I've just been watching the Windows 8 launch videos and I'm pretty un-convinced it's really going to make the massive impact they are hoping for. It does look like they have dumbed-down the interface to make it easier and more inspiring for people to flick through and discover but at first glance, the usability doesn't look great. Perhaps it was the demo but it looked like you need to learn more gestures and rely on their interpretation of the important information & applications which you have in your personal space. I'm sure it will become more obvious when I start playing with it but as a demo, it didn't get me excited and felt a bit like watching a bad shopping channel rather than history being made.
On the hardware front, I will be intrigued to see how it works on Ultrabooks as that's where I see my usage increasing over the coming year or two. I've recently reverted to my laptop more from my iPad because of the sheer power of that device and size of the screen. The issue is portability and battery and Ultrabooks look to be filling those needs nicely.
There's no question there are some very interesting devices which are hitting the market but has Microsoft done enough with this release to compete in the tablet market place...we'll see.
I'm pleased to report that our company Facebook Page reached the 100 Likes milestone recently.
We focused on sending more updates in to the page recently and combined that with some well structured facebook ads to maximise the impact of the likes, comments & shares of the posts and new people Liking the main page itself. We've now set up this blog to feed directly in to it going forward so it's essentially boosted the potential exposure of all the updates here as well. That's what it's all about - boosting awareness in the easiest ways possible.
If you'd like to see how we can focus the content and boost the visibility of your updates, don't hesitate to get in touch and we can show you more.
I'm looking forward to the IoD Cliveden Breakfast on the 14th Dec. The topic this time is Family Business which will be very interesting and certain applies to a number of our clients. For further information visit: http://ow.ly/eD1Y0. If you'd like to come along as a guest for this event, let me know.
How is your referral network working for you? Are you getting good quality referrals?
If you're not, ask yourself what you could do differently to help your contacts better understand what you do and see if an incentive program might help...
It's also key to actually ask the direct question so people know you want more business. It may sound obvious but it's easy to assume you are 'busy enough' with the clients you have currently.
Just for the record - We LOVE referrals to new clients!
In the good old days there was a popular saying that "if you had a good experience you'd tell 2 people and if you had a bad experience you might tell 10."
In today's world more and more people turn to facebook and twitter and you tell ALL of their contacts...
With this in mind, customer service has never been so important, nor has the importance of a robust social media strategy! If you'd like to find out how to make the right impact, get in touch...
Thanks to Tony Mullan from Anthony Mullan furniture for his recommendation on our facebook page. It was fantastic to be able to play our part in making sure they had such a fantastic impact at the Ideal Home Show and receiving special praise from the organisers as a 'must see' stand.
It's been spoken about for some time but it seems Hootsuite have now finally added the functionality to post directly in to your LinkedIn company page. This is a great edition to the powerful social media management suite (with free accounts available).
Sometimes it's good to look back in order to move forward. For example, contacting old customers with a hello email to tell them what's new and exciting about your business!
Their business is likely to have evolved as well so you never know the opportunity you could unlock by just saying "hello"!
I never get tired of sharing this video as it is packed full of interesting facts and figures about the emergence of Social Media. If you doubt whether your business should be engaging in Social Marketing, you need to watch this and re-think...
Eat Drink Date is a new dating service which introduces 9 new dates at each event. You basically sign-up for one of their evenings and go along to a restaurant (either on your own or with 2 friends as a trio ticket) and with each course, 3 new dates are served.
As the evening progresses you will enjoy a lovely meal and the company of 9 potential dates. At the end of the time in the restaurant you're then taken to their VIP section of a local cocktail bar to progress the evening with the rest of the group.
It's an exciting time for the company and we look forward to seeing how they develop. Check out:
This is a snippet from a very interesting story on the BBC website in regards to cookies (text files used by companies - particularly advertisers - to record information).
"Thousands of UK websites are now in breach of a law that dictates what they can log about visitors. European laws that define what details sites can record in text files called cookies came into force on 26 May. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it would offer help to non-compliant sites rather than take legal action against them.
