Author Archives: cindymobey

Head-to-head with Caz, from Kaztique Fashion Accessories

A while ago, I hosted a social media marketing challenge on Facebook. From those that joined the challenge, I picked a winner at random to win a coaching session – that winner was Caz from Kaztique Fashion Accessories, and Caz has kindly agreed to answer some questions about the session to show you what can be achieved in just one session. I asked Caz several questions and here are her answers…

Q. How did you feel when you heard you’d won the coaching session – were you nervous or not sure what to ask for?

A. I was really excited to have won and wasn’t really sure exactly what I needed, I just knew I needed to do something different.

Q. What did you think you needed to change, if anything, when we first spoke?

A. I was nervous and honestly thought you would get me to change everything!

Q. I wouldn’t do that! I looked at your social media pages, and gave them an audit. From experience, I know what works well and what doesn’t – what little tweaks can be made, which make a huge difference, and I came up with some suggestions that we could discuss. What were the main things we decided you should try?

A. To change the colours of my logo – to update my profile and cover photo. Link my Facebook to my Instagram to make it easier when posting and to do some reels. You also suggested I change the format of my morning posts to make them more engaging.

Q. So far, and I know it’s a work in progress, what have you changed?

A. I’ve changed my profile picture, my morning posts. I’m doing more reels and I’m asking questions, such as the video I did showing my outfit for going out for coffee with a friend and asking – ‘Which bag should I take for coffee and which accessories to match my outfit?’. This went down very well!

Q. What surprised you most about the response to those changes?

A. I was surprised to see significant improved engagement and an increase in sales – and the best bit was that they were so easy to implement!

Q. Can you tell me a bit more about the posts you created as a result of our session and how your audience reacted?

A. Yes, I created a few posts. In one, I showed 3 photos of bags and asked which one would they take for a coffee. In another, I wore an outfit and showed different accessories and asked which ones they’d choose for me to wear.

I did a reel of me with my travel pouch, showing how I used it for things I take on holiday and took things out one at a time to show what I take.

The audience really interacted with me on all these posts and I was surprised how many sales I made, especially the travel pouch – I sold 6 within 10 minutes of the video being shown!

Q. That’s amazing, Caz. How long did it take you to make the videos?

A. I’d say planning the video – 5-10 minutes and less that 5 minutes to film as I did them in one take!

Q. What would you say to another business who feels they don’t have enough time to make videos?

A. That the time is definitely worth it due to the increase in engagement and sales. Also, if you plan ahead, the videos do not actually take long to do. The more you do, the easier it becomes.

Q. What difference have you noticed from your overall engagement since our session?

A. Lots more comments, answering my questions and buying items!

Q. Overall, has the coaching helped you to improve your social media and get more sales?

A. Yes, it has, July ( the month following our session) was amazing and August has been good, which I’m pleased about as it’s always a hard month as children in the school holidays etc. Definitely the coaching has helped!

Q. Did you find the coaching relaxed and easy to understand?

A. Really relaxed. You were so friendly and helpful. It was all easy to understand and I felt confident to ask questions if I was unsure.

Q. That’s great to know, thank you. What did you like most about the session?

A. Finding out new ways to improve my social media presence, that weren’t too hard to implement.

Q. What would you say to another creative business who was considering coaching – and is there anything else you’d like to share?

A. I would definitely encourage other businesses to try coaching as it gives you ideas you may not have thought of.

I’d add that it has made me think out of the box and try other ideas I wouldn’t necessarily thought of. Also, not to worry if you can’t do everything at once, as long as you try to do something each month. There are still things in the action plan I have not done, but they are not forgotten and I will complete them, as the coaching has been so beneficial. Thank you Cindy for all your help. It’s much appreciated

I’d like to thank Caz for agreeing to answer some questions about coaching and hope it has helped you see the benefits. And thank you Caz, for your kind words!

If coaching is something you’ve been thinking about, or would like to consider, feel free to contact me for a free consultation and we can talk about how I may be able to help you and your business.  

Content Buckets: More Ways to Plan Your Content

Person reviewing analytics beside text: Which metric is the most IMPORTANT? Reach vs. Impressions – Does it matter? Stop stressing over Vanities! Am I looking at the right numbers? Engagement Rate: A key indicator? Followers are just numbers? How to prove ROI? Which one REAL success? Is CTR important? Save time: Track only vital stats Data overwhelm! Likes are vanities! Traffic to Followers are just numbers? Stop stressing over Vanities! Can I ignore SHARES?

In my previous post, I explained what content buckets are and how they can help you organise your social media and content marketing. The idea is simple – choose the types of content you want to use, then put different topics and ideas underneath each one. This gives you a bank of ideas to work from instead of having to think of something completely new every time you post.

In this post, I’m going to look at some more content buckets and then show you how you can use them to plan your autumn and Christmas marketing.

Conversational content

Conversational content is very similar to engaging content, but it’s more about encouraging two-way communication. Social media is about posting content for your audience, but also listening to them and interacting with them.

You could:

  • Ask questions and respond to the answers
  • Comment on other small businesses’ posts and start conversations
  • Host a live Q&A
  • Ask questions during a live session
  • Follow up on the results of a poll with another post

For example, if you ask your audience which Christmas product they’d like to see you create, don’t let the conversation end with that post – or poll, however you decide to do that. Use the results.

Talk about what people chose, ask another question and perhaps explain what you’re going to do with their suggestions. One piece of content can then lead to several more.

User-generated content

User-generated content is content created by your customers and shared on social media or other channels. It can be incredibly valuable because your customers are helping you promote your business.

It could include:

  • Testimonials
  • Reviews
  • Customer photographs
  • Social media comments
  • Customer posts
  • Customer stories

For example, if a customer sends you a photograph of one of your handmade products in their home, ask if you can share it. You could tell the story behind their purchase or simply use the photograph to show your product being used in real life.

The great thing about user-generated content is that your customer has done the creating for you! Just remember to ask permission before using someone’s content for your own marketing.

Listicles

A listicle is simply content presented in a list format.

You see these all the time and I’m a fan of using these in my content…

  • 5 ways to…
  • 10 tips for…
  • 7 things you need to know…
  • My top 5…
  • 3 mistakes to avoid…

They’re popular because they’re easy to read and give people useful information in a format that’s easy on the eye!

Listicles are really useful for seasonal marketing too.

Think about:

  • 5 Halloween products your customers will love
  • 10 Christmas gift ideas
  • 7 things to do before your Black Friday promotion
  • 5 stocking fillers
  • 3 last-minute Christmas gift ideas

Success stories

Success stories show how your product or service has helped a real customer. A customer story focuses on their experience with you and your business, while a case study tends to look more closely at the situation, the solution and the results.

