Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Baby milk powder ‘rationing’ hits UK supermarkets

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

I heard a report on BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme yesterday about the shortages of baby milk formula hitting British supermarkets.  Due to an increase in demand in China for foreign made powdered baby milk, some UK shops (Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons) have said the purchase of certain brands would be limited to two units per customer per day.

Danone, who make Aptamil and Cow & Gate baby milk powder, apparently asked for the restrictions, and said most supermarkets were introducing a restriction of two cans per customer in order to prevent some individuals from bulk-buying baby milk for “unofficial exports”. Retailers have put the same limits on sales of SMA milk, despite the makers Nestle saying there were no stock shortages.

So what is going on? Foreign-made baby formula is popular in China- worried about potentially dangerous levels of hormones and chemicals sometimes found in Chinese baby formula, go to great lengths (and are willing to pay a premium price) to buy foreign brands. Their fears are not without foundation- in 2008 a locally-manufactured formula containing the industrial chemical melamine killed six infants and caused illness in another c.300,000.

Due to the higher prices Chinese parents are willing to pay, there are big profits to be made selling foreign formula, and it seems people have been buying in bulk to (unofficially) export to China, or send over to relatives. Since the introduction of restrictions in UK supermarkets, there has also been an increase in sales as Mums have been stocking up on their favourite brand- which in turn has led to shortages on the shelves.  On a local Harrogate Mums Facebook page, ladies are reporting near empty shelves in the local Morrisons and Asda.

It seems some entrepreneurs are hoping to make a quick buck without the hassle of international shipping, and cans of baby milk are selling on eBay for twice the shop price. 

Time for a “Keep Calm and Don’t Panic Buy” government poster?!

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New Facebook regs, and a recommendation.

Monday, January 14th, 2013

A new Facebook rule comes in to force tomorrow that will affect business pages. Facebook have always had rules about the content of the overlay writing allowed on the cover photo for business pages, such as 

no price, discounts or purchase information, (eg 22% off)

No  contact details- website address, email, mailing address etc should be put in your page ‘About’ section rather than printed on the cover image

You can’t refer to Facebook features – so no putting a big arrow on your cover picture pointing to the ’Like’ button.

The new rule that comes in to force tomorrow (15th January) limits the amount of writing you can put on your cover picture to 20% (or one fifth of the total area).

I’ve been playing with a free picture editor called PicMonkey ( www.picmonkey.com ) It’s really easy to use (if I can, anyone can!) and makes it very easy to crop photos and add wording. I made a collage for the Chiggs Wheels facebook page cover, and added some text (hopefully adhering to the new regulations!) to a picture of Windsor Castle to use as a cover for the A Royal Baby Blog facebook page and Google+ page . I can recommend Picmonkey for ease of use, and great results. If your Facebook cover page needs changing to keep in line with the new facebook rules, take a look.

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Baby’s feed time? It’s in the (hospital) bag!

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

I’ve been reading a fascinating discussion on the Bounty Club Facebook page- ‘what should you pack in your Hospital Bag?’. It was a hugely popular topic- lots and lots of new mums shared their ‘should take this’ and ‘don’t need that’ tips, while mums-to-be described the contents of  bags lurking in halls across the country waiting to be grabbed excitedly and rushed to the labour ward.

There are over 230 comments, and if you packed every item suggested by everyone, you would need a fork-lift truck to wheel your hospital bag into the delivery suite!

Obviously, some must-have items varied according to circumstance; mums who’d given birth in winter suggested blankets and socks to keep feet warm while in labour, and mums of summer babies suggested cooling face spray and a hand held fan!

One mum who had recently had a baby suggested to the pregnant ladies that they should pack a notepad and pen so they could note down baby’s feed times- she said it was always embarassing when the midwife would come round the ward and ask what time her baby had last fed, and she couldn’t remember.

Solution:- a far easier way to keep a note of the time your baby has a feed is a Baby Feed Wheel! No worrying about your pen rolling under the bed or running out of ink- just turn the dial so the time baby has a feed shows in the ‘window’ and you’ll always have the answer when the midwife comes round to check on baby’s feeds.

I hereby nominate the Chiggs Baby Feed Wheel as an essential item to pack in a hospital bag!

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Social media makes me go round in circles…

Friday, February 17th, 2012

..aka a facebook page for business. Now, I’m no business guru, but have learned the odd thing (sometimes very odd :-) ) over the last 6 years of running my own business, so I’ll be making a few blog posts about anything I come across that may be of help or interest to other small business owners. They’ll be grouped together under a new category- something along the lines of  ‘hints and tips for small businesses’ unless I can think of anything snappier!

 A business facebook page is really easy to set up- if you go to any other facebook business page, underneath the information, about, likes etc listed on the left hand side is a category ‘create a page’- click on this and follow the instructions through! Make sure you fill in the ‘about’ section, and have a link to your website (if you have one) near the beginning of your paragraph, so visitors to your page can see it at a glance without clicking on the ‘more’ button. The same thing applies to the ‘info’ section, this is a great place to really tell people about yourself and your business. Don’t forget to add photos if you can, they will appear in a row under the name of the page and will make your page pretty.

So far so good- and now for the hard part, attracting ‘likes’. You can just use your personal profile page to ask people to ‘like’ your page- friends and family in particular may well be willing to help out spread the word about your business. When trying to reach a larger audience, however, it’s not really enough just to ask people to like your page- you have to give them a reason (such as discount codes if you sell stuff) or make your page appealing- plenty of (though not too many!) interesting and relevant posts, and interaction with people is a good start. It’s not easy- heck, I’ve had a business page for Chiggs Wheels for yonks and I only have a couple of hundred ‘likers’, but it’s fun to do, and the only cost is in your time- so a great place to begin for start-up businesses who are watching the pennies!

For content I comment about Chiggs Wheels, and anything happening in the business like changes to the Chiggs website or new stockists. I also want to use the page to help Chiggs Wheels stockists, so I have ‘liked’ their facebook business pages, and will share their posts on the Chiggs Wheels page eg if they have sales, discount codes, are attending any events etc.

I also have this blog feeding onto my business facebook page, so that this blog post about facebook for business will automatically appear on my business facebook page, with a link back to the Chiggs blog. A case of social media literally making you go round in circles!

Feel free to come and have a look at the Chiggs Wheels Facebook Page, and leave a comment to say hello!

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