Don't be scared of social media

Social media is the buzzword of the day in marketing speak, but to us mere mortals, it can prove to be a bit of a minefield. We’ve got a great workshop at the conference this year which will provide an overview of the main tools available and some practical insight on how you can use these to promote your own services. http://www.skillfair.co.uk/content/1075/Skillfair-2010-Conference.aspx

In the meantime here are a few dos and don’ts of online networking:

· Take a bit of time to get to know particular forums and discussion groups before you join – this will give you a good idea about who’s active and the way it’s run.
· Once you’ve found out about a group's protocol, make sure you follow it! Whilst some groups are happy for you to do a bit of self promotion now and again, others may not look at it so kindly.
· Beware of ‘reply to all’ buttons – if someone has requested an answer with personal information, send it to them and not the whole group!

RDA and Business Links – What Next?

The news that the Government will be scrapping Regional Development Agencies and the small business advice services provided through Business Link has caused a fair amount of consternation and uncertainty among business advisors and independent consultants. Not surprisingly we at Skillfair have been watching with interest and have put in our two-pennyworth on the subject. Our general stance is that small businesses should be able to choose how they access advice and that the best people to provide that advice are the independent advisor and consultant community (see our letter to Mark Prisk) rather than large organisations, whether private or public sector.

I’ve talked with a number of consultants from different parts of the UK recently and also attended a talk by an RDA representative last week. The impression I've received is that this confusion is likely to last for some time yet. The RDAs and BIS (department for Business, Innovation and Skills) are currently working on the detailed process for winding down the RDAs, something that is likely to take until early in 2012 to be fully complete. This may seem a long time but each RDA has at least 300 people to deal with and in some areas of the country they also have significant contracts with deliver companies that will need to be unwound.

So what will the result be when the process is complete? It’s hard to be clear on details but the information we have is that business start-ups will be serviced as much as possible via the web and that BIS favours using their own websites to ‘signpost’ start-ups to web resources provided by the private sector rather than delivering advice direct. Support aimed at growth businesses and other specialist support will be provided through Local Enterprise Partnerships – which it seems are likely to consist of consortia of local government organisations, the exact composition of these will vary from area to area. It seems like that these LEP’s will need to source any face to face business advice from the market so there may well be opportunities for individual advisors and groups of advisors to bid for this work – and obviously we’ll make sure that Skillfair tracks these tenders as they emerge.

What is Skillfair doing?

One of the main complaints we get from members is that we don’t get enough opportunities from the private sector, and although the level of private projects has dramatically increased since we launched the new website we feel we could do even better – particularly when it comes to attracting smaller businesses. Given the confusion in the small business advice market we think that more SMEs will be turning to the web and sites like Skillfair – so to make sure that our members get the benefit we’ll be making a number of significant additions to our service over the next few months.

SME Marketplace

The first change is that we’ll be adding an SME market to our existing Business, IT and Technology markets. This will have a much reduced set of skills focused on the core SME requirements and will be open to Accountants, Solicitors and other general business advisors. The new market will be accompanied by a revamped search facility that will allow clients to search without worrying about which market they’re in – and will also guide them to skills they’re looking for by ‘auto-filling’ the search for them rather like the search facilities on Amazon and eBay.

Existing members will be able to add a free profile to the SME market for the first year – after which they can decide whether to keep more than one profile.

Advertising

You’ll have noticed that adverts have been appearing on your daily alerts for a while – we plan to continue this and also to add a new ‘Advert Alert’ which will go out on Wednesday evenings. This alert – which will be entirely optional – will allow businesses providing services to small home based businesses like consultants to advertise their services to our consultant database and will provide another reason for small business owners to visit the site.

