New improved ‘About Me’ section – and how set up yours

This week we’ve launched a brand new and improved ‘About’ section for your Folksy shop. Here we tell you a bit more about the feature and how to use it. We hope you like it! Let us know if you have any questions or need any help by adding a comment at the end of this post.

How to set up your ‘About’ page

Firstly, if you head over to your Seller dashboard you’ll see a notification that looks like this. You’ll need to be on a desktop computer or a laptop rather than a mobile. If you’re signed in this link will take you to your seller dashboard: https://folksy.com/myprofile/

Now click one of the links highlighted and it will take you to the page where you can fill in your new-look ‘About’ section. It looks like this:

Add a photo!

Here comes the fun bit. You can add a photo that you feel represents your brand. That could be a photo of you, your studio, your tools, a finished piece or maybe a work in progress.

The image needs to be a jpg that measures 700 pixels wide and landscape format. This picture works best if it’s wide rather than tall.

Add a header sentence!

Write a short and snappy sentence about your business, what you make or what you do. Try to summarise what you do in just a few words.

Here are some examples to get you thinking:

Unique easy-to-wear everyday jewellery and beautiful elegant bridal accessories – Silver Tree Jewellery Design

Stained and fused glass. All sorts of sizes, shapes and colours. Glass is my Joy. I hope you enjoy it too – Joys of Glass

Fill in your About Me section!

This is the place to tell people (and Google!) all about your business. Use it to describe what you sell in your Folksy shop, the range of items you make, how you make your products, where you make them, what inspires you to make them, and what skills you use. It’s good to include details about yourself as a craftsperson too – how you started making, what skills you have mastered and how you learned them.

Think about what makes your products special and try to highlight those points. For example, if you only use organic or sustainable materials, use recycled packaging, or your paintings have been included in exhibitions, magazines or blogs, tell people. Be unique and be interesting!

If you have already filled in the old bio (also called ‘Meet the Maker’) and now can’t find it, don’t worry! You can still access that page and copy across any elements you want to include in your new About section. Just go to the Your Profile section of your dashboard and click on Profile Settings – you’ll find your old bio in there. Your bio won’t appear in your shop banner any more, but the page won’t be deleted, so you can edit it at any time.

You don’t need to add your shop policies to the About page, as these are available elsewhere (see below).

Top Tip: Don’t just copy and paste your old bio into your new About page. Using the same content could negatively affect your rankings on search engines. So try to write something different on each. It can help to remember that the new About page is all about your shop, whereas the profile page is more about you. If you are the maker, there will almost certainly be some overlap, but try to use different words and phrases and make each page unique and interesting. 

Where can I see my new About section?

Once you’ve filled in both the sections and uploaded a photo, save your updates. Head back to your shop, where you’ll find a new ‘About’ icon in your shop banner. Click this and it will jump down to the bottom of the page where you can see your lovely new About section!

We’ve also moved the social media icons down there, so everything is in one place.

Buying from Me / Shop Policies

Before placing an order, shoppers like to feel confident about when their product will be delivered, how it will be posted and what will happen if it gets lost in the post or arrives damaged. You can add all this information in the ‘Buying From Me‘ field in your Shop Appearance section of your dashboard.

To help help shoppers find the information they are looking for, Buying from Me will soon be renamed Shop Policies and will be visible at the bottom of the page near your about section, rather than as a pop-up.

Coming soon – a clearer dashboard

We know that’s all a bit confusing on the dashboard at the moment, with different names for the same thing and sections in places you wouldn’t necessarily expect them to be. So we’re going to be streamlining the dashboard soon, making the names consistent across the site. This will hopefully make it much easier to find the things you’re looking for.

Credit: Main image by Angela Snape from CoverStory