Everyone is talking about the marketing power of social media, but very few people know how to harness it effectively for their business. Here are a few common pitfalls:

Damaging your brand identity
Social Media is very different from the safe, controlled way we present our brand every day e.g. advertising, website and branded objects. On social media sites we need to give our businesses a friendly, approachable face without appearing unprofessional, present interesting information compatible with our values and respond to questions and criticisms without getting personal or angry - not an easy task!

Taking time away from doing business
Taking part in social media is very time consuming, especially if you try to cover all the bases. Experts recommend "tweeting" several times a day and blogging once a week as a minimum. Add to this the need to monitor the forums for relevant threads, keeping in contact with groups on Linked-In and interacting with your fans on Facebook and you can end up losing half your working day to social media!

Opening yourself up to criticism
Businesses need to be ready to deal with the bad as well as the good. By having a presence on social media you will be open to disgruntled customers complaining very publicly about your business.

Shaw Marketing Services can offer blog and Twitter writing services and advice on how to use social media effectively for your business. Email info@shawmarketingservices.com for more information. Click here to follow Shaw Marketing on Twitter or read more about this subject on our blog

Client Case Study - Costa Business Club

Last year, Speed Networking group the Costa Business Club took advantage of our free brainstorming session to get some inspiration for how to promote the club and get new members. As a result of this, they decided to use Shaw Marketing Services to promote their next speed networking event and raise the profile of the concept of speed networking and the organiser Sandra Europe.

We produced an event press release and circulated it to the local expat media on the Costa del Sol. As a result, the event was listed on 4 event listing websites, the release was published on 7 websites and distributed via Twitter and Facebook. The event was mentioned on Talk Radio Europe and the following event was featured on the back page of the Costa del Sol News.

To raise the profile of the organiser as well as the club we produced an article about Sandra and had an excellent response. Website MumAbroad featured an interview with Sandra, the Sur in English did a full page interview with her as part of their Ten Minutes with feature and UK magazine Living in Spain will be featuring her in their next issue.

For a small investment of less than 500€, Costa Business Club raised the profile of the club, got new attendees to the event, drove traffic to their website and got publicity equivalent to the advertising value of over 3,000€!

If you'd like to try out speed networking for yourself, their next meeting is Monday 31st January at Terra Sana in Nueva Andalucia visit www.costabusinessclub.com or email info@costabusinessclub.com to book your space.

New Year, New Start?

It's 2011 and no matter what your experience of business in the last few years, you have a chance to make this year even better. I am a great believer in the power of positivity as it drives you forward and makes you take action to solve problems rather than simply slip into a state of passive despair.

A New Year is a good time to look at your business, your accounts, your customers, what you are doing well and what could be better. You can then set goals and create plans to achieve them.

If you'd like to do this, I'd advise you to do a frank assessment of your business looking at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and defining what it is that makes your business different from your competition. It can be difficult to be clear about this when you are the business owner, so why not sit down with someone you trust and go through it together, their opinions may surprise you.

Then make a list of your company's target market, being as specific and qualified as possible in terms of age, location, profession, income bracket etc. Once you have done this, set clear and defined goals that you want to achieve with deadlines to work towards through the year.

Whatever the action required, be it cutting costs and downsizing, marketing your business more effectively, entering a new market or even wrapping up a business which is not working, having goals and a plan is an excellent way to put you on the path to success.

We offer a service to produce detailed marketing plans for companies who are lacking direction. Please email us to find out more.