You could:

  • Create a success stories page on your website
  • Write a blog post about a customer story
  • Create a case study
  • Share testimonials
  • Share customer photographs
  • Use video testimonials

This type of content helps potential customers see what it’s actually like to buy from you or work with you. And it can be particularly effective during a sales period.

Instead of simply saying, ‘Our Christmas gift boxes are now available!’, you could tell the story of a previous customer who bought one as a gift and explain why they chose it.

You’re still selling, but you’re doing it through a story.

Promotional content

Of course, promotional content is important. At the end of the day, your business needs sales. There’s nothing wrong with telling people what you sell, showing your products and letting people know about your offers.

It only becomes a problem when almost all of your posts are promotional or selling. If someone follows you and constantly sees ‘Buy this’, ‘Sale ends today’ and ‘Last chance’, they may eventually stop paying attention.

Your promotional content works much better when it’s surrounded by content that provides value, builds trust and helps people get to know your business.

I’ve always advocated the 80/20 rule – 80% engagement and only 20% selling, but you don’t need to follow a rigid rule like this and I’ve changed my tack a bit over the past year. I’d say that now it’s much more important to think about the following questions…

  • Are you helping people?
  • Are you entertaining them?
  • Are you starting conversations?
  • Are you showing them who you are?
  • Are you demonstrating your expertise?
  • And, of course, are you also giving them opportunities to buy?

Product content

Product content is the text, images, videos and other information that tells your audience about what you sell. Whether you sell a handmade product or a service, your content should help potential customers understand:

  • What is it?
  • Who is it for?
  • What problem does it solve?
  • What are the benefits?
  • Why might someone choose it?
  • How can they buy it?

When creating product content, make sure you:

  • Speak directly to your target audience
  • Focus on the benefits as well as the features
  • Use good-quality photographs or images
  • Show the product being used where possible
  • Give people the information they need before buying
  • Make it easy to find out more or make a purchase

Now let’s make this seasonal

This is where I think content buckets become particularly useful.

We’re heading into one of the busiest marketing periods of the year, with Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas all coming up. It can be tempting to think you need completely different content for each occasion. Actually, you don’t!

Your content buckets can stay the same. You simply change the topic and message to fit the season.

For example, your Halloween content could include:

  • An entertaining Halloween post
  • A behind-the-scenes post showing what you’re making
  • A poll asking your audience to choose their favourite design
  • An educational post relating to your product
  • A customer story
  • A product showcase
  • A fun Halloween question

Then, as you move towards Black Friday, you can start talking more about your offers, products and services while continuing to provide useful and interesting content.

Christmas gives you another opportunity to use those same buckets with new topics — gift guides, customer stories, product demonstrations, behind-the-scenes content, Christmas tips and, of course, your seasonal offers.

The framework stays the same – it’s the topics that change. That’s what makes content buckets so useful.

One idea can become several posts

You also don’t need to create completely different content for every marketing channel. You can easily repurpose different posts for other marketing tactics. For example…

  • A blog post can become several social media posts.
  • A customer story can become a newsletter.
  • A product photograph can become an engaging post.
  • A question from your audience can become a future blog post.
  • A Christmas gift guide could become a blog, several social posts and an email to your subscribers.

You’re taking one useful idea and making it work harder for your business. Your content buckets are your starting point.

If you’re struggling with what to post, try this.

  • Write down 5–10 content buckets that suit your business.
  • Underneath each bucket, write down as many ideas as you can – the topics.

Don’t worry about creating the actual posts yet. You’re simply building your content bank. Then you can start mixing them up across your social media and other marketing.

And when Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas come around, you can look at those same buckets and decide how you can use that type of content to talk about the season you’re working on

That is much easier than starting from a completely blank page. Your content buckets give you the structure. Your seasonal marketing gives you the topics. And that means you can create a marketing strategy that is varied, interesting and, importantly, still gives you plenty of opportunities to sell your products or services.

If you’d like some 1:1 coaching around content marketing for your specific business or would like help with your wider strategic marketing planning, please feel free to email me or message me on social media.

Featured image generated with the help of AI.

Content Buckets: What They Are and Why You Need Them

Colorful buckets spilling craft supplies across a wooden worktable

Most small businesses are on social media, and having a good presence is an important part of building your brand. But one of the biggest challenges my followers tell me they have is knowing what to post. You’ve probably got loads of ideas running around your head at all times of the day, but when you actually want to post, your mind goes blank! Or you can’t think how to organise all the ideas you have into something a bit easier to manage.

This is where content buckets can help. They give you a simple way to organise your content, make sure you have variety, and take some of the pressure out of deciding what to post.

What are content buckets?

The first step in creating an effective content strategy is deciding what types of content you want to share.

Content buckets are the different categories or types of content that you choose to use regularly in your marketing, based on what will appeal to your target audience and support your business goals. I’m not talking about topics to cover; I mean types of content. Typical content buckets could include:

  • Educational
  • Entertaining
  • Engaging
  • Inspirational
  • Personal
  • Conversational
  • User-generated content
  • Listicles
  • Success stories
  • Promotional
  • Product content

Let’s look at some of these in more detail.

Educational content

One of the content buckets I use regularly is Educational. I’m sure you already know this and it is one of my most popular content types.

Under this heading I have a list of different things I can create to teach my audience something useful, such as:

  • Blog posts like this one
  • How-to posts
  • Tips and tricks
  • Infographics and statistics
  • Answers to frequently asked questions
  • Q&As about my business and what I offer

When I’m planning my social media and blog content, I can choose something from this list rather than starting from scratch every time. You can use the same principle in a product-based business.

For example, let’s say you sell personalised drinks bottles.

  • You could create a short video or series of photographs showing you making one from start to finish.
  • You could also create posts showing your customers different ways they could use it. Perhaps it’s handy to keep in the car, great for picnics and days out because the lid seals securely, or useful at the gym because it won’t leak in your bag. It could be for your children to take to school or college.

You might even give someone an idea they hadn’t thought of before.

It’s about painting a picture, so your potential customer can imagine themselves using your product – it’s that ‘imagining themselves using it’ that often gets a sale.

Entertaining content

Not everything you post needs to be educational or related to selling. Your audience also wants to be entertained!

Entertaining content can include:

  • Memes or GIFs
  • Jokes
  • Funny things that happen behind the scenes
  • Throwback posts
  • Fun days out or holidays
  • Pets
  • Light-hearted videos
  • Relevant current trends
  • Competitions or giveaways

Seasonal occasions can be useful in this content type. Halloween, Christmas and even Black Friday can all give you opportunities to create something fun and different.

