Before I became a full-time Artist on ETSY, I had the chance to gain a lot of experience working in various fields and adapting to lots of different context , teaching in Japan , travel consulting , I also worked in Finance and now I'm a Jewelry designer / Artist / Internet Marketer . Never knew when I started my ETSY shop that I would learn so much about Social Networking.

Previously I wrote a small article about Twitter:
Sharing my Twitter Strategy : 11000 followers : http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/6127828/page/1 ( Now I’m at 52,000 )

Here’s my new one :
Sharing my Facebook Strategy : 21000 Fans

If you want to increase your fans and keep the ones you already have,
It’s important to offer interesting exclusive content for your fans.
Not only links to items, otherwise it's spam and you will lose fans.

Building your initial fan base, one fan at a time :
This is the longest part; it took me a few months to have a considerable amount of fans. When starting a fan page the best way to get ‘’ likes ‘’ is to first invite many of your friends to join you page and invite them to share your page’s link with their friends. The more you have friends the faster it will start. On my personal account I have over 2800 friends, and this gave me a good start.

Put the link to your FACEBOOK fan page everywhere, in the ETSY confirmation e-mail sent to your customer. Ex: Join my FACEBOOK page for Exclusive offers: ( https://www.facebook.com/SteampunkJewellery )
Put the link on you blogs, Twitter account, in all your social media profiles, in your e-mail and forums signatures etc...

TIMING:
It's important to post content often but not every minutes. When i started i posted once per day and now i can post 3-4 times a day. I try to give time between every post for my fans to comment, Most of the time I will wait at least 2-3 hours before posting something new. When the fans activities are slowing down then it’s time to post something that will renew interest and attract more attention. When I haven’t posted anything for a while, it’s also time for me to be crafty and make something new for my fans.

CONTENT:
Diversify the content, pictures, questions, polls, link to blog post, and also links to other content that your fans will enjoy, if I find an interesting article about ETSY, Steam punk or videos, I can share the link with the rest of my fans, Good content is more likely to get likes and the fans will share the content with their friends which can in turn generate more fans.

Only post links if there’s something new about the items you make, new listings, a special offer, new design. To receive comments on those links it's always good to post it along with a questions directed to your fans. Ex: What other colors of this item would you like to see in my shop next?

Or to add flavor text that will make them want to click or ask a question about it:
Ex : A very unusual and mysterious gemstone .

Once in a while, I post a quote that inspires me. I know that my fans find them interesting.
I choose something positive my fans will like to share .

Ex :
"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."
- Albert Einstein

You can also simply write anything that will engage your fans into a constructive discussion.
Your page allows you to connect with your fans , when your fans join your page they expect to continuously enjoy connecting with the content of you page .

GIVEAWAYS:
Doing giveaways is a great way to get more fans but the giveaways should not be held directly on your FACEBOOK page because this kind of giveaways are generally not permitted on FACEBOOK .

I do giveaways on my blog and invite my fans to participate outside of my FACEBOOK page. Whenever I do a giveaway i invite the participant to post and share the link to my giveaway with their friends on any social network to get more entries. This way the giveaway goes viral and I have a very high volume of participation. I also ask them to name the favorite item from their shop, this way they generate more traffic for my shop and the survey can be useful to know what item people like the most or even buy something!

COUPONS:
Announce a promotion on your blog, twitter or other social network and invite them to get the discount coupon code exclusively available on your FACEBOOK page. This can entice customers to join your page.

LANDING PAGE:
In FACEBOOK your wall shows what kind of information you share with your fans. Your wall is the first impression you give as an Artist / Business. If you keep good quality content your business image will always look good and the more chances you will get more fans. This also goes for your ETSY shop, if the most interesting items from your shop are showing on the first page the more chance those who visit your shop will be tempted to visit other pages, in the end it converts into more sales. In FACEBOOK I recommend to choose ‘’ My Etsy ‘’ as the default landing page, this way you can maximize the exposure for your Etsy products . To change that setting go to Edit Page, Manage Permissions select ‘’ My Etsy ‘’ under default Landing Tab and save changes.

DEMOGRAPHICS:
I have not spoken about FACEBOOK ads because they’re many ways to grow your fan page before you start investing in advertisement. But if you do, you need to target the right people for your products. I recommend testing many versions of the same ad with different age group, gender and interest to find those that gives the best result. There are so many tips I could give about FACEBOOK ads but I would have to write a whole new tutorial. Before using them I recommend to do extensive research and a lot of testing. It can be very costly if you don’t set it up the right way and very rewarding if you get it right.

TO CONCLUDE:
Overtime all the factors combined will make your FACEBOOK fan page grow. If you keep good quality content the community you’ve created will eventually just grow by itself.

And don’t forget … for Exclusive news and offers follow CatherinetteRings on FACEBOOK :
https://www.facebook.com/SteampunkJewellery

In this ring i wanted to combine the many elements found in a few of my rings together . Amber inlayed with clock parts , taxidermy glass eye and as a bonus the timepiece is running !

Hi ,

Long time ago i started to make ETSY banners and offer them free for everyone . Originally i had them on my shop's blog but i realize they were not easy to find so i just made a new blog where anyone can find them and use them for their shop .

Here it is :
http://freeetsybanners.blogspot.com/
I will add more of them , If you have any ideas of what kind of useful banner i can make . Just let me know .

If you need advice about banners , i also found this great storque article : http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/seller-how-to-banner-tips-6265/