22 May 2011

Do You Have a Facebook Account?

Are you an aspiring handmade business? Do you want to grow your business? Who is your market base and is it big enough? How can you expand it?

Do you know just how much Facebook can help you to grow your business and promote it to the rest of the world?

If we look outside New Zealand there are cases in point of exponential growth through the use of facebook. Business' that within a year of opening have a huge following in the tens of thousands and a sales base they can barely keep up with. They achieved this solely through online marketing and interaction, through facebook.

The key points are
  • Lots of interactions on your business page - ask questions to get your potential customer to engage with you. Be a normal person - report the good and the bad. No one just wants to read about a sale and a re-listed item - its boring!
  • Keep your page up to date! - Hard if your are like me and do not want to spend every waking minute on the computer! But schedule times throughout the day when you will do a status update.
  • Make your page recognizable. There are many professional businesses on Facebook itself that will design and upload an avatar / logo for you and make matching shop banners etc for a nominal fee. Have one for when you are holiday or even seasonal logos to change throughout the year - but keep the main idea the same so potential customers don't lose you!
  • Engage in polite and respectful conversation with your "friends". Don't air you dirty linen on your business page!
  • Link! Link! Link! To your website, your blog and anywhere else important. However - don't confuse your customers by linking to every online shop you are a member of! Direct them to the one place you want to get the most sales from!
This doesn't just happen over night and you will also have to go out and 'like' business' too. But try to have some direction in your 'liking'.

Its great to have a handmade support base - so business' similar to yours can have great benefits for sharing information and ideas.

Its also a great place to meet people who may live just up the road - like through the New Zealand Handmade Made It coffee meetups.

But as far as a target audience goes for selling your products - think about who would buy your wares. If it is baby products like Kazzalblue Baby and Children Boutique then check out people who like Plunket or follow other children's pages, if it is jewellery you might want to check out some of the Home and Garden facebook pages where women might go for ideas, if it is winter woollies then you might try to find people who live in cold places. I know it sounds overly simple - but it actually is. You just have to think like the customer you want to find:)

I hope this is helpful to those of you still pondering the should I or shouldn't I dilemma of Facebook for your growing business. Here is a link to an article on a facebook page that was and is a facebook success story - Georgie Girl - A Facebook Success Story

Posted by Joy from Kazzalblue

4 comments:

  1. Thanks Joy, I do not have a facebook account, but after reading your link to Georgie Girl, I might consider it. cheers Marie

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  2. Thanks, I do have a business facebook account
    http://www.facebook.com/BaleaRaitzFashion

    I hope I do so far ok. I am new to the FB and I try to sell my designs.
    Your post was very informative!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great article thanks Joy. I too find that Facebook has been very beneficial for getting my name 'out there' and keeping in touch with my customers. It's a fantastic resource for crafty business owners. P.S. You know you've made it when you have to run sales by ballot like Georgie Girl - inspirational!!

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