Christmas is upon you and that means hundreds of choices staring you in the face – what gifts to buy for whom, venues for the Christmas do, what to eat at the Christmas do, what to wear to the Christmas do, blah de blah. It’s enough to give you indigestion before you’ve even taken a sniff of turkey.

Christmas is just the tip of the choice iceberg, every aspect of your life; what you buy, how you work, how you eat, how you run our business is all encumbered by choice. If you don’t take control you can drown in it, and so can your customers.

Our society is built on the idea that choice is a good thing and to some extent I would agree, after all who wants to be limited to one TV channel, but we’ve taken this idea to extremes when the average supermarket now sells hundreds of different types of cheese.

Every day your customers are served by millions of people who work to make billions of products just to offer choice – everything can be personalised to our individual tastes. Decaf soya cappuccino? Double expresso light or a machiatto? Don’t want either? Well then how about a short, tall, skinny, decaf or iced Latte instead? You can have whatever you want, when you want it. The problem is that the decision becomes more difficult the more choice you have.

Barry Schwartz in his book The Paradox of Choice, says that at the point where the effort to make an informed decision overtakes the benefit of having a choice, then “choice no longer liberates but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannise.”

So, are you drowning your customers in choice? Columbia Business School Professor Sheena Iyengar, a psycho economist gave a TED talk about how businesses can improve the experience of choosing. She says that because our brains simply can’t categorize and choose as well with so many options in front of us… “We choose not to choose even when it goes against our best self interests”.

When already faced by a barrage of choice at Christmas you might just be tipping your customers over the edge by adding more to their proverbial table, resulting in their disengagement and dissatisfaction. So, imagine your company makes choosing a product or service a much simpler process. Where there is no need for endless comparing and contrasting. Your customers will walk away having made a decision they’re happy with, rather than feeling overloaded, and you’ll feel that tinge of satisfaction when a happy customer sings your praises on social media.

Here are a few tips that Professor Iyengar recommends for keeping your customers from feeling overwhelmed;

Eliminate choices to make decision-making easier in your business.

Cut down the number of products and options your company offers. Keep the best sellers but cull the lowest-sellers. “When Procter and Gamble went from 20 different kinds of Head and Shoulders to 15, they saw an increase in sales by 10 percent,” Iyengar says. Less is more. If you are willing to slim down on products, sales increase and costs go down. It’s a win/win.

Help customers focus on a specific, positive outcome

Linking your customer’s choice with a concrete aspect of their life and how it may be affected will help them choose better. For example, ‘These wall tiles will help you achieve a sophisticated and serene bathroom, helping you to bathe in style’ will plant the image in their heads of your wall tiles on their walls. Customers need to see how your service will improve their lives without too much mental effort.

Categorise

If you must have hundreds of products and services, then categorise them into easy-to-follow classifications on your website to help your customers navigate their way around. Ease them in first. For example, offer one or two categories each with choices within. Make it a simple-to-navigate website. Limit the jargon and blocks of texts if possible too.

Help customers by ‘conditioning for complexity.’

Yours may be a company whose very nature is to offer a thousand choices, perhaps you sell ceramic wall and floor tiles for instance. If the first decision your customer has to make has fewer categories and options than the following ones, they will be more likely to participate in ongoing decisions rather than disengage. This is called ‘conditioning for complexity’.

In order that you don’t overwhelm your customers with choice you need to be selective in what products you offer. Avoid being that restaurant that offers too much choice. Not only because it means that by doing too much you will not do anything particularly well, but also because too much choice, at the very least, will leave customers not wholly satisfied with their decision. It may, at worst, have them running in the opposite direction.

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Photo Credit: Menu Board – Yugamama

You’ve put it off for long enough. You’re going to have to do it sooner or later, your business depends upon it. Considering that 72% of online adults use social media it’s high time you felt the fear, and well, got over it. Because, like it or not, these social platforms are where your clients are, and if you don’t have a presence on social media you can be sure your competitors do.

So what are you scared of?

Social media takes up too much of my time

Do you think of social media as an annoying time waster? You can give it as little or as much attention as you have, creating an active presence for just 15 minutes a day. Sticking to one or two platforms, those where your customers tend to hang out, means you need only login, scan and respond as appropriate, taking less time than it takes to make a coffee.

I don’t know what to say on social media

Contrary to what you may believe social media is not only for certain industries. If you have customers, then there’s value in it for you. Yours may not be the most glamorous of trades but as long as you show your human side and not be tempted to hide behind a corporate persona, people will want to listen. Show that your company has a personality and opinions that reflect your values and you’re on to a winner. Be informal, but be relevant, appropriate, and interesting to your audience.

