More and more businesses are Twittering, Facebooking, Blogging and generally getting out there in cyberspace. Promoting your business in this way is highly relevant, it hits people in an appropriate context and it's absolutely free!
However, are you monitoring how many mentions you're getting online? This will help you understand the effectiveness of your online marketing. In short, are you awake to the benefits of keeping in the know? Google alerts will help you achieve just that!
Right first of all, how do you set up a Google alert? Start off by going to the following link http://www.google.com/alerts
It is really simple; just enter the key terms you want tracking. Then choose how often you want to receive the alerts and how many alerts you want to receive. After that, you'll get alerts via email covering news and developments as they happen. Being first to know, is a strong position to occupy!
You should follow news on a series of key terms that are of interest to your business, it's prospects and customer. This way you'll have some interesting market intelligence, you can keep track of your competitors and you can track any mentions of your own business. You'll ensure that you're up-to-date with the latest news, techniques and developments. In such a fast moving world it is important to be on the ball, it also means that you can react to news, tweet it, Facebook it or post it on LinkedIn.
Once you start reacting to relevant news and offering an interesting commentary, people will start to see you and your business as a valuable contact on social media sites. You will also ensure that your business is front of mind’ when they come to buy products; they will see you as an expert in your field.
So all in all wake up and get alert with Google.
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Valley at Work
I'm speaking this evening at "Valley at Work", the networking group set up by PEER in Rossendale.
I'm speaking on 'Low-cost marketing and social media marketing for small businesses' at the Russian Tea Rooms in Bacup. I'm looking forward to it for several reasons, but not least because Valley at Work is something I'd like to see replicated in Pendle - I think it's potentially very powerful to have a community enterprise board working closely with a business networking group.
I chair "Enterprising Pendle" - PEER's sister organisation - and it's a model I'm very keen for us to adopt in Pendle.
Tonight I'll be talking about the social media landscape, it's pitfalls and opportunities - but most of all I'll be reiterating the message - measure, monitor, analyse and adjust. This help you to ensure that your marketing spend is doing it's job. It's all about return-on-investment - which requires people to not put the medium before the message.
I'm speaking on 'Low-cost marketing and social media marketing for small businesses' at the Russian Tea Rooms in Bacup. I'm looking forward to it for several reasons, but not least because Valley at Work is something I'd like to see replicated in Pendle - I think it's potentially very powerful to have a community enterprise board working closely with a business networking group.
I chair "Enterprising Pendle" - PEER's sister organisation - and it's a model I'm very keen for us to adopt in Pendle.
Tonight I'll be talking about the social media landscape, it's pitfalls and opportunities - but most of all I'll be reiterating the message - measure, monitor, analyse and adjust. This help you to ensure that your marketing spend is doing it's job. It's all about return-on-investment - which requires people to not put the medium before the message.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
How to gain followers on Twitter
We’ve been doing a lot of work with clients around social media recently and those who are new to Twitter frequently ask us how to generate followers. Well, here’s a few steps to consider:-
1. Check out who your friends, contacts, customers and competitors are following and follow them yourself. The rule of thumb is that about half will follow you back.
2. Compelling content will get you followers! So remember, the message comes before the medium, so don’t just tweet any old nonsense. One way to get good material to tweet is to use Google alerts (www.google.com/alerts) to prompt you about stories featuring subject matter you’re interested in and which will interest potential followers. Position yourself as a resourceful contact.
3. Tweet using keywords as it will help you to be found when people search. Equally, you should put the right keywords on your homepage biography.
4. Retweet interesting tweets by people you follow. They may well do the same for you and carry your message to a wider audience and attract you new followers.
You might find after a week or two that some of the people you have followed haven’t followed you back and you might want to unfollow them. You can do this manually, but there are a number of tools that you can use to manage twitter accounts that will do this for you in an automated fashion (such as Huitter).
Be careful when using these not to rid yourself of more than a couple of hundred followers at a time, as it may flag up your account with Twitter. Automated activity sometimes implies spammer activity – and this is usually sufficient for Twitter to suspend accounts - permanently. After all, they’re sitting on a multi-billion dollar intellectual property – they don’t want it to be compromised!
