Twitter launched a new service yesterday called Promoted Tweets.

The promoted tweets are being trialled using a number of partners to begin with such as Starbucks. Promoted tweets will appear at the top of the real-time search results page eg search for coffee and you will see the Starbucks promoted tweet.

Promoted tweets will look like a normal tweet but display "Promoted by [company name]" at the bottom of it. It will still have all the functionality of a regular tweet eg retweeting.

More information is due to be announced today and tomorrow at the Twitter Developer Conference. Follow @chirp on Twitter for news from the conference.

How many groups are there on LinkedIn?

When I checked last week, there were 542,340 groups, comprised as follows:

• Networking - 167,368
• Professional - 159,708
• Alumni - 97,044
• Corporate - 58,270
• Non profit - 47,467
• Conference - 12,483

The largest area is networking which constantly evolves as new themes emerge.

Groups such as 'conference' do come and go depending on the timing of their events.

Don't forget, if you can't find a group you want to join - you can always start your own!
 

Do you ever get distracted by reading articles on the internet during the day? If so, Read it later is the answer!

It is a quick and easy way of saving articles as favourites and reserving some time during the week to read through them all. This may be for writing blog articles, tweeting news or sending useful articles to your clients or just keeping up to date with the latest industry news.

Go to http://readitlaterlist.com/ and click on the Add to Firefox or other internet browsers listed below this.

For example, choose Internet Explorer, click on Read It Later's web version.

Select Read It later under the Available Bookmarklets and then follow the instructions to add the Bookmarklets - you need to hover over the icons, right click and add to your Favourites.

After setting this up you can then view your saved pages and click on Reading List to read through them.

It is also possible to view your Reading List online by creating an account.

There is also a Readitlater iPhone app.
 

Social media often restricts the number of characters that can be added to a post, update or profile.

If you’re a company using these digital tools, you need to be able to create biographies, profiles and more in very sort sentences.

Facebook Ads
Title - 25 characters
Body text - 135 characters

LinkedIn
Professional Headline - 120 characters
Your Profile - 1895 characters
Status updates - 141 characters

Twitter
Bio - 160 characters
Name - 15 characters

QUICK WINS

Set up a digital tools doc with all the messages you want to communicate
Edit down to the relevant character / word counts
Spell check and count the number of words
Use the same bio in all your profiles
 

Do you need a company's annual report. Here's how to get it:

First of all, visit the company's website and you can usually download their annual report or annual review in PDF.

If you want a hard copy you could contact the company to ask for one or the Annual Report Service may be able to send these to you by post (you can order up to 25 reports and they will be delivered to you free.)

Some of the companies listed only offer their report by email.

LinkedIn now allows users to move around sections of their LinkedIn profile.

So, if you want your recommendations to be the first thing people see when they view your profile you can now move this section to the top.

Sign in to your LinkedIn account and go to your Profile.

If you hover over each section eg Recommendations, a cross will appear and you can drag the sections around.
 

Adding your business to the Google Local Business Directory

Visit http://www.google.com/local/add/

Click on Add new business.

Select your Country, complete your business details and click next.

The next stage allows you to add more detailed information about your business such as opening hours.

The benefit of adding your business to the Google Local Business Directory is that when someone performs a search for eg "restaurant in lichfield" your details will show in the results page along with a map and further information.

Recommendations on Google Local Business Directory

People can recommend businesses listed in the directory which adds credibility to your business.

Guidelines for listings

See business listing guidelines at http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=107528
 

Facebook has added greater functionality to its advertising programme. This includes:

Monitor and measure

You can now track the activity that happens on your website or other URL as a result of someone seeing or clicking on your Facebook Ad via Conversion tracking.

Targeting

Last year there was an uproar about this and it will be interesting to see how many people have purposefully altered their status - as happened in 2001 where 390,127 UK residents changed their religion to ‘Jedi’ in the census. The new Facebook targeting function allows ads to be refined towards the target audience to consider:

• Location
• Demographics
• Likes & Interests
• Education & Work
• Connections on Facebook

Here are the details:

Location

Facebook Ads uses IP address and a user's profile information to determine location. Use the country field to target up to 25 countries or utilize state/province or city targeting (if applicable) to target a more precise location.

Demographics

Target by Age / gender / sexual orientation / relationship status - based on what the person has declared in their profile.

Likes & Interests

This is based on information users list in their Facebook profiles like favorite movies and music, groups and Pages they have connected to and other information they have shared on the site. It also includes religion, political views and occupation/job title.

Education & Work

You can choose to target people at various education levels and/or specific companies where they have worked

Connections on Facebook

Connections are people who have become a fan of a Page you admin, joined a group you admin, RSVP'd to an event you admin, or authorized an application you own.Friends of connections targeting delivers ads to the friends of people already connected with your Page, Application, Group or Event.

What’s next?

