This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Social Media Networking for Artists and Crafters
Read Part 1 Use LinkedIn to Build Your Art or Craft Show Business

Being an artist or crafter is about so much it's about having an idea, a talent, and a skill and developing that into a business. It's about learning there are proper ways of marketing those skills and that when done properly any business can succeed to some degree of success. It's about knowing what you define as success-as each person defines it differently.

The stigma surrounding home based businesses comes from the many mistakes that you see home based businesses making. For instance:

• posting hard sale messages
• posting numerous sales messages
• lack of marketing skills
• lack of salesmanship
• lack of customer service skills
  
• the idea that all home based businesses are MLM
• the idea that it's impossible to make a living selling your own hand crafted arts and crafts.

Many hand crafters make the mistake of posting messages that are self serving with no benefit to the readers of the group. When posting messages on social media sites like Facebook be sure your messages really benefit the reader on their path toward success. Gear posts toward providing value to the readers not toward yourself.

So my piece of golden advice would be to be sure when ever you post on Facebook think about 5 things:

1. Why am I posting here? What am I trying to accomplish? Am I trying to drive someone to visit my website, my blog, get them to follow or like me on Facebook, LinkedIn etc.?
2. Am I in the right place to do that?

Facebook is a great place to drive sales when your posts are providing value to the reader, but will harm your reputation done incorrectly.

Don't try a hard sale with people who aren't interested in your product or service instead try posting in a place where people are looking for your product or service.

Hard sells don't work and that is why so many people receive complaints about the self serving ads. Instead...

try giving relevant information to the topic at hand tie it into why your product is necessary to the reader and include a link to your site.


3. Have I given the reader information that is valuable to them?
4. Have I included a clear call to action that accomplishes my goal in #1?
5. Am I developing a relationship with the reader or am I pushing them away?
   

Guide each of your contacts gently to the desired goal. Don't expect anyone to buy from you when they first meet you. Give them several chances at getting information that is relevant and valuable to them with each piece taking them a little closer to the desired goal-making a purchase from you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.net to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

On January 7, 2011 I received this message from electric fence wire:

“Thanks admin for sharing this and link back to http://www.xxxxxxxxxx.net website that can help people to know about an advantage of electric fence wire.”

Why am I posting about this message? I am posting about this message because it is the kind of comment I get on my art and craft blog all the time. It proves that people are destroying their business reputations because they don’t know how to use blogs to draw attention to their business.

What did they do wrong?

1. Their business had nothing to do with the purpose of my blog?
2. Their post had nothing to do with the post or blog? They obviously didn’t even read the original post.
3. They gave no information that was relevant to my blog, post or customer.

Frankly I find it conceited and rude that they think I would just link to their site. I have no reason to recommend electric fence wire to my art and craft customers, they wouldn’t find it relevant to them. I have no reason to trust them or do business with them, so why would I risk the reputation of my business to link to them? The only thing I know about their business is that they treated me like a fool assuming I would just post such a link.

Comment correctly to build links and drive traffic to your site.

1. Visit blogs and communities that are related to your craft business.
   Visit sites where people are looking for the best fencing solutions if you are selling electric fence wire. Handcrafted jewelry businesses might visit sites where people talk about the best jewelry to go with an outfit or face shape. Woodworkers visit places where people are talking about styles of furniture or decorations, or about furniture repairs. Knitters might visit sites that make blankets for charity, or knitting guilds.
2. Keep your comments relevant to the purpose of the blog and the individual post.
   People looking for information to make their art and craft businesses more profitable are not looking for electric fence wire. Comments that are irrelevant waste everyone’s time and damage both business’s reputations. Every business should find blogs and posts that are related to them to comment on.
3. Share information that will be useful and valuable to the customers of the blog and to the original poster.
   I wouldn’t have been offended by electric fence wires post if they had shared information that would be useful and valuable to my customers. I would have happily shared a link to their site despite the fact it wasn’t likely something my customers would be looking for because it would have been accompanied by information that my customer could use.

Use good commenting etiquette to build traffic to your craft business.

We all face the same problem how to sell more handcrafted arts and crafts and make more money. Want to know the easiest way to double sales on your website and in your craft show fair booth?

