This Week's On Fire For Handmade Featured Artist is Mary of Euphoric Charms!! Yay Mary!

This weeks featured artisan is Mary - Euphoric Charms!

You can find Mary at:

Etsy

Blog

Facebook

My Prizes From The Artisan Group 1,000 Fan Facebook Giveaway!

So I was one of four lucky winners of  The Artisan Group's 1, 000 Fan Facebook Giveaway and the prizes have begun to trickle in!!

These trendy note cards and matching pen from The BeezKneez

And these wonderful Turquoise Dyed Howlite Petal Earrings from Kaths Elegant Accessories!

Both were beautifully packaged and made me feel like one of the celebrities at the award shows that receive these wonderful products from The Artisan Group!!  Stay tuned...I have four more prizes to look forward to!

Handmade Harbor--A Caring Place To Promote Yourself and Other Artisans

There's a wonderful place on Facebook where handmade artisans can gather to promote themselves and other artists.  Or if you want to simply take a peek at everyone's newest designs, treasuries, etc and share them on Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, and other great online places...that's fun too!


It's a group called Handmade Harbor and is the creation of a wonderful jewelry artisan that we call NaLa!  You can see some of her beautiful and unique jewelry designs here!


Here are the basic rules for the page:

Welcome Handmade Community!

This is your place to showcase yourselves and your fellow artists. Please follow the posting guidelines:
1. Be a caring contributor to the group, commenting on other posts and sharing whenever you post something of your own.
2. Share new handmade artists with the group on Sharing and Caring Thursday, or any other time.
3. Have fun Caring and Sharing and making new friends!


There are posts on the Discussion Tab where you can share your links with other handmade indie artists and every Thursday is "Caring and Sharing" Day on Handmade Harbor where each member shares two of their favorite handmade artists.  The process is simple:  "Simply share your favorite handmade artists with the group by posting their links on the wall. Then be sure to let your artists know they've been featured on Handmade Harbor so they can enjoy their moment in the spotlight!"


And if you are on Flickr, you can join the Handmade Harbor Flickr group and share your photos with the group!!


Handmade Harbor is a kind and sharing group of artisans and the group is run by one of the most generous handmade artists I've run across.  Her belief in the handmade movement is unflappable and her caring and sharing of other artist's work started way before she began Handmade Harbor.  Because of this, and the warmth of spirit of all the members,  Handmade Harbor truly is a safe harbor for and handmade artists!!


Come on over and join us! The door is always open!!

Help Fuchst Bags Reach 550 Fans on Facebook and Enter Their Giveaway!!

Etsy Buy Handmade FuchstBags

My friend Mandy over at Fuchst Bags is having a special giveaway!  Her goal is to reach or exceed 550 Facebook Fans by June 15th!  Head over to her blog to see the rules!   One lucky fan could win a Kaftan/tunic top valued of $69.00! 

Hurry over and participate in this fun giveaway!  And visit Fuchst Bags on Facebook!

Spreading "Link Love"!!

An interesting and exciting phenomenon has been happening over the last several days on Facebook, amongst the pages of the handmade indie artisans that comprise a rich and robust community.

A few months ago I began offering on the discussion page of my fan page a place for other indie handmade artisans to post their links: Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter Channels, Blogs, and URLs for their Etsy Shops. It was in an effort to both meet some interesting and talented artisans and also to give some of the new artisans to the online venue a good start at gaining the community presence necessary to be successful online. Most importantly, I thought it would give my Facebook Fans added value and ultimately entice them to return to my fan page on a regular basis.

My little initiative was going very well. People would post their information, and would follow the others in the thread and several people would check back and catch up with any new posts. At periodic intervals I would post a little reminder to folks to leave their links on my discussion page and I would tweet that same message frequently. I would usually greet new fans and tell them to post their links to my Discussion Page.

Then shortly after Christmas, I received a couple of messages on my fan page from Runway Crochet and Paper On Parade saying they were going to do a similar thing on their pages. I was really happy and made a note to myself to check back with their pages when I had a minute and post my information to show my support. Well, things happen and the holidays were a bit crazy so by the time I got back to do that little task...the entire idea had spread like wildfire!

There is even a directory on many of these pages now call "List of Link Love" Fan Pages! This allows anyone coming to one particular Discussion Tab on one particular fan page and see where else they can leave their links. This list is by no means complete because this popular trend is still continuing.

Aside from the fact that it helps everyone increase their fan base, exposure, and social proof; the love and excitement this entire thing has generated makes me happy and proud to be a part of this wonderful handmade community!

