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Outbid 101: Engaging Your Customers (Part 2)
May 13, 2013
(This is part 2 of a three-part series. Part 1 Part 3)
So you want to become a social media rock star and promote the bejeezus out of your Outbid auctions.
Now that you understand a little more about the concept of engaging your customers and what Facebook can do for your business, let’s explore other ways for you to promote your Outbid auctions and items on different social networks.
The Twitterverse lives in 140 characters or less, which gives you a huge opportunity to engage existing and potential buyers. You don’t need fans to like you; you don’t even need followers. All you need is the oh-so-powerful hashtag. (more…)
$5 Fridays: Mother’s Day
May 10, 2013
To all the mothers out there: Happy Mother’s Day!
Planning a big weekend with the lady in your life? Make sure you stick in a few hours of quality Outbid time with her to get some great deals at discount prices.
 Love Bracelet – $2.00 |
 Cat Earrings – $5.00 |
 Luxury Bath Salts – $5.00 |
 Green Tea Balls – $5.00 |
 Heart Shell Charms – $5.00 |
 Vintage Flowers Necklace – $5.00 |
Thank You from The Buddy Foundation
May 9, 2013
Another charity auction on Outbid, another success! Last night, The Buddy Foundation raised upwards of $600 in their pet charity auction to help rescue more animals, find loving homes, and educate the public about the proper care of pets.
We would like to thank The Buddy Foundation for choosing Outbid as a fundraising partner, and The Buddy Foundation would like to thank ALL of you for supporting this wonderful cause.
Special shout out to Outbid’s gracious sellers who donated items to the auction, with 20% of the proceeds going straight to The Buddy Foundation.
On behalf of The Buddy Foundation and from the bottom of our hearts, thank you Claudia; thank you Amy; thank you Susan.
For more information on how you can continue to support The Buddy Foundation, please visit: wwww.TheBuddyFoundation.org
Outbid 101: Engaging Your Customers (Part 1)
May 8, 2013
(This is part 1 of a three-part series. Part 2 Part 3)
First off, congratulations for even thinking about engaging your customers (on Outbid or another auction/selling site). Finding different ways to engage your customers is key to success for your ever-growing business.
Mashable said it best when they provided 4 tips on authentic online engagement:
1. Focus on the individual
2. Listen up
3. Keep it real
4. Follow this guiding principle
In today’s world, online engagement is all about social media. However, it is still all about your customers, your buyers as individuals. In your own voice, you need to listen to your customers and focus on what you can ultimately do to satisfy their needs. You know who your customers are, and they know who you are. Be open, be transparent, be yourself; there’s a reason why they’re your customers and not someone else’s. (more…)
The Buddy Foundation Pet Charity Auction
May 6, 2013
On Wednesday May 8 at 7pm CT / 5pm PT, Outbid will be teaming up with The Buddy Foundation, a volunteer, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization on a mission to provide immediate safety and care to stray, abused and abandoned animals.
Sadly, 4 to 6 million animals are euthanized each year, the equivalent of 575 every hour. Buddy seeks to reduce that number with Outbid on Wednesday in a special pet charity auction, with partial proceeds going to The Buddy Foundation.
In addition, Outbid will donate $1 per auction attendee to help The Buddy Foundation continue their mission of saving those that cannot fend for themselves, those without a voice, and those who depend on the good will of humanity for their basic needs.
Please help Outbid and The Buddy Foundation rescue more animals, find loving homes for animals, and educate the public about the proper care of pets by attending The Buddy Foundation Pet Charity Auction this Wednesday May 8 at 7pm CT / 5pm PT. (more…)
$5 Fridays: Cinco de Mayo
May 3, 2013
Cinco de Mayo is dawning upon us, and Outbid is celebrating with a $5 Friday fiesta! Check out these awesome deals for $5 or less in auctions happening today, tomorrow, and in the coming week, and let’s have a party!
 Zipper Bracelet – $0.75 |
 Cat’s Eye Bracelet – $5.00 |
 Infinity Ring – $5.00 |
 Heart Bracelet – $1.00 |
 Rhinestone Necklace – $0.01 |
 Polymer Clay Flowers – $1.00 |
 Bee Stamp Necklace – $5.00 |
 Android Plush Doll – $5.00 |
 Mystery Box of Supplies – $0.01 |
Group Auctions – What’s Next
May 2, 2013
Hi all,
First off, I’d like to personally welcome all of you who have recently joined Team Outbid over the past month or so. We’ve seen quite a steady surge in user activity since then, which of course makes us all very happy! Thanks also to the sellers who have been working hard to recruit folks to our site, and especially to the ones who have taken the time to educate new sellers on all of the ins and outs with Outbid…much appreciated!
