Articles tagged ‘blogging’

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Fishing where the fish are

Posted by Bian Salins

11th September 2009 in Tips & tricks

I was recently talking to a Tradespacer who had set up a Tradespace account but forgotten about it. In the process of convincing her to take up social media to market her business, she said ‘that’s all great Bian but I don’t want to have a big bang approach, so I’ll just do it in bite-sized chunks.’

The thing about social media is that it’s about spreading your net as far and as wide as you can.

Think about this for a second. If you were to go fishing in the sea/ocean – would you rather spread your net out and catch as many fish as you can or would you arm yourself with one fishing rod and hope for the best? It’s a no brainer.

You could take up blogging, learn the art of how to have a successful blog but if you don’t tweet out your blogs or promote that blog via routes like the communities – then people won’t ever hear of your blog. Or, if you take up Twittering with out a blog, you could post random comments on ‘having a cuppa’ and ‘reading interesting article/s’ but how to you keep it focussed and draw it back to get returns for your business?

I often get gip for talking so much about Twitter on BT Tradespace from the folks here, but the reason I do it is because I think the two work brilliantly together. It’s all part of spreading that presence, opening routes, interlinking your profiles and gaining visibility. Also, BT Tradespace is more than just another social network.

We’re passionate about social media as a channel and about helping you get success for your business through this medium.

Social media for business is one great open sea? Are you fishing where the fish are armed with a fishing rod or a strong, wide fishing net?

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What’s the return on social media?

Posted by Bian Salins

4th September 2009 in Announcements, Blogging & podcasting, Promoting your site

Ever wondered when you’re going to see the returns on your social media activity… or indeed, whether you will ever get returns on it?

According to this blog post we recently spotted on Hubspot, companies that blog have much better marketing results. In fact, it states that businesses that blog get 55% more visitors than those that don’t. They also get 97% more inbound links to their websites and 434% more indexed pages!

If you’re wondering how all that measures up – you probably haven’t read our guides on driving traffic to your site. Getting inbound links and more indexed pages all means being more visible in search, and being more visible in search means new leads to your site!

That’s not all. These stats reflect what we found when we did our own bit of analysis on BT Tradespacers. For example, the top three Tradespaces driving natural search have 400 blog posts each and 59% of visitors to BT Tradespace spend five minutes or more on a Tradespace site with video versus 15% on a site without video!

The idea (as with most activity you take up on the web) is to attract attention. Getting people’s attention drives them to your site and having engaging content gets them to stay longer. The longer they stay, the better the opportunity to convert a lead into a sale. The rest is history.

Social media gets a lot of flack when it comes to visible, measurable returns but the fact is, in a world crammed with offers, opportunities and businesses to buy from, finding new leads and getting noticed becomes crucial to making sales. And, if there’s one thing the above stats show – it’s that social media can drive important traffic to your site and that the returns are well worth the effort you put in…

Have you seen returns on your social media activity? Leave a comment and tell us about your experience!

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Posted in: Announcements, Blogging & podcasting, Promoting your site | 1 Comment »

Dan Wilson: News round up

Posted by Dan Wilson

25th August 2009 in Tradespace gossip

Need some Summertime reading this bank holiday? Here are some things from the web that have informed, inspired and entertained me recently.

Here’s the good news. The British Retail Consortium says that ‘home spending’ continues to grow and that includes spending on the internet. This has to be an encouraging sign for online traders hoping for a bumper Christmas season.
As you sit back and sip your cool beer and enjoy the weather when you can, you’ll probably be scheming and dreaming of new ideas for your business. If you’re still sceptical about the power of social media, these mind-blowing statistics from econsultancy should give you some food for thought.

Everyone is raving about sucessful blogging and how it can drive traffic and personalise your firm online. And at last some useful numbers on why it can be so beneficial. A study shows that small businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors than those who don’t.

Do you find it hard to deal with your developers and techies? Do they seem to resent the meetings and calls? Here’s why people who ‘make’, behave differently from those who ‘manage’. It’s full of insight on how you can minimise conflict and friction.

And finally, I like this post from Julie Chanteray about differentiating your business from the crowd. Even if you’re doing well, there is a risk that you may be ‘boring’. Julia explores the benefits of tweaking your brand and reputation so you can grab peoples’ attention.

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Standing out from the crowd

Posted by Bian Salins

7th July 2009 in Blogging & podcasting, Managing your site

How can I be different – isn’t that a challenge we all face at some point in life, both business and otherwise? How do you stand out from the crowd? How does a small one-man/woman business band step outside the box and get noticed?

The challenge of being different is far greater when it comes to the online world. Think of all the free information out there, or the fact that there are businesses of every kind using the web to reach new audiences, to sell and grow their business so competing to be different is even more difficult.

That’s where social media comes in.

The best performing Tradespacers, for example aren’t people trying to be different. They’re people who are true to their business. They’re people who are true to themselves.

Social media tools like blogging, video and communities are there for a reason – to bring personality to your business online, to bring life to your offering and most importantly, to bring trust to transacting online. For customers who may want to buy from you, your blog posts, videos and conversations in the communities portrays your business, but it also puts you in the picture.

Suddenly, standing out from the crowd isn’t such a challenge any more because once you engage with your customer – there’s a difference.

The difference is you.

What’s your Tradespace saying about you right now? Show your business. Show your products. Show your services.

But above all, show yourself.

Let your customers know you care and update your Tradespace.

Some of our favourite Tradespacers who dare to be different!

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Guest blog: Dan Wilson’s news round-up March 2009

Posted by Dan Wilson

3rd March 2009 in Tradespace gossip

Here are some things that have caught our eye at BT Tradespace HQ this week:

What do you think about Ryanair’s unique style of communication?

For more, check out my blog

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Posted in: Tradespace gossip | 1 Comment »

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