Don’t slip up! Managing risk on the SE/CE Curve

Banana Skin

Managing risk is at the heart of a successful business as it grows. But what are the risks posed by the online space? They all depend on where you sit on the SE/CE Curve – the balance between Social Engagement and Corporate Experience. We see businesses at every point of their online development, from confident…

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SEO: Trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear?

Making a silk purse

Remember all those lovely metaphors our parents trotted out when we were kids? “A bad workman blames his tools”; “It’s an ill wind that blows no good”; “If you don’t want the whelks don’t much them about” (or was that just my family?); and “Look at that! Mutton dressed as lamb!”.  Of them all, the…

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Social Media challenges for a Growing Business

Telephones and Social Media

Many of the businesses we deal with are owner-managed, and the responsibility for business communication falls to one person at the top of the organisation.  But what happens as the business grows?  It’s time to think about how social media and email communication is managed in the workplace, so that employees know where they stand…

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Why SMEs still value paid advertising – whatever eBay says

Paid Search

eBay put the cat among the pigeons last week when they published academic research on the effectiveness of paid advertising for their brand. Their results showed that “brand-keyword ads have no short-term benefits……resulting in average returns that are negative”.  By pulling their Google paid ads and analysing ‘before and after’ traffic, they concluded that organic…

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Word of Mouth in the 21st Century

“I get all my business by word of mouth” says our builder.  That’s great – but what does ‘Word of Mouth’ mean these days?  In 2004, Kate Fox wrote “The mobile phone has… become the modern equivalent of the garden fence or the village green” (1).  Nine years on, the internet is where we do…

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Caveat collator: Sharer Beware!

How long do you pause to think before ‘sharing’ something on social media, or forwarding a circular email?  Do you take tweets and posts at face value and pass them straight on to your trusting fans and followers?  It’s so easy to hit that button, but what does fast and furious sharing tell people about…

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Is the recovery in the hands of small businesses online?

A report published this week estimates that only one third of small and medium-sized companies in the UK have a digital presence and only 14% sell their products and services online, missing out on the potential for billions of pounds more revenue. Global consultants Booz and Company concluded that by getting businesses online, and ensuring…

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