We have even added a number of features over the last few days to bring our beautiful landscape photography and quality stock to more people, worldwide, in the best possible way, as follows:

We have a number of queries from clients (mainly UK-based) who asked us why the website was solely in US [...]]]> Our goal at Zeni Photo is to always be striving for improvements in functionality and design so that visitors to the website have the smoothest, most enjoyable experience possible. We’ve been adding little bits of functionality to our store during & post launch and will continue to do so in the future to make sure the experience is the best it can be.

We have even added a number of features over the last few days to bring our beautiful landscape photography and quality stock to more people, worldwide, in the best possible way, as follows:

CURRENCY CONVERTER – CHOOSE YOUR PREFERRED CURRENCY

We have a number of queries from clients (mainly UK-based) who asked us why the website was solely in US dollars. Was this a mistake? Well, in short, no. Our goal with Zeni Photo is to provide customers worldwide with beautiful landscape imagery in a range of mediums, as well as a small but perfectly formed stock library. Our e-commerce solution, while beautifully simple & powerful, lacked the standard functionality to convert currency based upon geographical location; it was as simple as that. So we made the choice to go for US Dollars because more people around the world recognise US dollars as the currency than do GBP or EUR, or other and we felt it would make it easier for our customers.

However… As of yesterday we have launched an in-built currency converter! This may sound boring, but if you visit our site ( www.zeniphoto.com ) you can now browse the store and select your preferred currency using the currency converter to the right of the page (see below).

Please note that when checking out, the currency will revert to US Dollars as this is still our selected currency of payment. The currency converter simply gives you, our customers a way to gauge accurately the price of images in your preferred currency.

FACEBOOK STORE – BROWSE & BUY PHOTOGRAPHY FROM FACEBOOK!

Next, we introduce our new Facebook store! Our Facebook page only launched this week, so the following is a little lowly, but we thought we’d zing it up a bit by brining our beautiful landscape and stock photography images to the Facebook crowd via a tailored store, built directly into our Facebook page! This means customers can browse our images from within Facebook and then, once they’re happy with their selection or wish to browse further images, they can access their cart or redirect into our website to complete the purchase of their images. Beautifully simple, but highly effective. Again, another example of us at Zeni photo trying to make it easier than ever to purchase top quality images in multiple ways.

PAYPAL DIGITAL GOODS – SIMPLE, SECURE WAYS TO PURCHASE IMAGES

We will be looking at further payment gateways within our website in the future, but for now we have introduced what we believe is the simplest, most secure and quickest way for customers to check out and purchase images. With Paypal Digital Goods, customers pay directly within the Zeni Photo website. We have an SSL certificate so not only is your purchase secure within our site, but Paypal too has one of the safest, most secure systems available for payments online.

You can login to your Paypal account or simply pay via credit/debit card.

You can pay securely as a guest via your debit or credit card

While we’ve been taking photographs for a number of years now, it’s taken quite a while to get our head around the fact that people might actually want to see what we have in our portfolio. We’ve hung numerous images on our walls and those of our friends, family and [...]]]> THE LAUNCH OF A NEW CONCEPT IN BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE & STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY

Well, this has been a bit of a whirlwind of a launch. On January 4th we decided to take the plunge and create a site we’d been thinking about for well over two years (www.zeniphoto.com). With one thing or another (growing our other businesses, providing work for client, fear) we had held off taking this route for far too long.

While we’ve been taking photographs for a number of years now, it’s taken quite a while to get our head around the fact that people might actually want to see what we have in our portfolio. We’ve hung numerous images on our walls and those of our friends, family and local clients, but we now want to open up the range of images to a worldwide audience. We believe that the work we create, particularly in the landscape arena, is very different in the marketplace and we take each image we shoot down a route of development and exploration, hopefully arriving at something all the more beautiful as a result.

With the launch of Zeni Photo we are introducing a number of key services/products to the website.

1. Landscape Imagery (Downloadable) – The core of what we do is, and always will be based in high-quality, unique landscape imagery. This is what we love creating. We have an enviable range of quality scenic images from Ireland (predominantly), the UK and around the world including Canada and the US. Our images are available for download directly from the website in high-resolution format. This ensures that customers can have the images to print as large as they might wish, or to give as a gift and get framed locally (we appreciate that sometimes it can be risky to ship a high quality wooden framed print half way across the world!).
2. Landscape Imagery (Print) – We have a growing selection of our prints available supplied printed, mounted and framed so that customers do not have to worry about the hassle of taking an image to a local framers or getting it printed (there are a whole range of questions over quality of photographic print, understandably so). We guarantee that all of our prints are printed to the highest quality on the best photographic paper in a bespoke facility. Any frames we sell have been tested and those too are of the very highest quality. Our distribution centre will ship the print or framed print directly to you from their facility. This means a turnaround time of just 7-10 days is normally expected between when you order your print and when it arrives with you.
3. Stock Photography – While we have a small but growing stock section, we believe as with all our images, that these are very different in the market; they’re not standardised, boring, generic stock images. Our stock is small, but perfectly formed.
4. Gift Photography – Some of our imagery is perfect for a gift for a loved one, friend or colleague. A small selection of our prints fit perfectly into this type of product range.

If you’re interested in stunning, atmospheric landscape photography of beautiful scenery from around the globe (perhaps somewhere that means something to you or your family) then we hope to be of help in providing a piece of history for your family to hang on their wall and pass down generations. We sincerely believe that our photography has the quality to achieve this and we hope you do too.

Our tutorials will be exclusive to members of the Inner Circle

MEMBERS AREA FOR PHOTOGRAPHY EXCLUSIVES

In the coming days we will be launching our membership site where customers can sign up to join our free or paid subscriptions. Both will give you access to a selection of free images over the course of your membership, along with exclusive discounts all year round (5-15% as standard), special offers, credit, free .psd’s of our images, tutorials (e.g. on how to create the unique effects we do in our landscape imagery) as well as access to our members-only forum where like-minded creatives can pick each others brains over techniques, likes/dislikes, rants, questions and so on.

The goal is that with an inclusive community we will be free of spammers and can keep the forum fun but focused on creating, spreading and sharing beautiful photography. We will also offer members the opportunity to sell their images through Zeni Photo should they so wish. For now, if you’re interested in all of these benefits as a member, please register your interest using the form at the top of this page (entitled Bonuses) and we will automatically register you for the free membership as we launch.

In the meantime, we will be adding new products almost every day over the coming months; new landscapes, prints, stock photography and more. Please enjoy browsing our photography and please be respectful; don’t try to steal our images or re-sell them. We always said that we would aim to launch the site when we reached the 200 products benchmark. This ensures there is an excellent, wide variety of images across the board, while maintaining quality and consistency.

EXCLUSIVE LAUNCH DISCOUNTS 

As part of our launch, we have a limited time 25% discount on EVERYTHING in the store. This promotion only runs until the 28th February so make sure you take full advantage!!

So, I guess without further ado, we declare that our new online store, Zeni photo is OPEN FOR BUSINESS! Enjoy our website and please visit for a browse at www.zeniphoto.com!

Our inimitable one-to-one service [...]]]> The best in quality web design services in Belfast, Northern Ireland

Superior quality, service and value. Beautifully designed websites. This is what we’re about at Zenith and is why many of our clients believe we are the best design & marketing company in Northern Ireland. Our web department was the core of our company when we were founded in May 2008 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and we still put a lot of focus on our web design services but it’s important to note we have built our enviable reputation as one of the best design agencies in Northern Ireland by the development of a unique structure of services which offer clients the ultimate in quality, value and service.

Our inimitable one-to-one service record speaks volumes, as evidenced on our testimonials page which you can view here 

You can also see some further examples of our web design, social media, photography and marketing in Belfast Northern Ireland by visiting our Portfolio page here  or via a couple of samples in the image below…

How to Choose the Best Web Company

So the real question for your business is… How do you choose the best web design company for you? How do you know that the web design service you’re getting, whether in Belfast or Dublin or New York or wherever worldwide, is the best service and quality that you can actually get? Well, here’s the trick; always go with your gut instinct.

Here are the key questions to ask yourself: When you talk with a representative of the company, do they seem like they care about your company? Like they want your project to be a success? Or do they just seem like you’re a number on their sales list? If the latter is true, get the hell out of there right away. Don’t listen, don’t discuss, don’t even think about it. You will get sold stuff you don’t need, the quality will never be good and the ‘lastability’ factor of the product (and ultimately the company) will be non-existent. What I mean by this is that you might get lucky and get a fairly good design. Or you might get lucky and get a website that actually gets some traffic. However, you will never in a million years get a website which is the complete package from a company like this, a website that will last you for x number of years and actually perform to the high level you need it to.

Any good web company will sit down with you, be open and interested right off the bat in what you do and how you do it; be asking questions about you and your company and giving you hints, tips and advice right there and then. For free. The best web companies, particularly in Belfast, will want to get a feel for your company ethos, its industry, it’s client base. This interest helps guide our approach as we tailor it for each individual client based on these factors.

For us, as one of the best web design companies in Belfast and Northern Ireland, it’s about offering value to clients and their businesses. I don’t want to be involved in a project where I’m not  helping a client achieve an important goal or educating them on how to market online, via social media and so on. Any good company you meet will be the same. You’re not a sales statistic with Zenith, you’re a valued member of our long-term goal – to add real worth to companies around the world, not just here in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We do this by providing high quality web design & development services for clients, and we believe in what we do.

Also, it’s not about getting a 50-page proposal from the web company; please don’t be impressed by this. We could develop a 50-page proposal full of useless information that you’ll never read or even understand… because you don’t need to. And if the 50-page one impresses you; bear this in mind – you can be guaranteed you’re getting a generic proposal with your name copied and pasted into the blanks. You’ll be lucky if you get an 8-10 page proposal out of Zenith. It will cover your individual objectives based upon our discussion(s) (without any flowery, confusing language) and will identify key steps that we will take for you to achieve those and more, and will finish up with a fully itemised project budget. From there it’s a pretty clear decision… Do you like us? Do you trust us? Do you believe we will help you and your business make significant progress online? We do.

You’ll find the best web companies in Northern Ireland (and all over the world) will have the same ethos as we do. Quality, value, integrity. Results.

So here are my top tips for choosing a web company:

1. Trust your gut instinct.
2. Ask questions.
3. Be prepared for honest (sometimes blunt) answers!
4. Check out their portfolio – if their work doesn’t look like much, it probably isn’t.
5. Check out their client testimonials.
6. Don’t always go with the company that provides you a 30,000 word thesis for a proposal!
7. Don’t always go with experience. We have lost some potential contracts to other web companies who have simply been around a few years longer, even though our service, quality, integrity and stability are much higher. Go with talent.

If you follow the points on this list, the decision will be an easy one for you and you will definitely find the right web company for you – if in doubt, follow the first point on the list only. If you’re in Belfast or anywhere in Northern Ireland and are looking for a local web company which offers the highest quality of design, programming, advice and service across all disciplines, Zenith will be that ‘right’ company for you. Or if you’re across the globe, we are often still that company, having developed a worldwide client base with clients as far away as Mexico and the US. The difference between us and other companies is that we want to offer real, tangible and sustainable value to your company and its marketing.

