Social Media Directors » Social Media Thoughts

“marketing assistant” OR “marketing intern” based near Slough

Jon — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:46:18 +0000

Just done a search for “marketing assistant” OR “marketing intern” based within a 10 mile radius of HQ… got a great opportunity for them but they need to know it exists…

LinkedIn is showing 165 and so now all I need to do is tell them about it… but only 10 are in any connecting groups !

I guess they think LinkedIn is for older farts like me Well these are the old farts with jobs going so they’d better get their stuff together and start engaging on Linkedin… call themselves marketing assistants

http://www.socialmediadirectors.co.uk/social-media-awards/top-marketing-assistant-needed-in-slough/

Social Media platforms “Show me the money!”

Jon — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:11:21 +0000

As they say, “It’s not the size, it’s how you use it!”

In 2012 there are thousands of social media platforms to choose from but which one will you use for what purpose is the question… do you choose the big platforms because you’ve heard the names mentioned so many times by so many “experts” that you feel you really should… or do you wait and see what floats past your view finder?

The reality is you need to understand the main platforms so you can add them to, or remove them from, your to do list…

If you’re in the B2B space, looking to find more customers, then a must visit and find out more about site is LinkedIn, of that there is no doubt in my mind. The closer you look to LinkedIn the more you appreciate both its simplicity and its amazing power and potential… truly a business lead generation platform you need to spend some time on.

But then there are other, newer, cleaner coded platforms that you’ll have never heard of. That have been thought through by their creators, designed, coded and ready for the world to engage with but because they are not on everyone’s lips, you are unlikely to explore their websites to find out more… unless you are lucky enough to bump into them through a random search… or the strategic use of social media!

At the Social Media Business Awards events we find new tools and give them a platform on which to shine… we hope to introduce UK platforms developed by local home grown talent but it is likely that they are shy in coming forward, being British. We’ll have to wait for them to show themselves while we celebrate great social media tools we have found that are being a little more vocal… probably US based because they’re not that shy when it comes to business and we all could learn from them.

Book your seat for our new Social Media Business Awards and get their bright and early for my presentation “Social Media Business Sales Update…”

Thank you.

Book your seat for the UK Social Media Business Awards Dinner £75 + VAT

The whole point of the UK Social Media Business Awards is to make new connections, meet buyers, suppliers and industry colleagues. We ensure the whole event is a learning experience… finding out how different social media platforms and service could help your business grow and prosper… we ensure you meet at least 25 people during the course of the day, this is to help those who prefer not to make the first moves and so usually don’t get to meet many people at events.

UK Social Media Business Award enquiries…

Jon Davey
Social Media Awards Organiser
Call 01753 852904
Or connect via LinkedIn

Social Media Workshop Windsor, Berkshire

Jon — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:50:31 +0000

The aim of the social media workshop is to give a clear insight into the areas that make up the world of social media marketing and how they fit together and deliver against the goals that companies set for them in today’s ever more competitive marketplace.

We will look at to how the social media opportunities marketing tools integrate with other marketing techniques and will take particular emphasis on Search Engine Marketing (with the main focus on Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click) and Social Media Marketing including blogging and the business use of social networking.

Overview

1. Social Media: coming ready or not

An overview of the major step change that social media has brought in terms of communicating with and influencing customers and other businesses. We look at the way it should integrate with your other marketing activities and introduce the tools that we will be examining in more depth later in the session.

Content:

Overview of Social Media Marketing opportunities
Fundamentals of Social Media
Where it fits into the marketing mix
Introduction to key Social Media Tools

2. The Business Blog and its uses

Examination of the implementation, use and development of business blogs as a key online marketing and PR tool including their integration with websites and their position at the centre of B2B social media marketing activity.

Content:

Key Questions when setting up a blog
The Green Cross code of Blogging
Writing blog psost which benefit you and your readers
Blog Marketing including SEO aspects of blogs
Optimising blogs for your business

3. Social and Business Networking

We look at how companies are using sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to develop communities of loyal fans and increase both prospects and sales. We also evaluate ways in which you can use these and other networks to best effect and some advice on ways to ensure that you do so successfully.

