Where has Google Places Gone?

We’ve had a lovely 4 days of Jubilee celebrations, so you may not have noticed that your Google Places page has vanished and been replaced with Google+ Local.  Any information stored on your static Google Places page would have been transferred to the new, and more social, Google+ local.

Read more here...
 

Call me maybe?

A new PR firm has decided to take a different approach to the usual recruitment process that most follow.  Instead of posting out a job description and waiting for the influx of CV's, they have taken the time to make a video with the no.1 hit, 'call me maybe', dubbed over the top.  

Yes it is silly, but it sure does look like a pretty fun place to work!

One of the funniest, and ironic, aspects of this video, is the sign held up at the end.  

No calls please!

Would you apply to work here?

We're moving!

It's exciting times for us at wise little ninja; we've got so many cool things going on and many fun times ahead, not only that, but the sun is shining and the birds are tweeting, how awesome is summer?

So yes, we're moving and more specifically, our blog is moving.  It will embark on it's journey to a more permanent location in just a few days time.  Where is it moving to though?  Good question, and in order to answer, can we please have a drum roll!.....(who's not doing a drum roll?).....It's new home will be located in our shiny new website!  Ta da!

With the launch of our new website just days away, we felt that our blog looked a bit left out, so instead of having a rather lonely blog with an ever increasing sad face, :( <----like that, it's coming with us so that we can be one big happy family.  Yay. 

We'll still keep this one updated with cool articles, but all of our main content will be featured on our website - which is launching in a couple of days! (did we say that already?)

We'll see you in a couple of days!

10 Reasons Why Social Media is Important for Your Businesses

It can seem like a jungle out there and the list of social media platforms available to use is endless, everyone seems to keep harping on about just how great it is.  But is it? 

Erm, yes!  Yes it is, and to prove it, here are ten reasons why you should definitely take your social media strategy seriously...

1. Competition

Chances are, that your competition are already facebooking, tweeting, blogging etc... which means that they're one step ahead.  Make sure you're on a level playing field with your competitors and at least participate on the same social media platforms as they do.  But not only that, social media gives you the opportunity to spy on the competition and see exactly what their strategy is, sneaky.

2. Engagement

How long would it take you to gather the data necessary in order to give your business a general view of who your customers actually are?  Why not just ask them yourself?  Post a question to facebook or twitter and engage with your audience.  Social media is a two way conversation and gives you the unique opportunity to speak directly to your customers, and potential customers, in real time, whilst discovering their wants and needs. 

3. Build Awareness

Social media allows you to build awareness for your business whilst reaching a variety of demographics that you may not have otherwise been able to easily reach.  Touch.

4. SEO

Social media is a great tool to use to help boost your Google page ranking.  Through social networking, sharing great content, quality links and using social media platforms, you can increase where your businesses website currently ranks on Google.  However I must stress, only ever produce good quality content and make sure that you are always adding value to your customers, don't use social media purely to climb the rankings of Google, it's just not cool.

5. Resource of Information

You have your entire customer base at your finger tips, you can ask them anything at anytime and get a response in real time.  Awesome.

6. Recommendation

Social media is the modern day word of mouth.  Can you remember the last time you bought a specific product because someone that you knew recommended it to you?  This is how social media works.  Sharing on facebook and retweeting on twitter are all ways to recommend a certain little nugget of information.  It's saying 'hey, I've just read this and I though that you might like it too', and your customers will be more likely to buy from you than from a competitor.

7. Promotion

If you're looking to run a promotion or event, social media offers a free platform for you to do this instantly.  Not only can it do it straightaway, but you can also track and analyse how well it's going.  With so many free tools for you to use, you can monitor link clicks, set up great landing pages, track page views and see exactly where your traffic is coming from. 

8. Share

What a great way to share the knowledge that you already have.  If you're passionate about a particular subject and have an abundance of experience in it, then share it.  People love to hear great tips from real people who know what they're talking about, and when they feel like they know you and realise that you are in fact human, they're more likely to keep coming back and recommend you to others.

9. Lead Generation

Build an email marketing list through a multitude of social media platforms.  You can direct potential customers to forms and landing pages via facebook, twitter, linkedin, tumblr etc. for them to sign up to and with no admin involved!  Collect data at 2'o clock in the morning while your asleep in your bed from an American sat at their kitchen table, could you do that without social media?

10. Digitalisation

Absolutely everything can be digitalised; from your latest catalogue to your business card.  Save money and make the information that you already have available instantly.  We are so used to acquiring the knowledge that we search for almost instantly, that waiting a few days for a brochure to arrive in the post, could mean that you lose out on a new customer to an online competitor.    

Getting Started

Sometimes just getting started is the hardest thing.  You know what you want to do, but when you start to think about all of the different aspects of marketing, overwhelm sets in.  

First things first.  What are your competitors doing?  What methods and techniques are they trying, and more importantly, are they working?  It's perfectly ok to want to be different and stand out from your competitors, but if what they're doing is working, then jump on the band wagon!  They've done all the hard work for you!  

It's all about research and preparation.  Research your competitors, research what others are doing and research what's been done before.  Take the time to prepare what marketing methods you are going to use and how best to implement them.  It's a little time consuming, but it's free.