Call for Artists, Making Money at Juried Art Fairs, Craft Shows and Festivals
Anyone use a Facebook page for business?
I’m thinking of setting up a page under my business name, just to list my schedule, news, maybe some photos of what I’m working on. Anyone do this?
I have not set up a webpage and am inclined not to. I don’t want to sell online, so I was think a blog or Facebook would be an easy alternative. (Right now, I’m so far behind: if it’s not easy, it’s not going to get done!)
It would be separate from my personal page. I would put the name on my cards and give them to customers. They could be a “fan”.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Linda Anderson on
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Hi Linnea.... yes, I set up a facebook page two weeks ago and it's more than doubled my website hits.
First set up a personal face book page, then at the bottom someplace, add your business.
Of course, I have a link to my regular website all over both pages, thus the hits. I also have my art on the business page, that I have linking it to my regular website. For me.... it's been great exposure. Just be careful who you accept as friends.
The most interesting statistic I have found in only two weeks is the international exposure (and purchases) I have been receiving. It has been successful for me, but not sure if others have had the same result. Also, not sure how effective it would be without having my other "real" website.
I'm about two months behind my typical "winter schedule", and I was hesitant to interrupt that schedule to do the face book thing. But - I had it all fixed up as I wanted it within a couple of hours. The distracting thing is I have a facebook window open all the time while I'm working up my photo images and it has new & interesting information all the time. ;-)
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Permalink Reply by Linnea Lahlum on
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Thanks Paula and Linda!
I have a personal page already, so that’s done. One of the things I’m wondering is how you format the kind of info you want to include, like the show list I mentioned, into a Facebook page.
There’s the Wall, there’s “What’s on your mind”, etc. I don’t know how or where to put a showlist! And if I wanted to write a longer piece explaining what I am working on for the upcoming season, where would I put that? I was hoping to add some blog-like entries to stimulate interest. I tried writing something like that on my personal page but the box cut me off after maybe 15 words.
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Keep in mind I'm still learning as well....
There are various ways to do all you mentioned. My rookie suggestions would be:
Once you have your business page set up"
- Look at the tabs at the top that you can edit - rename, add stuff etc. If you click on the + , there is already a format for events - you can place your show list there.
- You can also add a tab (by using the +) to include 'notes' that could be the area that you list your blog type stuff
- Keep in mind the most recent note that you write on your wall will be the notation others will see on their face book page as well.
- Be careful to go through all settings as some you will want to limit access to only having "friends" be able to view. Some areas you don't want "everyone" to see - make them become an approved friend first.
In my info section, I used the areas "personal information" and "personal interests" to list stuff about my artwork and an artist statement. You may want to check out my business facebook page to get ideas . Click on both the Information page and the Wall page.
Not that mine is the ideal template - I am so novice at it yet. But perhaps it will give you ideas to incorporate into yours. Oh, and don't forget to become a fan please ;-)
Oh, and one more thing. Seems like you need to add something every day at least to keep your presence on facebook.
Linnea Lahlum said:Thanks Paula and Linda!
I have a personal page already, so that’s done. One of the things I’m wondering is how you format the kind of info you want to include, like the show list I mentioned, into a Facebook page.
There’s the Wall, there’s “What’s on your mind”, etc. I don’t know how or where to put a showlist! And if I wanted to write a longer piece explaining what I am working on for the upcoming season, where would I put that? I was hoping to add some blog-like entries to stimulate interest. I tried writing something like that on my personal page but the box cut me off after maybe 15 words.
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Thank you!
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Permalink Reply by Michelle Sholund on
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I do! I do! I am a huge Facebook (FB) fan. I do have my personal FB page and a business page as well as a website. For people who are uncertain about social networking you have NO IDEA how detrimental it is in getting the word out about your business, it can mean the difference between "hearing crickets chirping" to going viral all depending on how you use it. The best thing to do is establish your personal page first - which I understand you have done already, Linnea. I say this because you need people to invite to your business page and not all of your FB friends (on your personal page) will care - not because they don't care about you but due to all their connections they might not be able to handle yet another. In other words don't be offended, it won't matter in the end.
