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Is Facebook a Good Way to Drive Traffic?

5/12/2016

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Alan gives you advice for tagging people in Facebook posts and whether Facebook is a good Social Channel to Drive Traffic.
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Twitter: How Much is Too Much?

29/11/2016

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​Alan is at the PopUp Reading Shop to talk about using Twitter for your business. How many times should you tweet a day? Does it matter? Alan explains.
Come find us in the old Waterstones Unit at The Oracle until the 2nd December.
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How to Increase Your Social Reach

24/11/2016

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​Straight from the PopUp Reading Event in The Oracle, Henry and Matt demonstrate the power that Social Media can have on your Business and how to grab your customers.
​Preferably not by the face..
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Digital Stalking: Connecting with Customers

4/10/2016

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Social Media Trainer, Speaker & Author Nicky Kriel talks with Alan about the best ways to find customers online.

Find Nicky on Twitter 

To win a SIGNED COPY of Nicky's new book: Converting Conversations to Customers: The Essential Guide to Social Media Sales Success,
Enter our competition below.
Converting Conversations to Customers Giveaway
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Top Tips for LinkedIn: With Nicky Kriel

27/9/2016

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Social Media Trainer, Speaker & Author Nicky Kriel talks with Alan about her Top Tips of how to succeed when using LinkedIn.​

Find Nicky on Twitter 

To win a SIGNED COPY of Nicky's new book: Converting Conversations to Customers: The Essential Guide to Social Media Sales Success,
Enter our competition below.
Converting Conversations to Customers Giveaway
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TOP TIPS FOR TWITTER WITH NICKY KRIEL

21/9/2016

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Social Media Trainer, Speaker & Author Nicky Kriel talks with Alan about her Top Tips for running a successful twitter account. 

Find Nicky on Twitter 

To win a SIGNED COPY of Nicky's new book: Converting Conversations to Customers: The Essential Guide to Social Media Sales Success,
Enter our competition below.


Converting Conversations to Customers Giveaway
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THE NOT VERY SECRET SECRET TO WINNING ONLINE BUSINESS

3/8/2016

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So if cash is king and content is queen does that makes promotion the heir to the throne?
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We're starting to create some really good content.  We're not there by any means, but we're well on our way. So what?  So is everyone. Your content might be amazing. Your products and service life changing but no one really cares. Actually that's the easy bit.

The difficult bit is to interrupt your customer's day and reach out with amazing content which grabs them by the nose hairs and leads them to your website and doesn't let go until they do whatever it is you want them to do. i.e. buy now, leave their email, subscribe etc.

Here's how you do it:
  1. Promote.
  2. Promote.
  3. Promote again.
  4. Try new ways to promote.
  5. Promote some more.
  6. Have you promoted yet?
  7. Promote.
  8. And promote.
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HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS FOR FREE

2/8/2016

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Check out this - good tips in here. Look out for Henry (not the hoover).
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What Marketing Should I Be Doing for My Business?

13/8/2015

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A Question we get asked frequently, time and time again is this: "What kind of marketing should I be doing for my business?" The Answer? There isn't a straight forward one!

Take a look here at one of our latest videos where Simon and Alan discuss this exact topic.

Remember:
Who is your customer?
- Where are they?
- What do they do?
- What do they buy?
- What do they read?
- Do they use it? If not, why are you?
Leave your comments and questions below, we will reply as soon as we can!

Alternatively you can tweet us or join our Facebook group for some in depth discussion and help from other start-ups.
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Social Selling - Matt Jackson

16/7/2015

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A guest blog post by Matt Jackson for PopUp Business School

"Social selling" is one of the biggest buzz words at the moment.  Companies, employees and entrepreneurs are all talking about how to use social media to increase their sales.  Many of the companies are getting it wrong by broadcasting and shouting about their wares and turning people off online. 

I am so excited to have Matt Jackson on our blog this week talking to us about social selling with a practical example of exactly how it should be done to increase revenue and engagement.  Matt runs social media accounts for some of the world's biggest brands as well as local micro businesses. He spends his days listening and engaging online and I have learnt so much from talking to him.

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Entre Matt Jackson:

I was thrilled when Alan asked me if I’d like to write a guest blog for the PopUp Business School, as I’ve always enjoyed working with the team and love the energy and positivity that comes from just spending five minutes with them.  But when he asked me to write about Social Selling, I was a little confused as to why he’d asked me.  You see, I’ve always been against brands that bombard people with advertising or marketing agencies that just broadcast material on social media with little or no real engagement with people.  Little did I know when I sat down to begin researching and writing my article, that the PopUp Business School was about to teach me another lesson.

