Why I chose to become a #ContentRockstar!

It’s been a really thrilling last 12 months working on my business at the same time as working in my business and quite a lot of that can be laid at the feet of Mina.

I attended her first ever Social Media Workshop in October 2014, which she was advertising on Twitter and through an event I attended called the #EBTweetup. Having recently joined Twitter and found #EBHour and #SussexHour of which Mina was already the host for one and was soon to take over the reins of the other, I was very keen to learn a bit more about how Twitter might be able to help me to promote my business.

I left the course with a bucketful of information and the knowledge that Mina was a very good person to stay in touch with.

In early 2015, I decided that as my business was definitely delivering some momentum that a complete refurb of my website was required. I was prompted by the opening of The Cooden Clinic in Little Common, which had emblazoned on one of their windows Cooden Consulting. I thought a touch of differentiation was required and I promptly decided to take advantage of one of a number of domain names that I had acquired when I started up and convert my business to Cooden Tax Consulting.

I had developed a good rapport on Twitter with @AvantPhoto (Phil Burrowes), who had informed me on a number of occasions that my Stock Photography that was being used on my website was far from appealing and that I ought to use some custom photos. He also told me that he thought that the content of my website was pretty unappetising and that I was displaying all of my wares and not giving people an incentive to call.

This is where Mina again came in, I spoke to her about the possibility of helping me to rewrite the website and make it more alluring for the visitor, with a view to generating new leads. She was very keen on the idea.

The triumvirate was completed by Drew Sayers at Neptune Media, Drew was recommended to me by my bookkeeper who had recently upgraded her website.

We all met up at Cohub in Eastbourne and played around with the idea of what the new website would look like and how we could make it sing. Drew felt that making the images the star of the show would allow for the use of a really interesting template he was playing around with at the time.

It seemed like a good idea. Mina started researching the content, Phil started taking photos, in between his day trips up and down the country taking photos of NCP Car Parks and Drew began playing around with his template.

I think it is fair to say that Mina might have started having reservations a couple of weeks into the project when she was reading through the reams of legislation on www.gov.uk/hmrc about Research and Development Tax Relief, Patent Box and Video Games Tax Relief, but to her credit she soldiered on and is now somewhat of an expert.

In September 2015 the new website went live on www.coodentaxconsulting.co.uk .

Mina and I are now collaborating in advance of my attendance at Accountex in May 2016 and I am looking forward to her helping me to manage my Social Media accounts and to provide input in a couple of other areas such as advertising on Social Media, creating lists in Twitter and engaging with relevant businesses.

It could be another interesting 12 months.