I use email to stay in contact with many of my close friends and family, let alone to communicate with clients, colleagues and potential new business.

Email is still the best way to contact me, as alerts come straight through to my BlackBerry.

That’s not to say that I don’t pick up Facebook messages, direct messages on Twitter and comments on my blog. As well as old school phone calls and text messages (when I’m not too busy replying to emails!).

I completely agree that email can waste a lot of time at work, if it is used innapproriately. You know you when you take a day off work and return to a stupid amount of new messages in your inbox to start filing through.

The Independent article discusses the CEO of the information technology services company Atos, Thierry Breton, and his decision to ban his staff from sending each other emails. He has been complaining that the emails waste time and are outmoded.

Only 10 per cent of the 200 electronic messages his employees receive per day turn out to be useful, Breton claims.

Perhaps a different way to solve this issue would be to encourage alternative ways to communicate with eachother at work. A weekly staff meeting to share big announcements and important news is an obvious solution which in some offices still doesn’t happen. A company Facebook Page is a good place to share interesting articles and studies, instead of emailing links around.

Courtesy of Sebastiaan ter Burg/Flickr

I recently watched an insightful documentary by Dragon’s Den Peter Jones, called How We Made Our Millions. In the programme Peter met Richard Reed, one of the founders of Innocent the smoothie company. Richard had a similar view about emails to Thierry Breton, although he knew that in some situations they couldn’t be avoided. As a solution, he encouraged members of staff to approach him directly at his desk in the middle of the office floor. He even had a spare bamboo hanging seat for anyone to make themselves comfortable while they spoke to him. Peter teased his ‘hippy’ approach, but it seemed to be effective.

Thinking about all of my contacts that I keep in touch with by email, switching to social media just wouldn’t work. For a start it is difficult to have a conversation with an 140 character limit on Twitter, and Facebook messages are often not picked up for a couple of days. My parents are tech savvy, but I know that email is the quickest way to reach them as they check it most often. You might think this is just because of an age difference but many of my 25 year old friends communicate most through their email.

Services that I have blogged about before like Groupon are heavily reliant on email marketing, and big UK brands still get effective results from their email campaigns.

I think, as Adam Sherwin concludes in his article, ‘If email is dying, it will be a lingering demise.’

Huge superbrands like Cadbury’s and Burberry were among the first to setup their Brand Pages, even Labour leader Ed Miliband has his team updated away for him. But are these pages going to matter?

I received some questions from clients asking whether they should be using Google+, what was the point, and what should they be posting, is it better to have +1′s or followers? To be honest at the moment, and with very little direction coming from Google – there is no correct answer!

I advised many to setup a Google+ Page (there are some very clear instructions on how to do this over at HubSpot) in their business name and populate it with some images and company information. At least this way if a user searches for them, they will appear.

For now, it is difficult to see whether brands are going to use Google+ as an extension of Facebook and post the same content, or whether they will be using it for completely different content.

It seemed like some super brands, with huge Facebook communities, were asking the same questions too. In the example below, ASOS.com seemed equally baffled by the purpose of Google+ Brand Pages, and yesterday asked their customers what they would like to see on the Google+ Page.

No one has yet offered a suggestion, and with 47 followers and 7 +1′s it seems the ASOS community don’t really care about Google+ at the moment. The brand continued to post messages similar to their Facebook offering, mentioning current offers.

Cadbury’s seemed more prepared for the launch of Google+, with a themed page using Google’s colours, the brand ran the first Google+ competition to win an exclusive chocolate bar in return for suggestions of how to use the Page.

MTV UK have decided to simply cross post their updates from Facebook into Google+. Is this technique going to work? Currently the same Michael Jackson story has received no engagement in Google+, but has gained 17 likes and 5 comments in Facebook. 

It seems like currently no brand is using Google+ the ‘right way’. Every brand is testing out what works for their audience and what doesn’t. The most interesting phase will be the next few weeks to see whether user numbers remain, and whether brands receive positive levels of engagements from users. If not, then I really don’t see the point in another social media service unless it has something completely new to offer.