Twitter is a good way of easing yourself in. Start by posting a few links to articles, market reports, etc. anything that might be interesting to customers of your industry. Link to other content that you think will be of value to your audience. Pose questions, or reply to comments.

I fear exposure on social media

Do you worry that every word you write will be misconstrued? Do you fear that your customers will realise you’re not as smart as they thought? Perhaps you fear negative comments or responses?

This is perfectly normal, particularly on social media networks like Twitter, where there is no control over what is posted. And we’ve all heard examples of big companies making major social media slip-ups. But there’s a greater risk in snubbing social media because with so much unprecedented access, it sends the wrong message to employees, consumers, and investors not to be part of it.  Also, social media is an excellent tool for showing your soft side and demonstrating transparency and honestly.

I fear negative feedback on social media

Customer feedback, even negative, is invaluable to your company’s growth. You may be giving customers a platform to be able to publically criticise your company, but you’re also showcasing your great customer service skills in real time, in front of an audience.  If you do receive negative feedback, listen and respond. Be honest, apologetic and transparent. Deal with a complaint honestly and apologetically and you’ll more likely make a friend than an enemy.

Remember that the point of social media is in the name, to be social. It’s not about pressure selling and blatant self promotion. It is about interaction, community and customer service. Be personal, authentic and approachable and focus on getting a useful message in front of your audience.

Have a look around to see how others in a similar business have made social media work for them. Ask yourself, how are savvy businesses using social media effectively to boost their reputations, find more customers and make more sales?

It may be scary if you’re not yet competent in using social media but the expectation on business to be transparent will only increase. As a business you have a choice, either get involved or get left behind.

Do you have a fear that we haven’t featured? Then let us know.

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Image Credit: Shock-ed by David Goehring

I’ve worked with the Sustainable Kitchens team in Bristol for over 2 years now but I wanted to step back and get some perspective from Nicky Spear, head of development and dare I say head of “getting things done”, on how they are developing internal processes to keep up with their fantastic growth.

Find Nicky and the team @itWoodwork or visit sustainablekitchens.co.uk.

• Surfdome – “Whether it’s the beach, the mountain or the street – we feel your passion”
• Project dirt – “the UK’s most active network connecting and resourcing environmental and community projects.”
• Xero accounting package
• Asana to-do list and sheduling
• Teamweek, linear calendar to replace paper note planning board
• Kudos to @InventiveAl for designing the SK website
• Houzz – Interiors and home products articles and portfolio
• Cork flooring blog
• Cute furry animal
• The Local’s Cookbook, Sri Lanka
• Jon Lewin, food photographer
• Puppy Swarm!
• Honest living… New sister company, selling beautiful products, coming soon

Recorded at the Curio lounge in Stroud (I recommend the mid-week breakfast). Crying courtesy of SK co-owner Sam’s baby Eli.

Google Analytics has seen a recent rise in fake traffic known as referral spam ¹. This skews your stats by polluting real visitor data with links from sites that are questionable at best.

Like email SPAM it’s not easy to get rid of but there are a few things you can try.

1. Tick the “Bot Filtering” box

You’ll find this option in Google Analytics by clicking “Admin” in the top bar then under “View” select “View Settings”. I’ve not seen much effect by turning this on but I’m sure it cannot help.

2. Add a new segment to temporarily filter out potential SPAM referrers

Segments in Google Analytics allow you to split out and filter visitor traffic in a way that doesn’t damage the underlying data. You can create your own segment to filter our the offending referral spam by removing keywords for the sites you’d like to remove. To get you started you can import my Segment Configuration to test out the filter for yourself.

3. Add permanent filters to stop SPAM traffic ever getting registered

If you are happy that the traffic the SPAM cleaning segment above filters out then you can add this in as a filter under “View > Filters” to get rid of future SPAM data ². Be warned though that unlike a segment this filter is permanent and if you’re not careful you may lose real traffic data.

 

If you’ve got any other clever idea or thought on this do let me know via Twitter @benkinnaird

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1. Referrer spam involves making repeated web site requests using a fake referer URL to the site the spammer wishes to advertise. Sites that publish their access logs, including referer statistics, will then inadvertently link back to the spammer’s site. These links will be indexed by search engines as they crawl the access logs. This technique does not harm the affected sites, just pollutes their statistics.” Wikipedia.

2. I also read recommendations to block countries like Russia, Indonesia and Brazil where spam may emirate from but be careful here as this could also remove good traffic data. For a more detailed guide on referral spam including how to filter out bad data read ohow’s guide.

 

Brilliant episode from NPR’s Planet Money podcast on the power of free. (for those without flash you can listen online here)

“Free has the power to make us do completely irrational things. It can drive us to break rules, and take risks we never thought possible. It can make us feel savvy and smug and exhilarated.”