So when you do have the business page up - at least have one or two interesting things up on it to show "hey I am new and this is only the beginning of so many awesome things to come...". At this point you should invite people using the invite button which will access all the people on your personal page. Click on them all - sounds crazy but even those you think wouldn't be interested in your business may surprise you. Once you start a fan base, you need to keep them there as well as ask your friends to invite their friends to check out your business FB page. Some ideas that is great for getting people to come back and stay interested is yes, posting your schedule, add photos of your work - especially new pieces, sales - yes sales that you might offer (for instance sign up to my FB page and get exclusive coupons, good at any up coming show), ask for opinions on your work -- which can lead to testimonials, also add something personal on your wall - frustrations with a piece, that your elated to be accepted into a particular show, awards/press releases, goals, share info about your colleagues (as they most likely will do the same for your - if you ask)... Lastly, keep it business related whatever you post on that FB page. To draw more people to your FB page will take time, that part is very annoying however it will happen. The best thing to do is link up with other groups regarding art/crafts, art show FB pages/groups - like artfairinsiders FB page, even groups that promote local shops/events (be a fan of a local shop you frequent and mention that you are a local business and love supporting all things local and mention your FB business site), and do this on a semi regular basis. I say this because visiting a group once and introducing yourself won't make people want to learn more about you, but say once every 1-2 weeks to once a month may be more ideal.
The one thing I MUST stress is once people learn you have a FB page they will want to visit your website and you said you don't have one yet???! Are you kidding me? In today's society, if you don't have a website, you don't exist. A common misconception folks have is a website = I have to sell stuff on it. NO YOU DON'T. For years my website was all informational - like what you can do with FB but far more customized yet attractive to anyone. When you have a website you are opening 1 door of 2-3 Billion other doors to all the world. This means while you do a years worth of shows you might be exposing yourself to say 20,000 ( I am pulling that number out of thin air) where people who are looking for your type of art/craft is using search engines and not coming up to your business - because you don't have site - means tons of lost opportunities because the web doesn't sleep. Creating a website can make customers salivate to want to come and see you at shows and buy. It can make people at shows see all of your work if you aren't able to bring all of your work to a show. And most of all it is THE place where people can learn all there is about you, your business, and what makes your work unique - the story behind your work. There are simple sites out there where you don't have to spend hardly anything to create your own site. I highly recommend moonfruit.com as they even have a 2 week free trial period and I can't stress how easy it is to use - I am NOT a web designer nor do I know any computer languages yet I was able to create my own website, www.bythebaybotanicals.com with them - $75.00 a year with e-commerce tools. However they go as low as $20-25 a year for a basic package. Regardless there are countless others to try too.
Lastly, I have to mention my trifecta for web success. Using Facebook, a blog, and a website is an easy way to advertise your business to the world. Facebook and a blog is the advertiser and the website is the virtual business in the Main Street of the Internet. Using them all together, equally has gotten me tons of hits, drives people to shows, and so much more. Granted it might not be for everyone but those who have a "famous" business is constantly connected to their customers through tweeter, FB, linkedin.com, blogging, their website and so on. This is where technology and marketing are at and you can choose to be apart of it or not. For me, I am all in.
Good luck! And if you want I will be your FB friend!!!
Michelle Sholund
www.bythebaybotanicals.com
www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com
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Permalink Reply by Lydia Morrison on
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How do you get people to come to your page?
Michelle Sholund said:I do! I do! I am a huge Facebook (FB) fan. I do have my personal FB page and a business page as well as a website. For people who are uncertain about social networking you have NO IDEA how detrimental it is in getting the word out about your business, it can mean the difference between "hearing crickets chirping" to going viral all depending on how you use it. The best thing to do is establish your personal page first - which I understand you have done already, Linnea. I say this because you need people to invite to your business page and not all of your FB friends (on your personal page) will care - not because they don't care about you but due to all their connections they might not be able to handle yet another. In other words don't be offended, it won't matter in the end.
So when you do have the business page up - at least have one or two interesting things up on it to show "hey I am new and this is only the beginning of so many awesome things to come...". At this point you should invite people using the invite button which will access all the people on your personal page. Click on them all - sounds crazy but even those you think wouldn't be interested in your business may surprise you. Once you start a fan base, you need to keep them there as well as ask your friends to invite their friends to check out your business FB page. Some ideas that is great for getting people to come back and stay interested is yes, posting your schedule, add photos of your work - especially new pieces, sales - yes sales that you might offer (for instance sign up to my FB page and get exclusive coupons, good at any up coming show), ask for opinions on your work -- which can lead to testimonials, also add something personal on your wall - frustrations with a piece, that your elated to be accepted into a particular show, awards/press releases, goals, share info about your colleagues (as they most likely will do the same for your - if you ask)... Lastly, keep it business related whatever you post on that FB page. To draw more people to your FB page will take time, that part is very annoying however it will happen. The best thing to do is link up with other groups regarding art/crafts, art show FB pages/groups - like artfairinsiders FB page, even groups that promote local shops/events (be a fan of a local shop you frequent and mention that you are a local business and love supporting all things local and mention your FB business site), and do this on a semi regular basis. I say this because visiting a group once and introducing yourself won't make people want to learn more about you, but say once every 1-2 weeks to once a month may be more ideal.
