Website: http://www.fudgefancies.co.uk

Michael, the founder of Fudge Fancies, is the eldest son of three children. As the eldest Michael enjoyed a lot of quality time and attention from his grandparents and had a particularly close relationship with his maternal grandmother, Jean, whom he spent a lot of time in his early years. Michael’s first spark of interest in cooking came from watching his grandmother bake her legendary fudge.

Michael loves the care and precision that is needed in creating the perfect piece of fudge as opposed to his usual style of cooking which requires no measurements! This need for precision only encouraged Michael to strive for perfection and after trial and error he has achieved his goal with Fudge Fancies.

Michael now regularly sells his gourmet fudge at various farmer’s markets across the North East of England including Saltburn and Stokesley. Michael believes the markets are a brilliant way of testing new flavours, such as his upcoming Cherry Trifle, as people are always more than willing to try a sample of his scrumptious fudge. With his recipe book getting fuller by the day, Michael believes he has more to surprise and delight his customers!

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Brand Design, Brand Development, Marketing Support, Website design, WordPress CMS Development, Social Media Strategy and Support.

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Ian brings to Better a decade of digital experience, the majority with e-commerce specialists Visualsoft.

Ian will work closely with Better’s customers on their web projects taking overall responsibility for digital project management, managing resource, project specification, customer support, liaison and training.

Ian says: “This is a brilliant opportunity to join a growing agency and help guide its digital output and strategy to help it compete on a national level. As Head of Digital, I’ll be heavily involved in the planning and delivery of digital strategies for both existing and new clients, bringing to the table my understanding of a complex digital landscape that is constantly evolving.”

Mark Easby, Managing Director of Better, said: “Ian joining our team is indicative of our growth over the last 18 months. He joins Senior Web Developer, Simon Scarfe, who joined us twelve months ago, in creating a skilled digital team team capable of delivering fantastic results for our clients and positioning Better for further growth.”

Within the first 18 months Better have expanded to 7 staff and is proud to have established a client base which includes NDI, Freshfayre, Philippa Gregory, SASDA, Codeworks, Onyx Group, Teesside University, The Enterprise Team, MPI Offshore, and Northumbria University. The company recently won the Internet/ICT category at the 2009 nebusiness awards and have also won Best Social Media Marketing Campaign at the 2008 North East Digital Awards.

On Thursday 25 March 2010, people in hundreds of cities around the world, including Newcastle will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness.  Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good.

All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects. Follow @tynetwestival on Twitter or visit http://newcastle.twestival.com for updates.

About Concern Worldwide.

Concern Worldwide was founded in 1968 to meet the needs of people living in extreme poverty, for whom every day is a fight for survival. Concern is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organization dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of poverty. Their mission is to help people living in extreme poverty achieve major improvements in their lives – improvements they can sustain without ongoing support. Concern meets the needs of these people in a caring and personalized manner, respecting their human and cultural dignity. They are committed to reaching the most vulnerable, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Concern’s work is informed by a vision for change and their education programs target the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world, with particular emphasis on reaching out-of-school children such as girls, orphans, street children, working children, children affected by conflict, children affected by HIV and AIDS, and children with disabilities. Concern’s education programs currently reach over 700,000 people in 25 countries across the regions of Africa,  Asia, and the Caribbean.  Please follow @concern on Twitter to get a glimpse of their staff tweeting from around the world; including their efforts on the ground in Haiti.

Where the Twestival funds will go.

Each city and school hosting a Twestival will be given the opportunity to select an area of education to support.  This will be recognized with a special icon on their website once they have set a goal.  For as little as $28USD they can provide the uniform, books, pencils, and paper a child needs to attend one year of school.

Concern Worldwide are able to guarantee that 100% of Twestival funds will go direct to project costs.  This means that the money would be used for material purchases (curriculum, desks, pencils) as well as project activities such as construction of schools; rehabilitation of classrooms; teacher/management training; PTAs; HIV/AIDS school clubs; water and sanitation in schools; health education in schools; education advocacy; vocational/life-skills training for youth, farmers and women; and curriculum development for secondary school/university.