It’s just under 20 minutes so perfect to listen to on your tea break.

Most interesting to me (11:38 mins in) was the idea of charging for something people don’t expect to pay for such as your mother charging for a family meal or an airline charging for customer service (one airline actually did this!). What would you expect to get for free?

I provide free advice so people can get a feel for our process but I used to struggle with how far that free advice would stretch, often into many follow-up emails and becoming a time suck, and it put me off offering anything for free at all which then in turn put off people who needed a little re-assurance of how we can help.

I found setting a clear boundary for what’s free and what’s not enabled me to offer the advice knowing there was a limit which was communicated upfront. Should people want only the free advice then they tended to use their time wisely.

I am now happy to offer my advice for free if I’m out networking or other similar event, either as a talk or just casual conversation or as a one off coaching taster session. After that, get your wallet out.

Are you charging for something people expect for free? Or are you not charging for something people would pay for? Let me know on Twitter @benkinnaird.

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Image credit: Libre Sign by Gisela Giardino

After receiving an intriguing promotional book called “I didn’t know they could do that” from Print Strategy I wanted to find out how well it’s been working for them so got in touch with MD Rob Newton¹. We also talked about the future of print and how it’s beneficial to modern marketing.

Follow Print Strategy on Twitter @printstrategy or visit their website printstrategy.eu.

• Yummy, Graze food boxes
• “I didn’t know they could do that” portfolio book
• Pact coffee – Fresher, better-tasting coffee, delivered to you as you need it.

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1. This is my first Skype interview, I’ve love to hear what you think of it on Twitter @BenKinnaird.

I stand at a networking event in Cheltenham¹. I’m not here to sell anything, simply to meet a few people who may or may not be useful to know. Initially I have to force myself to go say hello to unfamiliar people, but I am welcomed warmly, like an old friend into a mix of people who, like me, are there simply to socialise in a professional capacity.

I used to have this vision of networking events as disingenuous and very formal business environments, full of high flying, self-promoters who are there simply to sell their services. To stand in a room of unfamiliar people, drink in hand, forced smile on face and an equally forced interest in other people’s work, making small talk until the opportunity comes to sell, sell, sell, seemed more than a little false. I could never quite get over the feeling that I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t, trying to sell something no-one wanted to buy. It’s incredibly daunting. But I’m not alone – it seems that many of us avoid networking events for fear that we will be seen as being ‘fake’.

Don’t get me wrong; there are networkers like that. In my experience there are ‘takers’, those who are there simply to try to sell their services, who have no real interest in others; who strike up a conversation only to launch into a well-rehearsed pitch for their business. Most of us can spot a ‘taker’ from one hundred paces.

And then there are the ‘givers’; those who show a genuine interest in the lives of others, who are there to build mutually beneficial relationships, share ideas, ways of working, to find common ground or unexplored avenues. They ask questions, delve into the detail of another’s working life. They ask about work projects or industry news.

Most people like to talk about themselves. Give them the opportunity to talk about what they do and they will leave the conversation with a more favourable impression of you and will be more interested in following up, giving you the opportunity to offer some help².

Few of us are naturals at building rapport with complete strangers, but if we want to expand our client base, develop business partnerships, find a better job or find better staff, then it is a necessity. Thankfully, it gets easier the more we do it. And, research shows that the more powerful we become in our working lives, the easier networking becomes because we have more to offer, making our interaction with others more about giving rather than taking. So, if we were to change our mindset to one that is more altruistic, to consider what we can offer rather than take, and give people the opportunity to talk then we are likely to feel more comfortable in networking situations.

Take a long-term view and show sincere interest in the other party then there is no reason to feel like a fake. If you are a naturally caring and thoughtful person, this won’t be difficult. Provided it’s authentic, a compliment is a great conversation starter that will help build initial rapport. If you’re not, you may want to cultivate this life skill, it will reap huge benefits in the form of connections, which might, one day turn into clients.

For a more in-depth look at networking and its benefits, take a look at this Harvard Business Review article.

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1. The event was Laptop Friday if you’re interested
2. This advice also works for online networking in social networks

Image credit: Working hard at #LaptopFriday

A good web structure guide from Christian Vasile disguised as a rant. Many of the authors niggles reflect my own feelings, particularly the ones I’ve pulled out below. It’s from 2013 but still relevant.

 

You can’t expect them to search for links by hovering with the mouse on all the words until the cursor changes to a pointer.

I have a firmly held opinion that links should be underlined. Colour is less of a concern but if possible then blue works well. The most important thing is to make them clear.

 

I simply can’t understand why a hair saloon doesn’t show me how much does it cost[s] for me to cut my hair.

