There are only 2 conditions to getting a free ticket:

• Your business must be less than 12months old
• You must be entering at least one of the awards.

If you meet these criteria and would like a ticket please contact Jeni on 01872 555933 or contact Toby directly over Twitter – http://twitter.com/tobyparkins – (The offer is available on a first come, first served basis).

If you are not sure about entering then please do let us know and we can talk through whether we think you have a good chance or not, and how you should go about entering. It’s going to be a great night and we look forward to spending it with some great, new businesses.

During the course of the first 2 week period traffic from Facebook.com has increased by around 250% over the previous 2 week period, fan numbers exceeded 800 and Facebook.com has risen to become the second highest (non search engine) referring website.

Facebook currently have in excess of 400million active users and in any 24hr period over 200million users will login. Whilst we would often encourage use of a number of different social media channels, the share of the population and the sheer numbers and that Facebook represents means that it will, for the foreseeable future, be quite a force to be reckoned with.

Social Media Webinar - UKNetWeb and Tonick Media - Aren Grimshaw presenting

The Social Media for Business Taster Webinar delivered by UKNetWeb with Tonick Media was an outstanding success. This was the first in the series of taster courses to be entirely delivered through a webinar platform following a series of physically located seminars based in St Agnes, Cornwall.

The event was almost entirely marketed digitally with over one third of attendees discovering the course through Twitter. Most attendees were located in Britain and the United States of America although there were attendees from Finland and Canada.

The event was designed to be a small more intermit style of webinar with a target of 20 guests keeping a Social Media Webinar – UKNetWeb and Tonick Media – Aren Grimshaw presenting
more informal and discussional feel. Normally, such webinar events expect to convert 25-35% of registrations to actual attendees. This event actually attracted 25 attendees out of 38 registrations (65.8%).

Audio and screen presentation recordings were made and is available as a video at this address: http://www.uknetweb.com/blog/technology-and-commentary-blog/business/social-media-taster-webinar-recording/

Similarly, the simultaneous chat amongst between attendees was also recorded and is available for review at this address: http://www.uknetweb.com/blog/technology-and-commentary-blog/business/social-media-taster-webinar-chat-recording/

The main presentations are viewable below or on Slideshare:

You can skip sections by using the slider control at the bottom of the video clip.

All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (-5hrs). So the first time (07:35) is the equivalent of 1:35pm BST for UK and 3.35pm in Finland.

