My loss may be your gain...or, maybe not!

I was supposed to be in Spain this weekend with my family but easyJet had oversold the flight so when we arrived at the airport there were only two seats left on the flight and three of us flying; since I was only going for two days it was sensible that my wife and youngest son took the seats. One or two people have expressed surprise at a flight being oversold but this has been fairly standard practice for airlines although, I have never experienced it before on budget airlines.

British Airways has done this for years because people buying full fare flights could get a refund if for some reason they couldn't fly so they would always have no-shows for the flight. To counter this they would oversell in order to minimise empty seats on flights.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is not to tell you about my holiday disappointments; I wanted to tell you how I have filled my time preparing for the next New Media Breakfast. I have had peace and quiet to prepare for the "Back to Basics" presentation and, I've had a great time doing it!

I've decided to do something completely different, certainly from anything I've ever seen, to demonstrate how a back to basics approach can help you understand and master social media. I don't want to give too much away but, if it works it will be interesting, fun and, informative. If it doesn't work it will at least be be fun - for you!

So, if you wan't to witness me gliding high or grabbing the nearest parachute you should book for the next breakfast in Glasgow or Edinburgh - I can at least promise we don't ever overbook the seats!

I should point out that EasyJet are issuing a full refund and €250 compensation so if it all goes wrong I can escape to warmer climes!

Glasgow Breakfast - 29th July 2011

Edinburgh Breakfast - 11th August 2011

No.29 Members Go Free – If you are a 29 Member you can attend the breakfast free of charge. Please email malcolm@fatbuzz.com with you membership number and he will add you to the attendance list. We hope you can make it along to this event. If so, I look forward to seeing you on the day.

BOOK FOR NEW MEDIA BREAKFAST GLASGOW HERE:

BOOK FOR NEW MEDIA BREAKFAST EDINBURGH HERE:

 

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Back to Basics - Simplifying Social Media Marketing

7.30am for 8am - 29th July 2011
No.29  Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow.


In September 2009 we held the first New Media Breakfast where we looked at social media in general and explored the various ways to participate; in the past couple of months we have received lots of requests to do an updated version of that presentation.



The July New Media Breakfast will look at social media today and offer a definition and examples of social media marketing - how businesses can use social media to promote their goods and services.  Social Media Marketing is being accepted as an essential part of the marketing mix by the world's largest brands, business are realising the need to engage and communicate at this level and, a bigger share of marketing budgets are being spent on digital channels so, it has never been more important to be aware of social media and understand how it can work for you.

Using what you already know
Sticking to the title theme, we will demonstrate how a complete "back to basics" approach can help you get to terms with social media and help you understand how you can participate effectively.  We will try to show you that using what you already know and do can be easily adopted on digital platforms to help you develop and implement an effective social media marketing strategy.  We believe there is a tendency to over complicate social media activity; yes there are pitfalls and areas of concern but, we believe our 'back to basics' approach will help you identify and understand how to approach most situations you may encounter online.

Social Media Advertising
Social media marketing encompasses engagement, forming relationships and emotional connections but it doesn't stop there; advertising on social media channels is an integral part of social media marketing but, the most successful businesses are those who are integrating the ability to share content among friends with conventional advertising to create social media advertising campaigns that tap into the massive power of word of mouth.  At the breakfast we will take a look at what's new in social media advertising and how you can utilise your community to promote your business effectively.  We will also explore how to utilise the highly targeted nature of social media advertising.

Venue: 29 Member's Club, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow
Date: Friday 29th July 2011
Time: 7.30am for 8am


No.29 Members Go Free – If you are a 29 Member you can attend the breakfast free of charge. Please email malcolm@fatbuzz.com with you membership number and he will add you to the attendance list. We hope you can make it along to this event. If so, I look forward to seeing you on the day.

BOOK FOR NEW MEDIA BREAKFAST GLASGOW HERE:

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Living in Glasgow or Edinburgh you should get to the Edinburgh New Media Breakfast

How you get your brand across online without the aid of your voice and body language
What do people say about you when you’re not in the room? Whatever it is, that’s your personal brand – and it’s the key to your success.

Because in a world where ‘people buy people’ your personal brand helps them decide whether or not they’re buying into you (and thanks to Google and all things online, that can happen before they’ve even met you). Spark’s Jennifer Holloway will be sharing her insights on personal brand – what it is, how it’s formed, how to define it and how to promote it – to help you tap into one of the most powerful career and business tools you have at your disposal.

NOTE FROM GORDON WHITE

In a similar blog post prior to hearing Jennifer's presentation I suggested that your personal branding is critical to the success of your social media; having heard her presentation I believe this more than ever.   Jennifer's particular presenting style is entertaining, interactive and informative, I don't think there were many people in the 100+ audience who did not enthuse about her and what she had to say. If you need any more convincing please go to Twitter and search #NMBrek, you will soon see what I mean.