3 quick rants about Google +

1. The long URL’s look so ugly and are hard to share. Get vanity URL’s asap!

2. Google + is a wild west at the moment with many fake accounts being setup for top brands like Coca-Cola and Starbucks. How is this policed?

3. It’s frustrating to use with those of us with more than 1 Google account (I have quite a few for various clients… too many incognito tabs!)

A couple of months ago I was thinking about carrying out my own ‘Cull’. I began to scroll through my newsfeed to see who should be on my hit list, or who was boring me with their self indulgent status updates. This is when I realised that most of my newsfeed consists of brand Page status updates. Perhaps this is because I work in social media, so keep a close eye on some of the country’s top brands.

However, soon after this a blog post by Adam Field, Head of Social at PokerStars, appeared on one of my favourites, The Wall Blog.

‘Are brands taking over Facebook?’ Adam asked. He said: “I am actually a fan of over 100 different brand pages on Facebook, which sounds a lot but some statistics from 2010 say that 20 million users become fans of pages every single day, so in the grand scheme of things, it’s probably a reasonable number.” So he agrees with me, but then he works in the same industry so perhaps we have a skewed view over newsfeeds.

Today, I noticed an article on Mashable about how consumers are interacting with brands on Facebook. The study, conducted by Constant Contact and research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey, stated that 56% of those under 35 interact with their favourite brands on Facebook.

The study said that when it comes to ‘liking’ brands on Facebook, the main reason respondents said they ‘like’ a brand on Facebook is because they are a customer (58%) or because they want to receive discounts and promotions (57%). These are the same reasons as me, but I also tend to ‘like’ competitor brands to my clients, brands that are running exciting competitions or breaking boundaries, or brands that are likely to produce some relevant content for my clients.

Contrary to my theory, the study claimed that 78% of consumers who ‘like’ brands on Facebook said they ‘like’ fewer than ten brands. Does this mean that their newsfeed is not clogged up with brands, and is a nice mix?

I’ve been meaning to write a blog about this subject for a while, so apologies if you feel this has been discussed already, but I’d really like to hear my readers’ thoughts on this. What makes you like a Facebook Page? And is your newsfeed mainly friends or brands?

A taster of my Facebook newsfeed

This is why I was excited to be asked to take part in the StartUp Britain Summer Bus Tour 2011 this week. I attended the tour bus in Birmingham on Tuesday and had a great time!

The StartUp Britain Bus

The tour, which is visiting 14 locations across the country, is on an ongoing pursuit to encourage budding entrepreneurs in all areas of Britain to start up their own businesses.

I was on board in Victoria Square in Birmingham speaking to all kinds of people; from established businesses wondering how to grow their customer base, to people with an initial enterprise idea looking for online marketing advice to help kick-start their company.

I had a hugely varied day on the StartUp Britain Bus Tour. There was a good variety of people in the Square ready to get advice in how to start up their businesses, or how to grow them.

There was a really good turnout of interesting speakers and experts on the bus including Melody Hossaini - Apprentice 2011 candidate, Intel, Microsoft, a European patenting expert who had helped get candidates onto Dragon’s Den, and plenty of financial advisors including Barclays.

Alongside all of the other business experts, i I spoke to accountants, university students, beauty consultants, wedding planners, and travel website owners – offering them advice in digital marketing, particularly around blogging, Facebook and Twitter. A lot of people were interested in how to network using LinkedIn, and also how to set up a website and get going.

For most people who were in the early stages of their business, I recommended setting up a free Wordpress blog, so that they could begin to get some traction online and gain some customer insights without having to break the bank on a website.

It was an inspiring experience to see people with so much confidence and passion behind their ideas, and with other experts from Barclays, Microsoft, Intel and RSM Tenon on board the bus – it really was a worthwhile experience for entrepreneurs to attend. I would strongly recommend anyone with an idea, business or an interest in enterprise to attend the rest of the Tour – which runs into September.

