Search Engine Sensation

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed ♪♪♪ Have facebook or twitter even entered your head ♪♪♪

Claire

http://www.searchenginesensation.com/blogs_social_networking.asp

A Christmas Carol Just For You!

Away in a manger no crib for a bed ♪♪♪ Have facebook or twitter even entered your head ♪♪♪
 
Wishing you a very Merry Xmas and all the very best for 2010!

Claire & Dave

Hand Over The Goods!

Ok, picture the scene – you visit a lovely place while on holiday and you love it so much that you seek out a builder and together you plan your dream villa:

 

South Facing Terraces, Swimming Pool, Stone Barbeque and Tea House in the garden, the works!

 

You pay a deposit and the villa is built for you and on completion, you pay the balance and look forward to your first stay in your new property.

 

Imagine how you’d feel if the builder said ‘well actually, you don’t own the villa, I’m retaining ownership of it, you can use it, but if you want to change or add anything, only I can do it and I’ll charge you what I like for the privilege!’

 

It just wouldn’t happen, would it?  (Outside of Spain anyway)

 

Well, it does happen and right here in the north east of England.

 

Not with property (hopefully) but with brand materials and web site collateral etc.

 

Recently a couple of colleagues have commented on separate occasions that they were working with local companies who were holding them to ransom when they decided they wanted to move on to other providers for their company branding/web.  Not wanting to go into to much detail as there could be legal obligations.

 

There will of course be arguments for and against this type of hard line stance, with lawyers quoting IP (intellectual Property) rights at every step of the way.

 

In our view, this stance is pretty short sighted though, if a client feels that they need to go elsewhere for whatever reason, isn’t it better to make the transition as painless as possible?  You never know, they could realise that they’ve made a mistake and come back.

 

Taking the stance above will ensure that come hell or high water, the client won’t come back, no matter what or recommend!

 

Not a great way to find, attract or keep customers!

 

Read more about customers and The Funnel of Love™ http://www.searchenginesensation.com/customer-service.asp

 

Claire

Facebook Personal Profiles, Business Pages & Groups - Simplifying the Facts

So you have a facebook ® personal account and that is exactly what it is – Your Own Personal Page!

So how do you go about setting up a business profile?  Well facebook will always de-activate a second account once they know that it is there. Although the chances of that happening are very remote, they do have some automated ways of detecting, but they are apparently not very effective.

You can simply get a new mail ID and open additional accounts. But, setting up a new account for a business really isn’t the best way to go and is totally unneccesary.

So, now you are left with two other options – A Group or a Business Page.

Really the purpose of a Group is to enable like-minded people with a similar interests to communicate, share ideas, experiences etc - for example a group of people interested in collecting vintage razors, or a group of people from the same school year!

A Business Page is the way to go if you want to have a Company or Organisational presence on facebook. It's better NOT to use a Group for this purpose. The Business Page can be set up and managed through you own account, so no need to keep logging on and off.

You have 'fans' rather than 'friends' on a Business Page. The number of fans also helps towards visibility in facebook, as the more fans you have the higher up you are on the keywords search which you have set up in your profile setting. This makes it easier for people of similar interests to find you.

You can also send your fans (with no limits, personal accounts only allow a max of 20 people per message) an update directly to their inboxes and you can communicate further with your fans by posting a new item on the page which will be seen as a status update on the walls of all fans.

This makes you far more visible than by using a Group.

Also, you can view visit stats for the Business Page via facebook 'Insights'

Within a Business Page or Group you can also run discussion boards, events, photos, videos etc.

Oh and don’t forget that whatever you've done to promote your business via facebook, using Groups, Business Page etc, do remember to link back to your Web Site or Blog wherever possible!

http://www.searchenginesensation.com/blogs_social_networking.asp

Hope this helps

Claire

Claire & Arnie - What is the Connection!

Well the connection is Chester-Le-Streets own John Citrone aka
Mr Universe!

The Power of Networking!

Networking is all about who we know! It is not always about the person we are speaking directly to and if they want to buy our products or services, but more about who they know!

It’s all about looking out for opportunities for others as well as ourselves.

This is exactly what happened when Claire met Joe Mulcahy from Tree Free Pages www.treefreepages.com via Durham Business Club. Joe spotted an opportunity for Atomic Web Solutions. Joe happened to know that John Citrone, was looking to re-develop his Peakbody web site. The web site sells fitness nutrition products online.

John was born and raised in Chester-Le-Street and has won countless body building titles from the age of 17 as a junior Mr Britain, right up to the current day where he has recently been crowned Masters Mr Universe in the over 50 category at the age of 60.

However this wasn't John's first success in Mr Universe, he has won a total of 8 Mr Universe titles, 13 world titles and cemented his place as a legend among body builders, when he was honoured at the 2000 body builders hall of fame!

John actually trained a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1960’s and Arnie even came to Chester-Le-Street to do some training sessions with John! In a gym above Citrone’s Ice Cream Parlour!

John also appeared on Blue Peter with John Noakes blowing up a hot water bottle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lxh2cK-NeI

I wonder if anyone can remember this iconic Blue Peter episode?

How to expand business by stepping outside of our comfort zone!

A good friend of mine asked me along as his guest to an event at the Professional Speakers Association which was to be held in Leeds.

 

The main speaker for the evening was to be a guy called Alan Stevens and he was to talk about media & social networking.

