Struggling with Facebook, Need Advice

[CarolynCochrane]

Hi. :) I have a new shop on Etsy as of June 6th. I've managed to get 194 fans on my Facebook page so far but want A LOT more. I want to get into Facebook more as a way to promote my shop and get people interested in my work. The thing I'm struggling with is finding more targeted fans. HOW do you do this on Facebook??

I tried the commenting route where you're supposed to comment on pages where you believe your target market is...not a ton of luck.

I posted my page on some Etsy promotion forums where you can trade likes but I have 2 issues with that. 1) I don't want to fill up my fan page with other seller's advertising their page on my wall. That doesn't look very good when fans come back to see what's new with me and there's a bunch of Etsy sellers saying, "hi, like me back." 2) I want to get more fans who aren't already sellers on Etsy.

For those of you who've managed to really gain a following on Facebook, how did you do it?? I've heard buying an ad on FB can help get targeted likes since you can really narrow down your target market. Just wondering if there's a free way to do it instead. Any advice??

Thanks!
Carolyn :)

[Former_Member]

Carolyn- not sure I can answer you question. However, you should join the team for Etsians on Facebook! I bet they could help!

[Former_Member]

Do you do business cards? You could put your facebook fan page on them and send them out with every purchase as well. Word of mouth when the person receives the item could be great for promoting and then they could show people your facebook page or something as well. Just a thought? (yet, coming from the person with only 15 followers on facebook so far lol)

[ShannonClarkPhotoArt]

Hi Carolyn!
First of I very much agree with you on not wanting other seller's advertise on your page (I erase any posts where people do that, it's rude).
Have you tried a facebook ad? they help with some exposure. and then of course, have a link to your facebook on etsy :)

[CarolynCochrane]

That's a good idea OwnSomething. Unfortunately, I just had my business cards printed up without it. I will do that though for the next batch.

Thanks Periesdeverre - I think I already joined that group. Again, I don't really want my page to get filled up with other sellers advertising their pages. :)

[CarolynCochrane]

Hey Shannon! I was actually going to post this in either the POE team or the fPOE team but decided to post here first. :)

I'm really thinking about doing a facebook ad. Have you done a facebook ad? I noticed you have over 700 fans! How did you get them??

[TouchOfSilver]

Have you heard of Link Love? People leave their links (FB, Etsy, Twitter, Artfire etc) on other's Discussion Tabs where the page owner has started a discussion for this...all different varieties of artisans visit, so you can find people of many different venues and they find you. It does bog down your page a bit, but it is a way of introducing yourself to lots of people...and hopefully some would be buyers.

[CarolynCochrane]

TouchofSilver - Someone did mention Link Love to me before. I don't understand though...is it an app that I need to add to my fan page? It would be another tab? If so, what is the tab called..."Link Love" or Discussions?

When you say it bogs down your page, what do you mean? It slows it down or people would be posting on my wall? That's what I want to avoid.

[TouchOfSilver]

Sorry it wasn't clear. No extra app. Go to my FB page to take a look: Touch of Silver. On the left there is a discussion link. That brings you to the page where a Link-Love discussion was started. You will see many pages of people and their links. When you add your links to someone"s 'discussion', then those that post below you... just the next person, actually, triggers a FB email to you that let's you know someone else has joined the discussion. It's really a big snowball. You also can poke around all the people before you to see if there's anyone/anything you might like to take a look at.

Bogging down: People do post on your page, but it's part of the sharing process....they can be removed as someone noted above. I did it for about a year and got many fans. When you post an item to your FB page, it goes into your newsfeed which appears on all your fans' newsfeeds as well - so they see when you've added a new post. So, the more fans you have, the more people there are to take a visit to your shop...does that make sense? It took quite awhile to catch on to it all!!! Then FB changes something and you're on a new track.

[CarolynCochrane]

Touch of Silver - This sounds interesting. Ok, I went to your page but unfortunately I still don't get it because I don't have a Discussion tab on my fan page. (Search "Carolyn Cochrane Photography" and you'll find me.) How do I get that on my page?

I like the idea of removing someone's post on my wall. BUT...is that rude to do to someone? I guess not since it's my page and I want to control the way it looks, right? I never post a "like me back" post on someone's wall because it feels way too spammy.

Also, one more question... Let's say I do this Link Love thing and a bunch of people post advertising type stuff on my wall that I go in and delete. When they post on my wall, would my fans get an update from my page in their feed with the spammy post? If so, I think this would make me not use Link Love. I wouldn't want to do that to my existing fans because then they might wind up hiding my updates in their feed.

[Former_Member]

Any other ideas would be great!

[AndreaFuentesDesigns]

There's a setting on facebook pages that allows your default wall to show only posts you make. In the event another seller leaves a "like me back" comment, your followers won't see it by default.

I like a bunch of sellers on FB with my page profile as a way to promote other seller doing the same thing I am trying to...network and grow their following.

[Former_Member]

I have a Facebook account and have gone through the process of adding Etsy but my business SuziCute site does not appear anywhere. What am I doing wrong?

[CarolynCochrane]

Andrea - Thanks. Question... if I set the default wall setting to only show posts I make, then my fans wouldn't be able to post on my wall, correct? That would stink since I want fans to be able to post on my wall.

