Cookies are small pieces of information which are stored on a website visitors PC for the purposes of tracking their online activities. In most cases these are harmless and are used simply to track for instance the type of browsers that people are using and the pages they are visiting on your website, the information collected is generic and nothing personal (like name or address) is ever collected.

In other cases they are a little more intrusive, for instance the way that Google tracks what you search for and then helpfully provides you with adverts in other places to match those searches.

Most small website owners will never be in this position, the only thing they do is use analytics to improve their website performance and occasionally ask people to sign up to the odd newsletter or buy something in their online shop.

However, the application of such a directive has yet to be tested thoroughly and with the UK Government stating in it’s Implementer Guide to Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations that “The use of metrics are integral are to departments’ being able to provide the best possible user experience in order to encourage citizens to use more cost-effective channels for accessing government services” and further down the document that “Provided clear information is given about their activities we are unlikely to prioritise first-party cookies used only for analytical purposes in any consideration of regulatory action”.

As a result of the policy above being applied to public sector bodies there seems to be little chance that any other UK based website using cookies only for the purpose of things like website analytics will be targeted for compliance issues unless the UK Government and the ICO (information commissioner – arbiter of the Data Protection Act in the UK) decide to do something different.

To be on the safe side though, a good privacy policy which clearly states how you use people’s personal data and cookies on the website is a must and a minimum I would have thought.

Twitter has introduced some major changes to it’s look and feel recently – not least the ability to ‘open out’ an individual tweet so that you can easily separate it out from the feed, together with the new ‘connect’ and ‘discover’ buttons which were introduced last month.

We’ve also got Facebook rolling out its new Timeline layout to all profile and soon to all pages too – more on that below if you are interested.

Slideshare have also introduced a new layout making it look strangely similar to YouTube in many ways!  Finally, LinkedIn have also introduced a ‘Follow Button’ for companies which is designed to make it easier to follow any company with a profile on LinkedIn. The idea is that companies will be able to engage with you from their Company Page on LinkedIn and through status updates which will appear in your LinkedIn homepage alongside the status updates from the other people in your network too.

See what I mean about it being Spring!

Workshops Coming Up

We have three more workshops coming up, all focusing on how to use the major social networks more effectively to help grow your business. All are half day workshops taking place at either Basepoint in Weymouth with just 6 places per workshop and you can book by following the links next to each one.

• LinkedIn Made Easy: the workshop – 13th March in Weymouth
• Fitting Facebook into Your Business – 20th March in Weymouth
• Broadcasting Powerful Messages with Twitter – and 27th March in Weymouth

Latest News from the Social Web

• Did you know that Facebook Pages and not just profiles are being updated to the new Facebook Timeline layout? Find out more here.
• I was fortunate enough to be asked to present on how mobile social media could be used to increase engagement in London last week. You can find out more about the event here.
• Have you ever wondered how social media and free speech link together? This excellent article from the Social Media Examiner explains more.
• If you are a small business looking for innovative ways to fund your business growth, then you could do worse than consider crowd-funding as an option. Check out Funding Circle for more information.

Events Coming Up

• Effective Business Networking with Facebook – 29th March at BXC, Kingston Maurward - Facebook is more than just a social network and for some businesses it can provide fantastic exposure to the audiences they need to engage with.  I’ll be giving attendees an intro into effective business networking techniques you can apply to Facebook.

Our Favourite Links:

This month I’d like to recommend KickStarter as the online venue to head to if you are planning a creative project that needs some funding to get it going. www.kickstarter.com/

But .. I have to say I’m not a fan of the look personally as it seems a bit over-complicated and time will tell if Facebook users also like it as the feedback from many people I know is that their aren’t particularly fond of the new TimeLine layout.  I’ve added an image below of one our latest pages which we made live with the new TimeLine in advance of the March 30th deadline just to see what it would look like.

The main picture, if you are wondering, is our human fruit machine at the Broadwindsor Fun Day back in June last year.

