Social Media Special - Facebook

Here's another Social Media Special!

This time we're going to take a look at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/

Everyone has heard of Facebook, but some of you might not be using it yet, or may only be using it for personal use rather than business use. So today we're going to look at how Facebook can be used to promote your Etsy shop.

Facebook Basics:

First of all, here's a few Facebook Basics, for those of you who don't use it at all yet...

• You can use Facebook to share stories, photos and videos - both your own and you can share other people's too. You can also use facebook to join and communicate with 'groups' of people who have the same interests as you, you can follow business pages of business you like, you can play games, chat in Facebook messages, and more.
• To use Facebook you need to set up a Facebook account (anyone over the age of 13 can do so).
• PRIVACY SETTINGS: You should think carefully about the amount of information you put on there and check your privacy settings too. For example, if you tend to use your birth town as a password for your online bank account, then don't put your birth town on Facebook - you don't want to make it easy for people to gather your personal information and use it to hack into other accounts. This doesn't need to scare you off, it's just good to keep it in mind when you are filling out your details. You can change the privacy settings for each update if you want some to be public and some to only be seen by your friends, or specific friends only, etc. You can read more about privacy settings here: https://www.facebook.com/help/325807937506242/
• You can become 'friends' with your real-life friends and family, so you can see the photos and updates they post, and they can see yours. 
• People can interact with the photos and updates you post, by 'liking' them (or other emotions e.g. 'loving'), or by commenting below them - you can then reply to their comment too.
• To use Facebook as your business (your Etsy shop) you need to set up a page. You have to already have a Facebook account before you can set up a page. Once you have a page, then people can 'like' it, and they will see photos and updates you post in there (though they won't always see everything you post, we'll talk more about this in a minute). They will be able to interact by commenting on / sharing your posts. They will also be able to message your page. You can add other things too, like a shop where you can list your items but then they have to click through to Etsy to purchase it.

There is lots more you can learn about Facebook settings and uses and I'm not going to cover it all here today. See the 'getting started' page of the Facebook Help Centre to find out more: https://www.facebook.com/help/364458366957655/

Using Facebook For Business:

Here's a few ideas on how Facebook can help your business...

Your Facebook Page: As mentioned above, you can set up a page for your business. 

• You can post updates one there (photos, videos, or just snippets about your day). Try a mix of updates about new products, behind the scenes, and about you / your shop. 
• You could try finding some hashtags to join in with on certain days, like #motivationmonday or #throwbackthursday - see more here: https://thrivehive.com/39-daily-hashtags-for-small-business-marketing/
• Pay to 'boost' your posts or advertise to reach more people - and you can set the target audience these are being shown to so that it matches your target audience (see our post about finding your target market here:  https://dorsetteam.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/business-building-finding-your-target.html)
• Not all the people who've 'liked' your page will see all your posts. If they haven't recently visited your page or liked one of your updates then your new one won't be shown to them, or it will be quite far down in their facebook feed, so they probably won't scroll down far enough to see it. Encourage people to comment on your updates by asking questions - the more interaction your post has the higher it will appear in feeds.
• You can set up a Facebook shop, as mentioned above. For how to do that see here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/912190892201033
• You can also add events you are attending, for example if you will be at the Dorset Team Fairs you can show these events on your shop page. Here's how to do that: https://www.facebook.com/help/802612399854497

Your Facebook Group: Some business will also set up a Facebook Group for other people to join. 

• This can be set so it's not as public as your Facebook Page - you can then use it to share special offers or coupon codes with people in your group - so this could be loyal customers, or customers who have spent over a certain amount etc.
• People might be more likely to interact in a group - they might not want to comment on a public photo on your public page, but in a group there are less people to see the comment. 
• You can pin posts to the top of a group so that people see the important information.
• You could try creating polls to get more feedback - this works on pages and in groups but again you might get more responses in a less public setting.

Join Groups: You can also join groups to help you network your business.

