When looking at the statistical data, Sri Lanka has shown an adult literacy rate of 92%, which is one of the highest in Asia. However, the country is still lagging in internet penetration and usage compared to the rest of the region.

As of 2011 the household access to the Internet is at a mere 11.2%, which is an increase of 35% from the 2010 value of 8.3%. This indicates a positive growth towards internet usage. A possible reason for growth could be a result of the government coming up with an ambitious 5 year plan to increase the household internet access to 75%. The plan was based on the realisation that a failure to acquire the requisite technical knowledge will prevent large segments of the population benefiting from the fruits of the Information Age. Although hitting the 75% mark is very ambitious, looking at the 2010/2011 growth rate it could be stated that a percentage increase of 30.7% is possible by 2015.

In less than 3 years as of today, there could be a figure of 6,030,360 Facebook users in Sri Lanka. This figure is backed up by the statistics, where there are 1,220,100 Facebook users as of 2011; a growth of 191,660 new users in 6 months was seen. According to latest statistics, Sri Lanka is ranked No 75 in the ranking of all Facebook statistics by country. This could be a tremendous opportunity to develop a new product or service online in Sri Lanka using social media marketing.

An obvious fact in the last 6 months has been that more and more companies are visible on Facebook. Most of these companies have identified that online marketing could be the key with regard to been visible to the target market via a social media platform. In addition, it is becoming a lot easier to focus on the target market using Facebook or Google; which would be a reason why most companies have opted for social media marketing. However, according to available statistics there is a big disparity between urban and rural population with regard to computer literacy, where the urban internet user segment is 3 times the rural sector.

This could be a result of simple economics such as per capita income being higher in urban areas or the more complex issue of English literacy rate been lower in rural Sri Lanka. If the English literacy rate is the main reason for people not using the internet then it would be an uphill battle to reach high internet penetration levels. This is because at present there are limited translation software available to translate from English to native Sri Lankan languages. Currently, some brands have started advertising in native Sri Lankan languages by using pictures on Facebook.

By taking into consideration the points discussed above, it could be stated that there is a tremendous potential for growth for online sales and marketing in Sri Lanka. Have a look at the Youtube clip below as I found it very interesting which is about the potential of social media in Sri Lanka.

Are you a small or medium sized business looking to grow and expand to compete with the much larger companies? If so I can bet you every last penny in my pocket that you have tried many different marketing methods to increase productivity but have found most only burn a whole in your pocket. Marketing is all about ROI (Return On Investment) if your aim is to increase sales  and you are not returning on your outgoings here is a little advice, GET RID!

Is Your Small Business On The Internet?

Over the past 12 years Internet marketing has grown rapidly. With over 90 million searches made per day on Google alone and over £6B spent on line in Jan 2012 a small business can take advantage of promoting their products and services on the web using their website as a point of action. No longer do we rely on paper directories, with access to the Internet within our pockets these days search engines have made life much easier by delivering us exactly what we are looking for within a matter of seconds via mobile phones. What are your options to reach out to those searching for your services? Most search engines like Google offer two types of listings for you:

• paid results (sponsored Links) also referred too as pay-per-click PPC
• non paid for listings (organic, natural results)

Some of the latest statistics indicate organic listings reach over 85% of searches leaving sponsored links to cover 15% searches.

Small business Marketing and SEO

What is SEO (search engine optimisation)? SEO is an on-line  marketing strategy which helps you to maximise your exposure on a search engine and identify what people are searching for. Its all about understanding the buying cycle of the consumer and their search terms used  during there journey to purchase. Search engine optimisation is the process of improving  the visibility and the presence of a webpage or blog on a search engine with in the natural, organic search results.

SEO Starter Guide

Before using SEO you need to know that it is not a get rich quick scheme nor is it a speedy process, it takes time skill and patients. For more information enrol on this course or take a look at Google SEO starter Guide.

