9 Steps To Secure Your LinkedIn Business Relationships

We all worry about backing up our PC or Mac but what about your LinkedIn data?

What if for any reason you lose access to your account?

Imagine all those years of building up your network of amazing connections and all the articles and posts you spent hours creating. All gone!!!

So here’s my #mc2valuebomb to save you that stress!

BACK UP YOUR LINKEDIN DATA TODAY!

It’s actually easy to do too. So follow these 9 steps to secure your LinkedIn business relationships and have peace of mind that all your hard work will be saved! + I have also given you some more ways to enhance your online credibility even further!

1. Go to your “Privacy and Settings” section

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2. Go to the “Privacy” tab and find the bit saying “How LinkedIn Uses your Data”

3. Here you can just click on “Getting a copy of your data

4. You can choose to download everything or specific aspects eg just contacts. Choosing everything will take longer, but don’t worry it won’t literally be buffering and downloading.

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5. You actually get sent a Zip file with your data to the email address you have registered.

6. Now “Extract all files” and save each one in a folder on your server, pc or Mac

7. You can now consider adding your contacts information to your CRM system, but remember don’t just send emails to everyone and spam them. Think GDPR too!

8. Look through your articles and posts and maybe Re purpose articles / posts / content on other channels, as long as its still relevant and gives up to date information.

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9. You could turn your written content into short video clipsvlogs or stories

Was this information helpful?

Please feel free to add your comment and tag someone you think could also benefit from knowing about this. Oh and feel free to share this article if you wish. Thank you

 

 

10 Things Your Business Can Learn From Star Wars

By Zaf Sedat

USING THE FORCE

Every year on the 4th of May, fans worldwide celebrate Star Wars Day, with the pun ‘May the fourth be with you’ coming from the successful catchphrase from the series.

You may have never considered it, but business and Star Wars are similar in many ways.

If you think about it, you can see the Rebel Alliance as a small business in a world where the larger corporations rule. The Empire has power and resources while the Alliance has to depend on other things. As we start a new business most of us have only ourselves to depend on and we don’t have a lot of resources or power.

Here are some of the things start-ups and companies can learn from the Star Wars universe.

Believe in yourself

Star Wars fans out there will remember when Luke Skywalker was in the murky swamp with Yoda and he struggled with accepting that he had the Force within him. As long as he didn’t truly believe in himself, he couldn’t succeed.

The same goes for you and your start-up. You have to believe you have the Force, the power to start a business and to make a difference.

Luke was raised by kind people, but he didn’t know who he was and what his potential was and the same goes for a lot of us. We meander about in life not knowing truly who we are and what we are able to achieve.

But when we start believing in ourselves great things can happen. As with Luke when he lifted the X-Wing out of the swamp.

Know your strengths and weaknesses

Luke Skywalker is emotional but “the force is strong.”

The Emperor was clever but didn’t understand the power of paternal love.

Princess Leia is clever but sometimes reckless.

When we start a business, it is wise to evaluate where your strengths lie. Sometimes it might take a while to truly understand yourself but when we do it will help us in our start-ups or new business by teaching us how to avoid mistakes. The Galactic Empire saw only their own strengths and not their weaknesses and, in the end, they were defeated.

Don’t join the dark side

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Celebrate uniqueness

Customers, clients and employees bring their own skill to the business. To grow a business, we need to accept and celebrate this.

Don’t build a Death Star!!

It’s vital to be flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances. You should always consider alternatives to your course of action and develop multiple plans for achieving particular goals in case your plans don’t pan out. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If an approach doesn’t seem to work, change direction.

Accept failure and learn from your mistakes

What did everybody learn from Darth Vader’s punishment of Admiral Ozzel? No one will ever give any suggestions and will be afraid of telling the leader anything for fear of making a mistake. And also, that if your superior fails, you will be promoted.

Have clear vision for your goal

 If you know what your goal is, you will be able to inspire others to join you. The goals of the Rebel Alliance were simple, powerful and straightforward: Bring down the Galactic Empire, restore the Republic, and give people back their individual freedoms. How clear are yours?

Just do it!