Money will not be used for things like administration, overhead, reporting oversight, etc. Concern Worldwide requires all fields that receive money strictly adhere to a six- and 12-month formal reporting protocol in which the field details the specific activities it has undertaken and how the funds were utilized. This system provides a very tangible case studies, evidence and updates, and other detailed information about how programs have progressed and benefited program participants; including the financial allocation in field; the GPS locations of schools in receipt of funds; digital video clips and photos from the schools; and case studies/quotes from people who have benefitted from the projects.  As cities are confirmed and fundraising goals are set, we will work with the team at Concern Worldwide to identify specific projects we will be supporting.

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.

We are at this juncture, living through exciting and yet worrying times because history repeatedly reminds us that the intervening years between the birth of something new and it being fully realised, is a path marked with successes and failures in equal measure.

It is our fear of failure that plays into the hands of those who make their living trying to predict the future we marketers so desperately want to know about.

A recent TimesOnline article has marketers raving about the simple insights of a young man, who whist on work experience wrote a short paper on how teenagers use media. According to him, teenagers (boys mainly) use their games console for conversations, not their mobiles, which incidentally is primarily used for text and music. They don’t read newspapers, preferring instead to get their news online and they don’t buy movies or music, seeing nothing wrong in pirate DVD’s and peer-to-peer downloads.

And what about teenage girls? I speak from experience here as I have a teenage daughter, who has Facebook, MSN and YouTube open simultaneously on her laptop and only uses her mobile or ipod for music / texting whenever she is on the move, and disconnected from her laptop.

What surprised me about this article wasn’t necessarily the insights it revealed, it was the reaction of people to these insights. It was like the volume had been turned up by this young man and for the first time these marketers could hear the authentic voice of a generation.

Who can really know where we’re going; the futurists, the edge dwellers and technology hipsters?

Egos and reputations are at stake, which makes people, who in their time gave us clarity and made sense of where we were, look further and further ahead, not for us this time but to cement their own reputations, their own place in history. They fixate on new worlds, where they can coin new phrases, name new movements and re-claim their place in media folklore. They change the language (For no other reason it seems than that’s what they feel the world expects of them) from social to collaborate to individual and so on.

I don’t have much time for them to be honest. As a user I’m loving living through the revolution and as a Marketer I’m busy trying to make sense of the changing world for our clients and helping them understand how their brand engages their customer across social media spaces.

And what will win through in the end. Which media will still be around when this revolution reaches it zenith? Well history also has a lesson to teach us about this too. New technology is only revealed in retrospect to be turning points in a revolution.

So we need to accept we’re as bound to get it wrong as we are to get it right, so move forward or be prepared to get left behind. Enjoy being part of history in the making, leave the future to the generations to come after us.

 

Social Media Funnel

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!

So here’s something all marketing and sales professionals understand, ‘The Funnel’. Everyone, more or less goes through the same process of Awareness (I have a need), Consideration (Evaluate the alternatives), Preference (The sum of looking and listening to arrive at a decision) and finally Action (Satisfying the need).

I though it might be useful therefore to visualise how a number of social media channels working together (The list isn’t exhaustive by the way) can help sign post people through the funnel to some meaningful action connected to your brand, product or service.

Of course there is always a note of caution. Social media channels have to be aligned to target audience, and that means you have to get inside the minds and lives of the audience and build the right channels. The “If you build it they will come” attitude to building social media channels wont work and will more likely damage your brand.

WHAT’S all the buzz around social media?

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.

This is no flash in the pan either; it’s a sea change that businesses have to get to grips with.

At no point so far have you seen it referred to here as a sales channel, but it can be. Companies, Dell for instance, have successfully developed a sales channel that uses social media channels to tap into its consumer base. Don’t rush to the phone and call your digital agency and ask for one just yet though. Dell spent years building trust and putting real people in the firing line to take on customer issues, being visible and saying, “Hey, we’re here and we’re listening.”