A couple of other tools to consider using are bit.ly and monitter.com.
Bit.ly allows you to shorten URLs that you post (useful, as tweets are limited to 140 characters), but also gives you some really interesting metrics like number of clickthroughs and retweets.
Monitter allows you to follow what people are tweeting in real time around specified keywords and within a geographic radius. So you could follow what people are saying in your area and on key subjects. You can then be first to respond.
We’ll be posting more social media, marketing and public relations tips in coming weeks, so be sure to follow the blog and be first to know!
1. Check out who your friends, contacts, customers and competitors are following and follow them yourself. The rule of thumb is that about half will follow you back.
2. Compelling content will get you followers! So remember, the message comes before the medium, so don’t just tweet any old nonsense. One way to get good material to tweet is to use Google alerts (www.google.com/alerts) to prompt you about stories featuring subject matter you’re interested in and which will interest potential followers. Position yourself as a resourceful contact.
3. Tweet using keywords as it will help you to be found when people search. Equally, you should put the right keywords on your homepage biography.
4. Retweet interesting tweets by people you follow. They may well do the same for you and carry your message to a wider audience and attract you new followers.
You might find after a week or two that some of the people you have followed haven’t followed you back and you might want to unfollow them. You can do this manually, but there are a number of tools that you can use to manage twitter accounts that will do this for you in an automated fashion (such as Huitter).
Be careful when using these not to rid yourself of more than a couple of hundred followers at a time, as it may flag up your account with Twitter. Automated activity sometimes implies spammer activity – and this is usually sufficient for Twitter to suspend accounts - permanently. After all, they’re sitting on a multi-billion dollar intellectual property – they don’t want it to be compromised!
A couple of other tools to consider using are bit.ly and monitter.com.
Bit.ly allows you to shorten URLs that you post (useful, as tweets are limited to 140 characters), but also gives you some really interesting metrics like number of clickthroughs and retweets.
Monitter allows you to follow what people are tweeting in real time around specified keywords and within a geographic radius. So you could follow what people are saying in your area and on key subjects. You can then be first to respond.
We’ll be posting more social media, marketing and public relations tips in coming weeks, so be sure to follow the blog and be first to know!
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Uni-play.co.uk
We've just finished a design and build job - the website for school playground equipment specialist, Uni-Play - have a look... http://bit.ly/9GJZ7G
At BrandSpankin' we strive to build websites that deliver a return on investment for our clients - hence they are very well optimised (as standard - we don't see SEO as a value added service, but as a basic requirement).
However, it's not just a matter of getting the right traffic there - it's also about making the site compelling to read, attractive to look at and simplifying the customer journey. In short the site has to work hard as a lead generation vehicle, as a sales channel - or both.
It's for these reasons that our sites usually pay for themselves fairly quickly - and why we're confident that Uni-play will have invested in an e-commerce site that will reap dividends!
At BrandSpankin' we strive to build websites that deliver a return on investment for our clients - hence they are very well optimised (as standard - we don't see SEO as a value added service, but as a basic requirement).
However, it's not just a matter of getting the right traffic there - it's also about making the site compelling to read, attractive to look at and simplifying the customer journey. In short the site has to work hard as a lead generation vehicle, as a sales channel - or both.
It's for these reasons that our sites usually pay for themselves fairly quickly - and why we're confident that Uni-play will have invested in an e-commerce site that will reap dividends!
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Millward Brown Optimor Survey - top 100 brands
Just had a read of this year's Millward Brown Optimor survey of the world's most valuable brands. It's on the FT site, here's a link to the survey data:-
http://bit.ly/cU5Edd
Not surprisingly Google was found to be the world's most valuable brand in a field dominated by technology firms.
Google, IBM, Apple and Microsoft topped global leviathans Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Marlboro in the Top Ten brand value list.
Google's brand was worth more than $US114 billion
http://bit.ly/cU5Edd
Not surprisingly Google was found to be the world's most valuable brand in a field dominated by technology firms.
Google, IBM, Apple and Microsoft topped global leviathans Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Marlboro in the Top Ten brand value list.