If you need a web design company that can provide every component for a successful online/digital marketing campaign for your business, all you need to do is call 0844 272 3041 and we can arrange to meet for a quick coffee and a chat. Or if you prefer email, send a message/query to hello@zenithdesignstudios.com and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

Almost every client we’ve ever had within the ‘Social Media Marketing’ remit has had the same concerns at the inception; actually physically finding content to share – it’s an area that seems eternally confusing for clients. The main concerns tend to centre around the following five aspects, give or take, so hopefully we can help dispel the myth that social media is somehow a headache in terms of creating content for your profiles. It’s really not, if [...]]]> The 5 Most Common Hurdles to Succeeding in Social Media (For Business)

Content is Key. So how do you find content to post and how do you manage your time efficiently so you don’t have to dedicate hours every day to your social media profiles?

Almost every client we’ve ever had within the ‘Social Media Marketing’ remit has had the same concerns at the inception; actually physically finding content to share – it’s an area that seems eternally confusing for clients. The main concerns tend to centre around the following five aspects, give or take, so hopefully we can help dispel the myth that social media is somehow a headache in terms of creating content for your profiles. It’s really not, if you just take a moment to stand back and think logically about it you will find a huge wealth of resources out there that you can share, use, reference and even create your own content from.

Concern 1 – “I don’t have anything to write about”

A: Yes you do, whether you know it or not. You need to step back from the concept of writing solely about your business or even your industry. This is where the whole concept of social media for business becomes stressful, and it shouldn’t be – Businesses seem to think they need to create every bit of content they post from scratch, whether it be blog posts, images, shares, whatever. Think outside the box, even just a little, and you will find HUGE resources of content that are available to you to share, comment on or create if you choose.

For instance, on your Facebook page, Twitter account or Linked In Profile (or alternatively by using the new Facebook ‘subscribe’ button)… Follow the Pages of topics/areas/businesses/people you are interested in or those that are related to your industry. Interact with those groups/people and share their content on your profiles if you think it’s either relevant, interesting, fun or maybe even divisive.

Next, don’t be afraid to post content that might get people’s backs up… this will likely illicit responses, engagement and further conversation from them as well as your extended community. You might get it wrong from time to time but unless you happen to post something truly offensive, you’ll be alright.

As with ALL forms of content, just try not post the same type of content ALL the time. That will become boring, repetitive and will turn visitors off.

So, why not try posting a good mixture of content, like so -

• A video link from Youtube – something funny, cringeworthy, music, interview etc. (There is a MASSIVE wealth & variety of resources on Youtube for all kinds of content).
• A re-post of a blog from or about someone of interest (related, or unrelated to your industry)
• A blog post that you have created yourself
• A ‘share’ of an image, article or poll that someone has posted on their page
• A ‘sales’ item – something you’re doing; a special offer, examples of your latest work.

If you mix it up in this way, you will never be short of material to post and you won’t piss off followers with a constant barrage of ‘here’s what I’m sell’ posts.

Concern 2 – “Who’s going to be interested in my company?”

A: More people than you think.

If you are in an industry that seems, let’s face it, boring (accountant, solicitor, IT; no offense intended, all very important professions) you might think nobody will be interested in you or what you have to say. A lot of our clients feel this way initially, it’s another of the major inhibitors in terms of getting started in social media. However, with all content the core has to be the same; you want to add VALUE to your followers. Value in the form of your expert opinion/advice. Value in the form of something fun. Value in the form of education.

Let’s say you’re in one of these professions I mentioned above (any other boring profession also applies by the way! Designers for one!). This all sounds like a pretty boring prospect for a social media page, huh?

Well, as a suggestion, instead of boring followers to death with your ten latest sales or offers (e.g. “we just installed 10 computers for a company”, “we just filed 3 million tax returns” or “we just managed the sale of a squillion properties”), why not offer up a forum for free advice for people who are having issues with their software/PC’s, tax queries, legal queries, queries about things that matter to people and other commonly experienced problems? I for one would be interested in following this type of page, so you have one follower already. If you posted blogs with solutions for common problems you’d be doing even better.

So, think outside the box. You might be part of a generally ‘boring’ industry, one that instinct is telling you has no place in the realm of social media, but the type of help and value you offer clients and add to their lives can (in small amounts) be given away to show them your expertise and offer real value to them or their businesses. That will add value to your followers and value for your business.

Concern 3 – “I don’t have time to post content regularly on Facebook or (even more so) Twitter”

A: Are you sure?

Social platforms are increasingly interlinked and are incredibly easy to access. If you post on your Facebook page it can automatically update your Twitter. If you post on Twitter, it can automatically update your Linked In profile and so on. Use your mobile devices; the accessibility of Facebook, Twitter and Linked In (to name just the main platforms) is so fluent within your mobile phones or tablets that access is immediate and posting content ever-more easy.

I would guess some companies’ response to my suggestion of offering free advice on their social media pages would be – “I/We don’t have time to answer everybody’s questions for free, that will take too much time away from us making money”. Will it, really?? If you manage it correctly it probably won’t take you any longer than 5-20 minutes a day (depending on your choices and numbers of followers)… and yet the free advice, communication and help will offer followers something of real VALUE. This in itself is likely to build brand loyalty & awareness for you and will quite probably bring you new clients along the way because they can see the value you offer followers. For an average of 15 mins a day I’d say it’d be time well spent, right?

Concern 4 – “I can’t be at my desk 8 hrs a day to manage our social media profiles; I have a business to run”

A: You don’t have to be; social media management shouldn’t consume your life.

With the amount of technology available to us in 2011, why don’t you make more use of it and increase efficiency? Again, use your mobile devices. If you have an iPhone, Blackberry or other smart phone, your social media profiles are increasingly available at the touch of a button…new notifications can be beamed directly to your inbox if you choose. The new iPhone Operating System (iOS5) even integrates a Twitter option deep within the OS so you can share anything from photos, Maps, web pages etc in a couple of clicks. You can be doing this over a coffee, in between meetings, at lunch (if you’re lucky enough to get a lunch break).

You can also manage your social media profiles from a platform like Hootsuite which congregates all your profiles in one area for efficiency. If this seems like too much hassle from the off, there are companies like ours that can help train you quickly and efficiently on these types of platforms so that you aren’t wasting weeks of your life just trying to understand the basics. Again, I hate to stress the obvious, but you should be making use of resources available to you – otherwise your efficiency and time management will definitely suffer.

Concern 5 – “I don’t want people being able to comment on my Facebook page or use my name to comment in Twitter”

A: Wrong. This is exactly what you want. 

Openness, transparency and freedom to engage is the foundation that social media is built upon. You WANT people to comment on and engage with your page or profile. That’s how you build your profile further and reach more people. And yes, you still want this to happen even if the comment is negative because it gives you the opportunity to openly (swiftly) turn things around for everyone to see. Nobody is perfect, but when we make mistakes or drop the ball on something people are impressed when they see us deal head on with the problem.

There are two examples I use regularly in training based around how openness & freedom to engage turns negative buzz into positive. Here’s one of them:

HASTINGS HOTELS – Back in Oct 2010 there was a negative comment posted on the Hastings Hotel Facebook page whereby a patron had experienced a terrible stay at one of their hotels – Poor service, dirty room, miscommunication among staff etc. A pretty woeful stay and they made this very clear; right on the Hastings Hotels Facebook WALL… For everyone to see. As clearly as it could be stated, this patron was saying “Hastings sucks, their hotels are dirty, staff are badly trained and service is terrible” – A pretty negative package of comments, right?

Well, let’s say this was posted at 1pm. At 1.20pm a Hastings representative replied to this comment (openly, transparently and without deleting the negative comment!! NB THIS is very important – do not delete negative comments!). They replied something along the lines of “Really sorry to hear you had a sub-standard stay at our hotel – please call me directly on 0800 000 1234 and we’ll do something really special for you to make up for it”.

And IMMEDIATELY, the negative buzz created by that comment was completely turned on its’ head and became a resounding positive. The former notion of hotel group having poor service was completely overshadowed by their timely and positive response. It definitely made an impression on me and I’m not even a big fan of that specific hotel group. It just shows you how important high quality service is.

CONCLUSIONS – SOCIAL MEDIA IS FOR EVERYONE AND DOESN’T NEED TO CONSUME YOU 24/7 TO BE EFFECTIVE FOR YOUR BUSINESS.

My point with all of this is the following – Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that social media isn’t for you or for your business (type). It’s social for a reason and it should be fun. It doesn’t need to take up hour upon hour every day (if you’re a small company I know this will be a big concern for you). If you manage it correctly, engage your followers (and potential followers) with the right type and frequency of content, and offer VALUE, you can make it work for your business regardless of what your goals are or what industry you are in, and in just a few hours per week. Be open and allow followers interact with your page/profile. Pick a selection of the right profiles for you – e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Gowalla, Foursquare, Google+… The list is huge so don’t think you need to be part of every platform out there. Select between 1 and 3 platforms and make them work. Educate yourself using some of the many online training resources or contact us and we will do everything we can to help and advise you and to make sure that social media is not the bane of your existence.

Talk to other people through social media and comment, share & create content that other people will find fun, interesting or motivating. And always remember, it is all about the VALUE you offer followers. Otherwise, why will they ever want to subscribe to your profile in the long term?

This is how your following will grow and if you think even slightly outside the box you will find a vast amount of resources of content that you can utilise to post content easily, efficiently and effectively on your social media profiles.

Any queries? Email us at hello@zenithdesignstudios.com and we’ll do our best to help.

It seems like businesses just don’t care. They are making basic mistakes, day in day out and are either proclaiming themselves to be ‘specialists’ or at least ‘knowledgeable’ in social media. Either that or they’re moaning about how social media ‘doesn’t work for us’ or complaining about how ‘that twat Zuckerburg’ has made billions and somehow using that as a reason not to [...]]]> THE REASONS WHY MOST BUSINESSES FAIL AT SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

At this stage it still amazes me how many companies (particularly and specifically in the UK & Ireland) are using social media for their business… in completely the wrong way. This is most true for their Facebook profiles, where they are seriously missing the available features at their disposal.

It seems like businesses just don’t care. They are making basic mistakes, day in day out and are either proclaiming themselves to be ‘specialists’ or at least ‘knowledgeable’ in social media. Either that or they’re moaning about how social media ‘doesn’t work for us’ or complaining about how ‘that twat Zuckerburg’ has made billions and somehow using that as a reason not to use social media for the marketing of their own business.

Of course, in terms of its usefulness for business, these claims of social media’s inadequacy couldn’t be further from the truth. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of businesses worldwide are using social media to successfully achieve their individual goals. Indeed, we’ve attracted some of our best clients using social media… clients located all over the world whom we would never have been able to attract without social media.

