Engagement Matters Blog

Yes, yes, we haven't posted a blog for some time. As I have said in previous posts, social media represents a time commitment and you have to weight up what else you could be doing with that time (like servicing clients!).

Today's blog post is about testimonials. Testimonials are an excellent way to promote your offering without really doing it yourself. They give you credibility because they are a third-party endorsement.   Read full post

With social media playing such a growing role in the marketing and communications mix of many businesses, it's surprising how few people take a few extra steps to optimise their PDF documents for social media.

You may ask "why bother?". Well, the reason is to increase your readership (and thereby increase exposure to your brand or message).

Regardless of what your document is, for example: Research findings, a white paper, brochure, case study or best practice guide, ensuring the document is "social media friendly" is quick and painless and can prove useful.   Read full post

In recent posts we've covered what you should consider before jumping on the social media bandwagon in a business to business context. If you’ve decided to take the leap into social media and have worked through a proper strategy and approach then here are a few tips that may help you soar.  Read full post

In our previous post we discussed the pros and cons of social media in your business-to-business engagement and marketing plan.

If your organisation considers that the pros outweigh the cons, it’s still not a good idea to jump straight on the bandwagon and start furiously posting or tweeting information.

Given the time and monetary commitment you’re going to make, it makes sense to spend some time planning your approach first. Work out what your purpose in social media is, who are you trying to appeal to and what you will focus on. Build a strategy and plan, then jump on the bandwagon.  Read full post

The global market leader for fast food recently shared its view on social media marketing. The presentation made its way onto Slideshare. Even though this is business-to-consumer, it makes for interesting viewing.

What makes this presentation interesting is the second-last slide - McDonald's key learnings from social media. Regardless of the market you are in, they are all relevant points to consider in any social media strategy and reiterate aspects of our recent post: To social media or not to social media.  Read full post

Excuse the nonsensical heading but every time I think of social media Shakespeare’s “To be, or not to be” pops into my head.

Social media is one of the hottest topics right now. Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, not to mention blogs, forums and other vehicles, are all gaining the attention of businesses.

Personally, I am a social media sceptic but my views are balanced by some in our company that can see potential. Regardless where we as a company stand on social media, we all admit that it warrants consideration in any business-to-business engagement plan.  Read full post

The last Pitfall in our series appropriately focuses on leaving content until last.

I’ve covered 'content is king' previously in this series but to reiterate, content is king. Too often companies dive into website development and then once they have the site ‘shell’ do they suddenly realise they need content and so start scrambling to fill the pages with words. Often this results in hastily (and therefore poorly) written content, delays in launching the site or the realisation that there are gaps in the new website structure.  Read full post

“Build it and they will come” was the catch cry of the pre-dot.com bust. We all know of course that this just doesn’t happen and your online marketing doesn’t end once you’ve launched your site.

But what happens to your site after launch (or Day-2) needs to be considered before you start and is the subject for Pitfall 4 in our 5 Pitfalls of Website Development series.   Read full post

In accounting, you have Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The field has been around long enough for these principles to have developed and their existence means that when you see EBITA for one company you know it’s going to be based on the same workings as for another company.

The web has now been around long enough to have its own set of “generally accepted principles”. Pitfall 3 looks at the perils of ignoring such principles.   Read full post

When putting this series together, there was never any doubt about what Pitfall 2 would cover... getting an 'agency' to develop your website.

Call them what you like; agency, digital media expert, website designer... unfortunately there are many companies out there eager to help but oblivious to the fact that they just don’t really 'get' online and that it's not as simple as mocking something up in Photoshop/Illustrator (or another design tool) and then banging out a website in Dreamweaver.   Read full post