Anna Skipwith, Social Media Trainer, London

Thought it was time to get back into your timelines and re-introduce myself! When clients ask how to get back into regular posting an introduction post is always one option I give them so I’m practicing what I preach today! I also advise a useful, educational post so that’s coming in a couple of days - it’s an important one, look out for it! Meanwhile do swipe through and get in touch if you need support getting your social media back on track! Send me a DM (tap message under my profile here: @hellosocial.media ) or comment below and I’ll get in touch. If you prefer you can email me [email protected]. Speak soon!! Anna x 📸 slides 1-4 & 6 @portrayedphotography.co.uk

Thank you so, so much to @fabgiovanetti and the @altmarketingschool team for including me in their 2025 Top Marketers to Watch! A really lovely surprise that means so much to me. Freelance life involves quite a bit of time spent alone, having to motivate oneself, so to be recognised by an organisation I hold in very high esteem feels very special. I’m honoured to be in very good company - a link to the list of this year’s winners will be in my Stories later this evening. And tomorrow is Alt Marketing School’s online Open Day! I’ll be on the 5pm panel talking about Growing Your Marketing Career, so do sign up and join us, or let anyone know who’d be interested. There’s a registration link in my bio. Thank you to everyone who supports me and my hellosocial.media business. It’s very much appreciated. Anna x 📸 @portrayedphotography.co.uk #altmarketingschool #topmarketer #marketingaward #marketingawards #digitalmarketinguk #socialmediatrainer

Did you know there are tools within Instagram as well as things you can choose to do yourself, to help deal with Instagram overwhelm. Here are my 5 easy ways to make time on here more manageable, and protect your mental health. 1. Turn off notifications. Mine are all permanently off - I come onto the App when it suits me I don’t want to be pinged to do so the whole time! 
Tap your profile pic bottom right - tap the “burger” top right - tap Settings and Privacy - Tap Notifications - Choose Pause All or select the specific notifications you want to turn off 2. Use the Instagram Take a Break feature. This reminds you to take a break so you don’t end up scrolling for hours!
Tap your profile pic bottom right-tap the “burger” top right - tap Settings and Privacy - Tap Time Spent - Tap Set a Reminder to Take Breaks - Choose when you’d like to be sent a reminder to take a break (after 10, 20 or 30 minutes on the App)
 3. Use the Insta Set Daily Time Limits feature, to help you stick to a daily limit on the App and free up time for other important stuff! 
Tap your profile pic bottom right-tap the “burger” top right - tap Settings and Privacy - Tap Time Spent - Tap Set Daily Time Limit - Choose how much time you’re happy to spend on Instagram each day (from 15 minutes to 2 hours)
 4. Make sure your phone isn’t in your bedroom when you go to bed. Personally I’m really strict about this. Sleep’s vital for our mental health
 5. Consider deleting Insta from your phone one day a week or once a month. All your data (apart from draft Reels and draft Posts) will remain, but not seeing the App on your phone can be an effective way to take a longer break. I’ll admit I don’t do this myself, but I definitely try and ignore Insta for long periods at the weekends and on holiday Let me know if you try any of these - it might be good idea to Save this post to come back to! And why not do a friend a favour and share it with them! #helpfromhello #mentalhealthawarenessweek #mentalhealthawarenessweek2023 #MentalHealthonInstagram #InstagramOverwhelm #PositiveInstagram #InstagramFeatures #MIndsetMatters #InstagramGoals #InstagramForGood #SocialMediaOverwhelm #smallbusinesshuddle

Happy Dogs at Polling Stations Day! Thank you to all today’s dogs who were up early to take part! In the first photo and final video we have Toffee, Stella, Badger, Tilly and Sunny. Big shoutout particularly to Badger sitting on the bench. He’s an older gent who likes to sleep in late most mornings but made a special effort to turn up at 8am! Badger you’re a trooper! 🥰 And also special thanks to all the shop dogs who left their shop counter duties during the morning and came along to pose. You’re all superstars! 🍖🍖🍖🍖 Polling stations are open until 10pm this evening - don’t forget your photo ID to vote. Thank you @harveywheelerdulwich for supporting @thisisdulwichvillage . 📸 @hellosocial.media #dogsatpollingstations #dogsatpollingstations2026 #dulwich #dulwichvillage #councilelections

Can’t believe Dulwich Festival and Artists’ Open House begins on FRIDAY - just 2 days left to add the finishing touches! We’ve been so busy in the background getting some 80 events and 560 artists ready for this amazing annual festival of culture and creativity. I’ve been having a ball working with the small but perfect @artistsopenhse team - and we’ll continue to create content and engage throughout the next two weeks. 😄 Thank you @sarahmactaylor and Georgina for having me on the team and for such a fun Launch Party. HERE. WE. GOOOOOO! #dulwich #dulwichfestival #londonartscene #londonfestival #londonculture

South London small business collaboration! 🥳🥳🥳 What happens when you bring together a pottery painting café, a photographer, and a social media trainer…? Good things! We recently spent the morning creating inspiring, audience-focused content, and thought we’d share some behind-the-scenes…and the results! Mino now has a library of beautifully captured moments in both photo and video, ready to be turned into meaningful, engaging social media content. We’re all independent businesses based in Dulwich and Herne Hill. Whether you fancy painting a beautiful piece of pottery in a creative space with friends and family; need relaxed, professional photography for your family, products or brand; or are looking for social media training or support - we’d love to hear from you. For pottery painting: @minopotterypainting 📍16 Half Moon Lane, SE24 9HU For photography: @portrayedphotography.co.uk For social media training & consultation: @hellosocial.media Thank you @angelabloves @dulwichlunchclub for bringing the three of us together! #southlondonbusiness #femalefounded #londoncreatives #creativecollaboration #hernehill

