Outranked!

Social sites are used by millions of people for various reasons.  Many businesses have used these platforms as a way to increase their brand awareness, communicate with customers & build sales.

I'd never really thought a blog for a business was all that useful, probably because I have not really ever embraced 'blogging'

I can see how using a blog to promote your business, its services & products can benefit in so many ways.  By sharing your skills, expertise and knowledge through blogging the business is exposing itself to a wider range of people who may never have found you otherwise!


www.socialmediaexaminer.com/blogs-outrank-social-networks-for-consumer-influence-new-research/

Coming along!

It's a nice feeling when you finally see everything coming together! Going into week 4 feeling good about where we are at with the group project, makes the last few weeks of stress feel very worthwhile! 

Looking forward to watching our website come together & learning all that we are along the way!

We had our first 'face to face' chat session last night - popped my skype cherry too! Who'd have thought that someone who is at 1 with so many media platforms had never used skype?!!  Was a great way to put a 'face to the name' with my group mates & I think that we were able to move through the agenda of our meeting a lot quicker & easier than we did while using an IM based system!

When to step back

I'm sure I speak for most of us that the last few weeks have been as intense as they have been fun & all in all quite overwhelming!

Every time I think I've got my head around it the next task throws my head spinning around again!

So I've realised, recognising when to take a step back & walk away for a minute, an hour, a night etc is going to ultimately help in the progressive steps forward in my (and probably most of our) understanding of these new tools & platforms!

When I catch up with friends and start telling them what I have learned so far I realise how much I ave actually already absorbed & simply now putting this into practice is when I will gain further knowledge & feel more confident in these areas!

So my advise to myself & all of us, lets not freak out too much about what we think we don't know & get in there and give it a go - when we start using these sites our confidence grows & we can really see what we specifically need to seek more assistance with!

On that note I'm going to put away my computer after freaking myself out for a few hours now & go make some tuscan meatballs & enjoy a glass of red!

Preparing to introduce work to social platforms!

Doing a bit of research as I prepare to introduce my workplace to some social media idea's in the next few weeks!


http://socialmediatoday.com/mac-ocampo/1113836/4-ways-prepare-facebook-content-plan-2013

http://socialmediatoday.com/bryan-kramer/1311791/6-steps-becoming-good-social-listener?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+%28all+posts%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Alternatives to Google Reader

I started doing some research into what other options are out there in the big wide world of the web to replace the soon to be extinct Google Reader. 
I found this article helpful to explain a few of the many options around..
The article explains the 5 best RSS newsreaders...

http://lifehacker.com/5856652/five-best-rss-newsreaders

Introducing Social Tools into a somewhat UnSocial work place

I guess you’d say my current workplace is a little ‘behind the times’ with our website finally launching recently, a project that has been ‘almost there’ for around 6-9months.  For upper management it’s been a stressful & lengthy ordeal to say the least!  I think I will have my work cut out for me convincing my operations manager & the owner why we need a social media strategy in place!

I find a lot of businesses can be quite hesitant to use social media tools to either promote their business or be used within the company for communication purposes.  I believe this is because most of these tools when initially launched into mainstream were solely intended for ‘social’ purposes amongst friends, namely the youth.  With the use of sites such as facebook dominating heavily in life these days many are mislead about the opportunities that sitting in these tools for businesses to use.  I think 'non-social media users' look negatively upon these platforms due to privacy concerns, negative feelings as a result of the inappropriate use of  social media sites (gossiping, bullying, in appropriate sharing of information etc) that is widely reported since the social media boom hit.  Some fear learning how to use these platforms as its so foreign & unknown to them, others simply don't see the need or point.

Lack of understanding of how these tools can be of great benefit to a business when used correctly & a fear of misuse which may result negatively towards the companies image or reputation.  These 2 factors ultimately are the bottom line when companies are hesitant to embark upon the social journey! 

Social Media tools have developed & changed so much since they stepped foot into our lives & with such a diverse range of users now embracing these tools.

Multi Billion dollar companies use the tools, the who's who of business know how important they are in running a successful business in this day and age - look at Sir Richard Branson Interview with Sir Richard Branson - Learner Guide week 2 - online collaboration
“If somewhere in some distant part of the world a Virgin company has messed up we can jump on it and we can apologize and get on top of it.  It’s a really exciting, really immediate way of keeping in touch and getting feedback.”  

(social times April 6, 2012 11:32 AM)

Sir Richard Branson Talks Social Media Live From Virgin Atlantic’s Inaugural Philadelphia Flight [Video]

This is just 1 of many examples of how valuable social media platforms are in any organization.

I think I will need to slowly introduce the social revolution into my work although I am certain that once the charade is explained we will be full steam ahead.

A test run...

