Social Media courses for SMEs in Hull

As of 4th August 2010, Imagine dpm will be delivering social media courses to businesses in Hull and Yorkshire as part of the University of Hull’s iHull Social Media project.

Social media courses covering LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Blogging with WordPress, audio and video podcasting, Google Apps and social media strategy are some of the titles of the courses.

What’s even better is that these courses are 60% funded by ECIF for ALL businesses in the Yorkshire region and, even if they aren’t eligible for funding, there is a substantial 40% discount for public sector, education and NHS.

If you want to find out more information go to the iHull Social Media website : http://www.ihullsocialmedia.co.uk

30 SEO, Social Media & Marketing Case Studies that Prove the ROI of it All | SEOptimise

If anyone still needed any convincing as to the positive ROI of social media and marketing here are 30 SEO, Social Media & Marketing Case Studies that Prove the ROI of it All | SEOptimise.

These studies include case studies covering :

• Link building/baiting
• Other SEO
• Social Media
• Blogging
• and Others

These took over a year to compile so if you are interested – we think these are worth a look!

Benefits of having an online profile – East Riding Business Network

I had the great pleasure of helping Jo Branagan, chairwoman of the East Riding Business Network, to develop their social media strategy. One of the most important processes that I advocate is that:

1. You know what you want to achieve. Have the goals that you want to reach – manage your expectations.
2. Set up your website and social media platforms ensuring they have the correct information, photos, backgrounds and are consistent. Also look at your social media policy – do you have one?
3. Ensure that your team understand how to use the social media tools and the social media strategy.
4. Communicate your message – educate your group, organisation, team.

Unfortunately, due to infrastructure problems, after 10 people started logging onto the wi-fi, the system crashed and no-one could access Twitter or LinkedIn.

However, the session went on and with over 50 people in the audience, the East Riding Business Network saw an overnight uptake of their LinkedIn group, with some additional members coming on board as well! Now that’s return on investment in a week!

We also had great media coverage from BBC Radio Humberside and the Hull Daily Mail.

Hull Girl Geek Dinner : 11th March 2010

We’re pleased to announce that Imagine dpm have agreed to support the Hull Girl Geek Dinners (part of the Girl Geek Dinner international community).

The first of this year’s series of Hull Girl Geek Dinners, starting on Thursday 11th March, and is being sponsored by the University of Hull. Hull Girl Geeks is about bringing together women who like or work within science and technology, which is pretty much everyone these days. This is the FIRST meeting whereby local business women (and men) and university students are getting together. We hope that we will be able to build this community to encourage ladies from schools, colleges, university and employment /industry to engage with each other and share their tech stories and support.

It will be hosted at Hull’s incredibly amazing HIVE venue and we will be having a demonstration (yes – we will be wearing 3D glasses so that we can be ‘immersed’ into a virtual reality!). Hull Immersive Visualization Environment (HIVE) is based at The University of Hull, next to the Computer Science Department.

This, the 3rd event, is the first of a series of collaborations between Hull Girl Geek Dinners, Leeds Girl Geeks and supported by UKRC and WYLNN.

Our speakers for the evening :

Emma McGrattan

Emma McGrattan – Senior Vice President of Engineering, is responsible for the development and integration of the Ingres database and associated products and technologies. A leading authority in DBMS technologies, Miss McGrattan has been instrumental in the ongoing success of the Ingres product line. She will talk about women in science and the challenges that they face.

Emma Smith-Howe – Will tell us more about HIVE and provide a demonstration of this fantastic 3D facility that all participants will have an opportunity to experience.

so what’s a girl geek dinner anyway? — click the link for more information about the Girl Geek Dinners around the world (yes – this is global!)

The evening will be informal, friendly and chilled. For just £10, you can enjoy some food, drinks and the chance to hang out with the city’s brightest creatives, technologists, programmers, entrepreneurs, marketeers, PR professionals and creative & digital girls – we only have 20 places available for the event so you’ll need to be quick!

AND Boys/Men? Of course you’re welcome!

Either be invited or come with a girl!

The event starts at 6.30 pm

6.30 – 7.00 : Dinner, Drinks and Registration

7.00 – 7.05 : Introductions : nti’s Leia Bassett, Jasmine Cornes & Delia MacNamara

7.05 – 7.35 : Emma McGrattan : “Inspiring Women in Science”

7.35 – 7.40 : Q&A

7.40 – 8.10 : Emma Smith-Howe (HIVE Co-ordinator)

8.10 – 8.20 : Q&A

8.20 – 8.30 : Final Note : Jasmine Cornes

8.30 – 9.00 : Networking

Why not join our Facebook Group and keep up to date and informed!

This event is going to be filmed. By registering for a place, you agree to be filmed. If you have any issues with this please contact delia.macnamara@imaginedpm.co.uk

Managing your social media profile

As social media gets firmly established as a web tool in our daily lives, and with more social media products coming to market, I suggest that you create a Google Doc with some of the following so that all you need to do is copy and paste the information whenever you are registering:

1. A brief description about yourself … you could even split this into personal, professional, hobby, etc for various networks that you may want to subscribe to.
2. Your company name and short desription of what it offers ensuring that you have good key words
3. Educational Details
4. Professional Details
5. Areas of Expertise
6. Social Networks you are a member of such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc
7. Blogs you maintain
8. Your interests : These may also be broken down into subsections such as music you like, books, food, sports, etc.