The one thing I MUST stress is once people learn you have a FB page they will want to visit your website and you said you don't have one yet???! Are you kidding me? In today's society, if you don't have a website, you don't exist. A common misconception folks have is a website = I have to sell stuff on it. NO YOU DON'T. For years my website was all informational - like what you can do with FB but far more customized yet attractive to anyone. When you have a website you are opening 1 door of 2-3 Billion other doors to all the world. This means while you do a years worth of shows you might be exposing yourself to say 20,000 ( I am pulling that number out of thin air) where people who are looking for your type of art/craft is using search engines and not coming up to your business - because you don't have site - means tons of lost opportunities because the web doesn't sleep. Creating a website can make customers salivate to want to come and see you at shows and buy. It can make people at shows see all of your work if you aren't able to bring all of your work to a show. And most of all it is THE place where people can learn all there is about you, your business, and what makes your work unique - the story behind your work. There are simple sites out there where you don't have to spend hardly anything to create your own site. I highly recommend moonfruit.com as they even have a 2 week free trial period and I can't stress how easy it is to use - I am NOT a web designer nor do I know any computer languages yet I was able to create my own website, www.bythebaybotanicals.com with them - $75.00 a year with e-commerce tools. However they go as low as $20-25 a year for a basic package. Regardless there are countless others to try too.
Lastly, I have to mention my trifecta for web success. Using Facebook, a blog, and a website is an easy way to advertise your business to the world. Facebook and a blog is the advertiser and the website is the virtual business in the Main Street of the Internet. Using them all together, equally has gotten me tons of hits, drives people to shows, and so much more. Granted it might not be for everyone but those who have a "famous" business is constantly connected to their customers through tweeter, FB, linkedin.com, blogging, their website and so on. This is where technology and marketing are at and you can choose to be apart of it or not. For me, I am all in.
Good luck! And if you want I will be your FB friend!!!
Michelle Sholund
www.bythebaybotanicals.com
www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com
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Permalink Reply by Kenneth Marine on
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I added a FB Fan page and it has brought in quite a bit of business I wouldn't have had otherwise. I set up a pretty simple website over a year ago at weebly.com I pay for my domain name but the website itself is free and easy to do....pick a style and follow instructions. I need to do some updates to the website, I'm working on adding the shopping cart feature.
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Here’s a question for you guys who have done it. When I try to set up a new account under my business name, it tells me that there is already an account with the same e-mail address. Do I have to have a separate e-mail address? I’d rather not. I do have another one but I never check it.
Linda : you said: First set up a personal face book page, then at the bottom someplace, add your business.
Where is that? I didn't see anything at the bottom.
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Never mind: just found it!
Linnea Lahlum said:Here’s a question for you guys who have done it. When I try to set up a new account under my business name, it tells me that there is already an account with the same e-mail address. Do I have to have a separate e-mail address? I’d rather not. I do have another one but I never check it.
Linda : you said: First set up a personal face book page, then at the bottom someplace, add your business.
Where is that? I didn't see anything at the bottom.
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Linda: I finally got the chance to check out your Facebook page. (darn deadlines keep getting in the way! ). It looks great. Hard to believe you set this up so professionally, so quickly! You have the show list nicely formatted. How did you do that? Or is it just the template that comes with Events? I guess I have never used events before.
I saw your copyright notice below your pictures. I wonder if this will be a problem? Since I have never had any web presence, I have not had to deal with this before. I will probably put a watermark on my images, as soon as I figure out how.
Another question: this could be for anyone:
“Be careful to go through all settings as some you will want to limit access to only having "friends" be able to view. Some areas you don't want "everyone" to see - make them become an approved friend first.”