Thanks to Runway Crochet and a growing list of other who are participating in this wonderful endeavor...it's viral marketing handmade style!

Let's Talk About Facebook

According to recent statistics, there are more than 200 million active users on Facebook, half of which log on to Facebook every day. An average user has approximately 120 friends and more than 4 million users become fans of pages every day! Rather staggering numbers! I know what you are saying...I said the same thing a few years ago...how does knowing that my friend Jason has joined the group "I Love Bacon" help me market my indie handmade business? The answer of course is setting up a Facebook Fan Page and then utilizing that page in conjunction with your personal Facebook page to connect with your customers, and form a solid community with other handmade artisans.

I decided to use Facebook for my business to accomplish the following goals:

1. Gain exposure to people who are searching for my products
2. Connect and engage with current and potential customers
3. Create a community around my business
4. Ultimately be able to promote other content that I create whether it be my blog, tutorials, webinars, etc

Some of the great features built in to Facebook are you can use third party applications to launch your Etsy mini or Artfire Kiosk on your fan page for instance. You can post all the links where fans can find you on Twitter, your personal blog, and at your Etsy shop. You can post topics to your own personal Discussion Board that will help link users together. Topics can include: share your Etsy Shop link, do you have a Twitter channel, do you have a blog...this can generate a value to your fan page for the readers within the handmade community and help them further their efforts to receive more traffic to their online selling site.

First things first...they way Facebook is set up, everything evolves around an individual Facebook profile. The profile represents the individual and is held under your individual name. Around this profile, you can create a Facebook Fan Page to represent your business. Here are some resources that help you set up your Facebook Profile:

• All Facebook
• VideoJug
• Squiddo
  

Some resources to help you set up your Facebook Fan Page:

• Socialbees
• Rants and Raves of a New Age Chick
• Etsy Storque

Okay, your profile and fan page is all set up...now what? Well, for your personal profile...go out and get some friends! Here's a few tips on how to go about it:

• Start with your center of influence--your friends, family, colleagues
• Join some groups on Facebook and make friend requests of members who share same interests--Etsy groups for instance are a great way to connect with fellow artisans and buyers too!
• Once you begin to get friend confirmations Facebook with send you an email that the person has confirmed you as a friend and will give a list of some of the friends they have that you might be interested in. That has a snowballing affect and you end up with a nice group of targeted friends within your interest group.

Now you need to get followers for your fan page! A nifty way to start is to invite all of your friends and family to become a fan. There is a quick and easy way to make this request right on the fan page on the far left; there's a link that's called "Suggest to Friends" that will pull up a list of all your profile friends and send invitations to become a fan of your fan page. This is a wonderful way to start getting fans to your page. Other ways include:

• Join a thread (or start one) in Etsy forums requesting Facebook Fans
• Join one of the groups within Facebook such as "Etsy" and post to the Discussion Page all topics concerning Facebook Fan Pages
• Tweet about your Fan Page on Twitter
• Post it on you blog--encourage people to join using a giveaway or some special incentive for Facebook Fans
• Put a Facebook Fan Page Badge on your blog--readers can quickly get to your fan page and become a fan in a few easy steps
  

Once you have established your fan page, you owe it to yourself to begin using the wonderful analytics option that you can access right from your page called Insights. As we all know, a key component to any marketing activity is measuring and analyzing the results of your efforts. Utilizing Facebook Insights as well as Google Analytics for measurements outside your page, here are a few metrics to consider:

• Reach--total number of fans, group members, or friends
• Engagement--the level of engagement and number of conversations with potential and current customers and fans. Insights, lets you track valuable metrics such as page views, wall posts, discussion threads, and photo views.
• Impact on Sales Funnel--the number of visitors from Facebook to your website that convert into customers and sales. Use a marketing analytics program such as Google Analytics to track the impact on your sales directly related to your Facebook Fan Page.

You can also use Facebook Insights to monitor the demographics of your fans and use this to tailor both your fan page content and your business products themselves to suit your target market.

Facebook is a tool for connecting people with those around them. And, as with any social media tool, handmade indie business owners have an opportunity to use Facebook to expand their online footprint and engage with customers directly. The end result is increased traffic to their online selling venue and ultimately increased sales. More than that, it can promote the feeling of collaboration and community which is such a vital part of the handmade industry itself!

So my Facebook Fan Page is here...how about yours? Post yours in the comments following this entry and I'll be sure to become your next fan!

My New Facebook Fan Page

So I now have a Fan Page on Facebook and OMG Fans!! Check it out at: http://tinyurl.com/lfuztu. I also have a widget on this blog that takes you there as well!