Copyright © 2010 I-COM International 2010-09-06T17:14:40+0100 2010-09-06T17:14:40+0100 http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. http://www.i-com.net/blog/ http://i-com.net/images/icom-net.gif http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. I-COM International blogmaster at i-com dot net I-COM International I-COM International en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 http://www.i-com.net/blog/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-employees-social-media-accounts-376/ There are plenty of examples of employees speaking out of turn on Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media, and subsequently having to face the consequences. It's become such a big issue that many businesses have been forced to ban the use of social media during work hours, and feel the need to monitor employee's accounts outside of them. But what happens when, as a business, you want your employees on social media? Perhaps you're a recruitment consultant, and you're encouraging your employees to create LinkedIn accounts in order to make connections with new clients and job seekers? Or perhaps you're a charity with a Facebook fan page, and you'd like all your employees to 'Like' your page, bulking up your internet community and distributing your content online? I-COM happens to be the kind of business that encourages its employees to set up social media accounts; it's important that, as a business, we have a strong online presence, and our employees' social media accounts are one way of improving that presence. However, we make sure we follow a few simple rules to avoid the pitfalls so often experienced when employees' social media accounts come into contact with their working lives: Keep your working life and social life separate: if you're going to ask your employees to 'Like' and distribute your content online, ask them to set up work-specific social media accounts. This ensures your content doesn't come into contact with any of their social activities (do you want your latest business event popping up on someone's wall next to pictures of drunken debauchery?). It's better for them, and it's better for your business. Make sure your employees are aware of your company's branding: if your employees are going to be acting as online ambassadors for your company, make sure they're fully aware of how you want your business to be portrayed. Give them some brand guidelines to follow, and make sure they stick to them. Trust your employees, but don't neglect them: by asking your employees to promote your brand online via social media, you're placing a certain amount of trust in them; you're trusting them to do the right thing for your business, and to give your brand a positive image online. Just make sure you don't neglect them - check in periodically on how their social media activity is going, and act on their recommendations. Make sure they have plenty of quality content to distribute: if your employees are going to promote your brand using social media, they're going to need content - at the very least a regularly updated blog and online press releases. Think video, photos, online competitions, polls, even mini-games. Encouraging your employees to use social media to promote your brand online can be hugely rewarding, improving your brand profile, expanding your potential customer base and improving your website's ranking - just make sure you lay down a few ground rules at the start in order to avoid a social media catastrophe. Social Media Marketing 2010-08-03 13:28:52 http://www.i-com.net/blog/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-employees-social-media-accounts-376/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/dont-listen-to-the-social-media-gurus-368/ I am scheduled to give a presentation next week entitled 'Social Media and Business', at the offices of Mathys & Squire LLP. During the talk, which is set to take place on Wednesday 7th July at 3pm, I'll be letting businesses in on the wonderful secret that is social media, outlining how they can use it to generate new business, advertise offers and incentives, create a buzz about their company and connect with customers.I'll also be debunking a lot of the rubbish peddled by these so-called Social Media Gurus, focusing instead on how you can use social media to generate real results for your business.Over the past few years social media has become an extremely powerful force in the world of online marketing - a force businesses hoping to succeed online cannot afford to ignore! If you would like to attend the event contact Tarik: tarik@businessskillsforum.co.uk I-COM News 2010-07-02 12:54:57 http://www.i-com.net/blog/dont-listen-to-the-social-media-gurus-368/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/facebook-community-pages-what-a-mess-366/ Spot the difference: http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-COM/118124928207387This I-COM page is the page created automatically by Facebook after various members of I-COM staff said that they worked here. Facebook currently refers to this as a community page. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manchester-United-Kingdom/I-COM/18443009124This I-COM page is the page created by I-COM with links to other official sources and "liked" by a similar group of people to the above page. Facebook offers the gesture of involvement:"Our goal is to make this Community Page the best collection of shared knowledge on this topic. If you have a passion for I-COM, sign up and we'll let you know when we're ready for your help. You can also get us started by suggesting a relevant Wikipedia article or the Official Site." However, the signup and the suggest box feel a little hollow. Despite providing both the official site, providing the address of the I-COM business page and signing up to offer help, I've had no email feedback - which I find surprising for Facebook - and surely we at I-COM should have control over what appears on a page about us on Facebook (or whether we appear at all), not the powers that be at Facebook. Furthermore, much of the information  being pulled into the community page has nothing whatsoever to do