I don’t want to throw a cat amongst the pigeons by saying that social media is difficult, but too many business are making the mistake of thinking that any idiot can use it successfully. The truth is that, as with any form of marketing, or anything in life, you will reap more benefits if you are smart about your approach. Not just any idiot can make social media work for their business. Infact, there are a lot of ‘idiots’ out there right now, doing it completely wrong and thinking they’re doing it right. Which is very dangerous indeed for their marketing. Hopefully this guide captures some of the key elements that are making 90-95% of businesses FAIL at social media. It’s not that they can’t do it, it’s not even that their type of business doesn’t ‘work’ with social media. It’s simply that they need to make a few fundamental tweaks to their system; amendments that can have immediate effect and that will (with no more effort than you’re currently putting in) transform the success of their social media marketing campaign.

Ok, let’s get started, these are the reasons you’re probably failing at social media marketing:

1. Wrong Profile (Facebook)

If you use an ‘Add as Friend’ profile for your business, you need to change this immediately. I cannot believe how many companies continue to make this mistake after all this time. Firstly, as a ‘follower’ I don’t want you seeing all my personal stuff; that’s for my real friends and family, not you. So for that reason alone I’m not going to request to be your friend. If, however you have a Page that I can ‘Like’ and still get updates on what you’re doing (which doesn’t infringe on my privacy), sure I’ll be happy to do that.

Next, you’re missing all the features that are available to you (specifically tailored for businesses) when you don’t use a ‘Page’ profile. Lastly, if an employee has established an Add as Friend profile for you (even if you have the logins), what happens if that employee leaves (or dies)? It only allows one person at a time logged in to control the entire business Facebook page. What if that employee leaves under bad terms… They can simply delete the business profile on you (thereby deleting your entire ‘friends’ list in the process) – if you’ve worked at building up 1000, 2000, 5000 friends, that’s going to be particularly painful for you. With a Page profile you can have a number of ‘admins’ that can each control the page. If one of them leaves the team, no problem, they simply get removed from the Admin list and the page continues on – you can’t lose out.

The good news is that you can migrate your ‘Add as Friend’ profile thanks to a great recent Facebook feature. Go here to do that.

You’ll see this info from the horses’ (Facebooks’) mouth itself. Pages are specifically suited for companies. Personal profiles are for personal stuff! Duh! Crazy logic.

There are a whole host of benefits to a Page – statistics, tailoring options for internal pages & tabs, added functionality, ad campaigns etc. My question is this; what have you been doing all this time with a personal profile??

2. Keeping Things Too Basic (Facebook)

So you’ve got a business page now. And it looks exactly the same as your old personal profile. Get with the program. You have a business page so you can take advantage of all the added functionality. You should be utilising every tool at your disposal to make your page stand out from those of your competitors. By using a page you can collect visitor information (e.g. build your marketing lists) or impress them with high impact visuals of your work. You can hit them straight away with a beautifully tailored landing page and link to your other social media platforms like Twitter. The options are incredible and if you’re not doing any of these things your page will never be the success it should be.

3. No Strategy (All Platforms)

So you have a page with a nicely designed profile image and maybe a landing page to greet new visitors. Now, what’s the point of all this? If you don’t have a goal, you can’t be a success at this, it’s the same as anything in life. Is your objectives brand awareness? Customer Loyalty? Email list-building? Define your objectives, narrow your goals and decide how you’re going to achieve those. Then implement your strategy and monitor your progress using appropriate methods. Again, this is marketing 101 but nearly everybody ignores these concepts. If you need help or advice go to our free coaching email form here .

4. No Website/Poor Website (General)

Bad, generic websites – Ain't a Good idea

Regardless of your objectives for the use of social media, somewhere in there you should be looking to drive traffic to your website (where all your ‘big’ content is) so that you can educate potential customers on what it is that you do. A lot of people make the mistake of either using their social media accounts instead of a website (because they’re free) or else they have a terrible website which will impress no one who visits. If this describes your company, you can be guaranteed you’re committing commercial suicide. Firstly, make sure you have an impressively designed, logical website and secondly ensure that you have a stats pack and relevant SEO protocols so that you can improve it and measure it in the future.

5. Not Posting Enough Content or Posting Poor Quality

You have your Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Gowalla, Stumble accounts set up. So what is going to interest people in ‘following’ you? Content is key. If you have a Twitter account and haven’t posted in a while (e.g. 5-6 weeks), you might as well delete it. That or drastically change your behaviours. If you have  Facebook page and haven’t posted in over 8-12 weeks, same. How do you expect others to be interested in your pages if you’re quite clearly not interested yourself?

As a guideline you should be posting every day or two on Facebook or 1-5+ times per day on Twitter. Sure, you won’t always hit these targets but consistency is what’s important over time. So if you miss posting on Facebook because you’re on holiday, no ones going to shoot you. Just don’t let it happen regularly or consistently.

Make sure your content isn’t just about your company though; that’s the quickest way to turn off followers as it shows you’re just all about the ‘sell, sell, sell’. Post fun videos, links, blogs and comments and scatter content amongst that about you/your company/your latest offers etc. A ratio of 4:1 is ok I would think.

I find a lot of clients struggle to find things to post. Most often they’re not thinking outside the box. Use resources like other company blogs, Youtube, news sites etc. Subscribe to these on Facebook & Twitter so you can filter down content into items that your readers may also be interested in.

6. Not Making People Aware of It – Don’t be Lazy

Laziness is Not to be Excused

Ignorance is bliss. Well ignorance isn’t going to bring traffic to your social media profiles so don’t be lazy about it. Make sure you are letting people know that you’re on Twitter, Facebook etc. Put the links on your website, your other social media pages, your flyers, brochures, business cards. And tell people you meet that they should visit and ‘follow’.

Next, as I’ve said before, the vast majority of companies are ignorant when it comes to using social media for their business, they are just as confused as you, and yet they don’t think about it in a logical way because of this. Use this against your competitors and elevate your marketing and your thinking – if you are one step ahead of them that can never be a bad thing, right?

7. Not Giving People a Reason to Visit or Follow – Incentivise!

Why should anyone come to your Facebook page, follow you on Twitter or connect on Linked In? You are possibly not incentivising potential followers to follow you at all at present. If that is true, try to think up something that will be of value to your followers that you can offer in exchange for a ‘Like’. I’m not going to give you the golden ticket and tell you exactly how to do this, but people in general need to think more about how their business pages are set up and put themselves in their (potential) followers shoes.

Also how are you prompting people to click that ‘Like’ button on Facebook? Are you doing anything to elicit this response from visitors? A lot of companies simply aren’t helping their following by making people aware that it’s there or by prompting them to follow.

So there you have it. Seven of the BIG reasons why your business is probably failing at social media. If all seven of these factors describe you or your company practices, I guarantee you that you need help and will sadly fail in your objectives (if you even have any). So be smart, identify objectives, plan ahead, implement and measure. Then adapt. Simple, right??

It’s focussed solely on the type of profile to use within Facebook and I’m writing this because I see far too many businesses making this reckless, dangerous mistake which could cost them years of hard work. Please don’t let this be you.

If you use an ‘ADD AS FRIEND’ Profile on Facebook at present for your business, please pay attention, take action and change this TODAY.

Here are the reasons why you must use a PAGE for your business and not an Add as Friend Profile; [...]]]> The Impending Danger Behind the Wrong Facebook Profile Type – The Risk Your Business Takes

This is going to be a short post but one that might just save your social media skin in the future.

It’s focussed solely on the type of profile to use within Facebook and I’m writing this because I see far too many businesses making this reckless, dangerous mistake which could cost them years of hard work. Please don’t let this be you.

If you use an ‘ADD AS FRIEND’ Profile on Facebook at present for your business, please pay attention, take action and change this TODAY.

Here are the reasons why you must use a PAGE for your business and not an Add as Friend Profile; it’s not a choice any more if you take your marketing seriously.

Lack of Features

There is a massive lack of features when using an ‘Add as Friend’ profile for your business. No tailored page design options or methods of prompting people to follow you, no way to capture follower information (such as email), no statistics on your followers, no ad campaigns etc. All of these features are available with a Page profile, which Facebook have specifically designed for businesses, for this reason amongst others.

Privacy

You are likely missing out on many followers who simply don’t want you, as a business, seeing their personal details, photos, comments. By asking them to add you as a friend you are asking them to agree for you to be able to access all this information. I certainly have a real problem with this type of profile that will mean that I will not add any business as a ‘friend’. I recently make the decision to never add another business as a friend and subsequently went through all my friends and deleted all the businesses on there. So all of those businesses can no longer market to me, update me with their news or potentially attract me as a client. That’s a real wasted opportunity.

In contrast, if these companies used the correct profile type (Page) more people would be happy to ‘Like’ them, following their updates without any risk of the company infringing on the individual’s privacy. They can thereby grow their following faster and more efficiently.

Now, this risk might change slightly with the introduction of Facebook’s new privacy settings whereby you can restrict which groups of friends view certain information about you, but I for one will never add another business as a friend. I know MANY (if not MOST) people feel the same way about their privacy.

The REAL Danger – Putting your fate in the hands of one employee

I see way too many businesses making this reckless error in judgement. They allow one employee to establish and manage their Facebook profile as an Add as Friend profile, which requires anybody wishing to use the page to login as that person using one username and one password. This is very risky.

What if that employee leaves the company (or, not to be flippant, dies) and/or has recently changed the passwords to the profile. Or worse yet, what if the employee leaves the company under bad terms – they could (if they chose to) simply delete the profile altogether. Or they could change the passwords and begin posting whatever information they wanted on your business page, to your followers… This could be made up of comments/posts that are detrimental to your company, offensive or worse. As unlikely as this may seem, you may have spent 3-4+ years building up a loyal following of 1000, 2000, maybe even 5000 followers. And with one click of a button, they’re all GONE.

Social Media Done Right – Facebook Pages for Business

With a Page profile you take away all of this risk. A Page is controlled by a number of ‘Admins’ within a company (or by an external contractor like Zenith) who can control the page through their own logins. If that person leaves the team, they are removed as an admin and the Page carries on unaffected. So if you’ve built up a large following, you don’t risk losing them or wasting a lot of hard work and time. It means there is no reliability on one person. Your business is at minimal risk in this way.

It’s a risk that I see many business take, to their own detriment. Trust the members of your team, certainly, but don’t put your social media marketing, reputation and potential at risk in this way. Keep it safe, efficient, effective and tailored so you can take great advantage of social media marketing for your company.

You can now migrate your profile to a page with ease thanks to Facebook realising that this is a common problem. Go to this link and follow the simple instructions to make this happen.

I guaran-damn-tee it you are being ineffective in your social media marketing if you’re using an Add As Friend Profile instead of a page for your company – Why would you let that happen?

For more info, or for any free social media help/advice, go to this link and we’ll help you in any way we can.

It amazes (and disappoints) me if a client makes the statement “that’s very expensive” or “that’s more expensive than x,y,z” with regard to our web or design services. It amazes me because that couldn’t be further from the truth, and it disappoints me because that statement grossly undervalues the quality of the service and design that we provide.

It’s an insult of sorts, although we know it’s never intentional. It’s not necessarily a client’s fault, and it’s very difficult for the client to know the in’s and out’s of what goes into a successful web campaign without us boring them to death with talk of SEO protocols, design [...]]]>

Don't Be Fooled – Cheap = Cheap

HOW TO INSULT A GOOD WEB COMPANY

It amazes (and disappoints) me if a client makes the statement “that’s very expensive” or “that’s more expensive than x,y,z” with regard to our web or design services. It amazes me because that couldn’t be further from the truth, and it disappoints me because that statement grossly undervalues the quality of the service and design that we provide.

