#FollowFriday: understanding Twitter

What is a tweet? How can it help your Etsy shop? How can you use Team Upcyclers and Twitter to maximize your social media efforts and therefore expand your online reach?

 

Twitter’s front page says, “Find out what’s happening, right now, with the people and organizations you care about.” 

Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service.  I like to call it my tweeting newspaper. With an email address and a little info anyone can join the Twitter community. It is estimated that Twitter has 175 million users. I think this translates into around 50 (active) million users when you look closely at the data. So let’s talk about how we can show those 50 million our beautiful upcycled creations!

The best advantage to Twitter, you get to look at what YOU want.  I have customized my personal Twitter account so that I view tweets from friends, organizations, recycling experts, and even my favorite shops and local restaurants.  When I log on I view DIY tutorials, artwork, sales, coupons, events, breaking local, national and International news.  I chat (or tweet) with friends all over the world.  Whatever is important to me! There are no ads on the sidebar targeting your profile to try to sell you something either! 

An important part to making Twitter successful is who you follow.  Check out people before you start following them.  How often do they tweet, what do they stand for, and how many followers do they have? There are spammers on Twitter, if you happen to follow one, just unfollow them.  It’s your tweeting newspaper.

 

Twitter Profile

Your Twitter profile is your first impression, your shop’s advertisement into the Twitter world. It should contain as much info as possible.  Your profile info is also picked up in Twitter’s search engines.

 

 

The red arrow is pointing the BIO section of our team's Twitter profile. It is good to place hashtags that you use in the profile, along with your Etsy shop or blog links.  I will discuss hashtags below.

 

Tweet, Tweet

Ok, you have a Twitter account, a juicy profile and a cool photo/logo, now it’s time to tweet.  A tweet is a post or status update on Twitter.  Your post has to be 140 characters or less. This is where tweeters, just like texters, get creative.  At first glance your Twitter feed might seem like a foreign language, but just take a minute to read it. 

@ symbol before any word is a Twitter handle or username (@TeamUupcyclers).

 

# symbol before any word is called a hashtag and is used much like a label in a blog post. They are just a way to have your tweets found or for you to search by subject on Twitter’s platform.  I will continue to talk more about these hashtags below.

RT means Re-Tweet... another person saw your status update (tweet) and shared or posted it into their feed (retweet).

Instead of the word “are” you might see “R”, instead of the word “for” you might see a “4.”  Tweeters find ways to say as much as possible in their 140 characters.

Favorite a Tweet – See a great quote or news article that you would like to read or share, just favorite the tweet and come back to it later.

 

What should I tweet?

If you are an Etsy shop it is good to tweet your new listings, your sales, treasuries you were featured in, and other shop related news.  It is equally important NOT to tweet about your shop. Tweet about your other interests, a funny quote, DIY craft ideas, ways to upcycle, or a good articles that you read online. People on Twitter don’t want to follow ads, they want to follow people. Successful shops don’t solicit their tweeters. They cross promote other shops and information to their followers.  The team tweets articles from the blog, our Facebook posts, retweets from our members, and other Etsy happenings. The team also tweets and RTs non-etsy news: quotes, tutorials, photos, environmental news, etc.

 

Hashtags!

 

Example Tweet

@TeamUpcyclers tweets: “Great article on #upcycled #gift ideas on #Etsy! Love 2 Upcycle: Sustainable Fall Finds http://bit.ly/Rd3mYF #teamupcyclers #upcycle #Fall” (That tweet was 138 characters).

People use the hashtag symbol (#) before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets. This helps the tweet show up more easily in Twitter searches.

 

You can click on any hashtagged word in a tweet and Twitter will show you all

other Tweets marked with that keyword.  Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end.  Similar to Etsy’s treasury tags, hashtagged words that become popular are often Trending Topics on the front page of Twitter.