07:35:15  Toby Parkins : Hi Ryan and Martin=
07:51:05 uknetweb : Hi everyone. We will be starting shortly. There is no sound yet by the way.
07:55:54 habeyhl : Do I have to call in to hear the audio, or can I hear it through the web?
07:56:25 uknetweb : Audio is being switched on now
07:56:41 habeyhl : thanks!
07:59:05 habeyhl : is there a twitter hash tag for this?
08:03:35 Ray Bolitho : Nice shirt Toby!
08:03:59 Tony Conte : hearing you loud and clear Toby!
08:04:00 cathy : Hello
08:04:15 Charla Symons : Hi from Totally Truro
08:04:57 Follett Stock : Good afternoon everyone – Follett Stock Solicitors & FS Media
08:05:24 Kristin Zhivago : hi
08:05:31 Ryan Mcfarlane : Hello
08:05:38 Dougie Woods : Hi Toby!
08:05:56 Matt : Good afternoon from Matt, Rob and Mark from WDL
08:06:01 Jemiina Hautamäki : Hello from Finland, from Persoona
08:13:06 Toby Parkins : Hi Dougie, well done – you made it
08:13:45 Toby Parkins : Hi Jemiina, thanks for coming
08:24:18 Gary J : Twitter
08:24:22 habeyhl : Twitter
08:24:25 Tony Conte : Blogs/wordpress
08:24:26 Charla Symons : Facebook and Twitter
08:24:37 Craig : WordPress / facebook / twitter
08:24:41 Kristin Zhivago : Blog – since 2004, Twitter (business), facebook (personal only)
08:24:50 Dougie Woods : facebook
08:24:52 John Knowles : As a company? Facebook, Twitter, Forums, Youtube, LinkedIn
08:24:54 Follett Stock : Facebook/Twitter/UGC
08:24:58 Jemiina Hautamäki : Twitter, Skype, Facebook, blogs
08:24:59 Ryan Mcfarlane : Blogs, skype, facebook
08:25:08 evolutionpd : facebook, twitter, blog, slideshare, linkedin
08:25:18 Ray Bolitho : none I’m afraid
08:25:20 Kristin Zhivago : Kristin Zhivago here – agree with you about virtual worlds
08:25:36 Kristin Zhivago : Also skype
08:25:41 Toby Parkins : Yeah, virtual worlds are really powerful
08:25:54 Gary J : Just starting with wordpress
08:27:59 Josef Nankivell : twitter is always a great place to have a web dev question answered – with a transactive memory like twitter the answers find you
08:29:12 John Knowles : Gordon Brown on #w elovethenhs
08:34:06 habeyhl : what are ABC1s, C2DEs?
08:34:26 Matt : social bandings
08:34:37 Toby Parkins : marketing groups
08:34:56 habeyhl : thanks
08:36:07 Toby Parkins : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NRS_social_gradefor more information on Social Grading
08:36:28 Toby Parkins : (the link should open in a new window/tab
08:36:45 Toby Parkins : It’s a UK system
08:38:13 Paul : Not at all currently
08:38:14 Tony Conte : to increase SEO and drive more traffic
08:38:17 Gary J : Awareness, marketing, driving clients to site and SEO
08:38:29 John Knowles : Research, identifying/qualifying prospects, driving offline PR
08:38:33 Toby Parkins : at UKNetWeb we are finding that 70% of new business comes through some kind of Social Media
08:38:33 Ryan Mcfarlane : SEO
08:38:33 Kristin Zhivago : will be using it to launch my next book
08:38:41 evolutionpd : marketing, awareness, engagement,
08:38:48 habeyhl : we’re not using it well
08:38:49 Follett Stock : posting links to articles, driving traffic to site, a bit of PR and marketing
08:38:56 Charla Symons : Awareness of events and driving traffic to www.enjoytruro.co.uk
08:39:07 habeyhl : (thanks for the link Toby)
08:39:08 Josef Nankivell : using social media for research into starting a web business
08:39:19 John Knowles : also online PR.
08:39:25 Kristin Zhivago : already using it to raise awareness. and helping clients adopt it
08:39:49 Kristin Zhivago : Yes, already using a blog for that
08:39:50 cathy : Not using it in the offices-some volunteers are on it -casual references to our charity?
08:39:52 John Knowles : Even where our clients’ eventual targets aren’t that interested in social media, the journalists who cater for them usually are.
08:39:54 Kristin Zhivago : And Twitter
08:40:17 John Knowles : (In fact, you get a faster response from Facebook / Twitter than from email or phone!)
08:40:26 Kristin Zhivago : absolutely
08:40:30 Ray Bolitho : not using it at all but really feel that I need to
08:40:38 Josef Nankivell : very true, John
08:40:44 Toby Parkins : It’s really important to ensure that your Social Media strategy is integrated with the rest of your communication strategy
08:41:19 John Knowles : Toby… how much of this presentation is being recorded? (Just the slideshow & Aren, or chat etc too?)
08:41:38 Toby Parkins : Not sure if all chat is recorded.
08:41:51 Toby Parkins : The main presentation window and audio are recorded.
08:42:19 Toby Parkins : We may be able to record the chat for future use. Please let me know if there is anything commercially sensitive
08:42:54 John Knowles : That would be useful, Toby – it’s hard to read all the comments and concentrate on Aren at the same time!
08:43:07 Elliot Smith : Copy & paste into notebook
08:43:17 Elliot Smith : er.. notepad
