Overview
This week we sit down with Tracey Lee Davis, founder of ZingPop Social Media. We talk about getting started on social media, maintaining social media, and growing your social media presence for your small business! Does her name sound familiar? She has spoken on stage at eBay Open 2017, 2018, and 2019! We’ll also have some Seller News.
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the #1 resource for the seller community across all platforms and hub for information on growing your business with List Perfectly. Find out more at thesellercommunitypodcast.com/podcast, leave a message or ask a question at https://anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@thesellercommunitypodcast.com.
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Episode 17 Links
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Transcript
Intro
Doug:
It’s funny. So the starting and the ending are always the hardest part. So how do you start with it’s like, “Hey guys!” Or, “Hey Liz.”
Liz:
Hey Doug!
Doug:
Hey Liz, how’s it going? Hey guys. Hey listeners. What’s up this week? You’ve had a busy week. Liz.
Liz:
I have had a busy week. You’ve had a busy week also.
Doug:
I’m not a multi panel webinar person like you are.
Liz:
So yeah, this week has been a little bit busy. I did a panel with List Perfectly on tags and hashtags, and I also got to do a List Perfectly demo with WorthPoint and Danna Crawford. And we had an awesome interview!
Doug:
We did, we did, and I listened to in on both of your panels. They were great.
Liz:
Thank you.
New Speaker:
I love hashtag words. And I’m growing to be more familiar with WorthPoint, the great resource that it is. I’d love that resource library that they have. And it’s got so much more than just a pricing tool and analytics, but that research library is awesome! And we’re going to learn more about it. And also like you said, we had Tracey Lee Davis on, and we talked about another of my favorite things, social media. I have an account everywhere. Even if I don’t use them.
Liz:
I have very limited accounts. What I have learned is I probably need to start from scratch. I’m just kidding. But, I probably need to take a better look at my social media for my business.
Doug:
What I love is you admitted this, that Tracey and I helped you build up your social media presence.
Liz:
Yes!
Doug:
The eBay Open 2018. You attended our fabulous social media workshops.
Liz:
The sold out, standing room, only social media workshops.
Doug:
Yes. Standing room, only. Word got out. But anyway, that’s very exciting. Hopefully there will be some tips in this episode where our listeners, if they need to grow their social media presences, they can do as well. You could also be a ‘Liz’. I don’t want to, I don’t want to put this out there, Liz, but I’m catching up to you on Instagram.
Liz:
I know I’ve been failing on Instagram lately.
Doug:
We’ll see the race is on. We’ve got to make some kind of bet or maybe we’ll let the listeners pick.
Liz:
Yeah. So I do want to put this out there. I haven’t posted on Instagram a whole lot lately, but I’m in there every day and there are, and I follow sellers. I may not like or comment, and I know that’s bad, but I do keep an eye on our seller community, and sellers amaze me with how much they’re doing, how much they’re branding. It’s not just what sold, they’re having conversations about more than selling. They’re growing and building their business. They’re making their own products. They’re shifting the way they’re selling and they’re sharing this with the community, and I think it’s absolutely amazing. I think I get onto Instagram and I just scroll so much and read that. I forget to post. I think that’s, what’s happening.
Doug:
You use these tools to build up what’s called a personal brand. So you put a little bit of a story behind your business, put a little bit of yourself into it because people don’t just want to see “here’s what I’m selling.” They want to learn more about you. They want to learn about your journey and you know, that’s part of what this is all about. But same thing is like, I love to see all the different stuff that sellers are putting out. You know, my Instagram feed is mostly seller stuff now. And just the stories, the stuff they’re putting out, the way they’re helping each other and you know, it’s just another great extension to the community.
Liz:
It really is. So, you need to get more personal stuff on there and you can talk more about your music and your movie love.
Doug:
Yes.
Liz:
I did, I went out of the box. I did one post with my dog. I’m telling you, Doug, my dog Kenai. She gets the love.
Doug:
That was a hit, see?
Liz:
She gets the love. Yes.
Doug:
Maybe my problem is it’s dogs are the secret not Doug’s.
Liz:
I think that’s what it is! (Laughs) Oh my goodness. So, this is episode 17 of the Seller Community Podcast. I am Liz.
Doug:
And I’m Doug. And this week we’ve got Tracey Lee Davis of Zing Pop Social Media. She’s going to come on and talk about social media, email marketing, and how you can use all the social media sites out there to help grow your selling business.
Liz:
And stay tuned after this amazing interview, because we do have some e-commerce news.
Doug:
It’s exciting! There was some big e-commerce news this week. But now Liz, we pause for a commercial break. The Seller Community Podcast is produced by List Perfectly every week for your enjoyment, and show notes are found at thesellercommunitypodcast.com/podcast. All right let’s get started with our featured guest, Tracey Lee Davis of Zing Pop Social Media.
Make Your Social Media Pop With ZingPop Social Media
Liz:
Tracey Lee Davis, founder of Zing Pop Social turns busy, small business owners into online marketing rock stars! A social media expert, and certified solution provider for constant contact, she coaches entrepreneurs in how to grow their business using social media and provides total management for their email marketing campaigns.
Doug:
Tracey Lee is also a featured speaker for associations and business groups. She is Alignable’s 2021 local business person of the year for San Jose, a certified content marketing strategist and the co-owner and vice president of the women’s networking Alliance. And she also really, really loves cheese.
Liz:
So, Tracey and I are going to get along very well. Welcome, Tracey!
Tracey:
Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here.
Liz:
So, Tracey, you’re used to interaction and coaching from a wide variety of small businesses. What’s your impressions of resellers or sellers as small business owners?
