TLC Business worked alongside our client, hardware partner BVM, to organise the launch of their new mobile division and range of ‘one-box’ mobile solutions. The event took place at Microsoft HQ in Reading and involved working with BVM partners: Microsoft, RS Components and Wireless Logic to deliver a successful event.
Below is a video that captures the day.
The connection between social media and business has solidified over the last few years and it is not just the big consumer brands that are getting involved. More and more SMEs are creating Facebook business pages and setting up Twitter accounts. As a marketing company ourselves, we highly recommend considering including social media within your marketing strategy, however, steps have to be taken to ensure that what is being said about your brand online is monitored and controlled.
Customers are increasingly using social media to air their opinions of a company or service. To get recommendations, fact find and discuss infinite topics. Businesses cannot control what is said, but unlike traditional face to face conversations, we are afforded the valuable opportunity to listen in and learn.
Trying to maintain brand reputation online, combined with higher levels of connectivity, may sound daunting for a business owner. Whilst large corporations can spend vast sums employing teams to monitor the ever expanding list of social media platforms, what can SMEs do without these big budgets? The opportunities that social media affords small businesses mean it cannot be ignored. Indeed it should be embraced. The key is taking the necessary steps to ensure you minimise the risks when getting involved.
1. Put in place a social media policy
Effective social media polices set the guidelines, not only for what employees cannot do, but also set out best practices and activities that members of the team can do to help market the business online safely and professionally. The policy addresses the terms of usage, both during the employment relationship and after the employment relationship has ended. Social media policies prohibits the disclosure of confidential and proprietary information in postings and non-company communications. Staff members may not comment on any aspect of the business as representative s or imply representation without prior authorisation. Staff members should not to compromise the privacy of customers, colleagues, or any other affiliated party.
2. Google Alerts
It’s hard to track the reputation of your business and monitor what is being said about you on the net. One of the ways it can be done is through social media monitoring tools, a great free one is Google Alerts . Once set up, it will alert you to any mentions of keywords you have specified, such as company name, made online. It is an effective tool for gathering both positive and negative feedback that can be responded to accordingly.
3. Make sure you commit to it
A reliable line of communication enables customers to easily feed back their questions and comments about your services or products. A simple email and mail address displayed prominently on your website and other marketing material once sufficed. However, social media has given consumers and businesses alike a platform to communicate directly in real time. Don’t ignore the opportunity to utilise this medium. Ask your audience how they want to communicate and set up the channels they use. Not every platform is necessary or appropriate. Don’t waste time and money trying to use them all. But make sure that if you do get involved you take the time and make the commitment necessary to do so effectively.
Above all else, be genuine and truthful. Over the last week or so, we have all seen how quickly and effective social media can be at outing the truth.
With our social media event only a matter of weeks away, we thought we would whet your appetite with a couple of social media business success stories.
In today’s highly connected world, an increasing number of business professionals and SMES are making social media a key component of their marketing strategy. More and more companies are adopting social media as a channel for connecting with current, past and new customers.
A global survey by Regus has shown that 41% of UK firms are using social media in order to increase their business. The poll questioned around 17,000 managers and business owners from over 80 countries across the world, including the UK, about their use of social media and social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The survey also revealed that 50% of UK firms now encourage their employees to join business networks, and that 33% devote up to 20% of their marketing budget to business social networking activity with the hope of engaging new customers, building brand awareness, improving customer loyalty, and ultimately turning customers into long time fans of their brand.
Celia Donne, Regional Director at Regus comments: “Business social networking has finally come into its own in the commercial world. More and more companies are leveraging the channel not only to increase the loyalty of existing customers, but as a successful acquisition tool. As businesses emerge from the downturn they are increasingly reconsidering pre-recession working practices and opting for more flexible, competitive strategies. Among these, the use of business social media is proving extremely successful and suited to the fast pace of recovery. Particularly in the UK, where one in three social network users is a fan, follower or friend of a company page or profile, firms should expect to see an increasing proportion of marketing budget being destined to this activity.”
The team here at TLC Business recently stumbled across a creative way of taking social media activity to a new level, yes Nike may not be your usual Hampshire business, but it shows its thinking ahead of the game and creating an exciting platform to stand out against competitors and reach a network of past, present and future customers.
Like many companies, Nike felt they needed to shake up their market place online and create something new and different for their target audience. Nike began their search through simple market research in Amsterdam and found out that people thought running was boring and that the youth market showed a lack of interest in this area of exercise. Nike wanted to change this negative view, so decided to launch an innovative online to offline campaign that used Facebook as the main platform. The idea was to create a movement of runners who had to paint their city using the running routes as their artwork. The campaign was a huge success on Facebook with users engaging with each other offline and online and a real sense of community was built up between the runners as they all started to join up and follow each other’s routes that had been created on Facebook.
