Its a Challenge......

I was running a little challenge in our Business Pages Advice Group a few weeks ago and it went really well. We started the challenge by looking at facebook page reach and engagement and within a few days all who participated reported great results!  As it worked so well i thought i would put together another little challenge to help direct and motivate those with business pages on facebook towards increasing sales.  This challenge will follow on directly from the previous post selling-from-facebook-page-methods-to.increase-sales.

So this challenge is going to last for a week which in my view is a good time scale to work on a sales campaign.

Each day for this week i will post a little task here on the blog which will hopefully help to get some sales happening for those who take part - Obviously i can't guarantee results, i will simply be talking you through the type of actions i personally take when creating and implementing a sales campaign for either my own page Truly Quirky Me or for the main page The Selling Cafe.

So if you would like to take part in this challenge simply comment below :)

Day one of the challenge is today.....

Its an easy starter honestly - the only thing i would like you to do today is to create an album on your facebook page with some products you want to focus on selling this week.  I would suggest you choose some sort of a theme for these rather than completely random products.

I would also suggest you add at least 4/5 products to this album and not more than 10/12.  Personally i will be working on a larger album for the main page but this will be from several different sellers.  I will also work on a smaller album with my own personal page.

Each day just come back here to find out what the task for the day is and let us all know how you are getting on :)

Right then lets go :) and good luck for sales xxxxx

Are you Liking the Road to Disaster?

Way back in 2012 i wrote my first blog post about liking ladders and boosting likes on facebook and the concerns i had about it (you can read that post here and the follow up to that post here).  Although i was running a different page back then, it was still related to selling and small businesses on facebook.

What i was witnessing back then was a massive use of so called liking ladders designed to boost the numbers of likes a facebook page has got.  I conducted an experiment back then on my own page and the results were startling and extremely significant.  Very basically after using like ladders to boost my own page likes I monitored my stats only to find there was a huge decrease in the reach of my page.

Back then i did get slated for suggesting such things by some people, but i also had many agree with my conclusions.  Fast forward now to 2014 and here i am again, preaching about chasing like figures.  The difference is this time the networking pages themselves are advising people not to like and run and using the pages just to boost likes is not a good idea.  I am extremely glad to see this as, apart from confirming i was on the right track in 2012, they are also trying to educate the page fans.

Despite all this education however i am still witnessing a huge amount of people searching for likes and celebrating their magic number.  Its difficult not to celebrate the fan base of your page growing, and indeed it is something worth celebrating - when a page is grown slowly and with care it is a very very good thing to celebrate.  In my humble opinion however when done too fast and with 'false' likes it is going to lead to disaster for that page.

Why on earth would i predict such a thing? Quite simply because i have been researching my stats yet again and conducting more experiments on the new page.  I have also armed myself with as much knowledge as i can cram into my head about the new facebook settings.

Everyone seems to be reeling about the how their reach is so low since the new changes, but i have to ask myself why these stats would be so low.  My conclusion is the important point in the equation is INTERACTION.  A useful explanation of this can be found here.



Since investigating the new facebook algorithms and doing all this research i have actually come to the conclusion that what facebook is doing is actually a good thing......(ducks to avoid things getting thrown at me lol).  No really, i do think its good because facebook is actually telling us how to improve our pages.  What they are doing with these new changes is to limit the reach of our posts to people who are genuinely interested in what we have to offer - what they are doing is actually screening out the 'false' likes.  They are teaching us we need to be more choosy about who we try to bring onto our pages and they want us to have real fans who are interested in our pages - its marketing 101 really - Identify your TARGET AUDIENCE!

So why would this lead to disaster for pages who use liking ladders etc? Well facebook will be giving pages which are deemed to be interesting by their own fans precedence over those deemed less interesting, and how they will be doing this is via a weighting system based on INTERACTION.  If a page has people who are not actually interested in the business the interaction is going to be minimal....but the more people you have on your page the more chance there is of grabbing some fans who will interact and thats a good thing right? Or is it????

I have to wonder about how the amount of people a page has as fans will be taken into consideration in these algorithms......a page with 10 people as fans who are all interacting on a regular basis would mean this page has a 'score' of 100% - they have a very targeted audience despite being small.  On the other hand if the page has 1000 people as fans and only 10 people interacting regularly it has only got a 'score' of 1% and a rather un-targeted audience.

