Why write a newsletter?

Sometimes there isn't much motivation to write newsletters, social media is much quicker and easier!
But there are many benefits to writing a newsletter over social media posts.

You may have many followers on social media, but they won't always see your posts
On any social media platform most people are following a lot of others, covering people they know and businesses. To be seen and have an impact your followers need to absolutely love you and make sure they see all your posts, otherwise your posts can get lost in the noise of other posts, or in the case of Facebook, may not be seen by many of your fans because of the tweaking Facebook often do to newsfeeds.
Sending a newsletter gives you permission to access your subscribers directly. They've signed up and want to hear from you, your email is always available to them, even if they can't pay attention to it for a few hours or a day. It's sitting in their inbox for when they have time to read it.

You know you have real fans
Signing up to your newsletter is a conscious decision, subscribers want to hear what you have to say. Social media is a mixed bag, some of your fans will love you, others may like you because they like some of your tips and photos or they've entered a competition you've run. Not all your followers like you because they are interested in your products or services.
I've always found I get more response when I send out a newsletter. Not necessarily with clickthroughs, but with phone calls and direct email replies (I believe his is because I'm a service based business not a product based business).

Subscribers are always available to you
Yes, there's always that chance that social media platforms will close down, a new platform will come out that people swap over to (meaning you need to work to get fans back on the new platform) and the one we all hate to think about, Facebook can block or ban us for not following a rule when posting or running a competition (always re-read the rules when running a competition!).
Your subscribers on the other hand are always available to you. You own your subscriber list, and even if the platform you use to send out your newsletters closes down you can easily export your list and import it into another platform and continue on.

You can mix it up a bit
Social media platforms are fairly static in what you can do. Twitter only allow short posts, YouTube is video only, Facebook is more adaptable but has a lot of rules that are always changing.
Your newsletters allow you to contact people and share what you want how you want. You can utilise your layout to benefit your branding, you can share long or short articles, competition details, blog post links, large or small photos, personalise them with subscriber names, or even segment them into products/services that your subscribers like.


If you would like to subscribe to the FeralArt newsletter, where you can get information that I don't post on social media or on my blog, plus links to useful websites, fill out the signup form below.
I send out a newsletter every three weeks and never share your email address with any other person or business.

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Make an easy url for your facebook page

If you've just set up a Facebook page for your business or product you will find that the link to your page (the url people have to type in to the internet browser) is quite long and not at all memorable. It will be something like www.facebook.com/pages/yourpagename/1234567891234567 but you are able to change this to something easier like www.facebook.com/yourpagename

Make sure you are logged in to Facebook then visit www.facebook.com/username
Here you can set a username for your personal page (the one you see all your friends posts), and your facebook business page.

First, choose your business page from the drop down menu.
Type the name you would like your page to be found as.



Press the Check Availability button, this will check if anyone else already has the url you would like to be found for. As there are millions of profiles and business pages you may find you don't get your ideal username (I couldn't get FeralArt for example as someone already has it), so you may have to brainstorm a bit to find something appropriate and memorable.

Once you've found a name available you will get a popup window, this lets you know you can't take someone elses trademark, you can't sell usernames etc. But it's also worth noting if you choose to change the username/url of your page in the future you can only do this once.

Once confirmed your username is set up.

Adding a comment to a scheduled post on Facebook

There's a theory going around that Facebook shows your posts to more people if you don't put a link in it. So a lot of people are writing their post and putting the link in the comments. Now this is easy if you're typing up your post and posting it straight away, but what if you've scheduled your post and won't be (or are unsure if you will be) near a computer when it automatically posts? You don't want people having to wait for you to return and remember to add the link for them.

So I figured out a way to add comments to scheduled posts, there's a bit of clicking around but it is do-able, see below for a walkthrough with screenshots of the process.

First schedule your post as you would normally (See Scheduled posts on Facebook if you need help with doing this).

