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Top 7 Social Media Etiquette Tips to Start with & Live By

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 11:51:27 GMT

With marketing campaigns now reaching new levels of accessibility for all, where marketing communications are no longer dominated by large companies and their brand managers, interactive marketing has never been so available and achievable for small business owners.

Small business owners have been seeing a barrage of success stories in marketing campaigns that makes use of social media platforms.
Given the ability to freely reach and interact with prospects and clients, even small businesses are running in the same race there potentially larger and richer competitors are running in.

In this article, we would like to discuss seven important social media etiquette tips you should consider as you embark on your social media marketing campaign.

There are many reasons why you would choose social media for your marketing campaign, of course, there is the free publicity you will receive, and it's a very useful technique to establish yourself as a respected authority in your particular industry.
Among the greatest challenges that await small business owners once they take their marketing communications on to social media sites, has a lot to do with being ethical.

Tip number one: Be as human as possible

Build and complete your profile with as much information as possible! Anonymity gives the impression that you have got something to hide. Choose your username so that people can relate to you and your business.
Your real name or your business name is fine to use for marketing campaigns. If you need to give an email address, perhaps have one that is more recognizable instead of an obscure hotmail address.
Being as human as possible simply means that your name is not 'kbz555' and your email address is not 'kbz555@hotmail.com'.

Tip number two: Thoughtfully compose your posts

Of course, you can always be casual with interactive marketing but always check to see if your posts provide a message that actually makes sense. Facebook and Twitter have limits in post characters so you can consider using abbreviations. However, see if your posts read well and consider that not everyone can read text speak.

Tip number three: Refrain from asking retweets, reposts and likes

Asking people to RT, repost and like your post every time is very annoying for your audience. If a post has substance and is worthy of personal recommendation, then people will share it even without you asking for it. Besides, constantly asking for retweets would generally be considered bothersome and you cannot just ask people to take part in such a strategy for your company's marketing communications!

Tip number four: Never hog the network

The heart of social media marketing campaigns is interaction and free-communication. Interaction and communication is a two-way street.
Let people in your network have their share of the say. Allow them to comment and should views clash, politely explain or share things from your perspective. Better yet, send them a DM or a PM to explain things further. This way you will not be all-over the place and your posts will not look like half of a rant-fest or some kind of overheated debate.

Tip number five: Separate your personal agenda from that of your business

Remember that you are building your business' profile while making use of social networking sites for marketing communications. While juggling your personal profile with your business' or professional profile is a common practice, but it will still be best if you get separate accounts for that.
Interaction with people in the industry will be much better received, and far more targeted when those in your network actually have something to do with your posts and updates.

Tip number six: Never develop multiple personality tendencies

Signing up for multiple accounts especially on groups and forums so it will seem like different people commending a business is not, in anyway, fun. It is ridiculous, idiotic and shameful because you will always get caught.
People have tendencies to remember the negative things related to other people over the nice ones. So be you! This also includes reviewing your own business on review sites such as free index and is hugely frowned upon.

Tip number seven: Never spam!

Spam is never, and will never be an acceptable means of getting marketing campaigns to work. It will only tell people that you are desperate to get your business from anywhere. This in turn will give them an impression that your business is, indeed, going nowhere (well maybe downhill)!
Surely, getting close, as is the aim with interactive marketing, provides a good ground for small business owners to actually build meaningful relationships with lots of people. However, it is a must that you never forget that in marketing campaigns you should never every lose your ethics and start spamming anyone.

Thanks to Steve for this Guest Post

This post was written by Steve Rendell - owner of Paper Free Billing, and amateur social media guru.
For your FOREVER FREE account, sign up at Paper Free Billing - leaders in online invoice software.

What people see in your social media accounts such as those posted on your wall and the contents of your tweets will directly give people an impression of what to expect from you and your business.

While you can make use of these platforms for full leverage on marketing communications, it is still best to have professionalism over an overly friendly air about your marketing campaigns.

We wish you every success with your marketing, if you enjoyed this post, and are interested in reading more on the topic, then please take a look at our blog for many other posts like this one.
If you are part of the way there already with your marketing campaign, and have a Twitter account, don't forget to add us @Online_Invoices.

Would you like to write a guest blog post?

If you would like to write a guest blog post for MultiLayer Design or for Kev, please get in touch. Of course link lurve is given in return.

Websites Should Come With A Health Warning!

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:39:22 GMT

Foreword: Kev - I have over 50+ blog post titles/ideas I've been saving this past year (but not got around to actually blogging due to personal reasons). This topic reflects the basic ideas I had in mind and a big thanks goes to Matt Chatterley of Mattched IT for picking up the pieces with this guest post.

