How to optimise your Facebook business page

First impressions are so important, whether they be in person, on your website or your social media! They can make or break your relationship with your customers. That’s why you need to make sure that all of your social media profiles and pages are optimised! Today we’ll focus on making the most of your Facebook business page!

  • Setup – Firstly, make sure that you have setup your business as a business page (not a profile), this ensures that your business not only displays a professional image, but also gives you access to features such as content creation tools and insights/analytics.
  • Cover Photo – When choosing your cover photo, make sure that you pick an image that is not only representative of your brand but is also high resolution and fits to Facebooks dimensions. Be aware that the way visuals are displayed on your laptop can vary on your mobile, so pick an image which is versatile and displays well in both formats.
  • Profile – Add a profile picture that is representative of your business/brand. This could be a company logo or a headshot depending on your type of business.
  • Call to Action Button – Select a ‘call to action’ button that is most appropriate to your business that will be displayed at the top of your page. This could be simply be a prompt to get in touch such as ‘Message‘ or ‘Email‘, or alternatively pick a button to send visitors directly to your products and services e.g. ‘Book Now‘, ‘Start Order‘ or ‘View Shop‘.
  • About – Make sure that you have filled in all the important sections ‘About‘ your business starting with your ‘Bio‘, but then ‘Edit your details’. Select your ‘Category’ and complete all your all important ‘Contact info’ and don’t forget to add a ‘Service area’. If you have a business with an address, you can also add further details to your ‘Basic Info’ such as opening times and services. This is also the section in which you can add significant dates for your company, such as date established or significant awards or achievements!
  • Featured Images – In addition to ‘pinning posts’ (mentioned later), you may also wish to share some of your favourite/significant images and stories into collections on your page using the ‘Add Featured’ option. This is a great way of highlighting particular products and services, good news stories, achievements and awards!
  • Adding posts to your page – Your page is fully setup but what now?! Set yourself a realistic schedule of when to post to your page that you will be able to maintain. There’s no point starting posting every day and then dropping off to once every couple of weeks. Start small and gradually increase the frequency to a level that you feel comfortable with. The most important thing is to be consistent and to post quality content that is reflective of your brand, engaging and relevant! Don’t forget to ‘Pin‘ your significant posts! These could be an introduction to your business, an overview of services, new product range, major event or special offers/sale.
  • Engage with your audience – Respond to any messages, comments or reviews. Make a note to yourself to check your notifications for these a couple of times a day.

Whether you’re setting up your business page from scratch or reviewing and updating it, I hope that this gives you a few pointers! Need a little extra help in setting up your profile, reviewing or updating it? Get in touch to see how I can help!

Social Media – in it for the long haul!

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen posts recently, boasting about improving a clients reach and performance after just one conversation or post. Whilst that creates an initial buzz for the client and a pat on the back for the manager, the real impact of social media on a business’ performance will be judged over time. Success, however it’s packaged, doesn’t actually happen overnight (even ‘overnight success’), it’s actually the result of lots of hard work and can take time. To quote Steve Jobs – “Overnight success stories take a long time”.

When looking at your social media strategy for your business, you will need ensure that it’s aligned with your long-term goals and of course targets your intended market! It can take from 6-12 months to achieve sustainable success, but this is dependent on a number of factors.

Consistency is KEY!

Consistency builds trust, provides a show of authenticity and ensures that content is seen by lots of people over time. If you’re posting to social media, ensure that you will be able to maintain the standard and frequency of posting from the beginning. If you are a small business, it might be the case of building up frequency over time, starting with once a week, maintaining this and then gradually increasing the frequency as you become more confident (but ensure that the content is relevant to your audience and overall goals!)

Creating quality branded content

Carefully curate your content to ensure that it’s not only engaging to the audience, but also reflects your brand identity… right through from the imagery to the tone of voice. Don’t just hit Canva and use every template that you come across or jump on a viral reel trend! Consider every post on social media like building blocks towards reaching your long term goals!

