I recently attended a great training course on social media for financial services as many of the clients we work with are in this sector and understanding how to get around the compliance issues and still create an engaging social campaign can be a challenge. However, we feel the pros outweigh the cons in terms on considering whether social is a viable platform.
Investment in social media marketing by financial services companies has surprisingly declined sharply since the end of 2011 despite significant growth in all other industries and growth prior to that. Social media is hugely important for financial services as although it may not seem like a convincing channel for selling insurance or current accounts now, Gen Y who will have grown up using social media as the norm are future customers and if companies are not accessible via these platforms then they may lose out on a huge segment of their audience. In the US, Gen Y now accounts for $2.4trillion worth of personal income and by 2025 this will account for 46% of personal income so this is big business in terms of the potential value that can be gained from effectively communicating with and gaining advocacy from this audience.th are in this sector and understanding how to get around the compliance issues and still create an engaging social campaign can be a challenge. However, we feel the pros outweigh the cons in terms on considering whether social is a viable platform.
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A few weeks ago I attended the Social Media Marketing 2012 Conference in London, organised by Our Social Times. The conference included some very interesting talks from top brands and agencies. One of the talks that really grabbed my attention was Michael Litman’s presentation on Pinterest. As lately we often get asked about Pinterest and how this can be integrated into your overall online marketing strategy, I would like to share some thoughts on why it matters as well as best practices for businesses.
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As a company, SiteVisibility’s philosophy is to actively support the communities in which we live and work by investing time and resources to support our local community. As part of our three year CSR strategy we have set ourselves tough objectives and goals that are designed to ensure we are able to really have a positive impact in the local community.
This year we have reduced our energy usage and increased our recycling by over 40% and have also committed to raising £1600 for the NSPCC.
Today we are excited to launch our initiative for 2013, the SiteVisibility “Community Digital Marketing Fund” whereby we will be donating £25,000 worth of digital marketing support to be made available to local NFP organizations to help them with projects that may currently be out of scope or budget.
During the recession, many charities have been unable to achieve their goals due to funding restrictions and lower donations. Additionally, many charities are only just starting to explore the opportunities available through social media and few of the smaller charities have a strategy in place or the resources to deliver this. We feel as a company, we have the internal expertise to really help make a difference which is why next year we want to dedicate our resources and skills to help make a measurable difference.
Sussex based Not for Profits are open to apply for all of or a share of the fund from today until the 31st December. To submit an application simply fill in the form on our Facebook page telling us about your charity, the work you do in the local community and what you could achieve with our help.
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Yesterday I led a training session on how social media can support charities in increasing awareness and fundraising efforts. This was part of an event created by Russell New in support of Trustees week.
In a recession, when donations are harder to come by, it is more important than ever for charities to stand out for the crowd and differentiation is becoming crucial if charities want to reach out and encourage people to take action. Social media provides an excellent opportunity for charities to tell their story, reach a wider audience and show the end result of their campaigning to maximise the impact.
For the majority of the bigger charities, social media is a central part of their marketing and communications mix and most are creating some measurable marketing and engagement successes using social media.
There’s more complexity in social media today than there was 12 months ago, more platforms and more devices to consider and for the smaller charities who don’t have the same resources or budget available they are struggling to keep up.
My presentation below was designed to give these smaller local charities and introduction into why social media is so important, how to go about creating a strategy and what to do once you’ve got yourself set up.
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This episode sees Kelvin and Andy discuss Google’s social network, Google+ (with a cheeky discussion about iOS6 at the end too). A few topics brought to the table include authorship mark up, how Google+ effects the indexing of your content and whether Google+ is right for you and your business.
In just one day you’ll build an understanding of how to easily build great content.
What & when?
That’s right the content marketing show arrives November 20th and has a whole host of great speakers lined up. Not only that, we mentioned last week that there’s a some exciting workshops the day before the conference on Monday 19th November.
This particular workshop focuses on creating killer content and will be run by Kevin Gibbons – founder of Quaturo a leading agency in London.
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In just one day you’ll build an understanding of how to get your content featured by Journos and Bloggers.
What & when?
Here’s something exciting for you this November – in just over two weeks time (November 20th) the content marketing show will be opening its doors to hundreds of digital marketing boffins and business owners from across London.
However, what’s even more exciting is the workshops which are lined up the day before the conference on Monday, 19th of November.
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The SERPs are continuously evolving and there are now more and more ways to make your results stand out from the crowd. One of these methods is the rel=”author” tag.
What is Rel=”Author”?
Rel=”author” and rel=”me” are types of Google authorship markup that can be used to enhance your results in the search results by adding your face and name to your posts.
Not only does this help with building the online reputation of your site and writers, it also makes your results appear more clickable and has been proven in many cases to improve click through rates by large amounts.
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I used to do a lot of running. I ran the London marathon in 2004 and have done a lot of half marathons and other running events. Kelvin (strategic director here at SiteVis) and I used to run to work together when our offices were in Shoreham. Then we both had children and funnily enough running went out the window for both of us. Being woken up several times a night, every night, for over 2 years kind of killed my enthusiasm for getting up at 6am for a training session. But then I decided enough was enough and it was time to get back into it. So I re-joined British Military Fitness and at least twice a week you’ll find me on Hove lawns at 6:45am being shouted at by a couple of soldiers.
A couple of months ago I sent an email round the office asking if anyone wanted to take part in the 10k Major series, an off road 10-12k race with obstacles and mud and water. Assuming (hoping) I’d have lots of takers I booked myself a place on it. I got one reply….and it was a ‘no way’. So I was on my own.
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In this episode of the Internet Marketing Podcast Kelvin and Andy discuss the top 5 business books of the year. From Dave Trott to Seth Godin, get an insight into useful books to add to your collection.
Resources:
The Herd by Mark Earls
Creative Mischief by Dave Trott
Poke The Box by Seth Godin
Rework by 37 Signals
Culture Shock by Will McInnes
