What is HooSaid? “HooSaid is a social search engine that returns people instead of pages. Just type in a word, such as “food” to find real people related to that topic. Our algorithm examines people on social networks and objectively decides what it is they really talk about, not just something they said in the last 10 minutes. We like to call it Pagerank for People” Now the guys at Hoosaid say that not utilising the ‘real time’ template isn’t useful and I agree. There is no

Successful Viral Content is Easy! OPT gives you 10 reasons why viral marketing will work for your business, career or brand: If you write a passionate, eloquent, or well-researched argument that your niche will agree with, you will gain followers. Fact. There is already an army of people who agree with you so they are ready and waiting to jump in a say ‘AYE’! You could take the ‘stirring up’ angle and write a well-written piece in answer to another argument or challenge a po

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

What marketing is your fellow industry colleagues using? Can you suggest tips for those behind you? Work out who your power players are. The big boys. The ones that you look up to, the next level. Follow them closely, observe what tricks they use in their marketing, use google alerts to track their progress over a period of time. Get involved with them, and support their goals and achievements. Become a giver and watch the kind of responses you get in return. Follow Online ma

Collaboration is they key. As a musician I spent slot of my time alone writing music, through school and my 20s. It seemed an isolated career until I started to collaborate with other writers. I learnt from them, they (hopefully) learnt from me and an altogether fun and beneficial time was had by all! The same goes for business. Until the turn of the century, collaboration was an unknown entity and I still believe that businesses could benefit from working with others. Soci

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

I hate the word competitor. Although technically correct, I prefer using the term fellow industry worker or the like, much less abrasive and again endorses the overall philosophy of sharing and becoming better, together. Take our peers for example, the business’s that are on the next level and above to you. And the ones that aren’t as good as you, that are striving to be where you are. This is where the business karma will have a resounding effect. What you can do for those

At last! An app that allows you to manage your Facebook pages from your iphone. (Requiring iOS 4.2 or later and no Android yet) We’ve been waiting for this for ages and although in its infancy – I’m sure that when developed a little more, it shall make life a lot easier for us marketers! Now, I am not saying that it is as good as sitting at your lappy and sorting your pages out, don’t expect and all singing all dancing app, as you will be extremely disappointed – BUT at least

It will go a long way to boost awareness and create your reputation that eventually clients will trust. So here are OPT’s last minute tips on building an online presence and brand. Take note! 1. Research your audience and know whom you are selling to. Utilize Google’s many tools and resources to get facts and figures. 2. Based on your research, give you brand a voice. Whether it is someone in the company of note, or yourself, this will become the foundation and ‘human touch’

What does the future hold for branding online? We are in the cardinal age of utilising the digital branding concept. Ok, the big boys have been doing it far longer, but it has now reached ‘the streets’ and anyone can play. As it continues to evolve, it will be made easier with the tools available online to assess and develop a more sophisticated process. What we think will stay the same is the humane aspect of your brand. The listening, interacting and the ‘relationship’ wi

One Giant Leap into Social Media Marketing is the debut offering from Andrea Britton. Author of Online Pr Tips ( @onlineprtips ). A Book filled with up-to-the-minute content ideas and tips on how to best use social media platforms in 2012. “From tweets to writing content to filming content to posting on your Facebook wall there is always something to push out to the rest of the world and the more creative you are, the better. You need to think about timing, relevance and acc