Someone sent me a tweet last week asking if I ever had conversations on twitter?

At first I thought, ‘that’s a bit odd, of course I do’ I mean, I speak to lots of people about various things, not all social media, that would be boring..hang on, I do send a few social media related tweets out. And I also re-tweet stuff every now and then.

Is that what they are referring to?

If so, then there is a good reason for that!

Be seen.

Social media, quite obviously is part of my marketing campaign. Along with blog writing and many other marketing techniques.

Like many other people, I have a business to run, and I have a family too. Getting time to sit on twitter all day is a thing of the past, especially now as things are getting busy, and the boys are getting bigger, spare time is as rare as rocking horse sh*t.

I think it is important to be seen to be active on twitter and other social media platforms. I think it is important that you are sending out quality information, potentially with links on to your website, after all you want to send people to your website to see what you are offering and can do.

This is why I use it as part of my marketing campaign.

Be active.

By being active and sending out scheduled messages when you are in meetings, networking or in the car isn’t a bad thing. It creates a presence on social media that not only enables other people to see your avatar or logo but also gives people the opportunity to re-tweet or comment on your messages, spreading the word about you whilst you are working etc.

Your social media network is part of your sales team right?

Be successful.

So, the answer is ‘yes, I do have conversations on twitter’, but only when I am able to, it doesn’t take over my daily work stuff.

And yes I do schedule messages out for when I know I will be in meetings or unable to get onto twitter etc, this encourages people to my website. These messages are often re-tweeted, which is good, then more people become aware of my company.

Off the back of this I build a better brand awareness which helps towards a more successful marketing campaign, and more inquiries and opportunities for me.

Remember also, there will be times when I am busy yet watching my twitter feed; keeping up to date with my network and competition.

I may not be having conversations all the time, but I have a presence, which is very important!

Clients: Who needs them?

What’s your idea of the perfect client or customer?

Think about it for a minute.

Do they spend the most money with you?  Are they are repeat client? Do they furnish you with all the information you need? Are they a family member or a friend?

Or do they all come with a bit of aggravation? A little bit of hard work? Do they take that extra bit of explanation as to what you are doing and why?

I had never really thought about who my ideal client would be, don’t get me wrong, I had been asked the question by business gurus and the like, but never really knew the right answer (if there is actually a right answer).

But, I am going to tell you what my ideal client is right now.

My perfect client.

This week had started well, I ached a bit from doing the 10K race on Sunday, but it was a pleasant ache, and I was looking forward to getting the week under way.

I had a meeting arranged with a potential client on Tuesday afternoon, I won’t go into detail about what they do or who they are or if he is male or female, but I was nervous, as I had been recommended to him.

He greeted me with a beaming smile and a hearty handshake, and said ‘are you supposed to look like that bloke off of twitter?’

To be honest he lost me at that point, and it took a few seconds to realise he was talking the avatar from one of my ‘other’ twitter accounts, he had done a bit of research on me, this was a good sign.

For the first 15 minutes we talked about social media and how it could benefit his company etc, and then he said, right then enough of that, let’s have a cup of tea and a chat.

An hour or so and several custard creams later, my cheeks hurt from laughter and I had clean forgotten the fact that this chap was a potential client. He had made me feel so welcome, he had me on the floor in stitches and I could quite easily have gone for a pint with him!

As I left I sent a tweet out about the meeting, and thought, yeah, he could quite possibly be my ideal client.

Is he my ideal client?

Not yet, we’re still negotiating bits and bobs, but I tell you one thing, I have got everything crossed that he will be.

Are you sick of the sight of Social Media yet?

Social media, it’s grabbed the attention of everyone over the past 3 or 4 years hasn’t it?

I mean, everywhere you look it’s ‘Follow us on Twitter here’ or ‘Like us on Facebook here’ – drives you nuts doesn’t it?

Everyone is encouraging you to connect with them, engage with them, follow, like, poke add them, they tell you to do it via TV adverts, shop windows, local magazines, global magazines, on the sides of buses – Social media enables them to provide information to you at the touch of a button over a multitude of platforms, they can bring it to you quicker and faster than their competition – just for you.

And I don’t think the social media band wagon is going to stop any time soon. Oh no, you mark my words.

Here’s a question for you.

Q: Do you know how many active social media platforms there are?

A: Just about far too many (in my opinion – but hey, what do I know right).

There are hods, this link here on Wikipedia will give you an idea of just how many there are.

Where are you with social media?

How many of them do you recognise on that link let alone are active on? I am guessing you are probably using 4 – 5 of them at the most.

You have a twitter account, a Facebook personal and or business page, you’re probably on Linkedin (but not using it properly, very few people do), you may have dabbled with Google + recently but don’t ‘get it’, and you may or may not blog.

You may use one of them more than others, because it’s easier, you don’t like the other ones, none of your mates use it, lots of excuses.

But, think about it, if you are planning a serious social media marketing campaign then you need to be active on all of them.

A good profile is a good start.

OK let’s assume you have the twitter, FB page and Linkedin profile for starters.

From your bio what can people tell about you or your company? Is it all ‘my company this’ or ‘I am brilliant because’?

Does it tell people what you or your company do? Do you use keywords in your bio to help you to be found?

People set their bio up at the beginning and think, ‘I’ll finish that off later’ and never do.

Things to check:

1. Your bio is a mix of both company info, and something interesting about you. Don’t lie.
2. Check the links to website(s) actually work.
3. Avatar. Make sure it is the same on every platform.

The bio is generally the first thing people will read about you and what you or your company can offer, take that opportunity to stand out from the others, and make sure that people want to follow or connect with you.

If you want to connect with me and you don’t have an avatar showing me who your are or your company logo, I will not connect with you…just saying!

Be different. Make a great impression. Enjoy.

Getting found on Google

So, you have a fantastic website!

It looks good, it’s well laid out and easy to navigate.

How is it doing in the rankings? Is the SEO working for your website?

How can you help to improve your SEO?

Important questions that need answering and here’s how.

Staying found on Google.

You could get an SEO report done on your website content, there are plenty of people out there that offer this service, and it’s simple and will give you answers on how to improve your SEO content and how it fairs against competition.

The SEO report normally offers a step by step guide to improving your website SEO content (if you need any help with then please feel free to ask me – happy to assist).

The technical geniuses at Google have recently changed their algorithms, and the Google bots are now picking up more on fresher content.