As most Facebook page users seem to interact with the pages they like through their Home Feed though, it remains to be seen whether this makes a significant impact or not.

I had the good fortune to be speaking alongside such luminaries as Ken Banks, Founder of FrontLine SMS and Hajo van Beijma, Founder of TextToChange. To say that the event as an eye opener for me as I had dismissed the role that SMS technologies still had to play in the UK to engage with audiences and others. As Ken and Hajo both showed though, there is an enormous market still to be tapped with this valuable and simple technology.

As for me, my message was to keep it simple, keep it relevant and keep it appropriate to your audiences needs and demographics.  There are many ways that we can use mobile social media to engage with our audiences, from the tweets being sent out at an event through to the use of QR codes that direct a user to a mobile friendly online opportunity – whether that is to buy something, phone you or even share a message or two.

Way back in August I posted an article on the website about the LinkedIn and Facebook updates, it makes interesting reading but is also thought provoking.  I was talking with a client earlier on today who was saying that they were annoyed by these assumptions, when I said that of course most of us enjoy the benefits of these networks free of charge and their revenue models are based mostly on advertising at the moment she realised that there was more to this than meets the eye.

Whilst I’m not saying it’s a great idea to use people’s data like this, I do think we need to appreciate the benefits we get from having access to such vast networks without a financial cost being taken into account.

Workshops Coming Up

We have six more workshops coming up, all focusing on how to use the major social networks more effectively to help grow your business. All are half day workshops taking place at either Basepoint in Weymouth or Basepoint in Exeter with just 6 places per workshop and you can book by following the links next to each one.

• Business Blogging For Beginners – 8th February (Exeter) and 6th March in Weymouth
• LinkedIn Made Easy: the workshop – 15th February (Exeter) and 13th March in Weymouth
• Fitting Facebook into Your Business – 22nd February (Exeter) and 20th March in Weymouth
• Broadcasting Powerful Messages with Twitter – 29th February (Exeter) and 27th March in Weymouth

Latest News from the Social Web

• I was presenting at the Clinks Sustainable Funding Roadshow yesterday along with the amazing Tamara Esses and I put together a blog post for the event. The presentation was called Hey You! What’s in it for me? and it was about engaging with users in the charity sector.

Events Coming Up

• The World in the Palm of Your Hand – SMS and Mobile Communications – I’m going to be presenting a keynote speech at this conference on the 2nd March
• Effective Business Networking with Facebook – 29th March at BXC, Kingston Maurward - Facebook is more than just a social network and for some businesses it can provide fantastic exposure to the audiences they need to engage with.  I’ll be giving attendees an intro into effective business networking techniques you can apply to Facebook.

Our Favourite Links:

This month I’d like to recommend Andy Lopata’s blog at: http://www.lopata.co.uk/blog  I’ve been getting his newsletters since last year and they never fail to have some useful hint, tip or observation that makes me stop and think.  His blog is equally thought provoking and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

This workshop given to the Clinks Sustainable Funding Roadshow on 1st February explores how using a more strategic approach will enable them to engage more effectively with more audience groups with a view to identifying the best way forward to help with their income generation strategies.

Hysterectomy Association

The Hysterectomy Association is a social enterprise that was originally created in 1995 as a website for a Masters Degree in Information Science, it has only ever been found online.  It has always been self sustaining through it’s income generation model of providing membership, information and products specifically for it’s market sector across multiple marketplaces.  It also uses advertising as a revenue generator.

It has a three step approach

1. provide useful information on the website and support through the forums free of charge
2. encourage visitors to receive a free hysterectomy booklet
3. send daily emails once per day for 15 days with hints and tips

This approach works because it builds trust and authority on the part of the website visitors.  The ability to engage with both the site and other users means that a need is managed effectively and as a result trust is built which results in increased sales through the various channels.

