As someone who’s worked in PR and marketing for a long time, testimonials are a stalwart in my toolbox.   Whatever you want to call it – third party endorsement, advocacy, quotes from happy clients – the voice of the beneficiary goes a long way.

In the case of the kidney donor, the benefits were clear – someone was given a new lease of life free from dialysis and the donor came away with the satisfaction that he had made that possible with little or no risk to his own well being.  The interview went on to explain the donor screening process (not for the faint hearted) but he highlighted the upside of getting a thorough MOT and said if he had 4 kidneys, he’d donate 3 of them.

A powerful message and endorsement that Kidney Research UK is making great use of.  The radio coverage follows a host of articles in the broadsheets and there’s a fair bit of chat in the social networks too.  With ‘World Kidney Day’ around the corner (as I’ve just discovered from their website) it all makes sense.  Great content and joined up communication.  Textbook stuff.

So – if you haven’t already done it, think about who is saying what about your business/product/cause and whether you’re making best use of their ‘voice’ to educate and inspire others into engaging with you.

And if you missed the piece on Radio 4 this morning, listen again.  It educated me and gave me food for thought.

This is where business users often come unstuck.

Teenagers delve into Twitter without as much as a backward glance but they’re only in it to soak up celebrity gossip and find out where their favourite comedians, singers or sporting heroes are ‘playing’ next.   For them, it’s entertainment, pure and simple. They also fancy the scope for anonymity (see this interesting piece from Associated Press).

If you’re in business, it’s a whole different ball game.  Ultimately it’s about winning ‘friends’ and influencing people but there’s a lot of giving to do in the networks before you get there and YOU NEED A PLAN.  An integrated, digital plan, with your website at the heart of it.

Below are 12 practical tips to improve your chances of success in social networks and save you hours of fruitless tweeting, liking and connecting:

WILL YOUR WEBSITE ENGAGE YOUR VISITORS?

• Make sure your messaging is clear and that it supports your business objectives – what’s the point pushing old messages through a new channel of communication if they’re not hitting the sweet spot in your existing channels?  Ask yourself “What messages do I want my customers to take away from the website?”  Then ask “Am I getting that across?”  Get an unbiased view from critical ‘friends’ too.  You may need a re-think on look and feel or content but it’ll be worth it.
• Make a good first impression – will your site inspire confidence in potential customers based on visual impact?  Does it look professional?  Is the branding consistent?
• Tidy, expand or re-structure your website – take a fresh look at the navigation; is the key information easy to find?  Have you proof read the copy for typos?
• Testimonials are powerful tools – have you got any kind of endorsement on your site?  If not, get some!
• Give some thought to web-friendly content – rich media such as presentations, videos, photos etc (assuming they’re reasonably good quality) could be useful fodder to share in the social networks.  Are you making it accessible?

WHICH NETWORKS AND HOW TO GET STARTED?

• Think about which networks are right for you – research pays dividends.  Find out which social networks your customers/partners are active in by a)asking them or b) looking for them in the networks yourself (more time consuming – and very diverting – but often illuminating) and connect with them.  They will be an excellent starting point for community building.
• Think about the tone of voice you want to adopt and if/how you will balance business and personal
• Think about resource – make sure you have some – or a few people – who can commit time to monitoring the networks you launch in to, keeping the ‘conversation’ going and refreshing content regularly
• Remember to tell people you’re active in the networks – put the link(s) on your home page, in your e-signature, at the end of presentations etc
• Remember to check in to your website tracking regularly for hints on what’s working (or not) e.g. spikes in traffic
• Don’t rush it.  Time spent watching and listening to what’s going on in the networks BEFORE you start, can be time well spent.

At the end of the day it’s about developing a digital mindset.  I hope this helps.

Responsibility for SME communications is often assigned to someone senior who has too much on his/her plate to give it head space or doesn’t ‘get’ the value of effective communications.  In these instances, briefs are often issued to agencies in an ad hoc, reactive way with little or no long term scoping of needs.  Before they know it, costs have quietly grown, synergies with other work have not been fully exploited and the work stands alone but it’s hard to know how to take it forward.  Companies often feel that agencies don’t deliver value for money.  Sometimes they are right but often it is because they have not briefed them or used them appropriately.

