My wife works in the tech field and urged me for some time to get on
FB and she finally put our store on FB herself. Every week or two she
posts something about a birthstone of the month or a picture of
something we recently put in inventory. Sometimes she writes about
special discounts for FB fans, we have over 500, or special events,
etc. We have gained several customers that we know are a direct
result of FB. One customer is a friend of ours that spent several
hundred dollars last Christmas because my wife posted a picture and
he came in to shop with us. Now he would buy from us because of our
friendship, but it hadn’t occured to shop for jewelry until he saw my
wife’s posting on FB.
Facebook isn’t a cure-all for your business advertising but it is my
most cost effective advertising. Many people come in and ask to see
such and such from our FB posting. The customer response has made a
believer out of me.
Would you say that Facebook is preferable to a website?
I am not certain who this was directed to - but I would say Facebook
is DIFFERENT than a website. A website you must TOTALLY drive
traffic to it yourself and it is very ‘one-way’ for the most part -
you talk, you show, etc.
Facebook is a ‘network’ and by virtue of the way it works, it will
bring people to you. And it is iteractive so if you wanted, you
could get feed back on something (a piece of work, shipping
preferences, whatever…) by asking a question.
Having said that – I can’t seem to find time for FB…so that has
to be figured in as wel. Things move very fast on FB
Facebook can be a good thing for some. It is a tool and what most
matters is how it is approached and what your expectations are.
I joined and my personal experience was that there were suggestions
as to who I might want to have as a contact. There were some odd
suggestions that just didn’t make sense, but there was a thread
running through most of them. About the third time I logged in there
were several suggestions for contacts that could have been made only
if FB was mining my email address book. This I don’t absolutely know
was the case, but I felt strongly enough to unsubscribe. In my
opinion Fickr offers a great place to post photos without any chance
of privacy invasion.
Yeah, FB will try to mine your online address books, --IF you let
it–. I just keep telling it ‘hell no’.
If it asks for passwords to anything else, just say no, and it’s
stuck. It wants to look at gmail contacts, and MS entourage, I think.
Me? I’ve got a Mac, set to “Paranoid”. No way it’s going to figure
out how to mine that.
About the third time I logged in there were several suggestions for
contacts that could have been made only if FB was mining my email
address book.
You have to give permission for FB to access your email account. The
“suggestions” of friends are usually friends of friends. Perhaps you
gave permission to it to access your email when you first opened the
account and it remembered some of those names to suggest later.
FB will only mine your address book if you allow it to, I have mine
set to NOT do so. There are certain things FB will ask you to
‘allow’ if you select to accept a certain application or tool. I
almost always do not allow these types of access. I refuse or
‘ignore’ the gifts, games, polls, etc for the most part.
What FB seems to me to do though, if you have email mining blocked
is to scan your ‘friends’ and THEIR ‘friends’ and fan pages etc and
so on and so on and so on to suggest people you may know or want to
know.
About the third time I logged in there were several suggestions for
contacts that could have been made only if FB was mining my email
address book. This I don't absolutely know was the case, but I felt
strongly enough to unsubscribe.
I have to admit from the start that I do not understand Facebook.
The first rule of business, when participating in join venture, is
to understand how the other side is making it’s money. One must put
aside his/her profit expectation and concentrate on understanding the
complete picture.
Facebook, on the surface, gives you everything for nothing. That is
not how the real world works. In my attempts to understand their
business model, the conclusions are not conducive to my
participation, especially when one considers the statement of one of
their execs about “redefined privacy”. So as of now, I chose to stay
out.
May be someone with greater knowledge, would take time to explain
how Facebook get’s their income, and how it affects individual
participants.
About the third time I logged in there were several suggestions for
contacts that could have been made only if FB was mining my email
address book.