Yoda says it better than anyone. “Do. Or do not. There is no Try.”

We often say; I will try. But as Yoda says maybe there is no try. Maybe we should just do it or not do it. Instead of using energy for countless tries we should just go ahead and do it, regardless of whether we are sure we are capable. Sometimes, I get the feeling we use the expression “I will try” as an excuse to not do our best. When we just go ahead and do it, we will have the opportunity to either succeed or fail. If we succeed, we will be joyous and if we fail, we will learn from our mistakes.

Yoda

Use the Force

Believe all humans carry a Force inside. This Force is what keeps us going when things are tough. To start a new business is not easy and you will have more than one moment when you wonder if this ever will work. You will have moments when you consider quitting what you have started.

When you feel like this, you should reach inside yourself and use your Force to keep going.

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Fascinating Social Media Facts: Did you know…?

The Addiction is Real!
Social media is not even a decade old and it has completely disrupted the way we live, work and socialise! We’ve put together some CRAZY social media facts! Who knows where we are headed?!

Have a look!

What do you think of these social media facts?

Let us know in the comments down what social media platform you are addicted to and which channels are you using for your business.
Get your FREE SOCIAL MEDIA HEALTH here :

www.mcquare.co.uk/hospitality

 

do you want take your business to the next level

Facebook Video Marketing Done Right

Unless you’ve been living off the grid these last few years, you will have noticed that videos are all over social media. Whether it’s friends posting a Facebook live rant, your favourite food blogger sharing a ‘how to make…’ tutorial or your teenager uploading Snaps or Insta stories all day, you can’t deny that video is everywhere!

Facebook users rack up 100 million hours of daily video watch time with experts predicting that by the end of this year,  74% of all internet of all internet traffic will come from video. Cisco predicts that video will make up 82% of the content we consume online by the year 2020.

What this tells us is that social video and Facebook video marketing in particular, should (if it’s not already) be part of your social media marketing startegy.

Here are a few tips to make sure it’s done right:

Content is king

Remember that people are constantly scrolling through their timelines looking for something that might interest or entertain them. In order to catch their eye use compelling visuals and make sure your video is entertaining.

If Content is King, Search is Queen

There are millions of users putting out video content daily. How do you make sure yours does not get lost in the noise? Optimise your video for search using relevant keywords for your content in your video tags, script, title, description and thumbnail. Make sure your titles are catchy and original and that your thumbnails stand out.

you deserve to be referred more business

Hook ’em

People generally tend to give a video 3 – 7 seconds before deciding whether to continue watching or not. Make those 3 -7  seconds count. Get your message in early or use those first few seconds on something compelling that will make them want to keep going.

Short and Sweet

Keep your video under 60 seconds. With so much entertaining content to choose from, people’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.

Tell a story

People respond best to a story where you start off showing a struggle followed by some sort of triumph. Make sure your videos tell a story. Find out what your target market’s pain points are and show how you can help them overcome those.

Shhh…keep it quiet!

Remember that your audience are probably checking their social media at work, on a crowded train or anywhere else public where they watching on mute might preferable. In fact, research shows that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Make sure your videos are easy to watch and easy to understand without sound. If your videos have speech, use Facebook’s own closed captions tool when uploading your video.

Re-use & recycle

Cross post your video to your other platforms including your website. Instagram and Snapchat stories are also a great source of content that can be shared to other platforms. Just save them to your smart phone and repurpose them onto another platform.

Pay to Play

Proud of your video? Why not show it off to an even larger audience through paid promotion. Boost the video or use Facebook Ad Manager. Remember though that Facebook Video ads work best for collecting viewer date for retargeting in future campaigns, rather than for conversion goals or for driving traffic to a landing page. This is because you would be splitting activity between clicking to watch the video and clicking through to the landing page. Very important to keep in mind!

do you want take your business to the next level

We’ll be sharing more tips soon on how you can boost your views for Facebook Live video.  Scroll down and sign up to get notified when we share new tips and articles to help you grow your business.

Learn how to harness the power of Referral Marketing to grow your business at our next workshop.

mc square work hard, play hard in Malta!

MC SQUARE WORK HARD, PLAY HARD IN MALTA!

