As companies are generally made up of lots of different stakeholders and resources, content creation can [...]]]> Over the last number of years, our customers have increasingly used quality content to drive visitors to their digital assets. But they have learnt that to provide audiences with quality content on a regular basis, you require a plan.

As companies are generally made up of lots of different stakeholders and resources, content creation can become an issue of contention. While it is important to have input from across the organization, the old saying about camels being designed by committees, comes to mind.
It is essential that at the start of the process there is a clearly defined way forward, with designated roles and duties.

A useful way of setting out your path for the coming year, is to use an editorial content calendar which we find crucial in managing the marketing process.

There are many template’s downloadable across the net, they come in different forms, and really they just consist of a simple spreadsheet.

By planning at least 60 to 90 days ahead you can avoid any disruptions to the flow of publishing.
Additionally, you should appoint one person to manage the editing and upkeep of the calendar to avoid confusion among team members.

Your content editorial calendar should be available for all team members to view, either in a shared document online or saved somewhere on your business’ shared drive. This allows other activity to be planned and timed to support the core plan.

Posted by John Bateman a digital specialist at directbrand. Connect with John on LinkedIn or contact John by email here for more information.

Early examples of gamification are based on giving [...]]]> More and more companies and brands are incorporating games into their mobile sites, apps and platforms offering awards, badges and other fun ways to reward and recognize influencers.
It’s a great way to build a community organically around a product or service and increase customer retention.

Early examples of gamification are based on giving reward points to people who share experiences on location-based platforms such as Facebook’s “Place” feature, Foursquare, and Gowalla.

Some of the techniques include:

• Achievement “badges”
• Achievement levels
• “Leader boards”
  Progress bars or other visual meter to indicate how close people are to completing a task , such as completing a social networking profile or earning a frequent shopper loyalty award.
• Virtual currency.
• Systems for awarding, redeeming, trading, gifting, and otherwise exchanging points.
• Challenges between users.
• Embedding small casual games within other activities.

There is a real opportunity in 2013 to combine traditional offline triggers with online game activity, to engage new audiences and increase customer retention.

Posted by John Bateman a digital specialist at directbrand. Connect with John on LinkedIn or contact John by email here for more information.

Lately I have been considering how to use LinkedIn Discussions and Groups to build brand authority.

You can build your own discussions on LinkedIn by starting a LinkedIn group that other members can join or by starting a discussion in an existing group. Once you’ve set up a LinkedIn group, you can invite [...]]]>

Lately I have been considering how to use LinkedIn Discussions and Groups to build brand authority.

You can build your own discussions on LinkedIn by starting a LinkedIn group that other members can join or by starting a discussion in an existing group. Once you’ve set up a LinkedIn group, you can invite contacts to join to discuss professional or business topics and add relevant content. Other LinkedIn users can find the group in search results and join the group to participate in the online discussion.

Here are 4 points to consider

1. Before you start your activities on LinkedIn, have a clear plan for how you want to represent yourself and what you want to achieve. This ensures that everything you do on LinkedIn helps you meet your goals.
2. Choose your group wisely, some groups have little life, find one with relevant fresh content with active discussions if you create your own invite the right people to participate.
3. Checking out your competitors’ or peers activities can help you improve your own LinkedIn presence. Although you don’t want to copy someone else’s profile, knowing how others present themselves on LinkedIn can ensure that you are competitive.
4. Being visible in searches is an important part of building your profile, try to use relevant keywords, terms and phrases.

Posted by John Bateman a digital specialist at directbrand. Connect with John on LinkedIn or contact John by email here for more information.

According to the latest Nielsen Cross-Platform Report, most of the content from these activities was delivered to the TV set in a traditional [...]]]>

Americans spent more than 34 hours per week in front of a TV set in Q2, 2012, where they watched traditional TV, DVDs and played games, according to a new report.

Over one billion people like and comment an average of 3.2 billion times every day. When you have a strong presence on Facebook, your business is part of these conversations taking part in the most powerful word-of-mouth marketing — recommendations [...]]]> Facebook allows you to build relationships with your customers, reach new people and drive sales.

Over one billion people like and comment an average of 3.2 billion times every day. When you have a strong presence on Facebook, your business is part of these conversations taking part in the most powerful word-of-mouth marketing — recommendations between friends.

Step 1
Build Your Page
Everything starts with your page – It’s free to set up a Page and it only takes a few minutes to get started.

Step 2
Connect with people
Targeted ads help you reach the right people – choose the specific audience for your ad.

Step 3
Engage your audience
Quality relevant, regular posts keep people interested – combine on and offline activities to generate content.

Step 4
Influence Friends of Fans
Expand your reach through friends – build your audience.

John Bateman is a digital specialist at directbrand. Connect with John on LinkedIn or contact John by email here for more information.

Top 5 benefits of creating a LinkedIn company page:

In my experience I have found that a blog can:

If you couldn’t make it to the event I’ve compiled my top ten takeaways.