For those of you already wondering, the idea of social selling is basically using social media channels to sell something, a product, a service, anything.  Social selling is when salespeople use social media to interact directly with their prospects or potential customers. Sales people provide information and value by answering questions and offering thoughtful content around their product until a potential customer is ready to buy.  There are hundreds of courses online which funnily enough are also being sold through social platforms for anywhere between £100 and £4,000 offering you the latest secrets to success and guaranteed sales funnels, metrics and conversions.  Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?  Well, that’s what they want you to believe.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret; social selling is nothing new.  Whilst social media is around 10 years old now, social selling existed for a long time before Mark Zuckerberg ever started his college’s online address book, before he started school, before his parents were even born.  Human beings by our very nature are social creatures and every culture around the world has a firm social story-telling tradition.  There’s evidence from some of the most ancient cultures that barter, trade, selling and story-telling have always been the foundations of civilisation.  Think back to before Linked-In, before Twitter and Facebook and you’ll find that we’ve always sold products and services socially.  From market traders shouting their offers and extolling the virtues of their wares over anyone else’s, to discussing potential purchases with your friends, family and neighbours, selling has deep roots in our social circles, communities relationships and conversations.
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Today those conversations have been amplified by the internet and social media channels.  Customers now have all the information at their fingertips, businesses have grown up in reviewing products and services for consumers and social media has allowed that collective experience to be shared across the world.  So how do you start down the path of social selling for your product or service?  My advice?  Start listening.  Conversations about brands, services and products are already taking place across the internet on a daily if not up-to-the-minute basis.  Find those that are similar to what you’re offering and listen.  You’ll be surprised how much you’ll find out about what customers want, what they expect in terms of service and how vociferously they complain when companies get it wrong.  Customers no longer come to you, you have to go and find them and listen to what they want.  You have to join the conversation.

There are any number of free and premium tools that can help you to listen and monitor mentions of your business, industry, products or even competitors.  I personally prefer to use Tweetdeck to watch column upon column of Twitter mentions about my area of work, competitors and the latest news.  For example, a customer of mine based in London began offering an afternoon tea service around 6 months ago and asked me to do some work on social to help promote it.  My first step was to set up some very basic monitoring of the terms ‘afternoon tea’ and ‘London’.  That initial search still runs today and on average every 27 seconds someone on Twitter mentions afternoon tea and London in the same tweet.
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So what do I do with this overload of tweets about afternoon tea in London?  I specifically look for people asking their friends and followers where they should go for afternoon tea in London.  I look for bloggers who review afternoon tea services, or people that talk about afternoon tea a lot.  And then I ask them politely if they’ve ever tried the afternoon tea at my customer’s establishment.  I talk to them about what’s on offer, what makes this tea different from anyone else’s.  I tell them honestly what I think of it, why I think they might like it and once they’re interested I tweet them a link where they can book on my customer’s website.  To date, that link has been clicked 485 times and 71% of all people that clicked through, booked an afternoon tea for two.

That’s how simple social selling can be, and in writing this the PopUp Business School has taught me that it’s something I already do on a daily basis and that you can do just by listening first.

Ask me anything!
Follow me on twitter and tweet me your questions. Find me online at socially-m.weebly.com
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Start using social media (Twitter) to promote your business

7/7/2015

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How do you get started with social media and promoting your business?  What are the first steps?

In this video Alan Donegan co-founder of the Pop-up Business School talks about getting started using social media and specifically Twitter to promote your new business.  He gives you his three top tips to getting going:

1. who do you want to talk to?  Think about who might be your audience and what words they would be using to search for what you are doing online
2. Start conversation with people talking about your area by using twitter search to find people to talk to
3. Make sure you have a link back to your website on your bio and occasionally at the end of your tweets so people can find your website and check it out if they want to

Most important thing is to get going, start an account and use it every day for five minutes!

3 Tips on how to use Twitter to promote your small business

Leave us comments below

We love to hear about how you are marketing your new business so please leave us some comments below

Come along to one of our events

Join our Facebook Support Group

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Tips To Increase Your Klout Score

25/3/2015

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After being told to get a score of 70 or more on @klout to win a piece of business I have become fascinated by increasing my @Klout Score.

Here are my initial findings of what has increased my score the most of the last two weeks.  I have managed to increase my score from 59 to 64 (a 6 point bump) in 2 weeks and most of the increase happened in the last 5 days.

I am headed to #Klout70 so will write another article when I have completed the challenge.