These are only a few items but it should save a lot of time when filling in these profile forms and keeping your message consistent (you can always modify the details within the edit to personalise to each social network).

This is especially useful when using sites such as http://knowem.com/ which will check your brand over 340 popular social media networks and instantly secure your brand across the social web.

Don’t forget, to also have profile photos (professional or fun), and you company logo in the same folder so that these can be easily uploaded.

If you have any further items that should be added to this list, please feel free to add it in the comments.

Alistair Campbell on Social Media

Watching Loose Women, Kate Thorton interviewed Alistair Campbell about his politics and the media. It was interesting to hear that instead of buying all the newspapers, he now only buys two, and rarely watches the broadcast news. The rest is sourced from blogs and social media.

He points out that the public are not interested in the media hype or points of view (which he feels are pre-determined and with agenda).

In terms of business, not understanding social media, or how information is collated and distributed via the internet is absolutely detrimental to their business. Perhaps the impact will not be felt now, but in the future when our youth, the public/the citizens of tomorrow, who have been encouraged to have a voice throughout their education start to be the consumers, businesses – even SMEs – will feel their impact.

This story follows from:
Citizen Journalism : Shaping Our Future

I Love Polaroid!

One of the simple pleasures is coming back as Poloroid bring back their much loved instant film cameras. I personally have one from the 80s and the mini Polaroid version that came out in the mid-90s (many a party shot there). Now in this age of the digital camera, sometimes it’s nice to have the “instant” image to be able to give to someone or just hold in one’s hand despite any dodgy camera work or ill-timed facial expression.

So, it’s back. Here, WebProNews have the interview with Jon Pollock, Polaroid’s Chief Marketing Officer, at CES 2010.

Just when we are getting used to e-books…

Out comes the news that a 15-year-old Japanese girl, “Bunny”, made more than $611,000 selling more than 110,000 paperback copies of a novel she wrote by mostly texting on her cellphone.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/

The Japanese have created this form of writing, called “keitai” — cellphone — novels, via the mobile phone. This is where a text message is sent to a website and published as a novel.

Maho i-Land is the largest cell phone novel site that carries more than a million titles, mainly novice writers, all which are available for free.

One question to raise is : How will this be adopted in education? Will it be adopted to encourage literacy, albeit short form and digital?

This looks like it is going to be a growing industry – especially amongst the younger generation who are used to the short form texting and using the mobile phone as their “personal source for everything”.

For now, though, its popularity and success are determined by the published book sales.

For more information, see Wikipedia : Cell phone novel

A sad time for SMEs in (not-so) Digital City Hull

As the (currently) only local training provider of Web 2.0 training, including social media marketing and online networking, it was disappointing to find that the Hull Skills Fund declined ALL applications for training in this area.  All applicants were asked to resubmit their applications answering questions to a template (that had been distributed after the initial applications were sent in) and all were declined again on the basis that this technology had no direct business benefit.

The Hull Skills Fund was  set up by Hull City Council to be reactive to the economic downturn by amending its criteria to be more flexible in supporting small businesses of Hull. The fund was designed to deal with issues relating to training, employment and the growth of sustainable small businesses and skills in the City of Kingston upon Hull.

The criteria was amended in August 2009 to further support SMEs with less than 10 employees, with a training grant of up to 70% up to a total cost of £3000, to ensure that employees have the right skills to meet the demands of employers and try to boost the local economy in the economic downturn.  Grants also considered for training that have a direct business benefit to the organisation and accompanied by a supporting business case.

The training that businesses were signing up to were “Explore your business with digital” which, by the end of the course, the SME has a fully functioning website with video and audio content, a website that is search engine optimised and seach engine submitted, including an e-commerce and email marketing facility- to name but a few of the benefits.  We also introduce open source software such as OpenOffice.org which provides a significant savings than Microsoft products.  More importantly, our students have said that they feel more “confident” about using technology, that they didn’t realise how “easy” it was to implement into their business and were now “aware” of the new technologies available to them that could help them save money.

We were told that one resubmitted application was declined because the panel could not understand why a business needed to be on page one/top of the Google search … hmmm – do the panel ever go beyond the 3rd page of a Google search, let alone the first.

Question : How much is that worth to a business?  Can you quantify it?  Can you measure it?

Certainly – at least the business will still be around during any down turn as they continue to keep in contact with their clients using their social networks like LinkedIn and keep up to date and share with like-minded people via Twitter.  Not only do SMEs save on their bottom line costs but they can also MEASURE their return on investment using all the analytical tools available.  Can you measure how many people actually read a poster on the wall?  Or listen to your radio advertisement during the day?

In the initial stages SMEs can quantify the benefits in adopting Web 2.0 technologies in terms of savings. The “AFTERS” are the business streams because they are keeping in contact with their customers and communicating on a regular basis via an online network.