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We’ve been dropping cheeky hints to Michael our MD, for ages about moving mc square headquarters to his country of birth Malta. This year, he finally took us up on our challenge by surprising our team with a week’s work trip to the beautiful Mediterranean Island. This was not only going to be a team building exercise, but an opportunity to brainstorm ideas and new strategies to develop and take mc square marketing to the next level.

We stayed in the beautifully charming village of Naxxar at Malta Haven,   Michael and Mari’s lovely 3-bedroom holiday apartment. The terrace views were to die for and perfect for out door entertaining, oops working!

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Mornings started early, like any other work day with a run or yoga followed by breakfast and then work on client’s social media accounts.

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Lunch was a lovely, light Mediterranean spread of “Gbejniet” traditional Maltese cheeses and crusty bread, cold meats, fresh vegetables & fruit, olives and a traditional Maltese spread called “Bigilla” (drooling just thinking about it) that we absolutely fell in love with!

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The afternoons were our time to enjoy the best of Maltese sunshine and sit on the roof terrace to work on mc square. This was our time to collectively come up with ideas on how to take the business forward and how to enhance our existing service, experience and product offer for our clients. Michael started the week by sharing his learnings from his recent trips to the USA, particularly his business development programme with Asentiv. He also took the time to find out from each member of staff what our personal and career objectives are and how he, Mari and the company could help each of us achieve these over time. This was a wonderful way to bond as a team as well as contribute to the future and growth of the company.

We also invited Keno Ogbo, our expert Web Developer on our trip, which helped us understand how we can further integrate our online / digital strategies for our clients. This included developing our Sales Funnel processes and creating Landing Pages that convert into leads from our Facebook Advertising we manage for our clients.

We’re glad to say we’ve come away having achieved a hell of a lot, including setting out the following:

– improved and more efficient ways of working to be bale to give even more for our clients

– new services and packages for that are going to help existing and new clients work achieve the results they want.  This included a greater focus on Social Media Coaching and for Michael Cuschieri to develop his public speaking and Referral Marketing Training programme

– ways in which each team member can utilise their individual talents to successfully grow mc square and help our clients grow their businesses

– a clearer VISION for mc square and ways of achieving our goals

We would like to thank Mari and Michael for planning and organising this fabulous mc square Malta experience. It was an AMAZING experience, one that we will never forget and one that we will always cherish. We thoroughly encourage business owners or employees, to ask your boss to take time to work “ON the business, not just IN the business”! We’re now waiting to hear dates of our next trip!

Of course, we couldn’t visit Malta and leave without seeing the best of what the island had to offer, and Michael and Mari were wonderful hosts and tour guides.

Here are some photographs from our week in Malta!

Enjoy!

Tadiwa & Shirin

Taking a break from work in the beautiful town of Valetta
Taking a break from work in the beautiful town of Valetta

 

These Maltese pastries were worth the extra pounds of weight gained
These Maltese pastries were worth the extra pounds of weight gained

 

A beautiful view of Naxxar at night form the Malta Haven roof top
A beautiful view of Naxxar at night form the Malta Haven roof top

 

Stunning view of Valletta Harbour
Stunning view of Valletta Harbour

 

Stunning view of Valletta Harbour
Stunning view of Valletta Harbour

 

We couldn’t leave without posing to take a photo with our hero Einstein
We couldn’t leave without posing to take a photo with our hero Einstein

 

Talking mc square strategy on the beach. Not a bad office view…
Talking mc square strategy on the beach. Not a bad office view…

 

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So…is your Marketing working? Do you need help? Contact us and let’s work together to get you the results you need.

More, More, More – Social Media Masterclass

MORE, MORE, MORE
More Social, More Engagement, More Business!

The Event – 14th July 2016
In today’s business world social media marketing is one of the most efficient ways to market and grow your business. Many companies are already benefiting hugely from this growing channel and it has most definitely become an integral aspect of any successful brand’s marketing mix. The aim of this conference on the 14th July 2016 is to help business stay on the leading edge of our social sphere. Your experience will include the sharing of invaluable social media knowledge and experience that will ensure your company or organisation stands out from your competitors online and helps increase your ROI.