I thought I’d spend a few minutes to give everyone an update on several items. We know that some of you have experienced random connection issues recently while joining live auctions, e.g. receiving a “connection error” message or just having the entire screen freeze. Refreshing your browser seems to fix the issue in the majority of cases, but we realize this is not a real solution.
We’ve been spending quite a bit of time over the past week trying to get to the bottom of this, and we now think these issues are not caused by any of our software but with network latency issues at our hosting provider. We are currently providing them with the data they need to diagnose and fix the issue, so hopefully this will all be addressed within the next few days and we’ll finally put this to bed.
Secondly, we are so pleased how the group auction functionality has really taken off and how it’s also promoted the sense of community within Outbid. However, we also realize we need to provide some additional tools to make the management of these auctions more efficient. To that end, I wanted to make you aware that we are actively working on an “item management” function which will allow you to manage your items separately from auctions.
The benefit to this is that your items can be repurposed over and over again, e.g. if you receive invites to multiple group auctions you will be able to add the same item to any or all of those auctions without having to recreate it each time. This should result in huge time savings for our sellers, and down the road it will allow us to do other interesting things with seller inventory. Expect to see us roll something out here within the next month.
And lastly, with all the new auctions that are being scheduled/run each day we realize that the current “browse auctions” page doesn’t lend itself particularly well to this increased volume of activity. And we also understand that the Pinterest-style format we’re using makes it challenging to figure out which auctions are coming up first in any given set of results. Anyway, I just wanted to let folks know that we’re planning to make some changes here, and along with those changes we’ll also be re-categorizing our content and moving everything into a smaller, more defined set of categories. In terms of timing for this change it’s a bit unclear right now, but definitely something we’ll do before we get too far into the summer.
Hope you all continue to enjoy Outbid…we love having you here!
Bob
Outbid for Charities: Angelwish
May 1, 2013
“It is a real gift to be invited into a families experience, particularly at this extremely vulnerable time. It is also very humbling to be the liaison for the community that is providing time, generosity & compassion for these often overlooked children and families.”
On Wednesday, June 5th, Outbid will be hosting another Outbid for Charities: Day of Difference. If you missed the first one, here’s a list of the participating auctions and a recap on the total amount raised.
This time, we are partnering with Angelwish, a charitable organization helping struggling families grant wishes to their children living with chronic illnesses all over the world (HIV/AIDS, asthma, diabetes, kidney diseases) while teaching the next generation about the power of giving.
Once again, Outbid will be donating $1 to the Angelwish organization for each attendee** in participating auctions on Wednesday, June 5th.
6/5 Outbid for Charities Day of Difference Schedule:
11:00am PT – Featured Auction #1 ( Organization )
1:00pm PT – Featured Auction #2 ( Organization )
3:00pm PT – Blue’s Weimaraner Rescue Charity Auction ( Tickled Pink Weimaraner Rescue )
5:00pm PT – Outbid for Charities: Angelwish ( Angelwish )
7:00pm PT – Featured Auction #3 ( Organization )
Sellers:
Please email community@outbid.com if you would like to participate in Outbid’s Day of Difference on June 5th. We want to hear and feature your story if there’s a charity or organization that is near and dear to your heart. (more…)
I am Iron Man
April 30, 2013
Are you? If you think you’re Iron Man enough for the I am Iron Man auction on Outbid, then prove it by attending on Wednesday, May 1 at 5pm PT.
Show up to the Outbid auction in full Iron Man gear and maybe we’ll give you some air time as well!
In fact, get War Machine and other Avenger friends to come too, because new Outbid users who RSVP to the auction will receive a Marvel Tokidoki Figurine.
What are you waiting for? RSVP Now
Outbid Pinner’s Choice Auction
April 29, 2013
On Wednesday, May 15, Outbid will be hosting a Pinner’s Choice Auction at 5pm PT. We recently sent out a survey asking everyone for item ideas for an upcoming auction.
You’ve all responded and we created a Pinterest board with items based on your responses. Now it’s up to YOU to decide which items we should include in the auction.
Head over to the Outbid Pinner’s Choice Auction Pinterest board, LIKE and REPIN your favorite items, and get ready to bid on them in the Outbid Pinner’s Choice Auction on Wednesday, May 15 at 5pm PT!
