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 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
i've found that small companies (even fairly sucessful ones) rarely manage to keep multiple social media feeds going baring the occasional 'new stuff to buy now' post (and even then you often find they fail to post it on all their feeds)

I suspect it's because a lot of it is not done in any sort of formally allocated business time, but more likely when the person who does it is fiddling with their own social media, and suddenly thinks, oh yes i need to post something for the business too

The other trap is waiting until you've got "meaningful news". Big firms like GW have so many things going on at once they have stuff to talk about all the time. Even if a specific X thing hasn't got anything happening for a whole year or more; you've got YZQWER to talk about. Smaller firms and esp smaller firms in trouble might have nothing to really say that anything meaningful has changed. Things are just chugging along however they are (or they aren't and everything is standstill). So there's nothing to "say" and certainly nothing positive to say.

Social media does take serious time to do it right for any company though.

Small companies can ping from time to time to remind us they exist.

"Hey Johnny from Sussex just painted up one of our Goblins, check out the whole line in our shop" kind of thing.

Even memes, polls and whatnot can help get people to check you out.

Obviously this does not apply to Hasslefree since they don't even have a site any more... But other companies can do more to keep up a presence.

The more time passes without any closure the less good will I have and, in fact, the more bad will. If this is how Hasslefree is choosing to handle the situation then good riddance.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Small companies can ping from time to time to remind us they exist.

"Hey Johnny from Sussex just painted up one of our Goblins, check out the whole line in our shop" kind of thing.

Even memes, polls and whatnot can help get people to check you out.

Obviously this does not apply to Hasslefree since they don't even have a site any more... But other companies can do more to keep up a presence.

While I agree I also understand that many of these companies were formed before the "social media" boom and as such they are not wired to do marketing like that.

 NAVARRO wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Small companies can ping from time to time to remind us they exist.

"Hey Johnny from Sussex just painted up one of our Goblins, check out the whole line in our shop" kind of thing.

Even memes, polls and whatnot can help get people to check you out.

Obviously this does not apply to Hasslefree since they don't even have a site any more... But other companies can do more to keep up a presence.

While I agree I also understand that many of these companies were formed before the "social media" boom and as such they are not wired to do marketing like that.

By the social media boom you mean 20odd years ago now right?
I totally get that not everyone is as keyed into the online world nor has the resources or output of a firm to be a social media machine; but at the same time posting a few updates a month (or even one) on a social media site isn't rocket science and should be within the capacity of most firms even one-staffer firms.

There used to be updates on both the Hasslefree facebook and the Hasslefriesian one. There would be WIP of new sculpts on Hasslefriesian and then posts about new sculpts or old ones that were just now becoming available or available again on Hasslefree... but that was 5 or so years ago when I actually followed them.

 Smokestack wrote:
There used to be updates on both the Hasslefree facebook and the Hasslefriesian one. There would be WIP of new sculpts on Hasslefriesian and then posts about new sculpts or old ones that were just now becoming available or available again on Hasslefree... but that was 5 or so years ago when I actually followed them.

Hasslefriesian is Kev White's page, he doesn't post any more since he works for Forgeworld now and can't be directly associated with HF.

 Overread wrote:

 NAVARRO wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Small companies can ping from time to time to remind us they exist.

"Hey Johnny from Sussex just painted up one of our Goblins, check out the whole line in our shop" kind of thing.

Even memes, polls and whatnot can help get people to check you out.

Obviously this does not apply to Hasslefree since they don't even have a site any more... But other companies can do more to keep up a presence.

While I agree I also understand that many of these companies were formed before the "social media" boom and as such they are not wired to do marketing like that.

By the social media boom you mean 20odd years ago now right?
I totally get that not everyone is as keyed into the online world nor has the resources or output of a firm to be a social media machine; but at the same time posting a few updates a month (or even one) on a social media site isn't rocket science and should be within the capacity of most firms even one-staffer firms.

Go tell them that... You barely see anyone doing good Socials.

On that subject the boom itself was more like 10 or 15 years ago, not when the social thing started but when the relentless volume churn of news and content geared up at full speed. Before that we had slow forums, FB fragmented news and clunky websites.
What I want to say is one post once a month on any platform is not picked by any algorithm and is invisible content. You need to play the game of constantly putting up news mate.

Truly, it might be the end of an era. The era of boomer part-time businesses that aren't beholden to anyone and can drop everything the moment they no longer feel like it.

I feel like part of the problem is UK law where businesses apparently have zero regulatory oversight until they make 90k annually.

(where I come from, a high schooler selling anime doodles at a con would have to be VAT-registered)

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Truly, it might be the end of an era. The era of boomer part-time businesses that aren't beholden to anyone and can drop everything the moment they no longer feel like it.

I feel like part of the problem is UK law where businesses apparently have zero regulatory oversight until they make 90k annually.

(where I come from, a high schooler selling anime doodles at a con would have to be VAT-registered)

Not going to address too much of what you posted seems naive the idea that Boomers are past and the future is better (XD) I would end up off topic but well Hasslefree was far from a partimers back in the day. Not sure how many decades they have on their backs but they produced loads of amazing miniatures.

Well ignoring the nonsense that there is no regulatory oversight until they reach 90k (when they have to register for vat) I was surprised to find out that they are no longer registered as Hasslefree but Black & White games.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09197984/filing-history
Is their finances if anyone wants to have a look.