Scotland is world renowned for having an excellent and varied hospitality industry, and the Scottish Italian community plays a vital part in its success, so it's only right that these businesses are rewarded.
The Scottish Italian Awards will recognise a variety of categories including best restaurant, best multiple operator and many more.
Voting is open to the general public ensuring that these awards reflect Scotland's favourite Italian places to go and have a good time.
The Scottish Italian Awards is an annual event that will showcase the fantastic range and quality of Scotland's Italian owned businesses.
Celebrity chef, Jean Christophe Novelli, is 'delighted to be working with the Italian Awards and is looking forward to judging the very best Italian Venue's in Scotland'.
Are you wondering why a design and social media agency has decided to sponsor the awards?
Well, we simply see it as a brilliant opportunity to highlight the fact that we can help businesses create a buzz about the awards on their social media platforms, and ultimately receive votes through the power of social media.
If you want to find out more, you can like the Scottish Italian Awards on Facebook and Twitter.
The categories you can vote for are:
Favourite Italian Business
Best Italian Restaurant
Best Pasta
Best Pizza
Best Bistro
Best Multiple Operator
Best Fish and Chips
Best Front of House
Best Newcomer
Best Wine List
Best Family Restaurant
Best In-House Marketing Team
People's Choice Award 2013
Best Takeaway
Best Barista
Italian Chef of the Year
Best Ice Cream Parlour
The voting closes on Monday 30th September, so make sure you get your votes in for each of the categories! Click HERE to vote!
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FREE SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING FOR CHARITIES 8th October 2012 MORE PLACES NOW AVAILABLE We are delighted to announce we have just agreed with No.29 that we can have some additional attendees at the Charity Training Day. So, if you haven't booked your place please make sure you do so as quickly as possible. We have over 100 already booked with a very limited number of places remaining.
fatBuzz is pleased to announce a very special event for charities in Scotland - a free social media training day. We have always been committed to helping charities whenever we can, however as a commercial organisation, there is only so much we can do on a one to one basis. Borrowing the motto from The Entrepreneurial Exchange, we believe in the notion we should 'work hard, play and give something back'; that's why we are running this exclusive event.
We intend this to be an intensive day of presentations to help charities understand the potential of social media and demonstrate how they can use the various tools to tell their story and create emotional connections. We will explore how to raise awareness, and support fundraisers and fundraising events; every topic will be tailored to charities with the aim of helping to make the most of their time when engaging in social media.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Wednesday 31st October
Venue: 29 Private Member's Club, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow
Time: 8:30am for 9:00am until 5:45pm
HOW TO BOOK
Thanks to generous support, we are able to offer this event entirely free of charge.
You must be a full-time employee or official representative of a registered charity to attend the event. We would like as many charities to be represented as possible, therefore we are initially limiting attendance to 2 people per charity.
If you would like to come along please email Fiona Macdonald fiona@fatbuzz.com with your name and the name of your registered charity. Alternatively, you can call Fiona on 0141 427 0727. Places are limited and bookings will be taken on a first come basis so please reserve your place as soon as possible.
PLEASE SHARE WITH OTHER CHARITIES
We are keen to have as many charities as possible on the day so, please share this post with any relevant people you know who may be interested in attending. We have also included share buttons at the top and bottom of the page to help you share this post on your social media platforms.
PROGRAMME
The programme below outlines the topics and the timing of the presentations. (May be subject to change)
8.30 - 9.00
CHECK IN
Guest arrive at 29 Glasgow - Tea and Coffee on arrival
9.00 - 9.10
INTRODUCTION - Gordon White, fatBuzz
Speaker introductions and purpose of event
9.10 - 9.30
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING- Gordon White, fatBuzz
Introduction to social media
Why the third sector should be using social media?
Back to Basics - Simplifying Social Media Marketing
9.30 - 10.00
BLOGGING- Gordon White, fatBuzz
The power of blogs and why they should be the ‘hub’ of your social media activity
Blog platforms
Content
Building and audience
Sharing and syndicating your blog posts
10.00 - 10.10
Q&A 10.10 - 10.25
CASE STUDY - Mark Wright, Commsworld
How charities are benefiting from well planned communications
10.25 - 10.40
NETWORKING BREAK
Tea and Coffee
10.40 - 11.00
INTEGRATING ONLINE AND OFFLINE MARKETING - Mike Smith, Orb Group
Why you should consider promotional merchandise in your overall marketing strategy?
