Unless you’re a Coca-Cola of this world, if you want to launch an online community, your user acquisition strategy will be key. No one will accidently stumble across your page, like it and become a lifelong fan.  You need to work, and work hard to get people to commit to you – and even that commitment can be transient if not managed correctly.
The problem is, gone are the days of social media novelty. As consumers, we are now inundated with brands in social media slowly pushing themselves further and further …

So as to not replicate the plethora of blog posts covering social media predictions for 2012, I thought it would be worth listing the ten areas I’d like to see develop within the social media and digital comms industry over the next twelve months. In no particular order….
1. Twitter to be able to offer UK case studies for their advertising packages. To date the offering looks unsophisticated with limited results for brands outside of the entertainment industry
2. Brands to get a lot smarter with integrating their above-the-line and social strategies. What really …

Having been recruiting for various social media roles over the past couple of months I find it incredible the CV is still considered a credible descriptor of a person’s employment history. No more! I refuse to look at these pieces of paper which are crying out for a role in digital comms and yet show no passion for the medium these candidates want to work in day in, day out. No URL’s – nothing, just an email address.  So, to the humble Google search, then LinkedIn…Twitter. Ok obvious but it …

So this week I got all legal and attended a briefing on the ASA’s extended digital remit which, if you weren’t aware of already, comes into effect on the 1st March. To date, company websites have been excluded from ASA regulations which basically means they can say what they want about their products and services without validation. This is the first thing that is being addressed. Non paid for space (ie: social media channels) which are under the control of a brand/organisation as well as ‘earned media’ (user generated content) …

I’m feeling pretty powerful at the moment with a word- of-mouth influencer score of just under 300,000. Actually this figure is ridiculous but it certainly acts as an trigger to start wielding my opinion around on new  ‘have a complaint (rant)’ site Gri.pe.
According to their About Page Gri.pe:  “lets you share public praise or complaints that get sent to the business for response, while being spread by your friends, followers and beyond!” – basically it allows you a very public forum to moan in the hope that you’ll get some …

Building on my last blog post the Social Media Policy – not just for the big players I felt it was worth sharing some pointers on what should be included if you are drafting this document on behalf of your business or client.
Not one for the bottom drawer
Remember that you want your policy to empower the reader to embrace social media rather than scare them off. This means ensuring that there is no complicated, technical jargon (if this needs to be included then make sure there is a glossary …

Let’s move on from saying we need objectives, benchmarks and KPI’s for social media activity – the reality is we know this has to happen and hopefully, by now, our clients understand this too. We also know that to get to a realistic and actionable benchmark, we should have been measuring the activity we have been running, what’s worked, what hasn’t – what got our audience really excited and what was ignored. The truth is we have the technology to do this (time to get down and dirty with analytics …

As social media professionals we know; when evaluating the success of an online community, it should all be about the level of engagement and not about the number of ‘Likes’ and/or followers – but the truth is, that rightly or wrongly numbers matter.

This is the first thing clients see when they are searching for a benchmark of success, the first indication of what they would naturally infer as popularity and the first thumbs up of a community that seems to be well run – people have said ‘yes’ …

So you are getting excited about your social media strategy, you have your creative execution standing by and are ready to start counting fans and followers.  Being a small to medium sized business you may not have thought about a Social Media Policy. That’s something only for large corporations and agencies, not you, right?  Wrong.
Before I hear a collective virtual *sigh*, a social media policy is essential for any business who wants to get online – no matter how small. This is because in using online platforms to communicate you …

With 3.2 million UK users and a market value of over $2 billion, LinkedIn is no longer just a fishing pool for recruitment agencies and head-hunters. It is now a viable business networking and resource tools which works most effectively with the more connections you have. So, start connecting and make the most out of all the new functionalities which are available (new apps, group features, plug-ins).
Growing your network
Think about who you may have worked for in the past and who you have everyday contact with. The Outlook toolbar add …