Here at NikkiPilkington.com, we have a policy that we won’t take on more than 2 companies in the same industry, and even then not for the same services.

So if a company comes to us looking for higher Google listings, but we already have a client in the same industry looking at the same keyphrases, we have to say no – otherwise we’re just competing with ourselves, and where’s the honesty in that?

But rather than just turn people away in this type of situation, I generally try to help them out. After all, they’ve usually come to me because they’ve heard something about me online, and I’m hardly helping my reputation if I just say “Sorry, can’t help you, bye!” now am I?

So what I tend to do is refer them to other people in my industry, depending on what they want. And yes, by ‘other people in my industry’, I mean my competitors…

A week or so ago I was approached by a client in financial services, who wanted SEO – I couldn’t take him on so I referred him to someone else, who is now happily helping him out. A few days ago a games company came to me for SEO too nd I referred him on to someone else, as I already have a client in that industry. A few weeks ago someone came to me wnting me to speak on social media to a large conference – I couldn’t do it and so recommended yet another of my competitors.

In all 3 cases, the people that I said “No, I can’t help you but here’s the number of my competitor” were amazed – why would I not only be turning business down, but be passing it on to a competitor of mine? Two of the people I passed business to were also quite surprised that I’d bothered.

But why shouldn’t I do this? OK, any future business from those clients may be lost to me, and if in future they’re asked for recommendations, it might not be me that they recommend, but at the end of the day, they needed help and I couldn’t give it.

To my mind there’s enough SEO and Social Media Marketing business to go around for all of us – I’d rather risk future business from one potential client by referring them to someone I know is good at what they do, than risk them finding a cowboy company and spending the next 6 months slagging off the industry I work in because they’ve been ripped off.

Also, by referring someone to a competitor company who can help them, I’ve done my good deed for both parties, and the hopeful side of me says they’ll remember that in future (givers’ gain and all that!).

So if you’re wary of recommending your competitors, maybe think again – by having a few trusted people you can refer business to, you just might enhance your reputation – and you never know, you might find your competition referring business to you too

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photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar

That’s it really – are you a blogger who runs a business aimed at women?

Whether it’s aimed at mums, women in corporate life, whatever, as long as it’s aimed at women, I need to know about you.

You could be a training company, a jewellery website, a resources portal – whatever you are, as long as you’re aiming at women I need to know about you.

Why? Because I’m going to be compiling a list, that I’m going to broadcast quite a lot, and it might be good for you to be on there

Please use the comments below to leave me:

• Your blog name
• Your website and blog address
• Your name
• A short description of your blog

Any questions, drop me a line nikki@nikkipilkington.com

Thanks

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photo credit: goldsardine

Although I’m not beating any drums, I do like to work with other women in business, so when SavvyWoman’s Sarah Pennels approached me to help her out with her Facebook Fan Page, I was thrilled.

SavvyWoman is the brainchild of Sarah Pennells, who’s a well known personal finance journalist and broadcaster. Sarah has appeared regularly on BBC Saturday Breakfast and writes for several magazines.

SavvyWoman’s aim is straightforward: to help women everywhere get more from their money. The blog, Twitter account and facebook page are aimed at helping women make the most of their money in a variety of ways.

Recent posts on the SavvyWoman website include:

• Creating the right impression when selling your house
• Getting advice from a money expert
• Top tips for the end of the tax year

There’s also a great page on the website full of budgeting tools that should come in handy for most of us!

We’ve helped her to set up her Fan page, and we’ll be giving ongoing advice on working with it and gathering fans.

You can also find Sarah on Twitter, so drop her a line!

When marketing your website online through social media channels you need to do things a certain way. It’s a bit like redecorating your house; you could do it quickly and as cheaply as possible. But will it look good, and will it last?

In this article we’ll cover 7 things you can do to make your website content social media friendly. If you follow all the steps listed below you should stand a great chance of scoring highly with social media sites as well as effective search engine optimisation.

Let’s get started:

1. Include a picture

If you’re going to post a link to your blog or content on sites such as Facebook, but it doesn’t have an associated picture with it, it’s not as attention grabbing. Think about it; when you’re on a social website and you see a picture next to text; you’re drawn to it.

