Donuts
It may have come to your attention that I work on a number of curiously named small business resource websites. My main efforts are with the Marketing Donut. Below are a few highlights from pieces I have written for said Donuts. Please do click through to read the full text.
Slideshare presentation on implementing social media into small businesses
Q&A: Like Minds speaker Olivier Blanchard
Why does social media need small businesses?
OB: Firstly, the vast majority of businesses around the world are small. If only large, enterprise space companies adopt and integrate social media, we will never see the kind of broad adoption in the business world that will truly bring about the next evolution of B2C communications.
Q&A: Like Minds conference organiser Scott Gould
The theme for this year is People-to-People — tell us more about this.
SG: Social media have introduced a more personal form of business communication, which is replacing the anonymous corporate communication that has tended to prevail hitherto. Thus, the lines between the organisational voice and the individual voices of representatives of organisations have become blurred – to a large extent it’s now the individual voice that prevails.
Shoreditch brews up a dis-loyal community
The loyalty card is a well-established consumer psychology tool but the idea of collecting stamps from eight different coffee houses in order to gain a free coffee was dreamed up by award-winning barista Gwilym Davies to combat the homogenised high street coffee culture
Blogging businesses benefit best
So, why wouldn’t you want to put your business in the proverbial shop window?
Small business trends in 2010
What’s likely to shape the world of small business in 2010? James Ainsworth and Simon Wicks have looked into their crystal ball, spoken to the experts and come up with their predictions for the key trends that could be influencing your business over the next 12 months
Is your business plugged in to 2.0?
The difference between businesses that survive and those that struggle in 2010 depends on whether or not you are online.
Small businesses speak out about the impact of snow
Only when it snows in the UK can you be guaranteed that the Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker will be able to sell you a sledge.
Rest in Pixels, Teletext
Checking the squared off map of the UK to see what colour weather was in store for the day ahead, cheating your way through the Bamboozle quiz and waiting for the inevitable flash of Macclesfield Town FC letting in yet another late equaliser. These are my Teletext memories and, undoubtedly, the very things that steered me in the direction of what I am currently calling ‘A Career in the Internet’
How we got national press coverage through Twitter
So a big slice of luck saw Twitter turn one online connection between a small business and a PR agency into good old-fashioned print media coverage. With a great story to tell that sells itself, there are numerous opportunities out there to share your fascinating small business tales.
Scrooge! An exercise in PR
For some, Christmas can be a quiet and relaxing time of year. The other day I spoke to a company that designs letterheads, and whose busiest time of year is in line with the taxman’s. They had their proverbial feet up and were tucking into what I expect wasn’t the first mince pie of the season. For others, Christmas is a hectic time when staff holiday needs to be covered or a rush of trade means there are more orders than there are re-runs of Dad’s Army.
Twitter creator to Square up to online transactions with new venture
The last seismic change in online financial transactions came about thanks to Paypal in 1998, the financial transaction service that has helped eBay to flourish and reduced the transaction paper trail significantly. Square could have the same impact, if not a whole lot more.
You’re a Celebrity…Get me publicity
I have seen some things. I have seen a celebrity open a supermarket and to declare it “The best supermarket I have ever been to” and then I saw him wax lyrical about his latest project as swooning young girls lined up to meet him in the foyer without entering the newly opened store in question. I have seen a launch event cancelled because the star that had been booked for the event was in court.
