How To Link Your Facebook Page To Your Twitter Account

This quick tutorial will show you how to link your Facebook Page posts to your Twitter feed. This way every time you post on your Facebook Page you will automatically tweet it from your Twitter account. This really helps you to be more active in your social network without having to do double the work!

Make sure that you are currently logged into both Facebook and the Twitter account that you want your page posts to show up on.

Step 1: Go to http://www.facebook.com/twitter and you will see that your profile page is first in the list. Under it you should see the following with a list of your pages:

Step 2: Choose the page you want to link to your Twitter account and click the Link To Twitter Button.

Step 3: You will be transported to the App Authorization page on Twitter. Authorize the app on Twitter.

That is it! Now, every time you post on your Facebook page you will automatically send a tweet with a link to your Facebook post. It really is that simple! Now you have doubled your social networking efforts. Enjoy!

BTW- I am still working on getting the new blog and website up and running. I will be announcing the date soon. I have already moved my Etsy shop to http://CraftKraken.etsy.com and have a couple of my eBooks up with more on the way. Check it out and favorite the shop!

Engaging Your Audience On Facebook

Last week I talked about what NOT to do on business Facebook page. Basically, avoid anything that invokes a very strong emotion such as Politics or Religion. That is, unless you are selling Political or Religious items, then it may be alright. Today I would like to try and give you some ideas of what is good to post on your page.

On my Tangled Metal Facebook Page I try and post a mix of different things. I post a lot of pictures of my products. It is a business page after all. In addition to that I generally post pictures that are related to my genre of jewelry, fashion and accessories. I usually do not post links to my competition. Since I make chainmaille and steampunk items there are plenty of places to find cool images or stories to pass on to my fans.

Another thing I post is quotes from famous people that inspire me and hopefully will inspire others. Then there is the "fluffy bunny" stuff that I post. This usually consists of baby animals, babies and other things that anyone would consider cute. This usually gets the most shares and comments and likes.

The main point is, you should be posting a wide range of things. Things that are not inflammatory topics or images. You want to entice your fans to be active on your page so when you do post images and links from your shop you will get a better reaction.

I hope this helps. I welcome additional tips from you. I also welcome questions. Leave a comment or send me an email: MarketMyShop@gmail.com

What Not To Talk About On Facebook And Twitter

There are a couple of things you need to avoid when it comes to Facebook and Twitter for your business. Religion and politics. These are huge topics that can alienate your audience. Stay away from them at all cost. That is, unless your business is selling religious or political art!

If you run out of interesting topics I have come up with a few for you:

Baby animals.

Mamma and baby Otter

Baby Hedgehog

Landscapes.

Beautiful Marsh

Very Old English Wall

Of course there are many other things you can post. Witty quotes, funny pictures, and the like. Just shy away from anything that might offend someone. That is it for today. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Important Changes To Facebook Fan Pages

Recently Facebook added something to pages that you might have noticed. They put a "Promote" button on each of your posts. If you click on it you will see that if you pay Facebook about $10 per every 1000 fans you have they will put the post in their feed even if they are not subscribed to you. I, along with many others, am not too happy about this change.

Facebook already charges me to get more fans and now they want to charge me to share posts with them? I don't think so. This change came about the same time as Facebook going public. It looks like just another way to increase the profits of the owners at the expense of small business owners. I am working on some work arounds for this for all of you and will get back to you when I have a viable solution.

In the meantime, please feel free to take the above image and save it to your computer and post it on your Facebook page. Let your fans know that they may be missing out on specials and sales.

A Change To Facebook You Should Be Aware Of

Facebook recently made a change to the way people see the pages they like. You now need to have pages listed in either "Show in News Feed" or under a list. To make sure your fans see you it might be a good idea to snag the above and post it to your Facebook Page.

Just right click over the image above and "Save As" then log into your Facebook page and upload it to your page. Social media pages like Facebook and Twitter make these changes and don't usually tell anyone about it. I guess they expect us to just notice it. Whatever the case, it is important to know about these changes and do what you can to share them with your fans or followers.

