A Collection of Superb 123-reg Memorable Bus Stories
Over the past two weeks you have been telling us your stories and we have been crying with laugher and gasping with shock and we have been so excited for the next story to come in! You have outdone yourselves and we are featuring some of the stories we have enjoyed the most. Remember if you want to be in with a chance of winning the £250 prize as well as featuring on the 123-reg blog make sure you enter your stories over at Facebook.com/123-regfans Here are our favourite stories from the past week: Kay Adeola when I was about 11 I was complaining to my mum that I was hungry when we was on the bus she kept telling me to wait till I got home I was not impressed lol but as we drove in to our town the bus driver stopped said he would be back in a few minutes when he came back he had brought me a lovely cream cake from one of the shops and said he didn’t want me to be sad lol lovely man quite old then and became a family friend he has since passed but I will always remember the kindness he showed me 🙂 Helen Jacob-Lloyd Bus Story Competition – My most memorable bus story is when a lady went into labour on the bus! The bus journey I used to make a lot goes past a hospital, I presume the lady was on route to the hospital, as she was heavily pregnant, but there was a road closure due to a burst gas pipe, so the bus sat at traffic lights and in queues for about 30 minutes longer than the usual length of the journey. This lady was with her partner and started to look like she was in a panic, as did her partner! It soon becomes evident that her waters had broken, as a puddle appeared on the floor. She began being embarrassed and apologising to everyone but as her contractions began to get stronger she soon didn’t care. We were all trying to help, with tissues on the floor, people were offering bottles of water, and painkillers etc but she didn’t want any of it! By this time we were within walking distance of the hospital so her and her partner got off the bus quickly and headed to the hospital! I’ve never seen them again but it sure was an eventful journey! Dawn Costen Oh my goodness most memorable bus journey? It wasn’t a particularly long bus journey maybe 10 minutes tops – but it was a very hot day with a couple of extremely stinky people on it, that I managed to plonk myself right behind and proceeded to try and discreetly turn my head to the side every now and again to get an intake of “fresh” air before holding my breath a little bit longer! As I said it wasn’t a particularly long journey but it felt like THE longest journey ever!! I think it will stick in my mind forever as being the most memorable journey for me – to be honest I don’t think I have been on a bus since!
Tesco make fitting move
Virtual fitting rooms are nothing new, neither are online stores embedded into Facebook but the fact that a brand like Tesco has launched the same may suggest many more are set to swiftly follow. The new Facebook page that Tesco offer http://www.facebook.com/Clothingattesco?sk=app_261347243942251 is an attempt to make their online clothing store more personal and appealing to would-be customers. As well as seeing how items from the Tesco clothing range look on the on-screen model, potential customers can upload an image of themselves and see if the style and colour really would suit them. There are 50 outfits available for 50 virtual trying on, but given the cost to develop the system you can expect more to follow if initial feedback is good. Of course Facebook is all about engagement and increasing reach and shares so there is a facility for you to upload an image of you wearing the outfits and get the Facebook community to vote on the best look. The Facebook portal design is something that seems to be attracting more and more brands but doesn’t look like ever taking over from the need of having a real full-blown website, more as an additional revenue producer. Designers: Have you had more enquiries from clients wanting specific in-Facebook micro-sites? Consumers: Would you be more likely to buy if you can virtually try?
