barnes-class-logo



Next Class

  • Introduction to Somatic Movement
    • 13/11/2019 - 18/12/2019

      St. Michael’s Church Community Centre, SW13 0NX

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Classes
  • Experts
    • Michael Ajerman
    • Carole Marshall
    • Kathy Ennis
    • Yvonne Wake
  • Venues
    • The White Hart
    • The Bull’s Head
    • OSO Arts Centre
  • Fitness Hub
  • Contact

Time for a Spring Creative Refresh

With spring comes renewal. Although we must keep our work skills sharp, Barnes Class believes in the power of self-renewal as well. To that end, we are delighted to offer some great new classes which will help you excel at work and in your creative life too.

Local artist Michael Ajerman returns for a 4-week course in May focussing on learning how to draw faces, which are notoriously difficult for all artists.

  • May 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd
  • 9.30am-12.30pm
  • The Bull’s Head pub (first floor), SW13 9PY
  • Book Now!

Our previous Introduction to Social Media class with expert Kathy Ennis proved such a success that we are adding two additional masterclasses on this subject to our lineup.

WordPress in a Morning – this overview masterclass will give you the basics of building and maintaining your very own WordPress website and get you blogging straight away!

  • May 8th
  • 10am-12.30pm
  • The White Hart pub (first floor), SW13 0NR
  • Book Now!

Make Your Facebook Business Page Work for You – this focussed masterclass will concentrate on managing advertising on Facebook. You’ll learn to build posts for your Facebook business page which will truly engage your audience.

  • May 22nd
  • 10am-12.30pm
  • The White Hart pub (first floor), SW13 0NR
  • Book Now!

Get a spring in your step with one of our exciting new classes – we look forward to seeing you!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: advertising, art, drawing, facebook, illustration, refresh, social media, spring

Guest Post: 5 Top Tips to Rock Your Social Media

[Ed: Barnes Class is delighted to publish this helpful article from local expert Kathy Ennis.]

What’s the best way for you to get your social media working so that it becomes a real benefit to your business?

That’s the 64,000 dollar question:

Many small and micro businesses approach their social media from the wrong direction; seeing it purely as a sales funnel. Of course we want all of our marketing to lead to sales, but if we use our social media like a barrow boy at a market – simply shouting out our wares and prices – we’re missing the point. Modern marketing is about engagement; it’s about understanding our target audience’s wants and needs so that we can engage with them on a more individual level. Social media enables us to do that really well.

So here are my 5 top tips for helping you achieving customer engagement and rocking your social media:

1 Know your customers / know yourself

There’s an old saying “People buy from people”, but often the end of that sentence is forgotten, “People buy from people, like themselves”.

Consider yourself as a consumer. How do you like to engage with people online; where do you spend your time; how do you react to businesses / suppliers online; what encourages you to engage or purchase goods online?

If you are using methods to market your business, or engage with customers online, that you don’t personally respond to, do you think your prospective customers will?

2 Understand the difference between broadcast and marketing

Social media gives you a brilliant opportunity to send out messages about yourself, your products and services, your reaction to news stories, brilliant quotes, funny cat videos ….

The problem is, that’s broadcasting, not marketing.

Here’s what I mean:

Broadcast is simply a shout-out message or your reaction to something; it’s not a planned approach to a specific, measurable objective – and it’s certainly not a methodology for true engagement.

It’s not to say broadcast is wrong, it’s just it needs to be part of a broader approach to your social media marketing.

3 Be your brand

It is my firm belief that the brand of every business is the outcome of the personal brand of the business founder. The business will be built on the shared knowledge, experience and core values of the business owner.

So, your social media output needs to be a mirror image of the brand of the business.

The stories you share, the words you write, the views you hold should be shared with your audience.

“People buy from people, like themselves”.

Being true to your brand may turn off some people; that’s fine. We’re all Marmite. Some people will love us; some people will hate use – but there will be enough people out there that love us and will want to buy from us. All the others? Well, they’re just missing out on something great, aren’t they!

4 Be proactive, be collaborative and give credit where it’s due

One of the most common challenges I hear expressed by small and micro business owners who are having difficulties with their social media marketing, is that they don’t know what to say.

Here’s the thing:

Would it surprise you to know that ‘You’ don’t have to be the one who’s saying it.

Let’s consider the 80:20 Rule.

If you’re finding it difficult to come up with lots of new and exciting content; don’t. Share other people’s. You need to give them full credit, of course – but you shouldn’t be spending all your time creating content, you should be spending your time delivering your products or services.

When I work with small and micro business owners, and we develop their social media strategy, I get them to identify 80% of shred content; leaving them with 20% of their own. So much easier to handle, don’t you think?

5 Do Something Daily

Not everything; not everywhere.

You need to be where your customers are (considering what I said above, it’s probably where you are) and you need to provide them with a daily dose of engagement.

Don’t do this social media stuff only when you feel like it. A little activity consistently is far more effective than massive bursts of information at irregular intervals. So, one post a day on Facebook or LinkedIn, maybe two Tweets a day on Twitter – remembering that the posts don’t have to be all your own, original content – can be enough.

And, as a time saver, there are some great scheduling tools out there: Hootsuite is good for Twitter and LinkedIn, Buffer is good for Twitter and Facebook has its own scheduling option.

So, follow these tips and you’ll soon be rocking your social media.

— Kathy Ennis

Filed Under: Blog, News Tagged With: social media

Grow Your Business: Social Media

The new year is the perfect time to grow your business, whether you run a club, village hall, or small shop. Using social media to reach a new potential customer base sounds so simple… yet it can be so complicated!

So many questions…!

  • Do I use Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter?
  • How often do I need to post?
  • How do you schedule posts to publish later?
  • How do I get people to pay attention or like my page?
  • How do I convert a like into a purchase?
  • What type of posts do I publish?
  • How do I think of good content to keep people interested?

We are delighted to be working with local expert Kathy Ennis to offer new classes, courses and workshops dedicated to helping you make the most of social media to grow your business. From email marketing to content calendars, Kathy will help your hard work stand out in the crowd and drive new customers.

Keep an eye out for our next social media class with Kathy – subscribe to our newsletter!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: social media

Upcoming

    • Introduction to Somatic Movement
    • 13/11/2019 - 18/12/2019 - 10:30 am - 11:30 am
    • ,

Current Courses

Latest News

Somatic Movement

Don’t Suffer with Painful Muscles: Try Somatic Movement

The leaves are beginning to fall and the days are … »

Students at Work

Mastering Black and White Drawing with Michael Ajerman

Our super-popular drawing course with … »

Lightbulb

Grow Your Business with Coaching and Mentorship

Barnes Class is delighted to announce we have … »

About Barnes Class

Barnes Class organises fun and interesting classes run by local experts at great local venues.

People Say...

“I absolutely love my Barnes Class Drawing classes. They are my escape from the daily chores… I can totally recommend them” – Carina Vergopoulos, Chiswick

Newsletter

Please sign up for our newsletter so that we can send you information about classes in your area which may be of interest to you. We send newsletters 2-4 times per month and never share your details with anyone.
© 2019 Barnes Class
  • Accessibility
  • Legal
  • Privacy
  • Sitemap
served by freshSPRING