Obviously we would all like our businesses to be able to create such an exciting and innovative way of engaging with our market place but we also wanted to highlight some Facebook pages that are slightly closer to home and not totally out of reach.
Plum baby, a Hampshire based business has created a highly interactive Facebook page that brings mothers together in an online community to share their baby food experiences, new recipes and advice.
Hampshire based Samantha Russell the Social Sardine helps business get more from their Facebook business pages. Samantha Russell will be a speaker at our Social Media event on the 7th of July.
If you would like to attend our social media event on the 7th of July and learn more about how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn can help you business, click here.
TLC Business hosted our annual marketing seminar last Thursday. This year’s topic was social media for SMEs, clearly an area of interest for businesses because the event was a sell out. Attendees were treated to a morning of presentations from experts in LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and given insights into how to use social media effectively in their businesses.
We are delighted the seminar was well received and we all left the session with a whole host of hints, tips and guidance on how to start using social media more effectively in our businesses.
For those that were unable to attend and attendees that would like to review the slides in more detail, we have uploaded the speaker’s presentations and top tips below. To download them, just click on the link:
Joshua Spencer – TLC Business
Social Media vs. traditional marketing
James Potter – The LinkedIn Man
With LinkedIn, are you collecting, connecting or cashing in? and LinkedIn Top 5 Tips
Samathan Russell – The Social Sardine
Facebook for Business
Mark Edmunds – ShootingBusiness
Attracting traffic to your site, finding clients and increasing online conversion with YouTube
Wendy Kier – The Business Mechanic
Twitter, Social Media Marketing and Business Promotion
If you have any questions about the topics discussed or in deed anything marketing related, give us a call on 01962 600 147 and we’ll answer them. Thank you to all those that took the time to attend and good luck with implementing your actions from the day!
With the dust now settled on the courts of Wimbledon, we’ve had the chance to reflect on what business can take from the sport.
We believe that when it comes to performance, businesses can learn a lot from the tennis industry.
Clear vision of success
Like business, sport is outcome orientated; it’s about securing clearly defined results in a competitive environment. A tennis player doesn’t enter Wimbledon with the thought of losing and if they do, it is highly likely that is exactly what will happen. Winning the competition must be at the front of their mind. In the world of business, becoming number one is tough, but having a positive goal to work towards is the key to success. Andy Murray adopts just such this attitude: “I will go to Wimbledon with the feeling that I will win, you cannot come up with another attitude.”
Practice makes perfect
The techniques used by sports stars to maximise their performance can also be applied in the world of business. Much like a business needs to do with its products and services, a tennis player will spend years perfecting their game, putting in hours of hard training sessions to help build up stamina and technique. They will build on their strengths and overcome their weaknesses to become the best that they can be.
Expert advice
Like a business, a tennis player constructs a team of experts to help them realise their vision. A player doesn’t enter a tournament alone, behind them sits an extensive support team of physios, coaches, nutritionists and family members, helping guide them through their career and towards their end goals.
Fully informed
Having the ability to respond to your competition effectively is vital for any business. A business should always know who their competition is and what they are up to. A tennis player will analyse their opponent before a game, finding their weaknesses and identifying their strengths. In the same way, a business must undertake rigorous and regular analysis of its competition and ensure it has a robust marketing strategy to attract its target audience.
Evaluation
Whether a tennis player wins or loses they always review their performance. A player will access their stats, watch video play backs and pick out aspects of their performance, what worked and what didn’t. Any successful business will undertake the same process and review its performance at regular intervals. It is through evaluation that a business can know what works, what doesn’t and stopping wasting money on ineffective activities.
Reputation
Finally, a top player and their team will spend time carefully nurturing their brand and how they are perceived in the public domain. They will be mindful of the benefits on offer from sponsorship and endorsements but careful that they choose appropriate partners to meet their end goals. Businesses need to manage their relationships in the same way and present their brand in a clear, consistent and appropriate manner to achieve business success.
In order to help your business perform like a top tennis pro and add fuel to your performance, follow our simple marketing formula.
The objectives of any business, much like a professional tennis player, is to see return on our investment. We believe that by:
1. investing time in planning your strategy
2. finding a USP to help you stand out from your competition
3. analysing your competitors weakness and strengths
4. reviewing your performance on a regular basis
your business will be fully prepared and ready to win your ‘Wimbledon’.
