I've done it: Silverlight & Whiteleaf Jewellery is on Facebook.
My third big step into the world of social media (this blog and my Twitter account being the first and second): I reluctantly joined Facebook in early February.
I put it off for a long time, but after multiple requests from friends, acquaintances, and relatives, and after hearing for the umpteenth time about artisans who find that one of their best promotional tools is their Facebook pages, I decided to give it a try, and scheduled it for early February. Perhaps the reality of Facebook would be more fun than my mental image of it.
Regrettably, that was not the case. It took me 48 hours to grasp Twitter, and that felt like a long time. Two weeks after joining Facebook, I thought that I might be getting the hang of it, and I was starting to see the possibilities in it. Twitter was overwhelming because of the sheer amount of information being flung about; Facebook is overwhelming because it is complex, sprawling, feels unnatural, and, despite the fact that it's the biggest social network in the world, it's not user-friendly.
Despite all that, I'm now almost starting to like it. Unlike on Twitter, on Facebook you can post images and get rapid feedback from potential customers. Now that's handy. I can also say that I have made a sale due to Facebook, which is more than I can say about Twitter, fun though Twitter is. I've also found that customers are clicking on the Facebook link in my E-mail signature and are 'liking' my page, which is brilliant as it means that they are keen to keep in touch with my work and to see new designs.
Facebook is sort of like a blog, a bit like Twitter, a bit like StumbleUpon, and a bit like Tumblr. It's as though each of those social media platforms took an idea from Facebook and expanded on it, while Facebook itself, as the original social media platform, is the (more or less) happy medium.
You will notice that there is now a Facebook badge in the sidebar on the left of this blog. So you can now officially 'like' Silverlight & Whiteleaf Jewellery on Facebook.
4 comments:
Well done on trying to make sense of it! I tend to stumble aroundin the dark until something happens :-)
*Laughter* Sometimes, stumbling around in the dark is the only course of action. At least it's better than standing still and hoping that something will happen.
Thanks for your comment, JacBer.
Hello :) I for one am glad you made the jump to facebook! Nice to be so connected to you :)
I see facebook not so much as a place to find new customers as it is a place for existing customers and potential customers to be able to see what I'm up to and get to know me better. It's a place where a slow, growing closeness can develop between us. And then if they comment on my posts, there's the added bonus of that becoming a recommendation from them to their facebook friends of my business. It's all a bunch of baby steps to jewellery stardom, eh? :D Much luck to us!
You're right, Jenny, about the nature of Facebook, and I too am starting to be glad that I joined. Not least because of lovely friendly people like you! :-)
'Baby steps to jewellery stardom'. I like that.
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