08:44:03 Toby Parkins : Need to eat more fish and enhance your Corpus Callosum
08:49:08 Elliot Smith : Thanks Toby. Just suffering from sleep deprivation
08:53:11 Tony Conte : not getting google screen
08:53:19 Tony Conte : still showing Business Cornwall
08:53:56 John Knowles : Are Twilerts available within Twitter?
08:55:52 Toby Parkins : It’s available as a seperate site although I think it’s down at the moment
09:04:35 cathy : Can you join any of these at a “corporate ” level or do you have to have an individual as a front at least?
09:05:38 Toby Parkins : Cathy, I’ll let Aren answer that one
09:05:38 John Knowles : Some of them are a bit of both – on Facebook and LinkedIn etc. you can have a corporate page with linked personal profiles
09:06:15 Kristin Zhivago : do you advise CEOs to twitter? eg Zappos CEO – constantly twittering
09:06:37 cathy : I have no wish to “share ” with the world myself but it might help our charity
09:07:09 Kristin Zhivago : mostly i work with b2b companies
09:07:43 Kristin Zhivago : the problem is time management – the CEO seldom has the time
09:07:44 Gary J : C athy: We use our company name as our twitter handle
09:08:26 cathy : Thank you for those replies.Will try for a more general presence
09:09:04 Gary J : We are also just about to launch a new site (in a couple of weeks), so have used the URL (www.TheAntCan.com) as my twitter handle (theantcan)and use the logo as my twitter picture.
09:09:14 John Knowles : Cathy – a friend of mine has certinaly taken that approach. She’s self-employed, and has moved entirely from a personal to a business presence.
09:09:46 John Knowles : How easy is it to set up the sharing functionality if you’re non-technical?
09:09:55 Gary J : If using wordpress, how do you get the sahre this link
09:10:13 Elliot Smith : Every business should consider registering their company name / url on social networking sites, even if it’s only to protect your name
09:10:33 Gary J : What plugin do you use? and for retweeting?
09:10:48 John Knowles : Is wordpress subscription based?
09:10:49 Tony Conte : which is better, WordPress hosted or on wordpress server? from an SEO point of view?
09:11:08 Gary J : WordPress is free – we have it on our own server
09:11:10 cathy : Are there any downsides to all this? Does it take up a lot of time tracking and monitoring?
09:11:39 Gary J : Thanks
09:12:36 Josef Nankivell : When starting an online business, do you think it is important to share your new experiences/issues with others? Or wait until your business is at a certain level of success before using social media?
09:12:38 Tony Conte : makes sense, thanks
09:12:58 Gary J : Do you find the google adsense detractss from content on your site or do your clients linke it?
09:13:44 John Knowles : Cathy – as much as you let it, really. I suppose the main danger is that you spend ages catering for a very few people. You need to be very clear about objectives and how much time it’s worth to you, I’d say.
09:14:30 Elliot Smith : How about Facebook as an advertising platform?
09:14:38 Gary J : What’s best – adsense or paid-for banner ads?
09:15:00 Josef Nankivell : Thanks very much, I was thinkning along the same lines.
09:15:17 John Knowles : From whose point of view, Gary?
09:15:26 Gary J : Aren – this is really useful stuff. Thank you.
09:16:34 Elliot Smith : thanks!
09:16:48 Kristin Zhivago : thank you
09:16:54 John Knowles : Thanks Aren
09:17:03 Ryan Mcfarlane : Nice work – cheers
09:17:08 John Knowles : Media with a K?
09:17:10 John Knowles :
09:17:20 Paul : Interesting stuff. Thanks.
09:17:21 Josef Nankivell : Thank you Aren. This has been very helpful!
09:17:24 evolutionpd : Thanks Aren
09:17:32 Tony Conte : thanks Aren
09:18:46 habeyhl : managing
09:18:53 Charla Symons : Managing a website
09:18:53 cathy : Managing
09:18:56 John Knowles : As a company, we’re in the process of developing a new site
09:18:56 Elliot Smith : Just about managing
09:19:04 Jemiina Hautamäki : managing, designing & developing
09:19:04 Charla Symons : ww.enjoytruro.co.uk
09:19:17 Gary J : We have a wesbite, are launching a network www.theantcan.comand just starting to develop a wordpress site.
09:19:17 Joona : designing
09:19:19 habeyhl : www.womenshealth.gov
09:19:22 Craig : www.websitedesign.co.uk
09:19:22 Kristin Zhivago : had a website since 1995 or so – http://www.zhivago.comand blog since 2004 http://www.revenuejournal.com
09:19:31 Paul : Contributing and developing new site(s)
09:19:31 Tony Conte : design, manage and develop, plus offline.
09:19:48 John Knowles : For reference, we’re www.jkc.co.uk- although there’s not much there now!
09:19:52 Josef Nankivell : contributing to Bright Hub as a writer http://www.brighthub.com/members/kivster.aspx
09:22:07 Gary J : Can you recommend a banned words filter as part of an automatic upload feature?
