Sep 10, 2014
This Week’s Episode
I’m very excited to share my first interview this week, with Lauren Brown from Daisy Cottage Designs. Lauren is a crochet designer, blogger, and maker, and you can find her on Etsy, her blog, Facebook, Ravelry, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and BlogLovin. (Lauren also has a great series of posts with tips for new Etsy sellers called Etsy 101.)
Lauren and I are in a crochet blogger group together, and I invited her to share her tips for increasing Facebook engagement. Lauren’s Facebook following grew by over 27,000 (!) in just 6 months, and she has had the traffic to her blog almost double during the same time period.
Lauren’s 6 Tips for Growing Her Facebook Community
- Add a Facebook conversions box
- Be consistent
- Track and evaluate
- Join groups
- Interact with fans
- Be patient
Why Facebook?
If you’re like me, maybe Facebook isn’t “your thing.” Perhaps you prefer Ravelry or aren’t much a fan of social media at all. Here are some important things to keep in perspective, though, as you consider if and how your business should engage on Facebook.
- Facebook has over 1.3 active monthly users.
- 48% of users log in to Facebook every day, spending an average of 18 minutes a day on the site.
- 50% of 18-24 year olds go to Facebook upon waking up.
- 20% of all page views in the United States occur on Facebook.
Kind of makes Facebook hard to ignore, from a business perspective. Another tidbit – Thursdays and Fridays tend to be the peak usage days, so if you’re just dipping your toe into Facebook, start with end of the week posts. (You can find the sources for these statistics on Static Brain and Zephoria.)
About Daisy Cottage Designs
Lauren started crocheting in 2010 after her daughter was born. She’s self-taught from YouTube videos. She started by post pictures of her creations on her personal Facebook page and soon began selling finished objects to friends. In December, 2010, she opened an Etsy shop, Daisy Cottage Designs. In January, 2011, Lauren started the Daisy Cottage Designs blog after reading that many successful Etsy sellers have blogs. (Today, her business is more focused on designing and blogging.) Lauren’s Facebook page was started soon afterwards.
In the beginning, Lauren’s Facebook page growth was slow. The way she promoted it was by connecting her Etsy shop to her Facebook account. Etsy sellers can find instructions for linking their shop(s) to both Facebook and Twitter here.
In March, 2014, Lauren had 2,600 Facebook fans. As of September 9, 2014, she has 31,209 likes! Lauren decided to focus on Facebook this year, and she shared several tips for growing your Facebook following in the interview.
1) Add a Facebook conversions box
Lauren started with a Facebook badge on her site, which you get directly from Facebook here.
When she started focusing on her Facebook growth, Lauren added a pop up conversions box, which allows someone to like your Facebook page while still visiting your blog.
2) Be consistent
Lauren originally only shared links to her blog posts and Etsy listings on her Facebook page. In March, 2014, she increased her posting frequency. She schedules 3-4 posts a day, and may end the day with up to 6-8 posts. She schedules her posts via Facebook directly each morning. (You can learn how to use Facebook’s scheduling feature for your page here.) When traveling, Lauren may schedule for several days in advance to allow her more time away from Facebook.
Lauren schedules her posts throughout the day, starting at 8 a.m. She shares content from other sources in the morning; a link to a roundup of free crochet patterns that she’s curated in the middle of the day; and links to her own Etsy listings or blog posts in the evening. She then has the flexibility of adding in a few additional posts during the day – either from other bloggers she networks with or from her own blog. She rarely shares paid patterns.
Lauren uses different methods for sharing content from other sources. When the source has a larger Facebook following than hers, or more people talking about it, Lauren uses the Facebook share feature. (You can learn how to do this here.)
Her share may be visible to that larger page’s fans, who can be introduced to her Daisy Cottage Designs page. When the source has a smaller Facebook following, Lauren instead pastes the link into her post.
Lauren uses a template for her posts, and generally formats the information in the same way. She also posts regularly throughout the day. Lauren thinks this consistency has been an important part of her expansion.
3) Track and evaluate
Lauren uses a notebook to track her Facebook postings. She lists her daily posts and then tracks the interaction using Facebook insights.
Lauren learned a lot from Holly Homer, the blogger behind Kids Activities Blog. You can find all of Holly’s YouTube videos about Facebook here on her YouTube Channel, including this interview with Dayna Abraham from Lemon Lime Adventures called Growing a FB Page from the Beginning. Lauren got ideas about formatting posts and increasing interaction from these videos. (Holly is also interviewed on the Social Media Examiner podcast here about how she organically grew her Facebook page from 7,000 to over 500,000 likes in 8 months.)
Her daily posting schedule is based on information she learns from Facebook Insights (tracked in her notebook). She chooses to schedule posts that link back to her own content during the busiest times for her page, so they will be seen by more people. This has contributed to her blog traffic nearly doubling in the last 6 months.
4) Join groups
Lauren really recommends joining groups. (I do, too!) She relies on Facebook groups for bloggers and Etsy sellers for information, cross-promotion, and networking. Lauren can learn about Facebook’s ever changing algorithms, find content to share (including getting permission for sharing images), and can talk about challenges and opportunities she’s experiencing with colleagues.
In order to get the most from these groups, you have to be willing to support other bloggers/sellers as much as you’d like to receive support.
5) Interact with fans
Lauren interacts with her fans by asking questions and responding quickly to questions.
6) Be patient
Growing a big Facebook following doesn’t usually happen overnight. Lauren recommends being patient and keeping track of your successes so you can refine what you’re doing.
Thanks for joining us for an interview, and for sharing what’s worked for you, Lauren!
If you enjoyed this episode
The Creative Yarn Entrepreneur Show is no longer broadcasting. Episodes are available as a service to the yarn community. This episode originally aired in September, 2014. Be aware that content may be outdated.
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