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FREE Mobile development conference “Mobile and devices” - March 3rd, Manchester
Listen to real web designers and developer share their hard-earned experience of building flexible/mobile apps and sites, from the trenches of the web industry
Mobile and devices
Saturday 03 March 2012
13:00 - 18:00
The unpredictability of the web medium has always presented a challenge to web designers and developers. Differing web standards support and other variables are less of a pain than they used to be on desktop, for sure. The new unpredictability comes from the huge variety of alternative browsing devices we have to think about, including mobile phones of greatly differing ability, tablets, TVs, and more, with different control mechanisms, and different contexts of use. How do we adapt and move forward in this new age?
For more information visit the Standards>Next web site.
Insider North West Social Media Breakfast event - 10 actionable tips for businesses
- Mark William, LinkedIn consultant
- Michael Taylor, Chairman
- Andy Poole, Weber Shandwick
- Vocus UK, Social Media Monitoring
What became apparent was that most businesses understood that they should engage on social media and that ther was a huge opportunity, yet few knew how to effectively engage with the medium. “I’ve registered, now what?” was a common theme expressed.
Nearly the whole audience were on LinkedIn yet few used Twitter or Facebook in their professional lives. Few businesses permitted their staff to use social media, indeed most indicated policies were in place to prevent this.
There was a certain level of apprehension, it seemed one reason for not adopting social media was the fear it could do more harm than good.
Manchester does social media
Locally there are plenty of success stories. Manchester airport has a fabulous Twitter presence which is used as a customer care channel, crisis management (during the volcanic ash cloud). MOSI use Twitter to market, converse with the public and build their brand to great effect. Manchester Libraries Facebook page features a catalogue search, videos of the Central Library transformation, highly engaging and popular.
Actionable tips for your business
On all networks ensure your profile is complete, reflects your brand appropriately and contains links to your web presence.
Businesses should be more actively seeking to connect on LinkedIn with potential partners and prospects. They should be engaging with people on the LinkedIn groups and posting more regular updates to their profile.
As the UK’s second most visited web site, every business should have an active presence on Facebook. Consider using the questions & answers tools, build a Facebook Page which can be used as an outbound marketing tool and relationship building exercise.
Use Twitter as an outbound marketing tool and start to engage with your audience more
- Bring the conversation back to your website with a link
- Thank people for retweeting
- Answer questions
- Ask questions for which the answer is on your web site as a blog post
- Do use #FollowFriday to reach new followers
- Reach out to people, humanise your business by speaking directly and publicy
Advertising
Consider adding Facebook and LinkedIn advertising to the marketing mix. Since both Facebook and LinkedIn advertsing can be targetted using location and demographic information it offers opportunities which Google Adwords lacks.
Typically Facebook users are not in the buying cycle but you can approach people asking to be ‘liked’. This opens up a marketing channel so you can drive traffic towards your web site or Facebook page.