with us (click on image to enlarge): I am in favour of online services adding extra functionality, but if there is no support documentation, multiple features cover essentially the same ground, and they provide inaccurate information, they add no value and only confuse users. Social Media Marketing 2010-06-25 09:27:52 http://www.i-com.net/blog/facebook-community-pages-what-a-mess-366/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/optimising-your-facebook-fan-pages-353/ Before we talk about Facebook fan pages I think its important to establish the difference between a group and a fan page. Groups on Facebook are perfect for planning an event or letting people know about a cause on a personal level such as charity sponsorship or a party event. Pages are suited to companies, brands, bands, businesses, games, films or celebrities who want to interact with their customers or fan base without connecting them to a personal account which would exceed Facebooks 5,000 friend limit. The Picture One of the first things a potential fan sees when visiting your page will be your page 200px picture. If you have a recognisable brand or logo then by all means create a picture of it. Branding and personalisation are key to a page that has a standard format and can look identical to the next. Making your page memorable and individual can create brand awareness even if your logo or company isnt already well known. There are options to choose which application box your visitors land on so that you can have some sort of promotional image or poster as the landing page instead of your fan page profile.  Share Options If you are encouraging visitors to your site to share links via Facebook then make sure you have optimised your share options so that when the visitor shares a link to your page there is a suitable thumbnail preview which reflects your brand and the meta description on those pages. This simply promotes your brand to those receiving the shared links (potential fans). Separating Your Content Public profiles now let you have different landing pages for users who are fans and the non-fans. Keep the content on these pages separate and distinctive. Bear in mind that users on your main Facebook page could be neutral or angered by something your product or service has or hasn't done. They are looking to see what others are saying about you and possibly comment about an issue, expecting a swift apologetic reply. The visitors to your fan page, however, are looking for mutual appreciation and other positive people who share a similar interest in your brand or your products. These two groups should therefore see different layouts and information. Clearly you will want to incentivise and motivate the potential fans to become fans. You should be appreciative of the confirmed fans and help them interact with your brand and each other. Vanity URL These personalised URLs are now available to anyone whose fan page has over 100 fans. They simply remind visitors of your brand and make it easier for them to type in your fan page URL when wanting to return. Define a Post Schedule By creating a set calendar schedule for your page interaction you will be able to keep a constant yet unobtrusive discourse with your fans. If you post updates too often then fans will begin to hide your updates from their feeds or potentially unlink from your fan page altogether. By mixing up the types of updates you post you keep things fresh and save your brand being forgotten by your fans. A mixture of photos, video, links, notes, and status updates keeps the fans interacting and visiting your page. Participation Use your fan page to encourage participation and interaction amongst your fans, rather than it simply being some sort of petition that fans simply join and then forget. Use competitions, quizzes etc to give your fans the incentive to keep posting about your fan page and increasing the number of fans. For example, a company who sells tea & coffee makers encouraging their fans to post their own tea & coffee recipes on the fan page with the potential for some to be added to the recipe section on the live site. This is a very easy and free way to promote interaction between your fans, the fan page and your main website. Monitoring Your Facebook Page Changes Now that you have optimised your fan page you will want to find ouot how the changes you made affected your page. There are a number of tools out there for monitoring your Facebook fan page and evaluating how successful it has been and currently is. V itrue recently rolled out a new social media observation tool they call Social Page Evaluator which tries to aid companies in finding out the revenue and marketing potential of their fan page. By looking into the number of fans, number of posts, amount of interaction, and other factors, the tool attempts to give an accurate annual monitory value to the page owner. Whether or not the Vitrue tool is accurate is unknown but they recently valued Starbucks' fan page at $20 million/year. Yet this is nothing compared to the $75 million amount that Vitrue claims Starbucks could achieve if they optimised their fan page to include audio and video interactivity. Here are some examples of successful Facebook fan pages to inspire you: Pringles Red Bull Adidas Starbucks Coca-Cola Now go forth and amass devoted Facebook fans. If you have any Facebook fan pages you particularly like then leave a link below. Social Media Marketing 2010-05-24 09:33:41 http://www.i-com.net/blog/optimising-your-facebook-fan-pages-353/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/word-of-mouse-302/ Just last week I was asked again by a client, How can I use social media to promote my business? My answer was, It depends on who you want to attract, what image you want to portray, and what kind of publicity you want to generate.We hear people talking about the latest celebrity tweets; we receive emails from past colleagues requesting to join their network - so how should we use what seems to be a spontaneous minefield?If you are a new business just starting up or an established business nervous of how your brand values will reflect in the social arenas, you should