Are you turning your Facebook customers OFF with your postings? We talked about this in yesterday’s post. The article we were looking at is 5 No-No’s from Vertical Response.

But you know me. Little Miss Sunshine.

I believe in Yes-yes’s, so here are 5 ways that consignment, resale, and thrift shopkeepers could make better use of their time on Facebook and other social media.

Yes. Share.  Follow your neighboring businesses, and if you see something that would appeal to your clientele, share it. You’d tell a customer in your shop that the potato soup at the cafe down the block is great, wouldn’t you? So when they post their daily specials on FB, simply hit the “share” button. Share resale-specific things that show up on your timeline as well, whether it’s a cute Pin from a shop across the country or a care tip, a reason to shop, a resale-specific recycling idea. And ask your staffers to, too. It’s their paycheck on the line!

Yes. Motivate THEM to share. Can you imagine if each of your followers told 4 friends, who told 4 friends… and even just SOME of them came shopping? But you have to post something worth sharing, like this NFP does.

Yes. Brand your photos. If they’re good enough to show your 200 or 2000 Facebook likes, they deserve a watermark reminding friends and strangers about your shop. Spend an hour or two learning to do watermarks on your photos, by whatever means suits your use of devices and social media, and USE it. Once you have it set up, it takes seconds to actually turn a photo into an ad.

Yes. Participate in conversations in a gracious and professional way. You’ve all seen my not-no-Little-Miss-Sunshine posts on bad conversations. Like the shop which posts a curt “No” when her customers, folks who are already inclined to shop there, ask a question. I’d love to see resalers develop answers like this one. Heck, prepare them ahead of time when you’re feeling all warm and cuddly, so when your last nerve is fraying… no one would guess. Nothing much to say?  Start a conversation.

Yes. Think twice. Status updates, any written words actually, come across differently than the spoken word. Like these oops-a-daisies by real shops on Facebook.

If you rely on Facebook to get your shop noticed, become an expert on Facebook usage. There’s scads on this blog about Facebook (just use the search box in the upper right here), and believe me, eons of stuff on the Internet that will

make your shop a Facebook STAR!!