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The obvious things to do:
  1. Connect all your networks to Klout. That means: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the less used ones of Foursquare, Instagram and more
  2. Talk to people.  The more @messages you send to people and the more conversation you have the quicker your score will rise
  3. Put out interesting content that people will want to retweet.  If you don't have a blog and aren't writing any articles then share other people's articles that you think your followers will be interested in
The not so obvious things to do:
  • Find accounts you are interested in and start talking to their followers.  I did this a couple of nights ago and it created two business leads along with a @Klout score increase
  • Talk to influential people online, ask questions and engage. To find out people's @Klout scores there is a Google Crome or Firefox plug in to display their @Klout scores within Twitter.  Look for people with high numbers and start talking to them.
  • Ask questions: on every platform.  One of the thing @klout measures is the number of comments, mentions and replies you get, so by asking more questions you create more conversation.  Just make sure they are interesting questions!


The biggest thing I have learnt so far with my online networking experience is that online networking should be just like real life networking.

Act as if you are talking to a real life person; because you are.

Act as you would if other people are watching; because they are.

Have fun, because people like to have fun and they will talk to you if it is enjoyable!

Send me a message @alandonegan or @popupbusiness or tell me about how you have gone about increasing your @klout score in the comments below.

Happy social networking!

Tweet me at @AlanDonegan



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The Future Of Online Scoring

23/3/2015

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After an interesting experience where I was told I needed a @Klout Score of 70 to get some business (read about it here) I have become interested in online Scoring and how this might change in the future.

I was sat in the @henleycareers Henley Business School Careers office having a fascinating chat with the fabulous team there and we talked about @Klout and its potential impact on getting a job, getting the right job or growing your business.

For those of you who don't know, @Klout measures your online influence.  It simply takes the retweets, mentions, likes and comments you get online and with an algorithm gives you a score between 1- 100 that lets' you know how influential you are online. I go more in-depth in our last blog.

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For example @BarackObama has a score of 99 and my wife, who never uses Twitter is on 16 @wickwok.

So as a business person you can see who has influence online and who doesn't and make decisions about who to spend your time connecting with.  Sound a bit mercenary?  Or is it real business?

So what is the natural conclusion of this?

What if a new service started measuring more than just your social influence?

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What if it took in your credit rating and coupled that with you social influence and then weighted your job title, your bank information, the car you drive and more?

Where are we going with this social scoring of people to rank whether or not we should be talking to them?

Is this a game we should even be involved in?

What do you think about the future of online scoring and should we be engaging with websites such as @Klout?

Or is it just an online version of what we always did implicitly with the class system in England for many years?

I'm interested to read your thoughts below!

Tweet me at @AlanDonegan

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Is Klout Worth It?

20/3/2015

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Have you heard of Klout.com?  Do you know what your Klout score is?  Do you care what you Klout Score is?

Two weeks ago I had a conversation that changed the direction of my business overnight and re-focused me on something I knew was important but had stopped doing.

I was compering at The Social Media Summit for @NickyKriel in Guildford and opening the day, having fun with the fabulous audience and warming things up for the Keynote Speaker of the day @ThomasPower.

Thomas gave a warm, inspirational and emotional talk about his journey with 'Ecadamey' and how he built a huge business, lost it and then bounced back.  I loved listening to him.

After the Panel session with Q&A on Social Media and I got a chance to talk to @ThomasPower.  He complimented me on my compering skills and speaking skills and then asked me what my Klout score was.  I had not checked for a while but I knew it was around 60-ish.

He smiled and said "get it to 70 and I can get you work."

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I was intrigued, fascinated and a little bit stunned because a number generated by an American Website about my social media influence has no bearing on my ability to run workshops, educate and inspire whilst talking.

I returned home and went to meet @socially_Matt for a coffee.  Matt runs a social media business and I always ask for his advice on all matter social.  He told me that he had a similar experience this week where he had been told the reason why some of the senior people in a company he was working for had not replied to his tweets was because he was not #klout70!

That day we started a competition to see who could get to #klout70 the quickest to see the side effects, the smart strategies and the bottom line effect of this within our businesses!

The benefits so far have been:

  • Fun online arguing about @Uber Cars versus Black Cabs
  • A meeting with a Housing association to talk about my business @popupbusiness (Direct sales opportunity)
  • I feel closer and more in touch with my friends & business connections
We are still right in the middle of the competition and I haven't found the best way to up my @Klout score yet but I will right another article to report back on that.  At the moment here are the scores on the doors:

@JaneSetter                                                            61
@Socially_Matt                                                       64
@stuartlmorris                                                        48
@AdrianBryant                                                        49
@simonjpaine                                                         56
@AlanDonegan                                                       64

If you want to find out your Klout score check here: www.klout.com

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What does Klout measure?

