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Saw a interesting article on the beeb about the emergence of so called "regret apps". In other words having the ability to try and retract public comments on messaging medium, social networks etc.

It is interesting to see some of the profanity and language that originates from some youngsters (and not so youngsters!) I sound like a broken record trying to explain to younger extended family members that it may sound cool now, but not so cool 10 years later when going for that management role 

But I do find it bizarre when you see business owners mixing personal and business messages on social media pages, including swearing or unsavoury non humorous comments, from racism to sexism.

Even sales campaigns or marketing messages can come back and bite you. We did a promotion years ago as an experiment with a 3rd party. The idea was to generate short term high volume, but for a very low price. It quickly became apparent it was a bad idea, but by then the marketing message had been retweeted and reposted, and for 12 months one site stubbornly showed up in a search for our brand name, about half way down the page, shouting this old marketing message.

I do like the idea of a regret app that you can push a button and it retracts any old contact you think is out of date or paints you in the wrong light, but in reality it's never going to happen.

When stuff is shared now, you have no control on distribution, so make sure any marketing messages are proof read, and will stand the test of time!

Anyone got any (or willing to confess) stale marketing message horror stories or old social media posts that have come back to haunt them 

According to the Beeb, A crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion by people who HM Revenue & Customs call "mass affluent" netted 60% more money in 2014.

Tax crackdown by HMRC - BBC News

So HMRC has a dept called the Affluent Unit. I wonder if they have a broke dept

Interestingly I see HMRC used Pinsent Masons to compile the report, who if you have ever had a run in with Getty Images, may know the name as they handle Getty UK copyright infringements.

Not to be trifled with! I wonder if they will take up the role as debt collectors?

I've never been the most disciplined when it comes to maintaining or keeping an eye on social media campaigns. It's normally done with fits and spurts of enthusiasm, and then moments of silence as normal workload demands make themselves felt.

But they've gradually grown quite nicely, with mixed results over the years, acting as more of a brand building exercise than customer generation.

But of all a sudden a new project has changed things, (including my perception) and social media is something to be taken very seriously. In our scenario (which will match a lot of new start ups) we don't as yet have a public facing website, but need to start generating interest immediately.

This is where social media does come into it's own and gives you a chance to try out different techniques to reach your target audience, as well as experiment publicly with brand styling, giving you a chance to road test some ideas.

How how long does it take before you see results?

After being given permission to start last week, it's become quite an interesting challenge. How do you start a brand new social media persona for your business or service and how long does it take before you see results?

So I thought I would share my results, as it may help other people either new to social media, or still grappling with the age old question, is it worth the time and energy for my business?

Facebook

I set up a new Facebook page at the end of November, which was then on hold. As of last Thursday (15/01/15) it only had 1 like.

www.facebook.com/trustedtrader.scot

This pages primary purpose is to collect expressions of interest via a temporary web page, until our new site goes live, and secondary purpose is to generate conversation, debate and publicity. 

As of today (23/01/15) it now has 88 likes. Ok it's vanity, but is also a perceived indicator of being established/popular/respected.

But more importantly we have generated a boat load of expressions of interest, giving us a fledgling customer contact database which has far exceeded expectations. If you do decide to promote posts by boosting them, make sure you add a facebook tracking cookie so you can closely monitor results. (guess who forgot initially ) Then amend and tweak as required or stop if it's not working.

Twitter

Twitter was set up last week, and a week later we have a grand total of 61 followers.

https://twitter.com/ScottishTraders

There's no rocket science to Twitter, follow like minded or potential customers and some will follow you in return. With no followers (and not paying to create them) Twitter is a dead duck. Make sure you stay in Twitters guidelines, don't overdo the follows and don't get into the trap of removing anyone who doesn't follow you back straight away. I've heard people have been suspended or had accounts deleted for doing this.

There are some great tools out there to help you curate and manage your followers, a favourite of mine is justunfollow.com easy to use and simple to set up and cost pennies.

Already we have traced a number of expressions of interest from Twitter, so reward versus effort is working out very well at present. Be interesting to see how this changes moving forward. Once we have enough of a following, then it will be time to do more tweets.

In the meantime, like facebook you can set a tweet so it sticks to the top of your profile, which will be the first thing visitors see. Make sure it's punchy enough for people to follow a call to action if that is your intent.

Google Plus

My favourite - not! Saved the worst till last  Set this up this afternoon with a total of no posts or followers.

Edinburgh Trusted Trader Google Page

As it's a new page, we have a lovely unfriendly URL which I think changes when (if) we get to a certain follower threshold.

Plan is to drop a relevant post inviting expressions of interest across different business communities. 

Social Media wise we're not planning on using anything else for now, mainly based on previous experience. But different things work for different businesses, so more visual related brands may prefer Pinterest or Instagram for example.

So very early days, we are a week in, but hopefully it will give some encouragement or kickstart someone who is also about to start from scratch.

It sounds daunting if its all new to you, but you will soon get into the flow of it. If it's not the marketing/promotion channel for your business, then don't worry and concentrate your efforts somewhere else.

But for the cynical, as long as you are clear with your objections, it may actually surprise you, so give it a go.

Anyone else recently started a new social media campaign and wants to share their experience?

Feel free to like/follow retweet or repost, all help gratefully received 

I love the expression "Funnel Vision" coined by Tom Fishburne, explaining some marketeers obsession in pursuit of traffic and customers. May we can all be a bit guilty of it?

Reproduced with permission from tomfishburne.com

Originally Posted by Barney

“@ Steve... I bet you'd soon get cheesed of with haggling if everyone signing up to the directory, thought to themselves... Hmmm I know, the owner of the site likes to haggle so rather than sign up online I give him a call and see if I get it cheaper...”

Nahh not in the slightest, we'll happily take payments over the phone. Take out enough Regions and we might just throw in a free one 

Interesting debate though, especially the reactions of haggling versus negotiation.

I think it's just human nature. Unfortunately the problem is getting worse as we are now required to remember pin numbers and passwords for so many things, that unless you are some kind of Mensa superstar, how do you remember them all?

I've got a secure password database on my laptop I can't get into because I've forgotten the password  We've got passwords on spreadsheets I can never remember, and our email provider keeps getting me to change passwords, and has the cheek to remember the last 5, and I'm not allowed to enter the same 3 characters when creating a new one 

I end up with some bizarre random password I'll never remember, so have to keep it safe in a convoluted system that would confuse MI5. 

The days of Password1 were a lot simpler, and judging by the continual online hack attacks from the big boys, and the way they like to wave our credit card data around, your own PC security probably isn't the main issue!

It's the same mate, just the latest in a long line of names. The old maps listings and the google plus listings got merged, along with the admin panels. It was a long drawn out messy affair so I suspect the Google My Business branding is a way to draw a line and move forward.

The good news is for those of us left with lots of messy duplicate listings, you can now manage them all from the previous link.

Hi Andy, may be able to help.

Try the following link, then login to Google. (choose sign in top right rather than signing up).

www.google.com/business/manage.html

This should then take you to you Google listings where you can manage them, ie edit including delete. But make sure you remove the right one!

Skyler also did a good post if you need more info:

Beginners Guide for "Google My Business"

Oh to be a fly on the wall when she picks up little Johnny from nursery 

Crikey I'm at odds with everyone