Danny Brown – someone who I have great respect for wrote this blog a while ago..

http://dannybrown.me/2012/07/18/advance-the-conversation/

following up a Tweet from Geoff Livingstone and apparently aiming to shut down the debate about CEO’s Tweeting and being involved in other forms  of social media and Internet marketing.

Danny’s view is clearly ” The CEO has much more important things to do than mess about with Social Media ” . Except ….. that the first role mentioned for a CEO is as ” Communicator ” and Social Media is a communications channel …………. Hmmmm !!

Other communications channels that the CEO might choose are: Face to face meetings; the phone; emails; Press Releases; articles; ……….. etc etc

There are perhaps two ways to take this discussion

One is to say No !! – it’s someone else’s job..

and it probably is ( in the main ) someone else’s job. ( Of course this depends very much on how big a company we are talking about and how many people are supporting him/her ).  A CEO would not ( necessarily ) actually organise the face to face meetings ( his secretary or P.A.  would  at his/her initiation. ) He/she would not necessarily phone someone ( but he might organise it and then take the call ).  He/she might email someone. He/she might say ” Fax this to someone “. He/she might speak to the ” PR/ad. company  to get something going ( but if there is a Marketing Director leave it to them ). He/she probably initiated or agreed to a website being set up. ( Initiated by someone in house or outsourced ) and so on and so on… which leads us to …..

The other is to say – Social Media is a communications channel like any other and that it should be used as ” one of ” the ways of communicating for a CEO ….

( but this assumes that you already have the Social Media channels set up ?? )

What does Danny do ?

What, I was thinking, does Danny do now ???  Turns out he has a new role – Chief Technologist at http://thearccompany.com/ where Hessie Jones is C.E.O. http://hessiej.wordpress.com/. Now, I am pretty sure that this is one C.E.O. that Tweets !! However, maybe it’s ” not fair ” to pick on a ” Digital Business ” C.E.O.

What do ( some ) CEO’s do – like Richard Branson ?

Let’s see what the great man has to say shall we …… HERE  !!! ok – I rest my case 😉

What do ” Social Media ” CEO’s do ?

See above 😉

I have been involved in some way with Cisco resellers – as a founder or investor – since around 1995. It was about then that I recommended that LanSwitch/Voyager adopt Cisco as it’s main product for resale rather than 3Com.

There are a variety of options in terms of the type of reseller that you are. Broadly speaking these range from resellers that are focussed on
” shifting ” ( Cisco ) box’s to those that are focussed on delivering ” advanced ” services e.g. consultancy.

When LanSwitch first started out it was very much focussed on selling ” box’s ” – to be precise 3Com LAN switches. Even then we had added some
” services ” around the basic offering e.g. baselining and maintenance.

By the time we adopted Cisco we had a fairly well established set of services.

With Cisco there is a seemingly never ending number of accreditations to get which normally include having so many qualified people. The permutations of these qualified people get ever more complex, and the variations of types of qualified people increase all the time. There is a definate cost to getting and maintaining these people and accreditations.

Over the years I have seen Cisco do many sorts of ” analysis ” of their resellers as someone comes up with another way of looking at them.

From Cisco’s perspective it is substantially about ” shifting box’s ” and achieving sales,revenue and profit targets.

They don’t really, deep down,  care how you do it as long as you do it !

Cisco’s perspective on a reseller is one view. However another view, that as is as important – arguably more important, is the view of the ” market ” i.e. M&A people and if floated, the stock market.

If they look at your company they will take Cisco accreditations as ” very good but so what ?? “. i.e. there are loads of Gold, Silver and Bronze resellers, what makes your company different from them ??

As one analyst said to me when we were looking to value Voyager ” Are you a box shifter or a value added service provider or reseller ?? “. When I answered that we were a ” Value Added Reseller ” he said ” Really ? – what’s your revenue from box sales relative to your revenue from services ? ” If it was 80/20 Box to Services that was bad. If it was 40 Box to 60 services that was good.

