2012 is all about the C word!

I thought I'd share with you just one way I've made use of my social media platforms this week!

Over the holidays I reviewed my SWOT analysis to assess which direction I'd take my business in 2012 and I've spent the past week or so addressing some of the weaknesses and opportunities.

Being a Sole Trader has it's advantages but also many disadvantages so I've decided that this year COLLABORATION is going to be the key to success, allowing me to work with like minded people in similar fields and expand my business.

Social Media has been a great way to source these people, in particular Linkedin.  Using the filtered contact search to find people already within my network living in the marketing industry (& within the Swansea area) and also scoping out other Social Media specialists through the use of group discussions (and having a nose at their profiles and activity).

Another which was a pleasant surprise was a call I received from a Facebook friend of one of my Facebook fans.  The Facebook fan had commented on a discussion on my page, which in turn appeared in the ticker of all her Facebook friends, who just so happens to deliver Social Media training in West Wales and was looking for someone (like me) to build a referral partnership.

So, this goes to show that Social Media can be used for collaboration, something I think is vital for sole traders/small businesses like myself!

Take a few minutes out of your day to think who in your network you could collaborate with and arrange those all important face to face meetings!  

Business in Focus Event - How to manage your Linkedin account in just 10 minutes a day!

Had a great day yesterday presenting at the Business in Focus event at the Village Hotel in Cardiff.


My topic was - How to manage your Linkedin account in just 10 minutes a day!


I talked about some of the bits you need to get right first and the best practice approach allowing you to manage it all in just 10 minutes a day!  


Below is a copy of the presentation:


BLATANT PLUG ALERT!!!  - and for those of you who need a more in depth workshop I will be holding a 3 hour practical workshop on Wed 11th Jan 2012 at TSW Training in Bridgend.  Click here for further details or click here to book a place)  Places will be limited.

How to manage your Linkedin Account in 10 minutes a day! Nov 2011

View more presentations from Nat Reynolds

Top Ten Social Media tips for Small Businesses!

Top ten social media tips for small businesses

View more presentations from natreynolds

How do I get more fans for my Facebook Page...?

... is the question many people ask when it comes to Facebook!  

Firstly, I won't lie to you - it's not easy!

Secondly, I provide my clients with information about the best ways to go about building their fan base and the conversation usually starts with 'There is no magic wand" or "No quick fixes" and "Quality is better than quantity" - however I've needed to open my mind  little on this one recently.

There are pages on Facebook that are dedicated to helping you get more fans for you Facebook page - an example is the Send in the Troops and I've also seen posts on Linkedin encouraging people world wide to like each others pages.

At first, I was very much ANTI these pages and advised clients not to take part in it as they will end up with lots of likes but an audience who are potentially not listening.  My reasoning for this is predominantely I've been working with clients that have been based in South Wales with their customers also based in South Wales too.

However, I've had a bit of feedback that suggests that this can help (however in my opinion it's not something you should use long term).  

So here is my summary and tips if you are considering or have already gone down this route:

• FIRST - List all of the ways you can get your current customer base and new customers to Like your page and implement these (before you try out these quick fixes)
• To grow your fan base organically create content that will help your page go viral
• Give the quick fix a go if you need to quickly reach 25 Likes to get your vanity/shortened URL for marketing - we always need a helping hand with this
• If your product/service is available nationally/internationally (eg. Internet sales), then possibly worth giving these quick fixes a go as you can potentially convert your new 'likes' into customers - but if you're a local business dealing locally you are likely to get irrelevant fans
• If you are going to use it, ensure you set your wall settings so that users can only comment on posts - otherwise you will end up with alot of unwanted posts on your wall -  also resulting in many notifications, therefore leaving a genuine customer enquiry mixed in with the 'spam'
• OR if you do want to open up your wall, ensure you set it that only posts by page are viewed on arrival to the page
• Monitor your insights for the loation of your fans (however this isn't truly accurate due to IP addresses and relying on people completing their profiles) and if people are unsubscribing from your posts
• And finally, if you're getting people to come by in their masses it is probably because you've 'liked' many other pages - if their posts are too frequent or irrelevant either hide their posts from your news feed or 'unlike' their pages, they won't know who has done this!

I'm hoping the above gives you a little bit of advice about these quick fixes!  I'm still not a fan of it, but if it's worked for some clients I shouldn't really ignore it as there is no rule book as such when it comes to these things - just people's opinoins on what is good and bad practice!

