I’m delighted to announce that great local band Saskia Says will be playing for us.

Nina De Winter will be co-hosting.

Jonathan

That’s why I tweeted just a few minutes ago asking for guest contributors. From time to time I like to throw the gates open and let people from the local community have a chat about social media issues that matter to them. Right now I’m looking for more guest blog posts, not just because it’s interesting to get a different perspective, but also because I don’t have the time this blog deserves.

We already have one helpful person signed up and we’re hoping to bring you her guest post in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, if anyone else would like to get involved please leave a comment here or on Facebook, or tweet at us with a short pitch. We’ll get back to you soon to let you know if we think the idea will be a good fit for the blog.

Each guest post is published with the option for the author to include a brief biography and link to their website.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Good cake at Cheltenham Social Media Cafe

The title sums it up really! You can view photos from the evening at http://www.facebook.com/Cheltsocialmediacafe- thanks to Jonathan Pollinger for stepping into the breach and taking those.

Amongst our attendees there was a reporter from the Echo as well as plenty of returning guests and a few newbies. As usual Chris did a better job of circulating than I did but I managed to speak to most people throughout the night and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Plans are now afoot for the next one!

We were hoping to be joined by the man who’s just taken over the social media presence of our host venue Pepper Crescent. Sadly, he couldn’t make it on the night but their Foursquare specials have been revealed to us. You can get a free coffee when you check in there on Foursquare every Tuesday from 8-10am and the mayor gets a free cake each week. Chris currently holds the mayorship for that venue and was able to enjoy a free brownie at our cafe event.

If you’d like to get a free cake from the lovely Pepper Crescent then you’d better get over there and check in! If Foursquare is gobbledy-gook to you then you need to check out this post from Jonathan Pollinger.

Finally, I’d like to give a special mention to John Denley who turned up to celebrate his birthday with us before hitting the clubs. We hope you had a lovely evening!

Remember, you can follow us on Twitter as well as Facebook to keep up to date with our events and news, or subscribe to the blog for regular articles of interest. To search specifically for event details set up a Twitter search for #cheltsocmedcafe. See you soon!

We’ve had a great response and we’re looking forward to meeting many of our online community soon.

We’ve also heard from a couple of people who wanted to come but are sadly unable. Luckily for them, we are planning more social media cafe ‘get togethers’ this year! Of course, we’ll let you know about those nearer the time.

See you soon!

I spent the evening at Pepper Crescent last week when I met a friend for some drinks and tapas. We were there on a Thursday and got to drink champagne from the Gold Cup. There’s no Gold Cup this week as Cheltenham Festival is over, but the champagne will still be available as will the delicious Westons cider.

Oh, and the coffee and cakes. I don’t want you to think I’m only there for the cider!

Our latest figures indicate there will be 19 people turning up and a further 12 have told me they might be able to make it. But there’s always room for more so feel free to bring a friend or drop in at random.

Twestival

The first cafe event is doubling as a Twestival so there’ll be a small raffle on the night in aid of Concern.

Helping others

I recently got a comment on another blog post from John who’d like to come from Cirencester but needs a lift so if anyone is up for lift sharing please get in touch or tweet about it and we’ll try and match people up.

NB: Make sure we spot your tweets by addressing them to @cheltsocmedcafe!

The interview

For anyone who doesn’t already know about Assureweb, what’s your business about?
 
Assureweb is a Cheltenham based financial services technology business, employing around 85 members of staff. We aggregate and distribute life & pensions products to financial advisers using the latest internet technologies either via our own website www.assureweb.co.uk or through deep integration with technology partners. You could describe our website as Compare the Market for financial advisers. In the future we will be more like “Intel inside” as we power our technology partners, enabling them to  compare the market in their own right, with Assureweb almost invisible to the financial adviser.
 
So Louise, how do you use social media and what got you interested?
 
I use social media to keep in touch with our customers. It’s a great way to listen to what’s happening in the financial services industry, while letting people know what good things we’re up to.
 
I have a Twitter account which I would say is our main tool, some key members of staff have set up their own business Twitter accounts too. I think between us we provide a nice overview of the focus of the company. We also have an Assureweb profile on LinkedIn, I feed my tweets into my profile using RSS. I’ve set up a Facebook profile page, but I think it’s more appropriate for consumer facing products and services so I just feed in my tweets using RSS and monitor it.
 
I’ve always been interested in technology from a young age, in recent years it has revolutionised the way we communicate. Being in Marketing and working for a technology company I think it’s essential to keep up to date with how people use the Internet. I saw an opportunity in Twitter so set up an account last year. We quickly saw momentum building with customers and prospects following us and retweeting our promotional messages to their followers. It’s now an intrinsic part of our marketing activity and ties in neatly with our PR strategy.
 
Have you noticed any appreciable benefits from using social media? If so, what are they?
 
