Digital Annie

11/06/2026

I should... insert your own thing!

One of things I hear from people is I should be

- sending emails
- doing videos
- writing blog posts

And I can visibly see them squirming in their seat. When I ask them "Do you want to do that?" the answer is usually "No, but I should be". The most obvious next question is "Why?"

People then continue to tell me how they read, heard, people always say you should it's rarely because they want to.

So today, if this is you, I am giving you permission to not do the thing you think you should. If you don't like doing something then don't. There are plenty of businesses out there who don't have an email list and some that work without even having social media! I know of a marketing company that barely has a presence on social media and they still get work.

Do what feels right for you and your business, because when we do the things we love to do, the passion comes out naturally.

So if you love chatting - do videos more and get out to some networking events. If you prefer to sit quietly behind a screen then make videos showing what you do or just have images and text.

The more you are comfortably you, the more you will appeal to the people you want to work with or to buy your items. Put the "should stuff" in the recycle bin, you can always restore it later!

04/06/2026

Wow ...not sure about this....

Meta Business Agent is rolling out globally today. It's an AI agent that lets businesses respond to customers 24/7 on WhatsApp, Messenger, and now Instagram. 💬

Setup takes minutes, it speaks customers' local languages, and it can answer FAQs, recommend products, book appointments, qualify leads, and close sales.

✅ Getting started is FREE. Activate your Business Agent here [link in comments].
✅ In the coming months, Meta will roll out paid subscriptions (with options for businesses of every size).
✅ You can also join the waitlist for expanded capabilities [link in comments].

Your Business Agent has agentic capabilities, transitioning from a basic chatbot to an operator that can autonomously:

💬 Answer questions specific to your business
💬 Make product recommendations from a business catalog
💬 Book calendar appointments and qualify incoming leads
💬 Let you decide when a team member steps in to provide support (good!)
💬 Close sales transactions directly in chat threads
💬 Deliver Morning Briefings summarizing overnight customer interactions and trends.

This tool has been tested for two years in select markets like India and Mexico and is now expanding to all businesses across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. Over one million businesses are already using Meta Business Agent.

Meta also announced today:

🔍 New ways for people to find your business directly in WhatsApp search.
📈 Meta Business Agent Platform (more enterprise-focused) connects to systems like Shopify and Zendesk for larger operations.

The news was announced at Meta's Conversations 2026 conference in London.

Your thoughts, my friends? Is this a tool you plan to explore? Certainly seems worth it to get started for free... just so long as we have complete control and there's not a bunch of nonsense sent to our clients/followers! 🤪

29/05/2026

I love this new voice to text app. And no, I am not getting paid to advertise this!

21/05/2026

Story Circle for Business Owners - in person face to face in Edgeley.

The idea is that we get together and chat about some of the great stories in our business and work out how to translate those to content that can be used for social media.

In our current world, being genuine and sharing real-life stories is one of the ways we can stand out as a business.

We had a great session last month and the ladies asked if I could run it every 6 weeks or so. Of course! Happy to support this.

The next one is Wednesday 10th June at 99 Chatham Street, Edgeley SK3 9EG between 7pm and 8pm. Cost is just £9.99 (keeping it low to make it accessible for as many people as possible).

Rather excitingly the posts created following the first session have been noticed by people who were not at the session. We have a few mutual friends who either messaged me about the posts, when we were chatting or verbally told me when I was out with them. I have let the ladies know and they were delighted to hear the feedback.

I have also been asked to do an online session which I plan to do later in June so keep an eye out for that.

Choose what time works better to schedule a meeting.

11/05/2026

This week I am working with a couple of people who are offering training courses. They want my help to come up with strategies to market themselves.

Whilst we will be talking about social media, there are lots of other ways to raise awareness.

And as I am prepping for their sessions I thought I would share some ideas with all of you as well:

👉 Events:
1. Sponsor an event
2. Attend an event
3. Have a stall at an event
4. Go to a business networking event
5. Host an open day (retail) encouraging people to come and browse. For restaurants and cafes it could be a taster day. Have special offers and free samples. People love a bargain.
6. Host your own event(s).
💡TIP: when you add your event to Facebook it's more likely to get picked up by Google when someone searches "What's happening this week in

👉 Pop-Up Sessions
1. Retail - pop-up shop somewhere
2. Service base - find a virtual office or open your doors for a clinic day

👉 Physical Assets
1. Posters (put in local shops, on community boards, door-to-door delivery)
2. Leaflets (as above and give them out at events)
3. Business cards (these can be digital too!)
4. Consider investing in a roller banner
5. Cups, pens, badges, notebooks etc these can be made relatively low cost and are great for giving out at events.

