Q: I have a particularly niche product in my business, how do I go about promoting this product via social media?
A: This is one of the most common questions that I am asked when it comes to social media marketing, … click here to read more
Declaring Independence: Going Solo in the World of Digital Marketing.
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Digital marketing can be difficult waters to navigate at the best of times and one of the biggest questions is where you should start.
There are plenty of digital agencies that can help you along your digital marketing journey, however, what … click here to read more
Social Media – The new Boardroom Challenge that cannot be ignored
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In a recent survey of FTSE 350 members by FT/ICSA, almost half of respondents reported their board had never discussed a social media policy.
With over a billion users on Twitter and Facebook, with corporate reputations impacted in an instant, It … click here to read more
Five top tips to improve direct marketing with social media integration
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You may believe that social media and direct marketing are two completely different beasts, however I beg to differ.
Engaging with an individual via social media is about as “direct” as it gets in direct marketing. Direct marketing aims to connect … click here to read more
Social Media Management Tools: How to manage your social networks and increase productivity
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Although the majority of businesses see the importance and value in social media, many struggle to manage their social channels effectively.
In this guide, we will look at how a Social Media Management Tool can help businesses to be more efficient … click here to read more
Don’t go ‘social’ without a plan
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I spend much of my time balancing opportunity against risk, but I’m not out to sell you on how good lawyers can be at mitigating your risk. At least, not right now…
The social media revolution has provided businesses everywhere with … click here to read more
Ask the Expert: Increasing your engagement on Twitter
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Q: I am using Twitter as a marketing channel for my business, but often feel like my tweets are falling on deaf ears. How do I get other users (and potential clients) to engage with me?
A: Twitter is one big … click here to read more
You Can’t Fake Social Sentiment
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When brands and businesses are making their first steps into the big wide social media universe, they may feel that gaining likes and followers is a must and will be looking for ways to create “buzz” around their account or … click here to read more
Ridding the World of Bad Forms
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Conversion rate optimisation is the practice of fine tuning your website to turn as many visitors into customers as possible. It is as relevant to SMEs as it is to global brands. Perhaps more so, as SMEs can and need … click here to read more
Successful writing for websites, e-mails and other marketing communications
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Whether you sell your products through an online store or simply need to display your credentials to prospects, a strong online presence is now an indispensable marketing tool for any business.
There is no doubt that good web design plays an … click here to read more
Finding your Voice: How to Win Business with your Blog
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First of all, let’s address the question many of you may be thinking: “Can you really win business with a blog?” Well, I’ve made my blog the main driver of my business for a few years now, so the answer … click here to read more
Using social media to make me more employable……?
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I’m writing this during National Careers Week. In Greater Manchester we have been running digital newsrooms with a focus on careers. So far we have twitter interviewed a communications manager, a film maker, a TV presenter, PR director, a building … click here to read more
Ask the Expert: How can hashtag hours help your business?
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Well, they can help in a number of ways. The Marketing Agencies Association used their hashtag #Marketing4SUB as a tool to engage in conversation during a live pitching session for their ‘win an agency’ competition. This meant that … click here to read more
Google Helpouts Not Ready For B2B Markets
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The latest initiative from Google is Helpouts; a service which incorporates a number of existing functions, including Google Plus Hangouts, Google Vice Chat and Google Wallet amongst others. A number of the services provided by Helpouts are available free of … click here to read more
How to get results from social media marketing
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In this short video, Guy Levine CEO of Return On Digital, talks through five top tips on how to succeed with social media marketing.
From defining a strategy and creating a content plan, to measuring the results and engaging with your … click here to read more
Using social media for search marketing
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The age-old question – how can social media benefit my SEO? – shows no sign of going away and, indeed, appears to be a hotter topic than ever (its popularity probably increasing as the disciplines of organic search and social … click here to read more
Does Your Digital Culture Stop At The Front Door?
