Social Media | Wazala

Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Promoting Your Facebook Store

March 30th, 2012

Getting the word out about your Facebook store, or offers and specials you’re having is pretty easy! We promise that once you read through this, you’ll know what we mean by EASY!

Link to Your Facebook Store

Once you’ve added the store to Facebook, and positioned the store tab well for fans to see, you can link to your Facebook store from anywhere. This can be a post in Facebook to announce it, or even a newsletter or email you’re sending out. Your Facebook store URL would be as follows: https://www.facebook.com/Wazala/app_147605761926866 – Just replace the page name Wazala, with your own page name as it appears in your own Facebook URL.

Facebook Specific Offers

So let’s say you want to offer your Facebook fans a coupon code to entice them to buy. The Wazala’s social promoter engine, can help you get the word out. Whenever you add something newsworthy to your store, like a coupon code or place a product on sale, Wazala reminds you to post this on Facebook and/or Twitter. It will provide you with suggestions for your post that you can edit to your liking, and with a single click, this post can be posted to your Facebook page without you ever logging into Facebook! Go ahead try it, we know you’d love it and your fans would appreciate the love.

Happy Facebook Selling!

Setting Up Your Facebook Store

March 20th, 2012

Creating a Wazala store is easy, and when you’re done you should add your own store to your Facebook page. Just in case you’re not sure why here are some of the Great features of the Wazala Facebook Store.

Why Wazala to Sell on Facebook?

•    Customers are not directed elsewhere to pay or complete a purchase. The entire process can take place within the Facebook Page.
•    Customers can share what they bought with their friends, without authorizing a Facebook app, giving the store-owner (You), a brand advocate on Facebook.
•    With the Wazala Social Promoter (think of it as your own marketing guru), your news is automatically published out to the social sphere with a single click. Never forget to market out again!
•    Sell both shippable products and secure digital content, even preview audio before a purchase. Great for musicians to sell directly to their fans on Facebook.
•    Any changes you make to your store, like adding products, placing a product on sale, tweaking a description (really anything) will be automatically changed on your Facebook store as well!
•    It’s FREE! And it’s available in the FREE Wazala plan!

How to add your store to your Facebook Page

Now that we covered the why’s, here is how to add the store to your Facebook page and sell on Facebook directly.

Grab your unique Wazala key, and copy it to your clipboard. This can be found under the Facebook section in the “Account” tab, within the Wazala Store Manager.
Login to Facebook, and go to https://apps.facebook.com/wazalastore/. This will take you to the Wazala App page within Facebook.
Once on the Wazala application page in Facebook, you need to authorize the app.
Next you will need to add it to a page. Facebook will ask you to select a page to add it to, especially if you have several pages you admin. Select the page, and you will be automatically directed to your page.
Once on your page will see the Wazala tab within your tab section. Simply click on the tab and a new page will open up. Your next step is to paste your Wazala Store key. Once you do this, your store will appear.

That’s it! A simple copy and paste and you’re selling of Facebook!

NOTE: Like visuals? Checkout our step by step guide here: http://www.wazala.com/start/help/wazala-store-on-facebook/

Promoting Your New Product

March 14th, 2012

Got a new product in your online store? Hooray! New things are always exciting, but the tough part is getting your customers excited as you are. There are many steps you can take to ensure that your product launch is a successful one, and we hope these would help.

Have a Goal in Mind
What are you trying to accomplish? Coming up with a promotional directive is a great way to lay the foundation for your promotional campaign. Do you have a set inventory and wish to reach a certain amount of sales? Maybe your new product open doors to attract a new customer base? Or are you trying to up-sell, or get previous customers to come back for more. Setting an ambitious but realistic goal will help you to hone your promotional tactics and measure the campaign’s success more efficiently. If your goals are usually similar from launch to launch, the results of these campaign can be A/B tested against one another to hopefully give insight on which tactics work best for your products.

Get a Good Mix
Every product launch should involve a familiar mix of tools, such as newsletters, press releases, social media marketing, and even paid advertisements. Making sure to utilize all these venues can help increase your sales. In addition to using your go-to means of communication, you should also try to add something new into the marketing mix, be it a guest blog, a YouTube video, or even a Pinterest post. Try as many new avenues as you can. It can’t hurt, and might prove to be extremely rewarding if utilized effectively.

A Fresh Product Description
No one wants to buy something that sounds boring. So make sure to add some spice to your descriptions, and add cool images that really make the product pop. Checkout our earlier posts on writing killer product descriptions, and showcasing your product pictures well.