Engaging content

Engaging content encourages your audience to participate rather than simply scroll past.

You could:

  • Ask a question such as “What’s your favourite…?”
  • Use a poll
  • Create a “this or that” post
  • Ask for opinions about a new product
  • Ask your audience to choose between two designs
  • Ask for suggestions for new products

For example, if you’re creating a new Christmas product, you could show two possible designs and ask your audience which one they prefer. You’re not only creating content — you’re also starting a conversation and potentially learning something useful about your customers.

Inspirational content

Inspirational content can make people think, motivate them, or simply brighten their day.

You could share:

  • Motivational or inspirational quotes
  • Something that inspires you
  • A book, podcast or person that has influenced you
  • Your story and why you started your business
  • Something you do that helps or inspires you

Your story can be particularly powerful because people often connect with the person behind the business, not just the product.

Personal content

This is about helping people get to know you and increasing awareness of your brand. You are part of your brand.

People often choose a small business because of the person behind it. They want to know who they’re buying from and what makes that business different – they like to see personal posts from time to time and feel like they’re getting to know you. This helps with the relationship building side of social media.

Personal content could include:

  • Introducing yourself regularly (and pin that post to the top of your page)
  • Sharing a little information about yourself
  • Action shots of you working
  • Pictures of your workspace
  • Your hobbies and interests
  • Something you’re currently enjoying
  • Your likes and dislikes
  • Behind-the-scenes moments

You don’t have to share your entire personal life. Just let people see enough of the person behind the business to make that connection.

Why use content buckets?

Content buckets work because they give your content variety. If every post is ‘Buy my product’, people may quickly become bored. But if you mix promotional content with useful, interesting, entertaining, and engaging content, your audience has more reasons to follow you and keep coming back.

They also make planning much easier. Instead of sitting down every week and thinking: “What on earth am I going to post today?” you can look at your content buckets and choose something from one of them.

You can then plan and schedule your content in advance, saving yourself time and effort.

And there’s another big advantage! Once you have your content buckets established, you can use them repeatedly — including when you start planning seasonal marketing.

In my next post, I’ll look at some more content buckets, including user-generated content, listicles, success stories, and promotional content, and how you can use your buckets to plan your marketing for Halloween, Black Friday, and Christmas.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my post and if you need any help with your content buckets, just drop me a message or email and we can arrange a free call.

The Curious Case of Gladys the Chicken

Gladys was our only remaining chicken – a Light Sussex breed, who sadly we had to say goodbye to last week. I wasn’t going to mention it but decided she needed her own story! And I hope you enjoy the story of a very special chicken!

We took on her and her ‘sister,’ Muriel about three years ago after her owners returned to the UK. Despite my hubby making them a lovely coop off the ground with a ladder and ventilation with wire to keep predators away, all fenced in, Gladys was not happy. After several escapes and screaming when we shut her in at night, attacking me when I let her out in the morning, we decided to just let them do their own thing.

Muriel died last summer – she was a very old lady, and Gladys wasn’t far behind – neither had laid eggs for a while, although Gladys gave us the odd one! She was a bit lost for a while without Muriel but soon got used to life on her own – and she had the cat to torment! He hated her but was scared of her pecking!

Gladys adapted; she was happy, she wandered around and didn’t stray too far from the courtyard, but in autumn of 2025, she started wandering a bit further down to our field and foraging for insects, fruit, and vegetation that she liked. She was a fairly quiet chicken, 🐓 and her breed are very good at avoiding predators and we never clipped her wings, so she could fly into a tree if she needed to – and she liked to! She was a happy, retired hen – aged about 6 then, which is a good age in itself !.  

Living in rural France, she had acres of land to roam on, but she was always at the door in the morning for her food, much to our cat Jax’s annoyance as she pushed in front of him for food and pinched his if she got the chance.

So now, we get into the curious part of the story.

At the beginning of this summer, it was very hot here, and Gladys disappeared. We looked everywhere for her, just as we had with Muriel when she disappeared, but we couldn’t find her anywhere. We searched barns, under bushes, down the field, around the trees and outbuildings – nothing! We didn’t think she’d be taken by anything, as no piles of feathers or signs of struggle, which from experience is normal if a chicken has been taken by a fox – and if taken by a pine marten, you usually find headless bodies as they only seem to want the head!

After a couple of days, we were resigned to the fact that she’d probably been taken or just gone somewhere to die and we wouldn’t find her. Then, after being missing for 4 days, I opened the door to the cat in the morning and there was Gladys – happy as you like, wanting food! She wasn’t particularly hungry but ate and immediately disappeared again.

We knew she wasn’t broody, or sitting on eggs anywhere as she hasn’t laid eggs in ages. The next time she disappeared for 9 days – and again, wasn’t particularly hungry, as she wasn’t interested in the chicken feed when she returned, she wanted some of Jax’s cat food, so I gave her some.

Then off she went again, this time for 10 days, and turned up and knocked on the door for food.

Glady, the nomad?

So, we had questions…

  • Where did she go?
  • What did she eat?
  • How did she look after herself?

We came to the conclusion that we had raised a nomadic chicken! After doing some research, it seems there are a few options…

  • She’d found herself a secret chicken paradise. Chickens are surprisingly capable of becoming semi-independent when they have the opportunity.
  • She may have established a second home. 🌳 As she is capable of flying into trees, she may have found a good roosting tree away from the house, and a chicken that sleeps high in a tree is mainly safe from foxes and ground predators.
  • She could be following seasonal food. 🍓 Rural France can apparently provide a great chicken buffet! Insects, seeds, fallen fruit and berried, (we have several fruit trees and berry bushes in the fields), vegetation, worms etc. And as she’s not desperately hungry when she returns, she’s obviously foraging.
  • She’s gone completely feral! Some chickens can become remarkably independent if they’re allowed to free range over a large area. If Gladys has spent years learning the territory, avoiding predators, and foraging for food, she could have developed her own territory!

I still wanted to know where she went when she disappeared!

This is the funniest part – we had watched her to see which direction she took when she left, so we could solve the mystery. But NO! Gladys was a clever chicken! Every time I tried to follow her, she sat down and didn’t move, allowing me to stroke her. She purposely waited until I’d gone back inside and then disappeared! We spent ages looking around our land for her – looking up, looking down, looking in and under hedges, in outbuildings and barns – NO SIGN OF HER! If she were there, there would be evidence – chicken poo for a start – and a lot of it! And feathers! But nothing!