I actually spent a lot of time thinking about differentiators and value drivers at Voyager. The more differentiators and value drivers you have the higher your valuation multiples become. Also you get into ” I actually don’t know how to value that but it sounds good ” territory !!

When I was thinking about this blog I realised that it could easily end up as a book because there was a lot to say in terms of Cisco’s perception of  a ” valuable reseller ” and a lot to say about the ” markets ” perception of a valuable business. There  would also be something to write on the intersection of Cisco and the markets valuation points.

As I want to talk about another matter I don’t want to delve more deeply into these aspects just yet.

Cisco has a great range of products. You can just about survive selling these products if you wrap a certain amount of services around them ( the achievable margins on Cisco products have fallen dramatically over the years ). To differentiate yourself within the Cisco community and to the ” market ” you need more ” value added ” elements.

Let us now turn to the Six Figure Mentors ( SFM ) / PRO U / Digital Experts Academy ( DEA )  opportunity:

SFM/PROU/DEA offers a range of ” Digital Marketing ” products with Tools, Training, Support and a Community. It is the ” Cisco ” of the Digital Marketing world. Better than that the margins on these products are very high. So, you certainly can build a business focussing on being a reseller of these products. The products are priced from $20 to $20K.

Selling lots of these products is certainly going to get you noticed within SFM/PROU/DEA and if you are really good it is going to get you onto the
( Sales ) Leaders Board.

That is a great opportunity in itself. Essentially you only have to get prospects into the sales funnel at the top through ” sign-ups ” and ” applications ” and the rest is handled by SFM/PROU/DEA internal support and sales staff.

As was pointed out here  this is only the first of three opportunities.

I think added value can be implemented here e.g. ” conversion ” from ” sign-up ” to ” application ” relies on the auto-responders doing their job – which to a large extent they do but some people are not convinced by these and additional ” personal sales intervention ” may be required.

We know that once you understand ” the system ” it can be applied to other products and services that you might wish to sell e.g. within our team Sandra and Adelaide want to use the system to market and sell new Callanetics products.

You don’t just need to know the system but also how to make a range of products and services suitable for marketing and sales by the system.

There is added value here.

Finally, the main target of the SFM/PROU/DEA products and services is individuals ( probably of a certain demographic type ). In our view the products and services can be used by individuals and businesses – probably SMB’s as a particular target.

Tailoring ” the system ” to a businesses needs is certainly an added value capability. Here you are acting as an ” integrator ” – using the SFM/PROU/DEA products and services and integrating them into a new or existing businesses Marketing and Sales operation.

You are acting as a high-end Internet/Digital/Social Media Marketing/Web Development Consultant and Integrator.

This is what The Centripetal Network is .

Becoming part of the Centripetal Network is like becoming part of a Global Systems Integrator ( in Cisco terms ). You are a member of SFM/PROU/DEA – which in itself is a fabulous thing. You probably run a Digital Experts Academy in e.g. Washington D.C. or The Gold Coast.  You use ” the system ” to sell other products and services e.g. Callanetics but also you are part of a Global Digital Marketing Integrator that uses the system to boost other businesses Internet Presence Return on Investment. You help them to get more traffic, leads and orders – and therefore money – for their businesses.

One of the main advantages of this is that Centripetal Consulting is a ” business ” in it’s own right to anyone looking at it from a ” market ” perspective. It is a business owned by you and us. It is a ” Value Added Integrator ” . It can be sold or floated in the future and the shareholders will be you and us.

Now it is not ” easy ” to build a Global Digital Marketing Integrator and exit from it ( trade sale ) or float it but it is possible. Chris. Michael and I bring with us the experience to do this.

Charlatans, swindlers and mountebanks !!! Purveyors of Snake Oil !!!!