approach each relevant site in the same way as you would with any other new advertising medium: test, monitor and report. Define your target audience. Create a personal profile on a couple of social media sites and monitor them for a while. Dont use your company name and dont post anything that will draw attention to yourself until you understand the community and feel the fit of the network is right for your business. Look at your direct competition in order to learn about what networks they use and how they communicate with their audience. Schedule time to regularly maintain and update your online presence. Remember that the post, tweet or comment may only take a few seconds to type but that you should give careful consideration to what you write and the message it sends. Planning and timing is key - consider all your other marketing activities and create targets and incentives. Monitor the feedback and posts to your profile because recording this information will provide invaluable insight into how your product or company is perceived. Most importantly - think before you upload. Social media gives your mouse voice. It can strengthen relationships and create opportunities to attract and engage your target audience. Social Media Marketing 2010-01-22 12:17:37 http://www.i-com.net/blog/word-of-mouse-302/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/manchester-city-manchester-united-players-banned-from-social-media-sites-298/ Due to the large number of fake accounts in existence on popular social networking and social media sites, Manchester City and Manchester United have banned their players from having accounts on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. A Manchester United spokesperson, speaking in the Manchester Evening News, said The club wishes to make it clear that no Manchester United players maintain personal profiles on social networking websites. Fans encountering any web pages purporting to be written by United players should treat them with extreme scepticism. I'm glad they let me know, I've been following this guy for ages: The charlatan! Surely it would have been better for both clubs to employ a Manchester social media or online PR expert with the nous to manage their online profile? This would have been infinitely better than cutting off all potential for online contact between players and fans in one fell swoop. It would seem that in this instance both Manchester United and Manchester City are betraying a distinct lack of knowledge when it comes to modern marketing techniques. Social Media Marketing 2010-01-20 16:51:42 http://www.i-com.net/blog/manchester-city-manchester-united-players-banned-from-social-media-sites-298/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/an-insight-into-online-personal-reputation-services-288/ We have all typed our name into Google once or twice to confirm our internet fame, obliterate our name exclusivity and see how much information about us is really out there . But have you ever considered paying to have results removed or promoted in light of other people searching for you? In todays ever expanding world of online information, personal name results are being scrutinised and picked through daily to back up offline knowledge. With real time search launched on Google recently, social media postings are being added into the monitored information equation. This raises the question, at what point does our personal responsibility for our own online reputation end? Its no surprise then that one of the most popular web 2.0 businesses in 2010 will be companies paid to make it their responsibility to defend personal reputations. Over the pond in the US these online services are already thriving while drenching their websites in a mixture of cheesy sales patter and over-enthusiastic stats. Promoting Your Online Personal Brand The lowered guards brought on by the anonymity of the web have been raised as people realise their education prospects, work future and even dating chances are affected by web information. Hiring a personal branding site to become your own online PR agent is the newest solution. PlaceYourName.com is one of these businesses, with a website overflowing with enthusiasm which claims it "creates a positive online image and gives you a solid Internet presence when someone searches your name." These businesses tend to use a mixture of SEO techniques, web development and public relations to achieve this. Eliminating Your Online Personal Dirt Whats the point in promoting positive online presence if you have negative postings and results that are going to drag it down? Enter services like DefendMyName.com who have a "team of engineers that is not only ready but also excited about the opportunity" to remove your negative information because of "the cool yet frightening revelation that people trust opinions they find on the internet more than those from newspapers, TV, radio and magazines." Childrens Online Reputation With kids now contently exposing every facet of their personal life on sites like Bebo and MySpace its no surprise that these services are now being targeted at parents. A mixture of paranoia, popularity and future education/career prospects are pushing parents to hire companies such as ReputationDefender for their 'MyChild' service. This service produces a monthly report detailing references to your child's name, images, screen name and social network profiles that is meant to encourage the parent to request changes, deletions and promotion of positive results. ReputationDefender.com claims: "Teens have always cared about their reputations - the Internet defines the reputation of a person." Besides, do teens really want their parents seeing everything they do or say online? Surely this infringes on a teenager's right to be a kid in favour of building a parent-controlled online persona for future success? Surely even online, teenagers need to build their own online persona and learn from their mistakes. Then again with 'enthusiastic' customer quotes like the one below how can anyone dispute such a service? Limitations There are clearly a lot of legal issues with removing online information when you dont