University of Worcester – Information Security Workshop for SMEs

Writing about web page http://www.nb2bc.co.uk//images/download/file179.pdf

The University of Worcester are running an information security workshop for SMEs on Tuesday 17th November. 

The free session is looking at issues such as ISO27001 and PCI DSS compliance.

For more details and how to register check the pdf on the B2B Centre website.

Martin King-Turner : 26 Oct 2009 16:50 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

October Web Workshop

We ran a very interesting web workshop yesterday which covered a wide range of e-marketing issues including a lengthy discussion on how a small business can use social media effectively. A useful talk by Gareth Edwards on how you can use free tools such as ping.fm and Twitterfeed to update all your social networks from one place certainly catached the imagination of myself and the workshop attendees.

The companies that attended the session were:

Acorn Printing Services - T shirt printing and hoodie printing

The Workwear Shack

Clothing4u

Kustom Kit Clothing

Diesel Generators

Home Brew

Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce

: 23 Oct 2009 14:40 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Brag with Social Media – An apology to Bosh Air Arts

Follow-up to Brag with Social Media from B2B Centre Blog

And now an apology to Heidi Bishop of Bosh Air Arts suggesting that she was missing a trick with social media.

Even before I had made that outrageous claim Heidi had already set up a blog and a Flickr site to start talking about her business(es).

Well done Heidi ( I would mention The Enemy a few more time though)

Gareth

Gareth Edwards

eMarketing Specialist - The B2B Centre

Martin King-Turner : 20 Oct 2009 14:15 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Add Analytics and Webmaster Tools to your blog

Did you know that it is possible to add both Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to your blog to give you some control over how Google sees your blog and loads of information about how people are using it.

You'll need a Google account to start with.  Then both Analytics and Webmaster Tools provide you with snippets of code to insert into the blogs html (html is the computer language used to create web pages and blog posts).  They also have detailed instructions on where precisely to put the code.

In Google's Blogger service choose the "customise option", select the "layout" tab and then the "edit html" option.  This will give you access to the html code for your blog template.  You'll be able to follow Google's instructions to place your correctly.

Webmaster Tools works immediately.  You may want to first choose the geo-targeting option and specify the United Kingdom as your preferred location then take a look at some of the historical information about searches that Google holds about your blog (depending when it went live).

There is a 24 hour (roughly) lag on Google Analytics data being picked up so leave it a day before you start looking at the stats to see how people have found your blog.

Gareth

Gareth Edwards, eMarketing Specialist, The National B2B Centre

Martin King-Turner : 19 Oct 2009 12:20 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Brag with Social Media

Writing about web page http://www.boshairarts.com

One of the great things about Social Media is the opportunity it gives small businesses to brag about what they have done to a wider audience.  

Now it can take a bit of time to work out which social media tools to choose and how to use them but the first task is to identify your successes and recognise what other people will be interested in.

In our Web Workshop of 14th October we had an instance of a small business hiding its success somewhat.  Heidi Bishop, of Bosh Air Arts told us all about how she does artwork for motorbikes, guitars and golf clubs but kept it at that.  Taking a look at the website revealed that Heidi has been pretty busy but kept the news to herself.  The main picture is off the guys from The Enemy (for older readers a popular beat combo from Coventry) holding a customised guitar.

This is absolutely perfect for putting out in blogposts, on Facebook and MySpace for instance.  It should probably be in the local papers too.  Getting that sort of endorsement is really valuable because it shouts "credibility" to anybody who cares to read it.  It is also the basis of lots of micro-articles - what sort of guitar, what was the picture , why did they choose it, what sort of paint and how was it applied?  Great for readers and even better for search engines.

Gareth Edwards

eMarketing Specialist, The National B2B Centre

Martin King-Turner : 19 Oct 2009 11:43 |  Tags: Social Media Social Networking |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Another excellent web workshop

In the lastest of our very popular series of Web Workshops we managed to cover an awful lot of ground and get our attendees feeling pretty confident about making more use of the web.

