Privacy issues are a concern of us all. Internet privacy is of special concern when it relates to your financials, your suppliers’ contact information, and even, sometimes, where you got those terrific hairbows you sell.
But can being too private online actually harm the chances of your shop’s succeeding? Yes.
Most resale, consignment, and even many nonprofit charity thrift shops have active Facebook fan pages and most shopkeepers put a lot of effort, thought and time into using Facebook as a marketing tool. Some shops even rely upon Facebook for their sole presence on the Internet, and as their only advertising.
That’s good. What’s the issue then?
Many shopkeepers have no indication on their personal Facebook Pages that they own, operate, or run a business. Maybe they’re concerned about keeping their personal privacy, and have never thought about all those people they know, and the people they know, and so on across the globe,who’d like to know about the business. So they don’t make sure that anyone who runs across them on Facebook, gets a chance to see their business information as well.
Think about it. If a friend or acquaintance or just a person you’re chatting in the grocery line asked you what you do for a living, would you have privacy issues about saying I own Kate’s Klutter, a resale shop on 5th Avenue ? Of course not. Chances are you’d even hand that person your business card, right? And you would often get the reply Thanks, my friend Junie loves resale… I’ll be sure to give this card to her.
So take five minutes and edit your About information on your personal Facebook page so it links to your fan page. Then take a minute more and post on your personal page about your shop, using a shop photo and linking that to your fan page. Then do posts like that every week or so from your personal page. I guarantee you it will help your fan page gain attention and increase your shop’s SEO! And even better: you might see some folks coming in to shop!
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Timely post Kate. I was re-reading a message I received in the fall from another store owner telling me I needed to post on my personal page about my store page. I had just finished doing that when I read your article. So next up is to post a photo of the store on my page and link it.
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Thanks for your comment, Glenda… as you can tell from my entry, I simply can’t understand why people don’t want their personal profile friends to know about their business page. I can perhaps see the other way around, but after all… your profile friends are friends, right?
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