Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogs – What's best for you?

This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the June 22, 2010 @ 8:30 am

You want to get started in social media, but don’t know where to start? Which platform is better for your business? Should you do a bit of everything?

The answer depends on what you are trying to achieve. Here we review the key social networks so you can decide where best to invest your time.

Twitter - the fastest growing social media platform; easy to update, perfect for checking out what your competitors are up to. Will it get you more business? Yes:

• If you are in a B2B market; it is seen as professional and a good place to search out new suppliers
• If you have regular offers. Check out Dell’s Twitter page, this increased their business by $6.5m in 2009
• If you update it regularly and interact with your followers

Facebook – the daddy of social media, everyone has heard of it even if they don’t use it. Great for catching up with old school chums; but is it right for gaining new customers? Yes:

• If you are in a B2C market
• If you run a community/group type organisation
• You want to be able to talk and interact with your clients on a relaxed friendly level

Blog - an easy way of sharing your knowledge with others who are interested in your field. Is it worth spending the time writing one? Yes:

• If you have a knowledgeable, professional service
• If you have an exciting product and want to keep people updated
• If you can write well, keeping your reader wanting to come back for more

LinkedIn – the Facebook of the business world. Handy for introducing associates and acquaintances who you feel might benefit from being in touch. But is online networking the way forward? Yes:

• If your line of business benefits from ‘who you know’ type scenarios
• If you’re too busy to attend face to face networking groups
• If you have lots of relationships you want to nurture and sustain

Do what you can do but do it well. Make sure you’re still running your business first. The more platforms you and your business are on the better but only if you have the time to monitor and maintain them all. You don’t have to be on everything, better to be a terrific Tweeter and nothing else; than a boring blogger or failing Facebooker. If you feel you should be on more social media sites but don’t have the time to run them why not check out our Social Media in a Box package here.

Tags: blogs, facebook, linkedin, social media in a box

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogs – What’s best for you?

This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the June 22, 2010 @ 8:35 am

You want to get started in social media, but don’t know where to start? Which platform is better for your business? Should you do a bit of everything?

The answer depends on what you are trying to achieve. Here we review the key social networks so you can decide where best to invest your time.

Twitter - the fastest growing social media platform; easy to update, perfect for checking out what your competitors are up to. Will it get you more business? Yes:

• If you are in a B2B market; it is seen as professional and a good place to search out new suppliers
• If you have regular offers. Check out Dell’s Twitter page, this increased their business by $6.5m in 2009
• If you update it regularly and interact with your followers

Facebook – the daddy of social media, everyone has heard of it even if they don’t use it. Great for catching up with old school chums; but is it right for gaining new customers? Yes:

• If you are in a B2C market
• If you run a community/group type organisation
• You want to be able to talk and interact with your clients on a relaxed friendly level

Blog - an easy way of sharing your knowledge with others who are interested in your field. Is it worth spending the time writing one? Yes:

• If you have a knowledgeable, professional service
• If you have an exciting product and want to keep people updated
• If you can write well, keeping your reader wanting to come back for more

LinkedIn – the Facebook of the business world. Handy for introducing associates and acquaintances who you feel might benefit from being in touch. But is online networking the way forward? Yes:

• If your line of business benefits from ‘who you know’ type scenarios
• If you’re too busy to attend face to face networking groups
• If you have lots of relationships you want to nurture and sustain

Do what you can do but do it well. Make sure you’re still running your business first. The more platforms you and your business are on the better but only if you have the time to monitor and maintain them all. You don’t have to be on everything, better to be a terrific Tweeter and nothing else; than a boring blogger or failing Facebooker. If you feel you should be on more social media sites but don’t have the time to run them why not check out our Social Media in a Box package here.

Tags: blogs, facebook, linkedin, social media in a box

Xander Marketing yearly review (part 2)

This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the June 8, 2010 @ 9:45 am

Last week we told you some things we have learnt over the past year regarding SMEs and marketing. This week with have some more pearls of wisdom for you that we have learnt that are a bit more marketing specific:

• Sometimes you have to do things to a budget. Whilst we’d love to spend 2 days designing a logo there are some companies that want something designed in half a day. Knowing how to adapt to this and understanding the customer has been key
• Inbound marketing is much more effective than outbound marketing. In our early days no-one knew about us, we didn’t really have a presence on search engines or in social media. It took time to get meetings, we used techniques such as tele-marketing and email marketing, it took longer to write proposals (as many prospects weren’t sure what they wanted) and our conversion rate from proposal to getting the work was lower. Creating a website that works well in search engines, building a reputation, having a presence elsewhere and gaining word of mouth recommendations means people are coming to us now. When people come to you with a requirement not only is the sales process a lot easier and shorter but the conversion rates are a lot higher
• ‘Free’ works but be careful. In July 2009 we launched our treat campaign. We offered to do some free marketing to any small business. It worked, within a week 25 businesses had taken our offer up with very little of our own marketing. We built relationships and won a couple of bits of business from it. We did have lots of businesses take our treat offer up though with no intention of doing any more marketing, this was fair enough but not good for us from a business sense. That’s why in March 2010 we started a new one, only offering treats to businesses serious about marketing. Whilst we got a smaller uptake the quality was better landing us some new contracts
• Update your website. Whilst our website structure has remained the same it has evolved over the last year and will continue to evolve. So have our clients’ websites. As we spot new things, learn new things, adapt to new technology or trends our websites should do the same thing
• Sometimes the customer isn’t always right. In our early days if a client wanted us to do something we would do it. Nowadays we will challenge more, if we think the customer’s approach could be different we will tell them, even if that means us not getting the work or not being as profitable. This approach has proved to be beneficial in the long run.

So there you go, a year in review. Here’s to an even better 2010/11 for Xander Marketing, our customers and our suppliers.

Xander Marketing yearly review (part 1)

This post was last edited by Alex Cohen, on the June 2, 2010 @ 10:33 am

As we come to the end of Xander Marketing’s financial year, we’re busy reviewing the year, business planning for the next and creating budget and cash flow forecasts.

As we only work with SMEs we feel we have a pretty good knowledge of this business size in the UK and what they want when it comes to marketing. Here are some things we’ve learnt from the past 12 months:

• The start of the financial year the country was still deep in a recession. The majority of businesses had struggled in one way or another and were cautious; however the bolder businesses saw marketing as a way to pull their company out of the recession
• September and late January/early February were key times for making marketing decisions. As the summer ended and there were signs of things picking up September brought a time when people were fresh for new ideas. The new year always brings new vigour and although the snow slowed some decisions down, by the end of January/early February the year was in full swing
• What people want has changed. 2009 was very much about social media, this buzz has died down a bit now and search engine marketing is key. Businesses are keen to have a marketing strategy to get started. Websites are also moving from a ‘brochure’ to a lead conversion tool or content hub
• We’re industry neutral however we have seen certain industries want more marketing than others. SaaS and cloud based services have been strong this year. Professional services have struggled more than others in a recession which has resulted in limited or no marketing budgets. E-commerce retail has been more interested in marketing than bricks and mortar retail
• Location doesn’t matter. We’re based in Wokingham, Berkshire; a year ago we assumed all our business would come from within a 20 mile or so radius around us. Not true, in fact most of our customers are not local. Location doesn’t matter anymore…with technologies such as email, VOIP and video conferencing we can provide the same level of service to a business in Sandhurst as we can to a business in Sydney. The same goes with associates, by tapping into a pool of local (and international) freelancers we can really find the very best for our customers

Read the second part of our yearly review next week.