Facebook

I hate Facebook now, it's so cruel to us artists. I sell mostly on my personal site, but covertly. People message me privately and that is how I sell. Still, I hate Facebook. They will find a way to make selling impossible soon.

I post links from here and my aw sites to my Facebook page without any problems. I do it manually.

Have you tried a different browser to see? Clear your cache? Log off and in again?

Hi Jessica. Have tried all that. In face I clear my cache every other day. Have used two different browsers, logged off and on, etc., etc. and nothing works anymore. But I keep getting emails from FB telling me that I need to promote my image - that is, buy their ads. I have moved over to another site, plus opened my own new website. I'll eventually be using FB very little.

It's true that FB wants us to pay for ads, since that's where Zuckerberg's money comes from, but I have had no problem getting FAA posts to appear there. In fact, just now, after seeing your message, I logged into FAA and FB, clicked on the Facebook button and my image and the link to FAA showed up immediately. It also works when you post a new image, if you have it set up with your defaults or when you do it manually as I just did.

I understand. I constantly, about ever 5 posts on my timeline, get another "boost this for $3" . On the day the billionaire buys one of my large prints - I'll consider it. Just keep smiling.. the only boost I need is for folks to like and comment on my photos and abstracts - not even asking for a share any more. I think comments from others is the ONLY thing that really helps there now. So, y'all be helpful - make a couple of comments along the way. Thank you in advance.

Facebook's algorithm has caught on to the fact that I'm not ever going to spend a penny on them...

I've had no problem sharing my work or gaining views organically, but I did start placing paid ads, and after three months of running ads my sales this month are well above what I averaged last year- enough that despite two "down" months, year to date is showing mid-double digit growth over last year.

Rick, are you doing ads or boosts?

I don't understand the premise of this thread. I'm not having any trouble posting links to my AW or to FAA Limited Time Promotions. In fact, when I post something for sale Facebook asks me if I want to post item as an item for sale and provides a way to post it to multiple groups at once, at no charge to me.

-James
http://www.montereypeninsula.info

Rick Berk, I bought an ad once for a Hawaii image. I wanted the world to see the image. Ha! Facebook made it available in Hawaii. If Hawaiians want a picture of that bridge they would go there with their own cameras.

James B Toy, as I said at the top, the problem is that when I post from FAA to my Facebook Fan page, Facebook does not post the picture. I have tried everything under the sun to get the images to post. I get a message telling me that the post must be approved by the reviewer. What? I'm the only owner/administrator of the page. I'm the only one who can post. Then they send me notices to buy ads or boost the image. I have been unable to post to my art page for about 3 weeks now. I sent FB a question and never got a reply. I don't know where to go from here.

Mary, just to be sure I just posted a photo link to my Facebook fan page from my AW and the image shows up just fine. It's the one entitled "Foggy Day on Carmel Beach." You can see it here: https://www.facebook.com/montereypeninsulatoybox/ If you scroll down you can see several other FAA links.

How are you posting to your fan page? I used the Facebook button on my AW. I did recently post a Limited Time Promotion to a group page and Facebook temporarily removed it as spam. There was a button on the removal notice that said something to the effect that I could appeal the decision and as soon as I clicked that my post was restored.

-James
http://www.montereypeninsula.info

They have been limiting our circulation anyway for the past few years anyway without paying to promote.I thought I had found a way around it by posting to groups,,,well they stymied that too. They blocked me for a month from posting to groups, I hate FB! Its probably a matter of time before Twitter and IG follow suit, I think James is right , You have to be careful how you post .Im not even sure the correct way anymore. What I have been doing recently is posting to my FB page and , then I share from my page to the various groups, Not sure if that is correct either, (I was bypassing posting to my FB page previously because of the "Pay to promote" prompts I would get and just posting to groups instead,)

James - what's your AW. Sorry, I'm no geek. Is that Artist Website? It would be a different way to post to FB than from here.

OK, so now I thought I would make one more pass and try the different ways of posting to my FB art page. If I couldn't get anything to work this time, I was going to close it. The normal way to post to that page from here is to go to the bottom of our image page here in FAA and click Yes on the Fan Page or Facebook link. The image would go right through. That had stopped working.

Nor could I post manually to my FB page. I didn't know any other way. I don't want to post images from my PC because they are not secure or low res like FAA and could be stolen.

I wrote FB and never received a reply.

So today I decided to give it one more try. Lo and behold! I can now post MANUALLY. I copy and paste the FAA URL - that didn't work before - So whatever problem FB had is partially fixed. I still can't post direct from the FAA image page to FB, but manually works now. IT'S ABOUT TIME!

I think I'll get drunk now.