 

Of course this really interested me and although it’s a long drive to Leeds, I thought why not!  I hadn’t seen my friend Geoff for a while so it would be a good chance to catch up with him and listen to what Alan had to say about twitter and the likes.

 

The group is run by professional speakers and supports and encourages those aspiring to speak professionally. 

 

We arrived at the venue and were soon joined by others.  At first I felt completely out of my comfort zone as I didn’t know anybody other than Geoff.  But soon I got chatting and ended up making many new connections. 

 

Afterwards I got thinking how beneficial it was for me to attend a networking event that was totally out of my comfort zone and geographical area! I was made to feel very welcome and learned so much during the event as well as making some great new contacts.  I will certainly visit again sometime!

 

It’s an excellent way to expand your business into new areas.  If you are looking to pick up new business for your organisation try some networking outside of your usual area, both geographically and business.  For example if your business is engineering why not pop along to a retailer focussed network – you never know who you might meet!

 

Claire

 

www.atomicwebsolutions.com

http://www.geofframm.com/

A Brand New Experience!

I was at a business event today, ‘Creating & Keeping Customers in Tougher Times’.  During a table swap session, I spoke to a guy on another table and he asked for my business card.

He looked at the branding and said 'You got out of a car in front of the hotel this morning and it had that branding on it'  He then thought again and said 'What I also really liked was the fact that you got out of the car, went around to the passenger side, opened the door and gave your young son a cuddle before leaving'.  For that reason, I'd be really interested in working with you!'

Wow!!!

'Branding' does indeed go much deeper than a logo and in ways we just don't think about sometimes :)

It’s really all about experiences! And it just goes to show it doesn’t take that much to create good ones!

www.atomicwebsolutions.com

Click on the link to read more about brand http://www.searchenginesensation.com/brand.asp

Dave Glynn

Eddie's Ices

Waiting to cross the road on our way to a meeting with Durham Business Club in Chester-Le-Street last week, an ice cream van passed us ‘Eddies Ices’! We soon realised that it was  Eddie Izzard's support team – great brand idea! A gimmick that also serves a purpose.

 

Eddie Izzard is attempting to run 43 marathons around the UK, quite a task! All in aid of sports relief. 

Lucky for me the ice cream van pulled over so I crossed the road to take a photo then we headed up to the club for our meeting!

While waiting at the crossing Eddie appeared running towards us! He stopped for a quick chat while I took his photo! I promised him that I would try and help raise some money for the charity and of course sponsor him myself.

 

That day he completed his 33^rd marathon at Ferryhill in Durham with a further 10 marathons to go.  I love the way he is making use of social networking web sites such as you tube and twitter to gather support and document his challenge and of course raise money during his run. http://twitter.com/eddieizzard

 

Please sponsor Eddie by visiting his site his web site www.eddieizzard.com

 

Read more on brand http://www.searchenginesensation.com/brand.asp

 

Keep going Eddie you can do it!

 

Claire and Dave Glynn

Business and Pleasure!

If you read the last article you will know that we enjoy spending time in Dalyan, Turkey! Dalyan is a small town set on the river next to ancient rock tombs.

 

We try to get out there 2 or 3 times a year as we have invested in a holiday apartment there.

 

We let the apartment out and have so far had it full each season.  I guess this is because we run this like a business.

 

The company that built the apartment maintain it and the grounds throughout the year and also take care of the cleaning in between guests’ visits.

 

We have a contact in Dalyan who’s business is car rental and airport transfers. 

 

We have everything in the apartment to make our guests stay as comfortable as possible and we take care of the marketing and bookings ourselves.

 

Like any business it’s all about having the right people and good communication and having people in place who can sort things out when they don't go to plan.

 

We have excellent feedback from our guests and already have bookings and enquiries for next summer.

 

http://www.searchenginesensation.com/team.asp

 

Claire 

Turtle Rescue!

We were recently on holiday in Dalyan, Turkey!

Dalyan is a small town with a close community and a very friendly village feel. It’s located on a river near to some ancient rock tombs. 

When we are there we often enjoy boat trips, either up the river to the lake and mud baths or down-river to the beach. This time we decided to go crab fishing and swimming.

The fishing went really well we must have caught about 20 between us.  Although Dave wasn’t having much success! That is until later in the day his line was really heavy and we all wondered what was on the end of it.  We couldn’t believe it as it came up to the surface we could see it was a ‘turtle’ and quite a large one too, it took the three guys to pull the turtle in. We were going to unhook it and let it go but soon noticed that it’s shell had been badly damaged by a boat propeller and worse, one of it’s flippers had a thick line around it.  The guys managed to get it on board and remove the hook and line we knew it needed care and called the turtle hospital, which is based on the beach and run by veterinary students from Turkish universities.

Full steam ahead - Captain Zac took the boat back to Dalyan where we were met by local  reporters and the hospital staff.

We visited the turtle the next day and found out that the turtle was 50 years old and would have surely died within a few days if we had just cut the line and let it go.  The turtle will be in the hospital for around 2 months and will then be released back into the sea.

So it turns out that Dave did in fact come back with the biggest catch!!! This is another great example of having the right people around who are able to react in an emergency situation and quickly make the right decisions, which in this case saved the turtles life! 

Oh by the way my role was photographer and making sure Tyler was safe – got some excellent pictures! We will never forget that day!

http://www.searchenginesensation.com/team.asp

 

Claire