So, to help keep your content fresh on your website, how about writing a blog?

Keywords and phrases.

Writing blogs is fun, you can write about whatever you like, whenever you like.

You can use the Google keyword tool to check on how often keywords and phrases that you want to include in your blog are searched for on Google.

Then before you post your blogs you can use the live keyword analysis tool to see how well the keywords and phrases you have chosen are performing in your blog. The higher the percentage the better.

Tip –  keep Google happy and help you to get higher ranking write about things that are topical and trending and ideally to do with your profession.

Organic rankings

The more blogs you write with more keywords the more likely your website will be found on Google and other search engines, and the more this is happening the more your rankings will naturally increase.

By writing blogs you are increasing your organic SEO content, you will soon find that you are increasing traffic to your site, and your bounce rate is decreasing.

Don’t forget to tweet your blog and post it on sites such as Tumbler and Facebook, the more sites you put it on, the more you are driving traffic to your website.

Have fun with your writing, and why not be a little controversial sometimes, really mix it up a bit!

Give it some Klout!

In my previous work role I was an estimator for fit out companies. I dealt with architects and surveyors and it was my job to put together complete costed packages for office and high end residential fit outs etc.

I was a numbers man.  Bit of a geek. I am pretty good with figures and love excel!!

I loved to measure and analyse things. I am a little tiny bit competitive and always hated it when we were unsuccessful with a tender.

So imagine how excited I was when I found out about klout.

What is Klout?

Klout is a complex algorithm used to measure your influence amongst others.

Your Klout rating can be set up to measure your activities not only twitter, but also Facebook, how often you post pictures and how often you post blogs etc.

The Klout score measure is taken on how much you use social networks

Your personal Klout score is something that more and more people are becoming aware of, it’s certainly something that I get asked about a lot.

How do you increase your Klout rating? Be yourself. Talk about stuff, mainly what you are passionate about, but also engage with others and get them to engage with you.

There is a misconception that you have to have tens of thousands of followers to be deemed a influential.  As I said it’s all about engagement with others and frequently posting useful information about your particular field, influencing people with your knowledge.

How important is Klout?

Depends how you look at it. I like to keep my Klout score high, but then as I said, I am competitive. It isn’t really important.

Or is it?

What if social media became more popular and powerful a tool than it already is?  Things can change in the future.

What if potential client were to check out your klout score to see if it was high enough to be considered influential in your field? Influential enough to be approached to carry out work for them. Your score is now looking a little more important isn’t it.

So how influential are you?!

Oh and by the way, the klout scores recently dropped due to a slight change in the algorithm used by klout. So if you found your score had dropped a little, don’t panic, so did everyone else’s. Mine was 62, and now it’s dropped!

Do you know…?

I was talking to a new contact this week about work. We discussed our previous lives, and where we had both worked over the years and who we knew.

Two things came from this conversation:

Firstly I have been working for 19 years this week. I started my working life October 26th 1992.

Secondly, this chap knew my first boss. I won’t go into how, but it’s a strange story.

My first boss, let’s call him Dave (seeing as that was his name) was a very funny guy, I am guessing he still is. At least I hope he still is.

I loved going to work. I got paid to have a laugh, swap jokes, mickey take and develop my sense of humourl skills. We did a bit of work too, and I got bruised a lot from being used in Dave’s taekwondo ‘show and tell’ mornings. Which mainly involved him throwing me around the office. But I didn’t care.

Just for the record, my job was as an assistant estimator at a Joinery company.

Anyway, Dave. Top bloke.

Found him!

After the conversation with my new contact I got straight onto Linkedin to see if I could find him.

And I did.

So I sent him a connection request, asking him how he was, and if he wanted to catch up for a coffee (or a tea, or perhaps a pint).

I am assuming he remembers me, if I still had the bruises I could prove it was me!

Linkedin.

Anyway, whether he does or not is yet to be seen, the point of the matter is this…actually I am not going to tell you what the point of it is, that’s for you to work out.

Once you have worked it out, you’ll get this little smile on your face and say to yourself ‘ah, I get it now’.

Linkedin, may never quite look the same.

The world is getting smaller by the day.

I am watching you

I would like to clarify something if I may, I am not, and never have been (can’t vouch for what will happen in the future) a stalker.

A bit of an odd statement to make you may think, but I am no more of a stalker than you (unless you are a real life, serious bunny boiler type stalker).

But I do like to watch people.

Feed me.

I watch lots of people all at the same time. I listen to lots of conversations all at the same time. I laugh at what people say and feel saddened by other things people say.

I read interesting documents and web links.

I pay attention. I listen and I learn.

How?

Let’s make a list

I use lists. I set up a list and put people in them.

This is how to do it

1. Go to your twitter home page
2. Click on the ‘lists’ drop down
3. Click on ‘create a list’
4. Fill in the ‘list name’ box. For example ‘my twitter friends’
5. You can fill the description box if you wish, I generally leave it empty.
6. Select your privacy setting, remember to keep it private if you don’t want others to be able to access it, or read it.

Once you have created your list, you are ready to add people to it. The beauty of this is, you don’t have to be following someone to add them to a list!

This is how you can add some one to a list. Let’s start with people who follow you.

1. Click on your followers.
2. You will have a list of people on your screen, with your most recent follower at the top. To the right hand side of their bio, next to the follow / unfollow button, is a drop down box, click on it.
3. You will have 4 options, click on the ‘add to list’ option.
4. This will open another box with a list of your ‘lists’ in, tick the box in which you wish that person to go into.
5. Remember, you don’t have to put people in a list.
6. You can put people in to more than one list.

Also, if you go to your profile page you will see next to your followers is ‘lists’. This is all of the lists that other people have put you into.

Social media feeds my hunger for knowledge

I get put into some rather odd ones! Check them out if you want, you can follow people that are in those lists, and of course follow those who are following those that are in those lists.

So, with lists set up I can watch what people are talking about, who they are talking to and they don’t even know I am doing it! I can watch these lists as and when I want. You don’t always have to read or watch your home feed, it gets boring sometimes.

Knowledge is power right?

By the way, I am not necessarily using my @EssexSocial or @The_PaulWeston twitter accounts to do this hahaha.

If you would like more help in setting lists up, please feel free to ask, I won’t bite and am happy to help.

As a typical bloke…

As you may or may not know, I like a gadget.

