Thanks Sasha! This is probably a good time to ask-Do you use silver solder with your copper or is there something else I should be getting to do this?
Love Sam x
Just watch what happens to your reach when you mention āsaleā ādiscountā ā%offā or āpromotionāā¦
I had a regular reach of up to 100 that week until I mentioned my flash sale. Then I had a reach of 5. I think two of those were me!
"You seem to be promoting something, did you know you could reach more people with a FB advert?"
I wouldnāt need to if you didnāt keep hiding stuff!!
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I use silver solder but I am normally soldering silver to the copper. You can get copper solder but Iāve never looked into what its metal composition is to see if it contains nickel/ lead/ other heavy metals so whether it would be suitable for jewellery.
Sorry not more helpful than that.
Sasha
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Thanks Sasha!
All the books I have read say silver solder, so it must contain some of those noxious heavy metals. Once a bit of oxidation sets in I expect the join wonāt be noticable 
Love Sam x
@SamanthaStanley I too use silver solder, but like sasha Iām usually soldering copper to silver. Filing well usually does the trick!
I followed details from another thread on here about FB ads and post boosts (as mentioned above) as Iām not great with FB and havenāt loads of followers so tried it out to see. I paid Ā£2 and gained several new followers, reached about 800 people and achieved another sale! Before reading the thread I refused to consider the option but annoyingly it really made a difference! The thread explains it well so I even I could understand it 
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Thanks for highlighting this! I will think long and hard before hiding someoneās post again. Much as I like (and prefer) FB for marketing and general communications I really wish it would be more transparent about its changes and actions - the goal posts are being moved constantly and until there is an equally powerful and popular SM equivalent out there it will just continue to get more obscure. When one arrives I think a lot of users will jump ship!
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FB donāt publicize to their users what their actions do so it is not your fault for not knowing @wellpresented! I have changed my behaviour on FB quite a lot because of the way the algorithms work. For example, if Iām following a page and want to carry on seeing it I will ensure I like at least one of their posts every couple of days even if I DONāT really LOVE what theyāve posted that day, just because I know that FB will hide them if I donāt like them regularly. It makes reading my personal FB feed a lot more work, but it means I donāt miss out.
Love Sam x
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I struggle so much on Facebook these days, even though I get 99% of my sales from it! Unfortunately Iāve now resorted to promotING all my posts otherwise I only reach around 10-20 people even though I have over 3,000 people on my page! Iāve taken screen shots to show just how little people see my posts 
I read that part of the algorithm works off your habits too. So if you always pay to āboostā then they will purposely only allow your posts to reach very few people if you donāt boost. Because youāve pushed that button and paid to boost before they will expect youāll do it again. Iām not sure how true this is, but Iāve spoken to many people who have experienced the sort of thing that would fit in with that pattern.
Iād say I donāt have a lot of Facebook followers (230ish) much less than I have on Instagram or Twitter. But I always wanted these things to develop organically. I donāt do the ālike for likeā thing on anything I donāt think it makes sense. I also donāt take part in any sort of share groups or anything like that- I donāt have time to be honest. So despite the low amount of followers my organic reach is always well above that and I always get some form of interaction from people. But Iāve never paid Facebook anything either and I donāt intend to I donāt think. Maybe one day, but Iāve not read anything thatās swayed me yet. Though Iām assuming it must work for some people. I guess itās because I donāt really know what Iām paying for in one sense.
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Youāve done it the best way to be honest Susannah. When I first started my FB page 4yrs ago, I wasnāt doing birds and I was just fundraising for charity. A very good friend got as many people as possible to support and āLikeā my page. It was well meaning and I was grateful for the support, but now of course Iāve got lots of Likers that arenāt actually interested in my page anymore.
I did the Like for Like a few times in the early days too before I realised how damaging it was; I just thought it was a friendly way of interacting with others like myself. Now though FB runs Pages with a business eye particularly as itās got a lot more busy and competition to get your posts in front of peoples eyes is high. I do have some Likers interacting regularly so thatās good at least!
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I am absolutely no FB expert, but it may be the type of posts that is the issue. As far as Iām aware FB donāt like hard selling posts, so any posts with salesy words in them (such as sale, buy etc) and Ā£ signs are frowned upon. Apparently if you over post, this is frowned upon too.
FB want people to interact and stay on their platform, they donāt want businesses to advertise their products, click on a link and go elsewhere, so the more that you can get people to interact and stay on FB.
Your photo and product is lovely, maybe try and see what happens if your post is more chatty, tell the story behind the product etc and donāt mention that itās for sale in the main body of the text, put this information in the comments box below instead.
I really love using ello.com. It is the user-friendly (ie no adverts and no selling on of your details) alternative to FB. There are 1000s of creative people on there and I donāt have a bad thing to say about it.
I donāt monitor how many people it sends to my websites, but there donāt seem to be any restrictions on āreachā like on FB.
This is my page if any one wants a quick look at ello:- https://ello.co/firehorsetextiles
Click on ādiscoverā on the top right hand corner to find all sorts of other users of the site.
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Iām embarrassed to say Iād never heard of ello.com but then before joining Folksy Iāve always kept away from social media. You have some stunning photos on your page, Julia!!! Iāve also been for a peek in your Folksy shop too - some lovely items! 
That makes sense, since I started boosting my posts my organic reach has gone way down! Iām definitely going to try and slowly reduce my boosts!
Ahh, thank you very much for that insight! That makes sense to me. Who knew Facebook could be so complicated!
Yeah so it may be true then. Hmmā¦ I guess maybe itās something that once you start you have to be prepared to keep doing?
I hope it begins to regulate out for youā¦or you may have to keep boosting?
Youāre welcome. FB seems to change all the time @SophiesHandmadeBabyBoutique What might have worked before, doesnāt seem to work anymore unfortunately : /
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Thank you for your kind comments, JollySmall 
Iām not on Facebook or Twitter, but I do like ello and Pinterest. ello is quite a relatively new site - I think I joined in late 2014.
Julia x
I pay to boost a post about once every 2 months, it certainly doesnāt limit my reach, it just helps me reach a few new people who might not have seen my page before, but who could be interested in what I sell.
I agree with the comments that FB doesnāt like selling posts - they do get a lesser reach than chatty ones. I try to avoid adding a link to my shop or mentioning any selling sort of terminology in my initial post, and add a shop or item link in the comments below. The other dodge is to add the text with price etc to your photo that you are showing, that way FB won;t pick up on it being a selling post either.
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I tried hash tagging, no prices etc and Iāve reached 9 people after over an hour! 9! I have over 3,000 limes. ā¦ Arghh Facebook!