Here is what Klout say they measure:

"Klout measures your influence online. We measure influence primarily as the ability to drive others to action. When you produce content online, we look at how your network responds to that content. Klout takes in data from social networks and gives you an overall Score based on your online influence." 

See their blog for more details: What does Klout Measure?
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Why should you bother with Klout?


I think there are some simple reasons:

  1. If your @Klout score is going up then it is because you are networking well online, engaging with people and talking.
  2. If you are engaging online then it will bring you opportunities and interesting people to talk to.
  3. When you have a product/service to offer online a high @Klout score shows an engaged audience ready to hear about it.
I would love to hear your thoughts on Klout and where you think business/society is headed with this.  It has been a polarising subject on Twitter so I would love to know what you think. 

If you post your @Klout Score below I promise to write you a tweet and help you increase it!

Good luck with your online networking!

Tweet me at @AlanDonegan

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The one thing new businesses forget to do

20/8/2014

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PictureYou get funky new business cards
So you start a new business.  You make a decision to get going.

You work on the website, you work on the branding, you work on the product, you have funky new business cards printed, you beaver away tirelessly.

But there is one thing that all new businesses forget to do enough of...........

And it tends to be the bit that most of us are scared of............

And yet it is the single most important activity as a start up business.......

Have you guessed what it is yet?

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Sales

The one thing small businesses don't do enough of when they launch is sales.  They think that by opening their door, printing a business card and telling their friends business is going to magically come to them!

I am here to tell you that it doesn't.  If you build it they won't come!

You have to sell it to them!

The key is to take action every day to sell your business.

What are you doing everyday to sell your product or service?

I speak to small businesses every day and when I ask them what they are doing each day to sell their service or product the answer is almost universally a blank look.

Ask yourself the question what I am doing every single day to sell my product or services?

Here are some ideas to get you started, that you can do every day:
  1. Phone 3 potential customers
  2. Send 5 tweets to potential customers
  3. Write and post one letter a day to a potential customer
  4. call one existing customer a day and ask them what are they working on
  5. Ask one friend a day if they know anyone you should be talking to
  6. Go to one networking event a week where your customers might be going

The important thing is that you do something every single day that moves you in the direction of new business and customers. If you do this every single day then you will build up momentum and amazing things will start to happen!

Just don't get impatient, it won't always happen overnight. it might take time but persevere, keep going, keep taking action every single day and I promise you that the next sale will come.

I would love to know what is working for you at the moment.  What sales methods are working for you to get customers at the moment?  Leave a comment below.


Or for help with your sales and building your business come along to one of our up coming events.
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Leeds - August
We are going to be in Leeds on the 24th and 25th of August 2014.  Click the picture for details

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Telford - September
We will be in Telford from Monday the 29th of September for one week.  Click on the picture for more details.  See you there.

Leave a comment below and tell us what sales methods are working for you

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Top 13 Tips to make money online 

21/2/2014

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In Borehamwood we have been learning how to start a business for free - these are our top 10 tips (+3 bonus)


1 -  Google - Top 10 Tips to make money for free
2 - CafePress
3 - Set up a free website 
4 - Lulu - Write your own book and publish
5 - Take pictures of things and sell them to sites such as advertising firms and weebly.
6 - Upload pictures to screensaver sites such as webshots
7 - Promote your business on YouTube
8 - Twitter
9 - Register for sites such as skills pages, people per hour
10 - Share your skills on Linkedin
11 - Engage with multi-media (podcasts, video, pinterest)
12 - Guest blogging and regularly blog on your own website 
13 - Create an online forum to promote your business 


Thanks guys! 

To find out if we are popping up in an area near you, click here.





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How to build a community on Facebook

30/10/2013

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How do you build a community on Facebook?

27 Million British people use Facebook every single month and a rather scary statistic is that 1 in 5 of all minutes spent online are spent on Facebook!  For some more Facebook stats check out the info-graphic below.

We all know how powerful Facebook is but are you getting the most out of it for your business? 

This week we have been lucky enough to have Matt Jackson of the Daily Basingstoke (a Facebook page with an active community of 5526 people) working with us and he has created his top ten tips on how to build a community on Facebook.  Over to Matt
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The Daily Basingstoke on Facebook

10 things you need to do with your Facebook page.............

1.  Write relevant and regular content

We already know that content is king and that it is incredibly important to open a dialogue with your audience.  This rule doesn't just apply to Facebook either, so whether you're on Twitter, your website or your blog, get in the habit of starting conversations with your followers on a regular basis.  When you start writing, think about what message you're trying to get across, who's going to read it and what your audience is going to want to hear from you.

