Published on: May 20, 2020
One of the best ways to increase your sales on Poshmark is to grow your follower base. Followers are your audience, your potential buyers. When you post or share your listing, it is only your followers who see it on their feeds. And your followers share your items, increasing their visibility. Moreover, engaging with your followers is fun – Poshmark is, after all, a social platform, and the community aspect of it is important. Thus, engaging with other ‘Poshers’ is key to success. If you’re just starting to sell on Poshmark, gaining followers can seem like a daunting task. But it’s easier than you think. In this post, I walk you through twenty-five ways to get more followers on Poshmark. These tips helped me to go from a few hundred followers to more than 200,000 in less than two years.
1. Follow other Poshers
The first rule is simple. To get more followers on Poshmark you need to – well, follow people. You will quickly notice that more often than not, people will follow you back. I know that there are people who are picky about who they follow because they don’t want to clutter their feed. If you’re only buying stuff on Poshmark, this makes sense, as your feed will only include items from people whose closets match your taste and are your size. However, from a seller’s perspective, this is not the optimal strategy. You want to reach as large an audience as possible. Particularly, if you’re a reseller, your customers come in all sizes and gravitate toward different styles. Thus, I would encourage you to follow as many people as you can.
2. Target-follow
That said, who you follow also matters to some extent. In addition to the general following, you should also target-follow people. What does this mean? Search for items that are similar to yours and follow people who liked those items. This gives your closet and items exposure from potential buyers. For instance, I used to sell a lot of clothing from Naketano. I would go to other closets that had many Naketano items and follow people who had shown interest: likers and Poshers that had asked questions. Quite often I also share a few items from the likers’ closets, as this increases the likelihood that they check out my closet to return the shares.
Doing this increases the number of ‘relevant’ followers. That is people who are not only sellers but also buyers and – more importantly – potentially interested in buying your items. (This increased my Naketano sales A LOT.) But please don’t advertise your closet in the comment section of other Poshers’ items. This is against the Posh etiquette (and will get you blocked fast).
3. Use love notes to identify potential buyers
This is related to target-following, but it is even more specific. Go to a closet that sells items similar to yours and take a look at their love notes. People who leave love notes are active buyers and the kind of followers that you want. Hence, it makes sense to follow them, and if they’re sellers too, share a few of their items. This should prompt them to visit your closet and follow you.
4. Follow your followers
Always follow back all the people that follow you. These are people who have engaged with your closet by following you, and if you follow them (and possibly share an item or two), they are likely to take another look at your closet and maybe share your listings with their followers. This also raises your engagement in the app, and the Posh algorithm likes this. When you click the ‘followers’ tab in your closet, you can only see the 1,000 most recent followers, which is why I tend to follow all my new followers at least once a week.
5. Follow the followers of successful, active sellers
One of the easiest ways to find active Poshers – and thus possible followers – is to follow the followers of a well-established, popular seller. Look for closets that have 100,000+ followers. Click on the ‘followers’ tab and follow everyone on the list. Again, the list includes 1,000 most recent followers that the Posher has. Hence, these are people who are active on the site, and thus more likely to follow you back. Check back in a few days, and you’ll find more people that have recently followed the seller.
It’s a good idea to follow the followers of Posh ‘celebrities,’ i.e., people with a strong social media presence. They tend to accumulate followers fast, which allows you to follow truly active users. A good example of such Poshers is @emptyhanger, who creates very popular YouTube videos.
6. Always follow celebrity pop-up closets
Poshmark releases celebrity pop-ups from time to time. This means that a celebrity curates a selection from their closet to sell on Poshmark and donates the proceeds to the charity of their choosing. In the past, there have been pop-ups e.g., from Serena Williams, Katherine Heigl, Rachel Ray, and DJ Khaled. This is your chance not only to score a gently used celebrity-owned item, but to also gain a ton of followers on Poshmark. Celebrity pop-ups quickly attract thousands of followers, and this is a great way to find active Poshers. Just follow all the followers and do the same again after a few hours.