I’ve never quite understood not sharing prices either. Even if the price is complicated to calculate, it must be possible to provide a guide estimate in most cases. If we can articulate parts of the business in a way that will help people buy then it should be available online.

 

Make the registration forms as short as possible.

Christian goes on to explain that the more you block access to your product before people have a clear idea about whether they will like it the fewer “form fills” you will have.

I recommend you can read the full article on http://designmodo.com/usability-mistakes-web-design/.

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Image Credit: https://pixabay.com/p-534103/

I speak with Jonathan Pollinger, Social Media Expert who likes “Connecting people and watching the resulting magic”. We talk about his real world social networks, his thoughts on Periscope, a live streaming video app, and a 2 fundamental tips everyone should follow in any social interaction.

Follow Jonathan on @intranetfuture on Twitter and all other forms of social media or visit his website intranetfuture.com.

• Laptop Friday is an “informal co-working and networking event held every Friday morning in Smokey Joe’s on Bennington Street in Cheltenham”
• Cheltenham Connect is the “fastest growing and most active initiatives in Cheltenham […] with the aim of strengthening and empowering the residential and trading community”
• Laptop Monday is an “evening coworking and networking meeting for anyone who enjoys working out of a cool and funky coffee shop.”
• Periscope “Explore the world through someone else’s eyes.”
• King Shots Coffee, experimenting with video training with Chris the owner
• Twilert.com “Twitter search alerts made easy”

Effective communication happens when a message is delivered that has the same meaning for the recipient as it does for the sender. In project management this means that you and your client have a mutual understanding of what the project is about.

As I mentioned in the recent post on flexibility, a project is likely to evolve as it progresses; our client may have a completely different vision of what they want at the beginning of a project compared to the final result because of the changes along the way. To effectively integrate these changes into the project means that we need to maintain a good level of communication with our client.

The main objective for our client Abbot’s Hill School was to make changes to their school website so that it was “much clearer, much easier to navigate, have more items of interest on the home page including the school video, links to social media and current news items.” The client “wanted to ensure that information was easy to find for both prospective and current parents, which meant a revised main navigation menu and the ability to have a range of sub pages.”

We met with Alison and Katie from Abbot’s Hill School to discover every aspect of the project as they saw it, and after the initial meeting we produced a full summary.

“RI was able to suggest various ways that [our project objective] could be achieved. They then produced a comprehensive project plan, including timescales and costs.”

We then used Basecamp, a project management tool, to update the project as it progressed, to track any changes and to ensure that throughout the lifecycle of the project all parties (the client, our team and brand designers Kilvington) had a comprehensive understanding of required tasks. This meant that all involved could see the current status of a project at any time.

“This dialogue continued throughout the process with the use of Basecamp which worked brilliantly to have a running summary of all our actions and changes to the project in one place and I felt RI really understood what I wanted to achieve.”

Communication for us means supporting the client so that they know exactly what is happening. Whether it’s a large project or many small projects, all the information in one place means that the pace of a project is sustained, all parties maintain control of the project’s progress, and those with different responsibilities and levels of involvement are better engaged in the project.

“I felt totally supported by RI throughout the project and I thought we worked really well as a team to achieve the final result.”

We acknowledge that for our clients their project with us is just one of many tasks on their to-do list. With a central system of control, such as Basecamp, every issue related to the project, whether large or small, a request or question is easy to track, with task responsibility, a full history and deadline reminders. Which means that project update emails don’t get lost in the sea of other work.

Effective central communication saves money, time and effort. Without it problems can easily arise: lost time (which means lost money), inefficient development, delays and products that don’t meet expectations. Ultimately, the reputation of the company and the client’s trust are at risk.

“The overall knowledge, skills and experience that RI has is impressive and I was delighted with the high level of customer service throughout the project from all members of the team. […] I would not hesitate to recommend RI to anyone and I am absolutely delighted with our new website.”

The success of any project will be contingent upon many different factors depending on the nature of your business. But there are some vital aspects that are universal; good communication, the alignment of the project’s objective between parties, and knowing what success means for each.

Know what success looks like

Some clients may not know exactly what the success of their project looks like initially, and we’ve found that the nature of any project may change and evolve during implementation. For this reason we believe that a degree of flexibility in our approach is required, and a successful project for us relies upon our ability to be flexible so we can meet the client’s own evolving requirements for success.

We worked with UCL Institute of education Families and Food in Hard Times Project. Their research examined the food practices of young people aged 11-15 and their families in Portugal, the UK and Norway, in a time of European austerity. The objective of the project was to provide a website with information for study participants and research beneficiaries including academics, NGO’s, the media and general public.

