Trying something new

Getting the message out

Well, it is has all been happening at Swizzle and friends, as we have embarked on our first foray into a printed advertising.

With the development of Swizzle Socks we felt it was something worth shouting about so we are thrilled to be featuring in Devon Life, which is the county’s number one magazine and celebrates the best of Devon.

With a monthly readership of more than 27,000, we are really excited to be featured in the November issue, which went on sale on Thursday, October 22.

So as we write, we are waiting to see what the results of the promotion are and that is not all we are doing to highlight this new product.

Social media promotions

We have also increased our social media activity, after all, with millions of people out there in the social media world, who have similar thoughts to us when it comes to reusing materials instead of using them just the once, we thought it was worth trying to highlight what we do.

But when it comes to social media promotions, as with many of the other steps in developing the Swizzle and friends business, it is quite a steep learning curve.

While we have some experience of using the likes of Facebook on a personal level, it is a bit different when you are trying to encourage people to visit the website and buy into what we have to offer.

Of course, at face value, what we sell can appear expensive but when you consider the life of the individual products, some of which should last for years, they are all pretty good value.

So those of you who follow our Facebook page and Instagram account will probably have seen we have been a little more active in recent weeks as we try to raise awareness of our place in the world.

So with Instagram, we tried something a little fancy, with nine pictures posted so when you look at the whole thing, it makes one big picture - kind of like a jigsaw.

Well, it is more like one of those puzzles where you have to move the pieces around to make the picture look right, as with each post, the tiles get shifted, so you get some interesting images.  But every ninth post, the photos align -  it looks great then.

Some challenges

We have also started investing in Facebook advertising which has been a little more problematical as we wanted to link up the website to the campaigns, so we can get to know what works.

We watched videos to see what we needed to do and read about it as well but then didn’t always see the same options on our screen as in the instructions.

There were also one or two other issues which we had to contend with but in time, we are sure that we will get to grips with it and will be able to maximise the opportunities that are available on that channel as well - we just might need a little more guidance.

Learning curves are meant to be climbed and that is what we are doing with many aspects of this developing business - and speaking of climbing, Swizzle Socks would certainly keep your feet warm while you are putting the effort in, so click on the link to go to our Swizzle Socks collection or if you are interested in our other products, click here.