A very dear friend of mine, Virginia, has kindly given me the opportunity to do what I love doing - implementing structure, procedures & plans for business growth & development. The tools & platforms we have already gained exposure to in this course have sent my brain into over drive & I am working on a strategy to use these tools to favourably assist in the development & growth of her business.

By trade she is a gifted, talented & brillant holistic healer & beauty therapist. She has owned & run her single room salon, located within a hair salon, for the last 5 years. She loves having her own business & providing her customers with exceptional care but she, like many other individuals who own & solely operate their businesses, discovered that she actually dislikes the actual ‘running’ of the business. 

Her future goals & dreams for her business are to take her holistic beauty center to a greater level, achievable yes, with the right strategies & structures in place!

Her business needs to expand & grow for her dreams to become a reality, that is a fact.  For this to be possible she needs to have strategies in place that removes the banner of ‘one man show’ & instead create her ‘small business’ stand out.

Social media platforms are a very effective tool to utilize in so many ways.  They are cost effective; they can hot large numbers of people instantly & assist in the branding process.

Having gained valuable experience in the development & growth over the last 10 or so years I felt confident that I could help Virginia increase her profitability & set in place structures & plans for the continued growth & development.  Together we have been working on re-wording & optimising her website, adding ‘widgets’ of the social media tools to raise awareness & increase followers.  These social media tools are there but are yet to be capitalized on.  Until now I didn’t realize the importance of having a strategy & plan in place for these tools.  I knew they needed to be managed but I didn’t really think about it much further than that.

I hope to be able to assist in further developing her website through knowledge gained from this course.  I must say that the free web building sites are fabulous as they allow people who could not otherwise afford to have a presence in the big wide web the opportunity to get themselves out there.  Plus they are relatively user friendly, I would not have even considered trying to build a site but my brave friend Virginia started from scratch with a template & made a site!  

The only downfall of these sites is that you are quite limited when it comes to the look & feel of your page, which makes it hard to represent your 'branding' - by teaming a website up with some other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc you can still bring back your branding until such time that you can budget in a custom built site.

The last time I saw her I was overloaded & overwhelmed with starting the Grad Cert & freaking out about if I should continue with the MICW unit after chatting with +Lyndsey Vardy  & +Melinda Brain (thanks again girls for your sound advise!!)

It's exciting to have the opportunity to start using some of these new tools & ideas while my brain is overflowing with them!

http://www.soyubeauty.com

1 week in & looking ahead...

1 week into the Grad Cert & am starting to feel a little less overwhelmed by it all!  I've officially dropped back to just 1 subject, comms management & am definitely feeling less stressed about my workload as a result!

I recently accepted a promotion at work to step up into the role as Salon Manager. I look forward to guiding the clinic forward & assisting in business growth, I feel my studies will assist in this & give me further tools to work with along side my hands on experience.

Prior to my employment at my current workplace, I was employed as an Operations Manager for 3 large clinics in the Melbourne area. During my 8 years of employment with the company I assisted in growing the business from a single stand alone salon to a multi site (3 locations) & an additional online store. At this clinic we utilized a few social media tools, being a 'young' company, the demographics of the locations & the general age bracket that the clinics attracted it was quite easy to introduce tools such as facebook or twitter into our marketing.   The 'marketing guru' who helped brand the business would often refer to many of the things we are learning in this unit, I thought I understood most of what he spoke about.  Now, after just 1 week in this course, I know I had not much of a clue at all!

My current work place does not even have a website as yet let alone use social media!  The client base in the salon probably isn't a huge social media user group however, many of them do use some sort of social media - be it even just facebook to see what their children are up to on the other side of the world!  
No matter the age or level of the social media user I think these tools are crucial to building & maintaining a presence in this day & age.

I'm looking forward to implementing some social media strategies into my workplace over the coming weeks!

Have you made space for social media?

Interesting article on how social media has take space in our day to day lives, have you 'made space' for it in your life or has it just been added to the list of things you do everyday?
 http://blogs.hbr.org/samuel/2013/03/how-to-make-space-for-social-m.html

Since starting at a new workplace last year I spend less time in front of a computer than I did in my previous Operations Manager role, although my workload is a great deal less in my new job I have less time to spend on social sites than I did before.  Could it be that my work was just being placed on the back burner before while I caught up with my social life??

Welcome!

Hi Everyone & Welcome to my Blog!

I'm a beauty therapist & manage a skin clinic in Toorak, Melbourne, which keeps me very busy!

This is my first year in the grad cert so I'm bumbling through trying to find a good balance!

Initially I was doing 2 units this semester however I've decided to drop back to just this one as I think it will be an easier transition into studying & the other unit I'm told is the most challenging of all so probably best to tackle it on its own, hopefully when work is not so demanding!

The end of the week is crazy for me so please bear with me if I fall off the radar come thurs-sat!

Looking forward to this unit!