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UK businesses are going social in 2011

FacebookResearch indicates that a third of UK companies have now signed up to online networks. We all know about the big B2C companies such as Starbucks, Pringles and Adidas, who offer their audiences a strong presence on social media sites.  So what makes them so successful? Their use of Facebook fan page features to promote complimentary social media and advertising campaigns demonstrates a commitment to engage with their target audiences through proactive online interaction on popular social media channels.
Most recently, Adidas ran an exclusive Facebook contest where a fan could win an all-expenses-paid house party. What made this campaign so successful was that Adidas chose to work alongside MTV, a partner that echoed the Facebook user demographic, forming a perfect partnership. Adidas also promoted the contest on their fan page before and after the campaign. Once they had chosen the lucky winner, they used their page to share the fan’s blog posts, photos and videos from the party. This resulted in further fan engagement and interest.  Adidas and MTV used the power of social media after the event as a follow up tool, which offered added value to fans. Followers could see how the campaign played out, start to finish.

Fan pages such as these are actively engaging with companies’ target demographic. These pages have creative content, two-way communication, active discussion boards, images and videos. Facebook pages present an exciting platform for brands to directly engage with their existing and past customers and generate new ones. Case studies indicate that the more time you invest in your brand’s Facebook page, the better response you’ll get.

So you may be thinking, how does a Facebook page relate to my business? Every day we are asked the question, ‘Isn’t Facebook for friends and big consumer brands, how can I use social media in a B2B environment?’ Every organisation, no matter what sector is selling an idea. It might be associated with a product or less tangible like: ‘you should invest in our company’, ‘we need your donations’, ‘we’re a great place to work or volunteer’, or ‘we promise to take care of the planet and be good corporate citizens’. These are ideas that require social interaction and social media seems the perfect platform to facilitate it.

Deloitte, one of the big 4 consultancies, are a well known B2B player on Facebook. Deloitte annually recruit over 1000 new people. They know that in their industry recruitment is key, as human resources are their main asset, and they use Social Media to recruit as well as retain employees. Through a heavy presence on Facebook they are able to connect their employees together, and identify students from the best universities.

Deloitte produced another great example of a powerful Facebook campaign. To get their staff to reflect on Deloitte’s business culture and values, Deloitte launched a Deloitte Film Festival competition in which workers in their US offices were invited to submit short videos answering the question: “What’s your Deloitte?”. The campaign was a huge success with the videos posted on YouTube receiving 400,000 views.

As a business focused on working with SMEs, we know it is often difficult to find the time to focus your efforts on building your social media presence, as well as generating ideas for interesting content. Here are a few tips to help you get started in producing a successful social media channel for your business.

1. Use your own unique brand image on your profile. Use images and content that reflects the values of your business. It is common knowledge that the ‘about us’ and ‘meet the team’ pages  are often the most viewed pages of a website. Your Facebook page is an excellent platform to introduce your team.

2. Post relevant and industry related content.  Interesting content is required to keep people engaged. Use links to blogs, articles and videos that are relevant to your industry to supplement your own original content.

3. Start a conversation using social media. Facebook and Twitter are supposed to be interactive, participate in discussions on relevant topics or comment on someone else’s postings. Find every opportunity to start a discussion.

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April’s Top Marketing Tips

  1. A selection of SME apps for your blackberry. From a travel assistant that gives users instant access to travel and weather updates to an app to help you source the best place for a business lunch.
  2. Mylikesbox – Facebook application that provides an easy way to view your Facebook likes.  Each page’s thumbnail image is shown for easy recognition. You can also filter your Likes by viewing pages according to their categories.
  3. Do Less – Another eBook from Seth Godin. Learn how to be pickier about what you do and who you do it for so you can enjoy more of your life.
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May’s Top Marketing Tips

  1. Slow Cop – This websites helps you compare the speed of your site with the speed of a competitor’s website. Slow Cop scores the speed of your website out of 100.
  2. Sticker Mule is a web based service that lets users place orders for custom stickers and skins. You can order custom skins and stickers for gadgets like the iPhone, iPad, your laptop, Kindle or stickers that could be used just about anywhere.
  3. Unleashing The Idea Virus – This ebook by Seth Godin will help you better understand the time-honoured Marketing tradition of the idea virus, and help you launch your own.
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Are the royal family this country’s USP?

Unless you have been shut off from civilisation for the past 8 months, you may be aware that a Royal wedding took place in April. Whether you were taking part in the celebrations, attending one of the thousands of street parties held, or tuning in to watch the all important balcony kiss, you will remember the day for years to come. The scale of the crowds was a reminder of just how rare such displays of patriotism are in Britain. Unlike other countries, we do not celebrate a national day. The royal wedding helped remind us just how captivated the rest of the world is with our little island.
The royal wedding triggered much discussion in the TLC Business office: Harry’s ‘bed-head’ hair; the unfortunate wardrobe choices of certain members of the royal family, would Prince Phillip stay awake and why was the rest of the world so interested?