Nightingale Consultancy recently approached us to help create and establish an online presence to represent their consultancy services which are focused on the charity sector.
Established in 2000 by Melanie Nightingale, a charity professional with over 14 years experience, Nightingale Consultancy is proud of it's extensive and proven track record in fundraising, training and charity management.
Hi all, we recently posted an offer of a free marketing consultation via Networking in Berkshire which went down well so I thought I'd extend the offer here so everyone can benefit from it.
The session is designed to last about an hour and give you an insight in to how Digity operate and how your business would benefit from our service going forward. We'll take a look in to what you are doing now and how our approach to creating marketing plans and tactical campaigns can make a massive difference (without requiring massive investment!).
If you'd like to take advantage of this, then drop me an email and we can schedule something in soon. I'm confident we can make a difference so why not see for yourself...at the very least you'll end up with an outside view on what you're doing which is always good!
One of the main points which strikes me when talking to business owners and marketing professionals at the moment is that there's a real fear of 'social media' out there. From digging a bit deeper it's clear that people are (naturally) worried about how their business or products/services can ever come across as social/sociable?
"Chris, who cares what I had for breakfast?"
is a common question I'm asked...the answer is naturally going to represent a low number, but that's a great example of someone who can't visualise the opportunity. It's not about the menial details of your life, it's about generating awareness and excitement in your staff, your brand and naturally, your offering to the market and your expertise / ability to interact & support others.
Overall, I'd advise that you take a bit of time to investigate what's going on at present. Just because you don't use these networks yourself, doesn't mean you should write them off. The key question is whether any of your target market do - because if they answer is yes, why wouldn't you want them to see your logo every now and then as a bare minimum?
I was invited to the Trade Day of the Gadget Show with James Bennett (MD of The Accessories Crowd) and it was my first time at the show. We started off strongly as we met Pollyanna Woodward (here's a photo of James and Polly), one of the presenters of the Gadget Show on C5.
There was a lot to see but it was apparently smaller than in previous years which is a sign of the current times I guess. That aside, there were lots of examples of the latest technology on display - gaming, audio-visual, mobile and plenty of fun stuff in between.
My stand of the day was ironically the Polaroid stand who had a massive frame hanging from the ceiling with an empty middle - which made the point fantastically! Typical that I'm surrounded by 3D technology and it's the empty space which made the biggest impact on me:
Our Networking in Berkshire website has welcomed over 900 members and this number continues to increase every week. Members advertise their own events and there are many listed on the website, as well as use this service to network online.
Digity set-up this platform to help local businesses connect and teamed up with Keith Grover to launch Networking in Surrey which is now also over the 900 mark. This shows how strong the networking scene is and it's fantastic to see both these services being well sed.
They are free to join so if you haven't yet, sign-up and let the others know who you are and what you do!
We were approached by one of our clients to create a basic micro-site to help promote their Olympic Contractor Accommodation block for those working at the Olympic Development Site in Stratford, London.
For just £250* (less than a half page advert in one edition of a typical local newspaper), we were able to provide them with an online presence and create some Google advertising to drive relevant traffic in to it.
If you would like to discuss the opportunities which exist in this area, get in touch.
We're delighted to announce the new website for Ashridge Manor, Wokingham which has now gone live. As a resident we can certainly speak highly of the service and the incredible setting - it's certainly a lovely place to come in to each day.
If you're looking for offices in Wokingham, check out their availability and if you need a reference, just ask!
It was great to see Anthony Mullan furniture set-up and ready to greet new clients at the Ideal Home Show 2012. The stand was custom designed (as are all their projects) and delivered a fantastic insight in to the range of designs, colours and materials they can accommodate within their kitchens and bedroom furniture ranges.
The stand was sponsored by NEFF who had a number of their latest appliances installed within the design and they are set to grab the attention of the thousands of people who will be attending the show.
This sounds like I'm getting ready to pitch a new solution to you which is going to drive tonnes of traffic in your direction. In actual fact it's a genuine question that I recommend everyone ask themselves and conduct some internal research before answering.
