LISA AYNSLEY: Positive online comments and shares convert into sales

“If everyone just spent five mins of their daily dose of screen time supporting local businesses the impact would be huge.”

For me it's very much a mixed bag, as a business owner and mother of two school aged children with parents over 70 I think I tick a lot of the lockdown challenge boxes!

Locking down in the winter is certainly proving very very different. Dry Jan turned out to be rather more damp than dry, clean eating and 10k daily steps are slightly more successful, home schooling is an outright fail in our house, pretty much the same with all the proposed upcycling projects I had planned.

I don’t know about anyone else but personally this lockdown is definitely harder than the other two, replacing sunbathing with sledging for one, combined with dark nights, shorter days, frayed tempers and freezing temperatures all make it a rough ride both personally and from a business point of view.

I must pop on my chairman of Alnwick Chamber of Trade hat, can I please emphasise the importance and difference that you, the readers, the residents make to local businesses.

I feel very lucky personally that our local support is phenomenal, and has never been more evident than during the last 12 months, just keep up the good work everyone.

I appreciate financially everyone is feeling the pinch and indeed these are troubling times, so if understandably you can’t support financially with a spend, social media support is just as effective.

Screen time in our household has gone through the roof, we're all at it!

If everyone just spent five mins of their daily dose supporting local businesses the impact would be huge. “Likes" and “Loves" on our Facebook and Instagram Pages are great but comments and shares of our posts are absolute gold!

Many of us have pivoted overnight from bricks and mortar shops, restaurants, bars, premises and offices to online, takeaway and click and collect operations, all of which has been extremely challenging especially if you are like me, I struggle to work the TV remote never mind manage Google Shopping feeds, DNS Feeds, Search Engine Optimisation, Algorithms and so much more!

Positive comments and shares on social media absolutely convert into sales.