Content:

Identifying the best networks for your business
Setting up and using the large networks successfully
Developing reputation online
Linking your social networking activities together

4. Twitter – getting the microblogging bug

Twitter is the current darling of the social media world. While better suited to some businesses than others, the opportunities are there in abundance for us to take advantage of in terms of networking, relationship building and soft selling. We examine the “why” and outline the “how” to getting the best out of Twitter!

Content:

What is Twitter and what can it bring you
Setting up on Twitter to get real results
Examples from the Business world
Your daily regime for a successful Twitter experience

5. Tapping into Video and Podcasts

We all take information in different ways and so it’s essential that we offer our content in ways that will appeal to all of our potential visitors, which means that we must include video and audio. We look at the ways in which this content can be used most effectively and how to follow those businesses which have made a success using these methods.

Content:

Creating a YouTube profile
Understanding how to optimise content for search engines
Podcasts and spreading the word
Developing our content to best effect

6. Measuring and Integration

Measuring the results of a campaign and acting on them is critical to developing further in the future. In the final section, we look at how best to look at integrating all the different strands of social media marketing and ways in which to measure their results.

Content:

Integrating social media to optimise activity and content
Using the tools available effectively
Measuring activity, visitors and ROI
Summarising the workshop

For the latest open social media and LinkedIn workshops and training event details click the link.

To discuss the opportunities further please contact

Jon Davey
Social Media Director
01753 852904

Or complete our enquiry form… Thank you.

Website or Mobile App, which to develop first?

Jon — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:30:32 +0000

I guess this all depends on where your customers hang out… take a look at these stats produced by Flurry… might get you in a hurry

When looking for Award sponsors do you let authenticity get in the way?

Jon — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:26:21 +0000

One man’s muck is another man’s brass… one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter… one man’s favourite blogger is another man’s pain in the rear

So when it comes to GroupOn then do you invite them to join in… word is they’re spending $5 to get every optin at the moment and seem to be filling their boots with the investment funds… but when looking for sponsors for an event, do you just take the money and run… assuming they think you’re worthy?

In June the warning signs were out, Why Groupon needs to fail to save the internet

Reuter’s sing their praises by November, Mutual funds’ bet on Groupon tops $1 billion

But all that glitters is not gold, OUCH… Bakery burnt by Groupon Fiasco

Just using my blog as a real time thinking machine as I go off to find sponsors for the best show in town, yet to happen…

The Social Media Business Awards

Your thoughts greatly appreciated…

What makes for great social media engagement, blogging ideas 2012

Jon — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:06:08 +0000

Over on LinkedIn I started a discussion
“Making the most of your blog in 2012…”
How are you planning on sharing your content in 2012… do you post to your blog and then leave it to hope… or do you have a plan and use other platforms to push out your content… share your routine so others can learn… thank you…

That was 12 days ago and yesterday evening I popped in to see what had been added, 4 comments, one with a request, “Great idea Jon. It will help get the discussion going if you can share your routines.”

This resulted in pen going to paper and 1000+ words later, this…

Personally, my ideal day is to spend the morning talking to those who would just love to spend some money with me but don’t know it yet
After lunch an hour or so ensuring existing projects are on track and all is balanced with the world
Mid afternoon to put pen to paper and address key topics in my industry…
Evenings comment on LinkedIn

But then life is never usually that smooth… kids need collecting from school / college “because it’s raining!” and interrupt the natural flow… dog gets an allergy and needs a morning bath with a £30 bottle of shampoo !

When I say blog I mean your own web space… this may be a bespoke content management system… personally I use a WordPress Blog for Social Media Directors and we have a bespoke CMS for 100+ of our own individual websites… many pages of which fly high on Google… generating 3 million page views last year for us and our clients.
What Norman says about practice making it so much easier is very true… and please don’t worry about spelling everything perfectly so not to be judged harshly by your piers… I tend to find that most of the clever souls who point things out are less than perfect and most others are relieved that you are human!

My ultimate goal is to be front and centre in the mind of those who know me when it comes to all things to do with business lead generation from the web… so I get asked first and then can recommend the best way to proceed.

For those that don’t know me then they need to find me via the search engines.
I want to work on projects locally but I also appreciate that for something to truly fly then it needs a national, if not international vibe.