The thought process behind this is fairly simple; do I need a greater quantity of traffic or do I need those visitor numbers to be more relevant to meet my objectives? Naturally to answer this you need to know what your objectives are, but let's say you sell shoes and your instinct tells you that your traffic is at a good level. Would you rather have 100 people visit your website and 2 of them make a purchase or 10 people visit your website where 5 of them do? Naturally it would depend on the cost per acquisition for the 2 vs the 5 and whether you can scale either model but you get my point and if you know your current cost per sale, you'll at least know if you're getting better or worse in your achievements as time goes by.
As Pets Plus Pet shop in Reading enhance their Facebook profile page, we worked with them to re-design their home page to include their live comments and discussions. This gave us the chance to freshen the design and feature their latest offers on the home page.
I'm not sure if it's running an agency with lots of clients or simply the way life seems to be going but the challenge in today's business environment is keeping track of everything you need to. I spotted this requirement as a younger man at University when I invested good money in a Palm Pilot. This little device would manage my calendar in a digital format as well as tasks and notes. It had a stylus and was in sync with my PC to ensure I had a back-up.
Today, the technology is more advanced and my calendar, contacts, to-do list, notes and even files are all available from my iPhone, iPad, laptop or pretty much anywhere else I'd need to get online. It's great as it gives me the freedom to update appointments or notes on whichever device is convenient, knowing everything will be back-up and available from wherever I need it (thanks to online connectivity wherever I go these days).
This morning I attended a business networking breakfast at Windsor Racecourse and it was a fantastic event. As well as a variety of food and drink to choose from, there must have been over 60 attendees and they had Ben Hunt-Davis MBE speaking.
Ben rowed for Great Britain for almost a decade, competing at six World Championships and three Olympic Games. The highlight of his sporting career came at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when he was a member of the Men's Eight that won the Gold Medal, becoming the first British winners of the event since 1912.
As someone who dedicates a fair amount of time to face-to-face networking, I am often asked by people I meet as to whether they should 'tweet' (i.e. post updates via twitter, the popular social networking website).
As a marketer I've kind of grown up with the old saying "there's no such thing as bad publicity" etched in to my brain so in that sense, if you're making some noise, then good for you! I will however caveat that with some other points to bear in mind:
I was delighted to open my email this morning and find out that The Accessories Crowd website has now gone live! This website has been created by my good friend James Bennett who has many years experience within the mobile sector and he has big plans to help people like me, enjoy their gadgets even more!
This is definitely a website to add to your favourites as if you're in to your gadgets like I am, it will definitely inspire when thinking about how to protect your devices whilst making a bit of a statement at the same time.
As a gesture to our Digity following, he is happy to extend his launch offer of 10% off your first order.
There is lots of talk about the economic down-turn in the USA but one company which is leading the way in innovation and success is Apple. They registered $46bn in revenue over this time period and sold a tremendous amount of smart devices.
Whilst this is great for Apple shareholders, the opportunity actually extends to every business. More and more people are switching to smart phones and tablets and this is resulting in more and more visits to websites taking place from mobile devices. As a result, there are many opportunities to reach your target market which simply didn't exist before - from location based searches, general surfing, apps and of course social media.
Given the economy, but more importantly the change in user habits, the High Street has today seen another one of it's major supporters face a financially tough time as Blacks Leisure go in to Administration.
This is the latest in an increasing line of major High Street brands who are trying to deal with an evolving market place rather than riding the wave and going with it. There's an old phrase; "we're going to hit the high street" and I think that phrase continues to grow in significance as each year passes as I plan my visits to the shops with military precision now - and I literally hit the places I need as quickly as possible and get out equally as fast! So what could change/evolve to help? I've got a few ideas...
Ok so it's a new year and time to re-focus on the Blog...let's see how it goes!
Here's to a productive 2012 and despite the doom and gloom in the media there are plenty of opportunities to compete for. That's my keyword for 2012...'compete'. I won't pretend anything will be easy this year but it would be boring if it was wouldn't it ;)
