Eggblogg

Councils save money by sharing marketing materials

Here's a really good idea: Portfolio Marketplace is a service that allows public sector organisations to buy, sell and share marketing campaign artwork.

It was set up by Nottingham City Council. The idea is that public sector bodies across the country are increasingly strapped for cash, and they're also all trying to promote the same services and tell the same messages. So why not pool their marketing materials? My first thought was 'GREAT - less waste of public sector money.' But of course I can imagine the opposite point of view - all those design and marketing agencies being done out of work.

But then again, agencies are free to sell the campaigns they have created for other councils - if they hold the intellectual property rights that is. Even unsuccessful pitch material can be sold, which has to be a plus for agencies after having gone though the expense of a pitch with no contract to show for it.

 

Interesting stuff I've come across lately...

A quick round up of some of the articles I've enjoyed/learnt from recently...

Interflora cheers up glum Twitter users  (Brand Republic) - nice example of a brand's use of social media.

How Facebook decides what to put in your newsfeed - (businessinsider.com) - fascinating delve into what counts and what doesn't when it comes to getting exposure

What the Facebook Bing search partnership means for brands - (Digital Tomorrow Today) - Jamie Riddell on a new rivalry to Google

Cool Twitter tool - Mention Map - (mediafuturist.com) - explore the 'neighbourhoods' of those you're connected to

Gap listened to its customers - or did it? (econsultancy.com) - over-reaction or a PR stunt? The Gap logo  fiasco

100 inspiring ways to use social media in the classroom - (onlineuniversities.com) - an article aimed at US colleges/high schools but lots of ideas here for anyone involved in education

Geo-social marketing: which businesses are the early adopters?

On Monday I became the Mayor of Lewes Town Hall! Not actually the Town Mayor, you understand, although I did see him there today and wanted to say 'hey, I'm a Mayor too!' Basically I seem to be the only person who has checked into the Town Hall on Foursquare. You can probably gather from this that Foursquare has a way to go before it reaches a critical mass in Lewes. I need more friends to play with!

Nonetheless, I'm really excited about the possibilities of geo-location or more specifically 'geo-social' services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Booyah and others. Membership of each is small, with Brightkite reportedly the biggest with just 2.5 million users. There doesn't seem to be one player dominating yet, so who knows if one will emerge as the winner. But already case studies are coming through of how geo-social is being used by brands, mostly in the US as it's still early days in the UK. Here are a few examples:

• H&M used Booyah's 'MyTown' geo location service to promote particular items of clothing - when a MyTown user is near an H&M store they are told about the promotion and incentivised to check in with a discount offer
• Starbucks have been experimenting in various ways with Brightkite, such as alerting members to its own brand packaged coffee when they check in at supermarkets where it's stocked
• Gap has been using Loopt  - when members who are iPhone users check in twice at one of its stores they are given a digital code for a 25% discount
• Jimmy Choo ran a much talked about event, CatchAchoo, with Foursquare in London

There's no reason why small businesses shouldn't experiment in this way - after all, as I tell my clients, they've nothing to lose if the take up is small, and everything to gain in PR just for being an early adopter - as Brighton coffee shop Metrodeco showed recently.

Yes, it's another thing for hard-pressed small businesses to take on, I realise that, but I'm convinced that one day geo-social marketing will be as mainstream as having a website, so let's get ahead and have fun before all the blaggers, scammers and fraudsters join in and spoil it for us!

UK small business case study no. 4: CheapAccounting.co.uk

In this, the fourth in a series of mini case studies, I talk to Elaine Clark of CheapAccounting.co.uk. Elaine started her business in 2007, after 20 years of working for various leading accountancy firms. She spotted a gap in the market for a quick, efficient, cheap accountancy service for small businesses, and the original idea was for Elaine to operate her own home based accountancy practice.

However, in 2009 she expanded the operation by bringing in Associates working under licence to use the name of CheapAccounting.co.uk. In just one year CheapAccounting.co.uk has grown to ten Associates and this number is increasing as the client base grows. I was interested to know more and to ask whether she had any tips or insights to pass on.