See introduction to SEO by Dan Taylor – one of many great guest speakers on the Search and Social Media Marketing Course.

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At Salford Business School, student placements are offered as part of both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Our links with local, national and international companies means that we can offer students the opportunity to get in touch with prospective employers and get students on the right track to future employment success.

A paid internship can be an IT placement in London or a business management placement in Edinburgh, if you have the passion and commitment to secure a placement, it could be the best thing you ever did.

Paid internships abroad

Working on a placement abroad can be within your reach. One of the great things about doing a placement is, as long as it is relevant and approved by the school, you can go anywhere. Students have been on placements at home in Manchester to as far away as Australia. So if you have ever dreamed of working abroad, this is your chance!

Mentor your way to success

Mentoring other students can be a most rewarding and beneficial experience. Once students have completed their year in industry, students have the opportunity to mentor other students looking to undertake a placement, which also looks great on your CV! Here’s what Salford Business School placement mentors have to say about their mentoring experiences:

So is a placement for you?

Placement students at Salford, upon completion of their sandwich year, have typically performed better in their degree and have much better job prospects after graduating. Many of our placement graduates go on to secure a job with that same organisation.

Alongside these benefits, students become more confident, gain communication and problem solving skills and develop transferable skills that can’t be gained elsewhere.

Go for it

Sandwich year, paid internship, whatever you want to call your placement year, it’s your time to make it happen.
To help you find a placement, keep checking our regularly updated placement website on Blackboard.

Check out our Salford Business School placements website

Come along to one of our placement fairs where you can speak to potential employers from different industries, speak to our placement team and meet other like minded students.

If you have any questions or would just like to chat through your options, pop in to see the placement co-ordinator, Chris Procter or contact the placement team, Sunayna Tailor or Nicola Moss

You can follow us on Twitter for up to date information on placements SBSPlacements

Is a placement the way forward for you? Looking to gain invaluable industry experience and want to share some of your experiences? Please use comments section below!

The SEO companies that wear striped tops and balaclavas!

Working as a Graphic / Web Designer for the past 4 years, has been a very interesting ride. I have learned a lot to do with online marketing and I thought, to develop my skills further I would need to delve into the world of SEO, and become a jack of all trades.

The company that I currently work for, own a number of websites that SEO companies have torn to pieces, tried to glue back together with the wrong glue and left us with a shambling mess!

Within the first 2 weeks of being on the Search and Social Media Marketing course, I knew exactly where our sites were lacking optimisation and had produced a strategic plan of how to save our sites from the plummets of low Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Questioning certain “SEO services”

Here are some things which I noticed on our sites after attending the Foundation SSMM course:

I noticed that the Meta Title tags were duplicated throughout. This is obviously a big NO NO, as every page with-in your site needs to have a unique title.  Also, they were averaging at around 150 characters, which I know I could keep down to, at most 80 characters that include my primary keywords and secondary.

So once I was done with the unique titles throughout the whole of the site, it was time to start working on the descriptions for each of the pages. This I found was the most time consuming of all the on page stuff that I was doing, I remembered what Simon Wharton had told us about ” writing for the user, and NOT the search engine ” and made sure all my descriptions included my keywords for that page and read fluently.

Me Vs. SEO Company, the battle continues…

The next step that I was going to look at was the page structure and content. Now the previous bunch of “apes”, who carried out the SEO services for our sites, must have had literally NO IDEA what they were doing!

All our pages contained no <h1> tags and basically had copied all the content from other sites! Tools like Copyscape had helped me find the original source of all our content! So my mission was to create the <h> tags using the relevant keywords, come to the table with fresh new content that included the keywords for the relevant pages. Again remembering what Simon had said, we made sure the new content for our pages read very fluently, and delivered the message they intended too, without spamming it with random keywords.

Lets wrap this up…

The outcome of the work I have been putting into our sites is really starting to show through now. There are points which I haven’t even covered and I am already starting to see great results! In the next couple of weeks I will be looking more into the internal and external links for our sites and also be pushing towards some Social Media tools.

