#DALESBIZ – A CALL TO ACTION

As business people we can’t have missed the rise of Social Media in recent years. What’s often harder to grasp is how can, or should, we harness these new forms of communication for our own businesses?

Social Media and the Dales

If we look at how businesses in our own Dales area have adopted and used Social Media we will find pockets of usage here and there – with tourism-focused businesses the most visible and obvious users. This is understandable as the tourism proposition and its audience are well defined and simple to reach. What can feel less clear is how other types of businesses can benefit.

With the upcoming launch of a range of new online services – linked to real-life businesses and Business Associations – we have a new opportunity to reach out and connect across our region.

Business in the Dales Conference – 21st March, Middleham (http://www.inthedales.co.uk)
List of new services here: http://www.inthedales.co.uk/#RBF

Who can we connect with?

• Clients & Prospects
• Suppliers
• Partners
• Peers

Social Media and the Dales 

Beyond our day-to-day business activities we may engage our contacts through social events and planned networking events.Social Media offers an opportunity for us to informally communicate, to network, to share – whilst we’re apart. An online Social Media presence enables the establishment of new relationships and the maintenance of existing relationships.

The #DalesBiz Initiative 

As part of of the Business in the Dales Conference amongst the workshop events (http://www.inthedales.co.uk/#Workshops) is “Social Media for Business”. This introductory session will explain the basics and help recruit Dales business people to our online initiatives.
You don’t need to wait for the event though, you can join in now on:

Twitter: Use the hashtag #DalesBiz for Dales Business related tweets
Linked In: join our #DalesBiz group http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4345871

This item originally appeared on the Purple Creative Services website here and was created by them in collaboration with David Doorbar (Yorkshire Business Aid Limited) who has also posted it on his site.

 

Every day in December a new photo will s

Every day in December a new photo will show the amazing work by our Forces this year (via @DefenceHQ) http://bit.ly/u8OjPq

Taking the Wellbeing Revolution to CIPD Conference

It’s been a tremendous week at the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) Annual Conference in Manchester working on a client’s stand. It was great to be on such a sparky and interactive stand, meeting lots of great people.

Check out the Ultimate U website to find out more about a training, development and wellbeing organisation that’s doing things differently.

Ultimate U – invigorating better business

Anatomy of a perfect landing page

Start improving your website – Formstack has produced a great infographic with lots of useful info for those of us writing, designing or building sites.

Take a look – does your website follow this advice?

Would it be more effective it it did?

http://www.formstack.com/the-anatomy-of-a-perfect-landing-page/

Thanks to Em Leary for sharing via Twitter.

Beatrice’s hat. Ashes Cricket. AND the

Beatrice’s hat. Ashes Cricket. AND the Wiggles. Surely the recipe for the perfect news story. http://ow.ly/4X7O1

Celebrity tattooist Louis Molloy backs Blue’s Eurovision bid

Tonight the boys from Blue go up against Europe’s finest (and Jedward) to compete for the coveted Eurovision Song Contest crown. While Simon Webbe, Lee Ryan And Duncan James already sport a wide array of tattoos, Antony Costa has never ventured under the needle. But, as he told BBC Breakfast this week, he will get his first tattoo if Blue win in Dusseldorf.

So who better to give Antony his first experience of getting ink than Louis Molloy, tattooist to stars such as David Beckham and star of London Ink? Louis has promised to give Antony something truly special for his celebratory first tattoo.

Now all Blue have to do is win! Will they do it? And if they do, what tattoo should Antony have?

All quiet on the voting front

My local constituency of Richmond in North Yorkshire is an ultra-safe Conservative seat where sitting MP William Hague gained more than 3 times the number of votes of his nearest opponent.

Even so, there was still a pretty high turnout here (60% +) at the last general election. So, it seems fair to say that we are reasonably diligent voters in these parts. When I went to vote today, three things struck me:

1. I arrived just before 6 pm expecting to be caught in a bit of a rush with people (like me) on their way home from work. Not a bit of a it – I was the only one there and outnumbered by about 8-1 by staff.

2. There are two seats available for local councillors here. We have only four candidates, 1 Independent, 1 Lib Dem and 2 Conservatives. I know the Independent and LibDem candidates a little and was not surprised to see them both at the door. I haven’t met either Conservative candidate and thought I would at least have a glimpse today. Not a bit of it, neither one of them had turned up. Now, I’m not saying their presence should be obligatory and I’m sure they have other commitments BUT they do suffer a little in comparison with their very involved, very visible opponents.

3. The people manning the polling station were professional, prepared, efficient and friendly. Is it like that everywhere? And where are these people when they’re not manning polling stations?

I left a little disappointed by the lack of voters – and candidates. And surprised that it didn’t seem to have made it on to the priority list of many people.

What were your experiences of voting today?

Description of essays on @R4Today was ju

Description of essays on @R4Today was just like describing a blog. So do essays really need to be ‘revived’ or have they just evolved?

BACK-TO-BASICS LOCALITY WINS BUSINESS

About 8 years ago, a second Indian restaurant opened in Richmond, North Yorkshire. It’s good. Since then, I haven’t set foot in the other Indian and hadn’t planned to. But today that changed thanks to a good old-fashioned initiative and some local emphasis.

Our offices are a few miles out of Richmond in converted stables on a country estate, with a number of other businesses. Yes, it’s beautiful but you don’t just stumble across it as you go around town – you have to make a special journey. That’s why we were impressed when the door knocked today and it was two guys from the ‘first’ Indian restaurant offering a loyalty discount card to businesses in return for two minutes of our time. It’s not an easy approach and there were no frills to their pitch but they were down-to-earth, polite and crucially, they really did stick to the two minutes. In return we have a 20% discount card.

This back-to-basics approach has really worked for us – they didn’t take the easy option. They decided to do something local but didn’t just hand out flyers or traipse round their neighbours to do it. They offered something of value and made an effort to deliver it.

It might not be the most imaginative initiative ever but that doesn’t matter. What does is that I and several others are preparing to go and give that restaurant a try. For sheer effort and giving it a go.

BBC R4′s You & Yours have created a lov

BBC R4′s You & Yours have created a love story from “reams of nonsensical Valentine’s press releases” Ouch PRs ~>http://bbc.in/9LJi0U