Social Media a few basic rules for Business

Social Media a few basic rules for Business

Firstly I don’t apologise for writing about “Social Media” and the importance of it to all of us in business. For business along with our private lives things are changing across the world, already in our lives a few new words have entered into our everyday vocabularies: Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, 4square, LinkedIn to name but a few.

Social Media has really taken off beyond what anyone could have expected just a few years ago. Both individuals using it for fun and businesses looking to connect with customers are finding that it can bring benefits that would be hard to achieve in the offline world.

But to benefit from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, make sure you follow a few basic rules to help you really feel the full force of what social media can provide:

Be Active: There is little point signing up for a social media account if you only use it once a month and never interact with people. Update information and communicate with key connections on a regular basis to stay visible. Try setting aside half an hour or so per day that is dedicated social media time.

Be Relevant: Have you ever read something and thought "so what?" afterwards? Avoid these messages in your social media material, including Tweets and Facebook status updates. You will not create a buzz for your business if what you say is not relevant to the people you want to connect with.

Make the Right Connections: Do not think that just because you have followed 2000 people you are a Twitter expert. Or because you are connected to 500 people on LinkedIn you are a networking guru. It's all about making the right connections. What is the point of connecting with someone who has no link to your area of business or affiliation with your audience? It makes much more sense to target relevant people you know are interested in your services.

So if you struggle to know what to tweet, comment or mention or are unsure of how to connect with the right people, contact  Wayne Collier and Co who can either manage your campaigns for you, or train you how to do so yourself. Please remember it’s all about making the right connections. It's not how many people you connect with, but who you connect with that's important in the world of Social Media.

Wayne Collier and Co making Social Media work for your business.
Contact us today on 0844 2412240 or 07811111786 (best option) and I’ll be happy to help and advise you and your business.
Wayne
WayneCollier Company Limited
Maldon, Essex.

Share and share!

Share and share!  I am a seasoned professional, which means I am “OLD” so when I started out in business some 35 years ago the challenge was to get our/your product “Known” within your market place, this was a costly exercise.

Advertising and Marketing required very large budgets whoever had the most money would win, with TV at the top of the tree.

Now with all the 21^st century opportunities and the implementation of Social Media it has revolutionised the work environment and the way we work. A few years ago the concept of walking around and doing business from a laptop or even a mobile phone would have be thought of as science fiction or even from a James Bond film.

With all these changes Social Media has become the cornerstone for companies to really interact in a different way with its audience. Your website has become more than just a business card on line it’s your shop window to show what you do.

Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn along with others have got power. Just think how social media played a role in the deposing of some Middle Eastern dictators and then you can start to estimate what it could do for your business.

Be Social, Be Seen is my message.

Many business people still do greatly misunderstand Social Media don’t become one of them, Look at it  as an organiser, ensuring all the right people are at the party, interacting with everyone so that there is no lack of  conversation.

Wayne.

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Networking!

Networking!

What, When, Why and How. Ok up until November 2010 my past experiences of any networking group had been poor, some of that because I personally could not be asked to attend, I was just dragged along as a guest to make the numbers up and see if I was mad enough to join up. The other point was that all anyone wanted to do was to try to sell their business and themselves to you, and then tell you what they had done for other members in the room. Knowing that the service that you were offering did not suit the needs of anyone in the room made it difficult to see the point of attending.

My attitude maybe a bit old fashioned but if someone wants to sell something to me, pick the phone up ask the question, am I interested in ( x ) if yes then maybe we could arrange for them to come and see me, job done.  In my world people buy from people and it’s not what you know it’s who you know.

However I had been told that over the past 5 or 6 years networking meetings had changed but because of the bad experiences in the past I have certainly kept away. Then in November last year I met up with a Stella from AboutMyArea an on-line information website based in Maldon who somehow persuaded me to attend a local networking group in Witham. One of the reasons for going was because Stella was going to start the Maldon Business Networking Group in Maldon based around the Witham setup, little did I know at the time that my thoughts on networking would change.

Stella said it was free to attend, informal no stand up speeches and no one asking directly for work and the coffee was quite good as well, since that day I have now managed to attend a few different types of networking meetings which I have enjoyed. The events that I have attended have all been different, local networking events, council events, FSBessex event and by kind invertatation from Emma at Spectrum Merchandising  to join in at a 4N group breakfast meeting at Maldon golf club.

In mid March I will be attending as a guest a BNI meeting which I have been told will be very different from the bad experiences of the past, but we will see.

