Now I know that I said that I wouldn't promote success stories about people who made it big by selling via other social media site, but this one somehow just stands out. It caught my eye and isn't just about all the thousands upon thousands of people selling their "stuff" via their social media wall or groups or pages.
It is a story about Brandi Temple, a likable local mom who had never held a corporate job when she started posting her homemade dresses on the Web.
(source: incimages.com linked from inc.com/magazine, article link below)
LOLLY WOLLY DOODLE is the name of her company!
Some may have read about this before, but basically she made it big when she started selling via a social media site.
That's right, not "marketing" as a lot of people presume, but outright direct sales!
One on One (101) business!
Taking in orders and making direct sales.
"I walked away from the computer and came back in like 30 seconds, and all the dresses were gone!" --Brandi Temple
"Lolly Wolly Doodle brought in about $11 million in 2013, and it has roughly doubled its revenue every year since its inception in 2009. It expects revenue to double again this year. Last June, Revolution Growth, a fund started by AOL co-founder Steve Case, invested $20 million in the company, and (of course) aims to make it a multibillion-dollar brand. The size of Case's investment--and a look at how Temple's business will probably evolve--suggests that Lolly has done more than solve the social-commerce conundrum. Along the way, Temple has created an innovative U.S.-based manufacturing process and supply chain that feed off the brand's social-media cues to maximize efficiency. That mechanism seems likely to be adaptable to any number of products and services......"
For those of us here who are interested in the full story, here is the link:
"The Startup That Conquered Facebook Sales"
https://www.inc.com/magazine/201406/tom-foster/lolly-wolly-doodle-explosive-growth-from-facebook-sales.html
Basically, although this may be "one of those stories", what made me decide to write up about it here is the fact that she was working from her home when she started out and it was the direct sales via a social media site that made her BIG, no sorry, GIGANTIC!
On the social media sites out there, not just the one listed here in this article, there are thousands of groups and pages on which people sell "stuff".
Posting things on their walls so as to get the direct attention from their followers, then posting links to groups and pages like this page here on Steemit so as to ensure that the "word gets out even further".
Even though to date we haven't seen many people selling items via Steemit, it is inevitable and only a matter of time til people start using this social network to sell items, to market items, everything from things that would be sold at a trash n' treasure / fleamarket, or garage sate, to cars, boats and even real estate.
There is no stopping it and the people who set themselves up as the pioneers of this shall probably be the people who have newspaper / media site articles written about them as the one in the link above!
The wheel doesn't need reinventing, it just needs to be utilized!
Steem on!