Mum’s business attracts social media recognition

Little Crab Designs, based in East Preston, and run by mum Anna Seager, was recognised by Ann Summers supremo Jacqueline Gold, in a weekly Twitter competition which recognises women in business.

Each Wednesday, Gold receives countless ‘Women On Wednesday’ entries from keen businesswomen, and she re-tweets her top-three favourites to her followers.

As a result of being one of the chosen companies, Anna has experienced a surge in exposure.

She said: “It’s too early to say if it has had a direct impact on sales, but it has given me connections and a lot of people are asking me to do blogs and interviews now.”

Selling a range textile nursery pictures and wall art for children’s bedrooms, Anna started the business in 2006, using her friend’s artistic expertise as the base for her designs.

Quickly realising craft fairs were not the best way forward in terms of growing the business, Anna took a punt on setting up a website for just £25 – instead of investing hundreds on professional design.

It worked. And by teaching herself search engine optimisation techniques, she propelled it to the top of the Google rankings.

Several years on, with changes to the way Google ranks websites, Anna took the plunge and now has a site designed by iPage.

She said: “I only sell online, and don’t have a shop or anything like that.

“On average, I send out 60-70 packages a month, which is a lot compared to when I started at the craft fairs.”

She added: “I worked on my web rankings and got onto the first page of Google for all my key words.

“If you’re on page four, no-one ever looks that far, so it’s really important.

Social media has been a key way of promoting her business, and Anna recently attended a specialist workshop, run by Mumpreneurs.

She said: “At the beginning of the day she told all of us Twitter non-believers” that we would end up loving it in a few month’s time. For me it was just a week.

“On Facebook, I have increased the number of ‘likes’ on my page by 300, and use it to showcase my products.

“I find Twitter more useful for business connections, rather than a place to sell, but it’s what works best for you.”

Continuing to build her social media presence is one of Anna’s priorities now, and she is targeting more recognition from top business owners.

She said: “Theo Paphitis does a similar thing to Jacqueline Gold on a Sunday, and it would be great to get recognition from him.

“Aside from that, I’m still working on my Google rankings and social media sills.”

To view a video of Anna’s top social media tips, visit www.worthingherald.co.uk

Visit her site at www.littlecrab.co.uk