This is from the Wikipedia entry on ” Charlatans “:

In usage, a subtle difference is drawn between the charlatan and other kinds of confidence people. The charlatan is usually a salesperson. He does not try to create a personal relationship with his marks, or set up an elaborate hoax using role playing. Rather, the person called a charlatan is being accused of resorting to quackery, pseudoscience, or some knowingly employed bogus means of impressing people in order to swindle his victims by selling them worthless nostrums and similar goods or services that will not deliver on the promises made for them. The word calls forth the image of an old-time medicine show operator, who has long since left town by the time the people who bought his “snake oil” or similarly named tonic realize that it does not perform as advertised.

Pietro Longhi: The Charlatan, 1757

This article that appeared in Forbes online magazine recently stated:

“If your self-worth and your confidence is based on you being an expert, you’re in deep trouble, because there aren’t any experts”

and

” To succeed in marketing moving forward …… “What you need more than expertise is curiosity, someone who’s interested in what’s happening, loves change, and wants to develop ideas and drive change. If you’re not one of those people, you’re going to hate what’s going on in marketing and you won’t be effective. I have friends who have told me they’re just trying to hang on before people realize they don’t know what they’re doing. But I don’t think you can fake it another five years. You’re just not relevant if you’re fighting the reality of what’s happening.”

I think there are two main sorts of ” Social Media Charlatan ” at the moment: There are those who don’t know what they are doing and are not trying to find out what the real solutions are – they are just selling what they have as long as they can – and there are those who are trying to figure out what the solution is as hard as they can but have just not found the answer yet.

I can live with and understand the latter – I have no time for the former. ( By the way all of them are in a very precarious position at the moment ).

In the Forbes article referred to above, Dorie Clark , the writer say that there ” aren’t any experts ” . Actually the article says that Dorie and Clark Kokich ( Chairman of Digital Marketing Agency Razorfish ) were speaking at the recent HubSpot Inbound Marketing Conference in London.

When Dorie Clark says this he means ” except HubSpot ” – who will certainly tell you that THEY are Digital Marketing Experts and part of the solution and not the problem. No doubt Kokich would also want you to believe that Razorfish are Digital Marketing Experts aswell.

I would also say that Stuart Ross and Jay Kubassek of the Six Figure Mentors are Digital Marketing Experts ( New Era ) and that the Digital Experts Academy, founded by Stuart and Jay, is one place where you can find the answers that you need if you are currently masquerading as a Social Media or Digital Marketing Expert !!!

The problem is not so much that the answers are not there it is that they are hard to find.You also have to be ” ready to receive ” the answers. This rules out a lot of people because their eyes are shut and their head is buried in the sand.

They look at HubSpot, Six Figure Mentors and maybe even Razorfish and shout ” Snake Oil !! ”  even as they sell bucket loads of it themselves.

Personally I have been here before. I don’t know why but I have always been involved in leading edge ideas and businesses. This is what this is – it is leading edge marketing and guess what ?? – only the early adopters are going to get involved.

Only those people who have been searching will find the answers. Only those people with an open mind will see the possibility of a solution.

The rest will keep doing what they have always done and getting what they always got. Actually the real problem is that what they used to do, used to work. That’s what many of them hang on to … ” Well, it used to work “.

Another problem is that most social media and Internet marketers are just that – marketers. They are NOT salespeople. Typically they have never been in a selling role ( apart from selling themselves – which, admittedly is an achievement ). They have not had to meet targets, make forecasts and nurture people from prospect through to customer. They typically avoid commitments to ” Numbers “. ( Visits to the website, Conversions into leads, conversions into customers, revenue generated, analysis of how it was done ). Not that it is easy to make these commitments and put the systems together to track visitors, leads and orders and how you did it.

However, both HubSpot and the Six Figure Mentors can provide this information.

Anyway, I will coach my ( sales and marketing ) team like this – Present the information, answer any questions, show how it helps, why it’s a solution BUT don’t expect many people to understand it. Only a few will – those with the humility to understand that ” there is another way “.

Don’t waste time with people who don’t get it. Move on to ” the few ” who will.

Chris Windley, Digital Marketing Expert and Managing Partner at the Silicon Crossroads Technopolis in Lichfield, Staffordshire spoke to the Daily Mail about Digital Death and why he is waiting for the official launch of My Digital Executor and NOT death !!