Facebook say they will be adding PayPal as another form of payment for your Facebook advertising account.
 

Blogger has added 15 new templates to its collection. You can now organise the columns in your template and the size of them.

You can test it out by going to http://draft.blogger.com. Backup your current template first by clicking on Layout, Edit HTML, Download full template.

The new templates will only work with newer versions of Internet Explorer versions (IE7 and above).

Find out more information at http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/
 

Twitter has added a new feature to allow posting tweets with your location added.

Retailers could use it to tweet offers.

Users could meet up with friends near by.

This feature is only available when a Twitter user activates it in their account.

You will find this in your Account Settings under Tweet Location. You can turn it on or off whenever you like. You can also delete all location information from previous tweets.
 

Before you begin searching for a job using LinkedIn it is important to ensure that the information displayed on your LinkedIn profile is up to date, accurate and is written for potential employers to see.

Preparation

• Make sure your profile is 100% complete. This includes using a professional photo!
• Ask colleagues, clients, employers for recommendations.
• Build your network of connections.

Job search

• Post status updates letting those in your network / your connections know you are looking for a job or ask if anyone knows of job vacancies in the profession you are interested in. If you are currently in a job and connected to colleagues you may need to be discreet depending on your circumstances.
• Join industry related groups and ask questions, join in a conversation. This will extend your search areas and show you are engaged with other professionals in the same field you are looking for a job in.
• Recruitment companies use LinkedIn to search for suitable candidates. Make sure you tick the boxes for "Career Opportunities" and "Job Enquiries" under Contact Settings in your profile. Note: your connections will see that you have amended your profile to show you are looking for "Career Opportunities".
• If you want to work for a specific company, search for it under Companies eg Microsoft. It has a tab for Careers within its company profile and adds jobs. It also has a short video advertising careers at Microsoft and details about preparing for a Microsoft interview with a link to its JobsBlog http://jobsblog.com.
• Do a search on LinkedIn. Click Jobs on the menu bar at the top or use the drop down menu to select Jobs and enter in the keywords for your job title. Using the Advanced Job Search can provide better matches eg location, recent job postings, company or within 25 miles of your location. For example, if you did a search in the job title for "Marketing" within a 50 mile radius, we got results for a Marketing Communications Manager at Experian. The full job description was detailed along with responsibilities and salary. A button appears to 'Apply Now' or you can Send an InMail direct to the person who posted the job. You can also forward the job 'to a friend'.
• Upgrade to premium LinkedIn and you can contact people on LinkedIn using InMail.
• Watch this video for a way to contact your 2nd degree connections http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eTDnSnDMgE

Remember - if you have any other social networking profiles, eg Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc that are publicly available for anyone to see, you might want to make them only available for friends to view. Employers often check job candidates out on these sites first.
 

Google today has extended its Street View on Google Maps.

Did you know?

You can ask Google to remove content from Street View including your house, car.

• Go to Google Maps, find your house and click on Report a Problem at the bottom of the screen.
• Select the reason "why you are reporting this street view?" - this includes privacy concerns (a face, my house, my car / a licence plate), inappropriate content (offensive content, this image presents privacy conerns to me, other).
• Describe the problem.
• Add an email address.
• An image will appear showing your property. Move the box to show the area you want removing.
• Submit.

It then comes up with "thank you for bringing this to our attention. We wil review your submission and follow up with you if we require more info or we have additional info to share."
 

I was recently comparing car insurance products and used an online comparison site (confused.com) one policy (from the AA) looked ok, but before I clicked through to more information I called my existing provider (Aviva) to see if they could match / better the price.

Whilst on the telephone to Aviva, the AA called and said ‘we know you’re looking at our quote online and wonder if you want to go ahead?’

Wow! This really spooked me – I’m being contacted before I’ve even finished looking. What’s really worrying is that someone far away has all my details and even through I’m not yet a customer, they have tracked me down! Very, very scary. Like the shop assistant that pounces on you as you enter the doorway – we run away. Not a great marketing model.

Interesting privacy policy on Confused.com’s website:

Disclosure of information
In order to provide our services we need to disclose the information you entered into Confused.com to our panel of service partners, and also to their appointed representatives and to intermediaries. This information is necessary to provide you with the quotations you have requested. All personal information will be held in strictest confidence and used only for the purposes of retrieving quotes, with certain caveats as described below.

We may also use your data to review and analyse market trends and to track sales data. Where you have come to our website by clicking on a price comparison service button on another site, we will supply information about the quotations you have obtained and any policies you obtain to that site. Unless you tell them otherwise, they may contact you by post, telephone, email or SMS to promote their products and services. If you do not wish to be contacted in this way, you need to let them know by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ button on their website.

1. It does not say that I will receive a chasing phone call from your panel of service partners whilst I am in the process of considering. At this stage I am NOT a customer.
2. AA now have my details (as may others) and I have NOT given my permission for them to call me.
3. There was no opportunity to unsubscribe or ‘tell them otherwise’ as I did not check through to a partners’ website. So how do I do this?

Have you been spooked or stalked whilst shopping or comparing the market online? Do let us know!

Perhaps I should have tried the meerkats ;)

Twitter is launching an adverts service according to a posting on the All Things Digital Blog

The adverts services will launch in the second half of 2010. The ads will be 140 characters or less, the same maximum length of a tweet and will appear when users search for keywords eg iPhone.

Still lots of details have not been disclosed but we will keep you posted.
 

Sometimes you might need to find someone on LinkedIn but you can't remember their name or the company name but you remember what they do.

You can organise your connections using keyword tags. To do this:

1. Sign in to your LinkedIn account
2. Go to "My Connections"
3. Down the left hand side is a menu item called Tags. You can create your own tags to help you identify / filter your connections quickly. For example, perhaps you want to add a tag for 'Prospect' or 'Great designer' or something else. You can do this by selecting 'Manage' next to the Tags menu item.

So, next time you want to find someone, you can do it by using customised tags or you can search by keyword in the search box.
 

Twitter is a fast growing social networking site. It limits your sentences or comments to 140 characters. Top tips for using Twitter:

1. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the days when tweets are most likely to be re-tweeted.

2. Decide what you want to tweet about! a. Hard sell approach does not work b. Tips, facts and figures do c. Repeat other interesting tweets (retweet) d. Focus on your local area, or sector

3. Decide which identity to use – personal, corporate or both.

4. Make an effort to get over 1,000 tweets, then you get taken more seriously.

5. Use autofollow settings after you have got a few followers, see http://www.socialoomph.com/ which is free or http://socialtoo.com/ which is a paid for service.

6. Create a Twitter landing page in your website, so you can see how effective it is for your business.

7. If you want to be re-tweeted make sure your tweets are shorter than average – especially if you have a long Twitter name… If you have Twitter hints to share, do let us know!

Do follow us http://twitter.com/annmariehanlon http://twitter.com/joannaakins

PostEgram, based in Detroit (originally called News From Yous) is a way for people (not on Facebook) to stay up to date with news from friends and family. It is a Facebook application which will create a newsletter sent out to your chosen recipients by post. PostEgram describes itself as "it's YOUR Facebook on THEIR doorstep". According to the demo video you will need to:

• Log on to Facebook
• Go to the PostEgram newsletter application
• Choose the family members whose news and photos you want to include in the newsletter.

PostEgram will print this information into a personalised newsletter and send it to the intended recipient. The latest status updates and photos of your selected friends and family are included, however, some status updates aren't newsworthy so you can remove any that you don't want to be included in the newsletter. See a sample newsletter here http://www.postegram.com/sample.htm. The Facebook application is currently in development.

Compare the marketing meerkat is a great marketing case study for all marketing students. When faced with a plethora of identical and not exciting offers, the agency VCCP created a distinct personality with the meerkat, Aleksandr Orlov. This imaginary character has 35,146 Followers on Twitter, has been added to 1,128 Twitter lists and 672,192  Facebook fans. As an advertising vehicle, the ad works.

• It’s memorable
• Traffic to the website is said to have increased by over 80%
• Market share has increased
• And can you remember the competitors’ names?

We feel a key ingredient in this advertising is due to the use of social media like Twitter and Facebook. It has all the right viral qualities:

• It’s fun
• Sites are fairly regularly updated – therefore engaging
• Easy to share via Twitter by retweeting or suggesting to friends that they become a fan on Facebook
• It’s responsive! Aleksandr will respond to Twitter and Facebook comments / posts
• Better still the agency / clients can measure the responses to the campaign directly

Quick Win Digital Marketing, our next app is now available from iTunes.

It contains 100 questions and answers about digital marketing, such as:

• How can we use LinkedIn to market our business, products, services?
• How do we find and get more followers on Twitter?
• How do we brief a web designer?
• How often should we make contact with our customers online?

It’s also available as a book from the publishers, Oak Tree Press.

Do you know of any restrictions on using the "LinkedIn" logo as part of the "contact references" you can give to clients?

LinkedIn permits its members, third party developers, partners and the media ("you") to use its name, trademarks, logos, web pages, screenshots and other brand features (the LinkedIn "Brand Features", "Marks" or "logos") only in limited circumstances and as specified in these Guidelines.

We’ve heard that Facebook owns any material added to its website. Is this true?

Facebook did technically own the content that you added to its website. However it has changed some of its terms and conditions (do you ever read them?) When you join Facebook you enter information about yourself. This is called “Publicly available information” and includes your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, friend list, and Pages. The theory is that this information makes it easier for friends and family to connect with you. The publicly available information is visible to people visiting your profile page, and Facebook-enhanced applications (like applications you use or websites you connect to using Facebook) may access this information. It does not allow people without Facebook accounts to contact you. You can change your settings to restrict how much information can be seen by other people. Go to settings / privacy settings to make any changes. Facebook does state that “You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.” However “For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it. “ Beware “When you publish content or information using the "everyone" setting, it means that everyone, including people off of Facebook, will have access to that information and we may not have control over what they do with it." When you signed up for your Facebook account you agreed to these t&c: “You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.” See also.