It’s an insult of sorts, although we know it’s never intentional. It’s not necessarily a client’s fault, and it’s very difficult for the client to know the in’s and out’s of what goes into a successful web campaign without us boring them to death with talk of SEO protocols, design processes and latest technologies. It does happen though and it’s a shame because it’s all down to the confusion & ‘Dumbing-down’ of web services created by inferior (often big-name) companies that blind clients with cheap prices and effective marketing campaigns. Don’t let this be you. It’s more important to ensure that your investment receives maximum ROI and that you are with a company you trust to deliver quality & results.

Websites Should be an Investment

If you are the type of client that is looking for a beautiful, intuitive, content managed and search engine optimised website for a price south of £1000, you’re either crazy or you believe the ‘hype’ orchestrated by companies such as Yell, 1to1 Business or one of the other many generic (non-specialist) web companies out there vying for your business. These companies have fantastic marketing departments and (often misleading) slogans that do tend to ensnare the average, unsuspecting client. If that is you, I apologise, but you have been duped my friend. I don’t blame you; their shiny tv ads promise an awful lot (while understandably ignoring the shortcomings of their service). Ask them about their design service (is it tailored or basic template), after sales, SEO, ongoing costs etc. Then come back to us and ask us the same thing.

A lazy website is like a lazy dog. Not up to much.

What happens when (and I mean when) you are tied into a contract with one of these companies and you realise you’ll be paying them every month (or year) for a service that doesn’t really amount to much? If you leave them, you’ll then need to start all over again. For instance, is there a point in having a website if nobody can find it on Google? If this isn’t a concern for you, why not fire on and get a website with one of these companies. Nobody will ever get to see your website (apart from a few people you direct to it) because its’ SEO will be non-existant and you will have little-to-no control over anything to do with the site. It’s code will be replicated in hundreds of other websites and you will be very likely to be ignored by search engines as a result of this. These companies don’t design your website around your requirements, to achieve your objectives or with any concern for what you want from your website. They are faceless companies willing to take your hard-earned cash for very little (if any) input. I’m not afraid to say it, hopefully you aren’t afraid to listen.

That is not us. If that is what you are looking for from a web company, we wouldn’t even take you on as a client. What we are about is time, effort, design, quality, communication, listening and results. Any good web company would be. The reason it appalls me if potential clients ever say ‘you’re more expensive than (insert generic service provider here – i.e. Yell)’ is because it assumes that the service we provide is a ‘like-for-like’ service. I can assure you, it is not. It also assumes that the quality of design of these companies is as good as ours. Again, it is not. And finally, it assumes that you value our service at the same (or lower) price as these half-assed, generic, poor or faceless companies.

This is where the real insult is.

Now, that may seem like a rant aimed at half of the web companies out there, and maybe it is, but I have a lot of respect for a handful of excellent service providers in our industry and I would never denigrate their quality of design, programming or service.

Good companies care about you as a client. Companies like ours will take your brief, listen to your objectives and tailor your service package around these. You will often have one point of contact in this type of company and will be given excellent service because of this. The design of your website will be unique and tailored specifically around your corporate identity and desires. Companies like ours will also put an emphasis on good SEO protocols, whereas with a generic website from a generic company, you get generic quality (i.e. zero SEO). Did you expect anything more?

There are a handful of really good web companies out there (I’d estimate 5% of companies fit this bill, at most) and if you are looking for a website that is of the highest quality, you should be prepared to invest a fairly hefty sum of money into that. If you are not willing to do this, you will likely receive something that is of a poor standard; either visually (design), structurally (intuitive navigation) or mechanically (good, clean coding). There ain’t nothing that sums this up better than the old adage;

You get what you pay for”.

Don't Be Fooled – Cheap = Cheap

Most of those ancient sayings tend to be pretty spot on for the most part. Your website should be an investment for your company, it should work for you and you should expect it to make your money back hand over fist because it is designed and programmed to the highest standards.

So here’s a few pointers for you, as a client…

• Have Respect for Quality -

Don’t take your brief to a specialist web company (or any other design agency) and expect their price to be the same as Yell, BT, Vistaprint etc. Don’t expect a ‘like for like’ service or quality of product and then expect the price to be lower, because the service and quality will be much higher and the price will definitely correlate to that, and quite rightly so.

• Be Realistic -

I find a lot of clients vastly underestimate the time and labour that goes into the planning, design and execution of a successful website. Don’t be one of these clients. I can tell you now that regardless of the price of your project you will be getting superb value in terms of the hours put into it. If you are getting you’re basic 4-page website for around the £1000-mark, you are doing very well as a client. Add another 4-6 pages onto that along with a Content Management System and be happy to outlay around £2.5-4k. You are still getting great value.

• Shop Around - 

Speak with a number of companies and/or go with a company that is a good fit for you. You may get on well with the company representative, you may have been referred by a colleague or friend, or you may just ‘like’ what they do. Those should be the driving factors when you make a decision as to what web company you choose, not price. If you are solely going on price you will be greatly let down (whether you know it or not). Either the quality of design or service will not be there (and of course, you will hopefully recognise this) or else the quality of programming or SEO will be missing (and sadly, you may never realise this, at least not until it’s too late).

• Demand The Best - 

Don’t settle for poor quality design or service. Never forget that your website is supposed to promote and work for your company, not just sit idly in case anyone visits. Let companies like ours show you how your website can improve your marketing, increase traffic and ultimately profitability & efficiency for you. These are the little touches that make up to a huge difference to your marketing success. The little touches that inferior companies just don’t (or can’t) offer.

I’m a semi-recent Apple convert. I got my first iPod about 8 years ago but until this year (2011) all I had owned was a couple of iPhones and multiple iPods. Not that I didn’t love them all, but for some reason it took me until this year to make the jump and plunge headfirst into the world of Apple…

It started in March with [...]]]> With the announcement late last week that Steve Jobs, undoubtable legend and technological visionary, had decided to retire from his position as Apple CEO, I thought it timely and appropriate to share my thoughts as within our business (and every day regardless) I am always at, with or using an Apple product these days… Pretty much 24/7.

I’m a semi-recent Apple convert. I got my first iPod about 8 years ago but until this year (2011) all I had owned was a couple of iPhones and multiple iPods. Not that I didn’t love them all, but for some reason it took me until this year to make the jump and plunge headfirst into the world of Apple…

It started in March with the launch of the iPad2. Foolish me decided to queue for 3 hours one Friday afternoon to get my hands on this mystical tablet, somehow thinking that my world would shift on its axis and I’d be somehow enlightened. Truth is, it did a little and I was. I love the iPad; It’s a flawed masterpiece. It looks fantastic, is light, thin and portable and it works. It’s perfect for me to take to clients to show them what we do as a company because of these things… Plus, it without exception impresses people in it’s shiny, minimalist beauty. I told myself (and my wife) that the reason I was queuing for this thing was that it would transform the way we did business, making client presentations that much simpler and more impressive… and making my life simpler at the same time. Sometimes it does, I have to say.

Above all else, the reason all Apple products work is that they just feel ‘Right’. They are by far the most intuitive products you will ever use, nothing else comes close. That’s the core of the obsession that Apple-lovers have with the brand and its products. Closely followed by the fact that every frickin’ product they release looks and feels its’ price tag – stunning casing and beautiful, minimalist design, Apple think of things that surprise and impress the hell out of consumers with every (major) product they release. Sure you’ll pay £400-500+ more for a 13″ Macbook Pro than you will for a Dell, Sony or Compaq laptop for the same power and performance, but the design and build quality is in a completely different league. To hold a product like this makes you ‘feel’ something different.

In addition, I’ve owned a number of laptops over the last decade; Compaqs mainly and most recently a big 18.4″ Sony Vaio. The Compaqs were pretty terrible. Bad plastics, creaky, slow and unreliable, each failed me within 12-18 months as they gradually slowed to the point of no return. So when I changed to a Vaio and opted for a top of the range version with 640GB hard drive and 4GB Ram, paying £1500 in the process, I was certain I wouldn’t need to worry about the same poor performance. Well, I really liked the Vaio; the screen was great, the keyboard was much better than the Compaqs and it felt much better built. However, after 13 months my battery died… just stopped working, typically just out of warranty.

Then in November 2010 (exactly 24 months after purchase) the first hard drive died on me… the performance had been waning gradually over a few months to the point where it took a good 2-3 minutes to open a psd. Onwards and upwards as I thought as I removed the old hard drive and placed the second hard drive into the slot. It took me about a day to reinstaleverything and the computer seemed to run much better… for about 3 months. At this point all the slowing performance returned and gradually got worse and worse to the point that it took 3-4 minutes to open ANY file or folder and the same to even save a recent version. Not good, especially as we were by then busier than ever in the business. I stuck with it until June 2011 at which point I bit the bullet and opted for a complete change in equipment… I’d had enough of PCs going south with poor build quality, lacklustre performance and even worse reliability. I can’t have that as a business owner when I need to be reliable for my clients. I finally took the plunge and bought an iMac, Macbook Pro, Time Capsule, Apple TV… pretty much everything I could lay my hands on that I could use for the business (excluding Apple TV, that was an impulse purchase on checkout). They do say ‘Once you go Mac, you never go back’. Cheesy I know, but seriously accurate. I just don’t think I could, or would want to.

So, as a fully-fledged Apple aficionado and as an ode to Mr Steve Jobs, I wanted to share with you my top 8 Apple Products… largely based on my experience with each to date. In reverse order of essential -

8. Time Capsule

This fairly substantial box of power is still something I think will prove invaluable for countless individuals and businesses looking to safeguard their files and supercharge their wireless connectivity. Bascially it acts as an automatic backup system (currently available in 2TB and 3TB storage options) that all devices in your network can take advantage of using the Apple ‘Time Machine’ application. I’ve had some scary situations in the past (latest being November 2010) where hard drives have died on me without warning and some of my work has been lost. I decided this year that I could never let that happen again. I got the 2TB version of the Time Capsule which supposedly offers “Server Grade” storage… I guess that remains to be seen but I’ve been impressed with it so far. My iMac automatically backs up all files that I’m working on to the Time Capsule without the need for me to touch a button which means I don’t need to rely on my (often failing) memory to initiate the backup process… invaluable.

Also, it did boost my Wireless signal. We run about 4 computers (iMac, Macbook Pro, 2 x laptops) and 4-5 other devices off the system at any given time (iPad, 3 x mobiles, Apple TV) and I did notice a boost to our signal strength and internet speed when the Time Capsule was installed (For any of you who are interested, in part it does this through splitting the network into different frequencies and allowing mobile devices (iPad, iPhones) to run on a different frequency from the computers in the network (thereby reducing the load/demand on each bandwidth). Either way, I was impressed by the extra speed of wireless and I feel much more comfortable knowing that my work is being doubled up on the Time Capsule and that, should my iMac fail, I shouldn’t lose any of my client work, photographs etc. Is it worth the £250 price tag for 2TB storage? Who knows, probably not. But it looks cool and it works, and the peace of mind it affords is invaluable.

