Why are UK Business Dragging their Feet with Social Media?

It does seem strange to me why a lot of UK businesses large & small are not using Social Media to best effect? We have some of the best sales people in the world, But do they "Need to Wake up and Smell the Connection" 

Please leave your comments below I would love to know if others agree? 

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The UK seems to fall behind the rest of the western World when it comes to using Social Media “Why”

 

Looking at UK business large and small it appears there is still NOT the awareness that Social Media is a great platform to generate new business and promote products. Most companies still don’t have a clue how to use this virtually free Media especially when compared to other advertising mediums. Once you have your ideas, products, company branding in place it takes very little effort or budget to create a strong following for your Brand, Product or even and individual. All companies have these in place for their regular forms of marketing, hence it would be very easy to uplift and transfer this to all formats of Social Media – So why are business not jumping on this Free Marketing?  

 

Is it because companies/individuals feel there not internet savvy? Smaller business with no IT help on site worry about costs, time to achieve, extra work load? No one to dedicate time? Larger business with IT divisions still haven’t caught up with the world of Social Media – although most companies use the internet for business and could not survive without it – so why the lack of enthusiasm for Social Media, perhaps the older managers, CEOs and executives feel it’s a young persons medium! Hopefully not as their missing a trick and after all the younger generations will become customers at some point – their all potential customers.

I have been spreading the word about this Revolution for years now and could always see the advantages for my business “The Greenhouse.brasserie.com” creating a Facebook Page to promote menus, events, new ideas and ask for customer feedback, which involves your customers in decisions and they feel a part of your business and love it when you respond and keep them involved. We use twitter not only to promote, but to congratulate, throw out new ideas, menus, news etc. Both these mediums helped us to create a valuable mailing list, which in turn helps me develop a by-monthly newsletter, which again we promote seasonal foods, menus and special promotions throughout the year – Easter, Mothers Days, Christmas etc.

Yet I don’t see as many companies doing this here in the UK!!!!!

  

Or is it the age old excuse we don't have the time? That’s like saying we don't have the time to find new customers, we don't have the time to talk to our current customers. Yet when given the opportunity to spend a fortune on un-targeted advertising – newspapers, magazines, flyers or mailing lists that possibly gain no more than 20% return if you’re lucky, businesses jump at the chance spending their yearly marketing budgets on the old formats.

Come on UK business, wake up and smell the roses, Social Media gives you a highly targeted audience to both promote to and talk to and does one extremely important thing as far as sales are concerned.

 

"SOCIAL MEDIA BREAKS DOWN BARRIERS AND CREATES TRUST"

Normal sales and marketing techniques cost thousands of pounds and hundreds of man hours, sometimes to just open the door to one good client.

I certainly don’t think you should forget about sales people, on the contrary, customers still like face to face contact, which creates trust and loyalty, but I do think that all sales people needs a greater awareness of Social Media and what it can do for their business and often them as individuals.

So, how about UK business waking up and giving their sales people a hand with breaking down the key barriers. Help them to be able to communicate with existing customers and have the opportunity to find new highly targeted accounts, Social Media does this with ease. And I reckon that a lots of UK business are falling behind on basic training in Social Media within their sales teams.

Why do you think big business have "Find us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter"? Because they want to be in with the in-crowd? I don't think so. They recognise that one like on Facebook can get them seen by millions of potential customers, customers that are interested in their products, a targeted audience.

 

A like on Facebook is as good as you saying I trust these people so it’s OK for you to trust them to, why not add them to your list. That's a third person recommendation and we all know just how effective recommended business is and most importantly how cost effective it is.

Having a Twitter account is like having a search engine dedicated solely to finding people who are talking about your products this very instant. No other system in the world can do that so simply, business needs to get savvy, if you don't have the time to type a few words a day then don't moan if sales plummet.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media are not the sole domain of big business, any business can give even the biggest company a run for their money with social media and it costs very little.

Social Media is here to stay and in my opinion will be the future proof link to all marketing and customer service. Some media sites will not survive if they don't keep up and others will grow to replace them. Social Media will virtually replace traditional advertising over time as it is amazing value in comparison to other forms of marketing or advertising. With one click or tweet you can reach millions of targeted customers, try doing that on your TV or in the papers.

