Terms of Engagement, Rules of Endearment

Custom Silhouette Couple Portrait by jennyleefowler

A question I dwell on: Can I engage my audience in a meaningful way? Since the rise of social media, business has become all about the conversations we have with one another. In the last several days, I have come across three very effective examples of successful engagement. Read it and reap.
tote by HautTotes

HautTotes uses Twitter to make sales in the wake of a widely tweeted giveaway.
Some of us would have settled for the resulting followers from such a stunt, but Mellissa had higher expectations and greater results.

Read her forum post on how she did it.

In light of her successful promotion, I have upped the ante on my current giveaway and am offering 2 patterns for the price of 1 to anyone who enters.

sheet of digital images by Piddix

Piddix is one of the top shops on Etsy.

Corinna details for us in this forum post how she answered the questions: Who are you? and How can I serve you?

I highly recommend her course of action. Personally, I am taking my time putting this one together. Now that I have a year of selling patterns under my belt, I want to hit the target with the questions I ask so it is more than a fishing expedition. I think Corinna used the information she gleaned very well. What a great example for us all.

If you sell high-end items, you may need to get creative in what you choose to giveaway.

This is where scoutie girl can help get the ideas flowing. Her giveaway is a couple of craft magazines, but she takes it beyond and engages the entrants by asking them to promote their own work in their entries. Tara knows her audience, Etsy sellers, and knows how to help them, promotion. I entered her giveaway and found myself promoted on her blog. Now she has another loyal reader (me) who will continue to engage in conversation with her on Facebook and on her blog. So while we tweet and facebook and blog, let us also engage and listen to our friends and follwers. It just happens to be good business.