Those who dare - collaborate?

Collaboration is one of the buzz words – We need to look out for opportunities to work together and learn from each other. In a recent survey by Enterprise Nation they looked at the growth of small businesses in the UK, and the interesting facts that came from that  was how little businesses are getting from banks and traditional Governmental support. So where do we get support from to grow, develop, innovate and change?

For me the answer comes from collaborating with others, engaging with businesses and learning and developing together. As part of this process I’m taking part in an action learning set .

Do you dare join us? There are a couple of places left, and they could be perfect for you and your business – You never know what you might learn, what networks you might access and what support your business might get.

Here's the info from Spaceworks the kind folks who are housing us:

Most of us juggle many different roles to make our business(es) work, and, as we’re not experts in everything (much as we’d like to be!), it’s good to be able to tap into someone else’s expertise sometimes.

This effect is borne out by research which suggests that better networked business owners run more successful businesses. Why?  Because nobody knows everything – so having a network increases the odds that someone you know, knows a ‘man/woman who does’.

To develop the way we support each other we’re experimenting with setting up a Spaceworks ‘Action Learning Set’ for business owners. 

Our plan is to have an initial introductory session on 20^th May to explore the idea - and then sign up 8 business owners to work with a specialist facilitator for 6 meetings between June - Dec 2013.

4 of us have already signed up. We include a social media whizz, someone who has successfully built up a waiting list for a course programme and someone who has successfully negotiated loan funding for business growth in the last 12 months.  We also include among us though, someone who needs to learn about delegating to enable business growth, someone who needs to get better at selling, and someone who needs to learn how to say ‘no’ to clients to improve profitability. So, we feel confident there are lots of ways our businesses could benefit from this group.

To run the group we think we need 8 people, so we’re looking for 4 more. Could one of them be you?

If you’d like to find out more please get in touch to register your interest. Everyone will be then be invited to join us at our initial meeting where we’ll meet our facilitator, hear a bit more about how Action Learning Sets work, and discuss costs and session timings. 

This meeting will be on

 Monday 20^th May at 6.30 pm at Spaceworks (in Harland Works, John St).

5 Top tips for starting out on twitter

You have been convinced that your business ought to be on twitter through the hundreds of articles saying that. You are ready to get started BUT you have no idea what to do?

Here are 5 top tips for starting out, they are meant to be simple and easy, you need to get used to it first and then you will find your voice. If you need any help then you can find help from people like me who can help you navigate social media and create a strategy for reaching more potential customers.

1) Profile -

You need to fill this in with your name (business name), a bit about what you do and why people might want to follow you.  Where you are based, if appropriate, I see lots of cafes that don't include their address, so I have no idea whether I can visit them or not!

You also need to include an image, the egg is the standard image that twitter will give you. Its a key reason why people will not click on you to find out any more about you. When choosing your image you can go with a picture of you, a logo, your premises, your products.

By doing both of these things you will make yourself more attractive to others to follow.

2) Follow people

If you follow no-one then why would anyone want to follow you. You need to find people you want to follow, so how do you do that?

-  look for customers on twitter, current and potential customers - it gives you an opportunity to understand more about what they are interested in, and doing.
- look for competitors it will keep you up to date on what they are doing
- look for influencers - these could be from the press, or key opinion makers, networking organisations
- look through the accounts other people follow - they will have found lots of interesting people that you might be interested in.
-Don't worry about numbers! people get very hung up on how many people are following them, the important thing is quality not quantity.

3) Tweet

You have to start somewhere, so don't worry too much about your first tweet, its all about building a presence on line and that is going to take time and plenty of tweets.

So what to say?
- talk about what you are doing
- what is happening
- talk about things that have impressed you
- reply to people that talk to you - especially customers
- share what others are talking about.
-Be appropriate, this is a public medium!

4) Time                                                       

You need to make time to do your twitter profile. If you use it for only one week a year then its not worth having. You need to find space to update your social media there are tools you can use such as hootsuite to help you manage this process, but it is very important that you keep an eye on what is happening on your account. Its your chance to talk to your customers, suppliers and those that can influence them. As a general rule I would advise that you factor in 10 minutes a day to look at your twitter feed.  

5) Don't Click!

From time to time you will receive messages that say things such as "LOL have you seen this picture of you g2.be/s/BE" If it looks out of context then it probably is. Don't click on the link. If in doubt Don't click. 

These are just a few hints and tips to get you started - please get in touch if you want any further advice or help spikycommunications@gmail.com you can follow me on twitter @spikycomms  

All in a good tweet

For this weeks blog post I thought I would draw your attention to this great tweet sent in March.