2. Title tag

If you bookmark your content to a social site; your pages title tag is often used as the title. If your website has the title “My Amazing Blog | Updating daily with super cool content” it’s not going to grab the attention of others. Give each page on your website a unique and grabbing title.

3. Social media buttons

They’re so simple to install and most blogs come with them pre-installed! The buttons next to a blog that allow users to instantly add your website to their favourite social media sites are a great way to help your visitors help your online marketing.

4. Allow comments

Many website owners disable commenting on their blog posts. However, it makes your site interactive. It allows your visitors to talk to you personally. Even more so; it adds more unique content to your website. By enabling comments on your website you might get more people returning to check if their comments have been replied to.

5. Controversial comments

If you do enable comments, do you allow the negative ones? Not everyone is going to agree with what you say and debate sparks interest. If people disagree or even get angry over your content, allow others to read. You’ll soon have many comments and conversations going on.

6. Title too long for tweets

If you’re tweeting your updates; make sure your titles aren’t too long. Twitter has a 140 character limit on its tweets so just keep an eye out for titles that are too long. Sometimes you can still have an effective, attention grabbing title but without the length.

7. Easy to read

With modern communication channels such as Twitter and FaceBook people don’t always have enough time to read a long article. By making some of your content short but sweet you may engage more readers

If you can implement all of the above tips into your website or blog you’ll be well on your way to social media friendly content. You can expect to see more visitors to your website and an increased client database too.

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photo credit: woodleywonderworks

People say to me all the time: “But Nikki, YOU are your brand”, and to a certain extent that’s true. I’ve tried to work hard at being in the ‘right’ places, giving the ‘correct’ advice, and helping out. I want to be known as fair and helpful, I want people to trust me, and I want people to know that if I can’t help them, I’ll tell them.

And it seems to work. I have a steady stream of new clients, enquiries every day, my team is busy on a constant basis, and I THINK my brand is good.

But that’s the problem isn’t it? We all like to THINK our brand is good. And it’s fab when people say nice things about us; I’m the first to show off a testimonial or a nice thing someone has said.

It’s not the full story though is it? What about the people saying not so nice things? i’m not talking about competitors, or people with a vested interest, I’m talking about people who have dealt with or tried to deal with us. What are they saying that might not be so good? THAT’S as important as the things that are being said that make you feel great.

There used to be some saying that if people were happy, they told X number of people about you, but if they were unhappy they would tell Y number of people (with Y being significantly larger than X!).

If that’s true, don’t you want to know what’s being said about you?

So, in the interests of open-ness, I’m giving you carte blache here to tell me how YOU see my brand. This isn’t an invitation for anonymous nasty comments, or a chance for my competitors to stick the boot in – it’s an invitation to a conversation about MY brand.

Tell me what’s good. Tell me what nice things you’ve heard about me. Tell me the things you know I want to hear Then bite the bullet and tell me what’s bad. Tell me what’s downright dreadful, and what makes you think twice about working with me or recommending me. Yes it will be hard to hear, but honest and constructive criticism helps us all to build our brand, grow our businesses, and make sure we’re on the right track.

And when you’ve finished telling me what’s good and bad, post a similar blog and ask people what they think / know of you.

Go on, I dare you

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photo credit: altemark

It’s been a little while since I updated, but I think I have a good excuse

Some of you may remember me posting about my pregnancy – well Olivia Niamh was born 2 weeks early on 20th February, taking us a little by surprise.

See, I’d planned to be a good little blogger and practice what I preach. I’d written and set up scheduled blogs for all of my clients, I’d planned the blogs I was going to write for myself, and then I was out of time – so no blogs from me for the last week!

Here in France there’s an obligatory 5 day stay in hospital, and we arrived home on Thursday, which gave me a couple of days to get back into the swing of things. Clients have indeed been receiving emails at 2 and 3 am, and I’m still a little behind (yes, everyone who’s met me, it’s the only time the words ‘little behind’ can be used in the same sentence as my name ) but we’re getting there.