Under the bonnet of Twitter & Facebook
Quality of fans & followers versus quantity
The phrase quality over quantity is nothing new – even in business – but the first thing to point out is that even if you do follow this old adage you will have to preach hard to almost everyone you meet that that is the right approach. It’s human nature that we want answers, quantifiable results, etc. The modern marketing world is dominated by ROI (return on investment) stats but social media works best in ways that are more difficult to quantify. There are methods that claim to help evaluate improvements in brand awareness, customer opinion and loyalty but even those are difficult to relate back directly as a result of social media. So many people turn to the number of followers and fans as a symbol of how well they are doing in social media terms. As we pointed out back at the start of this guide – B –Buying fans and followers – there are plenty of places offering you the chance to boost your follower and fan numbers if you are prepared to part with some cash, but that’s like holding a party and inviting loads of people you don’t know and who don’t know you. Sure some will come, curiosity for many others just looking to see what’s in it for them, others because they have nothing better to do. In which case they are of very little value to you as the party host and you are highly unlikely to ever see or hear from any of them again. The same is true of this un-natural fan or follower. Quality of fan and follower should be your focus and that means someone who appreciates what you are doing, is likely to be inspired to spend some money with your business and hopefully may even want to spread the word about how good you are. One fan telling their own set of 500 fans how great you are is likely to be so much more productive in the long run than you just buying in 500 fans. Better quality fans can be advocates for your business by spreading the word, but also can be your ear to the ground. The chances are they are already your customer. Their opinion could be an indication of how other customers are feeling too, so if they make suggestions or start grumbling…pay attention. Use social media to get to know your customers not just to gain statistics you can show off without meaning. An example of why quality of followers over quantity works, is the celebrity twittersphere. Almost every pop-star, football player even politician has a Twitter account with 10,000 or more followers, yet very few actually interact with those fans who have chosen to follow them. In fact, often they are the worst Tweeters and people to follow. If they tweet at all, it is usually inane references to their unreal lives. The fact that most celebrities with large numbers of followers only themselves follow a handful of others on Twitter, also shows they don’t care for the interaction, it is more self-promotion and while it has worked for some Twitter is more about relationships than just one-way PR. The better quality your follower the easier you will find it to interact with them – there will be more shared ground and knowledge and desire to interact. Your aim should be to develop relationships, interact with your followers and become an influencer over their habits. That will help drive sales back to you and that will also help improve your status as a social media guru.
Top six tweets and Facebook updates of 2011
If you follow us on Twitter or check our updates on Facebook, you’ll have seen us post lots of interesting stories and links this year. In typical ‘review of the year’ fashion, we’ve trawled back to bring you six of our updates that were most shared or retweeted: Don’t make it easy for burglars! You might enjoy using social media services to keep friends appraised of your every move, but are you unwittingly helping burglars target your home? This useful infographic shows the risks you’re taking. Read more > Making WordPress run faster. Thousands of our customers use WordPress to build their website. But if your WordPress site is slow, how do you fix it? Here are some great tweaks and changes to speed up your WordPress install. Read more > How not to get a job. This classic has little to do with what we do and even less to do with the internet and building websites. These cringeworthy tales of botched job interviews might or might not be true, but they’re still entertaining. Read more > Google’s secret weapon against Twitter and Facebook. So far the search giant’s attempts to make a splash in the world of social media have had limited effects. But wait, has one musician demonstrated the power of Google+? Read more > It’s time for hackers to get hacked. Tired of being targeted by persistent hacking attempts, some firms are now fighting back, with tools and techniques designed to disrupt hackers and divert them into dead ends. Read more > Good News from Nominet The .uk registry is making it easier for you to grow your brand and business for the long-term from 2012. From May, Nominet will allow you to lock in your .uk domain for up to 10 years and we’ll be including the same in our order and renewal processess. Read more > What are the best articles, content or pieces of information you’ve discovered through social media this year? Let us know in the comments. Oh – and follow us on Twitter and Facebook if you want to see more of the same.
Ecommerce on Facebook
Developing a strategy that sells goods, services and brand How to generate revenue from Facebook. Facebook is the world’s largest social network. Today brands are investing more and more money on this platform in order to attract new clients and generate revenue. Nowadays, the success of a company is no longer measured by the numbers of fans it has on Facebook, but by the number of people from that database that are generating revenue. However, social networks should not be used to sell, but to influence the intent to buy. There are a lot of e-commerce tools available on Facebook that companies can use to facilitate the purchase of products and services and create a one of a kind shopping experience for its customers. Facebook can be a powerful sales vehicle for those who know how to take advantage of its features. Listen The first step to creating social revenue is to listen to your customers. Monitor constantly what they’re saying about your company and don’t hesitate to interact with them when you feel it’s necessary. Social media plays an important role in purchase decision making these days and that’s because people search for information on products and services on forums and social networks. Users trust reviews of your products written by other people and are more likely to buy it if the reviews are positive. Today, word-of-mouth is more influential than ever. Create a one of a kind user experience You managed to get users to visit your page and become fans. But they can very easily unlike your page, so how can you get them to stick around? As a business, you can take advantage of the various APIs available on Facebook that can help you create a unique ecommerce experience for your fans. Some of the most important are Share, Like and Reviews (fans can comment on your products or services and then forward it to their friends; this can lead to more product views and can ultimately generate sales). The great thing about Facebook – and social media in general – is that your message can reach your members and then it can also reach the friends of your members, through friend suggestions. The impact is more powerful and the opportunities endless. Guarantee an easy purchasing process No matter if clients are purchasing directly from your website or from Facebook, they need to be reassured that the purchasing process is simple, secure and can be completed within minutes. However, Facebook provides some extra features that support “online window shopping” and these allow a client to purchase a product directly from the company’s Facebook page, without even having to visit its website. Companies can also integrate a payment system on Facebook for clients to use when paying for a product. Measure results Companies can use Facebook Insights – the platform’s internal tracking system – to track results. You can also get insights on your fans – such as age, location, etc, which can help when preparing marketing campaigns for Facebook. This tool can complement the web tracking systems you might already be using, such as Google Analytics. Run social campaigns Aside from these, you can also run various social campaigns on Facebook to generate revenue. For example, you can run contests with prizes in order to promote your products and also share posts with the promotions and special offers that you have in your store, such as “deal of the day”. Consumers are spending more and more of their time online, especially on Facebook, so it’s important for companies to focus on clever ways to market products and encourage people to purchase.