Facebook Contests
Facebook contests are a great way to get people involved and excited about a new product. Have people upload photos, videos, or post on your wall. Get creative! The prize doesn’t have to be huge; maybe the winner will get your new product for free. In order to enter the contest, each person should have to like your page, which will gain you fans and raise awareness about your brand and the contest. Offer everyone who enters the contest a discount on your new product, which will in turn give them more incentive to buy.

Feature It
A simple tweak to your website home page to feature your new product can definitely help. Place it on top and make sure to state that it is available for sale. You can also create a new category in your store as “NEW ARRIVALS” and add it there. New and returning customers like to see that you’re constantly adding new goods for sale. This tweak can also help in attracting a new audience, especially if you’re product is unlike anything you usually sell.

These are just a few of the many options available to you when promoting a new product. Just find out what works for you, and run with it!

Happy Selling!

Musicians This One Is For You!

February 1st, 2012

We’re happy to announce the release of SoundCloud integration within Wazala! This integration allows you to set up a music shop with a few clicks, and grab music you wish to offer for sale, from SoundCloud into your Wazala store. We feel many musicians already using SoundCloud will benefit from the easy upload and set up of their music for sale. Not having to go through the creations of separate products, waiting for loading time and doing it over and over again.

The process is quite simple. In the Product tab, you will find the option of importing your tracks from SoundCloud, Once you click on that, an authorization page appears and you need to login into SoundCloud.

Once you allow Wazala access, your tracks will be listed. Here you can choose which tracks to import, state the price and if you wish to activate them for sale. Wazala can also import the genres as categories.

The import will start once you confirm. Depending on the size of your files, this should not take long. Once the import is complete click on Done, and you will be able to see your tracks listed as products for sale.

Customers will as usual, be able to preview the song, and once purchased the delivery is automated and secure through a masked Wazala URL.

It’s that simple, it’s quick and the best thing you can make money selling your music! Rock on!

Using Twitter as a Support Desk of Sorts

November 9th, 2011

Twitter users love to do two things most: gossip and air their complaints. More and more, people are are logging on to twitter every day to engage brands. This is really cool because it provides an open forum in which conversations can happen about your products. But what do you do if someone complains about your brand in a tweet? How do you respond? Do you respond at all?

The answer to this is actually pretty straightforward. Yes, you should try your very darndest to respond all the time, and you should respond in an extremely helpful manner. Most people expect you to respond, and if you don’t then you’re not meeting their expectations, and that’s just horribly unprofessional of you. According to Maritz Research, (some big customer experience research company), people view Brands who respond to tweeted complaints very positively. People are surprised and delighted to know that there is actually someone on the other side listening, someone that represents your brand who is concerned about their concerns.

And you should be genuinely concerned. Or at the very least, act concerned. These are your customers, and this is a public arena. All eyes are on you. We believe you should always try to be kind and understanding towards your clients, but even if you can’t stand your customers, your brands twitter page is not the place to show your true colors. Your business is your baby, and responding to a tweet that says “your products suck” with an expletive laden rant that mentions Ghandi and a Porto-potty in the same sentence won’t win you any points (unless it’s really, really funny!). Be the bigger man. Or at least direct them to customer support where your exchange will be (slightly) more private. Just remember, the customer is always right, especially on twitter. So treat them as such, and you may get a few treats in return. On a side note, we have a bunch of left over candy from a productive Halloween night that we’re looking to sell in bulk/trade for the 6th Harry Potter DVD. Hit up Wazala on twitter if you’re interested PEACE.

F-Commerce – Selling on Facebook

October 27th, 2011

We all knew it was only a matter of time. Facebook and ecommerce locked eyes, and it was love at first at sight. A whirlwind romance ensued, followed by an Elvis themed Vegas wedding. Not long after a romantic honeymoon spent almost entirely under the sheets, the happy couple welcomed a child, a darling baby they named fcommerce.

Though still in its infancy, fcommerce has the shown potential to change the way we buy things, the way we shop, and the way we use social media. Consumers can now buy things directly from a Facebook page, share their purchase with their friends, and see what their friends are buying. They can take advantage of special Facebook promotions just for fans of products, and even get deals when they “Check In” to retailers physical location. It has positioned itself as a convenient place to buy for 600+ million Facebook users. That’s a lot of potential. But how do you, a seller, utilize this potential effectively? While there’s no one way to the the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, here are a few choice routes to get you on your way.