👉 Email Marketing and Blogging
1. Still considered to be one of the best methods for marketing.
2. Add a lead magnet to your website (get this thing for free by giving me your email address)
3. Regular blogging can help support your chances of appearing in search engines and these days that means appearing in AI too!

👉 Referral or Loyalty Programme
1. Buy x number of items and get one free
2. Refer a friend to receive x gift

👉 Paid Ads
1. Search engine ads, e.g. Google, Bing etc
2. Billboards
3. A-boards
4. Business Directories (there are also free versions of this)

👉 Search Engines
1. Learn how to optimise your website or pay someone to do it for you
2. Have a business profile (Google and Bing both have this option)

👉 Mobile Apps and other platforms
1. Get one made for your business, give exclusive news and offers to members
2. Open an eBay Shop
3. Open an Etsy Shop
4. Open an Amazon Shop.

Social media is just one tool for marketing, there are lots more. I haven't included everything in this list. There are other marketing techniques you can do: collaborating with another organisation can work well, TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, being a guest on a Podcast, getting articles printed in the press and so on.

07/05/2026

Scammers again!

If you receive or have been sent a message like this to your page ignore it and don't click on any links. Just mark it as spam.

It's similar to the dodgy copyright messages you may have seen in the last year. It's just the latest version of that.

01/05/2026

Ha ha ha ... funny 😁 but also true.

I am exploring AI stuff but there is no way I am giving it access to my passwords, funds or any other data!

29/04/2026

I got a room full of business owners to stop scrolling this morning.

Then I asked them to scroll back up, notice what made them pause and share why. The answers were exactly what you’d expect; animals, faces, colour, something that felt familiar.

But the real moment came when I asked them to tell each other something that made them smile. Within minutes the room shifted. People were laughing, smiling, leaning in. No one listed facts, they told stories.

It was a simple reminder that we already know how to connect, we just forget when we start writing posts.

Social media isn’t about sounding polished. It’s about sounding human.

Thank you to Nicki Cameron from In Focus Networking for inviting me to speak today, and to everyone who came along and got involved.

24/04/2026

Are you a Virtual Assistant in or around Manchester?

I am going to a VA meet up at the Alan hotel on Princess Street in Central Manchester on Tuesday 5th May. It's only £10, it's in the evening 6pm - 8pm.

Wanna come meet me?

Happy to meet people outside the venue if they are feeling nervous because I know what it's like to walk into a room full of strangers. Just message me.

Link in comments

22/04/2026

I put an idea out into the world. I had a great response to the suggestion. But then no one took it up.

I failed. Have you experienced this?

This happened to me twice recently. It's so easy to fall into a downward spiral of negativity which starts to affect your whole business.

There are a number of reasons why it didn't work:
1. Timing wasn't right
2. The story didn't land
3. Social media was too noisy

Whether you're launching a new product or a service it can be hard when the response is low or zero. You've done all that preparation and hard work. You may have even tested it and then nope, it doesn't get picked up and people don't buy. You were probably excited, and feeling really good.

Then zilch, zero, nada.

But here's the thing that effort isn't wasted. You learned a lot by going through the process. And if you add "yet" or "this time" to the end of "It didn't work..." you start to feel differently. Your brain becomes curious and starts to look at why.

For me? Well the reality is that I have been dealing with some difficult health stuff and my energy went into maintaining the contracts I have. That was all I had to give and that's okay. I think the timing was off and I need other avenues to get the message out.

What's next? For now, nothing. I am feeling my way through, letting the emotional part of the feeling of failure have it's moment. Sadness, anger, irritability, frustration, disappointment... all the things. Because it's part of the process and denying those feelings makes it worse in the long run.

Then I will start again, I will write notes about the positives, pause, and reflect. The choices will be; rebuild, put the projects away for the future or can them altogether. I am just not at this stage ... yet. But I will be.

If you're experiencing something similar right now, feeling like you're failing at life, work or both just know you're not alone, even if it seems like you are. People's stories are full of moments of failure it's part of being human and trying new things.

Just be sure to take care of you first.