Facebook first introduced the Marketplace app in mid-2007 as a way for people to post classified ads on the site. Now Facebook has launched its new updated Marketplace. This time, the Marketplace is powered by a company with a funny name, Oodle. Despite the name, they are a large online classifieds company founded by former Excite and eBay executives. Oodle has created a whole new version of the Marketplace focused on giving people a place to buy, sell, or gift things to people they know.
This Facebook Marketplace Guide is a practical step-by-step guide for everyone who wants to learn how to sell their items effectively on the new Facebook Marketplace. Using the Facebook Marketplace you can sell, give away, buy, ask or search for whatever you want. You can also use the Marketplace to support your favorite charities by selling your junk for a good cause. Also, you can see what your friends are buying and/or selling.
Facebook users can post their Marketplace listings for free. Your listings will be visible to millions of Facebook Marketplace users around the world. If you’ve used the old Facebook Marketplace before, you should see it marked in the bottom left corner of your monitor. And, if you had active listings on the old Marketplace, you should have the option to transfer them to the new Facebook Marketplace. If you haven’t used the Facebook Marketplace app before, you can find it here: Facebook.com/marketplace.
Ok, let’s get down to business. As I mentioned, this is a
Step-by-step guide on how to sell on Facebook Marketplace effectively
So here we go:
Step 1 – Take a photo
Grab your digital camera and take a good close-up photo of the item you want to sell. It is best to shoot against a solid, light background. Transfer your photo to your computer as a JPG file. If your item is something that can’t be featured with a photo, don’t worry, you can still list it.
Step 2 – Sign in
Sign in to your Facebook account and open the Marketplace app. Just click on the Applications menu in the lower left corner of your screen and choose Marketplace. You will be greeted with the Marketplace welcome screen.
You have four main options at your disposal:
- sell it
- Sell for a cause
- give it away and
- ask for it
In this guide we’re concentrating on the Sell for Money side of things, so you can leave the screen as it is and type a short description of your item in the box where it says “Sell something for extra money.” When you click on the box, it will change to “Your name” is selling. Type your main title for the listing here. After typing your title description, click the blue Post button.
Step 3 – Write your ad
After you’ve typed the list title, you’re presented with a new screen with more options related to your list. She writes a joke type of a description in the “Why are you selling it?” box. You could write “I need money to buy more things.” but, although that might be the case, I don’t think it will get your ad noticed. Consider this space your subheading for the ad. Write this description as if you were working at an advertising company. Or, if you’re feeling more conservative, simply describe your item in the most original way possible. You have two lines to hit the target.
Then enter your selling price in the price box. You know what it’s worth.
Write your location. It is a requirement. Just write in your city.
Choose a category for your article. At the time of writing this book, only the following 13 categories are available:
- Stuff for babies and children
- Books and magazines
- cars and vehicles
- Clothes and accessories
- collectibles
- Computers and accessories
- electronics
- Furniture
- House and garden
- Musical instruments
- Sporting goods, bikes and equipment
- Tickets
- Everything else
If you can’t find a suitable category for your item, you can always choose Everything Else, however, it’s not a very good category to list.
In the box below you can provide a more extensive description of your item. Here you have more space than just two lines. Describe your item in as much detail as you can. You know, size, color, condition,… that kind of thing. But, don’t stress too much about this; You can always change it later. Once you’ve created the best copy, hit the Browse button to locate your photo from your computer, USB stick, or wherever you think you saved it in Step 1. Yeah, I know, I can’t find my images either. Don’t panic though, you have time to locate it; the screen doesn’t go anywhere.
You found it? Good! In fact, you can upload two photos if you want. For example, if you’re selling a book, it’s a good idea to upload both the front and back covers. You can upload even more images later, but for the sake of this exercise, one is enough.
check the Terms of useand click the Submit button.
Step 4 – Quite unnecessary step
The next screen has your details and your only option is to click on the Continue button. I don’t really know why this screen exists, but since it does, all we can do is click the button.
Step 5 – Publication
You will then be presented with a screen asking if you would like to post this listing on your own Facebook profile. This is a good idea. You can choose between a full, short or one line description. I would recommend that you choose the Short option. You can check the Always do this for Marketplace box if you want to use this same option every time you publish something. So if you want to post this listing to your profile, click the Publish button, but if you just want it to appear on Facebook Marketplace, choose the No Thanks button.
Step 6 – Promote
This step is your first opportunity to advertise your new listing. This is also a good idea. You can recruit friends to promote your listing in their newsfeed. You can add up to 5 of your friends by clicking on their photos. You can also choose them by typing their names in the Find Friends box. Once you’ve chosen your friends who might be interested in promoting your ad, click the Submit Request button; or if you don’t want to disturb your friends this time, choose Skip.
Step 7 – Personal Marketing Message
You will be presented with a confirmation screen with your data. You can add a personal message to this post by clicking the blue Add Personal Message link. If you don’t want to add your personal message, just click the Send button. You can also cancel this message entirely by clicking Cancel.
Step 8 – Done!
Congratulations! You’ve published your first item on Facebook Marketplace. Listings take approximately 30 minutes to be included in the search index.
You will be presented with the screen titled “Manage My Listing: Active”. Here you can review your ad and if you want to make any changes, click the Edit details link in the light green bar. You can also delete your listing and promote it with a Facebook ad. I won’t go into detail about how to produce Facebook ads in this book. That topic, among many other good ones, will be fully covered in my Facebook Advertising Guide.
That’s it, you’ve done it! Good job! Thanks for reading so far.
Additional things good to know:
Editing your listing
You can easily edit your listings after you have published them. Just click the Edit Details link on the screen mentioned on the Manage My List page and you’ll get pretty much the same screen as when you were writing the list in the first place. You can change every detail of your listing here, as well as upload more images if you’d like. It’s a good idea to display as many images as you can.
Once you’ve made your changes on this panel, click the Submit button to update your listing. You will again be presented with a useless confirmation screen as seen. Just ignore it and click the Continue button.
You will then be asked if you want to post this updated list to your Facebook profile like in step 6. You can choose to post again or simply click the No Thanks button.
Finally, you will see your updated listing on the “Manage My Listing” screen.
Manage Your Facebook Marketplace Listings
You can easily manage all of your Facebook Marketplace listings in one convenient location. If you click on the My Listings direct link in the Marketplace menu, you will see your current listings. This is your place to manage all your listings. You can add more listings, edit them and after you have sold your items you can delete them.
As I mentioned earlier, you can also sell your items for a cause or you can give them away for free (I don’t know why, but you can). You can also find something you need for yourself. These functions are not covered in this book, but I’m sure you’ll get a handle on them with the principles covered here.
Ok, I hope you enjoyed this Facebook Marketplace guide. I wish you luck selling your stuff through Facebook. I sold my first item, an amazing Jimi Hendrix Wah-Wah guitar pedal in just 3 days.
Kind regards,