Be it a funky bottle opener that comes out with Homer Simpson phrases every time you use it (I’ve had this a while now and it still makes me chuckle….in a grown up adult kind of way) to most of the cool toys the boys may have to my wonderful (can’t leave home without it) iPad.

Lots of gadgets are life changing in one way or another, they may be not a necessity but they may change the way you do things.

Washing machines, calculators and vacuum cleaners are good examples of how some gadgets change the way we do things.

Is it a change for the better? Or a change for convenience? Either way, we use them, millions are sold year after year and they are constantly changing and evolving.

A few years ago (2007) Steve Jobs and Apple released the iPhone. A revolutionary take on a simple concept, which is really a mobile phone, with a twist or two.

Yah, yah yah!

Anyone remember the first breed of mobile phones? Clumpy old things weren’t they; they seemed to bring out the ‘yuppie’ in everyone. (I was far too young, and probably not strong enough to have one at the time).

Look at how the mobile phone has changed, it doesn’t just ring when you have a call, it beeps when you get an email, it beeps when you get a text message, it beeps when you get a facebook message, it beeps when you get a twitter message…in fact, it beeps all the beeping time.

Call me.

So, in the last 4 years we have had the iPhone, prior to that phones were pretty basic. Have they evolved and changed to suit the way we work, and our needs, or have they changed us?

Has the mobile phone changed the way we work? The way we communicate?

What is going to happen in the future? Smart phones have taken the world by storm, what are they going to be like in 2015? Will they be running our lives for us more than they are now?

What is the next generation of communication gong to be?

What do you think?

Me, I think exciting times are ahead, can’t wait to see how the iPhone and iPad evolve….and the remote control cars, and bottle openers, and printers, and vacuum cleaners…

I don’t get much time for TV

As most of you know I do a fair bit of networking, I enjoy it.

I enjoy meeting people and connecting with people, and I also enjoy introducing people to other people.

So many of us have the potential to work with others, but sometimes we are so close to what we are doing it takes a nudge or an introduction from someone else to realise it.

I also enjoy watching TV sometimes, and I enjoy social media, obviously.

Lately something is connecting all three of these things.

Below are a few of the TV programs that I watch,  although one of them I don’t actually watch, it just happens to be in TV when I have been doing some work at home and walk through the house to the kitchen to grab a cuppa..and there it is, that annoying wailing wench giving her tuppence worth.

And one of them I wouldn’t watch even if Helena Bonham Carter was lead female!!

Anyway, I digress. Here are the programs;

1. Lost girl

2. X factor

3. Warehouse 13

4. The only way is Essex

5. The Wright suff

6. X fighters

Do they all have the #XFactor?

What have they all got in common?

No, not crap acting, nor is it the poor predictable scripts, obviously X Fighters have neither of these, its hashtags!

“It’s what?” I hear you say.

Hashtags, there’s the #TOWIE one, the #LostGirl one, the #XFighters one, each of these programs has a hashtag.

#Why?

Why do they have a hashtag? Well for a couple of good reasons.

Firstly, it enables folk to talk about the program with others who are watching the program. It’s connecting people.

Secondly, it enables the program makes / producers / execs or who-ever to see what is being said about the program, giving them instant feedback and viewers views and opinions.

Thirdly, every time someone sends out a tweet with the programs hashtag in their followers see it. If I tweet with the #XFighters hashtag in, a potential 1000 people see that tweet, how’s that for free advertising?

For anyone who attends the same 4N meetings as I do, and wonders why I send a tweet out of other people’s 40 second pitches, I hope you are not wondering anymore.

Girls Weekend.

About 6 months ago I was introduced to a guy called Chris Cozens at a networking event by my friend James Crisp. James is a graphic designer based in Maldon, and was working with Chris to get the promotion of his forth coming event under way. Chris had a bright pink and blue banner up with the words ‘Girls Weekend’ emblazoned all over it.

These words caught my eye, and after chatting to Chris, I could tell this was an event he was very passionate and focused on and was determined it would be a success.

That was 6 months ago, 6 months of not sleeping and driving the event forward for Chris. All that effort and hard work went into this past weekend at the Girls Weekend event.

The Only Way Is Essex.

With almost 100 exhibitors, with products ranging from naturally made soap products, to pamper evenings, to health and nutrition, to dancing, to make up and wigs, there was pretty much everything a girl could ask for, oh and some

That's him of the telly!

chap called Mark Wright from the Only Way Is Essex made a guest appearance on the Saturday, much to the delight of 90% of the exhibitors and visitors, (the other 10% was made up of men and the odd 1 or 2 who hadn’t heard of The Only Way Is Essex)

Exhibitors.

I was there for both days, I spent Saturday there with my wife and 2 little boys. We watched some dancing and some cooking, tasted new foods, tried on wigs and met lots of great people, some of whom I am going to mention.

Firstly I am going to mention the girls from the Diva Karaoke Boutique. These

The girls from Diva Karaoke

clever ladies have come up with a great idea. Suitably located in Chelmsford opposite the train station. Grab a group of friends and hire one of their sound proofed (thankfully) rooms for a couple of hours and sing to your heart’s content. Its £14.95 per person and it includes a couple of drinks. Due to their success they are soon opening another boutique in Ipswich.

I also want to mention Fiona at Lemon Blossom Ltd, she sells lingerie for ladies who are a D cup and bigger…not sure if I have worded that correctly, but you get what I mean right? They sell some very pretty items, and at one stage I almost modeled for them, but only being a B cup, I was not equipped enough to carry out the request. I had a good bit of banter with the girls here, and recommend you look them up.

There was a chap there called Mark Baumann, he is a world class chef, and was

Food time!

doing a few shows each day in front of an enthusiastic audience. We saw him a couple of times; he was very good, very engaging and funny. It was great to see a chef actually slice a vegetable without looking at it. It’s nice to know it’s not a camera trick when you see it on TV. He was very welcoming and I enjoyed having a chat with him. He had our oldest mesmerized when he cut up the pigeon! Check out Mark’s highly acclaimed brasserie in Coggeshall.

Then there’s the lovely Joanne and Becky-Jayne from Angels and Players, 2 naughty but nice ladies who I had seen milling around chatting to people, and it wasn’t until I spoke to them on Sunday afternoon that I realised what they were actually selling, not going to go into it here, but I suggest you check their brilliant website out and see for yourself. They were funny and certainly knew their products.

