Cautionary heads’ up: They’ve set up an “official” facebook group for sellers. But instead of being helpful, it’s just people promoting their shops.
I noticed that too. So disappointing. 
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Is there somewhere we know that it is “official”? Like in an email somewhere? I joined, because why not, I’m in a few different Makerplace Groups and nothing about that group seems like it’s official. Just cause you throw the word official into the title doesn’t make it official.
I’ve noticed that there is always a trend of an 'influencer/coach" type persona that always seems to try to race to set up these kinds of groups for new platforms. Then I’m always super suspicious and skeptical because how can these people sell these guides if they never were sellers. Kind of why I wanted to set up a Facebook group myself since I’m an actual seller…but I don’t have time to hand hold newbies I’m running my own business. 
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Is it the one called “MakerPlace by Michaels Official Sellers Group” ?
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Yes.
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A post was merged into an existing topic: MakerPlace Saturday email updates
Yeah “Dani MakerPlace” seems a little fake, or wonderfully serendipitous. 
Especially since you can go to her profile and see that she’s in an Etsy facebook group and her profile picture was added to her profile in 2020 
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Yes, I joined after getting the email also. And had to input a link to my store name to get in. But it’s just spam right now. I see a whole lot of retired folks making yarn dolls and such, and (as yet) not many people running actual businesses. We shall see.
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And what a waste of effort to promote yourself to other sellers. Anyone asking a help question will be buried in the endless promotion. I had hoped it WAS “Official” with maybe some Makerplace employees moderating and occasionally answering questions.
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I’m fine with that, as long as we never see Alibaba nose rings and the lot. If selling online brings joy to great-aunt Sally (even if she only sells 3 yarn dolls a year), it’s OK.
Before Etsy became the latest repository for Chinese instant landfill fodder, professional sellers bemoaned the price war race to the bottom, where the lowest rungs of the price war were anchored by hobbyists who bought supplies at Michaels etc, and sold their creations for $1 over the cost of their materials.
It took me a long time to be able to say this, but if someone want to buy a necklace which is not very well made, with lower quality materials and no feel for design — because it’s cheaper — that’s not my customer.
Like any venue, we may need to make a little effort to help drive “our” customer to our storefront.
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Good point, a key error of many new and some old in business. They just don’t get it.
Me… I don’t do Facebook, except for our brand pages. Why? My partner, who has now taken on another challenging job after 32 years in our company, got a permanent ban.
Why? She wrote a Op-Ed, well done by the way about the school board and the action/inaction they took on a recent virus outbreak. The papers had no problem with it. Top of the fold. She published it on Facebook and was given a permanent ban.
I will stop there to stay in the terms of service of the SAS.
Her opinion, “Best thing that ever happened!”
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I join the groups because sometimes there is wisdom to be gleaned but not always. In Etsy groups it’s just too hard to find nuggets of wisdom….way too many people who if they just read the seller handbook wouldn’t ask the questions they ask, and if someone can’t be bothered to read or google they probably wouldn’t like/read my advice anyway so I offer nothing to these groups lol.
Now in this makerplace group, knowing that Michaels is actually in it, I’ll probably post on anything they post just how I used to post on the amazon forums. I want attention from specific people lol. But I would imagine if they don’t set some rules it’s going to be filled with promo posts and I’ll loose interest.
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Oy, this “official” group is now all people posting the thing they made today. Going to have to snooze it, unfortunately. It would be nice to have a group with valid info, upcoming things and QA from Michael’s, but it’s just a promo group now. 
Like SAS?
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Ha! Well yes, but I don’t think there’s anyone from Michaels corporate here. Lol
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At one time I recommended to Walmart that does not have a “Forum” for sellers to look here. I think if a number of us mentioned to Michaels to take a look, it just may work.
Now the problem is, it is not under the ‘control’ of Michaels however, I see that as a plus. And that is being on all sides of the marble. User, Seller, Manufacture, Distributor, Developer, Inventor and Implementer.
Even so, if they don’t have the staff to do it, we are all here to help. And (again) thanks to @Pepper_Thine_Angus the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is in place to have them look up and take notice.
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I think it’s “possible” someone from corporate could be lurking.
Anyone who runs a legitimate business is going to google “Michaels Makerplace”, and research anything that comes up, and sellersasksellers does pop up in those search results.
If someone at corporate is in charge of googling Michaels Makerplace and seeing if people are talking about it, it is possible they have stumbled upon here. I just don’t know if that someone at corporate exists LOL and if they do…they might not be allowed to post anything “offsite” in a place they couldn’t control (it could be a liability for them because who knows if things could be hacked/edited/blahblahblah) but if they do lurk here it might make sense to them that a community for the sellers is needed…and thus the facebook group…a ‘cheaper’ more mainstream alternative then coding a whole forum like Etsy has while having more control over content then on a ‘mystery’ website.
It’s interesting because we don’t know what goes on in the back end. In the Facebook group the two “admins” have questionable looking profiles, but I did post a question in the facebook…and there is a verified Michaels page in there that answered and has posted a few posts lately. Now I am curious if it’s just the normal social media person for michaels, or if makerplace will have it’s own social media person? I did notice now in the facebook group it did label “Michaels Stores” as a Group Expert, but still not an admin LOL. So I wonder if the “makerplace” group is just one more thing on the normal social media person’s platform or if makerplace has it’s own team in place? Depending on the scope of the social media persons roles…they might have too much on their plate? I’m no expert lol.
I might make a thread in there later asking if the facebook will be more organized or if they will post the “Saturday” emails in the facebook group. Which does remind me…has anyone gotten a “Saturday” newsletter today? I have been in contact with support the last few days finally, trying to figure out why I don’t receive the Saturday newsletters…so if one did come today, if someone can let me know (This is also an example of why I liked the megathread as my adhd tends to have me go completely off topic in the same post, and yet do I create a new post requesting if anyone has received Saturday newsletters? Maybe a Saturday newsletter post should be created…but maybe by someone who is actually receiving the Saturday newsletters so they can post them LOL)
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