Using Facebook for selling

[Kylegep]

I read before that some people use Facebook to sell their snakes. I was wondering how you woul go about doing this? Do I make a page or make an account like a normal one? Also how do you get your name to spread? Sorry for all the questions!!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Keep in mind that having an account on Facebook and 1000's of friends that can see your updates and hence you availability is one thing however having a reputation in this industry is another.

People will want to buy from someone that is involved in this industry and that they know from their online presence and or show presence.

If no one knows who you are it will be very difficult for you to sell your animals.

[HighVoltageRoyals]

Keep in mind that having an account on Facebook and 1000's of friends that can see your updates and hence you availability is one thing however having a reputation in this industry is another.

People will want to buy from someone that is involved in this industry and that they know from their online presence and or show presence.

If no one knows who you are it will be very difficult for you to sell your animals.

Agreed; having a solid reputation is key. I would imagine facebook would be a thing that you would want to invest in after you've setup up numerous accounts on forums all over the web, got yourself noticed, got a few good sales under your belt and have your own webpage. It's much easier to gain a fan base on facebook if you have a website that people often visit directing them to your FB page. It also doesn't hurt to put a facebook link in your signature but some might see that as shameless self promotion.

I guess, in the long run; put yourself out there as much as you can and take advantage of all the social networking that you can. The amount of success in such things will probably be based on how well you are known in the industry but doesn't really hurt to try!

[HighVoltageRoyals]

Oh, and I guess I should answer your initial question lol:

You can go about it two ways
1. Make a page under your current Facebook account (if you have a FB account)
2. Make a new account with your business as a sort of "identity" (instead of your name and posting personal wall posts about you, it would be the name of your business and posts related to the business itself)

Either way, to sell animals on FB, you want to do the following:
1. Take really awesome pictures of the animal you want to sell (don't just take a quick snap shot of it in a dark room and make sure it's in focus)
2. Make a new album. Good title would be "Available Animals" or "Things for Sale"
3. Upload the picture/s (be sure to be consistent in your descriptions if you have multiple pictures; see step 4)
4. When making descriptions on a picture, make sure to include sex, morph, genetics, defects, price and anything else you might want to add

Sample:
0.1 Spider (66% poss. het Axanthic); is blind (if no defects, leave
this blank) $400

When you are done with your description, be sure to copy and paste the SAME description onto each picture related to the animal (you might also want to put "pic 1 of 7" at the end of your description so people know which picture goes with which snake).

When you sell a snake, be sure to make a new album called "Sold" or something like that and move the pictures over to the Sold album.

And that's basically it! PHEW!!! I hope that helped. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

[Valentine Pirate]

I imagine facebook makes a good business tool, but I think you'd be better off creating your own web page first and developing connections with people in the hobby via forums and the like. There are many members here that I keep an eye out for because I wouldn't hesitate to do business with them. Facebook then becomes a good tool to keep people updated on news, exciting projects, and I've seen people putting their animals for sale up too.

I can't add anything more helpful to the technical part of the question, Ruthless covered it great

[Kylegep]

Ok thanks for all the tips. I am making my web page soon. A lot of my names were taken so that's why I have been putting it off.