Queen Gladys I

After she disappeared for the fourth time, it struck me that she could be in the ruined chateau in our grounds – it has several underground tunnels, there are trees growing out of it and dense foliage, which is damp – so it would be a perfect place to avoid predators, forage for insects and berries and fly up high at night. It’s not somewhere we could fully investigate as it’s unsafe!

In the end, we came to the conclusion that Gladys was retired – she had acres of French countryside to explore, a guaranteed food source by foraging, excellent predator avoidance skills and the ability to roost in trees – she simply didn’t want us to know where she was. When she got bored or wanted a more gourmet style meal, she simply strolled home, knocked the door, and got room service! She was living her best life – she no longer lived with us – we lived in her territory!

Chickens clearly aren’t as stupid as their reputation suggests. They have surprisingly good memories, can learn routines, recognise individuals, and learn from experience. Gladys had clearly worked out she could have the best of both worlds.

  • Free accommodation at Le Chateau
  • Free range food during the day
  • And catered room service by knocking on our door when she wanted it!

Our chateau was built in 1129 and has been a feudal castle, a place for the French resistance and loads in between – I think it finally found its rightful owner…

👑🐔 Her Majesty Gladys I, Queen of the Château, Defender of the Hedges, Mistress of the Tunnels, and occasional visitor to the kitchen door to supervise the staff!

I think there was something very special about Gladys. She was an old hen who had nothing useful to do anymore. She wasn’t producing eggs, so she didn’t need to raise chicks, she wasn’t part of a flock hierarchy – she’d basically just reached retirement and decided to spend it exploring her kingdom! She knew she could forage for food – there are fruit bushes and trees, an abundance of insects and we always put plenty of water out for her. And she could get gourmet food when she fancied a change!

She wasn’t lost. She wasn’t confused. She wasn’t desperately trying to get home. She was just perfectly capable of looking after herself and what a character she was!  

Last week, and aged about 7, she collapsed outside our door and was very disorientated and couldn’t stand. She was very weak – no sign of injuries. From previous experience, we knew it was just that she was old and it was time to let her go.

We will miss the old girl, she gave us plenty of laughs, lovely eggs and finally decided for herself that she would be Queen of all she surveyed during her last months.

I hope you enjoyed the curious case of our Gladys. I just couldn’t let her go without telling her story!

Long live Queen Gladys I – we won’t ever forget you – and nor will we ever know for sure where you actually went when you disappeared!  

The Metrics that matter – and what you can ignore!

Person reviewing analytics beside text: Which metric is the most IMPORTANT? Reach vs. Impressions – Does it matter? Stop stressing over Vanities! Am I looking at the right numbers? Engagement Rate: A key indicator? Followers are just numbers? How to prove ROI? Which one REAL success? Is CTR important? Save time: Track only vital stats Data overwhelm! Likes are vanities! Traffic to Followers are just numbers? Stop stressing over Vanities! Can I ignore SHARES?

One of the biggest problems with Facebook and Instagram insights is that there are so many numbers to look at. When you’re run off your feet, running your small business, there’s just not enough time in the day to look at every single one – and the good news is that you don’t have to!

You don’t have to be a social media data analyst as well as everything else! You simply need to understand enough about the numbers so you can make better marketing decisions.

There is no single most important figure!

There really isn’t – it all depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your social media posts.

  • If you’re trying to grow your audience, follower growth and reach may be useful.
  • If you’re trying to build engagement and community, comments, shares and saves become more important.
  • If you’re trying to drive people to your website, link clicks matter.
  • If you’re trying to generate enquiries, messages and website visits will be more important than likes.

So, the first question to ask yourself is ‘What am I trying to achieve?’ Then you know where to start.

Metric 1 – Reach

Reach is worth looking at as it tells you how many people your content was shown to. But don’t think that just because you have a higher reach, that it’s a better post. That’s not necessarily true. A post can reach thousands of people and generate absolutely no meaningful response.

A different post might reach a much smaller audience, but result in comments, shares, website visits or enquiries.

Reach tells you about visibility – it doesn’t tell you about value. 

Metric 2 – Shares  

For most businesses, shares are one of the most interesting things to keep an eye on, because they mean that someone has thought that your post is worth passing on to their followers.

Why might it be shared? It could be that it’s funny, inspirational, useful, relatable or because they think it might help their followers. Whatever the reason, the point is that it’s been shared – they didn’t just scroll past.

So, if you get shares, look at the post and see why – what made people want to share it? Then you can think of ways to create similar content with the same qualities.  

Metric 3 – Saves

Saves are another useful metric – it again shows that you stopped the scroll long enough for someone to read your post and think it’s worth saving for later. Saves are often the result of educational or inspirational content.

If you get a save on your posts, it’s worth looking at it and finding out why – again, you can then create similar posts in future.

Metric 4 – Comments

Comments – this is my favourite metric! It shows that your content has started a conversation, or someone might be asking a question or sharing their opinion of what you’ve written.

Comments give you useful information about what matters to your audience. Look at the type of comments you get…It’s inevitable, you’ll get the odd ‘love this’, ‘cute’, or just ‘have a good day’. But you’ll also get comments such as ‘I’ve been struggling with exactly this’, or you may get a question asking for more information or giving you an example of their experience.

These comments can help give you more ideas for future content and spark a two-way conversation – or both. Your audience is telling you what they like, dislike or what they could really use help with.

Metric 5 – Link clicks and website visits

If you want to achieve driving more traffic to your website, this is the metric to look at. You might post something that gets 50 likes – you might post something that only gets 10. But if the second post generates 8 website clicks and the first doesn’t generate any, which one is more useful to your business?

This is another reason why likes shouldn’t automatically be your measure of success.

Metric 6 – Profile visits

This tends to be more linked to Instagram – profile visits can tell you that your post has sparked curiosity. Someone saw it and thought that they need to check out your business – so they go to your profile to find out more.

BUT, if lots of people are visiting your profile, but very few are following you or contacting you, look at your profile.

Is it clear? Does it clearly explain who you are, what you do/sell, or what you help people with? Does your personality shine through. Is there a clear reason why someone should want to click on your website to find out more?

Sometimes your insights don’t just tell you what’s working – they also help you find out where you need to improve things.  

Metric 7 – Follower growth

Ok, so I know that I have said before that you don’t need to become obsessed with follower growth – and you don’t, but it does matter.

It matters in that it’s useful if your growing audience are potential customers. But 2,000 random followers aren’t necessarily better than 500, if those 500 genuinely like your business and want what you sell or offer.

Remember too, that net follower growth gives you a more realistic picture that simply looking at how many new followers you’ve gained. Look at this metric more as a trend than a daily score. Are you gradually attracting the right people?

Now – what can you ignore?

OK, maybe not so much ignore, but more you can stop being obsessed about!

