In my recent appearance on Business Connections Live I deliberated on explaining just how important it is to have a marketing funne in placel on Facebook.

Here's the video for you to watch but if you prefer the short and skinny version then the main points discussed are below the video.

The 3 most important funnels to grow your…

Social media has experienced a meteoric rise over in the past few years, going from a social experiment by a group of college students to a worldwide communication phenomenon. Businesses have recognised its potential for interacting with customers and more and more deals are being done online than ever before.

See Practical example: How to use major social media sites to promote your dealership or other business. …

Infographis are a great (and very fashionable!) way of providing a snapshot overview os dry statistics. Here's one about Social Media platforms from Leverage New Media that caught my eye... [view original here]…

SEO marketing is critical, not just for car dealerships, but for any website. To achieve good results from SEO it’s important that you have a clear understanding of why you want to do SEO and what you want to get out of it. Without such insight and the right plan, it will be difficult to hit the nail on the head and, ultimately, it can waste a lot…

It seems that women (who I rate as better at networking than men) are also tops at using Social Media according to this article (and Infographic) on the raprehab.com website. (Guess which is the one social media site where men still dominate?)

"RapRehab wanted to share some reserach on how men and women use social media and found out that women spend more time on social networking sites than men. We were surprised to learn that men dominate only…

Thanks to new NiS Member Qamar Rehman for alerting me to the latest 'shock horror' episode in the Google SEO saga... Here's an article from the Search Engine Watch website (and I'm sure Qamar will be happy to enlighten you further :0)

"The day many SEO professionals hoped would never come, but feared eventually would, apparently has arrived today. It appears that Google has cut off keyword data altogether.

Nearly two years after making one of the …

Base rate is likely to rise next spring, Monetary Policy Committee member Martin Weale said today.

Speaking to Sky News Weale said once base rate rises, further increases will be gradual.

He says: “I think it is very helpful that we try and explain the most likely path for interest rates that the first rise will come perhaps in the spring of next year, and then the path is likely to be relatively…

Without reviewing his image, would this guy be the success he is today? Before you pay per click or optimise your search engine,is it time you reviewed yours? 

It’s not just about a logo design! Good branding and development should incorporate typographic and colour continuity, consistency of copy and quality of photography across all marketing material. Because in this competitive and image conscious world, your company’s appearance will ultimately…

We were introduced to many of the ins and outs of Facebook for Business at the MyTeam Network RoundTable in Cobham last week by top bloke, Social Media Wizard and NiS Member Mark Hughes of Funky Social Media.

How apposite then that NiS Member and Social Marketing Queen …

I recently received a call from an individual needing some advice about his employment situation. He had seen his own job advertised, which had alarmed him, so he’d gone to talk to the MD. He was told that the company was restructuring to save money and three existing roles were going to be combined into two. This would normally be a redundancy situation but the company wasn’t minded to go through a proper selection process – they were just planning to replace…

Here's another great little list I found and would like to share with you. It's from The Huffington Post Blog, and it chimes with many of my own convictions about what works in networking...  [read the whole thing here...]

1. Be discriminating. There are countless events to attend from Chamber business card exchanges to professional development…

Car leasing options are attractive if you’re looking to pay fixed monthly costs at an amount lower than the sums you’d be paying under either a credit agreement or a hire purchase option. You are essentially paying to use the car for a fixed period. You are also generally tied to a fixed mileage limit (although this can usually be extended upon payment of an additional charge). Leasing is popular with drivers who like the idea of running a new car every few years and who do not want to be…

People who are divorced, or those whose relationship has broken down, are being penalised because many mortgage lenders don’t accept child support as income, meaning that they could be forced to keep their ex’s name on the mortgage, or be denied a mortgage altogether.

Two lenders, don’t accept child support payments as part of a borrower’s income at all.

Two others don’t generally accept child support as income, but say they will look at applications on a…

The interest-only mortgage timebomb is ticking loudly and will only get louder according to statistics revealed in the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) thematic review into interest-only mortgages, which was published earlier this year.

The review revealed there are now 2.6m interest-only mortgages due for repayment by 2041.

Worryingly, as many as 48% of those face a shortfall at repayment day, with an average figure of around £71,000.

Even more worryingly, the review…

This week I was asked to provide some guidance on setting up the email, calendar and contacts of several businesses so that they could access the data anywhere and on any of the mobile devices that they used.

Although I'm a Google Apps and Android person myself, I had to get this working on Apple devices. The set up on Android devices, as should be the case, is very straightforward but it wasn't as straightforward to get things set up on the Apple devices. On an Android…

As a copywriter I always like to learn from the best, and Drayton Bird (crazy name, crazy guy:0) is a Direct Marketing guru who is always worth listening to... He's British, and advertising legend David Ogilvy, who he worked with while at O&M Direct said of…

Apparently we are blessed with long and happy lives here in leafy Surrey, according to this article on the Telegraph's website.  And on the subject of the Telegraph, I've added a link to their   cartoon to the NiS home page  so whenever you're on the site you can click to enjoy that day's example from the best topical cartoonist of all time, IMHO!

London commuter belt is healthiest place to…

I spotted this fascinating article on the InformationWeek website. I'm particularly interested in how to monetise the social web because I'd like to make a business out of the 'Networking in' concept :0)

5 Top Social Media Trends For 2014

From social media faux pas to a prominent IPO, 2013 was full of social media highs and lows. According to Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group, this year marked social media's move into the…

I read loads of articles on networking and it's nice to find I'm in good company when I recommend networking as the twenty-first Century way to find business success...

Here's a promising looking chap called RIchard Branson explaining his enthusiasm for networking on Entrepreneur.com...

"Q: How much of an impact does a really effective networker have on a company's success? Does it ever make sense to hire someone whose only…

Tip 1

If you're struggling to find a really good tool for helping you manage your personal or business tasks then do take a look at Trello (www.trello.com). It's free (which is a winner to start with) and although it has a paid for version, there really is no need to upgrade. You can manage as many tasks as you like and categorise them into projects (or organisations as it…