social media

Social media recognition

Posted on by Libby Price

Today we were out for lunch, and totally randomly, the Dad of the family sitting on the  table behind us was someone I used to work with 20 years ago – and I probably haven’t seen him for 15 years!  He had his back to us – but popped over to say hello. I was concerned he had heard my familiar dulcet Brummie tones (we sat next to each other for 3 years studying for our Chartered Accountancy exams)  – but actually, it was his wife who’d recognised us!  I’d never met her before – but she thought we were familiar from her husband’s Facebook…..

(And obviously you meet someone you haven’t seen for many years when your 5 year old has got herself dressed and appears to be channeling a refugee whilst wearing school tights, denim skirt and white tank top with boots that are too small so she takes them off to walk in just her tights, with a bizarre flowered headband and scruffy hair …………)

My husband isn’t as prolific on social media as me (not many people are!) but has still been recognised at rugby matches and shopping with the kids by people who’ve never met him in person because they’ve seen photos of him on my profile.  Actually – when our daughter first started at her new school last September, one of the mother’s commented on first meeting him that she’d seem him naked – from behind sat down working in a hotel in New York on one of my photos I should add!!  Although having starred in a charity calendar this year – an awful lot of people can say the same (in fact a local estate agent came up to him at lunch today to say he was on her kitchen wall in the buff ………)

Calendar 1

Calendar 3

And if anyone would like a calendar (raising funds for one of Finlay Church‘s charities – Brain Tumour Research) – then there are just a few left!!

Book Review: Putting Social Media To Work: A Practical Guide by Gemma Reucroft and Tim Scott

Posted on by Libby Price

I had commented on social media that I wanted our company to start doing more on there – and a friend recommended this book:

Putting Social Media to Work

“Social media has the power to change everything. It is simply that impactful. How we communicate and collaborate. How we lead and how we learn. How we engage and communicate with the people that work for us and buy from us. How we do the day job. Who has power. Who is considered to be a leader. How and where we do the work that we do. We live in an increasingly open and transparent world. Social media offers greater opportunities to rethink some of the old ways of working than organisations have had before. This book will explain why understanding social and getting social is important for individuals and organisations alike, and why, whatever your personal perspective on all things social media, you cannot ignore it. The authors share their own experiences of what social has done for them professionally, and will give you some ideas on how to implement social for you or where you work. How to build your business case, how to overcome the obstacles of implementing social, and managing both the practicalities and the myths. This is the social world. Are you ready?”

I downloaded it and starting reading it – well, that’s like doing work isn’t it!?!

I am already a regular (ok, let’s say excessive) social media user personally, so quite a lot of this was a bit basic – but would be ideal if someone was coming at it without knowing their Twitter from their Facebook as it does explain everything really well.

It definitely gave me lots of ideas about what we should / shouldn’t do!

It’s also a bit different because our organisation is a small family run business, so whilst I will be in charge of social media, I’m also the boss – so there’s no one to ask for approval from (technically my husband is the MD – but let’s not go there!!) Because of the HR background of the authors, it does come at it from their point of view and is probably more applicable to someone within a larger organisation.

But it was definitely worth the read. I liked the tone of the book and the humorous way it was written – and the little asides were great. One of them is a One Directioner (Tim says it’s Gemma, but I fear he doth protest too much!!!)

So – here are my company Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin pages – let’s see how I get on!!! #blatantpromotion