When people put “Find us on Facebook” 
in their ads, on their web sites or business cards
they don’t really mean that!
Facebook is many things… but it’s not a great search engine. So don’t make your potential fans, friends, followers… and customers… have to “find” you. Look what a mess you can lead people in to (assuming your shop’s name is As Good as New!)
Simple solution? Use your URL.
Find your URL. (What IS a URL? you may be thinking. Click here.)
Once you have your URL, you can use it as a link on a Facebook logo graphic, in an email signature, anywhere. And people can find you without getting sidetracked into Connecticut or Iowa!
Advanced info, if you need it:
Changing your URL. A list of URL shorteners. (I’m fond of tinyURL.com)
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
[…] Can you find your URL? […]
[…] PS Include your FB URL on the sign; don’t make them hunt. (Need to know what a URL is and how to find it? I blogged about that here.) […]
[…] you know how to get the URL of a particular page on a site, a specific Facebook post, so you can link to it? Read up on it here […]
[…] Learn to link to get more traffic. (And if you’re embarrassed that you aren’t QUITE sure how to find your own URLs, read this.) […]
We, too, have found our sales to be down and foot traffic as well.
We are looking at ways to boost our online presence and exploring new avenues. Every affluent neighborhood has a Facebook page to buy & sell and I think this has hurt a lot of us.
Something I’m very interested in would be a disussion or a series of such about trends in the current economy that effect the consignment industry and how to deal with them. My business has experienced declining sales for at least two years. Online sales, facebook yard sales, social media, lack of good jobs in rural America are a few possibles.
Great suggestion Janet!
We have also experienced declining sales over the last three years and so far this year we’re down 9%. We’re a women’s consignment store so we think one reason we may down is the many new online resale stores (e.g., ThredUp.com) and like you said, local FB groups. We have joined our local FB groups that allow businesses to post but haven’t send and measurable difference. We’re also very active on social media. We post almost daily to FB, Instagram, Google+, and Pinterest.
Kate – I’m sure you can chime in here and give us your input on what shop owners are telling you around the country and what you’re hearing at industry conferences (we couldn’t afford to go to any this year).