As a digital marketing agency – we are constantly getting asked about social media and how organisations can utilise it to promote their business. Is it a fad? Is it something we should get involved in? Exactly how do I use it?

As always, the evolution of technology transforms the way we live our lives and in turn it has had an impact on how we communicate. In fact, 66% of online Americans are members of social networks.

- LinkedIn – increasing by 1 million new users every 10-12 days, at a rate of one profile per second

- Twitter – it’s estimated that 55m tweets are published daily or 640 per second

- Facebook – while online, the typical Facebook user spends nearly 1 out of every 3 minutes on Facebook

- Did you know that 1 in 8 couples who married in the US last year met through social media?

Here are our top tips for building an effective online presence through social media:

1. Define your strategy and objectives: what are you hoping to achieve by using social media? How are these best achieved?
2. Nominate a social media champion: this is the person who will be looking after running your social media platforms. They need to be dedicated and sociable to be interacting across all accounts.
3. Set up your accounts: there are a whole host of platforms to choose from but to get a good grounding, we’d recommend setting up a Twitter profile, Facebook account (or page for your business) and a personal LinkedIn profile. These are the three social media giants and the best way to get your messaging across in various forms.
4. Build your network: follow people and companies of interest on Twitter, connect to old and current contacts on LinkedIn and add friends on Facebook.
5. Start socialising: what to talk about? What’s happening in your world or to your business? Do you need advice or need to get a message out to lots of people quickly? Check out what other people are saying – can you join the conversation?
6. Start experimenting: once you’ve established your presence, see what else these platforms have to offer you. Do you have an event to organise? Use Facebook. Do you need to do an opinion poll? Use Linked In. Want to do a 24 hr promotion of your site? Use Twitter.
7. Streamlining: look into the different time saving desktop platforms you can install to manage your accounts from one place.
8. Track your success and activity: keep an eye on how your accounts are developing and growing. When are your peaks of activity? When do you tend to use the platforms most? How many followers or friends have you gained?
9. Evaluate and improve: Set yourself a target and measure your achievements against your initial objectives. What could be done better? What has been most successful in terms of audience engagement? Are there any other forms of social media you can adopt?

Got a social media question, query or want to share a success with us? We’re running a twitclinic on Thursday 29th July from 10-12 noon so drop your 140 character tweet to @eightandfour and we’ll get straight back to you. If you are not going to be in the tweetsphere on Thursday then post your question to welovesocial@eightandfour.com

In the news last week it was announced that Facebook has overtaken Google to become the most visited website in the US for the first time. Wowzers, I thought (In a geek chic kinda way).

A new study also revealed that the average Facebook member has 112 ‘friends’, and that 56% of Facebook users visit the site on a daily basis!

Anyway you look at it, ‘The-Book-of-Faces’ is firmly reigning in the Land of Web, and is at the forefront of the social media phenomenon that is transforming how we communicate with each other. Whilst change of this pace can be daunting, to quote Dallas Lawrence (the social media guru):

‘Change happens, to survive it you must anticipate it, to be successful you must embrace it’

Hear hear.

And so without further ado – we are very excited to launch eight&four social media workshops!

eight&four Social Media Workshops

Date: June (Exact date TBC!)

Location: South West London

What we will be covering:

- A rundown of all the social networks you need to be aware of – and which ones are best suited to your business

- Practical, step-by-step guides on how to create a successful presence on these networks

- Clear guidance on how best to monetise your presence, and track your ROI

- Question & Answer session with our team

- Takeaway guide for you to use back in the office!

And it goes without saying that there will be tea & biscuits and time to network with all our business contacts!

We will be confirming the exact location and date of this seminal Workshop next month – however if you’d like to get first dibs on the tickets – then register your interest now!

‘Geek chic’? If you’d asked anyone in the 1980’s what that was, they’d have said ‘an oxymoron’. But the creation of this term in the 1990’s and subsequent rise in popularity belies something no 80’s jock could now deny – geeks are a lot cooler than they used to be.

Since the breakout of the commercial internet in the 90’s, through to the explosion of its consumption in the naughties – a whole generation of geeks has been bred – and released unto the world. Where the geek domain used to focus squarely on dull science experiments and an unhealthy enthusiasm for the periodic table, geeky stuff today is COOL.

Geeks built Facebook, eBay and the iPhone (Steve Jobs = Geek God). Who doesn’t want a piece of that?

Not only do Geeks underpin the communication revolution we find ourselves flying through, they’ve become extremely rich from it too. Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of Google) – huge geeks! Also hugely rich – worth a combined value of $26 billion! For a search engine idea…

So like it or not – the geek is here to stay. And with the unprecedented technological revolution we are experiencing, the geek touch is to be felt just about everywhere these days. So how can you get involved, rather than feeling left behind? A good place to start (naturally) – is the internet itself! Here are a few geeky links to get your started (and excited!):

http://googleblog.blogspot.com (Hear from the Gods themselves… and whilst you’re at it, ask them if they’ll lend you a tenner…)

http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/ (Featuring the latest digital ad campaigns, hot new websites, interactive marketing ideas, virals, industry news, social media, insights, and other great digital trends from all over the world… phew)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda (For the socialist inclined geek… nice and accessible too)

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/ (Keep up to date with all things Apple – arguably the most powerful technology brand around right now)

And if you don’t have time? Or just not a huge fan of doing things for yourself? Then give us a call instead

DISCLAIMER

As devout geek-chicks, we would like to make clear we do not defend any of the following:

• Poor personal hygiene

• An unhealthy obsession with Star Trek

• T-shirts with computer programming in-jokes on

Get Savvy in 2010

Amazon really didn’t get big by accident, they are super, super savvy and their customer communication is second to none. I did the usual last minute shop on Amazon before Christmas. Delivery was sooner than promised and they even gave me a further discount on a product because after I purchased it the price went down again – remarkable! Then this morning, I received an email suggesting books I might be interested in and further discounts on books, so naturally, I bought one(!).

