Promoting Etsy Sales with a Facebook Fan Page

I'll tell you what I've learned and that doesn't mean there isn't more to it.  My frustration with Etsy is trying to find a way to direct people to look at the sales in my store.  I started thinking about ways I could use Facebook (hereafter FB) to assist.  I posted a couple pictures on FB as I was getting ready for my recent craft sale.  One I sold right then, I shipped it and have been paid.  I had two other friends see the post and ask to get with me to buy some things.  That's scheduled to happen tomorrow.  No sale guaranteed, but we're getting together.

There are three kinds of FB pages: Personal, Fan and Group.  I already have a personal page and use it regularly.  Friday I read Google articles and fooled around until I finally created a FB Fan page which I named Sage Creek Studio.  I had to identify my emphasis from a drop-down menu in the set-up.  Nothing fit well so I chose "artist."  Fan pages differ from Group pages in that they are open. You're trying to direct traffic to your page.  People get your posts after they click on the "Like" button.  One of the articles I found particularly helpful on how to sell craft items on Facebook can be read here.

I still didn't know how to link to Etsy so back to Google I went.  The answer actually is in Etsy and can be read here.  I thought that meant my sales would now show up on my Fan page, but not so.  I posted a sale the next morning and it took longer than I thought, partly because I struggled to get good pictures and also because a scarf is a new listing for me and writing up the description took longer than I had anticipated.  Then I got hung up when it wouldn't let me post the sale until I had selected something from "Variations."  I still don't know what that means and spent ten minutes trying to guess the right answer.  When I finally wrote in "Hand Made," it liked that and posted my sale.  Once the sale was posted and I clicked on the button to share with my FB Fan page, it appeared as a regular post.  That was Saturday morning and last I checked, that post of my new sale listing had been seen by 35 people.

Etsy and FB both have cool statistics so I can tell that I'm generating some interest.  I sent "like" requests to everyone in my address book as did Ian and my sister-in-law Rochelle.  Three days after creating my Fan page, I have almost 100 likes which I like!  I have next to nothing listed and will get some sales posted after I see my friends tomorrow.

I like to use eight colors in my dish towel warps.  These are the colors I'm currently weaving.  I get ten towels from my warp so have woven eight different weft colors and two duplicates.  That means I have to list each individual towel as an individual Etsy sale and it's numbingly tedious.

I love how rich the eight colors look as warp and have never questioned the logic of using all eight colors in weft.  There is no logic.  Four colors is sufficient.  I've selected the gold, rust, brown and olive green so will get three of two colors and two of two colors.  That drops my listing fees 50%, from eight individual listings to four, with duplicates.  I wish I had thought of
this long before now.

I'll weave one of each, then decide which two are my favorites and then will weave a third of each one.  I don't know why this looks pink.  It's a rich rust.  I'm not happy at all with my new camera and after my next phone upgrade may just stop carrying a point-and-shoot altogether.  It's a Nikon Cool Pix, my third one.  I loved the first two, hate this one.

I was asked at the guild meeting Saturday by someone who had found my blog - what does Sage Creek Farm look like?  It looks like this!  A whole lot of Sage and not much Farm.

And this is Sage Creek Studio.  The squirt bottle is for kitty control.  If I don't go up early enough, Maddie pokes her head through the bars on the balcony and calls down.  She had just sashayed in here.  Her attitude says - finally!  She and I like this little studio.