Swichio Blog We are our own number 1 fan! And, Why not just post to Facebook?

It's been a little more than 2 months since we launched Swichio. It has been a wild success...well, for us selling our own personal items. In 2 months,we sold:2 trainers1 bike rack1 pair of gloves1 bikewe bought:2 bikes1 aero water bottleAnd just as we imagined, everything we bought and sold was to our own friends or friends of friends. How did we do it? Simple, we just recruited our friends to join the site thus creating our own network of buyers and sellers. Friends could then see who was who and people started connecting and inquiring about items JUST because the sellers became a little less anonymous. Just as important as the deals that got done, there were deals that did not get done. Friends have been very honest and forthcoming with information. A seller acquaintance of mine told my friend who almost bought her bike that it might be just a LITTLE too big when she could have preyed on the unknowing and anxious buyer and passed it off as fitting. Another acquaintance of mine borrowed a bike for the weekend to test ride it and bring it to a bike fitter. If I didn't know her, I would NEVER have let go of my full carbon bike for a week! She took the bike for a long ride which was great before investing a lot of money. She also took it to a bike fitter where she discovered the bike was too small. Another deal NOT done. But that's a good thing. The right deals are getting made and the wrong deals are notSo why not just post your item for sale on Facebook? I've seen lots of people doing this. I've seen lots of comments "my friend is interested in that" or "I just private messaged you." The problem with this is that, you might be losing potential buyers. Other people might see the responses and not even inquire because they assume the item was already spoken for. Why not post it on Swichio first and then post the link to Facebook? This enables you to entertain multiple offers directly from the potential buyers. People can then share your link with their friends and you can use Swichio to keep track of your offers! And, if your item is not one of those wildly popular things for sale, people can still see and access your listing instead of it getting pushed down in the news feed to be forever lost.I eventually sold my carbon bike. And yes, you got it, I sold it to a friend of a friend. The buyer and my friend came together to my house to check it out and then bought it! I'm telling you, the whole connection piece of this is key! I see some sellers on the site (Yay! Thanks for listing with us!) but with 0 connections. Take advantage of the power of this site, which is your friends. I've had people emailing me about some of the sellers asking me if I knew them because they have 0 connections but they were interested in their bikes. We cannot see who you are or who you are friends with! Tell your friends to join the site. Use our "invite your Facebook friend feature" and build up your "Inner Circle" (a.k.a. your own network of friends). It only helps everyone! The other thing you can do as a seller is share your listing on your own Facebook page. Let your friends know what you are selling. They may just be interested in buying it. I bought an item from my friend's neighbor just because I knew I could get it quickly. I probably would not have bought that item in the store, but it was the right price and I could get it just in time for my next bike ride.The moral of this story is that YOU TOO can be wildly successful using Swichio whether you are buying or selling. Be sure to use your friends and take full advantage of the power of this site and Buy From Who You Know!