Oftentimes, I feel like places like Facebook Marketplace can teach us bigger life lessons than things that we might learn in school. So in this article, I’m going to share with you three life lessons that I’ve learned from Facebook Marketplace, being both a buyer and a seller on the platform.
By the end of this article, you’ll get better insights into three common trends I’ve identified about human nature that you can observe as well in your Facebook Marketplace adventures.
Lesson #1: People are fickle.
The first life lesson that I learned from Facebook Marketplace is that people are super fickle. If you’ve ever sold more than five things on Facebook, you know what I mean by this statement. People are more than willing to initially reach out to you, talk a big game in terms of how interested they are in buying something from you, and then never actually meet up to do the sale.
In other words, people change their mind all the time. And it’s something that you need to get used to in terms of people having a change of heart and just never actually making a deal go through. I’ve said this before in my previous article on Facebook Marketplace, and I’ll say it again, a deal is not done until it is actually done.
So feel free to talk to as many buyers or sellers, depending on which side of the marketplace that you’re on when it comes to selling and buying on Facebook Marketplace. Ultimately, there is no incentive in you only talking to one person at a time versus talking to as many people as possible to get you the best deal. Also, try not to take people’s fickleness to hear. Stuff just happens and it’s one of those realities of life.
Lesson #2: People generally don’t like to read.
The second life lesson I learned from Facebook is that people generally don’t like to read. It is not uncommon for you to get messages on Facebook Marketplace that literally ask you questions that are already answered in your listing.
I know it’s super annoying, but it’s also not uncommon. It’s no surprise to me as to why people get in trouble because they never read the fine print of contracts that they signed just based off of the behavior that I’ve seen of people on Facebook Marketplace.
So what does this mean to you if you are a seller on Facebook Marketplace? It means that you should always make sure that you’re listing are written to be super readable. In other words, write in bullet points instead of paragraph format and also write in ways in which the listing description actually gives more benefits to the reader, as opposed to just listing out random features that you think might be relevant to the buyer.
I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve read massive blocks of texts that include things that don’t matter to the context of buying something off Facebook Marketplace. Don’t be one of those sellers and just focus on what’s essential in getting the deal done.
Lesson #3: The majority of people are good.
The third life lesson I’ve learned from Facebook Marketplace is that most of the time people are good. I think when it comes to using online platforms like Facebook Marketplace, there’s always a general hesitation from both the buyer and the seller to make a deal happen, especially in the case where you don’t know the background of the potential person you’re doing business with.
From my personal experiences, I found that people on Facebook Marketplace genuinely just want to make a deal happen. I’ve never been in a situation where I felt like things were sketched. That being said, I attribute part of that to my filtering process as well in deciding who to buy and sell things from when I decide to get something off Facebook Marketplace.
I’ve shared tips in my prior articles on Facebook Marketplace along the lines of making sure that you meet up in a public space, making sure that you check the profile of the person that you are doing business with and that you feel good about the person that you were interacting with.
Taking a step back, I think that this takeaway largely applies to most things in life in that you can apply it to any app when you’ve ever done anything in person. For example, I remember when I was younger selling things on Craigslist feeling the same way, or even being on dating apps and meeting up with a stranger for the first time.
It’s just in general, a human nature response. But in most situations, I like to think that people are good on these platforms.
Big takeaways
There are two things I want you to remember from this article:
- The first one is that Facebook Marketplace is a good mere reflection of broader parts of society. There are some people that are lazy. There are some people that are indecisive. You will see all different sides of people when it comes to a place like Facebook Marketplace.
- The second big takeaway is that if you want to sell more things on Facebook Marketplace, you need to keep things super simple. The simpler and more clear your listing is the faster you will sell an item on Facebook Marketplace.
If you found this article helpful, be sure to check out my YouTube channel to get new videos every single week I’ll help take you from zero to self-starter as you grow your business, get more customers, and hone your business acumen. Also, feel free to share this with anybody that you know that might benefit from learning these three life lessons that I’ve learned from Facebook Marketplace.