Social Media Podcast No.20 now available

In Edition No.20 we talk to Iain Murray and Shona Lyttel about Connected FM's commitment to social media as an integral part of their marketing and how their whole web presence revolves around transparency and engagement.  We also discuss the reasons for the forthcoming Podcastmatters name change on the 17th June.

Also mentioned: A rare Zappos mistake and how effectively they dealt with it, John McGuire and Phoenix Car Company's network site, the iPad, the sony Bloggie and Iain's usual gadget, App and software roundup.

We also talk briefly about the forthcoming New Media Breakfasts in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.  The Glasgow (4th June) and Edinburgh (10th June) breakfasts have Ben Rogers of Attacat presenting on Google Analytics and how to get actionable date from your stats.  The Abedeen breakfast (9th June) has two sessions with me discussing podcasting and how it might be useful for your business and, Tim Barlow form Attacat will discuss Search Engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising.  Tim has already presented this topic at previous Glasgow and Edinburgh breakfasts and everyone found it to be an extremely useful insight into the importance of search and how it works.

You can find full details on all the breakfast events and booking details here.

You can download the Social Media Podcast from iTunes by clicking here.

Social Media Podcast No.19 now available

In edition 19 Gordon White, Kyle Murdoch, Iain Murray and Shona Lyttel chat about the iPad 3G tariffs and whether it's really worth taking a 3G package. We also discuss the dangers of exceeding the monthly bandwidth charge and how we've been caught out in the past. Iain does his usual look at gadgets and Apps and explains why his shiny new HTC Legend has been fired in the space of one episode of the podcast!

We hear from Tim Barlow at Attacat who answers a listener question about the value of regularly updating your YouTube Channel and whether it plays any part Search Engine Optimisation.

You can download or subscribe to the podacst here

Can podcasting work for you?

Podcasting is something everyone can do; no need for expensive equipment or dedicated facilities, podcasting is now within the capabilities of anyone with a newish computer or even a 3G mobile device.  But, why should you podcast?  Will it work for you?  What kind of podcast should you do?  If you want the answers to these questions and more, take my advice and go along to one, or both, of the podcasting events taking place in Glasgow in the next couple of weeks.

The first of these is this Wednesday at the Scottish Social Media Dinner at the Urban Grill & Brasserie from 6.30pm.  There will be three very interesting speakers and many people (some expert, some beginners, some just wanting to find out more) at the dinner and, no matter what your current knowledge, there will be something of interest to you.  

Full details of the Scottish Social Media Dinner and booking information are on Craig McGill's Contently Managed blog.  Alternatively, you can book your place here.

The second podcasting event this month is at the Glasgow New Media Breakfast at No.29 on 30th April.  The breakfast meeting will explore why you might consider podcasting and different styles you might employ.  In addition, it will look at the equipment you can use (and most probably have already), where to publish your content, how to promote your show and the cost involved.

Full details of the New Media Breakfast and booking details are available here.  Alternatively you can go directly to the booking page here.

If you’re interested in finding out about podcasting, go along to at least one of these events and talk to some people who are already doing it and, who are happy to help with your questions.  Personally, I would recommend going to both and really get a cross section of views.

Neither of these events is for profit; both have been organised to help you understand podcasting and help you to make up your own mind if it can help your business.

The iPad - Two weeks on...

We've been using the iPad for two weeks now and, if you listened to the Social Media Podcast review, you'll know that we concluded that it was a very cool and beautifully designed toy.  We have shown it to many people now and most feel the same way - whether it's useful or not people still want one.

Well that was then.  We used the iPad in a client meeting on Wednesday and suddenly we realised it is the most remarkable tool for presentations, especially if it's a web based topic you're talking about.  The ability to pass the iPad to the client, the ability to find a web site and flip it over to show the client and, the speed at which it works makes it a truly fantastic meeting room device.  No need to get the laptop screen at the right angle for someone else to view and no need to huddle round the screen, it was a genuine eye opener.

