Facebook has 1.2 billion users worldwide and can be an excellent way for designers and makers to promote their work, build a fanbase and reach a bigger audience.
But in the past year, there have also been changes to the algorithms it uses to show stories and posts, and these have led to reduced reach and engagement for many businesses, small and large.
What’s your experience? Do you have any tips you can share? What would you like to know about using Facebook to boost your business?
I completely rely on Facebook for my orders! In the past it worked perfectly for me and my reach was almost the same as my like count. Those were the days! If I don’t promote a post I’m lucky to reach 50 people- I even have a screen shot on my phone where I’d only reached 5 people after a few hours!
My tips- check the insights to see when the majority of your audience are online, it seems to have shifted to slightly earlier than it used to be.
Also, make the most of networking pages such as Hike Those Likes- I get more likes and interaction just by posting on their page than an unpromoted post on my page. They also do Share Your Wares evenings where they pick quite a few items to share, which has resulted in many orders 
One last one- don’t pay too much attention to the like count! If it goes down, the way I think of it, its one less person that wasn’t too interested in my page, and if only 50 people are seeing my post I want all 50 to love what I’m doing!
*Just to clarify Hike Those Likes is more of an advertising page, as opposed to liking for the sake of liking- in fact, they’re frequently saying how they’re against that. It’s a very useful page to get your items out there to people that perhaps would never have seen you. Just wanted to clarify as I realise the name contradicts my last paragraph!
Most important thing about they way to use your business page on FB so far as I’m concerned is don’t ever swap likes, join in like ladders etc - there is absolutely no point! Yes, you may have a high number of ‘likes’, but what’s the good of having a big number of page likes if people don’t actually want to see your stuff in their newsfeed because they only ‘liked’ your page so that you’d ‘like’ theirs in return? If they’re not interested they won’t interact, and some will even switch off notifications from your page.
Aim for a target audience of people who will be genuinely interested in what you do - they are the ones who will like your posts, comment on them and share them. They are the people who will be your actual paying customers.
Don’t fill your page with only adverts for what you are selling - interact with your followers, ask them questions, get them to give input into your ideas etc.
I’m on about 1300 likes - the majority are genuine likes (I know a few people find my page, like it, and ask for a like in return - sorry, I don’t do that!) - my posts can reach 200 - 800 people depending on time of day and what I’m posting, which I’m pleased with. I could reach more if I paid for promotion, and I’ve done that a couple of times and reached about 2,000 people, and it did bring some new page likes and sales, but I’m so busy with commissions at the moment (yay!) that I’m not paying for any of that kind of promotion for a while
If you couldn’t make tonight’s #folksyhour chat about Facebook, here’s a summary of what we talked about…
hi -what is a like ladder?
thanks
do you sell directly on facebook or link to your folksy shop? thanks
Ooh, will check out the link, thank you!
Like ladders are where people all comment with their page and (I think!) everyones goes down the list and likes all the pages @SallyandtheFreckles . As Dandelions Gallery said you want to aim for people who genuinely have an interest in your work, rather than liking for the sake of increasing likes on a page.
I’ve sold directly on Facebook for a while, but I wanted to reach a new audience as well as my Facebook likers so joined up to Folksy again. I’ve now linked the two to try and get more people to my Folksy shop!
Thanks for the link - missed it last night as was out watching my 9yr old son sing at a choral event - thank god for air con is all I can say!
I have to admit when I first started out on FB I had a friend who helped share and got all her friends to like my page, whether they were interested or not! It’s probably only in the last year that I’ve realised what having a page is for! Likes do not mean sales, and it’s just a way to show potential customers what you do.
The good thing about FB is you can promote your brand (and lifestyle) on it and get people to hopefully interact with you and they get a “feeling” for who you are and what you do. As a freebie it’s great, but not something to be relied upon. For small home-based businesses though, we don’t have a great deal of cash (if any!) to spend on marketing and promotion, so you do tend to rely on the freebie stuff like FB and get disheartened when things change, as they have over the years.
So yes, I find it a bit of a double edged sword to be honest.
I find sharing my posts help my reach count a lot. I share on my own personal page and in knitting and handmade groups. I have 949 likes and one of the posts I shared got a reach count of over 5000.
Thanks everyone for all your fabulous tips!
I launched last Oct and was steadily growing but since January i’ve been struggling with finding my audience, i did a paid promotion and it showed it too most of those that already liked my page but straight after my reach dropped through the floor and then stalled for a long while after. I did try to target the post but maybe i didn’t get it quite right?
