Having a good website is one thing, but managing it moving forward needs careful planning and consideration. As we all are aware, a website should never stand still. New content is always good to share, especially as you learn more and grow within your business. Blogging is now accepted as one of the best ways to grow your business, and share knowledge and experience online, which is one of the reasons we have adopted WordPress as the platform of choice for all our websites.Read the rest of this entry »
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Linked In – 5 fundamental things every small business owner should know
January 16th, 2012 by AlisonWithout stating the obvious, Linked In as many of us are aware, has become the largest professional networking website in the world, and is currently ranked 4th after FB, Twitter and Google.
Interestingly, having done some extensive research on Linked In, I now find myself knowing more than I thought I knew, which is a good thing I guess. I meet many business owners and individuals who struggle to see the benefit of Linked In including some sceptics on my recent workshop. For some reason they just didn’t “get it”. So I thought it would be a great idea to share some of the fundamental tips that even the basic business owner should know on Linked In. Here goes:Read the rest of this entry »
Is Your Website “Visitor-Ready” for 2012? 5 Tips On How To Get It In Shape
January 9th, 2012 by AlisonPart of my job is to help businesses understand the importance of how up to date content can affect their website, in a good way. Frustratingly, when I explain about how the content of their website is paramount to keeping visitors’ interested in them and their business, I do meet with a fair amount of resistance. I think this is because it’s a change! I come across many clients who do their jobs admirably and who are happy doing what they’ve always done. But websites have changed away from being just brochure websites to becoming much more “interactive and engaging”.Read the rest of this entry »
Microsoft will not call you!
December 13th, 2011 by LionelOver the years Microsoft have been blamed for many things, for web designers like us here at LA Marketing & Design they have caused issues with changes to their browser, updates to their operating systems etc.
Of late we have received many calls from clients saying that Microsoft had contacted them by phone to do a check on their computer. They sound very convincing saying things like “I’m calling from Microsoft, this is a Government backed scheme to safeguard you computer, and it’s free!”Read the rest of this entry »
Are you ready for 2012? 5 things to think about for your online marketing strategy in the new year
December 9th, 2011 by AlisonChristmas is coming and we are all, I’m sure, looking forward to it. Time to relax, enjoy and get into the Christmas spirit, but what will you really be doing? Will you switch off from work completely? Or will you be checking your mobile for emails, and tweeting about what you’re up to?
The holidays are often a good time to take the opportunity to re-evaluate your business; where you are at now, where you want your business to be this time next year, and then how are you going to achieve it. So time to put your phone down, here are a few things that you need to include in your marketing strategy:Read the rest of this entry »
How to grow and engage your facebook fanpage
November 25th, 2011 by Alison
Many business owners struggle to understand how to build a following on facebook and make this amazing tool work for them. There is a lot of help and support out there on the internet if you know where to look, so to save you all getting frustrated I will aim to post regular updates here when I come across useful information you all may be interested in.
I stumbled across this blog which is interviewing Amy Porterfield, who has become an expert on Facebook and who is the author of : Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies. This interview is engaging and enlightening and I hope you find it useful.
How to grow and engage your facebook fanpage
Web Design So Last Year!
November 8th, 2011 by Lionel
Web Design So Last Year
To have a web presence is a given for just about every business and anyone with something to say, but just like fashion it is a job in itself to look at what the future holds and what will be the next ‘must have’ on your website.
We have seen a massive move towards ‘open source’ programmes and applications like WordPress. Open source is a culmination of many people with varying skills and specialisations pooling their resources to develop something that benefits the greater mass market.
Trello, a great way to organise and manage your team
October 29th, 2011 by Alison
There seems to be a plethora of new types of social media websites appearing on a more and more frequent basis across the internet. The latest one I have stumbled across looks an amazing piece of software for all you busy people out there who have many balls to juggle at any one time, from managing busy workloads both at work and at home.
Well take a look at Trello. This looks like it could help you solve and organise all these tasks in one place. If you’re working in a team or as part of an organisation where you need to keep up to date with many different people on a project, then this is a great tool to help you do this. Likewise you can integrate this within your personal tasks too, and never lose track of anything ever again.
If you have a Google account, it makes it easier to sign in too. Let me know what you think.
Time to Ring the Changes?
October 24th, 2011 by Lionel
Are you bored with what you are saying at networking events? The chances are that there are many attending that have not heard your pitch before. The issue is that because you’re bored of hearing it your intonation and delivery have changed over a period of time from an enthusiastic out-pouring to a kind of down-beat, grey noise. Time to ring the changes!
One of the most amazing things asked of me at one of my networking groups (NRG) was not “What do you do?” Instead I was asked to consider a slightly different question, “What are you for?” My head was spinning for days when I heard this, and yet it is so simple. The example I was given simply explained that if asked “What do you do?” the chances are you will recite what’s on your business card. This is kind of what we do sometimes when at networking events.
So ask yourself the same question “What are you for?” do you save peoples time, do you save people money, do you find the pain in a business and find ways to dissipate it?
A simple example that allows you to add value to your service.
Q. What do you do?
A. I clean shoes, any shoes, I just clean shoes.
Ring the changes!
Q. What do you do?
A. I clean and polish shoes & boots, any colour, any size. When I’m finished you will be so pleased that your confidence will go through the roof, and who knows that might be all it takes to win your next deal. I see my job as making people look good!
A little silly I know, but it makes the point and it’s a good place to start when making changes to that famous 1 minute, or that most important introduction.
Grab a Perch – great value cheap web design
October 21st, 2011 by Alison
I’ve talked before about good web design and how important it is to have a good structure to your website, along with up to date relevant content. Also the importance of having a content managed site that you can control, update, edit yourself, rather than be completely reliant upon your web designer.
For these, and many more reasons, we have adopted WordPress which covers all of these criteria. It’s an amazing brilliant, versatile CMS and blog all rolled in to one, plus has incredible flexibility that I’ve not seen in any other CMS – and I’ve seen a quite a few! However to get WordPress to work well for you, you do need to have a fair bit of web knowledge to get the most out of it, and it can end up costing you a few dollars more than maybe you had planned to get the right look, layout and functioning as it should.
Well I was quite surprised this week when a like minded professional recommended Perch to me. For you novices out there this is a very cheap WYSIWYG web build. If your web budget really has been stretched beyond just buying your domain name then this might be the answer for you. Perch really is a little content managed system that will help you get your business online, and you can do it all yourself. So why not go grab yourself a perch….