 

 

 

 

Our team’s hashtag is #teamupcyclers or #TeamUpcyclers or #TEAMUPCYCLERS. Capitalization doesn’t matter on Twitter.  If you click on this tag in a tweet, you can find what the team is talking about and sharing.  Other popular hashtags (in our Etsy world): #handmade #handmadebot #etsy  #upcycled #upcycle #upcycling #green #eco #coupon #sale

 

How to maximize Twitter

There is a lot of research out there on how often you should post to your Twitter account. Twitter’s newsfeed isn’t like Facebook’s. A person can tweet several times in an hour without being annoying.  I find it ideal to tweet original content around three times a day.  It is good to interact and RT (retweet) several times a day too.  What? You don’t have time to hang around your Twitter feed all day? Don’t! With a little help and less than an hour of your time a week, you can make Twitter work wonders for you.

Every day I check my personal Twitter account @TheWoodenBee, to see if anyone has mentioned me in a tweet, or if anyone has retweeted my tweets.  I glance at new followers and read a few tweets in my feed. I search my favorite tags and then I'm done.  I spend about 10 minutes (or less) a day on Twitter. Then once a month I spend 30 minutes on two sites called Timely and Twuffer, and they take care of the rest. Let me explain…

Timely is a site that analyzes your past tweets, determines the best time to send them and then all future tweets will be sent on that schedule. This is a fantastic site that really gives you a good idea what is going on with your tweets in Twitter world. Here's a snapshot of the weekly report I get via email.

 

 

 

Twuffer allows Twitter users to compose a list of future tweets and schedule their release. This is great for utilizing the #followfriday tag, or the #ecomonday hashtags (which I will discuss below). You can pick the day and time your tweets are published.

 

If you are promoting your shop on Facebook as well, it is important to connect your Facebook account to your Twitter account, then when you post to Facebook, it will automatically tweet the same status to Twitter. Time Saver!

 

Important! Though these third party sites are a great help, people don’t want to follow robots. You have to get online and talk to people. You shouldn’t tweet the same things! Your content should stay fresh and then so will your Twitter audience as your account will continue to grow.

Friendly Faces and Twitter Chats:

@TeamUpcyclers follows our members, ecofriendly organizations, and environmentally conscious news networks.  We RT listings with the hashtag #teamupcyclers, so this is further exposure for your shop’s tweets. 

Check out these friendly faces on Twitter:

@TheWoodenBee @Pir8T @SnazzyTickets @UpcycleFever @CloneHardware @MikesTshirtYarn @laalicia  You can find a full list of our Upcycled Etsy shops here.

Many groups use Twitter for live chatting with a large group of people.  Twitter Chats are scheduled throughout the week and you are welcome to join in, just use the chat’s hashtag in your tweets.  There is a large gardening community on Twitter. If you search the hashtag #gardenchat, #rosechat, or #seedchat you will see all the related tweets. #GardenChat has a guest speaker and new topic each Monday evening.  The hashtag chat #sundaysupper is active on Sunday afternoons, bringing you home cooked recipes and menu ideas. Twitter goes green on Mondays with #EcoMonday hashtags. And Fridays are your chance to view and share follower recommendations with the #followfriday hashtag. Fridays usually yield more followers and higher traffic. There are many more chats available with a little research.

 

My final tip, don't waste your time with Twitter's DM (direct messaging service). We should tweet on Twitter, if you need to talk privately try a different method. Spammers and hackers try to use DMs and you should never click on links messaged to you.  Create a strong password and make sure you log on and off each time you use the service.

Let Twitter work with your current social media networks to reach a larger online audience. Be sure to connect it to your Etsy shop!  It's totally worth your time and it costs nothing!  I know it has gotten me dozens of Etsy orders.

 

Feel free to comment with questions or ideas, or tweet us on Twitter.

 

Thanks,

Bee

@TheWoodenBee

 

 

Upcyclers UPDATE!

Since April is winding down, so quickly I might add, it's a great opportunity to announce some of our terrific news so far this year!

First and foremost~ We now have over 2000 members on our Etsy team of Upcyclers! That is the foundation of our entire effort and most important aspect of what we do. We upcycle and sell on Etsy. Our mission of course is to further the upcycling movement around the planet and support the concept of handmade, vintage and small, enterprised-based businesses. Yes, we use a worldwide venue like Etsy, and some of us use others as well like Artfire, Bonanza, Meylah and many others, but the concept is still to support artists and home based businesses. We are so proud of our members, they work tirelessly to spread the word about upcycling, our team, environmental awareness, charitable efforts and to present themselves as a united community of Upcyclers!