7. Follow and engage with new users
A good way to get more followers on Poshmark is to follow new closets. These are people who have recently joined Poshmark. You can find them by clicking the ‘discover people’ section. I quite often hear Poshmark users complain that new users don’t follow them back. The key here is to not only follow them but to also engage with them. You can greet them in their ‘meet the Posher’ listing, welcoming them to Poshmark and offering to help if they have any questions. This way, they’re more likely to take a look at your closet and to follow you. The Poshmark algorithm also likes this, and your listings will get more visibility. But again, resist the temptation to advertise your own closet directly (e.g., “check out my closet and make a bundle”).
8. Join follow games
You are likely to hear divergent opinions about follow games. The purpose of these games is to get more followers on Poshmark. There’s a host, who selects a Posher to follow, and you follow them and their followers. I agree that not all these games work. However, there are some very good ones out there that have helped me gain thousands of followers. My favorite – and perhaps the most established – game is the ‘The Secret Posher Game’ by @freddiesfind. You sign up, and they add you on their ‘secret Posher’ list. Each day they pick one closet that they feature, as well as four ‘bonus Poshers.’ Share five listings from each closet, follow them, and their followers, and you’ll see a surge in your follower numbers. The best part? When you get featured as a ‘secret Posher!’ I’ve gained 1,000+ followers in one day this way.
9. Share your closet
I can’t emphasize this enough. Share your closet regularly. This gives your listings visibility, as they will appear in your followers’ feeds. Your followers might then share your items again with their followers, which can result in new followers for you. Sharing your closet also places your items on top of search results, when people use the search feature to look for specific items. This is important, as it allows potential buyers to find your closet. I tend to share my closet three times a day; I’d recommend you share your closet at least once daily.
10. Share from the feed
While it’s important to share your own items, don’t forget about community shares, either. I like to share from the feed, as it allows me to conveniently share listings from several closets. This often leads to new followers, too. These are listings from active users and sharing them encourages the Poshers to visit your closet to return shares. I normally share 100-200 listings from the feed daily. Again, this is also appreciated by the Posh algorithm.
11. Re-share ‘just shared’ listings
Another way to get more followers on Poshmark is to share from the ‘just shared’ list. Again, these are listings from Poshers that have recently been active (or their followers), which means that they’re more likely to share your items in return. To do this, pick a category (e.g., women’s dresses), and sort the items according to ‘just shared.’ Then share from this list. Again, this shows you items not only from the people you’re following but the whole Posh community, which means that it’s a great opportunity for you to connect with new Poshers and get more followers. You can also sort by ‘just in’ – this shows the items that people have recently listed.
12. Share to parties
Poshmark has several ‘parties’ each day. These are great opportunities to gain more followers because when you share to parties, your listings are visible not only to your followers but also to everybody else. This means more exposure and a chance to connect with people that are not following you yet. Particularly the evening party is great because it attracts the most people. For instance, last night, there were 3.5 million listings shared to the evening party, whereas the day parties “only” had around 300k shared listings. Moreover, it’s not a theme party (e.g., activewear, kids’ wear, certain brands, etc.) as the day parties are. Thus, I try to share my whole closet to the evening party.
13. Share from parties
In addition to sharing to parties, sharing from parties can help you get more followers on Poshmark, too. To do this, join the party, and share listings from the party feed (“the main showroom”). As I mentioned above, in the party feed, you see listings from everyone and not just from the people that you’re following. This allows you to share from active, fresh closets, which will also result in new followers.
14. Share listings from people with lots of followers
A great way to get a lot of exposure is to share listings from people with many (50,000+) followers. If you share their items and they return the shares, this means that your listings will be potentially seen by a ton of people, i.e., their followers. Here, you might want to share several items from their closet to make sure that you catch their attention. When people have lots of followers, the number of notifications is often overwhelming, and single shares can go unnoticed (I admit being guilty of this).
Before you go on a sharing spree, though, make sure that you’re sharing items from a Posher that actually does community shares. The number of shares in the closet is a good indicator of this. E.g., my closet has close to 200,000 shares, which means that I share other people’s listings regularly. But there are people with hundreds of thousands of followers who only have a handful of shares. This means that the odds that they’ll return your shares are not high.
