The new stats have shown me that actually most of my views are coming form within Folksy search. Social media actually counts for quite a small percentage of my views. We are encouraged to promote so much using these platforms but I have found them a huge time drain and am going to cut down considerably. As this is not my only job, time is so precious. I’d be really interested to hear others views on this. I am starting to think concentrating on making new stock is really far more important.
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Facebook is my second highest platform (after Folksy) for generating shop visitors, closely followed by the Folksy Forums, so I will definitely still keep promoting on Facebook.
I don’t really promote on other social media platforms because I think a few of my links to Twitter don’t work and I don’t know how to fix them but if I had a better phone, I would probably interact on Instagram a bit more.
How are people finding Instagram for creating customers?
Pinterest is pretty high up on my list of customers too - so I’ll carry on with that.
I was surprised how many searches are coming from within Folksy though, so that’s good news.
Most definitely, i have my accounts to do without any distractions! I’m trying to keep off the internet but as you can see I’m failing miserably! I blame it on the calculater! However, I do get a fair number of foreign transactions so they must come from outside the folksy platform. I just do a little now and then on social media. You never know where you’re next customers are going to find out about you from!
Pinterest seems to be working for me too so I will do a bit of work on that.
Personally only been on here a while I find that instagram is a good one for me. I have another online site that I find posting on insta has got me most of my sales. I think I prefer it as it is to the point no jargon and I find it instant eye candy for the buyer, plus I have all my links at the top of my instagram profile so they click on the shops & buy. It takes a few minutes to post and I share the post to twitter FB at the same time. I also use the same photo’s for my shops just my opinion. I have had more views through folksy but no sales - I feel the aim for me is to get people also outside of folksy as well to buy my items. Admittedly only had 3 sales on here so far since April but 2 came via instagram - I guess it’s what works for you really - still learning!
I’m going through another phase of disillusionment with social media at the moment.
Pinterest still works well for me but FB has been a real hard slog since the algorithms changed a couple of years ago now. I still use it because I feel I have to, but it’s hard to get any bang for your buck there.
I started using Instagram and was really enjoying it. I posted some nice pix, followed all the wedding bloggers and got a huge reach last month then something bad happened! A pop-up appeared saying “We notice you have a shop page on FB. There are lots of advantages in linking the two. Are you interested?” I was immediately suspicious and clicked on “Maybe Later” and got another box to tick saying “I am not a business.” There was no way out of it without telling an outright lie. So I linked my accounts. Since then I have been constantly pressured by FB to promote both my Instagram and FB pages to the tune of £10. My Instagram reach has collapsed and I am not being offered any interesting or popular accounts to follow there any more. Just dud ones with low popularity and less than 50 followers.
The moral of the story? I’m not sure as I was not given a genuine choice as to whether or not to link my accounts. I feel that this attitude from FB is grasping, and as usual it is hitting people like me who don’t have a large marketing budget to blow.
Has anybody else had a similar experience?
Sam x
Oh, and my last two customers were internal via Folksy…
Sam x
Interesting reading. I’m not sure how you could have avoided linking them!? The rules just seem to change so often don’t they!
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I don’t do loads but I share mine out amongst platforms so I post somewhere every day.
With my new stats which I can only view from firefox and not IE which is annoying. I notice my biggest traffic comes from what is title Misc so I’ve still no idea where they put in to the category.
My next is Folksy then Folksy forums then everything else.ie Bing, then pinterest, google, twitter and face then after that comes, yahoo, 2 of the craft forums I’m on and Stumble upon which I’ve not used for the past year as I don’t like it’s new format and I can’t post to it anymore only view
Rather than using my social media to promote things in my shop (although I do occasionally do that too) I use it to promote my other skills by showing off commissions / things I’ve altered or repaired for people / new deliveries of rocks and promote face to face events I’ll be doing. Doing this has got me more commissions and direct sales even if it hasn’t got traffic to my shop so I’ll keep on doing it. I only post a couple of times a week anyway.
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I think it is important to identify which Social media sites are worth your time and to also try to limit the time you spend on them in order to concentrate on other things. It’s very difficult working from home and prioritising your time ! I have been making a concerted effort to post on Instagram several times a day and see how that works for me. It may be helpful for you to perhaps schedule a post for every day on your facebook so you know something is going out? I have started doing that again otherwise facebook reach goes down as soon as you stop posting stuff. I find that I do get interest from Twitter, not so much from Pinterest . I don’t spend enough time making new stock ! x
For all the time that I have been selling on E… (4 years) and now on here, I have never had any sales from any social platform even though I am on FB, Twitter & Pinterest. I do get some views from FB but nothing from Pin. even though I love the site and it is my preferred social link. Does anyone know how I can check if I am set up right on Pin?
I saw a statistic the other day that said only 50% of people use social media. What I don’t know is what percentage of that is my target audience. So whilst I accept FB is a great tool to use, as is all other forms of social media, I’m not sure it is the best way to reach the people who will buy my pictures and cards. It is one of many channels. It varies from sector to sector but I have sold the most original artwork by having exhibitions, not by promoting on social media. I do think that making new art is more important for me, as the more I have, the more chance someone will see something that grabs their attention and makes them want to buy! 
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Well I seem to get sales through Folksy, twitter, instagram and facebook, so I’ll keep on all platforms although I agree it is really time consuming.
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Hi
I find any social networking an uphill battle. I always feel like I’m wearing Harry Potters invisibility cloak.
Having said that, I do find Instagram is my favourite.
Facebook is the worst… urrrrggggghhh !!!
Constantly badgering for paid promotion since the changes.
I can’t afford to shell out these kinds of costs, maybe one day… it’s just a lot of hard work using these platforms when posts are only shown to a handful of people.
I’m really trying to focus more on making stock for my shop. I always tire myself out mentally on social media. It’s time to focus more on what I love doing.
I might make myself a rota… creating time, promotion time, design time etc…
I still carry on though… I’m determined to get a grasp of it and do well like a lot of crafts people do.
They must be doing something right. It’s a fine balance.
Wishing you all the best
Karen x
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IFTTT is really useful - you can set up little applets that will post whatever you have shared once to your other social media platforms. For example my instagram pins to a pinterest board and also shares onto twitter as I just didn’t have time to post on all of them. You can also do similar with facebook.
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I agree that you have to basically find out which ones work and which do not.
It seems to differ from seller to seller as to which platforms work. I invested a ton of time in all of them, and feel that I’m qualified to decide that basically Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are a total waste of my time and that Facebook is the only platform that tends to generate visitors and sales.
I use relevant and local Facebook sales groups and post individual products on there, my actual Facebook page is also useless in terms of generating clicks and sales.
I will continue to post on all of the channels as I think it’s important to maintain a presence but will be massively scaling back the amount of posting and time I spent on anything else other than Facebook groups.
I’m beginning to believe that networking with other businesses and generating inbound links (for Google advantage) by becoming active in the handmade community and getting people interested in your business and your blogs is way more important than social media.
Making new products on a regular basis I also feel is important for sales generation.
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Facebook seems to work well for me. I often get sales from there and StumbleUpon also features quite highly in my daily stats. I use Instagram and Twitter and I get likes and shares and followers but these don’t seem to appear on my stats page much. I think probably the main purpose of using social media is to get yourself known. Someone might see your things in the Summer and then remember you at Christmas.