7. Apple TV

This one’s a relatively untested device in our household but I love it nonetheless. We haven’t streamed a movie through the Apple TV yet but any trailers I’ve watched I’ve been impressed by the complete lack of interruptions (the little load bar always stays well ahead of the play time-bar). There’s also the functionality to stream Youtube videos or films/videos etc from your other devices in the network. the reason I really love Apple TV is that I can stream my extensive music collection (8,000-odd songs) from my iMac upstairs through my TV in the living room. This still boggles my mind. I can’t get how a little box could take music from my computer upstairs and move it in perfect time to a device 30 ft away. Plus, with other innovations, I can use my iPhone or iPad as a remote control for this thing!? Which is just crazy. Quality of image on the streaming filsm seems very good, no complaints there. The only thing they’d need to do would be to add content flexibility – e.g. the ability to link in to Apps, other channels etc.

6. iTouch

This is actually the oldest Apple piece of kit I still own. I think it was the 2nd gen iTouch. A massive improvement over the previous (now ‘Classic’) iPods with it’s touch screen interface and reliability (all 4-5 of my previous iPods froze consistently) and while the older ‘Click’ wheel was a great innovation at the time, the lack of moving parts on the iTouch was a huge stride in functionality. Not much else to say really, it plays music and stuff, although maybe that sells short the innovation of the iPod range… it’s very difficult to remember a time when you put a tape, cd or minidisc into a chunky box instead of accessing a database of music. THAT is the beauty of Apple; Pure innovation.

5. iPad 2

The BIG one this year. Apple are apparently gearing up for 22 MILLION sales of this thing in Q4 2011!!? I do love the iPad2 but many of you will probably be surprised to see it at this point on my list. Look, the iPad is a beautiful piece of kit; slick interface, good (if not exceptional) screen and a huge variety of Apps available to customise it. Plus, it’s highly portable, which is potentially it’s greatest attraction. However, it is a flawed masterpiece. The screen while very good, is not great. It would have benefited from the retina screen (first seen on the iPhone 4 last year), though I am sure Apple are doing what they do best and releasing technology in phases; so the iPad 3 or 2S or whatever it’ll be called will no doubt house a retina screen and at present they’re probably working on more efficient batteries so that a new release will keep the 9hr battery life.

Next new feature between the iPad 1 and 2… The Camera. The camera on the iPad is… Woeful. Truly awful. I’d almost rather they’d just kept it off. In its defence, it has come in useful for taking some videos of our new son when my iPhone had run out of storage. However, the actual quality of the videos it captures is absolutely dire; needless to say, don’t buy it expecting the camera to be of much use for video capture.

By contrast, as a portable business device, the iPad is exceptional. I take the iPad to client meetings, presentations and coffee shops. It impresses clients with it’s beautiful design and crisp screen… great for showing them our designs, proposals or websites. I’ve been surprised by how much of an impact this little tablet has made on many of my clients… one client (who won’t be named) had never even heard of an iPad… he thought I’d carried in a notepad and nearly had a coronary when I opened up the screen and started showing him stuff. The iPad is therefore great for ‘immediate use’ for client meetings. Battery life is very good and some of the Apps are exceptional also. Garage Band had me hooked immediately, I’ve already created 20-odd songs on the thing; something I hadn’t done since I was about 20.

All in all a true milestone in technological advancement, the iPad changed things in the same way the iPhone and iPod did (and continue to do with every release) so it’s definitely exciting to see where this goes from here with the next instalments. With prices starting around £399 it can be an affordable device. With 32GB and 3G however, it costs almost £600, which is potentially stretching the balance of quality & functionality vs value.

4. OS X Lion

While not a physical Apple product I think it makes sense to acknowledge the exceptional OS that Macs use. With the release of Lion in July 2011 Macs really leapt ahead of PC’s in terms of user interface and intuitive gestures. Multi-touch gestures are one of the massive improvements I noticed when moving from PC to Mac. I now find myself using one of our laptops in the office and going to scroll between pages, back to the desktop, up and down a page… and I find myself being ever more disappointed with the user interface of a PC. OS X Lion just has everything where you’d want & expect it to be and all of those things are customisable so you can change how your mouse or trackpad gestures act to suit your own comfort. Added to that the advancements in applications like Mail and Lion is easily the most complete OS in the world.

3. Macbook Pro

I opted for the 13″ version as I wanted something super-portable as an alternative to the big 27″ iMac I was buying. The first thing you’ll notice about a Macbook Pro, particularly when set aside a PC Laptop is the build quality and the beautiful design. A solid aluminium casing which is by FAR the most solid-feeling laptop I’ve ever used (and that’s out of maybe 12-15 laptops), a beautiful glass trackpad and definitely the most comfortable and responsive keyboard I’ve ever used (even better than the excellent Vaio one). To date I haven’t had a single issue with the Macbook Pro. Sure, on larger psd files it takes a while to open but to be honest, I didn’t buy it for huge performance, I have my iMac for that; I bought it for functionality, the ability to occasionally use it for design and send emails/write blog posts etc. when on the go. The little Macbook Pro is a thing of beauty, no doubt. when closed it just looks perfect, when open, it maybe even looks better than perfect.

2. iMac

So the saying goes; “Once you go Mac, you never go back”. This is the powerhouse of the office… 2TB hard drive, 8GB RAM, 27″ screen, i7 processor etc. A truly stunning piece of kit that has changed the way we design and has made it possible and simple to monitor in perfect detail everything we to within our designs. That 27″ screen takes a bit of getting used to but after a few days it would be very difficult to go down in size. Especially in 27″ guise, the screen allows great flexibility to view different applications you may have open at any time. It is super-fast in terms of processing images, opening pages and multitasking. It’s not without its faults though (nothing is). It periodically freezes on me while in the middle of work (or even just randomly when I leave the station for an hour). This is fine for web pages or native Apple Apps like Pages, iPhoto etc. as it saves and reopens these where you left off. For Photoshop however, this can be a real pain. It has also taken to freezing at times when I choose a Youtube or Vimeo video to watch (only seems to happen as the video starts). So, not a 100% rating but maybe more like 90%. All in all though, I’m not sure we could operate as efficiently or effectively without the iMac in the office, a highly impressive machine that does just about everything I could need it to, and does it really well. PC’s are without doubt a thing of the past in the office.

1. iPhone 4

So, first on my list is the latest version of the phone that ‘changed everything’. I think I might die if I didn’t have my iPhone. This to me is the most important, life-changing piece of kit I have ever bought from Apple, or from anywhere for that matter. I’ve owned my fair share of mobile phones in the last 12 or so years and never has a phone impressed me so much as the iPhone. It’s the only phone that I would not get rid of approaching the end of a contract, unless it was to upgrade to a newer version. The iPhone 3G had me feeling like this too, but the iPhone 4 is in another world again. It does everything I currently need it to and the beauty of Apple products is that they’re pretty much always one step ahead of consumers’ desires.

I can’t think of anything the iPhone should do better, except it could be a slightly better ‘phone’. Reception can be a bit temperamental for instance and sure it freezes from time to time or drops out of an App (potentially more an App issue)… though maybe that’s just the case with every other mobile? It’s easy to find faults like that when it does everything else so well.

Either way, it has the most beautiful, crisp, perfectly-sized screen you could ever hope for, hugely intuitive navigation (something all other phones I’ve ever owned, except Nokia have failed to get right), an amazing Launchpad for every application (an area I think major competitors like Blackberry still haven’t got right) as well as huge functionality due to the massive App library… the list goes on.

The fact that I have all my email, news, photos, music, social media, blog etc. at the touch of a button at all times, and all in a single device, is truly incredible. Personally, I believe this (and not the iPad 2 as most other people would argue) is the true masterstroke product from Apple. As close to perfect as a gadget has ever come and easily, far and away, without doubt the best mobile device ever to be released.

The iPhone is always with me so I can check mail, keep in touch with clients, monitor blogs, take notes etc. All these amazing features, perfectly formed and within a small, portable, beautiful piece of design. A true masterpiece of technology, these are all the things that put the iPhone 4 at the top of my ‘Best of Apple’ list. Moreover, it’s top of ALL my gadget lists, ever.

Here’s an email I got from a client just last night after we launched his WordPress website [...]]]> Why We Use WordPress for Content Management (CMS) – Easy! here’s why…

I’m not sure if this is ever even an issue with clients but I sometimes feel myself trying to explain why we (more often than not) use WordPress as our designated content management system…Some clients (who are perhaps more tech-savvy) ask specifically for a WordPress CMS right off the bat because they either have experience with the system (and therefore know how intuitive it is to use) or they know some stuff about SEO and know that you can’t really go passed WordPress in terms of making your site as Search-Engine-Loved as possible.

Here’s an email I got from a client just last night after we launched his WordPress website this past week:

Alex, really impressed with number of listings I seem to be getting on Google, especially main web site top hit.   Don’t know how some of these sites have got my details, but it doesn’t really matter, as long as I have the exposure!!!! Thanks!

These are the type of comments that make everything we do worthwhile – when clients recognise our specialties and the quality of our service it is a fantastic feeling; I love the fact we are helping clients achieve their business goals on a daily basis. It also clearly shows one of the immediate benefits of having a WordPress-powered website yourself.

Anyway, I still get the feeling that some of our competitors would probably try to sell their own, in-house, self-branded CMS’ to clients over the WordPress system. I don’t have a problem with this, I would do it too if we had developed our own; we’d no doubt have to make our money back on all that development time by selling it out at a certain price. However, we haven’t got our own CMS and this is the case for a number of reasons… Let me sum it up like this; What would your choice be in the following scenario – would you choose to buy a pair of Tesco own-brand jeans for £20 when you could get a pair of Diesel Jeans (or whatever your choice might be!) for £20 or maybe even £15!? Or would you choose a less comprehensive, less user-friendly version of the iPhone with an app library 1/100th of the size over the real thing, for much the same price? The same is true of the WordPress system… I truly don’t see the point in trying to develop a CMS (at least, not for the foreseeable future) when a huge company like WordPress just do it so well; we could never develop a system as comprehensive, user-friendly, SEO-friendly or with so many application options, in a million years. Especially when it often ends up saving our clients between £500-£1500+ per project… It just doesn’t add up, no matter what way you slice it.

And it’s not like there is a limitation to the WordPress system… It is “open-source” and free and that means that there are a number of BIG benefits for users, as follows:

A HUGE Plugin Library of Features – Limitless Customisation

Wordpress is open-source which means computer geniuses, companies (large and small) and geeks in their bedrooms are all out there developing thousands of unique, boundary-pushing ‘plugins’ for the WordPress system for users like YOU, so that you can tailor your own WordPress website for your individual needs… This means gallery plugins, slideshow plugins, e-Commerce plugins, SEO plugins, Invoicing plugins, mobile device plugins etc. The list goes on… and on. The end result is an almost limitless library of features that we can access for clients directly tailored for their individual objectives and needs for their websites. Now, some more niche products are paid services but I don’t think anybody ever regretted buying quality. When I say ‘Paid’, I mean you’re probably paying between £40-100 max for invaluable features that will stand your website apart from the competition.

