Treat my articles as inspiration. Think about how my suggestions might work in your context. The handicraft market is very wide. My observations are generalized and will not necessarily be true in every case.

It’s been a while since the last article, but as you know, we’ve started testing the platform, so all my resources were focused on this …

During this time, I had a dozen or so conversations with you – each unforgettable, full of interesting conclusions and thoughts. Also some of you have come up with surprising ideas or have already decided to take a big step towards your own business. It’s amazing to see how much more we can do when we work together! Sometimes such an inconspicuous conversation is enough ? It was just proof of the sense of my project and I am very happy about it!

Today I wanted to discuss one of the tough questions one of the people asked me:

Is it worth participating in “networking” initiatives to get more likes, followers and / or comments?

First, what is networking by definition? According to Wikipedia, it is “a socioeconomic business activity by which businesspeople and entrepreneurs meet to form business relationships and to recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities, share information and seek potential partners for ventures.”

Social media enabled people to find each other and support no matter where you are located. And that is amazing in it! You can ask the network about anything related to your business and most likely you will find someone who will be able to give some good advice or happy to cooperate with you. However, now you can see this “networking” turning in handicrafts businesses into something a bit different – supporting each other by liking, following or commenting each others fanpages.

Why is this a difficult question for me?

From the point of view of the results – simple numbers – of course you will get a lot of new likes, followers or even comments in a very short time. But are these really numbers that need to be increased? Will you really attract new customers this way? Probably not directly from these people, but the indirect effect is probably what most interests most …

I am torn on this topic, as I also told the person who asked me about it. Maybe not every customer checks exactly when comments appear or whether they are credible. It can also be difficult for him to judge how many and which followers of your profile really bought something from you and can recommend you. Maybe when he sees a lot of likes and comments, it will convince him to buy from you. It is possible, but…

Remember that many people do this, including those with no good intentions. And with each subsequent person who “came across” the scam, the credibility of FB decreases. For all those who rely solely on social media, it should be a sign to show links to their own store on their profiles – be it their own domain or profile on sales platforms, and as I mentioned before – having regulations and a completed store profile.

Another thing is how you feel, having in a sense “fake followers” and trying to gain customers that way … But here I would not like to judge your choices. As I wrote before, it can help your image to some extent or be a good start when you are just starting out. I think that, as in other topics, simply moderation is useful here. It’s good to get some starting followers, but that shouldn’t become your standard or your main goal. I assume that you are serious about your businesses and ultimately want to gather real fans of your brands and works ?

From my point of view, if you are a craftsman, you usually work mainly locally and on a small scale. So having thousands of followers might make you wonder. Do you remember when I wrote about your ideal client? Is this a person who wants to follow the crowd or is he looking for something unique that maybe others have not yet discovered? Does he want to support large businesses or maybe some budding artist? Think about it for a moment in this context as well.

I assumed that it would gradually grow when people see what and how we do, and I would prefer it to grow this way, as the whole project – qualitatively, not quantitatively. Personally, I am not stressed by these results because I do not treat them as an oracle. Many people do not necessarily display their tastes and favorite brands on their social media, which does not mean that they do not buy there ? And what seems key to me, are the recommendations of customers who have already bought something from you. Focusing on exceptional service, surprising small details that will make the client recommend you to friends. This kind of newtworking should be your main goal. But this is probably a topic for a separate article ?

Let me know what you think about this topic!

Have a great day,

Aga

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