The impact of a Digital Death is entirely dependent on how involved someone is in the digital world and what the consequences of disconnection or interruption to their system would be. There are people who have maybe, a Linkedin or a Facebook account and use the Internet for browsing and for email. There are 2 or 3 passwords and usernames involved in that.

Now imagine that you were Stuart Ross ( see below ) , Founder of the Six Figure Mentors and someone who earns $100’s of thousands  a month through the Internet

Find Stuart at : https://sixfigurementors.infusionsoft.com/go/sfmsalespage/stuartrossmarketing

using various tools such as web and blogsites, social media sites, Google pay per Click, Facebook adverts, emailing lists, autoresponders etc etc etc. I don’t know how many usernames and passwords he has but it’s a lot !! I would say that nobody would understand  how Stuart made his money except that he has been discussing and sharing his techniques with his ” inner circle ” and with Six Figure Mentor members so there are actually quite a few people now who understand what he is doing. Previously only Stuart’s mentors would have understood what he is doing – his parents and brothers and sisters certainly don’t !!

There is a sort of no-man’s land between the casual user and a ” proper ” Internet based business. People that run eBay shops or small ecommerce sites; bloggers with lots of followers and advertising revenues being generated from their sites. It is highly unlikely that anyone un other than them understand how the system works.

Typically the sites that they use eBay, Facebook, PayPal, Google etc etc are based in the U.S. and they have their own views on what happens when someone dies.

When a Facebook user dies anyone ( yes anyone !! ) can shut down the account given that they have proof of death. So, imagine this – Stuart

( God forbid ) dies and the news gets around. One of his competitors hears about this, knows that a lot of Stuart’s income is dependent on Facebook ( adverts ) , provides proof of death to Facebook and gets the account shut down. Probably nobody ( the relatives or the lawyers involved ) has any conception that this is an important part of the income generating system.

What redress does the estate have against the person who shut it down or Facebook ?? None !!

Graham Ross ( below ), Founder of My Digital Executor, decided that this was just unacceptable.

Here’s what Graham says on his website http://www.mydigitalexecutor.co.uk/ ……

Have you ever worried about what would happen to your email, tweets, blogs, domains,  affiliate sales accounts, created/collected music, photographs, websites, designs, virtual world items, online account balances, online revenue streams and even operational online businesses when you log off for that final time? Probably be lost forever or, worse,  be taken over by those unauthorised by you, putting your money, data and creative property at risk. Read articles on the problem from The New York Times and The Guardian.

Let us put your mind at rest

Our straight forward and simple protocol ensures that your accounts and assets will be handled fully in accordance with your wishes. We provide a form on which you set out, and update, your wishes. We then refer you to a solicitor who will help you ensure those wishes are legally honoured (you are not committed to any further costs beyond your membership of this service).

Writing an informal note of your wishes has no effect

You may think that informally appointing someone to take over a digital asset on your death is the answer but it will have no legal effect. Equally of no legal effect are services that store your passwords and last wishes like Entrustet.com and LegacyLocker.com. Legacy Locker specifically warns by email  those you seek to appoint that ‘it is not legally binding’ because ‘ownership of any electronic rights related to the internet such as intellectual property, domain names, or marketing affiliation agreements, cannot be granted or transferred through Legacy Locker’.  This is because the law dictates who is entitled to your assets, including your digitalassets, and the only way to impose your wish above the law is through a Will, or Codicil to a Will. A friend who acts, albeit innocently, on your informal wishes can be sued by the next of kin entitled to your estate. We  ensure you are able to make such wishes binding and effective after you pass away.

We protect your passwords but do not hold them

Whilst we ensure your estate has lawful and effective access to your online accounts after your death, we do not hold your passwords.

What if I just ignore the problem

If you want to learn about the problems with what would happen on your death with some of the more popular internet services, then see our page called ‘How Websites Deal With Your Death’.

