The second phase

Its interesting looking at the growth of The Selling Cafe Facebook Page and how i have been able to work on different aspects to really impact on its development.  The page has been active now for 9 weeks and it has 605 likes and page reach is around 3000 (it goes up and down daily). 

The first 4 weeks i was concentrating on just getting the page seen and i was spending everyday basically promoting it.  It was when i hit 300 likes i decided it was time to start to change my focus to getting people interacting on the page.  

This is the comparison between month one and month two:

The amount of interaction has gone from a maximum of 50 to over 200 so it seems my strategies are working. 

This issue of photos not being seen is slowly improving - the written posts are still hitting around 150-200 of a reach, but the photos have now started to hit around 50 - 70 of a reach so again my strategy is beginning to work.  I have to get those photos out to get the products seen.  

I have also started to work on building the community feeling and the sense of working together - This is my main vision - a real sense of teamwork and the fact that together we are stronger.  I have already started to work on the joint benefits as well - i have negotiated a few discounts for page members for things like packaging costs and printing costs too.  

I am feeling quite satisfied that i have the page heading in the right direction - it is following my ethos as well as hitting the right targets for the facebook algorithms to allow the content to get out......

Next steps are important - things are still delicate and needing close monitoring, but i also want to work on getting sales for page members.  To help with this i will be adding links to the selling cafe blog which will go to the selling albums of members - i also want to look at if its possible to add buy now links to the blog - i don't see why it wouldn't be possible when i can add them to websites....

So the page is still very much in the second phase now and this will continue for a while i'm guessing - a bit longer than the first phase i imagine, but i am starting to look at phase three now as well - i'm sure the sales will come as long as i keep working on good customer service and getting the products seen. So far so good :) 

Keeping on Building

Well it has been a little while since i posted here so i thought it was time for some updates! 

The Selling Cafe fb page has started to generate interest and new likes without me having to promote it so much - it has been hard work but its great to see the page building up like this! We now have 557 likes and more importantly the page reach has been increasing as well.  

I have noticed some worrying statistics related to the picture sharing which are very much restricted in their reach.  The written comments are hitting around 150-200 of a reach but the photos are only hitting 20-30 of a reach.  I did some research and discovered this is a new setting by facebook algorithms and it is going to have a major impact on business pages.  

I am trying to work through this at the minute and am continuing to take a multi-dimensional approach to sharing pics - we are relying on these to get sales after all.  Another problem highlighted recently on fb in general is the increase in blocking of accounts and closure of personal profiles which are used for business.  Its obviously another round of the fb strategy to get more advertising revenue in my view.  

So what am i doing to counteract these problems? 

Well, i am still very much in the experimental phase of building the page and i have been trying various options.  I have tried event pages, sharing pics on a Saturday morning as an online sale type option, and have now opened a new group as well.  I am learning a lot about the best approach to take from these experiments and now i'm getting to the point of being able to settle on a 'best practice' option - i don't like changing things around so much, but in the early days its important to try out certain things and change if they are not working effectively.  

Now the page is growing with a little less work on promotion than before i can start to work more on the strategy and vision of the page and the business ideas i have.  I can't just leave the promotion side to take care of itself of course i will just be stepping this back slightly to allow for the next stage of development to take place.  

The focus still has to be on gaining page interaction, but i don't want to lose the point of the page by posting unrelated items just to get people involved.  Its a bit of a fine line to walk - its tempting to just post things because i know they will get involvement happening but that is not how i want the business to grow - it is at an early developmental stage so i do have to keep my eye on where i want it to go rather than simply focus on the here and now.

Today i find it useful to remember this quote:   

Its ok for things to take time, even in todays high speed and need for instant gratification.....

Its starting to work

Ok so in my last post i had got to the point of 300 likes, now how do i get interaction happening? Today i can see a bit more interaction happening - sometimes just like clicked on a pic or status, but yes i am getting more comments now too.  Its not a huge change in my view but i can see a little bit of a difference i think.  I wonder what the stats say today.......

There does look like a bit more interaction today but it is hard to tell from this random selection of post stats.  I should really be looking at all the stats and comparing them so the other details are:

At least this is showing the total reach and the post reach have both increased overall and its improving across the mon - wed section - post reach is down though on a saturday which is my online sale day so that needs to be monitored closely.

This chart is showing a small general trend of more interaction with obvious peaks.

All this interaction is fine and dandy but i also need to consider sales figures - thats what i'm here for after all.  Sales are happening and enquiries have started too but it is still slow.

Action Plan

Record the number of sales in general and the total amount if possible.

Add some more selling albums to established selling groups

Do some leaflet drops

Keep doing what i'm doing and monitor well