The other commonly used solution to resourcing communications is to recruit at manager level. I’ve come across a number of managers recently who have taken on exciting comms roles but find it hard to move forward either have no one senior to support and direct them or they have no budget to implement their ideas.  At best, this strikes me as short-sighted thinking on the part of their employers.  I guess they feel the pressure to commit to communications but a) don’t understand what it takes to do it properly and b) can’t afford to.

So how should companies resource and deliver creative, responsive PR, marketing and communications?  There are a number of ways to skin the cat, from recruiting at various levels to outsourcing (see tips and advice in ‘Are you getting best value out of your communications?) but it all comes back to budget and I believe there is a case for a half way house. At this point I have to declare an interest but it is for the common good – as I hope you’ll see…

In working with St John’s Innovation Centre, I found a hybrid approach, combining consultancy with mentoring, worked a treat.  It offered just the kind of creative (and cost-effective) solution many SME’s need.

The team at St John’s needed to raise awareness of two business support programmes but they also wanted to develop in-house capacity and skills to make their budget work harder.  So we did both. I provided strategic direction and my associates helped boost capacity for some of the ‘doing’.  Throughout the process we trained and mentored the team and equipped their Marketing Co-ordinator to continue what we started – everything from customer/stakeholder relations to media relations, blogging and social networking.  Our time reduced as their in-house knowledge and skills grew.  Ultimately our goal was to do ourselves out of a job!

The Virtual Communications Director approach won’t be right for everyone but it could be just the answer for SME’s in growth mode who need a strategic, cost-effective approach to meeting their PR, marketing and communications needs.

I’m a great believer in the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” but if you decide to re-group, think about what you need (resource, scope of work, goals etc) and how much you are willing/able to throw at getting it.  That way you are more likely to settle on a solution that fits your budget and aspirations.

The Virtual Communications Director responds to market forces which are squeezing budgets and demanding added value in every sector.  It offers SME’s a cost-effective and sustainable solution to their communications needs.

Many SME’s outsource communications tasks, from media relations to web development and the production of marketing materials, to name a few.  This works if it is led at a strategic level.  However, without a clear, consistent direction many companies look back and find that none of the briefs join up, messaging has lost its way and they may even have duplicated effort in some instances.

The Virtual Communications Director is aimed at companies with limited or no in-house resource.  Such companies are not yet ready to invest in an experienced communications director but need a strategic approach to PR, marketing and communications. We scope out their strategy and plan, bring resource to deliver it and transfer our skills and knowledge to their staff in the process.

The Virtual Communications Director service is led by Marcie Bell who commented:

“This is very much a needs-driven service.  Many SME’s (particularly small businesses) struggle to resource their communications needs at the right level and all companies need to ensure value for money. The Virtual Communications Director offers a cost-effective alternative – a hybrid combining in-house resource with input from an experienced consultant and hands-on support or mentoring that builds their in-house capability.”

The Foundry House’s associate model lends itself to the Virtual Communications Director service as Marcie Bell augments her capacity by drawing on her associates for expertise, resource and training workshops when needed.

For more information about the Virtual Communications Director click here

- Ends -

ENQUIRIES:

Marcie Bell, The Foundry House

T: 01480 880986

E: Marcie@thefoundryhouse.com

Social media marketers have often looked down on the murky, grey/black hat world of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). But all that’s set to change. SEO and social media marketing are in the process of merging in an unholy, but potentially hugely valuable alliance. “Social Search” is the buzz phrase that’s grabbing headlines, but from the marketing perspective, what were talking about is social SEO.

I read a fascinating article from the mercurial SEOMoz today that sheds light on some of the big questions that many social media marketers are struggling with. Thankfully our SEO friends have done more homework on this and unearthed some fascinating answers:

Do Tweets, Likes and +1′s enhance your Google ranking?

Yes – absolutely they do. As you can see from the chart above, Google Buzz links, Facebook shares and Tweets all contribute to the ranking of a web-page, more so in fact than having the keyword as the first word in the title (a well-known old school SEO requirement). SEOMoz writer, Tom Crichlow, goes as far as to say “In my opinion this is why inbound marketing is going to overtake SEO as the primary function of SEO professionals. Engaging across social channels to get links, shares, likes, comments and +1s is going to be the future for generating organic traffic to your site”.

Can companies “Game” social media as they do with SEO?

Not easily. I’m sure they will find a way, but while setting up a bogus blog and linking to other sites simply requires a bogus email account, adding +1′s and Like’s requires the creation of a profile. Google and Facebook will doubtless use the amount of data they hold for an individual to rate the quality of their interactions and root out the “gamers”. By checking our your Google Dashboard, you can see how far reaching this data can go.

Does the authority of the social media user matter?

Yes – As this post explains, Google and Bing both look at the “Author Authority” (or “Social Authority”) when making decisions about the value to ascribe to social media mentions, +1′s and Likes. In a case of a Twitter user, this includes the # of followers they have and the # of people they follow. SEOMoz predicts that, in future, other indicators will come into consideration, such as the quality of friends/followers and the consistency of your relevance to the keywords being searched for.

I’m genuinely amazed that Social SEO isn’t dominating discussions on social media marketing today. If nothing else, Social SEO represents a wholly valid metric against which to measure a company’s social media engagement activities. Far from fluff and chatter, your Likes and re-tweets can now be shown contribute directly to lead generation. If you aren’t already, you should get on the social SEO band-waggon, and fast.

This post also appears on Luke’s regular social media marketing blog.

The answer is advocacy i.e. letting happy customers do the PR/marketing for you. While it may not need a marketing budget to make it happen, it does require your product or service to be good and your staff to be hot on customer relations. Here are some common sense steps to help you get it right:

Step 1: make your customers happy and keep them happy
Step 2: exceed their expectations so they feel compelled to share the love with their friends and colleagues online, offline, wherever
Step 3: make sure your website is an accurate reflection of the company or product and that it ‘talks’ to your target audience so you can capture hearts on the back of a link
Step 4: consider what role the social networks are going to play (is your audience active in Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn?) and get familiar with how they work if you’re not already up to speed
Step 5: make sure you’re equipped to handle new customers when/if enquiries mount up
Step 6: tune into the social networks so you can listen to who is saying what and respond if you need to
Step 7: consider how you will monitor/measure and possibly reward your most influential advocates

I’ve been chewing away at this since I read about the 12a Club in the latest issue of Cambridge Business.

The 12a Club is Cambridge’s newish members only bar, boasting a ‘stylish champagne and cocktail lounge’ in the city centre. Due to licensing restrictions, they can only market the club by word of mouth. No advertising. No signage even.

I’m thinking “Ooh something exclusive. I like the sound of this. Cambridge needs something new/different.” And I’d like to try it out but I’m not entirely sure who it’s aimed at so I’m hedging my bets for now.

Anyway, back to the ‘no marketing’ challenge and I’m interested to hear that the club has apparently opted to use Twitter as its word of mouth channel. As someone who believes that, despite its prolific growth, Twitter is not right for everyone, I am curious about the thinking behind this.

Yes, Twitter is social. And yes, it could spread the word fast. But this is a members only club for (presumably) a limited number of Cambridge folk of a certain type/age. I don’t know how exclusive it is supposed to be but there’s something about the use of Twitter that goes against the grain here. If I was signed up as a member I think I’d want to be confident I could get a seat in that ‘stylish champagne and cocktail lounge’ whenever I pitched up. I’d want it to be buzzy and quietly popular but I’m not sure I’d like to see ‘my club’ too active in Twitter.

In my view, effective advocacy work needs everything to be under the wire. I’m inclined to think that delicious cocktails, a relaxed/hip atmosphere, smiley, efficient staff and a simple but alluring website would do the trick. Happy customers will do the rest. That way the club can go along for the ride in the networks but perhaps in a fairly understated way, speaking only when spoken to. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Have I misunderstood the proposition?

Either way, Cambridge needs something different so here’s to the 12a Club’s success. I’m curious to hear more from anyone who knows (the ‘award winning mixologists’ sound particularly cool). In the meantime, the club’s had some good reviews from Gastronomy Divine.and Bone White China.

Following its launch in March 2011, the Accelerator, established to accelerate high value medical solutions for hospital-managed patient care, called for applications from medical technology companies wishing to pitch for support and, ultimately, investment. Over 40 companies applied to pitch and work with the Accelerator, from as far afield as North America and Australasia as well as from across Europe and the UK.

The companies were a mix of ICT/software (39%), devices (33%), diagnostics (22%) and pharmaceuticals (6%).

Following a rigorous screening process, 6 companies were selected to present to the team of grandees, mentors, investors, service providers (of which The Foundry House is one) and advisors. 3 companies were from the UK, 2 from the US and 1 from New Zealand. For criteria see notes to editors.

Following the pitches, the Atlantic Accelerator team selected 2 companies:

1. an early stage company with a monitoring device addressing the $17 billion a year diabetes device market
2. a later stage but pre-revenue US company targeting the $7 billion a year cancer diagnostics market

A further 3 companies, including one based in Cambridge, UK, were given feedback with a view to presenting to the Accelerator again, having addressed issues/questions raised.

Each company benefited from the knowledge, experience and connections within the Accelerator team during the Q&A session after their pitch and each received a written report following the meeting.

Toby Wilson Waterworth, founder/grandee said:

“Our objective is to identify companies with exciting technologies and global potential where our team can add value by honing the proposition and helping develop and execute the company’s plans, including securing investment.

“We were delighted by the quality, variety and number of applications. Choosing 6 companies to pitch was difficult and there are a number of others that we will keep an eye on as they showed exciting potential. For now we are focusing on two companies, details of which will be released soon. And of course we look forward to reviewing new applications ahead of our next meeting on 20th July.”

Formed by a group of seasoned healthcare entrepreneurs, Atlantic Accelerator seizes the opportunity created by the urgent need to deliver improved patient outcomes at a lower cost in the hospital and specialist-care environments.

The next quarterly meeting takes place on 20th July 2011. Applications to pitch should be submitted here by 30th June 2011.

The Foundry House, a Cambridge based strategic PR/marketing agency, is one of the hand-picked partners working with Atlantic Accelerator.

Further information:
Theo Koutroukides (Senior VP, Atlantic Accelerator)
t: +44 1223 420252 | e: theo@atlantic-accelerator.co.uk

Marcie Bell (Director, The Foundry House)
t: +44 1480 880986 | e: Marcie@thefoundryhouse.com

This is not an ear-bashing for consultants (I am one myself!) but having returned my jaw to its rightful position, this got me thinking… Why delegate the writing of a business plan for YOUR business to someone whose heart and soul isn’t in it? And, of course, what would induce a hard up entrepreneur (safe assumption?!) to pay so much?

Paying 20k for a business plan is one thing. For the end result to be anything less than robust is quite another.

Of course most people need help to write a business plan first time round – and it’s essential to get others to comment, at the very least – but credible advice would surely say “write it yourself, with help from people who know what they’re doing.” That way, you take ownership of a plan that is not only viable (the advice you seek to help you write it, will ensure that) but one that excites you and inspires those who read it.

All businesses need to turn to consultancies at some point and rates will inevitably vary (even in a recession) but I got to wondering about the way companies – particularly young ones – seek and value advice. It seems to me that some (like Mr 20k business plan) need help to work out what to pay for and what to do themselves or seek cost-effective (or even free) help for.

This subject strikes a chord with me because our work references lots of people who GIVE their time to businesses in one capacity or another. Some are part of local business networks that are inherently supportive. Others are involved in national/global investment and/or support networks such as Seedcamp, and Cambridge Wireless and Atlantic Accelerator, which not only provide opportunities to pitch to investors but also deliver feedback and open up new networks. NB angel investment networks all run on different models and most demand a fee for pitching.

And then there are the publicly funded support programmes including one that helps companies raise finance and another that coaches them to growth.

If you Google “Understanding Finance for Business” you’ll find links to whoever runs this programme in your region. Despite the somewhat misleading title (wish we could have influenced that at the branding stage!), it’s all about raising finance. Here in the East, it’s run by St John’s Innovation Centre and it’s getting great results (the team has now helped companies raise over £4m in grant, bank and equity finance and that figure is rising all the time). They deliver workshops, help with your business plan (as part of one-to-one mentoring), introduce you to useful people and provide opportunities to pitch. All gloriously FREE.

Likewise, a web search for “Coaching for High Growth” will lead you to your local provider for this programme which, as the name implies, is for companies with aspirations and potential to grow. An initial masterclass (free) gets you a skeleton plan and is followed by coaching for a nominal fee with one of an extensive team of coaches. £250 buys you 4 coaching sessions (not sure if this applies to all regions or just the East where it’s again delivered by St John’s Innovation Centre. Somewhat better value than a business plan for 20k eh?

The numbers for both programmes are healthy and getting better all the time but the fact that two excellent programmes delivering real, tangible results need much promotion at all, confounds me. Don’t get me wrong – I love the work I and my associates do with the team at St John’s (we help them with PR) but this is good, FREE advice we’re talking about here.

Where’s the catch?