Go Green!

Our fanbase is huge! Thanks to you, our readers, we are rocking the Social Media networks with over 1500 fans on Facebook, but that said, we have the potential to reach over 500,000 of your friends also! There's close to 1500 of you that follow our tweets, too. We have over 700 followers on our blog, but we also have over 8000 views each month on our blog! Now we even have a Pinterest account and everyday at least a dozen new followers there too. We also publish a paper now via Paper.Li and even that fanbase is growing by leaps and bounds.

We've added to our staff! You can check them out on our 'Take Me To Your Leaders' page and get to know them by checking out their links. It's a 'page in progress' like our staff, so keep checking back for more info and additions! So far we've added Stephanie, Marcy and Luci, all enthusiastic members dedicated to taking Upcyclers to the next level!

What does all this mean? Besides the fact that we feel sooooo loved, lol! It means that upcycling is here to stay. It's not a trend. It's a necessity. And we are doing our part: members, fans, readers, tweeters, pinners, you name it. We are doing it! And all of us should be proud of it.

Weekly Giveaway: Yellow Trailer!

No, we are not giving away a Yellow Trailer, lol! That's the whimsical and intriguing name of the Etsy shop that's sponsoring this week's giveaway! But before we reveal our fantastic item~ Let's announce last week's winner: {sound of drum roll and fanfare here}

#79~ MILA Our thanks to Random.org for choosing for us, so we don't have to!
We don't have your email, Mila~ so please contact Beth by sending a convo to her
Beach Glass Shop as soon as possible to claim your prize and provide our very kind and generous sponsor with your shipping address. Our thanks to all of you who entered~ and there were MANY of you!

And now we will show you this week's giveaway: You can win your choice of any keyboard letter handcrafted into a necklace from Yellow Trailer!

I know, AWESOME, right?? I love typewriter jewelry and was so excited when Mary offered one to our readers! Her profile is such a hoot that I realized I couldn't describe her any better than she already has, so here, in her words is "Something about Mary":

"Yellow Trailer is the result of being downsized from my employer of 20 years. I'm too young to retire, too old to hire, had both knees replaced and I'm still discovering the artist hidden in my bones. I work with silver, old typewriters, glass, copper, fabric, shovels, pvc pipe, big hammers and dirt. I make items from recycling everyday utensils and tools. The yellowtrailer hauls all my 'stuff' to markets and fairs.
I also discovered my talent for finding and selling, vintage... anything, which I also do at markets, in an antique booth at a local mall and on eBay. 
That's how I eke out a living and for the first time I actually enjoy my work. I also enjoy fishing all the Great Lakes of Michigan with my husband of 40 years.We've been best friends, forever. And of course I can't forget the cats Amos & Andy who so generously allow me to cater to their every whim, clean their poop box and live in their house. :)
All the artistic jewelry - bracelets, garden art and windchimes are made exclusively by me. I'm not looking to get rich, just an unemployed Grandma enjoying life and getting by."

Don't you just love it? I've been up to that area and can imagine how amazing her life must be, except of course I don't envy the winter, lol! Here's a little peek at her shop:

I love the upcycled Solar Powered Mason Jar lights, recharged by the sun and easily carried anywhere, they can create enchanted lighting in your garden or be used for practical purposes. Mary said they came in handy recently during a power outage!

You can order custom typewriter key jewelry and other creations from Yellow Trailer as well, so if you don't see quite what you want, just ask Mary and the two of you might just be able to conjure something up especially made for you! She will even create jewelry from your own pieces of heirloom or cherished silverware.

So now to enter~

First you must be a follower of Love 2 Upcycle to enter~ not a follower? Just look to the right and click on the 'Follow' button! But don't leave a comment for doing that!

Then you can submit up to 4 entries, each must be entered HERE in a separate comment for each entry. 
If you don't have an email listed in your profile, please leave it in one of your comments!