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Who is it for?
• Business professionals already using social media to increase their online presence and credibility but wanting better results
• Businesses that want to step up their social media activities
• Businesses wanting to start using social media and looking for an insight into the most up to date direction to take.
• Business owners and/or their marketing teams.

Avoid disappointment and BOOK your place today.

BOOK NOW

 

Why attend?
If your company is already using social media for your business then you will know how quick things change in the social world. Also you may be questioning whether you are achieving the results you had hoped for. Well you have found the right place as we have some great solutions. In addition our expert speakers will be providing you an insight into the latest ways you should now be using social media to generate more business opportunities and leads!

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Our Keynote speaker and event organiser, Michael Cuschieri from mc square marketing has recently attended the Social Media Marketing World Summit in San Diego, the largest gathering of social media who’s who in the world. Together with over 3200 delegates (only 41 from the United Kingdom!) he listened and soaked up the expert knowledge from these thought leaders, which will impact your future social media success in business. He will now be sharing his top insights that were presented from over 100 speakers at this event, including Michael Stelzner, Guy Kawasaki, Mark Schaefer, Kim Garst, Gary Vaynerchuk, Mari Smith, Ian Cleary, Andrea Vahl, Rick Mulready, Jay Baer, Joel Comm, Shaun McBride, to name a few.

Your day is going to be actioned packed with some leading speakers in their field, each focusing on one aspect that you truly need to be embracing to stay ahead of your competitors. You will leave with practical and quick win ideas that have been proven to give success. Easy to use and refer to guides on how to implement your learning. Presentations will not be just death by PowerPoint, but interactive and you will also have the opportunity to speak to speakers during the day.

Oh we’ll have a bit of fun too! Table Tennis, Pool, Table Soccer will be available throughout the day at breaks thanks to our amazing venue Rileys Sport Bar. While our masterclass sessions will be held in a private meeting area all delegates will also have access to the venue’s wonderful leisure facilities.

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What’s on offer?
So what will you get from this amazing event:
• Pre Event networking via exclusive Facebook Group for speakers and delegates
• A warm welcome from our event team and speakers
• Tea, coffee and pastries on arrival
• 5 Masterclass sessions delivered by expert speakers in their areas of expertise
• Tea & coffee and biscuits throughout breaks
• Lunch
• Plenty of networking opportunities with other professional businesses and speakers
• Drinks & Nibbles at the end of the day courtesy of mc square marketing
• Workbook to compliment sessions and write your amazing tips and advice you will be hearing
• At least 1 new golden nugget of advice to help your business
• Access to presenters’ materials post event (where available)
• List of delegates attending and their social media details
• Potential business opportunities through networking
• Free gift

Sound like there’s a lot on offer? Yes there is, but we just love sharing our knowledge, so book on today.

BOOK NOW

 

Outline Sessions

Session 1: Social media Overview, Statistics and HOT NEWS and TIPS from Social Media Marketing World 2106 San Diego #SMMW16

Session 2: YouTube Video advertising and how you can do it cost effectively with tips and tricks from Amy McManus

Session 3: Snapchat is not just for kids! Find out how top brands and businesses are already using and why you need to get on board from Dan Knowlton

Session 4: Websites and the importance of how you should use your website to capitalise on the traffic being driven from your social channels and how you can measure success from Keno Ogbo

Session 5: Facebook adverts. You need to PAY to PLAY! How to use Facebook Ads to help generate TARGETED Leads and enquiries into your sales funnel from Michael Cuschieri

Session 6: Live Video – How to use it for your business, what equipment you need, how to do it and when. Speaker TBC

Please are limited so book your seat NOW!


Cost & Times
Delegate rates for our 1 day More, More, More Social Media Masterclass Sessions London is ONLY £145 (+ VAT), though Early Bird prices can apply, currently at £97 if booked before the 24th June 2016

Discount
Get 10% off course bookings if your organisation is a registered charity or if you have 2 or more staff attending we can offer a discount (not applicable to Early Bird pricing).

