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Social Media for Churches

Facebook may have millions of people using it but how can churches and Christian organisations use it effectively? Twitter is very influential but can it make an impact with the Gospel? YouTube may have millions of users but can it really get people into church?
Our Social Media for Churches event will answer those questions and more. Areas covered during the three hour event will include:
How to use social media as an effective tool to communicate with your church/organisation.
How social media can be used to reach out to those who don’t know Jesus.
How social media can encourage positive publicity about your church/organisation.
Why you don’t need to be afraid of social media.
Why you don’t need to spend hours on it to make social media work.
Presented by Mark Saxby, the co-owner of a successful social media marketing company in Derby and a Christian for 20 years, Mark will talk you through the social media world in plain English, using the communication techniques learned in 11 years at the BBC.
Where: The Riverside Centre (home of Community Church Derby), Pride Park, Derby, DE24 8HY.
When: Saturday 3 March, 9.30am-12.30pm (refreshments from 9am).
Cost: £20 per delegate for the first two delegates per organisation. £10 per additional delegate. All prices exclude VAT.
To find out more or to book, call us on 01332 776910 or email Kerry Saxby.

How can my business use Pinterest and what is Pinterest anyway?

What is Pinterest and how is it any use for business? It’s become one of the fastest growing social networks ever with more website traffic generated from it than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube put together. Take a listen to Mark Saxby quizzing Martin Broadhurst about the the social network which is getting a lot of people excited. It’s today’s Status Update…
Social media podcast - The Status UpdateWhat the heck is Pinterest? (mp3)
And you can follow Status Social on Pinterest here or check out our Pinterest for Business workshops.

The Status Update: I’m a B2B. Which social network should I be on?

So many social networks, so little time… but if you’re a business-to-business, which platform should you concentrate your efforts on? Listen to Mark Saxby interviewing Martin Broadhurst on the subject in The Status Update.

The Status Update: I”m a B2B. Which social network should I be on? (mp3)

The Pet Shop Boys and me

Did you know I was once the third member of the Pet Shop Boys? Well, in my head I was. I loved the keyboard-based music of the Eighties – The Human League, ABC, New Order… I’m even listening to Erasure as I write this blog. One day I even went out and bought a keyboard, a rather expensive one.
The Pet Shops Boys (x3)
Oh, I loved playing with the special effects on it – you should have heard my Hovis tune to a disco beat. I tried to learn from books but it wasn’t sinking in so I took lessons. They cost a fortune and every week I’d shell out another tenner (it was 1991, for goodness sake!) guilty with the knowledge that once again I’d not practiced. After ten weeks of only progressing to a funky version of When the Saints Go Marching In, I knew it was time to stop throwing my money away.
The keyboard has since been sold and I never became a famous keyboard player. Despite my undoubted natural talent, it was clear my lack of putting what I learned into practice was to blame. Isn’t that the case with much of what we learn? I did lots of courses as a journalist at the BBC and much of what I was taught went in but never really sunk in – no matter how good the content. I’ve trained hundreds of people to use social media yet many will never properly put into practice what they’ve been taught. It’s no wonder really; life is so incredibly busy that even the best intentions sometimes fall by the side of the internet superhighway.
Next month (February) we are running one of the UK’s first BTEC’s in Social Media for Business. It caused quite a stir when we launched it. We were asked: could we really help people to understand how to run a social media campaign on a part-time course?
Well that’s where my Pet Shop Boys failure comes in. The BTEC involves three days of classroom coaching followed by several months of putting it into practice. Participants will take what they’ve learned face-to-face and use their new skills on Facebook, Twitter and whichever other social media networks they decide are appropriate for the customers they are targeting. If there’s one thing I learnt from keyboard playing, it’s that you have to put your learning into practice straight away.
Bigger than Baltimora?

How many of you have been on courses and never used your new knowledge ever again? I remember getting some wise advice from a course leader to re-read his course material three times if I wanted it to sink in. As a news editor, I used to get my reporters to report back their course experiences to their BBC colleagues – but how many bosses ever ask you about the course THEY put you on?
I look back with regret at my failure to be a pop star. I could have been as big as Baltimora if I’d persevered. Mind you, there’s still time, I suppose – when the Pet Shop Boys realise my Hovis remix would make a great dance track…
Find out more about the BTEC Social Media for Business.
Message for Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe: Here is the Hovis tune (without a disco beat) so you can hear the potential.

Too boring for social media?