SEO-Lovin’

The nature of the entire WordPress system – easy updates with unique content for your website – means that Search engines like Google LOVE your WordPress website. Search engines are more and more focussing on the quality and relevance of your content rather than simply keywords or paid ads. Search Engines like to see that you are interested in your website and update it regularly… If you don’t, you run the risk of being ignored or, worse yet, penalised! Needless the say, the easily-updateable nature of WordPress means you really shouldn’t have to worry about this.

In addition, the number of amazingly effective SEO plugins tailored for WordPress such as the ‘All in One SEO Pack‘ or ‘SEO by Yoast‘ mean that you can manage your website SEO easily, without any technical knowledge and with no need for expensive agency fees for updates in the future. With a little training (which we provide FOC with our WordPress CMS) you will find these types of plugins give you a major boost over your competitors.

Simplicity

There is very little simpler than the control panel of the WordPress system. Much like Apple have the whole ‘intuitive navigation’ thing pretty much sewn up, WordPress too have their CMS beautifully designed. Customised elements & plugins appear down the left-hand side of the site as shown below

Of course, as simple as it is to use/navigate, we still provide clients with training & instructional videos based specifically on their site and tailored set of options/plugins.

Design Flexibility

We also use WordPress because the flexibility of theme choices and tailoring options is exceptional – in this way we can provide completely unique designs for client websites and tailor the WordPress system around our designs. Some less flexible CMS’ require the design to be tailored around the CMS, which proves restrictive.

Here are some of the recent designs we’ve come up with using the WordPress system -

At the end of the day, we believe the system is the most flexible, user-friendly, Search Engine-loved and efficient system on the market. That, for our clients, means maximum value for money and return on investment. Which is kinda what it’s all about.

1) Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – a really confusing area. SEO is the area concerned with giving your website the maximum chance of being seen and ‘ranked’ highly in the big search engines like Google. There are a number of things you or your web company can do to positively affect this –

To a lot of people a website is just something to ‘have’ online; they feel that by having a website they are covering all bases for the marketing of their company. Unfortunately this is inaccurate and can lead to a [...]]]> It’s been a while since our last blog – not something we advise in general but we’ve been so busy with client projects (and then Easter and then the birth of my first child) that our own blog has taken a back seat in the last month. I’d like to come back with a blog aimed at Web design for businesses, an overly- confusing area for many of you – let’s see if we can’t help de-clutter the topic for you.

To a lot of people a website is just something to ‘have’ online; they feel that by having a website they are covering all bases for the marketing of their company. Unfortunately this is inaccurate and can lead to a lot of bad websites that do nothing positive for a company (or worse yet, are potentially detrimental to the brand).

The area can be confusing as people are not educated on what all the relevant terms are – CMS, SEO, Hosting, Domain, e-commerce, social media marketing etc. The list of terminology is long and mostly vague.

From the ground up, these are the items you’ll need to consider –

DOMAIN NAME – This is the name of your website and you have complete control over this (assuming your chosen name isn’t already taken). For example, our domain name is www.zenithdesignstudios.com. We could’ve chosen a .co.uk, .org, .ie. etc. but chose to stick with the .com and also reserved the .co.uk so no one else in the UK could have our domain name. You can search the availability of your domain on any website selling domains & hosting such as www.123-reg.co.uk, www.fasthosts.co.uk etc.

EMAIL– Once you have your domain you will be able to choose a tailored email address (e.g. info@, hello@, joebloggs@zenithdesignstudios.com). A tailored email is essential for business if you want people to take you seriously – e.g. joebloggs@hotmail.com, yahoo.com etc. doesn’t really instil the same confidence as joebloggs@yourdomain.com (this is because yahoo, hotmail etc. are free; anyone can have them).

HOSTING – Once you have your domain name you need a package which will support the website going live on the world-wide web. Hosting packages vary wildly in spec and price and can start at just a few £’s per month up to £1000’s depending on the size, scale and demands of your website. If you have a Content Management System or an e-commerce site for instance, you’ll need a fairly heavy-duty hosting package to support the demands of this. If you need a secure site to accept credit card payments or privileged information, the costs may be into £100’s per month. Or if you have a single page site, the cost will be tiny. As with anything to do with websites, it’s about finding the perfect balance for you that gives you the best product and performance for the best value. This is where a good web company comes in – one that isn’t just there to squeeze money out of you but will advise on the options and suggest valid alternatives to suit your budget and your goals.

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS – Again, a wide and varied area but infinitely valuable if you wish to control the content of your website after it has been designed and handed over to you by the web company. Some content management systems are small and relevant only to very small sections of your website – these will cost very little but will be highly restrictive. Other options will open up much more of your website to your control (e.g. the ability to add new pages, galleries etc.) and will cost more depending on the size of website involved. The key here is that the web company idenitifies the correct options to provide you with. We’ve had clients who have been given terrible content management systems by other companies that are impossible for the layman to understand – what’s the point of that!? To avoid this issue, we have sourced a selection of exceptional, intuitive and stable content management systems which offer clients exactly the level of control that they have asked for. We also provide training, ongoing support and video tutorials for these so that when the CMS is handed over to the client, they can hit the ground running and gain maximum value from their investment, over time. Otherwise, it’s completely counterproductive – the idea of a CMS is to save a client time, effort and money – ultimately that’s what you’re investing in.

Check back next week for part 2 which will complete the picture and deals with other pertinent topics such as Search Engine Optimisation, Design and Statistics… Visit the Part 2 Blog here

If you have any questions please post them below and we’ll try to help you out!

Jenni came to us for advice on websites, e-commerce and social media. She didn’t really have any background knowledge on any of this but she knew, without doubt that she had a great idea and wanted to be a self-sufficient business-woman. Add to this the fact that just a couple of months earlier [...]]]> Have you wondered whether it’s worthwhile to bite the bullet and start a business? Did you have an idea for a business only to let it fade away through inaction and (perceived) lack of time? Well, in that case, you should read this interview we just did with our client, Jenni Reichert, Owner of Baja Baby Gear, a company providing baby equipment rental in Cabo, Mexico.

Jenni came to us for advice on websites, e-commerce and social media. She didn’t really have any background knowledge on any of this but she knew, without doubt that she had a great idea and wanted to be a self-sufficient business-woman. Add to this the fact that just a couple of months earlier she had given birth to her first child and I’m sure you get the picture… How could someone in this position EVER find the time to breathe, let alone start an e-commerce business from scratch… within a matter of weeks!?

Well, Jenni did it and did it that quickly. So can you, as long as you have an idea and the commitment to bring that idea to life, no matter what the obstacles in your way.

Check out the interview we did with Jenni below and leave any queries or feedback at the bottom.

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1. Hi Jen, first of all, thanks for taking the time to give this interview for the Zenith blog. We launched your website three weeks ago; what’s the feedback on the website been like?

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Friends and family have enjoyed the content, thought that it was simple to navigate, pleasing to the eye. Potential clients and business owners have also commented on the professional style of the website. As you know, there has also been a bit of constructive criticism, but that was more with regard to the content of the website as opposed to its structure and design.

2. You’re originally from Northern Ireland; how did you find your way to living in sunny Mexico?

I moved to Mexico by myself in January 2003 on a whim. I had heard that there was money to be made in the timeshare industry and, of course, the weather in Mexico was a draw too. I had no intention of settling in Mexico, I really just went to see a new country make a bit of cash and have some fun. Prior to moving, I had been working as a massage therapist on the cruise ships so I already had the travel bug. I had always known that I didn’t want to settle in Northern Ireland, but if you had told me that Mexico would end up being my home, I probably would have laughed at you!

3. So, from back home in NI, to Cabo; what made you decide to start your own business?

There are two things that a foreigner can do in Mexico (assuming you don’t want a lot of responsibility). You can teach English to Mexican nationals, which will earn you about 300 USD per week plus housing, or you can venture into the wonderful, weird world of selling timeshares, where you can make anywhere from $1000 USD to $30,000 USD per MONTH. Clearly, the latter appealed to me much more and I have spent the last 8 years of my life working in the timeshare industry.

After recently giving birth to my first child, it became clear that there isn’t a place for new mothers in the timeshare industry. There are no part time positions; there is no paid maternity leave. After having Wyatt, I decided it was time that I became self sufficient in Mexico. I also wanted to plant roots here and become a real member of the Cabo community. While planning our first trip with our son and buying a ton of baby equipment online to be waiting for us at our destination, I wondered what other mothers do when they come to Cabo for baby equipment. I have the ‘Aha’ moment.

I spent the night googling for a rental company in Cabo… couldn’t find one… sent an email your way that same night….

This is what we came up with working with Jen

4. And what’s the support been like from other business people; do you find there’s a lot of positive opinion for starting your own company in Mexico as there would be in the States? (As opposed to the look of shock on people’s faces if you do it back in NI?)

There is definitely a more Americanised support system for anyone going out on their own here in Mexico. Opening a business shows that you have respect for the community, that you want to produce more revenue in the area and that you plan on sticking around for the foreseeable future.

5. And friends and family? Did they all think you were mad or was there overwhelming support for starting a business from scratch on your own… as you were (at the time) with a two month old baby?

My friends were hugely supportive. My family were really happy for me but (understandably) slightly apprehensive. My husband is 150% behind me, and I am sure if he could speak, Wyatt would be too, because he gets a stay-at-home Mum now!

6. Your website’s an e-commerce site – Before taking the plunge, did you know much about e-commerce?

I had ZERO…. I repeat ZERO knowledge about any of this online malarkey until we started communicating. I knew that I wanted my services to be reserved easily and I knew that my potential market were going to be from the U.S. and Canada, so I needed to create a site that I could accept payment. Your initial email to me (the big long one asking me to think about what I wanted from my website, who my customer would be etc.) was VERY helpful and insightful. Your direction toward Paypal was invaluable… it has proven to be a superb and effective way of dealing with customers. The best part about Paypal is that my clients are already familiar with it, and so they trust it 100%.

Yep, Paypal’s a great tool to use for e-commerce as it’s quick (both in function as well as to code) and inexpensive. This meant we could get Baja Baby Gear up and running within a matter of weeks for Jen.

7. You chose to have a blog on the site and a selection of social media pages; what made you decide to adopt these practices and what made you select the specific Social Media pages you chose?

Both the blog and the specific social media pages were suggested by Zenith… and I’m glad they were, as I had no intention of doing either prior to the launch! The blog was a way for me to continually add SEO rich content to the website, while plugging other local businesses and reassuring the general public that Cabo is a safe place to travel to. It is also a great way for me to keep connected to my site.

As for social media, I cannot believe how successful that has been for me. Twitter has by far been the best way for me to obtain maximum exposure to and from local visitors and potential international clients. The best thing about both suggestions is that they are essentially free ways to market yourself on a frequent basis.

8. And How’s that been going in terms of blogging? I noticed you’ve got two posts up already which are great information pieces on the company and for tourists coming to the area – basically one post per week which is perfect!