Short blog today. I am very busy these days with the new brick and mortar shop and life in general. If you have any questions put them in the comments or send me an email to MarketMyShop@gmail.com I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Facebook Ads eBook Now available

I just added the Facebook Advertising Guide to the Market My Shop Etsy Store. The concise and easy to understand guide is only $7.50 and will save you time and energy. I will be adding more guides very soon and as always I am open to suggestions. Thanks!

Facebook Ads For Etsy Shops Recap

I was asked what one of my Facebook ads looked like as an example. This ad has done pretty well for me:

Simple, to the point and a picture that shows one of my handmade products. The ad goes directly to my wall where it can be "liked." It seems that most of my ads have been pretty successful on Facebook. If you are concise and use a decent picture, someone will click.

If your page is engaging without being too spammy, people will stick around. A yearly advertising budget of $600 sounds like a lot, but the potential return is huge. Especially when we start getting closer to Christmas time. Build that audience now. Train that audience. Engage that audience. Then in October, sell to that audience!

Of course you will more than likely sell enough items as a direct result from having a Facebook page to make it all worth while. Here are a few tips to help keep your ever growing audience interested in your page:

1. Post pics OFTEN. I post a pic at least once a day during the week. Sometime it is one of my products. Sometimes it is a picture I share from my news feed. Sometimes it is just a random pic of nothing in particular. Pictures catch attention.

2. "Like" every comment someone makes to you. Acknowledge people when they take the time to leave a comment. Answer their questions. Engage them in conversation.

3. Post more than once a day. People are on Facebook at different times of the day. You want to try and catch them when they are on. This means posting more than one time during the day. I try to post 3 or 4 times a day. Be sure that if you duplicate information that you change it up for those who will see your more than one post or they will think you are getting spammy.

4. Post on other people's walls through your page. Don't post "Come Like Me" posts. Just leave comments, ask questions and engage them. You can even do this with your competition! This will get your name on their page and people tend to click names of shops etc. Especially if your profile pic happens to be one of your product.

That is all for today. See you all tomorrow.

Facebook Ads For Etsy Shops Step 4

Last week we went through most of the steps to create your Facebook Ad. Today we conclude with the last step, paying for your ad.

As I stated earlier, I think you should point your ad to your Facebook business page so that you have multiple opportunities to entice your fans into buying.  So your Objective should be to "like my page" thus insuring a steady stream pf people viewing your page.

Name your campaign whatever you like. I usually ad a number to the end so I can keep things in order. The smallest amount you can set to pay is $50 lifetime budget. If you choose that you will be able to set the date range. I choose to set my budget at around $1.60 a day. Same budget as $50 a month but it makes it so that I never spend over a certain amount in a day.

Price per click will vary greatly. I propose going with their suggested price per click. If they give a range, pick the upper number. I have yet to have to pay their estimate. My price per click is around $0.08 but my range is shown as $0.06 to $0.28

Tomorrow I will try and sum it all up for you. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Facebook Ads For Etsy Step Two

Choosing the text for an ad is probably the most difficult part of creating the advert. You may want to start by choosing the picture first. Remember it will be much smaller when it is in the ad so make sure that it is able to be recognized once it is shrunk down.

Avoid things like "Click Here" or "Click Now" or "Like It" and stick to simple text that represents your product. Using your tag line might work if you have one. You are limited to 90 characters and that includes spaces. You do have a character count to show you how many you have left.

You may end up changing this multiple times during the campaign. I change mine about once every two weeks or so. I also change out my picture. I want to keep it fresh. You can actually over saturate your target audience to the point that they ignore your ad.

Leave landing view on Timeline unless you have a landing page ap of some kind. If you don't know what I am talking about, there will be a post about it soon. Take your time and make sure you have what you want for the picture and text. Take a couple of days and try a few different ones and see what you think before you commit.

That is all for today. The series will continue tomorrow. Let me know if you have any questions.

Etsy Shops And Facebook Ads

Why would you choose Facebook for your next ad campaign? It works, that's why! Before I start telling you how to sign up for the ads I want to take a minute to make sure that we are all on the same page. For the ads to work you need to have a working knowledge of Facebook. You also need to be active on Facebook. Which means that you need to devote some time to it every day.