The biggest advantage for selling on Facebook, is that you’re integrating your store into a thriving community. So use your words. You want your page to be a place people flock to, like a Taco Bell after the bars close. To do this, you need give people incentive to visit and stay on your page. The easiest and least costly way to do this is to put out interesting and amusing content. Post links that you find interesting, that you would want to read. It doesn’t necessarily have to be directly related to your store. You just have to use discretion. That really funny video of babies dancing? Post it. Heartwarming marriage proposal? Post it. Drunk high school girls knife fighting during morning assembly? Probably not. Its okay to be a little edgy, just don’t go roaring off the cliff.

After you’ve gotten the hang of finding interesting links, you should start initiating conversations on your page. Pose a question that you think will open up a debate. The more activity on your page, the better. You could even post a link, then ask a question relevant to that link. For instance, if you posted a link about a cool new tablet computer, you could ask “Do you think it stands a chance against the iPad?” Post your answers below”. Sometimes people will respond, sometimes they won’t; its a numbers game. If they do, keep them engaged by posting follow up questions and acknowledging their points.

Offering promotions and contests exclusively to your Facebook fans is a sure-fire way to draw people to your page. People love free stuff like a fat kid loves cake. If you offer something exclusively to your Facebook fans, your fans will feel like they are in on some sort of secret.

So now your getting some traffic on your Facebook page. How do you convert that traffic into mucho mulah? That’s where Wazala comes in. Wazala has a powerhouse shopping cart widget that you can embed directly into your fan page, allowing you to sell anything from your Wazala store right on Facebook. It looks great, smells great, and is absolutely amazing in bed (or so I’ve heard). Plus, its crazy easy to use, both for the seller and the consumer, so once everyone is hanging out on your page, they will be able to buy your products without issue. Wazala makes you money, and saves you time, so you can get back to your true calling: making it rain at the club!!!!.

To check out an example of the Wazala Facebook store, checkout the demo store here:

http://www.facebook.com/Wazala?sk=app_147605761926866

Creating An Online Holiday Pop Up Store

October 23rd, 2011

With the Holiday season just around the corner, more businesses are catching onto the idea of a Holiday Pop Up Shop. These little businesses open around the Holidays spreading their marketing hard, then simply disappearing once the season is over. Halloween shops are found in strip malls, while Christmas gifts and gift wrapping businesses take advantage of this in small mall carts and little huts. They pop up out of nowhere, make a quick profit during the holidays then close shop.

Lately the same idea is becoming popular online. Ecommerce sites, and businesses are also taking advantage of this by creating limited time holiday pop up stores for specific merchandise of the season, or even marketing there goods as featured gift ideas in a separate Holiday store.

Thinking of creating one this season? Well Wazala would be a perfect fit!

Easiest Holiday Ecommerce Setup
The simple and easy to use store manager of Wazala allows you to add products easily for sale. Whether you wish to offer digital products with digital delivery or shippable products, it is effortless to create a product, upload a few pictures, set shipping rates (as well as express shipping to meet the holiday deadline) and list your products for sale. We truly mean it when we say easy!

Spread The Joy Of Shopping
A quick way to market your new store is to publish it on your site immediately. Wazala’s viral features allows you to add your store to multiple websites, social profiles and especially Facebook for added marketing and sales push. You can create the store with the true functionality of a pop up light box. The Wazala red button, looks great with a Christmas theme (you can also create your own), and you can customize it to be clear with a title of “Holiday Gifts”. Add it to your Holiday specials page on your website, as well as our Facebook business page for a fully functional Facebook store, and you’re ready to take orders anywhere your customer is.

Holiday Discounts & Special Offers
Coupons, sales and special discounts are also easy to create with Wazala. Your ecommerce platform comes pre-configured to give out discount codes on specific products or store wide deals, and customers are always on the look out to save more during the Holidays. Place your on sale products in a category, offer coupon codes on social networks or for returning customers via email marketing. A proven way to close deals is to also offer free shipping, or at least discounted shipping. While some care to get their shipment on a discount, many also look for express shipping that you can set up with Wazala for an extra fee that your customer can pay.

Socially Drive Your Pop Up Store
The purpose is to attract those looking for deals and special promotions, and using the Wazala social promoter with discount codes, this time of year would prove helpful in gaining new customers. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter can be configured to your Wazala store to post out your special deals, Holiday products and shipping rates. With a simple password configuration, you will be ready to ring those bells and shout out your offerings.

