One of the advantages of helping a few dozen companies on their digital marketing and websites is that we see a lot of numbers. We see the main website traffic sources, the dynamics of who are key influencers and the reality behind the effectiveness of just about everything from emails to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And let’s not forget Pinterest, Linked-in and Snapchat. Or physical events. I recently posted that as businesses we need to use our websites effectively as […]
What is the role of the website in a social media world?
I’m a member of a stimulating Facebook Group called Social Media and Wine. Recently Andrew Hanigan from Derwent Estate Wines asked a question which is relevant to anyone who has an online presence: So has the role of a Winery website changed with the onset of FB, Twitter, Instagram etc? What should it still contain, what is no longer relevant? Is a well maintained/up to date DIY site enough these days or do I still need an expensive platform? Some […]
How to build your digital audience
Recently I was invited in by The Field Institute to talk about building a digital audience. The talk ended with the question: If I was given $5,000 to spend would I put it on: 1. a website 2. a social media strategy 3. photography My surprising answer was photography. The reason being that content is expensive to produce and compelling pictures are the best for engagement across many platforms including blogs, Instagram, Facebook and increasingly Twitter. With $5,000 of photographs […]
15 seconds vs 6 seconds: Instagram introduces video.
In terms of the battle for moving eyeballs I think Instagram is onto a winner. 15 seconds is short but 6 seconds seems too short. For cooking tips. Mixology. Wine tasting notes. This is going to be fun.
Crowd control doesn’t work
The crowd is wild and unpredictable. It always has been. People have always been unpredictable. Some will love you and become customers. Some will despise you. But you can’t control them. And now thanks to social media they have a voice, a voice you can’t control like an ad, direct mail or PR. And as is argued here in the Harvard Business Review your brand isn’t yours anymore. It’s the customers and you may not like what they do with […]
Why recipes matter in social media
Q: What’s the most competitive area for food on the web? A: recipes. In a week when NineMSN launched its new food portal, the recipe battle online just got fiercer. The competition is for which website has the most rcipes best optimised to be found in Google searches whether it be Taste, Gourmet Traveller, SBS Food or whichever. There’s a reason for this. Recipes mean traffic. People want recipes. The big traffic blogs mostly rely on recipes. Therefore if you […]
What about monitoring social media?
People always ask about monitoring tools for social media. There are plenty of very expensive solutions out there designed for big brands. But I suspect for many food and drink businesses costs are always going to be an issue simply because many aren’t that big. Luckily some of the best tools are free, although if you do feel inclined to pay for any probably Hootsuite is the best. Some of these tools have the ability to pre assign activity, but […]
A rough guide to social media for restaurants
Ed charles social media for restaurants View more presentations from Tomato Media This is a slideshow outlining a verbal presentation I gave to members of Restaurant and Catering in Melbourne last week.
Be everywhere with everything
So how does the internet work nowadays? There is no one prescriptive answer but it is more than just having a single website or newsletter that can only be viewed on a computer. It’s all about giving choices. The information on your website need to be available all over the place. That means it should be available to the near 11 million Facebook users in Australia, the 1.8 million or so people on Twitter locally and the 2 million or […]