Savannah here, just popping in to introduce you to our latest series of Shop Owner Tips & Tricks. The glorious signs of spring are everywhere, and that means it’s time for Spring Shop Cleaning! You all did such an impressive job with the Fall Shop Owner Challenge, we wanted to follow up and help you have your biggest Summer of sales yet! Many members of the staff and community are pitching in with inspiring stories and ways to make your Shapeways Shop more successful. Today, Eric, our Social Media Manager is letting you in on some Facebook pro tips! 

Ready to get more eyes on your designs? Time to tap the largest social network on Earth. If you currently have shop open on Shapeways or are thinking about opening one, Facebook is a great platform for establishing your brand and engaging your customers. Today we will highlight basic best practices for managing your shops Facebook Fan page so that you can use all the tools the platform has to offer to your best advantage. 


1) Have eye catching fan page profile and cover photos that highlight your brand

As you can see above, Joy Complex does a great job having a beautiful cover photo that aligns with their shop’s profile image. You can find the photo dimensions for Facebook pages here. 

2) Post Fun, Engaging, and Visual Content 

Content is king on social media and every second you’re competing for eyeballs on your followers Newsfeed. The best way to get the attention of your audience is through engaging content that includes catchy visuals like pictures or video. Keep your posts short, include a photo, have a call to action, and always link back to your shop. Try to keep your content relevant, have a sense of humor, be fun, inspiring, and open with your fans. 

3) Post at the best times and optimizing your content for Facebook Newsfeed algorithm

The organic reach of your pages Facebook posts gets seen by fewer people due to the frequent changes in the Facebook Newsfeed algorithm. Here’s how to optimize your content posts without having to pay to pay to sponsor your posts

  • Including multiple photos in a post and create visual rich Facebook photo albums
  • Looking at your page analytics and posting at the times where people online and are more likely to see your post. 
  • Post on weekends
  • Sharing news content, blog posts, articles relevant to your work
  • Post 3-4 times throughout the day 

4) Engage, Interact, and Listen to your audience

Get social with your fans! Initiate conversation, join the conversation, and recognize your top evangelist. What counts as an “engagement” on Facebook is a Like, Comment, or share. When someone comments on your Fan page, reply or ‘Like’ their post to acknowledge their feedback. 

Spread the love: By liking and engaging by other artists, designers and makers you further enrich the community we’re all apart of. Conversation karma goes a long way. Be sure and check your page daily.

5) Check Your Page Insights and Analytics 

Use the the page analytics section on your Facebook fan page to track your audience growth, reach from your content posts, along with fan page engagement metrics. It’s important to monitor which content performs the best according to the data which you can use to influence your decision making. 

6) Run Contest and Promotions 

People love contest, giveaways, and promotions. Most importantly, everyone loves free stuff. Give your fans an incentive to come back to your page and engage with your content. This can be something as simple getting users to ‘Like’ your fan page, share their email address, commenting on your page posts. 

7) Use Facebook as your Fan page instead of as ‘You’ 

By using Facebook as your fan page, you’re able to filter out your personal newsfeed and insights from your fan page’s. Your fan page can also ‘Like” other fan pages and you can follow their updates. 

8) Create scheduled content / Use a social media management application 

We don’t always have time to sit in front of a computer and post content real time. That’s why it’s important to schedule content to post during time’s you’re not online using Facebook’s schedule post feature or through a free social media content management application like Buffer or Hootsuite. 

9) Manage Facebook on mobile with the Facebook Pages Manager app

Mobile devices play a big part in our everyday lives so being able to manage your social media presence via mobile will give you an advantage. You can download the free Facebook Pages Manager App on itunes and on Google Play to help you manage your brand’s Facebook page on the go. 

10) Think like a creative consumer 

Ask yourself “What am I doing to make my content grab the attention of my audience?”. Is it a catchy tagline? Or maybe a funny photo? It could even be something that triggers an emotional response. The goal is to think like a creative consumer. If you were scrolling down your news feed ask yourself if your content engaging enough for someone’s attention. 

While maintaining a Facebook fan page takes some advance planning and energy to upkeep, it’s a great way to actively engage your customers and keep them personally involved and updated about your brand’s activities and the products you are creating. Do you have a fan page for your Shapeways shop? What are strategies you have found work for you?