An overview of what I have learnt so far in a short time from my local networking experience. I have met some very nice and interesting people from completely different business back grounds, it has generally been very relaxed and social. I have enjoyed listening to other people talk about their industry the good and also some of bad parts without them trying to sell themselves or pushing their business services on to me.

I must say a very big thank you to the persistence of Stella in getting me to join in. If you have never been to a networking meeting, I would urge you to try one out.

To be continued!

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk

www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/cm9

www.spectrum-merchandising.com

Vanishing

Vanishing act!

How visible is your business brand!

Do you stand out from the crowd!

How do people remember you,  what makes you stand out from the crowd, when was the last time you stood back and thought about this in your business.

When was the last time you had a good hard look at your competition, take note of what they are doing and then take the required action to ensure that you have all the cards stacked in your favour to succeed?

These 4 small points below are so vital to learn and understand, once in place your business can push ahead and stay ahead.

1.      What is your business’s unique selling point or points?

2.      Why are you different to the competition?

3.      What are you doing to stay ahead?

The forth one is the one that everyone knows, but in today’s society we are starting to lose control off so please ensure that you don’t let it happen to you.

People buy from people however with trading markets changing because of the internet it’s now more important than ever to have a social media presence. Your staff can’t always engage with your customers directly but with the help of Social media you can start to establish credibility, likeability and trust even before they have had any contact with you or your staff.

In today’s market you need all the Social Media help you can for your business, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, Blog and of course your up to date website.

If you need a hand to stay ahead call Wayne as he will have the answers and solutions under his hat for you. He may even wave his magic wand for you.

Wayne.

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Your Team and Social Media

Your Team and Social Media. Social media along with your team around you are the most important assets in your business, you are the driving force behind your brand, products and services your decisions make an impact directly on the direction of your business you lead from the front make sure your team are behind you.

When was the last time you spent time and money on training within your business and learning about the power of social media, ask your team around you their thoughts. The world is changing so quickly because of the internet, how do you communicate your business message out and don’t do it without spending time and some money on training.

The word “social” = conversation.  You always try and engage in conversation with customers, so also make sure you have conversations with your team around you. Don’t try and do it all on your own.

Participating in any form of social media takes a lot of work and time. First you have to have something to say, and then you need someone or a team of people to say it on a regular basis. It will not happen unless you have someone or a team of people ready to commit a big chunk of time to maintaining your social media presence.

With so many different ways to get connected, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Blogging to name but a few, however make sure you get your strategy in place before you start.

Remember social media remains one of the cheapest and most cost effective way to build relationships, drive traffic to your Blog or Website promote your business brand and services. Take advice, spend some money on training you and your staff, plan a strategy and get going.

When was the last time you had some training?

Conversation and communication is vital, if you need help, training or advice contact us and talk about your business.

Wayne Collier

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Customer Relationships

Customer Relationships..We are very much in a mobile world with everyone being able to be contacted 24/7 that’s why communication and information is the key to effective customer retention. If you really know and understand your customers you can them arrange the service and respect they deserve.

Remember every person and every customer is different and yes I know it’s imposable to remember everything about everyone that’s why bespoke e-mail marketing can help you gather the information you require.

Start with the basic information from your first meeting you would have gathered the contact name, company name their address contact details and the business sector that they operate in.

The four basic things that you have to do by gathering as much demographic information, track all customer date and behaviours, conduct a customer survey and then listen to your customers. The basic four points.

Bespoke e-mail marketing can help you achieve all the above four things and help you to get to know your customers, and remember the more you get to know them the more they will respond with their loyalty.

What’s more it can be that easy as people love to talk about their business all you have to do is listen.

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Boost your Brand with Social Media.

Boost your Brand with Social Media. Social Media is just basically the communication of your brand on-line it offers you the opportunity to boost awareness through discussion and interaction and increased visible awareness by sharing with your community.

Ways you can get connected are through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Blogging to name a few. Then all you need to do is get a discussion going around your brand by asking people within you community questions about your business.

Once you are ready to get going figure out what you are looking to gain out of social media, plan your long term strategies, create your business profiles, learn about the community you are entering into, and then get going and become an active part of that community.

Remember social media remains one of the cheapest and most effective ways to build relationships and drive traffic to your Blog or Website by sharing news information from within you industry.

Good luck.

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Marketing plans

Marketing plans..A pivotal part of any successful marketing campaign in today’s market is to have a bespoke direct e-mail marketing plan. All it takes is a few e-mail addresses, design and a bit of thought and away you go.

Quick let’s get going as before you know where we are it will be the end of January and already one of your marketing resolutions will have gone by the wayside. Forward thinking is the way to success. Don’t get left behind.