@mmadonna40 is a great example of a high-impact Posher who actually shares your items. As you can see, she has more than a million community shares.
15. Give social media share groups a try
There are many Poshmark share groups on social media, for instance on Facebook. These are a nice way to connect with other Poshers and to gain shares and new followers. How these work is that you specify how many listings you would like people to share from your closet. People sign up and share your items, and you then share their items in return. Again, this makes your items visible to the followers of these people. Thus, it gives your listings the chance to reach an audience that goes beyond your own followers.
16. Use social media to advertise your closet
To get more followers on Poshmark, take advantage of social media. Particularly Pinterest and Instagram allow you to interact with other Poshers. You can e.g., show off your finds, tell people what you have added to your Posh closet lately, or ask people to follow you. These are great ways to get new followers, and you might even sell your items faster if they catch someone’s eye on social media. There is a whole Posh community on both platforms. Try hashtags such as #posher, #poshmarkcloset, #poshmarkseller, etc. And don’t forget to add a brand-specific hashtag, if you’re marketing your listing. This brings additional traffic to your closet.
17. Become a Posh Ambassador
Posh Ambassadors (formerly ‘suggested users’) are established Poshmark users. I would recommend you aim for the Posh Ambassador status as early on as possible, as it helps you to get more followers on Poshmark. As a Posh Ambassador, Poshmark recommends your closet to other users, and some of the new closets that are interested in brands that you have will automatically follow you when they join Poshmark. Your closet is also featured from time to time on the ‘find people’ list, and this brings you a surge of new followers:
Becoming a Posh Ambassador is relatively easy. You need to:
- Make at least 15 sales
- Have at least 50 available listings
- Maintain an average rating of 4.5 stars
- Have an average shipping time of <3 days
- Have 5,000 self-shares
- Share 5,000 listing from other Poshers
- Give a love note (meaning that you need to purchase an item from another Posher and leave a love note for it)
18. Co-host a party
Another great way to get more followers on Poshmark is to co-host a virtual Posh party. I’ve co-hosted a party five times, and every time I got a ton of new followers. People follow the co-hosts with hopes of getting a host pick, i.e., the host selects their item as one of the featured listings of the party. Co-hosting is so much fun, too – you get to interact with a lot of Poshers. To host a party, you need to be a Posh Ambassador, maintain an active closet, and have a compliant closet. The link to apply to be a co-host can be found here.
19. Take beautiful pictures
Taking beautiful pictures – particularly cover shots – is important if you want to get more followers on Poshmark (it also greatly helps to get more sales). People are much more likely to engage with your listing and closet, if it features pretty, bright photos. That is, other Poshers are more likely to share your listings and follow your closet if your pictures catch their eye. It doesn’t matter whether you’re using flat lays (my preferred option) or modeled or mannequin shots, as long as the picture showcases the item that you’re selling in a way that buyers find attractive. I personally don’t like stock photos as cover shots, as they don’t have character and don’t allow you to show what your closet is all about. Also, some Poshers won’t follow closets with stock photos as cover shots.
I sometimes follow closets just for their beautiful aesthetics, and I know that other people do, too. If you need some inspiration, check out the pictures below – these were shared to last night’s party, and I find them all very pretty.
20. Keep your Poshmark closet compliant
Make sure that your closet is compliant, i.e., it doesn’t feature items that are prohibited on Poshmark. There are a lot of Poshers who won’t follow non-compliant closets. As I mentioned above, having a non-compliant closet also means that you can’t co-host parties. What does a compliant closet mean, then? Perhaps most importantly, you are not allowed to sell fake goods on Poshmark. If you’re not sure whether the item you have is authentic or not, you should have it authenticated before listing. Selling inauthentic goods can compromise the status of your closet. Moreover, you should not sell e.g., medical items, perfumes, electronics, or used undies. For the complete Poshmark’s prohibited items policy, see this page.
21. Consider using virtual assistants
Sharing and following can take a lot of time. And let’s face it – if Poshmark is only your side hustle, you might not want to spend hours every day just following other people and sharing their items. (Not that you have to, though – it’s not necessary to go overboard to get great results.) A possible solution? Virtual assistants. I personally don’t use them, but I know that a lot of people do. How virtual assistants work is that you pay them to share your listings and to follow other Poshers. Basically, they do the hard work for you.