So unfortunately due to the nature of our business, I am not able to link to any of the sites that I am currently working on, so you can all have my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts instead! 🙂

Throughout my time on the SSMM course at Salford Business School, a common theme put forward by industry guest speakers such as Simon Wharton of PushON and Mark Johnson of Latitude Group, has been of the immense value of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. Any aspiring Internet based business that doesn’t utilise it, can be clearly said to be missing out on a major tool in their advertising armoury.

As useful as it has been to hear this from the experts, it’s also been immensely frustrating as when it comes to my own desire to set up Gambling PPC adverts, where my own interest lies, I have encountered numerous problems.

Regardless of your own views on the subject of gambling – its most definitely here to stay.  Old, Young, Male or Female – there is something to get each of us gambling as big business wants a ride on the betting gravy train. You won’t find a football club without its official ‘betting partners’ and as the Independent explains, sports betting will likely be a major beneficiary of the 2012 Olympics.

Yet despite all of this vested interest, it still seems a dirty word when it comes to PPC advertising.

Why Gambling PPC Adverts?

The reason I am so keen to on Gambling PPC adverts is based on my own business, the Secret Betting Club, for which I am the Editor of the regular newsletters we produce to help people with their own betting. First established in 2006, we have forged a clear niche in our area of expertise and have built it based on word of mouth, a strong email marketing set-up and more recently a burgeoning Twitter and Facebook presence.

If you want to bet professionally and make a profit, then you would come to us for help. A more helpful and arguably ethical service I would venture than that of a bookmaker or casino who have just one goal – to attract losing punters.

Don’t Bank On Gambling PPC Adverts

Despite our well established business, when it comes to PPC advertising it seems the odds are truly stacked against us.

Just last week, I tried to create a new Facebook PPC campaign via a simple advert which invited people to like our Secret Betting Club Facebook page to receive free football tips from us every Friday.

I was targeting people with the interest ‘Football Betting Tips’ in the UK and Ireland between 25 and 45 who are male. My advert is below:

The result?

My advert was disapproved after being reviewed with Facebook’s reasoning as follows: “The content promoted in your advert or Sponsored Story violates Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines. Please visit our Help Centre for additional information and examples compliant with our Advertising Guidelines.”

A quick look at the aforementioned guidelines reveals the following relevant section devoted to Gambling:

Gambling and lotteries

1. Adverts that promote or facilitate online gambling, games of skill or lotteries, including online casinos, sports books, bingo or poker, are only allowed in specific countries with prior authorisation from Facebook.
2. Lottery commissions licensed or sponsored by government entities may advertise on Facebook provided that adverts are targeted in accordance with the applicable laws in the jurisdiction in which the adverts will be served and may only target users in the jurisdiction in which the lottery is available.
3. Adverts that promote offline gambling establishments, such as offline casinos, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations are generally permitted, provided that adverts are appropriately targeted.

I’m no legal expert but presumably we meet the criteria of 1) as betting is legal in the UK and Ireland and we are not a lottery so 2) does not apply. Neither does 3) as we are not an offline gambling establishment and therefore it’s very difficult to understand the reasoning for our disapproval.

I dug deeper into the Facebook advertising help centre, but once again there appeared no clear reasoning or guidelines, which would indicate exactly where I am going wrong.

I’m all for having rules and regulations, but for a small betting business like ours, how do we gauge exactly what we have to do to have our adverts approved?

Gambling PPC Double Standards?

This may all seem fair enough to some of you. Betting isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and I completely respect that. Facebook might consider allowing betting adverts as more trouble than it’s worth or have an anti-gambling advertising policy.

That however, doesn’t seem to be the case as when I log into my Facebook account, can you guess what kind of adverts I see beaming back at me?

Yep you guessed it – adverts for betting!