If you or your business don’t already offer e-mail marketing as a service direct to your customers you are missing a major trick. E-mail marketing works in a few different ways as listed below, and they are all important in building your on-line brand.

However before you start any on-line campaigns, please make sure you have Google analytics set up on the back of your site so you can monitor the success of your campaigns. It’s that easy and it’s free.

·        Number one whatever happens to your campaign it will drive extra traffic to you site. A fact! This can be checked via Google.

·        Think of a ways to gain e-mail addresses and start building your own database for the future. Buying lists is a waste of time.

·        Set out your first four campaigns ready. Know your direction and market place before you start.

·        Use the campaign to engage your customers first, and then ask for feedback on what you are doing. Always ask questions.

·        Ensure that your campaigns plan is integrated into your complete marketing and advertising program.

·        Track your customers and their behaviours what are they linking into on your site.

·        The best way to develop better relationships with your customers is to look and listen, interact with them.

·        Once you start to know your customers needs, they will respond.

Design, Deliver and Track that’s the 3 key points of any of our bespoke e-mail campaigns at WayneCollier.co.uk.

With our help and knowledge we will ensure that you always have the right solutions for your marketing plans.

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Keywords

Keywords!  Every person and website owner has heard something about them, every search engine uses them, part of your “SEO” Search Engine Optimisation, will be linked to them, so we are talking “Keywords”

Do you know the keywords which are linked or associated to your business?

What is a keyword? It’s a single word or phrase which is used to help search engines index your site. Four, five or six word phrases, short sentences that may be typed in by your potential customers into a search engine to find your business’s services or company name displayed within your website.

·        Find words that people use to find your service or product.

·        Use Google Adwords or a wordtracker software to help.

·        Check out the analytics date of others.

·        Remember that different search engines will not use the same words.

Take time in choosing them, think it through make sure you research for effective keywords; if not any money that you may spend on SEO will be wasted.

Correct search engine optimisation is a very expensive and time consuming task, and remember in this world you only get what you pay for when it comes down to time.

Please also remember that the main reason for taking your time to choose the best and most relevant keywords for SEO is to divert larger amounts of targeted traffic to you website to try and keep you ahead of your local competitors.

You know your business and how it works!

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Time is money!

Time is Money....Money,Money,Money.The stopwatch is ticking and I am told time is money so I better get on with this blog. Running around like a head-less chicken is not the answer and in any ones language it is right “time is money”.

With this in mind I know only too well that sometimes in life we miss out on doing the important things, it’s called the pressure of running your own business, the telephone rings, or someone comes into the office or you just get distracted. Don’t let it happen, that’s why it’s so important to have a marketing and advertising strategy plan in place.

At times in your own business do you feel that you’re the only one who is positive and if you don’t do it probably won’t happen, that’s when you need help? Let us help you be inspired and positive, so you may have the time to make things happen.

The more time you have for planning the more opportunities you have for your strategy to work. Remember one of the golden old sayings “Plan to fail or Fail to Plan” make sure you make time.

With our help and knowledge we will ensure that you always have the right solutions to stop the clock ticking away in the back ground.

Wayne.

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Communication!

Communication

How do you communicate your business message out!

A conversation via pictures or words, how does your business talk to its

customers!

How do you engage your customers long term!

The ability to communicate your message out effectively by any method is best achieved through simple planning. How do you control and improve the flow of information sent out about your business, its products and services.

Communicating your message and conversation out across all forms of media, marketing, advertising, social media, trade shows, e-mails, video, telephone, pr, web based and word of mouth etc, is vital to your business success.

An integrated marketing strategy plan on the way your business communicates information is the key to achieving success and value for money, a good plan requires in-depth research to gain an understanding of your target audiences, along with the ability to work within a yearly budget.

We have the experience, knowledge and the capability to get your message out. Our cost-effective services can help to keep your business on the road to success and one jump ahead of your competition.

Conversation and communication is vital. So let’s talk about your business!

Wayne.

www.waynecollier.co.uk

New to Maldon CM9 area.

Maldon Business Networking......New to the Maldon district area and getting underway on Friday 21^st January 2011 from 4.30pm to 6.30pm venue. The OakHouse, High Street, Maldon.

Cost: FREE! Meeting every other Friday from the 21^st January.

WayneCollier.co.uk is pleased to be sponsoring the first Business Card Draw.

For more details on the new business networking group checkout:

 www.maldonbusinessnetworking.blogspot.com

Or contact Stella Bradbrook  mobile: 07860718845

e-mail:  stellacm9@aboutmyarea.co.uk

Video Marketing

Video marketing...Video marketing and communication is now a very cost-efficient means of reaching your prospective market place, by promoting your products and services via the internet and your website or blog.