BOOK NOW


Your More, More, More Masterclass Ticket (inc vat)
Full Name
Email Address



Times
Thursday 14th July 2016
09.00 – Doors open for registration
09.05 – Open networking
09.45 – Masterclass Sessions commence
16.30 – End of Masterclass Sessions
16.35 – Drinks and nibbles + Networking

The Venue
Rileys Sports Bar, 80 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4TE
Nearest stations Charing Cross and Piccadilly Circus
Telephone: 020 7930 0393


Future workshops
Social media Strategy – Developing a strategic approach to maximise the business opportunities available from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (Intermediary Level) ½ day – Register your interest here

Getting Started – Introduction on how to use Facebook and Twitter for your business (Beginners level) ½ day – Register your interest here

In-house courses
If you require, we can arrange to have this event or other bespoke social media workshops delivered either at your location or any chosen preferred venue. Please ask for more details here or call our office to discuss.

Further enquiries
Twitter: @mcsquareltd  |  Facebook: mc square marketing
Phone: 020 8367 5659
Email: [email protected]
www.mcsquare.co.uk

What’s hot in Social Media Marketing? #SMMW16

Social Media Marketing World 2016
San Diego

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WOW – yet another amazing SMMW conference hearing from the experts and meeting like-minded professionals in the digital and social media industry.

Following a long flight to San Diego courtesy or Virgin Atlantic and Delta Airways the learning soon began with pre conference workshops on Sunday afternoon. I chose to attend a session on “How to create videos on your mobile device that your audience will watch and share”. Some great tips on how to capture better filming, use of light and depth of focus. Introduced me to the Filmic app which helps you shoot better films too. Now need to practice!

The official conference then kicked off in true social media style with a networking event on the USS Midway with over 3000 (only 42 from the UK!!!) delegates enjoying the food, drink, entertainment, including flight simulators and tours of the ship itself. For those not used to networking the Networking Bingo Card game was a great way and opportunity to meet lots of new people and sharing experience and knowledge.

The conference then kicked off the following morning with Mike Stelzner from Social Media Examiner sharing his findings from a recent survey they carried out. Some of these I have highlighted in my overview paper for you to download. Next we hit the road running with the streams of workshop sessions, 10 running at any one time!!!! This is where decisions had to be made as to which to attend. My plan was to focus on what I believed would benefit our clients to ensure we continue to add value and get them results.

The topics we chose were also in line with what I believed were the key MKT’sMust Know Takeaways from the whole of the conference:

–  Live Video is the answer to success
–  Snapchat is here
–  You have to Pay to Play – Social Advertising
–  Content Marketing is still alive

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Throughout the conference we were lucky to hear from some amazing experts including Mari Smith, Gary Vaynerchuk, Kim Garst, Mark Schaefer, Jon Loomer, Rick Mulready, Ian Cleary…. To name just a few. We were also delighted to have managed to get one of the Keynote Speakers, Mark Schaefer do a LIVE BLAB with us back to the UK and my business coach Denyse Whilier. Once again thank you Mark for your valuable time and contribution. If you missed this, look out for our video recording due to be uploaded soon or go and see him live in Dublin in May – Book here

So if you asked me what my 4 MKTs were, they would be:

1 – LIVE VIDEO
This was by far the biggest message that was consistently projected or touched upon in most sessions. Last year it was about “Native Videos” on Facebook this year it was about the power of using “Live Video” to engage with your following or to use it to grow your “tribe”. It’s about “Video in real time, at the right time”

As Kim Garst put it “LIVE VIDEO plays a big part in the know like trust factor”. It’s all about building relationships and showing your real self and not worrying about the actual broadcast itself but the content and messages you are sharing.

Whilst Facebook Live is probably the biggest player in this arena so far, we are also seeing growth in use of BLAB too and of course Periscope is still alive and kicking, unlike our little Meerkat who has left the social playing field. Look out too for YouTube who are already trialling their “Live streaming” offer.

2 – SNAPCHAT
Well until the conference I was not 1 of the 100 million users already snapping away on this social media channel!