Branding should be at the heart of everything that you do, it’s not just about adding a logo and colour palette to a design, it’s about so much more. It’s how your audience identifies you, connects with you and your opportunity to create a lasting impression. It involves so many components right through from your imagery and typography to your tone of voice and messaging.

All of these elements together will help to generate a stronger connection to your audience, keep them invested, build trust and over a period of time, increase organic reach and engagement!

Measuring your success

So how do you measure your success? Of course look at the ‘insights’ on your social media channels, but don’t just do this in isolation and never use “likes” as a definitive evaluation of success. There are more silent scrollers out there than you think, who will will look, but not ‘follow’ or ‘like’, and most importantly will purchase. On the other end of the scale, there are also those who will ‘follow’, ‘like’ and never purchase!

Looking at how posts have performed in terms of overall reach and reviewing the demographic of the audience will help when generating future content, in terms of what works and what doesn’t. Don’t solely focus on this though and always keep the bigger picture in mind. Look at the performance of all your digital marketing channels including social media, e-newsletter and website. e.g. If you are signposting to your website from your social media posts, look at how many visitors are coming to you directly from your social channels when reviewing the website data! Also, use your enquiry forms or online checkouts as an opportunity to gather this information, add in questions like “how did you find us” or “where did you hear about us from” which you can add into your data. Ultimately, what you need to see, is an impact on your business performance e.g. sales!

In summary – stick to your strategy, consistently post quality branded and relevant content, remain objective when looking at insights … and always keep your long term business goals as the finish line!

Ready, Steady … Let’s do Christmas!

Have you started planning your social media and e-newsletters for the run up to Christmas? With the festive season fast approaching, now is the time to make sure that you’ve planned well ahead for Christmas and that you’re fully prepared for the busy months to come! With just over 10 weeks until Christmas, here are a few hints and tips to get you started!

E-Newsletters

  • Create a template for your Christmas season e-newsletters (if you don’t already have one) to save time and create consistency.
  • Consider how frequently you want to send your newsletters and the dates/times that you want it to drop into subscribers inboxes!
  • Pre-prepare your newsletters so that literally all you’ll need to do is hit (or schedule) send!
  • Include rewards for your subscribers, offering them exclusive ‘first looks’ at new products and a chance to purchase before everyone else, special subscriber only offers or free gifts/delivery! These are your loyal customers and you need to make them feel special! Remember that your top 8% of customers will generate 40% of your sales, so nurture them and make them feel special!

Social Media

If you’ve already created your e-newsletters, then you’ll already have some content to repurpose from there, so you’re off to a good start! If not, don’t worry! Firstly, you’ll need to tune into your customers and think about what they’re looking for. Consider what your ‘Hero’ products are and ensure that these are central to your marketing, they will drive your sales!

As there are quite a few weeks in the run up to Christmas, when you’re making your plan, consider running themes through each week and curating content around these (so that the content will remain fresh and not “samey”). There are a whole host of themes to choose from, but I’ve highlighted a few below. The timing will be crucial on some of these, e.g. if you’re selling Christmas tree decorations, take into consideration that this will need to be well in advance of people putting their trees up… and take into account postage times!

  • Christmas Decor – decorating the home, Christmas tree or Christmas table.
  • Gifts for Teachers – “Say thank you this Christmas”
  • Cards by post – as well as sharing your card collections, also include helpful reminders of last posting dates for Christmas.
  • Gifts by post – your products perfectly postable? do you send gifts wrapped and directly to the recipients?
  • Wrapping and Accessories – from selling gift wrap to offering a gift wrapping service, there’s lots to include here.
  • Stocking fillers – perfect nearer the time, lower priced and often more impulsive purchases!
  • Price points – Gifts under £10, Gifts under £15, Gifts under £25 etc. It’s vital that you include a range of these as buyers often look at price points when purchasing a gift for a particular person!

So now that you’ve got some themes to run through your posts, what’s next on the check list?! Create posts that show a little personality and a sprinkle of festive fun! Here are just a selection of ideas!