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The change the internet has brought is as much cultural as technological. Immediacy. Flexibility. Mobility. The sharing ethos of the maker movements and open source software. Facebook’s global family. Twitter’s non-stop conversation. We don’t just do things digitally, we do … click here to read more
Facebook, Google and the algorithm economy
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The Social Media landscape is changing. With Social platforms looking to further push monetisation and the convergence of Search and Social Media, newsfeeds are awash with mediocre content that impairs the user experience.
Social Media platforms need to further refine their … click here to read more
Being YOU on Social Media
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When businesses join social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, they all too often focus on their business instead of their customers. Ask yourself this: Why does your customer use social media?
Is it to get corporate updates from … click here to read more
Please do not feed the troll
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As is true in life, there’s always a small minority which turn something good into a negative through undesirable behaviour: Thugs at football games, angry drunks on a Friday night, trolls on social networking sites.
So what is a troll? Well … click here to read more
Ask the Expert: Social Selling
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Q: I keep hearing the term ‘social selling’. What does this mean and how is social media impacting the traditional sales cycle?
A: Most sales experts mistakenly believe that growing buyer access to social platforms and collaborative websites has substantially shortened … click here to read more
Social Media Types
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Thanks to Leverage for this great infographic explaining six of the most common social media platforms
What do you think? Any major networks missed out? Post your comments below!
How To Use Twitter More Efficiently
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The most common complaint businesses make when they start using social media is that they do not have the time. However behind this complaint is a world of ignorance, social media, especially Twitter, needn’t be a taxing or time consuming … click here to read more
When Twitter and Facebook go wrong
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There’s no denying the power of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The majority of the time, they can be used to great positive effect, but occasionally things will – and do – go wrong.
Click on the presentation below … click here to read more
An Adventure with Social Media: How we learnt from our mistakes
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Over the last few years social media seems to have taken over the world, with users logging many hours a day checking Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat etc, it’s only logical for businesses to want to get involved.
In this paper, Stephen … click here to read more
Ask the Experts: Guest Blogging
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Q: I’ve read recently that Guest Bloggers are negatively impacting search results. Why is this?
Around 3 months ago Matt Cutts, Head of Webspam at Google, wrote a post entitled “The decay and fall of guest blogging for … click here to read more
We’re All Cyborgs Now
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I’m fond of pointing out to people that we are all bionic now. We may not have microchips in our heads, or robot arms that give us the strength to lift cars, but personal technology has become integral to the … click here to read more
3 Ways to Boost your Mailing List (Part 1)
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Twitter Lead Generation Cards
You’ve been growing your social media presence for a while and you’ve see the importance in creating content that engage with potential customers. That’s great, but how do you drive these engaged people towards actually making contact … click here to read more
How to run a successful Twitter competition and the top lessons to learn from it
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At Orchard we’re squeezing every last drop out of our social networks. We do that by trying to use each network in the way it was intended; without bending the rules too much to force a commercial message. … click here to read more
3 Ways to Boost your Mailing List (Part 2)
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Website Opt-in Forms
In this three-part series, we are looking at ways of boosting the number of relevant subscribers to your mailing list.
With an expanding list of subscribers you can drive more relevant traffic to your blog posts as well as … click here to read more
3 Ways to Boost your Mailing List (Part 3)
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In this three-part series, we have been looking at ways to boost the number of relevant subscribers to your mailing list.
There are so many ways to boost your mailing list, so instead of just mentioning one way in this final … click here to read more
The Debilitating Content Roadblock (and how to beat it)
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Writers Block. “You’ve got to have great content”. “It’s brilliant content that brings you visitors and clients”. “You need to produce high quality content regularly”.
Yeah, yeah. Yada yada yada. Tell us something new.
Here’s the problem. It’s not that we don’t … click here to read more
Ask the Expert: Why you should more than ‘dip a toe’ into social advertising.
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Q: Is social media advertising something I should be considering for my business?