1. Browse, Like and Favorite YellowTrailer on Etsy!

2. Tweet or Like your favorite item in Mary's shop and tell us here which item it was.

3.  Become a fan of Upcyclers on Facebook and leave a comment with a link to Yellow Trailer on our wall!

4. 'Tweet' or 'Like' this Giveaway using our Like or Tweet button or Share a link to our Giveaway on your Facebook fan page. 

***One more option: You can pin one item from Yellow Trailer on Pinterest with the description "Yellow Trailer on Etsy"! But remember you still can only enter 4 times!

Deadline to enter is Wednesday, August 31st at Midnight.

The WINNER will be randomly drawn and announced with the next Giveaway!

Good Luck!
 

Would you like to Sponsor a Giveaway on Love 2 Upcycle? You don't have to be a member of Upcyclers to be a sponsor, all Etsy sellers of upcycled or eco-friendly products are welcome! But of course, we'd love for you to join the team!

Weekly Giveaway: Pine Branch Designs

Our sponsor this week is Cindy from Pine Branch Designs, a mountain girl from Western North Carolina where lots of pine trees grow! But first let's announce last week's winner~

#9~  The Wooden Bee! Congrats and Enjoy, Bee! You are in for a treat with this hot/cold cherry pit pack, it's like an organic at-home spa treatment to take your stress away! Thanks so much to all of you that entered and to Andrea from Saved by Grace Designs for sponsoring last week's Giveaway, YAY! And don't worry if you didn't win this 'Cheery Pack', Andrea has more and and you can purchase them in a variety of colorful patterns. Just browse her shop where you'll find other beautiful upcycled creations too! Andrea likes to blog, too~ Follow her at Whispers in the Silence...





Now back to this week's Giveaway!

Cindy enjoys the tranquil setting of her home in the mountains of North Carolina, where she has been teaching children with special needs for 16 years and counting! And she has more wonderful children to offer her tender loving care~ several grandchildren! Perhaps Cindy will inspire some of these young minds to follow her path and help our planet by upcycling waste materials into wonderful treasures like the ones she sells. Inspired by elements in nature- gardens, the forest, waterfalls, ice crystals...each item she creates is one-of-a-kind, unique and beautiful- earrings, bracelets, necklaces, watches, spa soap dishes, frames, beaded bookmarks and ornaments~ rustic animal prints, adorable snowman, primitive pumpkins, and zany reindeer! And upon request, each gift can be sent with an ORIGAMI GIFT POUCH made from renewed materials~ old magazines, calendars, wrapping paper and catalogs, her husband cuts and folds each one by hand!

Cindy would love to help you extend the life of your handmade and store bought soaps with natural cedar or pine soap dishes. The design of these soap dishes help absorb water and promote quick drying. They are GREAT in the shower! They are also useful for drying sponges at the kitchen sink or airing out steel wool. You can win a set of 6 of these natural soap dishes in your choice of pine, cedar or a combination of three of each from Pine Branch Designs this week by just browsing, sharing, tweeting or subscribing to her "tiny" newsletter!

It's easy to enter!

Just browse, follow, tweet and share~ Here are the details:

First you must be a follower of Love 2 Upcycle to enter~ not a follower? Just look to the right and click on the 'Follow' button!

You can submit up to four entries, each must be entered HERE in a separate comment.

1. Browse Cindy's shop, Pine Branch Designs, and tell us which item was your favorite.

2. 'Favorite' and 'Like' her shop on Etsy, Pine Branch Designs. 

3.  Subscribe to Cindy's "tiny" newsletter or follow her on her Facebook page.

4. 'Tweet' or 'Like' this Giveaway using our Like or Tweet button or Share a link to our Giveaway on your Facebook fan page.

Deadline to enter is Wednesday, June 15th at midnight.

The WINNER will be randomly drawn and announced with our next giveaway~ Thursday, June 16th.

Good Luck!

Would you like to Sponsor a Giveaway on Love 2 Upcycle? You don't have to be a member of Upcyclers to be a sponsor, all Etsy sellers of upcycled or eco-friendly products are welcome! But of course, we'd love for you to join the team!

Email us at: teamupcyclers@gmail.com Tell us about the item for the giveaway and provide us with a link to your shop.