The discussions prompted us to consider this: ‘far from being a drain on public finances, are the royal family this country’s USP?’.

A USP can be defined as a unique benefit of a product or service that differentiates it from competing brands. “Fifty other companies sell the same products and services as you do. Why should I do business with you rather than one of your competitors?” This can easily be applied to the UK. Some countries have amazing beaches, tropical climates, luxurious lifestyles, why would a tourist choose the UK over Spain, Thailand, America or Australia? One reason could be the heritage the royal family brings to this country; they help us stand out from the crowd.

Just days after the engagement was announced, magazines celebrating the couple were in the shops, souvenirs were being created and talk shows were discussing the lead up to the wedding. The announcement of a new royal was the catalyst for a wealth of opportunities for Britain to reassert itself on the global stage and a chance to present the country in a positive light.

The initial cynicism of ‘can the country really afford this?’ was gradually eroded as millions decided to embrace the bank holiday and sentiment behind the day and help put on a show for the rest of the world. Crowds filled the streets of London as millions turned up to join the party. 26 million more tuned in to watch the day unfold. 2 billion people around the world, 22.7 million in the US alone and 400 million on Youtube (the biggest ever live streaming audience ever), drawn in by the pageantry of the ceremony and the history of the royal family, watched on captivated.

“Our culture and heritage reputation is very strong around the world,” says Visit Britain spokesman Paul Eastham. “At the heart of that lies the monarchy.”

Even the most fervent anti-Royalist cannot deny the Royal Wedding has brought positive exposure to the UK and boosted tourism.  Estimates suggest the Royal Wedding boosted the economy by £1 billion on the wedding day alone. Going forward, the royal couple are primed to charm the world and in doing so, keeping the UK on the world’s stage for years to come, boosting the economy and country’s global profile.

So if the royal family is the UK’s USP, what is your business’?

If you’ve got something that is unique, your competitors can’t replicate and your customers want, you have a competitive edge that can help your business thrive.

The royal wedding demonstrated that the royal family might just be the USP this country has been searching for. Make sure that you recognise the USP in your business and if you don’t have one, get one!

It doesn’t just have to come from what you sell. It can equally reside in how you sell. Make sure you take the time this month to find what your USP is, it might be staring you right in the face.

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Top Marketing Tips for May

  1. Involver apps integrate robust and powerful audience engagement tools to your social media streams. Involver has over two dozen applications tailored to Facebook, Twitter and the iPhone, offering a huge range of options for continuous two-way communication. Stream your Twitter feed directly to Facebook or deliver video directly to your social networks by incorporating your YouTube channel as a tab on your Facebook page.
  2. MobileNoter is a note-taking application for iPhone, iPad or Android platform that is able to sync with Microsoft OneNote notebooks. Do you use OneNote on daily basis on your laptop or PC and dream to have a possibility to sync it with your iPhone, iPad or Android device?
  1. BullMarket by Seth Godin, an eBook which informs you about companies that can help you make something happen. You can download a  version of this eBook and donate to charity.

 

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How to protect your business from social media

The media can be very powerful tool to promote your business. But over the last few years this important communication channel has changed dramatically. The advent and rise of social media,  the live indexing of search engines and the growing prominence of smart phones, has accelerated the speed with which ‘news’ is communicated . Millions can be reached in a matter of seconds.Social media may have brought businesses great opportunities to communicate with their markets, but the pace with which it develops, necessitates organisations consider how they will use the likes of Twitter and Facebook, without landing themselves in compromising situations. There are no guidelines, no rules, few precedents on how best to use it. They are being written as we speak.

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.

 

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Marketing Budget – Money Well Spent?

As the new financial year begins, many of us will be busy putting together our new marketing budget for 2011. Budgeting can be a difficult process; many companies estimate or base their budget on last year. We feel there are more effective means but an estimate is better than nothing. Either route you take, it is important to review and evaluate what worked and what didn’t for your business in 2010. Any time and money you spend on marketing is an investment in your business, so you need to make sure it’s time and money well spent.
When completing your new marketing budget, it is important to consider any changes that may have happened in your industry. Have there been any important innovations? What about the use of technology within your market? What about the distribution channels used to deliver your product or service?