We keep hearing about Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and social networking for business. How do we get it right first time?

1. Agree your objectives What do you want out of social media? Decide what you want to achieve and your tone of voice (professional, funny, personal?)

2. Agree your identity! Personal, corporate or both?

3. Organise landing pages Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Slideshare all want your URL. To measure the traffic from these sources set up dedicated ‘arrival pages’ so you can welcome visitors from these different sites and give them the info they need. Click here for an example.

4. Use 1 photo for all your profiles Build up personal brand identity – you would not change your company logo every 5 minutes, so do not change your photo.

5. Claim your brand Even if you are not going to be a regular user of some social media, it is worth claiming your brand or company name and posting / tweeting occasionally.

6. Don’t change your Twitter user name Someone else may take it! Decide what your identity at the start.

7. Repurpose your content Whenever you create a press release, write an article, say something, make sure it is on LinkedIn (share with Twitter), on your blog, website news area and Facebook.

8. Don’t use auto responders People hate them and they are not that useful unless you are offering something of value, free!

9. Manage your communications Pick a tool that suits your business. Lots of options; Tweetdeck, Ping

10.Measure and monitor Use analytics to see traffic to your website, blog from social media. Make sure staff are aware and always ask ‘how did you hear about us?’ To stay up to date why not link to us? Become a fan on Facebook or Twitter?

SlideShare has added Channels which are branded spaces on SlideShare for companies and brands. Some of the early channels are:

• Microsoft Office has setup a channel focused on parenting topic (project done in collaboration with our partners, Federated Media)
• Ogilvy has setup a concept channel for Pharma
Razorfish Marketing uploads about interactive marketing & technology
• Pew Internet has shared a lot of their research reports about the internet & internet usage
• Whitehouse is sharing almost 1000 presentations and documents

Many thanks to all the IoD members who attended the Quick Win Digital Marketing event last night. Here are some resources you may find useful on our blog.

Please feel free to invite me and my colleague Joanna Akins to connect with you on LinkedIn

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/annmariehanlon http://twitter.com/joannaakins

LINKEDIN LinkedIn tips LinkedIn profile in another language

TWITTER The Twitter Handbook Top tips for using Twitter Followers on Twitter Twitter aims at businesses Twitter Lists Measuring Twitter effectiveness and gaining your Twitter Statistics Twitters 12 Golden Rules Twitter, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Facebook logos FACEBOOK Facebook profile, pages or groups? Facebook Usernames Update Facebook tips for businesses

SLIDESHARE Benefits of SlideShare New Account Types on SlideShare

If you need more on social media, why not buy the book “Quick Win Digital Marketing, Answers to your 100 top digital marketing questions” direct from the publisher Oak Tree Press or from Amazon - who take longer to deliver!

We're thinking of using Facebook in our business, any hints or guidelines?

1. Secure your company name e.g. www.facebook.com/Evonomie rather than www.facebook.com/pages/Evonomie/35487704369 by getting 25 fans or more, see http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php to create company name.

2. Decide if Facebook is right for your business or not – it is not right for everyone.

3. Allocate someone to manage Facebook, it takes time to actively engage your audience and encourage interaction.

4. Do add items to the wall etc on a regular basis.

5. Provide special offers just for Facebook fans.

6. Add events and ask fans to spread the word.

7. Competitions work well on Facebook where you can encourage viral marketing to take place. What's your favourite Facebook page? Do let us know. Why not become a fan of Evonomie too?

Many thanks to all the WiBA members who attended the Social Networking for Business event last night. Here are some resources you may find useful on our blog. Please do invite me and my colleague Joanna Akins

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/joannaakins to connect with you on LinkedIn

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/annmariehanlon

LinkedIn tips

LinkedIn profile in another language

The Twitter Handbook

Top tips for using Twitter

Followers on Twitter

Twitter aims at businesses

Twitter Lists

Measuring Twitter effectiveness and gaining your Twitter Statistics

Twitters 12 Golden Rules

Twitter, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Facebook logos Facebook profile, pages or groups?

Facebook Usernames Update In case you spotted the branded chocolates I gave away with the books, here are details of where you can obtain these – great service, very delicious and order quantities can start as low as 10 bars of chocolate!

http://business2businessmarketing.blogspot.com/2010/01/chocolate-for-business.html

Benefits of SlideShare

New Account Types on SlideShare If you need more on social media, why not buy the book “Quick Win Digital Marketing, Answers to your 100 top digital marketing questions” direct from the publisher http://www.oaktreepress.com/ or from Amazon- who take longer to deliver!