So why do I think its good? 

1) Its personal you connect with it - you feel pleased for them
2) It tells a story
3) It has a picture with it - pictures are great ways to improve interaction with your tweets. This would never have worked so well without the picture of the chair. (Could you imagine trying to describe it whilst staying within the 140 character limit!)
4) It asks a question - its asking you to respond to what has happened. 

Its a great example of how you can use social media to sell your products, tell your story and get people involved. How did I know about it? Because I happen to follow Kelly Swallow, I like her tweets, and I saw that she had tweeted this.

Imagine how powerful it could be for your business? 
If you want any help with your social media or marketing then get in touch: spikycommunications@gmail.com

Ps if you love the chair and want to know more this is the web address kellyswallow.co.uk

If you are a business you are probably used to hearing that you should be using social media regularly, many businesses do just this, without any thought to what they are trying to achieve and how that is going to happen. The recent  HMV   twitter debacle, underlines how important it is for businesses to understand how their social media is being run by their staff and what they are trying to achieve.

Here is an example of a local business that I think is using its twitter profile innovatively and effectively.

The Sheffield Telegraph is a weekly local newspaper which features stories from the local area.  Similar to many other local papers in the UK. Local Newspapers are finding it increasingly difficult to connect with younger readers, and many papers have found themselves in a difficult position where they have needed to cut costs and staff numbers. So, in this difficult climate I think its particularly impressive to find a paper that is doing things differently and is being innovative with new technology, using it as a way to engage with its audience rather than viewing it as a threat.

 The Sheffield Telegraph, runs a regular feature where it asks its readers in the paper and its followers on-line to respond to a story either in the local or national press. It has journalists that don't just talk at you, but engage in a discourse with their followers and those that tweet them. They are holding a place on line that makes the most of their knowledge and areas of expertise.

What follows below is an example of a story that is not only taking place on line but will also feature in the paper.

shftelegraph4:46pm via Twitter for Android

RT @HR_Media: Happy birthday Harry Brearley! A blog on Sheffield's celebrations on the discovery of stainless steel #sellsheffield http: ...

shftelegraph4:13pm via Twitter for Android

RT @DanaABDUL: @shftelegraph #sellsheffield city of steel with a golden heart filled with good grub, sport, music and art! Good for heal ...

shftelegraph3:23pm via twitterfeed

VIDEO: Philippa fans pledge £14k for Sheffield album: That’s how much fans have pledged in just two months - in ... bit.ly/132St28

shftelegraph1:48pm via Twitter for Android

RT @IanSheffield50: "@shftelegraph: How would you sell Sheffield to an outsider in a Tweet? #sellsheffieldBrilliant pubs and local ales!

shftelegraph1:44pm via Twitter for Android

Don't forget to pick up a copy of @shftelegraph on Thursday to see if your #sellsheffield tweet is in print. Thanks to all who joined in.

And the effects?

They engage with their audience, they provide a link between what is happening on-line and in print connecting up worlds that often don't engage with each other. They provide a voice of authority for those of us who like to validate information that we find on-line. Personally they have also created a way that engages with me personally and has meant that I have regularly bought their paper, which has to be the ultimate goal for the paper - increasing circulation. 

Top tips that the Sheffield Telegraph do well?

1) Content - they have the news and the stories they use these to provide information

2) social - they ask questions on titter and want answers , they are quick to respond, important as people need a quick response on a format such as twitter. 

3) People - they tweet from their main page but also link this in with some of their journalists such as Lesley Draper they talk about their areas of interest and form an important part of the local on line community.

What do you think? who would you recommend as having an effective social media strategy?

Struggling to tweet?

Social Media  for business is all about communicating well, being a friendly voice, creating the right impression for your business. Its also important to have a regular stream of information, its no good posting masses on  Monday and then not visiting it again for three weeks.

So, what do you do when you don't have the time, you're not in the right mood to tweet or you're struggling to get the right amount of time on-line.

When I get stuck thinking of things to talk about these are some of my personal tips:

1) What are those you follow talking about? is there a question posted you could answer, or a suggestion you could make.

2) RT (retweeting),  I will look through my twitter feed and find something that I think is relevant to those that follow me, or that is part of my on-line community and then RT that. This will often start a conversation with people who'll often be grateful for a RT.

3) We all have friends on-line, they can be people you really know or just those you talk to on twitter. Its worth looking at what they are saying and seeing if you can join in their conversation.

4) I'd have a look at what's happening on my lists, this will often bring up conversations that you will be interested in.

