9 years since I decided that I would work for myself, helping local small businesses and non-profits harness the benefits of social media.

Social Media then was still a relatively new thing for businesses, and I remember there being quite a bit of scepticism about whether social media would be a contender to enhance or replace more conventional forms of marketing and advertising.

Social Media is now front and centre for most businesses and non-profits.  New careers have formed from the need to be online – and social media is just part of an ever-evolving landscape of technology.

I feel privileged to have created a business which has enabled me to work closely with our community. Whether it is through supporting clients through our outsourced service, troubleshooting tech issues, consultancy, and of course, delivering training to many start-ups, SMEs and non-profits.

I have had the good fortune to be an employer, having some fabulous people working with me now and over the years.

Over the past 9 years, I do believe Ditzy Media has helped and added value to our local community through the work that we do.

This has always been at the heart of what I wanted for Ditzy Media – and the passion that I have for our community only grows over time.

The post Celebrating 9 years in business! appeared first on Ditzy Media.

It has been a hugely busy and rewarding 12 months.

Coming out (finally) slowly from the pandemic, and joyously witnessing things returning to normal.  Events came back, networking came back, face to face training and meetings came back.

This has been a huge highlight of being in business over the past 12 months – getting out and being with people again.

We have been at Chamber House now since 2020, but this past year was the first time to really appreciate being in our new digs, working closely with Eastbourne Chamber and EDEAL and with the BID team downstairs – it has been lovely to work in such a hive of activity!

Life changed forever late 2021, when I had the privilege of becoming Chair of Eastbourne Carnival, taking over from Stephen Lloyd.

This was a hugely enjoyable experience and one that kept me very busy – particularly in the run up to the event in June.

Personal highlights were seeing everyone’s wonderful efforts in costume, floats and performance – making Carnival a true celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – and also my family putting on the Ditzy Truck.  Seeing people of every age dance down the road behind the truck was just fabulous.

New working relationships and friendships have come out of the event, and it has also reinforced bonds with people I have known and worked with for a very long time.

I am grateful for everyone’s support this year with the business (my wonderful customers and business colleagues) and the Carnival.

The world of business keeps changing, and the only certainty is uncertainty – that much I have learnt over the past 8 years.

That said, being a business owner and the master of my own destiny still gets me out of bed in the morning with a smile on my face. 

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Seven years of being in business is quite a thing to achieve.  This feels especially so coming out of the pandemic.  So, to mark the occasion – here are our top highlights of Ditzy Media’s time as an agency.

Being able to support our community

Being in business gives us a unique opportunity to be a force for good when it comes to engaging with our community – doing our bit to support other business owners, charities and non profits.

We have been privileged to work with so many great SMEs and non-profits over the course of the last 7 years, and hope we have made a positive contribution, to their success using social media to meet their goals.

Supporting some rather awesome events

In our first year, we had the pleasure of supporting of Wyntercon, the first comic-con of its kind held in Eastbourne – and have gone on to partner the event each and every year since.

In 2017, we began working with Carnival Expo and sponsored their 2017 and 2018 events.  A chance for us to work in an area we are very passionate about – the business of Carnival!

The pandemic has not stopped our working with events thankfully, and we look forward to supporting the Eastbourne Vintage Festival, Wyntercon VIII and Eastbourne Carnival all taking place later this year.

Winning Awards for our work and customer service

We have been in the top ten most loved businesses in Eastbourne, and best UK PR & Media Agency on thebestof.co.uk/Eastbourne based on customer testimonials for our work and customer service.

In 2017, Mina was awarded Sussex Digital Woman of the year, which was a huge achievement – particularly receiving recognition from the Sussex community.

We are proud to have over 450 5* customer testimonials on The Best of Eastbourne.

Working on projects involving young people

We have supported Eastbourne Youth Radio, and The Big Futures Show for a number of years.  In 2021, we worked with Holding Space to contribute towards a booklet helping children with their mental health – providing guidance on tips to manage their wellbeing online.

We also get involved with school visits, Creative Cafes and work experience to try and inspire the next generation to think about tech and digital marketing as a career.

