One of the first things I do when taking on a new client is take a look at their history. It may seem obvious but it is so important to be aware if the journey of a brand/person or business before you advise them on how to proceed. How did the company/idea start? How did you get it off the ground? What are your ups and downs to date? what do you think of your business? One of the reasons people bring in PR to help their business grow is that a fresh eye can make all the diff

Monday, we talked about strategy vs plan. Today’s post is all about the plan and what it should include. This is based on a traditional Marketing plan. Now we are talking about online business and PR here. Let’s not forget, but this kind of plan can be implemented as such, as long as the bones are all in place! It should include: Details of your product or service and its Unique Selling Point Pricing Target Market Analysis Sales and distribution plan Advertising and promot

Imagine you are going to a work networking do and you don’t know a soul. If people already know who you are, then its not so bad and just being there will get you noticed by some. If you are ‘a nobody’ be ready with a plan before you start a conversation. You can see where I am headed here. We talked about blogging all last week. It’s the year of the blog people, recognize. AND content is KING! Both social media and blogging are critical ways for a company to be active o

In my opinion there are a few things to pull your attention to: Making sure that people notice you Being an innovative thinker And forming relationships The example I used yesterday about the Bridesmaids DVD works here to. Also take a look at McDonalds Facebook Page. I mean, would you think that people would go on this page, let alone have a ‘relationship’ with it!? The answer is Yes! Take a look ! What they do best is relate to their employees and their employees friends.

We’ve put together a small list of respectable blogs suggested by our readers (and one or two from OPT!) http://purple.us/blog . Suggested by @purplecomm. An informative blog from the US with a mix of ASL and English content. http://digitalbrandmarketing.com/ Suggested by @basilpuglisi. They write about anything from social media to branding to mobile technology. Jonathan Payne @socialgameplan gives a shout out to @lewishowes. Claiming that after watching 2 of his videos, hi

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

There are many pros and cons to choosing your own name for your business. I have struggled with this question for years but stuck with my own personal name for many reasons. The most important being, that I had a ready-made audience. Obviously your name gives a certain personality to a company, product or service and many clients prefer that personal touch. Therefore it can work in your favour in many industries. If you remember my blog ‘The Art of Self Promotion (1 of 5) ’

If you are using the wrong domain name for your business, product or service, you should seriously think about changing it now! You could be missing out on quite a hefty amount of free marketing. Ask yourself these questions: Is it easy to spell and remember? Is it your own personal name that is hard to spell and remember? Does it contain a dot or slash in it anywhere? Does your domain name contain word repetition? And are the words spelled differently? Is it similar to anoth

We have discovered that your name is really important for online marketing but how does it actually affect your strategy? Simple. A good name will allow you to be flexible and creative in your marketing plans. This is not about design, although if you are a business that is lead by good design, this will also need to be reflected in your name. We loved this article” Pandecta Magazine http://www.pandecta.com , although written in 2009 – many of the issues remain the same. Bu

As mentioned yesterday, your business name/domain name could be the only thing that is holding you back from getting the traffic you need to succeed online. I have spoken with brand experts who believe that names should be almost a blank canvas, in which to build the image of your business upon. Some swear by a coined name that are made up of ‘halves of words joined together. I believe that any name can be fabulous, as long as it is justified with an appropriate marketing s

As we hit the silly season, over the next 5 days I will be discussing the importance of your domain name and will be answering the following questions: How important is the name in business? How does the name of your business affect Online Marketing Campaign? Should you change your domain name? Should you use your OWN name for your domain? The name of your business could make or break your success. It should speak of the expertise, value and uniqueness of your product, servic

“An all in one social media dashboard packed with amazing features” After a week’s worth of OPTs Twitter Tricks – we believe we have saved the best until last! We have mentioned social oomph a blog or two ago – well this takes that to the next level but is totally free. Each one slightly differs in navigation so it really is down to taste, which you prefer. We also haven’t covered the use of location with twitter and other social media sites. If you are business that works

“We Follow, offers a clean, well executed design and easily navigable pages that are clearly refreshed often” ReadWriteWeb.com Kevin Rose , the founder of Digg , launched ‘We Follow’ in 2009 and it continues to be a staple twitter aide it was created to help new users find people to follow. It’s basically a design friendly list and more importantly, wouldn’t scare off the lesser experienced! On the front page, it displays lists of the most popular twitter users under specifi

It’s a creative market out there. Now more than ever and business is not just for the academic, techno minded geeks. Anyone can start their own business (as long as you have a great idea, with legs of course!) Technology has allowed people like me, (academically challenged, ahem) to flourish and enhance their natural skills – the ones they were born with and make a go of their own business. I personally thank Steve Jobs for making my life so easy behind a screen. I am a tru

It goes without saying that we all would like the option to try before we buy, not only would it earn immediate trust and loyalty from our customers, but it gives them a CHOICE. We live in a world nowadays where (and some may argue) that there are too many choices. Pfff. I disagree and I love that there are numerous amounts of choices in our everyday lives. I love that you can change your career at the drop of a hat, or fly off to distant lands in a day or bag a much sort aft