Showing posts with label Networking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Networking. Show all posts

Tuesday 25 April 2017

Workplace by Facebook

Workplace by Facebook is a new collaborative platform for businesses who want to harness social media technology within the office environment.



Workplace can be used to communicate via groups, to chat with colleagues and offers the features of Facebook but in a business focused package. Workplace is designed to be easy and familiar to use so it looks very much like regular Facebook.

Workplace can effectively replace a firm’s intranet. The familiarity of the platform provides instant benefits in terms of user experience. Most people already know how to use Facebook. Since most employees can use the platform, businesses won’t have to spend as much time and resources on training people.

Workplace is completely separate from personal Facebook accounts, meaning information shared between employees is only accessible within the Workplace platform. Workplace is designed to work in a similar way to a corporate email account. Employees are issued with an account when they join the company and should they leave the firm, they will lose their account.

From a privacy perspective, employers can not use a Workplace account to access information on an employee's private Facebook profile. Networks are isolated and only company-wide, which means only co-workers can see the information other employees post in Workplace.

On the security front, Workplace relies on Facebook's own infrastructure and tools for threat detection to safeguard data. The system also follows third-party industry security standards.

Workplace features a News Feed that displays articles, updates or comments relevant to certain teams or, perhaps, to the entire company. A version of the Facebook Live service can be used to broadcast corporate communications, such as a presentation by the managing director.

Teams can communicate in real time using a version of Messenger. It is also possible to create private groups for brainstorms or discussions where users can share files, photographs, etc.

Thursday 10 December 2015

Hashtags - Getting More Exposure on Social Media


Hashtags were first created by an early Twitter user as a way to keep up with new abbreviations and trending phrases. While they were originally implemented into the Twitter platform, hashtags can now be used across a wide variety of social media sites. The proliferation of hashtags is truly incredible. What began on Twitter has now spread to Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Google search, and almost everywhere in between.



In short, a hashtag is a word or phrase that is preceded by a number sign, in the form of #keyword. Hashtags are commonly a single word, something like #marketing, but sometimes they can be comprised of an entire phrase, like KitKat's #HaveABreak.

When you're using hashtags in your content, you're identifying the most important and popular keywords to highlight. Users are able to search through social media, both on individual platforms and on third-party websites which scan many different news streams, and find you or your message by the hashtags you've associated with it.

Two types of hashtags

There are essentially two types of hashtags: those that consumers can identify with your brand, and hashtags that are currently trending.

Hashtags which represent your brand are the ones you should be focusing on in the long-term. These are phrases that should be highlighted on a regular basis in your posts and tweets, and will serve as the foundation of your hashtag marketing strategy.

Trending hashtags are phrases that are really popular on social media and have the possibility to bring you a lot of online profile in a short period of time. While Twitter provides the most popular hashtags directly on its site, other websites like Sprout and Trendsmap can make it easy to find out what words and phrases are trending across various different social media platforms. It's important to keep it relevant. Make sure your hashtag is related to your post content. Using one or two keywords and phrases in your posts is acceptable, but refrain from putting too many in there at once. Not only does this take away from the content you’re actually trying to promote, but it can also push consumers away who see the practice as unprofessional.

Which hashtags to use

Websites such as Hashtagify.me and Twellow.com are great tools which have lots of data you can use to analyse hashtags. These tools allow you to identify which are the most popular or relevant hashtags. When you type in a hashtag, these services will show you other hashtags to consider and will display how popular each hashtag is and how closely it correlates to the original. This information is invaluable to business people who want to promote their products and services over social media. By using keywords that are truly relevant to your product, service, or even just your target market, you can connect with a wide range of prospective customers.

Tuesday 7 April 2015

4 Tips to Get More Out Of Your Networking!

While satisfied customers may be your best sales force, they are not the only sales force. There are lots of other people out there who can send business your way if you make the effort to network with them and make it worth their while.

The concept of networking and word-of-mouth marketing is a very hot topic in business today for one simple reason: lots of people are starting small businesses that need to find other businesses they can work with for mutual benefit.


Your networking time needs to be marketing time. This means putting yourself in front of customers or people who will send customers your way. With that in mind, 4 important tips to help you to get more out of your networking:

Competitors can be a networking opportunity


Just because you go head to head with other businesses does not mean that you can’t work together sometimes (for mutual gain). Airlines have an agreement whereby they book business for each other in return for a fee. You may find it useful to work out such an agreement with some of your competitors. On the other hand, you may have an informal agreement whereby you refer one of your competitors to customers for no fee in the hope that they might reciprocate.

Businesses that complement yours

If you put an accountant, a surveyor and a lawyer in the same room – you may have people who can refer clients to each other. When a customer buys from you, what other products and services is he/she likely to want or need? These businesses are the ones that you should consider networking with in order to build reciprocal referral links.

Prepare in advance


Before going to any networking function, make sure that you are prepared. Have business cards, prepare your elevator pitch and read through the attendee list before you go. Try to identify at least 3 people on the list that you want to network with. After the event, make sure to follow up with your new contacts.

Ask for referrals

That is why you are there. After describing your business to someone, ask, "who do you know who might need my services?" Take the time to describe your typical customer. Follow-up on leads as quickly as you can. Where possible, send business to your referrers. Reciprocity is the basis for all good relationships and it is especially true in business. When someone sends a customer to you, acknowledge it with at least a thank you. Keep in touch with your contacts and where possible, send them a referral.