Are some businesses too boring for social media? I’m talking about those industries people may describe as “traditional”, “safe” or “straight”?
There is one thing I’m sure of: Now is the turn of the “boring” businesses to get social media.
It wasn’t long ago that a businesswoman said to me after spotting one of my LinkedIn updates: “You’re moving in good circles. Who would have said barristers would want or need social media training!?”
She isn’t alone in thinking that. I’ve been warned off approaching certain types of companies because they apparently wouldn’t be interested in social media. But it’s not true. Status Social has trained power station suppliers, insurance directors, accountants, construction companies, staff at a credit card processing company and more.
Social media energy companiesIt may have taken some time but the more traditional businesses are realising that they CAN gain from training in social media marketing. It’s dawning on them that using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging is not just a medium for the service industry but for the business-to-business (B2B) market too.
That doesn’t mean that the traditional businesses should be diving into as many social media platforms as they can. One of the most important things we teach is about having a social media strategy. Asking businesses, where is your market? Who are your customers?
For many of the B2Bs, that means LinkedIn. A powerful tool where research shows the majority of people on it earn £55,000+ salaries. That says to me the people on LinkedIn are those with influence, those who make the decisions, those who can make a difference to your business. Many B2Bs are already on LinkedIn but few are using it to its full potential.
£15,000 of new business
As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. One accountant we trained picked up £15,000 in new business within a week of their training. And the email below from someone in one of the traditional companies we trained says everything too:
“Last night I searched through Linked in to find more connections. When I logged onto my emails this morning I had 26 new connections and one of them is an expert who advises all over Europe and I have arranged to meet him at Harrogate in January!
“Although this is only a small success and no extra business has obviously come from it yet, it amazed me that in such a small space of time this was possible and it certainly would not have happened without social media and without the training we had.”
Who says “boring” companies can’t use social media marketing? Not me!
Think you’ve got a boring business? Chat to us about how we can help or learn How to create great posts on social media. You are not boring!

Gary Barlow And Me

Gary Barlow and I have something significant in common. We have both improved with age.
Do you remember when Gary was the “fat, ugly one” from Take That? Nobody fancied Gary – not when you had Robbie or Mark to oggle, or even Jason and Howard at a push. There was no doubt the bleach-blond haired Gary was the talented one but fanciable? Not likely.
Now of course things are very different. Every Saturday night during The X Factor, social media is full of remarks from ladies young and old enthusing how gorgeous Gary is. He has no doubt improved with age and you’d be hard pressed to guess he’s 40 years old.
That’s where me and Gary Barlow are kinsmen. I was an ugly muggly when I was younger – my lips were so large that my school nickname was Beaky. Kids used to shelter under them when it rained. My cheeks were hollowed, my hair greasy. Yet, like Gary, I’ve improved with age.
My big lips have returned to normal size and my face no longer looks like He Man’s arch enemy Skeletor. Just the other day two women assumed I was just 30 (I’m two months younger than Gary) and an old college friend remarked how life “had been kind” to me after seeing a recent photo (I’m taking that as a compliment!).
But was Gary really fat or were the others just thin? Was Gary actually ugly or the others better-looking? Was I as funny-looking as I remember being. Well the photos from my school days don’t lie and I’ll let you judge Gary’s early Take That photos…
What is undeniable is that Gary and I have reinvented ourselves. Whether by design or accident.
 
And reinvention is an option in social media marketing too. If you’ve started off your social media promotion with the aplomb of a Louis Walsh then don’t worry – you can become a Kelly Rowland. Make a new start by using Twitter the way it’s supposed to be – building relationships with your potential customers. Stop shouting at them and start interacting. Think about what they want, rather than what you want to tell them. The followers and the customers will soon mount up.
Facebook is a place for reinvention too. Not getting much interaction on your page? Try something different. Don’t just put status updates on it, post photos, videos, run a competition. Before you know it your fans will start coming back – Facebook rewards varied and consistent content by placing it on your fans’ newsfeeds.
Want to get more business through your LinkedIn profile? Post a daily status update, unconnect your Twitter feed, and interact with people in groups. After a few days check the “Who’s Viewed My Profile” feature and you’ll see how popular you’ve become.
So you CAN reinvent yourself. As Gary Barlow and I have proven. But let’s not get carried away. After all, my wife recently told me how I think I’m better looking than I actually am. And I’m sorry to say she’s probably right.
Want to find out more about Mark Saxby and how he looks now?

Blogging success? Pretend to be Moldovan.