With only a few weeks left for the Holidays starting early is important. Many try to finish their shopping early enough to relax and enjoy the season, while marketing may take time to work, putting in your efforts early will prove big. A big tip we hope you would take advantage of is to send out a coupon code to all your customers, allow them to redeem and also send it out to a friend.

Share a little this Holiday season and reap the rewards on the New Year.

Interview – The Cutest Alternative Kids Wear

October 10th, 2011

When Julia’s daughter Alicia was born in September 2007, she found the choices of children clothing to be disappointing. Colors were pastels and all the brands that claim to be ‘alternative’ only consisted of slogan t-shirts and vests. There wasn’t a pretty dress in sight! Thus Alternatots was born.

We caught up with Julia to discuss opening her handmade children’s line last week and wanted to share it with you.

Can you describe your design process? What inspires you to create a new design?

I have always loved fabric and creating things, and after spending my childhood dressing my dolls I decided the next step would be to go to Fashion College. After a degree at the London College of Fashion in Textile and Print Design, I worked for some clothing companies specializing in punk, rockabilly and gothic style clothing.
My brain is always full of new designs and sometimes I just don’t get time to make everything. A new design can sometimes come to me when I look around my crowded sewing room and catch sight of a piece of fabric that I haven’t used yet. The only thing I am short on is time to make it all! I sometimes crave a break in orders just so i can get some new items out there.

Since your products are made to order do you collaborate with your customers to create something custom?

I am always open to work with customers on special items and I think that is why they like using me. Sometimes I will search out a new fabric especially for them as I get a lot of requests for special occasion outfits and dresses.

We see you’re constantly active in social media, how do you feel this affects the visibility of your online store and sales?

It is very important for me to be active on social media as i think customers like to feel they are dealing with a real person. Using my Facebook fan page has been by far the most valuable tool for my business. It gives me a personal approach for working with my customers, and I have a lot of special repeat customers through this and it also gives me a quick and easy way to showcase new items.

Any new items to look forward to?

I am looking forward to Halloween and Christmas this year as they are the most exciting times to be selling, however I will have to slow down slightly as i am expecting my second ‘Alternatot’ baby this Christmas so if anyone wants to get their orders in then the sooner the better!

Checkout the cute little outfits found on Juli’s website @ www.alternatots.com

Selling Your Music Online

September 5th, 2011

If your reading this, you’re probably a musician, a band manager, or something in between, and you want to make money selling music online. This article will give you a few ideas on how to make that happen.
The first thing you have to know about selling your music online is that its VERY COMPETITIVE and you need to be vocally smarter not loader!
Ready to put some BASS into your sales? Read on..

Be Everywhere
Don’t be shy. If you want to actually sell your songs online, your going to have to get your butt out of your cozy cocoon of solitude and become an annoyingly social butterfly. Sign up for every music service, forum and blog in existence. Create awesome profiles with pictures of your band in badass poses. If the regular band profile is a shy, acne ridden nerd sulking in the back of class, your profile should be the popular jock with a heart of gold and perfect SAT scores. Not every profile you make is going to be a home run. Some of them will get no attention whatsoever. The key is to be in front of every pitch, swinging like a freaking madman.

Make It Easy to Find
There’s no point being crazy cool if people have no clue where to go to witness your awesomeness. In order to make your presence known, you should tag your music with specific keywords that are relevant to the music your putting out. Just to give an example, my brother is in a band. I would best describe what him and his band “play” as a highly delicate mix of jazz fusion, electro-acoustic pop, and horrifyingly awful garbage. So if he wanted to make sure that people found his music (I don’t know why he would), he would tag his music with the words “indie, jazz fusion, electro acoustic pop, horrifyingly, awful, garbage. That way, if someone was in the mood to take a dive into the musical equivalent of a dumpster, the incomprehensible heap of noise that his band calls music would be right there to aptly accommodate them. (sorry brother!)

Sell Anywhere
So your a pretty big deal, and easier to find than an senior citizen in miami. Now its time to start printing the money. Wazala and the Benjamins go way back, and we’re always down to arrange an introduction. We make it scary easy to start selling your music online, so that making bank doesn’t make you crazy. Another great feature that makes Wazala so incredibly amazing is that it allows you embed your store everywhere. Your Facebook, your blogs, your tumblr, your website, your mom’s website, it doesn’t matter. Long story short, anywhere you show your “I live to rock” mug, people will be able to buy your “I live to rock” mugs.

