Web Design & SEO Blog, Inverness Blogs

Social media is everywhere. Even on some television adverts now, companies want you to follow them on Twitter or become their fan on Facebook. With Google pushing their Google+ network and the recent rise of Pinterest – using the Internet for ‘social’ reasons and business promotion appears to no longer be a fad or craze. It appears to be here to stay.

For Businesses and especially small businesses it can be difficult to know where to invest your energies. In this post I want to focus on using Twitter for Business Networking.

Twitter for Business: It’s ‘Social’ Media

When embarking on promoting your business on Twitter it is important to remember that it was designed first and foremost as a social platform. You should use it to interact with people not just to push your product or service.

Anyone who has used Twitter for even a short period will have come across numerous auto tweets including any or all of the following:-

• Words of wisdom, sayings and proverbs
• Bots which latch onto certain words in your posts and reply
• Link Spam
• … and worse?

As in real life, people online still prefer to deal with real people. So if you must automate any tweets, make sure you balance it out with actual interaction.

Twitter for Business: Listen then Speak

You can use Twitter’s excellent search function to find people in your business niche and listen to what they’re saying. Then you can reply intelligently and begin to build up a rapport with that person. New relationships do not turn into business straight away so don’t expect them to! Twitter is not a door-to-door sales platform.

You can also use this function to find people who could be in your target market. For example if you’re a painter and decorator, you could search for phrases like ‘need a new painter’, ‘low cost decorator’ or look for tweets in your local area and reply in your professional capacity. Start a conversation – in this instance the person already needs what you offer, so offer it to them!

Share the Wealth (and use Hashtags)

Use the platform to share snippets of what you know. For example if you’re into alternative therapies then why not share some health tips or the latest natural remedies? Write blog posts (more frequently than I am able to do at the moment) and share your knowledge. This builds up confidence that you know what you’re talking about and keeps you in people’s minds.

When you post a Tweet remember to use relevant hashtags to attract people to you with interest in those channels. And if you’re wondering ‘what is a hashtag?‘ then check out then Twitter’s definition is:

The # symbol, called a hashtag is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

(bold emphasis mine)

So you’re interacting with people and posting relevant information to attract attention to yourself. What about networking?

Twitter for Business: Get Hooked into a Network

When we first moved our web design and SEO Business to Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland I looked to see which business networking events already existed. Then I got hooked into them, gave and received business cards and 6 months later am starting our first project resulting from those events.

Business networking via social media is no different in principle: find good quality business networks, meet and talk with members, give and receive ‘follows’ and later on down the line it may turn into business.

Some Great Twitter Business Networks

Following via a list I keep up to date with some business networks and I’m happy to recommend these ones. They are listed in alphabetical order to treat everyone fairly.

	BlueBiz Network “Bluebiznet are passionate about supporting local businesses and SMEs. We provide a great platform for businesses to promote their services” Twitter: @bluebiznet Website: www.bluebiznet.co.uk
	Gladstone Business Network At Gladstone BizNetwork we’re about helping YOUR business to GROW! We promote, advertise, refer and introduce local & national business. So please FOLLOW & PROMOTE US on Twitter and we’ll do the same for you! We provide marketing help and support to thousands of UK businesses, Free PR to business owners and Business strategy and development Twitter: @Gladstone_Net Website: www.gbizuk.info
	Purple Dog Network The Purple Dog Network was the first network of its kind on Twitter and has grown from zero to over 16k followers in just 8 months. Our #purplebiz competition attracts well over 100 retweets every day and the winner receives free promotion to our 16k followers. We also offer tools, tips & strategies to make the best use of Twitter for Marketing and are constantly coming up with new networking ideas. Twitter: @PurpleDogNet Website: thepurpledog.net
	The UK Enterprise Network Our aim at @UKenterpriseNet is to get business engaged and connected by using Twitter and Social Media – we offer training and strategy along with Twitter promotions. New website coming very soon. Twitter: @UKenterpriseNet Website: www.ukenterprisenetwork.com
	Working Bees At Working Bees we make it easier for you to promote your skills and services online with our Free Online Vouchers. The Online Vouchers we just launched might help you in better promoting your skills and services. When you register you’ll be granted up to 5 Free Online Vouchers to immediately. We are creating a community, with social networking capabilities available for members. This is a great platform to use for those looking to develop their service, brand or reputation. Twitter: @Working_Bees Website: www.working-bees.com

What do these Networks Offer?

These excellent Twitter networks offer business support and features such as:-

• A ‘Business of the Day’ competition – giving your business multiple tweets over 24 hours
• Encouragement to their followers to follow you
• Re-tweets of your posts
• Low-cost sponsorship for a period of time giving you extra exposure

And of course you gain access to all their followers who could become potential customers and suppliers (or even friends!)

So go on, get stuck into some great Twitter networks, meet new people and make new contacts. Used properly Twitter can be a really effective marketing tool for your business.