Our fabulous customers

Business is nothing without its customers.  We have had the pleasure of working with many sectors over the years including hotels, car dealerships, estate agents, home improvements, trades, food businesses, actors, authors, therapists, accountants, wedding suppliers, IT providers, events, numerous non-profits, and more!

Our training offer has seen us working with EDEAL, 3VA, Mid Sussex Voluntary Action, Business East Sussex, and the FSB East Sussex – delivering presentations, workshops and 1-2-1s.  We typically train on average 3 businesses per week so that is over a thousand businesses that we have helped start their journey online.

Looking forward

The pandemic has been a challenge for everyone, but we have loved the passion and resilience our community has shown.   We are rightly proud to be part of it and will continue to be supporting it in proving advice, training and social media marketing services, doing what we can to help!

The post 7 years in the business of Social Media appeared first on Ditzy Media.

Here are our top five writing tips to help inspire you!

Writing content for social media can be a challenge.  If you are posting 5 times a week to your social channels as a minimum, you will need to create 20 bits of shiny new content per month.

Knowing what to write to engage your followers and keep them coming back to your pages is an art in itself.

So, in the spirit of being helpful for National Writing Day 2021, we thought we would share our top five tips to help inspire and plan great content for your social media.

1. Set aside time to plan each month.

A couple of hours at the end of each month gives you the chance to reflect on your monthly analytics and consider what content performed well, and importantly, what didn’t.

You can use one of the many free social media planning templates available online – such as this one from Hubspot to help plan your key dates for the month ahead.

2. Key Blog or Vlog themes

Whether you are happy to write 300 – 1000 words once or twice a month, or go ‘live’ or do a pre-recorded video; Blogs and Vlogs lend themselves to writing richer content about a topic which relates to your business.

You could be responding to trends or current affairs which affect you or your customers, or be providing advice and information – just as we are here.

The great thing is they can become part of your evergreen content plan, which means, so long as they are not time specific, you can reuse them in future too.

3. Collaborate and support

As a business, you will have key suppliers, customers, charities and peers that you will wish to support online.

Keep an eye on what is happening in their world e.g. any milestones, events, job vacancies, new team members, fundraisers etc. so you can support them by sharing their content on your social media.

You can also consider asking them to guest blog on your website.  A great thing to do – as you get the benefit of not having to write the content, and you get the chance to support a local business or charity.

4. Awareness Days

These can really help with ‘writers block!’.   I am writing this on National Writing Day, so I hope to make the most of the online energy that will be around this awareness day today.

As part of your monthly plan, check in advance what key dates are coming up which relate to your business, or a cause that you are passionate about.

This will help give you enough time to get creative and generate good content for those key days.

5. Social listening and trends

Twitter is particularly strong for monitoring key conversations and trends.  Keep an eye on what is happening by going to the Explore tab, and seeing what the news of the day is, or what is trending.

You can save or follow hashtags which you want to monitor regularly for fresh content ideas on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

You can also follow content on Facebook and LinkedIn.  Just use the separate page news feeds features to monitor industry content, or pages which interest you.

We hope our tips help inspire your content planning, and help with Writers Block!

Strong coffee and decent chocolate can also help.

If you need help with planning your social media, content writing – or just need someone to take it off your hands, check out our services pages to see how we can help you

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The best ways to support your favourite businesses is to buy their goods and services or gift vouchers – BUT you can also show your love for your favourite businesses on Social Media.

There are a variety of ways to support local shops online to help spread their content further and reach more potential customers. Doing some of the below actions can really make a big difference in helping get their content out to more people.

1. Like and Follow their pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and wherever else you or they may be active
2. React to their posts – On Facebook – a reaction such as a love heart or wow face is more meaningful than a like
3. Commenting on posts and tagging friends if appropriate whom you think may be interested in the post
4. Sharing their posts – you have options to share onto your timeline, share into groups or with specific friends via Messenger or as a story
5. Save posts on Instagram – this is the equivalent of sharing
6. Leave a Facebook or Google review – you may have seen Google Ads showing their support for local businesses and their campaign #DearLocal – here’s the link to the video from  Google Advert with Anthony Joshua
7. Suggest your favourite business when a person asks for recommendations in a group – you can do this by tagging the business account directly onto the post using ‘@businessname’

Times continue to be tough for many people and businesses so even if you can’t buy from them or pay for their service right now, you can still support them on social media for FREE!

