Business of Social Media

At the SME Conference North West on Thursday, we had a very interesting presentation from Chi Chi Ekweozor of realfresh.tv in Manchester about the increasing use of social media in business. At the end of that I asked the audience, mainly smes, how many of them used various social media. Bearing in mind that it is a bit difficult to be accurate counting hands when you are standing at a podium chairing a conference, I think the split was roughly;
- had a website - 90%
- had a blog 40%
- used Twitter 30% (that is just a few fewer hands than for a blog).

I found that very interesting. Like many people of my generation I find Twitter somewhat alien, and struggle to find a business purpose apart from customer service. A Blog I can understand more as a sort of informal newsletter. What this showed me is that Twitter use is already higher than I imagined, and there is a possibility that it is already more imbedded in business than is clear to the late majority/laggards of the business world.

Certainly it makes me think again about the use of Twitter. And I think you should too.

I am wondering about Twitter as an interactive tool. Would it have been useful to have had a Twitter feed at the conference? Could we have got feedback on what was going well, what was overstaying its welcome? (nothing I think, but how to be sure). Could I have taken questions that way? What about use in training courses?

September/October 2010 open courses

Apologies for the lack of updates - September is full of unmissable deadelines.

There is a also number of open training courses, run by BIPS Solutions and presented by me.
The next is two sessions in Leeds on Wednesday 22nd September in Leeds, the first 2 modules of the SME engagment programme - 1. Understanding the Tender Notice, and 2. What I need to tender. You can add one or both, and there are 2 more modules to come on 30th September 3. PQQs, and 4. Effective Tender writing. These 2 modules are also due to be run on 28th September in Manchester, but not by me.

Then there is the SME National conference, at which I shall act as master of ceremonies, on Thursdsay 23rd September - see below.

On 7th October I shall be running a half day procurement training module in Solihull for Business Link (through BIP solutions).

Then starting 17th October I shall be running the Advanced Purchasing event in Amsterdam. This is a 5 day event which as the title indicates aims to cover some of the newest and most advanced topics in Purchasing.

November and December should have include open courses in London and Kuala Lumpur, but I shall list those when they are confirmed.