own the rights to that post or article. An FAQ on ReputationDefender.com site highlights these issues when asked "Can you remove absolutely anything?" The site responded stating "No. Newspaper articles and court records are difficult to impossible to remove" but goes on to state "we typically focus on content that is slanderous, private, defamatory, invasive and/or outdated." Surely two of the most slanderous and private sources of information online are newspaper articles and court records. This is one of many fairly substantial limitations for online reputation services. At the end of the day if you're that worried about your online reputation and you want to keep it respectable then behave as though your mum or nan is looking over your online shoulder. For more information on this topic visit Personal Branding Blog. Internet 2009-12-18 15:24:24 http://www.i-com.net/blog/an-insight-into-online-personal-reputation-services-288/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/bnw-09-a-practical-example-of-the-potential-of-social-media-259/ The Business North West 2009 conference starts today, and I-COM are down there (Stand 5, right by the door) exhibiting our online marketing wares and trying like mad to educate North West businesses about the potential of social media as a means of driving traffic, promoting your brand and responding to customer queries. Were encouraging conference-goers to join in by uploading photos and live updates on the various goings on at Manchester Central today and tomorrow to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and a variety of other Social Media sites via their iPhones, Blackberries, Netbooks and Laptops and for those people who dont have a mobile internet device or a Twitter account (god forbid), weve even laid on a few extra PCs at our stand which are kept permanently logged in to a specially created Twitter account: BNW09_Feedback. Social Media is on the rise internet-wise, and with Google desperately trying to figure out a productive way of incorporating it into their search results its inevitable that its going to become extremely important to business online presence the world over. Our attempt to take the Business North West 2009 conference online is an experiment, designed to demonstrate this potential to the blissfully uninitiated. Weve set up accounts on the following Social Media sites: Flickr Twitter Facebook FriendFeed Blogsome Xanga SlideShare Tumblr LiveJournal Wordpress Blog WetPaint Blogspot Scribd Weve also set some of our employees the task of roaming the event taking pictures, short videos and making comments on the various speakers and presentations. If youve got any questions about Social Media and its potential for your business, we encourage you to head over to the I-COM stand (number 5) for a practical demonstration. Social Media Marketing 2009-10-28 10:05:36 http://www.i-com.net/blog/bnw-09-a-practical-example-of-the-potential-of-social-media-259/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/diary-of-a-social-media-curmudgeon-online-effort-real-world-results-258/ Im coming round to this Social Media thing. Whilst I still dislike using it for purely personal and social reasons (isnt face to face always better?), I can see its benefits from a business perspective. In my capacity as SEO Copywriter I dont come into a great deal of contact with Social Media at I-COM but, seeing as its The future of the web (you could probably trace this quote back, in one form or another, to any self-respecting SEO blog on the net) I decided the time had come for me to embrace this huge, uncompromising and multi-faceted beast. So, Ive started helping a friend of mine out with his online presence by writing blog posts, updating his Twitter account, sending Facebook updates to fans of his business and posting adverts on Myspace walls. My friends business is based in Sheffield and focuses on publishing a magazine, hosting live music and poetry events and distribution (which is where the majority of the money comes from). Currently they have no website (though one is on the cards), so the only method of promotion online available to them is Social Media.New to the game Being new at the game, I started by logging onto Twitter and sitting staring at that blank white space thinking Well, what am I supposed to write what Im having for my tea or something? However it soon became obvious that Twitter, once you start following a few people relevant to your business, is a fantastic vehicle for promotion. If you can establish a loyal band of followers who are interested in your product, then you have a captive and welcoming audience for your advertisements all you have to remember is, the Social Media experience is about give and take. If all you do is advertise your product people are going to get annoyed and bored with your content. Take the time to think up some genuinely interesting things to say or, alternatively, repeat what others have said and acknowledge the source theyll appreciate it. The same is true of Facebook and, to a lesser extent Myspace. By establishing a band of followers who are already both aware and appreciative of your product, you have a happy audience at which to direct advertisement, and from whom you can solicit feedback in order to make your business better.Real world results And do you know what, its only having a positive effect! Whilst only time will tell how useful social media will prove to my friends business, the initial reports look good. Advertising space in his magazine has sold out in record time this month and a live event last Saturday attracted one of its largest ever crowds. Whilst I used to (and still do on a purely social basis) agree with founder member of legendary band of futurists Kraftwerk, Ralf Htters statement that "Everybody is becoming like a Stasi agent, constantly observing himself or his friends." I can see, and am experiencing, what a boon this method of online promotion could be for businesses including yours. Provided its used correctly that is. Social Media Marketing 2009-10-23 11:05:39 http://www.i-com.net/blog/diary-of-a-social-media-curmudgeon-online-effort-real-world-results-258/