I think I answered that above, but to add to that… blogging is great because it constantly challenges me to think of ways that I can entertain my web audience and find relevant content to add to my site. I want to give my clients interesting, factual and informative content and the blog is the way to do that. I also think that it personalizes my website, which is key to the service that I offer. I need the general public to feel at ease when reserving my products and by reading my blog, they can get a feel for who I am and what I care about.

9. You’re in Cabo, We’re in Northern Ireland; How did that work? Did you find any obstacles to working with a company so far away? Any issues with communication, time-difference etc?

I have to tell you that after I sent that first email off to you, I immediately thought ‘Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. What if we cannot communicate effectively? What if the business I am trying to set up is so far out of the realms of a typical Northern Ireland website that we can’t work together effectively?

Luckily, it all worked out well. Perhaps the time difference wasn’t such a big deal for me as often times I would be emailing you in the middle of the night when I was up with my son! Ultimately, I felt that the time difference worked to our advantage. The time difference allowed for ‘digestion’ time (as I like to call it!)… time to take in the information sent, digest it and think about it.

As for worrying about the type of business that I was creating, that really was irrelevant as the fundamentals of an e-commerce website are all the same.

10. So, the future’s really exciting at the minute for the company; how did you go about marketing the company initially? Was it All done online or did you hit the streets, use previous contacts etc to get the word out? What are your plans for the coming while in terms of marketing?

• Got great business cards made (thanks Alex J). Found a local printer and had 2000 printed along with a postcard size also done (English and Spanish). I made a stack of price lists, had them laminated and put a business card on top of each.
• I also had several hundred promotional tote bags branded with the ‘Baja Baby Gear’ logo. Each and every client will receive one of these when they rent from me. They will contain family friendly items: wipes, hand sanitisers, tissues, bandages etc)
• I launched my social media sites and invited all my friends and family to support me
• I went to (and am still visiting!) as many resorts, hotels, B&B’s that I can think of and met with the head concierge face to face. I gave them a 5 minute presentation of my company and my services, I left them with price lists and a supply of business cards
• I followed up with each of the above concierge with an email to thank them for their time and also to remind them of our website.
• I then started my online marketing campaign. I applied to join ‘Baby Travel Pros’, which is a baby equipment rental association from the U.S. This has been a GREAT marketing tool as it gets my companies name out there and they immediately launched press releases about Baja Baby Gear becoming an affiliated company. I also did this with ‘New Parents Guide’. I have joined many online forums for travelling mothers, new mothers and stay at home mums who are now forging new businesses from home. I make sure that I ‘tweet’ every day and follow as many people as I can. I already have over 100 followers.
• Local marketing: I am a sponsor for the Humane Society in Cabo this year for their annual fundraiser (a round of golf at a prestigious golf course in Cabo). I am donating $500 USD and having my company logo included on all paperwork, as well as being allowed to put my marketing material in everyone’s ‘Thank you baggie’. I am marketing through 2 online local sites also (it runs about 60 USD a month to do so). www.loscabosguide.com and www.todoloscabos.com. These sites are like the yellow pages for locals and travellers coming to Cabo.
• Finally, I have my ‘cold calling’ and emailing marketing. I am in the process of contacting all realtors (who specialize in holiday home rentals), catering companies, travel agencies and wedding planners to inform them of my services and send them my price lists.

11. That’s fantastic Jen, glad to hear everything’s going really well for you and the company. Final question; would you have any advice for someone (particularly a new mother) if they’re thinking of starting out in business?

The thought of venturing out on my own particularly at such a precarious time in my life, and fronting an investment that I hoped would be successful was frightening. Add to that, I am in Mexico, where Spanish is the predominant language. Add to that, I am a new Mum… yep, it’s been an interesting few months! I cannot stress how important it was to work with a company like Zenith. To spend the money on having a personal guide to navigate me through my endless and at times confusing train of thought was probably the best thing I did for the successful launch of my business.

I started my business plan on New Years Day and my business was 100% in full motion within a few weeks. There is no way I would have been able to achieve that without Zenith. Certainly it would have saved me money to try to self-navigate WordPress, but there is nothing like being able to contact a real live person 24 hours a day to ask for help.

I know for a fact that had I tried to do this website by myself (have a vision of going out and buying ‘Dummies Guide to web programming etc), I would have taken twice the amount of time to probably produce something a fraction of the quality that my website currently is. I think if you are trying to do something that you know you are incompetent in, then that will translate and show when others see the finished product. Why wouldn’t you employ someone else to do the work you know nothing about?

It is also worthwhile to have an objective opinion. There were a few times when I thought I had a great idea for the website. Zenith was able to (gently) tell me either the idea was impractical, impossible or just plain silly! FYI, every time that happened, they always came up with a better suggestion!

Thanks a million Jen for your time; I know your flat out busy at the moment, really appreciate it. I also hope the experience with our team was enjoyable and beneficial! Speak soon.

My business is like my baby and I had a very definite vision of what I wanted it to look like and how I wanted people to feel when they visited my site. Today, I can say with confidence that when I look on my website, I feel like my vision was translated by Zenith perfectly. They were able to capture the essence of my personality and put it into a webpage. I feel confident when I walk into a meeting when I am about to pitch my company, as I know I have an amazing website to back it up. I feel excited to send someone an email with my website address on it, as I know how good it looks.

Setting up a business and sustaining it is not for the faint-hearted, but with the right team of people working with you and supporting your aspirations, it’s going to be successful.

You can see Jenni’s site here

Just a quick heads up about a new training course we’re launching to help businesses get up and running with Social Media. In speaking to a lot of clients recently, we feel that it’s a topic that is confusing a lot of people – We’ve found many business people  just don’t know where to start and yet they want to be able to use social media to help market their company. There also seems to be confusion as to the applicability of social media for certain types of business… Let me clear this up right now and say that ANY company can make Social Media work for them. We’ll show you how to do this in the training based [...]]]> Hi Everyone,

Just a quick heads up about a new training course we’re launching to help businesses get up and running with Social Media. In speaking to a lot of clients recently, we feel that it’s a topic that is confusing a lot of people – We’ve found many business people  just don’t know where to start and yet they want to be able to use social media to help market their company. There also seems to be confusion as to the applicability of social media for certain types of business… Let me clear this up right now and say that ANY company can make Social Media work for them. We’ll show you how to do this in the training based on your individual industry…

In light of these recent experiences, we’ve created an intensive course (two, half-day training sessions) that will launch in April and is designed to combat confusion and to help companies get started on the right footing with social media. Numbers for each course will be limited to just 12 companies for a couple of reasons;

1. Firstly, it’s an intensive course. Therefore, we need to be able to give each company enough focus in each session so that they leave the training having established their chosen social media platforms and having developed a semi-tailored strategy and some good background theory for their company on how to best move forward and begin effectively marketing their company through Social Media.
2. Secondly, the room’s just not that big and we want it to be a small group so we can develop a good rapport between companies and help everyone get to know each other. A larger group would inhibit this.

As numbers are so limited, you will need to be quick to register (a taster session for this filled up within 2 hours of release!) – Costs are £90 for the two sessions (Just £45 per half-day session) which is an insane price considering it will give each company around £525.00 worth of consultancy content.

To expand a little on the flyer, so you know what to expect of the training, what we aim to do is focus on the following for each of the attendant companies:

1. Demystify any confusion that surrounds Social Media for Business – It is simple once you have a little knowledge and we will show you just how easy it can be.
2. General background on social media – what is it, how does it work, what are the benefits?
3. Help you select the best range of social media platforms for YOUR company by showing you the strengths of each platform and our recommendations for the most effective ones.
4. Establish those platforms with you where ncessary (so you don’t need to worry about it and can leave the training and hit the ground running).
5. Explain the theory of social media so that you are utilising it in the best, most effective way.
6. Show you how to develop strategies and goals and how to measure the success of those strategies, easily, at any time.
7. Examine some brief case-studies of global and local companies who are using Social media (correctly and) effectively.
8. Detail the fatal mistakes you must avoid if your social media marketing is to succeed.
9. Illustrate what type of content you need to post and the frequency of that content.
10. Explain the level of commitment that a Social Media Marketing campaign should involve for you, whatever the size of your company.
11. Show you how to link your social media profiles to one another to increase efficiency and time-management – if we get time we will also do this with you in the training sessions.
12. Answer any other queries you may have about social media marketing.
13. Follow up training with a coaching call to see how you’re getting on and to answer any queries you have in the weeks after the training.

That’s the gist of the training content but what I also want to do is get some more suggestions for content from each of the companies that registers – Let me know the things that confuse you about social media, what aspects are limiting your progress (time, resources, perceived lack of content?) etc. so that I can tailor the training before the event in order to best focus it on your individual experiences. In this way you will leave the training with the very best value out of  the advice I give. Once you register we will email you a form to fill out in relation to this.

Let me know your thoughts and in the meantime (in case the image isn’t visible on your screen for any reason) here are the details of the training -

The two sessions will take place on:

Friday 1st April, 9am-1pm

Friday 15th April 9am-1pm

At Mallusk Enterprise Park (Conference Room)

Cost for the two sessions is £90.00 per attendee. As places are so limited we will need to receive payment for the course no later than Friday 25th March (1 week before training).

Refreshments will be provided.

You will need to bring a laptop or tablet with wireless connectivity with you so that we can get you up and running with Social Media throughout the training.

If you have any other queries please don’t hesitate to contact us in the interim and please be quick if you want to register; email letsgetsocial@zenithdesignstudios.com to do so. Once the places are gone, they’re gone!

Looking forward to meeting you all at the start of April!

Best Wishes,
Alex

1. SUITABILITY – SELECT THE BEST SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR YOU – You’ll need to choose the best platforms for your company. We’d suggest that Facebook will work for just about everybody because [...]]]> SOCIAL MEDIA – 4 ESSENTIAL TIPS TO AVOID FAILURE

Below is a list of the things you will need to have in place when considering a social media presence for your company. If you don’t, you’re missing out on the fundamentals of Social Media Marketing and I can guarantee you the whole process won’t be as successful as it should be. Social media is like any other part of your marketing strategy; it needs to be planned, measured and improved upon over time so that you optimise your success.

1. SUITABILITY – SELECT THE BEST SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR YOU – You’ll need to choose the best platforms for your company. We’d suggest that Facebook will work for just about everybody because of its vast reach (620 million users as of February 2011) and its superb flexibility. You can now choose from a massive range of tailoring options for your pages which can be highly beneficial when developing a strategy (More on this in upcoming blogs). Twitter might be a good option for you and Linked In is also a good one for business-to-business connections. What about visual platforms like Flickr? If you’re an accountant or a solicitor I’d say potentially not, whereas if you’re in a visual profession (architect, interiors, graphics etc.) then it’s perfect. It’s all about picking the most relevant platforms for you.

2. STRATEGY – Don’t go into social media blindly thinking that if you have a Facebook page and a load of followers then you’ve succeeded. Number of followers means nothing (unless you’ve got less than about 30!). Firstly, you need to have an idea of what you want to achieve by using social media… Is it brand loyalty? Brand awareness? Increased Sales? Customer feedback? Then you need to think about how to go about measuring and influencing that through social media. A presence without a strategy is virtually a waste of time; don’t worry, this is a mistake most people make.

