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 )