I've never been much of a participator. I'm more of a fly on the wall and less of a social butterfly. This doesn't work so well when trying to sell a product which I found out when I was 19 and tried selling Mary Kay. The Internet makes it slightly easier because you don't actually have to face anyone in real life (for the most part).
My likes on Facebook have been rising dramatically in the last few months. It started out when a Portuguese (or Brazilian, I'm not sure) web page featured my dolls on their Facebook page. Within a day I had a hundred more likes. Since then my likes haven't increased quite so dramatically, but compared to a year ago they are increasing significantly every day. When that happened I thought "wow I only need a couple sites to do that for me and my likes will be huge!"
My boyfriend made the comment once "who cares about likes if people don't actually buy anything". This might be your attitude too and I completely understand. When I see a jump in my likes I eagerly run to check my email hoping to see Paypal notifications alerting me that someone has paid me $. Most days I hear crickets in my inbox.
What you have to remember is; likes equal visibility. The more a person sees a product, the more likely they are to buy it in the future. Sales generally tend to come later in the form of direct sales or partnerships with stores. This is why it is important to keep your page active and vibrant. I've talked about this before but want to remind you, don't over do it. If you are posting something more than once a day you risk irritating your fans to the point they will unfollow, unlike and/or block your posts. I was noticing recently that I every now and then have an "unlike". I always wonder why, but I don't think it's possible to know. It's something to contemplate though.
Here's a secret I recently realized. Likes are not as important as shares. And shares are much harder to get. It's easy for someone to click like and move on. Sometimes people don't want to share things they like for fear of how their friends might respond to it. For example I see political, religious, sensitive things I like all the time on Facebook, but I don't share them because I don't want to start an argument on the Internet. I will admit this is the problem with making dolls. Some people think they are creepy and they don't want flack from their friends for "liking" them. Ba-humbug I say to that.
Sometimes when I sit staring at my Facebook page contemplating how to reach more potential customers I wish that more people would share my page instead of just clicking like. My potential customers are nearly everyone because I sell toys for children. Everyone (almost) knows a child that needs a birthday gift, shower gift, Christmas gift, etc. Recently I did an experiment and asked my friends on Facebook to please share my other Facebook page Mexican Fabric and Fashion. Only one friend did, and my likes on that page went up by 7. That's not dramatic but it's pretty good for 1 share. Imagine if all 404 of my friends shared it.
Now I'm not asking anyone to share anything they don't actually like. If you don't like the product, don't share it, in my opinion. There are so many groups on Etsy, created for the sole purpose of promoting each other's products indiscriminately. I don't think this is a good practice, and I surely don't want to be asked to share something I don't particularly like. To me this only breeds insincerity which in turn cheapens the product or brand.
However, if you like something, if you want to help your friend grow their business, then remember to share. I didn't even think about it much until I had my own business. Now I share what my friends make because I know how much it helps me when others share mine.
Recently someone posted this article on Facebook and when I saw it I cringed. I can understand her premise but the view is very narrow. Those of us that make something, or have our own business, rely on people liking and sharing our posts. Without them it is very hard for us to spread the word about our business. One thing that she points out in the article though is that instead of clicking like she makes a comment. I think that is great too.
So why am I talking about all this? Because I'm starting a sharing campaign today in the form of a giveaway! Before I left for New York I had a custom request but I needed to buy the right color fabric in the US. I also needed to make a prototype in order to get the pattern size right. The custom order was for a tiny bunny in fleece with a floppy ear and his hands up by his mouth. This is the completed custom that was sent to the customer.
But now I have the prototype here. He's not a bunny but a little 3.5 inch bear. I thought he would make a great little giveaway prize. I'm hoping to make more of these little guys for my shop in the near future. Here he is:
If you would like to win him here is how you can enter. This is a Facebook sharing campaign so therefore you must share BeBe Babies and Friends on your personal or business Facebook page. It is totally up to you what you share.
You can share:
-my Facebook page
-this blog post
-an item in my Etsy shop/or my entire shop
-my Flickr
-my Pinterest
The rules are:
1. You can only share on your page once, HOWEVER, for every friend of yours that shares BeBe Babies as well, you will receive an additional entry. So tell your friends to share the post to get their own entry as well as give you an additional one! Make sure they tag you and me in the post so I can find it easily.
2. In order to verify your share, you must tag BeBe Babies and Friends, or me Casie Brabham, in your post.
3. This campaign starts now and will last one week, closing on September 5th. I will announce the winner on Saturday September 6th.
Here are some stats for you. In 2013 I had an increase of 224 likes in the entire year. Currently I have had an increase of 429 likes in 2014 alone. At the beginning of 2014 I was averaging 22.4 likes per month. At this time I'm averaging 85.5 likes per month. What can we do in one week? I'm not sure, but the goal is to reach 2,000 likes by the end of the week. That means I need 902 likes in only one week. I need an average of 128 likes every day. Yikes I don't think it's possible but let's see what happens. Will you help me?
If you have any questions let me know! Thanks in advance for your efforts and good luck!
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