At the top of the pile we have Michael Vaughan’s Betfair Cricket tips and a bit further down an advert inviting me to play Roulette at Betfair’s casino (let’s not even get onto the debate about a 60 second credit card application advert!).

The Michael Vaughan advert in-particular seems remarkably similar to my own in the fact its offering free betting tips to those that like the Betfair page.

Of course, Betfair is a well-established betting brand and business, but how exactly can I compete with them on a Gambling PPC basis, if at all?

Gambling PPC Adverts – Not A Level Playing Field

My Facebook PPC example is not a one-off because I have had a similar response from Google and other advertisers when it comes to PPC advertising.

Similar targeted adverts have been struck off Google for relevant search terms in the past, yet the big betting companies with gambling PPC campaigns – the likes of Betfair, Ladbrokes, William Hill & Bet365 constantly appear. Mixed amongst these big companies, I do find smaller betting firms like mine who somehow squeeze through the T and C’s – so presumably it can be done. Exactly how as yet is still a mystery to me.

Therefore my quest as part of the course, is to emulate them and actually establish the Secret Betting Club its very own PPC presence.

Response from experts so far as regards this dilemma has been of a very grey area that exists within PPC for betting, and the ‘black hat’ SEO tactics that some experts use.

Perhaps it’s the sales letter we employ (which admittedly needs work and is in the hands of a copywriter as we speak), our Facebook page, the wording of my adverts or the fact we are a very small fish in a big pond.

It could be of course that I will just never get a successful long-term gambling PPC campaign going!

I certainly hope not and perhaps through this article I can even help a few other betting related businesses with their own PPC campaigns.

I will endeavour to find out but in the meantime I welcome any expert tips you may have as to where I am going wrong. Please use the comments section below or contact me – here are my details:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

In December 2011 Mary Portas published her report into the on-going decline of the British High Street. In her report she clearly identifies the upward trend in eCommerce as one of the main reasons why sales and footfall on the nation’s high streets are in free-fall.  Mary makes 28 recommendations all of which are valid but I am left wondering why she doesn’t encourage the small trader to believe that they have as much right to profit from the opportunities of eCommerce, Social Media and Search Engine Marketing as the big boy multiples with their enormous digital marketing budgets?

Who am I to have an opinion?

I am essentially Mary’s cause – Queen of my own shop and the proud owner of Venus Flowers.

A Manchester City Centre florist – a somewhat unusual sight in Manchester City Centre these days – a small independent retailer who engages in a daily battle to survive if not thrive in the brave new world of post credit crunch depression.

Like most small businesses I recognised years ago that I needed an on-line presence and have since lost count of the amount of time and money I have spent engaging with ‘experts’ in the field of web-design.

I am now onto the third developer and the third version of my site the previous two being utter disasters the details of which I don’t have the time or energy to go into.

I have literally lost thousands of pounds and at times my faith in humanity.

Sadly, I know from talking to other small business owners that I am not alone.

Taking Back Search Marketing and Social Media Control

At the end of 2011 I discovered by accident a huge mistake in the development of my current website (quickly acknowledged and rectified by my current developers) which was the final straw – I had an epiphany…

I realised that without knowledge I would never have control, I understood something of every other area of my business why not this one?  So after some research (web based of course), here I am attending Salford Business School’s Search and Social Media Marketing Course, a slightly nervous florist/business owner/complete novice.

My eCommerce Journey So Far

Blogging

Here I am four weeks in writing my first blog-post, but more than that, understanding why blogging is important and how I can respond to some of my potential customers long-tail searches and build links to my website by writing interesting and authoritative blogs on subjects I understand and enjoy (GET ME!).  For example this beautiful picture of a brides bouquet we made a couple of weeks ago which is lingering on my iPhone:

now gets a title of “Spring Brides Bouquet” (in response to a small but significant number of long tail searches I found when I was developing my keyword plan), and becomes a part of venus flowers blog I am writing on the subject, this will include a video of us making a Spring Brides Bouquet as well as links back to my wedding page where brides to be can click on a link to request a no obligation consultation – impressive hey? In the meantime I have been able to share this image with our Twitter Followers.

eCommerce – importance of Keyword Research

Using Goolge Adwords to research how people are searching for your products and services has to be the simplest but the most revealing part of the course for me. Why is it when I have paid thousands to have an eCommerce site developed I have been asked to write my own content “so it will be more authentic” without so much as a reference to the importance of keyword research?