For more information call Graham on:

MD Executor Ltd

A company registered in England under registration number 08226375

Registered Office:-

47 Rodney St

Liverpool

L1 9EW

Telephone:  0845 0573719

Fax: 0870 130 3337

Email: admin@mydigitalexecutor.co.uk

If you are looking for looking for Sales, Marketing, Administrative, Recruitment or Technology support anywhere in the world but based from the East Coast of America near New York then a social media phenomenon, Vincent Wright, is looking for a selected number of partners to work with – but if you want Vincent to help you then you are going to have to move FAST !!

I have known Vincent for years – since my first days on my first social network – Ecademy. We have kept in touch over the years and I am amazed that he has found time to make this offer to work with people.

He is the founder and developer of so many social media initiatives like Brandergy.com, MyLinkedinPowerForum, and BrandingVentures.com. He has huge networks on Linkedin.

I have copied Vincents messages to his community on this subject here:

Keep STRONG!!

Peter MacLean, who recently put Fox IT Holdings into administration ( although he kept his name off all the paperwork ) and is Chairman of the company that trades as 365 IT Services ( http://www.365itservices.co.uk/about/ – the so called trusted IT Partner for British Business – LOL !! ) has a web of Directorships that defies belief but explains quite a bit.

see here http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/915777314 and at the bottom of this blog.

Interestingly – well at least to me – he resigned from the Board of Fox IT Limited in October 2011. It is Fox IT Holding Limited that was put into administration a couple of days ago. 365 ITMS Limited and 365 Technology Limited are still in operation ( to do with 365itservices ) and just look at the 365 IT Subco’s – 365 IT SUBCO No 1 LIMITED and 365 IT SUBCO No 2 LIMITED.

This is the sort of scheming that clients of 365 itservices (  http://www.365itservices.co.uk/about/ ) can expect. 365 Technology Limited and365 ITMS are both registered at Napolean House, the offices of 365iT and the old offices of 5i Limited.

So, it’s really a similar situation to 365 IT where you have subco’s set up just in case of ?????????

Well who knows but probably another planned administration ( creditors and clients beware ) .

The real question of course is how Fox IT Holdings could be put into administration shortly after Peter MacLean took £Millions out of it and when all the creditors were paid off. Source: Leter from Peter MacLean.

Peter MacLean’s Directorships:

