Webyogi’s Blog has moved

Please subscribe to my new blog or head over to www.webyogi.co.uk

Internet Marketing, SEO & Social media for creative businesses

Webyogi provides creative digital marketing consultancy to start-up & small businesses, public & health sector, arts marketing, educational, social enterprises, ethical businesses and not for profit organisations.

Are you ready for the convergence of social media, search and digital marketing? Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Linkedin and Foursquare are turning internet marketing on it’s head. How can you make sure  your marketing strategy is ready to cope?

Whether you want to improve your SEO, create an online marketing plan, manage your own website content, get on  Twitter we provide a range of internet marketing services web design, blog, email, search engine and social media marketing services to meet your business objectives.

We have lots of experience in digital marketing and we speak plain English. We provide full integrated Internet marketing services :-

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services
• Social Media Marketing
• Social Media Management
• Content Creation
• Web & Blog Design
• Email marketing

Our approach is ethical, flexible and honest tailored to your budget, needs and customers. Contact us here to find out more.

A huge list of social media and blogging guidelines

There are many social media and blogging guidelines online. While researching I found myself searching back and forth between sites. On this post I have put the most impressive links in one place for reference and hopefully not to re-invent that wheel.

I’m a bit obsessed with social media guidelines having recently come back from the  inspirational, amazing, early morning soiree that was Localgovcamp. I am still buzzing with excitement about what’s happening in the world of local authority social media.

One  policy that really sings to me  is Zappos Twitter policy ‘Be real and use your best judgement’ - that’s it!  Thanks to original posts  listed below  just for reference….

• Liz at LGEO Research
• Dave at Dave Press
• Carl Haggerty’s notepad
• Laurel Papworth
• 123 social media
• Govloop
• Christyweb
• Mashables 10 must haves for your social media policy
• Stap isi – where to post local government online guidelines
• Step two designs  – Moderating internal discussion forums, blogs and other social media

The list

Employee guidelines

• Civil Service guidance on participation online
• New Zealand Government – Guide to Online particpation
• Carl Haggerty’s Social media and online participation guidelines
• Intel’s Social Media Guidelines
• IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines
• Social media explorer – Employee Policies for Social Media Participation
• Scout blogging – Corporate Guidelines for Using Blogs and Forums
• Sun Microsystems Communities: Sun’s Guidelines on Public Discourse
• BBC personal use of Social Networking and other third party website
• CIPR Social Media Guidelines
• Draft guidance for New Zealand State servants using social media
• Gartner Public Web Participation Guidelines
• Greteman Group (Marketing Agency)
• IBM Social Computing Guidelines
• CISCO Internet Postings Policy
• HP Code of Conduct
• Harvard Law School – Terms & Policy
• US Navy – Web 2.0 – Utilizing New Web Tools
• CIPR Chartered Institute of Public Relations Social Media Guidelines
• US Air Force Social Media Policy (includes flow chart)
• Porter Novelli
• Government Policy
• Dow Jones Social Media Interaction Policy
• Harvard Law School Blogs Terms of Use
• Sun Guidelines on Public Discourse
• Cisco’s Internet Postings Policy
• IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines
• Dell’s Online Communication Policy
• United States Airforce “new media and the airforce”
• Telstras 3 r’s of social media engagement

Blogging guidelines

• BBC staff blog guidelines
• USA.gov – Government and Social Media – advice on blogging
• BlogCouncil – Disclosure Policy
• Opera Employee Blogging Policies
• Electronic Frontier Foundation How to Blog Safely about Work
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation blogging rules
• Opera Blogging Policy
• Sun Blogging Guidelines (pdf)
• GM Motors Blogging Policies
• Media companies: For Journalists entering into public debate
• IOC Olympic Athletes Blogging Policy
• Yahoo’s Personal Blog Guidelines for staff

Once digested and reviewed i’m working on  a very simple version in plain English using lovely charts….

Catch phrases from the 80′s. My faves?