With the number of daily video views going from 2 Billion to 8 Billion in less than a year, we need to jump on this opportunity. The time is right to join now and start building your following. As Gary Vaynerchuk said “you need to go to where the attention is at its highest” and Snapchat is where it is for him at the moment. Other big brands are using this channel through having key influencers like SHonduras, ShaunAyala and celebrities like DJKhaled endorse or promote their products.

Whilst 77% of users are 18+ it’s not just for millennials and one thing we should not forget is that they will also grow to potentially become your future customers. We are also living in the moment and want to know what is happening now and Snapchat gives us a network for story telling on mobile device. Short quick visuals, video and messages that are live for only 24 hours

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3 – SOCIAL ADVERTISING
Have you noticed that organic traffic on and to your website from Facebook, is down?

This could be due to Content over load, Bad content, Poor tracking or simply Facebook Algorithms. This is because we are now in a PAY TO PLAY arena.

Again here the focus was on Facebook advertising and video advertising and little mention of Twitter. The message was also about not just placing ads or boosting posts but about how to integrate it into your sales funnel process and trigger for Re targeting marketing. No surprise either, that Facebook Video Ads are also performing and delivering results for clients. Being clear on the objective of your advert and including great relevant video content that adds value to the viewer is key.

4 – CONTENT MARKETING
Mark Schaefer, Michael Stelzner and Mitch Joel discussed at length whether there was a future for Content Marketing and Mark rightly stated that we have to adapt, so what was marketing content 2 years ago is dead, but it has now been replaced with different type of content marketing or channels to put your content on.

I totally agree with the team and what was also highlighted was that it’s not just about the numbers but also having the right people in that audience you are talking to. With organic reach falling it is also clear that our audiences are shrinking so engaging with key influencers is growing in importance, together with having a clear content marketing plan in the first place. Then you can decide on the appropriate channels to communicate through.

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Mark Shaefer’s final keynote session to close the conference was likewise focused on both ROI of Social media and content marketing. I particularly liked his comment saying that “Content is the starting line not the finishing line” and can totally relate to the fact that “85% of people say reading content that other people share helps them understand and process brand information and events”. We really do value our friends’ opinions and continue to base buying decisions on this.

His final point to close the conference was all about what do we need to do to stand out in this noisy world?

He put it simply to “Be more human! It will create the awareness and gain loyalty”

A fantastic way to end 3 full on days of learning from the experts and now our goal is to put this into action for our social media management clients. You too can find out more about the key learnings by downloading my detailed white paper, full of notes from the sessions attended at the conference. Simply click here for access.

We will also be sharing more of our MKTs, top tips and ideas on our “Einstein’s Formulas to Success” group on Facebook so come along and join Einstein’s tribe. We’ll keep you up to date with the latest news and tips to help with marketing your business or organisation with guest speakers appearing and sharing their knowledge too. Join here

We met back up with people from last year’s conference and made some more new amazing friends too. Even met up with a fellow BNI member from Vermont, friends from Australia, Toronto, New Jersey, New Zealand, to name a few and a people from the UK too.

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50% OFF Social Media – BLACK FRIDAY OFFER

 

Save 50% on our Silver package Social Media management services! BLACK FRIDAY OFFER now ONLY £8 per day!

Your business will be seen by 1000’s of potential new clients and keep you in touch with your existing clients. We THINK creatively for you, we WRITE for you and we TALK for you on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn …… You tell us which channels you want and we can help. Or we can also advise you on the right channels for your business.

We believe Social Media is about connecting with your target market. It’s being where your clients, customers or users are, and harnessing the power of the internet with a relatively low key style marketing and making your campaign a two way conversation ONLINE.

BONUS OFFER – First 5 enquiries will also receive a FREE Social Media Strategy consultation, when they take up the social media management offer. This is valued at £500!

What you get
Your dedicated community manager will provide you with a professional social media service for 4 months at this discounted price. This offer is valid for enquiries made online by 8pm Tuesday 1st December. Number of clients able to be accepted to this offer is limited. T&Cs apply and open to new customers only. All prices are subject to vat.

Click on image to enlarge for more details

BLACK FRIDAY 15 2-1

DON’T MISS OUT! Please complete the form below to be eligible for this offer, BEFORE 1st December 2015

Register for this amazing offer

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