Wow – i’m sat here on New Years Eve Eve just about recovering from Xmas. Half a stone heavier, bunged up with manflu (thankfully not the Noro virus) and spinning around looking at a great 2012 and an even better 2013

Its of course reflection time, but after our Best of 2012 blogs, I’m restricting this catch up for just the last 30 days with a few highlights

Charity

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHARITY
Early on in the month I worked with director for leadership and change who’d worked with many leading sports organisations from MCFC and Umbro

Their current focus was working with a sports charity that helps disadvantaged and disabled kids to get in to sport and play more sport

It interested me on several levels in that in the past 12 months I’ve probably exercised more than in the past 12 years, but also from a training focus it was interesting to work with a client who was used implementing offline campaigns, had worked with companies who do mind blowing Social Media like MCFC and wanted to learn everything from the basics to a fully developed strategy for her own business as well as that as clients.

By the end of the session the client was left with a focused plan of action for their own business and areas to improve on with the charities own social media

TRAINING 18YR OLDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – MY YOUNGEST CLIENT TO DATE
When companies think of Social Media they often hand it to the youngest person in the office and say get on with it

It misses the point on several levels – Social Media isn’t just a technical job (i.e can you use facebook or twitter), it’s a strategic marketing role that links in to the companies overall marketing strategy

I got a call early December off a young business owner whose family had a background in MLM with Utility Warehouse and rather than work a Saturday job throughout 6th Form had decided to get involved. 2 years passed by and they had made a success of it, but recently had got involved with a new business which helps save up to 20% on your car fuel bills via handy little tablets.

Prior to the session the client had used facebook, but had never used twitter or linkedin which we both felt were the right channels for their business

4 hours later we have optimised their linkedin and got them going with twitter in a focused channelled way which is business focused rather purely social

At the end of the session they said “My friends thought I was mad training on Social Media when I already used it every day, but there’s so much I didn’t know about it”

RESTAURANT MARKETING AT XMAS

As well as training I also had my busiest month to date from a Social Media Management perspective

For restaurants Xmas is both the busiest time of the year and the most competitive, but also it’s the culmination of everything that has gone in the months before

• One of my clients their Xmas Eve and New Years Eve are booked up by regulars months in advance so a lot of the management for them was diary management and filling in the early week slots throughout December
• Another restaurant had recently set up this year so it was very much a case of amplifying what inviduals had said to the mass market of Xmas
• For another it was making Fish & Chips relevant at a time when take outs and quick meals aren’t the order of the day

What’s great about working with great restaurants is that in 6 months there’s not been one negative complaint on twitter for my clients

WHAT ELSE DID I DO?

• Worked with a Demolition equipment specialist on Twitter / Linkedin Strategy
• Worked with Host VS – the environmentally preferred carpet cleaning system
• Worked with an actress in London on twitter strategy for public personality and casting agents
• Worked with a local independent trader in Traders Outlet Altrincham

TESTIMONIALS
“Alex’s 121 Social Media Training offers the perfect balance of being detailed and thorough whilst also being a fun, interactive learning experience. I am sure that my personal business and the sports charity that I am assisting will benefit enormously from my new social media knowledge.

Alex is also a great communicator, had some great ideas for the charity and has highly innovative business creation ideas too. It was also great to learn and see how Alex can measure the impact of his social media work. A most valuable training session that I can wholeheartedly recommend.” Sarah Lynch

“Alex is an expert in the tuition of social media skills, he identified the level of requirement for our business and assisted us in implementing new strategies to focus on.” Karen Hawtin
Marketing Manager at ECY Haulmark

Altrincham Hq

“With over 12 years experience of Social Media and 17 years experience of online marketing in other companies, clients come to myself when they want a veteran rather than a rookie” Alex McCann