As well as looking outside the box, it is important to consider factors within your business. What were the most successful marketing activities last year? Can they be repeated? It might be an event your business ran or a successful lead generation campaign. Likewise, what are the failures that should be omitted all together this year? Did your advert generate any sales? What about the mailouts? Did you follow them up with a phone call? No? Perhaps that is why they weren’t more effective. When evaluating the relative success or failures from last year, it is important to ascertain whether it was the implementation of the campaign or the activity itself that was fundamental in the success or failure. Don’t make kneejerk reactions.

A new international survey from E-consultancy and SAS found that overall marketing budgets are up, with over 52% of UK businesses claiming to have increased their marketing budget for 2011. Digital marketing continues to be the focus for many marketing budgets, with 72% of companies investing online, compared to 26% purely on offline channels such as print and direct mail.

As an SME ourselves, we understand that marketing budgets can be tight. But that doesn’t mean you can’t budget. We’ve put together some effective, low cost activities that your business can do online in 2011. The success of these activities can be easily measured, helping evaluate the success of your activities when it comes time to define your budget for 2012.

  • Web Content – Is your website up to date, do you spend time generating new and relevant content for your website? Keeping your content moving is a great way of getting the search engines to love your website and keeping your target audience fully informed. Do you use Google Analytics to review traffic to your website on a monthly basis? Analytics is an incredibly powerful tool for businesses to understand and measure the effectiveness of their marketing mix – a great way to determine appropriate areas for your future marketing budget.
  • Social Media – Do you have a strategy in place? Have you set a target of likes/followers you want to reach in the next 6 months? Yes, you do have to invest your time in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, however, it’s a great way to showcase your business and keep customers up to date with your business activities and news.
  • Email Marketing – Do you monitor who views and opens your email campaigns. E-marketing software is a great tool to measure how successful your emails have been. Integrate your email marketing with telemarketing; call the companies that are showing an interest in your emails.

Now is the time businesses need to look closely at their past, present and future marketing activities. Businesses need to create more revenue for less cost and this can take some creative thinking. If you are struggling to know where to spend your marketing budget most effectively on measurable solutions, click here to find out more about TLC Business FREE Marketing MOT.

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The Holidays Are Coming

For many, Christmas is an important landmark in the calendar. For some, it’s the culmination of a year-long planning process, and for others, it’s a last minute shopping trip to grab the Christmas essentials.
Whilst, we were all enjoying the BBQs, beach trips and summer activities this August, the people at the prestigious British department store Selfridges, were busy preparing their Christmas department; a whopping 145 days early; the earliest it has ever opened. Displaying decorations, Christmas trees and tinsel, the festive shop opened as an extravaganza of everything Christmas.  Is this too early to start Christmas marketing, or is it an example of great marketing planning, attracting customers early?  Well, according to Selfridges, you can never be too early. Last year their festive shop sold 1,000 baubles in the first week alone, simply down to tourists looking for a small memento to take home.

Here at TLC Business, whilst we were enjoying the summer evenings this August, Christmas wasn’t far from our minds. We believe that it is essential for companies to prepare and plan for the festive season, months ahead of time.  It should be part of your yearly marketing plan. We don’t necessarily believe you need to get your Christmas products on the shelves at the height of summer, but having a plan of action for the year’s last quarter is a must.

It is not just retail businesses that benefit from this advanced planning. Many B2B organisations view Christmas as an unwelcome distraction that disrupts their business. Advanced marketing planning for the festive period is not just relevant for consumer-focused businesses. The period will impact on business of all sizes and across the majority of sectors. You need to be in tune with the needs of your specific customers. In our opinion, it’s never too early for companies to start preparing for this potentially lucrative season, to ensure they maximise the marketing opportunities that surround it.

This is especially relevant for online retailers.  Adding new features and festive graphics to your website will be appealing to the eye; however, don’t neglect less obvious areas, such as ensuring your site is prepared for the surge in festive traffic. Online retailers should be reshaping their email, SEO and pay per click campaigns to benefit from the Christmas boom period. Now is the time to ensure that your site is robust enough to deal with Christmas demand, in order to satisfy your customers, instead of damaging your brand value with a poor performing site.

With consumer lifestyles changing, more and more people are turning to the web for their Christmas gifts.  With more brands then ever competing for business online, it is important that SMEs establish their Christmas marketing ideas early and incorporate them within their yearly marketing plan, ready for implementation months in advance.

Christmas may be a holiday for most people, but to many businesses it’s a prime opportunity to increase turnover and meet your financial objectives for the year. You may not be a big business like Selfridges, serving consumers, but that is no excuse to avoid planning your festive season’s marketing early, to maximise sales and get the results you require.

