A five step plan for social media

My thanks go to Graham Jones, Internet Psychologist, for the inspiration for this blog. I heard Graham speak at a Ladies and Gentlemen That Lunch networking meeting earlier this year, when he shared with us his five step plan for social media, which looks something like this. Plan – have a strategy, decide exactly what [...]

Facebook – Is it really the modern day business necessity?

When you first started your business, print media was probably your main marketing concern. Not very long ago, it wasn’t entirely unusual for a business not to be online. To interact with your customers, the internet wasn’t your only option. But now, things have changed. Not only is the internet everywhere, we’re expected to always [...]

Failure to check your website could prove costly

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has announced that its remit is being extended to cover marketing on websites. From March 1 2011, marketing communications on your website and in other places under your control – like Facebook and Twitter – will have to meet the non-broadcast advertising rules as set out in the Committee of [...]

The importance of interaction

When you’re dealing with social media, one of the most important things to consider is interaction. Interaction is when your readers, audience, fans, friends or whatever are compelled to respond to your social networking activities. This will happen when you post up something that is worth commenting on, full of value, beneficial and helpful, entertaining [...]

How do your customers find you?

I have a good friend whose new business is doing particularly well. She opened her new shop nearly two years ago, and already she is overwhelmed and thinking of expansion! I asked her what she thought contributed to her success. First, she has encouraged repeat business, a good following and excellent referral status by providing [...]

Baby Boomers, Generation X or Generation Y – who are your clients?

According to certain sources, Baby Boomers are people born before the late 1960s. Generation X people were born from then up to the 1980s. And Generation Y babies were born between 1980 and 2010. Which ‘generation’ are you? And, more importantly, which ‘generation’ are your clients and prospects? My reason for asking is that the [...]

Will Facebook take over from websites?

The short answer is No. This question is asked because, with some businesses, it appears that their Facebook page is getting more hits than their website, but let me assure you these statistics appear to be deceptive. But let’s start at the beginning. To succeed on Facebook depends on your product (and that includes services) [...]

Is being the fastest the best?

It is commonplace to hear that an event had received a large audience because it has been publicised on Twitter. This does, of course, depend on how many followers the Twitterer had, what time of day the tweet was sent, how many times, and what it said. And the viral element: how many times it [...]

What should you be concentrating on in 2011?

At this time of year predictions for the business future will be winging around the ether, internet, cyberspace or whatever you want to call it, and they are as varied as their subject matter. But these are the main factors that have reared their heads higher then the rest: Mobile marketing will take off as [...]

How does social networking link together?

The beauty of social networking is that it has been designed to link up to each other. Nothing has been left out on a limb, as that would be social suicide. Even competitors such as Facebook and LinkedIn carefully eye each other over the wall, but they contain the same kinds of applications (even if they [...]