How To Get Started Promoting Your Rabbitry On Social Media

To get more eyes on your rabbitry you have to go where the people are and as much as even I don’t want it to be so. Your rabbitry needs to be on social media.

It might seem daunting or like something you would rather not do but if you want to make a good income you have to get eyes on your rabbitry business. People can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist.

This post is meant to give you an overview of the top social media platforms and how they will help you promote your rabbitry to make sales. I’ll also help you learn how to handle some of the objections you might have about getting your rabbitry on social media. Which is often the hardest thing for most people.

Main Reasons You May Not Want To Be On Social

You may not want to be on social media and that is totally fine. BUT, your only real alternative is building a website and getting found in search and that takes YEARS. Even if you are really good at SEO (search engine optimization) you are not going to see much site traffic in less than a year. Much less get customers from it.

If you find yourself struggling with any of these struggles that people have with social I want to challenge you to find a way to get around them.

• People are mean on social. – “Yep, they can be. Most times the worst things that happen are the mean words they typed out on the internet. Nothing else will happen unless YOU let it and give it power over your emotions”
• I’m not naturally social. – Me neither. So I have to allow myself to find a persona that feels good while on social. I am a natural teacher. So I don’t look at my accounts as my place to be buddy-buddy with people or try to get people to like me. I teach what I know and hope it helps someone.
• I don’t want to post pictures of myself. – “Let me ask you this. Which would you trust more? A face of someone you could see? Or someone who hid behind their logo or animal? People need to trust you before they are going to buy from you.”
• It takes too much time. – “Yes it can, and you need to create a list of the exact steps you are going to take on social. Complete those steps, and then get off. Don’t allow yourself to scroll”

Ultimately you need to ask yourself which you want more. To sit in the safety of those issues. Or do you want a rabbitry business that pays for itself and then some? The choice is yours. But you have to be willing to do what it takes to get the result you want.

Growing on Social Media Is Not Easy

It is easy to see people with tens of thousands of followers and feel like they got lucky or they were just an overnight success. The truth is they worked really hard for years and years to build that following.

The saying it took 4-5 years to be an overnight success is not a joke. It takes small steps and lots of failers to reach big heights.

It’s a process and does not happen overnight. But the one thing to keep in mind is that not all of their followers are active, see their posts, or may not even be active on that platform anymore.

You don’t need a huge social account to have a profitable rabbitry. My rabbitry made just as much with a few hundred followers on Facebook as it does with over a thousand.

You Need A Platform You Can Control

If you want a successful SUSTAINABLE business then you need a home base OFF of social media if you know you are in it for the long hull. I know this is not what most people want to hear because social media is the sexy part of business.

You need somewhere YOU OWN to send your audience and a place that gives you authority and builds trust. Think of My Space and Friendster. They came in the heat of popularity and then faded away. You CAN NOT depend on a platform to run your business. You have no control over it.

We are almost to the social part so bare with me.

It Can Be A Website Or Email List

When you have a website and or email list you have far more monetization options. You also have other ways to get a hold of your followers and you can be found on Google or any other search engine. THIS IS KEY if you don’t love social media and don’t want to feel like you are constantly feeding the content beast.

You don’t have to do both but for a rabbitry, I would recommend starting a website and then add email if you want to take your business to the next level.

These are places you own and have control over. To learn more about why you need an email list read this post.

Adding a website is part of the second season in the marketing map in the profitable rabbitry playbook. So don’t feel like you have to do it right way. But definitely consider how you will feature-proof your business as you build momentum.

Social Media Platforms Want People To Stay

They don’t want you to send people off the platform. Posts with links out to another site will likely not get seen as much as a post without it. So you might be thinking how do you get people to come to your site or DM you?

You talk about your business and when people are ready for what you offer they will come to you.

Think of TV commercials. You don’t have a link to click but if you hear it enough it sticks in your mind and you will check the product out the next time you are ready to buy that thing.

Here is the thing, you are given one link in your bio on most platforms. Facebook does allow links and so do stories on FB and IG. So it is best to make use of it. There is an 80/20 rule you will hear often applied to creating content for your business. I would also use this with how often you post a link. If you post four times a week I wouldn’t post a link more than one out of those four times.

Talk About Your Rabbitry Don’t Sell Your Rabbitry Business On Social Media

We have all ducked down a different aisle to avoid those tables with the cable TV or widow salesmen. Why is that? They immediately jump into a sales pitch and don’t let you come to a conclusion on your own.

You don’t want people to do that with you.

This is why you need to talk ABOUT your rabbitry but don’t try to sell people on it.

When people are given the option and made aware of what you do but you are not saying “buy my thing, my thing is for sale, my thing comes in red” they don’t feel forced. The profitable rabbitry playbook has lots of content ideas for you to figure out what to share on social.

Think about what you like to see on social media and do that on your platform.

The Top Social Platforms For Your Rabbitry

Now keep in mind that these platforms work very differently. But all of them can do great things for your rabbitry and build awareness. You just have to know what to expect out of each.

The Mindset Of The Facebook User

Even now I still recommend starting with facebook. There are clickable links in the post and even though most people say they don’t use Facebook it’s rare that someone doesn’t have an account. On top of that having a business Facebook page feels much less socially overwhelming for introverts in my opinion. You don’t feel obligated to spend time commenting on other peoples content if you don’t want to.