3. STATISTICS PACKAGE – You have designed a strategy and have thought about how you can measure the success of your social media platforms based on your individual objectives… Now you need to actually measure the referral rate of social media sites to your website; how many hits, how many sign-ups to your blog or newsletter? How many people commenting? Otherwise, how will you ever know what’s working and what’s not? By measuring your success you can adapt your strategy to make it more effective and ultimately more successful as a long-term prospect. Quick tip; Facebook gives you free ‘insights’ into your Facebook page stats; use them. Also implement a stats package into your website... immediately. Even if you don’t use social media! I can’t stress how important this is for your web marketing whether you use social media or not. If you are running blind with a website you will never know what other people think of it, which pages are attracting people and (more importantly) which aren’t; you will therefore never be able to adapt your plan in a focussed way to avoid failure. Check some of the stats examples here – http://www.zenithdesignstudios.com/portfolio/web-design/

4. WEBSITE – There’s no point in getting a load of extra traffic that you never had before if your website looks terrible. Design is of huge importance and sadly, a lot of companies out there just don’t have a well-designed website to back up their level of expertise. Think about where you need to be and plan ahead. I am also constantly shocked by how many people use a Facebook page in place of having a website at all, simply because it’s free – BIG mistake. Through the next few blog posts we’ll cover some more of the theory behind social media marketing and you’ll see why this is madness – you need to have a website and you need to make sure it’s well designed, attractive, intuitive and functional… and that it links to all your social media platforms and vice-versa.

TIME AND EFFORT

So, now that you’ve got all these social media platforms ready to go, what are the time-implications for you or your business? Are you going to need to devote an entire marketing team at 40 hours a week just to update all your social media pages? Simple answer; no. You should however give one person (or one team) ultimate responsibility for it – they should be in control of updates, strategy, reports etc. and should be accountable for progress on this. A few little tips in terms of what you need to give in terms of content and time; Where do you start??

VALUE – You shouldn’t just use your social media platforms to ‘sell’. It won’t work; people don’t like things being shoved down their throats when they’re trying to relax. You need to offer your followers and contacts content of value, based upon the area of expertise that you excel at. Ask yourself what you’re best at; how can you provide valuable content for people? Whether that means offering free articles (perhaps with information on what you do), gifts, expert opinions, help or just a message of support or a referral. Show people that you are interested in what they do and try to help them. That’s how you build credibility and relationships in the real world and why would it be any different in social media?

TIME – A lot of people’s first response to the suggestion of using social media business is; ‘I don’t have time for it‘. There seems to be this widespread misconception that social media takes up a huge portion of anyone’s day. This is not true at all. If you’re smart about it you can get away with doing it in about 10-15 mins a day, maybe less. If you’re even smarter, this 10-15 minutes could be while you have a coffee in one hand and your phone in the other. If you have a good phone (iphone, blackberry, one of the countless other phones out there that now have social media apps)… USE IT. I can’t stress this enough. It gives you immediate access to your pages even when you’re at the gym, away on business, on the sofa. You can post links, comments, ‘likes’, articles or photos with ultimate ease in this way. Technology is out there to be used so don’t let it pass you by because you prefer a phone that ‘just calls people’.

Having said all that, you still need to make a commitment within your business to regularly update your pages. Nothing looks worse than a page that hasn’t been updated in 6 months. Amazing then, that you’ll find a lot of companies out there claiming to be ‘social media specialists’ who are guilty of this. “If you don’t use it, lose it” (as somebody pertinently once said, I think). Don’t be one of these people who starts off with good intentions only to let them fade into the background after 3 or 4 weeks persistence. If you haven’t used a social media page for over 3 months, I’d recommend you delete your profile. It could actually do more harm than good having it sitting there, unused. If you are starting out in social media, just make a commitment to set aside a small portion every couple of days to post a link, helpful article etc. However, don’t use this as an excuse not to follow the 4 major points above (e.g. strategy, stats etc.).

So, there’s a quick overview of some of the essentials you’ll need to consider before committing to your social media platforms. Next time we’ll be covering some examples of good practice when providing content; including interesting suggestions as to how you might wish to include value in your own posts.

Let us know if you have any queries in the comments boxes below; all are welcome and we’ll aim and get back to you asap.

Meantime, if this was helpful, feel free to ‘like’ it below the post and check out the previous social media blog here

Alex

Most companies (and sad to say, even companies claiming that they specialise in social media) don’t really know that it’s not just a matter of getting a Facebook or Twitter profile and getting as many followers as possible – truth is, you can buy followers online [...]]]> SOCIAL MEDIA 101 – 7 REASONS TO USE, 5 REASONS IT’S EASY AND 5 ESSENTIAL PLATFORMS

At this stage I’m sure you have all heard of “social media” and “social media marketing” and have, at one point or other considered introducing it as part of your company’s marketing plan. Unfortunately, a lot of the information available out there is misleading, confusing and ultimately off-putting so I wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t yet taken the plunge.

Most companies (and sad to say, even companies claiming that they specialise in social media) don’t really know that it’s not just a matter of getting a Facebook or Twitter profile and getting as many followers as possible – truth is, you can buy followers online if you really want. No, it’s not necessarily about numbers; it’s about what I call ‘Qualified followers’ (a term I’ll explain in one of our next instalments).

Over the course of the next month or so we will be putting out a lot of great content and advice for you in this blog to show you how social media can be used effectively by any company, regardless of your industry. We will show how you need to be involved in this if you’re not already, as well as how you can improve and adapt your current profiles so that they actually work for you. So as a quick introduction to Social Media, herein lies a suggestion for SEVEN reasons you should be using Social Media for your business, FIVE reasons why social media is eaaassssy and FIVE social media platforms you might wish to consider to start with.

First things first…

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

When you cut through the fluffy terms and  rubbish that’s put out there about social media it comes down to this fact; when used in business it’s a way of communicating, building relationships and driving traffic to your blog or website (or both). It’s about utilising the vast reach of the internet to get your message across to potential contacts and building something called ‘Social Authority’ by showing that you are an expert in your field… thereby developing credibility and long-lasting business relationships. I’m not going to get into the confusing terminology or definitions; if you want that go to Wikipedia.

Herein we’re going to deal with a few quick pointers as to why you should be using it for your business, why it’s easy and a selection of the best platforms to get started with…

REASONS FOR USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS

1. COMMUNICATION – Getting your message across to a wide audience – what you do, who you are etc.
2. CONSUMER RESEARCH – Most people don’t know this but Social Media is an excellent way to tap in to your customer base to get feedback from your customers. Get opinions on an upcoming product/service you are considering launching for instance.
3. CUSTOMER SERVICE – Reach and interact with your customers and help them with any queries, complaints or problems they may be having.
4. COMMUNITY BUILDING – Create and develop communities on your social media pages – people like to feel like they belong to something worthwhile, informative, helpful. Make your social media pages a place where this can happen.
5. CONNECTING OTHERS – You may think your company doesn’t belong in the social media realm or that social media can’t benefit your type of business. You’d be wrong. There was a recent case study I read where a pharmaceutical company (knowing they’d get limited success placing themselves directly on social media) created support pages/blogs for illnesses such as epilepsy which helped create a community, offer helpful information and support and act as a forum for people affected to connect and interact. You will see in our upcoming blogs how offering this type of value is essential to success in social media.
6. CAUSE & SUPPORT SPONSORSHIP – If you or your company is doing something for charity, social media is a great way to promote this and refer people to donation pages for your cause.
7. CONTESTS – Again, a value-driven exercise. Offer prizes and giveaways to followers of your social media page. People always like a free gift and it helps build rapport and loyalty.

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD BE UTILISING THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA

1.  REACH – The fact that you can be visible to a worldwide audience is amazing. Utilise it.

2. ACCESSIBILITY – If you have a device and internet access you can use social media. In fact, if you have a modern mobile phone, make sure you have your social media platforms right there so you can access them anytime, anywhere (see my phone home page below for an example).

3. USABILITY – If you can log in to and use an email account, you can use social media. You don’t need any real expertise or programming knowledge at all (the platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have done all the work for you already!).

4. IMMEDIACY– Unlike traditional methods of marketing (e.g. print) social media is immediate. When you click the ‘Submit’ button your post will go live to your audience.

5. PERMANANCY – Once again, unlike traditional forms of marketing, if you create an online product or post it doesn’t mean you have to live with it if there’s a typo or you’re not happy with it… You can edit, delete, re-post however many times you like until you are happy. The flexibility this offers is unrivalled.

Now you know the reasons for connecting through Social Media, what  platforms should you choose? This tends to be where people get stuck…  Where to start? There are so many brands/pages out there, what is best  for you? Below are the big ones you’ll probably all have heard of.  They’re big for a reason; they have huge user bases and are functional  and easy to use…

5 OF THE BEST SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

1. FACEBOOK – The big one. Approx 620million users. The ability to tailor your profile with almost anything you like (e.g. polls, email sign-ups, video, image galleries). Huge flexibility and audience make this the best. Check out the image below which shows UK Facebook users – It equates to 28 million people or 65% of the internet-connected population. In Ireland the numbers are lower (1.7 million) but the percentage is even higher at 75%!

2. TWITTER – a ‘Micro-blog’ where your posts are limited to 140 characters. 110 million users, most of whom access from their mobile devices. http://www.twitter.com

3.  LINKED IN – A great business-to-business profile. 75 Million users. http://www.linkedin.com

4.  YOUTUBE – Create your own channel. Post video interviews, links, tutorials to educate your audience and then post the links on your other social media pages. http://www.youtube.com

5.  BLOG – 177 million bloggers worldwide. Choose a blog platform (we use WordPress, which also drives our website; but there are many others out there – Tumblr and Blogger being two of the best). Get this linked up to your website. http://www.wordpress.com, http://www.tumblr.com

If you’re going to pick just one platform, Facebook would have to be it. However, it’s often a mistake to just choose one; it’s nearly always better to choose a selection of platforms for different reasons (e.g. we use Flickr to display our visual artwork, Twitter for quick links, Facebook as a hub for all of the above etc.).

Clients regularly ask me if social media is ok for ‘business-to-business’ use. My answer is always yes. Most businesses these days are realising they have to tap into the vast audience of social media. More and more businesses are using these platforms to market themselves. If you are a business-to-business company (as we are) you may wish to prepare yourself for the fact that you may not get as many followers as you might if you were for instance a business-to-consumer company like Starbucks (19.5 million followers) or on a local level, Groupon (Belfast) with 14,000 followers. However, this does not mean that it is not a highly effective way of connecting with potential (and existing) clients, simply that the number of followers may not be as high. It can be an incredibly effective tool for customer service, product launches, community building.

Hopefully we’ve shown you a fairly useful but brief overview of why social media is a great, easy tool for marketing your company as well as a selection of some of the best platforms to select for starters. This is only the beginning. Over the coming weeks we’ll be posting new articles on how to use social media effectively in your business, how to create and monitor campaigns and also (potentially more importantly) the fatal mistakes that most people make when creating social media profiles for their companies.

Tune in for more and feel free to leave comments or questions below and we’ll do our best to answer any queries you might have.

Get Social.