Director Summary Peter MacLean has 21 company director or secretary appointments. Short name – Peter MacLean Director ID : 915777314 Year of Birth: 1948 Address Napoleon House Riseley Business Park Riseley Reading United Kingdom RG7 1NW
	Company Summary Company Name Company Status 365 ITMS LIMITED Active NSD HARROGATE LIMITED In Liquidation 365 TECHNOLOGY LIMITED Active FOX IT HOLDING LIMITED Active PHINDA MANAGEMENT LIMITED Active FOX IT LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 24/10/2011) 365 IT SUBCO NO.1 LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 22/09/2011) IMPERA LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 22/09/2011) IMPERADATA LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 22/09/2011) 365 IT SUBCO NO.2 LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 22/09/2011) SECURE NETWORKS UK LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 22/02/2011) NEXTAROMA LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 20/12/2006) EUROCHECK LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 20/12/2006) W. E. L. GROUP LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 20/12/2006) ISG TECHNOLOGY LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 20/12/2006) WEBB ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 20/12/2006) INFORMATION SYSTEMS GROUP LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 20/12/2006) CORPORATE SOLUTIONS GROUP LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 20/12/2006) ISG WEBB EMPLOYEE BENEFIT TRUST LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 20/12/2006) ISG TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS LIMITED Active (Director Resigned 20/12/2006) GSIG CENTRE LIMITED Dissolved
	365 ITMS LIMITED Appointment Date: 22/09/2011 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: NAPOLEON HOUSE RISELEY BUSINESS PARK READING RG7 1NW GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login NSD HARROGATE LIMITED Appointment Date: 05/11/2008 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: In Liquidation Address: 4 CARTEL BUSINESS CENTRE STROUDLEY ROAD BASINGSTOKE RG24 8FW GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login 365 TECHNOLOGY LIMITED Appointment Date: 21/08/2008 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: NAPOLEAN HOUSE RISELEY BUSINESS PARK, BASINGSTO READING RG7 1NW GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login FOX IT HOLDING LIMITED Appointment Date: 18/03/2005 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: NAPOLEON HOUSE RISELEY BUSINESS PARK, BASINGSTO READING RG7 1NW GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login PHINDA MANAGEMENT LIMITED Appointment Date: 27/02/2001 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: STEVENTON MANOR STEVENTON HAMPSHIRE RG25 3BE GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login FOX IT LIMITED Appointment Date: 29/10/2010 Resignation Date: 24/10/2011 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: CHESTER HOUSE 76-86 CHERTSEY ROAD WOKING GU21 5BJ GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login 365 IT SUBCO NO.1 LIMITED Appointment Date: 09/04/2009 Resignation Date: 22/09/2011 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: NAPOLEON HOUSE RISELEY BUSINESS PARK, BASINGSTO READING RG7 1NW GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login IMPERA LIMITED Appointment Date: 21/08/2008 Resignation Date: 22/09/2011 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: NAPOLEON HOUSE RISELEY BUSINESS PARK, BASINGSTO READING RG7 1NW GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login IMPERADATA LIMITED Appointment Date: 04/08/2008 Resignation Date: 22/09/2011 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: NAPOLEON HOUSE RISELEY BUSINESS PARK, BASINGSTO READING RG7 1NW GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login 365 IT SUBCO NO.2 LIMITED Appointment Date: 04/12/2007 Resignation Date: 22/09/2011 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: NAPOLEON HOUSE RISELEY BUSINESS PARK, BASINGSTO READING RG7 1NW GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login SECURE NETWORKS UK LIMITED Appointment Date: 15/08/2007 Resignation Date: 22/02/2011 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: NAPOLEON HOUSE RISELEY BUSINESS PARK, BASINGSTO READING RG7 1NW GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login NEXTAROMA LIMITED Appointment Date: 20/09/2006 Resignation Date: 20/12/2006 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: ASHMEAD HOUSE EVERSLEY WAY CRABTREE OFFICE VILLAGE EGHAM TW20 8RY GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login EUROCHECK LIMITED Appointment Date: 20/09/2006 Resignation Date: 20/12/2006 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: ASHMEAD HOUSE EVERSLEY WAY CRABTREE OFFICE VILLAGE EGHAM TW20 8RY GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login W. E. L. GROUP LIMITED Appointment Date: 20/09/2006 Resignation Date: 20/12/2006 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: ASHMEAD HOUSE EVERSLEY WAY CRABTREE OFFICE VILLAGE EGHAM TW20 8RY GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login ISG TECHNOLOGY LIMITED Appointment Date: 22/02/2006 Resignation Date: 20/12/2006 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: ASHMEAD HOUSE EVERSLEY WAY CRABTREE OFFICE VILLAGE EGHAM TW20 8RY GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login WEBB ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED Appointment Date: 22/02/2006 Resignation Date: 20/12/2006 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: ASHMEAD HOUSE EVERSLEY WAY CRABTREE OFFICE VILLAGE EGHAM TW20 8RY GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login INFORMATION SYSTEMS GROUP LIMITED Appointment Date: 22/02/2006 Resignation Date: 20/12/2006 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: ASHMEAD HOUSE EVERSLEY WAY CRABTREE OFFICE VILLAGE EGHAM TW208RY TW20 8RY GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login CORPORATE SOLUTIONS GROUP LIMITED Appointment Date: 22/02/2006 Resignation Date: 20/12/2006 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: ASHMEAD HOUSE EVERSLEY WAY CRABTREE OFFICE VILLAGE EGHAM TW20 8RY GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login ISG WEBB EMPLOYEE BENEFIT TRUST LIMITED Appointment Date: 05/01/2006 Resignation Date: 20/12/2006 Position: Director Occupation: Company Director Company Status: Active Address: ASHMEAD HOUSE EVERSLEY WAY CRABTREE OFFICE VILLAGE EGHAM TW20 8RY GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login ISG TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS LIMITED Appointment Date: 15/03/2005 Resignation Date: 20/12/2006 Position: Director Occupation: Director Company Status: Active Address: ASHMEAD HOUSE EVERSLEY WAY CRABTREE OFFICE VILLAGE EGHAM TW20 8RY GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login GSIG CENTRE LIMITED Appointment Date: 02/01/2004 Position: Director Occupation: Executive Chairman Company Status: Dissolved Address: NORTH HOUSE, 198 HIGH STREET TONBRIDGE KENT TN9 1BE GB Directors and Secretaries Load Officers Company Accounts: To view financial summary login