Likes – they’re not meaningless as they are a useful indication that someone enjoyed your content. But they don’t tell you everything – and there are people who scroll through Facebook and Instagram and just stick a like by every post.  

Don’t be disappointed if your post doesn’t get lots of likes, it might still generate website visits, profile visits, enquiries or sales – and even shares and saves. You need to look at the bigger picture.

Impressions – This is a number that can be useful, but if you’re already thinking the analytics you already know about are a lot, you could discard this one. Impressions are useful if you’re trying to understand how often content is being shown. It only tracks visibility – let me give you an example. Your post shows it reached 100 people, but impressions say 300. Your reach is the actual number of people who were shown it – impressions are the number of times it was looked at, so could be multiple times from one person. It could be that on one particular day; your post appears in the same person’s feed every time they go into it. This will count as 1 reach, but multiple impressions. So, not really an accurate number.  

Don’t worry about…

  • The fact your engagement rate went from 4.2% to 3.9%. It will fluctuate every day.
  • Don’t worry if your reach dropped slightly from one week to the next.

Your audience behaves differently every day and from week to week. You know that there will be some weeks that you see businesses you follow in your feed – other times, you won’t see any that you know or follow. This all affects your numbers.

  • The algorithm changes
  • People go on holiday
  • School holidays happen
  • The weather changes
  • Life happens

All these things affect the numbers…surprisingly! My advice is to look for patterns, not tiny fluctuations. 

Don’t worry about your follower count from yesterday. You may have gained three followers; you may have lost six. Your follower count isn’t going to tell you much about how your marketing is performing.

This is one statement I always remember from some training I did early on about social media…

You’re building a business, not taking part in a popularity contest.

This is so true! I see businesses posting that they got an award from Facebook for starting conversations or for putting out engaging content. I’m going to share something now – I HAVE NEVER EVER had any of these in the whole 14 years I’ve been in business – NOT ONCE!

It used to really bother me – now it doesn’t – I’m happy for those of you who do, but I’m happy that my content is liked because my audience say so and react! That’s not to take away from those who do get these recognitions – I’m pleased that small businesses get noticed – and Facebook absolutely should do that!  But if, like me, you don’t get those accolades, don’t let it worry you!

Finally, here is a summary of what you should track… 

  • If your goal is visibility – look at Reach
  • If you goal is engagement – look at comments, shares and saves
  • If your goal is website traffic – look at link clicks and website visits and check you have those links in your profile or bio.
  • If you goal is audience growth – look at follower growth and net follower growth.
  • If your goal is enquiries – look at messages, profile visits and website clicks

Finally, if your goal is sales – you need to look beyond the metrics and look at your marketing and how it actually contributes to sales. For sales, marketing is the most important metric of all – your strategy, your content, and how it all fits together.

Remember – your aim isn’t to create one lucky post, it’s to understand your audience well enough to create more of the content they actually want to see – and that’s where your metrics help. 

If your goal is more sales, I can help you look at your marketing strategy and help you build a workable one, along with a content strategy and your customer journey – all in easy to follow, step by step instructions.

Message me if you want to get your marketing on track for more sales.

Marketing Made Simple. 

Facebook & Instagram insights explained: Stop being confused by the numbers!

Magnifying glass over colorful data network and analytical charts

I think we’ve all spent time opening our insights on Facebook or Instagram and wondered what we’re supposed to be looking at and what all those numbers mean.

Over the next few weeks, throughout September, my blog posts are going to look at insights in more detail and hopefully help stop the confusion and expel some of the myths!

We’ve all seen the words…Reach – Engagement – Impressions – Profile visits – Follows – Unfollows – Shares – Saves – Clicks – Watch time. And they all come with percentages that seem to change every time you look at them! I’ve given up on them many times in the past, until I decided to look more closely and try to find out and understand how they work.

The good news is that you don’t have to understand every single number and you most definitely don’t need to check your insights every day – it can become an obsession!

The purpose of your insights isn’t meant to be a ‘school report’ on how well you’re doing – the figures are there to help you understand what your audience is responding to – in order to help you make better marketing decisions.

What are insights?

Insights are provided by Meta specifically for business and professional accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

They are all about your audience’s behaviour and how they react to your posts.

The first thing I’d say is don’t get obsessed with your follower count. This changes as people follow and unfollow for various reasons. Sometimes you gain loads of followers, other times your count stays static for weeks. Most of us worry about our followers and often celebrate when we reach a certain magic number – whatever that might be!

I understand why you might think it’s important – one day you have 500 follower and a few weeks later, it’s jumped up to 800. You must be doing something right and it feels like progress. And I’m not saying it isn’t, but your follower count is only one tiny piece of the insights puzzle.

You can have 3,000 followers, but your posts might only reach 300 of them. Someone else may only have 400 followers, but regularly have people sharing their posts, saving them, visiting their profile, and clicking through to their website. So which account has the more useful audience?

I don’t need to answer that! But what I am going to do is look further than follower numbers.

Follower vs Net Followers

This causes a lot of confusion.

  • Your followers are simply the number of people who currently follow your account.
  • Your net followers are the people who have followed you in a set period of time (say the past 28 days) – MINUS the number of people who unfollowed you.

Sometimes the numbers will go backwards and for all sorts of reasons. They could simply be interested in something else now, they could be clearing out their account of people they no longer interact with or just reducing the number of people they follow. 

And it can often be because you don’t interact with them – but if you have thousands of followers, it’s impossible to interact with them every day, or even every week or month.

So, let’s look at the other metrics…

Reach – how many people saw your content.

Reach is the figure that tells you approximately how many individual account your content has been shown to. It’s a good one to look at as it gives you an idea how far your content is going. For example, if one post reaches 1,000 people and another reaches 200, it’s worth having a look to see what was different about those posts.

  • Was one of them more useful?
  • Was it more entertaining or more relatable to your audience?
  • Did people share it?
  • What type of post was it? Was it a static post, a carousel, a reel?
  • Was it simply that the subject matter appealed to a wider audience?

It’s always a good idea to find out WHY it achieved that reach – it doesn’t mean to say the post with the most reach should be more celebrated – it might just be that you did something that made it reach more.

Engagement

This is about what people did after seeing your content. Depending on what your content was, this could be:

  • Likes and reactions
  • Comments
  • Shares
  • Saves
  • Clicks
  • Other interactions

These are all classed as engagement but are not all equal! For example, a like is nice, but someone saving your post because they want to come back to it later is a much stronger form of engagement and a sign they found it useful.

Someone commenting is good, so long as the person who comments has read your post and engages with it, rather than just ‘nice,’ ‘cute’ or ‘have a nice day.’ And someone sharing your post is a stronger form of engagement as they like it enough to share with their followers.