 

So UK business let’s get going and start to build successful marketing and customer service media. If you wait your competition will have your customers and you can’t buy a targeted Social Media presence of any worth, not yet anyway.

So come on UK Business Join the Revolution!!

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Happy Marketing 

Mike Beveridge 

How to Make Money from Your Blog: 11 Powerful Case Studies

Jeff Bullas is probably one of the Best Bloggers our there. He is on the button with all Social Media and is quick of the mark with all new technologies and whats happening right Now! 


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This makes interesting reading - Jeff should know he has been blogging for several years now.

n 2005 a Greek American woman started a political blog. As the traffic grew more funding was required. This meant that in August 2006 the venture fund SoftBank Capital was called upon to invest $5 million into the site to hire more staff and to provide the resources needed to make the updates to feed the news cycle 24/7 as the site grew in popularity.

Two years later in November 2008, another $15 million was raised to maintain the momentum as the blog added more journalism resources and local reporting was ramped up across the USA.

The power of celebrity was embraced with politicians, academics and famous power brokers in all areas of business and industry contributing articles to the blog.

It was in June 2011 that the blog’s website traffic passed the doyen of traditional media, the “New York Times” for the first time.

“In just six years new media had disrupted 100 years of traditional media”

Seven years after the first post was published, it was sold to AOL for $315 million to add to its other online blog assets including Engadget, TechCrunch and MovieFone.

Today it’s website traffic is measured at over 77 million visitors per month.

That  blog is Huffington Post.

Tipping point

In the blogging world this was a watershed moment. Never before had so much money been paid for a blog.

New media is replacing and disrupting old media.

The old business model that made many media moguls billionaires and king makers was based upon the rivers of gold which were generated from classified ads. Today it is the website traffic that is creating the cash and the influence is moving online.

Huffington Post was purchased by AOL because of three key elements.

1. Its online and global influence
2. Advertising revenue
3.  Traffic

In one sense this new media is just a variation of old media except that it is online. It is still traffic, eyeballs and advertising.

It just happens to be digital.

The new media models

The new models are not so simple but multifaceted and convoluted. Making money from new media is not a singular approach but often a matrix of multiple opportunities and tactics.

Blogging has evolved rapidly because of the social web and in the past was driven by building email lists which took a lot of time. With the advent of social media their marketing and growth have been supercharged.

Global reach and influence at the speed of a tweet, a Facebook share or a viral video.

To make money from a blog in 2013 you do not have to be a Huffington Post. There are many ways to make a living out of blogging that can enhance your current business and lifestyle that are within everyone’s reach.

Let’s have a look at some of them.

1. Advertising

Just to show that the Huffington Post is not a one off, there are many blogs that generate significant revenue in then millions. One of those is Mashable.

Mashable’s model is based almost exclusively on building huge amounts of traffic that makes it an attractive platform for advertising. Current page views per month total approximately 50 million.  This also means producing a lot of content. To put that in perspective Mashable publishes dozens of articles a day to feed the content beast.

They work hard at optimizing their advertising and  have developed technology for:

• Infinite ad scrolling
• Story telling ads unit
• Content velocity algorithm

This blogging business model is becoming harder as advertising rates fall. But the rewards can be great with some reports that Peter Cashmore is worth nearly $100 Million US and the blog has been valued at over $200 million.

2. Sponsorship

Suzi Dafnis is the clever business brain behind a very successful blog that targets business women in Australia. It is called the Australian Business Women’s Network.  She must be doing something right! It has just won “Best Australian Blogs Competition” in the business Category.

Sponsorship is the main revenue source with sponsors including American Express, Optus and GoToWebinar.

3. Webinars and Seminars

Social Media Examiner was only started 4 years ago by Mike Stelzner and made its first million dollars within 12 months through paid online webinars. Mike (who by the way is one of the true gentlemen of the blogging world) has used his attention to detail, process and savvy business acumen to create a blog that is now ranked in the top 60 blogs in the world in just 48 months.

