My Dad

Sorry I haven't been writing for a while.  Sadly my father passed away on March 29th 2014.  He was often described as the 'Perfect Man'. To me he was the 'Perfect Dad', kind, loving and gentle.  Thinking of you dad x

A happy customer

I recently did a one to one coaching session with a lady on Twitter and Facebook recently.  She has now found the confidence to start tweeting and was delighted with the results of her Facebook ad.  This is her review

'I contacted Marian at Flourish with Social Media as I needed someone to help me navigate the different social media platforms that are available.  I booked an hour consultation during which time Marian helped me understand how to use Twitter for my business and gave me tips and ideas.  This has given me the confidence to begin Tweeting to help raise my business profile.  We also looked at advertising on Facebook and she helped me target my campaign to specific locations.  This brought about positive results and bookings.  It was certainly an hour well spent.

Thank you Marian'

Lovely to get such positive feedback 

Ever been to a Click Farm? Not all organic and wholesome!

Hi everyone,

Do you know what a Click farm is?

According to The Sunday Times Magazine,its a place where groups of workers are paid to click on Facebook 'like' and Twitter 'follow' buttons, and per per click advertising links.

I knew it happened but didn't know the official name for this activity. 

Even the US State Department has been buying fake likes.  It stopped after its inspector general criticized the agency for spending $630,000 on boosting its Facebook profile

I ask myself, what is the point?  This is similar to 'rent a crowd? Surely you want your community on social networks to be a meaningful one.

Let me know what you think?

New Years Resolution

I'm sharing some of my New Years LinkedIn Resolutions..... Build up a Quality following on my LinkedIn Company Page Continue to build up my quality connections on LinkedIn Create, Post and Share great social media content to my LinkedIn Communities Follow more relevant companies on LinkedIn to keep up to date on what is happening for these companies Meet as many of my LinkedIn Connections as possible to learn about their businesses Build up my recommendations on LinkedIn Keep my LinkedIn personal profile continually updated with my latest work and projects Better get to work...... Later M

I'm Not A Celebrity but I am a Hootsuite Certified Professional

Contestants will be hearing a lot of hissing and hooting in the jungle

While the jungle celebrities will be hearing a lot of hissing and hooting as they begin another night in the outdoors, you as a business can feel like an A Lister when you discover all the Hootsuite social media dashboard has to offer.  https://hootsuite.com

 If you are trying to manage a number of social media accounts, it may be time to think about signing up to a social media dashboard where you can manage your social profiles in one place.  With Hootsuite you can manage up to 5 social media profiles for free.  Log on to www.hootsuite.com. There is also Hootsuite Pro for Businesses and Professionals where you can manage from 50 -100 profiles. The next level is Hootsuite Enterprise for large corporations, government departments etc. The different options/ pricing plans are available here https://hootsuite.com/plans.  There are many fantastic features on Hoosuite including the following

• You can view your social networks in one place.
• You can set up streams to monitor home feed, direct messages, mentions, scheduled messages sent.
• You can use keyword and search streams for Social Listening .  These streams can focus on what people are saying in your business arena and give you valuable insights on steering your content.
• You can monitor competitor activity by using keyword streams.
• You can manage engagement on LinkedIn groups
• You can set up Twitter Lists
• You can schedule messages to any of your social networks which is great for advance planning
• There is a Bulk Scheduling option can be used for specific social campaigns
• Autoscheduled messages – updates can be sent out at the optimum time by Hootsuite
• You can use shortened Links to monitor engagement
• You can set up pre-approved draft messages can be saved and sent out to social networks as required – This can be helpful for Frequently Asked Questions

ü  View my listing on the Hootsuite Certified Professionals at

   http://learn.hootsuite.com/social-media-consultants/23514 .  Don't delay, get hooting today! 

   If you think this is something you want to set up for your business, email marian@flourishwithsocialmedia.co.uk or call 07594 969529

Thanks Everyone

Turn your offline contacts into lifetime connections

I've gone to many networking events in the past few months and have acquired many different business cards and contacts along the way. The first thing I always do is connect with these people on LinkedIn, because then I know they will always be a connection and not a business card stuck in a pile somewhere. What amazes me is that not many people do the same. In fact only a tiny % connect with me on LinkedIn. Maybe they are just not interested in me as a connection (they seem very enthusiastic at the time!) or maybe because I'm wired in the social media way, this to me it is the next natural step. As people are constantly changing jobs, you may find in the future they are working for a company you would like to do business with. The beauty about LinkedIn is while people change jobs, their profile remains constant and is updated with new changes. Make your networking count and connect with the contacts you make on LinkedIn If you need company pages set up, monthly social media management or an overhaul of your social media efforts, call me, Marian on 07594 969529 or email marian@flourishwithsocialmedia.co.uk The End

Finally I'm an expert....

My son said last week ' Mom, you know how you are an expert in..............' Hurrah, I thought! Before he had divulged my area of expertise, my mind wandered and I thought, finally, the kids see me as an expert in something other than looking after their countless needs, though often they are forthcoming with many criticisms in that area too. I concluded that they see me walking, talking, living and breathing all things social media, early in the morning and late into the night, so they have to think 'Mom is a social media expert!'. Woohoo! They see the books piled high, 'The Business of Being Social', 'Socialnomics', 'Likeable Social Media', to name but a few. On top of the many books are reports, social media magazines, white papers and tutorials slowly engulfing the house.  They see me trawling through newspapers trying to capture the latest news on all things positive and negative about social media, cutting out the relevant articles on how social media has made a practical positive difference to businesses using it. Printing off blog posts relating to the many different aspects of social media including, increasing Facebook Likes, how social media can increase your turnover, leveraging your testimonials and recommendations, engaging content to share with your followers.....the list is endless. So you can imagine my utter disappointment on the one hand (and slight joy on the other) when my son said 'Mom, you know how you are an expert in ....baking!' Ok, so it's not the area of expertise I've been focusing all my energies on but it was nice to know our Saturday afternoon baking sessions were giving my son a whole new assessment of his mother. One day they will see me as an expert in social media, but until then, I will have to continue to deepen my knowledge.....now I'm off to Hootsuite University