Finally, someone clicking through to your website or to your profile is taking an action that could lead to a sale – or showing interest that they want to find out more about you and what you do.

So, all forms of engagement are different and have their own place. When looking at your insights, it’s worth looking at ‘what did someone actually do after reading my post?’

Sometimes your insights can highlight a problem that isn’t anything to do with your content. For example, someone new to your page sees your content and visits your profile. Then nothing! It could highlight that your need to look more closely at your bio – does it say on the tin what you do and who you help?

Website clicks and messages.

If the goal of your content is to generate enquiries, sales or bookings, this particular metric is much more meaningful to you than anything else.

  • Are people clicking through to your website?
  • Are they clicking your link?
  • Are they sending you messages?
  • Are they taking the next step you want them to take?

At the end of the day, your social media content isn’t there to just look pretty and collect likes. It’s there to help you build relationships with potential customers and move people towards your business.

How often do you look at your insights?

You may be reading this and thinking I hardly ever look at mine – you may be thinking, I look every day.

I’m certainly not suggesting you spend time looking at them every day, or even every week – but it’s a good idea to look at least once a month – so regularly but not obsessively!

A monthly look can help you see patterns with types of content and help you see what kind of posts work for you.

If you take a step back and look at the past 3 months (90 days), you will be able to see:

  • What worked?
  • What didn’t?
  • What surprised you?
  • What did people respond to?
  • What should you do more of?

Insights are there to help you make your next decision about the content to you put out. It’s not there to tell you if your content was good or bad.

I don’t want you going away from this article feeling that you need to understand every metric – or that looking at your insights is something you SHOULD be doing. I just want to help you understand what they are and what they tell you. You certainly don’t need to become obsessed with it!

I’d suggest you use your insights to just ask a few simple questions:

  • Are the right people finding you?
  • What content gets their attention?
  • What content makes them take action?
  • What should you create more of?

This is the ‘marketing made simple’ way!

Let me finish with a little challenge if you want to understand your insights. 

The next time you decide to look at your Facebook or Instagram insights, don’t look at your follower count first. Look at your content from the last 30 – 90 days and find three posts that performed really well.

Then look at them and answer these questions:

  • What do these three posts have in common?
  • Are they similar in content?
  • Do they have the same format? (such as being a reel)

You might find out exactly what your audience is telling you about the kind of content they like. I hope you’ve found this helpful, and as usual, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Next week, I’m going to look at ‘The Metrics that matter – and what you can ignore!’

Feature image generated by AI.

Bringing your Brand Identity to life

Desk with planner, pencil case with pens, coffee mug, plant, and open laptop

In my previous post, I looked at the basic foundations of your brand identity, and covered who you are, what you stand for, who you want to attract and what you want your business to be known for.

This post goes a bit further and brings it all together. Your customers need to be able to see, hear and experience your brand – and that’s where all those familiar branding elements come into play! 

Your business name

Your name is often one of the first things people encounter, so it’s worth giving it some thought. You might use your own name, particularly if you’re the face of your business or offer a personal service. I did this with my business, as I decided that with a marketing business, people are more likely to remember my name than some fancy marketing name!

There isn’t a right or wrong way to name your business – it’s just important that it feels appropriate for what you do, so your audience can recognise you and the brand you’re building.

Your business name doesn’t have to explain everything you do – you can use it to just create enough curiosity, then your website, online shop, bio and marketing on social media explains what you do in more detail.

Your visual identity

This is the part most people think about when they hear the word branding.

Your visual identity might include:

  • Your logo
  • Brand colours
  • Fonts
  • Photography or imagery
  • Graphic style
  • Patterns or illustrations
  • Packaging
  • Website design
  • Social media graphics

These elements should work together to create a recognisable look. Your branding should reflect your business, not whatever happens to be fashionable on social media this month.

For example, a vintage-inspired business might use completely different colours, fonts and imagery from a bright, contemporary jewellery brand.

Your tagline

I’ve talked about this recently on my social media pages. A good tagline can communicate something important about your business in just a few words.

Mine is Marketing made simple.

It’s short, but it tells you something about what I do and, more importantly, how I want to do it. I don’t want my audience to feel that marketing is complicated, intimidating or overwhelming. My tagline isn’t just a catchy phrase. It reinforces part of my brand positioning.

When you’re thinking about yours, don’t try to cram everything you do into one sentence. Instead ask yourself…What is the one thing I’d love people to remember about my business?

That’s a much better place to start.

Your tone of voice

Your brand also has a voice.

Are you:

  • Friendly and chatty?
  • Calm and reassuring?
  • Quirky and playful?
  • Straight-talking?
  • Inspirational?
  • Knowledgeable and professional?
  • Warm and nurturing?

Your tone of voice should feel natural. For example, there’s no point deciding your brand is fun and quirky if every social media post sounds like a formal business report!

Your voice should be consistent across your website, emails, social media, packaging and customer communications. That doesn’t mean every sentence has to sound identical. It just needs to have the same ‘feel’ about it – in other words, your brand personality!

What is your brand personality?

Here’s where branding gets particularly interesting. Imagine your business was a person. What would they be like? Would they be:

  • The colourful, energetic friend who is always suggesting something fun?
  • The calm, dependable friend everyone turns to for advice?
  • The sophisticated one who always knows what’s stylish?
  • The quirky one who sees things differently?
  • The warm, thoughtful person who makes everyone feel welcome?

These characteristics can help define your brand personality. And this is much more useful than simply choosing a few words or phrases because they sound nice.

Your personality can influence your photography, colours, language, social media content, packaging and even the way you interact with customers.

The very important customer experience!

This is the part that’s sometimes forgotten, but my goodness, it’s probably THE most important thing – in my opinion anyway!

You can have beautiful branding, a gorgeous website and a brilliant social media feed — but if your customer experience doesn’t match, your brand won’t feel authentic.

Think about every point where someone comes into contact with your business. These are called ‘touchpoints.

  • Your social media.
  • Your website.
  • Your packaging.
  • Your emails.
  • Your product descriptions.
  • Your checkout process.
  • Your thank-you message.
  • The way you deal with questions.
  • The way you handle a problem.

All these things contribute to how people experience your brand.

If your branding promises warmth and personal service, but a customer receives a cold, automated response to a problem, there’s a disconnect. Your brand needs to feel the same wherever people encounter it

Consistency – that old chestnut!

Consistency doesn’t mean boring, although I have heard it described that way! Some think that consistency means everything needs to look the same – it doesn’t!