How People Tend To Engage On Facebook: The honest truth is they don’t. People are on Facebook to mindlessly scroll. You may get a like or a heart if it’s really cute or funny. BUT the best thing you can do is keep an eye on your reach. This tells you how many eyes saw your post but if the number is higher than normal and there still isn’t much engagement you know that post made people STOP THE SCROLL! That is what you want. You want people to stop and pay attention.

We have an advantage raising rabbits because they are cute and that is pretty easy to get most people to stop scrolling. Use that to your advantage. People can still be opinionated about how you should raise or keep your animals housed on Facebook but it’s much worse on Instagram. If you don’t want to hear the harsh comments then consider not showing things like wire floors in your pictures if that is what you use.

If you are entertaining your audience you will stay top of mind. Even if they don’t engage with what you post they are listening. It kind of sucks but you will see it work. You just have to be open to talking to a wall most of the time.

Facebook Creator Page

This is for the people who have used their personal account to market their rabbitry for a while. If you have lots of rabbit raising friends and you don’t want to lose them this is for you.

Facebook has a type of page called a creator page. You can find out more about the creator page here. The main way it works is for people who have a lot of friends who follow you already on your personal account. You can basically take all of your friends on your personal account and create a page with them pre “liking” it. Instead of starting from zero.

The one issue with that is you will run into a lot of unlikes at first because people see the post but they don’t really know what it is about. Because truthfully. They didn’t like the page on their own, to begin with. So you do what you think is best with that.

I recently in the summer of 2020 went back to using Facebook for the rabbitry and I did make a creator page but only had the people like the page that I thought would be interested.

One other thing is it will make your creator page YOUR PERSONAL ACCOUNT name. I feel like there can be some confusion with your Facebook friends and your page followers when it comes to Facebook and personal brands. They don’t really understand that it is a page. So instead of leaving my new Facebook creator page Leah Lynch. I added the word blog on the end of my page name so people may see the difference when they are scrolling through the feed.

Facebook Business Pages

If you don’t feel comfortable making a creator page then you can create a business page right from your Facebook account. There really isn’t a whole lot of difference between the two anymore except how they are created and the creator page doesn’t force you to start with zero followers.

I don’t think one is better than the other these days.

The Mindset Of The Instagram User

Like any social platform, none of them are great traffic drivers but Instagram is worse than Facebook.

BUT it does take #1 right now as the best community builder. People are more willing to engage with accounts than they are on Facebook so if you are a social person and love getting responses then this may be the platform for you.

You do have to put a little more work into the photos. The mindset of people in IG is different when it comes to animals as well… Some are people think that rabbits need to be in your house and you are a terrible person if you put them on a wire floor. So decide what you can handle and keep the image clean and don’t show the things you may not be willing to take a nasty comment or two for.

How Pinterest Fits In

If you are going to have a website or blog you need to put Pinterest on the top of your priority list. Especially if you don’t love social this is a great way to get people to learn about you and build trust.

Pinterest is a search engine. It does not work like a social media platform, They are a place for people to find ideas and look for information from others.

You can direct people back to your site through pins you publish on Pinterest that link back to your site content. They are like mini links to your site with pictures for other people to pass around for you. Pretty awesome right?

Create helpful content that informs your potential buyers and link to it on Pinterest.

The key thing to remember about Pinterest is that it takes time to gain traction on the platform but your posts will far outlast any Facebook post. I get traffic from pins years after I have posted them. Which is why it is my number one platform to keep happy.

Start With One

My last little bit of advice is to choose your top one or two platforms before adding more and if you are getting the business you need from one platform. DON’T add another platform.

If you end up with several platforms it will be VERY hard to stick to them. You will get burnt out faster than you realize and it is hard to build momentum when you spread yourself too thin. On top of that, you run the risk of presenting your business.

If you start to feel like one platform is dying out for your ideal audience or you think it is time to move on then do so. There is nothing wrong with that. But as a solo business owner without an assistant to help you don’t need to be on all the platforms.

Social Media Do’s and Don’ts

• It’s best to avoid all of the share threads and promotion threads after you get close to 100 followers or likes. Because it is a dangerous thing to build an audience of people who are only following you to be nice. You will get more return on your investment of time if you just focus on posting every day and engaging with your followers.

• Don’t overthink EVERY LITTLE PIECE of content you are putting out. Dive in and get started.
• Watch to see what your audience reacts to and do more of what they love.
• But stick to your message and what they need to know even if they don’t agree. This is what will make you stand out.
• You don’t have to post in real time. Use the platform scheduler to help you stay off your phone and enjoy life.
• PROMOTE YOUR RABBITS BEFORE THEY ARE BORN. — I know this can be tricky because sometimes litters don’t happen. But share that you are breeding, show the growing bellies, show you giving your rabbit’s nest boxes, and so on. THIS is how you talk about your rabbitry business without selling.

Social Media Posting Categories

Topic categories will help you create content faster because you know what topics to come up with ideas around. These topics will also give people a reason to follow you even if they are not ready to buy from you just yet.

If you chose topic categories this will help you know exactly what to post and if something doesn’t fit into those categories then don’t post it.

Here are some topic examples:

• About you (as the breeder and raiser)
• Behind the scenes.
• Your why behind what you do.
• Tips and tutorials.
• Benefits of buying from you.
• Share about a product you have. (this is not selling this is sharing about what your product does.

Social media is your story to share with the world. If you are able to share your life and stories without hesitation or trying to attach a filter, you will come through far more authentically. This is your platform. Make it uniquely you.