09:22:44 John Knowles : Are blog homepages more effective as a list of full articles, or just headlines / first paragraphs where you can click through?
09:26:04 Mark : im going camping this weekend
09:26:15 John Knowles : Ooh… that’s interesting. Why did you choose Dimdim?
09:26:40 John Knowles : Hold on – if Toby’s doing the presentation, who’s anwering the questions? Oh…
09:26:44 Aren : Not me – another Aren by the way
09:27:05 John Knowles : Surely there can’t be two Arens!
09:27:38 Aren : I believe he’s actually called Joe.
09:27:41 cathy : What’s on your ceiling?
09:28:27 Aren : Sorry with regards to Q’s I will pass to Toby when he stops unless best answered by me.
09:28:36 Aren : On the ceiling?
09:29:05 cathy : Something keeps catching Toby’s eye up there!
09:29:11 Ryan Mcfarlane : Live Chat – surly its just a good way for a company to have a low cost base in india and use images / names of british people to make them look like they are using local staff?
09:29:31 Kristin Zhivago : good way?
09:29:42 Kristin Zhivago : I wouldn’t call that “good.”
09:30:23 Aren : In the example used the live chat is managed locally.
09:30:47 Aren : I am sure some companies may use it to outsource customer service abroad.
09:30:55 Josef Nankivell : That’s a very good idea. I have purchased several items due to a friend’s regarding the product!
09:31:02 habeyhl : I’ve found it’s often call center staff that staff the live chat. I’ve gone from chat to phone call with the same person sometimes
09:31:03 Charla Symons : Very locally – i went to school with Aaron!
09:31:07 John Knowles : Risky though
09:31:14 Josef Nankivell : friend’s excitment*
09:32:21 John Knowles : You have to be pretty confident to say: “Here. Ask your friends to help you find a cheaper price”
09:32:24 Aren : By the way, Toby is not looking at the ceiling – we have a projector screen in front / above displaying the view you see
09:33:52 John Knowles : Still not very clear on Facebook connect. is it to facilitate you sharing content without leaving a site, or are you effectively adding that site as a facebook friend? Or something else?
09:33:53 Ryan Mcfarlane : haha – yeah not good as in good – if that makes any sense!
09:34:31 Craig : Facebook connect is an API that enables visitors to your site to use 1 link to share the content on their facebook profile
09:34:45 Craig : developers.facebook.com/connect.php
09:34:52 John Knowles : How does that differ from a “share” plugin?
09:35:26 Kristin Zhivago : seems to me that faking faces would lead to the company being “outed” for the fakery…!
09:35:28 Aren : The ‘Share’ plugin allows users to pos content to a variety of sites
09:35:41 Craig : an API is a bunch of code that a developer codes into your site.
09:35:57 Aren : Yes, Kristin.. very true
09:36:07 Kristin Zhivago : API = application programming interface, I think – a code module
09:36:11 John Knowles : I don’t see why Facebook connect would be better
09:36:13 Kristin Zhivago : with hooks
09:36:40 Aren : Facebook connect links the profile to the website and allows them to login in the future.
09:37:11 Aren : Share this functionality allows users to share content with their friends, followers etc only
09:37:12 Josef Nankivell : It is similar, however, it usually allows the site to broadcast to your facebook prfile
09:37:24 John Knowles : Sort of like a share button that remembers you?
09:37:52 Aren : Well, sort of.. however, share this buttons can recognise you and let you login to their service only
09:38:16 Josef Nankivell : for example, “Josef registered for an event using Eventbrite! Webinar: Social Media for Business Taster”. Opposed to “I am attending an event using Eventbright!”
09:38:16 Aren : Toby can say more during Qs – I don’t do technical, ha ha
09:39:30 John Knowles : So your activity with the website is automatically posted to your profile? (I’m not technical – after more of a “what it does” level answer!)
09:39:51 Josef Nankivell : it depends, but that is a possibility
09:40:02 John Knowles : Wouldn’t that just be really annoying?
09:40:47 Josef Nankivell : It wouldn’t be in a companies best interest to be annoying with the facebook connect feature
09:41:00 Aren : Yes, possibly… it depends on what that content is. Spammy content can do more harm than good
09:41:21 John Knowles : Well, exactly. I’m struggling to think of an example where it would be a good thing for the user.
09:41:45 Aren : In defining a strategy you need to take time to consider the options. Just because a feature exists it doesn’t always make it a good idea to use.
09:42:22 Josef Nankivell : if you look at my profile http://facebook.com/josefnankivellyou might be able to see some examples, such as Eventbright.
09:42:38 John Knowles : Thanks Josef
09:43:45 Josef Nankivell : no worries
09:48:42 John Knowles : I keep hearing RSS. What is it?