Your business Facebook Page should be all about your business and very little about your personal life. Sure it is okay to talk a little bit about yourself, after all people want to know you are human. What they do not want to know is what you drank last night or what political party you support or what church you go to. Save that for your personal profile. (If you do not already have a Facebook Fan Page you may want to read these previous articles on them: Facebook Fan Pages For Your Shop, Using Facebook Fan Pages to Increase Business, and Making Facebook Work For You)

If you cannot engage your fans there is probably no point in advertising your page. If your shop is a mess there is probably no reason to advertise your shop. So, it may be time to do a little spring cleaning in your shop. Without the foundation of a well organized shop and an engaging Facebook Page you would just be throwing away money advertising.

Think on that and come back tomorrow to find out how to get started with Facebook Ads. Let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment or emailing me at MarketMyShop@gmail.com

Advertising For Etsy Shops

Where do you advertise your Etsy shop? Advertising is one of the things that most people feel is a complete waste of money. That is about as far from the truth as you can get. Do you really think that if Coke or Pepsi stopped advertising their current customer base would be enough to pay all of their stock holders their dividends?

The main purpose of advertising is to get new customers. The secondary purpose is to inform current customers of special deals. I advertise exclusively on Facebook now.  Well, other than the standard link in email, business cards and signatures in groups and message boards. I direct all my traffic to my Facebook page.

From my Facebook page I list new products and do giveaways. When I have a sale the fans on Facebook are the first to know and sometimes the only to know. I spend about $50 a month on Facebook ads and I am well compensated for it.

Where do you advertise and how is it working out for you?

Facebook Advertising: Design Your Advert

So, now you have your budget set, some 135 character descriptions and some type of photo that is relevant to your shop. Now it is time to start your ad. It is time to head over to  http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/

At some point before you create your ad you will have to set your payment option. You are able to use either a credit card or PayPal. The way Facebook bills is pretty random. They will wait until you have spent $10 to $18 and then bill your credit card or your PayPal account.

Step one is to determine where you will send people who click on your ad. Clicking on "Destination" will bring up a drop-down list of all the pages you have on your account. Choose the page that you want to associate with the ad.  Next choose Facebook Adverts and Facebook Adverts for pages.

Next is the Destination Tab. If you have a personalized landing page, I would suggest sending them there. (I will have an article about personalized landing pages soon) Otherwise, you should probably just send them to your wall. Title is set by Facebook and is grayed out.

Next you get to enter your body(description). Facebook says: "Use this section to further explain the product or service that your advert is about. Emphasise benefits to the user, unique qualities of your product/service and any special offers. End with a clear call-to-action that users should take if they like your advert." I would refrain from saying things like "Click Here" or "For More Information" and just stick with a nice relevant description of your shop.

That concludes the Design your Advert section and today's lesson. Tomorrow I will go through the "Targeting" section. Let me know if you have any questions.

More on Facebook Advertising

You have managed to set aside some advertising dollars. You are ready to start advertising your Facebook Fan Page, or are you. Before you start advertising you need to make sure your Facebook Fan Page is set up correctly, looks great and is engaging. Click "facebook" in the Labels section to the right will bring up several articles I have written on making sure your facebook is doing what it needs to be doing.

If you are confident, then it is time to move on to your first step. Go to http://www.facebook.com/advertising/ and click on "Create an Advert. You must be logged into your profile that your Fan Page was created from. If you are not, Facebook will give you the option to switch to it.

Once you get to the actual page where you create the advertisement, take some time to hover over each and every "?" to see what each item is. Before we move on, I would like you to write up three or four descriptions of your business using only 135 characters. That will be the length of your ad. Be creative. Be engaging. Be mysterious. Be direct. Be what you think will make people want to click on your ad.

That is all for today. I'll be back tomorrow and we'll look at what needs to be filled out to create your ad. In the meantime, I would like to know what your fan base is on your Facebook page. 

Facebook Ads For Your Etsy Shop

Before we get down to the step by step process, I would like to share a little bit of information on the best way to use Facebook advertising, or any advertising for that matter. I would like to share some of my trial and errors so that you do not have to go through the same mistakes.

First of all, you want repeat business from every customer. That is the main goal. Originally I was using Facebook Ads and Google AdWords to point people to my main website: http://www.TangledMetal.com I have nothing for sale on my site. The only way I could track my hits was Google Analytic. It is difficult at best to see who was coming back. I chalked that up to not a good use of advertising dollars.

