Passionate Blog

Business over Breakfast exclusive offer: A beginners’ guide to social media: One-day workshop

DO you know your RSS from your e-newsletter?

How about Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube?

This workshop is tailored to your needs with practical examples of how to use new media methods. If the thought of understanding what any of these new media phenomena mean has you reaching for the headache tablets, then this workshop is for you.

It will cover:

 • Twitter - setting up and first steps

• Facebook for business – setting up and first steps

• Professional communication through LinkedIn

• Why content is king

• Basic dos and don'ts of social networking

• Why podcast?

• Blogging - what's the point?

Business over Breakfast: Top five tips for understanding social media

WE'VE encountered many business people who - truth be told - are quite suspicious or scared of getting involved in social media.

In part, this can be down to their level of knowledge or understanding of what it's all about, or they may worry about any negative connotations.

They want to know how much time it needs and what their return on investment will be.

We cover these most pressing of topics in our Intermediate Social Media workshops. But for now, as we are putting together an exclusive beginners' package for Business over Breakfast, we would like to remember first things first.

Here are five tips we reckon are small steps to help demystify social media for small business.

Business over Breakfast: Social media jargon buster

AT our workshops for small businesses, charities and public bodies looking to find out more about social media - and starting from a position of quiet terror, we include a jargon buster to take away, along with other information, including further resources.

We're putting together an exclusive package for Business over Breakfast members from across the UK and thought it would be helpful to show potential attendees some of the terms this jargon buster contains.

At one such workshop last week, one lady said quite clearly that it was the way this 'gobbledegook' prevailed that helped power her nerves about diving in and getting started with social media tools such as Twitter, facebook and blogs.

We hope this list may help. We know it's only a beginning. But you may find the rest of the answers you are looking for in the recommended reading detailed below, or by coming along to one of our Social Media for Beginners sessions.

Bloggers unite in festive theatre campaign to boost children's cancer charity

Photo by Ell Brown on Flickr

UK parent bloggers are joining forces to laugh their socks off while raising cash for a children’s cancer charity.

Bloggers are signing up for The Great Panto Review 2009 which will benefit NACCPO – The National Alliance of Childhood Cancer Parents’ Organisations.

Leading theatres in England, Scotland and Wales have agreed to give bloggers access so their reviews can spread ‘word of mouth’ throughout the blogospshere.

Cardiff’s New Theatre where John Barrowman is appearing as Robin Hood and the Birmingham Hippodrome where Ray Quinn and Joe Pasquale will star in Sleeping Beauty were among the first to pledge to welcome the bloggers and back the charity effort.

How we've used Twitter for business - Birmingham Post feature

THINK social media is a waste of time?

Think again.

A number of West Midlands companies are featured in the Birmingham Post today, discussing how they have mastered Twitter as a brilliant business tool - and we're one of them.

Linda wrote more about how we've been able to use social media to diversify and survive here.

Given the choice wouldn't you rather find out how you can use such developments to boost your bottom line as opposed to sitting around moaning about it?

Do let us know if you'd like to find out more, we can work with your team on how you can maximise the use of social media for your business.

Don't forget you can follow Linda on Twitter here and Carol here.

Neil's 'Someone once told me': 'You are allowed to relax you know'

YOU'LL always find him in the kitchen at parties...

This is our new media director, Neil Aitchison, during our recent Someone once told me session.

And what an important message it is too!

Check out Carol's SOTM video here - dubbed one of creator Mario's favourites ever.

And then there was Linda, doing her best again to raise awareness about mental illness. She's not keen on the picture but the audio is powerful.

Various Passionate Media clients and contacts were also captured in pictures, video or sound. Watch this space for a fuller gallery as more are posted on the site.

Carol stars in Someone Once Told Me video - bit of a tearjerker!

IT only seems like yesterday that Carol's tenacity and determination were recognised with a national award. (Okay it was three years ago, even if I still go on about it!) Now, here she is again - inspiring others, this time in the social media spotlight.

Thanks to Mario from Someone Once Told Me for all his time with us recently. Check out his wonderful website for lots more examples of the influential things people have heard. And watch this space for more images of the Passionate Media team with their own life-shaping messages.

Double the excitement as our twins blog is featured in The Times

By Linda Jones

I'VE been reading about how PRs are engaging with bloggers lately and some of the discussion has either been sparked by or led to mentions of a recent trip I shared with six other so-called UK 'mummybloggers' to Walt Disney World.

The trip was the subject of a feature in The Times by my fellow member of the so-called Disney Seven, Alice Castle.

You can also see this forward thinking post from travel journalist Jeremy Head and this interesting piece by Manchester's Sarah Hartley.

I'm included because of You've Got Your Hands Full, our blog for multiple birth parents, which has gained more than 11,000 returning readers since being launched in 2006.

Susanna, from A Modern Mother, recently shared guidance for PRs wanting to contact this group of bloggers and I have been meaning to add my thoughts on her excellent post for a while. The one point I disagreed on was that I write for other people, not for me.

All a twitter over Twitter

WE'VE been delighted by the response to Linda's piece about Twitter in today's Guardian.

Thanks everyone for getting in touch with your kind words. Now she just has to think of some more stuff to write about!

Here's a further report about the micro-blogging tool and how it can help PR be more "quick and dirty" apparently. Nice. [Carol]