11.00 - 11.30
PODCASTING - Gordon White, fatBuzz
Why you should consider podcasting as part of your marketing mix
Podcasting options
How to capture content
Editing content
Publishing your podcast
Finding your audience
11.30 - 12.15
FACEBOOK- Gordon White, fatBuzz
How charities can make use of Facebook for awareness, raising funds and, supporting fundraisers.
Branding
Tabs and iFrame Pages
Using the timeline
New functionality
Liking, Commenting, Sharing and Tagging
Photos and Video
Syndicating content to your page
Insights
12.15 - 12.45
Q&A SESSION 12.45 - 13.15
NETWORKING LUNCH
Buffet courtesy of No. 29
13.15 - 13.45
CROWDFUNDING - Michelle Rodger, Bloom VC
What is crowdfunding and how it could work for charities?
13.45 - 14.30
TWITTER AND MICROBLOGGING - Gordon White, fatBuzz
Why Twitter is an important social media tool
Branding
Functionality - Following, RT's, Hashtags etc
Searching - On Twitter and via Tweetdeck
Lists
14.30 - 14.45
TEA and COFFEE
14.45 - 15.30
LINKEDIN- Belinda Roberts, WeDo Scotland
How charities can use LinkedIn to engage
LinkedIn Personal Profiles, Groups and Pages
Setup - Things to consider
Managing and promoting your LinkedIn presence
15.30 - 16.15
VIDEO - Gordon White, fatBuzz
Why video?
Video options
Branding your video content
User generated video content
Sharing video content
16.16 - 17.15
CONTENT- Gordon White, fatBuzz
Most organisations struggle with content, we will explore the following:
What do you talk about?
How do we say it?
Where do we say it?
How often do we say it?
How do we make it engaging?
How do we get people to share it?
17.15 - 17.45
Q&A AND CLOSING REMARKS
17.45
Networking in the Oyster Bar
We hope you are able to attend the training session and that you will share the event with others. Please use the share buttons below to tell others in your community about this very special event.
I saw a picture on Facebook today that was shared by Lynn Harris, a friend in real life as well as on Facebook; the picture was accompanied by a story that I found intriguing and fascinating for a number of reasons.
The picture is a screen grab from a video of what appears to be a busker playing the violin at the entrance to L'Enfant Plaza Station in Washington. The comment on the Facebook photo goes on to explain that the violinist was in fact one of the greatest living violinist, Joshua Bell who was playing six classical pieces - among them was a piece by Bach which is widely considered among the most demanding violin works to play. During the 43 minute performance, nobody really stopped to listen for any length of time and he collected just $32 - usually you will pay in excess of $100 per seat to see him perform.
On reading this I was compelled to explore the story further so I went to YouTube where there are several versions of the video with almost 5,000,000 views, I also found a link to the story in the Washington Post - they were behind the experiment. It is worth reading some of the many subsequent comments gathered from commuters that day.
There are several reasons I find this story so interesting and I think, in the context of social media, there are many things we can learn from it:
The importance of building a relevant community
Just before the experiment in January 2007, Joshua had performed for a hushed audience at a sell-out concert in Boston yet in the DC Metro entrance 1100 people walked straight past him on their way to work. People did not know him or, that he was performing an extremely complex piece on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars! Within the classical music community, he is adored and appreciated but in a busy station playing in front of a wide variety of people, he was anonymous.
The audience in the station that morning were intent on getting to where they had to go by a certain time whilst, the audience in Boston were there because they were fans of classical music or Joshua Bell, or both. The potential station audience was unlimited and it was free for anybody to enjoy but, the concert audience was only available to $100+ ticket holders.
This indicates to me you can have the best and most interesting content in the World and make it available on the most public platforms but, if it's not getting in front of the right people you may as well not bother.
It's not a new story
This is the first time I have seen this story but, the experiment was actually carried out at 7:51 on 12th January 2007 - over 5 years ago. For me, this highlights the legacy benefits of creating good online content. Some of you may have seen this piece before but I noticed it today because someone in my online community shared it on Facebook. The person who shared this particular thread did so on the 16th February this year and it's had 161,231 likes and 144,565 shares in the past 9 days! Therefore, an old story is getting lots of attention because people who find it interesting now have shared it.
At fatBuzz, we are constantly amazed when we see the number of downloads every month of past episodes of our Social Media Podcast - this month we have had over a dozen downloads of a podcast that was recorded 18 months ago!