This one in particular should strike a chord with many businesses and website owners. Although just a brief intro to some of the issues websites present us with, the underlying points are common but often ignored.

If you have a passion for blogging and would like to contribute as a guest blog post, please get in touch.
Well, let's get on with the story shall we, I'll pass you over to the capable hands of Matt.

Websites Should Come With A Health Warning!

It's true. You may not believe me right now, but sooner or later you will. Websites, particularly your own business website, which you look after, can seriously damage your health.

There is a tendency to strive for perfection which, while laudable and to some extent necessary, can lead to frustration and even undue stress if approached in the wrong way.

To take an example, many is the small business owner who has a reasonable website, which, they have put together using one of the many available packages - or had built for them at relatively low cost, which they now maintain.

Eating into your business time

Tweaking and adjusting the website can quickly become almost a daily activity not only eating into precious business time but also turning the entire site into a virtual set of moving goalposts.

Often these changes are cited as "SEO" improvements - whereas in reality, "SEO" may not even be the area most deserving of focus. Ultimately a website which gets ten hits a day and generates three sales could be said to be out-performing one which gets a hundred hits and six sales!

Managing your online presence

Obviously as a software developer and Director of a Web Development agency, I have a vested interest in convincing business owners that they should employ us to build, maintain and manage their online presence. However, it isn't simply because we're better at it than they are (must be careful not to inflate my ego too much).

Objective viewpoint

An external viewpoint with less emotional attachment to a business, website or concept, is more likely to lend itself to an analytical approach - one which lets us review the current situation, determine sets of changes which may produce an improvement and then to make and measure those changes accordingly.

Test, test, test and test some more

If you take nothing else away from this post, make sure you're familiar with "Split Testing" - sometimes something as simple as changing the colour of an arrow can have a dramatic effect.

But I digress! Why a health warning? Get back to the point, man! Imagine a hamster - spinning like crazy in its wheel - the poor little thing isn't going to get anywhere soon. If you change a website daily without tracking and measuring changes, you're doing the same thing - and all you'll achieve is burning yourself out, without making even half the progress you could do.

So read the warning on the label, don't get obsessed or too emotionally attached. At the end of the day, we're all in business for the same fundamental reason - to make money - and your website is almost certainly a tool to that effect. Treat it with the respect you would any tool or utensil - and don't get burnt!

Matt also runs his own business with Steve at MattchedIT as
Web Developers in Hampshire, so be sure to check us all out over there too.

Final Words: - Kev
This topic will be an issue until we all get telepathic implants and are wired up to a central net such as The Borg. The quest for improving is a long road with a fair few bumps in the road (or potholes depending on where you live!)

It's important to take an objective view now and then to discuss specific parts of your website and how you can maximise the results. However as Matt pointed out, there is no point if you are not measuring the results!

Would you like to write a guest blog post?

If you would like to write a guest blog post for MultiLayer Design or for Kev, please get in touch. Of course link lurve is given in return.

Is Your Website Still Living in The Past?

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:00:00 GMT

So does your website still live in the past?

I often advocate rebranding or redesigning your website as this is important for your business. However I only advocate it when this makes sense to your business and not just for the sake of it. As a designer I design for purpose in most cases and can take an objective view and look at ways of improving on the old website.

What I have seen too often is people are reluctant to spend money on their website, even if it is promoting their business.
Why is this? If you were to get a plumber out to fix your leaky tap or burst pipe you would expect to pay around £60 an hour and not really question this amount of money. Of course if you can do that yourself then you could make some money! However, when it comes to your business, spending money on your website should be seen as an investment into your future.

Another common issue is the suitability of your website, does it meet your business needs? Are you getting enquiries?
People often get defensive of their website and justly so, it is an extension of their personality, beliefs, inspirations, aspirations but it is all too easy to get caught up with not giving the right impression.

It is important to take a step back from your website now and then and objectively assess if the website looks professional. A poor represenation will not do you any favours in the websites of today and could be damaging to your business. It is also important to remain objective, it's not a time to get defensive if your website is not performing how you expect it too.

Content is still King - This cliché will always be true and will always be user focused, however, you only have seconds to give a good impression! Before anyone has even read your content, your site should stand out as professional; the times of a stale, homegrown website are gone and so will your prospective clients if they see this kind of website. Of course there are arguments for and against websites looking too pretty but essentially it is about projecting a professional image and outlook for your website.

With the rise of social media it is more important to portray your business in a professional manner, the rise of mouth of word will be a crucial aspect going forward as the viral nature of the social media platforms will increase the views of your website and essentially your business.

Ask yourself - do you think your website portrays your business well?

