Last week Gravytrain’s Managing Director, Kevin Taylor, gave a presentation at The Social Media Academy’s “Finance Communications in a Social Media World” seminar. Kevin went through the ins and outs of getting started in Social Media and how to best target your activity.

Social Media is becoming increasingly important in all sectors, including finance, and can have a huge impact on customer relations, brand awareness and visibility online. However, as Kevin discussed in his presentation, it is not enough to just sign up to Facebook and Twitter, a Social Media campaign should have clear aims, sufficient time dedicated to it and the backing of everyone involved.

Kevin also discussed how although Social Media can be a fantastic way of reaching a wide audience and connecting with your customers online, it can also leave you open to public criticism from unhappy customers. Kevin therefore pointed out that if you are going to embark on a Social Media campaign it is vital to have someone managing the accounts and responding to activity within a set time.

If run correctly Social Media can vastly improve a company’s brand awareness, website traffic and offer up a fantastic way to interact with customers. However, if neglected or misaimed it can cause more damage than good. If you are thinking of embarking on a Social Media campaign for your business it is therefore imperative to have a clear plan, strategy and aim in mind.

On 21^st-22^nd September at Olympia, the online marketing & advertising community will gather together at ad:tech London to reveal the latest trends and market figures, share best practices and address the challenges the online industry faces.

Gravytrain will be there on stand 146 and we’ll be hosting our own seminar:

‘Kick-ass Google Analytics to drive ROI’

Google Analytics provides marketers with huge volumes of visitor data, but it can be tough to translate that data into insight, let alone actions to improve ROI. Fear the data no longer, in this seminar we will show you how to create your own kick-ass reports to help you improve your the perforamce of your sites. You will learn how to:
- Segment your visitors to gain insight
- Understand why visitors fail to convert
- Uncover lost opportunities to maximise customer revenue

The session will provide actionable takeaways relevant to a wide variety of industry sectors.

Even better? It’s completely free to attend! To visit the ad:tech expo and access a huge range of seminars completely free, click here to register.

We’d love to see you there! If you are coming along do pop over to the stand and say hello.

Plus – we’ll be running a fantastic competition to win a track day worth £1000 on our stand; the lucky winner and 4 friends will experience the thrill of high speed passenger laps around one of Britain’s premier motor racing circuits.

Even if you can’t make it to ad:tech fear not – we’ll be posting our seminar slides on the blog shortly after the event, because we’re nice like that.

Well today’s the day!

If you can’t make it along to our Online Marketing for Profit knowledge session fear not – you can still view the presentation right here

There are lots of ways to market your business online – but how do you know where best to focus your efforts?

With profit at the forefront of every business owner’s mind, which methods are most likely to yield a return on investment?

Business owners face a barrage of messages about how cost-effective online marketing is (and indeed it can be), but without a full understanding of the online marketplace, mistakes are frequently made and can be costly.

So, how do you maximise ROI from your online marketing efforts?

Join us for our “Online Marketing for Profit” Knowledge Session at Bacco in Richmond 14^th May 2010.

I will talk you through the options available and help you avoid the most common pitfalls in this informative, interactive and ‘hands-on’ session.

Workshop content includes:

• Web Design – how to ensure your site makes it as easy as possible for customers to convert
• SEO v PPC – the pros & cons; plus which is best for your business
• Social Media – beyond the buzz… How to leverage social networks to benefit your business

You will leave this workshop with a clear understanding of the online marketing options available and which fit best with your business objectives.

Early booking is highly recommended as places are limited to 16 people click here to book…

For those of you who can’t make it, I will of course share my slides here after the event