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Jul 14 2007 / Alec

Social Networks: THE Way To Sell Your Stuff

I should have known this from the start, but I guess I will for next time.

With all the deals and incentives around new cars these days, I’ve found it difficult to sell anything I have used. I finally sold my ’99 Contour SVT, and it’s clear to me that in at least this case, traditional venues for promoting sales aren’t as effective as the new.

Action 1: Listed my car at AutoTrader.ca. This exposed my vehicle to potential buyers on the AutoTrader website and as well, through the AutoTrader magazine. Cost: over $125. Result: one weak telephone inquiry.

Action 2: Listed my car in the local LeaderPost newspaper page for two weeks. Cost: over $150. Result: two weak telephone inquiries. Still, not even one testdrive.

Action 3: Listed my car on the Facebook marketplace service. Cost: free. Result: over 50 email inquiries, some weak, some very interested resulting in 4 test drives, 8 offers and me being able to sell my car ABOVE my asking price.

Now I don’t know if others are experiencing similar things, but I’m continually realizing the massive potential of social network tools like Facebook to accomplish just about anything. Traditional media, you cost too much and just don’t cut it anymore.

Goodbye my girl, sorry to see you go, but you’ll make someone else happy now.

Related posts:

  1. Danah Boyd on Social Networks
  2. Keynote: Harnessing the Power of Social Networks
  3. Open Social: Social Applications Across Platforms
  4. 9 Ways To Build Social Networks
  5. Why Some Social Networks Work, and Others Fail?

3 Comments

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  1. Steve / Jul 14 2007

    Interesting! I’ve had similar experiences and now sell exclusivey thru Craigslist and eBay. The only exception I’ve found was real estate. Had 0 success anywhere until we went with the ol’ MLS.

  2. Nicole / Jul 15 2007

    I have to agree with you on this one. I too have had a similar situation like this. My friend wanted to sell a couple of her Craven tickets and was running out of time. She announced this to all her friends/co-workers/family, however, could not get rid of them. After hearing this, I changed my face book name to “TWO CRAVEN TICKETS FOR SALE: 120 each. Contact me a.s.a.p”. Within minutes I received over 10 messages. This was an eye opener for me, as I realized there are much faster, more efficient ways of doing things when we are able to expand our social networks connections in secounds.

  3. Alec / Jul 16 2007

    Thanks for the comments, Steve and Nicole.

    Steve, I agree with the MLS thing right now. Where I live, at this point in time, selling without MLS is tending to leave money on the table … houses are selling for more than they are listed at due to multiple offers.

    Thanks again.

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