I also want to mention my favourite style gurus Blossomed Image. I sat and modelled for them as they advised me which colours suited my skin tone and eye colour etc, this may sound a bit girly, but image is just as important for men these days as it is for women. The advice was brilliant and made lots of sense. These girls can advise you on clothing and even go out shopping for you! What a brilliant business idea! (by the way, my ideal colours have a blue undertone to accentuate my jaw line and eyes).

But my favourite thing at this event had to be the F1 simulator, managed by F1 Driver Limited. I was foolish to believe it would be easy; I started off with an out lap and given instructions when to brake and where the race line was, I didn’t need instructions, I this was the Indy lap at Brands Hatch, I had seen it on TV, and in my head I was Jenson Button.

I set off at about 180mph, missed the braking points, hit many tyre walls, and managed to roll the car once or twice. I felt more like chocolate button than Jenson Button.

Somehow, after 3 laps, I had managed to clock up a respectable 39 or so second lap, and was sitting in second place…out of 5 people. It was still early. My time would be beaten, and it was. After another go, I did manage to get my lap time down to about 32 or 33 seconds I think.

Building a relationship.

Having now met all of the above and more, I am going to keep in touch with them with social media, already tweeted with a couple of them a few times, and engaged with them via facebook pages.

These are people I want in my network, I want to help them with referrals, and help them to grow their businesses.

There are people who met at the weekend are now already tweeting with each other and beginning to build that relationship too.

 A list of friends…old and new!

Below is a list of twitter ID’s of all the great people I met that you should look up / connect with / check out their websites, some I know already, some are new friends, all are brilliant!

If I have missed you off, then please tell me so I can add you!

Sally Parkinson @SalPPhotography

Chris Ives @ChrisIves62

Philippa Marshall @Nutriambition

Blossomed Image @BlossomedImage

Jai Street @NetworkingJai

Vibro Training @VibroTrainingUK  

Lemon Blossom Ltd @LemonBlossomLtd

Alexander Rose Estates @AngelaLockARE

James Crisp @Crisp_Design

Arbonne @Skincaresisters

Kelly Clark @KLCWrites

F1 Driver Ltd @F1driverlimited

Helen Putman @CombatPests

Natures Finest Co @Naturesfinestco

Mark Baumann @ChefBaumann

Angels and Players @AngelsPlayers

Diva Karaoke Boutique @TheDivaKaraoke

Dreamy Creamy Cupcakes @DreamyCupcakes

Me @EssexSocial or @The_PauWeston

This blog post has kindly been written by Charlotte Woolven-Brown of Mullis and Peake LLP.

Social Media is here to stay.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 protects workers and employees

who report wrongdoing on the part of their employer or any third party

against victimisation and dismissal. People who make such reports are

often referred to as “whistleblowers”.

We live in a fast paced electronic age where social media is commonplace

and available throughout the working day.

Whether this is Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Linkedin, Bebo or Tagged -

this media is here to stay and the chances are your colleagues are using

it.

Misconduct

Access by friends and colleagues to the material published by

individuals on the web is readily available. If an employee reports

misconduct of a colleague within a company or some other organisation to

people or managers that have the ability and the power to take action to

rectify the situation this is a “protected disclosure”.

In general, the misconduct is related to a violation of the law,

regulations, rules and/or behaviour which is a direct threat to the rest

of the workforce in general.

Whistleblowing

Whistleblowing can be perceived in many different ways. To some people,

you’ll be thanked profusely for highlighting some serious malpractice

that has taken place within the workplace – a common example being

reporting a serious breach of health and safety regulations which could

affect many, if not all, people who work at a particular place.

However, to others, depending on the nature of your ‘revelations’, you

could be perceived as a ‘snitch’. For the most part your decision to

‘blow the whistle’ will usually be welcomed by the vast majority, if not

all of the people who have an interest, if they can see that they too,

could have been damaged or harmed in some way by the actions not being

revealed.

Protection

And in order to qualify for protection, a worker would usually have to

make the disclosure to their employer, a legal adviser, a government

minister or an external regulatory body. He/she can also complain to a

tribunal if they feel they have become penalised as a result of their

disclosure.

Becoming the ‘whistleblower’ can radically change your life. You could

be praised for your actions but you could easily be made a social

outcast, overlooked for promotion and or vilified by the rest of your

colleagues.

Employees, in addition to the right not to be victimised, also have the

right not to be dismissed if the reason or main reason for the dismissal

was because they had made a protected disclosure. If an employee is

dismissed in these circumstances, they will succeed in a claim for

automatic unfair dismissal. It is important to note that employees do

not need to have been employed for 12 continuous months to be eligible

to bring a claim, and that there is no limit to the amount of

compensation that can be awarded to them.

If you are an employer and think that an employee may have made a

protected disclosure and would like some advice on how to deal with that

information, if you would like us to draft a whistleblowing policy for

your organisation, or if you would like assistance in dealing with any

ongoing tribunal proceedings, please contact Charlotte Woolven-Brown,

employment law specialist,

If you are an employee and you believe that your employer or a third

party is guilty of some wrongdoing, or if you believe that you have been

victimised or unfairly dismissed as a result of making a protected

disclosure, please contact us on 01708 784056 for specialist advice.

This blog post is by a young lady I met recently through twitter.

I think it shows just how great twitter is. You never know who of your followers is actually online at the time of sending a tweet, and you never know what the out come will be of sending a tweet. Every tweet has an opportunity.

Essex Social Media is working with Babydeco

Babydeco is a one-stop-shop, bringing together ideas on how to decorate your baby’s room and nursery items. We have products from various retailers from high-end to high street, mass market to niche. There are DIY tips, shopping guides and much more.

At Babydeco we aim to take the stress and strain out of decorating your baby room, helping you create a perfect oasis for your newborn that reflects your persona. There is no need to huff around the high street shops for Baby nursery products anymore

Features of our site

• A photo gallery of baby rooms that have been designed by parents and designers.

• ‘Buy this look’- allows you to re-create and achieve a style from our photo gallery.

• You can rate and comment on photos on the gallery page

• You can upload your baby nursery photos

• Blog – discussing the latest designs, trends, and baby interiors decor news

• Shop – search through comprehensive database of nursery products.

How did we meet?

