UKNetWeb Blog

This chatroom transcript was taken from the Social Media for Business Taster Webinar on 27th August 2009. The event itself took the form of a video and audio delivered presentation delivered in 2 parts by Toby Parkins and Aren Grimshaw.

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?

Tags: Add new tag, aren grimshaw, smtc, social media, toby parkins, web 2.0, Web Development, webinar

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Business, Marketing, News, Social Networking, Twitter for Beginners, social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.