Tracey:
The clients who I spend the most of my time working with tend to be usually home-based service based businesses. And so I have gotten exposed to a lot more sellers because of my association with eBay, which is delightful. The thing that I feel is what I have noticed is a big difference between my service-based clients and my retail based clients is that the retail and resale folks aren’t as open. And again, this is my limited view, aren’t as open to sharing about themselves as much. And it’s more of, ‘these are my products, this is what I have to sell.’ Let’s focus on that as opposed to, Hey, there’s a real person behind these products. You know, I am curating these things and putting everything together, and there is a human being who is doing all this stuff and packing up your items that you’ve purchased. And so that, I think that’s one of the biggest differences between my service-based and the resale based folks.
Doug:
Why should resellers consider a social media presence?
Tracey:
Well, in this day and age, it is basically being somewhere on social media, is a necessity. If you are trying to sell things on the internet, then you need to be able to be found on the internet. So, of course you want to have a website and you want to have a presence on Google in general, but having a place where people can go and easily browse through your offerings, where they can learn more about you get some supplementary information to go with whatever you have on your website. It’s just a really good idea. Give people more of an opportunity to connect with you.
Liz:
That is everything that you’ve said up to this point, I can totally relate as the at-home single seller. It’s very hard to crack that shell. And when we talk about social media and home-based or reselling businesses, how should sellers’ market themselves? Like, I know you just touched on it a little bit, but should I be saying, this is my product, buy it. This is my product, buy it. I’m shy. Don’t worry about me. This is my product, buy it. Or should we just work at me? Or both?
Tracey:
I love that question. And here’s the way I feel about things. I’m going to preface this with a caveat that if you are doing something one way and you’re killing it and it’s going really well, then if I’m telling you to do something different, then pay no attention to me, because you clearly have a good system going. But if things aren’t going as well as you’d like, then I would say, perhaps listen to my advice. So, with that in mind, I think that, especially when you’re dealing with products, if you’re dealing with something that you don’t personally make, and so you know that, okay, this is a one of a kind or an exclusive thing that you can only get through me. If you’re selling, you know, shoes or handbags or whatever that you can buy anywhere or at a variety of other places, it’s not exclusive. Then I say, what’s setting you apart? You know, if you are selling the same thing that another company is selling, and if it’s the same item and it’s the same price, essentially, who cares, right? Well, it doesn’t matter who I’m buying from. It’s just, whatever’s most convenient. If you infuse your personality and you, your humanness into your online presence so I get to know you better, I’m going to be far more likely to shop with you because I like you. And so I want to buy that pair of shoes or that bag or that t-shirt or whatever from you, because I like you. And I think that that is a big missed opportunity for a lot of sellers that are selling non-exclusive products, because, you know, we want to connect. We want to feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves. And if you’re just one of 18 people who are selling the same thing, how are you going to stand out and stand apart?
Doug:
Building like a personal brand?
Tracey:
That’s right.
Doug:
So, we’ve been talking about sellers and your advice to sellers. So you’ve done a lot of this for eBay. So you’ve been on the eBay for Business podcast several times. Participated in three eBay Opens. So tell us about that, what you did and how that all came about?
Tracey:
Ooh. Okay. I’m so excited. All right. So, um, how this all came about is actually what I won Alignable small business storyteller of the year for San Jose for 2019, because of my story of how I got connected to eBay. So I am a score class instructor. So I’m, I’m in San Jose. So, the Silicon valley score, I have been teaching classes for them in marketing for social media email since November of 2015. So every month I teach a class for them because I have this relationship with them. There was this big event happening in downtown San Jose one year, well, four or five years ago at this point. And the guy who they had lined up to be a presenter about social media had to bail at the last second. And since score was helping put this event on, they brought me in, they’re like, “Hey, we had this last minute opening. We really need someone to present about social media. Are you available?” And I was like, “heck yes, I am!” And so, I got paired up with Audrey Tracy from eBay and a really nice gentleman who, I can’t remember what his name was, but at Kiva, they do the small business loans. And then I was talking about social media. So we did a joint presentation together and got to talking with Audrey and just clicked with her. She’s so much fun. And so then she reached out to me a few weeks or a month later asking if I would be interested in collaborating with eBay. And I was like, “uh, yeah, sure would! Thanks.” So, then that then led to me being invited to go to eBay Open the first year, which I went in 2017. That year I was part of the, there was a social media lab in the big general open vendor area. So I not only did a couple of presentations, but I hung out at some tables all day long and answered people’s questions about social media and marketing. So that was the first year. The second year that I went back, which was 2018, I got paired up with this one guy. His name is Doug.(Laughter) And we then did some joint presentations. We actually did five presentations over the course of two days, all about social media. And I would like to say that I believe every single one of those sessions were sold out, standing room only by the end of it because Doug and I make a great team. Even though I will fully admit that I was a bit reluctant to be paired with him at the beginning, because I didn’t realize how rad he was then, but I met him and I was like, “wait a minute. This dude is great.” So, that was second year. And then third year, which was 2019, that time I did, oh, I can’t remember what they were called, but there were little, like table topics, conversations that were happening in between other sessions. And they were again, back in that big open room with all of the vendors and everything. And I had some conversations about email marketing at that time. So it’s interesting that every year I’ve done something completely different and it was great. So yeah. Did three eBay Opens and I believe three podcasts episodes.
Doug:
Yes.
Liz:
Yeah. At that eBay Open 2018, I was one of the lucky souls that actually got a seat to listen to Tracey and Doug talk. So I met both of you at the same time on the stage. Pretty much you don’t know that we knew each other, but we knew each other. And I will say, I’m pretty sure my Instagram account got started right after that session. It didn’t get used for a year or awhile, but I did start a little bit of social media, and that really motivated me. There was so much information in that, that my brain was overwhelmed. And I’m so glad that I got to go back and watch some videos. One of my things that I walked away with was, I didn’t even realize there was as much social media as there actually is. What do you think is your best advice for small business owners? And I’m just going to say it, small business owners. I’m just going to say resellers, to get started on?. So, if somebody like me, that I don’t have any social media presence for my business, what would be a good way to start?