I am ranking third for “florist Manchester”:

This ranking is more by luck than judgement, but I rank nowhere for “flower delivery Manchester” which has far higher search numbers – time to write some content!

I have also learned that my industry language isn’t necessarily the language of the searcher, when writing I would always use the term Sympathy Flowers believing this to be more grammatically acceptable, however my Google Adword research revealed only 480 monthly searches for this term and over 12,000 for “Funeral Flowers” – time to get back to plain English and write even more content!

Suffice it to say that encouraged by my tutor and our guest speakers industry experts like the mind-blowingly brilliant Mark Johnson from Latitude and Dan Taylor from Seowned both of whom have restored some of my faith in the integrity of the industry, I now have a fully researched keyword plan. This along with a carefully considered Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign for the areas I don’t yet rank organically for means that hopefully I should get a return on my course investment in the near future.

eCommerce and importance of Links

Having spent ages agonising over why a competitor who (in my humble opinion) has a poor website and isn’t actually anywhere near as good as we are consistently out-ranks us for some key terms. Using tools and techniques I have learned over the last four weeks like using google link query and SEOToolbar, I have been able to compare our sites and it’s clear that the only reason for this is the number of links into their site.  Link-building is somewhat more time consuming and complex than keyword research and content writing, it also involves good old fashioned relationship building and networking. I however understand how vital this is to Google and also how to go after links with authority – quality rather than quantity.

Watch this space competitors I’m on your case!

Like Raef and Stuart from Channel 4’s Celebrity Wedding Planner you can follow us on twitter or Facebook where I will be sharing our latest flower pictures, stories and offers from Venus Flowers: Venus Flowers

So…eCommerce and the High Street – Crisis or Opportunity?

Having read my blog tell me what you think, do you think that eCommerce can help small business owners to stay on the High Street or are you with Mary Portas and believe that eCommerce will mean the end of British High Street? Please share your views in the comments section below!

Overview of job

This is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious Computer Science, Software Engineering or strongly related field graduate to fast-track their career development as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate in organic search engine optimisation; e-services process development; and interactive website development. The project will provide opportunity for the successful candidate to deal with issues of systems design and integration with the goal of implementing an innovative business system. Candidates with interests in areas including Web2.0 development, the mobile delivery of services and information security are strongly encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will undertake a 2-year collaborative project between Freeclaim Solicitors, a leading professional services firm, and University of Salford (Salford Business School). The post will be based in South Manchester, and the post holder will take a leading role in developing the firm’s online business to innovate in the marketplace, increase efficiencies, profitability, increase new clients, develop new systems and deliver an enhanced service.

The successful candidate will receive extensive practical and formal training, gain highly desirable specialist e-business skills, broaden knowledge and expertise within an industrially relevant project, and gain valuable experience from commercial and academic mentors. The KTP Associate will benefit from a Personal Development Budget of £4,000 and will have the opportunity to register free of charge for a postgraduate research qualification.

Purpose and key responsibilities of job

The KTP will enable the partnership to meet the technical challenges and provide the technical capability and strategic focus to deliver a fast, convenient, secure and interactive client service. The project will develop and operationalise e-Law through:
– Detailed review and audit of current service offering
– Development and implementation of a workable E-Law prototype
– Development and implementation of E-Law beta system
– E-Law full system release
– Review and Evaluation

Qualifications, skills and competencies required

Candidates should possess (or be near completion of) an Honours degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a strongly-related discipline at 1st or 2.1 standards. The candidate should be self-motivated with an ability to work independently and to tight deadlines within a dynamic and small team environment. In addition, s/he must have strong programming skills as well as a genuine enthusiasm for applying advanced computing techniques to a real-world problem. Strong knowledge and understanding of programming languages are essential. Team working and flexibility will be a key requirement.

