season, or occasion, but don't create a collection with all the same type of item. Etsy picks a treasury to be featured every hour on it's front page. They usually don't pick a treasury with 16 dresses, but they will pick be a wedding themed collection with a dress or two in it.
• Check trending Etsy treasury tags and include some of them in your treasury.
• Select clear photos with similar background colors.
• Convo the 16 shops that you featured in your team treasury.  Etsy's activity feed will let shops know when items are featured, if they are online. A quick copy and pasted email to all featured parties will help ensure your treasury is seen and promoted!

Here's a recent Team Upcyclers treasury, found by searching our team tag: teamupcyclers!

'Summer Squeeze' by artagain

Get your summer on, with TeamUpcyclers

Upcycled Recycled /... GroovyGarbage $24.00	Summer Squeeze Sket... EcoImbiber $18.00	Funky upcycled butt... CUTandTEAR $5.00	Eco Chic Duo Mandal... cukipokshop $25.00
Half Dozen Cedar wo... ReclaimedTrend... $60.71	License Plate Star ... SweetSomeday $36.00	Recycled T Shirt Ta... ohzie $15.00	Set of 4 wine bottl... GroovyGreenGla... $35.00
Little Dear - Upcyc... twitchandwhisk... $45.00	Recycled Metal Barb... TinkanDesigns $90.00	Beer Bottle Earring... BoozyBaublesGl... $18.00	Magnet Wood Set of ... Art2Carry $9.95
Woman on Beach Vint... EphemeraAesthe... $18.00	recycled jewelry - ... twicecreations $24.00	Recycled / Upcycled... wheresmybag $12.00	Hippie Bracelets, H... TrailerParkGyp... $12.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

There are many resources online for help with treasuries, including our tool box. And of course a great place to get advice is our Team Discussion Threads.

Team Discussion Threads

What is a thread? A message posted to a webpage where other team members can read it. You can select whether your message is public or private before you hit submit.  Private means only Team Upcyclers shops can view your message, public means Etsy and the entire online community can view it. Here's a simple article on creating a thread on any Etsy forum. Upcyclers Discussion Board,  Upcyclers Discussion Threads, Team Upcyclers Forum, all mean the same thing. They are just a place for us to communicate.

How does our forum benefit your shop? Our Disucssion threads are a place to share, promote, and ask questions. We try to inspire creativity, encourage shops, and discuss Etsy's marketplace on our forum.

With an active team sometimes the discussion board can look a little overwhelming. Just take a deep breath and look at it for a minute.  Our active threads are listed by month to help keep things concise and to the point.

New Listings

Blog Posts

Sales & Giveaways

Creativity Challenge

Team Treasuries

are all threads that can be found label with the current month in their title.

The Creativity Challenge is a fun monthly challenge to inspire upcycled creativity. One Upcyclers shop picks an upcycled medium, and then shops have the opportunity to submit upcycled creations using each months medium. We also like to have fun with thread games like our ABC game thread and your favorite item from shop above thread.

Other Important Threads to Look for:

New Member Introductions

Main Thread Chat

Just ReListed

and an array of other threads, from current happenings like the Christmas in July sale thread, to the popular Supplies for Upcycling thread.

Feel free to start your own thread, but it's best to check the forum for your topic first. There is a search box right above the first thread, and maybe your topic is already there.

 Friendly Faces on our Team Upcyclers Threads

On any day of the week you can always find the following Upcyclers shops on our discussion threads:

• M. Basile from Rinnovato is always greeting new members and chatting on many of our discussion threads!
• Luci from Idle Hands Yarn Supply is a great thread resource. She's always responding to questions, sharing her experiences, and greeting others.
• Mandy from Auburn Artisan is always welcoming new members and getting to know members on the chat thread.
• Sarah from Sweet Someday, Sue from Stitchuation, and Ann from Instinctively Indie are some more active friendly faces on our team threads!

Then there is... Mike's T Shirt Yarn, This 'n That Creations, Our Childrens Earth, Its Your Country, Brizel Supplies, Super Sock, artagain, and K5art. Of course, our captain Cat and myself are always around the threads.

Join in the discussion, tag your listings and share your team treasuries! Together we can learn, share, and promote a large community of UPCYCLING.  Look for the next post in the series to discuss our social networks and their reach, and how you can use them. Until then, keep upcycling!

Thanks, Bee
The Wooden Bee