And so after wrapping up work for today, it leaves us to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and all the very best for 2012!

Here’s the e-card we sent to clients and friends for your enjoyment as well!

Okay so this post will be a rant and hopefully quite a short rant.

I’ve been doing a spot of link building tonight for our own business – it always happens late at night well after it’s even feasible to work on client websites!

I was focussing on our website hosting services and came across a problem, which I have seen in so many other arenas – sites make you register. Most want at least the following from you for a most basic interaction:-

• E-mail Address
• Your Name

Some even go so far as to require an actual address and maybe a phone number. Why? Why do they want this volume of data. I can tell you they won’t get more money out of me because I’m annoyed we have have had to give over some information.

So Why Do Sites Make You Register?

I don’t have huge amounts of evidence, but experience indicates the following potential reasons:

• The ability to send you e-mail by a clause in their ‘Terms and Conditions’ which you almost certainly won’t read
• Control: sites that think they have something worth giving your personal details for will convince you that’s the case so they can control (and monitor) access to their content
• Data is valuable: the more data a site can get on you the more it can analyse user behaviour, sales patterns, geographical regions and more which is powerful for marketing and sales

No doubt there are more and I am going to open this post for feedback on your experiences and opinions on the matter. So what can we begin to conclude?

A Lesson from Cart Abandonment

Cart Abandonment has been linked to forced registration, which is why when I reworked Harris Tweed Gifts seller, Hillcraft of Harris we removed the necessity for registration and guess what – we got sales!

I feel a lesson can be learned here – unless registration is absolutely necessary, don’t make people register! People who have freedom are likely to be happier with your offering, may be more likely to buy, interact and share your content.

And those verbs are much more useful and give a greater return than ‘register’, so let’s not enforce it anymore, eh?

Open to the Floor

I have purposefully left some things unsaid to get some feedback, which can be included in the post itself if useful – so why do you think sites force you to register and how can we change the ‘registration culture’ we have?

Comments Received

• @RootsWebSol – making people register is terrible for accessibility. most sites that u register for are just building a list to sell to.
• @AudreysCat – interesting – good points – but as I’d have to leave my email to comment….I’m commenting here instead…
• Very valid point. As a result I have removed the necessity to provide e-mail address on this blog. I hadn’t spotted that in the settings and ensures I’m ‘practicing what I preach’ – so thank you.

Secure Socket Layering (SSL)

Google have announced changes to its privacy for users of personalised search. The main points appear to be

• SSL (Secure Socket Layering), used to encrypt data sent over the Internet, will be turned on by default for Google.com users and for logged in users.
• Google Analytics will no longer show for this group of people which search terms they entered to find a website.
• Analytics will show that an organic search through Google resulted in a visit
• As @yoast points out if you’re buying Adwords space you will still get the data.

So what does this actually mean and should we get too excited about it? Well we got excited about Google Instant Previews, saying that would cause havoc with SEO and not a lot changed. And I suspect the same will apply here. We need to keep things in perspective:-

• The search terms concealed will only relate to a relatively small percentage of results – .com searches for users who are logged in, or .com users who have purposefully chosen to use the SSL version of search.
• Google Webmaster Tools will still show the search data, which can be imported into Google Analytics if you are an authorised administrator of both for that site
• Here in the UK it should have minimal impact at least for now. I have asked @mattcutts if a UK roll-out has a timeline, I will wait to see if we get an answer

Some may cry that this will destroy SEO efforts, as has happened on numerous occasions, but the principles of Google SEO will still be the same – quality content organised around relevant keywords, which is shareable, naturally linkable and gets some social media buzz. You can still measure success of keywords and visitors from search in general, which is a see KPI of SEO.

Although I agree with Yoast that it is not right if privacy is genuinely the motivator for Google that advertisers can get the data but non-payers can’t, I don’t think this will be as drastic as some may be making out.

But as with everything in SEO, we wait and see. What’s your opinion and where do you think this could lead?

Here is an edited version of the exciting news we sent out to clients and friends of mOxby Design on Monday!

To friends, clients and contacts of mOxby Design,

We’re going through a bit of a change at the moment at mOxby Design, and are currently in the process of packing up our home office, along with our home, as we are moving!

In five weeks time, the end of October, we are relocating ourselves and the business to Inverness in Scotland.

We’re moving for a number of reasons, both personal and business related, but wanted to let you all know way ahead of time so that you can speak to us about it directly.

For clients local to Peterborough, we will still be very much available on the telephone, e-mail and we will be more available on Skype from November too.

Due to family commitments we will be visiting the Lincoln/Peterborough area periodically and therefore will also use this time to arrange see clients and friends of the business.

We look forward to working for you in the beautiful Scottish highlands, and hearing from you in the near future.

So… moving to Inverness!

There is much work and packing to do over the next month, but we can assure you the same quality of service, web design and SEO our clients are used to. Please, if you have any questions please get in touch and we would be more than happy to answer your queries.