Selling Knitting on Facebook Pages

I originally wrote this post in 2012. Back then, A Facebook page was a most excellent place to sell crafts. I opened a page for my knitting business and quickly gained followers, and received enquiries all the time about custom orders.

I also linked my Facebook page to my Etsy selling page and then announced it on Facebook whenever I had new items, and really very often ping a sale went through. The linking in Etsy meant that customers there could easily find me on Facebook and like my page and would often order again.

You can still link Etsy with Facebook, but Facebook pages just aren't what they used to be. I am no expert on algorithms and what not, but I do know that there was a massive change and posts just stopped appearing in peoples feeds.

I know this wasn't a phenomenon that affected just me, I followed forums about this issue and multiple little home businesses were just shutting down. Think about your own Facebook feed, how many selling pages posts do you see these days? I know I have clicked like on lots of such pages and used to see their posts, and now don't.

Facebook now asks for payments to page posts to reach more people. Posts do still display in feeds without a payment, but you can no longer for example choose your target market (previously you could tick a box for say women with children if you were selling kids hats) without a payment. Posts also reach far fewer people who have already liked your page.

What I would like to say however is that Facebook pages are free to set up, so you have nothing to lose by starting one. You can use it to display the website where you sell your wares, and you will still get some views, and people may see your goods and write to you to make an enquiry or order.

Indeed, if you pay for advertising, a page on Facebook could be winner. It is still one of the top used social media platforms and as written previously, you can direct people to your selling platform (can't do that on Instagram for example).

Another bonus of selling via Facebook is that there's no commission taken from sales, unlike from places such as Etsy or Ebay.

Give it a try. Click in your menu, find pages, and click to open a page. Theres a great guide for setting it up, its free, pretty fast to get ready. Nothing to lose really. Post some photos of your knitting. state the prices, get your friends and family to like the page, and see what happens. Good luck!