Babydeco and Essex Social Media met via tweeter. I read a fun, educative and informative tweet. At that point I decided I had to work with Essex Social Media. We arranged to meet at the Start-up Show held in London the 20^th May 2011 at Excel. The next one is 17th and 18th November, this is the link to it! I will be going again, lots of interesting stands and information, great for all new businesses.

Paul shared his great wealth of knowledge on how Essex Social Media can enhance babydeco’s profile and build a reputation online. At no point in the meeting was he trying hardcore selling techniques. I was very impressed.

Key points shared

• Rule 1 – Not to forget the SOCIAL part social networking whist online.
• When writing any post be it tweet or blog ; it  should be interesting, fun & most of all must offer something of value to readers.
• To setup hashtags when tweeting about events so followers can keep up to date.
• The benefit of offline marketing. Paul suggested a list of local mums to network with.

I left the meeting empowered with a better understanding of how social networking can help babydeco reach our target audiences.

Essex social Media is a rare gem stone, their approach is very different from their competitors.  They certainly practice what their preach their achievement to date is remarkable; it has been nominated for the BE2Awards for the best Marketing Campaign 2011.

Paul’s story has been published in 2 national tabloid newspapers,  you can read one of them here. He was interviewed on BBC radio Essex, helped a local charity, and has since advised numerous other charities and SMEs of the benefits of social media for brand awareness, marketing and recruitment .

The events of his story all happened with 1 month.

Essex Social Media is fast becoming a recognized name within Social Media circles, and it’s easy to see why.

babydeco feels privileged to work with such an amazing company. So why don’t you contact them and see how they can help your business!

Editors note;

Yemi of babydeco is a delightful, warm and friendly young lady. Enthusiastic about her business and focussed on making it succeed. Which she definitely will.

I recommend you connect with her @babydecouk.

Future of Journalism.

“Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience”. (Wikipedia)

Have you ever wondered how traditional journalism will fair in the Social Media age that we now find ourselves in? With each train journey I take there is a steady growth in people using a laptop, ipad, kindle or even their mobile phone to read articles and keep up to date with what’s going on in the world?

Ok so there are also people reading a paper. Mainly the free ones though. What does that tell us? Do we not care enough about the news, be it, world events, sport, or local news to want to pay for it? Is reading a newspaper or magazine more a convenient past time on a train journey? Or are they people without a smart phone, ipad?

The people with the electronic gadgets; they are the ones choosing what they want to read. They may never read a major news headline, but just the sports section, or vice versa.

In the not too distant future how will the journalists gain their news? How would they ensure that they were first to publish the latest, breaking story? Would Social Media mean the end of the traditional journalist?

The Frontline Club

I recently attended an event “Tools for the modern Media age” (Title of a book by John Mair and Richard Keeble) at The Frontline Club with my friend Chris Smith a Politics, Government and Business journalist. The evening was hosted Ray Snoddy who is a free lance journalist who also presents BBC’s Newswatch.

It was a lively debate and Ray’s panel of guests, Kevin Marsh, executive editor at BBC College of Journalism, Laura Oliver who is community co-ordinator for Guardian News and Judith Townend a free lance journalist who writes for journalism.co.uk. kept the discussion flowing, informative and occasionally funny.

The audience was a room full of journalists from many well known publications and me!

And what an eye opener it was.

Traditional Journalism losing out to online Journalism.

With the increase in social media popularity it seemed not only was there a concern that traditional journalism methods would be lost, but what stories the public wanted to be informed about and were more interested in reading.

The thing is, with the internet and social media we can now read what-ever news we want to, we can find out about things happening all over the world within seconds.

“Everyone is their own journalist these days. Reading and making the news they want to see and read, and not the important and true news which isn’t the pointless celebrity news and constant drivel” – Kevin Marsh.

Chris quite rightly made the comment “We have to fight for attention in the multi-media age. We should be winning hands-down but we’ve stopped explaining why an issue matters. Why a story is a ‘must-know’. Change in the Middle East has been brewing for a long time. The banks didn’t collapse in a day. They started while Britney, Paris, Jade and whoever were busy doing nothing”

Both got it right – why are we so focussed on what celebrities are doing? Why aren’t we more focussed on proper true news? Social media platforms such as Twitter allow us to keep up to date with celebrities the second they tweet something – hours before the potential news article about them has been released to the public by the newspapers. Is this a good thing?

Why are we not interested in real news like the devastation in Japan?

“News viewers are far outnumbered by people that don’t watch the news” claimed Martyn Lewis, Kevin’s reply to that was “when BBC broke the news about Japan, 15 million people hit the BBC website, 40% of those viewed live video footage”.

Were we actually interested in the news as a story, or are we just interested in devastation and disaster. Think of when we see a car crash on the motorway; do we slow down and look because we care or do we look to see if anyone was injured and we may see some blood and gore or perhaps a body?

Social media and online journalism is fast becoming the way forward, everyone is becoming a journalist themselves, and the future of journalism as we know it is bleak!

What can be done about it? How can traditional journalists regain the power they had?

“Journalists outside the specialist press are no longer embedded in their communities. They are invisible. They sit, stuck behind a desk churning press releases. That’s why the local press has died and the national media is following. The habit of ‘getting out’ has been lost. We’ve got to reconnect and regain trust to restore the reputation of news organisations and journalism itself. Then people will pay for content” – Chris Smith.

Chris is right. I believe journalists need to reconnect with the public. And I hope that will happen. In the mean time online journalism gives us;

• Quicker news
• The freedom to read what we want when we want.
• More news resources from all over the world.
• Honest responses from people – not fabricated news.

And it’s all at the touch of a button!

What do you think?

Charities and Social Media

I was recently asked to speak at a charity presentation.

The topic of my talk was the positive relationship between charities and social media.

The room was full of representatives of various charities, from cancer and stroke trusts to charities set up to care for the carers.

There were a number of speakers, describing and explaining to the individuals what their respective charity could or should be doing to increase the awareness and fund raising capabilities of the charity.

There was even a gentleman there who, 18 months ago, suffered a stroke and was now recovering, He told his story of how he recognised he was having a stroke whilst driving, had pulled over and rang his son to call an ambulance for him, and then sat and waited as the stroke took effect.

It was a very emotional few hours, as stories and issues were offered across the room, as we tried to cover all angles and offer advice for these charities.  Items of advice were based on financial, event management, fund-raising and social media.

A successful charity.