Whether you look at it as attentiveness, bombardment or darn right trickery Amazon are doing something right.
So let’s review what just happened… I went to their site, bought some books, they emailed me, I bought another book and now I’m telling you how great they are – my goodness they’ve done it again. So let’s learn from their brilliance …

First let’s look at the ‘tools’ we have to play with in 2010.

Your media – so this is the media you own, so your website, your brand, your leaflets, pens, the side of your car, your twitter account, your blog and your videos etc. These represent the essence of you and your brand and in theory should work as a platform for all your communications – coming in and out. Your media should be engaging and interesting… check out Amazon’s latest twitter post:

Who the Heck is Sam Worthington? http://bit.ly/8GezgG

I clicked because I have no idea who Sam Worthington is either (turns out he is from Avatar) – but guess what… the link takes me seamlessly back to the Amazon site – beautifully done, again.

Paid media – paid media includes display advertising (on and offline) any sponsorship and Google Ad Words investments. These efforts should all be perfectly positioned to drive traffic and business back to your own media to gain even more exposure for your brand. Amazon use paid media cleverly by running ad words of specific products to drive a hotter type of lead to their site, so conversion rates stay healthy, as does ROI.

Earned media – Hopefully if all your efforts have paid off you’ll earn some free money-can’t-buy media. So we’re talking word of mouth, testimonials, buzz, and viral stuff. Then, the best thing is you can drive all that positivity back into your owned media – so plaster your website in testimonials and remind your customers just how great you are. Amazon have done it again – free exposure all over the eight&four website!

Here are some ideas to get you started in 2010:

1. Take your owned media to the next level, reinvigorate for re-engagement!
Don’t let your website stagnate, there’s nothing worse than out of date blogs, pixelated images and irrelevant text. Spring clean your website whilst it’s still winter to get back on track. It might feel like a big task but simply swapping some images and adding some new text can really make a big difference. If you are really stuck for ideas then give us a bell and we’ll do the hard work for you.

2. Got something to say? Shout about it! (to the right people)
Press releases have received bad press recently for their scatter gun approach to communication, same goes for old school email marketing. The whole ‘hit everyone you know with the same message’ is so unproductive and can definitely turn your customers off. Why not jot down 5 key messages you have then take a look at your customer base – you would most want to hear what you’ve got to say? Honing your database in this way can really help to improve effectiveness of campaigns.

3. You’ve earned it – so make sure you use it!
Your earned media is your strongest ally so make sure you treat it well. If you’ve got a testimonial then use it wisely. Add it to your proposals, your website – why not include it on the footer of your email signature? (but remember to keep updating or it will look like you only have 1 customer!)

Posted by Amy

Back in September, eight&four won a Wandsworth Council contract (our first government contract!) to rebuild Balham.com.

They were looking for the following :

• > Improve the look and usability
• > Allow local businesses to promote their businesses – both through the Business Directory, and display advertising
• > Make it easier for the Town Centre Manager to update the website easily, and from any location
• > A new integrated Blog, a Local News solution, and RSS feeds across the site
• > An intelligent search facility
• > Detailed analytics software on the website – to allow Wandsworth Council to track their return on investment

We put together a pitch that provided a full solution to all these objectives – and more. After 3 months of hard work, Balham.com has now been relaunched, with the following functionality:

• > Businesses can register securely online for a free Business account, to create their own free listing
• > Businesses can at any time ‘upgrade’ their listing, by securely paying on Balham.com with our integrated Council PayLink system
• > Full search solution
• > Powerful, bespoke Content Management System, allowing Wandsworth Council to:
• > Accept/ Reject permission on all Business Listings requests – allowing full control of Business Listing section, without any time consuming admin tasks
• > Add events into the website Calendar
• > Receive credit card payments for display advertisement payments – quickly and easily upload display ads to the website in real time

Take a look now! > www.balham.com

Should you be investing in communicating with your customers this Christmas?

Of course the answer is yes! Not only does it remind your current and previous customers how much you value their business, it also keeps you top of mind for New Year’s plans. Keep the message focused, succinct and cheery – and get creative with it! After all, there is so much Christmas cheer going around you need to be sure your messages stand out. So, if you are looking to keep to a tight budget, whilst making it as personal as a Christmas card, then we’ve got a few ideas up our sleeve:

1. An Email Christmas Postcard – we’re not massive fans of the abundant free e-cards you can get these days – much better is a branded Christmas e-postcard to all your contacts. Make sure you send at a good time though! Never send first thing in the morning – lunch time is a good bet for light hearted messages as people normally have a bit of spare time to give to reading your message. Get in touch if you’re interested in doing this for your company.


2. Social media – Christmassy tweets, facebook messages, festive blog posts… keep the message consistent though, you don’t want to confuse things!


3. Video – Why not do a fun Christmas video, even if it’s just you and your gang singing ‘Deck the halls’ – it will help your message stand out from the rest – post the video on You Tube and don’t forget to include it in your email and link via social media!


4. Run a competition – Why not invest a small amount in running a Christmas competition? You could run a short email survey inviting feedback on your customer service for example – with company gift vouchers for the prizes – and you never know, you could get some fantastic feedback that you can go on to use on your website!


5. ‘Decorate’ your site.. subtly of course! Add a bit of snow to your logo, a bauble to your blog… the possibilities are endless!!


The best marketing campaign is an integrated one – but as I said keep the message consistent!