We’ve seen a prospect client get in touch after seeing us on social media. They liked our proposition and picked up the phone.

In the current climate it’s important to stand out from the competition and I think we’ve been able to do that through social media. In essence, we’re winning new business because of social media.
 
We’ve also offered support to our customers who have tweeted queries to us, we have received some fantastic feedback from this. We see it as another way of making our customer’s lives easier by offering excellent levels of Customer Service.
 
We’ve had lots of positive feedback. I think people are impressed that we’re one of the few financial services technology businesses using social media.
 
If you could give a single piece of advice to anyone about social media what would it be? Or, Do you have a burning question about using social media?
 
My advice would be to have confidence in the power of social media, remember that it’s not just about being heard; it’s about listening to what’s important to your customers.
 
And how should people follow you online? 
 
You can follow me on www.twitter.com/assureweb

The interview

Chris, your business card describes you as head bell ringer – what does that entail?

I help companies and organisations integrate social media into their marketing strategies. When people come to me they often don’t realise that, regardless of whether they’re using social media or not, conversations are happening online about their brand. I help them find out what people are saying and I help them join in the conversations.

For me, social media is like a party that’s open to everyone, but not everyone knows how to get there or how to talk to people once they’ve arrived. That’s where I come in to help.

So how did you get into social media?

I started out in the marketing world. Towards the end of 2008 I noticed Twitter was taking off and thought I’d give it a go.  I spent about two or three months gradually building followers and quickly became hooked. I love social media because it’s all about getting people together and forming communities which is something I’m really passionate about.

And what do you think are the real benefits of using social media?

From a business perspective, it’s an opportunity to bring brands into the public domain. Whereas traditional PR and marketing was very much a one way flow of information, social media gives businesses the chance to interact with their customers and listen to their feedback. It’s incredibly valuable!

If you could offer a single piece of advice to someone who is interested in using social media, what would it be?You have to remember, it’s not about the technology, it’s about the people using it. Social media is social – there’s no room for faking or bullsh***ing – you need to start listening and interacting with people as if you were talking to them face-to-face. I should also point out, that it’s OK to make mistakes. If you make a mistake, just apologise and try to make things right as you would in the real world. Social media communities can be very forgiving!

And how should people follow you online?You can find me on Twitter @chrish10 or read more about what I do at http://www.cow-bell.co.uk.

The interview

For anyone unfamiliar with Vivid, please describe what you do.
 
Vivid is a PR, marketing and communications consultancy based in Tewkesbury. Headed up by directors Hilary Allison and Caroline Rawlinson, we’re a small, all-female unit with a passion for helping organisations find the best ways of getting heard by the people that need to hear their messages. Our clients come from a wide range of sectors including healthcare, public sector and food & drink and we’re committed to helping local businesses and charities maximize their potential.  
 
How does Vivid use social media and what got you (and the rest of the company) into it?
 
We use Twitter to keep up to date with what’s happening in the PR industry, and in the industries of our clients. It’s also a great networking tool, a way to stay in touch with our stakeholders and to build awareness of the Vivid brand. We’ve also got the Vivid blog – we use this to share our news as well as discussing issues that affect us professionally. This includes things like writing about our experiences with new social media applications and taking part in debates within the PR industry to help establish us as experts in our fields. We’ve also got our Friday Favourites, a weekly round-up from the whole team of interesting things we’ve stumbled across throughout the week.
 
We’ve also been training some of our clients in effective social media usage, writing social media policies and managing various social media accounts for our clients. We also offer social media monitoring services that allow our clients to keep track of the online conversations that are happening about them and their competitors and publish social media news releases alongside our traditional press releases.
 
For me, it’s something I began to take a real interest in at university. My final dissertation looked at citizen journalism and the effect the web was (and still is) having on traditional models of news giving. I also did a bit of event promotion for an illustrator that used social media tools amongst other things – it’s definitely my favourite method of creating a buzz around an event. 
 
It’s something Vivid were beginning to experiment with at the same time I was looking around to see if there was an opportunity to use my skills in a PR context – perfect timing really! It’s something we all believe is really important to consider when you’re planning any PR or communications campaign as a part of an overall strategy.
 
Have you noticed any appreciable benefits? If so, what are they?
 
Definitely! For me one of the best things about being active on social media sites like Twitter is the opportunities that fall straight in your lap that you might otherwise have missed. It’s a great way of connecting with people doing interesting things locally, and I learn something new every day just by following people with good links to share.
 
For Vivid it’s given us a new channel for communicating with our clients as well as keeping people in the loop about who we are and what we do. And by using tools like social media news releases to promote our clients we’re able to gain extra exposure for them and demonstrate our commitment to staying at the cutting edge of PR.
 