Next thing I did was use Facebook Ads and Google AdWords pointing to my Etsy shop: http://TangledMetal.etsy.com Though I did see an increase in traffic during the time I was pointing to Etsy there was still no real way of finding out who was coming to the shop because of the ads and certainly no way of knowing if the people who bought were a direct result of the ads or not.

My last experiment was to try and get people to "Like" my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TangledMetal This concept makes the most sense of any of the previous ideas. Once someone is a fan of your Facebook page you have them. Of course they could "unLike" your page but statics show that is not very likely. Once they are a fan you can track purchases by sharing coupon codes to just your fans. It also gives you a boost because you see the number of fans growing every day.

Tomorrow I will get in the "how to's" and "step by step" of setting up Facebook Ads. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Either by comment or through email: MarketMyShop.blogger.com

Facebook Advertising for Etsy

I have tried a few forms of advertising, from Google AdWords to buying impressions on blogs. So far, the best results have come from my Facebook Ad Campaign. In the last three months I went from just under 500 to over 1100 fans to my Facebook page. That does not seem like much but it has brought a lot of traffic to my Etsy shop and I can directly attribute several sales directly from my Facebook page.

Before I start to get into how to go about starting a Facebook Advertising Campaign let me first talk about budgeting. We all set budgets for materials, internet and tools. If you want to have a successful advertising campaign you must set a budget. My budget right now is $50 a month. That is  $600 a year. It seems like a lot but the return can be huge.

The great thing about Facebook advertising is that the fans you have are a short term and long term investment. The fan may not buy from you today or tomorrow or even this year, but one day you'll post the right picture or special and that person will buy something that pays for a full month of advertising.

So, with all of that being said, sit down and try to figure out what it will take to dedicate $50 a month for advertising. It might mean no Starbucks coffee for a few days. It might mean not renting a movie or buying a pair of shoes. Whatever you have to sacrifice today will worth every penny and more in the future. Don't even call it a sacrifice, call it a postponement.

That is all for today. Come back tomorrow with your $50 a month budget. If you cannot come up with a $50 a month budget come up with some form of steady advertising budget that you can handle and I will do my best to help you with that as well. Feel free to ask any questions you may have either as a comment or email: MarketMyShop@gmail.com

Share Your Shop

I wanted to give you all the opportunity to share your shop today. So, in the comments put the URL of your shop or Facebook fan page. This gives you the opportunity to share your shop with someone who might not have actually seen it through other means. Give a one sentence description of the goods you have available.

I'll start with mine:

Tangled Metal has Steampunk and chainmail jewelry, accessories, fashion and home decor.
http://tangledmetal.etsy.com
http://tangledmetal.artfire.com
http://www.facebook.com/tangledmetal

Making Facebook Work For You

This week I have been discussing how to set up your Facebook Fan Page and ways to get more fans. Today I would like to talk about how Facebook can make money for you. Facebook is one of the greatest promotion tools you can use to spread the word about a sale you are having, a new item listed, a show you are vending at or just about anything. The more fans you have the more potential customers you have.

I talked a while back about QR codes and how to get one for any website you have. (QR Code article) It is tie to start using that code to gain more fans. Put it on your business cars, print it on a piece of paper and put it in your booth at your next show, put it on flyers, put it where ever you print something dealing with your shop you can even put it on a sticker and put it next to your return address on your packages.

Adding the Etsy Facebook App is a great way to make money with Facebook. People can buy directly from your Facebook page. The app can be found here: My Etsy for Facebook It is easy to set up and starts working for you as soon as it is live. You will have to switch back to your profile page to install it, just make sure you install it on your Fan Page. Some people set the My Etsy App page as their default landing page. I do not recommend this.

Speaking of landing pages, there is a neat way to get more likes to your page. You can set up a landing page that encourages people to click on the "Like" button. You then set your default landing page to the newly created page and every time someone new comes to you page they will see your custom page. I will not go into the creation of this but if you Google "How to set up a custom Facebook landing page" there are many tutorials. Please note that there are some free options out there. So, if you are on a tight budget you can still do it.