I really don’t think they do that - almost positive in fact. What
they DO do is pay attention to what you look at, who your friends
are, and what you do on FB, and then make suggestions accordingly. So
if you are a jeweler, looking at other jewelers or gem dealers, and
friends with same, they will suggest same as additional friends. Not
because they are in your address book, but because according to
their data base this makes sense as a suggestion for you.
Sometimes the suggestions do make sense, some don’t. For some reason
they think I live in the Atlanta, Georgia, area (I’m in SC), and I
constantly get ads targeted for that area. Kind of funny. Not sure
where they got that idea.
There are also a LOT of privacy controls you can adjust under your
personal settings. I keep mine pretty tight.
to offer a bit more info… I opened the account with an intent to
look at Orchid’s FB. I too am pretty tight with privacy settings and
made certain that everything was set that way. The info I provided
was minimal, only enough to satisfy the basics.
I never did look at Orchid’s FB, any other account or “friends” or
did I list any friends. Went back several times with the intent of
exploring, but logged off about as soon as I was on and never did
explore. Each time the suggestions curiously expanded to include more
people connected with bicycle racing and some clients from a former
business.
This is beyond me to spend the time to figure out what might have
happened. In the end my decision to cancel my account was based on
if FB defined their procedures so tightly that had I overlooked some
check box and my email address book was fair game, then I didn’t want
to be a part of that activity.
May be someone with greater knowledge, would take time to explain
how Facebook get's their income, and how it affects individual
participants.
They get their income in several ways. They sell ads, which show up
on the pages of viewers. These ads are targeted. You have the option,
as you use Facebook, to give it access to certain types of
about you. It can use these, and use who your friends
are, where you live, what you do on Facebook, to help advertisers
reach their target market. Big money in sending ads to those most
likely to buy!
Next, it has free games. Many if not most of these games have
options where you can buy a “better” version, or where while playing
the game you can buy additional things for the game. As in using real
money. Of course, Facebook gets a cut of all of this!
Don’t worry about them making money - I suspect they are making pots
of money. Just not from me. I don’t pay for “games”, and haven’t
decided the ads are worth it either… though they might be.
Lots of big name companies and web sites have ads on Facebook, as do
many colleges and universities.
May be someone with greater knowledge, would take time to explain
how Facebook get's their income, and how it affects individual
participants.
They get their income in several ways. They sell ads, which show up
on the pages of viewers. These ads are targeted. You have the option,
as you use Facebook, to give it access to certain types of
about you. It can use these, and use who your friends
are, where you live, what you do on Facebook, to help advertisers
reach their target market. Big money in sending ads to those most
likely to buy!
Next, it has free games. Many if not most of these games have
options where you can buy a “better” version, or where while playing
the game you can buy additional things for the game. As in using real
money. Of course, Facebook gets a cut of all of this!
Don’t worry about them making money - I suspect they are making pots
of money. Just not from me. I don’t pay for “games”, and haven’t
decided the ads are worth it either… though they might be.
Lots of big name companies and web sites have ads on Facebook, as do
many colleges and universities.
In my opinion Fickr offers a great place to post photos without
any chance of privacy invasion.
What I see on Facebook is that people post messages that are
personal and then as friends of friends go to look at the post one’s
private affairs are exposed.
I am amazed that people on Facebook post photos of children. It
takes about 10 minutes on Google map to search out a location.
Flickr: I am still doing it a bit but contacts and comments have
almost always come from other artisans and so I have the impression
that I am chasing my own tail and not entering into contact with
galleries or possible clients.
From the stats of my site I see that quite a few visits come from
directories - free, one time payment-lifetime, annual payment.
Control the PR (google page rank) before signing on. A decent
directory that will give exposure has a rank 4 and up. It is a pain
to fill out the form to specifications but can be worth it’s while.
