Checking your Etsy stats each day only to see them plateaued can be very demotivating.

That’s why you need to implement these 7 effective ways of growing your Etsy traffic using social media.

The underlying concept behind this guide is the so-called ’5-10-5 social media rule’.

So, what does this rule tell us? It is pretty straightforward:

• Post/curate 5 times a day.
  That being said, your original content should be limited to 2 posts per week, while the rest should be stimulating and interesting content that you curated from around the web.
• Follow 10 new people per day.
  So, if you are following the 5-10-5 rule for all your social media accounts, it means that, when you add the number of new people on each of your networks, it should amount to 10.
  You can, for instance, start following 5 people on Instagram, 2 on Twitter, and 3 on Pinterest.
• Share other people’s content 5 times per day
  Sharing is different from curating because it involves retweeting, repining, and reposting the content someone from your network posted.

This is a great way not only to increase your visibility but also build good relationships with the people you follow.

You can expect the favor to be returned!

If you have enough time to invest and want the amount of traffic to go through the roof, you can consider using the ‘5-10-5’ ratio on each network individually

That would mean doing the five posts, ten follows, and 5 shares on every one of your accounts.

So, now that we have laid out the ground, we will move to the seven steps you should take in order to drive traffic to your Etsy shop and inevitably increase your sales.

You can put aside the investment-requiring advertisement plans, costly products, and everything else.

All of these are completely free and are simply a resourceful approach to what is already at your disposal.

1. Use Pinterest, and use it well! 

Pinterest is a magnificent platform that can be used to stimulate traffic infinitely. In addition to your existing ‘5-10-5’ strategy, make sure to join 5 collaborative Pinterest boards every day.

This will give you more than enough presence on a daily basis. And, if your items are any good – they will certainly be re-pinned all day long!

Before posting on Pinterest, you may want to make use of Pinstamatic, a free tool that will help make compelling images for all those lacking in design skills. You can use the tool to make new images or combine existing ones into collages and layered pictures.

2. Write guest posts

The two main reasons why many Etsians avoid writing guest posts are:

– They believe their items are too specific for any blog out there.
– They doubt their writing skills and social media importance.

When it comes to the first one, that is highly unlikely. If there is enough competition out there, then it means that your niche is large enough to have quite an audience.

The only thing you need to is to be resourceful and try to find which blogs, magazines, and conferences are covering it.

Then, approach them to write a guest post.

When it comes to the second reason, I have no other advice but: try harder!

Guest posts are an extremely powerful way of reaching out to a new audience, and you should do your best to try and make use of that.

In fact, most blogs will probably require you to edit your posts anyway in order for them to be completely adapted to their style and message.

Some already have established guidelines and rules about guest posts, while others will get back to you once you have already submitted your work.

Some Etsians are also afraid that, because they do not have their own blogs, the existing ones will not be interested in their guest posts.

That is far from accurate: your Internet importance is measured by the number of your followers.

If your followers only come from social media, but there are plenty of them, that is still more than enough for most blogs to accept your guest post.

So, how to go about it?

The easiest way to ensure your post will be accepted is to follow and engage with the blog for about two weeks.

Share their content, be active on their pages, and comment on posts.

Your comments should also be meaningful, so instead of writing a general response, try to give your honest opinion, review, and perhaps some tips from your own experience.

You will instantly become noticeable, and the blog owner will be much more inclined to accept your post.

During your two-week period, also make sure to reflect on the type of content, style of writing, and overall feel of the blog.

This will be very helpful when composing your guest post: you will have already done your research!

With research out of the way, check out what the rules are for requesting guest posts, and simply do it.

Make sure to find out what is the blog’s average waiting time for guest posts.

If you do not receive a response, do a follow-up.

See why you did not receive an answer and if there is something you should fix.

Do not miss out on the fantastic opportunity of guest posting by any chance!

3. Engage with your community

Online platforms such as Social Buzz Club and BizSugar are a fantastic way to pave your way into the top-performing club in your industry through sharing their content and voting for it.

How does this help you drive traffic?

Well, most authors will, after seeing that you have shared or voted for their content, head to your profile.

About 70% of the time, they will engage with your content in the same way, and voilà!

You have increased your visibility.

Keep in mind that Social Buzz Club is somewhat different from BizSugar, so you can only share and not comment or vote for the content.

However, it can be used for efficient content curating. In addition, you can schedule your post-sharing, choosing the exact time and date when you want to content published ahead of time.

After you have gained five points on the website (shared five pieces of content), you will be able to post your own “buzz”.

Do it wisely, and your videos and posts will have your audience lead straight to your Etsy shop.

4. Engage with blogs

Using blogs has already been mentioned, so I will keep this post short.

Simply find blogs that fit into your niche, but are not your immediate competitors.

Then, engage with them through comments on a daily basis.

Instead of focusing on one blog, you can choose to have a few and design your own schedule for posting.

Choose how often you comment according to how often the blog publishes content.

As I have said before, it is important to engage in a meaningful way.

Your comments will mean nothing if they are too general.

Take some time and come up with honest and helpful responses.

Within the comment, you will have the chance to include a link to your Etsy shop.

So, make sure that what you wrote offers some insight, as that will inevitably motivate the readers to go and check out your store!

You can also use the comments to include links to social media posts that you want to promote.

This can sometimes be enough, and you will not have to do a guest post, though I still strongly advise that you do!

5. Don’t forget about Twitter! 

The incredible potential for bringing targeted traffic through Twitter cannot be ignored.

So tweet away!

Use the ‘5-10-5 social media rule!

Tweet curated content five times a day, start following ten people a day, and retweet five interesting tweets a day.

To simplify your search for content, you can use a tool such as JustRetweet, and use Buffer to schedule your tweets for days ahead.

6. Find the best content

Instead of wasting hours online trying to find great content, use a service like scoop.it to sift through the best of the best.

Then, go back to Buffer and schedule it for publishing.

Do not forget the amount of content you need to find daily – ‘5-10-5,’ remember?

You can also use scoop.it to post your scooped content to a blog author’s wall.

Whatever you have found will be immediately visible to their huge audience.

Remember: the more visibility you get, the more traffic you will have!

7. Do an Instagram behind-the-scenes 

Show your audience where you work, how things are made, show them a funny video of a member of your team, show them anything that they may find interesting.

And of course, do the ‘5-10-5’ drill. Find new people to follow, post new images, repost someone else’s, and do some commenting as well.

Instagram has the potential of making content going viral quickly, so harness it.

If you do it right, you will have a nice follower base in no time!

Once you make sure to include all of these steps in your overall social media strategy, traffic will be soaring!

More importantly, you will not only know what to do but why to do it.

That is very important if you want to build on these steps and tailor it to your own needs.

Stay persistent and do not give up.

And may your Etsy shop flourish!