Tracey:
I love that question, too. You’re asking a bunch of good ones.
Liz:
I’ve been in this shoe before. I know! (laughs).
Tracey:
Yeah. So the, the big thing is, is that there are so many platforms out there. There are so many options and it can be incredibly overwhelming. So the big thing I would say is one, you do not need to be on every single platform out there. You don’t.
Liz:
Thank you!
Tracey:
You are welcome. I am giving you permission to only be one. And so then what I would say in regards to picking that one is, if you are equally not experienced with any social platforms, then I would say, find and figure out where your ideal target audience is going to be hanging out. So if you do your research, which you absolutely should do your research, if you do your research and you figure out, okay, great, my target market, they hang out on Pinterest. Then you want to start a Pinterest channel. If they hang out on Instagram, you’re going to go there, et cetera. Because that really ultimately, you need to be where your audience is. That just made me think of The Little Mermaid. You want to be where the people are, right? So you want to be in the place where you are most likely to get found by your ideal target audience. Now, if you already have a presence on a particular platform and you just really love it, like you love being on Facebook, or you love being on Instagram, even if you haven’t necessarily done your research, which you absolutely should still do. If you are on that platform and you’re comfortable with it and the idea of learning another whole platform seems overwhelming. Fantastic stick with that platform that, you know, because if something new is really difficult, you’re probably going to be less inclined to do it, to do whatever you need to do to learn how to use it. So, you want to make your life as easy as possible, stick with what you know, or if you have to learn something new, then you absolutely, I would say, start with wherever your ideal client hangs out.
Liz:
Which is why my Instagram stayed blank for a year. Cause I was so intimidated by it. I think that first year I grew like a hundred followers, which by any set of standards is not well for a business, hahaha.
Tracey:
Hey! But you got a hundred followers!
Liz:
But I got a hundred followers! So I know that every social media platform is different. Is there any blanket instructions or guidance to having somebody build their following on the platform that they choose?
Tracey:
It is absolutely acceptable to make money through social media! Promote yourself, sell stuff, rock on. You are in the business to make money. So don’t worry about that. I mean, obviously you can worry about that, but the big thing here is that you’re in the business to make money, but you don’t want to lose sight of the fact that social media is about being social. So many people treat their social media, like it’s a billboard and they’re just advertising stuff, as opposed to a platform that is supposed to be social, that is supposed to be something where you are engaging with people. And so many people are like, “you know, I’ve been on Facebook for years and I post stuff and I never get anything.” And then I go and I look at their page and this I’m sorry, realtors, but this happens all the time with realtors. They say “I’ve been posting all the time and I’m always active, but I never get anything.” And then I go in and look at their page and all they’re doing is listing their properties for sale and their open houses. That’s it open houses and their listings. Who cares? If I’m not actively looking for a house right this minute, and I already have a great relationship with that realtor and I know I want to use them, I could care less about the stuff that they’re posting and bringing it back into that, humanizing it and getting people to know you, you want to let your personality shine through so that you can really develop that relationship. So again, getting back to being social, it’s not just about pushing out all of your content. It’s about getting engagement back and giving it back to them. So you could be at the end of the day, laying on your couch, in your sweats, eating a bag of chips scrolling through Instagram. People don’t need to know that that’s what you’re doing when you’re responding to their comments and questions. As far as they’re concerned, you are at your desk wearing your suit and responding to people and very professional. But it makes people feel important when you engage back with them because you are a business, you’re a brand, you’re exciting and successful and amazing. Even if you don’t feel that way, you are a big deal to your audience. And so by not giving them the opportunity to interact with you like that, you’re missing really the whole point of social media. I mean, there absolutely are some people out there who get on social media specifically to be sold to the vast majority of people are not like that. I think that’s a big mindset shift for a lot of people who are business owners. You know, it’s not about us. It’s about our audience. It’s all about our audience and posting for them. And I think a lot of people lose sight of that.
Doug:
You mentioned laying on the couch in your sweats, eating chips, nobody knows what you’re wearing. So you do this zing pop in your PJ’s. Right? (laughter) You’re in your PJ’s. Tell us about that.
Tracey:
So I created a membership platform. I wanted to have a way that I could help more people who didn’t have the budget to work with me one-on-one. So I created this small group membership program. And I don’t exactly remember where my inspiration came from, but I meet on Friday mornings at 8:30. And so I call it Zen pop in your PJ’s. So you don’t have to get dressed if you don’t want, you can just be in your PJ’s. We meet on zoom, have your cup of coffee or tea or whatever you drink in the morning. And let’s just get to work and talk about marketing and for a while because people come and go and cycle out of the program, which is expected, totally fine. But for a while, I had a group of people who often would show up in their PJ’s, like I literally did all the time and do I still do. But they specifically would be wearing their robes one of my members, she had an M&M robe and she would always wear that. It was just so delightful. So zing pop in your PJ’s, that’s what that’s all about. I love it because everybody goes around and introduces themselves. They say who they are, where they’re from, what their big burning question of the week is. Then I just go around and answer everybody’s questions. It’s great.
Liz:
Can I ask my big burning question of the week? If I were to be in your group and in my PJ’s, is there some golden rule of you need to post every day, you need to post three times a day. Everything needs to be curated and on a purple background, or I don’t know. I just know some people that do it really well and none of them fit into the same box.