I wanted to be able to prove to these guys that social media did actually work. To re-assure them that twitter wasn’t just about telling the world that you had just eaten a bacon sarnie, or that Facebook wasn’t full of kids ‘poking’ each other.

I wanted to show them that they were free, resourceful platforms of engagement and interaction with potential!

Potential to tell offer massive brand awareness, marketing events, volunteer recruitment and so much more.

I relayed to them the successful story of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospice Treehouse Appeal. Their fantastic presence on social media platforms and great use of it aided in the raising of the £3 million required to build their new hospice in Ipswich. For those of you who haven’t heard of them, then I suggest you look them up, and read about what they achieved.

My Advice…

The main objective for most of us using social media, is I guess, to drive traffic to your website. Keep the website interesting enough for people to read it, and look at different pages, engage with it. Comment on things, click on links and come back to it again.

Website

• Make it clear and easy to navigate.
• Make it attractive and engaging.
• Make sure your SM links are working.
• Make sure the logo is repeated on each page.

Social Media

With social media, the object is to be engaging to customers and build relationships, also to encourage visitors to your profile to visit your website.

• Make sure you can get the same ID / user name on all platforms (see www.checkusernames.com)
• Set up interesting tweets / messages…not selling messages.
• Set up hashtags when tweeting about events so followers and fundraisers can keep up to date.
• When blogging, always use Keyword tool to research keywords.
• Always use Live keyword analysis to cheque percentage of keywords.
• Set up list for those raising funds for your charity.
• Re-tweet fundraiser’s tweets.

These are just a few simple things that can be done with your website and social media platforms to help to raise awareness and funds for your charity.

The Birth of The Essex140 Club

Sitting having a coffee with a friend of mine, James Hunter, of I FANCY A WEBSITE, we were talking about how great Twitter is, and exchanging views and opinions on how many people actually meet with people that they ‘tweet’ with.

We had both been to ‘tweetups’ before (a tweetup being the twitter word for a meetup), and had found them to be interesting, fun and a bit of an eye opener when you actually meet these people in real life.

We pondered the thought of creating our own one. Thought it would be a great idea. Great for SME in the local area to get involved and meet with each other, not just tweet with each other.

And lo it became “The Essex140 Club’

Who would attend?

Initially we were unsure of who would attend or how many, but figured even if we got 10-12 people it’d be a start. We both had a few followers from the Essex area, so reaching a dozen people shouldn’t have been too difficult.

To start with we set up a #essex140 hashtag and begun tweeting it about on twitter. This made sure those that were interested in attending the event could set up a feed and keep upto date with what was on and who was attending. It was also helpful for us to see who was tweeting the #essex140 hashtag, it gave us an insight as to who may be attending.

And news of the event soon spread.

We also set up an event on the ESSEX SOCIAL MEDIA page on facebook, and we also set up a group on Linkedin.

We soon had a nice little following going, and had managed to arrange a great location too, which was Barista, ideally located near Chelmsford Station with a car park just across the road. Perfect.

Come the hour…cometh the Event!

James and I (and our lovely wives Lisa and Janice) chipped in with getting the food arranged, a simple array of small bite size bits and bobs, monstermunch crisps (a definite winner – one of James’ best ideas!) and some home made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes made by Janice. We were ready.

So there we were in the bar a little early, wondering what would happen!

And then the first person walked through the door, and then some more, and then there were quite a few of us all laughing and joking, talking and enjoying ourselves…. it went really well. And the fantastic feedback we received could only really mean one thing!

The Essex140 Club II

The next event is being planned for May, so for those that couldn’t make it, and for those that went to the first event and can’t wait for the next event…keep watching and following the #essex140 hashtag on twitter.

A Few pictures of the event.

Barista!

@EssexSocial and @JohnsBlinds

hmmm cakes....courtesy of Mrs Weston!

Here we see @EssexSocial and @James_Hunter 'tweeting at a tweetup'

@HelenWilson34 and @Johnsblinds sharing a joke...

@HelenWilson34 @MandyJayne68 @WayneCollier and Mrs Weston on the left.

@WayneCollier and @AmarTrivedi

@James_Hunter

Special Thanks To…..

Everyone who attended and made the launch a success.

Mrs Weston for providing the cakes.

Barista for allowing us to hold it at their very lovely venue.

Karina from Karina Dodds Photography for taking some excellent pictures of the night.

Your Social Network

People are using their Social Network more and more these days to expand their client database and potentially increase sales, and for some this works really well…others haven’t maybe not so well, some are new to it, and some perhaps just don’t understand it.

For those of you interested in the psychological  side that goes with it then I suggest you have a chat with my friend Alasdair Dodds.

There is a clue in the words really…Social Network.

Your Contacts

So then, you have a Twitter and Linkedin account, and a Facebook page, plus a blog and perhaps a few other social accounts. Lets say you have 500 followers on Twitter, you are connected (1st) to 250 people on Linkedin and say 250 people ‘Like’ your Facebook page. That’s 1000 people. (I know there may be an over lap or 2), but lets keep it simple.

How many of those contacts do you know from real life? Friends, family, work colleagues. Assume 100 people. That leaves 900 people. 900 people that read your tweets, read your posts, and updates and potentially read your blog too.

How many of those 900 people have you met in real life? How many of those people would you want to meet in real life?

Attend a Tweetup!

No that isn’t a spelling mistake. A tweetup is a meet-up with your friends on Twitter. It’s a great way to meet your existing contacts from your social network, and others too.  And it works.

Does it seem like a silly idea? Think about this then; You have clients. You speak to some clients on the phone regularly, you have never met them, it’s just work right, they places orders with you once a month or every other month, and it’s OK.  Other clients you have met, perhaps over a quick coffee, lunch or even a cheeky pint or 2. You probably get more work from these people because they know you. They have met with you and trust you.

A tweetup is the same thing, meeting (potential) clients is one thing, but you will be meeting people who don’t know you or perhaps require your services, but they may know some-one who does!

People are are more relaxed in this environment and they are more open. So get yourself to a tweetup, it’s social networking at it’s best!

The Essex140 Club

The what? The Essex140 Club is a tweetup basically. It’s the launch event and it is being held in Chelmsford in Essex on 9th March from around 6:30pm at Barista, which is located near to Chelmsford Station.

