Are All Your Buyers Asleep??! Scheduling Your Tweets, Blog Posts and Facebook Updates

Cinnamon Buns by SavageArtworks

As an international seller, an important issue to consider when promoting my business is the fact that many buyers (most of my target audience in fact) are fast asleep during the time when I am likely to be focusing on promotional efforts.

I am quite aware of this fact, but I'm afraid I am guilty of failing to apply this knowledge as much as I should. I do try to list at appropriate times, but most of my facebook and twitter activity naturally occurs while I am awake (and my buyers are not). While this may not be critical for some sellers, people based in the US make up over 50% of my total facebook fans, whereas Australian followers account for less than 10%, and the percentage of US buyers in my Etsy store would be considerably higher than 50%. Given that many (probably most) of my sales are driven directly and indirectly by my activity on social networks (again, this is not necessarily the case for all sellers), this could be having a huge impact on my store's success!

Fortunately, there are some great tools available for international sellers and US sellers wanting to reach an international audience.



Tweet Love Bird by FeltMeUpDesigns

Scheduling Your Blog Posts, Facebook Fan Page Updates and Tweets
There are a number of applications available that allow you to schedule your posts for later timepoints. I use HootSuite to manage my twitter account and am a huge fan- you can schedule facebook fan page posts and tweets for specific times, as well as using it for normal twittery activities. A google search should bring up services similar to this (just make sure they are reputable before using them).
For blog posts, you can actually schedule blog posts in advance from within blogger itself. Down the bottom of the post you're writing there's a 'Post Options' link that allows you to set the time and date for publication of your blog post- just pick a time and click 'publish'. Make sure your blog timing settings are correct (settings-formatting in blogger).



Late Rabbit Alice in Wonderland Decal by WilsonGraphics

Keep an Eye on the Time
One tricky part of this (if you are lazy if you have your mind on other important matters like I do) is calculating what time it is in other parts of the world. An easy way to convert the current time and future times is to use this Time Zone Converter. Alternatively, you could add a 'world clocks' widget to your google homepage, which would be particularly handy if you want to track times in more than one location. One more option that is even easier is to adjust your HootSuite and blogger settings so that the time is set to Etsy time (NY time)- obviously in the case of your blog you need to consider whether your audience is local or international if your posts display a time stamp.



Geared Up Suspension
Steampunk Filigree and Watch Movement Necklace by Bellalili

Additional Tip
To help you plan and evaluate the effectiveness of any changes you make in terms of scheduling your promotion, you can track which times of day are best in terms of visits to your Etsy store. To see when people are visiting your store, click on the 'Visitors' tab on the left within google analytics, then click on 'Visitor Trending'. Next, click on 'Visits' and change the time displayed from daily to hourly (there's a little clock icon above the displayed graph). This will tell you when people are visiting your shop.




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