Battery life is amazing and it makes you wonder why the iPhone is so bad.  After a one hour meeting and constant use the battery was still 92%.   The iPad doesn't seem to heat up either, maybe someone can explain why that is?

We weren't looking to justify the purchase price but, it's nice when suddenly something you were happy to own as a gadget becomes a truly useful and impressive work tool.

iPad Review Podcast goes to No.2

We are delighted that the Social Media Podcast No.17 has gone to No.2 in the podcasting category for Audio and combined Audio & Video charts on iTunes in less than 24 hours.

The panel consists of Valerie Surgenor, IT Lawyer with MacRoberts, Shona Lyttel, PR & Marketing Manager with Connectedfm, our resident gadget man Iain Murray, CEO with Connectedfm, Alex Dobbie, Designer in Residence, Glasgow School of Art, Kyle Murdoch and Gordon White from Podcastmatters.

We also chat with John McGlynn of the Airlink Group who was kind enough to bring the iPad from New York for us and he tells as a bit about the experience in the queue and some of the people he met.

We also talk briefly about the proposed name change at Podcastmatters Ltd which will happen on the 17th June 2010 and more detail about the reasons for that will be outlined in a future podcast very soon.

Finally we catch up with Colin Gilchrist to talk about the Edinburgh Coffee Mornings and the Edinburgh New Media Breakfast.

Subscribe to the podcast here and it will download

Social Media Podcast - The iPad

We were lucky enough to get one of the first iPads in Scotland, less than 24 hours after it was launched in the USA so we got a panel together to try it out, discuss the features and, chat about whether there really is a market for this type of device.

The panel consists of Valerie Surgenor, IT Lawyer with MacRoberts, Shona Lyttel, PR & Marketing Manager with Connectedfm, our resident gadget man Iain Murray, CEO with Connectedfm, Alex Dobbie, Designer in Residence, Glasgow School of Art, Kyle Murdoch and Gordon White from Podcastmatters.

We also chat with John McGlynn of the Airlink Group who was kind enough to bring the iPad from New York for us and he tells as a bit about the experience in the queue and some of the people he met.

We also talk briefly about the proposed name change at Podcastmatters Ltd which will happen on the 17th June 2010 and more detail about the reasons for that will be outlined in a future podcast very soon.

Finally we catch up with Colin Gilchrist to talk about the Edinburgh Coffee Mornings and the Edinburgh New Media Breakfast.

Subscribe to the podcast here and it will download

What a good breakfast

We had a great turnout for the New Media Breakfast in Glasgow this morning with a fantastic insight to Search Engine Optimisation and Pay-Per-Click advertising from Tim Barlow from Attacat
.

Tim has done a great blog post on the event and taken the time to post some of the many Twitter  messages sent before, during and after the event.

Please take a moment to read Tim's blog post here.

Tim will be doing the same presentation at the Edinburgh New Media Breakfast on the 15th April at The Tower Restaurant in Edinburgh.  If you would like to come along please book here

Social Media Podcast No.16 now available on iTunes

Google Execs get jail sentence, Gadgets Galore and where to get a Social Media Policy free

Iain Murray from Chardfm makes his debut as our Gadget advisor, we're still trying to give him a name so please let us know your ideas at gordon@podcastmatters.co.uk Iain discusses lots of great gadgets, web sites and mobile apps.

John Mackenzie, Partner at Pinsent Masons the law firm behind out-law.com joins us to talk about the recent ruling in the Italian Courts which led to three Google Execcutives being handed suspended jail sentences. John explains the law behind this case and why it could be a landmark ruling.

Steve Cook from Empire HR http://www.empirehr.com tells us why it's so important for organisations to have a Social Media Policy and the implications for the companies that don't give out proper guidelines to employees.

Download or subscribe to the podcast here

New Media Breakfast Glasgow 26th March - Search Optimisation and Pay Per Click

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION AND PAY PER CLICK MARKETING with TIM BARLOW, MANAGING DIRECTOR, ATTACAT
8am on 26th March 2010 at No.29, Glasgow

Search engine optimisation and pay per click marketing may be grabbing less headlines in the internet marketing world these days. However, they are still very relevant for businesses and gaining in relevance all the time. Search needs to be an integral part of any online marketing plan.

We'll examine the various different elements that make up the Google search experience and how businesses should go about seeking to appear in each different type of listing including:

• Sponsored links
• Regular "natural" results
• Maps/Local
• Shopping Results
• Video

We'll also examine some of the current trends towards more personalised results and social search.

About the speaker:

Tim Barlow is the managing director of Attacat, the Edinburgh-based search engine and internet marketing firm. Tim has been involved in search engine promotion since 1999 when he managed the first Innogy website for National Power. In 2001, Tim launched Pastures-New, one of the UK's leading rental portals, gaining similar levels of traffic with a marketing budget of £100 a month as Rightmove were then achieving with a multi million pound TV campaign. Attacat was set up in 1994 to take advantage of Tim's knowledge.

Self-taught in the art of search engine optimisation and internet marketing (there simply weren't formal courses in those days), Tim passionately believes that good SEO is not rocket science or a black art but simply the result of effective online marketing and web design. This approach has been proven time and again by Tim and his team achieving long lasting high ranks on competitive one and two word phrases for clients in a variety of fields.

Pay per click (such as Google AdWords) has been a long time specialism of Tim and Attacat. Indeed Tim was one of the very first Qualified Google Advertising Professionals in the world and Attacat has held the company version of the qualification since its inception. Attacat use pay per click (PPC) to drive £10s of millions of business for a variety of clients from classic
e-commerce sites to B2B businesses in niches you probably never knew existed.

Tim speaks regularly at both Edinburgh and Glasgow Chamber of Commerce events.

The New Media Breakfast Glasgow is on the 26th March at No.29,
Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow.

You can book your place below.

COMPLIMENTARY FOR 29 MEMBERS

This event is complimentary to 29 Members - If you are a member you
should email Malcolm to reserve your place.

I look forward to seeing you on the 26th.

Social Media on the move - 140 characters goes a long way

NEW MEDIA BREAKFAST EDINBURGH


19th March 2010 

at 

Tower Restaurant, Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh. EH1 1JF

Twitter is on everybody's fingertips, status updates are fast becoming a way of life and the corporate world is getting in on the act; this month's New Media Breakfast will examine various web based sites that help you make full use of Twitter and other social media platforms whilst on the move.

We'll also take a look at some of the smartphone platforms such as: Symbian, Android, iPhone,Windows, Linux and Blackberry.


We are delighted to have Iain Murray, a regular attendee at the New Media Breakfast, to present on this extremely topical subject.

Iain is Managing Director of Chardfm Scotland’s fastest growing fm business, delivering multi-skilled fm services through a network of mobile engineers. The business made a significant investment in technology in 2009 which won them two national awards, the PFM Magazine and i-fm.net e-business award and national contractor of the year award from Mitchells & Butlers. During the same year Chardfm secured significant new business including the account to maintain the Co-operative Groups retail and banking outlets.

Iain has a track record of success in business, starting his first fm business in 1992, he has managed significant property portfolio’s including 68 care homes for Highfield Group. In 1999 Iain established Gardiner & Theobald Facilities Management for the G&T Group which grew to be the largest fm consultancy in the UK, delivering fm advice into the UK and NI governments, MOD, British Library and Cabinet Office. Iain left GTFM in 2004 to establish Jenkins & Marr Facilities Management which was sold to SMC Group plc. in 2006. In 2008 Iain joined Chardfm.

Iain is also the Chairman of the British Institute of Facilities Management the second largest fm Institute globally. His two year tenure finishes in June of this year after which he hoping to is join the Board of Global FM, the worldwide association of associations. Iain has been instrumental in moving the Institute towards more use of Social Media and regularly blogs and tweets during his Institute business. IFMA the American fm association recently published an article in their FMJ publication to their 50,000 readers on social media in business penned by Iain.

Iain is a member of the Entrepreneurial Exchange and is working on their behalf with Enlight the venture philanthropy part of the Exchange providing assistance to Skillforce.

Iain has been affectionately known to his friends as ‘gadget man’ for far too long, he has a passionate interest in technology and has a mantra of ‘if it improves productivity it’s not a gadget’, he started using Social Media in 2007 when he took the Chair of BIFM, blogging weekly until discovering and actively using Twitter, his business Chardfm has won awards for its deployment of technology and is actively using Social Media to develop new business. He has regularly tweeted at the New Media Breakfast’s.

To view this event on Connect, please visit Winning Entrepreneurs New Media Breakfast

Future New Media Breakfasts will take place on a monthly basis and there will be 1 topic covered, they will start at 8am and finish at 9:30am. I hope you will be able to join us for what will be an informative and participative breakfast and if you have any queries in the meantime then please contact Belinda Roberts

Social Media Podcast No.16 with Paul Levinson

Social Media Podcast No.16 is now available on iTunes.  In this episode we chat with Paul Levinson, Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University in New York and author of New New Media and 15 other books.

During the discussion we chat about his book, New New Media, social media in politics, China, Amazon, YouTube debates, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, blocking access in the workplace and other new media related subjects.

As you will hear, Paul loves to talk and his passion for new media and writing is evident throughout the conversation, I hope you enjoy listening to him as much as I enjoyed chatting to him.

By 2013 mobile devices will be the most popular method to access the web.

I've just been corrected by our speaker on Friday, Iain Murray, that mobile devices will become the favoured access method to the internet by 2013 (How quickly things change in Social Media). So, I have decided to repose this blog with the correct heading.


Find out about social media on the move at the New Media Breakfast in Glasgow on the 26th February with Iain Murray for Chardfm and the Podcastmatters team. For full venue, programme and booking details please link here

By 2014 mobile devices will be the most popular access for the internet

Find out about social media on the move at the New Media Breakfast in Glasgow on the 26th February with Iain Murray for Chardfm and the Podcastmatters team.

For full venue, programme and booking details please link here

New Social Media Podcast - Edition 14

On the latest Social Media Podcast we have Scott Allison talking about his trip to Las Vegas to visit the headquarters of Zappos who are renowned for their customer service mainly delivered through the use of Twitter.  Scot tells us how the trip came about and provides a first hand insight about how Zappos operate the company around 10 core values.  It's always useful to look at what successful companies do and even more so when you can hear it from someone who has actually been there and met the people involved.

We were also joined by Iain Murray and Shona Lyttel from Chardfm who talked about Social Media access in the workplace and the forthcoming New Media Breakfast about Social Media on the move.  Iain Murray, MD of Chardfm will present on this subject and on the podcast he told us about some of the tools we will be looking at.

Other topics on Edition 14 include our new iPhone App, our favourite applications, who should you put in charge of you social media activity and the forthcoming interview with Paul Levinson, professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York and author of the book, New New Media.

Download Social Media Podcast No.14

We've got our own iPhone App!

Podcastmatters now has an iPhone App called "Podcastmatters" (lots of thought went into that). with the App installed you can access the Social Media Podcast directly from your iPhone.  You can also read the show notes for each podcast and share an episode with your Facebook friends.

I created the App in iSites which is a new site that allows you to create you App for $25; you create all the graphics and links and they take care of the iTunes submission for you - it's all very simple.

The company has been inundated with applications, so much so that they sent me an email yesterday saying they intended to batch all the orders and submit 75-100 Apps each day to iTunes.  They also said they have stopped taking payments until they clear the current backlog. I thought I might have to wait a while for the App but this morning I noticed two mentions of our new App on a Google Alert for Podcastmatters - I clicked the link and there it was.

It works extremely well and, not that we've got it listed, we can start to tweek it and improve it.   I have already noticed that the iTunes Store graphic is too small so I've changed it and uploaded a new graphic - it will be interesting to see how long that takes to filter through.

