I own a small toy/costume company (www.lightsuits.com) and we’ve just started our social media efforts. We’re a bit light on content right now as we’ve spent the last couple of months building an audience on Facebook. Interestingly, although the product lends itself very well to Facebook as it is so visually strong we have not had one single dollar spent with us yet.

I’m wondering what the actual dollars and cents value of Facebook really is. For the next couple of months we are building a dialogue and content but so far it’s been a bust.

Thoughts?

i get  money  from  facebook  every day….. thats why im on it….  but im  local……..  yesterday  a lady  came  from  florida  and said  she had  been  enjoying our page  for along  time…. and   one of her  friends  back  there  had  her  buy something  for him  that he  had  seen on the page……..  my  customers  talk about it  in the store  every day…..

we dont  sell online  …. they have to  come to us in person…

Tracking is simple because the sales figures are so low. We’ve also made a commitment to have a very high level of contact with existing customers so we feel comfortable asking them where they heard about us as well as for photos and movies of any content that we might be able to generate for our FB page and website.

The vast majority of fans have been generated through ads although we are starting to see some more organic growth.

Patience is a virtue that I was at the back of the line for when they handed it out so I just left

@gareth Hi Gareth

A few suggestions

• Stop # stuff… there is no purpose to this on Facebook. And if you are doing it because you are pushing your Facebook posts to Twitter, then stop that as well. 
• Start asking questions – you will get better interaction and engagement
• Start letting people know why they need this product – sell the benefits
  
• As @paulmacpherson said, run a contest (but just make sure you have a plan for post-contest so you retain your new fans)
• Do some more lightsuit photos – they are awesome… maybe some funny ones.
  
• Run something offline – maybe convince people off the street to put on a lightsuit and take their photo – get them to tag themselves afterwards.
  
• Start talking to your audience, not shouting at them. Communicate with them like they are your best friends
• Sign off every post with your name (eg ^Russ) so people can identify with you. 
• Think about what holidays you could promote that is inline with your product. Have you started thinking about what you are doing for Halloween yet? You need to plan.
  
• Maybe grab some celebrity heads and stick them on an image of a lightsuit – have some fun with it.
  

Just some random ideas.

Also, be patient and you will get there.

My specialty is creating effective social media plans, so if you want to take it to the next level, let me know.

Russ