Of course there is none but in the eyes of some, publicly funded support suffers by association with the government; many people expect government funded advice or support to be underwhelming and are therefore disinclined to risk precious time giving it a whirl. In their ignorance, they overlook the fact that the public purse is merely the enabler here – not the deliverer. St John’s Innovation Centre was the first innovation centre of its kind in Europe and has become world-renowned for its success as a business incubator. The team is relatively small but their network is huge. Thus they draw on a wealth of experience and connections and amass strong teams to deliver programmes such as those mentioned above.

Government cuts and the move towards a more private sector-led business support model, mean fewer free programmes in future. Cameron wants an ‘enterprise-led’ recovery – hence the government’s support of StartUp Britain. So, use it or lose it, as they say. I urge all you companies/entrepreneurs to supplement the support accessible via your own networks and check out what’s available courtesy of HM Government while it lasts. You’ve got nothing to lose.

Regional Growth Fund – the winners and losers from Round 1 bids – and a new focus for Round 2. Particularly useful as I’d missed this last week.

Pitch & Mix – an interesting looking gathering from the guys @CamTechNet at the Hauser Forum tonight talking about funding for SME’s.- Signed up to go.

Cambridge Enterprise stepping up interaction with with academics – more news from Teri Willey and the team around their plans to work more closely with ‘key university research hothouses, such as the engineering department and computer laboratory’.

Another magazine stops printing to go online. Accountancy Age and Computer Weekly go online only. Useful piece from Neville Hobson on the trend for niche titles to switch from paper to web.

And then of course there’s the trivial stuff like:

Rory Cellan Jones crowdsourcing directions from Oxford station to Keble College and Doug Richard reaching out (successfully from the sounds of it) for pointers on how to get tickets for the Gadget Show.

Tweets like these are not going to enrich my life or help me in business like my other ‘findings’ but it sounds like they were productive for the tweeters in question.

Now I’m off to itunes to download @MagicSolver’s Easter App Hunt. I can’t honestly claim to have picked this up on Twitter since I knew about it already from our work with St John’s Innovation Centre but it was good to see lots of noise in Twitter all the same!

I don’t know of any other source that could give me this eclectic mix in one read.

Answer: “Well yes.” But I must confess to being rather bored of such headlines and it strikes me that membership organisations such as the IoD would do better to take a more positive line now.  I’m not advocating that they contrive optimism, merely that they play more to their audience which has been starved of good news for a while.  The time is ripe for more upbeat communications.

Chatting to a small business owner last week about the impact of coaching on his business, he said, with all the doom and gloom, it was refreshing to work with positive thinkers.  Likewise, dropping in to St John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge last week, the place was a hive of activity and I understand the office space is almost filled to capacity.  And when we asked a group of life sciences entrepreneurs who pitched for investment recently how they viewed their chances of securing investment, an encouraging percentage claimed to feel optimistic.  Of course entrepreneurs’ expectations can be wide of the mark.  After all, they are eternal optimists – but there’s a message in that feedback.

And last week saw a flurry of good news for entrepreneurs and the investment community.

• Tax relief on Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) goes from 20% to 30%
• The threshold for investments by EIS and Venture Capital Trusts (VCT’s) goes up from £2m to £10m (see letter in today’s Telegraph from Hermann Hauser and Sir Ronald Cohen)
• Grants for R & D were unlocked after a lengthy period in limbo – now under the TSB umbrella
• £100m investment in science was announced – £70m of which is shared by Babraham Research and Norwich Research Park (great news for the East of England).

And then there’s the new Enterprise Zones (time will tell) and today’s launch of StartUp Britain which is actually pretty underwhelming (check out #startupbritain on Twitter for an interesting snapshot of opinion) but the message is positive.

In short, yes, inflation is a big challenge and yes, the UK is not an easy place in which to start or grow a business.  But there are reasons to be (more) cheerful.  Entrepreneurs are key to the UK’s future prosperity.  Good leadership needs to inspire and energise. If one of the roles of business/membership organisations is to lead, more positive thinking is now called for.

To be fair, the IoD’s blog, following last week’s budget was more up beat, in contrast to the mailing.  The CBI’s press release similarly positive.  But the Federation of Small Businesses’s press release and the Forum for Private Business’s blog were both pretty negative.

Time for change everyone.  Without gilding the lily, let’s at least make room for cautious optimism to support innovation and help the UK’s entrepreneurs get where they want to go and faster.