The nights are drawing in and winter is on its way, so what better time for companies looking to boost their marketing by getting online and involved in social media on the dark and dreary afternoons that we have been experiencing lately. Following on from Joshua Spencer’s presentation on digital marketing in July, we examine some more benefits to digital media and what it can do for your business.
Digital marketing is hugely effective for connecting with consumers in an interactive and engaging way. An increasing number of people are interacting and communicating within the social media sphere, and therefore investing in an online presence for your business is very important. Effective use of social media is no longer an option for companies, it‘s now a requirement.
Last week the luxury fashion brand Burberry told the Financial Times that they were investing more of their marketing budget into the digital arena, a total of 60%, more than three times the average. In the past, Burberry relied heavily on traditional methods of marketing, such as print advertising; however they now feel that they need to be totally connected with whomever touches their brand and engaging with their audience via social media is a means of achieving this. The shift to digital marketing highlights how quickly industries are moving away from traditional methods of marketing in order to interact with consumers globally. Reaching out to consumers on multiple channels makes it more important than ever for a business to make sense of this new ‘marketing mix’
Create a two way conversation
As we have mentioned in the past, digital media can be a valuable asset not just for larger B2C organisations but also for your everyday SME. Twitter is currently dominating the marketing landscape, used by 82% of the B2B social mix. When it comes to expanding a business, “tweeting” has real value, enabling a two way conversation with customers, as well as promotion for any organisation. It is used by small businesses, as well as global companies, facilitating customer feedback, free marketing, improved brand recognition and a stronger connection with customers. Starbucks use of social media is a brilliant example of this. The coffeehouse giant posts new offers and participates in interactive discussions with their customers about the offers on twitter daily. Computer company ComCast also offers a friendly Twitter customer support, including a photograph of the member of staff you are talking to.
Audience participation
Video is another personal yet dynamic way to engage with consumers, allowing them to participate and interact with a brand in order to obtain more information. Google recently reported that 35% of B2B marketers already using online video will increase their video budgets in the future. A tool which is mainstream and accessible to all, video enables businesses to accumulate larger audiences quickly and effectively. The value of video is reflected in HSBC’s recent campaign. The bank held a competition for a £15,000 student bursary last year, and the decision to keep the media interactive was integral to the success of campaign. Students uploaded a 90 second video to Facebook stating why the money would help them change the world. Response to the campaign was outstanding: there were 50,000 interactions in one month and more than 2 million impressions. Check out Sprites Zero Skate ‘n’ Splash video below and HSBC’S winning entry.
This interactive YouTube video lets you instantly skip from one segment to the next, deciding exactly what you’ll see and when you’ll see it. Using keyboard keys 4 to 9, you can replay the skateboard tricks, skip others, and create your own rhythmic masterpieces.The promotional YouTube video, dreamed up by Coca-Cola Germany for Sprite Zero, minimizes branding because it’s creators “wanted the focus to be on the content and the interactivity.” They added, “This sort of video is quite different from what we at Coca-Cola usually do, in terms of ‘edginess’ and branding.”
‘Likes’ are not the be all and end all
Facebook is used by 67% of B2B marketers and 200 million people access Facebook via a mobile device each day. It is guaranteed to expand your business presence on the web. However, it is also important to be careful with the type of interaction your social media attracts. A recent study has shown that the more “likes” a brand has on Facebook, the less participation there was to a page by consumers. A study by L2, an organisation for digital innovation, has found that the quality and not the quantity of consumers is extremely important. Therefore, in the fast changing social media landscape, it is important for businesses to keep their pages up to date and interactive.
Another huge advantage of social media is that it is a free or low cost marketing strategy. It brings a new dimension to an organisation’s communication – forecasts indicate traditional marketing will represent only 30% of SMB marketing budgets by 2015. The objective of social media marketing is to draw the customer closer to your brand. Once engaged, maintaining an effective dialogue must be a priority. It is no good collecting likes, connections and followers. The real power of social media is only realised through regular communication and relationship building. Only then can your start turning followers into customers.
PageFlip-Flap
Transform your document and pdf to an interactive flipbook. Upload your file and you will receive an email with the url to your creation. You can share this with your friend, family… by email, on your blog, on facebook or twitter.
A status update usually is only a line of text. But if you want to update your status in a different way, you can start using AudioTweet to add audio to your status updates. It’s an online text-to-speech tool that works for numerous languages.
Design and Marketing (Graphic Designer’s Library)
This manual explains how the overall character and style of the design concept determines its success or failure in the marketplace. It explores how to understand, analyze and anticipate market and client needs, offering various design options that can be used, with guidelines and examples to demonstrate their effects.