The use of video in marketing campaigns is a great option to use now, it’s catchier than other advertising and can portray your message direct to your customers much faster than a few simple pictures and text can ever do.

Be creative and showcase your business services for just 60 seconds on your website, a few years ago the cost and complexity would have stopped most businesses from even thinking about video. However the integration of video into Google and YouTube being the second biggest search engine the doors have opened up for all. Just think how much you can say about your business, its services and your staff in just 60 seconds.

Make sure you make the most of the falling costs of video production and the fact that video marketing expansion through broadband. Just remember most people prefer to see something before they are forced to read it.

Low-cost video marketing and advertising is the next step for your business website. Take away pages of boring text and tell your story direct and stay ahead.

A video demonstrates your business and its products and services along with a personal message about you and your company.

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Lost in the crowd!

Lost in the crowd!! Do you find at times that you feel your business just gets lost in the crowd where no one can see you!  Or on the other hand you feel like you are cloned as everyone that’s your competitors are doing the same marketing and advertising campaigns as you are!

You open the local papers and there are six adverts for your service how do you get someone to call you. Next you then search Google and you could well be just one of hundreds in the local area and not even on the first couple of pages, the yellow and blue books are the same. So what makes your business unique?

If you are unique in what you do or offer, how are you getting your message across to the right people?

You need to ensure that your business stands out from the crowd, so you don’t feel cloned and lost within your market place as you need to become a leader, lead from the front, a company that people look up to listen to, become the bench mark that others try to copy.

“Become the speaker not the listener”

We can help you come up with fresh ideas, different marketing solutions and strategies to make sure you stand out from the crowd with creative solutions for your business requirements.

So if you feel lost, give us a call, we are at your service to advise and help, times are changing quickly so make sure your spending your marketing and advertising budgets wisely in the right areas.

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Fresh Ideas!

Fresh Ideas! Are you and your business stuck in a rut when it comes to marketing, you know deep down that you need to make changes to your marketing strategy but you’ve never got the time to look at what’s around.

So you either don’t do anything or just leave it as it was, it’s not broke so why fix it attitude, either way it’s not good business practice, anyway in any business support is essential that’s where we can help.

Looking for fresh ideas and a fresh approach we can help by developing long term marketing plans to advertise your business much more effectively helping you avoid expensive mistakes but more importantly make your marketing budget a success. Both in practice and financially.

Times are always changing so please don’t get stuck in a rut as you need to change and move with the times. We have just two golden rules that we ask you to follow:

1.     Start paying attention to what’s happening around you.

2.     Schedule some marketing time in your diary each week.

We operate by working with you by offering an on-going service and advice throughout your marketing plan.

“Our expertise is your expertise”

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk

Company Medical

Company Medical....Is your Company in need of a Medical! As it’s a common misconception that businesses need to spend large amounts of money on marketing to gain the required significant benefits.

This does not have to be the case as a quick health check of your business may show that a little fine tuning of your marketing plan in some areas is all you need.

To gain the maximum benefit for your Business, it’s important to renew and evaluate your plans regularly. As any time and money that you spend on marketing is an investment in your future success. So you need to make sure it’s time and money well spent that’s where we can help and advise you.

The key parts in most business are to satisfy your current customers, encourage past customers and inspire new customers into your business, so have you got clear marketing targets/goals, do you communicate with them regularly and are you using all the technology that’s available to you.

A quick medical every now and again is all you need, it’s just like having your car serviced.

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk

PR - Public Relations

Public Relations. (PR)......You don’t have to spend a fortune to keep your business in the local public eye, with a little time and creativity, you can create effective PR campaigns quickly and cheaply to promote your business or service.

When setting out to promote your business or services, it’s important to be clear about what you are aiming to achieve from the start. You may be looking for increased sales, increased visits to your website or just more awareness to your company’s brand or services.

At lot of people forget that in any Public Relations campaign it always includes a provision for publicity, and being that publicity is the by word of the spreading of information and awareness, these can be used for either your Company Brand name or its products to be promoted.

A PR campaign is just another great way to help build your Brand in the local community, there are loads of different ways to link up in the local community and as I said before you don’t have to spend a fortune to gain results.

Some ways for you to think about, Join social groups and networks, volunteer to speak at local meetings, write press release about your company’s success, get involved in charity work, along with helping out fundraising in your local area are just a few different was to help build your brand in the local community.

Your Public Relations campaign strategy should always be viewed as another part of the marketing jigsaw to keep you ahead of your competitors.

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk