Linkedin as it seems the most grown up of the three.
I personally know nobody more than a couple of years past pubity that uses Facebook.
My son wanted to go on it as his friends had it but after setting up the account months back he's never used it again as everyone talks to each other through Steam but that's no good for business.
Twitter... Have real difficulty seeing the point in that one myself although others may correct me.
Linkedin is for business people so the place where you are most likely to find the audience that you are looking for. However, to be honest, despite being on it I don't actually use it that much at the moment as I don't have time for it.
Thats my two penneth (queue disagreement over Facebook and Twitter).
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Maybe I'm looking at facebook completely wrongly just based on the fact that nobody that I know uses it.
Everyone seems to have some presence on Linkedin but may not actually use it. I've caught up with some old freinds and colleagues through it but once found one tends to revert to email rather than Linkedin.
I've not been on there more than half a dozen times in the past year and when on I don't tend to stay on there very long.
Same story with freinds reunited.
I've never bought or sold any service through social media.
I actually find the whole concept of all social media quite boring and would far rather chat in this sort of open forum,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Your old fashioned Shaun, it must be our age (your older than me though)!!!
I'm not on face book but I am going to get my son to do me a page for the business, hes got it now, and it is useful for some things, one of the groups he belongs to always posts last minute arrangements on there so all the boys have got facebook to keep up with things. I do think it can be a time waster, not tried twitter or Linkedin yet, no doubt I will at some point, need to find the time to actually look at it!
I'm not on friends reunited, I can't really see the point in this one, I couldn't wait to get rid of half the people I went to school with!
Although old fashioned and older than Shaun, I am on facebook. Couldn't work out Twitter with all the hash tags etc., didn't make any sense to me. I'm on LinkedIn but don't do anything with it (in fact I think I'm on twice!!! as I get emails to my home email and one of my client's email addresses) as not sure what to do and/or how so just look occasionally at requests from people I know and accept them or not.
I started off with facebook as I already knew the ins and outs of it. I post in local groups of certain updates from HMRC eg the new 'direct sellers campaign' informing people of their responsiblities. Thing is with facebook is to try and get as many likes as you can for the 'business page' the more like you get, the bigger your reach. (i'll explain for those who dont know) When someone 'likes' your business page, they, in a round about way, agree to let you to post to thier wall. So if you only have 10 likes you are reaching 10 poeple when ever you post a status update/links/thoughts etc etc. Their freinds may see your post (depending on your 'likeies' security level on facebook), meaning you can reach 10 more (figures are estimates here... lol) then if they like your status it then turns viral, if in turn then they go to your business page and 'like' you they then join the ranks of the orignal 10. As you can see here its all about attaining as many likes as you can, but maintaining the fine balance of not peeing anyone off by pestering them to like your page. Once you get 30+ likes on your business page you can then start to see figures about how many you reached, and where these likes are coming from and even as far as working out your demographics (age, location etc etc..)
Joined twitter not very long ago (for business) and personally years ago, but never got used to the writing of updates in 140 letters or less... pretty pointless if you ask me! HOWEVER!!!! Twitter is essential if you have it index linked (ie via a plugin) to your site, as everytime you post an update it sends it to your site, Google then sees that your site has changed and increases it in the rankings... so the more you post the higher you go! So now i use it all the time and try to post at least once a day! :D
Linkedin, not used it very much but i know that it can be good for business, I think of it as more of a facebook for business minded individuals who want to better themselves or their businesses.
ipatter/pintrest - never used them
Google+ - pants.... dont like it all, however saying that, G+ is linked like twitter, so the more you post to it the more it updates your website and hence increasing your rankings.
Bloggs - Never really used them as i found they are like keeping a diary... and as a kid i was crap at doing that too!! lol But again with the linking to your website and regular posting it can increase the ranking for your site, so this is something i will be looking into in the next few days.
Out of all the above i choose twitter first (purely for the updating and ranking increases of your website) and secondly facebook as it gives me a lot of real time information about the demographics of the views/likes.
But theres one thing you have to remeber when increasing your rankings on google. You are either cash rich (can spend money on SEO's and increase it that way) or time rich (by posting on the above mentioned to increase rankings) which are you??? ;)
But on the grumpy old bugger ratings I think that I win Sheila
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
There is a real danger/perception with Twitter that number of followers is crucial to promoting your business, which tends to become an end in itself.
LinkedIn is pretty much like having your CV online and available. I don't really use it other than to find out about people!
And FaceBook is just purile. Doesn't society seem strange when Leveson is trying to sort out invasion of privacy, yet people are happily putting their holiday snaps online for everyone to see!
I use these 3 for business (plus Google + which I don't really understand) for promoting blogs, which hopefully will help towards the ultimate goal of getting my website up the rankings.
