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March 23, 2010

Social Media and Business Profitability

Writing about web page http://www.amiando.com/eOfficeBirmingham-2010-03-25.html

The B2B Centre will be sharing a platform with other Social Media speakers on Thursday 25th March under the heading "Social Media and Business Profitability".

Gareth Edwards, the B2B Centre's eMarketing Specialist will be helping the audience to "Supercharge Your Social Media".  He has 25 minutes to enthuse the uninitiated, spur on the dabblers and get the power users to realise why not everybody is quite so keen on Twitter as they are.

Check out the eOffice website for more details 



Martin King-Turner : 23 Mar 2010 07:29 |  Tags:     |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem

March 11, 2010

How well does Google do with SEO – Google SEO Report Card

Very interesting article on SEO - looks at the whys and hows of carrying out SEO on your website.

What makes it different - Google have done it on there own site, giving a score for the various aspects and they explain how to improve the results.

The pdf document is very long, but worth a read.

Google SEO Score Card

Try http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ to review your site - mark


James Pennington : 11 Mar 2010 09:08 |  Comments (6) |  Report a problem

January 25, 2010

Neuroimaging – Brainwaves for Marketers 27/1/10

Writing about web page http://www.cim.co.uk/Events/EventDetail.aspx?ObjectID=28844

Professor Gemma Calvert from the WMG Digital Lab is just one of the expert speakers gathering to talk about the science of neuroimaging and its role in the development and marketing of new products.

The event "Neuroimaging - Brainwaves for Marketers" is being held at the Digital Lab at the University of Warwick on Wednesday 27th January from 18.00.  Check out the CIM events page for booking details, directions and prices.

National B2B Centre




Martin King-Turner : 25 Jan 2010 19:57 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

January 05, 2010

Business Link Online Guides – B2B Centre Seal of Approval?

Writing about web page http://www.businesslink.gov.uk

We have always pointed people at the advice pages on the Business Link website - they are very good. It's just that now we have a little more reason to highlight the content...because we have helped to develop it.

You will find that many of the ebusiness related pages (such as the search engine optimisation section) have the B2B Centre logo at the bottom.   We have been supporting Business Link as content reviewers and developers for some time now so we are naturally delighted that our name is now becoming so widely recognised. 

Gareth


Gareth Edwards

emarketing Specialist, the National B2B Centre


Martin King-Turner : 05 Jan 2010 09:00 |  Tags:      |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

January 04, 2010

National B2B Centre achieves Accredit UK Certification

The B2B Centre has started the New Year with a bang! 

We have now been formally awarded certification to the Accredit UK Standard for ICT Business and Technical Consultancy, which recognises our proficiency as a supplier of ICT and Business advice. 

The Accredit UK standard covers full business performance in terms of; management, strategy, business generation, operations and customer relationships. It stands as a testament to the confidence our clients can have in choosing to work with us.

This success follows hard on the heels of our IBC (Institute of Business Consulting) award as "Regional Practice of the Year".

The National B2B Centre is now well positioned to help the SME community to make the next jump in the use of ebusiness technology to generate significant improvements in growth, in productivity and in profitability.

For more information on how the B2B Centre could help you get the most out of ebusiness call us on 02476 574384 or email info@nb2bc.co.uk

Martin



Martin King-Turner

Director - The National B2B Centre





Martin King-Turner : 04 Jan 2010 14:48 |  Tags:     |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Book now – "The Essential Guide to Online Marketing" workshop programme

Writing about web page http://www.howtowithbl.co.uk/event/workshop-guide-to-online-marketing.aspx

"The Essential Guide to Online Marketing" workshop programme launches January 21st 2010

The B2B Centre is delivering a series of workshops around the West Midlands on behalf of Business Link in the New Year.

Entitled "The Essential Guide to Online Marketing" these sessions are ideal for businesses who need to get to grips with topics like search engine optimisation and Social Media. Two members of the B2B Centre team will be on hand to present, lead exercises and take questions during these interactive sessions.

Workshops are being held in Telford, Stafford, Worcester, Solihull, Coventry and Walsall from January through to March.

Check out http://www.howtowithbl.co.uk/event/workshop-guide-to-online-marketing.aspx for more details and a booking form.


Martin King-Turner : 04 Jan 2010 12:04 |  Tags:      |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

December 05, 2009

B2B Centre wins Institute of Business Consulting Award

I am delighted to say that the National B2B Centre won the prestigious Regional Consultancy Practice of the Year award at the Institute of Business Consulting annual awards ceremony in London on Thursday. 

The award, judged by a panel drawn from both the public and private sector and including blue chip consultancies, recognises the exceptional quality of the B2B Centre team and the very high regard in which we are held by our clients.  The submission and citations were made entirely by our clients; the award is truly a testimony to the value that the B2B Centre adds.


Martin


Martin King-Turner

Director, The National B2B Centre


Martin King-Turner : 05 Dec 2009 10:32 |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem

December 01, 2009

"CRM: Identify, win and keep profitable customers" 3/12/09 Bromsgrove

Writing about web page http://bit.ly/7A4Gys

Steve Orriss, the B2B Centre's Lead Business Consultant and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) expert is presenting on "CRM: Identify, win and keep profitable customers" at the Bromsgrove Hilton on Thursday 3rd December.

This is the latest in a series of presentations, conducted on behalf of Business Link West Midlands, that aims to extol the virtues of CRM as a technology that can have a major impact on the ability of businesses to grow and prosper.  The initial benefits of CRM are often obtained from the ability to capture and share information about interactions with prospects and customers.  This allows firms to provide better service to the clients and improve the effectiveness of sales and marketing activity.  Over time CRM also enables business to ensure that everybody in the company follows the right steps in dealing with work activities.

There is still to time to book on the Bromsgrove event or check out the other venues and dates in the series.

Gareth

Gareth Edwards, eMarketing Specialist





Martin King-Turner : 01 Dec 2009 15:14 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

November 11, 2009

CRM Breakfast Briefings

Writing about web page http://bit.ly/AzOy1

The B2B Centre is supporting Business Link by leading a series of breakfast workshops around the West Midlands on the topic of CRM. 

Entitled "CRM: Identify, win and keep profitable customers" the workshops will be lead by Steve Orriss, our CRM Specialist with the objective of helping delegates to understand exactly how CRM could make a real difference to their business, what technical knowledge is required and how to choose the right system.

The first event is on 26th November 2009 in Nuneaton from 8.00am-11.00am.  Visit the B2B Centre event page for more details.




Martin King-Turner : 11 Nov 2009 15:19 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

November 05, 2009

B2B Centre Members Networking

The next B2B Centre Members Networking Event will be held on Thursday November 26th at Birmingham Science Park Aston.

The event will feature presentations by James Pennington and Gareth Edwards from the B2B Centre, a free buffet and plenty of opportunities to network.

Registration starts from 5.00pm and the event closes at 8.00pm.

Book now!





Martin King-Turner : 05 Nov 2009 16:11 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

October 26, 2009

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) |  Report a problem

October 23, 2009

October Web Workshop

social media logosWe 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) |  Report a problem

October 20, 2009

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) |  Report a problem

October 19, 2009

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) |  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:   |  Comments (1) |  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:    |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

September 28, 2009

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:        |  Comments (0) |  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) |  Report a problem

September 21, 2009

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:    |  Comments (0) |  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:     |  Comments (2) |  Report a problem