How much of the success of CheapAccounting.co.uk would you put down to social media?

I would say that about 80% of our business is generated through social media. Growth has been far quicker than for a traditional accountancy practice start-up and our client numbers have more than doubled in one year.

We use social media not just for new client acquisition, but also for associate recruitment, customer services and as a way of developing PR opportunities.

What's your Twitter strategy?

There are several aspects to this. I set myself targets to grow my list of followers and those that I follow.

My tweets tend to be focused around useful tips on accounts and tax for small businesses which are updated daily on my blog.

However I do think it is important to show a personal side as the accounts and tax subject matter can be quite a challenge sometimes. So I mix these informative tweets with a little banter amongst my regular followers and some re-tweets of useful information from others.

I do not have a target number of tweets, nor do I aim for any particular percentage of 'promotional to informative', as it can depend on the circumstances and what's been going on in the world. For example if the budget speech is taking place, I may be rather more vocal in my comments than at other times!

Do you track visits from Twitter or your blog?

Yes - I check my web stats each day. This shows the number of click throughs to the CheapAccounting.co.uk site and to the blog. I need to make sure that the efforts that I am putting in are useful, relevant and an effective use of my time.

Do you have any 'hints and tips' to share about how you convert visitors into clients?

Like anything it comes down to using the right technique for the job. Social media works to attract prospects to CheapAccounting.co.uk but then we employ the aged old marketing and sales methods.

Most importantly we talk to the visitor, find out their need and then sell them the services based upon that need. No great surprises there really.

I see you maintain a blog -  do you set yourself goals as to how often to post, and do you ever struggle for content ideas?

My target is to write a new post at least 3 times a week. Inspiration comes from a number of sources - I may have noticed a trend in topics on the Business Forums, something may have happened in the news, some new tax advantage may be introduced, deadlines approaching, that kind of thing.

I try to make it topical, relevant and interesting -  which can be a challenge! For example, when I heard this quote from Hilary Devey (the straight-talking Business Inspector on Channel Five) - "Take that envelope of crap & turn it into an accounting record" -  I just thought it was really funny and spot-on. So I turned it into a blog post and it attracted attention, pulling in a lot of new visitors.

How much time do you spend managing your online/social media presence?

Well, there is a question. I would say that currently 50% of my time is spent on managing the CheapAccounting.co.uk online and social media presence. This is my main role within the business now. In fact over the next year or so this will increase even further.

Are there any other aspects of online marketing that have really worked for you, that you would recommend?

For me, in the business that I'm in, writing articles is a great marketing tool. It serves as a great way to prove your credentials, and I’ve had content featured on numerous sites which has resulted in click throughs and visitors to CheapAccounting.co.uk.

I took this a stage further and developed a portal site FranklyAccounts.co.uk - a free resource, addressing a lot of tax and accounts issues experienced by start-up and small businesses. From this alone we've developed a huge marketing database and converted dozens of new clients.
 
I'm also a prolific poster on UK business forums - nearly 7,000 posts with well over 1,000 thanks received - as well as being a regular contributor to a number of other online business forums such as Start Up Donut, Woman's Work and WiRE.

Is there anything you would have done differently if you 'knew then what you know now'?

I would have started to use Twitter much earlier. The benefits are huge.

What's the number one thing you have learned about using social media for business?

You are on display to a far wider audience that you can ever realise. Off days are not allowed. Keep it focused, useful, polite but have some fun along the way!

Previous case studies:

Saronti, producers of personalised family books

Paganum Farmers Market

Curved Vision, a presentation skills training firm

 

A little anecdote about Twitter

I had a go at O2 recently for not acknowledging customer complaints on Twitter, and it's an ongoing mission of mine to convince people that if social media is about conversations, the very least a business can do is to throw its Twitter followers the odd bone, yet so few do this.

This is an extract from the outtakes of a Twitter video recently shot by Lucy Waters in which she interrogated me about various things Twitter. I just thought it was a quick example worth sharing.