  • Countdown posts such as ‘X days until Christmas’, ‘X Saturdays until Christmas’, ‘X shopping days until Christmas’!
  • Advent Calendar windows for December featuring a different product, service, aspect of your business every day – WARNING you’ll really have to commit to this one! If you’re posting everyday you may wish to schedule these posts in advance to ensure that they go out on the right date and help with time management when you’re snowed under with orders!
  • Christmas competitions, special offers and giveaways! Share your latest and encourage Followers to subscribe to your newsletter for the latest news!
  • Share lifestyle posts such as top tips for preparing for Christmas, whether it be demonstrating gift wrapping techniques, recommended recipes or sharing Christmas traditions; ensure that these link into your products
  • Quizzes and polls – these are a fun way to find out more about your customers and getting them to engage with you.

Finally… make it as simple as possible to buy. With so much to do on the run up to Christmas, customers are often looking for the simplest and quickest ways to purchase when it comes to Christmas shopping, particularly online! Make sure there are no glitches in your website and send customers to it with as few steps as possible. Include links and tags to your products in your social posts and check that your links to shop in your Instagram bio are in priority order and up-to-date!

How to optimise your Instagram Profile!

Your bio is the first thing that potential customers see when they visit your Instagram profile. It gives them a snapshot of who you are and what your business is about! Here are just a few tips on optimising your Instagram profile, to ensure that you make that lasting first impression!

  • Profile image – Select an image that reflects your brand, whether it be a logo or a relevant photo.
  • Category – Check that are setup with a ‘Professional Account’ and that you have added your relevant category! (e.g. product/service, shopping & retail, restaurant etc)
  • Contact Options – Ensure that all your contact details are added including email address, phone number and that all important location, so that people know where you are and how they can reach you.
  • Action – If the action button options are relevant to your business (e.g. book now, order food, reserve), then make sure that you add one to your profile as a call to action!
  • Links – Add weblinks to your website, online shop, booking site etc. You no longer need to add a link to a third party site that shows a list of links. Instagram now gives you the option to add multiple links to your profile, so get adding! If you still wish to have a customised landing page though, consider creating one on your own website so that your site gets the traffic!
  • Bio – You have a limited amount of characters so make it short and snappy, including keywords relevant to your business.
  • Pinned posts – If you have posts that introduce your business, services, product ranges or latest offers, consider adding these as pinned posts to the top of your profile, so that they will be the first posts that new visitors to your page will see and give an overview of what your business is!
  • Posts – When adding posts, make sure that you make every effort to get them to meet your target audience! Tag people and relevant products, add a location and alt text to your images and don’t forget your hashtags!
  • Stories – If you’re regularly sharing stories to give users a greater insight into your business, then consider adding these to ‘highlights’. Stories are only displayed on your profile for a short amount of time, but by adding them to ‘highlights’, they can have a lasting presence on your profile. You can have multiple ‘highlights’ buttons, or as I think of them folders, which you can categorise (e.g. reviews, what’s on, menus etc). Make sure that you name these to reflect the content contained within them and add relevant cover images/buttons to make them stand out and reflect your branding.

Whether you’re setting up your profile from scratch or reviewing and updating it, I hope that this gives you a few pointers! Need a little extra help in setting up your profile, reviewing or updating it? Get in touch to see how I can help!

Product sales suffering from the summer slump? … let’s talk Christmas!

I’m increasingly hearing of businesses talking of a slump in online product sales and less engagement through social media over the past month. Please don’t let this demotivate you, your customers are still out there, they’re just saving for the holidays, on holiday or outside enjoying the sunshine! Remember that most product based businesses achieve 50% of their annual sales in the last 6 weeks of the year! Instead of letting the ‘Summer Slump’ slow you down, use some of that freed up time to get a head start on Christmas instead! 

PR 

National press have a lead time of 4-6 months, with publications such as holiday gift guides being compiled in July! This is your opportunity to pitch your products to Editors who will be looking for unique products. 