Channels

• Hysterectomy Association Shop
• Online bookstores ie Amazon - supply direct
• Online bookstores ie Barnes and Noble – supply via Lulu
• Apple iStore and eBook stores such as Kindle Store
• Google Adsense – advertising revenue

Social Media and Accounts

We keep it simple, just a couple of accounts and the use of social share buttons on the website.

• Hysterectomy Blog – latest news, information, stories and research
• Facebook Page
• Twitter Account – @HysterectomyUK
• Twitter Account – @LindaPH
• Social Share Buttons 

Mowgli Foundation

Uses social media slightly differently, they have their own internal social network on their website as well as running a LinkedIn group, a slideshare account, a Flickr account, various Twitter accounts and a Facebook page

• Post regular news updates and event information through their blog – focusing on other peoples needs
• LinkedIn Group – The Mowgli Foundation
• Twitter Accounts @MowgliTweets is the main one
• Facebook Page – Facebook.com/MowgliFoundation
• Slideshare Account for presentations and pdf documents they want to share on the networks and in their blog posts
• Flickr helps to capture the images of the events that they run, these are then embedded on their website and shared on Facebook and Twitter
• They have a Delicious social bookmarking account where they can share their group bookmarks between themselves and others
• Finally, they have a Mowgli Foundation YouTube account which allows them to share videos they create and videos they like with their visitors

All of these accounts for both the Hysterectomy Association and the Mowgli Foundation use other minor accounts on other networks as administrative accounts feeding information to the various networks, holding specific types of media content that aren’t covered by the main accounts or for monitoring brand awareness and influence.

Other useful links:

• Crowdfunding UK - http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/
• Funding Circle - http://www.fundingcircle.com/l
• Kickstarter - http://www.kickstarter.com/
• Please fund us - http://www.pleasefund.us/
• Crowd Cube - http://www.crowdcube.com/
• Sponsume - http://www.sponsume.com/
• Buzzbnk - https://www.facebook.com/Buzzbnk
• Civilised Money - https://www.facebook.com/CivilisedMoney
• Soloco - http://www.soloco.co.uk/
• We fund - http://www.wefund.com/

Workshops Coming Up

We have six more workshops coming up, all focusing on how to use the major social networks more effectively to help grow your business. All are half day workshops taking place at either Basepoint in Weymouth or Basepoint in Exeter with just 6 places per workshop and you can book by following the links next to each one.

• Fitting Facebook into Your Business – 10th January (Weymouth) and 22nd February (Exeter)
• Broadcasting Powerful Messages with Twitter – 17th January (Weymouth) and 29th February (Exeter)
• Business Blogging For Beginners – 8th February (Exeter)
• LinkedIn Made Easy: the workshop – 15th February (Exeter)

Latest News from the Social Web

• How to create a Tasty brand with Delicious Links
• LinkedIn adds POLLS to Groups
• WordPress – We love you and your updates – latest updates news

Events Coming Up

• Clinks Sustainable Funding Roadshow - Exeter, 1st February 2012
• Social Media for Business at The Hub – Basepoint in Exeter, 16th January 2012

Our Favourite Links:

This month I’d like to recommend all the ladies amongst us who are in business and it’s the Seed Network for women, started by Lynn Franks after the publication of her excellent business book for women called the Seed Handbook: The feminine way to create business.  You can find the network online at: http://www.seednetworkingforwomen.com/

WordPress 3.3.0 made some major changes to the way that the admin side of the site functioned in particular, including fly out hover menus, the new tool bar (see the top of the screen), the single media drag and drop uploader.  Helpful tips that show the new features and how to use them have been integrated and there was also an update for the iPad and other tablets.

If you are a business based around Exeter and would like to come along please get in touch with them at: http://www.basepoint.co.uk/exeter-centre.htm.

We’ll also be introducing attendees to our programme of four workshops for businesses:

• Business Blogging for Beginners
• LinkedIn Made Easy
• Fitting Facebook into your Business
• Broadingcasting Powerful Messages with Twitter