Mike knows how to shine the spotlight on others and hence they have returned the favour.

Prior to starting the Social Media Examiner blog Mike had run other blogs and businesses including one on how to “Write White Papers”. Mike has moved into producing conferences, with the recent success of the inaugural “Social Media Marketing World” in  San Diego.

If you want an insight into how he made his blog such a success I would recommend you read his book “Launch – How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition”

4. Speaking

Blogs can be the platform that makes you visible. This includes being invited to speak at conferences, workshops and seminars. Guy Kawasaki uses his blog as an online platform to promote his speaking and his books. 

Guy understands the importance of an online platform for building credibility and marketing his personal brand. He also understands the power of social media and has nearly 1.3 million Twitter followers

5. Books

Tim Ferriss is the author of  the New York Times best seller “The Four Hour Work Week”, which was about creating a success lifestyle in a web world. He has used his blog to launch not just one but three books after the huge success of his first book.

Tim uses his blog as his promotion platform for his books and for engaging and sharing his inspiration for experiments in lifestyle design.

6. Affiliate

Affiliate marketing  is the art of either selling other people’s products on your blog or getting affiliates to sell your products.  Brendon Burchard is one of many who have perfected this art and science.

One of the the key secrets to succeeding in this is building promotional partnerships with powerful online influencers and other bloggers who have significant followings online. Some of the pioneers in this space include Frank Kerns and Jeff Walker.

It can supercharge your revenue. For a further insight into how Brendon achieved success his book “Millionaire Messenger” is worth a read.

Another blogger and podcaster that understands how to use affiliate marketing to create revenue and is worth checking out is Pat Flynn, who is the force behind the blog “Smart Passive Income”

7. Consulting

Mark Schaefer is the force behind the awesome blog “Grow“. He uses his blog as his front door and shingle to his consulting, educating and training business that helps businesses grow by tapping into the marketing power of social media.

He is also the author of  several books including  ”Return on Influence” and “The Tao of Twitter”

8. Online Courses

Amy Porterfield is a blogger and a professional Facebook expert who has created and developed online training which is her main revenue stream. Her flagship course is Facebook  Training 101 – FB Influence. 

She understood the importance of her blog as the online portal to her online courses.

9. eBooks

Darren Rowse is the genius behind Problogger. Not only has he made that blog a business success but also started a Photography Blog called “Digital Photography School” with over 1 million subscribers . His eBooks on “blogging” and “photography” have become his main source of income

Darren makes money from his blog in 12 different ways. So making money from your blog is not just limited to one revenue stream. The challenge is working out how you can monetize with multiple channel sources.

10. Premium content – Paid Membership

Timothy Sykes blog is about how to make money on the stock market and his main source of revenue is by selling premium content which is accessed through paying to be a member on his site.

Premium content that is only accessible via monthly membership is a proven model and another one worth checking out is Psd.Tutsplus.com which is a resource and learning site for those who want to learn photoshop.

11. Sell Products

Tucker Max is a blog and brand that is memorable but maybe for all the wrong reasons. If hedonism is your thing then Tucker Max is is your man. He makes money from the blog in a variety of ways. The main source of income is selling his products on Amazon.

It highlights that even a bad image can be monetised. The creativity is up to you!

What about you?

As we have seen, blogging can  be both a business and an online portal to to express yourself. The challenge is deciding what you want it to be and how can you make it into a business and lifestyle that works for you.

So how do you make money from your blog? What types of revenue models attract you?

Look forward to hearing your stories in the comments below.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/14/how-to-make-money-from-your-blog-11-powerful-case-studies/#yo7T2VjHbuHuV6wu.99 

These Women Are Making Waves in Tech's Emerging Markets

Another Great Story from Mashable - Ladies you need to take on the challenge, there should be more women at CEO level.  


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A recent Startup Village event in Moscow organized by the skolkovo Foundation celebrated and showcased Russian innovation, positioning Moscow as an emerging tech hub.

The event rolled into Moscow after visiting 16 cities across Russia, clocking more than 13,000 miles in the process. While that was unusual, even more striking at the show was the sheer number of smart and entrepreneurial women involved.