Do you need to do this with a fan page? I have the security settings high on my personal page but don’t see how that would work for a business page. If I want to give this info to my customers I can’t be screening them all the time!
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A lot can be learned via FB if you take the time to explore it. That is pretty much how I learned how to use it and make it (my pages) my own. As far as getting people to become friends or fans, it takes a bit of time, however the more you are able to connect with friends and family and then explore and join other groups the easier it is to get more people to find your page. Also advice people - through business cards or something along that line - to check out your facebook page and invite them to be a fan.
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Hi Linnea,
Glad you got going on fb. I've had an interesting couple of weeks. As I mentioned, I may be a tad different than most, as much of what I do is with tall ships & lighthouses, but bottom line I think every artist should be on facebook. In two weeks I have nearly 180 fans - and from what I've seen, once someone is a fan, most of their friends see they became a fan and they check out the site and they become fans too. Let's say for instance you have a customer that happens to own a business as well. Let's say he/she is your hairdresser. Become a fan of his business site. His customers notice you are a fan of his or he is a fan of yours..... they check you out and also become fans. Then they check out your website and find out they like your art as well. Instant new customer base. As their fan base grows, so does yours. Multiply that by the continual activity of both your sites add fans, then multiply that by another customer of yours that is on face book and do the same. I will say this however..... it really helps to have a regular website - even a simple free website (you can even use NING). I can barely keep up with the hits on my regular website. It was always fairly consistant, but I had to graduate to Google Statistics to keep track of it all.
I do keep my business page quite open, keeping my personal fb page limited. Thanks for the compliments, but don't get frustrated if it takes you a tad longer.... I've made several websites for myself in the past 8 years....some of them very complicated. FB is pretty user friendly.
Events - I just used the events template fb provides. Take the time to learn all of it's features however. Also, Ning and face book are quite similar in platform. If you end up using NING for your personal site, the information you enter in Ning Events can be transferred directly to your fb page by clicking on fb icon.
Yes, I have that copyright message all over my business face book page. I did put a copyright watermark on all my images. A couple of issues to keep in mind. Anyone at any time can copy your work. The resolution necessary for internet pictures is 72, but a photoshop wiz can work with that. Typically I recommend that those who can input their images as a bitmap file - .bmp as they are really not easy to reproduce in a printout - however they can use those images on the internet.
Again, I'm a bit different than most - I'm not too concerned with those that dare violate copyright laws. In my previous life as an engineer, I've held several patents and worked with those attorneys. I learned from them that if anyone unlawfully stole a patent (in my case now- a photo image), and you find out..... wait a bit before prosecuting. Once you bring a suit against a violator, your awarded judgement includes damages from profits that person made with your photo. He gets jail time, you get all funds (times x amount) he/she made on it. Golly - like having your own distributor ;-)
I have had one person "steal" my images. It happens more than most know. My best suggestion is to use a watermark, clearly state on your fb page the copyright laws, and deal with violators as they happen. Understand that is all you can do and don't loose sleep over it.
I think I addressed your concern... if not, just let me know. You can always call me and I can walk you through stuff if you need it. FB is an amazing marketing tool. Have fun!
I am so far behind in preparing for the crazy busy art fair season, but I'm extremely glad I took the time to do the facebook thing. Now it's all set up and working well. I finally understand all the ins & outs and will be able to quickly deal with it while I'm on the road this summer.
Oh, one more thing..... I just became a "friend" to your personal site. Once you have your business site done, make sure you list it in your personal section on the side under your fb photo. Also, become a fan of your own business page. You want people who look at your personal page to know you also have a business page. Nice job setting that up!
Linnea Lahlum said:Linda: I finally got the chance to check out your Facebook page. (darn deadlines keep getting in the way! ). It looks great. Hard to believe you set this up so professionally, so quickly! You have the show list nicely formatted. How did you do that? Or is it just the template that comes with Events? I guess I have never used events before.
I saw your copyright notice below your pictures. I wonder if this will be a problem? Since I have never had any web presence, I have not had to deal with this before. I will probably put a watermark on my images, as soon as I figure out how.
Another question: this could be for anyone:
“Be careful to go through all settings as some you will want to limit access to only having "friends" be able to view. Some areas you don't want "everyone" to see - make them become an approved friend first.”
Do you need to do this with a fan page? I have the security settings high on my personal page but don’t see how that would work for a business page. If I want to give this info to my customers I can’t be screening them all the time!
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