They have been on billboards, advertising on the side of London buses, on TV and also on Facebook…

The Inbetweeners Facebook Page already has over 3 million likes, so what a great place to market the movie from? There was absolutely no point in setting up a separate page for the movie when there is already such an enthusiastic and engaged fan page on the official Page.

This also means that when they run sponsored homepage adverts on Facebook they are having a huge impact, because Facebook is pulling in their ‘Sponsored Stories’ facts that 13 of my friends already like the page. As Nielson found in 2009, 90% of consumers trust their friends’ recommendations over advertising.

I also have to note that I love the use of copy in this advert. The tone is spot on and the tongue in cheek innuendo at the end is perfect Inbetweeners humour. Can’t wait to see the film!

Facebook and Twitter were these brand new marketing platforms that more businesses were exploring. But with marketing teams already busy, and without having the luxury of hiring external social media help or a dedicated in-house expert – it was all a little daunting to clients.

Anything to help the management of all these extra channels couldn’t hurt right? So a lot of businesses synched up their different social media accounts, posting the same message across Facebook and Twitter.

I have always agreed that Facebook and Twitter are very different platforms. Twitter is increasingly becoming a broadcasting channel where you can release short bursts of information, share easily and on the move. Whereas Facebook is better for conversational pieces, discussions and event organising.

This morning I came across a great article that explains why you should tailor your updates to each channel separately, and although it’s not the worst crime to cross post the same message on both from time to time – I would strongly urge you to shape your content to your Twitter and Facebook audiences.

So, have a read of  Twitter, Google+ And Facebook – 5 Reasons Why You Should Never, Ever Cross The Streams written by Shea Bennett on Media Bistro.

Although, I do disagree with the last line “If you want results then you have to do the work. There are no short cuts to success.” There are, or I would be out of a job!

Photo by asthmahelper/Flickr

Stylist compiled a lookback at Amy through her short 27 year life in the shape of a photo gallery, and Vogue put together an article highlighting the fashion world’s tributes to the “style icon”.  Both publications featured Amy in their pages and on their sites countless times over the past few years, and have every relevance to her.

I was therefore shocked when I saw a friend tweet the Huffington Post article ‘Amy Winehouse’s Untimely Death Is a Wake Up Call For Small Business Owners’, with the words ‘N.B this is not a joke’. Even when I clicked on the article I thought it would lead to a mock blog post or maybe even some sort of spam. But no, it was a real article written in all seriousness by ‘award winning entrepreneur & marketer’  Tricia Fox. Disgusting.

The insensitive and pointless Huffington Post article

The article (which I am not going to link to as that would just help their cause) explains how small business owners need to take care of themselves if they are going to be successful, as they are the product. Fox writes, “Whether you are a popstar, plumber or a business consultant, the same rules still apply”.

As a freelance social media consultant, I am technically a small business owner and I have to say – this article added no value whatsoever. It is pretty damn obvious that if I want to be successful I shouldn’t be living a party lifestyle like Amy Winehouse. The article appears to blame the ‘brand’ of Amy Winehouse for her downfall and fails to mention that her much-documented and painful battle with alcohol and class A drugs had anything to do with it.

After reading some of the reactions on Twitter to this article, I came across other websites doing the same. Sam England details Mashable jumping on the bandwagon in his blog post ‘How tech blog Mashable used Amy Winehouse death as linkbait for pageviews’.

Mashable have apparently been losing traffic and has also been criticised lately for a lack of original content, but does that mean the ‘social media news and web tips’ hub has a right to suddenly cover entertainment news just because it’s trending on Twitter? I don’t think so.

Martin Belam tweeted: “What $news_SEO_term can teach us about $my_vertical” is very common formula.”

I understand that websites will want to write about big news stories and trending topics, but before they do they should really consider if it is relevant to their audience and website first.

Before any of you criticise me for doing just the same thing, I just wanted to make it clear I wrote this blog post out of disgust, not for hits.