We set out to explore what UCL wanted from the website and discuss what a successful project looked like to them. They wanted a website that provided a source of public engagement to allow those involved with the project to both engage with participants by disseminating information relevant to them, and to serve as a touchpoint to view latest news, keep in touch and update contact details. It was also important to UCL that the website was easy to update and manage.

Be flexible

Rebecca O’ Connell, Senior Research Officer said, “[Rather Inventive] worked with us to understand the look and feel we wanted and were very flexible as our ideas evolved during development. I felt fully supported, that it was OK to make revisions and to change my mind – as someone who is not experienced in website design this was important. 

By defining what project success looks like beforehand, and reviewing progress on a regular basis to take into account any changes and revisions, each party knows exactly what they are striving for. For us this means taking the time to ensure everyone involved in the project has a chance to contribute, and to be open about what they need from the project’s completion. This involves meeting face to face, wherever possible. “[Rather Inventive] spent time understanding the project and our needs and have been incredibly responsive,” said Rebecca O’ Connell.

What does a successful project look like for your company? How can you work more flexibly with your project partners to make sure that all objectives are met? Let us know on Twitter by mentioning @RatherInventive.

There’s a shop in our local town that never changes its window display. The mannequins look faded and jaded, bored of being stood there for weeks, months and years on end. Needless to say the shop is always empty because nothing is tempting customers inside.

Like a shop window, a blog has the power to entice viewers to sample the delights your company offers, and give a taste of your company philosophy and ideas. It enables you show off new products and services and share valuable content about the industry. A regular blog shows that you care about keeping your audience informed of progress and changes, and each post you publish is an asset that helps to build your brand. Your blog should be at the heart of all of your content marketing efforts.

Add credibility

A regular blogs enables you to share your expertise and position your company as a leading authority in your subject area. If you so choose it can serve as a reliable resource for information about your industry. And you can add credibility to your blog and therefore your business by inviting external specialists, clients, and industry experts to write guest posts, which will serve to support your reputation as a company at the forefront of the industry.

Impress your influencers

Each time you publish a blog post you create another opportunity for your site to be shared and circulated on social media, getting exposure to a potential new audience. Influencers are those people who like to sing the praises of companies they have connected to and respect, and are invaluable in that they’ll shout your company name from the rooftops, (I like to imagine them as the modern equivalent as the sandwich board boys of Victorian times) Give your influencers something worthy of their valuable attention and they’ll share it with others.

Encourage interaction

A comments and feedback option on your blog effectively gives you a two-way conversation with customers, prospects and industry peers, which can give you both valuable market intelligence and support for your ideas. Always respond to these comments promptly and positively, because others will read them and know you are a company that cares for its audience.

Analyse

Subscribers to your blog are a ready-made audience for your articles, newsletters and announcements on industry-relevant topics.  And you can use this to your advantage to gain an insight into your audience. Through ‘analytics’ you can track readers’ activities including click-throughs, popular topics, frequency of views, shares and comments.

Schedule regular valuable content

Giving your readers relevant and timely content is key to a successful business blog and a prime way of establishing you as a leading authority in your industry. If you’re stuck for a topic then writing about the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘how’, and ‘why’, of your business is a good place to start. Give your readers blog posts that are informative and answer any questions they might have on an industry-specific subject. Make your business the go-to guy for your industry and the solution to their problems.

 

Have a successful blog? Send us your comments on Twitter. Need an appraisal of your blog? We’d be happy to help. Do get in touch.

Brilliant interview with Ted Wright about how to work with influencers and encourage word of mouth marketing.

“Influencers can’t be bought, they will refuse cash…”

“Influencers, it’s not a job title, it’s not a job description, it’s a personality trait…”

Ted goes on to list the 3 personality traits of an influencer:

1. Like to try new things because they are new

2. Intrinsically motivated

3. Love to share stories with their friends

“The reason they are intrinsically motivated is because they do like to share stories with their friends“

I encourage you to listen to the entire interview which has a few examples of how to benefit from influencers. It’s only 34 minutes and you can even speed it up in the web player. I’ve not read his book “Fizz” yet so cannot say if it’s as good as I found the interview.

For those keen on developing word on mouth as a marketing strategy, I’d also recommend listening to Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow”. which covers some excellent concepts and ideas. Seth however likes to call “influencers”, “sneezers” that spread an “idea virus” – Cute.

Once upon a time, all the Twitter experts advised us to Tweet, tweet, tweet. We need to get out into the Twittersphere, they said.

But now, for some, the incessant noise from Twitter can be somewhat overwhelming. Their feed is so busy that they cannot ascertain which tweets to take notice of. They believe that a drip feed rather than a fire hose would be more appropriate; a filter to ensure all the superfluous material doesn’t make it through to their consciousness, clogging up brainspace and interrupting what they really want to see.