• Contract type – Fixed Term
• Duration of contract (state number of weeks or months) – 24 months
• Hours -Full time
• Closing date – 24 Apr 2012
• Salary – £23,870 – £24,710

Apply online going through University of Salford HR pages

In collaboration with Fast Web Media Limited (FWM), Salford Business School has been awarded a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. The project’s aim is to develop and implement a Dynamic Campaign Management Tool (DCMT) for integrated media and digital marketing campaign management.

Primarily based at the company premises in Media City Salford, the successful applicant will manage the project supported by the experienced staff from both Fast Web Media Ltd and the University of Salford.

FWM is an award-winning digital marketing agency turning over £2 million per annum. They are involved in the design and development of digital marketing services, specialising in search marketing, search engine optimisation, technical development, social media and mobile.

The UK’s digital advertising market is currently worth over £4bn (25% of the total UK advertising spend) FWM has identified a need for a Dynamic Campaign Management Tool (DCMT) that would allow precise monitoring, tracking and management of campaigns across the full spectrum of digital media properties.

Purpose and key responsibilities of job

The industry faces a number of specific problems – a consequence of its relative immaturity. For example, the ability to quantify the effectiveness of different types of digital advertising.

The KTP will develop an integrated online system with a holistic Dashboard interface enabling a summative view of an entire campaign across multiple channels and the capability to adjust campaigns in real time to respond to live events thus influencing buyer behaviour. E.g. a campaign which uses Google TV channel initiates a lot of twitter activity about a product, the tool will allow a company to monitor and engage in this interaction; thus adverts can be strategically positioned on the particular social media channel such as Twitter (minimising pay-per-click time) for a critical period to capitalise on public interest.

The DCMT will offer specific benefits to campaign management and decision-making. Sophisticated tracking and access to live trends will enable more precise calculation of Return on Investment (ROI). FWM will lead and contribute to the reputation of the digital marketing industry by developing a transparent solution which will offer unparalleled access to information and offer opportunities to interact with campaigns; be able to predict the performance of campaigns.

The project will develop and implement a Dynamic Campaign Management Tool (DCMT) for integrated media and digital marketing campaign management through:

Objective 1 – Development of a Dynamic Campaign Management Tool (DCMT) conceptual model
Objective 2 – Develop and implement a workable beta prototype version
Objective 3 – Develop and implement full release DCMT
Objective 4 – Digital industry commercialisation
Objective 5 – Review and Evaluation

Qualifications, skills and competencies required

The following criteria is essential when applying for this post:
– A good undergraduate degree (minimum 2:1) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or similar quantitative and analytical discipline
– Experience in Digital tracking and reporting tools such as Google analytics, Social Media etc
– Business knowledge in digital marketing campaign management or accounting or financial modelling
– Excellent IT/IS Skills and competence in continuously updating skills in the dynamic environment of technological change
– An effective communicator both orally and in writing with excellent interpersonal and analytical skills
– Empathetic approach – enjoy meeting people and able to motivate and inspire a range of people from different background
– Ability to undertake multiple tasks, work under own initiative and/or as part of a team, and lead a team.
– The ability to be assertive and to drive the project forward and lead staff at all levels through a programme of change
– Professional attitude

The following criteria although desirable are not essential when applying for this post;
– Experience of a contemporary programming language (preferably object orientated)
– Experience of interactive website development, especially in a small size enterprise
– Some commercial experience
– Experience of third party APIs and data sources
– IT project management
– Web analytics

• Contract type: Fixed Term
• Duration of contract (state number of weeks or months): 24 months
• Hours: Full time
• Closing date: 3 Feb 2012
• Salary: £20,755 – £22,253
• Location: MediaCity Salford

For further information and online application form please visit University of Salford Human Resource pages

Manchester Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Social Media Marketing training provides the key knowledge and skills people need to work in the growing SEO and Social Media marketing industry – says Anthony Mcloughlin.