09:48:43 John Knowles : (Sorry – too many questions)
09:49:12 Elliot Smith : Really simple syndication
09:49:45 Josef Nankivell : its a way of having information that you are interested in come to you
09:50:10 Josef Nankivell : instead of visiting a news website, you could have news headline appear in your RSS “feed”
09:50:45 Kristin Zhivago : it’s the orange button on a lot of sites. If you click on it, you can get that site’s content sent to you via an RSS reader like Google reader
09:50:59 Kristin Zhivago : go to google reader and you’ll get started
09:51:04 habeyhl : and you can view a RSS feed in igoogle or google reader, or display a feed on your web site
09:51:27 Aren : Wikipedia definition: An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically.
09:52:03 Josef Nankivell : when you subscribe to more than one rss feed in your rss reader, it becomes a very powerful tool allowing you to get information relevant to you in one place
09:52:05 Aren : We use RSS (naturally present on WordPress blogs) to feed info across to other sites. i.e. To Facebook profiles
09:53:26 Aren : And as Josef says.. you can use RSS as a method to subscribe to the stories /articles from a site and read them in your RSS reader such as Google Reader
09:53:45 Aren : instead of visiting those sites to check for new content all the time
09:55:37 Josef Nankivell : Exactly! If it helps John, imagine one tv channel with all your favourite programmes on all day!
09:55:47 Kristin Zhivago : you can also set up an automatic feed – from your RSS reader to tweets – using twitterfeed.com
09:56:20 Aren : Yes, this is how Business Cornwall sends new stories out on twitter
09:57:17 cathy : It’s been very interesting ,thank you.Some of it went over my head but I will see how it might help us at www.penhaligonsfriends.org.ukin the 3rd sector.
09:57:46 Tony Conte : would you say then regsitering a Facebook business page is better than a personal one?
09:57:47 John Knowles : Just a few. Sorry…
09:58:05 Tony Conte : sunny
09:58:15 Gary J : When moderating comments, do you have an automatic banned words filter? What do you recommend?
09:59:40 Tony Conte : thanks Toby
09:59:41 Kristin Zhivago : do you see that linked in is all business, twitter is a mix, and facebook is becoming more personal?
09:59:50 Josef Nankivell : I think you are providing a very useful service to people who are unsure about social media. Once you help set them up, you are introducing them to a community full of helpful people!
10:00:51 Aren : LinkedIn is mostly business, Twitter and FB are what you want them to be, in my opinion… it depends on your friends / followers- you are in control
10:00:54 Josef Nankivell : I do not know of many businesses that offer that “leg-up” into social media for small businesses
10:01:02 Ray Bolitho : Thanks Toby & Aren. I’ll be in touch with Toby shortly.
10:01:23 John Knowles : Everything in moderation!
10:04:19 Kristin Zhivago : good summary, thanks
10:04:56 Gary J : All done – great info Thank you
10:04:57 John Knowles : me: me: Are blog homepages more effective as a list of full articles, or just headlines / first paragraphs where you can click through? me: What about Facebook Causes? Can you communicate with everyone at once on those?
10:05:01 Kristin Zhivago : how do we contact you?
10:05:27 Charla Symons : Thank you very much Aren & Toby, Totally Truro has found this webinar very useful
10:05:40 Aren : To contact Toby call +44 (0)1872 555933 or email toby@uknetweb.com
10:06:07 Aren : My contacts are: 07501 259000, aren@tonickmedia.com
10:06:23 Kristin Zhivago : thanks
10:06:27 Paul : Lot of good info to think about/explore. Thanks.
10:06:35 Aren : search our names on Google to find profiles and other contact details
10:06:42 cathy : I wanted to know which if any you would most recommend for a charity viz last statement ?
10:08:01 Josef Nankivell : Using facebook for fundraising events would be useful!
10:08:27 Kristin Zhivago : muxt go thanks so much. great meeting
10:08:37 Kristin Zhivago : will be in touch as soon as I reboot
10:08:45 habeyhl : can a facebook (fan) page post an event?
10:08:47 Jemiina Hautamäki : thank you very much, this was a good two hours! will follow you guys on twitter
10:09:08 Aren : Thank you
10:09:32 Gary J : Thanks – see ya !
10:09:38 Tony Conte : many thanks guys, much appreciated.
10:09:48 habeyhl : thanks, this was great
10:09:48 John Knowles : Tom and David want to know if you’re all at Skinners later.
10:09:50 Josef Nankivell : Thanks very much Toby & Aren! It has bee a very enjoyable and helpful experience!
10:09:57 Aren : Yes I will be at Skinners
10:10:20 Aren : For the Cornish delegates – pls check out http://cornwall.twestival.com
10:10:21 John Knowles : Well, have a great time!
10:11:19 Aren : Thanks John, I’m sure I will. Are you not going?

