SME’s beware of wasting time on social media

Recently, some business owners I have been working with have been questioning whether they should be spending time on social media. If they are not sure why they are doing it then they need to stop as you can quickly become a busy fool. If you are wondering what this is all about then try and bring it back to a form of communication we have all grown up with. Think what prompts you to write a business letter. I am guessing that before you put pen to paper or start typing you will have identified the recipient, what you are going to say and why you are writing to them in the first place. You may be responding to a letter that has been sent to you or just might want relate a piece of news or ask a question. From the outset the letter has a purpose.

The same should be true of the social media activity you undertake on behalf of your business. Before you blog, tweet or update your status, think about who you want to reach and what you want to achieve. It could be anything from lead generation to brand building – as long as you have identified why you are doing it then you will have the chance to measure whether it has been successful.

For some practical advice on how to avoid wasting time on social media have a look at this blog post by Katie Urbain from Xpond.com

Business Link website cost £105 million

This is unbelievable. ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE MILLION ENGLISH POUNDS for what?If you haven’t visited the site please do so ( www.businesslink.gov.uk)  and come back here once you’ve picked yourself off the floor. If you start looking into the figures they spent £4.4 million just on design. What pigging design! If they were paying the designers £80 per hour then they have been billed for 55,000 hours – roughly 6.3 years in design time alone. How can that be possible? Who was running this project? When agreeing to spend over £100 million pounds of tax payers money on a single website who signs off the cost proposal? Surely, Lord Mandelson must have been aware of this. The total lack of accountability is obscence. Some half wit steals a book and gets 8 years in jail, yet these politicians and civil servants fritter away millions and don’t even have to apologise. Clearly, the procurement process has gone badly wrong – perhaps they should have had a look at the advice offered at Choosing the right suppliers on their own website.

Do the creative industries need more support?

There is an interesting debate going on in the North East about the creative industries being ignored by regional support agencies in favour of the digital sector. I can see why they think that with all the activity that surrounds CodeWorks but I think my creative colleagues are a wee bit guilty of naval gazing. I would argue that making the distinction between the creative and digital industries is pointless. Creativity is also at the heart of good digital work. Mind you looking for public money is also pretty pointless at the moment with the imminent Bonfire of Quangos about to engulf the regions business support organisations. This could be a very good thing for the North East creative businesses.

In my experience, the regional support agencies have unwittingly stifled creative work, by supporting mediocre agencies who know how to milk the system. Without creativity and insight the marketing materials these agencies peddle is pretty useless. A poorly designed website that isn’t generating new leads or direct sales is not fit for purpose but who complains when the public purse has funded 50% of the cost. Once there is a list of what can and can’t be funded, suppliers forget about the why and end up focussing on the what. I shudder to think how many boxes of unused folders and inserts are lying around company offices all over the North East or unused exhibition materials.

The Business Link piggy bank is about to be closed so it is time to get back to producing creative strategies that help North East businesses sell things rather finding imaginative ways to fill in funding forms. I’m looking forward to good North East creative agencies winning work and bringing work into the region. I know they are out there because I am working with a few of them.

Opinions not content

My first attempts at blogging have been largely unsuccessful and fairly torturous. Now I know why. My focus has been on thinking about the type of content other people might find interesting rather than writing about what I think. Having just read Rework I have realised that what I write must be driven by personal opinions and ideas not a content theme that is popular at the time.

So time to start blogging about things I have an opinion about and see where that takes me.

Last update before E-Day

Well, with less than 10 hours to go before the polls open my quest to engage online with the candidates of Newcastle North is over. I didn’t watch any of the TV debates from start to finish preferring to play footy.

In the end, I had lots of contact with Catherine McKinnell, a little bit of contact with Ron Beadle and none whatsoever with Stephen Parkinson.

Catherine has answered my questions via email, responded to tweets and I have also spoken to her in person outside the school that my daughters attend. Realistically,  I couldn’t expect much more. Regarding the other two candidates, Ron replied to my second email and I have failed to illicit any response from Stephen.

What occurred to me was that they all failed to do some of the simple things. A well worded auto responder could have gone along way to giving me valuable information and managing my expectations.

http://www.catherinemckinnell.co.uk/blog/

http://www.ronbeadle.org/

http://www.stephenparkinson.co.uk/

Still no word from the candidates of Newcastle North

Well 10 days have now elapsed since I tried to contact Catherine, Ron, and Stephen. Strangely I almost feel like I know them which accentuates my disappointment as I remain uncontacted, un-followed and friendless. In need of kindred spirits I started looking around to see if anyone else was having more success with engaging with politicians. Maybe I am doing something wrong. I got as far as the BBC website when a blog post by Rory Cellan-Jones caught my eye , entitled Digital Election: Cheltenham.