Twitter is a fast growing social networking site. It limits your sentences or comments to 140 characters. Top tips for using Twitter:

1. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the days when tweets are most likely to be re-tweeted.

2. Decide what you want to tweet about! a. Hard sell approach does not work b. Tips, facts and figures do c. Repeat other interesting tweets (retweet) d. Focus on your local area, or sector

3. Decide which identity to use – personal, corporate or both.

4. Make an effort to get over 1,000 tweets, then you get taken more seriously.

5. Use autofollow settings after you have got a few followers, see SocialOomph which is free or SocialToo which is a paid for service.

6. Create a Twitter landing page in your website, so you can see how effective it is for your business.

7. If you want to be re-tweeted make sure your tweets are shorter than average – especially if you have a long Twitter name… If you have Twitter hints to share, do let us know!

Do follow us http://twitter.com/annmariehanlon http://twitter.com/joannaakins

If you're using LinkedIn these tips will help to improve your profile which means you'll appear in searches more often (opportunities for enquiries)

1. Complete your profile (you can restrict your Public Profile content to people you know).

2. Add a photo. Surprisingly, many people don't!

3. Get recommended - these are mini case studies that will get reviewed.

4. Make recommendations where you are happy with a service or product.

5. Join groups (up to 50).

6. Ask and / or answer questions.

7. Update your status.

8. Build connections, say when you are at an event, ask people if they are on LinkedIn and connect to them after the event.

9. Personalise emails and connection requests in LinkedIn, do not use the standard templates.

10. Treat LinkedIn the same way as you would face to face networking. You need to work at it to get results.

Do you have LinkedIn tips to share? Let us know (remove the spaces from this email address!) evolve @ evonomie. net

Do connect to us on LinkedIn too http://uk.linkedin.com/in/annmariehanlon

We've heard about Slideshare, what is it and what are the benefits? SlideShare is a business media site for sharing presentations, documents and pdfs. Benefits include:

• Opportunity to upload slideshow tutorials of common processes - saves you explaining how to do something over and over!
• If a customer needs to be walked through one of those processes your support team can then direct them to the correct tutorial on SlideShare
• Search engines love SlideShare and it has a great ranking
• Opportunity to demonstrate your skills and knowledge practically by uploading presentations and even videos
• Something else to tweet about or link to on Facebook
• It is a friendly application that can be used in most social media networks
• See presentations that you would not normally get access to!
• Check out speakers’ presentations before you engage them
• See what your competitors are up to!
• Add in to your LinkedIn profile

Can we use Twitter, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Facebook logos?

Slideshare –they have guidelines and ready to use logos.

Twitter – they have produced guidelines for Use of the Twitter Trademark. Download the logo.

Facebook – they have guidelines and 1 logo that can be used.

LinkedIn – No. We made a request online and the response was “This request has been reviewed by our legal department and at this time we are unable to consent to the use of the logo."

Someone has suggested we install an interactive whiteboard in our training room. What are the benefits?

Your business can use the whiteboard to

• Run PowerPoint presentations
• Allow a group of people to look at one document on a large screen and edit
• Brainstorm - to write things onto the notepad part of the whiteboard software
• Replace flipcharts – write notes, add pages, then print and / or email to the group
• Training using flipchart, powerpoint and internet all on the same screen

Tips

• Make sure you have a network connection so that your whiteboard can connect to a printer and the internet
• Whiteboards need to be connected to a PC or laptop
• Buy a newer model (e.g. SMART Board 600i interactive whiteboard system) as the software is better, the screens are much brighter
• Buy the speakers too - it's great seeing a presentation with sound as well as vision!

See an example

Sources Penketh's Limited Bassendale Road, Croft Business Park Bromborough, Wirral, Merseyside CH62 3QL Tel: 0151 334 4417 Fax: 0151 334 3638 martint@penkeths.co.uk Martin Taylor, A.V. Specialist Rapid Technologies

138-140 Queens Drive, Childwall Fiveways, Liverpool, L15 6XX luke.robertson@rapidtechnologies.co.uk

How do I redeem an iTunes gift certificate?

1. Open up iTunes on your computer and connect your iPhone
2. Click on the iTunes Store
3. Click Redeem (which is on the right hand side under Quick Links)
4. Scratch off the label on the back of the card to reveal a code
5. Enter this code in the box
6. Click on Redeem
7. Sign in to your account
8. It will come up with "you have successfully redeemed your iTunes card. Your account has been credited with £X.”
9. Click on Shop
10. In the Search Store box at the top search for an app eg Quick Win Marketing
11. Click on the buy button
12. This will now show in the applications area of your iTunes page
13. If the application does not automatically transfer onto your iPhone, go to your iPhone on the left hand menu eg John's iPhone
14. Click the Applications tab
15. Select the Sync Applications you want to be on your phone by ticking the boxes
16. Click on Apply and this will Sync your chosen applications
17. You will receive an invoice from iTunes – this gives you the opportunity to review the app

If you have purchased the Quick Win Marketing app, please do review it, thank you

On Friday 22nd January 2010 the first ever Good News Friday will take place. We think this is a brilliant idea - why not get involved?