Sounds easy enough, right? However, be very careful when picking a virtual assistant. Many of them use bots, which are a no-no according to Poshmark rules and can get your whole account suspended. I would not risk that. If the deal sounds too good to be true – e.g., they promise you thousands of shares for a few dollars – it probably is, and the chances are very high that they use bots.
That said, there are definitely legit VA services out there, too. Thus, do your research and ask around before hiring one. You don’t want to compromise your closet. And it’s definitely possible to be successful and to get more followers on Poshmark without using a virtual assistant.
22. List regularly
Posting new items regularly keeps the Posh algorithm happy and gives your closet more visibility. Thus, it can be more easily found by potential followers. It also ensures that you have items on top of the “newly listed” list, which many buyers use to find new items from the brands that they are interested in. All this is likely to result in new followers.
If you don’t have new items to post, consider relisting some of your older items, perhaps with new pictures.
23. List items from “hot” brands
One of the ways to get more followers on Poshmark is to list items from brands that are currently trending. These are brands that people are actively searching for, and if you have those items in your closet, chances are that people are keen to check out your closet and follow you. This also helps people to find your items on Google, which brings more traffic into your closet. Make sure that you also have good titles and descriptions (mention the brand and think of SEO optimization).
How to know what sells, then? Poshmark gives you plenty of hints. They publish trend reports that list some of the brands that are selling at the moment. Similarly, the morning parties feature certain brands that do well on Poshmark. Below is an example of the brands that can be shared to the ‘Boho’ party. An additional benefit of having brands featured in the parties is that you can share your listings to those parties, which means more exposure and more followers.
Poshmark also directly lists ‘featured brands’ and have showrooms for items that are hot:
You can also see what has been sold recently in a certain category. For instance, if you’re interested in knowing what denim brands are currently selling, go to the ‘jeans’ category, use the ‘sold’ filter, and sort according to ‘just in.’ This shows you the jeans that have been newly listed and already sold. This gives you an idea of the brands that sell fast. (Tip: filter for price, too, e.g. >$50, if you want to focus on brands that sell fast AND for $$$.)
For tips on finding these brands at thrift store, check out my previous post.
24. Comment and like
A great way to build rapport in the Posh community is to be active. Like listings that catch your attention and that you might consider buying later, and if you come across a closet that you adore, you can tell the closet owner so. It’s always nice to get a comment that compliments your listing or closet. I, for instance, tend to share a few listings from the commenter’s closet to show my appreciation. Some of these people have become my PFFs (like BFFs, but on Poshmark), and we share each other’s listings regularly. This gives my listings a nice boost and exposure among the followers of my PFFs. This has also helped me to get more followers on Poshmark.
25. Use Facebook groups to connect with fellow sellers
I would recommend you join Facebook groups to connect with other Poshmark sellers. If you thrift and resell, I particularly recommend the ‘Poshmark Thrifters’ group. People are very helpful and give you valuable tips. If you find something awesome at the thrift store and post it in the group to ask for advice (e.g., whether to buy it or not, or whether it’s authentic), there are quite often people who ask you to tag them in the listing. This increases your chances to sell the item and to gain an active follower.
Another group, simply named ‘Poshmark,’ is also good. In this group, some people post ‘in search of’ posts, and if your item matches what they’re looking for, you can post it. This can give your listing and closet, in general, more visibility. These groups are a great resource, and I have learned so much from other sellers. They help you to become part of the Posh community, and they’re a very good way to get to know other Poshers.
The take-aways
Obviously, this list is long, and you won’t be able to do all this every day, unless you’re glued to the Poshmark app 24/7. Try out the different methods and see what works best for you. Ultimately, it’s about your engagement with the app and other Poshers. If you follow people, share your and other Poshers’ listings, and post quality items regularly, you should see steady growth in your followers – and sales – soon. It takes time and work, and it won’t happen overnight, but you can do it!
Do you have any tips that I didn’t cover? Let me know!