Who would have thought writing about a trip to the Eurovision Song Contest disguised as a Moldovan could lead to a new business connection? I wrote about my 40th birthday trip back in May – it was a mix of my adventures in Dusseldorf with a social media lesson not to let Twitter take over your life.
Several months later I received an email from the owner of a design agency in Derby. He wrote that he had heard of me but we had not yet met. Could we do so? It’s always intriguing to get a message like that – how did I get on his radar?
A alien spaceship prepares to beam up Eurovision fans in Dusseldorf

So we met in his beautiful city centre offices and he was a man worth meeting. Creative, dynamic, fascinating. The most surprising moment of the meeting was when he told me why he wanted to chat. It was all down to Eurovision. He’d read my blog and said he’d really enjoyed it. I was, he said, a man who had an aim (to appear on TV as a Moldovan) and I achieved it. He wanted to meet the writer behind the blog.
This incident really demonstrates the power of blogging. Getting your name out there for people to find you, to know what you do. It gives people the chance to discover some of your personality and your passions – often difficult to do from afar in business.
I’m not a fan of blogging for blogging’s sake and I get asked how often should someone blog? Well only if you have something interesting to say. I know of one regular blogger whom I’ve stopped reading because her musings are too hit and miss on the quality front. Every blog you write should lead your readers wanting to come back for more.
Blogging can be one of the most rewarding things to do in the world. As a BBC journalist, I would sometimes broadcast to millions of people on national radio but I get much more of a buzz to see a few hundred hits on my blog – especially when it’s shared on social media. To know your creative writing is being appreciated is a wonderful thing.
A real Moldovan - artist Mihai Grecu (photograph: Ion Chibzii used under Creative Commons licence)

Social media is a key way to promote your blog. Too many blogs remain unread because no one knows about them. And don’t be shy about promotion. Status Social Media Marketing manages the social media of Visit Cleethorpes, which includes a weekly blog. As well as plugging it on Facebook I use Twitter as a vehicle for traffic. Rather than just tweeting about the blog once, I tweet about eight times a day, each with a different headline, often with a different reason for reading. The result? Most of the traffic to the Visit Cleethorpes website comes through my blog.
So if you want blogging success, make sure your writing is of good quality and that EVERYONE knows about it. Especially if it mentions Eurovision and Moldovans…
Read Mark Saxby’s blog How I helped Azerbaijan win Eurovision
If you’d like to know how Mark can help you with your blogging, get in touch.

Cheese wars divide Reddit readers

If you read my contributions to the blog regularly, you’ll no doubt know I am a big fan of the social news website Reddit. It turns out that I am not the only one who loves it. Over the past 15 months the site has tripled in size and it has transformed itself from geek niche into one of the most popular websites in the world. Reddit used to be a place for the internet’s hipsters. It was where people found content before it was cool. Now Reddit can play a big part in making things cool.
A few weeks ago the staff at Reddit decided to find out who was using the site. They surveyed the users and took details ranging from age and marital status to favourite cheese and dog/cat/turtle preference. 30,000 people took part in the survey (myself included) and yesterday they unveiled the results for all to see. So who is using Reddit? Find out below.

The Day That Google Owns You

When Larry Page replaced Eric Schmidt as CEO at Google in April, you might not have expected any major changes at the search giant for some time. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.
In the short time that Larry has been in the role we have seen the Californian-based company shift direction in some significant ways. The purchase of Motorola and the launch of Google+ shows that Google is serious about both mobile and social.
Google+ is adding more users everyday and it is quite clear that in the future Google plans to be your online passport, so to speak. Eric Schmidt recently said as much at his MacTaggart lecture. If Google can get users to migrate from Facebook to Google Plus it will make some serious money (on top of the serious money it already makes) through its advertising business.
With Google owning your online passport, it gives it a wealth of information about you. When you couple this with its ever-expanding mobile offering through the Android OS and Motorola hardware, you can see Google is definitely planning ahead. Part of the process of planning for the future involves assessing the present. That is exactly what Larry Page has done and changes announced this week significantly reflect that.
Google is well known for having “20% time” where employees can spend time working on projects that interest them and might also benefit the business. This has resulted in some great products, such as Gmail and Google News, but it has also left the business with many small projects that are not profitable and under-utilised. As a result, Google has announced the closure of ten services, including Google Fast Flip and Sidewiki.
This follows on from the announcement back in July that Google were going to wind down the Labs project. Google Labs is where new products were beta tested, occasionally becoming full services. I check Labs from time to time to see what is new but for the casual Google user, Labs was easily ignored.
So Google is now focusing its product development in more efficient ways. It says it will continue to take risks but will target its resources more effectively. This most likely means it will concentrate on improving the three main areas of the business (search, social and mobile) rather than developing these micro-products or services that have little long term financial value.
Oh. And did I mention Google TV…