Google's brand was worth more than $US114 billion
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
PR and Social Media courses
We've just completed the April course and it went down very well. It was slightly different this month because previously we've done a journalist q/a with Ben Briggs, the Editor of Lancashire Business View. This month we were joined by Chris Hopper, the business reporter from Lancashire Telegraph. Feedback from attendees has been very positive and we fully expect to see them getting as much coverage as previous attendees.
This month we trained staff from the following companies:-
- Petty Chartered Surveyors
- The White Room
- Little Treasures
- Daviker Software
- Printing.com
- Tax Assist
- Art Exchange
I should also congratulate Vicky from Uno Coffee - she attended in January and has several pieces of coverage since then. Here's what she had to say:
"The atmosphere on the course was relaxed and friendly. I learned how to write and distribute strong press releases - and monitor coverage. Since the course we’ve had stories in the Nelson Leader, Lancashire Telegraph, Bolton Evening News - plus online coverage. The social media elements have helped with lead generation, so we’ve seen a real return. Overall was thrilled with the course and better still it was fully funded by Business Link!"
This month we trained staff from the following companies:-
- Petty Chartered Surveyors
- The White Room
- Little Treasures
- Daviker Software
- Printing.com
- Tax Assist
- Art Exchange
I should also congratulate Vicky from Uno Coffee - she attended in January and has several pieces of coverage since then. Here's what she had to say:
"The atmosphere on the course was relaxed and friendly. I learned how to write and distribute strong press releases - and monitor coverage. Since the course we’ve had stories in the Nelson Leader, Lancashire Telegraph, Bolton Evening News - plus online coverage. The social media elements have helped with lead generation, so we’ve seen a real return. Overall was thrilled with the course and better still it was fully funded by Business Link!"
Monday, 19 April 2010
Icelandic volcano top 20
Greetings pop pickers! We’ve had a poptastic day in the office today. Camilla was supposed to fly to Italy – cancelled. Julian’s Dad was supposed to fly to Istanbul – cancelled. Bill Spear from WDN was supposed to be here from the US – he’s stuck in Dublin. Alison from Uno Coffee – stuck in Spain.
So here’s our Icelandic Volcano top 20...not ‘arf!
(Read whilst listening to this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOb4Ac2CLXA)
1. Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie
2. My old man's a dustman - Lonnie Donnegan
3. Another one bites the Dust - Queen
4. Volcano - Damien Rice
5. Lava Lava - Boys Noize
6. Leaving on a jet plane (NOT) - John Denver
7. Fly Away - Frank Sinatra
8. And I would walk 500 miles - The Proclaimers
9. We are Sailing - Rod Stewart
10. Solid Air - John Martyn
11. I Wanna go Home - Micheal Buble
12. Blowin in the Wind - Bob Dylan
13. Great balls of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis
14. The look of Lava (well...love) - Dusty Springfield
15. Smoke on the water - Deep Purple
16. Led Zeppelin – Misty Mountain Hop
17. Keith Harris and Orville – I wish I could fly
18. R Kelly – I believe I can fly
19. ELO – Last Train to London
20. Cliff Richard – We are all (not) going on a summer holiday
So here’s our Icelandic Volcano top 20...not ‘arf!
(Read whilst listening to this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOb4Ac2CLXA)
1. Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie
2. My old man's a dustman - Lonnie Donnegan
3. Another one bites the Dust - Queen
4. Volcano - Damien Rice
5. Lava Lava - Boys Noize
6. Leaving on a jet plane (NOT) - John Denver
7. Fly Away - Frank Sinatra
8. And I would walk 500 miles - The Proclaimers
9. We are Sailing - Rod Stewart
10. Solid Air - John Martyn
11. I Wanna go Home - Micheal Buble
12. Blowin in the Wind - Bob Dylan
13. Great balls of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis
14. The look of Lava (well...love) - Dusty Springfield
15. Smoke on the water - Deep Purple
16. Led Zeppelin – Misty Mountain Hop
17. Keith Harris and Orville – I wish I could fly
18. R Kelly – I believe I can fly
19. ELO – Last Train to London
20. Cliff Richard – We are all (not) going on a summer holiday
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