Bloggertone

I had the pleasure of visiting The Secret Garden Centre in Newmarket, Kanturk County Cork a couple of years ago and have kept in touch with Brian Paterson ever since. His story about their relocation to Ireland and subsequent life changes fascinated me and now seeing how well he is doing with Social Media, I thought it would be nice for him to share that story. Recently shortlisted for the Green Awards and Entrepreneurial Business Awards it has been a great year for them so far. Brian tells…

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Email marketing has been with us longer than our favourite social networks, yet not every business embraces it. This is particularly the case when it comes to small business, many of whom don’t consider it, even when they’ve amassed a considerable database over a period of time? Why exactly is this? In recent years there has been a push to market your business online because it’s measurable and more affordable than traditional media.  In doing so people think of Google, Facebook,…

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A recent article in “Marketing Week” reported that the consumer and general public has lost faith in the marketing and advertising industry, and that the industry was facing a potential crisis. The basis for this was a Readers Digest survey where a staggering 81% of respondents said they had lost trust in the advertising industry. There have also been studies that suggest that increasingly consumers are looking more and more to independent sources, like online reviews and expert…

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The Obama administration recently introduced a proposal that aims to provide consumers with better protection when sharing their personal information with websites online. Dubbed the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, the proposal is generating a lot of discussion and has already garnered the support of internet superpowers such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. One of the biggest areas the new bill focuses on is targeting, a practice that has become common in the marketing world. Do Not…

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Some people are of the opinion that blogging has limited use for their business, some don’t see the need for it at all, others see it as useful for improving SEO and with good calls to action, believe it capable of delivering increased sales.  However, blogging (and other social media tools) can do so much more for your business than driving people to your website through improved Search Engine Optimisation. B2B businesses that blog generate 67% more leads than those who don’t…

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The internet is a beautiful place for businesses, yet many users risk spoiling it because they fail to understand online ethics. With the EU/ACTA quickening the pace to clamp down online privacy, sharing and freedom of expression; these actions are now under the spotlight. I have a question – would you walk into someone’s house and add your collection of family photos to their mantlepieces and sideboards? No. Of course you wouldn’t. After all it’s their home for them to…

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Here are 23 Twitter Likes and 23 Twitter Dislikes from people that are using Social Media regularly for many different reasons, business and personal. I thought this may be a good exercise as recently I’ve seen some Tweets that really turn me off people and wondered if they even knew it. Plus I’d like to commend those that are tweeting well but you can’t just openly point out without seeming like a stalker. So I thought I’d put together some “tweet length” comments from other…

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Search engines have proven to be a critical means of driving traffic to a website. The last 10 years have seen radical changes in how website owners can help search engines find and rank their content. With all the changes that have taken place, expect more. Lots more. It’s all too common in the early years of any new industry that terms and definitions get confused. Search engine optimization and search engine marketing are two terms that tend to get used interchangeably, but the two…

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Always on the lookout for interesting Entrepreneurs to speak with and learn from, I hooked up with Sean O’Sullivan to find out more about his business ventures and what he has been up to recently. Sean founded several technology companies and organizations, including: MapInfo, a $200 million software and services business headquartered in New York State. He established one of his newest ventures, Avego in Kinsale in Ireland, a technology firm that provides Real-time Ridesharing and…

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The roll out of Facebook Timeline for pages this week sees the end of the default landing tab. But is having custom Facebook pages worth it? For some time I’d been noticing landing tabs getting more and more elaborate.  People were beginning to bring their entire website onto Facebook and although this looks great I often wondered if it was functional.  Here’s why; People only visit your Facebook page once, if at all A quick look at my Facebook insights tells me that although most of my…

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