Social Seminars will help businesses get to grips with social media

Secret Agent Marketing have teamed up with FutrSocial to offer a series of free workshops aims to give Wiltshire businesses and organisations a better understanding of social media.

The informal courses will be led by social media entrepreneur Marcus Lilley (that’s him above) whose Marlborough-based firm, FutrSocial, helps people across the UK get to grips with an ever-changing array of communications technology.

The sessions are aimed at people who are using the basics of social media, and want to improve their skills.

Be positive in your marketing

Negative marketing rarely works. To use a negative message you really have to know your stuff – be an expert in the rules to break them.

I had a conversation today with a friend who was organising a flash mob to inspire people to be more proactive about climate change.

She wants to use the event to engage with people on a one-to-one basis (or: ‘go out and talk to people’) on what more they could do to have a positive effect on the environment because, she said ‘it’s fixable.’

This kind of positivity is so important. Not just for climate change, but for any form of communication.

Secret Agents appointed by county’s new Business Support Service

We are thrilled to report that the newly-formed Wiltshire Business Support Service has appointed Secret Agent Marketing to deliver its series of marketing training courses to start-ups and small businesses in Wiltshire.

Our Marketing for Beginners course will explain how marketing is more than just newspaper ads and glossy brochures; and how marketing should be a business investment, not an expense.

We’ll be helping attendees to work out who their customers are, how to speak their language, and how to give them what they need.

The workshop will be super-practical, and each delegate will leave with a basic realistic, workable marketing plan, while peer-to-peer learning will allow attendees to try out their ideas on other workshop delegates.

We’re delighted to have been invited to join forces with Wiltshire Business Support Service. Together, we can offer the wealth of our experience and an incredibly low cost to small businesses and start-ups.

The first workshop will be held on Wednesday 30 May 2012, from 10am to 1pm at The Crown,19 New Park Street, Devizes, SN10 1EA. Attendance costs £25 for members of Wessex Chambers, and £40 for non-members.

Festival Chronicling…baa!

Baa! The Festival Chronicler

Next week is my first official job as a Festival Chronicler.

Both Agent Pete and I are chronicling the Swindon Festival of Literature which starts this bank holiday monday (at 5:30am, yikes!) for twelve days.

We’ll be reporting, gossiping, photographing and generally telling everyone about our experience.

It’s a new initiative where we’ll flexing our blogging, tweeting and facebooking muscles to the max, writing about twenty-nine events in under two weeks!

See the blog: www.festivalchronicle.com
www.facebook.com/festivalchronicle
www.twitter.com/festchronicler

Become great at your own marketing

It’s why a lot of people have signed up to our news list.

And we’re happy to share tips and advice on this blog and give away free guides.

But nothing beats a bit of real life learning, and the ability to ask – how does this work for my business? Will this plan fly?

So we’ve organised a Secret Agent School course:

Marketing for Beginners
Tuesday 29 May 2012 10am – 4pm
http://www.secretagentmarketing.com/pages/secret-agent-school.html

Swindon Business Show

Alongside the solicitors, accountants and financial services (though don’t get me wrong – these services are indispensible!) you meet some really unusual and innovative businesses.

The stand-outs for me today were:

Gibbons Gardening who gave me a packet of meadow seeds and had a conversation about how wrong it is to weedkiller nettles. And anyone who has a monkey for a logo can do no wrong…

e-motion electric vehicle company who sell electric bikes. This may be the way forward for someone like me who lives in the middle of the countryside.

Red Penguin consulting for having a randomly coloured animal as a name.

CS Handwriting Analysis – though I was too frightened to show Christina mine…

Young at Heart – who will do an artery age check to see if you are furry on the inside

Inner Flame – who do team and confidence building through fun activities for 14-19 year olds

Solomon Training – who help unemployed people with their basic (and beyond) maths English and IT skills.

Severnprint for their total commitment to quality and eco-friendly printing (and because they gave me lots of free notepads).

And also: Frank Stobrawe from PAT Testing Services who gave me (dare I admit it) some handy tips on marketing via Amazon and QR codes!