For one day only Mediaexpress.ie will distribute thousands of news releases for free from Irish businesses, organisations and charities, with just one catch: all the releases must be about something positive. The sole purpose of Good News Friday is to harness the power of positive thinking to counteract the current gloom. In the midst of the recession many positive news stories are completely ignored because there is so much bad news about. On 22nd January we would like people to look at their business or organisation, identify some positive news, however small, and send out a positive message to the world about it. So have a think about something good you are working on, and send some postive news to the Irish media for free. The third week in January is statistically the most depressing of the year. Good News Friday is our way to help people fight the recession head on with some optimism. Rules 1 - You must include this phrase in your news release ‘This message is sent in the spirit of positivity and as part of Good News Friday - a whole day dedicated to good news.’ This will connect all of the releases contributing to the Good News Friday project. How to participate in Good News Friday Visit the website http://mediaexpress.ie/good-news-friday.html join and upload your press release Watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXtcmXsg4oM Contents from - http://www.mediaexpress.ie/

We have just found a new business selling chocolate bars and mini choc bars wrapped in your company’s logo.

In fact the samples were so good that we’ve bought a selection (not just for research) with the logo and the book covers. The larger bars look great as books and work well as token gifts. For details, contact Peter Manship, the Chocolate Manager at Bridge Marketing Partnership peter@bridgemarketing.co.uk

The Research 2010 annual conference is being held at Park Plaza Riverbank, London on 23rd and 24th March 2010. Highlight from speakers include: Fiona Wood - Behaviour Change Dr Nick Coates - Big Brand Co-creation Rita Clifton - The Future of Market Research Tim Phillips - The Communications Breakdown Mark Earls - What MR Can Learn From Robert Bain - New Technologies and many others. There are also some workshops including: Danny Wain - Influence and Impact Becky Seale - Empowering Young People Download the programme here http://www.research-live.com/Journals/1/Files/2009/12/10/Jan%208pp%20prog_low%20res.pdf

Happy New Year! Are you looking for a new job in marketing or research this year? Here are some tips:

1. Set up a Google Alert for the job title you are looking for eg "marketing manager" + "west midlands".

 2. Sign up for job alerts on job sites.

3. Ask around - your friends and family may know companies who have vacancies.

4. Set up a search column on Twitter, follow recruitment companies so you get to hear about it first.

5. Source credible places where companies are posting jobs. Freepint has job listings, The Marketer (official Chartered Institute of Marketing magazine for members)

6. Get up to date with marketing / digital marketing. See Quick Win Marketing and Quick Win Digital Marketing books!

7. If you are on Facebook do not have a public profile. Potential employers are looking on Facebook to find out more and they don't want to see what you get up to at the weekend!

8. If you are not already on LinkedIn, sign up and ask your connections to recommend you. Make your profile public so that potential employers will be able to see your experience and recommendations.

9. Get qualified in Marketing to develop your knowledge and add credibility. The CIM also reports that "Membership of The Chartered Institute of Marketing does add value as the survey highlights that senior and middle managers, who are members, are paid between 2% and 12% above the salary of an equivalent non-member respondent - £58,500 compared with £52,000 at senior manager level, and £33,000 compared with £32,000 at middle manager level."

10. Finally be prepared - research, research and research some more. Don't go to interviews without finding out as much about the company as possible, follow the company on Twitter, search for people who work for the company on LinkedIn to get an idea of what their job role is.

Google has launched Goo.gl URL shortener. It is not available as a stand alone service but is available to use with the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner. Fb.me has been launched by Facebook as a URL shortener for its mobile interface.

We need a telemarketing company in Ireland. Any suggestions?

Direct marketing in Ireland is interesting as there are no postcodes, this means that the larger mailing companies have not started the hefty campaigns that countries like the UK experience. Telemarketing is an art and not everyone's good at it. We have no direct experience of this company, but their marketing seems good! http://www.idsmediagroup.com/ Their website says: IDS Media Group is the UK and Ireland's premier Tele-Marketing, Direct Mailing Lists and Publishing company. If you have other recommendations, let us know!

This is a new app by Google. If you have a Google Android phone you can search using pictures instead of words. The idea is to take a photo of an object using your Google Android phone Google will tell you what you are looking at and provide search results connected to that object. www.google.com/mobile/goggles

We've heard from more companies that have been contacted regarding SEO to blind them with science. "we can get you to number 1 on Google", "we know someone at Google and can get you to number 1", "if you don't act now, your website will disappear". They make guarantees that can not be fulfilled, get clients excited with their promises.

