Best way to get FB fans

[Former_Member]

What are your most effective ways of getting FB fans?

[Former_Member]

I started with my family and a few friends! I was too embarrassed to post it up there for my 300 or so Facebook "aquaintances," so I asked my close friends in person. :) I try to post at least once daily, and my fans have grown slowly but steadily.

[Former_Member]

I occasionally send requests to my friends on my personal page and I'm about to do a contest giveaway, the winner will be chosen based upon how many friends they recruit to like the page. ;) BUT the most effective thing I've done so far has been advertising on facebook. I accidentally increased my spending limit and got about 50 fans in one day, ha! If I'm ever flush with cash again, I will definitely shell out some cash for another ad.
Meanwhile, adding folks here on etsy and leaving a note on their page saying hi, helps too. Make sure to use FB as your page and not your personal profile when you do this.

[Former_Member]

We did a giveaway and it defiantly help increase out fans on facebook.

[Davs]

Friends & acquaintances I was already friends with on FB and then I joined a FB fan page group on etsy and gained about 100 more fans and still get new fans from that. My birthday is on sunday though and I am considering asking all my FB friends to share my shop, my FB fan page or blog with their friends in honor of my Birthday... it will take guts I think but I'm already talking myself into it.

Occasionally though I will add in a post "Share me with your friends!" I think that helps.:)

[Former_Member]

All awesome advice.
There are also a lot of promotional teams on Etsy where you can share your Facebook page and people will promote yours if you help them out promoting too. And its a good way to increase your number of "likes"

[SeedandSky]

I feel so shy about putting myself out there more than once to my family and friends on facebook... I don't want to annoy people into "liking" me...

I know that being bold is how you get noticed though. I made a giveaway on my blog
http://kloomer.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-for-seed-skys-etsy-opening.html
to promote my facebook page and that has helped (and been fun) tremendously though.

[TheSnapDragonsLair]

Oh, yea, still lots of work for me to do.... Thanks for all the info!

[Former_Member]

Great tips! I feel shy about getting people to 'like' me too. I don't want to come off as being pushy or become annoying. How did you run your giveaway?

[perpetualposy]

I recently joined this team and am already getting so much great advice. Thanks!
I have been considering advertising on FB, sounds like it works. Where/how does your ad appear?

[Former_Member]

I did some good ole fashioned begging to my friends and family on my personal FB page. Everyone was more than happy to help me out, and that got the ball rolling at least. :o)

[Former_Member]

If you solicit people to like your FB page through some of the Etsy teams, with reciprocal likes, and want to keep them, be prepared to comment on their pages regularly, or you'll probably find some of them unliking yours later on...which is what happened to me ;). I am assuming they didn't mind me returning the gesture, either, since I did figure out who two of them were.

For me, FB is a way to connect with people who are interested in my work - both friends and possible customers. It's also a way to interact with fellow artists, and that is pretty much a two-way street as far as I'm concerned. But, I find that it just doesn't work for me to just add people to my favorite list and like their pages out of reciprocity. It feels disingenuous. So, I'm not doing it anymore.

I don't spend much time on FB and don't see that changing, as blogging is where I put my social networking energies. But, having a studio page has been hugely beneficial for sales of my art, so I'd certainly recommend having one. I'm just not sure of the value of having a bunch of people who really aren't truly interested in each other's art or craft liking each other's pages just to boost numbers. Odds are high you'll never hear anything from them again after the initial "Hi, I just "liked" your page - please go like mine!" wall comment.

Perhaps I'm missing something, though?

[Davs]

SonyaJohnsonArt, I get what you're saying and agree in a way... but I have a suspicion that to a certain point having a certain amount of likes does help to make potential customers and people who might be genuinely interested in your work take a second look at your page..? At least I think so. Like if a fan page has 20 likes versus 200 likes, I assume the page with 200 might be taken more seriously. I of course am not for absolute certain about this, it's just a theory, but it's the basic reason why I am putting up with disingenuous likes in hopes that it will help to get me serious likes in the future.:)

[Former_Member]

Just wanted to add, that I got a sale last week through someone on my FB page. I think one plus is that for people who truly *are* fans of your work, it gives you a chance to interact with them.

