Is your business losing out on new customers and sales because you don't understand enough about social media and how to use it to generate business? 

If so you are not alone, but help is at hand. 

Whilst business focused social media networks such as LinkedIn, Ecademy, Plaxo, Xing and a few others have been around for some time there isn't enough business expertise, guidance or support available from the technical experts to help businesses integrate it effectively into their sales and marketing strategy.  Knowing the tools without understanding business and how to apply it in each instance is just not enough. Consequently a huge gap in knowledge and understanding has emerged for the business community.

If this is affecting your business we can help.

We take social media offline and through your business doors in a very traditional way.  We educate managers and staff on what social media is (and what it's not), work with you to develop an effective social media strategy and usage policy. We train you on the various tools available, including Twitter and will help you integrate them into your marketing and sales strategy. If you don't currently have a strategy you need one -  and we'll help you with this too.

Don't allow your business to lose out through misinformation about social media in the marketplace, or  through ignorance or fear. Used well it has the most powerful sales growth tools available to you. Social media is here to stay and it will get much bigger.

By the way, we are not social media geeks or techies. We are highly experienced, business people and consultants who speak the language of business benefits. We run social media for business awareness seminars and masterclasses for Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. Call Leon Rovira on 0121 450 4239 to book a place on the next one.

Call 0845 330 7884 to speak to us and make an appointment. 

Despite the phenomal growth of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn and much talk of business benefits, many still believe social media is a waste of time and has a negative effect on business, staff productivity and security. Many ban staff from accessing social networking sites during working hours.

There are understandable concerns around security and managers are struggling to deal with disciplinary issues around staff useage. These concerns need be addressed as a priority to enable business to leverage the enormous advantage that social media can give them - when used effectively. 

We offer 'traditional' face to face, onsite training for businesses who want to understand, implement and use social media - from policy to process. Call us on 0845 330 7884 to arrange an appointment to discuss your needs.

We also run 2 hour awareness raising breakfast seminars for Birmingham Chamber of Commerce to help businesses understand social media, what it is, what it can do for them and important things to consider in social media strategy.

We follow this up with a hands on training day. The next training day at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce 'Mastering Social Media for Business' is on Wednesday 22nd July 2009. Places are limited to 10 companies to ensure individual attention. Prices are £160 if you are a Chamber member and £210 if you are a non-member. To book call Leon Rovira on 0121 607 1750

This is not about technology - it's about business.

Here's an abridged copy of the presentation 'Social Media for Business' breakfast seminar today at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. You can download at Slideshare click here Slideshare/annewilkinson. 

At the beginning of the presentation which was designed for businesses interested in leveraging the power of social media, we asked 'What 3 business challenges would you like social media to address/improve'. The results are listed below. We understand that 'generating leads, finding new customers and increasing sales' are terms often used to mean the same thing.We have categorised the responses as accurately as possible to reflect both the right words and the right context. 

We received 41 answers in total:

17% of the responses received from business delegates wanted to increase awareness of social media (in order to be able to leverage it)

17% wanted to use it to improve communication

15% want to use it to prospect for new customers/clients

12% want to use it to increase sales

7% want to use it to develop their business

7% want to use it to share information

7% want to use it and achieve a return on investment

5% want to use it for networking

5% want to use it to raise brand awareness

5% want to use it as part of  a modernisation process

2% want to use it for marketing.

Today's session and the feedback we've had since, reinforced our view that many businesses need support to define their social media strategy and implement the right tools to achieve their business and sales objectives. Unlike more traditional IT solutions and applications, social media is not driven by the business community. This is a real challenge for businesses that could benefit from social media if they could understood it. Most of the training available is online! This is not very helpful to busy business people who don't have the time or inclination to sit in front of a computer for hours figuring it all out.

So what's the answer?

Social media consultancy. We take social media offline and bring it into your business. We train you at your place or ours. We'll help you develop a cohesive social media strategy and align it with your sales and marketing plan, supported by guidelines and policy for management and staff, so they understand the boundaries and can work for the benefit of the business within them. We help you identify and set up the most appropriate social media networks for your business. We'll even write your profiles for you if you want us to. We'll help you get the best from tools like Twitter and in a way that you spend a maximum half an hour a day to reap the rewards. 

Call 0845 330 7884 to discuss our social media consultancy services today.

These new 'on demand' half day Innovation workshops for directors/owners of SME businesses are now available any day Monday to Friday, at our place or yours, dependent on location.

These are not open/public sessions - we work only with you on your real business challenges and to create new opportunities. All you have to do is call us on 0845 330 7884 and book your session 9-12 or 2-5pm, dates to suit. These sessions are run personally by our managing director Anne Wilkinson. They are incredible value at only £250 plus vat and mileage expenses where applicable. Follow up sessions are availble. We always offer a 100% money back guarantee if you get no benefit from our work. Call 0845 330 7884 and book your personal Innovation Workshop today.