I don't think there will be many people who were in attendance who haven't made changes to their online profiles following her presentation.

As a little taster, go to Jennifer's recent blog post and Test Your Personal Brand Here 

ABOUT JENNIFER HOLLOWAY

With a career including 15 years in media relations and PR, Jennifer Holloway knows a thing or two about promoting a personal brand – she did it every time she picked up the phone to a journalist. The result? She stood out from the ‘press office crowd’ and got her stories on the front page. Today, she is a personal brand expert, helping executives to define their personal brand before teaching them how to promote that in everything they say and do.  Known as ‘The Antidote to Yes-Men’ her honest, challenging and practical style has helped leaders discover how, by being themselves, they can be even more successful.

Take a look at Jennifer's Blog
Jennifer Holloway on Linked-In
Follow Jennifer on Twitter

WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET JENNIFER?
Jennifer is travelling from the North of England and she has kindly offered to have private meetings on the day with any attendee who would like to discuss their personal brand and how she helps people to maximise ther online presence. If you are interested, we stronly recommend that you book a time as quickly as possible so that you are not dissapointed. It will also enable Jennifer to organise her travel arrangements. To arrange a time to have an informal chat with Jennifer please email fiona@fatbuzz.com stating your preferred time - times will be allocated strictly on a first come first serve basis.


Venue: Tigerlily, George Street, Edinburgh
Date: Thursday 14th July 2011
Time: 7.30am for 8am

BOOK FOR NEW MEDIA BREAKFAST EDINBURGH HERE:

 

If you have found this content interesting, there is a good chance that other people you know will also be interested, please use the Twitter and Facebook Buttons below to share it with your community.

Social Media Podcast No 37 The Facebook Edition...and other things!

Let me say from the outset that we made a cardinal error with this podcast - Gordon White, Kyle Murdoch and Iain Murray all gathered to record this episode at the appointed time, sat down to discuss (very roughly) what we would talk about then discovered no one had brought the recorder! Fear not, fatBuzz usually find a fix for such problems and we actually recorded it via one of our large Sony cameras.

The edition does tend to focus a lot of Facebook; largely because we had just completed three "Facebook for Business" New Media Breakfast in the preceding six days! In that period we had all attended the Entrepreneurial Exchange Conference at Gleneagles where much of the speaker's content was about the use of social media in their businesses.

We also discuss the relevancy of your community and the need to develop a following that is relevant to your business and, the usefulness of Twitter and Facebook Lists.

We talk about a couple of influential social media business people, Michelle Mone of Ultimo and Richard McKay of Richard McKay flooring.

Other subjects include:

• Tommy Sheridan blogging from jail (But now he isn't!!!)
• Groupon's timing on going to the market
• Glasgow's Great Deal and Edinburgh's Great Deal
• Facebook Deals
• Facebook Sponsored Stories
• The diabolically bad Facebook Mobile Platforms
• QR Codes - Mitch Joel's blog about how they can create a negative experience for a brand
• Gaynor MacIntyre of MacIntyre's of Edinburgh and her QR Code
• WAZE - An application for traffic management using Geo-Tagging and Twitter
• Cloud Computing, Apple iCloud, DropBox, Google Cloud etc.
• Two Boys Opera and the viral video - Can I be Your Friend?
• Personal Branding Online with Jennifer Holloway
• To book a 1to1 meeting with Jennifer email fiona@fatbuzz.com
• Our new Social Media Podcast Facebook Page

Play the podcast here:

Subscribe/Download Social Media Podcast on iTunes

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.

You can also follow the Social Media Podcast on Facebook now - visit and "Like" the new Social Media Podcast Facebook Page HERE.

Glasgow New Media Breakfast - Your Personal Branding Online

How you get your brand across online without the aid of your voice and body language
What do people say about you when you’re not in the room? Whatever it is, that’s your personal brand – and it’s the key to your success.

Because in a world where ‘people buy people’ your personal brand helps them decide whether or not they’re buying into you (and thanks to Google and all things online, that can happen before they’ve even met you). Spark’s Jennifer Holloway will be sharing her insights on personal brand – what it is, how it’s formed, how to define it and how to promote it – to help you tap into one of the most powerful career and business tools you have at your disposal.

