The Olympics are almost over (they will be by the time most read this) and I am very sad to see them finish. It has been fantastic in all aspects – from the sporting competitions and amazing athletes, to the friendliness of the people all over London to the fairly faultless organisation (well except for the ticketing fiasco).

I’ve been privileged to have attended one of the Diving competitions in the Olympic Park and it was wonderful to be part of it. The Park, the volunteers and the Diving were all magical. The G4S security mess actually was a godsend in my opinion as the Military were superb and most retailers should take customer service and friendliness lessons from them.

I’ve been watching the second half of the Olympics from New York and while I miss being in the thick of it, it has been so interesting to watch London and Britain from an International perspective. I won’t say NBC’s coverage has been great – to be honest the majority of their commentators have been rubbish (so stiff and making a lot of errors – makes me appreciate the BBC so much more). But what NBC have done really well is showcase the UK in a fantastic light – London and GREAT Britain has never looked better nor more appealing.

Admittedly, I was skeptical about how well the Games would go and how the World would view us. I am very happy to say I was wrong and trying hard not to sound bias in saying that London2012 may just have been the best Summer Olympic Games ever. I am also very happy to make a prediction that Tourism into the UK will rocket over the next few years as people flock to see us. We look great, the Paralympics will make us look even greater and I so very much hope that our inbound numbers show that all the work, money and effort was well worth it. From everything I’ve heard while here in New York, certainly the Yanks will be coming.

So well done to all those involved in making London2012 the best games ever – I am so proud to be a Londoner!

So there is a public fight between LinkedIn and Twitter. A basic tit for tat – if you don’t allow our application then we won’t use yours. So there!

Well I say hallelujah – this suits me fine. One of my biggest annoyances has been all those tweets clogging up my LinkedIn status posts. The majority of tweets in LinkedIn look unprofessional and I think it was just lazy to have them there. If I want to see your tweets, I will twitter with you. In LinkedIn, I want to know professionally what you’ve been up to. Never the twain should meet.

I’ve often said on Twitter that I’d ‘de-link’ you if you continue to put all your tweets into LinkedIn and believe me I have ‘de-linked’ numerous times with no regrets.

So twitter, you started a war and LinkedIn has responded – touché I say and big thanks too as you’ve done me a favour. Now if you could only get my colleagues to complete their LinkedIn profiles it would be bliss!

I’m the first one to tell local businesses that they should have a Facebook page. But it’s not just enough to post status updates galore and wait for the ‘likes’ to come in, especially when you’re unlikely to have the same social media budget as the big boys. Instead, you’ve got to be clever.

So I loved this story about ways to get your customers working for you to raise your profile. Adding a Facebook link to everything from the company website to email signatures is always good, but what will really transform your page is engaging with your customers face to face.

Forget the well-worn routes that work for household names. Instead, take a few risks and playing to your strengths – try personally targeting customers and getting them to spread the word, something which larger businesses can only dream of.

After all, a post by someone’s friend or family has far more chance of grabbing attention than any brand message direct from the owners. And what’s in it for your customers? How about offering an incentive if they post a picture of themselves on Facebook?

Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But it’s likely to get people talking – and for a few freebies, one memorable but cost-effective strategy could have a lot more customers queueing up to find out just why your business is all over Facebook. Who wouldn’t ‘like’ that?

2012 brings a fresh start – I need to begin as I mean to go so here is my first blog of the year. It is a plea…

Can we please LISTEN – especially to our clients! The number of times this past year I had to rescue jobs that other agencies and consultants messed up (4 in the last 4 months) was, although good for my business, unacceptable from a professional and industry perspective. And in almost every case it was because they didn’t listen to what the client wanted.

While we are selected for our knowledge and expertise, we need to respond and delight but not demand what the client gets. In the end, the customer is always right (stop screaming – I know I know there can be some difficult ones). But they do pay us to deliver to their mostly reasonable expectations.

So if a client loves the colour purple but its not part of their brand or colour palette, find some way to include it. Or if you know they aren’t the twitter type or truly won’t keep it going, then don’t recommend it. And if they say they aren’t happy with the font you’ve used to design their logo or in their website, then change it. A happy client will love what you’ve done for them and be proud to show off their new site, logo, banner, business card, ad etc. And then they’ll tell lots of people about you and that’s how business grows.

For the opposite is not worth thinking about – you’ll lose their business and other potential business. That is of course unless you want me to have it – I’ll happily take the new customers!

And if you need a good case in point about listening, then read this story about Verizon. They thought they could just add a small charge for payment services until an online campaign of 50k+ told them what they thought of the idea – oops now the charge is gone. They listened – shouldn’t have done it in the first place but good on them for bowing to the pressure for the unpopular move.

So my plea is this: take a full brief from your client and make sure you understand THEIR requirements. They chose you so now make them happy. It will be so worth it!

Social Media was made for the hostel and budget accommodation market – cost-effective and far reaching. And it’s a leveller – you can be a small fish in the big pond yet make more of an impact then the big boys if you do it well. Whatever the size and type of the accommodation business, Social Media must be integrated into all marketing activity!

Embrace social Media and all that comes with it. If you just dabble, you’ll get nowhere fast. Fail to answer that critical tweet or comment on TripAdvisor or other UGC sites and all other marketing efforts you might be proud of could go down the drain.

It’s amazing how many businesses think they have to be on Facebook or Twitter just because everyone else is or it’s the thing to do e.g. if you build it, it will be ‘liked’ automatically. Businesses need to have a fully-integrated marketing strategy so they can meaningfully interact and socialise with their fans and followers.

Too often the Social Media ‘expert’ is someone who has been assigned the task rather than a person who genuinely embraces the medium and all its possible outcomes. Your Social Media specialist needs passion, needs to know your product and services intimately, understand there are objectives and can communicate effectively, with personality.

The excuse that it’s hard to measure the result or get a ROI is frankly rubbish. More and more tools are available to watch impact – search engines now pull results from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and Google Analytics can measure the impact of Social Media. Plus the goal is not just to measure for a specific ROI but to gain engagement. It is a great way to connect with customers, build loyalty and grow your reputation.

So how do you use social media to get results from your marketing efforts?

1) Be active! Add engaging content often and don’t be silent for too long. An average of 10-20 tweets a day is a great start.

2) Share lots! Enable shares from your website, share other’s relevant content on Facebook and retweet tweets from others.

3) Show your social media links on all marketing material from your website to email and even offline such as on posters.

4) Think about the timing. The time to add Facebook posts or tweet is definitely an art form worth playing with. It is said that outside normal business hours gets a higher response.

5) Get engaged. Ask questions, encourage comments and make sure there is an actual personality behind the brand.

Social Media gets results but think about how to weave it throughout your sales & marketing strategy. It will be worth the effort.

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