I was planning on replying to this topic anyway because I believe
that facebook has been a great way to connect with past customers and
potential future customers but after this morning I knew I really had
to reply! This is what happened: yesterday, I posted a picture of a
pair of earrings I had just made on my fan page. That picture was
automatically sent to my fans and appeared on their home pages. A
friend of a fan saw the picture on that person’s home page and
because of that went to my online shop and purchased more than $300
of jewelry from me this morning! So for the simple act of having a
facebook fan page and posting a quick picture from my cell phone I
not only found a new customer but made a great sale! So yes…
facebook is definitely worth the effort!
This past weekend I did a four day show in Florence, SC population
just over 130,000. Sold less than $200. Bomb.
Today I did a trunk show in the same town, in the high end gift
shop. Their two primary forms of promotion are Facebook and their
1,000 person e-mail list. Nearly sold out in 5 hours. BIG day - huge
sales, high end items flying out the door, folks buying multiple
high end items.
They had listed the trunk show on Facebook, and used Facebook post
photos and to send invitations to the event to their Facebook Fans.
They told me that they will list that new items have come in, or
that they have put something on sale, on Facebook, and within an hour
they will have people coming in the door from that listing.
It works. And it costs nothing.
If you are worried about your privacy, try googling yourself online
and be prepared to see how little privacy you already have. Your
life is out there. I don’t feel that I’m losing any privacy via
Facebook that hasn’t already been lost - and I am making sales I
would not have made any other way. It is just a no brainer.
As I, and many of us here have more things to do with our time. I
refuse to get involved in Facebuck, Twit or the new Google
"Buzzz"…why so? I hate to have any Tom, Dick or Harriet know of my
private life.
I went into Buzzz and they requested that I enter all kind of
questions for public consumption. For what purpose, so someone can
send me trivial emails? I use my computer to do research, but don’t
have the intention of spending hours each day writing drivel…sorry
for my ranting…
If you want to use Facebook as a promotional tool - why would you
want to prevent it from minig your address book? Or using every
other method possible to find contacts?
I have taken many e-commerce workshops and spent a lot of time
trying to understand how this social networking can work for
artists, since it is my experience that shows just don’t work
anymore. After a year of working the Internet pretty hard I am
finding Facebook the best way to generate sales.
Part of the reason that Facebook can work is because people who are
buying art jewellery are not just buying merchandise - they want a
look into the artists life. Facebook aloows them to do that. If you
are careful with your status updates, you can let them see enough to
interest them in your work, but not enough to invade your privacy.
That is ENTIRELY in your hands.
Don’t get me wrong - it takes a LOT of effort. You have to be
careful what you post - and how you respond to others with a clear
sense of boundaries, but for me it has been the best INternet tool
there is.
I don’t I if think is any different than have shopper saving cards
(like for Safeway, Costco, Sams Club) anything you buy is used to
gather demographics to better met the needs of your personal
shopping experience. I personally resent both the cards and any
invasion of privacy.
don't have the intention of spending hours each day writing drivel
Well Gerry, if you consider marketing drivel, that is your choice.
Some of us don’t. When I post on Facebook and people see my work and
come to shows to buy the piece they saw on Facebook, I don’t call
that “drivel”. When they see a piece I’ve done and then custom order
a piece I don’t call that “drivel”. Guess our definition of “drivel”
is different. Nor does it take me hours to take a photo, edit it and
post it. Just minutes. When those minutes sell a piece for several
hundred dollars I consider that “drivel” and time well spent, myself!
What I see on Facebook is that people post messages that are
personal and then as friends of friends go to look at the post one’s
private affairs are exposed. that’s because they don’t bother to set
their privacy settings…you can find detailed instructions on the
ACLU website.
I don't I if think is any different than have shopper saving cards
(like for Safeway, Costco, Sams Club) anything you buy is used to
gather demographics to better met the needs of your personal
shopping experience. I personally resent both the cards and any
invasion of privacy.
Sam’s and Costco are membership clubs, not “savings cards.” I’m sure
they gather sales and demographic data, but not at the personal
level. Any advertising I get from them is the same advertising every
member in the area gets.
