Is anyone generating sales from FaceBook ?

[tule peak timber]

I'm just curious as I do not have a business presence on FB.I am noticing my competitors with FB pages have various amount of exposure if you look at the amount of "likes" they are receiving. I'm trying to figure out if this is a direction I want to go and I would welcome you sharing your experiences. Rob

[TKehl]

From the farm side of things, we get a lot of interest and questions from FB, but no orders.  Our orders come from C-list or the website.  We have a couple other farm specific funnels that also direct to the website.  The bright side is if a contact comes from the website, it is generally an order. 

Brightside to FB is it is "free" but takes a lot of time.  I hate it.  Wife loves it.   :  If you don't have a website already, it's better than nothing, but only half as good as your own page.

Personally, I think you could do very well on Etsy with things like your hollow core mantels and grapevine serving platters.  Unique and shippable.  It's two dimes to list an item for I think 4 months.  They also have an "about the craftsman" page where you should link back to custom pieces and potentially get orders that way in addition to regular offerings.

We would be doing Etsy if my day job didn't keep me so DanG busy... 

[WH_Conley]

Surprisingly, Yes. Keep everything on a public setting, that way friends of friends can see what you post and have pictures of. When you can get someone talking about what they built with your lumber word gets out. It is another way of "word of mouth" advertising. Now that is on the lumber business. I don't know about finished products.

[Bruno of NH]

I started using FB for sales last year and it has worked great for me .
It does take a lot of time and I'm not great with a computer .
Some of my best new customers have come from FB

[yukon cornelius]

We do use it successfully. We could probably use it more. Instagram is really popular as well.

[JB Griffin]

Theres a guy about 45-50 mile from me thats always got somethin on fb claims to sell a whole bunch of cedar. Note the "claims"

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I get a lot of business from FB.
Join as many sales sites as you can and post what your selling or your service.
You can also build your own business page and ask people to join.
The things I have for sale and my sawing service are seen in a lot of farming, gardening and woodworking pages.
You gotta keep up with it now. You gotta check things for questions that will be asked. I check mine about every 2 hours plus my email and text.  Don't get behind or losing a good reputation will happen. What you do will be seen by 1000's of people if your service or product is shared.

I only use FB, Craigs List, word of mouth and the Pro Sawyer Network.... I don't need anything else.

[4x4American]

I've gotten mainly window shoppers, tire kickers, and home depot price seekers from facebook..facebook is full of dreamers it seems...I've had a few fb sales. but not many

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

You have to keep in mind there are different markets where you produce your product.
You can work to reach your perimeter market at 25 miles, 100 miles or what ever using word of mouth or local shows......you set your goal.

Using Facebook, Craig's List, ETSY, or Pinterest gives you an unlimited marketing perimeter that spreads like a spider WEB.

The only one I stopped messing with is EBAY. To many fees and spam from other countries.

Although there is spam in all of these, learn to read their questions and you will be able to pretty much tell if they are legit.

[PA_Walnut]

All sorts of measurable metrics with FB: likes, shares, views, pixel tracking, etc.
Often hard to correlate any of these to an actual sale, but very good engine for creating brand awareness and increasing identity.

Boosted posts (paid) are a very economical way to propagate your message with minimal invest and you can target your audience in many criteria, including age, location, interests, etc.

Videos increase your metrics MANY fold, and live video works amazingly well once you have an established audience.

A good word of advice is to get a marketing or social media specialist to help you and remain focused on sawing and creating!  8)

[tule peak timber]

Thanks all, very good points. I spent a great deal of dough with a professional on a web site that is doing well . As the nature of my business changes,  I must also-hence I'm doing due diligence with the best in the industry, you guys.  Things are definitely changing.