Consistency doesn’t mean using the same template for every social media post or putting your logo on everything you produce. It means creating recognisable patterns, using:

  • The same general visual style.
  • A familiar tone of voice.
  • Similar values.
  • A consistent customer experience.
  • Enough repetition that people begin to recognise you.

That’s when your brand starts doing some of the marketing for you. Someone sees your colours, style or way of writing and immediately knows that it’s you.

Your brand identity checklist

Before you decide that your branding needs a complete makeover, take a look at what you already have.

Ask yourself:

  • Does my visual identity reflect my business?
  • Does my tone of voice sound like me?
  • Does my tagline communicate something meaningful?
  • Does my social media look and sound consistent with my website?
  • Does my customer experience match the promises I make?
  • Can someone recognise my content without seeing my name?

And finally:

  • Does my branding appeal to the people I actually want to attract?

If the answer to some of these is ‘no’ or ‘not really’, don’t panic! It doesn’t mean you need a complete rebrand. You just need to think about a few small changes that make everything fit together, so it’s more recognisable.

Conclusion

Your brand identity isn’t something you create once, upload to Canva and forget about. It’s something you build and reinforce every day. Think about your brand with:

  • Every post.
  • Every email.
  • Every photograph.
  • Every conversation.
  • Every package you send.
  • Every customer interaction.

And eventually, all those little pieces start to become familiar to your audience and start adding up to something much bigger – the way people recognise, remember and feel about your business.

And that’s when your brand starts to become much more than a logo.

If you’re feeling a bit stuck with your brand and need to talk it through to make it clearer in your own head, contact me and we can have a chat about how I can help.

Feature image generated by AI

Get a better brand identity

Aethera Apothecary brand board with color palette, logos, typography, and product mockups

What Is Your Brand Identity? It’s More Than Your Logo

We all want our businesses to stand out from the crowd. But when you hear the words “brand identity”, what do you think of?

  • Your logo?
  • Your colours?
  • Your fonts?
  • Your tagline?

All those things are part of your brand identity…but your brand is so much more than the things people can see. Your brand identity is the deliberate impression you create about your business. It helps people understand who you are, what you stand for, who you’re for and what they can expect from you. And when it’s done well, it makes your business recognisable without you having to shout about it.

This is particularly important for small businesses. You might not have the advertising budget of a huge brand, but you can still create a business that people recognise, remember and want to buy from.

Start with who you are

Before you choose colours, fonts or even design a logo, there are some more important questions to answer.

  • What does your business stand for?
  • Why does it exist?
  • Who do you want to attract?
  • What do you want people to remember about you?

And perhaps most importantly…What makes your business feel like YOUR business?

This is where your brand identity really begins. You don’t need a grand corporate mission statement. In fact, for a small business, something simple and meaningful is often much more useful.

Think about what you want your business to do for your customers. Perhaps you create colourful jewellery because you want people to feel confident and individual. Maybe you make sustainable homeware because you want people to have beautiful things without compromising their values. Or perhaps you create artwork because you want to bring a little joy and personality into people’s homes. That purpose becomes part of your brand.

What do you want to be known for?

How would you answer this question?

“If someone recommended your business to a friend, what would you want them to say?”

Maybe:

  • Her jewellery is so unusual — I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
  • Everything she makes is beautifully finished.
  • I love how colourful and joyful her products are.
  • She really understands what her customers want.

Those descriptions give you clues about your brand identity. They tell you the qualities you want people to associate with your business. And this connects directly with my previous post about ‘What people say about you when you’re not in the room.’

Your reputation is ultimately created by other people, but your brand identity is something you can deliberately shape.

You can’t completely control what people think about your business, but you can control what you put out there!

Who is your brand for?

Your brand identity also needs to make sense to the people you want to attract. This doesn’t mean you have to change who you are to please your ideal customer. Quite the opposite. The strongest brands usually have a clear sense of who they are, which naturally attracts some people more than others.

Think about your ideal customer.

  • What do they value?
  • What sort of things do they love?
  • What would make them look at your business and think: ‘Oh, I love this. This is SO me.’

Your brand should help create that reaction.

For example, a handmade jewellery business aimed at someone who loves minimalist, timeless pieces will probably look and sound very different from one aimed at someone who loves bold, colourful and quirky jewellery. Neither is right or wrong. They’re simply different brands.

Your values matter too

Your values are the principles that guide how you run your business.

They might include:

  • Creativity
  • Sustainability
  • Quality
  • Individuality
  • Honesty
  • Simplicity
  • Inclusivity
  • Personal service
  • Supporting other small businesses

Don’t just choose words because they sound good. Think about what they mean in your business.

If you say quality is important, what does that look like?

If you say personal service matters, what does your customer experience look like?

If you say sustainability is one of your values, how does that influence your materials, packaging or processes?

Your values become meaningful when people can see them in action.

Your brand identity is the whole picture

So, before you start playing around in Canva choosing colours and fonts, take a step back.

Think about:

  • Who are you?
  • What do you stand for?
  • Who are you trying to attract?
  • What makes you different?
  • What do you want to be known for?
  • How do you want people to feel when they come across your business?

These answers form the foundations of your brand identity. Once you have those foundations, the fun part begins because now you can start translating all of this into something people can see, hear and experience. That’s where your name, logo, colours, fonts, imagery, tagline, tone of voice and brand personality come in.

And as it would be too much to add this into this week’s post, that’s what I’ll be looking at next week, so keep your eyes peeled!

In the meantime, here’s a little brand identity exercise for you…

Brand identity exercise

Grab a piece of paper and complete this sentence:

I want my business to be known for __________.

Then choose three words you’d like people to associate with your brand. As you all know my three words are ‘Marketing made simple’.  

Don’t overthink it. Those three words could become the starting point for building a much stronger and more consistent brand identity. Your brand isn’t simply what you put on your packaging, it’s the story you’re telling about your business every time someone encounters it.

If you need help with your brand identity or branding in general, contact me and we can arrange a coaching session.

Feature image generated by AI.

Your Brand is what people say when you’re not in the room!

Young woman painting an abstract landscape on canvas in an art studio

Many years ago, before all the current technology, a small business lived or died by word of mouth.

If Mrs Smith told her neighbour that your handmade candles were amazing, you gained a customer.

If she said they’d arrived broken…well, you probably heard about it quickly and had the chance to put things right.

What about today? Word of mouth hasn’t disappeared.

It’s just moved online.

Every review, Facebook recommendation, Instagram comment, Google search result, and customer photo is telling part of your story.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, your brand is quietly introducing you to people every single day.

And here’s the important bit…

Your brand isn’t your logo..I’m sure that most of you know this…

  • It isn’t your colours.
  • It isn’t your font.