This is certainly the view of Gary Vaynerchuk social media expert, author and entrepreneur who spoke at the Guardian Changing Media Summit in London and said that 5 years ago Twitter users would pay a lot more attention to what was being said on Twitter in general, and more people paid attention to them too. Since then he believes that Twitter has become too ‘noisy’.

There is such a thing as over-tweeting. But you can avoid being one of those Twitter accounts that indiscriminately spews self-promotion announcements and blatant marketing material left right and centre by being selective in what you choose to Tweet. Its true, the more you engage in discussion and information exchange on Twitter, the more exposure you will receive. But, make your Twitter updates interesting and useful. Use Twitter to engage with your audience. And build relationships by ensuring your Twitter stream promotes other people and businesses too. Share links, retweet interesting updates, join conversations and answer questions.

The shortness of a Tweet means that the information you are broadcasting must be concise. Too many companies treat Twitter like a fishing line, regularly throwing out any old rubbish and seeing who bites. Too much drivel just to get the exposure means that you may find that people avoid you, or worse, unfollow or mute you, whereas compelling Tweets with links and resources can attract followers through to your website, which might just turn them into valuable customers.

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Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/affsum/3231433003/

Another interview for my Epic Win talk at the Going for Growth networking event was with Gemma from Gloucestershire Deaf Association to find out why their Deaf Awareness video campaign was such a success.

Your organisation in 140 characters

Gloucestershire Deaf Association enables deaf and hard of hearing people to live independently, without fear, isolation or barriers. (that’s 132, well done!)

How did you come up with the idea

The idea of the videos was the brainchild of my colleagues James and Reg, both of who star in the videos. Reg is profoundly deaf and James is a fully qualified British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter so both have a very in-depth understanding of where deaf awareness is lacking. We were able to produce the videos thanks to some funding from a grant from the Lloyds TSB Foundation – the videos were the finale of the ‘Money Matters’ project that had been running over the last two years thanks to their funding.

 

What was the intended outcome and did you meet it?

The intention was to get the ball rolling for Gloucestershire to become the most deaf friendly county in Britain. Through the series of videos we hoped to reach as many businesses, groups, individuals as possible with simple and effective ways that could make them and their businesses more deaf friendly. Yes, I think we did, we certainly got the idea of deaf awareness out there thanks to the videos, social media and press coverage.

Was a series of videos better than just one?

I think so, each of the videos had the benefit of being short and concise meaning we could capture people’s attention much more. If we’d put the collection into one I don’t think we would have engaged as many people as we did. The series of videos meant we’ve been able to get across a number of simple messages rather than just one.

What channels (Twitter, Facebook, Email, word of mouth etc) did you promote the videos on? And which worked best?

The videos were uploaded onto Youtube and distributed mainly through Twitter. For us, Twitter offers a much wider audience. Our audience on Facebook is generally people GDA works with, so while it’s valuable they see these videos, given the objectives of the series it was important for us to use whatever means we could to reach a wider audience; local businesses, groups etc. Over the five weeks the five videos were viewed collectively 7,530 times, links to the videos were retweeted 719 times and we received 219 mentions specifically about the videos. Our highest viewed video was ‘Dave the Signer’, our first film which has been viewed over 3,840 times to date. Considering the average number of views for our videos is about 100 these figures are a huge success.

How important is humour in the videos?

We use humour a lot. We’ve found that our audience – mainly Deaf BSL users respond best to something that’s engaging and a little different from the videos that are normally thrusted at them. We get a much better response to the videos when we’ve incorporated Reg’s unique humour into them.

Have you seen an increase in website visitors, followers, likes?

We have yes, our YouTube subscribers have shot up from 11 to 68 at last count. Our Twitter and Facebook followers have both also increased and we’ve noticed a distinct increase in traffic: 24.51% more users while page views went up by 10.68%.

Any unintended consequences?

In response to the videos we’ve been able to make contact with a number of key figures including the Senior Equalities Manager for the NHS, Gloucestershire’s Police & Crime Commissioner as well as being invited to present deaf awareness to local groups.

Why use video over text?

Because video is so much more accessible to a Deaf BSL user. One of the misconceptions about a deaf person is that by writing something down you will break down the oral barrier – I myself used to believe this. However, for a Deaf BSL user, BSL is their first language, English is their second. In comparison to BSL, English is very complex – BSL doesn’t faff about with tenses or words like ‘the’ so to include those in text makes the message very inaccessible to a deaf person, getting these deaf awareness messages across on video meant we were being inclusive to our service users and leading by example.

What have you learnt from the campaign?

