I’ve seen several Folksy posts popping up in my feed lately - one 19 hours ago about @IreneCampsillDesigns and another one 2 days ago featuring makers from Wales - just to name a couple. Are these the sorts of posts you mean?
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They will pop up because you have liked Folksy because you already know about Folksy. Just as yours would pop up in my feed if Ihad liked your page. Those are normal posts and that is the way page liking and feeds work,
What we are talking about are seeing posts from pages we haven’t liked, have not heard of. To get those you have to pay to advertise normally.
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OK - sorry. Not fully aufait with it all.
Not wishing to be contrary but all the paid advertising that appears on my Fb page drives me mad 
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Definitely no need to apologise 
It’s all a learning curve and we have to relearn every month or so as the Social Media giants rehash it all as and when they feel like it We are at their mercy ! 
Yes but there is FB advertising and FB advertising. Properly and subtly done it is not invasive. When it is one of the spammy China handmade or fashion lookalike adverts… ooooh they get to me and I mark them as spam and tell FB never to show me them again
but have you never seen something pop up and clicked to take a better look… and bought it. I don’t do much impulse buying but bought a gorgeous dress like that the other day
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My sales all come from craft fairs but I am trying to promote my shop and hopefully get a sale to help pay for ‘plus’. I totally get that shoppers are starting to leave online shopping so they can look and feel the item. Personally I do both depending on what I’m looking for. Sometimes being able to look and feel is the only way to go.
I try to promote folksy with everyone but it seems that unless you’re in the craft business people have never heard of them. We just have to keep plugging away and promoting it
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I would be interested in the evidence that online shopping is losing popularity in that way …?
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I am an online shopper, hate travel, car parking fees and crowds so unlikely to go back to actual shopping. The high street to me is a pet hate, so boring, love indie shopping though.
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Strangely enough, high street shops (of various price ranges) are closing down one after another because people now shop online… This is not a rumour, we all see all those empty shops every time we go out to “shop from an actual shop”… There is no one day of the week were I don’t see the amazon people and the very kind evri lady going past my house though… The postman I use to see with lots of parcels as well, but he has become some sort of an endangered kind of thing, which probably verifies that RM are becoming a bit too expensive
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Joy @JOYSofGLASS I am only repeating what the Hobby craft lady said - their online sales are down but in shop sales continue to do well.
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Chris I realise that but they are a totally different market. Selling primarily art and craft supplies which is not quite the same thing at all as the artisan made things which we sell on here. They are indeed a well known household name to crafters but I’m not 100% sure how Hobbycraft can advice, as expert, on handmade online sales. I don’t see how their sales stats can be compared really.
I used to buy from my local Wilco (bird food usually) to save driving to town and paying for parking but had to balance that with paying delivery charges. As it happened both lost as I now have to shop at B&M where parking is free…
. but I don’t buy my handmade from B&M.
I buy that if I happen to see something when I am out and about but more usually online on sites like this
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Ooh don’t tell me about relearning the fb rules - where has the create button gone this week? Infuriating 
Ha - you’ve caught me out on that one - I have never yet responded to an advert on Fb - but like you I have just ordered a dress that popped up on my screen! It’s my mother’s 90th birthday next month and if I don’t appear in a new dress there will be trouble! Like someone earlier - I don’t like shopping
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@JOYSofGLASS , Joy, I too will miss Wilko, I bought many of the bulbs for my lamps from them…
I have to agree with Chris, @ChrisOsbornJewellery and the Hobbycraft lady that online sales are struggling (even though I recently made my first Folksy sale, Yay!) but in person, wherever I take the Steampunk Creative Engineering Travelling Emporium, I am thriving. Perhaps it’s my poor photos, wordy descriptions, etc. but I get the feeling it’s down to folk being able to pick up and look properly and maybe a rebound from the limitations and forced online shopping of lockdown?
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Mick Unfortunately taking my things out and about on a regular basis is just not an option for me any more.
