When I heard that Mark Schaefer had been to Newport in South Wales last year I went “Oi! how did that happen?” No I didn’t, who is he anyway 
My auto tweet picked up Tubby saying how he’d been asked to talk at the Online Influence Conference and offered the hand of friendship to Tony, the brain’s behind the event…
See how it flows…
Obviously it’s only a matter of time before Social Media Week’s Personality of the Year 2012 is asked to join in the fun… or my good mate Will Corry, author of The Marketing Blog, the UK’s top marketing blog
Online Influence Conference
11 June 2013: Cardiff, Marriott Hotel
12 June 2013: Birmingham, The National Motorcycle Museum
13 June 2013: Manchester, Manchester Conference Centre
Find out more and book your tickets…
The Online Influence conference was an idea born on Twitter, with one aim in mind. To provide Wales with access to the brightest social media thought leaders and to make it as accessible as possible to as many SMEs as possible.
It started last year with a conversation between Tony Dowling and Mark Schaefer about how cool an event just like that would be, and snowballed a year later to where we are today with an almost uncontrollable momentum.
I’m really inspired by the energy and drive behind this conference. It’s shaping up to be a powerful day of practical learning from some of the best minds in the US, and beyond!
Mark Schaefer
This years Oiconf has grown from those humble beginnings into a hugely ambitious conference. The theme is still the same however. Bringing world class social media thinkers to these shores, as cheaply as possible.
Mark returns this year to deliver another hugely influential insight into social media marketing, and he has helped to source some big hitters and some breakthrough thinkers in the US social media scene as special guests.
Online Influence Conference
11 June 2013: Cardiff, Marriott Hotel
12 June 2013: Birmingham, The National Motorcycle Museum
13 June 2013: Manchester, Manchester Conference Centre
Find out more and book your tickets…
| Article Categories: | social influence,Social Media Directors Events,Social Media Events |
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Come on Dan Jacobs enthuse me
We cornered the founder of enthuse.me, Dan Jacobs, at his buzzing office in the hub of start-up Shoreditch to find out more about him, the team and the background of hot new website enthuse.me, which invites you to create an elegant one-page profile showcasing the things that best show-off your expertise.
This office is very on-trend, minimalist and very start-up! Looking around the team seems young, fresh and vibrant, however Dan has been in the industry for a while so can you tell us more about yourself.
Dan: Yes thank you the office look and feel is clean and elegant like the enthuse.me website. It helps that some of the best organic coffee & cake shops are also around the corner. On a serious note I have 18 years experience working in technology, operations, product management and general management roles in companies such as Virgin.com, IDT Global, LineOne, Delphi Internet.
As an entrepreneur, I have also worked in many successful start-up and early stage businesses as well as on new product launches. I’m also a passionate advocate of vegetarianism, having given talks on the subject and more importantly, I make a mean veggie lasagne!
Why did you decide to launch enthuse.me?
Dan: Being a longtime web worker and consumer, I have followed the trend of people selling their products, services and skills online very carefully. I came to the conclusion that a lot of websites that help you sell yourself in one way or another are missing a key component, which is that we are all individual and bring something unique to the table. Examples of this would be people that sell their products on ebay or their time on a freelancer site like elance or services on mybuilder or other vertical sites. They are all good in their own way but often their product or service becomes a commodity i.e. the purchaser is deciding on price and time to deliver as opposed to who is behind it.
I wanted to create a site that really allows each individual to show themselves off as an artisan, you could be an artisan plumber or an artisan tax advisor, the point is that each person brings something unique and special and we want to highlight that.
How is enthuse.me helping people to sell their products and services in a unique way?
Dan: Initially the site is a place to show yourself off, you can pick the best pieces of content and examples of your work that gives people a really great sense of your individuality. In the future we will add the ability for you to sell your time, services and products through your profile and within a market place on the website.
Speaking to the developers here they all seem very passionate about the various areas on the site – the A List, social media buttons etc. What is your favourite part of the website?