Start creating useful, meaningful, interesting, or entertaining content that your target audience wants to read and see.  This includes photos and posts (be sure to tag people in both).  Enter milestones and add content to apps used on your page such as events, videos, and so on.  A page without content is one that no one will like.

The internet is one big social conversation.  Your Facebook page is just one way of joining the conversation.  But like any conversation, you've got to keep it going.

2.  Choose a great username

The username you choose for your Facebook Page will also appear in the URL for your page.  There are already a lot of Facebook Pages, so your first choice might not be available. 

That’s why it’s critical that you create a Facebook Page and get your username as soon as possible.  Even if you don’t plan to aggressively use Facebook today, you might want to in the future.  Get your username now, so you’ll have it when you need it.

3.  Make sure you fill in the 'About' section

Your Facebook Page includes a small 'About' section where you can include a couple of sentences about your business or organization.  Make sure you include the most important information about what you offer to your audience, so they instantly understand why your page should matter to them.

It’s extremely important that you include your website URL in this section of your page.  Otherwise, it gets buried in the full description that’s not visible unless a person clicks on the 'About' link on your Facebook Page.  Make it easy for people to learn more about your business or organization by making sure your URL is visible in the top-level 'About' section.

4.  Use a fantastic cover photo

Choose a cover photo that is visually appealing, captures people's attention and lures them in to take a closer look at your page and it's content.  Don't forget that you can include a message in your cover photo. 

Just be sure that you follow Facebook's guidelines that relate to cover photos.  You can find the guidelines in the Facebook Page Help section.

Your profile photo should accurately reflect your brand and business, because the more people see it, the more they'll recognise it and associate it with your service or products.  It's especially important for when you start commenting on other people's pages and joining in to other conversations.

5.  Allow sharing and promote your page

Use Facebook social plugins to enable people to like your page directly from your website and blog or to like your website or blog content and share it on their own Facebook profiles with a single click. 

There are also social plugins that enable you to show your Facebook Page updates on your blog or website.

You created your page, so make sure you get someone to read it.  Start by inviting friends and family who have an interest in your brand; invite current customers or add a call to action to your receipts.

6.   Offer something extra on Facebook

There is little incentive for people to like your Facebook page or return to it after their first visit if you don’t offer useful, meaningful, interesting, or entertaining content and experiences.  Not only should your posts be useful, but you should also create content and experiences that visitors can’t get anywhere else.  For example, offer a discount for your Page fans or hold a contest and give away a great prize to one of your Page fans.  Get creative and find ways to acknowledge your fans and reward them for their loyalty.

7.  Enjoy it

Interacting with your potential customers needs to be a natural and regular process.  Get in the habit of posting content several times a day.  The more effort you put in, the more engagement you'll get back from your followers.  Don't be afraid to encourage your followers to ask you questions or spark the conversation with you either.

When you're enjoying writing, it will come across in your posts which in turn, makes your followers want to listen to what you have to say.

8.  Think visually

Writing posts and sharing links are great, but followers are more likely to 'like' or share videos and photos.  The vast majority of brands on Facebook today still post written content and links to websites which are less and less likely to be shared.  Photos are five times more likely to be shared than a written link and videos more than ten times more likely to be shared.

9.  Optimize for search engines

Everyone knows that to be successful with a website, you need to optimize it for search engines.  Yet, it seems no one considers it when building their Facebook page.  All Facebook pages are indexed by Google.  You need to load the description with keywords, just as you do your website.

10.  Network with other pages

A great way to build your

network is by building relationships with other brands.  You can start this easily by commenting directly on their pages or by sharing their content with your followers.  If you read an article by someone else which you know will be of interest to your audience, share it.  Make sure you tag the source by typing @[page name] to tag them and credit their work.

Make sure it's natural, not

forced.  Don't demand or expect replies or collaboration or any type of response, but doing nice things like this will get you noticed and will eventually be of benefit to you when they start returning the favour.

Check out The Daily Basingstoke here:

Want more help starting your business?

our whole purpose in life is to help you make money, start businesses and have fun and you can get involved in one of the following ways:

  1. Join us on the next episode of Pop-Up Business School TV here
  2. Come to our next live event and get face to face support starting up
  3. Leave a comment below
  4. Send us a tweet and we will reply!
Facebook UK Stats 2013
Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.
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How to get more traffic to your website

8/9/2013

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If you build it they will come!

What complete and utter nonsense!

My first website was beautiful, I spent £1500 having it designed but no one visited it!  It takes far more than just building a website to become successful online.

You will have seen our recent post 11 ways to get traffic to your website, we wanted to add more to this from a Social Media Perspective

We have Social Media Expert Nicky Kriel back with us again to help you get more traffic to your website.  Watch the video to the right for Nicky's top tips.