A: This week, my social media team has built the following audiences for brands; mums-to-be, bodybuilders and aesthetic surgical and non-surgical professionals. All of this has been done … click here to read more
Why You Should Make the Most of Your Thank You Emails
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In today’s face-paced world, who really has time to read a ‘thank you for your order’ email? And what kind of company has time to create interesting and engaging content for this type of thing?
Well, if your content is attractive … click here to read more
Take to Twitter to get your complaint heard
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Long gone are the days where irate phone calls and strongly worded letters were the key to getting your complaint heard – nowadays, customers are finding that the use of 140 characters does the job much more succinctly.
Endless hours spent … click here to read more
What is Intellectual Property?
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Intellectual Property is the result of an expression of an idea, the creations from your mind, over which you can have exclusive rights due to copyright, trademarks and patents. For a product to be able to enjoy IP protection it … click here to read more
The future of communication began millions of years ago
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The world would stand still without communication; no matter how advanced we will be in terms of technology. To put it simply, technology just facilitates communication but it is people that drive and lead it.
Communication is incredibly simple. It is … click here to read more
Beginners’ Guide to Facebook
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Facebook is still the number one social media platform in terms of volume of users, so it is likely that your customers are on there and some may even be using it every day.
However, marketing a business on Facebook can … click here to read more
The Twitter Case Study – from the Dimensions of Strategy Series
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Is it possible an idea from a hackathon just six years ago can be worth over $A20 billion US dollars today? Such is the case of Twitter, the social media phenomenon – now aligned with Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn as … click here to read more
Footballers’ Faux Pas on Twitter
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The Brazil World Cup has already been one of the most exciting on social networks, with Twitter taking the lead with their hashflags campaign and the ability to follow the matches second by second, tailored to the matches you want … click here to read more
The Campaign That Launched 1000 Hits
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Last week, the team here at SM Experts were tasked with achieving 1000 website visits over a four day canvass period for the Twitter Case Study which is the latest offering from John Ashcroft & Company in the Dimensions of … click here to read more
The Best Way to Invite People to Connect on LinkedIn
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To start your LinkedIn online relationship you need to invite them to become part of your network. As with all relationships the only way to do it is with courtesy, politeness and good manners.
When you use the default message LinkedIn, … click here to read more
Social Media Pay to Play – the death of creativity?
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There has been much discussion recently about the maturing of the social media market and the ever-increasing importance of paying for placement of social media content, particularly on Facebook. After a $100 billion IPO in 2012 it has come as … click here to read more
6 Top Tips to Increase Your Social Media Productivity
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Generally speaking, social media success rates are determined by defining your target audience, the goals of the business and building an online presence that will be mutually beneficial for both. This can be done by providing genuinely engaging content and … click here to read more
Reddit – A Force for Good or Evil?
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Reddit is a social media platform that is often overlooked, but with 5 million page views every month, it is definitely a force to be reckoned with. But is it a force for good or for evil? Our friends over … click here to read more
7 Ways to be Digitally Plugged-In and Out In-Front!
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Is your business ‘change ready’ in this fast paced digital world? Are online, mobile and tablet strategies changing how you communicate? How you market your brands? Or even how you sell to and support customers? If not – they should … click here to read more
5 Things You Can Learn from Email Open Rates
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What is an ‘open rate’? Is it just more Internet and marketing jargon that sounds impressive, but is really just another unimportant metric that you shouldn’t be entertaining?
The answer is no. Open rates are the lifeline of your email marketing … click here to read more
Guy Levine – Can giving away free content generate sales?
Content marketing is the type of marketing we have all been encouraged to focus our efforts on for a while now, but the big question is can giving away free content generate sales for your business? Guy Levine, managing director … click here to read more
Daniel Nolan – Should companies be making time for Google +?
Choosing which social media platforms you should be using to market your business can be difficult at the best of times. There is a constant fear that if you do not choose the right ones, you will be missing out … click here to read more