Social selling for artists and craftspeople on Facebook and Instagram

The term ‘social media’ relates to much more now than simply platforms for the digital exchange of in­form­a­tion. The enormous reach and high status of Facebook, Instagram, and similar networks has awakened the interest of companies: They use these networks to strengthen their own brand and, in­creas­ingly, to sell products directly to their followers. Even for small busi­nesses and self-employed people, the new selling strategy known as social commerce has become in­creas­ingly in­ter­est­ing due to its broad user spectrum.

In this article, you’ll find out how to make the most of social selling as an artist or craft­sper­son, and why you should be selling your products on Instagram and Facebook.

The fact that social networks offer a huge op­por­tun­ity to directly influence the pur­chas­ing behaviour of users has long been known. While users have for some time logged on to various social networks to research purchases, to get re­com­mend­a­tions from friends and ac­quaint­ances, and to discover new brands, the more recent approach of social selling has es­tab­lished itself as a strong addition to the social ex­per­i­ence. With social selling, shoppers use the platform’s shop buttons or third-party buttons to access external shops to make direct purchases.

Es­pe­cially gen­er­a­tion Z (born mid-nineties-the start of the 2000s) have a huge influence on social media, a trend which the mil­len­ni­al gen­er­a­tion is un­sur­pris­ingly con­tinu­ing. What’s more, the cor­por­a­tions behind the biggest social media platforms are driving the sales potential of their channels in a targeted way, which is why further growth in social commerce can be expected in the next few years.

The current coronavir­us crisis also plays a decisive role in this de­vel­op­ment: because of the pandemic, a re­or­gan­isa­tion of sales strategies was and continues to be on the agenda for most companies in 2020. The pos­sib­il­ity of con­vert­ing their own Facebook or Instagram profile into a direct sales channel, re­gion­ally targeting different target groups with posts, sounds like an exciting op­por­tun­ity to most. Even as an artist or craft­sper­son, you are currently more than ever dependent on this kind of al­tern­at­ive ad­vert­ising and sales platform to counter the con­sequences brought about by social dis­tan­cing and hesitant buying behaviour.

When it comes to the topic of social commerce, many han­di­craft busi­nesses and artists are probably initially faced with the question of whether marketing them­selves via social platforms is at all relevant to their business. Due to the ad­di­tion­al effort involved in setting up and main­tain­ing their channel, including direct product sales on Facebook or Instagram, this question is certainly justified. However, you should look at your social media efforts as an in­vest­ment in the future of your business.

If your business involves crafts­man­ship, then the quality of your work is of par­tic­u­lar im­port­ance. Today, however, it’s not as easy to get the word out as was pre­vi­ously possible with word of mouth marketing. And this is where social media comes into play: Due to their pop­ular­ity and reach, platforms like Facebook and Instagram are the perfect place to show potential customers the quality of your products or services in today’s fast-paced world. Comments, reviews, and stories can also show how satisfied your customers are – another important factor in the pur­chas­ing decisions of in­ter­ested users.

It’s obvious why it’s worth­while to also sell your artworks or handmade products directly via Instagram or Facebook: The con­ver­sion from user to paying customer doesn’t require any in­ter­me­di­ate step. The direct con­ver­sion therefore reduces the risk of spon­tan­eous aban­don­ment. In addition, the store on Facebook or Instagram is the perfect sales solution for every artist or craft­sper­son who doesn’t run their own online store, and the perfect ac­com­pani­ment to an artist’s or tradesman’s website.

If you want to sell your handmade items on social channels, you have a variety of options. On both Facebook and Instagram, for example, you can run ad­vert­ising campaigns as a business account or add a buy button to your posts or stories, which will lead users directly to your online store. In addition, there are platform-specific op­por­tun­it­ies such as the Facebook Mar­ket­place, a kind of eBay for e-commerce purposes, which is directly in­teg­rated into the social network.

Far more in­ter­est­ing for artists and craftspeople, however, is the option to create and set up a store that is directly in­teg­rated into the re­spect­ive social platform. Facebook has already been offering this feature for several years – Instagram in­tro­duced a cor­res­pond­ing option for Business and Creator accounts in May 2020.

To run your own Facebook store, you’ll need (as with the buy button solution) a fully set up company page. With a standard Facebook profile, you can only sell your crafts via the Mar­ket­place. Once you’ve got your standard profile set up, you must firstly create a Facebook company page before following the in­struc­tions presented below to create and set up your own store on the social network.

To launch the shop feature in Instagram and get started, you’ll need a business account as a craft­sper­son or artist. To find out how to turn a standard profile into a business profile, we’ve got a dedicated article for you ‘Instagram for business part 1: What is Instagram?’.

In the next step, select the option ‘Set up in Commerce Manager’. As an al­tern­at­ive, you can link up with an existing shop system like Shopify or Magento and implies that you already have this kind of software solution in place.

Next, provide all the basic details about your account (the current re­quire­ment is that you must have an account with a US bank) and important business in­form­a­tion such as your tax ID, shipping options, return policies, etc.

Finally, you can now create a product catalogue in which you present all your artworks or services, including suitable visuals. It’s a good idea to take enough time for this – the photos of your art are, along with re­com­mend­a­tions, the most important factor in getting the attention of users and at­tract­ing potential customers. If you are a newcomer in this field, we recommend that you read our article on product pho­to­graphy for your online store, which sum­mar­ises the most im­port­ance tips and tricks in all things product pho­to­graphy.

If you have already created a catalogue, simply select it at this point and your store will be created auto­mat­ic­ally. You can customise and per­son­al­ise the ap­pear­ance of your craft­sper­son/artist store on Facebook or Instagram at any time later.

For artists and craftspeople, social commerce holds a lot of potential, because the products you create can be easily sold with good images. The typical top products on social networks, such as clothing or ac­cessor­ies, also benefit from this fact. In the rarest cases, social media is about present­ing the product in­di­vidu­ally – it is much more important to show ap­plic­a­tion scenarios and, ideally, to provide users with further sources of in­spir­a­tion at the same time.

For example, if you have built a chair and would like to add it to your product catalogue, you will achieve sig­ni­fic­antly more impact with an image that presents a matching table and living space. In addition, this is an ideal chance to get your customers excited about other products in your product range. Images that show you or employees or col­leagues of your company per­form­ing your artistic skill or crafts­man­ship in action can also be an important factor in building trust.