But what about super brands, with global presences – how good are they at customer service through social media? Well the opportunity arose yesterday for me to try it out.

After recently reading a post about Dominos Pizza by James Whatley, I was inspired to order some last night purely for the ease and simplicity of it. After watching my order status change from ‘Being prepared’ to ‘in Oven’ to ‘Delivery’  I was surprised when after an hour our pizza still hadn’t arrived. I am not going into detail but after 2 phone calls to the Mare Street branch of Dominos Pizza in Hackney, and 2 and a half hours (yep!) later – still no pizza. I have walked up to central Hackney in 15 minutes before. Surely on a scooter it takes about 5 minutes?

I want my pizza!

This is when I decided to take to my Twitter account to see what was going on. I noticed that in very small print at the bottom of the menu, Dominos has a London Twitter account.

In the meantime my boyfriend filled out an official complaint form online, which no doubt is sitting in a full inbox somewhere in the USA.

Finally after 3 hours our pizza arrived, with no apology and no complimentary Ben & Jerry’s (which I was really hoping for!). It was cold. I am definitely going to think twice before using them again.

Last night, two hours after my first tweet to Dominos which isn’t bad, I received a tweet asking for my details. Needless to say there was no clear apology here, and they inappropriately added kisses to the tweet.

I have sent them our address, but have not heard anything yet. I wonder what is going to happen? Will keep you posted.

*Update 23/7/11*

We have been offered the same order again, for free. Hmmm would have preferred a refund.

*Update 26/7/11*

Since writing this blog post, and it being circulated over Twitter, we received a call from the manager of the Hackney branch. He offered us the same order again, for free. I wasn’t 100% satisfied with this (as you can see in my comment below) as I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use Dominos again. However since then, we have received tweets from Dominos UK and Donimos London and an email from their Marketing team apologising and offering a full refund. Great to see a quick response from Dominos and they acted openly and honestly about their mistakes. I think they compensated!

 Photo courtesy of Twitter and Ben Sutherland/Flickr

I wrote this article on spelling online for Croud, a brand new digital marketing agency in Shoreditch, that I am working at….

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An online entrepreneur has claimed that poor spelling online is costing the UK millions in lost revenue for internet businesses.

BBC News reported today that Charles Duncombe, an internet entrepreneur responsible for a number of travel, mobile phone and clothing websites, has criticised poor spelling on the internet.

Mr Duncombe, who runs retail website TightsPlease.co.uk, has worked out that a spelling error next to a product on an online shopping website can halve sales of that particular product.

Duncombe studied visits to his website, and discovered that he made twice as much money from a product once a spelling mistake had been corrected.

“If you project this across the whole of internet retail, then millions of pounds worth of business is probably being lost each week due to simple spelling mistakes,” Mr Duncombe, director of the Just Say Please group, told the BBC.

Here at Croud, we completely agree with Mr Duncombe.

A spelling error on a website can immediately put a user off, especially when it comes to ecommerce.

Although now a booming industry, with online sales running at projected as £527m per week in the UK, online shopping still has a huge element of trust involved.

A number of questions can run through a shopper’s head before making a purchase online. ‘Will it be good quality?’, ‘Will it fit me?’, ‘Will the product turn up?’ and this is all before they reach the checkout.

With internet security including spam and phish attacks still being such a hot topic, how can users be expected to want to hand over their credit card details to a site littered with spelling and grammar errors?

There is a huge element of trust involved, and that’s why there should be a focus on the credibility of a website.

We would recommend not only reading through copy for your website yourself, but getting as many eyes on it as possible. This is where user testing can be handy, or using a copywriter to check over your site.

Don’t just rely on your computer’s spell check as these often don’t pick up on fatal errors, which could be costing you money.

Image courtesy of SCA Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget/Flickr.

Happy Father’s Day! I got Vampire Weekend.

Infographic courtesy Sonos, image courtesy of iStockphoto.