Are you getting the traffic you want to your eBay store? Are you slowly watching your visitors dwindle? Or are you just wanting to take your store to a higher level? It might be time to consider using social media to drive more traffic to your eBay products. Here let me explain.

We are so used to Google’s relevance and even eBay’s relevance for that matter, that we stopped appreciating the impulse buyer. You know the type, something just catches their attention and on the spur of the moment, they buy it. I guess we all do that don’t we.

To put that in perspective, when you search Google you almost always get back what you were searching for, that’s the strength of Google. EBay is pretty much the same, if you are looking specifically for antique watches, that’s what your search gives you. But what about the impulse buyer buying something just because it caught their fancy right then and there?

The impulse buyer may have been looking for antique watches but up comes an antique crock pot from the 1800’s. Bang, they’re hooked because crocks was also one of their passions but they didn’t expect it to be displayed because they just weren’t looking for it on purpose. But there it is, with 2 days to go in the auction, guaranteed they will at least bookmark that auction item.

The point here is simple. With so much focus on the so called “relevance” factor we miss all the other fun stuff we’re also interested in. So what does one do? Actually the solution is quite simple. Catch people off guard by using the social media channels.

Example, I am browsing on Twitter and there it is, a tweet from someone about an 1800’s crock pot for sale on eBay. I wasn’t thinking vintage crock pot at the time, but that single tweet got my immediate attention. You can be sure that I will follow the link in the tweet to eBay and check out that old crock.

Using social media channels allows your message to just pop up in a variety of places. Just like traditional radio ads and newspaper ads or even billboards. They seem untargeted, but in reality, the message will always find the right person, because of the sheer magnitude of the social media audience.

If a message goes out to 10,000 people at once and there is only one 1800’s crock pot for sale, it only takes one percent of one percent of those 10,000 people to make a sale. And just so we’re straight, 1% of 1% of 10,000 people is 1 person. And that’s all you need to make a sale.

Social media will bring new sales, but just as important, it will also drive hundreds of new potential customers to your eBay store as well. Those visitors will browse all the other merchandise you have, and yes they too may be impulse buyers.

EBay is a huge site I agree, and they have millions of users but what if you could alert tens of thousands of people not in eBay mode at the moment, to check out your store? That’s the power of social media. When you thoroughly grasp social media, you actually stop using the media and instead, you become the media!

Even eBay, as big as it is, sits in isolation until you add social media to the mix. If you already have an established eBay store or active presence on eBay, all you probably need right now is the magic of social media to push you right over the top with new traffic.

Now, here’s your simple call to action: Be proactive when it comes to finding out all you can about making social media work for you! Take action, do it today, ask me a few questions .. the process has to start somewhere. Make it your mission to stop being busy, and instead be productive!

I still use Hotmail because I know I can access it everywhere I go. And yes, I also know it’s considered very “pedestrian”, but I trust it everywhere I travel.

Best Always,

Mike Perras, P.Mgr
mikeperras@hotmail.com

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After 30 years in traditional broadcast media I would like to share a few truths about article marketing as a viable marketing strategy.

Let me just cut to the chase here, Article Marketing is a very sound strategy! But without Social Media, there is very little sound. You see, article marketing alone can not work in isolation. It needs to be part of a bigger effort and that’s where social media comes in. Here, let me give you an example.

Think of traditional media for a minute. How often have you heard a promotion on radio then hear them refer to the ad in today’s paper for more details. Then while reading the paper with all the promotional details you notice something that says, be sure to listen to WABC radio weekday mornings for further clues, or this week’s contest winner.

You see how neither paper or radio promoted in isolation, they used each other’s strengths to work together to achieve a “bigger” result. That’s exactly what article marketing needs to do, work in conjunction with other social media to achieve the desired “bigger” result.

Let me frame this picture another way. Article marketing is just like posting an ad on the grocery store bulletin board. A few people will look at the ad and respond. What social media does is hand everyone who comes into the grocery store a flyer that invites them to check out the bulletin board. You can see how more people would focus on the bulletin board ad, just because it was brought to their attention.

Here’s the hard truth for any traditional media people, social media embraced today, will do what no traditional media can achieve. Social media reaches a true global audience like no other media can. For that reason alone, advertisers of every description are jumping on board. Those that think social media is just a fad, will be sadly left alone, dare I say it, in complete isolation.

While it’s true articles may have a long shelf life in the search engines. 100 reads per article per month, does little on it’s own to bring greater traffic flow to your website or blog. You could write 100 articles per month for a year, and then you would have something very significant.

Assuming your article has already been optimized for the proper keywords it will get found easily in the search engines, but what if there were a way to increase that 100 reads to thousands of reads every month instead?

Until you arrive at the “how to” make that happen, articles will sit in isolation, just like that lonely billboard you drive by on the highway every other week, or that ad that sits on the grocery store bulletin board.

It’s very simple, while articles will bring attention, you need to bring attention to the articles themselves. When you can turn your 100 article reads per month into thousands, then and only then are you using the social media to it’s fullest potential. When you do this properly you are no longer using the media, you have become the media!

I offer my clients a simple initial plan. We draft a social media strategy that puts their message out no less than 1,000 times per month. Each of the 1,000 messages is exposed to many thousands of potential customers. By comparison to any other form of media, there is simply no better return on your investment than using a proper social media strategy. It has global reach and works for you 24/7.

So whether you work in Investor Relations and looking to grow your subscriber base, or trying to sell an expensive waterfront property, or maybe getting the word out worldwide to university alumni, there is a social media application to fit your mission.

Now, here’s your simple call to action: Be proactive when it comes to finding out all you can about making social media work for you! Take action, do it today, ask me a few questions .. the process has to start somewhere. Make it your mission to stop being busy, and instead be productive!

Let’s take article marketing and or the use of social media to a new level. I still use Hotmail because I know I can access it everywhere I go. And yes, I also know it’s considered very “pedestrian”, but I trust it everywhere I travel.

Best Always,

Mike Perras, P.Mgr
mikeperras@hotmail.com

PS – In addition to my blogs, here are two sites with samples of my articles

- ezinearticles
- Seeking Alpha

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin at
http://twitter.com/mikeperras or
http://www.facebook.com/perrasmedia
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeperras

Besides Google and YouTube as the most powerful search engines on the planet, Twitter will continue to be a dominant force for it’s search capabilities. When you search Twitter properly, it has more power than Google, because a search of Twitter is essentially searching Twitter in real time. And real time search is hugely powerful. If you have never tried the Twitter search feature, I am sure you’ll bookmark it after just a few tries.

http://search.twitter.com/

Follow me on Twitter & Facebook at
http://twitter.com/mikeperras or
http://www.facebook.com/perrasmedia

If your goal is ranking well in Google you will need to fully grasp the power of Social Media. Doing that will allow you to grow your site or blog organically. Meaning, living long in the search engines at virtually zero cost. Let me share a few thoughts on this topic

http://how-to-rank-well-in-google.blogspot.com/

Follow me on Twitter & Facebook at
http://twitter.com/mikeperras or
http://www.facebook.com/perrasmedia