We’ve yet to have a full debrief session of the campaign, but personally I would perhaps consider releasing the videos closer to together, I don’t think we needed to have the week gap between each one. I think that way we may have caught people’s attention for longer and have continued the viewing figures of ‘Dave the Signer’ into the other videos.

What’s next?

What isn’t next!! As part of our overall campaign for Gloucestershire to become the most deaf friendly county we will be hosting a pre-election debate on the 16th April where Gloucester’s general election candidate will present their policies to our service users and who in turn, will have an opportunity to quiz them on matters that matter to them – if we can make local politics deaf aware we’re on the right road. We’re also going to be continuing to press for more local businesses to be more deaf aware by taking on board our simple tips and our next big campaign will be a campaign aimed at schools called ‘My Friend Dawn’. Using fun and interactive class room activities we want to make the younger generation more aware of how to be deaf friendly. All this is happening in the next three months so it’s a busy time at GDA!

 

Follow the GDA YouTube Channel, @glosdeaf on Twitter or find out more on their website www.glosdeaf.org.uk.

As part of my Epic Win talk at the Going for Growth networking event, I spoke with Lisa Toner from HubSpot on which marketing channels worked best for their MakeMyPersona Campaign.

Your organisation in 140 characters

HubSpot is an inbound marketing software company that provides valuable and educational content that helps marketers become more effective (that’s 138, close!)

How did you come up with the idea

Buyer personas is the first step in getting started with inbound marketing but it’s a step that many people skip in order to do more fun and sexy marketing activities. I wanted to try and remove some of the friction for marketers by making it quicker and easier to create their personas.

What was the intended outcome and did you meet it?

The goal of creating the persona tool was to generate new subscribers for HubSpot and then convert them into leads. We surpassed the goal we set within the first week.

What channels (Twitter, Facebook, Email, word of mouth etc) did you promote the videos on? And which worked best?

We promoted the tool via email, social, blog, guest posts, and communities like inbound.org. Out top sources of traffic to the tool were: Email (23%), Direct: 20%, HubSpot blog (18%), LinkedIn (13%), Referral (6%), Twitter (3.5%), Organic.

Have you seen an increase in website visitors, followers, likes?

Yes, we used an exit-intent pop-up which drove traffic back to the HubSpot site to a relevant landing page which has generated over 1,000 conversions on that page.

Any unintended consequences?

Our sales team told us that a lead using that tool was more valuable to them for having meaningful conversations than if the lead had requested a demo or trial.

What have you learnt from the campaign?

On the next round I would think about how to integrate it more tightly with our product and show that off a little more.

What’s next?

We are translating it into 3 languages; spanish, german and portuguese.

 

Go ahead and make your own persona at www.makemypersona.com.

Follow @hubspot on Twitter or find out more on their website www.hubspot.com.

The best and worst social media campaigns for ideas and inspiration in your online marketing.

Slides from my presentation at Going for Growth, a Worcester Business Central event on 17 March 2015.

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Image credit: BBC Epic Win, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012f6pl

Dr Cat Arthurs, partner at Towcester Vets in Northampton explains how getting involved in social media and blogging has been amazing opportunity for their partnership leading them to become “go-to” experts appearing on radio and tv.

Find out about Towcester Veterinary Center on Twitter, Facebook or thier website.

• Malmo, where The Bridge is filmed and where Cat was born
• Alabama Rot, a mystery disease
• Buffer App

The best way to build your social network and to win followers and advocates is to reach out to support others in whatever way you can. Do the talking for them and there’s a good chance they’ll reciprocate.

When you say positive things about other companies, you help to bolster their reputation and build up their brand. For example, re-tweeting or sharing what others in your network say, especially if you’re highlighting their unique skills or offering information about what distinguishes them from others in their particular market, is a good way to help promote their business. And, not only does it enable you to connect with the company you are promoting but this seemingly altruistic action will have lots of lovely benefits attached. In the process of promoting others you’ll be indirectly promoting yourself because the more you say nice things about others and highlight their accomplishments, the more they’ll love you for it and the more likely they’ll reciprocate.

So why does this happen? Well, think of it this way, if you go round telling everyone that you’re great at tennis, they’ll be inclined to think you’re bragging a bit and will likely want to see the proof before they believe you, (and even then they’ll think you’re a bit conceited). But, if one of your acquaintances, colleagues or buddies goes around telling everyone you’re great at tennis, they’ll more likely be believed, right? And you’ll be known as the guy or gal who’s great at tennis. So, any endorsement or approval of others that you offer will come across to third parties as more genuine than self-promotion, and the company in question will be eternally grateful.

I like to think of it as ‘credits in the bank’, very few people will walk away if you’ve helped to bolster their reputation, instead you’ll find that the majority of people will be only too pleased to help promote you in turn and form a mutually beneficial alliance. It’s a win win!