If you've got this far then I'd really like to hear your comments on this!

Thanks :-)

Testing again...

... as the notes application on Facebook has let me down again and I didn't like the look of RSS Graffiti I've decided to give NetworkedBlog another go!

Here goes...

Today's Social Media @Whatsnextevent (#wn2011) & Facebook Tips

It was great attending Wales' first Social Media event at the Mecure Holland House, Cardiff today.

A big well done for organising such a great event - the hard work paid off and I'm sure the November event will be even better.

I wanted to give a few words of what I thought as 4 x 1 hour seminars were covered  - Video/You Tube, Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin

Video/You Tube - The seminar delivered by Mark Sinclair was quite thought provoking for me as I'd not viewed Videos in the way they were presented today.  Certainly something to think about and to discuss with my clients

Twitter - Nick Tadd delivered a great seminar allowing those who aren't actively on Twitter to understand what its all about and some great tips on how to get started and more to the point - if you're going to be on it - then be on it!

Facebook - This was quite disappointing for me as some key things were not covered today - making me worry that those who attending this seminar will go away with the wrong impression about Facebook.  Considering this guy was mean to be a leader in digital marketing with a specialism in Facebook he didn't do a great job - in fact, he said that Facebook is that last Social Media platform you should look at (out of 5, to include Twitter (which was 1st), Linkedin, Ecademy & You Tube).  Quite worrying that this wasn't backed up by any facts, just his opinion that it is the hardest platform to get to grips with!  A recent study by the Social Media Examiner stated that those entering into Social Media use Facebook 1st, followed by Twitter, then Linkedin.  He took no consideration of peoples target market.

What made me really worry is that he used his own page as an example, of which 3 things I instantly picked out as this being not not a great example:

• Only 107 likes for the page (60+ of which were his 'friends)
• All the feeds were fed in by RSS Graffitti (this means it was all automated)
• Very few posts have any feedback - and those that did were just 'likes' as opposed to comments

He then went on to explain how he uses Payvment Ecommerce Store front to sell 'loads' of books - REALLY?  How many of these books will these 107 'fans' need to buy?

For those who did attend the seminar today (and anyone reading this) here are basic some tips on how to get the most out of Facebook for business:

• Post information people care about - consider your target audience and what they would like to hear
• Engage with your audience as this will provide you with more exposure (which can be monitored via FB insights)
• Be consistent and aim to post at least once a day - this will keep you in the fore front of your audiences mind
• Create content and use apps that will allow your page to go viral - FB place check-ins, tagging of photos, events & encourage sharing
• Incorporate your social media into all your marketing and communications - this will allow you to gradually build a relevant audience - its more important to have the right people that like your page

And to finish - the last seminar was on Linkedin which was full of energy and very motivational - just a couple of improvements needed for my Linkedin useage!


To summarise - all in all a good event and well organised.  Just one blip - the Facebook presenter! Would recommend the November event to others as long as the Facebook presenter is reviewed - any suggestions who should do it! ;-)

Social Media is great but you still need traditional marketing...

For the past month or so I've been working with Kickstart Motorcycles (Port Talbot) to help promote their Open Day to launch the new Aprilia Tuono V4 (that's a motorbike for those who don't know!)

The purpose of the open Day was to raise the awareness of the business which has been running for over 30 years as during these tough times many Motorbike shops across the UK have ceased trading, Kickstart needed to get the message out there to the Bikers of South Wales that the shop is very much still open for business!

With the intergrated Marketing Straegy put into place we certainly proved to the Bikers of South Wales we is well and truly open for business!

So, with a bit of targeted direct mail to selected previous clients, word of mouth and a whole lot of Social Media, Kickstart Motorcycles (Port Talbot) was buzzing today!

When checking how people had heard about the Open Day it was a good mix of seeing it on Facebook, invites via Twitter, invites via the post and 'my mate told me'!

A successful open day and already lots of great feedback on the Facebook Page and mentions from some influential people on Twitter - Kickstart Motorcylces of Port Talbot are well and truly back in the minds of bikers in South Wales (and possible a bit further too!)

Monitoring the Facebook Analytics for the business page also has had indicating the additional exposure Kickstart needed!  It'll be interesting to see the insights for today - unfortunately have to wait for approx 48 hours for Facebook to publish!

The lesson here - integrating social media with traditional marketing methods provides you with a receipe for success allowing you to engage with past, existing and potential customers!