Nicky has loads more on her blog about twitter, linked-in and Facebook for business

Please do leave us comments below about how you get more traffic to your website.

Get to work

Get a pen and paper and make some notes from what Nicky is saying and get to work!  Start.  Doing something small each day and it will build over time until you have the visitors and business that you need for your business

Want to know more about twitter for business?

Nicky Kriel has published a book on using Twitter for business.  if you get a chance pick up a copy and have a read.  Fantastic tips on Twitter strategy, using it for business and much more inside

Stay up to date on our latest events

We pop-up all over the country helping people to start businesses, make money and have fun.  Come along to one of our events.  Follow us for the latest details
Follow @popupbusiness

Paperback version

Kindle version

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Use social media to help your small business hit the big time + a competition

28/8/2013

0 Comments

 
Alan from @popupbusiness:  When starting a business it is critical to start talking to your customers immediately.  In this guest blog posting we are lucky to have Daniel Owens from communications specialists @orangejuicePR talking about how to use social media to engage your customers and telling us about a competition you can enter.

Enter @danielowens1979
Picturein a crowded market place how to you stand out?
Starting up in business is a daunting prospect. We know, we did it ourselves not so long ago.

In a competitive marketplace it's more important than ever to stand out from the crowd and let people know you exist. The days of just opening up and letting the crowds flock to your door are long gone, it's up to the business to get creative and draw in the customers.

One particularly effective way of doing this is to harness the limitless power of social media. Like it or lump it, social networks are a huge part of people's lives these days. You may not want to use Facebook on a personal basis to tell the world what you got up to on Saturday, and you perhaps aren't keen on taking to Twitter to let your followers know what your cat had for tea, but there's really no excuse for shunning social media in the corporate world.

It's free and it works. What's not to like?

Whatever your business, you should have a Twitter account. It's a fantastic way to network and grow your audience. You can use it to follow your suppliers, target your markets, keep tabs on competitors and get new ideas to help grow your business.

Position yourself as the go-to expert in your industry

PictureBuild relationships and talk to your new/potential customers
More importantly than anything, it allows you to establish and cultivate relationships with the people that matter most, your customers. Never before has it been so easy to chat to your customers, any time of the day, no matter where you (or indeed they) are.

Humans are pretty simple creatures really. Be nice, be friendly and people are more likely to like you. Any buy from you. 

Once you've set up your Twitter account and got yourself a decent following (200 or so is easily done) you will have the chance to establish these relationships, getting to know your customers and forming a potentially long-lasting bond.

Tweet about your industry, position yourself as the go-to expert - but remain humble throughout. Nobody knows everything, but prove that when it comes to your particular industry, you know your onions (very useful if you happen to be a greengrocer).

Use the tools at your disposal to make your product look the best it possibly can. That may be through pictures (set up an Instagram account to add cool filters to your images) or video (Twitter's own Vine app is a great way of using six-second clips to advertise yourself). Pinterest is a wonderful community for creative and design types while LinkedIn is an essential network in the business world.

Content is king! Get them interested and once you've got their attention, get involved.

PictureContent is king! Create something your readers/customers will enjoy!
Whatever apps/networks you decide to use, remember the age-old mantra, content is king. make sure your tweets and updates are interesting. There's a lot of needless 'noise' on social media and people will often just flick through timelines paying scant regard to what's before them. Make your content stand out, make it leap off the page.

Get them interested and once you've got their attention, get involved. Follow those who follow you if you feel they can add something to your business. Talk to them, welcome them, make them feel valued. Establish that early relationship and build on it, you'll be amazed how that can pay dividend in the long term.

As you've probably guessed, we love social media. We think it's the single biggest change in the way companies and customers interact in a generation and we are now rewarding those firms who have done more than most to embrace it and use it to grow their business.

Enter your business is the Citrus Social Media Awards

Here at @OrangeJuicePR, we have teamed up with our friends from @ZestComms to launch the Citrus Social Media Awards (see what we did there?) - championing innovation and success among small businesses who are big on social media.

It's a national awards scheme and are looking forward to hearing some inspiring tales of how Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ etc has helped revolutionise small firms from across the UK.

We've got a big night planned for the awards themselves. You should be a part of it.

Follow us on twitter @socialmediaawds and check out www.citrussocialmediaawards.com for details of how to enter.
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How to get more followers on twitter - doing it

15/7/2013

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This afternoon I am going to spend an hour or so working on our twitter account to promote several events we have coming up and thought I would track the process here, share the results with you and show what I am up to.