The untruths told by these companies give genuine SEO companies a bad name. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION is optimising your website to help it achieve better listings in search engines and provide your website visitors with a better user experience. SEO companies can help to achieve this and there are many good ones around. Beware—there are also some unethical SEO companies! No one can guarantee a number 1 spot in listings and no one is given special treatment by Google! Before signing up with any SEO company, read advice on Google Webmaster Central and talk to your website designer. Remember ‐ unethical SEO companies can do more harm than good to your website ranking! Visit http://google.com/support/webmasters  (then click on Google Site Management, then SEO)

One of our directors has received a proposal from a SEO company to get our website generating leads for a variety of search engine key-phrases which are of commercial value to us. This all works via link building. They say that this is more effective & cheaper to outsource rather than try to do in house. Costs vary wildly from £100 per month to £6K for this link building and could be delivered over a 4-6 month period. Is this a good deal?

Well. The world’s largest search engine is Google. This is what Google says about link building:

Link schemes Your site's ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

• Links intended to manipulate PageRank
• Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
• Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")
• Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it. Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question: Is this going to be beneficial for my page's visitors? It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the buzzing blogger community can be an excellent place to generate interest You should never have to link to an SEO. Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive. Choose wisely. While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO.

While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful. Be sure to understand where the money goes. While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising. The best one we’ve heard is ‘I’ve got a friend that works at Google and he/she knows how to improve our ranking.’ Who is this friend? How long have they known them? Do they exist ;)

OUR ADVICE To get your website to be more popular:

1.   Add and continue to add good content

2.   Make the site interactive with space for feedback

3.   Add video or audio

4.   Use blogs where you can include links back to your site, but please make relevant comments! We get comments every day of the week such as ‘great blog, love the articles, why not visit my site… - and we reject all of these. They don’t add anything to the body of knowledge out there. If we had comments that ready what we had written and made useful additions, we always publish these, even if they don’t agree with what we’ve said!

Resources

Google webmaster tools - great place to start and this site really does explode myths!

Google's own comments on links etc

Interesting news story about a company that promised to get its customers ranked in the top 10 to 20 results on the search engines and ended up having to pay the money back

http://www.quickwinmarketing.com/ for info on how to grow your business, more generic than web focused, but guidelines (Annmarie Hanlon has written this book) on how to create objectives etc to grow, revitalise or launch a new business / product / service.

Opinion formers, opinion leaders and opinion followers are all related to communications with your target audiences. They each have their own role in communicating and adding credibility to your message.

Opinion Former - Someone knowledgeable in their field derived from job, status, qualifications or first-hand experience.

Opinion Leader - A peer who can influence messages to targets but not seen as an expert in the field, may pick up information from media and comment on a blog, however, the source may not be seen as credible if the reader does not know the writer. Credibility could be improved by linking the blog to a company or association.

Opinion Follower - Mainly associated with consumers searching for information for guidance from sources such as the media.

1. Businesses which continue marketing efforts through a downturn, come out better at the other end, so continue with all marketing plans. In fact there has never been a better time to build a brand and buy advertising space!

2. Segment those customers so you can see where any future work may come from. The loyalty ladder is a great tool to focus the mind and customer groups.

3. Talk to your customers - Telephone traffic is said to be lower than other times during the year. So get talking!

4. If you still use Christmas cards instead of New Year’s cards, send them out now if you haven't already done so!

5. Talk to your sales staff – what messages are they getting? Give them a dash of ‘positivity’ or even better, send them on a sales training course to reinforce great themes and thoughts!

6. Look at other markets – if you are UK based, are there other markets outside the UK where you could sell your services? If you are already exporting, which other markets may be suitable?

7. Identify which competitors’ business you can take – this is a time when people may be cutting staff. This means their services may be declining – great time to adopt a flank attack and focus on a competitor weakness.

8. Review that website – as more and more people are in the office rather than travelling, websites are becoming more important – just like the fax machine in the postal strikes in the 1980s. This means gaining and retaining traffic is becoming more important.

9. Review the company’s marketing plan to ensure that all variables in the marketing mix are working FOR your company.

10. Contact Evonomie to help! evolve@evonomie.net

What is a Loyalty Ladder?

A Loyalty Ladder is a customer relationship model. It is a way of segmenting your customers and then developing communications which appeal to them. It includes: Prospect on the lowest rung, developing them to become Customer, Client and then Advocate.

• A Prospect is a potential customer where they have shown an interest in your product or service, but not yet bought.
• A Customer is someone who has bought your product or service.
• A Client has purchased more than once.
• An Advocate is a 'fan' of your product, company or service. It is someone who will provide testimonials, recommend you via word of mouth or word of mouse. An Advocate needs retaining. They are important to your company and are loyal.

Marketing communications are developed to appeal to each member of the loyalty ladder to move them up and retain them. See other relationship models here.