This course is offered by Salford Business School in partnership with leading digital marketing organisations such as Latitude, Carat, PushON, MoneySupermarket, Pleer, Fast Web Media, MEC: Manchester and Brilliant Media and the internationally-recognised Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organisation (SEMPO).

From 26th January 2012, this course will be offered right at the heart of the region’s digital and media economy at the University of Salford’s new state-of-the-art facility at MediaCityUK:

10 Steps to start your SEO and Social Media Marketing career

Anthony McLoughlin from Burnley, graduated from the course in November last year and has already found that it has helped him completely change his career path for the better. As part of his studies he wrote and presented the following blog post on “SEO Career – 10 Steps to Help You Get Yours Up and Running”.

While working as a technical clerk at a conservatory roofing company, he began to take an interest in digital marketing. He explained:

“I didn’t mind my job, but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. I started to read up about Pay Per Click advertising and then progressed into taking an interest in SEO. I found it so interesting that I decided I wanted to develop a career in the SEO industry.”

Commuting from home once a week and participating in online discussions and self study using the online training material from SEMPO, it was not long until Anthony was able to write a blog post about a career in SEO using his newly gained knowledge and skills.

“The Search & Social Media Marketing course has helped me tremendously,” Anthony continued. “Before the course I barely knew anything about SEO and social media marketing, and now I can talk confidently about the subjects and give advice to people.”

And, it was not long until Anthony was offered a job as a Digital Project Co-ordinator at Burnley-based Tone Digital Marketing Agency.

“Learning from industry speakers from the Manchester SEO community was the main highlight of the course,” he said. “They gave me some fantastic advice and inside knowledge that only people in the industry know, and I’m adopting the advice and ‘secrets’ in my new role right now.”

Follow Anthony on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Places on this course are limited to 12 participants  – contact us for more information or just use the comments section below or book your place using the online booking form.

Carol Prestbury – CPD & Professional Training Associate
Research and Innovation
Faraday House
The University of Salford
Salford
M5 4WT

Email: C.A.Prestbury@salford.ac.uk
Tel: 0161 295 6855
Fax: 0161 295 5494

Social Media Today

There are some big brands that are still getting it wrong in social media today, with everyone looking for a new way or new ideas in social marketing and ‘getting their brand out there’. Sometimes this can cost them dearly and be damaging to their brand. Here I just wanted to share with you interesting points I have read and also share my thoughts on social media ‘Do’s & Don’ts’.

1 – Don’t just create a business page in social media for the sake of it – have a purpose

Having a Facebook or Twitter business page just because your competitors has, isn’t always the answer. Have a clear marketing purpose and ‘Do’ have a plan! Evaluate what you want to get from it and set clear goals.

• Think long term
• You want to attract your customers
• Do your research

Once you have a page, do you have a plan to maintain that page? Have you designated someone within your company to maintain the page?

2 – Don’t use the wrong URL for your Facebook page

You no longer need 25 fans to help create a custom business page. Obtain a URL for your page that has your company’s name in it. For example, it can contain your brand name be www.facebook.com/yourbrandname instead of the former random number URL assigned.

3 – Don’t leave large gaps in posts!

Make sure you post often, without it being too spamy! To post frequently and then to leave your pages for a week, would be bad practice you want to keep your followers/public involved and engaged. Without consistent and regular posts they won’t have a reason to follow you or your page, give them new regular content and a reason to keep reading.

