Tag Archives: facebook live video

Scheduling the Listings of Furniture I Sell Online

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I belong to several painting sites and many of us sell the furniture we paint online.  With so many Buy, Sell, and Trade (BST) sites out there, it makes it hard to keep track of all the places we have listed our furniture for sale and when we need to refresh them.  Some have wished for an app that would keep them all straight and would let us schedule when we need to relist our furniture for sale.

The best rule of thumb at this time, from experts I follow, is not to bump your listing but to remove it completely and relist.  At some point you may even want to restage your furniture.  Facebook has been pausing accounts of people lately due to too many postings at one time, so we do need to try to find a better solution than to just hit the button that says post to more sites.  Also, when you add listings that way, if you delete one, it will delete the others, too.  So that’s not a good solution. But how can we keep track of our listings and schedule them efficiently?

I’m no expert, and I’ve not found any kind of scheduling app that would do this, but I did think about scheduling and wondered why I couldn’t schedule my listings on my Google calendar.  I tried it, and it seems I can.  Here’s what I did and why.

  1.  I created a new Google calendar under my business email account, which is gmail.  You should be able to use any gmail account, though.  (I initially set up my new calendar on my desktop) and made sure I kept it private.  No one needs to see these entries except me.  I named it “Scheduling BST Postings”.
  2.  I then made my first entry.  This would be the day I first listed a piece on a BST site.  For the Title, I used the Title of my listing and the amount I listed it for.
  3. I made sure to choose to repeat it once every month and set a notification for an hour before.  This way I know that listing should be updated by then and will show up on my calendar and being notified will help me remember.
  4. On the desktop version, there is a description area on the entries.  In the description area, I copy the info from my listing description and paste it in. I also copy the URL for that listing so I can easily access it.  I then list all the other sites I chose to use so I would remember which ones they are. There is also an area to add attachments, so I add all the photos I used in the listing.  (On my iphone, there is a note section rather than a description area.  This is where I would copy/paste the information.  The phone app does have a place for a URL, so I put the listing URL there.  Once I have the calendar set up, I can add it to the other calendars I see on my phone and then can easily add new listings from my iphone. )  I’m not sure how Androids work, but I’m sure you can use Google Calendar on them also.

That is pretty much it.  Now I have all the information I need for relisting my furniture at my fingertips.  I also get notified once a month when it is time to update that listing.  Note:  I do not relist to all the sites at one time.  I do a couple at a time.  Then wait an hour or so and do a few more.  I don’t want my account paused for posting too many too soon or Facebook may think it is SPAM.

My next piece of furniture I list, I will make another entry, but if done the same day, I will make sure I change the date on the calendar to another day that week.  I can go back or into the future for new entries, it doesn’t matter.  The point is I have a schedule now that hopefully will help keep me organized.

I have added a screenshot of my calendar entry for the first listing I did.  I hope it will be helpful to others.

 

Chalk-based Paint Q and A – A Recorded Live Video

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Last Friday evening, I sat down to do my first Live Video on Facebook.  After stressing pretty much all day about it and primping like I was getting ready for a first date, I was ready.  It seemed almost too easy to set up so I was a little worried.  I got in about 5 minutes early just to make sure I knew what I was doing and 30 seconds later, I got the message that I had a poor connection and the little hamster wheel just started spinning.  Great!  I’ve had enough experience with technology, though, I just canceled it and started over.  That time I connected and it was smooth sailing (kind of) the rest of the evening.

Another lesson I learned was that there is evidently a rule that says you can only do an hour. Oops…didn’t know that.  One hour in and people weren’t wanting to leave, so I did 45 more minutes.  I also learned you can stop after an hour.  Wait 5 minutes, then reconnect.  I’m glad I didn’t do that and I’m glad Facebook didn’t cut me off, recorded the whole thing, and didn’t put me in Facebook jail for not following rules.  Whew!  Live and learn.

The biggest thing I would do differently would be to actually use the laptop sitting in front of me.  I was so stressed about it failing the first time, that when I saw the comments start coming up on my phone, I was so relieved, I didn’t think to start it on my computer.  In fact, I remember wondering why I wasn’t seeing it on my computer.  So, I spent the whole time leaning forward peering into the phone to see that tiny little print.  LOL

But once into it, I really enjoyed it.  There were a lot of questions and I was able to share a lot (although it was hard to share when questions kept scrolling through).  I tried to go back to see them but there were some I missed.  I did go back after and answered them on the recorded video.  It was also a little bit fun to “have the floor” so to speak with no one interrupting and me not talking over anyone else.  LOL

It was a great experience, all in all, and I will do it again.  In fact, one viewer suggested doing a live video during a painting class we have coming up on September 30, so we will be working that into the class.  Stay tuned for an update on that.

It is also important that you create an Event for a live video, usually about a week ahead of time.  Then people can join it and will be reminded when it is time for the live video.  I did this quickly, so I only had the event for the day.  I had so many viewers and reached so many people by sharing it with the online course I’m taking and the instructor shared it with one of the other groups she admins.  That was extremely helpful.  I also shared it in the groups I’m in that allows that, on my personal page, and on Instagram.

So…..are you ready to view my very first Live Video.  It really was like having friends come over on a Friday evening.  Too bad I didn’t think to serve wine. LOL .  I do want to warn you that sometime after the first hour, someone asked me to show something I had painted, so I grabbed my phone and tripod and took them on a tour of my living room.  LOL.  I was afraid I might have made them seasick.

And remember.  Be kind.  I am a newbie at this.