Once you've scheduled your post you will get the 'Your Post Has Been Scheduled' popup confirmation. Click on the 'View Activity Log' button. (If you accidentally click on close you can get to your activity log by going to the top admin panel of your Facebook page and clicking on 'Edit Page > Use activity Log').

You will be taken to your Activity Log where all your scheduled posts are at the top of the page. Find the post you want to add your comment to and click on the date the post is scheduled for.

This will open up a page with your scheduled post by itself, and have an area where you can comment. Type in the link or comment you want to go with that post and press enter. You comment is now scheduled to appear when your post appears on your Facebook page.

If you want to double check and make sure your comment/link will appear with your post go back to your Activity Log. Your scheduled post will show the comment underneath it in the Scheduled Posts area.

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Yes, FeralArt is on Facebook too!
Come join me, and don't forget to introduce yourself: www.facebook.com/FeralArtDesign

Scheduled posts on Facebook

Scheduling posts on Facebook can be a huge time saver as we all know going on Facebook for 5 minutes to check your page and create one post often turns into a distraction that lasts an hour. We also might want to post something at a particular time (when a sale starts, reminder of an event etc) and either don't want to forget or know we won't be near a computer at that particular time. So you can schedule posts and photo/video from your business page (not poll questions) and know they will appear when you want them to without having to set yourself a reminder.

First, click in the box where you will be typing your post. At the bottom left corner a little clock appears (circled in the image below). Once you click on the clock you will be able to choose the year, month, day, hour and minute you would like your post to appear. Your ‘Post’ button will change to a ‘Schedule’ button.

Once you have scheduled your post you will get a message saying when it will be published. If you would like to edit or cancel the post before it appears on your timeline, you can through your admin panel by clicking on ‘Edit Page > Use Activity Log’.

Your scheduled posts will be at the very top of this screen and gives you the option to change the scheduled time, post now or cancel the post.

A few things to note:

• Scheduling does take into account where you are in the world, so if you are posting from Victoria, Australia and ask your post to appear at 2pm, it will appear at 2pm Victoria, Australian time.
• You can only schedule posts up to six months in advance. 

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Yes, FeralArt is on Facebook too!
Come join me, and don't forget to introduce yourself: www.facebook.com/FeralArtDesign

{ Inspiration List } Facebook Posts

It's good to post once or twice a day on Facebook, but the dreaded 'posting block' often means when we know we haven't posted anything for a few days we still can't think of anything!
So I've put together an inspiration list of things you can post that don't take long to write, don't require much planning and can be used as inspiration more than once.

• Change your banner image, this gets listed as a post (people can like and comment) and you can promote or spotlight a product/service without needing to write any persuasive text.
• Photo/information of your newest product.
• Photo/information of your best seller.
• Details of an upcoming market or event you will be at.
• Details of a retail outlet where your product is sold.
• A photo of where you work, for example your current shop window or workshop bench.
• A photo of a work in progress.
• Updates of your work in progress.
• Link to your latest blog post.
• Link to a past blog post that still has some great useful information.
• Link/photo to another business you're collaborating with on a project.
• Introduce your work helpers, be it employees, kids or pets.
• Testimonial photos/comments (ask first if you can post them on Facebook).
• Photo of parcels ready to be posted to their new homes.
• Welcome message when you have a few new followers.
• Thank you message to all your followers.
• Reminder before you send out your newsletter encouraging people to sign up.
• Any special offers or promotions you have running, and a reminder just before they're about to end.
• Celebrate milestones, eg # years in business, # of Facebook likes, getting through a huge amount of custom orders, you/employee finishing a course to further their career.
• Tips for your clients/customers to get the most out of the products you sell.

Hopefully this gives you some inspiration for the next time you have a posting block when updating your Facebook page.
Don't forget when you have some time to brainstorm a few post ideas, once you've started writing some down more will come! 
Are there any other points you would add to this list?

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Yes, FeralArt is on Facebook too!
Come join me, and don't forget to introduce yourself: www.facebook.com/FeralArtDesign