Mary, perhaps this thread (about shortcuts) can be of help to you:
https://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=3965808

Mary, I see how you were posting to Facebook using the automatic posting from your edit image page. I stopped using that long ago because it posted a bland generic message. I prefer to use the Facebook share button on the publicly viewable image page so I can say something personal about each image. Copying and pasting the URL works fine, too. It just takes an extra step.

AW is your Pixels Artist Website https://mary-deal.pixels.com/ I forget that not everyone here is up on the jargon. Sorry!

Judy, Were you banned from all Facebook groups or just the one you posted to? I know some group administrators are very strict about not posting things for sale. They think that linking to anything for sale is spamming. That's entirely up to the group administrators, not Facebook.


-James
http://www.montereypeninsula.info

I post it manually, so far it is OK.
https://www.facebook.com/artxuelingzou/
https://www.facebook.com/zxling1

I post manually
create groups, invite participants then participate there (mostly localized)
I paste images directly on my personal page, set as public, and share to groups from there.
I balance my "marketing" posts to groups with free, share as you wish images.

My personal page: https://www.facebook.com/bposner

you will see post are mostly about art. I get a decent number of private messages and had 2 special orders and a couple of FAA sales via Limited Editions.

Just what I do, not necessarily for everyone

Am not going to close this discussion at the moment. There are some valuable techniques to learn here. I'm in the process of leaving many sites I have frequented, so I will be spending quality time on the sites I have left. I want to be able to check out these links mentioned above. Thanks everyone. Any other tips, please post before I close this discussion.

I post manually. If I'm posting a photo of a painting that I have for sale I never use a dollar sign.... just a number... or just say it's available to to message me for details.
I have never been prompted to "boost" a post from my personal page, only on my business page, which I have done several times and gotten zero response from it. Not going to do that again!!

Hi James, just now seeing your question, I was banned for almost a month from all four groups when I used the Mac, It was funny because I could post from my iPhone though,It could be because of the way I was posting that caused it, I am not sure, I submitted appeals too, As mentioned I now post to my page first, then share from that to the groups,,,, I can only surmise that maybe there is a mixup between my personal page and my business page when I posted and I was not recognized as a member, and therefore was tagged a spammer???
What seemed more logical to me though was that FB blocked me because I was finding a way to gain circulation coverage through the groups without "paying to promote". Who knows!!

Just getting back to this thread and saw the questions posed to me.

Alison, as you know I hired a social media marketing specialist, and she's created an ad for me, but also reserves some of my budget to boost a post here and there. So far I'm pleased with the early results.

Mary, when you create an ad, or boost a post, you get to choose where it is seen, so if your post was only seen in Hawaii, it's because you set it up that way, intentionally or not. And this is why I've hired someone to handle this for me. It costs me $125 a month but after three months I'm seeing decent results from the ads and boosts. It's an ongoing thing though. I have a thread here https://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=4122770 where I discuss what I've been doing.

Just to add to this thread, posting automatically when I add an image no longer works for me. I don't mind posting manually, and I can see where it may be better, but I've been doing it that way for so long, I'll have to get into the habit of remembering.

How many others among us are paying to boost images? I have seen nothing but complaints about paying and getting nothing, and some of the art I saw was exquisite. I live on limited income and usually don't take too many chances. I really need to learn more.

When you boost an image, is that the one that sells - if any sell at all?

When you boost an image, the artist sets the place (?) where ads will appear. Then people click on the ad until your fee is used up in increments? There really is no guarantee, is there?

Rick, I'll look at your thread too.

Rick Berk, I don't find you in the first 3-4 pages of Discussions. Can you post a direct link to your discussion? Thank you.

Earlier this year I spent maybe $100 over a few weeks, on targeted FB ads and 'boosts'. I ran a couple of my 'best' photos, ones that had received many likes and comments on FAA and had sold a couple of times. I ended up with hundreds - maybe over a thousand - visits to my FAA pages, dozens of FB 'likes' and a few shares. And no sales.

Bottom line, there's really no way to know what you're getting for your money - you just accept the numbers they show you. They could be playing you any number of ways. And unless you have some targeting magic that I don't know about, you're putting your ad in front of people who are just scrolling through their FB feed and occasionally clicking on things that catch their eye. They're not looking for wall art.

Other posters here will make the case that it's a "long term" game, you need to "research your market" etc. But if not even one in a thousand click-throughs is going to produce a sale, it's hard to see how this could ever pay off. Somehow I'd need to target people who are actively looking for something to put on a wall.

I will be closing this discussion. Rick Berk has a link above and he is more qualified to dispense advice and knowledge. Thank you everyone for your participation and responses.