Until a few years ago, I was an avid cook. I absolutely loved rustling up a meal on the weekend for a dozen of our closest friends…. It wasn’t exactly Masterchef, but it was pretty decent grub. At some point, I decided to collect all my best recipes. I found a website, tastebook.com, which printed…
Those of you who have been reading my blogs for a while know that I’m not too keen on social media. Not as a marketing tool, anyway…. (I’m sure my family thinks I spend way too much time on Facebook….!) In fact, I consider it an absolute waste of time for most companies. Unless you already…
“Know your competition.” It’s one of the golden rules of marketing. And it’s sound advice. You wouldn’t launch a business without carefully surveying the marketplace first, to figure out the opportunities and threats (I hope). The same goes for your marketing. But there’s a danger in looking too closely at your competition, too. You can…
How do you actually make money from social media? It’s a question that companies grapple with in every industry. If you are pouring time and money into building a Facebook or Twitter audience, yet failing to generate real enquiries and leads, it can be enormously frustrating. One issue is that building up a solid base…
It’s nearing the end of the day and you suddenly remember that you still haven’t got round to the blog post you intended to write. To cross this one lingering item off your to-do list, you sit down, dash off a few paragraphs and post it to your company’s blog and social media feeds. “It…
Is your business making a profit on its social media activity? If you’re like most, you’re probably not 100% sure. And if you are convinced it’s contributing to your bottom line, you’re probably unclear about just how much. This is terrible for your social media programme. If you can’t make the business case for it…
What happens to the majority of your website visitors? Do they come back repeatedly, to sample more of your material – or do they slink away with one quick click, never to be heard of again? If you’re like most businesses, you probably find it difficult to generate repeat visits, which means that almost all…
When companies adopt social media, the benefits they’re looking for usually concern sales and branding. They want new ways to reach their customers; interact with them; and ultimately drive them to a sale. It’s all very much about how they interact with the outside world. What a surprise for many of them, then, to discover…
One of the biggest myths about content marketing is that if you publish lots of good content on social media, you will suddenly find your business booming. Now don’t get me wrong – good content (and lots of it) is absolutely crucial to the process of building your business online. And sometimes, you will find…
A few weeks ago I received a call from a prospective client, enquiring about content marketing. Although he had initiated contact, he was really quite sceptical about whether social media could help his business grow. “I’ve tried it before, and seen nothing for it!” he declared passionately. “So I’m not going to put too much…