I talked about organic vs direct traffic the other day. When people find you organically it is more valuable than if you are found through an ad or you ask someone to visit. The same thing applies to Facebook Fan Pages. When people find you naturally and become a fan it is far more valuable than if you tell someone to come be your fan. I know people with few Facebook Fans that have a better customer conversion rate than people with thousands of fans. I am not saying do not advertise your page, just that natural fans tend to become customers faster.

This concludes the series on Facebook Fan Pages. Next week I will be talking about Twitter and how to make it work for you. In the meantime if you have questions please feel free to ask.

Using Facebook Fan Page To Increase Business

Yesterday I talked about how to create a Facebook Fan Page. Today I am discussing ways to use your Fan Page to bring more traffic to your shop. I am sure that you have all read or heard that the way to get more fans is to be engaging. But what does that really mean. I will tell you what it does not mean.

If you bombard your fans with links to your shop over and over again day after day eventually you will be advertising to the crickets. No one likes to see someone post 10 new items right in a row. Your fans will either drop you completely or "hide" you from their view. Another thing that fans hate is having links constantly posted on their wall. You know who else hates this? Facebook. They will take action against your account and not allow you the privilege to post for a few days or they will completely delete your account for you.

Being engaging means being human. Share parts of your life with your fans. They like to see the human side to you. Mention what project you are working on today and ask your fans what they are doing. I rarely post links to my shop on my status. On occasion when I write a fun blog I will put a link to it. Sometimes when I am featured in a treasury I will link to it. But mostly I try to be just your average Joe talking about the weather.

I do have a Etsy "tab" that contains my entire shop. You can get this from going to the Facebook link under your Promote section on your account page and following the directions. I really don't think it has done much for me but it is there. My fans know I have a shop on Etsy and that is quite good enough.

Most of my Etsy traffic from Facebook comes from me posting photo albums. When I start a new line or just once a week I will put up a new photo album with 5 to 10 pictures in it. In the description of each photo I put a link to the item. I am never pushy about it, I just say "Available at: Link" and it seems to be just enough. In other words don't force it. Let the traffic come naturally.

Getting more fans is the part most people struggle with. The first milestone is the first 25 fans. Here is where you ask your friends and family and post on your teams and blog about it and Tweet about it. After your first 25 fans you can claim a custom username that shortens your address(see yesterday's blog post about this) After you have your custom username it is time to get more fans. The more fans you can get the better chance that you'll get a customer out of it.

Here are a few ways to get more fans.
1. Be useful - Offer something useful to your fans such as all Facebook Fans will receive 10% off this month.
2. Offer a giveaway - Don't have a contest, Facebook is pretty specific on how you have a contest. Offer a giveaway at x amount of fans.
3. Advertise on Facebook - This can get expensive very quickly so be cautious. I am sure you've seen the "create an advert" box on the side of your screen. If you are not sure you can convert the fans to sales it might not be a good option.
4. Be friendly - Don't talk about religion, politics or controversial topics. Save that for your profile page. If you offend someone they will drop you like a hot potato and never think twice.
5. Keep it Rated G to Rated PG - This means your language and your pictures. Need I say more?
6. Post your Link - Many of the pages I Like allow a thread once a week to post my shop link. Try to refrain from posting your link just out of the blue on random pages. This could get you in trouble.
7. Like Pages - If you are logged in as a page, you can like other people's Fan Pages. Like pages that are within your industry. Follow the rules above though, if you like a controversial page or a page that is not PG then you can lose fans.
8. Engage others - be part of conversations. Like other people's comments. Share your experiences.
9. Timing is Everything - Try and figure out when your fans are most active and make your posts then. If you post at 3am many people will never see your post.
10. Be consistent - But don't be a robot. Post around the same time each day. Post every day if you can. But don't post the same stuff all the time. Mix it up.

I hope this helps some. I did not get to everything I had planned to talk about today so, I will continue my Facebook series tomorrow. In the meantime let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Facebook Fan Pages For Your Shop

Facebook Page Creation

If you do not have a Facebook fan page you might be missing out on hundreds or thousands of potential customers. You may already have a Facebook profile page which is different than a fan page. Profiles have some limitation such as you are only able to have 5,000 friends. A fan page can have millions of fans. Let's say for now that you already have a Facebook profile.

