Social Media

[billymac814]

Its also basically a forum for your customers. They can make a comment and others can respond or comment as well. A lot of times that's enough to push someone over the edge and place an order. Its one thing to see a customers comments section on someone's site but actually seeing a customer make a comment is a lot more personal.

When I did the "How its Made" thing I didn't want to blow up people's timeline with pictures so I used an app I have "before and After" that allows me to combine two pictures together, this allowed me to basically cut the number of posts in half and still be thorough.

I use the same app for when I do restorations or repairs.

I find FB very useful these days, so many people have it from young to old, definitely more young but they really aren't my customer base.

I think its much more personal than just having a website, at least that's how I use it. A website is still equally important for ordering purposes and for those who don't use Facebook.

[aguilerag]

Billy, what do you specialize in and what would you consider your customer base?

[Dink]

Alot of great input from everyone Thank You. I see two somewhat reoccuring themes that I like

1. Don't do it to the point of annoying

2. Bring them in to your shop like part of the family, Thanks Cyberthrasher I like that

The photo series of projects is also a great idea, I may have to try this

Again thanks to everyone for your input

Dink

[billymac814]

I mainly make modern holsters and belts so my customer base is usually age 25 and up and usually right leaning.

At one point my main thing was motorcycle seats and the age group was similar but it seemed that my biggest fans were not actual buyers as the seats ended up being fairly expensive and I found it difficult even charging a lot to really make a lot doing them when I broke down my time. I started using Facebook after I made the transition from seats to holsters so I would say most of them the people are there for the holsters. Prior to Facebook And prior to having a website I had a Blog page and I actually preferred that and the layout but I can't keep up all three so I quit updating it and more people have Facebook so I think it works better.

Ill still post anything I do whether its a high chair or a holster but most people that "like" my page are there to see gun related stuff, its not that often and shows people I do other stuff.

I also have another page that is specifically geared towards repair work that I do since those customers can be virtually anyone and people who may not have an interest in guns and my gun people may not have an interest in seeing some of the things I post on that page. I find since the holsters are fairly specialized its better to just have two separate pages. My repair customers are generally local where as nearly 98% of my holster and custom items are online sales.

Here's the next segment of this topic. How many "likes" does everyone have? I have 173 on my main one and only 61 on the repair page. I just started really using them a few months ago when I figured out how easy I could post stuff from my phone using the "Pages" app. I really should promote it more though, I've seen people include a card with each order with their FB info, I might consider doing something like that.

Billy, what do you specialize in and what would you consider your customer base?

[aguilerag]

The reason I asked was that most of my friends on FB are old military friends ranging from age 25-40+ (SEALS/marines/military police) and some are people I havent met but are friends with my friends that are doing or did what I did in the military. FB in my experience is a way to reach a broad customer base. Maybe you should use FB ads (it does cost some money but overall cheaper than a lot of advertisement) to try to reach the correct customer base on FB. Over 9 million users and if you use FB ads correctly a great way to reach a wide base that could help sales.

[Cyberthrasher]

Here's the next segment of this topic. How many "likes" does everyone have? I have 173 on my main one and only 61 on the repair page.

I just reached a whopping 67

I think about 20 of those are from people here, 37 or so are my friends from my personal page, and the rest are friends of people here. Needless to say, most of my customer base is in the 37ish who happened to be friends with me already and are part of my blues guitar group.

[Beaverslayer]

In the 2 1/2 months I've had the Facebook page for Beaverslayer Custom Leather, I've garnered 153 likes. The first few weeks it rose pretty steadily, now it's tapered down to only a couple a week.

The newest "likes" I have no idea who they are or whence they came, as they have no likes or friends in common with me, so somehow in Facebooks vast reach, it is being seen.

[Cyberthrasher]

The newest "likes" I have no idea who they are or whence they came, as they have no likes or friends in common with me, so somehow in Facebooks vast reach, it is being seen.

I always go view their page and see if they like leather related stuff. From there I usually find that they either saw one of my Springfield spotlights, they're from here, or they're friends with Kings X. I honestly have no idea how he's drawing people to my page since I don't think he's liked any of my posts recently and I only like his stuff from my personal account, but I'm not gonna complain about it

[artycpt]

At first I didn't put a lot into my facebook page. Recently I have been trying to make more of an effort to post finished projects and add statuses with at least some frequency, even when I don't have anything new to post that I have made.

My page is relatively small in comparison with the likes you guys have received so far. How it all pans out for marketing is something I am trying to figure out. I have noticed that contributing to other groups or pages from my page profile has gotten my page some attention.

[Cyberthrasher]

I have noticed that contributing to other groups or pages from my page profile has gotten my page some attention.

I think I need to start doing the same. I'll add a couple more to your list right now