The dearth of women in Silicon Valley is one of the fails hidden behind the success story of the world’s greatest tech hub. It’s great that Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer and other high-profile women are pushing through the glass ceiling, but on the shop floor, things are rather different.

But do emerging tech hubs offer opportunities for women that Silicon Valley failed to deliver in recent decades? Can hubs such as Moscow, London, New York and even Nairobi offer women a level playing field of opportunities?

A report released in June from Dell, The Gender Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI), would suggest that the West still leads the way. Out of 17 countries, monitored, it showed that the U.S. was the best place for female entrepreneurs, followed by Australia, France, Germany and Mexico. But that's not to say women aren't making an impression.

Helen Keegan (@technokitten on Twitter) has 25 years of experience of working in and around London, and she's the founder of Heroes of Mobile. She sees things changing slowly, but believes there is still work to be done.

“The good news is there are lots of women working in London’s tech industry. The bad news is there aren't enough of us. We’re almost invisible at board level, and the new girls on the block coming up from school aren't interested in having a career in tech, yet will quite happily use it, day in and day out."

What has changed, she says, is that now we're talking about it. Women in Wireless in London and Women in telecoms & technology both have a mentoring scheme. Women 2.0mentors female tech founders and has regular Founder Friday meetups across the globe." Keegan says that 50 years ago, there weren't any female toilets at the University of London for students. "We have come a long way, but we still have a little further to go,” she says.

Keegan’s view is backed up by Kathryn Parsons, founder of Decoded, a company with offices in London and New York that practices "digital enlightenment" through an understanding of code. Parsons is passionate about women learning about technology and is confident that those who do will prosper.

“There is an appetite for women to opt-in to tech, learn to code and become digitally literate," say Parsons, adding that Decoded has a nearly 50:50 male-to-female ratio.

“And I know about a swathe of exciting networking events in New York and London about to launch that are set up by female founders and CEOs. The kind of events that are not subsidiary to the main event; they are going to be center stage and the place where lots of fun and business will happen,” says Parsons.

But perhaps we should look away from Europe and North America to Africa, perhaps the last frontier making huge strides in the tech space — but one where women are represented at the highest level.

“Women in tech hubs like iHub Nairobi are not only part and parcel of its history, but have led with outstanding ideas," says Parsons. She cites two women in particular, whom she's seen grow in the tech space — Linda Kamau, co-founder of Akirachix and Jamilla Abbas, co-founder of M-Farm. "They are excelling and paving the way for technologists of the future here in Kenya," says Parsons.

Juliette Zoe Wanyiri

Perhaps the next frontier in tech is the Maker space, which blurs the line between software and hardware. "Juliette Wanyiri, who is part of the iHub Network, is an amazing inspiration with engineering cred who is not just a participant, but an active leader” in the field, says Juliana Rotich, executive director of Ushahidi, the Kenyan company behind the innovative BRCKproduct.

Over in India where 'new' cities such as Pune are building from the example of Bangalore and emerging as hubs in their own right, women are also making their mark.

“With emerging hubs such as Pune or other Indian metro cities, there has been a massive growth in technology and a lot of women are taking big jobs," says Aakriti Kaushik, Indian tech specialist and founder at PR Buddy. "However, a lot more needs to be done in training and development with technology — education is especially needed."

Kaushik says that though women are leading the IT departments of major corporations, "their level of education in tech would not be as deep as it would in cities such as London and New York."

It may be some time, as the women in this article have pointed out, before the gender equality in technology is reached, but the women in London, New York, Nairobi and Pune are watching ... as is the whole world.

Image via iStockphoto, audioundwerbung

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http://mashable.com/2013/06/06/women-tech-hubs/

The Top 10 Entrepreneur Teenagers Who Made Millions

Young Dudes who have the ideas and wherewithal to Go For It  


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It seems a lot more people are joining the growing list of teenage millionaires nowadays. In fact, these young millionaires made their first million dollars before reaching the age of 20. This goes to show that age really is just a number and that anything is possible.

Below is a list of those who made their first million during their teenage years, how they made it and a figure of their current net worth.