For all those who could not get a place on the first course, please get in touch, as we are hoping to run another event on Thursday May 7th.

Social Media Taster Course

All the resources used to prepare the presenation have been added to our Delicious Social Bookmarks under the tag ‘smtc’ – you can access these by going to http://www.delicious.com/galileorm/smtc

More details on the presenters can be found below:

Aren Grimshaw
Social Media Consultant (UKNetWeb Limited)
Aren is an experienced marketer with a good knowledge of social media tools, trends and emerging technology. He has worked with a range of small to medium enterprises in identifying routes to market their business on and offline. In 2008 he was awarded the Hub Innovator of the Year Award for his work on virtual conferences and the new Business Cornwall website.

Rob Edlin
Internet Marketing Consultant (Niddocks Limited)
Rob works with small, medium and large businesses throughout the UK, delivering training and consultancy on how to improve paid search results, natural search marketing, SEO and other forms of online marketing. His company, Niddocks, is a Google Adwords Qualified Company. Clients include: Fifteen Cornwall, Eden Project and Frugi.

Toby Parkins
Web and Ecommerce Consultant (UKNetWeb Limited)
Toby has worked with a range of small, medium and large businesses to identify routes to maximise their revenue online. His work with UKNetWeb has seen him deliver a number of world firsts on behalf of clients. In 2007 he was responsible for generating a mobile application for Nokia, forming part of a multi-channel campaign across numerous countries.

This channel features footage of our presentations to local groups, interviews carried out at the Cornwall Twestival and links to other videos we think you may find of interest. 

Please visit our channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/uknetwebsm.

It can help you understand the changing marketplace, provide a route to inform and educate your target market as well as drive new and returning business.

It is not just about technology. Social media may rely upon it, but the value is created in the exchanges of information, the conversations taking place and the relationships formed over it.

Reducing social media to a particular platform or technique is to misunderstand the underlying ideals that separate this medium from more traditional marketing approaches. It is about creating mutual benefit – not the age old targeted message delivered through the appropriate channel.

In fact, social media isn’t just marketing at all. It goes way further, taking on areas of PR, business strategy, market research, customer service and sales. Understanding the operating mechanisms and principles behind it can unleash whole new worlds of possibility for those businesses that understand them.

Let’s take networking as an example to start with.

Good networking is built on getting to know people and building rapport with them. It is built on mutual respect and a desire to help each other’s businesses grow. Through helping each other we foster good will, which over the longer term is rewarded by trust, referrals and new business.

Bad networkers treat the experience as an opportunity to hunt new business. They bore those around them reeling off their achievements. They try to dominate and push people towards doing business with them, with no interest in returning the favour. They operate on a ‘numbers game’ philosophy, thinking that as long as they keep trying some business will come out of it.

Eventually, people become wary of the bad networker. They don’t really want to talk to them. They cannot be confident referring business to them as they themselves feel intimidated by them. They do not feel the need to pass business in their direction because they never really did anything for them.