Business in Berkshire is local and when something local catches my attention then I will scribble a few words, maybe lift bits from other media sources, if more than a few lines then giving credit by mentioning their name is the internationally recognised way of dealing with copyright issues.

Just before Christmas we launched our Social Media Business Awards and I wanted to big up our early sponsors… one writes The Marketing Blog, a chap called Will Corry who I have known for 5-6 years and has tens of thousands of readers who love his style of presentation… he’s been around the media for years and so knows a good story when he see’s it… go google marketing blog and the world renowned Seth Godin’s blog appears below Will’s… I had to put pen to paper as many of those interested in social media will be advised to search out Seth Godin’s Blog… go google and tell me where you find socialmediadirectors.co.uk/seth-godin

Google Jon Davey and under all, videos & pictures I get at least 3 listings… Google social media director and you get the same story, strategically I have the top two spots on the main listing… how did I get my LinkedIn account flying so high?

Social media directors same story, go check the youtube.com/jonblg and note how I have helped myself fly under social media directors… everything is a numbers game… having 12 videos around social media directors ensures I always have at least 2 listings, whatever mood google is in

When I write something I want it to be featured in Google alerts so that those people around the world who are interested in a topic may pick up a story and it leads them back to me… for this I publish via our own CMS under the relevant URL… for example socialmediaevents.co.uk, businessleadgeneration.co.uk, customertestimonials .co.uk, ilovewindsor.co.uk

If relevant to social media, I’ll also want it on the sociamediadirectors.co.uk website… so I will change the title and tweak the open paragraph but otherwise leave it alone… the site has strong SEO because it is all about social media and has been around a couple of years now… because of this, I may just write it for SMD.

We have the ability to share from all our platforms and so I may share a link with Twitter or LinkedIn… this gets the story out… for most stories I will select 1 or 2 groups to send it out to… others I will select all the groups and see what happens… usually not a lot… you need to build a connection with the readers and that doesn’t happen by blanket bombing… it happens because you engage in a LinkedIn group on a regular basis, not just posting discussions but more importantly adding to the discussions of others.

Most of the LI Groups I put energy into are open and so I can share my comment with my Twitter followers… not vast because I haven’t chased as I don’t really find myself engaging on there, I much prefer LI… and my google stats tell me people click through from there to my various sites… twitter followers aren’t really following!

Facebook to me has been about family and friends and since my family don’t really use it I may pop in once a week… but now that I am launching the Social Media Business Awards and many of the B2C organisations who are using the platform are on there… best get that sorted sharpish

I hope this gives a flavour for my approach… I am happy to answer any questions…
Recently I found a new web presentation tool which looks great and let’s you share… it is also getting found by Google, so I’ll be doing more with it, check out
http://www.scoop.it/t/social-media-awards

Thank you

Jon

Seth Godin’s blog falls behind UK Marketing leader

Jon — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:18:55 +0000

When it comes to media experience there are few with the breadth of experience that Will Corry of The Marketing Blog, currently leading Seth Godin’s blog in Google’s top 10 for a search of; marketing blog… ketchup Seth

Will has extensive experience in building traditional marketing publications as MD of Thomson Publications in South Africa… in more recent times he created The Marketing Blog and with almost 100,000 pages indexed by Google he always has a great story to tell and is often invited to make speaking engagements to educate us mere mortals

The Marketing Blog promotes many of the UK exhibitions, driving visitors to boost the attendance. Will maintains the attention of senior Marketing professionals across the UK by ensuring his blog always contains a variety of interesting content, engaging with his readers and ensuring great click through rates.

The Marketing Blog has become our 2nd sponsor of the UK Social Media Business Awards 2012 and will decide the title of their Award after a Christmas spent down under with his family.

Enjoy the latest edition of The Marketing Blog…
http://www.themarketingblog.co.uk/

Thank you.

UK Social Media Business Award enquiries…

Jon Davey
UK Social Media Business Awards Organiser
Call 01753 852904
Or connect via LinkedIn

Email Marketing is looking like a MOOD THING

Jon — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:01:34 +0000

I am currently running a survey on LinkedIn to find out which emails folk are most likely to read… there are five choices and the most popular at the moment is all to do with the mood we are in.