Dan: I think the product as a whole is my vision, which is the combination of great existing content, new content like our Insights feature which asks you to give a snippet of insight into your expertise and our social presence module which highlights your social stats in one place. The overall package gives the end reader a really great sense of what you can do and how you do it.
The site has only been available in beta for a few months and you already have a strong user base, what type of people have you got signed up?
Dan: I am astonished at the wide spectrum of users we have with profiles – we have actors, photographers, students showcasing their work, stylists, home-working moms, small businesses and even an etiquette expert. Of course we also have lots of techies and designers who are great early adopters.
The online space is rapidly changing and I am sure the enthuse.me site has a lot in store for the near future, can you give us a sneak preview of what we can expect to see in the next twelve months?
Dan: Our dav team are innovation hungry and we have a large feature pipeline based on user-feedback. Within the next three months we will be introducing some classic social networking components suck as connect with (follow) other ‘experts’, and notifications. We’re also bringing in the ability host and contribute to discussions around ‘insights’ and later some of the transactional features such as allowing users to sell their time, products and services through the site.
The beauty about enthuse.me is that we are fanatical about building around our users feedback. We listen and then create. I’d like to welcome everyone to share their thoughts with us on our twitter account, Facebook page and if all else fails email me at dan@enthuse.me
Twitter: @enthusedotme
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/enthusebeta
| Article Categories: | Business Networking,Joined up Social Media Campaigns,social influence,Social media engagement,Social Media News,Social Media Platforms,Social Media Strategy |
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Twitter trainers building walls around their ivory towers!
I’m loving using auto-tweets on Twitter to say hello to new people who say something relevant to my world… but some twitter trainers prefer to build walls around their ivory towers to avoid actual real time social media engagement! They must be from the marketing department
Most recipients of my auto-tweets obviously don’t respond, they just click through to the articles, scan them and continue on their life journey…
Of those that respond, 80% are positive and happy to make a new acquaintance… but there are 20% who throw some form of negative response back. I assume they attended a Twitter course run by a marketing person who hates the thought of actually having a proper conversation, they’d much rather keep their distance and position some marketing spiel as thought leadership instead.
Me, I come from a sales background and enjoy the banter of real life conversations. I love it when someone has an opposite opinion but is solid enough in their belief that they can have a proper conversation about it… but it does annoy me when some Twitter Negative Twit (TNT) throws over a “You can’t spam me with your stuff ‘cos I know way more than you about engagement. I’m in Marketing and have a degree don’t you know!”
Yawn, yawn… it’s not so much their comment, it’s when they block me from responding back… they throw over the dynamite and then build a wall quick, just in case they might get an intelligent response back that they’d have to deal with.
I’ll lock and load a few of those responses later, need to go put the tea on before the Mrs gets back and there’s another explosion
Thank you.
Jon Davey
07717 820823
| Article Categories: | Content,social influence,Social media engagement,Social Media Strategy,Social Media Thoughts,Social Networking,Twitter |
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Prepare to be AMAZED… the perfect accessory for those that get things done…
This morning I received a surprise gift in the post, it made me laugh and so it felt very appropriate to shoot a video of something amazing for your viewing pleasure…
First off, the video introduction… prepare to be amazed…
Which is then followed by the process in action… boosting your social media influence…
OK, so if I was a video editor then I could blend the two together but I’m not, so let’s have 2 videos and therefore 2 opportunities to bump into like minded folk
In summary, for those who would rather read than enjoy the videos. If you want to maximise your social media influence then use auto-tweets to engage with those on Twitter, encouraging them to comment on your blog… if the topic is interesting, as you generate more tweets this will result in more comments and thus increase the relevance of the page, ensuring it flies high on the search engines.
Here are three easy steps to take, following on from watching the videos:
Firstly… go buy stuff for all those amazing people in your life!
Secondly… add your comment to our measuring social influence blog post…
http://www.socialmediadirectors.co.uk/is-measuring-social-media-influence-an-oxymoron-smioym-smwldn/
Thirdly… call me and let’s work out how I can help you shine a little brighter and have more influence in your world.
Thank you.