Good networkers see their credibility increase over time. Other business people know what they can do for them as they have heard first hand how they have worked with or helped others. They get recommended with confidence because they have taken time to build rapport with those around them.

Now think about your approach to social networking. Does it sound more like the first or second approach? Are you after the quick buck or in it for the longhaul?

OK, so what about the other uses of social media?

Market Research

Whatever business you’re in, there is sure to be some need to research your market, the competition or another facet of your business.

You can take time to compile industry statistics, read the latest trade magazine or conduct your own research into previous buying habits. However, it may all seem a bit flat and logical without a more human aspect – a more qualitative element to your research.

By understanding the opportunities created by social media you can bring your customers and potential customers into the process from the very beginning.

Take Walkers Crisps in the UK as an example.

They recently invited customers to suggest new flavours. People responded with their suggestions and eventually the most popular were launched in shops across the country. Not wanting to stop there, they invited customers to review the new flavours and vote to keep the one flavour they felt passionately about.

So what?

Well think about this. The customer did the work of the R & D department in suggesting flavours. The data recorded in the first process showed the most popular suggestions eliminating the need for focus groups or other surveys. The customer tested the products during the first release and recorded their findings by voting for their preference.

The customer felt ownership throughout the process. The customer engaged with the campaign, in many cases offering up their email addresses, phone numbers and other contact details in the process. The customer will have discussed the campaign and choices with others creating valuable word of mouth marketing for the company.

Win – Win – Win.

Walkers Crisps created a new product with an established market ready to adopt it.

The Customer got a new flavour of crisps that they had a role in deciding upon.

Suppliers and retailers could have confidence that demand for the product already existed.

Customer Service

There is a statistic repeated the world over which goes something along the lines of ‘A happy customer will share their experience with one other. An unhappy one will share it with ten.’(The numbers may differ but the idea’s the same)

Identifying the unhappy customer before it’s too late has always been a difficult task.

In a world where everyone has the tools to communicate their dissatisfaction with many others, finding them has never been more important.

For example, say I have a gripe against Company X which has just sold me a faulty widget.

I outline my gripe in a short message over Twitter which automatically updates my Facebook status. Some friends join me in berating Company X with comments on my Facebook status and a couple of reply Tweets.

Soon my complaint with Company X has been shared with not 10, but moving on for 1,000 (Total of Facebook Friends and Twitter Followers).

Add in, that my complaint is now supported by others, who have added their own perspective and shared details with their own networks, Company X is now facing a lot of negative attention.

By understanding the principles, you can seek to identify and address customer service issues before they get out of hand. You can turn those negative comments into positive ones, retaining the original customer and demonstrating to others your focus on customer service.

Business Strategy

Getting to know your way around the emerging digital landscape can open entirely new models of doing business.

We are no longer constrained to working in the same office, or even the same continent.

Take the recent Twestivals held across 175 separate locations across the globe. Although not strictly a business event, the Twestivals highlighted how the tools used within social media could be put to use in making funds for charity.

The process began with a single message shared over Twitter and led to volunteers organising their own teams to put together an event in their city with sponsorship, food, drink, live streaming of footage over the internet, local and regional news coverage and event bookings.

In many cases even the local teams had never met before, nor did they know the guests that would be attending on the night.

I was lucky to be involved as the Cornwall Twestival organiser. I had a rare chance to watch all this come together in just 4 weeks. To see organisers collaborating on a global scale. To see people coming together locally with pride in their local event.

If all this could be achieved from a message over just four weeks, what could a business do with the same tools over the space of a few weeks, months or even years?

PR

There are many different aspects to public relations, some of which will have been covered in the previous sections relating to networking and reputation management. What remains to be mentioned is the role of blogs and other internet news or article sites.

Getting media attention for your company is no longer just a case of firing a press release off to the local hack and ensuring you buy him or her lunch once in a while. The media is now in the hands of millions of individuals acting outside the constraints of the traditional press, TV and radio institutions.

Bloggers, are independent commentators reporting on or discussing events, launches and other matters that they believe to be of interest to their their audience. Many are not restrained by the presence of editors or advertisers. They speak to build their own credibility, to generate revenue from advertising (often in the form of Google Ads) and in many cases just because they like doing it.