So the starting stats are to the right and as you can see we have 894 followers as I start and are following 1143 people

The time is 16:04 on a Wednesday afternoon and lets see what we can achieve in the next few minutes!
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The first thing I did was to un-follow all of the people that weren't following us to keep our proportions between followers and following low.

I used http://tweepi.com/ to do this; which makes it easy to un-follow people.  This took me a total of 14 minutes.

My objective for this session is to increase followers from Reading University and to drive registrations for our next Pop-Up Business School which will be at the uni from the 10th - 14th of June.

With this in mind I have altered our bio to reflect who I am looking for.  I added the line

"Coming to Reading University 10th - 14th June"

to the end of our bio.

After removing people that weren't following us and changing our bio I found
@HenleyBSchool and
@UniofReading who I preceded to work down their lists of followers and follow and message as many people as I could.

I looked for something in their bio to help start conversation and sent them  @messages.

The next bit took the time

I spent a total of two hours following the people from the above accounts and messaging them.

Not many people replied.  I did start a few conversations but you have to speak to a lot of people to get them to talk back!

We reduced our following down to 648

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Step1. un-follow all the people who weren't following us; except a few interesting ones!
Step 2. change your bio to reflect who you are targeting
Step 3. choose several accounts that have the followers you are after
Step 4. Follow all their followers
Step 5. ask them questions, strike up conversation and get things started
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So what did we achieve?

We invested about three hours of work, and then nothing more than the normal tweeting we would do anyway. We achieved:

  • 52 increased followers
  • An offer to go on Reading University Student Radio (we were targeting students after all)
  • An offer to write and article for the student magazine
Not bad for a few hours work.  The point of this blog post is to inspire you to get on and DO IT.  Get on twitter, play with your bio. start posting, messaging and following people and have fun.  If you do that who knows where it will take you!

Have fun and make sure you follow us here:
Follow @popUPbusiness

Related posts:

How to increase your Google Rankings
Twitter for Housing Associations
How to find customers on social media
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Should I sell on twitter?

1/7/2013

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Sales is a word that has a lot of baggage.  In our courses when we say the word sales to people they say things like

  • Used car sales men
  • Untrustworthy
  • Double Glazing
No wonder people don't like selling, but if you want to own your own business then you have to get comfortable with it.  Nothing happens in business until you make a sale!

Prompted by you our followers and people on our courses we thought we would ask Twitter Expert Nicky Kriel your question "Should I sell on Twitter?"


For the answer watch the video to the right!


The thing to remember is treat people as you would like to be treated

Want to know more?

Then we have a huge amount of blogs on the site about Twitter and business.  Related posts:

  • How to increase your Google rankings
  • Twitter for Housing Associations
  • How to find customers on social media

Of use the links to the right to buy Nicky Kriel's fabulous new book called "how to twitter for business succes"

Paperback version

Kindle version

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How to Twitter for Business Success book

25/6/2013

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Nicky Kriel Book Launch!

How do you use twitter to get customers?
How do you build followership?
How do you get the most out of twitter?

As you have seen over the last few weeks we have had Nicky Kriel Social Media expert answering your questions by video, but there is only so much you can put in a 5 minute video

We are very excited as Nicky Kriel has just launched her book called "How to twitter for business success!"

The video on the right is Nicky telling us about her book.

Make sure you get on twitter and follow Nicky for great tips and advice
Follow @nickykriel

Is a book a marketing tool?

got questions about getting published?  Writing a book? send us a tweet!
Tweet to @popUPbusiness

Paperback Version

Kindle Version

5 quick twitter tips

  1. Make your bio interesting enough that people want to follow you.  Model it on people you find interesting
  2. Create conversation - get involved and talk to people about things, create conversation and have fun
  3. Give people #ff (Follow Fridays) to create engagement.  Use this to recommend interesting tweeters to your followers and create contact with the person you are #ff
  4. Follow people - follower other people, this is the quickest way to get people to follow you
  5. Read Nicky Kriel's blog - always be learning about twitter and the techniques the professionals use
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What should I say on my Twitter Bio?

11/6/2013

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We are always recommending that people use twitter to promote their business and talk to would be customers/friends.

Regularly we get asked "what should I write in my twitter bio?"

This is a post with Social Media expert Nicky Kriel to answer your question and give you some tips on what to write in your bio. 

Check out Nicky's bio here
Follow @NickyKriel
Check out Alan's bio here
Follow @AlanDonegan

Most important thing when writing your twitter bio is to have fun and let your personality shine through!

Nicky Kriel's Book

We are very lucky to have the fabulous Nicky Kriel's help with these videos and we wanted to let you know you can find more aboutTwitter from Nicky's blog or buying her latest book which we have put the links to on the right.