In the meantime, why not check out some of my recent blogs over on Birds on the Blog:

• Softly Softly Catchee Monkey – Sometimes in any form of marketing you just have to slow down, no matter how hard it is
• Free Internet Marketing Help – my lazy blog, where I answer questions people have – now i’m back in the office I’ll be answering these posts!
• Finding Keyphrases That Count - why it’s not just about the first phrases that pop into your head, and how the more obscure ones cn be better for you and your website
• I don’t mind helping for free, but it has some limitations – a bit of a rant

Normal service will be resumed pretty soon, as soon as we have Olivia trained up

Olivia Niamh Gisbourne

]]> http://www.nikkipilkington.com/blog/2010/02/27/apologies-for-my-absence-but-i-have-a-good-excuse/feed/ 3 http://www.nikkipilkington.com/blog/2010/02/16/how-easy-would-it-be-for-someone-to-impersonate-you-on-twitter/ http://www.nikkipilkington.com/blog/2010/02/16/how-easy-would-it-be-for-someone-to-impersonate-you-on-twitter/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:31:42 +0000 admin http://www.nikkipilkington.com/blog/?p=738

The Tweetvine is abuzz today with the story of Michael Werch and his experience of ‘twitter-squatting’. Michael took on the persona of Heinz, and tweeted as them for a short while, to see how many followers he could build up, and what the consequences could be.

As it happens, he only managed to build up 300 or so followers (rising now!) and a couple of weeks before Heinz jumped on him and complained to Twitter, who changed his profile to make it clear that he wasn’t an official representative.

The interesting part, to me, is this quote:

The experiment also yielded some important findings that should be recognized by all major brands with little social-media presence. For two weeks I spoke unrestricted as the company. This in its own right is a potential PR nightmare. It should also be noted that Twitter is a low-cost marketing and communication mechanism for large brands; no more than the salary of someone currently working for them or someone they hire to tweet.

For two weeks, Michael tweeted as if he were Heinz. The people following him thought he was Heinz. It took Heinz that long to do anything about it.

Now let’s not forget that Michael wasn’t out to do harm. He tweeted only positive things, was a good ambassador for the brand, and probably did them no harm.

But let’s imagine for a moment that he hadn’t set out with quite so altruistic intentions. Two weeks is a long time to have someone you don’t know and have no control over representing your brand on any Social Media platform.

This ‘experiment’, to my mind’ brings to the fore a whole lot of questions:

• Why did Heinz not have the twitter name registered anyway?
• Why did it take them solong to realise he was doing this?
• Why didn’t they get in touch with him direct?
• Why are they not embracing what he’s done and using him as an advocate?
• Why have they STILL not done anything with the profile they had taken away from him?

Right now, you may not think Twitter is important to you or for your brand online. And that’s fine – I’m not here to argue that point.

But how important would Twitter become to you if someone with negative intentions towards you decided to ‘hijack’ your name and tweet as if they were you? How important will it be when you decide to give it a go and can’t get your brand as your Twitter name? How important is it going to become when an account purporting to be you builds up thousands of followers that you have no control over?

Now extrapolate that out to Facebook, You Tube, Google Buzz, and any one of many other Social Media platforms. How much damage could be done to your brand before you even noticed?

Seriously people, even if you have no interest in these platforms right now, you should be monitoring and checking to make sure they’re not being used against you.

Are you monitoring?

This is a bit of an unusual blog post, because it’s not about a service I provide, and it’s not about a client of mine. But it IS a massive recommendation for a website and a lady you need to know if you’re thinking of starting a business in France.

Valerie runs Start Business in France, a fantastic website full of help and advice for anyone looking to start and run a business in France. The blog offers free advice, and the forum is a mine of useful information and one on one advice from Valerie herself.

In addition, you can pay extra (and I do, frequently!) to speak to Valerie on the phone and get help with your French business issues or queries.

I’ve not found setting up in France very easy, and my situation was compounded by paying someone who turned out to be more than a little useless to help me in the first place – but Valerie has steered me in the right direction, helped me out and even made phone calls on my behalf when things have gotten a little too much for my basic French!

I can’t recommend this lady, and her website, highly enough – so if you’re looking to start or run a business in France, then make sure you bookmark her now!

