Making The Most of Free Software: Facebook Photo Editor!

Did you know that when you're uploading photos to Facebook you can edit them? It took me *ages* to figure this out (mostly because I kept ignoring the fact it said "Edit Photo" and showed a little paintbrush when you hovered over the photo).

It's a bit blurry from being blown up but you should see this
when you hover the photo after uploading it.

One day my curiosity got the best of me and I thought to myself I may as well give it a go - and plus, sometimes I can't be bothered to use my go to photo editing site: PicMonkey. I love PicMonkey, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's nice to have an even quicker way to edit a photo.

It's so simple and easy to use.

After clicking on the paintbrush (see picture above) it'll bring you to this screen:

You can zoom! You can crop! You can add text!

One feature I really like to use is adding text and stickers to the photo, especially if I am running something like an offer or a giveaway. It just adds a little pizazz to your photos that I think people like to see!

Click on the stickers smiley face, seen in blue below. It will bring up a drop down menu. I like to use the "search stickers" options and type in key words in the hopes that I'll find something useful.

A lot of the options are just so cute, I typed in "star" to see what sort of things are on offer. As you can see, lots!

In the end I opted for something that went with my library print card: a stack of books! I only wish there were more font options, maybe that's something Mr. Zuckerberg will think about adding in the future!

Pros:

Quick and easy - no needing to use a second party site, you just upload, edit, save, publish

Plenty of options for filters, sticker add ons

Crop abilities

Add text

Tagging options

Cons:

The text option is very basic - you only have about 5 fonts to choose from and they're all quite boring!

You can only use this feature when posting photos as your real self so no using it as your business page!

It only works uploading photos to your wall or to a page wall that you are visiting as yourself. You cannot edit pictures you upload in comments.

This one is either going to be pro or con:

So far I have not found if Facebook saves these edits to your computer. Makes it a tad harder to then just upload the edited version of your photo that you've just made. You'd have to go through the process again OR you can save image yourself after it's uploaded.

Things I am not sure of:

I have no idea if this feature is available using the mobile app!

If this is all news to you - great! I hope it can help and gives you something new to try when you're networking and uploading photos.

Cheers and happy bank holiday weekend!

Amy xo

Making the Most of Networking: Scheduling!

Networking Schedule

Below is a list of three major networking sites for those who run small crafty businesses. If you see any updates I should add or corrections, please let me know and I'll edit accordingly!

Image via Pinterest (free printables! Make yourself pretty
calendars to schedule in your networking!)

HIKE THOSE LIKES MARKET PLACE (@htlmp)

Monday 10am on Facebook: Day Hike

Monday 8pm on Facebook: Ready to Post Event (not sure if it’s the same day of the week every week)

Tuesday 1-2pm on Twitter: #HTLMPHOUR (not sure if this is ever Tuesday)

Tuesday 9pm on Facebook: Hike Night

Wednesday 8pm on Facebook: Made To Order Event

Saturday 9pm on Facebook: Show Me Show Me Event

Sunday 9pm on Facebook: Hike Night

Daily 3pm on Facebook: School Run

? 8pm on Facebook: Show & Sell Event (not sure if it’s the same day of the week every week)

Also have: #WowWednesdays, Early Bird and Night Owl daily, Show makes in different colours/price ranges that are then sometimes shared to the wall/placed into albums on the HTLMP page.

HANDMADE HOUR (@HandmadeHour)

Wednesdays 7:30-9:30pm on Twitter

Sundays 8pm-9pm on Twitter

CRAFT HOUR (@CraftHour)

Sunday 7pm on Twitter: #CraftHour

Monday All Day on Facebook: Monday Marathon

Tuesday All Day on Facebook: Treasury Tuesday

Friday All Day on Facebook: Friday Faveathon

These are also shown on Twitter and and Instagram so worth following them on all platforms

This is *not* an exhaustive list by any means! But these are three groups that I am trying to focus on.

There are a lot of networking groups out there - but some of the best advice I’ve seen from HTLMP is to not spread yourself too thin. You want to maybe pick 2 or 3 that you know you can devote your time to and be seen daily/frequently so people start to recognize and know you. You then become a person worth recommending to others when someone’s looking for something specific. You’ll also be able to keep up with engagement if you focus on a few sites rather than trying to post to 15.

If you need help finding places to showcase your work and network: ask in groups you are already a part of, do a quick Google or Facebook search of something like “handmade gifts” and see what pops up, look for buy/sell groups in your area as most of them allow business posts. These are just a few ways to find new groups.

I have found that my networking comes in waves - I’ll be really good and then all of a sudden I miss a few events, get flustered and stop for awhile feeling a bit defeated that I can’t keep up with it all. This of course means I lose my reach and being seen by the community who may be buying from me.

So I created the above Network Schedule as a handy reference guide to look at throughout the week. Yes these events happen weekly at the same time and dates but it can be hard running a business, running a house, running after your kid(s) to remember them all! For me, if I can see it in list form it helps me tremendously and hopefully this can help you too!

My next stop is printing off a calendar and scheduling in the events I want to take part in. My aim is to do this monthly: plan the whole month out so that it becomes part of the job of having a small business and treating it as such will hopefully help me keep my focus. If for some reason I miss an event, I’ll try to make up for it by participating in another.

Do you have any networking tips we could benefit from? Leave them in the comments!

Here’s to networking and being seen!

Good luck all!

Amy xo