Not a fan of social networks but if you end up a stick in the mud you will get stuck, the adage you have to move with the times comes to mind regardless of if you think old school. I watched surprise surprise a couple of weeks ago (just to prove to myself there are selfless people out there lol) There was a young lad who was dying of cancer and he started a charity on one of the social media sites, within days of his original post he had over 3 million hits, money started rolling in and although the poor lad died of his illness he left a legacy which will help others. This goes to show regardless of your personal feeling social media sites can help with marketing your business, twitter needs you to have a massive following, friends reunited just reminds me of school. As I have said before the internet is the invention of the devil but if used correctly can make you a very rich person. Any advice of how to use the internet correctly would be greatly appreciated lol.
Now I just read that as join a social media site and people will start asking you for money (See Monty Python bankers sketch).
I think that my stick in the mud attitude is born of seeing the mess made by the progress for the sake of it brigade.
I've also seen the mess companies make when they follow each other like sheep.
We all move forwards. I'm just one of those who prefers to come last (except in profit margins) as it's much more comfortable walkingover the bodies of those innovators who failed than being one of them.
You have a great one too Dave. (Have the champagne corks stopped potting at TL towers yet?).
kind regards,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I'm with you Shaun - I have yet to join any social media site - however, I am not sure how long I can hold on for. Like Dave said, regardless of how you feel, sometimes you have to move on with time
Now I just read that as join a social media site and people will start asking you for money (See Monty Python bankers sketch).
I think that my stick in the mud attitude is born of seeing the mess made by the progress for the sake of it brigade.
I've also seen the mess companies make when they follow each other like sheep.
We all move forwards. I'm just one of those who prefers to come last (except in profit margins) as it's much more comfortable walkingover the bodies of those innovators who failed than being one of them.
You have a great one too Dave. (Have the champagne corks stopped potting at TL towers yet?).
kind regards,
Shaun.
Hi Shaun, in effect the BKN Forum is a social network. Still on CLOUD 9 with regards the Training Provider award more so for Gary Hupston than for me, he is the unsung hero and as you know created Training Link from nothing by understanding and having a passion for his business and just by his nature has installed that passion into his team, although you can become a bit over passionate? As for the 2 day event in London it went something like this.
Tuesday 6th November
1330 Drove to Watford Gap
1645 Got Train to London
1745 Arrived at Hotel
1815 Team met in Hotel Bar for pre awards drink (not me took me ages to get ready)
1900 Taxi to Savoy
1915 Arrived at Savoy to awards champagne reception (by now I was a tad tipsy)
1930 Dinner is served with beef that melted in your mouth
21.30 Awards Ceremony (by now I am quite drunk but holding my own lol)
2245 End of awards by now Nick Craggs and I seem to be as thick as thieves lol
Now here I lost track of time but Nick Craggs and I ended up at the Strand Hotel where we had a drink then left, Nick got a taxi back to his hotel and I ended up back at the Strand where we had a drink with the ICB team amongst others, now time comes back and I end up back at my Hotel around 3am
0630 am Breakfast
0715 Iron my shirt, pack, shower, still intoxicated may I say
0830 Arrive at Conference and set up our Training Provider stand feeling tired and rather ill
1600 Leave conference to get train to Watford Gap
1649 Get on Train to Watford Gap where it was every man, woman and child for themselves
1810 Got car back to Birmingham
2020 Arrived back home
So it was brilliant but it all happened so fast and has not really sunk in yet as even a 2 day event off your normal office duties mean you come back to a massive workload and are playing catch up. ICB were hosts to a fantastic event and are as passionate about their institute as you and I are for what we do. James Carter is a true gentleman with a great sense of humour, attending these events you see the ICB as people and not just an organisation, and they are nice people with a passion for the profession of Bookkeeping.
So there you have it Shaun, a day in the life of Dave attending the ICB conference. lol
Well I have decided to have a face book business page, I must admit not been interested until now. I agree that social media is the way forward and I need to move with the times. (My son is on facebook and quite a few of my friends are). I don't want a FB for the general rubbish that people post, like 'just going to the shops' and crap like that! I want it for my business only so hopefully new clients may find me? I have been looking this morning on the net and there are other internet sites that claim to make you a business page in FB is this what I have to do or can I get my son to create one for me? Sorry I sound so thick on this subject, but I've never been interested before and haven't a clue!
The bookkeeper s forum is Shaun's twitter account.
Oh so many a true work spoken in jest. lol
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Just get your son to do it himself. If you need any help or guidance you have my email address, but it's really a pretty simple process. You need to register a personal account (whether or not you want to use it) and then from that you create a business page.
I am a Twitter fan - only because I have got 2 clients from Twitter! Also it has helped make sure that I am top of the search list for bookkeepers in the area - 2 more clients used a google search to find my website. I think it is all about working out way of reaching potential clients, many local businesses in this area are on Twitter. I only follow local businesses! I restrict my time to 2 or 3 visits a week, I scan the tweets and reply/comment on one or two each time. I also keep a list on twitter of my clients, so I can keep up with their tweets easily. If I read something that may interest people I put a tweet up with a link, sometimes I schedule these using HootSuite. It is all about making other businesses aware of my services to do this I use my local town + bookkeeper as my twitter name. I have noticed that a lot of local businesses are on Facebook and Twitter, if significant numbers were just on Facebook I would give it a try but for now Twitter is enough.
Exactly the reason I would never join.