Bringing bloggers into your marketing mix can be powerful for your business. Acting more like a word of mouth referral than traditional news coverage, bloggers can shine a light on your business should they decide to mention you or write a post about you. Understanding their motivations and engaging with them is like the other areas of social media, more about mutual respect and a win-win approach than the age old, message – channel – target market.

Coming back to where we started, social media is a lot more than just marketing. It is a lot more than the latest platform or service offering – those are just fads.

What matters are the changes taking place in the way we communicate and manage our businesses. The conversations initiated, the relationships formed, the new models of business and the emerging possibilities created as we move forward in an ever more connected, ever more sociable world

Customer engagement is all about engaging your customers with your company or brand and it can lead to increased order values, customer loyalty and word of mouth recommendation.

Given that a recession is around the corner or already upon us, keeping customers is something that any well minded company should be focusing a lot of attention on.

Yet, in a survey reported in Brand Republic last week it was revealed that just 51% of companies have placed greater emphasis on customer engagement as a result of the economic crisis. 

The survey uncovered that those planning investment in new customer engagement strategies planned to spend their organisations’ money on a range of techniques, including many so called ‘Web 2.0’ areas such as blogging, user generated content and feedback and review systems to name a few. 

These services offer great ways to engage your customers. Blogs give you the opportunity to share wisdom or advice with your audience. User generated content allows your customers to create value with your organisation. And feedback / reviews offer that word of mouth recommendation to your goods or services.

Implementing these types of strategies can vary in cost and other resources; however, the investment can be more than worth it if it results in better relationships with your customers.  

So where do you start?

Have a look around at what the competition are doing. Start with the market leaders and work your way down to your own level (presuming you’re not one of the market leaders). What do you see as innovative? What would your customers react well to? How can you see their ideas working for you? 

Once you have the basic research sit down and brainstorm some of your own ideas. Put it all together and look at the resources you have to hand; money, time, personnel and skills. 

Perform a basic cost to return analysis – run each customer engagement idea through this process, determining whether the benefits to be had, match or exceed the investment required. 

This may sound difficult to ascertain when looking at customer engagement but there are ways to get a basic idea. Here are some questions you should ask yourself when evaluating any potential changes:

What is the average order value? – Can you make changes that will lead to greater order values? How much greater would you expect order values to be after making any change?

How long do you usually retain a client for? How valuable is the average client over that period? If you retain a customer what value would you be retaining in the business? 

How many customers do you normally lose? What target would you set on retaining customers after any changes? How much value would the retained clients bring you?

What does it cost to gain each new client in the first place? How much is your marketing, advertising and PR spend compared to the number of customers acquired? What would the value of keeping clients be over acquiring new ones?

Armed with the information you can make informed choices on the customer engagement strategy that is best for your business. However, remember this is an evolutionary process and should not stop there. Record your progress and ensure that you tweak your strategy regularly to ensure the best results. 

If you would like help or advice on preparing your customer engagement strategy or implementing and integrating blogging, user content or feedback systems please call and speak to Aren on 01872 555933 or send an email using the contact form provided.

Web development company, UKNetWeb, which advises businesses on their use of Social Media, has issued the warning after noticing a number of local business people had fallen victim to the virus which spreads itself through messages sent to each member of a their friend list.

The title of the dodgy message varies with messages such as “Maan,yyou’re great!” and “your ass looks not bad in this video” forming part of the message body or Facebook wall posting.

Anyone receiving messages of this kind should not press the link under any circumstances and should delete the message from their inbox or wall immediately.

Once clicked, these links forward you to a site which hunts for a file on your PC referred to as a cookie and prompts the user to update their video or flash software. Once accepted the Trojan virus proceeds to lock the user out of their account and messages each of the friends on their friend list with a similar message, further spreading the virus.

UKNetWeb Managing Director, Toby Parkins says, “Issues of this kind are not uncommon; however, they can be extremely disruptive and annoying to the individuals involved.”

“It is always best to exercise caution and where suspicious do not take any chances. You should ensure that your computer has the latest anti-virus and anti-phishing software installed and run on a daily basis”. He continued.

Facebook has now taken steps to deactivate malicious links in messages through the network; however, it is still possible that some may get through. Anyone worried about their security should seek the advice of their web developer or IT specialist.