Soap box Sunday

 Hiya, 

I used to sit many Sundays and write to you....

Lockdown depleted my wells of hope there for a while, and now I am back in form and Life is rather busy.

I have always put in the hard yards to promote both Creative Arts Safaris and The Stitching Project organically.

What does that mean? Whilst I am a bit of a greenie and have an organic garden it has nothing ecological about it, nor is it exciting like gardening....

It means I have attracted awareness to our businesses through being active at marketing [FB, Inst, Pinterest, blogs.... and any other chance I spot] and making sure my websites are good quality and up to date. 

I know I might pack them rather solid with information too, but I want you to KNOW!

When I registered Creative Arts Safaris website on 2 Aug, 2007 to get notice all you had to do was write good copy, and label photos well, keep you blog up to date and I managed to rank very well in Textile tours, Indian tours and Craft tours enquiries.

At that time most marketing was through print media- websites were quite new. 

I would ask guests where they heard about me and it was more often word of mouth- I travelled and taught all around the globe at that time- textiles stuff... then it moved onto be internet and word of mouth. I used to have pretty postcards I gave out in classes and anywhere else I popped up - often someone would say I have had your postcard on my fridge for ages.

Rarely did anyone say they responded to an ad in a magazine [yet initially I spent a lot of money on ads like that]. That annoyed me too, the cost of the advertising had to be added onto tours costs but you and I did not get anything for it really..... yes it was supposed to let people know about us but did it really?

So here I am in a world that is ruled by the ALLGORISM, social media can do a lot to restrict who sees your posts [ and the posts I get to see- I follow pages because I like what they are doing- why is it so hard to see them and I only get a million adds???]

When I am looking for something- I google. I try to not use the SPONSERED LINKS- even if they are what I am looking for I try and find the direct link to the website [save the company having to pay for a click on a sponsored link]

I have watched as The Stitching Project clients use FB ads to promote their page- whilst there was an initial surge in reach, if they stopped paying they completely bombed of the radar. Nasty FB.

It made me wary about using them and keep to the organic approach.

Post Covid and trying to get going again and reaching out and making contact - letting prospective guests know I am here is even more difficult.

I have taken a few marketing seminars and they suggest 10 to 25% of your budget should be spent on marketing to grow your business!!!

!!! I can't exclaim enough- does that mean I add 25% to my tours to make FB richer?- it does not benefit you nor more importantly the people we visit where our buck does make a difference.

The marketing experts are suggesting expenditure to make BIG BUSINESS richer. Crikey!!

This is my shock horror lately- still trying to digest it.

In my last CAS newsletter I asked if people might like to follow, like, or comment, save or share my posts as a way to building reach organically- watching the REACH statistics I think it is having an impact.

Apparently Google reviews can help as well. They control the most commonly used search engine so please add your two bobs worth if you feel inclined XX.

 Why am I writing all this? 

1. Well I am shocked or horrified at the way social media is going- it not not social for us to connect up it has all become a MARKETING TOOL and us little folk at being manipulated and BIG BUSINESS is making a huge profit.

[By the way did you catch in the news -Australia has crazy inflation and 2/3 of it is driven by big business making monster profits]

2. I am asking for you help- follow, like, comment, save and share for any business you would like to support it does help them and keep profit out of the pockets of big business.

Soap box Sunday- it has been a while since I climbed up and I do feel better for having a rank. Thanks for listening 😜

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