As promised, I am finally getting around to writing up a little 'how-to' on this Facebook Fan stuff. I am hardly an expert but I'll do the best I can and you all can feel free to chime in after me.

I should say that I am not ultimately convinced that social networking is the bee's knees that everyone says it can be (and I'll include Twitter in that, too). So let's save this thread for simple how-to information.

This how-to assumes you have a personal FB page already - I don't know if you can set up a normal account just as your business so that's for someone else to answer.

Here is my fan page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Two-Cats-Creative/142131170145?ref=ts

If you're reading this, feel free to fan me. At the top, just over 'Two Cats Creative', is a button that says 'become a fan'. Click it and you're a fan!

Now, to set up your own fan page, scroll down to the very bottom of my page. On the left you'll see a couple of links that say 'remove me from fans' and 'create a page for my business'. Click the latter.

Now follow the prompts - for 'Local' I chose 'Store'. I think you could also go for the second option 'Brand, Product, Organization' and chose 'Retail'. Then, in the box, put the name of your shop. I just used Two Cats Creative, but you could elaborate and add 'on Etsy' to your or something like that.

After that, check the box that asks you if you are allowed to represent this business, and type your name in. Hit submit.

That's it! Your page is created!

From there, you need to get some fans. First, get yourself an avatar. Hover your mouse over the picture box and you'll be given options to upload. I'd use one of your favorite items for sale.

Then get some content. Click on the 'Wall' tab and put in a status update - for your first one, you might do something like 'Two Cats Creative now has a fan page!' or something along those lines.

From there, you just need to play around with the different options. You can upload more photos, link to your blog, etc.

IMPORTANT! Under your avatar is a spot where you can put some info (it will say 'write something about xxx'). This is where I've put my tag line, my etsy URL and my blog URL. You can also get an Etsy mini to put in the sidebar. I'll cover that later if no one else beats me to it.

Once you get a few images up and at least one status update, you will see a link under your avatar (you may need to click on the little triangle) that says 'suggest to friends'. You can click that and then go through your personal friends list and send them a FB message suggesting they 'fan' you.

You can also jump on to one of the Etsy forum posts about FB fan pages. There are loads of people on there looking to get more fans.


*note* my problem at this stage is that I have people 'fanning' me, but I don't know who they are so I can't fan them back. When you fan someone's page, it is under your own name - so I know I have some Etsy sellers on my fan list but I haven't been able to fan them back.

I think one of these days I'm going to start another FB thread in Etsy where you make it clear that if you fan someone, you also need to post on the 'wall' that you are an Etsy seller and provide a link to your own fan page.

As I've posted on here before, this is where I personally start getting confused. But when I have a bit more of a chance, I'll work on it again and report back.

Hope this helps!

Last edited by twocatscreative (10/09/2009 4:51 am)