While on a diving holiday Nicky suffered an accident that changed her life. I find out how she pieced her life back together. She also shares some advice on marketing including the power of 3!

Contact Nicky on Twitter, Facebook or her website.

(We recorded the interview in Chiquito’s restaurant in Bristol and as such there is some background noise)

• Witches brew Fairtrade tea and coffee, gorgeous gluten-free cakes and a range of lunchtime panini and soups – Yum!
• Discover Your Bounce Helping people who lack energy and direction
• NPR Snap Judgement Story telling with a beat – Brilliant
• An Everyday Witch Nicky’s self published paperback
• CompletelyNovel Self publishing and reading community
• Damsels in Success Lianne O’Brian scooped Woman to Watch/Rising Star!
• Chiquito’s in Bristol Thanks for the wonderful atmosphere and coffee grinding
• 4N Longwell Green, Bristol

Look it up in Wikipedia and the very first definition of Social media is the interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.

Most of us know how to act when we are out socialising in the physical world, but with social media being such a new thing, relatively speaking, can we be sure that we’re engaging with people in a way that optimises exposure?

If we approach social media in the same way we might approach, say, going to a network event or even a party, we can’t go far wrong.

Engage with people – we wouldn’t stand at a party talking like an automaton would we? A few strange looks might ensue. No, we’d talk naturally, casually, explaining any technical details of our work to ensure people don’t glaze over or phase out with boredom. The same goes for social media – talk like you would to a real person (minus the Ums and Ahs) and you’re more likely to get real responses.

Be where the party is – Everyone who is anyone will be at that new Networking event in the city tonight, right? So, by the same token find out where the best people hang out online and join them, making sure you discuss topics you know they’ll be interested in.

Break the ice – At an event you don’t hang around waiting for someone to come and talk to you, you could be waiting a long time, instead you’ll get right in there, wont you? Be the first to comment on an interesting tweet, or share a blog post of your favourite company for a little bit of audience love.

Dare to be different – the one way to stand out at a party/networking event is to do something different. Wearing a DJ at a relaxed social event will get you noticed for sure. So, be creative to attract attention on social media. Innovative companies do new and exciting things and are not short of a follower or two, take a leaf.

Voice your opinion – say nothing at a networking event and people will quickly pass you by looking for a more interesting prospect, be opinionated and the crowds will flock to you. Need we say more?

Joel’s worked on main frames, web programming, design and now run’s his own conferences – He’s a true Tinkerer. Ben finds out about his events, accessibility, Mac setup and some advice on running events amongst many other things.

Contact Joel on Twitter, Instagram or his website.

• Port80 Conference. Speakers include: Denise Jacobs, Joshua Marshal, Kevin Evans
• Minority Report iBeacons advertising reference
• AbilityNet Accessibility Assessment
• LocalHost Events Mini Port80 events that run quarterly
• The Business of Web Design Conference
• ShropGeek
• RedBooth project manager, Project Management Post by Darren Beale
• Harvest time tracking
• Quote Roller quote program
• Touch points
• Highrise CRM
• OnePageCRM

I’m often overwhelmed by yet another measurement of one social channel or another but this extract from a recent Buffer article caught my eye.

“The ideal length of a blog post is 7 minutes, 1,600 words

When measuring the content that performs best on their site, Medium focuses not on clicks but on attention. How long do readers stick with an article?

In this sense, an ideal blog post would be one that people read. And Medium’s research on this front says that the ideal blog post is seven minutes long.”

Importantly they dicsuss about measuring attention or the time someone has spent on a particular page. Generally more time spent on a site or page is a good thing but on some pages you might not want people to linger so long, such as checkout pages, either way I find it a more human metric of what people find interesting rather than shares or clicks.

(As a follow on I also found this article on the Verge interesting about how many people may share an article but do they read it?)

Sadly our blog readers only reach an average of 1 and a half minutes, too short?

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Follow @BenKinnaird on Twitter for marketing ideas, inspiration and other interesting things

Matt Cutts from Google explains why having a long established site on an old domain may not be enough to keep above new upstarts in Google search results.

His key points were:

• Take a fresh look at your site.
• Don’t coast on your number one position
• Update your site regularly

Interview with Nick van der Walle, head honcho at Astute Graphics, that has found a niche creating design software plugins for Adobe Illustrator.

We’ve been working with Nick for a few years now but Ben wanted to dig a little deeper into his background and how he’s built a successful company with a predominately US audience from rural Herefordshire.

Nick also takes us through his development process, the importance of a great product and 2 tips.

Contact Nick and his team on Twitter, Facebook or website.