Catch phrases from the 80′s. My faves? Smeghead, Oh Kermie! i taught I taw a puddy tat. … and yours? I’ll be back http://ow.ly/2yCH2

Hootsuite basics : Information sheet on

Hootsuite basics : Information sheet on core tools good for newbies, clients and dummies like moi x http://ow.ly/2xVwL

Jackob Nielsens alertbox on web usabilit

Jackob Nielsens alertbox on web usability : Should you copy famous web site designs? http://ow.ly/2tRJn

New blog post : What’s the story behind

New blog post : What’s the story behind Facebook stories? http://ow.ly/2fu2C

New blog post : And all because the lady

New blog post : And all because the lady loves Old Spice? Social media campaign statistics http://ow.ly/2efOU #socialmedia #smm

How companies are using twitter for business

Checked LinkedIn lately? The new partnership between LinkedIn and Twitter allows you to sync your accounts. So..if  you’ve found an interesting article that affects your business  you can Twitter it and have it tweeted to your LinkedIn contacts too.

When i first started to use twitter i felt like it was some sort of secret club (a freemasons for geeks) where everyone knows each other. I was petrified of doing my first tweet and thought how i do i use it, what for and what’s the #.@ all about?

As i started to use it i realised that Twitter is just a communication tool to let one person connect with another. It’s also a form of permission-based marketing.

Using twitter for business

Companies know that they should probably be using Twitter but they are not all clear on why or how. Ruth Mortimer – Marketing Week .

Companies can take several different routes to using twitter for business…

• direct - using twitter as a marketing or public relations channel
• indirect -  let employees tweet to promote positive feelings about the company (making sure they follow acceptable and desirable online particpation guidelines)
• internal – by using microblogging services like Yammer and present.ly
• listening -  keeping track of what’s being said about the company though micro conversations

Here are some other ways that companies are using twitter for business …

• real time coverage of events and feedback or questions e.g conferences
• building the companies brand - brand engagement answering customer service enquiries, for example Jetblue Airlines say ‘have a question? Follow us and let us help! They have 1,441,981 followers.
• talk about topics customers may be interested in
• broadcasting news and special offers
• share ideas or communicate about what projects staff are working on

Some organisations have corporate twitter accounts others have multiple accounts to offer a different take on the corporate tweet. Whatever approach is taken Twitter allows companies to engage directly with customers and be more human which can’t be a bad thing.

• Twitter 101 for business
• Chris Brogan’s 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
• readwriteweb – 4 ways companies are using twitter for business

Can the internet make you rich?

Loadsamoney?

ITV’s tonight programme this evening explored how the internet is opening up new avenues for budding entrepreneurs to make their fortunes online  in these recessionary times.

Most of the entrepreneurs in the programme simply had a good idea and used the web and social media to exploit it. Take Lauren Luke’s You Tube video make up tutorials – Brilliant! – I’ve subscribed and i didn’t even realise i needed to.

When the internet first came around it was synonymous with porn, online dating and dodgy websites that sucked. How things have changed, nowadays  :-

• there are 42 million online shoppers in the UK
• 71% growth in the last 2 years
• Now 17p in every pound is being spent online (almost twice that of the US).
• £68.4 billion UK trade is expected to be done on the internet in 2009 compared with only £87m in 2000

What strikes me is that the people who are successful are authentic, real and practical. Social media channels simply enable entrepreneurs to promote ideas, products, messages or behaviors and spread them like viruses -  as Malcolm Gladwell so eloquently describes in The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Image the potential that Crowd Sourcing brings for business and social change…

Links

• Daily blog tips – 28 ways to make money online from your website
• Monetize your website – Squidoo

Facebook users in Brighton

How many people use social media in Brighton? I thought i’d do a bit of research to find out the statistics  – harder than i thought! So i’m making a start with Facebook.

Just for info …the resident population of Brighton in 2001 was 247,817.

Facebook users in Brighton

I used the Facebook “advertising” option and these are the results based on facebook’s estimates (not entirely sure these are great estimates). The following statistics are based on the search criteria:

• people who live in the United Kingdom
• people who live within 25 miles of Brighton or Hove

Age group

• Under 25 – 192,120 people
• 26- 40 – 205,440 people
• 41 – 55 – 82,720 people
• 56 plus – 17,600 people
• Men – 255,580 people
• Women – 292,800 people
• All age 18 and older – 477,760 people

Facebook isn’t the only social media tool, but it does provide a good example of the level of people locally who you could reach, and who are likely to have not been reached before other than through traditional marketing channels.

Social media usage statistics in Brighton & Hove – Part 1

Sometimes its hard to convince people of the impact that social media is having on peoples lives. Is social media a fad? Is social media the new cigarette? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? View this video and make your own mind up…