So, the next time you're creating content, don't just assume you're creating something for people to consume and share that day, week or month; instead, think about your new content as an addition to your online assets. Content will be found and shared by people when they find it interesting and relevant, not just when you find it interesting and relevant.
Was it the right time?
This experiment took place on a weekday during rush hour; I wonder how many more people might have found time to listen a bit longer if it had taken place at a different time?
Not wishing to contradict my earlier comments about legacy but think about when you release new content to get the maximum initial impact, if your community is busy during working hours, think about releasing your content early evening or maybe even over the weekend when they have more time to consume it. Experiment with the release times and monitor the reach you achieve at different times on different days.
Getting the ear of your target audience
Many of the 1100 commuters didn't hear Joshua because they were listening to their own choice of content through their headphones; I wonder if any were actually listening to a Joshua Bell recording as they walked passed him!
Choosing the right platform, or a range of platforms, is important; what's the point of producing everything on video if your community wants to listen to a podcast while they're in the gym. Alternatively, should your content be limited to Twitter messages with links to articles if your community wants to have something to read during a flight? You can't possibly please everybody but repurposing your blog post as a podcast or, producing a blog post about your latest video will help to ensure you get your content out to more people in the fashion they want to receive it.
Extending your community
The Washington Post article offers remarkable feedback from commuters who had earlier walked straight past Joshua but, I wonder what the impact was after they found out who he was? How many went and searched for him online? How many bought one of his recordings? How many shared the story with their friends?
This experiment may, or may not, have unearthed some new classical music enthusiasts or, some new Joshua Bell fans; these may be people that had never considered classical music in the past but, the "experiment" was the catalyst for their new found interest. Is there a promotion, campaign, or event that may help you extend your community?
A final thought...
Imagine, you gather all 1100 commuters in a concert hall and tell them a bit about Joshua and the piece he is about to perform, how many will become converts, fans or ambassadors? How many will be listening to him through their headphones the next time they walk through L'Enfant Plaza Station on their way to work?
If you have found this post interesting please share it with your online community using either the Twitter, Facebook and Share buttons below. Thank You.
During the past couple of years I have spoken at numerous events to a wide variety of audiences from many walks of life and the same question seems to come up in one form or another at every event; what is the ROI with social media? It may not be that exact question but, regardless of how it is phrased, they want to know the same thing.
There are various ways to look at ROI and perhaps we will explore some of these in a future blog posts however, today I want to share one answer I often use which usually raises a few eyebrows and, if it is Tweeted in isolation, it is usually misinterpreted. (one of the shortcomings of a 140 character limit)
The answer is as follows: If you are not involved in social media, you will not be getting new business in five years time.
My thinking behind this is fairly simple although I do concede the timescale will vary depending on the various factors; for some organisations it may be as little as two years and for others it may be as many as ten years. Regardless of timescale, I believe all organisations will struggle to get their fair share of new business if they are not social.
Generation ‘Y’ is growing up, they are entering the workplace and they are starting to progress through their organisaions into decision making roles. Generation ‘Y’ has never known anything but the internet; this is how they do their research, this is how they get their news, this is how the find out what’s happening in the world and in their industry – in short, this is how they communicate.
When they get responsibility for deciding who is going to be invited to tender for the supply of IT services or, who is to get the new cleaning contract or, who will provide the business travel services they will automatically research the options online. Yes, this may include your web site and good SEO will most likely make you findable. However, what if your competitor has a similar web site but is also a highly engaged, transparent, content creator with lots of useful support information? In addition, they are highly visible and extremely well thought of in the industry and among their customers. Whom is your highly social young decision maker going to err towards?
If you are not social and not creating content you are not visible, it then follows that you will not be invited to the party when the invitations are being handed out. Surely, the danger of being invisible vs. the rewards of being found online is ROI enough for any organisation?
There is another thing to consider; Generation ‘Y’ want to work with organisations that are social. Given what I have already said about how they use the Internet, they don’t want to work for organisations that effectively tie their arms behind their back by blocking Internet access. Why would they want to work for an organisation that will not let them use the tools with which they have grown up? How can they flourish and rise through an organisation that doesn’t enable them to communicate effectively?
I have asked various recruitment consultants if graduates ever ask about a prospective employer's social media policy and apparently, it is becoming a common question. So, there is a very real danger that non-social businesses will struggle to recruit the best people in the future; this may affect your business much quicker than five years.