Tracey:
So there are, again, if what you’re doing is working really well for you keep doing it. But my suggestion is, if you have a smaller page, if you are under 10,000 followers on any platform, Pinterest is the exception. So I’m going to say like Facebook and Instagram, if you have under 10,000 followers posting, once a day is totally sufficient. And in fact, well, both Facebook and Instagram since they’re owned by the same company now are definitely more interested in the quality versus quantity of your posts. So, you know, if you’re a smaller page, don’t knock yourself out, trying to post four times a day, because it’s just not necessary. If you have a huge page and you have tons of followers and they’re really active and engaged, then give the people what they want and post more stuff. But for folks who are just starting out, if you are hearing people saying, oh, you got to post, you know, three times every day. And that’s just like, oh, I can never do that again. So I’m just not going to do anything. Don’t do that. Just once a day is totally fine. And honestly, if you don’t post every single day, it’s not going to be the end of the world, but what’s important is consistency, regardless of how frequently you’re posting. Be consistent about it. Because that absolutely is something that the algorithms like, that’s part of the whole algorithm, secret sauce on all of the different platforms out there is that they are aware of who is active and who is not. And basically if you’re posting consistently, you’re signaling to that platform, Hey, I’m taking this seriously playing the game. So you want to make sure that you’re showing up. If you’re not posting, then you’re not giving people the opportunity to interact with your content. If people aren’t interacting with your content, then the platforms like, well, who cares about these people? Nobody cares about their content. It’s not relevant. So then it’s just, nobody sees your content. So you have to post stuff so that people can engage with it. So that, that signals to the algorithm that your content is relevant so that it gets shared with more people like it’s this big, you know, grows on itself, but posting is the place to start. So you just have got to do it and be consistent. Now as far as curated, or if it’s original content or what have you, I am a big fan of having a mixture of both. So sharing original content, sharing curated content, because honestly I’ve got other stuff to do with my life, and so creating original pieces of content every single time I post just isn’t always feasible for me. So having a cache of great content that I can share from other sources not only makes my life easier, but it also showcases the fact that I’m paying attention to other things about my industry. I’m paying attention, I’m reading the blogs of other industry thought leaders. And I am sharing that with my audience, so they don’t have to go and collect that information themselves. So it makes me look more knowledgeable and it makes it easier for me to get content out because I don’t have to write all the blogs that I share. So there’s that.
Doug:
So, what’s the balance between doing it yourself, hiring somebody or doing a combo? How do you make that decision whether to hire somebody to manage it for you, or should you even do that?
Tracey:
I think that it really depends, on the social media manager that you find. And I will say this, and I will always back this up getting a good social media manager, most likely is not going to be cheap. I have had numerous conversations with people who were like, I want to have a social media manager. You know, I just don’t have time. I don’t want to do this. I just want someone else to do it for me. And I have someone who I recommend who I actually met at the first E-bay Open. And so her company does social media management and I have recommended her a number of times to people. You know, at one point I asked her just so that I’m not sending you a bunch of garbage referrals, what’s the minimum investment someone would need to be able to make in order for them to work with you. And for her it’s $800 a month. And so many people are like, oh! Oh no. I was going to pay like a hundred bucks a month. So like, well, good luck. If you can find someone that’s willing to post every day for a hundred dollars. And I’m sure it’s going to be crap. As a social media manager in order to do you, justice needs to understand your business. So that’s going to take time. It’s either going to take a lot of your time or it’s going to take a lot of their time. I think that there are plenty of really great social media managers out there, but you’re not just paying for their time. You’re paying for their expertise, all of the training that they’ve done, all of the learning that they’ve done, all of the mistakes that they’ve made and that they’ve learned for them. So it’s not just that hour of time. It’s the, all of the experience that they’ve had in the past. And so it’s like, oh, well, I can just do it myself. Yeah. You sure can. Is it going to be as good as someone who’s been doing this for years? So, you know, there’s that trade-off of course. And I think that a good social media manager is worth it. And a lot of the business owners who I work with, my ideal target generally don’t have the funds for that. And so that’s why I teach people how to do it themselves. Certainly if you get to the point where your business is really big and it’s booming, then it makes sense to have somebody else managing your social media, because you’ve got other stuff to do. Generally, if your business is going really well, you have the funds to hire a good social media manager.
Liz:
So for beginners, what is the one piece of advice to get started?
Tracey:
Just get started. Because so many people, especially when they’re first starting their business and they’re first getting aligned, they want everything to be perfect. And so they get really hung up like, oh, you know, my, my cover photo isn’t perfect. Or, oh, I need to tweak my little intro more, and it’s not exactly how I want it. And it, oh, I don’t like that. Or my website’s not done. Who cares? Just get started because if you wait for things to be perfect, you’re going to be waiting forever. The beauty of just getting started is that you don’t have any followers. And so nobody’s going to see if you’re messing up and you can fix it and learn from your mistakes and go on and just move on with your life. So just get started. I work with so many people who are just getting started, like one of my clients yesterday, we launched his Facebook page and it was just very exciting. And he was so nervous and he’d already done a lot of the work and it looked great! And we had a few things to tweak. Sure. But if he had published it without me there, it still would have been fine. But he was so nervous and it was very sweet and we got it launched, and his first post did really, really well. So you know, it’s, it’s just get started. People constantly are overthinking their social media. It’s not rocket science. You just need to get out there and start doing it.
Doug:
And when you do start up, so there’ll be some temptations out there. So what’s your opinion of some of these temptations, like buying followers, fake comments and reviews or things like that. A lot of people do it and they grow themselves.
