subduedmedia - Blog

Glasgow's Creative Banter

Ben — Sat, 19 May 2012 06:27:08 GMT

'Creative Banter' is a relaxed monthly networking group in Glasgow.

The group is an offshoot of the popular weekly Business Banter events, with focus being more on individuals with creative disciplines from around Glasgow and surrounding areas.

Organised by Rebecca, the friendly group meets monthly at 8am at a coffee-shop in Glasgow City Centre.

For me, the appeal of this event is the lack of "fees, formal presentations or sales pitches." Which is lucky... I'm not sure I'm at my communicative best at 8am in the morning!

I'm never very comfortable in a hard networking enviroment, but I quite enjoyed the first event and it didn't feel like impersonal card snatching speed-dating for business.

I'm looking forward to the next event in June, and I might remember my business cards this time. Did I mention I'm not great in the mornings..?

You can find out more about Creative Banter on the Business Banter website, like them on Facebook or follow them (@Creative Banter) on Twitter.

Beginners tips for business twitter and facebook

Ben — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:15:00 GMT

Here are a couple of tips for small business owners who are thinking of using social media tools such as Facebook or Twitter.

Conversation is two way

Many website design clients find Twitter or Facebook quite daunting. They are traditionally used to marketing being 'one-way'. Social media allows customers to ask questions directly and publically.

The secret is to regard this as nothing different from a customer standing in your premises. Would you ignore someone speaking to you in person? Would you ignore the chance to talk to a potential customer?

Don't think you have to sell yourself with every single message: don't be corporate, be human, ask questions, if you have something to say then reply... it's a normal conversation and in real-life most people are quite well practised at them!

Time your tweet

I find twitter to be busy during office hours, as many people I follow are active at work (naughty!) however you might have followers who tweet at weekends or evening.

Try scheduling posts for before lunchtime on weekdays as many people check their Facebook profile while eating lunch, or for a Sunday evening when Facebook is busy with people getting ready to go back to work on Monday. Find your busy point, and schedule your tweets or posts accordingly.

Free online services such as Hootsuite, or Seesmic allow you to write tweets or facebook posts, then assign a date and time when they should be published. This is a good idea as you can spread out your messages across several hours or days, rather posting many times when you have a spare minute and nothing at any other time.

For example, this blog post was actually written on a Sunday morning, published automatically on Tuesday morning while a tweet and facebook post were scheduled for later in the week.

If my calendar is accurate (on Sunday morning), I'll be in a meeting in Glasgow, and not on Twitter or Facebook to post... but you didn't know that?

Don't say too much

Just like a conversation, you wouldn't stand infront of a customer and repeat the same phrase countless times. Don't post for the sake of posting, if you've got nothing new or exciting to say - it's best to stay quiet, reply to other posts or see what other people are saying. If you post the same message repeatedly, people will either unfollow or unfriend you and it's much harder to spread your message when people actively don't want to listen to you.

Always try to stay positive with your messages, and never say anything bad about your competitiors.

Say something different

"But what do I actually say?" is a common question. Don't feel you need a daily hard sell of your business: think about photographs, videos or anything from your business that will make you stand out. You can also post links to other sites that might interest your customers.

You want to appear as an authority on your business area.

Everyone loves looking at photographs - especially if it's something they wouldn't normally see as a customer.

For example, Opus Couture on Facebook post about the photoshoots or catwalk shows they are taking part in - something most customers wouldn't normally know about, but this can make visitors remember the business, and develop into customers.

Eat 'n' tweet

Most social media networks are free to join - the investment required is a bit of time and thought, and with smart phones you can easily be tweeting or posting while your on the train, sitting eating your lunch or whenever you've got some free time.

You can't go far wrong if you base your postings and replies on what you'd say in real life with a customer. It may take a little while to find your 'voice' but don't be afraid of trying.

Social media is a constantly changing enviroment, but with some common sense, it can be a massively helpful tool for your business or organisation.

VOWS Awards 2011 [1]

Ben — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:16:53 GMT

Some photographs from the Scottish Wedding Industry Awards.

Sadly Opus didn't manage a win, but they have been previous winners twice, while being nominated for seven year running.

Hosted by Des Clarke, the evening at the Glasgow Hilton included performances from Paolo Martini and Miss Gaga. A fantastic night, and a great celebration of the hard-work that happens in West Kilbride.

The photographs were from the brilliant "Look Look" photobooth.

Double Award Nominations for Opus

Ben — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 15:57:40 GMT

I'm really pleased to hear that one of my very first clients have been nominated for two of their industry awards this year.

Opus Couture and their sister shop Opus Occasions are shortlisted in the Best Bridal Retailer and Mother of the Bride categories of the Scottish Wedding Industry 'VOWS Awards'.

Opus are previous Best Bridal Retailers award winners in 2006 and 2010, and it's great to see their Occasions store being nominated in the new category this year.

Best of luck to the team in West Kilbride!

Social Media buttons, sharing too much?

Ben — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 09:01:26 GMT

An interesting article on Media UK confirmed my thoughts around social media sharing buttons on websites.

I'm not a fan of these buttons, for many reasons:

Increased page weight
Longer loading times
Privacy concerns
Lack of styling options

I've used simple links to the social media accounts on some client's websites as the full embedded buttons load a significant amount of extra code, iframes and javascript.

When you've spend time condensing your CSS or optimising your images, you don't want the extra time waiting for a third-party to respond or worse stalling your page loading.

Yes, facebook or "waiting for static.ak.fbcdn.net", I'm looking at you!

The article mentions the BBC News website as an example of a high-traffic website that's using a different interpretation of the social media buttons, and I quite like their approach.

They don't use the social network's own heavy code, simply a link towards the websites which then loads the sharing code, as requested by the user.

An added benefit is the lack of tracking by Twitter, Google + or Facebook until you've clicked to share content with them, rather than by default on the page load.

Just below this post, I display the Twitter, Google +1 and Facebook buttons, but I think I'll amend these to be less impactful on the page loading times.

The biggest visual change is the lack of information (such as the number of shares, or names of your friends who've liked this page) - but I think it's a small price to pay for much better loading times and page sizes.

The current buttons are easily the biggest bulk of these blog pages, but do they add much than couldn't be achieved by simpler links?

Ironic?

Now, do me a favour and share my content using the buttons below, obviously just in the name of research...

Total cobblers!

Ben — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 06:44:42 GMT

Well, it's finally arrived. A little bit of an overdue refresh to this website and blog - and only slighty later than planned.

There's a lot of website design work in the pipeline to be added to the work pages, new services pages and lots of ideas for blog posts floating around.

Plus there is a very new Facebook page. (But that's a little bit secret at the moment!) I'll explain about the Facebook page in another post.

Why Cobblers?

It's the old saying about a Cobbler and his own or his children's shoes - I'm a website designer who never gets the chance to update his own website!

Messy Website Designer?

Ben — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 08:16:58 GMT

Just been bought this...

Could someone be trying to tell me something?

Messy Website

Update (Jan 12): I'm pleased to now be on the first page in Google for the term... "Messy Website". Still makes me laugh everytime I look into the analytics.