Social Media Podcast No.13 - We are currently at No.2 on iTunes

We released Edition No.13 of the Social Media Podcast on Thursday and it's now at No.2 in the Audio Podcasting section in the Podcast Category. Download it to find out what we did in a car park in Inverurie and what happened to Evan Ratliff...you could just help us to that No.1 spot AGAIN!

Download the podcast on iTunes Click Here

New Media Breakfast Glasgow 29th January

SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE WORKPLACE

Exploring the issues surrounding employee access and the use of social media as a communication tool.

We have been asked on numerous occasions in the latter part of 2009, and already in 2010, about allowing employees access to social networks at work; should they encourage employees to use social networking in connection with their business and, what are the potential pitfalls if they do?

There is no right or wrong answer to this; many factors will influence whether or not it is right for your business.  With this in mind, the next New Media Breakfast will explore the topic in order to help you make a more informed decision about allowing access and the use of social media in your business.

The meeting will be an open discussion with two or three very short presentations designed to help the process.  We are still formalising the exact content of each presentation however, we will structure them to help cover the following issues:

• Does enabling social networks in the workplace adversely affect productivity?

• What are the options if I do allow staff to use social networks?

• Are guidelines available?

• What are other organisations doing?

• What are the potential risks and rewards?

• Will it fit with other marketing activities?

• What does it cost?

• What are the common mistakes?

• Can you keep your brand off social media?

We don’t particularly want to focus too much on actual social media tools, they will change; this discussion is more about the principle of adopting social media as a communication tool.

There is little doubt you will continue to hear about social media in 2010 and you will probably be asking if, and when, it is right for your business; hopefully this New Media Breakfast will help you to focus on the issues you need to consider to make the right decision.

So, if you would like to be part of the discussion or, you simply want to hear what others think, come along on the 29^th to No. 29, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow.  We would like to see you there and we look forward to finding out the thoughts of business leaders, charitable organisations and the public sector about this extremely important issue.

To book your place click here and follow the payment details at the bottom of the page.

No.29 Members

If you are a 29 Member please email Malcolm with your name, company name and 29 membership number.

Forget No.5 we're No.1 now!

Thank you to everyone that downloaded or subscribed to the Social Media Podcast, We're No.1 in the Podcasting Section for Audio Podcasts this morning and, No.4 in the combined Audio and Video Podcasting Charts.

Gary Dixon, Spectrum Personnel asked me this morning why the podcast was doing so well; I said to him that, whilst word-of-mouth plays large part in these things, it is the extent and reach of our social media footprint that gets the word out there in the first place. When we released this podcast we promoted it on several platforms some of which are listed below:

• Podcastmatters Blog
• Podcastmatters Social Network
• Podcastmatters Twitter
• Gordon White's personal Twitter
• Design Matters Twitter
• Kyle Murdoch's Twitter
• New Media Breakfast Twitter
• Facebook
• Social Media Group on Spectrum Social Network
• New Media Update Group on Engage (Entrepreneurial Exchange's online network)
• Social Media Podcast Group on Podcastmatters Network
• Linked-In

These were the main outlets however, there are other networks that our updates post to via Ping.fm and FriendFeed

This highlights the benefits of a good social media presence. It is also worth noting that we didn't create this presence yesterday - it has taken a long time and we will continue to develop our community and take advantage of all new opportunities. New Year is traditionally a time to reflect on where you are and plan for the future, you should be looking at how you can create your on-line community during 2010, believe me, it's worth it.

If you want to download or subscribe to the Social Media Podcast please click here

Social Media Podcast Top 5 positions on iTunes

We are delighted with the progress we're making with the Social Media Podcast - today it rose from No.57 to No.5 in the Podcasting category.

The most recent podcast No.11 is a round-up of the year and some discussion about recent news stories like Telstra's commitment to Social Media and Pepsi's decision to put their $20 million Superbowl advertising budget into a Social Media campaign meaning they will not launch a new advert during the ball game for the first time in 23 years.

We round off the year with a look back at 2009 and a look forward to 2010 when we will continue the New Media Breakfast series as well as launching a new event in Inverness.

You can download all episodes of the podcast or subscribe here