ABOUT JENNIFER HOLLOWAY

With a career including 15 years in media relations and PR, Jennifer Holloway knows a thing or two about promoting a personal brand – she did it every time she picked up the phone to a journalist.  The result? She stood out from the ‘press office crowd’ and got her stories on the front page. Today, she is a personal brand expert, helping executives to define their personal brand before teaching them how to promote that in everything they say and do.  Known as ‘The Antidote to Yes-Men’ her honest, challenging and practical style has helped leaders discover how, by being themselves, they can be even more successful.

Take a look at Jennifer's Blog
Jennifer Holloway on Linked-In
Follow Jennifer on Twitter

WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET JENNIFER?
Jennifer is travelling from the North of England and she has kindly offered to have private meetings on the day with any attendee who would like to discuss their personal brand and how she helps people to maximise ther online presence. If you are interested, we stronly recommend that you book a time as quickly as possible so that you are not dissapointed.  It will also enable Jennifer to organise her travel arrangements.  To arrange a time to have an informal chat with Jennifer please email fiona@fatbuzz.com stating your preferred time - times will be allocated strictly on a first come first serve basis.

NOTE FROM GORDON WHITE
We have covered many topics in the New Media Breakfast since it first began back in September 2009 and most of them have explored specific tools or platforms that you may choose for your online presence however, this month's topic is different; regardless of how you use the Web, your personal branding is critical. In all of our previous breakfast presentations we have highlighted the need for transparancy and building trust, that is why I believe Jennifer's presentation is a must for everyone who has attended any previous breakfast.  I would encourage you all to book early and come along to this important event.

Venue: 29 Member's Club, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow
Date: Friday 1st July 2011
Time: 7.30am for 8am


No.29 Members Go Free – If you are a 29 Member you can attend the breakfast free of charge. Please email malcolm@fatbuzz.com with you membership number and he will add you to the attendance list. We hope you can make it along to this event. If so, I look forward to seeing you on the day.

BOOK FOR NEW MEDIA BREAKFAST GLASGOW HERE:

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.

Facebook Send Buttons

Facebook "Send" Buttons provide a much more controlled way to share content from web pages and blogs.

The send button lets you insert a message and target exactly who you want to share the content with; you can specify names and groups from your Facebook Profile or email addresses.

This is one of the things we will be looking at at the forthcoming series of New Media Breakfasts in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

 You can find out the details of the nearest breakfast to you at the New Media Breakfast website www.newmediabreakfast.co.uk

If you want to try the Facebook "Send" Button you can do so below:

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You can also follow fatBuzz on Facebook - visit and "Like" the fatBuzz Page HERE.

New Media BBQ - What Scotland can learn from the Silicon Valley

Come and join us for our first informal networking BBQ hosted by fatBuzz.

DATE: Wednesday 8th June 2011
TIME:  6.00pm 
VENUE: The Golf Lounge, 221 West George Street, G2 2ND
COST: £10 +vat

Price includes a visit to the BBQ plus a welcome drink on arrival.

What Scotland can learn from the Silicon Valley

What do world leading companies like Apple, Facebook, Google or Twitter have in common? Apart from having an un-quenchable desire to build great products, they have all been established and are based in Silicon Valley. This 60 mile peninsula, running from San Francisco to San Jose has built a reputation for being home to the fastest growing and most impactful internet, and now mobile, businesses.

What can Scotland learn from these institutions?

This New Media BBQ will focus on the cultural learnings from Silicon Valley and what Scottish Business can learn from the 'Innovation Ecosystem' (McKinsey & Co. 2009). The Presentation will be led by Andrew McCalister (Heyzap, Mino Monsters) who will discuss:

- What markets are exploding…..and imploding

- How to raise the required funding

- What to do with it once you get it

- Building a killer culture

- Learning points from social gaming

Andrew McCalister, originally from Glasgow now lives and works in Silicon Valley. He charges ahead with Business Development for Heyzap, the largest social discovery platform for games in the world, and is a Board advisor at Mino Monsters, one of the hottest start-ups in Silicon Valley aiming to be the next Pokemon.

He is the youngest ever awardee of the prestigious Global Research Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering for his work on high-growth companies in Silicon valley. Prior to making the jump to California, Andrew graduated with Distinction from Cambridge University in Engineering and Business and Glasgow University with Engineering.

For his sins he went to school with Kyle Murdoch, fatBuzz.

Below you can view a short introduction video from Andrew about the New Media BBQ.

BOOK FOR THE NEW MEDIA BBQ HERE 

Price includes a visit to the BBQ plus a welcome drink on arrival. We also plan to run a few fun competitions on the golf simulators before and after the talk.

FatBuzz Ltd hosts the monthly New Media Breakfast series of seminars in Glasgow and Edinburgh with bi-monthly events in Aberdeen and Inverness. These events have attracted over 100 attendees and are growing every month in reputation and popularity.

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Hashtag for the event - #NmBBQ