This year's Chartered Institute of Marketing Graduation Ceremony is being held today the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. Those that have achieved the following qualifications have been invited to attend:

• Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing
• Professional Diploma in Marketing
• Diploma in Professional Sales

Joanna Akins is attending today to celebrate achieving the CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing earlier this year.

The 2009 Graduation Ceremony for the Chartered Institute of Marketing was held at 2pm on 11 November 2009 at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

The ceremony was held for those that achieved:

• CIM Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing
• CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing
• CIM Diploma in Professional Sales

There were signs and stewards everywhere to help point you in the right direction.

Registration I arrived at the Symphony Hall at around 10.15am. Not many people around at this time. I was handed my tickets and a Graduation brochure. I went to put on my robe etc – again no queue as I was early. Ede and Ravenscroft people helped everyone to dress – they even changed my mortarboard for a different size as when I moved my head, it kept on falling off. They give you some hair clips too if you’re still not comfortable with how it feels.

Top Tip: Take a bag with you so that will hold the Graduation brochure, the tickets, the promotional literature, forms, instructions, etc.

What to wear

I would recommend wearing something really smart to the graduation such as a suit.

Top Tip: The robe attaches to a button on your suit jacket. The higher up the button on your jacket (or shirt), the more likely the sash is to actually stay on your shoulders. Incredibly irritating when it keeps on falling off. Alternatively, take some pins with you to actually pin it in place and keep it on.

The Photograph

I arrived to have my photo taken at around 10.45am and there were only about 8 people waiting in the queue. There were around 3 or 4 photographers. After the photographs have been taken, the photographer gives you a small print out of your photo and details of where to order them online (you don’t have to decide to buy them while you are there).

Top tip: Take a plain piece of paper, and a red ribbon with you and your parents/guests can take photos of you “holding your diploma”.

The Ceremony

There were approximately 1,200 delegates at the ceremony. If you are the person who will be called out first, a steward will tell you and walk you through what will happen. When it was time, a steward came and told our row to go. You walk towards the back of the Symphony Hall, go out of the doors and head towards the back stage area. There are some doors to the right of the stage where you line up. When your name is called you walk across the stage and shake hands with two people from the CIM. You carry on walking across the stage, through the doors on the other side, up the hall way out some more doors, down some steps back into the hall and find your seat.

Top Tip: Tell your guests to turn on their digital cameras as soon as the ceremony ends. This is because the graduates may have the opportunity to throw their mortarboards in the air. The guests at November’s ceremony were given just a few seconds to get their cameras ready so many didn’t get a photo!

Overall, a good day out. I would definitely recommend getting there early so you're not queuing for everything.

Will Twitter ever create accounts for businesses?

Yes, we've just heard that Biz Stone, co founder of Twitter says that Twitter will soon launch business accounts that will help the site generate revenues. We think a Twitter business account should · Include more space for corporate logos – they’re not all square · Provide a customisable and larger background to incorporate click throughs · Group or connect all company accounts whether they’re for different departments or different people · Provide a proper directory for followers to find them easily · Have a facility to update Facebook company pages (not personal profiles) · Verify business names so squatting can’t take place

Twitter has created a list function to help you organise those people you are following and followers into groups. To create a Twitter list log into your Twitter account via twitter.com. Choose Create a List or if you view your list of those people you are following on Twitter, you can choose to add them to a list from a drop down menu. You can do the same for followers. Here is a few examples of lists you might create but you can create anything - choose to make them publicly available or keep them private:

1. Friends

2. Colleagues

3. Clients

4. Teams of people at companies eg http://twitter.com/TweetDeck/team

5. Customer services on Twitter

6. Associations

7. News You can view your lists once you have set them in the right hand column of Twitter. You can follow an entire list, however each person within that list will not appear in your Twitter feed, only in your Lists. Listorious.com provides a list of Twitter lists created. Creating lists in Tweetdeck isn't currently available but they are working on it.

Slideshare has come up with 7 new account types that should cover most users.

1.   Company

2.   Non Profit / Gov

3.   Ad / PR / Marketing Agency

4.   University / School

5.   Professional Speaker

6.   Presentation Design Firm

7.   Event Organizer

See the SlideShare blog.

Royal Mail is providing businesses with their own tailored Growth Pack. Visit  for: There are 14 questions to answer - these are mostly check boxes.

• Select number of people in the business.
• Industry sector.
• Years company has been established.
• Turnover.
• Amount of correspondence you send by mail each month.
• Amount of promotional mail you send out each month.
• Number of packages you send out each month.
• Details of any overseas mail you send.
• How you normally pay for mail eg stamps.
• Media used to promote your company.
• How your customers buy your products or services.
• Where you use a database to keep customer details in.
• Number of customer records you have.
• How often you check the records are correct.

Complete your details and you will be sent a growth pack.