10 Teenage Entrepreneur Millionaires

Adam Hildreth

In 1999, at only fourteen years old, Adam Hildreth together with his six friends launched the famous English social networking site Dubit. Dubit became one of the most popular websites in 2004. By 2005, Dubit had a net worth of more than 3.7 million dollars. Adam later founded Crisp thinking, which developed software that protected people from online predators, online harassment and spamming. He is ranked 23 in the top 100 richest young people in the UK according to the 2011 Sunday times rich list.

Adam Hildreth is estimated to have a net worth of 38 million dollars.

Sean Belnick

When he was only 14 years old, Sean Belnick created bizchair.com, an internet retailer for all types of furniture. Sean Belnick began with an initial investment of 500 dollars and ran his business operaions from his bedroom. In 2004, he moved into his first warehouse and by 2009, he had more than 702,000 square feet of warehouse space from the initial 40,00 square feet. In 2010, bizchair had sales of more than 58 million dollars.

Sean Belnick’s net worth is reported to be 42 million dollars

Fraser Doherty

Fraser Doherty is the CEO of Super Jam. This Scottish young star was taught jam making by his grandmother when he was 14 years old. He started producing jam and selling it in the neighbourhood. He left school at the age of 16 to fully concentrate on super jam. In 2007, he began supplying super jam to 184 Waitrose stores. Nowadays Fraser Doherty currently supplies to all major UK stores and had sales of over 1.2 million dollars in 2011.

Fraser Doherty is worth 2 million dollars.

Cameron Johnson

In 1994, at only nine years of age, Cameron Johnson began making money by selling invitation cards. By eleven years old he had saved up enough money to form his company, Cheers and Tears. Cameron then participated in several ventures including creating EZ mail, an email forwarding software, surfingprice.com, an online advertising company. By fifteen years old, he was receiving monthly cheques of up to 400,000 dollars.

Cameron Johnson’s net worth is currently 3.2 million.

Ashley Qualls

Ashley Qualls is an America entrepreneur who made her first million at the age of seventeen. She did this by taking an 8 dollar loan from her mother and creating a website,whateverlife.com in 2004.The website focused on providing HTML tutorials for young people and providing free My space layouts.

Ashley Qualls is valued to have a net worth of 8 million dollars.

Chris Phillips

Chris Phillips made his first million when he was only 17 years old through dot5hosting. This website was used to register domain names, supply hosting space and hosting several e-commerce sites. By the time he was 19 years old, this British teenager was making over 10 million dollars annually.

Dot5hosting currently has a net worth of 2 million dollars.

Juliette Brindak

Juliette made her millions after launching the website Miss O and Friends when she was still only 10 years old. The site, which targets mostly teenage girls, is filled with celebrity gossip, games, quizzes and lots of feature articles. She has also launched a line of Miss O and friends books.

Juliette Brindak is currently the CEO and editor of her site and book line and has a networth of 15 Millions Dollars.

Catherine and David Cook

At only fifteen and seventeen years respectively, Catherine and David Cook came up with the social networking site, My Yearbook in 2005. The site has over 5 million users and has survived the Facebook domination.

My Yearbook has a net worth of over 20 million dollars whereas this brother and sister duo have a combined net worth of 10 million dollars.

Tyler Dikman

When the internet was still picking up, Tyler Dikman who was only 15 years old founded Cooltronics in the year 2000. Cooltronics’ main purpose was to provide lessons to computer and internet users on how to get rid of computer viruses and how to upgrade your home PC. Subscriptions and advertising brought in the dollars for this lucky little man.

Tyler Dikman is currently valued to be worth 3.7 million dollars.

Farrah Gray

Farrah Gray started selling body lotion at the age of 6. At 13 years old he founded Farr-Out Food which in a period of one year had received food orders of over 1.5 million dollars making him a millionaire at 14.

Farrah Gray is the youngest person to have a Wall Street office and is estimated to be worth 20 million dollars.

http://tiny.cc/iswlww  = More Interesting Stories & Topical Posts 

http://addicted2success.com/success-advice/the-top-10-entrepreneur-teenagers-who-made-millions/