Small Business Site Launch

We are currently designing a new branding or 'skin' for the Skillfair website aimed solely at appealing to small business owners. This will be very simple, direct and to the point and it’s objective will be to link small businesses up as quickly and effectively as possible with advisors and consultants who can help them. The new website will exist alongside the existing Skillfair site – but using the same functionality and database so that as long as you have a profile on Skillfair, SMEs will be able to find and communicate with you – there won’t be any extra charge for appearing on the new site.

We’ll be inviting you to contribute articles and advice for small businesses to this site rather than trying to provide these ourselves, all of which will be linked back to your own profile and websites so that you benefit from the effort and exposure. We will, of course, be making sure that Skillfair and the new site feature on any government sponsored website that emerges from the coming changes and we’d appreciate your support in that and in publicising both the SME market on Skillfair and the new site when it’s ready.

Connecting sideways - who should you link with?

I spent last Thursday evening talking about Social Networking  & Marketing with a group of managers and consultants from IBC and CMI (the Chartered Management Institute) and apart from the challenge of fitting nearly 40 people into a room designed for 25, one of the key issues we discussed was how to make sure your efforts in social networking reach the right people. While posting your deep thoughts and what you had for breakfast on Twitter may be fun it won't bring in any business unless your potential clients are listening! As we all know though, the people you most want to meet as a consultant are the decision makers within a business and they're often far too busy to get involved in online networking - in fact in larger companies they may not even be able to access the websites.

One option that can pay dividends is to think slightly sideways about who you need to contact and influence. For example, if you offer facilitation or training you might be better off trying to contact interim managers or change managers who need to find ways of changing the way an organisation works. Similarly, HR specialists could seek out lawyers who specialise in employment tribunals and web designers could (and often do) hook up with marketing agencies and graphic designers who target similar clients. So your challenge for the weekend is to see if you can come up with a creative set of sideways contacts to make - to share them with with us just post a comment here.

Whcih gadgets are really useful in business?

Watching assorted news items about queues for iPads in London this week I was reminded of all the really useful gadgets I've bought over the years. Each one claimed it would allow me to organise or improve my life, but with a few honourable exceptions such as my trusty ultra-lightweight laptop, they've generally fallen by the wayside. As a result I've become a bit of a Luddite in the last few years, refusing to jump on the latest bandwagon and making do with well-known technology. However, my life hasn't got any less busy and, like most consultants, I really do need to make use of any spare time when I'm travelling, if only to deal with the rising tide of email.

Having given in and acquired an iPhone though, I still have choices to make: Should I download an App to keep track of my time or stick with a notebook? Which of the dozens of news feed readers should I pick?  Would I actually use a to-do list or a business card scanner on my phone? I'm not sure of the answers yet, but I'd be interested to know which bits of technology you've found genuinely useful over the years. I think many consultants hold off investing in new technology for fear of wasting time & money - and it would be really good to share information about what really works. I've posted here some details of some technologies I've found useful  - why not add your thoughts on the best (or worst!) gadgets you've tried.

• Laptops - couldn't be without one but much prefer a lightweight one I can tuck in my briefcase
• Mobile Phone - actually I've barely used this till recently as my home office is in a signal balckspot - but have just acquired a signal booster from Vodafone which might change everything!
• IPhone Apps - so far I've found these useful;
• Magnifying glass - good for those who need reading glasses!
• RSS feed reader - lets me see whats going on on Skillfair without logging in
• Considering, but not sure about, business card scanner, voice to email, time recorder, to-do list

Big vs Small in Business and Consultancy

It's funny how sometimes you start writing about a topic and then find that lot's of other people have picked up on the same thread. Having talked about big vs small business in rugby terms last week I've come across a few discussions on LinkedIn Groups ( Marketing Consultants and Accountancy Age) talking about the pros and cons of using large consultancies or independents. My take from a client's point of view on when to choose large or Small is here.

Then an article talking about the issue from a different angle popped into my inbox (Telling the 800lb Gorilla to go...) talks about big vs small from the competitive angle - in other words, should you worry about competing with the big boys - or just focus on ploughing your own profitable little furrow?