Nobody should be ” cold calling ” these days. There’s no excuse for it anymore. The Internet provides so much information about people and companies.

The other day somebody asked me if I could get the Orange U.K. ( the mobile phone company ) Head Office address and phone number.

I set to work thinking it would be a 5 minute job. It wasn’t but here’s a little summary of what I did find. By the way – I was told that the Orange Head Office was in Bristol.

Obviously the first thing was to Google ” Orange UK  Head Office Bristol ” or similar.

This brought up a forum which highlighted the fact that actually Orange might want to make their Head Office address something of a secret !!

http://www.techtalkz.com/mobile-phones-operators/334318-orange-uk-head-office-address.html

Orange had been bought by Everything Everywhere Limited so it’s ( registered ) office AND Orange’s were actually in Hatfield.

http://www1.orange.co.uk/about/company_details/

It was quite interesting to find the who.is record for Orange which had the Bristol ( old ? ) Head Office address, phone numbers and even email addresses for the registrant.

http://www.who.is/domain_archive-info/orange.info/

The Worksmart website confirmed the ( old ) Head and Registered Office address and gave a lot of additional information.

http://www.worksmart.org.uk/company/company.php?id=03110666

http://www.worksmart.org.uk/company/

Jordans again confirmed the Head/Registered Office address.

http://www.jordans.co.uk/CompanyIndex/o/or/ora/02870921/orange_direct.html

http://www.jordans.co.uk/companysearch/find?query=vodafone&live=&x=5&y=7

The whocallsme website gave some interesting information on phone and text numbers used by Orange.

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/202000

Companies House also gave some good information about Orange – took a bit of working out which ones were Orange mobile though !!

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/dc64e6dad42ed0bd69bf38a53297c93c/compdetails

One of the most interesting things to do was to Google ” how do you find orange phones head office address ” because that brought up a lot of the information above.

When Kelly Kim of  Twylah was asked recently ( for Inbound Marketing Summit 2012 ) what defined Internet Influence she referred to someone else’s definition which was that REAL influence generated ACTION amongst the influencer’s ” followers “.

An action could be anything from liking, favouriting, sharing or RT’ing something through signing up for a newsletter or something to attending an online or offline seminar to actually buying something and everything in between.

Amongst the characteristics of a great influencer ( Kelly commented ) was the tendency to share not only their own ( original ) content but also other people’s content.

She often recommended doing ” Things you would do normally ” like ” saying Good Morning and Good Night “. Kelly is one of the best
” Community Manager’s ” I have come across.

I like the definition of an influencer as someone who generates an action in their audience but the reason that I have the best network in the world is because MY network does business. We SELL STUFF !! Of course we don’t ram stuff down people’s throat. We are not in your face, pushy, salespeople but we DO have a goal and an objective ( on behalf of our clients ) which is ultimately, for example, to generate orders, revenue and profits for our clients.  I say for example because some of our clients might not want orders, per se , they might just want, for example, more users, more subscribers or more likes.

You probably didn’t even know that we SOLD STUFF ?? ( That’s because a) We don’t push stuff to people that are not interested in it and b) we research before we approach so you are highly unlikely to get an approach or a suggestion from us that you are not interested in or is not of value to you.

