Hi Paul
I have had similar reactions to you on Facebook. I sometimes wonder if it is worth it! I don’t even get family & friends liking my posts any more! I went to a local fair recently which was well advertised on Facebook and my post had about 750 views and I had 2 likes! I have the most likes on Instagram which seems a much fairer reach especially if you make the most of the hash tag feature.
Zoe
I would join Instagram it really is the best place to promote your work. Show your work in progress, finished items and have a link in your biography to your folksy shop. Follow people and people will start following you. I no longer bother with facebook. Best of luck.
Really interesting to read all your experiences with Facebook. I wouldn’t give up on it just yet - out of all the social media channels it’s still the best converter on Folksy ie it leads to more sales than any of the other social media platforms even if it doesn’t generate the most views.
We wrote this blog post with tips on how to reach more people on Facebook. Hopefully there are some things in there you can try http://blog.folksy.com/2016/12/06/how-to-increase-your-facebook-reach
Hi Zoe , I also think my friends and family get bored seeing my stuff, and I am half embarrassed at putting things on very regularly. i will stay on F/B but I am very tempted to go on Instagram, although not being very computer wise I worry about making the move, plus i don’t understand the hashtag feature. Thanks
Paul
Thanks Camilla, I will study it.
Paul
I think I will give it a go Haley. thanks
Paul
Instagram is great Paul! If you google it there are some great articles on how to get started and all about the #thingamies
Happy to help you if I can 
Thanks Susan,I will do that, I appreciate all the help that you and several others have given me in the past.Thats the beauty of Folksy, and why, even though sales are rubbish, I don’t want to leave.
Paul
Isn’t this where Facebook purges old / unused accounts every once in a while? I thought I read somewhere that they have a mass clear out so that means you’ll lose a chunk of those followers you didn’t really want anyway. The ones that only liked your page to get themselves noticed, but would never come back and interact so would affect your reach. I’d look at it like that. You lost likers, but in the overall scheme it was probably in your favour 
I’m not sure they delete unused accounts as I had an account for years which I never logged into or used, and it stayed open, but people do close their profiles because they go off FB or they set up new profiles from time to time (say because of hacking issues or they want to block someone and feel that’s the best way to do it i.e. start again from scratch) and therefore when their old profile is closed, their likes are also deleted, which I vaguely remember never used to happen but was a change which was brought into effect about a year or so ago.
I have to balance promoting my workshops (which will be of interest to a local audience only) with my general pictures (which may result in online sales so the person’s location is irrelevant). I’ve noticed that if I promote my workshops too often, I have Unlikes, so I have to be careful about how much Facebook promotion I do for this purpose!
Do the Unlikes happen if you tailor the audience to be local people only Heidi?
It’s not just unlikes you have to look out for, which are people completely unfollowing your page, but also people hiding it (so it still looks like they’re following your page, but your posts won’t show up in their newsfeed).
They can either just hide one particular post from you (like I would do if anyone posts a photo of a spider), or hide everything you post, and either of those things will make facebook think people aren’t interested in your posts so will show it to less people.
I’m not sure if there are other ways to see it too, but if you go to your insights and click on one of your recent posts then it gives you the stats, positive and negative. An odd negative amongst lots of positives probably doesn’t change much, but it could help you look for patterns in case lots of people don’t like certain types of posts.
Hi Liz - I haven’t tested that but it’s a good test. I think it might be worth me setting up a new ‘tuition only’ page though, then I can promote to this very niche audience without worrying about putting off my other non local followers. 
So this is what facebook can achieve all be it with a little help from Dottie/ Susan at British Crafters @dottiedesigns. A couple of weeks ago I posted a photo of a pair of cabs I had just finished cutting/ polishing (just to show them off as I was rather pleased with myself) from my 105 followers I got 7 likes/loves and the post was seen by 199 (this is about normal for my page). On tuesday I finally finished the earrings they were for and popped a photo on facebook with a comment lamenting that I now had to wrangle photos/ write the listing on folksy (no mention of buying or selling or shop), they seemed to go down well with my followers getting me about twice as many likes/ loves as normal. The following day Dottie had a show stoppers day on BC’s facebook page so I popped the link on her post, which got a handful of likes and then she shared my post. That one post has now been seen by over 1500 people, got 41 likes, 6 loves, 6 new followers to my page and been shared 4 times (3 times from the BC post) and those numbers are still going up. Have I sold the earrings - no, did I expect to sell the earrings - no, have I seen increased traffic to my shop and interest in my fordite pieces - yes, do I have a warm fuzzy feeling that people appreciate the hard work I put into them - most definately. I know the warm fuzzy feeling won’t pay the bills but it will make me stick with facebook.
British Crafters does seem to be the way to go these days. I need to get up earlier in the morning for their themed days…
Sam x
This is what I have found with my Facebook page after 3 years of trial and error.
If I post about 4 or 5 times a week my reach is around 1000-1500.
If I post more often it drops and if I post less often it drops. Also, I tend to stick to posts about my listings and what I am making as I find if I post about anything else I get few likes, no shares and my reach drops…
I avoid using certain words like shop or cost etc. but I do put a link in the post to my shop, after adding my own photographs, as I have found it make no difference to my reach.
Very interesting post Sasha, I have just had a look at some of my stats on F/b, not something I do often I must admit. I posted a new box on 5 Dec and the reach was 789, I posted another one on 6 Feb reach was 643 and one on 3 March reach was 69. I would have thought that the reach should be the same every time.
I saw 1 “Hide all posts” which actually made me smile.
Paul
I’m not a fan of Facebook and haven’t had an account for several years. However, from the moment I set up my Folksy shop I was told that I won’t get anywhere unless I promote on Facebook. I haven’t sold anything on here since December, although I have had slightly more success on E***. I had put my lack of sales on here down to the fact that I don’t have a Facebook account, and had been considering whether to sign up again, so I’ve found it very interesting reading all your comments.
I most definitely wouldn’t put slow sales down to a lack of Facebook account.
Folksy is on a go slow for many, many sellers, Facebook or not.
Sarah x
I don’t think it needs to be facebook that you promote on, that is the one that is often mentioned as it is more established however the newer ones (instagram/ twitter) are getting massive take up with new users, have you tried either of them? The trick is to find one you enjoy using.