Take this further - the page with 1000 likes continues to add more and more people who are not actually interested in their page and the situation gets worse rather than better.  In my opinion (bearing in mind i am not an expert on this) facebook will be using a system like this to determine which of the business pages get space in the already packed newsfeeds of fans......I am guessing those pages with a wide non targeted audience will soon find themselves without any access  to those who have liked their page at all.  It is just a guess, but i'm usually quite good at predicting what is to come.

Next time i will be looking at what steps business pages in this situation can do to improve their page rank and hopefully avoid the problems i suspect they will face if no action is taken.

What a Difference a Month Makes

In my last post The Second Phase I had more or less just started to see some results from working on the interaction on The Selling Cafe Page  and the general page reach.  I had reached 605 likes and all was seeming like it was on track to where i wanted it to go.

Its now just over 1 month since those last statistics were published and definitely time for an update! Things have progressed extremely well i have to say.  Without looking at the stats i know the page is much more active and i have several developments underway - to be honest i'm quite surprised it has only actually been a month!!

So what do the stats say?

The number of likes today is 737 - up by over 200.

Last month interaction was up to a maximum of 200 from a maximum of 50 in month one.  This month the maximum is hitting almost 400.  There is a clear inactivity for a few days over Christmas but the rest of the month has a reasonable amount of activity going on and seems to be around the 100 level on average.

The post reach for December seems to be averaging out around 500-600 with a few higher peaks showing. Considering the likes are just over 700 i seem to be maintaining a reach that is not far off the mark on this right now.  I'm very pleased with this as many pages are struggling to hit even 50% of their likes level in reach terms right now.

Looking at the individual posts more closely the written posts are now hitting between 150 - 300 which is a decent enough increase from last month but the photos are still hovering around the 50 - 70 level.  This is not good news and i do need to do some more work on this ASAP.  The rest of the stats are showing things moving in the right direction though which is a relief. 

With regard to the sense of community - this is working very well.  There is a great sense of camaraderie with a group of around 20 people at the minute and i think this will really give us a good solid foundation.  The group is extremely supportive of each other and the general comments indicate there is a very big reduction in the feeling of isolation.  To be honest this side of things literally could not be better at this point.

Sales being generated from the page are extremely difficult to measure as often i am not privy to that information and its difficult to know where sales have come from specifically.  I do know for sure there have been several sales on the page though which i'm glad of.  At the minute i am considering changing part of the selling aspect on the page itself though - this issue of photos not being seen is forcing me to look at alternatives.  I have started to work on the blog now and have sorted links for Twitter from the fb pages.  Buy now buttons have been added to the blog and some of the sellers goods have been publicised on there so far.  I do want to get a basic introductory post completed for each seller and then it will be used for updates and announcements.  Another main development in regard to the blog is i have started a mailing list, so i am now actively capturing contact details.  

Overall i feel the foundations of The Selling Cafe have been set pretty well.  I am happy with the page progression and i have several additional themed pages working at bringing buyers into the loop.  There is now an auctions page and a £1 page.  The auctions page has just hit 300 likes and is proving popular, and the £1 page is just new with just 23 likes but again it is generating a good amount of interest from people who are there specifically to buy.  These pages will be used interconnectively to pull both sellers and buyers in and hopefully this will result in sales.  

So, it seems we are progressing well into phase 3 of the plan now - the selling part - the foundations of this are being laid down and i am reasonably confident of the multi-pronged approach being a good one.  

An additional aspect of providing advice and guidance has started to bud now as well.  This isn't something i deliberately aimed for, but with the changes happening on facebook pages right now it is becoming more and more obvious that pages are having to learn how to use their pages more effectively.  Luckily i have been developing my own knowledge about how the pages work for quite some time now, so my level of understanding is proving useful.  

Next steps? 

Obviously i need to continue adding to the group of members - the community needs to keep growing.  I am using a slow but steady growth model for this - i am adding to the group literally just a few members at a time, but i am now using a multi-level progression to membership.  

The main focus now will be on those activities which should lead to sales:  Overcoming the photo restrictions on fb has to be the top priority.  Luckily i do have a plan in mind! 

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

One week on

I am very excited to be writing this update as everything i have been working on so far has been coming together nicely :)

Last week i was working on getting-word-out about my new business and doing some of the background development work.  I had my action plan to work through and keep me going in the right direction.  Over the past week then i have been working on the following:

Promote fb page to get up to 200 likes

I have been ticking along with this, it was a bit difficult at first but it seems to be starting to take its own promotional course a bit more now as fb is intended to.  Today i have 197 likes on the page so i am quite pleased with that - not far off target at all.