• Join groups to help with your Etsy shop, for example the Dorset Team Members group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1514236692123255/ so you can ask for help if your are stuck on something, but also to share successes, news, etc with other shop owners who will understand your joy!
• Join groups where people go if they are looking for handmade items to buy, or where you can share your giveaways, news, latest products etc. For example there's the group 'Handmade Craft Network UK' with over 38,000 members: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1578560309058402/ 
• You will find lots more groups to join if your search Facebook. When you search something (e.g. 'unicorn') you then need to scroll down to the 'groups' section, and click 'see all'. This will show you the groups it has found on that topic:

That's all we're going to look at for Facebook today. Let us know if you have any questions. Don't forget you can also 'like' the Dorset Team page here: https://www.facebook.com/dorsetteam/

If you missed our other Social Media Special posts you can see them here:

Social Media Special on Twitter: https://dorsetteam.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/social-media-special-twitter.html

Social Media Special on Instagram: https://dorsetteam.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/social-media-special-instagram.html

Be An Expert - Product Promotion - Brand Reps

Do you find it hard to take enough great photos of your products so that you can fill up the photo slots on Etsy AND share great images on social media? You might want to think about getting a Brand Representative - Brand Rep for short.

A Brand Rep is someone who you give FREE products to, in exchange for them to take stylish photos of those products for you to use on your Instagram and other social media accounts. There are also Brand Enthusiasts, who will buy products at a discount from you, again to provide you with photos - but obviously an enthusiast would have to be someone really keen on your products, as you are expecting them to part with their money as well as their time. For more information on Reps & Enthusiasts see this post here: http://cuttingforbusiness.com/2015/10/21/what-are-instagram-brand-reps-enthusiasts/

Instagram is the best place to find Brand Reps - create a 'Brand Rep Search' image with some text, making sure to include the Instagram handle for your shop (so people can find you once the image has been shared). Use the #brandrepsearch hashtag and other appropriate hashtags to get found. Ask applicants to share the image to increase your reach. Have a deadline for when to apply (keep the application open for a few weeks at least to give people time to share and apply). You can also find Brand Reps by joining Facebook Groups like 'Let's Rep Together': https://www.facebook.com/groups/letsrep/

Make sure you are clear on what country you are happy to post items to (a lot of Brand Reps are in the US), what you expect from a Brand Rep, and how long the term will be (a good initial term is 3 months). Once you've chosen a Rep or Reps make sure to have an agreement or contract in place setting out time-frames for delivery of items and how long the photos will take, what the photos will be used for, and other points. Here's an example of an artist licensing agreement: https://artlawjournal.com/download-artists-licensing-agreement-free/ or search 'Brand Rep Terms & Conditions' in google to see what terms other brands have set out for their reps. Remember these are all just for guidance, and if you want an in-depth legally-binding contract you should pay for a contract lawyer to draw one up.

Here's some more advice on working with Brand Reps: http://mumswithhustle.com/blog/lucky-7-tips-for-working-with-brand-reps/

Be An Expert - Keeping Track - Recording Reach

Do you regularly look at your reach for your shop, checking your Etsy and social media stats? If not, you should!

Here's 'five shop stats you should be tracking' from the Etsy Seller Handbook: https://www.etsy.com/uk/seller-handbook/article/five-shop-stats-you-should-be-tracking/22398388701 which explains how to look at a few stats and why.

Here's some more information on Etsy stats of you aren't familiar with looking at them: https://www.etsy.com/uk/help/article/541

Social media can be a bit trickier to track. You can use a paid system like Hootsuite (https://hootsuite.com/en-gb/products/social-media-analytics) to help look at everything, or you could individually look at stats on each social media account yourself. For example, on Instagram you can switch to having a business profile, rather than a personal one, and then you can see 'insights' into how well your posts are doing (see more information on this here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/788388387972460).

You can create yourself a spreadsheet to input some information - think about including how many times you posted on that social media in a month, and whether your follower numbers went up or down. Record which posts performed best so you can start to see a pattern of what kind of images and links your customers like to see. Think about which hashtags worked well too. And when you look back and see a social media post performed well, check out that date under 'specific dates' in your Etsy stats - did you see a spike in people visiting your shop from that channel? Did it result in favourites / sales? 

Team Member Chibi Chi Designs has shared a social media planner which could help, with space to include your social media fans / followers at the beginning and end of each month. Check it out here: http://chibichidesign.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/getting-to-grips-with-social-media.html

Make sure those social media posts are converting - by keeping track of them you can see which channels and which style of posts are worth spending your time on!