We are a discerning bunch who regularly use social media. We like to be informed, entertained but not, I repeat not, overtly sold too. The number of companies I see tweeting “I’m thinking up great ideas to promote my online store at www……….” Please, show me some respect, some originality, some idea that you know who I am and what I like.

I advise people to listen, listen, listen before they engage with social media. Discover where your customers are online. What tools do they use? Are they creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators or inactive in social media? Without this understanding you could invest time and energy in creating a forum and discover that your customers are predominately spectators who like to read but not contribute to online conversations.

Clever businesses are developing listening strategies that harvest feedback and provide fresh insights into what their target audience is thinking. They are talking with their audience, taking down the corporate wall and getting closer to the people who buy their products and use their services.

It is these companies, the ones taking social media seriously as a tool – opposed to a frivolous distraction their employees spend too long using – that will reap the benefits.

——- ENDS ——-

Declan Metcalfe is marketing director of Stokesley-based Better Brand Agency (www.betterbrandagency.com).

For more information about our Brand Graphic Design and Creative, Marketing, Social Media and Social Networking,  Web and Digital services please Contact the Better team.

We have been working on some graphics and web buttons to help spread the word, and these will be online very soon. For more information the TyneTwestival please visit http://newcastle.twestival.com where you can buy tickets online, or follow @tynetwestival on Twitter.

Better Brand Agency is a brand agency offering brand, graphic design, marketing, social media and social networking, web and digital services based in Tees Valley, North East and North Yorkshire.

For more information please visit the Better Brand Agency Channel on YouTube or click on one of the links below to view our playlists and check out our favourite videos.

Better Brand Agency YouTube Playlists -

Brand Communication – Videos and content related to brand communication and branding design.
Graphic Design and Creative – Graphic Design, Design and Creative videos and content.
Marketing Communication – Marketing Communication and Marketing Content and Videos.
Web and Digital – Web Design, Web Development and Digital Industry videos and content.
Social Media and Social Networking – Social Media, Social Marketing and Social Networking industry comments including social media campaigns, social media marketing strategy.
Better Brand Agency – Better Brand Agency videos and content.
North East England – North East England related content and videos
Tees Valley – Tees Valley related content and videos.

Better Brand Agency is a brand agency offering brand, graphic design, marketing, social media and social networking, web and digital services based in Tees Valley, North East and North Yorkshire.

A little more about Thinking Digital:

Thinking Digital is an annual conference where the world´s greatest thinkers and innovators gather to inspire, to entertain, and to discuss the latest ideas and technologies.

Defining exactly what to expect at Thinking Digital isn’t easy. The conference prides itself on the eclectic nature of the schedule. One moment you’ll be experiencing a first UK appearance of Live Mesh (as attendees where treated to at Thinking Digital 2008) and the next you’ll be hearing about the science behind love from the world’s leading expert.

For all the latest updates please visit http://www.thinkingdigital.co.uk or follow ThinkingDigital (http://twitter.com/ThinkingDigital) on Twitter.

Why not get involved in Twestival, a party in 50+ cities around the world on 12th February 2009. Funds raised go to Charity Water. Newcastle’s Twestival party, for tweeters across the North East, will be in Newcastle. And you’re invited!

On 12 February 2009 cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.

Join the Twestival campaign by hosting a Twestival in your city, attending an event, or participating online.

The Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers in cities around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects.

In September 2008, a group of Twitterers based in London UK decided to organise an event where the local Twitter community could socialize offline; meet the faces behind the avatars, enjoy some entertainment, have a few drinks and tie this in with a food drive and fundraising effort for a local homeless charity.

The bulk of the event was organized in under two weeks, via Twitter and utilized the talents and financial support of the local Twittersphere to make this happen.

Around the world similar stories started appearing of local Twitter communities coming together and taking action for a great cause. Twestival was born out of the idea that if cities were able to collaborate on an international scale, but working from a local level, it could have a spectacular impact.

Visit the website at http://twestival.com/ from more information or follow Twestival (http://twitter.com/tynetwestival) and Tynetwestival (http://twitter.com/twestival/) on Twitter.