SewBiz: The Power of Facebook for Quilting, Sewing & Embroidery Enthusiasts and Businesses

There are a variety of reasons for businesses and individuals to be active on Facebook, as it is a social media tool that helps businesses and consumers build strong relationships and have fun.  Facebook can help quilting, sewing & embroidery businesses engage with their customers, and customers share insights with other customers too.  Ultimately, the goal for a business isn't to be good at Facebook, but to be good at business by using Facebook as a communication tool!  And the goal of a consumer is to have fun, be inspired, and share insights with their peers.

Quilt businesses can quickly and efficiently increase awareness of new products and/or sales with their customers, through Facebook.  They can also increase sales by special offers only shared with Facebook fans.  And they can conduct inexpensive Market Research with voting on polls, as well as engaging customers in questions.  Product giveaways on Facebook are also a good way to grow you fan base, along with sharing quilty tips, photographs and creating interesting discussions on your Facebook page. 

AccuQuilt has a giveaway every "Fun Friday" and everytime they reach another 1k level of Fans on their Facebook page.  Cozy Quilt Shop has Facebook Only Auctions for selected products.  Martingale & Company has frequent contests where winners receive free books.  And there are many more quilting, sewing & embroidery businesses that have an active Facebook page, and can show an increase in sales by way of connecting with customers thru this social media tool!

There is a "viral effect" where insights on Facebook can quickly be shared, reaching far more people faster than a traditional "word of mouth" insight.  If a quilting business is not on Facebook, they are missing an opportunity to connect with a larger customer base.

I haven't been able to find out exactly how many quilting enthusiasts are on Facebook, but the rate is growing rapidly.  When we look at the connection rate (aka Fans, Likes, Friends) it is easy to see that those in the business are able to reach far more customers.  We also need to remember that information can be shared faster on Facebook than traditional communication tools that are typically one way (e.g. Newsletters, emails, et).

While Hobby Lobby is focused on all sorts of crafty customers, they make a great example of what can be achieved through Facebook. Their connection rate of reaching 210k customers on Facebook is excellent.  And, they have already connected with several hundred more customers in a few hours since the graph below was created.  Amazing, having a couple hundred "new" customers come to you for information & fun on Facebook.  Wouldn't every business love to pick up hundreds of  new customers every few hours?

Adjusting the graph to exclude Hobby Lobby, and focus more on those in the quilty business, you can see Fons & Porter Love of Quilting (33k), Hancock Fabrics (31k), Quilters Club of America (22k), AccuQuilt (17k), and SewMamaSew (16k) are all great examples of businesses that have a great communication with customers on Facebook where they can quickly share insights on new products, sales, etc..  Customers also post photos of their projects, ask how to questions, and have fun networking on the pages of these businesses on a daily basis.

Note:  If the graphical images are too small to view, try double clicking on the graph to enlarge the image for a better view.

Some businesses may have an employee assigned as their Social Media Manager, whereby that person is responsible for facilitating the discussions and product information on their Facebook page. And other companies may have many employees share the responsibility for representing their company on Facebook. Either approach works, but the companies that have a Facebook page and ignore it tend to get hammered with spam on their wall. 

When a business gets spammed on Facebook the quality of their wall deminishes and they loose the ability to engage customers, thus they loose out on the opportunities that Facebook can bring to their business. Their Social Media Manager can and should be blocking such apps from their wall (click on upper right hand corner "x" where you'll see a "hide" app option).

If a business doesn't have the staffing to hire a Social Media Manager, they may want to consider hiring a part-time employee to help perform this service for them.  It really doesn't take much time to effectively manage the Facebook tool, as well as increase your customer base on Facebook.  And the benefits are well worth it for a business.  And if you can't find such a person in your area, remember this sort of responsibility can easily be done by someone working from home in another location.
Quilters have fun sharing insights and inspiration on Facebook with those that share a common interest.  But they also enjoy networking with Designers, Authors, Publishers, Stores and others that are "in the business".  To clarify, quilters on Facebook value the ability to get timely information, hearing about new designs, sales, products and more long before the general quilting world sees products in stores, magazines, or quilt shows. 

Clearly, not all SewBiz insights on Facebook are covered in this post. But for those that have additional insights and would like to share their thoughts, I hope you will leave a comment.  It would certainly be fun to hear insights from others on the topic of Facebook for quilting, sewing and embroidery enthusiats.  I'm also thinking it would be interesting to hear your insights on:

• Recommendations for how a business can grow their fan base on Facebook?
• How would you inspire other quilters to join Facebook?
• Would you be interested in a part-time position to help a business take advantage of social media Marketing?