Tracey:
Don’t do it because here’s the big thing, like, on Facebook, you absolutely can buy likes for your page. You know, I actually, you probably can do that on every single platform that has advertising available. Don’t do it. Because, what you want on your page having a million followers, sure. That’s great. It looks nice. It’s pretty, but it’s a vanity metric and it’s not a good indicator of the health of your page. I would so much rather have 100 people following me who are rabid fans and interacting with my content than a million people who don’t care about anything I post. At the 2018 eBay after one of our sessions, I don’t remember who he was, but someone came up to me and he was like, oh, you don’t really have a whole lot of followers on Instagram. It’s like, yeah, but all of those, you know, 900 people who I have all know me, they all like me and they interact with my stuff. I don’t care about having pumped up numbers, just so that it looks like, oh, you know, I’ve got 25,000, followers who cares. If they’re not interacting with me, don’t get caught up in those vanity metrics, regardless of what your business goal is, your social media goals should be engagement. Everything that you’re working towards should be getting actual, genuine, authentic engagement. So when you buy likes, those are people who the algorithm has indicated will most likely like a page, but they aren’t necessarily people who will like your content. So you’re not buying real fans. A much smarter way to go is instead of doing a campaign to buy likes is doing an engagement campaign. So if you’re going to be putting money behind something, get people to be interacting with the posts that you already have up. So on Facebook, for example, if you go into your ads account and you do an engagement campaign, so you are effectively boosting a post, but don’t do it from your page, do it from the ad side of things, because you have so much more that you can control and you can do an engagement campaign. And then that will get your post out through your targeting to the people that the algorithm also has a high likelihood of them interacting with your posts. Great. So they, they like it. They comment on it. Hopefully they even share it. But when people like your posts or when they react to your posts on Facebook, you can then invite those people to like your page. So you’re getting in front of your right audience. You are getting in front of people who are likely to engage. And since they’ve already engaged with your posts, by liking it or loving it or whatever, they’ve already interacted once. So then you invite them to like your page, then they do it, and then they continue in interacting with your content. So, so much more effective to put money into engagement rather than page likes.
Doug:
So it’s quality over quantity.
Tracey:
That is correct.
Liz:
For anybody listening right now, I follow you on social media. So I know different ones. I know what my favorite ones are, all of them, but where can sellers follow you to get a little bit of that free content and see what you’re doing for them to emulate?
Tracey:
I am on Facebook, Instagram, Alignable, LinkedIn, Twitter. And I actually just started a Pinterest account. But on all of those platforms, you can find me at Zing Pop Social. I try to make it really easy. That’s my website address. So Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, all of those things at Zing Pop Social, and you can find me. And I try to give out a lot of great tips, all sorts of different content on the different platforms, and just really try to be helpful where wherever I am showing up for people,
Doug:
What about TikTok Tracey Lee Davis?
Tracey:
It is a fun platform. And I really enjoy watching people’s videos. I personally do not have the bandwidth to learn another one for business purposes. Just like I was talking about at the very beginning that we don’t need to spread ourselves too thin and be on every single platform out there. I very much feel that way about TikTok. For me personally, I think it is a really awesome platform that has catapulted people into major stardom. And there’s a dentist. Have you heard about the dentist on Tik TOK? Like he, he was an early user and he, his business has increased, like, I don’t know the percentage, but it’s just like crazy exploded because he got on TikTok really early and started doing all of these fun videos. So it can be a really amazing platform. It’s just not one that I personally use. And that’s because I don’t have that many hours in the day.
Doug:
That’s kind of how I feel about clubhouse too. I love the concept and I’ve messed around there a little bit, but I don’t really have the time. But I mean, there’s a lot of potential there, there’s a ton of potential with TikTok and, you know, I think there’s a ton of potential with Snapchat too, but there’s only so much you can do.
Tracey:
Yeah. I’m actually, since Clubhouse just came out for Android and I have an Android, it just came out. I signed up. My very first thing that I ever did was listened to my brother-in-law, who is a professional pianist, Jeremy Wineglass. He’s down in LA and he had a, I don’t even know all the terminology yet. So he had thing, a Clubhouse thing, and he invited me to it. Cause I got a notification on my phone, which is what I’m looking at right now was like, okay, I clicked on the thing. And I started hearing him talking and he was like, oh, “Hey Sis.” And I was like, “What do I do?” It was, you know, it was a good reminder of the fact that when people are just starting using something it’s confusing and overwhelming, and I’m actually going to be on a Clubhouse thing. I need to learn the terminology, but next week I’m going to be doing an event on Clubhouse. And so I guess I better figure it out before then. I’ve been invited to be a panelist. And so we’ll see how that goes.
Doug:
I started following you the other day on Clubhouse.
Tracey:
Oh, well, I’m sure you’ve enjoyed all of the content that I put out.
Doug:
Well, maybe I’ll have to go to the panel next week, raise my hand so you can let me speak and ask you a question.
Tracey:
I don’t even know how that happens. It’s Leveraging Social Media, Creating Multi-platform Content with Pocket Suite. I guess we’ll be on the Pocket Suite Clubhouse. I don’t know anything. I just show up.
Doug:
I’m going to bring it back around to what Liz said. She asked you, you know, where can people find you? You know, what are the resources you have? And then you also do paid resources. So what’s some of the paid stuff that you offer?