Share the love to help local businesses stay strong!

The post How can you support your favourite businesses online? appeared first on Ditzy Media.

We hear a lot from business owners about the drain on time that social media can bring.

Fear not!  There are some simple techniques you can implement to manage the time you spend on social media – without reducing your impact!

Top top tip: Schedule time within your working calendar once or twice a week to work on your social media.

There are a number of tasks we all have to do to ensure our content is fresh and relevant.  Make sure you allow a few hours per week to enable you to do the following.

1. Social listening. What stories and conversations have come up which relate to what you do?  Can this inform the content you will create?
2. Content research. Looking at your main social media feeds where you may be drawing informative content from e.g. news sites, industry sites, activities from people you collaborate with.  What trends or awareness days apply this week?
3. Creating or sourcing suitable visuals
4. Writing or recording (if video!) your content
5. Scheduling your content to go out at the key times that work for your audiences.

If you post on multiple platforms – using a social media management tool to schedule your content is a no brainer.  Some tools are free or low cost but can save you priceless time within your business.

Our fave is Zoho Social as it can post against Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google My Business and YouTube! 

Three further social media jobs – the icing on the above cake of work you have already created if you are doing the above – is to make a little bit of time daily to:

• Engage with others
• Grow your followers on the platforms that matter to you
• Monitor messages and interactions on your platforms

Social Media is your online shop window.  Taking the time to make it fresh, interesting and above all, welcoming to your customers and community is time well spent!

If you need advice on how to manage your social media for your business – reach out to us for an informal chat.  We can offer training, and consultancy to support your business or non-profit to make the job of social media easier and less time consuming.

The post Making the best use of your time appeared first on Ditzy Media.

We are only a couple of months into 2021 but the number one frustration we are coming across so far this year is Facebook reach and engagement.

In recent months, our social media training and consultancy clients have been listing Facebook page reach and engagement as a big issue.

So, what happened? Has the Facebook Algorithm changed?  The short answer is yes it has!

Check out Hootsuite’s blog for all the detail of what changes took place early in January 2021.

https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-algorithm/

So – what can you do to improve your reach and engagement in light of these changes?

 There are things you can do to optimise your posts to improve your reach and engagement – here are some of our top tips:

1. Make sure you are creating personable, ‘social’ content and not just using your social media posts to ‘sell’.  The perfect content mix is said to be 80% non promotional content and 20% promotional.
2. Avoid using links in your posts, – add links to the comment below and direct your customers to see the link there. Social Media platforms including Facebook and LinkedIn downgrade content if there is a link in the main body of the post.
3. Use stories to get you above the algorithm! Stories are not subject to the algorithm so will help you get a wider reach.
4. Use animated social media posts, videos and Lives. Video and animated content is scored more highly and should help your reach and engagement.  For the brave – look at going ‘Live’ – creating in the moment broadcasts which nudge your network into viewing or catching up if they’ve missed you.
5. Doing a presentation, talk, or workshop online? Don’t forget to make these Events! Events have a far wider reach than a standard post – and attract social actions from potential customers showing they are interested or going which sends notifications to their network – giving you a wider organic impact.
6. Hashtags are still relatively new to Facebook – research what may be relevant to your content and your community and aim to use 3-5 at the bottom of your post to increase your chances of reaching a wider audience.
7. Tagging – include other businesses or charities into your content by tagging them ( @ …) You can use this to shine a light on organisations, causes and other businesses in your community that you wish to support. Doing so will encourage those featured to engage back.
8. Remember to tell your followers to switch notifications to ‘See first’ if they want to ensure they never miss your content. You will be high up in their newsfeed if they do this.
9. Share your posts into relevant groups – but take care to ensure this is in keeping with the rules of the group you’re posting into – and don’t overdo it! Nobody likes to be spammed!
10. And finally, remember to market your Facebook Page (and other social media channels) on your website, email footer, when networking and on other forms of marketing.

Take comfort that getting good reach and engagement can affect most Facebook Page owners – even if they have a large and healthy following.  Content is king in making sure your audience sees, values and engages with your page.

