I’ve also created a very light hearted quiz, that gives you an insight into how you perform on the business social intelligence ratings - this is not scientific and it is not endorsed by anyone so do take it as you find it and have fun!

The seven aspects are:

• Empathy
• Listening
• Social Cognition
• Synchrony
• Self Presentation
• Influence
• Concern

Each of these are aspects of our own (and to some extent, our businesses) personality that we use everyday to a greater or lesser amount.  The amount of each that we use determines our ability to interact appropriately in social situations with other people; and believe it or not, businesses can exhibit the same attributes too …..!

I thought I’d let you know that most of the money did, in fact go to entrepreneurs at Kiva.org and you can find out who they were at my lender page on Kiva.  You can find it at: http://www.kiva.org/lender/lindaph.  I did decide to stay true to my gender and the majority of people I lent to were women’s groups who are focused on developing a local community rather than a specific individual.  There are a couple of exceptions though … so don’t be too disappointed.

One thing you should be aware of is that Kiva is a MicroLoan organisation.  This means it lends small amounts of money to entrepreneurs in developing countries who are required to repay it.  Thus the money I donate will be returned to my account at Kiva and at that point I can reinvest it in even more budding entrepreneurs.  What this means is that a small donation now, can make a HUGE difference in the long term.

I’m continuing to support Kiva and have now committed to supporting at least one entrepreneur or group every month.  It’s a great way to give back, relieve poverty and help other economies grow.  I’d urge you to consider it too ….!

This workshop is not just about getting more hits to your website, it’s also about how you can use the Internet to engage with the right people at the right time, all the time.

What will be covered?

• How to evaluate the effectiveness of your existing web site
• Web site Accessibility, what is it and why should I care?
• Why knowing your audience is so important
• How Social Media can help you to connect with, and listen to, your customers
• Understand the use of twitter, blogging and facebook, how can they help you?
• How to create a “value buzz” about your company
• The secrets of effective On Line Social Communications
• Understand the effectiveness of Email marketing, how to avoid the common traps
• Understand how Search Engines actually work
• What is “Pay Per Click” and can my organisation make use of it?
• How to design an Internet Marketing campaign
• How to generate targeted website traffic to your site
• How to measure the return on investment
• Why even negative feedback can be good for your business

A ‘hands on’ workshop designed to help you market your business more effectively.

You will have a greater understanding of what to say, who to say it to and how to say it.

Date

19th July 2010

The Venue

Each workshop takes place at Century Computing Software Services Limited, 1st Floor, Waterways Building, Bayleys Lane, Tipton, West Midlands, DY4 0HB with lunch and refreshments provided. Please call or email for dates and availability.

The Costs

Subject to your eligibility one place per organisation on this workshop is fully funded.  Other companies and organisations may attend, but the cost per attendee is £500.

To discuss your requirements and or to book a place on this workshop, please call:

Ian Clarke (Tel: 0121 454 6770) or Sue Wiles (Tel: 0121 440 3859)

I have received far more ‘phone calls and emails about integrating social marketing than I did in a comparable time span last year and my feeling is that this is the year of the tipping point, when most businesses acknowledge that they could do more themselves to build relationships with their clients and customers – which of course, it the basis of social marketing (whether it takes place on line or in the physical world).

As many of you will know, I’m a big fan of WordPress as a content managment system for websites and in the course of promoting some workshops I’ll be running over the next couple of months, I was asked what the business case for using wordpress might be.  Naturally I responded by email, but then I realised I had the beginings of a great blog post too  And you can find out the business benefits of using wordpress by reading that self same blog post.

I’ve also been keeping up the LinkedIn Made Easy website too – sure I didn’t quite reach the dizzy heights of 200,000 e-books sold, but I did sell over 200 and so I decided to keep the project running  as a blog about personal branding (one of the big buzz phrases of the next couple of years I’d imagine).  You can still buy LinkedIn Made Easy from the site, and 40% of the profits will still be donated to charity.  Next month I’m hoping to be able to let you all find out where exactly the money already raised during the challenge went to, I’m just waiting for it all to come in at the moment and it seems to be taking a bit longer than anticipated.

Michelle Fischer and I also completed our online survey about the use of Social Media in the Recruitment industry and you can now download a copy of the social media and recruitment report we produced.  I’m also pleased to say that the prize of a bottle of champagne went to Bill Boorman.  Just in case anyone thought we might have cheated, the winning email address was drawn out the envelope by Laura McHarrie at the January Chines BXC meeting.

Two Day, INTENSIVE Weekend Workshops Coming Up

• Business Blogging Bootcamp – TWO Day Intensive Workshop – 27 and 28th February 2010
• WordPress Training & Development TWO Day Intensive Workshop – 6 and 7 March 2010
• Marketing for Authors TWO Day Intensive Workshop

Upcoming Half Day Seminar/Workshops

• Practical Search Engine Optimisation Made Easy – Half Day Workshop – 24 February 2010
• Social Networking for Business Made Easy – Half Day Workshop – 24 February 2010

Next Presentations

• Presentation to Dorset Open Commerce on LinkedIn – 2nd February 2010
• Presentation on The Business of Social Enterprise to Fish on Toast at Southampton University – 18th February 2010
• Presentation on Twitter for Business to the Hampshire e-Commerce Group – 9th March 2010
• Linking in with LinkedIn – Presentation to Dorset Junior Chamber – 13 April 2010

That is not to say, of course, that in some quarters a lot of ground is already being gained by those innovative enough to take the plunge and embrace the changes that are taking place.

Some of the main findings included:

• Despite the vast amounts of money spent on advertising the availability of radio for rescruitment – only 3% of our respondents had used in the last 12 months
• Social media was 6% MORE popular than traditional advertising
• Almost 70% of the respondents reported that their cost per hire was less than £1000
• Unsurprisingly perhaps, this reflects the reduced costs were cited as the biggest drivers towards the use of Social Media

I hope that’s given you an appetite for more, and if so why not download the complete Social Media in Recruitment Report now.