Plan how i am going to hold the online car boot sale

This caused a little bit of a dilemma for me - i had decided to share products on the page for the sale, but i had internet problems during the week and had no access.  I didn't know if i should go ahead with the sale as i hadn't been able to promote it much AND the weather forecast was pretty good for the weekend.  I was trying to decide between doing the sale online or going to do an actual car boot sale - in the end i managed to do both! I was able to use my phone to post pictures to the page for the sale and sell some items at the car boot sale too - best of both worlds :) I was a bit more limited by using the phone but i was glad i was able to do as i had said i would even if i wasn't the best it could have been had i been home on the laptop.

Add customers to my contact list on email

Yes i managed to do this without any problems.

Figure out how to link my fb page & Twitter to my blog to

send the updates to both at the same time - i have done it

before so hopefully i will remember.

 This step i haven't quite managed to do yet - i have been able to link the blog to fb, but not to twitter.  I'm not great with twitter and i don't use it as easily as i do fb, but i will hopefully start to develop skills on this.

Additional points/notes/learning from this week

I did manage to generate some good interest in the FB page by thinking outside the box - I arranged a fun and novelty giveaway and people seem to be really taken by it.  This reminded me about building up a personality for the brand The Selling Cafe and the USP.  It also reminded me that people buy from people - the main USP i have is me.  I'm a bit quirky and random at times and when i let that reflect on the page it worked.

I was at the car boot sale - the perfect place to promote the page and i had no promotional materials.  I did a bit of an on the hop promotion by drawing a sign and writing on the back of some of my other business cards.  Not very professional but it actually worked quite well :)

Next Steps

Following up on my action plan i will be aiming to:

Promote fb page some more to get up to 300 likes
Think about when to hold the next online car boot sale
Add the new customers to my contact list on email
Link twitter to my blog/fb page
Try to use twitter a bit more frequently
Sort some promotional material for the page

I hope the next update is as good as this one has been :) I love the fact it seems to be heading in the right direction!

Getting the Word Out

Ok so i have decided on the business i want to pursue (this time) and i have a name for it - The Selling Cafe.  I have a long term vision which involves premises and other people etc, but for now i will be focusing on trying to sell online and at markets, car boot sales etc.

The Selling Cafe will not focus on any specific type of product - i've tried that before when i was trying to sell handmade goods, but the joy of this is i can *try* to sell anything, so hopefully it will be flexible enough for my ever changing ideas.

Selling has been a constant aspect of my many business ideas so it makes sense this latest one will continue with that.  I know i need to have a USP (Unique Selling Point) to make the business different from the many others out there - i do have the idea that will make it unique but i need to develop that a bit more.

At the minute i am trying to concentrate on getting the word out about The Selling Cafe and so far i have an ebay account, a facebook page, a Selling Cafe Blog and today i started a twitter account as well.  I have been playing around with developing a website as well, but money is an issue so i've been looking at doing this myself (i've designed and developed a few websites before).

I am making some regular sales on ebay and have found opening a shop on there has helped a bit - i'm limited to 100 items a month right now but hopefully i can increase this in time.

I am working on connecting all my 'outlets' and so far i have my ebay account linked to my facebook page via a shop app, the rest i need to figure out how to connect.

I feel like i am struggling a bit to get followers on fb but i know it does take time to build this up.  I am planning on holding a weekly online car boot sale on the page so i am hoping that will help to build up a bit of a following of both sellers and buyers.  Today i have 155 likes on the fb page so would like to aim for at least 200 on there by this time next week.

The blog i have just updated with a new template and am much happier with that.  My vision for the blog is to add pics of items i am selling but offer blog followers discounts and special offers.  That blog was a bit of a mishmash of 'business development posts and selling posts so i've decided to separate those (hence starting this one).

The twitter account i am hoping will help me to promote the blog, fb page and ebay accounts, but i'm not very familiar with twitter yet.  I know i can also have a pinterest account but i am conscious of spending all my time on social media accounts rather than selling, so i will let that sit right now and might review it again later.

Action Plan

Promote fb page to get up to 200 likes
Plan how i am going to hold the online car boot sale
Add customers to my contact list on email
Figure out how to link my fb page & Twitter to my blog to send the updates to both at the same time - i have done it before so hopefully i will remember.

Right, that gives me a direction for the next few days - wish me luck :)