A common problem is pulling all of this information together to build a single on-line identity.  This can be for either personal use, or to create a professional on-line profile. Well help is at hand with a site called about.me which allows you to bring everything onto one page – you can see mine here http://about.me/alistairgleave.

Is it any good and worthwhile signing up for, well it look good and certainly allows a synopsis of who/what you are, but doesn’t the likes of LinkedIn allow that, so for me the jury is out!

Please read the synopsis below and click on the links to see more and book.

Twitter for Business click here

You may already be on Twitter or you may be thinking about it.  Whichever applies to you, going back to basics allows you to learn and apply the best techniques to grow your audience and your business online.  I’ll also show you some common mistakes and how to avoid them!

We will explore the purpose of Twitter and where it fits not only within social media but also within a wider marketing strategy. We will be looking at Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites, how they interlink and what drives traffic.

Click here for more info or to book.

Solicitors and Social Media how to get it right click here

You will have read in the Gazette and elsewhere that more and more solicitors are developing followings online. This session, run by former corporate commercial solicitor James Barisic, will guide you through the basics of social media, looking at Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – and show you how to get the most out of it.

Click here for more info or to book.

Both events are at the St Giles Hotel in Bedford Avenue, London.

Well you can now find my consulting company on facebook here www.facebook.com/gleavemedia

Please come and join us, click the LIKE at the top of the page on facebook and come and participate in conversation and feedback, i’d love to hear from you.

The Red Arrows on Saturday as the fly down the Mall and over Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour 2011. A glorious flypast and always great to see.

Via Flickr:
The Red Arrows are always great to watch, they didnt disappoint with this flypast.

You may well have seen the adverts on TV for the Range with Ricky Tomlinson promoting their value and ‘range’.  Well pop into your local Range and you could be part of campaign.  This works as the image shows, you can stick your head through a gnome cutout take a photo and upload to the Facebook page…

All a bit of fun sure, but how many people did i see taking photos of wifes, kids, well loads with much hilarity.

You can see some of them here Range Facebook , and in case you wonder, no i didnt have my photo taken!

Friday 13th May the launch of GrowMyCharity, yes we chose the date well!

The launch of GrowMyCharity.com a collaboration between myself (Alistair Gleave) and Jackie Dawkins. Why you may ask?  Well we have both been working with charity clients for a number of years and wanted to find a way to support charities of all shapes and sizes to grow and flourish by providing them with resources, ideas and tools.

Our opening event was at TTS in Bideford, the picture shows me in full flow….  The event saw a number of charities come along for an opening presentation and group discussion on online marketing for their charities, something close to our hearts, and where we believe we can offer real value and support to charities.

The site and events will grow significantly over the coming months with more resources, information and guests posts etc, please come and join us on our new Facebook page here.

We’d love to see you at the next event at the wonderful Seale Hayne on June 22nd and you can book a FREE place for your charity here http://growmycharitysh.eventbrite.com/

This is what Jackie and I are doing with GrowMyCharity.com – COLLABORATING.

It’s true meaning is “working together to achieve a goal” Jackie has added some extra words – “people from two different organisations working together to achieve a goal“. The impact of having people from different organisations, companies, charities, nations working together has great potential. Obviously there has to be an agreed goal and a common aim to ensure that people work well together, a meeting of minds if you like, but think what can be achieved. If you increase the amount of creative thought, energy and enthusiasm you put into a project it’s not unreasonable to expect great results.

Recently St Loyes Foundation and Exeter Drugs Project combined forces to jointly employ an HR Manager, neither organisation required a full-time person for their role and they had similar workforce issues. Their offices are only a couple of hundred yards apart! Obviously, this type of collaboration requires careful planning and a clear understanding of how the relationship is going to work for it to be successful.

Jackie and I are looking forward to collaborating with others in the charity sector to provide great services, exciting events, lively discussion and already we have Mark Tyler of SAV Media and Anita Newcombe of Anita Newcombe Public Relations on board to contribute to the site, others will follow.

Long live collaboration!

www.GrowMyCharity.com

Well think again – whether you want to communicate with your beneficiaries, your community or corporate supporters, volunteers or the general public at large, you will no doubt find the most of them have a presence on at least one social media site.

Find out where they might be and how you can engage with them and develop their support for your organisation.

Friday 13^th marks a new chapter in my life as an online marketing consultant with a presentation to a number of charity delegates in North Devon.  The venue of the keystone centre is owned by Torridge Training Services, an innovative and entrepreneurial charity keen to encourage other organisations to make use of this fantastic space.

This is being run with Jackie Dawkins on Shine Charity Recruitment and there are a few places left, further details and booking can be made here http://www.shinecharityrecruitment.co.uk/events.php

1. Create a Clear Profile

It is surprising how common it is to find profiles that don’t really explain what a company even does. More than boasting about the benefits of any particular company, a LinkedIn profile should make it clear what service it provides to its clients or customers. It should go on to explain what results you can provide for your clients, and how things will improve for them if they work with you rather than somebody else or nobody at all.

2. Do Your Research

With LinkedIn, you have access to all of the information that you need in order to find the right person to get in touch with. It makes it possible for you to know everything that you need to in order to have a good business relationship before you even begin speaking with them. All of this makes it much simpler for your first sales call to go much more smoothly than it otherwise would.

3. Build Lasting Relationships

This is one of the sales tips that often goes ignored, but it is perhaps the most important. In order for a company like LinkedIn to be useful for you, you absolutely must use it on a regular basis. It is a good idea to use the system for about twenty minutes every day, keeping in touch with your business contacts. This ensures that your clients and business contacts don’t forget about you, so that you will be one of the first people that they get in touch with if something comes up that you have the skills to help them with.

4. Write Recommendations

If you work with somebody and you feel that they were legitimately helpful, be sure to recommend them. If you already have a working relationship with somebody who has an account, offer to write them a recommendation as well. In many cases, you will get a recommendation in return.

5. Recommendations

It is also a good idea to request recommendations from clients. Don’t get pushy about it, just realize that most people don’t think to do it without some prompting.

So how are you using LinkedIn? any more tips to offer, ways we should work it better?

This afternoon I spoke at the excellent Social Networking for Fundraisers at the Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education on Topsham Road in Exeter.  The topic was Inbound Marketing for Charities and was a full on session with discussion, interaction and input from the Charity Fundraiser’s from the Devon area who attended.

Regular readers of this blog will know I do a lot of public speaking (read more about it on my blog here) on web related topics and in particular web communication and social media for Charities.  Indeed during the number of seminars I’ve run it never ceases to amaze me the diversity of charities, from Hens to the RNLI (yes I said Hens) we really do have a diverse charity sector in the South West and I am pleased to do my little bit…

Also the Flip Camera that i refer to and heartily recommend for YouTube – i have one and this can be found on Amazon here.  I find the Flip Camera ideal for its simplicity, ease of use superb high quality.  There are other great HD camera’s available and some good examples again can be seen on Amazon here.

Recent Testimonials from our Charity Seminars

‘Really interesting seminar that gave lots of food for thought‘ – Donna, now with RNLI

‘James and Alistair are very entertaining and make the seminar fun!‘ – Anon

‘Really useful, good to think about integration‘ – Chris Penberthy

‘I’ve learning how to use my Twitter account more effectively‘ – Philip King, Devon Air Ambulance