5) Have a look on hashtags# (if you want to understand more about how #'s work then look at this post ) that are of relevance to you, ie your city. Again there will probably be a conversation going on there you are interested in.

Still looking for more tips then here is a good article. Tips from The Clip Report

The 2013 Ones to Watch

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I like to start the year on a positive note and these lovely businesses are the ones I am tipping to have a great year in 2013. They are all businesses I have been aware of during the last year and have watched with interest. I think they are pretty great and I hope you do too,


Shokx

Shokx is a Sheffield company which has developed a new app. This app launched at the end of 2012, it's a fantastic concept, where by footie fans get to trade virtual stocks in football clubs. The stock goes up and down in value depending on how the teams are performing. Its addictive and fun, with those traders performing well topping the leaders board.
Sheffield is well known for digital excellence and this is a fantastic idea from a local entrepreneur.



Surelight is a Sheffield firm, based down in Millhouses, but its clients range from large industrial warehouses where they supply highly effective cost efficient lighting solutions to glamorous LED lighting for pop videos and racing cars. There business has been steadily growing over the recession and it is another great good news story for Sheffield.

Our Cow Molly

It seems to me that Our Cow Molly, is a great Sheffield success story. They have developed a dairy farm into a Sheffield landmark, with their wonderful ice cream and fresh milk.There innovative approach to marketing has helped them to reach new customers and create a business which has a real buzz around it.






Jane Fardon Cosmetics, yet another Sheffield company, have developed a range of makeup that is designed to work with your skin colour and tone, on the website they have a fantastic feature where you upload a picture of yourself and they can advise you which colours will suit you. I benefited from their service when I asked for advice for which foundation to use, not only did they give me ideas, but they also sent through a couple of samples for me to try and see. Fantastic.



Laura Hudson Mackay

Laura is a fine art photographer who takes wonderful and beautiful pictures. She's on my list because although she now lives in Glasgow, she would definitely count herself as a Sheffield lass, born and bred. Her work ranges from the vast broad evocative emptiness of the Scottish wilderness to the vibrant hustle and bustle of the Souk. You never know what the next photo will be of but you do know it will be beautiful.

Last year we (Sophy Hallam and I) launched the Third Sector Cafe, we meet in Sheffield at the Harland Cafe on a monthly basis as a place for charities and other not for profits to come and discuss ongoing issues, great ideas they have and to support and encourage each other. Over the last year we've had 250 different people coming through the doors, from a wide variety of different organisations. We've talked Trustees, funding, projects, social media, business planning, PR, Buildings and Education. Next year we've got some great plans and I am looking forward to seeing how it develops. Its been great as well as a business to invest in the sector in this way, we're always looking for more help so if any other businesses are interested in having an informal chat about getting involved then do get in touch.

So that is my 6 that I am tipping for great things this year. I hope they all have a fantastic year!

What happened next

Last year I wrote a blog post about the businesses to watch for the next year and I thought before the year is out it'd be great to do a follow up on some of them:

SPACEWORKS:
The shared workspace has gone from strength to strength this year, its grown and developed into Harland works, with lots of exciting new businesses joining it and established businesses there expanding. Over the year Harland has put on a number of family days including my favourite the Roald Dahl family day. Its also been home to the Third Sector cafe, which has gone from an idea to a fully functioning and successful peer to peer learning group, communicating with 2,000 charities and social enterprises over the last 6  months.

WILDAGO
The magical world of Wildago was always a fun and great place to be, but this year has seen the development of a whole new range of characters, whom are going on display.... They have been created for Sheffield Forgemasters another Sheffield success story. I can't wait to meet them all and of course I'll be keen to find out what;'s happened to Pearl and whether Edmund has finally put any trousers on!



THE CORNER GALLERY
Last year I met Hendrika and was impressed by her enthusiam and intergrity, this year she has been a driving force behind the creation of the Antiques quarter, a fantastic development for Sheffield and a real boost to Abbeydale Road, Broadfield area.

MePod
Lucy from Mepod is a great
 creative and
 inspirational character, who quietly gets on with the work that needs doing. This year has seen a change of direction for her, but a very exciting one at that, She's now a Director at Soshee who are developing a brilliant app Shokx, and its definitely going to be one to watch next year!


REVITALISE FITNESS
I tipped Amiee as one to watch and its been great to see her work grow or should I say shrink online over the last year. She's currently running a 12 days of Christmas fitness  program which features a 30 minute workout, to get you in shape before the year is out! AND She's also due to be having a baby any day! Wow!

My next blog post is going to suggest next years people and businesses to watch, so, please nominate your favourites on here, I'd love to hear them.