Our “Podcasting for Business” and “Promote your business with video on the web“, enable the SME to create video and audio content on their sites.  Included as part of the course is presentation skills that can be used in the real world as well the virtual.  These presentation skills help you win business.

Why would you need a video on your website?  Because people BUY people.  Imagine that you are doing your introduction – once – and this can be viewed whenever someone visits your website.  Your client gets to meet and know you before they pick up the phone or email or, better still, CONNECTS with you via a network.  Testimonials – especially video testimonials (can you “fake” those) add credibility to your work and your ability.  Videos also can show your workmanship.

For SMEs in the professional sectors, these courses can provide additional income streams as they learn to create their own materials that they can sell.

We were told that “social media marketing/online networking” training was not essential in today’s world of business – but a Quality Assurance course is.  Do they connect with Business Link who are providing presentations on this – BUT no hands-on training which Imagine dpm provide.  We were told that the panel were asking “Why do businesses need an online presence?”

Question : How will doing this training add to employability?

As the Hull 14-19 Partnership Creative and Media Diploma Champion (2009), I have seen an incredible wealth of talent in our young people.  We have 50 young people at Level 2 and 9 at Level 3.  All of these students are required to do 10 days work experience.  However, neither local businesses nor education, nor public sector for that matter, know how to use the online tools for enterprise.  How are they going to positively engage these young people and maximise their skills if they don’t know how to do it themselves?

All the businesses that do our training sign up to providing work-experience opportunities for our young people – whether it be IT, Creative and Media, Business, Administration and Finance.  SMEs are very busy running their business and, as business grows, it becomes harder to maintain the one marketing tool that is accessed by the world – their website – and now these websites can be accessed on mobile phones.  So what does it mean for employment and work experience – our SMEs need these young people and their skills and want to grow.  But Hull Skills Fund says “no”.

Our courses have been created to be jargon free, fun, productive and hands-on with real results on completion and after the course.  They are designed for SMEs, social enterprises, education and the public sector, with the aim for greater connectivity, communication, inclusion and benefit.

I would like to know who is on this panel – I have been told that I am not allowed to know who they are – the panel also refuse to attend our “Is Web 2.0 for You?” presentation that explains what is happening with Web 2.0 and why it is important to (at least) know about it.  I wonder if they have a mobile phone… when did they first get one?  What type of mobile phone do they have – is it a smart phone like an iPhone?  When did they first learn how to use email?  When did they first get broadband?

Finally, taken directly from Hull City Council’s website :

“Knowledge based city

We are working to ensure that the city is maximising the opportunities that technology can bring. We exploring how technology can help to regenerate the city and create jobs.

As well as working on a strategic level the council is actively involved in a number of partnerships and projects:

• Hull CityDigital, a contact point for digital activities in the City. Includes partners from private and public sector.
• Hull ICT Alliance a public/private sector consortium that brings together innovative organisations with the aim of encouraging and assisting the development and use of ICT among firms in the Hull area. Click on the ‘hullictalliance’ link for more information.
• Digital Home Showcase, a purpose built flat demonstrating how broadband enabled services can be delivered directly to the home, also testing interoperability of different applications. A key element in our wish to be a Digital Laboratory.
  Click on the ‘digital-home-showcase’ link on the left for more information.
• Connected Hull looks at the infrastructure and service needs of the future – ensuring Hull can remain the Capital of broadband Britain.
• Eurocities’ Knowledge Society Forum – Telecities, Hull represents the UK on the Advisory Board of a trans-European network, working actively to lobby EU policy on issues relating to the Knowledge Society and the Knowledge Economy. Use the ‘eurocities’ link on the left for more information.
• Interactive TV programme delivered by a Special Purpose Delivery Vehicle called Broadband Capital. Revolutionising Teaching and Learning provides video-rich learning through digital interactive television and broadband-enabled PCs for school-age pupils, young people and adult learners. Humber Business TV enables local small and medium sized enterprises to access video-rich training materials and news programming on-demand. Use the ‘broadbandcapital’ link on the top left for more information.”

I fail to understand how the Hull Skills Fund can reject any training that will contribute to Hull becoming a “Knowledge-based City” when it is written on their own website.

As always, it is always the SMEs and micro businesses, who employ 93% of the nation’s workforce, who are discriminated against in terms of acquiring essential IT skills for this modern age and keep ahead in business.

I welcome any comments that you may have.

YouTubing 101: Northwestern Offers Course on Viral Videos

On March 19, 2009, Northwestern University 633 Clark Street Evanston, IL 60208, Eric Patrick, Northwestern University assistant professor of radio/television/film believed thatin winter quarter he offered what he believes to be the first academic course on viral videos.

YouTubing 101: Northwestern Offers Course on Viral Videos

Shared via AddThis

Imagine dpm however first produced its course, “Promote your business with video on the web” using the same features for the University of Hull, Centre for LifeLong Learning.

The Centre for Lifelong Learning has always been a supporter of new technologies and courses and ensuring that adults continue to benefit today through education. It was sad a year ago when HEFCE decided to pull funding for those adults that already had a Level 4 / Degree qualification … do we really stop learning?