Date: Thursday 29 October Time: 5.30 – 8pm followed by food, drinks and networking Venue: Great North Museum: Hancock, NE2 4PT Cost: FREE to Codeworks Connect members; £20 to non-members
Everyone and anyone is talking up social media right now. Asking you to “join the conversation”, “engage” with your customers rather than shouting at them. And telling you that if you don’t use these tools you’re at a major disadvantage.
But what’s the truth about social media? Can they really help your business? And how, exactly? (more…)
In tough economic times people and businesses are less able to give as freely as they may have once given, charity unfortunately stays at home!
As with any business in a recession charities need to be where their audience is or they run the risk of being left behind, and it’s clear some smaller charities are struggling to change lanes and adopt social media as a key part of their strategy. Some charities, however, have made the leap and have been reaping the rewards of new social opportunities.
Age Concern with partner Innocent Smooties developed ‘The Big Knit’. Started in 2003 the campaign has raised, to date, over £600k for older people in the colder winter months. The campaign now includes Flickr, YouTube and Blog channels which enable the people who’ve got behind the campaign to be part of the story. Clever widgets such as the ‘Hatometer’, which can be embedded into supporters blogs and websites, shows how many hats have been knitted so far. (more…)
I read a piece recently by Clay Shirky, who in a blog post entitled ‘Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable,’ reflected on the nature of revolutions. Periods of time when old ‘stuff’ was no longer relevant to us and new ‘stuff’ couldn’t come along fast enough to replace it. That feels like now doesn’t it?
The edges of our media space are expanding faster than our ability to make sense of them, of new technologies, of how people use them and of the shake out, that will mean some old media will fall by the wayside.
But this is an unravelling story seen from two very different perspectives. The user, swept along by the rush of the crowd to try new media, to make that media fit their lifestyle and the marketer, trying to position a brand where its’ target customer is. (more…)
I’ve seen lots of social media maps, some good some not so good.
The problem is they sit there in lofty isolation, a sea of mostly unfamiliar names and quirky identities. They are a secret cypher known only to social media cool kids it seems. These maps are not connected to the real world (The one in which hard pressed marketing professionals are fighting hard for their budgets and their jobs) in any recognisable way. We’re missing an opportunity here and, if we’re honest, being a little bit condescending to boot. Another thing, social media buzz words are such a crock! Real people don’t talk like that!
We find ourselves drawing this diagram all the time for clients when we’re talking about social media so we thought we’d reproduce it here and get some feedback.
Conversations tend to go something like, “Why social media?”.
After introducing them to the idea that engaging with audiences, listening and harvesting feedback, gaining insights into audience thinking and breaking down corporate barriers is the most rewarding business change event they’ll ever implement it’s much much simpler to draw it.
The explosion that is social media came about due to the convergence of three forces: people, technology and economics. People wanted to talk, and technology caught up to the extent that it became possible to connect to friends in real time using a multitude of devices. These are made affordable because the infrastructure is now in place making it easily accessible to the vast majority.
The easiest way to think of social media, I believe, is as a conversation that millions of people are having, one that’s growing louder as more and more voices join in. And guess what the topics are: they are talking about you, your brand, your product and your services. (more…)
The North East Digtial Awards celebrate the excellence of the growing digital industry in the North East of England showcasing the best of the region’s digital talent.
We’ve entered the digital supplier – Best Social Media Optomisation Campaign category, so fingers crossed we get something. Anyone can vote in the awards so use you click and support us.
The progress of digital technology has seen the traditional media of television change dramatically over the last ten years. Increased convergence of services and technologies is changing the shape of the communications sector and in particular industry revenues.
The decline in advertising revenues coincides with greater availability and use of television-style content online and the growth of digital video recorders (DVRs) that allow users to skip adverts, putting even greater pressure on advertising revenues. A report by OFCom found that up to 78% of DVR owners regularly used them to skip through adverts.
OFCom also found that online advertising continues to grow and Google have now announced that research undertaken by them has found that ads on its YouTube portal have a greater impact than those on television.
We get asked by both clients and contacts how social media tools support our business development and increase brand profile. The answer is pretty simple. Through creating individual and agency profiles within some key social media tools we are able to improve the transparency of our business, our experience, our recommendations and possibly most importantly, our personality.
One of the main tools we use is LinkedIn, so what is it?
LinkedIn is an online network of more than 30 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals.
So how do you use this to help expand your professional business network?
Roughly 86% of respondents in a survey conducted by Locomotion Creative in Nashville say they expect social media to impact the way companies do business and generate sales. Additionally, 64% believe their competitors are probably incorporating social media into their strategic plans. (more…)
Posted by: Mark Easby, Managing Director - Better Brand Agency