Tracey:
Indeed, because I too enjoy making money for what I do. Again, everybody should be happy to make money doing something that they love. So I’m a social media coach. So I do a one-on-one or small group sessions, helping people learn how to do all of this stuff. So typically, the first appointment that I have with anybody, we’re doing a refresh on whatever platform that they, have, their choice. So let’s say we start off with Facebook. We’ll spend a session going through optimizing their page because I very strongly believe that no matter what platform you’re on, that platform needs to be optimized. It needs to be filled out completely. You need to have all of the bells and whistles on it. And there are so many things on Facebook that the average business owner has no idea that these things exist. So we go through update your Facebook page, get that all ship-shape. And then after that, we will work on really whatever the client needs the most, whatever they, they feel they need the most. If they don’t know what they need, then I will tell them what I think they need. But you know, there are people who are like, “Great. I really want to promote my events.” So we’ll work on event promotion, or I really want to work on building up my brand. Great. That’s what we’ll work on. But through all of this, I talk about, you know, what sort of content they should be posting. So I help them come up with campaigns to be sharing on their social channels. I help them just learn how to, how to do the posts, because there are a lot of things that you could do to optimize, to optimize a post that people don’t necessarily know they should be doing. So I help them with the mechanical side of the platform, as well as the content side of the platform. So that’s my social media coaching that I offer. I also offer email marketing management, and I’m happy to coach people on email as well. So, if you want me to go basically over all of that sort of same stuff that I do with social media, but with email, happy to do it. What I have found is that people hate email marketing even more than they hate social media and email is so important for small businesses and can be such a huge way to bring in revenue. So with that, I will get people set up with their accounts. I am a Constant Contact partner, so I always recommend Constant Contact. I think they are a fantastic company. They have along with email marketing they have landing pages, so you can have all of your funnels, they have surveys and events. And, now they have a really cool e-commerce platform that has all sorts of crazy automations on the backend. So you can send people emails based on things that they’ve clicked on. You know, so it’s, it’s crazy impressive. It’s, it’s a brand new product. You know, they have all of these automation tools, whether you’re the e-commerce pro or not, it’s an outstanding tool. So I will. And just like, people don’t know how to necessarily set up their Facebook pages. People don’t always know how to set up their email accounts. So I will get that all set up. Basically take you from not having anything to getting your first email out the door. So I’ll, I’ll set up the accounts, set up their lists, create a welcome email for them, so that when people use all of the various List Join tools that I create, they immediately get an email, welcoming them into their community. And then get that first email out. And now my intention with my jumpstart is that once I’m done, my clients will be in a position where they can just copy the campaign, change out the content. And they’re good to go. But often after I do a jumpstart for people like three or four months down the line, they’re like, “Hey, I haven’t sent a single email since you send that. So could you do that for me?” I got you. Yeah. So I will set up their account and I will manage it for them ongoing going forward and, and I love doing it. I have so much fun. I really enjoy creating emails and I recognize that that’s weird. And so many people hate it, but that’s the great thing is that you find someone who loves to do the thing that you hate and you pay them to do it so that it’s taken off of your plate and you don’t have to worry about it. And so those are my, yeah, those are my, my main offerings. I mean, there are, I have done a variety of little odds and ends for people, but those are social media, coaching, email, marketing management. That’s my, my stuff. I have some digital products that, you know, eBooks and planners and I have some courses, but they’re all around social media and email and that’s what I offer.
Liz:
So my next question will be about that Local Women’s Networking Alliance, but you’re like co-founder or president, right?
Tracey:
I am the co-owner and vice-president so Women’s Networking Alliance actually started 14 years ago this month. So, June, 2007 and was launched by a woman named Debbie Quintana. And she used to live in San Jose now she lives in Arizona. And, so she started this up because she had gone to a bunch of networking events and was just really underwhelmed with the whole experience and she wanted something that was just more genuine and real, you know, instead of this, “Oh, hey, I’m at a networking event. Here are my business cards, you know, here, here you want to buy my thing.” So this is a much more, it’s small groups. So I joined in November of 2013. So I have been a member for whatever that is seven years at this point. And so I joined right before I started my business and I, my very first client was a member of WNA. She was in my chapter. So that was really exciting, like a good little boost of getting my business started. And between doing presentations and being a part of Women’s Networking Alliance, this has made the biggest difference in my business. And I have, I have grown so much because of it. So I cannot more strongly recommend that people find a networking group to join that focuses building relationships. So at this point, WNA, we have 12 chapters. Most of them are in, let’s see, nine of them are in the Bay Area. So from Oakland down to Morgan Hill, and then we have two chapters in Arizona, in the greater Phoenix area, the West Valley area. And then we have a virtual chapter. So if there’s some woman out there who wants to be in a networking group, come join our virtual chapter. Yeah. It’s just been, it’s been so fabulous and I’ve met so many wonderful people and not just people using my services, but I mean, my massage therapist, my chiropractor, my bookkeeper, my accountant, like everybody, if I need a service, I go to someone in the Women’s Networking Alliance first. I will always work with those folks first and I’ve just made so many good friends.
Tracey:
Like some of my dearest, closest friends are people who I have met through WNA because when you are a small business owner, especially if you are a home-based sole proprietor, I don’t have peers that I can go and, you know, talk at the water cooler and catch up on stuff going on in the day. So being able to meet with these folks every three weeks, and again, there’s small groups, so, you know, no more than 20 or so people, depending on the size of the meeting area, of course, everything’s online right now. But you know, I go in and meet with them every three weeks. And so as a brand new business owner, it was so valuable to me because I got to talk to this room of all of these amazing fierce business owners. Who’d already done all this stuff. And so I could ask them questions. And then for me coming from my background of, you know, I was the director of operations for a small business, that we had three locations. So we had three locations, 50 staff, 10 contractors, thousands of clients. So I was able to bring that, to share with them and talk about, oh, payroll and you know, EDD stuff. And I know, so it’s great that we can support each other. We can educate each other and just have fun together. So, I can now more strongly recommend to people finding a great networking group to help build your business, because that’s going back to building relationships through social media. People want to work with people who they know like, and trust, getting to know people, regardless of whether it’s on through one social media or through networking or however, you’re building that relationship. And people will want to support you if they know you and you have something that they need. So don’t keep it from people, get out there.
Doug:
Just to get serious for a minute. You know, we don’t want to make you uncomfortable. You don’t have to answer this. We know you like cheese and nachos. So where did this cheese and nacho obsession come from?