[TouchOfSilver]

I set my page up a couple of years ago and adding the discussion board was easy then...because I don't remember it being a problem. BUT, I tried the edit page function on my page and didn't see where it might have come from. Sorry...have you tried the FB help function?

You can define your settings to allow friends to post to your wall as someone said here...but it is true that people can find you by stumbling onto your page, perhaps because they are friends with someone else who is friends with you. I'm not sure you can escape that.

With Link Love, when you get an email that indicates someone has posted in a link love discussion you have already posted your links on, others can find you as well. If someone in this group would like to weigh in on this as well, that would be cool. You might consider experimenting with an actual friend to test some of the settings... FB is always a learning experience, for sure. Oh, and I don't think it's rude to remove a post. I'm sure your friends will be commenting on your posts (beautiful photography btw!) in a positive fashion...and this creates a nice...'come back and see more' relationship.

The problem I have always had is that because your personal page and your business page seem inexorably linked, it bothers me that activities I do as "my business" like attending one of my FB group functions, appear as recent activity on my personal page...which I tend to keep for my family, and friends outside of my busines life. I don't want to spam my friends with every step I take as 'my business'. I know you can choose to post as you as a person, or you as a business, as a way to get around that...a little cumbersome to remember to change back and forth, but it is probably a fix for that.

Sorry I can't give more exacting answers. Although FB allowed me to meet wonderfully artistic people, and provided nice feedback comments about my creations, and was a great upper on helping with inspiration, it unfortunately didn't increase my Etsy sales. So for me personally, I spend much less time on it now than I once did. It works wonders for some shops, so it certainly can be a useful tool.

[andiestevensdesigns]

I just wanted to jump in and mention that almost all of my orders now are coming from my facebook fan page, and I haven't advertised. Just gotten friends to follow and share. I think it's well worth it to get it going for you and update frequently (not too frequently though, you don't want people to hide you or unlike your page!)

[TouchOfSilver]

That's great Andie - I see you plan to sell directly from your FB page...I've been thinking about that. Is it easy to set up?

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the idea Touch of Silver. I posted on your page and will start to look around more.

Carolyn, I really like your work. Very nice.

[andiestevensdesigns]

Hah, no it hasn't been easy. I may scrap that idea altogether ;)

[CarolynCochrane]

TouchofSilver - Thanks for your reply and your nice compliment on my photography. :) I'll try and figure out how to get the Discussions Tab on my page...will check out Facebook Help section.

As far as your business activity showing up on your personal page, I think this may be happening because you liked your business page from your personal profile? I've heard this is something we should avoid to keep them separate. Is that a possibility that you've done that?

As far as Facebook being a place to meet and greet with other creative types but not bring in sales, sounds like you need to find more targeted followers who would be more willing to buy. I've been hearing that is crucial to try and get sales through Facebook. I've heard from a very successful shop n Etsy this week that they use FB ads a lot to get VERY targeted traffic and likes. I'm thinking to give an FB ad a try...just a little nervous about it because I don't want to waste my money.

Andie - How have you gotten facebook followers that want to buy? have you used FB ads to get targeted followers? Would love to hear what you've done.

C5Photography - Thank you very much! :)

[Former_Member]

FOUND IT!!!
Go here:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2373072738
Look over to the left, and in blue letters you'll see "add to my page". Click that, select the page you want it on, and your done!
Now I'm going to add some link love.

[andiestevensdesigns]

CarolynCochrane,
"Andie - How have you gotten facebook followers that want to buy? have you used FB ads to get targeted followers? Would love to hear what you've done."

I haven't used Facebook ads yet, but have been considering it. I started my fan page, then suggested it to friends. As my friends liked my page, they suggested it to their friends. I've also asked once or twice for people to share it on their pages to help me out, and have been lucky that my friends like me and help me, lol! ;) I still only have 127 fans right now though, but I've gotten quite a few orders from people who have liked my page.
Good luck to you!

[TouchOfSilver]

Carolyn - the FB ad sounds interesting. Do you know how they target an audience for you...or do you define something for them. Will look into cost...I presume it's easy to find out there. As for liking my business page from my personal page - I wouldn't put it past me... but it was so long ago - maybe I can unlike my page and see what changes occur. Hope you have the discussion board now....nice that someone found it - cool.

[CarolynCochrane]

Thanks Andie, sounds like you have some great friends! :)

TouchOfSilver - You can pretend to set up an ad part of the way on Facebook to see how you can target the ads. On your page, there should be a sample ad on the right side that says something like "Advertise Page" or "Get More Likes." Just click on that and you can start to go through the process. You tell Facebook what kind of person you want to show your ad to, as far as their interests, demographics, where they shop, etc. Under "Interests" on the ad setup page, if you click "Switch to Precise Interest Targeting," you can enter as much stuff as you want. I'm still learning about how to use this feature so I'm not an expert on it. :)

Hoping unliking your page fixed that problem you were having.

I'm up in the air about the discussion board, I don't know if it's worth my time reaching out to other sellers as much as making efforts to reach out to my targeted market would be. Of course, I'm sure there are some sellers who are my targeted market and might buy but to me, all of us sellers are trying to make money...I know right now I'm not buying things on Etsy because I don't have extra money.

Of course, it still may be a good way to spread the word about my photography...still thinking about it. I just don't know if I want to keep up with deleting a bunch of stuff on my wall all the time.