Jon Davey
Sales & Marketing for Web 2.0
Encouraging Positive, Proactive Participation
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTORS
01753 852904
Social Media Engagement… Get Your Heart Racing at Windsor Racecourse Business EXPO
Millions of people are engaging on social media platforms in 2013, with millions more looking on asking, “What’s the point of social media, what have I got to say that anyone is going to find remotely interesting?”
In the words of one famous magician, the response might be, “Not a lot!”
Then again, maybe you just have something others would like to hear… my wife said to me the other day, “The emptiest vessels make the loudest noise”… not heard that phrase before so after giving her the “look”, I checked Google and Wikipedia tells us “As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest blabbers,” from the early English author William Baldwin (1550′s hence his poor grammar!).
There is certainly plenty of social media noise, lots of babbling going on… what we require, to take social to the next level of maturity, is for those with insightful comments to feel inspired to step forward and add their two penneth to the conversation. Those that can add some value and in so doing make themselves known to a wider audience… although, for many, that’s the bit they don’t want and so don’t engage in the first place!
In the days of Baldwin you might be known by 50 people in the local area… in 2013 this can be 1000+ in the blink of an eye… and before the day is out 1,000,000+ might hear your words… should they be witty enough
So we need to get a few hearts racing, people inspired to take that next step…
On Thursday 13th June, a week before Royal Ascot, at Windsor Racecourse the Thames Valley EXPO will be taking place and a few of the speakers have been announced… Brad Burton, Warren Cass and Jon Davey…
Brad certainly knows how to tell a good story… we captured this last year… careful ladies, he’s a bit of a charmer…
Warren will tell you about his favourite subject and as for a our very own Jon Davey…
All these three guys have pioneered a path that others feared to tread but have, once at the party, leveraged for their own ends… worth a couple of hours of your time to come and see if they ignite a spark in your mind… hopefully leaving you wanting more…
We’re looking forward to seeing you on the day… hopefully we’ll help you see the value of taking those first steps into social media engagement… this could get your heart racing… but that could simply be the fillies in their short skirts on what is bound to be a beautiful summers day in June
If you are planning on joining us or have seen Brad, Warren or Jon present before and would like to share a few thoughts, do add them to the comments below…
Thank you.
Jon Davey
Sales & Marketing for Web 2.0
Encouraging Positive, Proactive Participation
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTORS
01753 852904
Social Media Award of the Week ending 19th Jan 2013
This week’s Social Media Award of the Week has to go to the Australian Courts for ruling that although Google doesn’t technically publish content because computers are doing all the work… if asked to remove links then they should oblige and respect the wishes of the individual not wishing to be indexed.
“But that would mean we’d have to do some work… Google guys want to hang in the labs, not do real work!” one insider was heard to moan when the announcement came in.
The Guardian reported at the end of November, “Milorad Trkulja, a music promoter, took action against Google over material online, which linked him with criminal figures in Melbourne. Trkulja has never been involved in any criminal activity, but was unfortunate enough to have been shot in a restaurant in 2004.”
It reminded me of the case of Richard O’Dwyer, the student wanted for extradition by the USA and initially signed off by Theresa May MP, who was simply adding links to sources of TV content… he didn’t publish the content… oh, yeah, but he manually added links so I guess that makes him an evil criminal! It was his mum who sorted that out, as all good mums do…
The only reason the yanks wanted him was because he’d made a few quid out of it… so I guess he paid tax in the UK but that’s not good enough for the Americans? The only reason Google have been able to get away with it is because they have bigger lawyers and as we have seen from Big Brother, “USA are best, the greatest, they offer freedom”… mmmm well done Australia.
Everyone loves to win a Social Media Award… so we thought we’d make it more fun in 2013… we’ll give out a social media award of some description every week… if you want to be a winner then you’d better tell us why
Every week I’ll shine a light on a social media campaign that made laugh or cry! Or it might be a thought that grabs my attention, something I think you should ponder…
You need to tweet @jondavey with the reason why you and yours should be a winner… or complete our contact us form with a few words…
Thank you.
Jon Davey
Sales & Marketing for Web 2.0
Encouraging Positive, Proactive Participation
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTORS
01753 852904