Your brand is the feeling people get when they come across your business.

That’s why managing your online reputation matters so much.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes

Imagine you’ve heard about a lovely handmade business.

What’s the first thing you do?

Most of us will:

  • Google the business.
  • Look at their website.
  • Check their Facebook or Instagram.
  • Read a few reviews.
  • Decide within minutes whether they feel trustworthy.

Your customers do exactly the same.

So, it’s a really good idea to become your own customer every couple of months! What do I mean by this? Have you every searched your business name online – or searched your actual name online? Give it a go – you’ll be surprised how much information there is out there about you and your business. I do this about once every two months – it also helps me see if any particular blog post has been searched.  

Search for your business name online

What appears?

Is the information accurate?

Are your contact details correct?

Does your website still work?

Are your latest social media posts recent enough to show you’re still in business?

Would you buy from you?

Keep an eye on your reputation!

You don’t have to obsess over every mention of your business, but it is worth knowing what’s being said.

Setting up Google Alerts for your business name is still a useful way to spot mentions online, especially if you’ve been featured in blogs or local news.

More importantly, keep an eye on your reviews and comments across the platforms where you spend most of your time.

People don’t expect perfection.

They do expect a response.

Don’t panic about negative reviews

No one enjoys receiving criticism.

But here’s something that might surprise you…

A business with hundreds of perfect five-star reviews can actually look less believable than one with the occasional four-star review and a thoughtful, helpful reply.

When someone leaves genuine feedback:

  • reply politely
  • acknowledge their experience
  • offer to put things right where appropriate
  • never argue publicly

Future customers are often reading your response just as much as the original review.

Every post builds your Brand

Every post, photo, email, and comment is another tiny piece of your reputation.

Ask yourself:

If someone saw only this one post, what impression would they get of my business?

  • Would they think you’re helpful?
  • Friendly?
  • Creative?
  • Professional?
  • Reliable?

Your brand isn’t built in one big launch.

It’s built in hundreds of small moments.

I’ve got a little challenge for you …

This week, spend ten minutes becoming your own customer.

  • Search for your business.
  • Visit your website.
  • Read your latest posts.
  • Look at your reviews.

Then ask yourself one simple question…

Does this feel like the business I want people to remember?

Because your reputation isn’t just what people think about you.

It’s one of the strongest parts of your brand.

I hope you found this helpful – it definitely makes you think – I’ve changed quite a few things over the past year because I’ve not liked certain aspects of my website or social media after pretending to be my own customer.

Give it a whirl and let me know how you get on!  

Feature image generated by WordPress AI.

Don’t be fooled by viral Facebook posts – how to spot a social media hoax!

Man fact-checking alien hoax story on laptop in home office

Over the past few weeks, I’ve started to see similar Facebook posts popping up again. The post claims that Meta has changed its rules and that you need to copy and paste a statement onto your timeline to protect your photos and personal information.

This same post sometimes worded slightly differently appears every year or so and the good news is – it’s not true! It’s a hoax.

Why it’s not true.

When you create a Facebook account, you agree to Meta’s Terms of Service. Those terms explain how your content can be used to provide the service. A disclaimer on your timeline does not change the contract you’ve agreed to.

The post usually starts with something dramatic – designed specifically to get your attention and to make you panic about your personal data. Something like:

  • Big day tomorrow…
  • A lawyer has advised everyone to post this…
  • This was on TV…

The posts I’ve seen start with ‘Don’t forget that tomorrow marks the start of the new Facebook rule, which allows them to use your photos….’ Here are a few more excerpts from the post…

  • The violation of privacy can be punished by law.
  • Every member must post a note like this.
  • If you do not publish a statement at least once, it will be technically understood that you are allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in your profile status.
  • I HEREBY DECLARE THAT I DO NOT GIVE MY PERMISSION FOR FACEBOOK OR META TO USE ANY OF MY PERSONAL DATA.

OK, let’s deal with this:

  1. Posting a disclaimer doesn’t override Facebook’s Terms of Service
  2. Real policy changes are announced through official channels, not randomly given to people to post with no evidence!
  3. The post contains several red flags.

People often share these posts, not because they’re being gullible, but because they are genuinely worried for themselves and their friends. The post deliberately creates fear and urgency, so many just think, ‘well, it can’t hurt – I’ll post it just in case.’ I’ve done it myself in the past. Unfortunately, the more people post, the quicker the hoax spreads.

As a marketing coach, it’s a great marketing ploy showing why emotion drives people to share something!

  • Fear – your photos will be used without your permission.
  • Urgency – the deadline is today.
  • Social proof – you see your friends and family posting it.
  • Authority – a lawyer said – it was on TV etc.
  • Simple to comply – just copy and paste.

These are all legitimate marketing principles, but in this case they’re being used to spread misinformation, rather than help people.  

Why do these posts keep appearing?

The simple answer is because they work!

Not because they’re true, but because they’re designed to make people react before they stop and think.

How to fact-check before sharing

  • Look for official announcements on the ‘Meta Newsroom’ or ‘Meta for business news’ pages.
  • Search whether independent fact checking organisations have covered it. You can do this on ‘Google Fact Check Explorer.’
  • ALWAYS be cautious of anything that asks you to copy and paste instructions.
  • Read it and ask whether it makes sense – often it’s very repetitive and really doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

Why does this matter for small businesses?

As small business owners, it’s especially important to be careful about what we share. Sharing inaccurate information can affect your credibility – it’s better to say ‘I’ve seen this, (describe the post) and I’m not convinced it’s true, so I’m checking before I share. Or alert me and I’ll check for you!

Every post contributes to the trust we build with our audience, so taking a minute to check whether something is genuine is always worthwhile.

So, if you see one of these….PAUSE – THINK IF IT FEELS TRUE – VERIFY –

It’s worth remembering that protecting your privacy starts with your account settings – if you want more control over your data, the things that actually help are:

  • Review your Facebook privacy settings.
  • Limit who can see your posts and photos.
  • Remove content you no longer want on the platform.
  • Check your ad preferences and data settings.
  • If you’re in the UK or EU, you have additional rights under data protection laws, such as requesting access to or deletion of certain personal data.

Remember – Social media is full of advice, opinions, rumours, and headlines competing for our attention. Some of it’s helpful. Some of it isn’t.

These posts aren’t shared because people are naïve. They’re shared because they appeal to our instinct to protect ourselves and the people we care about. The best thing we can do is pause, check the facts, and only share information we’re confident is accurate.

Have you seen this Facebook privacy post appearing in your feed? I’d love to know whether you’ve spotted any other social media myths or scams recently. Let me know in the comments.