It also got us a bike! We signed up to 10:10 this year, and we decided that one of the things we were going to do to cut carbon would be to get an office bike. We put out a request on Twitter and pretty much immediately Mike from Tap Business Development got in touch to say we could borrow his!
 
Holly, if you could offer a single piece of advice to other businesses about using social media, what would it be?
 
Not to be afraid! I think people can get scared of doing it wrong or not saying the right thing, but as long as you make sure everything you write fits with the ethos of your business you shouldn’t go too far wrong. There’s also (I know, this is a second piece…) loads of useful information online to help you on your way. Sites like Mashable, the Next Web and Econsultancy are all good places to start. 
 
How should people follow Vivid online?
 
We’re on Twitter – follow us @WeAreVivid. You can also subscribe to our blog. To track down individual team members have a look on LinkedIn – Hilary, Caroline and I all have profiles!
 
We’re also in the process of developing our customised Facebook page to coincide with the launch of our new website – watch this space!

The interview

Hi Angela, can you tell us a bit about your business and what you do?

Hello! I’m an artist and illustrator based in Gloucestershire. I paint brightly coloured, happy and sunny seascapes, landscapes and other commercial art (think; box canvases and lots of thick acrylic brush strokes!)  I’m only a newbie start-up business and still learning lots everyday.  I like to network and meet other artists and creative peeps.  It’s great to share ideas and creative chatter!

So what got you interested in social media and how do you use it?

I knew that I had to embrace social media in order to make myself known -my customers are people who would use social media so it made sense for me to use it as a marketing device.  If you aren’t using social media as a creative in this day and age you are invisible.  It’s that simple.

Have you seen any appreciable benefits using social media? If so, what are they?

As a sole trader, using social media helps you to network with other creatives.  I’ve made so many friends and contacts through it – someone is always there to lend a hand or give advice or recommendations. Freelancers tend to help each other out, giving you a special circle of support, which is really important when you work for yourself because the days can get a wee bit lonely sometimes!  I’ve also received a lot of customers through Twitter, I’ve found TWITPIC gets a lot of interest (I should use it more) because people love looking at other people’s photos – I know I do – and when I’ve posted artwork via Twitpic I’ve usually sold that piece there and then.

I was lucky enough to have Fearne Cotton tweet a link about my website over Christmas which saw over 2000 hits to my website in under 1hr.  This really proved to me how unique and powerful Twitter is.

If you could offer a single piece of advice about social media, what would it be?

Make sure you don’t spend all day on Twitter!  Don’t become a twit-addict!  Twitter can be a wonderful way to waste time in the day, so try to limit your usage.  I now only ‘tweet’ in the morning for 30 minutes and after dinner for 30 minutes.  That way I still get work done!  Of course social media is getting bigger and bigger by the day and there are always new things to learn.

Is there an aspect of social media you’d like to learn more about?

I’d like to learn more about marketing online in general, which I’m still getting to grips with, but as they say ‘ Rome wasn’t built in a day’ so I am just embracing Twitter and FlickR for the time being and that seems to be enough!

Anything else?

Facebook didn’t work for me.  I don’t think it works for every business.  I found that my customer base weren’t Facebook types and only my immediate friends and family were joining my facebook page, so I shut it down.  Facebook can work for you if you’re, say, a hair or beauty salon though (as you can offer rewards and special offers) but for freelance artists and creatives, I wouldn’t recommend it.

And how should people follow you or find out more about your business online?

If you want to find out what I’m eating for dinner and what flavour of ice cream I’ve just dribbled down my pyjamas! Just click to follow me.  It’s that easy!  I’m @art_by_angela

I also have a website that I’m updating soon and I have a blog which I need to start making entries in again after a long ‘blog holiday’   www.angelabrowningart.com

The interview

Gerard, what’s your business about and what type of services do you offer?

At White Search we offer a range of online services based around Search: SEO, Google AdWords traffic generation, local search optimisation, web design etc. Beyond that we try to offer honest independent online marketing advice to local companies who are struggling to make sense of where to start in terms of their online identity. We try to guide them in the right direction even though that often means making use of other company services before our own. We’ll even talk to them about social media and how they can start using it for their business goals themselves.

What got you into social media and how do you use it now?

Back in the day of being nosey and trying to find people on Friends Reunited I think!  I use it on a personal level to keep up to date with friends and what’s going on locally, plus on a professional level to keep in touch with latest developments in search.

Have you noticed any appreciable benefits from using social media? If so, what are they?

The breadth of opinion and knowledge you can read on any subject is staggering.

If you could offer a single piece of advice to other people about social media, what would it be?

Be careful what you share, remember its pretty much all in the public domain and difficult to control.

How should people follow you online?

Anything professional based goes via the White Search twitter account. Personally – via my twitter account, I’m still working on how exactly I divide these but it seems to work ok for now!