For more advice – reach out to us for an informal chat!

The post Has organic reach on Facebook died? appeared first on Ditzy Media.

Updated January 2021

A chat hour is a pre-determined time on Twitter, where a group of people join in using a hashtag to have a conversation.

A fair few news ones have sprung up recently as a result of the coronavirus pandemic – so we have updated our blog to reflect this.

In our local area (Sussex) we now have

• #BrightonHour – Mondays 8.30-9.30pm
• #MidSussexHour – Wednesday 11:00-12:00pm
• #1066Hour for Hastings & Rother – Wednesday 11:00-12:00pm
• #SussexHour – Thursdays 10am – 11am
• #EBHour for Eastbourne & surrounding towns – Thursdays 7.30-8.30pm – hosted by us!
• #UCCHour for Uckfield – Fridays 11:00-12:00pm
• #FirstFridayVirtual – every First Friday of the month at 1:00pm

How to get involved in a chat hour

• Log in to Twitter and then go to your search bar top right of the screen and type in the name of the chat hour with the hashtag e.g. #EBHour
• You will then be taken to a view which has two options – View Top tweets, and latest. You need to select ‘Latest’ so you can see the conversation as it happens.
• If you intend to join in regularly you can save that search (top right of the screen)
• It’s a good idea to open a second browser screen and have that screen logged in for Twitter and select your notifications tab. This allows you to check if someone tweets you directly, so you can reply quickly without going away from the search screen.

It’s just businesses selling – right?

Wrong! Yes, businesses are the predominant group in some chat hours, but they are there to develop relationships – just as with any networking event offline. Charities and other organisations also join in as do individuals!

Chat hours give people a chance to get to know each other as people, share stories, a laugh, and other experiences as well as a little bit of promotion what they may be doing.

If you are new to Twitter, chat hours are a great way of getting to know people and build a network.

Top tip! Don’t forget to use the hashtag for the chat hour in your tweet!  And don’t forget if you begin a tweet with a Twitter account (the @…) this can reduce the visibility of your tweet.

The post Updated: Guide to local Chat Hours on Twitter appeared first on Ditzy Media.

The business specialises in selling “print on demand” wall art (canvas and prints) and other associated products, utilising the photography his son and other local photographers have created, online.

Currently the business is at the very early stages of setting up their social media and does not have the resources to support their online presence.

Mina O’Brien – Director of Ditzy Media said:

“The competition was tough – all entries were worthy of winning.  We felt as a team we can make a big difference to Xander Freedom Creations in starting their journey and that social media support would be a huge benefit to them.”

The prize will ensure they start with an effective social media sales channel to drive online custom.

David Barr – Director of Xander Freedom Creations said:

“I am so pleased and fortunate to have been awarded this fantastic prize. I recognise that a robust and dynamic social media strategy is critical to the future of most businesses.

With the expertise and guidance of Ditzy Media, I feel we now have a greatly increased chance of developing a successful local family business for my son to inherit, develop and drive forward.”

Runners up are eligible to receive discounted Social Media services from Ditzy Media.

To find out more about Xander Freedom Creations please visit: https://xanderfreedomcreations.com

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Whichever platform you prefer, Stories provide a valuable marketing tool to your business! This is mainly due to the prime viewing location at the top of newsfeeds, so people are more likely to see and engage with them.

Stories provide a way to share more visual based content with the addition of jazzy stickers, filters, gifs, and interactive features before posting. Each image/video lasts for 24 hours.

Facebook does give you the option to share a Story to your Page posts so you do not lose the content you’ve created.

Instagram will automatically archive images after they’ve been posted (once you’ve changed the setting). This allows you to then create story highlights, which appears on your profile under the bio.

This is the perfect opportunity to showcase products, services, and events on Instagram!

When people visit your profile, not only will they see your posts but also, they’ll be able to see what your company values most.

My top tips to stories:

• Keep text to a minimum and make sure it’s readable over the image/video
• Add appropriate stickers or gifs for a bit of fun
• Have an interactive button like a poll or heart-eyed emoji slider
• Try to post regularly

Happy story posting!

Blog author: Verity Webb

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