I’ve defiantly found when people interact rather than just like a post my reach is better. So i’ve gotta think up more ways to get those lovely people commenting. I’ve started using hashtags too to see how that works and it seems to do well on twitter just not sure whether on not it’s such a big thing on fb? Looking more into groups to join too without spreading myself to thin to keep up with everything. Having recently joined a lovely group has helped bring in a few more likes and who know maybe future potential customers.
Fingers crossed if i keep chipping away at it and keep learning my audience will grow & hopefully a sale or two will happen along the way.
Good luck everyone
J x
Following on from the excellent #folksyhour discussion, can I ask about FB business page settings?
Who has their page as “Artist”, “Small business”, “Shop”, or whatever, and do you feel it males a difference?
Mine is set up as ‘brand/product’ - ‘home decor’.
After finding out that leaving comments rather than just liking things has more of a positive effect in that persons views and increases their chances of been seen more I’m definitely going to take the time to comment more.
Come on folks we can do this!!! We will crack this promotion thing if it’s the last thing we do… 
I have mine set up as a small business @rosesworkshop If I remember rightly when I set up the page I didn’t have a huge choice of options so I just went for the closest description from the drop down menu.
I would love something abit more snappy and punchy
Karen
Good News! You can change your category. If you click on the ‘about’ tab and then hover over the ‘category’ line a little edit button should appear (on the right hand side) and the drop down menus reappear. I’ve gone for ‘people’ - ‘designer’. I tend to use my FB page to show new beads/ rocks that have arrived, works in progress, recent commissions etc rather than ‘i’ve just listed this’ posts so designer seemed closer than shop or small business.
I’ve found that ‘shares’ are very useful for increasing exposure but if you want people to share posts then links need to go in the comments otherwise they just share the link without your original post (hope that makes sense).
Sasha
Ohhh I will have a look at that later Sasha @SashaGarrett
I will have to unearth the laptop for that procedure probably. The tablet apps are good, but they do lack a lot of the options.
Yes I think I follow about the links when sharing posts. I’ve noticed when a family member has shared mine it zips off to their page without the comments. Is that what you mean? Also you never really see if anyone has commented on a shared post once it’s gone adrift.
Karen
Yup that is what I mean about the links. If you go into ‘insights’ and click on the post you are interested in it should bring up a table summerising all the likes, shares and comments but I haven’t found a way of seeing the comments left about your post on the page that it has been shared to. So on one of my recent posts I can see that it got 10 likes, 2 comments and 1 share on the original post but a further 3 likes and 3 comments on the page that shared it. I only know what the comments were because it was my other half that shared it and I had an email from the person who had passed comment wanting to commission something!
Probably will need the laptop, I’ve never tried the facebook app as my fingers and phone don’t seem to agree on doing that sort of thing.
Sasha
Hi, I’m completely new to Folksy and just opened my shop yesterday 
I’ve been reading through the comments here and I thought I’d add a bit. On my FB page I went for ‘People - Designer’ also. I felt that out of a poor choice it was the only one that was close to what I do. As for if it makes a difference what you call yourself, I’m not sure, I think it depends on what you are trying to say. If your FB page is all about you as personal brand or if you consider what you do as a business that you work at…I think that’s clear
I wanted my FB page to be about me as a person/designer as I’m hired for commissions on my individual strengths & my portfolio (& recommendation hopefully).
Retail on sites like Folksy is a branch of what I do, but also a way to get my name out there and do more personal projects in between commissions. Saying that, my FB page is neglected compared to my twitter account where I’m much more active and therefore more successful, so I really need to get a bit more active on FB as it seems some of you are having quite a lot of success.
Thanks @SashaGarrett I didn’t release you could bring up a table summary showing shares info…that really handy.
My business page setting is under the artist category which is luckily is spot on for me as i’m an artist & illustrator. I also don’t show loads of listings for a couple of reasons…i think it puts some people off if it your all about the hard sell i want them to come and enjoy the humour in my page while not feeling pressured to buy. I also have 2 sides to my business ( my shop-art i produce for my products & my licensing-art i produce for other companies products).
I show alot of work in progress, studio pic’s and finished art work but with relative puns that are light hearted and sometimes topical. I try and build my brand around my characters rather then me and in particular around my Logo characters Horace the Frog & Herbert the Monkey who are always up to abit of mischief.
I’m trying both Facebook & Twitter (very new to Twitter) it’s all a def learning curve but very interesting to pick up all the hints & tips. I’m hoping the more i learn the more i can grow all sides of my business but that people will also just enjoy my work and want to see more.
Good luck everyone
J x