You can also follow Valerie on Twitter, and become a fan on Facebook. So what are you waiting for?

About Start Business in France in Valerie’s own words:

Launched in October 2008 to keep me busy during my maternity leave, Start Business in France has just celebrated its 1st year and has amassed over 25,000 visits and an amazing 105,000 page views. Families moving from the UK, North America or even Australia to France are now finding some reliable information in plain English to help them start a business in France.

I don’t often have guest blogs here on the NikkiPilkington.com blog, as I’ve usually got enough to say myself!

However, things have been a little hectic recently so today I’m delighted to share with you a guest blog from Dave Thackeray, a man who came into my life about 5 years ago on a long day in Spain that involved watermelon, golf and ball gowns.   If you haven’t checked out Dave’s blog, please do!

And of course, please have your say in the comments below!

Buzz – night, dears…..
Sharing. It’s what we’re all about these days. New? Hardly. But where we used to share without talking about sharing, we spend more time expressing our desire to share than we, well, share.

Such a shame. All that time spend on vapid activity rather than committing to action itself.

And just when the buzz about Twitter had started to bottom out, Twitter is all about Buzz.

Google Buzz. Can you hear the faint flutter of wings on prayers?

I’m a spectacularly open-minded kind of geek, despite what you might already think. I’m prepared to buzz around Buzz like a moth to a blazing bulb.

It wasn’t a big job to unwrap it. “Would you like to Buzz?” went the auto-invitation, echoing memories of sitting in doctors’ waiting rooms waiting for the klaxon to sound for a date with destiny.

First time, it was a hollow gesture. Click, clunk, nothing. Gmail as it was last month, last year. A premature proposition.

The second time was barely more intriguing, although by now the Buzz icon had implanted itself squarely betwixt Inbox and Sent Mail on signing into the Gmail interface.

“Share content, start conversations,” blurts Google. Wow – this is what we’ve all been waiting for! Why didn’t someone else figure this out? Why is it 2006 all over again?

There are legion anti-climactic moments in the life of a man. Growing a beard, fixing the toilet.

Buzz felt like waking up with stubble. You’d seen it before, thousands of times. In a cloak known as Twitter. Only Twitter isn’t so cumbersome. Twitter is HTML5 to Buzz’s Flash.

It feels all so… Google Wave. Lonely as a cloud. Like the UK servers after a hacked copy of Gotham Racing invaded a friend’s Playstation pre-release.

There are a few people hanging around. A few people kicking the tyres. Ooh, I can link something! Hey, look, I can type something and IT APPEARS ON MY SCREEN!

It’s a contentious perspective. Or is it? To me, Google has arrived way too late to the party.

While Facebook continues on its inexorable rise to becoming The Web, Google has dropped its HUD.

Wave flails, drowning. Steve Jobs makes a derisory private/public statement about the search titan. Microsoft, the soft and cuddly bear of tech so often these days, prepares to release Windows Mobile 7, which could crush the phone fortunes of both these companies.

There’s something distinctly derogatory about the moniker flying around for Buzz users. Buzzards, buzzing off.

Mashable claims 50% of Twitter users dislike Buzz or have ‘already done with it’. Most, I suspect, haven’t even bothered to switch it on…

It’s been quite a month for undersights. First, angry Jobs unleashes the iPad in a less than sanitary climate. Its industrial design has great bodyform. Now there’s Buzzards.

And in the fastest-moving geek scene ever known, Buzz still feels so… kneejerk.

I’ll caveat everything I just said. It’s early days. Buzz could be amazing.

But I think someone just switched off the lights.

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Dave Thackeray fuels ordinary people with extraordinary ideas. He’s a pen for hire and a higher pen you’ll never find – Dave’s 190cm in his stockinged feet. Join him at http://www.davethackeray.com on his quest to write a blog post of note every day until 2011.

A few people have asked recently what the law is relating to competitions, so I turned to my favourite online law company, Lime One for some answers.

They sent me a link to this fab PDF which will help you to know:

• What a competition IS
• What the information about a competition must contain
• Tips if you are running a competition
• When is a competition not a competition

It’s worth a read if you’re considering running any sort of competition and want to stay on the right side of the law!