Stay Social
Talk with your fans. Engage them. Let them know whats going on with your band. This goes hand in hand in hand with being everywhere. A social media presence online is imperative in spreading the word about your band, as well as retaining fans and keeping them informed. Basically, people expect to hear from you. With Wazala’s social promoter, this is a breeze. The social promoter recommends and publishes messages to your twitter and facebook account, making it much more simple and efficient

Offer Something Different
Don’t be boring. Offer more than just music. Selling your merch is a great way to make extra money and raise awareness about your band. You can sell posters, CD covers, t-shirts, unreleased songs, tickets to shows…..the list goes on and on. You could also sell signed merch for your hardcore supporters. Wazala allows makes selling all these things easy. You can also sell the physical version of your album, in addition to the digital version.

Cut The Middle Man
Cut out the middle man! Make sure that everything you sell is revenue to you! Wazala does not take a transaction fee. Just a minimum subscription, & there is also a free store where you can sell up to five products to start with until you can afford more.

Show Your Best
Make great music. Music that gets a reaction. When it comes down to it, if your music isn’t good, no amount of marketing is going to be able to sell it. Remember you may only get one chance to make an impression on a listener, so you better make it count.

Using Twitter to Market Your Online Store

August 18th, 2011

A Twitter presence for a business can vary based on your goals. As an online business, your main focus should be acquiring new customers, supporting those you captured and building upon your brand’s image.
Today we will discuss the available resources Twitter offers to boost your online sales, keeping your followers happy and develop a good strategy to follow through.
Know Your Keywords
Twitter allows you to search tweets using any keyword. Your customers are probably searching for your product, but may simply be using a different word, than what you normally use. Take the time and search through Twitter for your common keywords and make a list of those terms. Compile different tweets using these keywords and start testing. It may take time to see results, but in the long run, you will find that your exposure relies on a certain few.
Hashtags play a role here as well. The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. This became an easier way to categorize a tweet, and clicking on a hashtag shows you more tweets in this category. Let’s say you’re having a sale on your overstocked t-shirts. Tweeting out the message “Big #sale on our awesome #tshirt” will boost your chances in getting seen.

Tip: Always link when tweeting out a message with a call to action. Simply stating you’re having a sale, and not providing a direct link to your store is a poor strategy.

Spread Out Your Tweets
No one wants to follow a spammer. Even if your tweets have beneficial content, tweeting out a handful at once clogs your followers stream, and they are more likely to unfollow. Use a tool like Hootsuite (our favorite and has great analytics) to schedule your tweets. This also allows you to capture your audience at different times of the day.
Make sure to tweet out engaging and relevant content to your audience between your marketing tweets, so you’re not just broadcasting noise.

Tip: Remember international customers are on a different time zone, so if you’re targeting them, making sure your tweeting when they are online.

Start A Conversation
You’ll see this stated in every article, blog or Twitter strategy ever written. Sure it’s easy to say, but staying engaged is hard. You do need to put in the effort to interact and converse. Reply back to a tweet you found interesting, re-tweet it with a nice message or simply ask a question. Think of what would make you happy. If someone re-tweeted you with a nice message or replied back, you’d be thrilled for this positive response and engage back. Go ahead give a try, karma is usually on your side here.

Tip: Use the @ symbol when mentioning someone or another product even if it was not directed to them. this increases your chances of being heard and shows trustworthiness. Eg: “@PotentialCustomer We ship next day through @FedEx to be sure your shipment gets there on time.”

Listen In On Your Competitors
Twitter gives you the power to stay in the know and ahead of your competitors. Create a competitor list, using Twitter Lists and listen in on their conversations. Learning from what others are doing can give you ideas on capturing new leads and keeping your customers happy. Learning from others mistakes allows you to jump a step ahead.

Tip: You don’t have to follow them to do this, just make sure the list you create is private so your not being obvious!

Stay Active
Our best advice is to stay active and present. Long absences or reply time shows poor support. Keep tweeting and reply back quickly. Never ignore negative remarks and handle them with grace and kindness. You never know who is listening, and even if your customer leaves unhappy, you at least did your best to help, and others can see that. A good way to stay in the know, is to to activate Twitter emails, or use a phone app to get notified.

Tip: Wazala’s social promoter, helps you remember to tweet out announcements based on actions you take in your store. Added a new coupon code? Simply tweet it out with a click.

Twitter can truly broaden your reach. Just start slowly and learn the basics. Once you dive in, you’re sure to stumble upon inspirational ideas to better your business. Just remember to share back and engage. Want to know more? Take a look at our promote page on more tips to market your online store.

Happy Tweeting and don’t forget to follow us for news, tips and promos!

Posts Tagged ‘social media’

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