It’s going to be a fun, relaxed evening with a mixture of folk and businesses there, who knows, you may meet your next client or supplier, golf buddy or business partner…..and these are the real people that are in your social network.

It would be great to see you there!

This blog is from a new friend of mine, we had tweeted a few times and then spoke on the phone. Peter Masters has a similar background to myself, worked in the Construction Industry fell out of love with it, and in love with Socail Media.

Get yourself a cuppa, and read on:

After a couple of Tweets as an introduction and a quick traditional introduction on the telephone, I recently managed to get Paul Weston (Estimator, Radio and Social Media star… and father of 2!!) to ask me to provide a ‘guest Blog’ article succinctly entitled ‘My view on Social Media’.

I should first explain that my background is not too different from Paul’s; before the recession took a firm grip on the UK economy and the construction sector, I was a Project Manager for a local quality residential home builder and I loved the job.  It was a great challenge to stand on an empty plot of land, on a cold winter’s morning, with a handful of freshly printed plans and be told, “OK, get on with it and don’t forget, on time, to standard and within budget!”  To be fair, without 1^st class workers and a truly great leader for a ‘site manager’, it would have been an impossible task.  Luckily, we had a hard working, conscientious team and despite being considered, “Him in the office” we generally got along fine.

However, when the houses stopped selling, the bank got itchy feet and everything came to an abrupt end!

Needless to say, I went back to my marketing roots and have ended up very involved in Social Media marketing (Web 2.0).  It’s been an amazing journey!

Social Media has changed the way we all do business and there’s no denying it!  Whoever you are and whatever sector you are in, you MUST have noticed changes over the last year or two? It doesn’t matter how much of a Luddite you are, if you don’t wake up and smell the coffee and realise what’s happening on the Internet now, you will left behind in the 90′s and you’ll never catch up!

As we probably all know, marketing is about communication; as a company you make products or provide a service and to get business, you need to inform people on how wonderful your products or services are.  Of course there’s a lot more to it than that, but basically that’s it.  Simple, right?

Here’s my marketing definition:

Marketing is a corporate responsibility to provide well placed, quality communication to retain existing customers, gain customers from referrals and attract new customers, whilst maintaining a profitable business dynamic and exceeding all customers’ expectations in both service and quality.

However, marketing has suddenly become a very different business due to the proliferation and popularity of Social Media platforms.  Social Media provides a new and exciting online medium for marketing and offers the opportunity to anyone with the ability, the business acumen, a basic understanding of marketing principles and some ‘Social Media’ savvy to really excel.   As you would expect, many traditional marketers and advertisers are convinced that Social Media is just a fad!  Sorry, but I don’t think so guys!  Traditional marketers and advertisers have held the monopoly since the 50’s, but there has been an undeniable and decisive shift.

“Communication adds value!” is my key phrase and of course, it’s true and so is “Perception is everything!”

Never before have these two phrases meant so much and been so relevant.

You should join Facebook business groups

Why has Social Media take off in such a big way???

Great question!

1. Most families now have a least 1 desk top computer at home.
2. Many families now also have a lap top computer at home.
3. Most people have a mobile telephone that also provides Internet access
4. Young people embrace technology and are not scared of it.
5. 50% of the world’s population is under 30 years old

That, to me, is a list outlining a few simple reasons why Social Media has become a mind blowing success!  The key phrase is Internet ACCESS!  Without access, there would be no point in developing all the Social Media platforms.

Basic facts of development, Facebook has nearly 600,000,000 members, Twitter has over 200,000,000 users and sees about 110,000,000 Tweets per day, LinkedIn has 85,000,000 professional members, 80% of businesses in the USA use Social Media for recruitment and 95% of those companies use LinkedIn. (Therefore some people think that if you’re NOT on LinkedIn, you’re an old school professional, no disrespect to those that aren’t on it yet!)  YouTube tells us that more than 2,000,000,000 videos a day are currently being watched, these are some serious numbers and this is obviously much more than a fad!

The Blogosphere connections hundreds of millions of people.

What about Blogs? What is a Blog exactly?

A Blog is a WE-B LOG and as far as I am concerned, a massive step forward for the Internet and provides a platform to express any view on any subject, for anyone with Internet access.  Before Blogs were developed (WordPress is a popular Blog company) it was pretty much only people with enough money and time to either develop a website or pay for one to be developed.  Things have changed significantly, because Blogs are free if you’ve got the talent and the time and the dedication.  Blogs suit Social Media, because unlike ‘static’ websites, they are continuously updated (or should be) and linked to other Social Media platforms.  As soon as I publish a Blog post (article), it is automatically posted onto LinkedIn, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Posterous, and a host of other sites (via a new Social Media platform called Seesmic) and Tweeted to my hundreds of ‘followers’ on Twitter.  Plus, as a seasoned Social Media marketing professional, I can go to Klout and see my Social Media score and how well I’m engaging with the Social Media world.

Websites are very 1990′s, Blogs are now!

How’s that for communication? (Your website can’t do that, can it?)

Business and Social Media

A few companies in the UK have become ‘early adopters’, this basically means that they were smart enough to see the real benefits that Social Media provided companies and they got ahead before their immediate competition even realised what was happening. I recently wrote a series of articles on Miller Homes, one of the UK’s leading home builders. Miller Homes have a website, a Blog, a series of YouTube videos, an active Twitter account, an active Facebook account and now a Miller Homes TV channel.

How many home builders do you know communicate that well with prospective home buyers?  Plus, we shouldn’t forget that Miller Homes build great houses and win awards year after year.  However, just like traditional marketing, if you aren’t a good company, Social Media won’t help you grow, you have to have a sound base to begin with.

My research shows that many of the UK’s top construction and house building companies have made a token effort with Social Media, but that’s really not enough.  Social Media is a big medium and it needs to be taken seriously or left alone.  It looks worse if a company half does it, a few Tweets and a couple of comments on Facebook is a bad example and suggests that a company does NOT care about its online or digital image.

Many business people still don’t ‘get it’, they think Facebook is for finding old school friends and that Twitter is for telling people what you had for lunch.

WRONG!

Go to StumbleUpon and read some of the many articles I’ve collected or go to my Facebook business page and check out some of the 140 favourites pages I’ve collected for my nearly 400 ‘fans’.  If you study what Facebook and Twitter can do for business you’ll be amazed!  Example, about a week ago I started a Facebook Group called Construction Social Media Marketing and so far, I’ve got over 50 members, it’s a closed group, no room for spammers or time wasters and we discuss construction, property and Social Media. This is great networking and like LinkedIn a good source of business contacts, all from the comfort of my desk!

