To get the best out of social media takes planning.  Have I drummed that into you enough yet?!  Once you know what you want and you’ve figured out a way to get there – you are on your way! All you have to do is to produce valuable content and information that people will find useful, unique and unrivalled. Ahem. Now if you are a pub, bar or restaurant, using social media is vital. But you are up against a lot of competition. You also don’t have a lot of time, being very busy

We’ve posted about Twitter many a time on Online PR UK but the questions I receive are all the same. Are you one of those people that open Twitter in the morning to see if you’ve had any mentions, RTs etc RT a couple of tweets yourself and post up your own PR tweet of the day? Thought so. Stop. Lets think like England did in the EURO2012 against Italy. (Kind of). GOALS GOALS GOALS. What do you want out of this? what does your business need? Increase sales? Increase subscriber

After this Diamond Jubilee Long weekend, I have had a few thoughts over past posts and felt the need to remind everyone to stop using Twitter for Self Promotion! We are all guilty of it, yes, me too – but we (that will be the Royal we) must remind ourselves to use Twitter in the correct way. We know the importance of promoting your brand and awareness to your customers, friends and family; however, if it is pure promotion, then it would turn people off. People just don’t wan

OPT offers you top 5 tips that your competitors will already know! read on… It is fair to say that online pr is NOT the same as offline pr. The differences are significant.  And it is important to learn that both are pitched differently.  This is something successful marketeers have learnt over time and you can learn this from them. Online PR is a varied mixture of brand reputation monitoring and management activities and it’s main goal to influence media, communities and au

So yesterday we spoke about your business allies therefore we have an idea of what their uses of Twitter and Facebook are.  Another avenue to research is which networks and groups do these companies belong to? Have they any of their own? It seems obvious, but instead of picking up the latest best seller before you visit the land of nod, mooch around the groups of your comrades and interact. Introduce yourself as if you just walked into a room and offer helpful comments and a

As we have already mentioned, the art of promoting oneself or ones business is entirely up to you. Are you a great party guest? Do you get inundated with Christmas cards? Do people come to you for advice often? If you answered yes to these questions then you will have a head start on marketing your product, brand or service. Chances are you won’t go steaming in and introduce yourself and what you are selling immediately, you will take into consideration the advice on the OPT

How about beginning a audio or video tutorial for your niche? Do you think that your audience will benefit from you offering them a mentoring service? Tips and Tricks for your specialist service? Whether your skills lie in being a creative or an expert in your niche (you could be a great golfer or know how and when to pot certain plants a musician, or a retail manager, etc) Think of the qualities you could share with other businesses in your field or your online clientele. Re

We’ve covered the types of social media available to us. We’ve covered the basic uses of these social media outlets. We will continue to revisit these avenues with current updates and ideas in this blog. This week I want to talk about self promotion and social media. I’ve come from a performer background and although self promotion come easily to most in my field, it didn’t to me. I was from the ilk ‘to tell people what you do and talk yourself up was uncool and made you sou

OK, So you’ve got your twitter page looking hot, you’ve written your 3-month campaign and have a decent strategy in place. Then comes the networking right? Imagine you have been invited to one of those work events, you’ve got your name badge and you are fully equipped with a head full of mind numbing questions that you really don’t need to know the answers to, wine in hand – off you go. GULP. One of the upsides of twitter is that you can do all this in your PJs from the comf

What are promoted Tweets I hears you cry? Well, a promoted Tweet is an ordinary Tweet that has been purchased by advertisers who want to reach a wider audience or to engage with their existing followers. They are clearly labeled as ‘Promoted’ so you know which ones are being paid for and the ones that aren’t. They can be retweeted, replied to, favorited and so on.  With the same concept of the Facebook ads as mentioned in my post last week, it helps you to reach out to target

Following on from Monday’s post about getting your content read, we have learnt that the psychology of a certain subject is key. We have also learnt that exposure, awareness and motivation drives people to share. Your audience is looking for validation. Some things haven’t changed since primary school. We are want our mates to think we are brilliant.  The way we do that online is through the content we share. 68% of The New York Times study participants said they share conten

Ever wonder how to get your content read in a plethora of online information? I want to break down what makes people engage and help understand why your audience shares some something. Every parent knows that sharing is one of the first things to teach a child.  Some take to it like a duck to water, others need a bit more of a push. With online copy and promotion content, obviously you have to write stuff that stands out from the competition but there is a  science to sharing

Tweets that are filled with hashtags get 5% fewer click-throughs than those without hashtags. Say  Social Media B2B .  So why use them? I hear you cry.  Well, I can only take from this that you have to use them sparingly and at the right time.  Hashtags, when talking about a specific subject or event obviously help you join in the conversation and network with people that are talking about the same thing, but if you are using them loosely, for example, #ireland #typical #gras

A short and sweet one today because it was my birthday yesterday and I can’t see. OPT want to know how you follow your fave blogs? and whether you use #ff on Twitter!? Oh  and if you get in touch or RT my blog link today – I will give you a follow friday shout out on Twitter! Well??…….. #Twitter #onlineprtips #followfriday #creativeonlinemarketing #businessdevelopment #SocialMedia

TWITTER! Now, If you are looking for a good old moan then bore a friend or write a blog – but I will advise you that most won’t want to read it, unless it’s about Ryan Air. Are you a big company that deals with lots of complaints? Do you want to deal with them fast and move on? Do you want to show others how you deal with complaints? Well have you thought about setting up a ‘complaints hotline’ on Twitter? For monitoring and acting on complaints and other comments from custo

In this ever-changing world of social media and digital marketing how anybody calls himself an expert is beyond me. Things are changing too quickly for anybody to be calling themselves an expert. I like to say, ‘someone in the know!’ You have to be dedicated, analytical, read every day have a great track record and discuss the subject day in day out with everyone to even get close to becoming someone who someone else should listen to! In today’s digital climate, it’s even sim

A retweet is when one of your followers repeats a tweet that you have written. It’s a magical thing! When someone retweets you, your tweet will reach that person followers and so on.  So if it is a good one and you get a good few people retweeting you – who knows how many people you could reach! Retweets ‘RTs’ as they are known in the trade, are so important to your business and making connections with others. It’s a way of growing your followers quickly and expanding your co

We’ve talked about blogging this week.  You should now be at a point where you can safely post something up online consistently.  Sharing your blog is the next step. There are now great sites to help you distribute your blog. And this year is it ALL about GREAT CONTENT!  I’ll talk about this more in the coming weeks but PLEASE take the time and write good stuff!  Really give this a lot of thought and look at what your competitors are blogging about.  Make yours better, richer

If you are an advanced blogger, start thinking about your yearly campaign. If you remember, back when we were talking about ‘ planning your time ’ it’s so important to plan before you write. Anyway – back to you guys that are just starting out. You need to decide; a) What do you wish to achieve from your blog? b) How you wish your blog to be perceived? c) Will you write a monthly and give out a lot of info? d) Will you write a daily bite size offering? e) I

I would like to thank our followers and wish all our readers a very happy and restful Christmas and a prosperous New Year! I also hope that I have started an informative and exciting development service for you to add to your weekly reading lists. If you would like to provide content on this blog or collaborate in any way, shape or form. then please get in touch! Here’s to 2012! Andrea #socialcommunities #SmallBiz #thinkandtweetlater #Twitter #socialmediaplanning #onlineprtip