When an afternoon away from the desk and client work is totally worth it…you come to our @youarethemedia LONDON Lunch Club 🥳✨ Awesome panel, talking around the subject of ‘connection’. Thank you @beingfreelance Steve, @ayamacoaching Nat, @hellosocial.media Anna and John Jocham aka The Wire Guy! Think we nailed the one year anniversary of London Lunch Club - what do you reckon? 🥳🎉🍾👏🏼🎊 Thank you @thealmawandsworth for the delicious food, friendly service and great venue space. #wandsworth #londonnetworking #eventspeaker #smallbusinessnetworking #lunchwithfriends

Do you often wonder what actually works on Instagram - and what doesn’t? I spent four weeks analysing 30 non-fiction authors’ Instagram accounts during their book launches (with lots of help from @harrietmathie 🤩). Some really clear patterns emerged - the kind you only discover when you properly step back and look across lots of data. While the focus was on authors, the insights are just as useful if you’re launching a product, service or business. I’m sharing four of the key findings for the very first time in tomorrow’s Notes from Hello. Comment Notes or head to the link in my bio to get it first. I think you’ll find it useful. And it’s free! Thank you @harrietmathie for all your research and support and @portrayedphotography.co.uk for the headshot! #authorscommunity #nonfictionauthor #bookmarketing #booklaunchstrategy #bookpublicity

A heads up that my monthly Notes from Hello newsletter is out later this week - and a shout out to Fred from @flatwhitewebsites who fixed a problem I was having with the sign-up form! He’s my hero! This month’s Notes from Hello shares four suggestions to make Instagram work harder for creative businesses - four ways to make your time on here more intentional and better focused on your marketing. Now’s a great time for a reset. But don’t worry I’m not talking a major rehaul: just easy do-able suggestions that I believe can make a tangible difference. PLUS I’m including two invitations to fun events for you - one of them’s free! There’s a link in my bio to sign up - all thanks to Fred! Happy January! Anna x Ps I dedicate this song to Fred & Penny of @flat_white_websites they are definitely “my people” and are always there when you need them! Thank you both! Xx #januarynewsletter #socialmedianews #instagramtrainer #Instagramtraining #linkinmybio

Thank you to everyone who’s followed along, come up for a chat, asked me questions, invited me to speak, got in touch for 1:1 sessions or come to a training webinar - I’ve had a busy, positive 2025 and there’s plenty in store for 2026 👀! Thank you especially to: @harveywheelerdulwich who make @thisisdulwichvillage , which I manage, viable - it’s a project I love being part of. And thank you to all the other local businesses who join in. Thank you to @digita1women and especially @rocksaltconsulting my London meet-ups co-host and to everyone who’s participated this year. To @j_c_lang and @blue_patch for trusting me with their monthly social media club! To my 1:1 clients this year I love it when you put advice into action, please keep going you’re doing brilliantly! A special shoutout to @alexbollen - being part of your first book launch was a real thrill! And a big big thank you to @sarahmactaylor and the @artistsopenhse team for inviting me to share my advice with 100 artists in May - that was definitely a highlight! Thank you @gaby_rivernutrition for inviting me to speak to your fabulous group of wellness professionals. And to @cgritmon who challenged me to grab a loudhailer and announce my Superpower - you are amazing - watch to the end for a snippet! 🤣 And to @trudaspruyt , @angelaallancomms and the @collective_wisdom_uk gang - you’re all so awesome and inspiring. I fear if I carry on people will get bored and scroll away! So for the rest of you I hope you know you are hugely valued. 🥰 See you all in 2026. Someone at a Christmas networking lunch told me the planets are aligning to make it a good one. Hope she’s right! 🪐🌎 #helpfromhello #2025recap #2025roundup #myyearinreview #myyear

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Digital Women London meetup yesterday. Such a lovely, bubbly, interesting and interested group of women! And a huge shoutout to @joedgesocial for so generously sharing her advice and tips on using LinkedIn to gain visibility for our businesses. Lots of note-taking was going on as we hung on her every word! 🤓 We have a meetup once every 4-6 weeks (the next one is planned for January - date tbc) in King’s Cross - this time it was at @marestreetmarket who looked after us really well. It’s free to come along - we always have an interesting, relevant talk and plenty of time for relaxed networking and chatting! Everyone is welcome even if you’re not a Digital Women member! Let me know if you’d like to find out more, I’d love you to join us next time! #londonnetworking #londonfreelancer #womensupportingwomeninbusiness #womeninbusinessuk

Back in July at @latitudefest my favourite talk was Booker Prize Director @gabywoodbooks and Judge @chrisjohnpower , giving us a fascinating insight into what’s involved in judging around 150 novels and deciding on a long list of 13, followed by a shortlist of 6 and finally the winner! I loved it - finding out everything from the practical logistics (judges have to read a novel each day for around 7 months! 🤯), to how the 6 judges agree on their joint decisions. And last night we finally found out which novel they deemed the most deserving - David Szalay’s Flesh. Will you be reading it?! Or have you already? I’m definitely tempted! Opening the door to what goes on behind the scenes is inherently interesting - and I always encourage clients to produce a sprinkling of content to show their audience just this. You don’t have to be a Booker Prize judge for people to be eager to find out how you do your job (or run your business!). Congratulations to David Szalay and thank you @thebookerprizes . 3rd 📸 @villagebooksdulwich #bookerprize #bookprize #davidszalay #behindthescenescontent #btscontent #latitude #fictionbooks #fictionbook #booktalk