Sheffield Social Media

Last week I hosted a social media seminar for a group of Sheffield businesses at Harland Works

We talked about what it was,  how to use it effectively, and how different  Sheffield companies have used social media to benefit their businesses.

I had a really fantastic time, with a really great bunch of people and at the end of it all I got this lovely feedback.

"Really good mix of info and interactive"
"very informative"
"A very good session"
"Informative, good to see other businesses perspective on social media" 
"Great to have some interaction and advice about different sites too. Just need to learn the nuts and bolts now"
"Thanks very helpful"
"I am much more positive about social media"
"Has started me really thinking about social media for business"
"It has really helped -......I now have more ideas"

The best kind of feedback! So, if you are interested in coming to a social media for business event then please get in touch as I am planning on holding another seminar in the New Year.

What is the Hashtag all about?

Image by Laura Hudson Mackay Photography

There is no secret science, tricks or great skill needed to make a #. At its most simple its # followed by letters or numbers without a space, and you make a word searchable. By using it, it can make Twitter a much richer and more interesting place. The # allows an open conversation to take place across Twitter, where by people can follow, join in and leave without having to follow each other or ever listen to each other again, or it can be the start of a great Twitter companionship!
I have grouped the # into 5 different types to make the different uses that little bit easier to understand, and therefore make it easier to join in with:

1) #Broadcasting
Typical examples ; #newsnight #OBEM (One Born Every Minute)
These are often around events, tv programs that want interaction with the audience, conferences.
When used it can add depth to an event, allow people to feed back, share learning, bring personal stories to the picture. A well managed #  provides an interactive platform from which to populate discussion both with those physically in the room as well as those who are virtually engaged. Typically presenters will talk about the # they want you to use, and that all tweets will need to use the # as prescribed to ensure their voice is heard.

2) Networking
#bizitalk #yorkshirehour #charitytuesday #sbs
These are groups online who are looking to connect with other like minded groups, often these are businesses.
Sometimes these # operate for a specific time ie #sbs @theopathetis Small Business Sunday  5:30pm - 7pm, or #yorkshire hour 8pm-9pm on Wednesday's. Others operate throughout the week, ie #bizitalk. These are intended as networking events, you need to think about what you want to achieve from these, is it contacts in your local area, or business partners to work on further projects with.

3) Searchable
#places #politics #activities

Image from Laura Hudson Mackay Photography

This is a type used when you are not necessarily trying to join in a current conversation but to remain part of an ongoing longer term conversation about a particular sphere of interest that you want to associated with. Often events use a geographical location as it connects people in the area to what is going on.

4)  Just because
Some people (including me) use the # as a point of emphasis, quite often these are funny, sometimes poignant and often ridiculous. When doing this, its not expected it'll become a conversation, though sometimes it will. ie; #shortstraw

5) Trending
  these are #that have gone viral, there ripples have gone far beyond where they were originally sent. Sometimes they are related to politics ie #paxman when he appeared at the Leveson inquiry, other times to celebrities ie #LadyGaga, or the news #eurodebtcrisis and other times there appears to be little logic, other than, that is what people are interested in!

I know there is lots I haven't said, and I have placed some links below, for useful articles on the #.


techforluddites information around how to create an interest group #
mashable tips for using #
Hub Spot tips for using #
social media examiner tips for a twitter chat

Being told off

I got told off the other day.
A strange experience, seeming as I am normally the one doing the telling off! I was sat by the swimming pool watching my child have a swimming lesson whilst dealing with my emails, checking my twitter accounts and generally trying to stay on top of things. Suddenly there is a pool attendant in front of me, asking me to "put my phone away as no electronic devises are allowed on the pool side."
oops! 

Image by Laura Hudson Mackay

I felt 10 again and hurriedly popped my phone back in my bag. 
But it did make me think about how much time I spend checking my phone, I forget its not always necessary. I am suddenly in a position when I am reliant on technology for a far greater proportion of my day than I consciously thought.
This week I attended a JCI event on NLP, run by Louise Ebray  from Bridgewater Latitude,
We started looking at the disney method of different thinking spaces, and being forced to turn off my phone (well tuck it away in my bag!) caused me to stop and think. 
What could I do with this space and time. 30 minutes to think and be more conscious of my subconcsious, think about my hope and dreams? think of future ideas? or just give myself 30 minutes off when I really can do nothing and just watch the swimming lessons in front of me!  

A New small business? - starting points for your social media

Starting to think about your social media marketing?




1) Are you committed to it? 