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Is it a bird, is it a plane? No it’s an SME

The last few weeks’ headlines have been dominated by talk of deficits and cuts. So we thought we’d take a look at how the Private Sector will help overcome these measures and ride to the rescue of the economy.
With the Public Sector now being forced to make many of the cost cutting measures we in the private sector have been implementing for the last few years, the future of our economy rests in the hands of the Private Sector.  Whilst Cameron and his coalition may be courting the advances of the bosses of big industry, but it is not the big corporates that hold the key to economic success, and the government appears to recognize that.  David Cameron’s championing of the ‘big businesses of tomorrow’, is founded on the belief that with help from banks and government-backed enterprises, small business will thrive and boost economic growth in the UK.

Now, you may be thinking ‘how could my small business help the economic recovery?’  Government statistics show that in 2009, 83% of businesses in the UK employed less than 10 people. Only 1.5% of UK businesses employed over 100 employees. With SMEs representing the vast majority of UK businesses, it is clear that we are going to have a massive role to play in filling the gap left in our economy, when the budget cuts start to bite.

Dave Sumner Smith, Programme Director of The SME Hub states that SMEs account for 99.9% of British businesses, 59.8% of Private Sector employment and 49% of Private Sector turnover. In 2009, 82% of UK businesses had a turnover of £500,000 or under.

So how does this translate for SMEs based in Hampshire?

As a Hampshire based SME, we were interested in seeing how the numbers stacked up for the Hampshire region. Government statistics show that Hampshire businesses follow the national trend. The vast majority of businesses are SMEs, with 98% of businesses employing less than 10 members of staff.  The same is true for turnover. Indeed, in 2009 there were only 565 businesses in Hampshire that have a turnover in excess of £5 million.

All the evidence points to the fact that SMEs hold the key to the UK’s future economic success and without us, our country’s finances would hang by a thread.

So with growth so important, how does an SME begin to grow?  We believe a key component of growth is improving the performance of your marketing. Don’t leave it to chance. Like the budget cuts, important decisions need to be planned in advance. Investing in proper marketing preparation and planning can help today’s SMEs become tomorrow’s Corporates.

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How interested are SMEs in Sustainability?

Sustainability and green business practices are topics that provoke much debate amongst larger corporates but how interested are SMEs in this area?
If you asked SME business owners where sustainable business practices sit on their list of business priorities, what level of importance would you expect them to attribute to it?

The Environment Agency states that since the recession, many SMEs have abandoned ‘Green Business Practices’ in an effort to stay afloat.

The Green Business Blog highlights the Environmental Agency’s study of 7,000 companies, which found a 75% drop in those operating “a basic formal environmental management system (EMS)”.  Indeed, over 50% of businesses surveyed claimed that an EMS or environmental policy was of “no use” to them in the current economic climate.

One of the key arguments used to persuade SMEs to move towards more environmentally sustainable business practices is the cost savings that typically come hand in hand with these measures. The above study’s findings suggest that these savings are either not recognised or valued by SMEs, but why is this?

The Carbon Trust claims British businesses waste in excess of £7 million a day and EON estimate the average office wastes £6000 per year through ‘sloppy practices’.

These are sums that are surely significant to smaller businesses, so why are we not taking more notice? It seems to us that ‘greener’ business practices are a win-win for the SME, society and the environment.

So how can we get SMEs to move the ‘Green agenda’ higher up their priority list?

One place to start is with changing company culture. EON argue part of the problem resides in staff attitudes. They found up to 80% of those surveyed did not apply the energy saving practices that they undertake at home, in their workplace.

There are compelling business cases around cost cutting and one should not forget compliance. As the government strives to meet strict EU targets, they will surely look to SMEs to help reduce their waste across their business. Whether they resort to the carrot or stick approach remains to be seen, however, larger energy users are already obliged contribute to the government’s compulsory carbon trading scheme and are open to fines for not presenting valid Energy performance Certificates (EPC) when moving or altering their premises.

Neither should one forget the marketing opportunities that a credible, genuine and meaningful ‘environmental policy’ and ‘Green’ ethos can generate.

Whilst it is important to avoid ‘Green wash’ – superficial ‘green’ actions and communications that merely pay lip service to sustainability and act as a cynical attempt to manipulate customers ‘green’ sensibilities, implementing genuine ‘Green’ and sustainable business practices can give you a means of competitive differentiation.

Allied to that is the increasing body of evidence that shows that consumers are more inclined to ‘trust’ brands that are perceived as practicing sustainable business practices. After Kraft added the Rainforest Alliance logo on its Kenco coffee brand, its market share increased 8%.

We’d argue that implementing sustainable business practices is not only beneficial but necessary for any business to thrive in the future. Incorporating this ethos into your brand and marketing will undoubtedly prove beneficial to your bottom line. But make sure that these measures are consistent across every aspect of your business. Consumers are quick to spot cheap, superficial gimmicks and will not take kindly to your attempts to mislead them.

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