May New Media Breakfast is in June! - FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS

FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS

DATE: Friday 3rd June 2011

VENUE: 29 Member's Club, 29 Royal Exchange Square,Glasgow

Time: 7.30am for 8 am - 9.15am

 

Facebook is by far the single biggest social media platform and is heading towards 600 million users world wide with over 30 million of them in the UK.  With over half the population using the platform it has become a very important platform for personal and business use.  Furthermore, the recent changes to Facebook now make it an ideal platform for companies to engage and communicate with their customers; many of the world's leading brands now use Facebook as their main point of contact with the public.

This New Media Breakfast will focus on Facebook and look at the various ways that businesses can use the platform to promote themselves and create meaningful engagement with their target audience.  Using live examples we will demonstrate what others are doing to achieve positive results on Facebook.  The presentation will be conducted by Gordon White (fatBuzz Ltd) and Tim Barlow (Attacat Ltd) who will explore the following topics:

• Facebook Pages

• Facebook Questions

• Facebook Buttons - Send, Share, Comment and Like

• Facebook Advertising

• Facebook Insights (Analytics)

• Pictures and Tagging

• Building a Facebook community

• How to engage with your audience

• Dealing with negative comments

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Business owners, decision makers, entrepreneurs, marketing and business development personnel.  The breakfast is designed to give you an overview of the platform and help you establish a strategy for using Facebook effectively for your business.  

THE SPEAKERS

GORDON WHITE

Gordon White started Design Matters in 1986 offering traditional design and marketing services to a wide range of public and private sector organisations throughout the UK. The arrival of the internet saw Design Matters move into web design, web strategy and online marketing then, with the arrival of Web 2.0 Design Matters became involved in social media and assisting their portfolio of clients to engage and communicate using new media.

In 2006, in response to the growing demand for new and social media production, Gordon founded Podcastmatters Ltd, a new media production company specialising in audio and video podcast production, niche networking and social media consulting.  

In June 2010 Podcastmatters and Design Matters merged and rebranded as fatBuzz Ltd.

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.  Gordon regularly delivers seminars, presentations and workshops to organisations throughout the UK such as recent engagements with the Institute of Directors, The Chartered Institute of Public Relations, the Institute of Investor Relations, Business Gateway and The Grampian Food Forum.

Gordon is a past Chairman of Links of Scotland, a consortium of 26 golf related businesses formed to market their goods and services in the USA and the Far East. Gordon acquired John Letters of Scotland in 1999 and was Chairman of the company until he sold it to Direct Golf in 2005.

Gordon also hosts a twice-monthly podcast called “Social Media Podcast” with commentary about social media and interviews from World leaders in the field; 3 times in 2010 the Social Media Podcast has been the No.1 audio podcast in the iTunes Podcasting category.

Gordon is married with three children and enjoys drawing, painting and golf.  He is an accomplished golf artist selling prints of his work via the Internet all around the world.  

TIM BARLOW

Tim Barlow is the managing director of Attacat, the Edinburgh-based search engine and internet marketing firm. Tim has been involved in search engine promotion since 1999 when he managed the first Innogy website for National Power. In 2001, Tim launched Pastures-New, one of the UK's leading rental portals, gaining similar levels of traffic with a marketing budget of £100 a month as Rightmove were then achieving with a multi million pound TV campaign. Attacat was set up in 1994 to take advantage of Tim's knowledge.

Self-taught in the art of search engine optimisation and internet marketing (there simply weren't formal courses in those days), Tim passionately believes that good SEO is not rocket science or a black art but simply the result of effective online marketing and web design. This approach has been proven time and again by Tim and his team achieving long lasting high ranks on competitive one and two word phrases for clients in a variety of fields.

Pay per click (such as Google AdWords) has been a long time specialism of Tim and Attacat. Indeed Tim was one of the very first Qualified Google Advertising Professionals in the world and Attacat has held the company version of the qualification since its inception. Attacat use pay per click (PPC) to drive £10s of millions of business for a variety of clients from classic e-commerce sites to B2B businesses in niches you probably never knew existed.

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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Out now - Social Media Podcast No.34 - Google's Android and Apple's iOS get the boxing gloves on...

In Social Media Podcast Gordon White and Kyle Murdoch from fatBuzz are joined by Iain Murray or Europa Services and Tim Barlow and Joel Lumsden of Attacat for a lively discussion about the latest news from the world of social media.

During our chat we examine the new Motorola Xoom and inevitably compare it to the new iPad 2 and during that discussion we talk about the absence of other players in the market, particularly Microsoft.

Following this we look at a whole host of subjects with the usual light hearted banter; subjects include the popularity of Twitter, Paper.li and an interesting introduction to Storify. Microsoft also come under fire for their attempt at Quick Response codes with Microsoft Tag and we ask if Google +1 is just the latest attempt by Google to get into Social Media.

The Social Media Podcast would be incomplete without the latest chat about Facebook so, we touch on their continued dominance, the new Facebook Questions and, controlling the News Feed. During this chat we also look at other social media sites like Wayne's World and ask if any of these can really make any dent in the popularity of Facebook.

On the App front, we look at BA's (British Airways) new App for Executive Club members and Tripit.

As usual, the podcast is rounded off with an update about the New Media Breakfast when we bring you details of the next three breakfasts in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

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.

Play the podcast here:

Subscribe/Download Social Media Podcast on iTunes

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I like clients who know their place...

I visited John Dick & Son for a meeting yesterday and I was delighted to see they are embracing social media and encouraging their customers to engage with them by promoting their Facebook Page off-line.

Too many companies forget to promote their on-line activities off-line. John Dick & Son have created A4 posters and spread them around their showroom to encourage people to join them on Facebook.  Furthermore, they are running a promotion to encourage people to "Check-in" on Facebook when they arrive in the showroom; the reward they get for doing so is a bottle of wine!

Facebook Places is an ideal way to encourage your customers to spread the word about your business; there are over 30 million Facebook users in the UK (that's more than half the population) with an average of 130 friends.  Look at it this way; half the people coming into your premises are on Facebook and have the potential to tell 130 friends each that they are doing business with you!  Now, don't get too carried away, not everyone will have the Facebook App on their phone and, not everybody will Check-In but, the ones that do will be helping you by sharing your location with their friends.  For the cost of a few posters this is well worth doing.

We also have Dean's the shortbread manufacturer in Huntly about to start an hourly prize draw to win shortbread if people Check-In to the Cafe Bistro in Huntly.  We will keep you up to date with how these campaigns work out and, if you're in the area of either of them, please pop in, Check-In and, tell them you heard about it on our blog!

Please also take a minute to join both John Dick & Son's and Dean's Page and you can keep up to date with what other things they are doing on-line.  And, you can keep up to date with us on the fatBuzz Facebook Page.

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Next New Media Breakfast - Social Media on the Move

Social Media on the Move


Thursday 28th April 2011


7.30 for 8am until 9.15am
No.29 Members Club, Royal Exchange Square Glasgow.


It has been widely report that by 2013 the majority of content on the internet will be consumed on mobile devices.  Since we first covered this topic in February 2010 we have seen the introduction of the iPad and more recently the iPad2; the iPad introduction was the start of the latest access device - the tablet.  In this presentation Iain Murray will review the current status of hand held mobile devices and explore the type tools that are ideal to participate on social media platforms on the move.

He will also take a look at some of the popular, new and emerging apps and platforms that enable you to distribute and access information on the move.

As the popularity of mobile devices grows, it is essential to ensure your content is accessible to your target market; this breakfast presentation will identify what you can do to engage with your audience on the platforms they choose.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Iain Murray is the Group Strategy Director with Europa Group tasked with supporting the strategic direction of the organisation. Iain has a career in Facilities Management spanning over 25 years and has held the industry’s top position as Chair of the British Institute of Facilities Management. He is currently the Deputy Chair of Global FM, the global Association of Associations representing over 50,000 FM’s worldwide.

Iain was an early adopter of Social Media and a pioneer in the FM industry on the use of integrated and cloud technology. He has won awards for integrating several technologies to improve the efficiency of service while making significant operational savings.

Our connection with Iain came about when he attended the first New Media Breakfast, opened his laptop and appointed himself as the official ‘tweeter’ for the event. He has now attended and spoken several times at the NMB and is a permanent member of the Social Media Podcast team, recording a podcast a couple of times a month.

Iain is continuing his crusade to introduce Social Media to FM and his tweets are reaching a global FM audience and following. Iain regularly write and presents on the benefits and merits of Social Media for business with a style that is both engaging and witty.

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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A small favour to thank Kathleen please

My good friend, Kathleen McDermott is competing in "A Little Less Strictly Come Dancing" tonight at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow. You will be doing me a great personal favour if you take a minute to vote for Kathleen.

Kathleen is without doubt the most accommodating person I have ever met when it comes to giving up her time for charity and those less fortunate than herself. I have asked Kathleen on numerous occasions to help promote various charities and, without hesitation, she agrees to do it every time. She is currently an ambassador for Revive MS Support and With Kids and tonight she is dancing to raise money for The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice and, she gives her time generously to each of them and many others.

I know Kathleen has put literally 100's of hours of practice into her performance tonight and that's another endearing trait with Kathleen, if she says yes, she gives you 100%.

Please take a minute and give her your vote; you will be doing me, Kathleen and the hospice a great favour.

To vote please text DANCE K to 70100 all day today and, if you're voting after 6pm tonight please text DANCE KATHLEEN to 70100.

Finally, you will be doing me an additional favour by using the Facebook, Twitter and Share buttons below to share this post with your online community.