 You regularly hear people complain that they see no return for being on Twitter, Facebook or any other social media outlets, they have joined but its not brought people to them and its just a waste of time. So why do it - as a new business you will more than likely not have a bottomless pit for your marketing budget but you need to create an impact and reach to as many potential clients and customers as possible. Broadening your network is a key development need in many businesses and why there are so many networking organisations around. Social Media allows you a vehicle to access all of this and to actually do so is FREE. If you start looking you will be amazed at who is on social media channels. But to find the benefits of this network you will have to invest time into it. 

The Isle of Whithorn

A great example of this is www.cutcloycottage.com  and @CutcloyCottage on twitter, they are a holiday cottage based on the Isle of Whithorn in Scotland, and they use their twitter account to talk about the region, what you can see, link to activities you may want to do, such as cycling breaks, cafes, restaurants, and create a sense of community and place, festivals, artists, historical links. It helps to answer the question of why go there and what is there to do when I get there? 


2) What do you get from it?  it gives you an opportunity to be a part of the conversations going on around your area of knowledge. It may give you a chance to put forward your ideas and products. What it is not is a place to shout about what you do and never listen to what anyone else is saying. Would you actively seek out someone who said the same thing to you day after day and never listened to you? 
The JCI Sheffield is a great example of an organisation that uses social media to reach out to its wide and disparate membership, they use twitter (@JCISheffield) Linked In groups (JCI Sheffield) as well as Facebook to share updates on events, talk about achievements and encourage membership and participation.


3) Where to turn?
There are so many different social media platforms and as a small business you can not keep them all updated, full of different and relevant content, manage all the different conversations and listen to the key players. What I would suggest you do is look to where your key audience is:  ie LinkedIn is a professional networking organisation, it's a place for professionals to talk business, so if you are selling business to business this could be a good place for you to start. 
Facebook is designed around conversations between friends (however distant) and twitter is conversations around interested parties. For businesses who sell direct to consumers then these channels may well be the best ones for you. Facebook has a slightly younger (52% 18 -34)  demographic to Twitter (57% 26 -44). Information from www.digitalbuzzblog.com

which way to choose?

4) What to say? You need to think about what you want people to do? essentially  know more about your brand and how to access your business. To become the word of mouth champions for what you do. This will only come through communicating with people and not talking at people.

A great example of this is www.janefardon.com on twitter @janefardon they are a cosmetics company who have created a British made range of make-up designed to suit your colouring, they have listened to what their consumers wanted and created a range to suit that need. Their tweets are directed to the people who use or would use their cosmetics and reflect the company ethos of caring for their customers. 


5) Don't be afraid to ask for professional help, 
Don't feel as though you ought to be able to do it all, when you don't have to. Look at what you are doing, is your output as good as it should be? look at your competition, how do you compare? What type of content are you putting out there? Is your network growing? There are plenty of places you can turn to when looking for help. There are companies like mine which offer twitter lessons, can create social media campaigns and help to run your social media campaigns. There are apps you can use, such as tweetdeck and hoot suite to help you manage your social media. One word of warning on this one, don't be tempted to fully automate all of your social media output, you'll never reap the full benefits of this medium if you don't listen and communicate with people!  


6) Keep going
The final bit of advice is to keep going with social media, many companies start and then it gets forgotten about, and its always then bottom of the 'to-do' list. Here are some places to start looking to take things further:
 business2community.com 7-essentials-of-an-effective-social-media-marketing-strategy 
taking the fear out of trying to have the perfect social media campaign travelmarketreport.com

The Ones to watch.....

There are always lots of ones to watch lists and I thought I would do one of my own, Over the last few months I've been aware of exciting businesses, individuals and charities within Sheffield and I wanted to share what I had seen and to encourage people to add their own.

1) Spaceworks 
They are growing, expanding and innovating, things to watch in this space include The Third Sector Cafe, the new Cafe Politique and creative space. All of which makes it an exciting and innovative place for freelancers to work from.
http://spacetowork.blogspot.com/

2) The Corner Gallery 
They specialise in the promotion of newer artists and are positively committed to supporting Sheffield artists. 


3) Wildago 
A fantastic year last year, I really enjoyed collaborating with Wil on our Pop-up show. With her larger than life characters Pearl, Todd the dog and Edmund amongst others, life around Wil will never be dull!

4) St Mary's Church
If you have not been there, this could seem like an odd choice, but its a church with a difference, it uses its building to fund its innovative and community minded projects to great effect. 


There are a few others I would list in there Me pod , Revitalise Fitness, Shake Up Sheffield and  finally The Huntersbarasaur


Each of these Sheffield businesses, organisations and charities have made a positive impact within Sheffield this year and I can see big things ahead for them over the following year.


Do you have any recommendations for 2012?