So how do you make sure people are in the mood for your email? I guess one of the best ways is to be consistently interesting… we don’t want to read about how fabulous someone is all the time, we want to learn something new or be entertained in some way…

If you would like to join in our survey, click here… thank you.

So we’d best learn you in an entertaining way then…

This is why in 2012, I am launching the Social Media Competition and Awards Dinners… we’re starting by running an Awards Dinner every quarter, somewhere in the UK… then we’ll roll out Internationally as we get the rhythm right…

The Awards Dinners will have at least 20 Awards each, all determined by the sponsors and the winners selected from the quarterly pot of entrants who can join in for just £20.12 +VAT… all they need provide is a short video, 500 words and up to 6 images which we then display on our web pages… the sponsors will review all the entrants… or the one’s they are in the mood to look at

The aim is to be fun, bring some positively to the doom and gloom the UK media keep spewing out and allow great business ideas to shine so that others can copy or contact the social media campaign creators and ask them to help them shine…

When a buyer is looking for a supplier in 2012 they’ll be looking to the Internet to find great ideas… be part of our Social Media Competition and Awards Dinners and you will massively increase your chances of being found by someone who needs just what you’ve got…

Thank You

Jon Davey
Social Media Awards Organiser
01753 852904

3 good reasons to be associated with a local social media campaign

Jon — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:06:27 +0000

Why should you sponsor a social media campaign locally? Check out 3 good reasons to be associated with a local social media campaign:

1. For organisation looking to retain employees, having a corporate social responsibility element that projects your company name in a positive light is a good reason

2. If the social media campaign captures the mood of the moment, the additional value created by word of mouth and social sharing comes at no additional cost, yet another good reason

3. The feel good factor, knowing you are making a difference locally and people are talking about it… that makes for a third jolly good reason…

What do you think is another good reason for joining in a local social media campaign?

Ringo’s Timberland Boots, the perfect Christmas gift for the Beetle fan who has nearly everything

Jon — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:43:56 +0000

What a great story to make part of our “Joined up Social Media Campaigns” series… with a few days left to run on this Ringo Starr, Timberland, WaterAid social media campaign, let’s join in the online noise and who knows, someone might like what we have to say

I was just reading about the Social Media Buzz awards and how @WaterAid had won a commendation for their #WaterAid24 social media campaign…

Viewing their tweets I noticed one from Timberland about Ringo Starr Signed Timberland Earthkeepers Boots + Laces…

“What’s this all about I say to myself…” I clicked on the link and was taken to the EBay page and a bunch of boots, Aboriginal in style, with Ringo’s signature on them… “But what’s the campaign?”

Search for the above boot and you land on the Timberland website… search for Ringo Starr and there is no mention? Why not… guess it’s that corporate “keep it to the core products” thinking… but where is more info on the campaign that ends in 3 days… surely you have it front and centre?

I see a Facebook link, click and I’m presented with Timberland Earthkeepers but no mention of Ringo… HELP

Click on the latest, very entertaining, EarthKeeper’s advert video, and then on the Timberland YouTube Channel link… there’s Ringo, telling us a story and spreading peace to the world…

At last, I get to know what it’s all about… most would just assume that the Ringo Starr Signed Timberland Earthkeepers Boots are simply a new product line with his signature on them… but they are way more than that… they have been signed by the man himself and there are only 75 pairs for sale… the money going to WaterAid… not sure if it’s all the money… but whatever, for a Beetle fan these would make for the perfect Christmas present… especially a Beetle fan who loves walking… mind you they would need 6 pairs… bum, bum

It would be great to see a press release on the main site giving more details… this could easily be part of a blog element that shares this type of info… I would guess many folk will be searching for Ringo’s Timberland Boots over the next few days and they will bump into this Beetle fans blog… which sheds a little light on why the big man is signing items for good causes… excellent and good thinking Ringo you’re a Star

In fact, with a bit of thought, Freddie Starr could have walked into the jungle with a pair of those boots on to get the campaign started!

Happy Christmas

Jon Davey
01753 852904