4 – Don’t spam

You might not think your sales messages are spam, but posting the same message too many times, could really upset your followers. They like to be spoken to, not shouted at – BUY! BUY! BUY! – constantly can get boring and result in people giving up following you! Have a good mixture of content include your sales messages but integrated within the grand mix! Remember to word it so it isn’t to sales targeted or aggressive; include call to actions – but don’t go over the top!

5 – Don’t be a robot – have a voice

If your social media presence is for your brand and not you personally, you may find you are more successful when you bring in some personality into your communications. This can be as simple as thanking people for retweets or offering your expertise to help others, whilst sharing a little of your personal side. It is good to have an opinion and being a human voice rather than a robot is what people will relate too.

6 – Don’t self-promote all the time

This again could come under spam, I know self-promotion is why you are originally on social media but these networks are vastly different from other marketing tools. A good rule of thumb would be to balance your self-promotion by promoting and helping others, connected to your business/market. Find similar pages/markets to share content, this is another way of varying you’re content and keeping your audience captivated.

7 – Do use the right social media channels for your business

There are loads to choose from and not every social media site is right for certain business, do your research. LinkedIn might be the obvious place for B2B but does this also fitting for your market the obvious choice isn’t necessarily the best choice! Wikipedia has a list of all the good social media sites. Do you research; find out who your competitors are using and if they are using them successfully – take note!

8 – Don’t outsource your social media to someone/companies that do not know your brand or target audience

If there is a team responsible the social media or you are out sourcing it to an external agency/company make sure you ALL share the same tone of voice as not to confuse your audience! Remember one wrong message will go noticed and could spoil years’ worth of brand building. Make sure you are all giving the same messages.

9 – Don’t avoid reacting to negative feedback

One of the downsides to social media is the uncontrollable element of it. While you can’t control every detail or who they share it with, one element you can control is how your business responds to their feedback. With the right social media tracking you can respond to these comments and if they are negative look how they can be turned into a positive. Depending on the subject matter would depend on how you would respond. You could get the user to email you to sort out behind the social media scene or respond directly to them online. You’ll be surprised how responding as a voice can help or win over a lot of customers, just knowing they are being listened to or getting a response, could go a long way. (Be careful though not all instances can be turned in to a positive but the fact that your brand is saying – ‘Hello I hear you’ can help!).

10 – Do use it as an outlet to amplify a message

Don’t over-focus on social media’s ability to amplify a message and create awareness, always remember it is also about engagement and connecting with customers. You can retweet a message several times, if the message isn’t something interesting enough for them to care about it will not matter! Make sure it is written well and even add some humour to it if the subject is apt.

There are no hard and fast rules in social media

There are no hard and fast rules of what you should or shouldn’t do, so these I would only see as best practices to help create successful engagement on social media sites. I would also say read the official guidelines for the particular social media site you are using and keep reading them they can and do change and are always a good place to start, for example:

• Facebook Guidelines
• Twitter Guidelines

The Power of Social Media Today.

This article was unbelievable it is a true story about a man who takes a hostage for 16 hours and announces it on Facebook only to see the his friends and the police join in negotiation. This to me shows the extent in everyday life (not just in business), in which we are using it or how is it being used. Last month saw ‘The Drum’ (marketing and media magazine), cover an article about how Seabrooks crisps broke the rules with their competition on Facebook.

10 Best Social Media Campaigns of 2010

2010 saw some great social media campaign’s on the link above it has the ten best success stories that brands have had with social media marketing, one of my all time favourite was the ‘Old Spice’ campaign, I remember wrapping up ‘Old Spice’ for my dad at Christmas as a little girl – this really was a great come back for them, getting across that this brand is not just for old men – more spicy men!

Thanks for reading my blog, please share your comments about your social media ‘Do’s & Don’ts’ or have you seen anything about social media that has shocked you or made you smile, we would like to hear your stories!

You can find me at –

Twitter: @AngeTodd

Linkedin: Find Angela Todd on LinkedIn