[Davs]

DandelionStudio1, Yes, although like I said before I'm sure I have maybe 100 or so disingenuous likes the rest seem to really be interested in my art and I am certain that the majority of my sales have come out of my posting a new listing on FB.:)

[EvesLittleEarthlings]

I send an email with my FB page link at the bottom and invite customers to join. Lots of them have done it since I started doing this in February. I promise them that I only post around once a week or so though. I have found that some businesses are relentless on FB. I have blocked a few because of this. Especially when they only post about items in their shops. My favourite FB page is this one: http://www.facebook.com/#!/RedOnionWoodworks
She posts about lots of things that are interesting to me, not just about what she wants to sell.

[Former_Member]

I have participated in a couple giveaways that I have been invited to participate in-that has helped get the word out a lot!

I also have a signature on all my emails with my FB page AND Etsy page listed. I occasionally sign my Etsy convos with my name and FB link below. I don't force anyone to look at it but it is there if they are interested : )
I hope this helps!

[Former_Member]

@Davs - you could be right about that :). I just found that I didn't feel comfortable trying to get people to like my FB page just to boost numbers any more than I wanted to like pages that I have zero interest in. But, FB has resulted in pretty much all the sales I've had in my Etsy shop, save for 4, and several where the paintings didn't even make it to Etsy before they sold. So, it has been great for me!

I post photos of my paintings and a bit about the process of each that I hope will be interesting to read. I never use it as a sales pitch for my Etsy shop - that's what the "my Etsy" button is for, and I totally agree with EvesLittleEarthlings about shops that do nothing but use FB as an Etsy sales pitch being unpleasant.

I guess there are just degrees to which I'm interested in someone's work, and I assume that works both ways as well. That is, I am always adding shops and items to my "favorites" here on Etsy, but that doesn't mean I necessarily need or want to like or add them to my page favorites on FB. Does that make any sense? Just because someone who sells clothing here on Etsy has "hearted" one of my paintings doesn't mean she's interested in following my blog or FB page. At least that's what I assume. Links to my blog and FB page can be found on my shop profile, so if someone is interested, the information is there. I think I include the links with the item description as well.

I also don't use FB via my personal profile, either. I have one, only so I could comment as my page and so that my "like" would show up as a number on other pages. But, I seldom if ever read the feed and I never post there. Instead, I just add the page to my page's favorites, and then I can read the feed of the pages individually by clicking on their page at my leisure. That way, I don't miss anything.

For me, FB is a business tool to help reach potential customers that don't read blogs. Secondarily, it is a way to network with artists whose blogs I don't or can't follow via GoogleFriendConnect. I think it is like anything else - the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it.

[Former_Member]

Really great advice, thanks to everyone! Currently, I need more fans, and I really need to make it more interesting. It's basically a list of my new items, treasuries, and some Etsy finds I think are cool and that my friends and fans would like. But it seems the most interesting and popular read more like mini-blogs, and I don't really know what content to add that aspect to it. Any advice?

[Former_Member]

I should add that many of my personal friends who liked my business page hadn't ever heard of Etsy until I started selling. So I try to keep them updated on my shop, but also see what Etsy is all about with items from other shops. I think they would find that interesting, although for many customers and sellers familiar with Etsy already, it's probably too boring and pushy....

[hautecards]

Here's a link for a team that helps you promote :

http://www.etsy.com/teams/9112/like-my-fanpage

[TheSnapDragonsLair]

One of the things I do on FB is to tell my friends about other Etsy shops that have cool stuff I think they would like. Then, it reminds them about Etsy and that I have an Etsy shop, and oh, maybe she put up something new I should check out while I look at the link she sent.

[Former_Member]

I am not too clear on what a Fb page does.
Is it just advertising for your shop on Fb? What's the cost?
Who sees it?

[Former_Member]

I had a giveaway thru another blog, offering a set of my greeting cards to the first fifteen people to like my new Facebook Fan Page. I had more than fifteen within hours!

I also made some very nice acquaintances that way, as well.