Tracey:
I can’t say that I’ve always loved cheese because I’m pretty sure I was a very picky little thing when I was younger. I have always, as far as I can recall, I have always loved cheese and I’ve always loved nachos because back in the day, when I was little and picky, the only thing, I can’t believe this is the story I’m telling. The only thing that I would eat at Taco Bell was nachos. Like, like the little cup of sauce and the chips, not even like with the beans and tomatoes and stuff, just the sauce and the chips. So that was my gateway into nachos and cheese, I suppose. And now, oh, nachos are so good. Oh, I love them so much. And I’m probably going to Door Dash some tonight after this. And of course, Doug, you are my favorite person to eat nachos with.
Doug:
Well, you know, I’m sure we will nach again, one day maybe, maybe we can bring Liz.
Tracey:
Ooh, I love that idea.
Liz:
If I am worthy enough, I would love to have nachos with the two of you because I to love nachos. Please let me natcho with you, Tracey, this has been super fun and super informative. I know that our listeners are going to walk away from this episode, hitting their keyboard, getting on their phone and upping their social media game. Would you like to add anything before we close out this interview?
Tracey:
Nope.
Doug:
Nope. I’ve covered everything.
Tracey:
Well, basically I love helping small business owners figure all this stuff out. I get that it is confusing. It’s overwhelming stuff, changes all the time. So if you need help, if you’re struggling, I would be delighted to help you. So again, I do, I do one-on-one coaching and I have my membership. So if you don’t think that you can make the one-on-one coaching work with me, my group membership, you get four hours of my time, every month for a hundred bucks. So that’s a pretty darn good deal. And I also have a free level of my membership. So basically like if you need help, reach out to me, we can do a discovery session. See if I actually can help you because I’m very honest with people. If I feel like I can’t help them, I’m not going to string them along. The great thing about doing what I do and the fact that I’m in Women’s Networking Alliance is I have a ton of great connections to people. So if I can’t help you, I most likely know someone who can, but my, my big passion is helping people figure this stuff out. So that’s what I’d like to say.
Doug:
All right. And you can find Tracey at zingpopsocial.com, social media and email help, eBooks and on-demand videos, group memberships, live events, free stuff. Cool videos, email newsletters, all that. So thanks.
Tracey:
Thank you. This was a delight. It was fun.
Seller News
Doug:
All right, Liz. And now the news. Big news this week, a couple interesting partnerships to talk about, and then some other stuff. So, Etsy bought, or they will buy Depop for $1.6 billion dollars. Billion Liz! That’s a lot of money!
Liz:
Crazy!
Doug:
And I don’t sell on Depop, but you do?
Liz:
I have some listings on Depop.
Doug:
Listings on Depop, okay. And so Depop’s got 30 million registered users across 150 countries, and they’re based in London. So, they’re English and the operate as a standalone marketplace run by the existing team. And then there will be three distinct brands after the partnership: Etsy, Reverb and Depop. But this is a big deal! This is a big partnership. We’re going to talk about another one in a couple of minutes, but I think this is a game changer and this has got a lot of notice. And you know, why do you think it’s such a big deal, Liz?
Liz:
I think it’s getting Etsy to reach younger shoppers. Depop will operate as a standalone marketplace run by its existing team. So it’s not like it’s going to be Etsy-pop, right? It’s going to be two different platforms. I’m not a big, like I don’t get into this stuff. I’m not an expert in this, but just thinking about reselling and e-commerce, I think that Depop will grow because they have the backing of Etsy. I couldn’t help but think when this was advertised, just listening to resellers and reading Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, is to think about how many times the Depop app was downloaded this week.
Doug:
Yeah. I think it definitely got them some notice. And I think it’s like you said, it’s good to keep them separate because they’re each going to have their own audience and people that there are some people that will just sell on. Depop some people that will just sell on Etsy. Putting them together on one new platform would have been a bad move, but this is a good one. And I think it’s part of the future of what’s to come. I think there’s going to be more big mergers and partnerships. I have something I’ve been thinking about that I will mention when we get to our next one,. Depop’s doing well on their own.
Liz:
They are so Depop, did an investor presentation, and it’s like 10 pages worth of slides. But things that really stuck out to me is the U S secondhand retail market. So when we look at 2019, these are the projections, was resell and thrift donations will rise 39% in the next three years from $28 billion to $64 billion. It is a fast growing resell space. So why not pick that up? You’ve got the eyes and ears of gen Z right there on Depop.
Doug:
Liz, similarly, Google partnering with Shopify, which I think was a huge move too, because obviously Google is Google, and Shopify is a long existing tool that allows you to build e-commerce websites, have e-commerce tools gives you a robust, website building platform and it puts it all together. Then obviously Google is Google. So the search engine, basically. That’s a huge partnership. Experts are calling it a pivotal masterstroke in e-commerce right now. And they’re saying that this merger is going to be a huge competitor for Amazon. And usually in the e-commerce world, Amazon is untouchable. That’s another thing with these big partnerships, they’re making bigger companies that are going to be able to compete with Amazon. So this is a big deal, too. And I’ve always thought, and people have always told me I was crazy, which may be so, or on the spectrum of something in the spectrum of craziness, but way back there was talk a few years back about, somebody buying eBay. And I’ve always thought Facebook and eBay would be an interesting partnership. I don’t think Amazon would buy them. Facebook could. And it would be interesting because they’ve done some little experiments back and forth. Facebook has brought some eBay people over. Facebook has tried to do their own stuff, and this is kind of the pattern for Facebook, is they try to do their own stuff and then maybe they’ll buy somebody out. So, the interesting thing is, you would have like, if they did that and made it work, you’d have a fully developed marketplace, you’d have a fully developed social media platform and just that perfect merger of social commerce. To me, that kind of merger would make sense.
Liz:
I don’t want it to happen. I want my eBay to stay E-bay! Don’t even say that Doug!