If you are honest with yourself, there is no time to be complacent or defensive and if you believe your website could do with representing your business better in the market of today then you need to take steps forward in improving your online presence.

So what can you do about improving your website?

Well this is a vital step and if you are asking yourself this question then you are stepping in the right direction. You could perform a survey, get opinions from people who are not biased about your business or website, create a picture of how people see your website and the image it creates.

Action!

No we're not at the movies, however, actioning on your findings from looking at ways to improve your website should be key. You should also find a web designer who can relate to your business needs and look to ways of improving your professional image and can create you a website to be proud of for now and the future.

If you would like to see how MultiLayer Design can help your business look and feel professional then contact us today!

National Lottery Predictions - Sat 23rd May 2009

Fri, 22 May 2009 12:07:40 GMT

Better late than never, hahah better not get used to that saying lol. Well this week has seen more testing and developing some excellent rules where I noticed some more patterns, I won't go into details just yet. Even with only half of the stuff implemented I tested the draw on Wednesday and won 2 tenners! Sorry for not sharing my numbers on Wednesday, you could have won 20 quid ;)

Short and sweet this week, the Saturday draw is fairly tight ranged so should be interesting to see the results. For those following, have faith, my numbers are not just ordinary numbers lol and NO I'm not on some kind of mushroom cloud rofl, not all numbers were created equally! Of course for analysing purposes I don't care for the ballset, machine name, ball friction, ball heat, paint on balls or spacial volume inside the lottery machines. We're looking at numbers and dates plain and simple!

As with most things you should be testing, if your not testing then your not trying to get the maximum potential! - See you even get non Lottery tips ;)

Gathering proof of your testing is vital, people are interested when something works, they quickly dismiss things if not fully understanding of the project which can sometimes be their bad luck when things pan out, I'm ready for the challenge though! I'm hoping to start up a Lottery Syndicate at some point as I have also been looking at the Euro and the Thunderball Lotteries. The Thunderball shows potential and even though it's a smaller prize draw the results are achievable imo.

Will be updating the post with actual numbers drawn and seeing where we have matches, remember we are after consistency of smaller winnings here and not the magic 6 balls, of course that would be awesome too but I'll settle for regular small wins! I predict... ;)

Lottery Prediction

Important: Play all 4 lines!! Yes there is method to the madness ;)

For Draw: UK National Lottery - Sat 23rd May 2009 - Good Luck!! :)

Set 1:

Set 2:

Set 3:

Set 4:

Update: Well the relentless release of the last set of balls has left me a victim. Well you can't win all the time ;)
As I'm stone cold crazy, I'll place me another bet for the next draw :)

Actual Numbers Drawn:

Matches:

Important Info:

Disclaimer:
MultiLayer Design, it's staff and webmaster disclaims any liability, loss or risk incurred as a consequence of the use or misuse, either directly or indirectly, of any information, guides or advice presented from this website.

Never play the Lottery with money you cannot afford to lose!

MultiLayer Design is in no way affiliated with the UK National Lottery. Trade mark names 'The National Lottery', Lotto, are trade marks of the National Lottery Commission.

Got something to say about the lottery? Fed up with not winning? Or would like to share some Lottery tips?
Comments currently disabled...Will soon be up and working, especially when we get more winning balls lol

National Lottery Predictions - Sat 16th May 2009

Thu, 14 May 2009 21:18:35 GMT

Testing out a quick and simple prediction method for high or low balls using a binary pattern match. I noticed some similar patterns to determine if the next ball would be high or low based off previous games. There are some basic patterns and rolling through some of the previous games the predictions have been fairly consistent, it can only help strengthen the overall weightings.

I also need to test the amount of games used, currently these balls are based on the past 45 games. It does not make much sense going past this amount but the smaller the past games used the smaller the ranges become (and therefore likely to miss some important balls). More testing will eventually flush out the best number of games to run.

Have had some awesome results with 10-20 games, this also opens up the randomness more to the balls that have very low weighting, although the rules behind the weightings do not change the data does and I want to try and get some consistent results to begin with.

Quite enjoying the coding behind doing this, it is interesting to look at the trendings, I can now mimic the trending patterns, so hoping it should just be a matter of playing and time, well hopefully before I reach 90 lol. Has to be better than trying to guess the numbers. Have done so much reading up on odds, probability, uncertainty which has been great.

Some of the stuff I was reading on probability distribution is enough to send anyone to sleep lol and at times it did induce some sleeping at the desk heheh. Let us see how the prediction stuff furthers the actual balls, should be interesting.

As usual I shall be updating the post with actual numbers drawn and seeing where we have matches, remember we are after consistency of smaller winnings here and not the magic 6 balls, of course that would be awesome too but I'll settle for regular small wins ;)