Social Media

[Dink]

How many people use social media like facebook for advertising?

[Cyberthrasher]

it's my main "website" while I'm working on developing a website that suits my needs. You can't beat it for getting your name out there to people who would normally not know who you are or what you do. All it takes is for one friend to like something you do, then all their friends see it and so on.

[Beaverslayer]

Yes I also use Facebook, none of the other ones though.

[Dink]

I definatley see the benefit of it, however is there such a thing as over doing it, I like to put things out there when it is something cool and out of the ordinary and not flood it daily with with the repetitive same thing different color type items. So is the philosophy of this marketing to keep a continous flow of things and to continually keep your name in front of people, or is a suttle weekly post work better.

I am not directing this at any custom type item because they are all different, but just as an example I may see the same item like clothes or jewlery one or more time a day.

I guess I am just trying to figure out, Is there proper ettiquette

[billymac814]

I now use it and it works out well. Its an easy way of opening up lines of communications between me and customers. I make a lot of repetitive stuff so I don't post a bunch of stuff, normally if I do a custom job or something a little different from the norm. I also did a "How its Made" type segment and showed all the steps I take to make a holster and it was well received. I think it helped justify the cost for some people. It wasn't a "How To" so no one is going to learn how to do it really just see how its done. There's a lot of people who have Facebook these days so its almost a necessity. I now have my photo albums linked to my site so if I post a photo on Facebook it shows up on my sites gallery. That makes it easy because I do it all from my phone.

Just don't overdo it and annoy people and all will be well.

[Cyberthrasher]

I definatley see the benefit of it, however is there such a thing as over doing it, I like to put things out there when it is something cool and out of the ordinary and not flood it daily with with the repetitive same thing different color type items. So is the philosophy of this marketing to keep a continous flow of things and to continually keep your name in front of people, or is a suttle weekly post work better.

I am not directing this at any custom type item because they are all different, but just as an example I may see the same item like clothes or jewlery one or more time a day.

I guess I am just trying to figure out, Is there proper ettiquette

In this regard, I think it's easy to turn people away by posting the same stuff over and over and over and over. I have a couple of companies I've liked on my personal page that have actually turned me away from purchasing their products because they basically fill my news feed with a separate post for each of their items every morning.

ALL of my work is custom, so I usually post up progress pictures and the finished items. Sometimes if I don't have anything going on I start working on other ideas and ask people what they think. I have a long way to go to fully utilize it though. My main problem now is that everyone sees me as only offering one product because that's the orders I've been getting.

I think the key to FB for people like us is to engage our fans. Don't engage them like they're a business customer who's just there to browse and buy, bring them into the shop like a part of the family and say "check this out"

[aguilerag]

Using FB as marketing is a great thing as social media has become the new, big and reasonably cheap/free thing for advertisement. (I'm not counting the FB ads you could buy). I have helped my friends develop a FB page for their business and like anything business related, you need to have a plan on how to use it.

If I were to help someone use FB for their custom leather work (as I hope to start doing myself once I become better) I would advise the following.

If you are making things from scratch I would start by posting a picture of the material you are going to use and a picture of the peices after you have cut out all the patterns. You can explain what item you are going to make, a little about what material you are using and some of the steps.

This is a good attention grabber and will build interest in seeing future posts and pictures of updates.

I have done this for my dog training business. I have my son video tape me at the first visit for the dog to see what the behavior problem is then edit it when I get home to add my voice and explain what the problem is and what I am going to do to help fix it. As I always follow up with my clients I tape every visit to show the improvement I have helped the dog to make. This has helped me get a lot of new clients as people are waiting to "see what happens next". This could be true for the follow up progress pictures of the item you are making.

Just my opinion

[Chief31794]

I definatley see the benefit of it, however is there such a thing as over doing it, I like to put things out there when it is something cool and out of the ordinary and not flood it daily with with the repetitive same thing different color type items. So is the philosophy of this marketing to keep a continous flow of things and to continually keep your name in front of people, or is a suttle weekly post work better.

I am not directing this at any custom type item because they are all different, but just as an example I may see the same item like clothes or jewlery one or more time a day.

I guess I am just trying to figure out, Is there proper ettiquette

I can't believe you're talking about Facebook and Proper Ettiquette in the same quote, LOL. I have a facebook page for my work, very seldom post pictures unless it's something new or unique. My daughter has a gazillion (new word I learned from my grandchildren) friends so when she marked my site as liked it lit up pretty good with all sorts of traffic. I don't know that I've seen much sales from it, but it does mention my ETSY store and the traffic there is pretty good.

Chief

[aguilerag]

I am just learning how to do leather work and make items. I have made a total of 1 wallet kit, 1 wallet from scratch and 2 checkbook covers (works in progress). I have posted pictures of me starting the projects, a couple updates and the finish product (wallets) on my personal FB page and have recieved 7 people wanting to order wallets from me, and 1 wanting a check book cover. I explain to them that I am recently new at this but they still want to order. The Tandy wallet kit, which was my first full item I ever made, someone wants to buy it from me.

I want to learn more and become better before I make my own FB page dedicated to my work. I think posting pictures of works in progress could be broken down to 3-4 without being considered spamming and keeping peoples interests. Beginning, after tooling/staining/dye, during assembly, final product?

[Cyberthrasher]

Beginning, after tooling/staining/dye, during assembly, final product?

That's usually what I try to do - artwork, tooling done, dying progress, finished product. Sometimes if it's a larger tooled piece I'll do a few progress pictures in the middle of the tooling to show how much detail goes into it all.