Tweeting, liking, following, regraming and sharing – for the estimated 2.46 billion social network users worldwide, this is what we do – day in, day out – across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

Like it or loath it, there’s no denying the power of social media, and for a business, well, you just have to be in it to win it.

On Thursday 14th September, we welcome Fiona Knowlton from The Guide 2 Surrey back to Fetcham Park for an invaluable social media workshop aimed at businesses of any size looking to hone their online skills.

There will be two sessions: An Introduction to Social Media from 10am-1pm and Social Media Planning & Strategy from 2pm-5pm. The workshop includes tips and advice on choosing the best social platform for your business, how to grow your audience, content planning Do’s and Don’ts, and a Q&A session. Tickets cost £48 per session or £80 if you book the two together.

Here Fiona explains a bit more about the power of social networking and outlines a little of what you can expect at Fetcham Park on September 14th.

Social Media Tips by Fiona Knowlton, The Guide 2 Surrey

Two years ago we set out to create social media for our business that actually worked, rather than simply following what the industry was telling us to do. We are really proud to have been awarded Gold for Best Business for Social Media for the last two years at the Surrey Digital Awards. Following this success, we have distilled our experience into a program of Social Media Workshops to help other businesses harness those platforms for themselves.

These are our five key talking points from our introductory workshop.

1.     Educate yourself.

It’s an old saying but knowledge is power. You need to have some understanding of the social media landscape. The only way to achieve this is to roll your sleeves up and sign up. By doing so you are able to form valuable insight based on experience rather than having to rely on the opinions of others.

2.   Where are your customers?

So, every one of your competitors are on Twitter with thousands of followers. Logic would surely say that that’s where you should be. But where are your customers? It’s time to ask your customers, staff, friends and family what social media they are investing their time in. This is vital when choosing where you should be placing your business. You should be carrying out this research once a year so you ensure you are keeping up with social media trends.

3.    Quality over Quantity.

In the early days of this digital/social revolution we became obsessed with huge numbers. This lead to us believing we should have thousands of followers at the expense of customer engagement. Set a reasonable target for yourself when building your audience on any platform. If you operate a business within a town with a population of 15’000, then what use is a social media following of 100’000 spread throughout the UK?

4.   It is better to do one platform exceptionally than do five half-heartedly.

Unless you can commit to producing unique and interesting content for every platform, it is important that you dedicate your efforts to getting the maximum out of one or two.

5.    Sales are King.

There is no point in having a social media strategy unless it is focussed on creating clients and subsequently sales for your business. Whatever marketers say it is not about branding and currently social media seems to be all about branding. Of course, branding comes into any good plan but when you consider the amount of resources a business has to currently put into a social media strategy, it has to be about the sales otherwise it is simply an exercise in vanity.

Feedback from Fiona’s first social media workshop at Fetcham Park…

“It’s us who owe you guys a very big thank you! Thank you so much from both of us for one of the most informative and useful talks on social media that I’ve been to.
It was such a relief to hear somebody vocalising a lot of my thoughts & concerns about the pros and cons of social media – so many other social media gurus give waffly info about vague general stuff so it was so useful and reassuring to get some practical and business-oriented tips and to hear it described as a selling tool, which of course it is. So thank you to all of the team, particularly Fiona – And the venue was fabulous!
”

Alison, Gavin Jones

For more information about this event or to book your space, contact:

charlotte@tgmediagroup.co.uk or call 01483 504432.

Limited seats available for September 14th so book now to avoid disappointment. Tickets cost £48 per session or £80 if you book the two together.