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A little while ago, I decided to take the plunge and close my Facebook account as it had become too unwieldy to manage with many 'friends' I didn't know at all. Unfortunately, by closing my personal page, my teddy business page also disappeared, so I decided to start again in a more controlled way and build a new business page. I'd like to make this page as interesting as possible for visitors so I'd love to know what collectors hope to find when they visit a FB page ... also, if any bear artists have any tips for helping to 'grow' the reach of my new page, I'd be eternally grateful! Thank you! 
When I check my stats nowadays I am always amazed by the amount of visitors from Pinterest and Facebook since
I have been doing my Facebook business page. I started my page probably about 5 years ago. I update both pages every day with photos if possible as apparently Facebook likes photos and that gets you more priority in the news feed. I try not to update my business page more than once a day as I've read that doing that can have the reverse effect.
In that time I've got 3700 plus followers and some regularly interact. The reach last week was 5709 and 845 people engaged. It's taken time Paula but I have sold bears, gained followers... Lost some too.. It connects seamlessly with sites like
ABI and Teddy Talk..allows me to promote my eBay auctions , mailing list etc and I know that my bears have been bought on occasion by people who have never even seen an artist bear before. So I think despite the people who knock it, for a bit if consistent regular effort you can be successful. In The beginning, and occasionally now, I pay to promote my bears. I will set the campaign at around £5 or £10 sometimes. That really helps expose my work to new people. But I don't do it often nowadays.
Neither do I buy likes.. I know some do but I don't see the point of that because it's just a vanity thing really. You can buy a couple of thousand likes online for £30 or so but it's not real so I don't get why anyone would bother.
Good luck with it!
Thanks Jenny, it's interesting to read your take and very helpful - your page is doing brilliantly! My old one was pretty good but that had built up over a few years - starting from scratch again hasn't been my brightest business idea, lol! I use Pinterest and hadn't realised until yesterday I could link it into my FB business page, same with Instagram, so I've been reading up and going goggle eyed trying to work out how best to do things and managed to link those now, so fingers crossed that is interesting to visitors. Like you, I have also occasionally paid to promote a bear when I have it available and that has helped, but I'd like to build a more regular following which isn't always about me punting a new bear for sale! I wasn't aware you could purchase 'likes' - goodness me, whatever next!
PS - note to self, need to take more interest in 'stats'! Thanks for the pointer Jenny! Just read I've achieved 1074 reach on my business page so far this week, with 253 engaged - so although not at your giddy heights, it seems things are building after all!
Me too...I just like to have a regular flow of visitors . Be aware that more photos less text gets more priority in the news feeds...so I do post photos as much as possible ..even if it's the dogs.
Generally though it's bears that keep people coming back so even if I am not selling one I do put photos up. I tell you the best thing I have found, and I can't take any credit for this as I took a leaf out of Kelly Deans book and now everyone is doing it...is the work in progress. Kelly does it with much more panache as his workshop is so amazing ...he does his ' On My Workbench this week' pictures which I am sure drive business. I don't do anything more than
show the odd nose, or foot pad..or face in progress. But it does stimulate interest. Which is the aim
Yes you can buy likes from loads of companies....2000 for £30 is about average. I have no idea what good it does anyone though...other than create a false impression and lead people to think the page is more popular than it really is...I don't think it means anything though...it doesn't actually mean the page is popular. It just means they bought likes.
Sorry, I know the topic is FB, but I thought I might suggest a couple of things in regards to Pinterest.
PS - note to self, need to take more interest in 'stats'!
I just learned the other day, you can set your Pinterest page to be a business page. This lets you access analytics (scary word) and learn what pins are working best. My favorite is the most clicked panel. You can also see how many new followers showed up, whether they view your pins, how many re-pins everything is getting, etc.
You can also verify your website really easily on there. Then if anyone sees you on Pinterest you get this check mark in the top right. I don't know if it means you show up in searches better, but it looks more legitimate 
You can see this lady has a checkmark on her profile.
Convert your page to a business page: https://business.pinterest.com/en
Verify your website: https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/ … ur-website
There are also rumblings of Pinterest adding a buy button. Which might help turn those followers into customers!
That looks really interesting! Thanks for sharing
That's really helpful, thanks Jason, I'll take a look. Have been meaning to verify. But can't work out how to add what's needed to my website - annoying! Jenny, I like work in progress and do pics quite often on Twitter and my Blog - have been working them into my new FB page lately too so will keep that up, thanks for the tip.
I'm glad I could help. Just had a look, and it seems you figured it all out. Congrats! *high-five* :lol:
Also, more on topic, I recently found this video about Facebook advertising. While you grow your new account, it may actually be better to avoid advertising it. Otherwise you could end up with a host of fake followers that limit your reach.
I don't use Facebook nearly enough to have an opinion of my own though, I'm just going on the video's evidence.
Goodness me, there is so much to learn when it comes to modern day internet marketing! Thank you for your help Jason - really interesting!