People want what they want and they want it now! Make it easy for them to get your items now and in the future.

My family sold fireworks the past 3 years. The first year I noticed something that held true the other two.

I noticed that 50% of sales at the fireworks stand were made on credit cards. I also noticed that people who had decided they had already spent their limit often decided to purchase more when they learned we accepted credit cards.

More people buy when they hear that we accept credit cards because psychologically they are separated from the feeling of spending money. Taking out a piece of plastic and handing it to someone feels different than taking out a dollar and handing it to someone.

People spend more money when buying with a credit card because they can. They want something right now and they can get it now by putting it on a credit card.

People have been conditioned to forget about the payment involved with a credit card, because… they can pay for it later.

Lori Mulholland of Stitch a Book (www.Stitchabook.com) says,
“My experience at shows are your HAVE to take CC’s. Some of my shows are 50 % CC income.

I started out with the old Knuckle-buster hand push-pull contraption, and was recently told about SQUARE. It’s a white square that has a divot in it. You attach it to your smart phone, and you can slide the CC in the divot and process it that way. You get the customers email address, and the reciept is sent to them via email. Google “Square” and you will see it. The Costs of accepting CC’s is way better than the alternative. I have used Propay for many years and it has worked well, but it was brought to my attention at a recent show, that the use of the knuckle-buster is now illegal, for identity theft purposes. Having access to the whole number is OUT-Dated and Out lawed. The Square takes all that off your plate.”

When people pay cash for an item they may have to wait six months or more while they scrimp and save up for it. Giving them the feeling that they will have to work and sacrifice for it, something they don’t want to do.

In the meantime they will probably forget that they wanted the item or where they saw it. Save yourself time,effort, and profits by making it easy for customers to purchase now.

What does this mean for your arts and craft shows booth? It means that you can double your sales at fairs with this one simple solution, accept credit cards!

Why don’t we all accept credit cards?

Most of us look at the cost of accepting credit cards and it seems that it’s going to cost us more than we can afford.

We look at the options available and we see that it’s going to be seemingly inconvenient for us. With new solutions like SquareUp (https://squareup.com/) that work with our mobile phone there are no excuses.

The costs of accepting credit cards becomes unimportant when you consider that you will double your sales and profits by accepting them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

Buyers at art and craft shows love to hear the story of the person creating the crafts.  They love to feel that they know person they are doing business with and that they are doing business with a real approachable person.  This is an important part of the trust building process that must go on between a buyer and seller.

A craft blog (short for weblog) is a great inexpensive way to share your story with buyers at the markets, both before and after they attend craft shows.  There are many different providers of free blogs including WordPress.  I used WordPress because when I built my website I had no technical knowledge of HTML, installing blogs, etc.  WordPress was fairly easy for me to figure out and install, yet it has many different plugins that add functionality.  You pick and choose what you need your craft blog to do.

Your blog is a great place to let people know what craft shows you are attending and what booth number you will be in.  It’s a wonderful place to announce new products and services, as well as to share tips on product maintenance.  Share bits of your personal story, as well as information about the techniques and supplies you’ve used.

Key to getting a lot of traffic to your blog stay on topic giving your customers the information they are looking for, and post search engine optimized posts often.  Be sure your blog points your visitors back to your website if you have one.

One last tip that was shared with me recently join blogfrog at http://theblogfrog.com I joined a few weeks ago and new people follow my blog every single day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

I have to apologize for my recent lack of posts as I’ve been focusing on establishing an email follow up system for my artists and crafters.

One of the things successful marketers keep saying is to follow up with your craft show customers.   They say as much as 80% of sales are lost due to not following up with prospects.

In this economy it is more important than ever to follow up with your customers reminding them of their interest in your product.

This is one of the key things you will hear me harp on through out this blog-Build a List and then Follow Up With Your Customers!

I’ve finally found two programs that I felt were in my price range to provide email follow up with my customers.

Each one provides scheduled emails and/or autoresponders that can turn leads into prospects, prospects into customers, and turn current customers into repeat customers.

One is AutoWebBusiness.com and the other is Constant Contact.  I highly recommend you check out these two companies if you don’t already have some kind of automated follow up/email system in place.

Do you agree?

Links below are affiliate links.