Over 80% of small and medium-sized businesses use social media

With more and more people constantly logged into the social media world, it is no surprise to find out that over 80% of small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) use social media to market themselves. Recent research done by LinkedIn found that of the 81% of businesses that use social media, 94% of them use it for their marketing.

Social media allows SMB to increase awareness of their brand and generate new leads. It is becoming such a standard in marketing plans that having a budget for social media advertising is essential and on the rise.

Thinking outside the brand box

Building a strong, recognisable brand and creating fluid brand awareness is a challenge that many of us in the marketing world face. According to the experts of the Oxford English Dictionary, a brand is ‘a type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name.’ They also explain that brand awareness is ‘the extent to which consumers are familiar with the qualities or image of a particular brand of goods or services.’ 

Simple and to the point. Unfortunately, they forgot to mention how important your brand is to your business and how if you are not willing to adapt it you can easily loose the brand awareness you have worked so hard to achieve over the years.

Team Digity takes on Sport Relief

This March a courageous team from Digity will be running for charity. Participating in Sport Relief 2014, Chris and Ann will join hundreds of other men and women in Wokingham on Sunday 23 March for the 3 Mile Run in the Sport Relief Games while raising funds for charities in the UK and abroad.

Tweet yourself to success

Talk about making the most of Twitter! The American company Esurance launched a Twitter campaign with their television advert immediately after the Super Bowl. They are giving away the $1.5 million they saved for getting the first advert after the Superbowl (as opposed to one during the game).

Who bought the most expensive advert spots on telly?

The Super Bowl is considered ‘the game’ in the Professional American Football schedule for many fans. It pits the best two teams of the NFL against each other to find out who is the best each year. But for everyone else, it is the one day of the year where advertisers try to create new and iconic television ads that will be remembered forever.

Preparing for a career in Marketing

We frequently receive enquiries in regards to vacancies, internships and work experience.  Last week we received a request from a young man who is preparing to go to Uni and he just wanted some advice in regards to preparing for a career in marketing.

Read on for my views on the following key areas:

• Choosing the right course
• Identifying the type of role you'll enjoy & excel within
• Building relevant experience (vital!)
• Marketing yourself
• Using social media to boost not destroy your appeal
• Building your own network of contacts
• Finding ways to stand-out from the crowd

Twitter expands ad targeting for 2014

Twitter has just announced that it will start utilising your own customer relationship management (CRM) databases for targeted advertising in a variety of ways.  This will allow advertisers a chance to specifically target their customers on Twitter with their unique offer or promotion.

Enjoy responsibly – mobiles down

With the rise of mobile phone usage, some people think that the art of conversation is being lost – including Guinness. They have recently launched an advert politely asking Guinness drinkers to enjoy responsibly by putting their mobiles away.

Make your Facebook page work for you

So you've finally created a Facebook page for your business – great! Now you need to keep it active or you won’t increase your likes, customer interaction or sales. So how do you make the most of your Facebook page without inundating followers with self-promotion that will most likely get passed over?

The multichannel approach wins the Christmas sales

Although Christmas has come and gone, it doesn’t mean we can move on just yet. With all the different advertising campaigns launched in November and December, marketers need to take a moment to reflect before moving on with 2014.

Early reports for non-food retailers are being produced and it looks like those who invested in online marketing and no pre-Christmas discounts are leading the pack for holiday sales. These retailers included Next, John Lewis and Jigsaw, all of which had a larger online presence and online marketing campaign during the shopping season.