Facebook’s Gestures will make more businesses like them
Facebook is about to get more important for Business. Fact. I quite often hear people saying “Yeh, but Facebook is for family and friends not business, right?” and then normally spend the next 10 or 20 minutes to convince them it isn’t so. It doesn’t always work. To many, the informality of Facebook, the way you can banter with ex-school-mates and existing office colleagues alike, doesn’t lend itself well to ‘promoting a brand”. Yet last week’s announcement from Facebook about the changes coming to their portal is about to make Facebook even more important and a vital business tool. We often recite the mantra of ‘Content is King’ and until now Facebook (despite already hosting 4% of all photographs ever taken in the world) hasn’t really towed the line with that one, until now. Facebook is moving to a more newsy type-look and will be placing content on a more newsworthy basis. Content now is very important on Facebook. What changes? From the 30th September (i.e. today) Facebook will no longer be driven by a long line of posts from those a user has linked to but instead a Timeline and a set of organised post. In fact it is an intelligent timeline that will create more a chronological story or scrapbook than just a series of posts. If you’ve ever seen the impressive Flipboard app on the iPad you will get the idea. Facebook is looking to organise us. That includes the basic like function. This is being opened out to developers given them more scope to create their own versions connected to online activities. That is likely to make users more savvy as to who, what and when they like. So Facebook will decide what is relevant content to us and place this in our timeline. As a user though you won’t miss out on the other content completely, that will be available as part of a rolling ‘ticker’ on of each user’s home page. Dspite this apparent information gatekeeping, Facebook claims the new changes will allow you more control over what appears as a top news item as, users will be given more options over these sorts of preferences via new setting controls. The idea is that with one quick glance users will easily catch-up on the actions of their important friends over the past 24 hours without having to scroll through countless updates “you should see the things you’re most interested in” claim Facebook, yes but not necessarily the most recent. To the writer this move is perhaps more about understanding where Facebook sits alongside other social networks. During the recent UK riots, during live sporting events and reality tv shows, the ‘as live’ action and interaction has taken place on Twitter not Facebook. Twitter has almost become the default for immediacy, Facebook something more of a reflection. In tradtional analogy, Twitter is to TV and radio what Facebook is now becoming to newspapers and magazines. Again that makes content on Facebook even more important. If you are a business, the stronger or more unique your message the better the chance it will attract interest from an audience. From a user perspective the chances are their top news will become stale for those who log on more than once per day, so any new engaging content will be lapped up The true impact – and whether it makes Facebook users leave in droves or new sign-ups happen – won’t be seen for months yet, but we suggest you concentrate on ensuring what you have on Facebook is as up to date and relevant to your daily business as possible. Let us know what you think of the new look Facebook.
It’s the Doctor, Who tries Facebook rentals
We’d like to take the praise for predicting earlier this week that online TV was soon to come to these shores most likely in the form of classic repeats, but really it wasn’t a prediction of epic proportions, just progress. So we weren’t really surprised to find that BBC Worldwide is to start renting out classic TV episodes via the Tardis that is Facebook from today. Perhaps playing it safe they are launching with everyone’s favourite time-traveller: Dr Who. Classic episodes available for Facebook’s own currency Facebook cover nine stories, each containing several episodes. Once rented the episodes will be available to stream online for 48 hours. Content available includes digitally remastered versions of classic Doctor episodes like “Tomb of the Cybermen”plus a Facebook exclusive. 1988’s “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy” isn’t available on DVD but will be available over the new Facebook system to viewers in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as the BBC look to keep interest in the Doctor Who brand up inbetween new series. Have you tried subscribing? Will you try in the future?