Doug:
Again, with the Google Shopify partnership meant to be a direct competitor with Amazon. And so, you know, Google’s goal here is they want to keep consumers from leaving its services while they’re shopping online. So it’s going to tie into Google shopping and Google search and probably make Google shopping a lot more robust. What I think a lot of people don’t realize is when people shop online, they do, or at least they should use Google Shopping because it gives you the spectrum across the board and allows you to compare prices. And that’s why it goes back to, you really got to optimize your staff and keep Google Shopping in mind. I think they’d probably have more trust out the gate than Amazon does with sellers, because everybody knows that Amazon is the biggest, they get the most traffic, but the caveat there is Amazon competes with sellers and they will undercut you on prices. And so many rules. It’s not easy to list on there. I’m not a fan of their listing flow. I tried it and then just dropped out. I know so many sellers that have a huge love-hate relationship with Amazon. They sell on there because they have to, but they don’t like it. And then if you need help, you can’t get any help. You know, there’s not even much of a developed Amazon seller community.
Liz:
Yeah. I dabbled in a bit and I just realized that was not for me. And I haven’t dove into Shopify, because even that is a little bit intimidating to me, but I’ve learned through our community, I can think of one seller in mind, that actually went to all Shopify and ditched their eBay store. And I think of the small sellers like that, that this could help.
Doug:
Something like that just gives you a bigger hub. It gives you a website. It gives you all the tools. There’s definitely a learning curve. There are other options out there. We just learned from Tracey Lee Davis, that Constant Contact has now an e-commerce platform. And that’s kind of one of those things that is really robust. You build a website and you can track what people look at on your website and send them certain things, and it ties into marketing and email marketing and deeper stuff like that. And that’s like next level stuff. If that’s the way you want to go, look into things like Shopify or constant contact, there are other options out there. I think Shopify is the biggest probably because they’ve been around the longest and it’s something on my list, but it’s down the list of it as it’s a big lift.
Liz:
Well, I think a lot of sellers really do go to Shopify because they integrate so well with Instagram and Facebook shops.
Doug:
Yeah. That’s true. That’s true. It’s a good option. Now, Liz, I don’t use purses surprisingly, but I’m sure you do. Wasn’t there some purse news with eBay this week? Purses, baguette bags, but that concept, I still, like it. Walked about that a couple of weeks ago, something to carry my baguettes.
Liz:
Maybe you can get your baguette bag authenticated on eBay. Those of that have been selling on eBay for a little while, this may sound familiar, but eBay has now added handbags to their authenticity guarantee service.
Doug:
Nice.
Liz:
However, this isn’t the first time they’ve offered this. They used to have eBay authenticate a couple years back, it worked differently. In doing research for one of our earlier podcasts I realized I didn’t even realize that eBay didn’t even offer that anymore. And I thought that was very odd because there’s a lot of handbags that get sold on eBay. So their authenticity guarantee has launched and is back. So, much like their sneakers that we talked about, the authenticity guarantee for handbags is available for select brands and sellers, in new or pre-owned condition, listed under the bags and handbags category, and sold for $500 or more. Just like sneakers, you can take an offer for less than $500 and it still goes through authenticity guarantee.
Doug:
So Liz, these $500 handbags, that’s a lot for a handbag. Do they do anything else? Or just hold your stuff?
Liz:
They are art. Much like art that you hang on the wall and people admire. In the community so far, what I’ve seen is it’s been pretty positive. One of the things that really stands out is sellers, rightfully so, are afraid. You sell a $1,500 handbag and you get a return request. You hope and pray that that same exact bag gets sent back to you, and not some $30 replacement. So what will happen is you will send your handbag to eBay’s authenticity guarantee. They inspect, they tag it and they send it to the customer. If the customer wants to return it, they have to send it back with that tag, still attached.
Doug:
Oh, there you go.
Liz:
And eBay inspects it before they send it back to you to give a refund. So there’s a lot of protections for both buyers and sellers in this program. The big question was, how much is this going to cost? Because previously there was a cost to sellers for this. This is free. It’s part of their authenticity guarantee, just like eBay’s doing with sneakers and watches.
Doug:
So, you want to send a Chanel and not get a “Cha-no” back. You want to send a Gucci and not get a “Gotzsche” back. You want to send Hermes and not get a “Homer” back. You want to send to Tiffany and not get a “Tiffanot” back.
Liz:
Doug, I think you know more about handbags than you think you do.
Liz and Doug:
(Laughter)
Doug:
But mine instead of Hermes, is that right for me? Or is it her-maze? Air-maze? Yeah. So my, yeah, my Gucci handbag is a “Gucco.”
Liz:
Okay. And I don’t even have that. So…
Doug:
That’s right. Yeah, my jeans, pretty much the same outfit every day. So I don’t think I’d ever spend $500 for a handbag, but there’s a market out there.
Liz:
There is!
Doug:
So is that all the action packed news this week, Liz?
Liz:
I think that is enough news for this week.
Doug:
That’s all the news that fits this week.
Outro
Liz:
Thank you for joining us on episode 17 of The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly this week, we talked to the awesome Tracey Lee Davis of zinc pop social,
Doug:
And we fit in a bunch of big news. You can find us at thesellercommunitypodcast.com/podcast. You can leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast. You can email us at podcast@thesellercommunitypodcast.com. Post a question in the List Perfectly Facebook group and use the hashtag #sellercommunitypodcast and you can mention Liz or Doug.
Liz:
And you can listen to us anywhere you listen to podcasts, and be sure and subscribe and tell your friends. You can follow us on Instagram. I am @coloradoreworn, Doug is @snoop.dougie and of course be sure to follow @listperfectly.
Doug:
All right. Are we ready, Liz?
Liz:
Ready!
Doug:
Thanks everybody. And we will…
Liz and Doug:
See you next week.
Doug:
Oh, I think, I think we did it!
Liz:
I don’t know Doug. We’ll have to wait and see.
Doug:
All right, we’ll wait and see at the playback.