So has Social media changed the way we do business?  YES!

How do we find out about what’s been happening?  Go online, read Blogs, engage, communicate and learn!

Who are the experts?  What about the Social Media gurus? Anyone who claims to be an authority or a guru probably isn’t.  Social Media is so new and changing so fast, that no one knows it all; having said that, some people know quite a bit and should be listened to very carefully.  Contact me, I can recommend a number of books that relate to Social media and various platforms such as Facebook, WordPress and Twitter etc.

Go to YouTube find some Brian Solis and Seth Godin videos and study them. Don’t just watch them, study them and learn about ‘permission marketing’.

Check out the Social Media Examiner, Social Media Today and ALL the favourites on my Facebook page.

Whatever you need to know about Social Media is available on the Internet, if you haven’t got a clue, talk to someone who has, explain what you’re trying to achieve and they’ll guide you and help you.  Social Media advocates are generally happy to introduce another interested party to the ‘revolution’.  There’s a lot to learn, so stay focused on what you or your company really needs.

Please do NOT neglect your current marketing or the branding you’ve spent so many years developing, but integrate it into your Social Media presence.  Don’t do random acts of Social Media marketing; if you’re not committed, don’t bother.  If you’re not going to comment on your Facebook page, or send Tweets to your followers, don’t bother, Social Media’s clearly not for you and I would recommend you ignore it entirely.

But, if you want to move ahead and you want to be an ‘early adopter’, go for it and enjoy it. If you’ve got the time or the resources to get into it and start communicating your service or product to the world, tell them how good your company is or your products are, but don’t try the ‘hard sell’ it won’t work!  Those days are over: think ‘valuable content’ and ‘accessibility’, think ‘engage the viewer or customer’, think ‘develop a relationship’ and of course, think ‘permission marketing’.

So that’s about it really; my view on Social Media? A huge shift in communication, NOT just for people, not just for the 600,000,000 Facebook fans, but for business too.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me, call Peter 01473 435308 or email peter@constructionmarketinguk.co.uk

www.constructionmarketinguk.co.uk

We builder the builders!

Related articles

• When Was The Last Time You Used the Yellow Pages? (gtksolutions.com)
• Sorry, Social Media, But Marketing Is Still Cool (dannybrown.me)

Twitter

Ok, so this is more of an observation, and a little bit of smart advice.

How manyof you have a website? The majority of you I would guess. And how many of you have a twitter account? How many of you have a ‘business’ twitter account and a ‘personal’ twitter account?

Who links the twitter account to the website?

I have two accounts, my personal one is @PaulWeston33, which is linked to me and my personal blog page, and the other one is @EssexSocial, which is my business account and linked to this website.

Twitter on your Website.

As you will see from the picture, there is a live feed from my Twitter account to my website, this shows all of my recent tweets. (Yes I was actually ironing at the time).

So here’s a question; Who are the people that you want to drive to your business website? Your friends obviously, but most importantly your potential and existing customers.

Don’t make yourself look a Twit!

Imagine that you were looking at someone else’s site, perhaps a service or product you required, and saw their recent twitter feed, and on that recent twitter feed it said

“Hi @joeblogs, got trashed last night, had a f*cking wicked time, pulled a really tasty bird”

You may think that is slightly exagerated, but I have seen similar. What would you think? Perhaps not the sort of person you want to be doing business with?

Having a live twitter feed on your site allows people an insight into you and what you are like. Which is good, because you want to have your customers engaging with you, and for people to see you are a nice, knowledgeable person. Not a drunken lout!

So, watch what you are tweeting, if you want to tweet with your mates, for goodness sake set up a seperate one, or don’t link anything to your website….you never know who is watching!

This may seem like common sense to some of you…..But….there’s always one!

Google Adwords.

So, you have just started up your new company. The first thing you need to do is advertise it…get the word on the street that you are in town. How do you do that?

Most people will use a search engine to look up companies that provide the service or product that they require. If you have that product or service then you want them to be finding your company. Right?

Most people use Google, a very quick powerful search engine that completes most searches within 10ths of a second!

And if most people are using Google to search, then most company’s are wanting to be found on the first page of the search.

One of the ways to do that is to spend a chunk of your hard earned cash on Google Adwords! Why?

Put your wallet away!

I would love to hear from you if you have ever met someone who promised you they could get you on front page of google, I am even more interested to know how much they charged you to do that?

A few years ago I met a chap, full of himself, and using words that, at the time, impressed me (simply because I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about), he offered to get the company I was working for, to the front page of Google for just shy of £1000!

Very kind of him, and the return the company could of got for that could of been more than quadruple the outlay.

My boss, told him he wasn’t interested. The chap was rather persistent but my boss stood his ground and the guy shrugged and walked off..(we were in a pub in London at the time).

Are there people still out there like that?

The Truth.

This is a snap of google today. I put in Social Media in Essex into the Google search engine and hit enter. The search was completed in 0.10 seconds and there were 548,000 results.

Essex Social Media - page 1 in Google Search

SOCIAL MEDIA

Essex Social Media Ltd is a new company on the scene, and something that has been in the process of happening for about 3-4 months now. We have asked questions, we have done some homework, and we have found results.

Over those months, we have done a bit of research on how people use Social Media. Many people use it for different things. To log their travel diaries/ pictures/ adventures, to talk to their friends, to communicate to friends 1000′s of miles away, to enhance their business, to find work and to use forums. And lots more.

FACEBOOK

One surprising find was this; 7/10 employers that I spoke to used Social Media platforms, mainly Facebook and occasionally Linkedin to find their prospective future employees.

Many have discounted applicants based upon what they saw on their Facebook profile.

DO’s and DON’TS

So if you have a FACEBOOK page, and I am sure most of you do, remember, it’s not only your mates or your familly that can view your page, and unless you set your settings properly, your future boss may take a peak too.

DON’T
1) Leave yourself open to rejection from a future employer.

DO
1) Be smart, and set up a business page for YOURSELF.
2) Ensure your personal page has the correct privacy settings.

It’s simple to do, and could be the difference between you being hired for your ideal job or not.

If you have any questions/ queries on how to do this, then please feel free to contact us.