This sessions attendees were:

Heidi Bishop - Bosh Air Arts

Cheryl Hopkins - Tax Assist Nuneaton

Steven Morson - AEL Electrical Installations

Azadur Sarker - Vision Training and Support

Jane Harrison - A Brush With The Past

Sylvia Barthorpe - A Brush With The Past

Steve Hayden - Just Sublime

Ian Hodges - Thomas Jean Associates Limited

Joy Jackson - Accomplished UK Ltd

Lots of interest on the subject of domain names.  Generally the advice is that .co.uk is probably (but it depends) the best domain for businesses that are going to operate in the UK.  Other variations that include .uk are ok but may be less inituitive when people are typing in an address directly.  .Com is good for international business but there are pitfalls related to where the site is then physically hosted .  For more help on the subject try using our website assessment tool.

Regards

B2B Centre

Martin King-Turner : 19 Oct 2009 10:33 |  Tags: B2B Centre National B2B Centre Web Workshop |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

B2B Centre Articles Listed

Writing about web page http://www.nb2bc.co.uk/sitemap/

A list of National B2B Centre articles, which cover the full range of e-business topics, is available on the site map of our website.

The articles form a key part of our activity and complement our one-to-one assists and range of events.

Take a look and let us know if there are any topics that you want us to cover.

Martin King-Turner : 28 Sep 2009 08:43 |  Tags: B2B Centre Dave Chaffey E-Marketing National B2B Centre Nb2Bc Seo Social Networking |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Latest B2B Centre "Web Workshop

The B2B Centre hosted another session in its highly successful series of "Web Workshops" last week.  Not only was it the latest workshop it was also the latest running workshop with the last delegate leaving at 5.45 - don't let it be said that we don't try and answer everybody's questions.

Attendees for this session were;

Bernadette Donahoe    yourcreativitystore - Creative products for creative people
Maria Villarico               Ecomorena - Ethical fashions from the Phillipines
Lee-Anne Uttley           Datum Fitout and Refurbishment to improve your working environment
Ann McElvenny             Say It On Ribbon
Andy Andreou              Vivo Telecommunications

Martin King-Turner : 28 Sep 2009 08:06 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

eBusiness Conference 2009 – A Big Success

Writing about web page http://www.nb2bc.co.uk/toolboxes/marketing_online/event_downloads/

Thank you to everyone who attended "eBusiness Conference 2009: Finding and Keeping Profitable Customers". 

Feedback from the event suggests that all of you found the conference of value and that many of you really did rush home or back to the office to put in place the advice that was presented.  This is very encouraging in respect of the call I made at the start of the day  I asked people to listen to our speakers and use their knowledge or their examples as a springboard to move forward. Clearly some, perhaps many, of you have heeded that call.

Our objective is to help businesses move from eCommerce to eBusiness.  It is a process that takes one step at a time.  So if you have implemented any of Susan Hallam's 45 eMarketing tips, thought about how you can improve your sales process a la Richard White's Sales Sausage Machine or been inspired to follow the lead set by Malene Stanley or Nick Blenkarn, then you have started the journey.

Some of the conference presentations are available from the event downloads page on our website.  You may want to check out the following websites and resources from our speakers as follows;

Susan Hallam - Hallam Internet Marketing

Dr Dave Chaffey - Dave Chaffey website

Richard White - The Accidental Salesman

Malene Stanley - KSBKids

Nick Blenkarn - Severn Partnership

Keep on making those steps forward!

Martin King-Turner

Director - The National B2B Centre

Martin King-Turner : 21 Sep 2009 15:23 |  Tags: B2B Centre National B2B Centre Nb2Bc |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

National B2B Centre LinkedIn group hits the quarter century

Writing about web page http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=983637&trk=anet_ug_grppro

The National B2B Centre's LinkedIn group, which was set up to provide a community area for the sharing of information, for answering queries and problems and for members to promote themselves, has now reached the milestone membership of 250.

Gareth Edwards, the Centre's eMarketing Specialist, suggests that there lessons to be learned in the way that the group works for lots of businesses.

"Our experience is that you have to give Social Media tools such as LinkedIn and LinkedIn groups plenty of time to gain momentum.  Group numbers started to take-off after a couple of months of promotion and then continued to grow quite quickly; mainly through referrals.  And remember you have to manage what's going on by posting new material and answering comments as quickly as possible"

The B2B Centre Group has two sub-groups.  One focuses on SEO, while the most recent one is an "Ask the B2B Centre" area where group members can post questions and queries that we will do our best to answer.

The National B2B Centre

Martin King-Turner : 21 Sep 2009 09:53 |  Tags: B2B Centre Linkedin National B2B Centre Social Networking |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem