If at first you don't succeed...

So, this summer I decided to put my social media skills to the test and put together my own social media marketing project. Basically, I would have a garage sale to make some money for my upcoming trip to Australia, and I would advertise it through a social media campaign. These are the steps I took for this project.

1. Create an Action Plan

I created an action plan which included using social media to market the sale (obviously), donating part of the proceeds to the World Wildlife Fund and reporting the results afterwards. I'm a big list maker, so this was a necessity for me to keep everything organized.

2. Use Campaign Hashtag

Next, I wanted to come up with a hashtag that I would use in all the social media updates so that it becomes recognizable to my followers what I am trying to do and what the purpose of this sale is, so I created #ProjectGoAbroad. I updated on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. I also added the event to an online calendar of a local newspaper and shared this on social media.

3. Tell people with connections about it

I decided to email my study abroad advisor about what I am doing to raise money for the trip. She was so impressed and excited that she forwarded the message along to the Financial Aid office and the Alumni office, who then posted about it on their Facebook pages. It was great that other people were supporting me!

4. Put together table display

In Microsoft Word I created a table that showed the estimated costs of my trip to Australia. Next, I made a document with pictures of endangered species in Australia, along with facts about them from the World Wildlife Fund-Australia website. I wanted people to see what they were donating to. I have always wanted to work for a non-profit, especially the WWF, so I thought this would be a great way to stand out to them, while helping a cause I am passionate about!

5. Compile Results

• Facebook: 4 likes
• Twitter: 2 favorites
• LinkedIn: 2 likes, 1 comment
• Instagram: 10 likes
• Long Valley Patch: 7 recommendations

I definitely didn't get the results I was looking for. One factor is that on Twitter, most of my followers are people from school, not from my hometown, so therefore they wouldn't be very interested in a garage sale. The same goes for LinkedIn. However, most of my friends from my hometown have Instagram, which was clearly the strongest resource. The Long Valley Patch, which is a local online newspaper, was more my target audience, i.e adults who live in town. Most people in my social media are just my friends (college students with no money). 

About 10 people came to the garage sale, and I made about $60. Obviously this was disappointing, but this experience helped me to realize not to forget my target audience. Therefore, I am trying again this weekend, and I have put ads in 4 different local newspapers, as well as made flyers and put them in Shop Rite, two post offices, and a convenience store. These are places people in my target audience are likely to go and newspapers my target audience are likely to read. Not exactly social media, but at least I got to practice doing something like this. I'm hoping this time I get better results! Practice makes perfect, right?

Dana

Update on June 16th: the second sale was a success! I sold all of the larger things I needed to sell, and a ton of clothes. I made about $70, so in total about $130. Yay!