Most of us came from ” old school ” sales and marketing roles in companies that were regarded as leaders in Sales and Marketing. I am talking about companies ( that you would know ) like IBM and Rank Xerox. If you are too young for these companies then try Cisco Systems and Hewlett Packard. Yes, these companies are old school now but they were amongst the pioneers of modern sales and marketing techniques.

As those with some years experience in Sales and Marketing will know there was a lot of ” Push ” Marketing and Sales in the ” old days “.  What do I mean by that ??? Well to get people’s attention we advertised, we mailshotted, we ” cold called “, we made appointments and we had clever interview and sales techniques – we closed deals that way.

You must remember that we didn’t have lots of things that are taken for granted these days. Our ” communications channels ” were (snail) mail, the phone, maybe the fax and computers ( or computer terminals ) that accessed customer and prospect databases from our ” datacentres “. There were only just Personal Computers, only just mobile phones, no extensively available Internet, no easy to use CRM software. We did not work from home.

Now we still have the option of advertising ( in various places – tv, radio, print, social networks etc ) , we can still mailshot, we can emailshot, we could faxshot if we wanted to, we can pick up the phone and cold call BUT we can also put up a website and make sure it can be found; we can blog; we can build networks on various Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and we can research online, using many different tools. We can also use tools like Skype to connect and present at very low cost.

So, in broad terms, instead of ” Pushing ” ourselves on the prospects we can ” Pull ” them towards us using ” Inbound Marketing “. We have many more potential communications channels to add to the phone, mail and email.

Now we use Google, Social Networks and other tools to research. We listen for relevant conversations across multiple social media channels

and bring that information into sCRM ( Social CRM ) software.

We track visitors to the websites that we build. We communicate with the subscriber lists that we have built up for our clients on websites and social media pages. We encourage people towards our clients e.g. Facebook and Twitter pages and then we engage with them. We build landing pages and call to action pieces. We build Internet ” Real Estate ” ( Websites, blogsites, social network pages ). When our clients are Found by prospective customers and converted into higher level prospects we use analysis software to see what worked and how it worked.

All the time we are moving toward our goal of getting more prospects and customers for our clients. We call THIS – ACTION !!!!

I think it’s time that we started calling Staffordshire ” Social Staffordshire ” ( although I always like to remind people that Social Media is being used for a lot of business applications ) alongside my other description of the A38/A5 crossroads area as
” Silicon Crossroads “. Why ?? well in my mind Staffordshire is one of the leading counties in the U.K. in terms of use of Social Media.

Staffordshire Police’s David Bailey presented at the Social Media World Forum earlier this year

http://www.socialmedia-forum.com/europe/agenda/speakers/626-david-bailey-communications-manager-staffordshire-police and they have to be one of the most pro-active police forces in the country in terms of using Social Media. Staffordshire Police has over 11,000 followers on Twitter. Find them:

( @StaffsPolice )

Staffordshire County Council

( @StaffordshireCC )

have over 3000 followers and Staffordshire Fire Brigade

( @StaffsFire )

has around 2,200 followers

Staffordshire University

( Staffordshire Uni

@StaffsUni

Official tweets from Staffordshire University run by Communications Manager Judy O’Brien

Staffordshire, England · http://www.staffs.ac.uk )

has nearly 6,000 followers.

It is not just on Twitter that Staffordshire is active either. Staffordshire C.C. has Facebook, YouTube and Flickr pages aswell. Staffordshire Police are very active users of YouTube e.g. :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9DxvtbEjPY&feature=relmfu

and have a Facebook account aswell.

When you combine this use of Social Media with recent announcements of the investment into ” Superfast Broadband ” it paints a picture of a very forward thinking Council.

ok so I am naive ! I have been reading all these stupid comments on my blog thinking ” THAT has got to be some sort of auto blog commenting software to create backlinks type of thing ” and lo and behold there are loads of them !!

Honestly, I should shoot myself !

But you know what – here’s the great thing…………. I have a delete button and when these auto blog thingies make a comment I ( a real person ) can choose to delete or allow, delete or allow

I choose delete….

Stupid auto blog commenting software for backlinks thing ….