My husband is 80, I am not but am increasingly arthritic which means carrying heavy crates of glass and tables and stands is just not going to happen. Except occasionally and only when and if I can guarantee a properly promoted event where the buyers way outnumber the sellers. I also need to be indoors. My set up / take down takes too long to be hit by bad weather and I have previously had 3 consecutive events where I have been either rained, winded or both off half way through, and lost the gazebo and broken stock too.
There are not too many events near where I live in the middle of the midlands where my criteria are going to be matched.
Find me a good indoor location and a proper customer base and my glass flies off the stall but such events are rare. Also the physical effort involved and the day wasted to find I have only just covered my table fee but sold twice as much online while I have been out… well…
So though I love getting out and meeting people with my glass I have instead to rely on good photos and good promotion and good online shops.
I continue to make sales here and in my other shops. I have managed to make 34th (now 33!) Best Seller this week with only 4 sold pieces of approx £20 each. But my sales are not currently as numerous as they were (and I am comparing pre lockdown not during) and in previous years I would have needed to sell quite a lot more than that in September to get in the BS list. My sales are far more likely to come directly from my own promotion and repeat customers than anywhere else. I have analysed them.
People have Not heard of Folksy and that is what this topic, and many more like it which have gone before, are talking about not any general current downturn in shopping… xx
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I think this has been suggested to Folksy before. Magazines and newspapers are always on the look out for features and articles they can use. I just don’t get why Folksy aren’t more pro active in this matter. After all this time it should be the UK leading handmade online store.
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Funny you should say that about Create. I was just trying to add a post on my FB business page to include an image to say my shop will be closed 19th to end of month (always try to give that info as an image not text so it isn’t as trollable). I hit the add photo button and added photo and photo vanished, it was not there, I swear it wasn’t. Tried to add it again but it ignored all attempts to press the photo button.
Came Right out and abandoned my post. Then went back. Started a totally new test post with just a comment that Facebook was playing games, posted it and the picture I added to the initial, post was there. Explain that one !
I do note it came up with one of those popups, where it invites you to do all sorts of exciting things with your posts and suggested a totally new idea !
It suggested I created an Event.
So obviously someone is tinkering again. If it works stop fixing it is my motto
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I am like Joy can no longer do craft fairs, they take a toll and with the work before hand, on the day and then repacking etc exhausted for 2 weeks. When I equate with Folksy they are just not worth it. Plus some of the rents are ridiculous with little or no worm done. Been there, done that and got the T-shirt. Folksy all the way for me.
I have found it is a quiet September but August was busier than last year, go figure.
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Magazine advertising would be great. Even the tiniest square would be something. I don’t understand why that’s not been implemented (apart from costs, obviously)…
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I manage two fb pages - one for a group I belong to and it still has a “create” button but our own @ccbandatp page does not. So I have to keep going back into Business Suite to create a simple one-photo story. And when I try to pick out the hoot from my albums, they have been re-arranged in any jumbled order which changes regularly so I can’t just go straight to the album I need. I have now got into the habit of saving photos temporarily into my feed - much quicker than scrolling through a list of jumbled albums. The hoops we have to jump through 
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I fear it’s because as long as Folksy can rely on its sellers doing the promotional donkeywork they can avoid it. They’ve been blaming lack of funds and manpower since this place opened. What kind of business fails to grow in public profile after decades of being around? It’s my one gripe with this place, their utter lack of promotional investment. Also, if they say they are doing promotional work then clearly it’s not working and something either needs to change or get ramped up.
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I think Folksy do try but maybe advertising in places such as craft magazines and Hobbycraft may get more sellers who last 5 minutes but not helping the loyal existing seller. Country Living and others in the Hearst group are good as they love handmade. To approach them for maybe a Christmas Editorial would be good but probably to late for that issue. Must admit sadly only ever seen adverts for more sellers not customers. When I had my own website, very small always got approached by our local County magazines to run an editorial free of charge.
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