There was a time when Facebook was merely a social site for college students. Then I noticed some of my friends were signing on. A few of the artisans and small business owners I know started using Facebook as well. And just this week I got an email from my glass wholesaler saying “be a fan!”
Until now, I have avoided joining Facebook. I already have a website and a blog. I am on LinkedIn and I Twitter. Do I really have to do Facebook too! Weigh in and let me know. How important do you think it is to be on Facebook? Has Facebook helped in your business? Please leave a comment.
Like yourself, my feeling is ‘do I have to?’ I use facebook in my personal life, and I quite enjoy that from time to time, but I don’t particularly want to have to get onto facebook for our glass site. I never check other bloggers’/craft businesses’ facebook pages – I like their blogs, I follow them on twitter, isn’t that enough? Just last week I went to a couple of craft bloggers’ facebook pages, just to see if I was missing anything – as far as I could see, I wasn’t. So I won’t be going back.
I guess you should ask yourself if the time you’ll have to invest in setting up and maintaining your facebook presence going to pay for itself through more sales? If not, don’t bother, concentrate on building your blog or other avenues.
Having said all that, it would be good to hear from someone who actually uses facebook for their business and finds it valuable…
Katie, I am hoping someone who does use facebook for their business will come along and give us some insight. Thanks for sharing.
Hello- I own a full service stained glass studio called State of the Art, Inc in Knoxville, TN http://www.sotaglass.com/. I have a facebook page for the studio. It has helped my business. It provides a form of instant communication to people. I can post my recent pieces and my fans see it instantly. I usually post a link to my blog. I do not post the link to every blog because some people get tired of it. I also post things of the Stained Glass Associaton of America page. (Our studio is an Accredited member of the SGAA.) I also post things on the GlassCommunity.com page. I have made many business contacts through those postings. By doing these postings I have built credibility for the studio. Those are the benefits. The down side is that I have to be very careful about what I post on my personal page. I always have to think about …. is this post in the best interest of the business. I hope this helps you.
Laura Goff Parham
Thanks for the input. I am slowly getting the idea of how FB could be a useful tool for my business. I created an account, but I am still figuring out how the personal and fan page work. It’s a catch 22 really. The more social networking I do the less time I have to create. But creating without an audience to appreciate and purchase my work isn’t much good either.