Ten Ways to get ahead with LinkedIn

LinkedIn has evolved from a contact database to a very powerful business networking and promotion tool. It is now

There was a nice article from eConsultancy last week which highlighted some key steps to getting your LinkedIn profile working hard for you and your business. And of course, they were all points covered in our Social Media Workshop held yesterday, ranging from profile set up to LinkedIn ‘netiquette’!

If you need help and advice in getting started with LinkedIn and using it for business lead generation, give us a call today.

July 28th, 2010 | Tags: | Category: Social Media | Leave a comment

Facebook reaches 500M users

It was announced yesterday that Facebook has now reached 500M users (see BBC article), with 100M users been added in the last six months.

Facebook is now the most popular site on the web with both the most unique visitors and the most page views.

July 22nd, 2010 | Tags: | Category: Social Media | Leave a comment

Start listening – Getting the most out of Twitter

More and more companies are now seeing the potential benefits of engaging with their markets and clients using the social media.

The instinctive reaction for many is to set up the profiles and immediately starting pushing out content. However the best way to engage and build your network of followers is to start by listening…….

Use Twitter tools such as Seesmic, Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to monitor keywords that will filter what people are saying about your business, your brand and your market. Then you can engage with those conversations and provide content of value.

There was a recent e-consultancy article which gave some interesting insights into the strategies to adopt and the types of keywords to use.

For advice and assistance in launching and running Twitter campaigns for your businesss, contact WSI today.

July 21st, 2010 | Tags: | Category: Social Media | Leave a comment

Social Media for Business – Workshops – July 27th – Chester

Though the majority of companies are aware of the benefits associated with social media, many have not established a social media strategy. For most, this is because they do not know where and how to begin.

WSI is running two workshops in Chester on July 27th which are designed to answer those important questions.

We look at best practices, tools and resources for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, and how to use a company blog effectively.

The role of Social Media within a broader internet marketing and PR strategy will be explored

To complement the workshops and help you to launch a Social Media strategy for your business, each workshop delegate will receive a free copy of the WSI Social Media Strategy Kit. As well as the course materials, the kit contains guidance on staff training, policies and procedures plus additional templates, checklists and links to other useful social media resources.

Morning Workshop Topics (9:30-12:30) include:

  • The Changing Internet – why Social Media is important to your business
  • Where and How to get started with the Top 5 Social Portals (Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube)
  • Making Social Media part of your business – policies, procedures and guidelines

Afternoon Workshop Topics (14:00-17:00) include:

  • LinkedIn – building your profile and getting results from online business networking
  • Setting up a custom Facebook Page for your business
  • Monitoring Twitter and the Social Media – how to measure success and set performance indicators.
  • Social Media and PR

Full details will be found at… http://conta.cc/workshop27july

Alternatively call us on 01928 787026.

July 19th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Social Media | Leave a comment

Measuring the success of Social Media

With all the hype about business use of social media, many organisations forget to put some simple measures in place to track the success of their social media strategy.

The starting point is always to go back to basics and document some core objectives for that strategy if they are not already in place – i.e. why are you investing that time and effort?

They could be to increase leads, improve profits, raise  brand awareness, increase traffic, improve customer interaction etc etc

These objectives will point to basic analytic measures which can be tracked over time as the campaign develops. Some will be basic business indicators such as lead counts, order volumes and sales. Others will be web-based measures such as web traffic monitoring, fan counts and interaction levels.

An article from econsultancy.com last year discusses this in some detail.

However, as with any marketing, it is important that measurement and analysis are implemented as part of any Social Media strategy.

Otherwise how do you know how well it is working? Or where it needs improving?

If you would like advice on launching and measuring the success of a social media strategy for your business, call WSI today on 01928 787026.

July 14th, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: Social Media | Leave a comment

Why you need an Internet Consultant and not a …..

Many businesses faced with the challenge of bringing new life to their website will call in their local graphics agency or web designer.

And for most, starting with visual design elements is starting in the wrong place entirely and they will likely end up with a new website that looks different, but probably performs no better than the old one.

By contrast, an Internet Consultancy such as WSI Chester will look at how the internet fits within the overall business strategy and agree the business objectives for the website, target visitor types and the required outcomes.

We help the client to step back from analysing menu systems and colour schemes and focus initially on their business needs and the requirements of their site visitors.

The priority is ‘what should it do for my business?’, and not ‘what should it look like?’ – decide strategy first, then you can choose the most appropriate tactics.

