Posted by Gerry on Oct 12, 2011 in
General interest,
Gerry Vincent
Listening to the radio yesterday, as I was driving into work, I heard about a lovely initiative by Theo Paphitis on Twitter.
As I understand it, this is a ‘Dragons Den’ style initiative in which SMEs tweet Theo on Sundays with ideas/initiatives related to their businesses. Out of the thousands of ideas he receives each week, half a dozen are retweeted to his many followers. One local small business owner, a handbag designer, was interviewed after offering to make Theo a pink handbag. Theo’s retweet gained her 350 additional Twitter followers - a big boost for a small, hungry business.
Now, when we talk about Big Society, particularly in such difficult economic conditions, isn’t this exactly the kind of initiative we should be talking about?
Posted by Gerry on Oct 10, 2011 in
General interest,
Gerry Vincent
Had a great weekend at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. In between breathless celebrity spotting (Juliet Stephenson, Larry Lamb, Joanna Lumley, Caitlin Moran…) I also went to some very interesting seminars.
Sometimes, what I hear really chimes with my professional life. On this occasion, there was a classic comment made during a seminar on the US and the UK, exploring the so-called ’special relationship’.
I’m sure many people will remember the ho-ha that surrounded the removal of Winston Churchill’s bust by the Obama administration, almost as their first act on entering The White House. A snub, many British media/people considered it, and a sign that things were going to change from the Bush/Blair era.
A quiet word by a BBC correspondent a few months later with an official revealed that they didn’t see it as a big deal at all (”You guys!!”) they thought it was Eisenhower….
True or not, I guess the message here doesn’t need underlining but is a fundamental principle of business communication. Always, always check your facts - don’t be fearful of asking the obvious questions - before working on assumptions.
It’s very common to hear the following from company bosses, “I can’t blog because I don’t have time. And I don’t have anything to say.”
Hmmm. Well, we can’t do much about the first thing - but we can offer suggestions about the second.
Because blogging is very important now for both SEO and lead generation; some research I read recently suggested that nearly one third of businesses regard it as business critical.
Much of what is available on the net is shared because it is free. Or offers better value than, say, on the High Street. For B2C companies, that means product giveaways or competitions. If you are a B2B company, you have something equally valuable to giveaway: expertise. So, providing regularl advice, information, market intelligence etc delivers both compelling content and underlines your own brand proposition (authoritative, credible, market leadership etc).
Remember blogs don’t have to be long, but if you’re looking to generate followers, the best advice at the moment is that you should blog at least once or twice a week; and they can be picture/link-led. If the main reason for blogging is SEO, then the content that is more important than frequency.
Here are a few suggestions…
- One thing you have discovered that week (or two, or three…)
- Customer feedback - and how you have addressed it (keeping the customer anonymous)
- Feedback about your products (try not to make the blog too self-congratulatory though. Feedback should be informative for readers e.g. why is it working well)
- Best idea(s) you’ve gleaned from seminars
- Information from conversations/feedback you have been having with Sales Directors (ie. their experiences with customers)
- Information from TV, in newspapers, magazines/blogs/forums or websites – do you agree/disagree or can you offer advice
- New regulation/updates
- News on product updates
- Pictures from exhibitions
- Team news and pictures – a who’s who of sales teams
- Key presentations
- Case studies
- My Top 5….(whatever it might be)
- Market developments and trends
- Market statistics
You can probably think of dozens more, so go on - get out there and get published!
Posted by Gerry on Apr 6, 2011 in
General interest,
Gerry Vincent,
PR news
We helped Kingspan Environmental launch their new National Service Network at the National Self-Build and Renovation Centre in Swindon last week. Some very cool imagery came out of it:
Kingspan Environmental Accredited Installers: Let’s go to work…
And how about this for a moody shot of the Kingspan Environmental Service sales team…
Tags: Kingspan Environmental