Goodbye Facebook

I decided to deactivate my Facebook account today. I'm hearing a few sharp intakes of breath as some people read this I'm sure. I didn't decide to do it due to any particular problems I've had on Facebook, more cancelled due to lack of interest (on my part).

I opened the account when I opened my Folksy shop as that was what people in the know said you should do when you start a business. And then of course I felt very inadequate because I didn't have hundreds of likers so I joined in the link love thing that was going on at the time and gained quite a few. Great, all these people interested in my jewellery..........except the majority weren't the slightest bit interested in what I make and just did the link love thing in order to gain more likers themselves. Not to be unfair, there were quite a few people who did genuinely like my jewellery and who would comment and like stuff I posted and some have become internet friends and customers which is great.

But what about promoting my business without a Facebook page? Some people have fantastic success using Facebook as a selling tool. Some people. To be honest I've never spent much time on promoting. The majority of followers I had were fellow makers with stuff to sell themselves, not really the target market I should've been aiming for. I do blog which I love and find much more personal and easier to do than Facebook. My shop views from my blog far outweigh my views from Facebook too. I am genuinely baffled when I hear some people claim they spend nearly all day on Facebook. I just cannot imagine what they do on there all day??! What do they do?? Does all that promoting mean they're inundated with sales? Obviously not or else they wouldn't be on Facebook all day. Whenever I used to signed into my Facebook page all I saw was a blur of posts, some I would read and comment/like because they were the one's I really was interested in but most I would just ignore. Ten minutes (maybe) would pass and that would be it, there'd be something else I needed to do so I'd be off. So I suppose I should have hidden lots of posts and just had the one's from people I was interested in show up on my newsfeed. Yes I could've done that but I just didn't care enough to bother (oh dear!) I also wasn't interested in my stats email either and would delete it immediately!

I'm not completely blameless, I didn't really "work" Facebook like I should have but that would've required quite a lot of commitment and time that I prefer to spend on developing my jewellery making skills to make stuff so people can buy it. As someone in the handmade industry I'm aware of the huge number of people on Facebook with lovely things to sell but if I was someone without any links to the handmade world looking to buy a nice bit of handmade jewellery I would Google for it. I wouldn't ever, ever think of going onto Facebook to look for some nice earrings, why would I ? Facebook to most people is a social media site not a shopping site.

I'm not knocking Facebook, it serves a purpose and if I had family/friends in other parts of the world I would use it to keep in touch and post photos. Facebook makes that really easy to do and I may even return one day. Thank you to all of the people who took the time to read and comment or like my posts and to those who posted funny/thought-provoking photos and posts I enjoyed seeing. As for the rest of it, the fake popularity, wasting time promoting your business to people who mostly aren't really interested and most important of all, feeling guilty because I'm not devoting chunks of my time doing it all, I think I'd rather do without it :D