The fast maturing Generation ‘Y’ will play a very important part in the future of all businesses and, if you’re not social, the party could be over by the time you get there.
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Since our last post on our series of Quick Buzz videos, other team members have decided to make their first appearance in front of the camera.
If you have seen these videos before 'Quick Buzz' is a series of 30-60 second videos clips by fatBuzz bringing you news, events and updates from the world of Design, Marketing and Social Media.
The first video is by our newest member of the team, Kirsty. In this edition Kirsty gives you her first Quick Buzz about Facebook pages.
The next part of the series is from Marion of fatBuzz, where she share's her extensive knowledge in event management on how to run a success event.
Here we have Gordon,talking about how it is important to be yourself on social media as it will create more engaging conversation.
Finally we have Cecilia, our senior designer, gives us a very useful tip on how it is important to adapt a square format of your logo so you can make it work with social media.
These videos will be syndicated to our various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog, YouTube and you will also be able to find them on the fatBuzz website. Be sure to look out for the next Quick Buzz with other members of the fatBuzz team. We would be interested to find out what you would like to see on future 'Quick Buzz' episodes, so please don't hesitate to tweet or facebook us.
If you have found this post interesting please share it with your online community using either the Twitter, Facebook and Share buttons below. Thank You.
Quick Buzz' is a series of 30-60 second videos clips by fatBuzz bringing you news, events and updates from the world of Design, Marketing and Social Media.
The first video Gordon White of fatBuzz talks about how your social media is not the responsibilty of any one person in your company.
Here we have the second video, where Gordon discusses how important video content is when hosting an event and to help promote future events.
In our latest addition to the 'Quick Buzz' series, Gordon tells us about who should not be embracing social media
These videos will be syndicated to our various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog, YouTube and you will also be able to find them on the fatBuzz website. Be sure to look out for the next Quick Buzz with other members of the fatBuzz team. We would be interested to find out what you would like to see on future 'Quick Buzz' episodes, so please don't hesitate to tweet or facebook us.
If you have found this post interesting please share it with your online community using either the Twitter, Facebook and Share buttons below. Thank You.
The "New" edition - the new iPad, new guest, new Groupon valuation, new job for Iain Murray, new words in the Oxford Dictionary...even a new Bride!
In Edition No.33 Gordon White and Kyle Murdoch from fatBuzz are joined by Iain Murray, Europa Sevices and a couple of guests, Tim Barlow and Kiril Bunin of Attacat. We recorded this podcast immediately after the New Media Breakfast in Glasgow on Friday 25th March. Kiril was the presenter at the breakfast and he delivered an extremely interesting and informative presentation on Conversion Rate Optimisation. Such was the quality of the information, most attendees seemed to be hot footing it back to the office to review the user experience on their web sites.
On the podcast we discuss lots of new things - the new iPad gets the thumbs down, Iain Murray has a new job, the Oxford Dictionary has some new words...we even discuss a new Bride - more about that when you listen to the podcast.
We talk about Crowd Sourcing, Coca Cola, Maroon 5, Gold Corp, Lynx new advert, Foursquare, Twestival, Twitter's 5th Birthday, Facebook Places, Cupcakes, Facebook Sponsored Stories and much more.
Kiril chats to us about his presentation and the importance of Conversion Rate Optimisation and, we talk about the need to get CEO's and senior management to 'buy in' to social media and how organisations who's top management have bought in are succeeding with social media.
We have decided to use a new hashtag for the Social Media Podcast #SMPodcast We will be using the #SMPodcast to let you know when we're recording the podcast so that you can ask questions or suggest discussion topics. So, please follow the hashtag so that you can keep up to date with our recordings.
Finally, if you would like top be on a podcast either in person or, via Skype, please contact me at gordon@fatbuzz.com and we will try to get it organised.
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The new fatBuzz iPhone App is now available for download on iTunes. The App, which is the first we've developed and launched using our own Apple App Developer licence, will give you easy access to fatBuzz content. You can access our Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Social Media Podcast, YouTube, Flickr, fatBuzz Social Network and, the New Media Breakfast details all in one place; you can even send us a message direct from the App.
You can download the free fatBuzz App on iTunes by clicking here
If you've found this post interesting or, you know someone who might like the fatBuzz App, please share it with your online community using either the Twitter or Facebook buttons below. Thank you.