One other bio to have a look at:

Tim Ferriss: one of our heros

"Author of three #1 NYT/WSJ bestsellers, The 4-Hour Workweek/Body/Chef. Japanophile, tea drinker, tango world record holder, language learning fanatic."

He has 418,496 followers at the moment.  Worth modelling!

Paperback Version

Kindle Version

3 Comments

Twitter for Housing Associations

21/5/2013

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PictureTwitter
So you have decided as a Housing Association to get online and use twitter to engage with your residents.  Fantastic news.

But how do you actually do it? How do you find your residents in the digital world? How do you become a community resource online? How do you build followers from your area?

This article is inspired by our partners who are getting online right now and starting to use twitter and is designed for any Housing Association that wants to get the most out of twitter and really engage with their residents and the community online

Let's look at three areas:

1. Build followers (relevant and in your area)
2. Become valuable to those followers
3. Create conversation


1. Build followers (relevant and in your area)

PictureBuilding a followership
You want to build followers in your area that are your residents and key people in the community but how do you do this?

The first step to building a follower-ship is to have a bio that is relevant to what you do.  So make sure you mention the area you operate in within your bio and make it fun and engaging

The second step is to find people from the local area to follow.  One of the best ways to do this is to find people who already have a good following in your area and follow their followers.  So if you were looking for people in Watford you might look at:

Richard Harrington the Local MP for Watford  @Richard4Watford  who has 3830 followers.  His followers are going to be mainly from Watford

Or The Watford Observer @Observer_Owl which has11096 followers.  It will be mainly people from Watford following this account.  You aren't going to get many people from Basingstoke following the Watford Observer!

2. Become valuable to those followers

PictureBecome Valuable
So after step one you are following people and they are following you back.  Now you need to become valuable to your new followers and there are many ways you can do this. 

The key is to share information and ideas that your residents will find useful, interesting or fun.  Maybe ask some of your followers what they would like you to share online?

This blog posting gives us something to share on twitter with out followers that we hope they find valuable and useful.

Here are some Ideas:

a. become a source of information on upcoming community events
b. share how to information to help your residents
c. retweet other great content you find that you think your residents will be interested in
d. tell them what is going on with your Housing Association
e. Share local job/apprenticeship  opportunities

The main idea is to share things through your tweeting that are of genuine value to your new followers and residents.  So send three tweets a day that add value to your followers life.  Remember to have fun too!

3. Create conversation

PictureCreate conversation
So you have followers, you are sharing great content now you have got to create engagement.

Twitter is an incredible communication tool, but it is just that; a tool.  Just like the phone or email it is a way of talking to people.  So to create engagement you need to start talking to people just like you would do with your residents in other settings.

You might be thinking what do I talk about?  Here are some ideas of what you can talk about:

  1. Look at your followers bios and comment on their interests
  2. Look down their recent tweets and comment on what they are talking about
  3. Ask people questions
  4. Comment on news articles from the local news paper
  5. Do a survey of your followers
  6. Offer prizes
  7. Have fun
Start conversation with your followers and have fun online, get the talking about the matters that really matter to them and you will create conversation.

Start using twitter

So if you do these three things:
  1. Build followers (relevant and in your area)
  2. Become valuable to those followers
  3. Create conversation
and start using twitter every day you will build your follower-ship and start engaging with your residents on line!

If you have any questions then tweet us and ask we love to help!

@popUPbusiness
If you found this article useful then please use the buttons below to pass it on.

Speak to you on Twitter very shortly! 

Alan

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Top 11 ways to get traffic

16/5/2013

0 Comments

 

Top 11 ways to get traffic to your website

  1. Blogging - create a blog and write some content that will be valuable to your audience
  2. Twitter - create a twitter account and talk to people interested in your subject - include links to your website
  3. Facebook - Post with pictures and slogans and links to your website
  4. YouTube - create short "how to videos" and put them on your website as well.  YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine in the world!
  5. Back-links - swap links to your website with people who own websites in the same industry
  6. Flyers - put your website address on your flyer and give it to people.  Old School we know!
  7. Interview experts - find someone in your field that is an expert and interview them.  Put this on your blog and tweet about it
  8. Guest Blogging - find blogs within your field that have a large follower-ship and offer to write them a guest blog
  9. Email lists - build an email ist of people interested in your subject and send them something valuable every other month
  10. PPC - this is expensive but can drive good traffic.  Use Google PPC service. Pay Per Click
  11. Free Press - get to know your local paper and ask them to do a feature on your business.
Thanks to the Pop-Up Team that helped me write this post

Tony - The Retail Operation

Jackie - JHTS Transcription Service

Michael  - Future Clean car cleaning



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