For example, the same website promoting annual holiday insurance would be styled significantly differently if it was targeting 18-25 age group than if it was aimed at the 50+ segment.

For a no-obligation discussion about your current internet strategy and options for the future, call Andy of WSI Chester on 01928 787026 today.

July 7th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Internet Marketing | Leave a comment

Email Marketing – Quick Tips for Better Results

Email marketing is so easy to do that many businesses do it almost on auto-pilot, and then wonder why they get poor results.

Too often they worry about the process and neglect the content, resulting in low open rates with most of their target audience failing to read a single word!

But the basics can be easy – just think about which emails you decide to open and then decide to read, and which ones do you automatically filter out to ignore. And work out how you make those decisions. Usually it will involve the following:

1. Email headline or title must catch the attention or trigger curiosity, without being ’spammy’. A poor headline is the fast route to the waste bin! It needs to convey enough information for the reader to want to learn more.

2. Who is the email from? Is it someone whose reputation you value and trust, or a company you’ve never heard of? Building the trust of your mailing list over time by providing content of interest and value is a good long term investment. An email from a known individual is more likely to be read than one from a corporate role address such as sales@ or info@

3. The content of the email itself should inform and assist the reader, even when the primary message is a sales proposal. It should be written in a style which you’d like to read.

Always think, would I open and read this email? And if  you are unsure, work out why and change it!

WSI helps a number of clients to run successful email marketing campaigns across a variety of industries. If you would like to learn more, call us on 01928 787026.

June 29th, 2010 | Tags: | Category: Email Marketing | Leave a comment

6 Top Social Media Tips

“Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not.

Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations“…..Seth Godin.

The key to successful participation in any social media marketing is to do so genuinely, to value relationships and not to take goodwill for granted. So, what are some of the best social media marketing techniques that can work for your business ?

Here is a short list of six top tips on using Social Media to promote your business.

1. Be There – Take Part

With over 400 million Facebook users and 1.5 million businesses with Facebook  Pages, your clients and prospects are already there!

Invest time in understanding how social media is being used in your marketplace by prospects, clients and competitors.

2. Look Good

First impressions count online.

Customise profiles etc to reflect corporate branding and useful professional profile images.

3. Give to Gain

The mantra of good business networking.

Contribute to Groups, answer questions, share knowledge. Will raise your credibility and visibility.

Give value, quality before quantity.

4. Build Quality Relationships

Build an online network you can rely upon – nurture contacts.

Don’t agree to every anonymous connection request.

Quality, not quantity.

5. Listen

Two eyes, one keyboard!

What are people saying about your brand, company, market? Then start a conversation.

6. Be Nice

Be helpful, positive, professional.

Be accountable.

Never forget, you are representing your business and yourself.

June 16th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Social Media | Leave a comment

Click to Call Advertising with Google

Google has quietly introduced a neat feature to its Google Adwords advertising platform specifically for users of mobile phones with a full HTML browser (such as the iPhone, Android-powered devices or those running Palm OS).

The advertiser can now add a clickable telephone number as an additional line of their ad, which is only displayed to mobile users.

Viewers can then simply click the phone number to call and connect directly with the business. It’s a quick and convenient way for a potential customer to reach you while they’re on the move.

Recently this service has been extended in the UK to cover both geographic phone numbers and 0800, 0843, 0844, 0845 and 0870 numbers.

To learn more about using  Google Adwords and Click-to-Call to market to mobile users, call Andy at WSI today on 01928 787026.

June 16th, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: Pay Per Click | Leave a comment

Using LinkedIn for Customer Feedback

A personal testimonial or recommendation is one of the most powerful marketing tools for any business. One really effective way to gain maximum impact from your customer feedback is to use LinkedIn testimonials about you and your business.

For testimonials to be displayed in your LinkedIn profile, they must be submitted by another LinkedIn members, and remain linked to their LinkedIn profile. This traceability means they carry more weight and legitimacy.

LinkedIn testimonials are therefore much more powerful than the anonymised quotes from “Gordon B,”  or “JW, Chester”, for example seen on many business websites.

Once you have a number of testimonials on your LinkedIn profile, these can be included in proposals, CV etc , and you can link to them from your blog, Facebook and other Social Media sites when posting  relevant articles.

LinkedIn is a very powerful social network designed for business. If you would like to learn more about how your business can benefit from LinkedIn and using social media generally, contact WSI on 01928 787026.

June 14th, 2010 | Tags: | Category: Social Media | Leave a comment
 
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