  • Do your research, think about the customer buying your product and look at previous publications to see where your product would fit in (e.g. there’s no point sending in a high-end, luxury product to a ‘Christmas on a budget guide’!).  
  • It can be tricky to find the contacts for press, but Google, LinkedIn and Social Media are a good place to start, once you know the publications that you are targeting. 
  • When writing your pitch make it short and snappy (e.g. 2-3 paragraphs), give a summary of your product and brand ensuring that you’re using keywords too (they’ll search their emails for suitable products using these keywords) 
  • Include professional images in PNG/JPEG of your products ensuring that there’s no background and no shadow 

Regional press have a slightly shorter lead time of 2-3 months, so if you’re pitching your products to be included in their Christmas features, you can prepare them now and send them into them in September. There’s no reason why you can’t be working on other press releases to submit to national online publications and regional press in preparation now too! Prepare all your press releases then submit nearer the time (typically 1-2 months lead time) 

E-Marketing

It’s never too early to start planning well ahead on social media! Why not make a start on Christmas now to free up time in your busier months! Create a range of social media templates, images and reels that you can use in the lead up to Christmas! These could include: 

  • Christmas themed cover photos for all social accounts and if appropriate profile pictures too 
  • Countdown posts such as ‘X days until Christmas’ or Advent Calendar windows for December (If you’re posting everyday you may wish to schedule these posts in advance to ensure that they go out on the right date and help with time management when you’re snowed under with orders!) 
  • Christmas competitions and giveaways 
  • Share lifestyle posts such as top tips for preparing for Christmas or Christmas traditions and link into your products 
  • Quizzes and polls are a fun way to find out more about your customers and getting them to engage with you. 

Whilst creating and compiling this content, don’t forget to think about your e-newsletters too! Create a standard Christmas themed template that can be ‘tweaked’ each time to use. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, use some of the content that you’ve already created for your press releases and social posts within this and if you’re running competitions and giveaways on social media, don’t forget to signpost your subscribers to your social channels to join in! 

Pop Up Shops and Markets 

If your online shop is working for you and you’re stocking a range of retailers this may not be for you, however if you are a small business with just your online shop and you’d like to engage more with your customers, then why not try a seasonal markets or applying for pop-up shops! They’re a great way of showcasing your products to customers whether you an artist, maker or producer! Here are just a few of the events in my county of Derbyshire which have a high footfall and might be of interest that are currently receiving applications!  

  • Winter Artisan Market at Haddon Hall – Applications are now open to stallholders for the weekends of 16th-19th November, 23rd-26th November, 30th November-3rd December and 7th-10th December. For further information and to apply visit https://www.haddonhall.co.uk/mercatum-main-page/mercatum-apply
  • Christmas at Chatsworth – Applications are open for trade stands for the Christmas Market being held on 4th November-26th November.  For further information and to apply email: info@eventmen.co.uk 
  • Let’s Make Christmas with Derby Museums – Applications are now open for this festive celebration of all things unique and handmade running within the museum shops from 10th November to 24th December. For further information and to apply visit https://www.derbymuseums.org/news/lets-make-christmas-2023 (deadline 16th July 2023) 

Finally… still worrying about your current sales and want to do something now? Here are few ways in which you can take action:

  • Make sure that your website and online shop are optimised for ‘on the go’ shoppers and add featured products to target customers looking for specific gifts (e.g. weddings, teachers leaving, graduation, baby showers, new home etc) or products that fit in with summer trends and styles.
  • Create social media content along these themes (e.g. Need a gift for your child’s teacher? Looking for that perfect gift for your bridesmaid, 5 things you’ll need for the the perfect Baby Shower (including your product within one of these points) and make it easy for them to then find the products on your website by adding direct website links and product tags to social posts.
  • Send press releases to online publications which have a shorter lead time, don’t be afraid to think outside the box and link in with lifestyle themes to help raise the profile of your business and get your products noticed.

… and one last thing! Don’t forget to get outside and enjoy the sunshine, we’ll all be moaning when it goes back in again!

Link in Bio?

‘Link in Bio’ has become a popular call to action in the world of social media, particularly when it comes to Instagram. There’s no functionality to add a link into your post, so what do you do when you can only add just one link to your bio?! This dilemma has led to the rise in popularity of third party services such as Linktree, Linkin.bio, Campsite and Canva, which has recently added the functionality.

