eBay have just introduced new share features for listings on .com, but the best advice I can give you is just don’t. Don’t use them. Don’t click them. Don’t get social!
I know what you’re thinking – why would eBay put them there if they don’t want you to use them? Well it’s simple, eBay want you to spread the love and make everyone you know aware of the cool things available to buy on the site. What’s likely to happen though is people will run through their own listings thinking what a great idea it is to click them all hoping someone will buy. They forget however that all their friends already know what they sell and really aren’t interested.
Social media is already being over run with ways to spam your mates with what you sell. If it’s not cross posting your eBay listings to Twitter (a sure way to lose a ton of followers), it’ll be spamming all your Facebook friends begging them to become a fan of your shop page.
Even eBay, deep down inside themselves, know that self promotion is a bad thing. That’s why on the email share option they say “If you use this service to advertise an item you are selling and the recipient complains to eBay, your eBay registration may be suspended”, with a link to the spam policy.
So to keep your friends and not annoy your followers here are Chris’ three rules for sharing:
- If you’re going to share make sure it’s an interesting or unusual item.
- Don’t share your own products, be interesting so that people look to see what you sell out of curiosity.
- And this is the ultimate rule – Don’t automate sharing, if it’s not personal no one cares
Now go and have fun. When you find the weirdest, whackiest, crazy stuff that makes us love eBay, go click the share button, tweet it, facebook it or if you’re a little old fashioned email it to your buddies. Just make sure it’s something actually worth sharing.
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