To create a fan page, make sure you are logged in and go to  http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php You should see the image above. Note that there are several categories to choose from. If you plan to one day open a Brick and Mortar business you may want to choose "Local Business or place" but most of you will just want to maintain an online shop so I would go with "Company, organization or institution." By clicking on the image a drop-down list shows up. More than likely you'll want to select "Retail and consumer merchandise." Type in the name of your business after selecting the category and sub category, then check the box saying you have read the Facebook Page terms. Of course, I strongly recommend that you read this now because you have some important Do's and Don'ts that will make your life easier in the long run if you understand. Then click "Get Started"

Now the fun begins. The first step is to upload a picture. This is what everyone will see when you comment on a post, write something on your wall, etc. I strongly suggest using the same picture as the one that you use for your Etsy or ArtFire avatar. This will help to build brand awareness and will help your shoppers to recognize you. After uploading, click "Continue."

In this step you'll be able to send an invite to all of your friends on your personal profile page. When you click the "Invite friends" button a list of all your friends will pop up. There is a check box by each friend. Clicking the check box will send an invite to them. If there are those that you do not wish to invite, just leave the check box blank. You can also pick contacts out of your email to send an invite. You also have two check boxes that you can click if you want to post a link on the wall of your profile and to "Like" the page from your profile. Remember if you "Like" the page it will be shown on your wall too. Once you are done, click "Continue."

The next step is pretty self explanatory. You are entering in the basic information of your company. Write as much or as little as you wish. I would suggest writing as much info as you can. You want to include website addresses, email, history, mission, etc. The more information the better. People like to know who they are buying from. After you get done with the setup, you are ready for the next step: Getting your first 25 fans so that you can get a custom username instead of the long string of numbers you page has at the beginning.

So, if you have a blog it is time to write a new blog post about your new fan page. If you have a Twitter account it is time to tweet about your new fan page. Be sure to add a link in your email signature. I would hold off on putting anything into print such as business cards until you have your custom URL in place. If you are on a forum and can put links in your signature, that is another good place to get started. If you are on Teams on Etsy there is more than likely a thread devoted to sharing your fan pages. Be sure to post in all of the teams that it is appropriate to do so. Some teams do not allow this so be sure you know the rules.

Tomorrow I will be discussing how to set up your custom username and ways to market your shop through your Facebook fan page. If you have any questions about how to start your fan page please leave a comment and I will answer if I can. If you know someone who would benefit from my blog feel free to share it.

Understanding Stats Part 1: Direct, Referral, and Organic.

Before I delve into this week's articles on Facebook fan pages and Twitter I need to explain a few concepts. These concepts are repeated over and over again from Etsy Stats to Google Analytics. These are Direct traffic, Referring Sites and Organic Searches. We'll use Google's definitions as a base.

Direct traffic is defined as having no referring site, meaning there is no way to track where that traffic came from. Someone might be going to your page through a bookmark or favorite set within their browser. They may also have typed the address into their address bar in their browser. They could have also clicked on a link from their email that did not have a reference tag set in it. Or it could be a link from a PDF or Word Document. Basically it means that for one reason or another there is not a way to track where that person came from.

A referring site is when someone clicks on a link from a website. If you were to put a link to your Etsy shop on your Facebook page and someone clicked on it that would show up as Facebook being a referral. The same thing applies when someone clicks on a Twitter link or a link in a blog. If it can be traced to a site it will fall under a referring site. These are generally static links and are sometimes called backlinks. They really help with your SEO and Google Ranking.

Organic is when someone finds you without an ad or a link to your site from another site. Most of the time it is when someone finds you by typing words into a search engine and your site comes up as one of the results. This is the best kind of traffic to have. It means that someone was looking for something you have and they found you. The more relevant your site or shop or page is the better chance you will be found through organic means.

Having your Facebook fan page and Twitter handle found through organic means is one of the best things you can have. It is quite difficult to be found this way because so few people utilize the search features in Facebook and Twitter. Most all of your fans and followers will be ones who were referred to you. For the next few articles I will go into more detail about how to get more fans to your Facebook page and what kinds of fans are the best to have. If you have questions you'd like answered please leave them in the comments so I can address them. (If you are reading this in your email rather than on the blog please feel free to email me your questions at marketmyshop@gmail.com )