If you are looking at adding a landing page of links to your bio, the question that needs to be asked first is ‘Do you have a website?’

Your website is an important form of content marketing and one of your most powerful tools! If you have a website which is easy to navigate and contains all the content and links etc that you wish to share, then why not link directly to it! If you like the look of some of link pages out there and want to achieve the same look, then create a landing page of links within your own website. Here are a few reasons why using your website is the best option!

When sending users to your website, you want it to be in the least number of steps possible. Adding your website as the link in your bio ensures that traffic is driven directly to your website, with no extra steps ‘added in’ along the way via third parties. By sticking with your website, it means that you have greater control over your content and branding, which is often harder when using free or budget options elsewhere. Customers will become more familiar with your web address by seeing it, and the the direct traffic will also benefit your SEO!

If your ‘link in bio’ stops working due to your website going down, you have more control over it. Whereas, if a third party service goes down due to it crashing, other issues or maintenance, you will have little control over it and rely on them sorting the issue. Likewise, if that service discontinues, you can lose your link and your content on their platform, essentially you are technically only ‘renting a space’ on there.

However, that is not to say that these services don’t have their uses! Maybe you don’t currently have a website, your current one has limitations or is under construction! I’ve recently tested two services currently available including Linktree and Canva.

Linktree is one of the most commonly used and recognised services. It is simple to use but is basic in it’s appearance when using the free version. In terms of branding, it is possible to add your company logo, add images for the buttons and change the colours of the page to brand colours. However, in terms of background and font, there are limited options. You can add a variety of links to your list as well as icons linking through to your email and social media accounts. The Linktree logo is prominently displayed at the bottom, which reminds the user that this is using a service other than your website.

If you are already subscribing to Canva Pro, then you may or may not be aware that Canva has recently added the option for creating a ‘link in bio’ page as a design within your account. This can be created by searching ‘bio link’ and selecting a template. You can then make changes to the design, adding in your own branding (colours, fonts, images) and adding your links. I found this a lot more user friendly, in terms of adapting the design to my branding. The added benefit of this one was that although the link obviously highlights that it’s using Canva, there is no reminder to the user within the design as it also doesn’t display the logo. Canva is increasingly adding new tools and services, the only thing that I have in the back of my mind is that as we rely on it more, we are still only ‘renting space’ and this could be removed at any time! For now, I’ll be sticking with my website!

Ultimately, it’s what suits you individually as a business. As always, I’m not here to judge, just to give a little insight into what I’ve learnt through my own experiences working for myself and clients!

Where did ‘Blue Monday’ come from?

Cliff Arnall, a Psychologist, was asked to create a formula for the January Blues by a travel firm back in 2004. They used the phrase in their advertising to promote travel deals in the January after Christmas!


The formula he created used factors such as weather, debt, monthly salary, time since Christmas, time since failing New Year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and the feeling of needing to take action. That alongside experience from workshops led to the date of the third Monday in January being chosen! … and it has been used within marketing and advertising ever since. It has to be noted that Arnall has since said to refute the whole notion and described it as basically m pseudoscience.


Mental health organisations warn that Blue Monday campaigns focus on the one day and often trivialise what are often long term debilitating mental health conditions. As Mind Charity have shared on their social media this morning…
“Blue Monday isn’t real, but depression is, and it doesn’t care what day it is – your calendar doesn’t decide your good and bad days.”


However, we should always be looking for positives and opportunities in every situation. As this has now become so well publicised, the plus to come out of this is that it can be used to address the stigma surrounding depression, raise awareness of symptoms and signpost people to avenues where help can be found.


I’ve always been open and honest about my struggles with anxiety and depression over the last 15 years, which I have to admit has received a mixed response at times. The majority of times, people have been incredibly supportive, but there have been a few instances where I have experienced ‘the stigma’. Although times have changed considerably from when I was first diagnosed 15 years ago, the fact that there can still be a stigma out there is not ok, it can lead to people suffering in silence and discourages people them from speaking up and getting help. Let’s change the narrative.