Rory makes the point that lots of things have changed since 2005 with many candidates enthusiastically using digital platforms to push their messages out to the electorate. Makes complete sense as in most cases these tools are free and with funds being tight for many political parties they can’t be profligate with marketing budgets.

But, I still don’t see much evidence of online conversations taking place between the candidates and the electorate. The sheer volume of tweets, blog posts, status updates and emails is overwhelming. Perhaps they are  being swamped by responses and their meagre resources are being stretched to breaking point. If that is the case then tell me. Manage my expectation, rather than solicit my opinion, encourage me to get in touch and then ignore me when I do. Busy or not, they are still finding time to tell me that the responses they are getting from knocking on doors is FANTASTIC . When I read tweets about stimulating debates with a group of lively OAP’s, my head translates that to – got a really hard time from the old dears in the nursing home.. Similarly, everyone at the meeting was extremely supportive means I was talking to my  my own supporters.

Anyway I must remain positive , so I have emailed all the candidates again and asked them whether they will be speaking at a venue close to where I live in the next few weeks.

Oh and I have also informed them I am now blogging about the experience.

http://www.catherinemckinnell.co.uk/blog/

http://www.ronbeadle.org/

http://www.stephenparkinson.co.uk/

Do our politicians really want to engage online?

I live in the Newcastle North constituency and have previously taken no interest in local politics. By accident I ended up at political event held by the Labour candidate for Newcastle Central and this experience persuaded me I should know more about the people wanting to represent me. Well I am now into day 7 of attempting to engage online with the candidates from the three main parties hoping to be my MP after May the 6th.

I am not going to apologise for not contacting the minority parties as I have absolutely no intention of voting for them so why waste their time? Regarding, the so-called big 3 , I am genuinely undecided about who I’m going to vote for so I have used the channels they themselves have set up to try and find out more about them as individuals and what they stand for.

So what have I done? I have attempted to be their friends and join their groups on FaceBook, I have visited their websites, completed their enquiry forms, sent them emails , and both followed and replied to their tweets everyday. Both Cath McKinnell of Labour and Dr Ron Beadle of the Lib Dems  seem to like a good tweet, whilst Stephen Parkinson is decidedly conservative in his social media usage opting only for a link to Facebook. Not sure he is actually old enough to vote, but that is probably more of an indictment of me rather than him which is probably why I remain an unconfirmed friend.

So what response has all this online engagement produced? Not a single twitty bird.

It seems they all relish talking at us, but seem less enthusiastic about talking with us. 
Here’s some advice to all you MP wannabe’s we have TWO ears ONE mouth for a reason. So start thinking dialogue not monologue before promoting yourselves to an online audience.

I wonder if the promise of a donation to the respective campaigns would have been met with a similarly lethargic response?

Links.

http://www.catherinemckinnell.co.uk/blog/

http://www.ronbeadle.org/

http://www.stephenparkinson.co.uk/

The internet has always been social

It’s great to see so many businesses taking an interest in social media, but with the best will in the world the internet has always been a pretty social place.

It has just taken a while for businesses to cotton on to the fact that people are talking about online them and have been for some time. Those tempted to dive in and promote themselves should tread carefully and do lots of listening before trying to steer the conversations towards their own needs. As with all good communications, influence is possible but only if what you are communicating is delivered honestly and authentically.

Hopefully we will see a whole new approach to copywriting and PR with creativity and originality coming to the fore.

What client problems are we solving?

Having met lots of business owners in the last 5 years I think it is fair to say there is lots of confusion about how best to use digital marketing to generate leads and gain new customers. Time and again I hear stories about how budgets have been wasted as clients find themselves stabbing in the dark hoping to find a couple of online marketing tactics that will deliver quick results. Digital marketing companies are pushing the opportunities of Web 2.0 when many of their client didn’t know there was a Web 1.0

For a moment lets forget the jargon of the digital sector and concentrate on what these new platforms can deliver.  Here are 2 simple questions to ask your marketing company when they recommend a particular tool or tactic.

1. How will it build awareness of the company’s products and services amongst key audiences?
2. Will it make the business more money?

New social networking and online marketing platforms are launched daily so it becomes harder and harder for business people to see past the hype and make informed choices regarding what online platforms they should be investing their time and money into. Forget the hyperbole and get back to the basics:

• Identify the right people
• Select the right channels
• Communicate the right messages
• Talk to them at the right time

Companies should not let themselves get seduced into doing things that are not right for them. That doesn’t mean doing nothing. Online marketing is not going away so investing some time and effort