If you are experiencing mental health issues, help can be found with Mind, The Samaritans, Campaign against living Miserably, C.A.L.L (Wales residents), Talking Mental Health Derbyshire (for Derbyshire residents or your local regional NHS service), The Mix (Under 25’s) and more.

Scheduling your Social…

There’s always going to be a debate over whether scheduling social posts with third party scheduling tools makes them fall victim to the ‘algorithm’ leading to the reach and engagement of posts being affected. I’m not here to address or judge that! I’m here to share my experiences of different scheduling tools and a few of the benefits and limitations!

Being a small business is tough and you can be pulled in so many directions. Ultimately, there may be a million reasons why you may need to schedule social posts. Maybe you don’t have the time to post on a regular basis, but can set aside the time once a week/month to schedule in some general posts, you could be serving customers or clients in an area of your business and so can’t post when your customers are actively online, you’re planning a holiday and want to ensure that there is still consistent content on your profiles or you simply wish to use a combination of scheduled and ‘in the moment’ posts.

There’s so much advice out there, at times it can be hard not to become overwhelmed by all the “do’s and don’ts” when it comes to posting on social media. Firstly, I’d just like to say, by all means listen to the advice, but do what suits your business and lifestyle; otherwise the risk can develop of it becoming a ‘chore’, you won’t enjoy it and your content can then become affected as well as your mental wellbeing.

There’s a whole range of social media management software out there that offer varying ranges of tools from scheduling content to managing all your accounts in one place, looking at engagement, insights, audience etc. This post was triggered by a conversation that I recently had regarding the options of using scheduling tools within software and platforms that people are already using rather than paying for software with the sole use of using it to schedule posts!

Due to the nature of my business and working for clients in a variety of sectors, I’ve used a range of software and scheduling tools including Hootsuite, which I have to admit I loved! It appealed to my organised side! It was so easy to use and with the options of being able to set up streams and have everything arranged in an easy to use planner! I remember being horrified in a previous role, when asked to try out alternative more cost effective options as it really helped with my time management, when I was only contracted for a small number of hours and a significant number of posts were required! However, the digital world is constantly changing and more options are constantly becoming available … and with more challenging economic times, businesses are increasingly looking at ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs!

So, back to my conversation which was triggered by an individual highlighting the ‘Content Planner’ feature in Canva and someone asking if they should switch from using Meta Business Suite to schedule social posts! I thought, I’d share my experiences of using both here!

Canva is now the go to to software for many small businesses to design their social posts, so many are already subscribing to Canva Pro, which offers a wider range of tools than the basic free version. If you are already designing your social posts within Canva and are subscribed to the Pro version then you will have the option within this to schedule your posts using their ‘Content Planner’! If you are using Canva already this offers a convenient option for scheduling as you no longer need to download designs and then upload them to another platform. The planner allows you to schedule your posts to a range of social platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn (personal profile and business page), Pinterest, Tumblr and more, unlike Meta Business Suite that only publishes to their platforms Facebook and Instagram. However, that’s not to say that Canva doesn’t have it’s limitations just like some other general social media scheduling tools.

If you want to add a simple post including a photo/video, website link and some hashtags to a social post, the Canva content planner is great. However, if you wish to add more detail to your posts such as tagging in other accounts or products and adding a location with your photo/video particularly on accounts like Instagram, this is where there are some drawbacks as this feature doesn’t have the option. You could schedule the posts, but you’d need to login directly to your accounts once the scheduled post was published and edit it! (The same goes for tagging other accounts within your post text on Facebook and Linked In). Even though this could be seen as ‘time lost’, to keep on top of your social media and monitor engagement, best practise would mean regularly logging into your accounts anyway.

Although, my ‘organised side’ loves having everything in one place, I have ultimately settled on using a combination of the two when needing to schedule posts. I will tailor to meet clients individual requirements, but in the majority of cases for now, I’ve stayed with Meta Business Suite to schedule Facebook and Instagram posts, but used Canva particularly for LinkedIn. However, this post will probably become ‘out-of-date’ as soon as it’s published, as the area is constantly evolving!