Cheltenham social media strategist Jonathan Pollinger of Intranet Future is advising local businesses with great effect. I quizzed him about the criteria people should use when choosing a social media consultant.

What should I look for in a social media consultant or adviser?

First of all look at their social networks, particularly their LinkedIn profile. If a consultant hasn’t got a strong set of  ‘recommendations’ on LinkedIn then it’s time to walk away. Actually, run!

Check out their other social profiles. It’s not just about the number of Followers (Twitter) and Fans (Facebook) someone has, but if they are claiming to be a Twitter expert, and they have only 20 followers, then clearly there is a problem.

Ask the consultant for case studies of successful projects. Demand testimonials from previous customers. It’s quite easy to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Can you share any success stories from your own social media workshops?

Here in Cheltenham The Daffodil Restaurant came to a workshop and it has subsequently made very good use of Twitter for customer service and even for taking bookings. The guys there are clever, they’ve created an event—‘Martini Mondays’—to generate some activity on what was previously a quiet day. It’s resulted in a doubling of sales on that day.

A photographer who came on my Twitter workshop has brought in a lot of business as a result of building awareness for his services.

What about larger companies… can social media work for bigger brands?

I recently did an in-house workshop with Wadworth (the Brewers). It has since gone on to embrace social media in a big way, and is using Facebook to promote a number of brands. Wadworth pubs are also now encouraged to use social media.

Intranet Future runs public workshops and in-house training sessions to help businesses get started on social platforms. Contact Jonathan Pollinger here.

I’m an evangelist for marketing with content and I use my blog to spread the good news. So I was delighted to get a positive mention in the Ministry of Insights’ recent findings on marketing agency blogs.

Graham Hall’s post Who are the Best Agency Bloggers in Bristol – 2010? focusses mainly on the numbers (quantity of posts) – it is a data-based piece of research after all – but it’s clear that Graham has also read around his subject:

A small number of bloggers post frequently and regularly. Their blog is a central feature of their site and demonstrates energy and a commitment to communication and dialogue. It also strongly reflects the positive personality of the company or individual publishing the blog.

As usual, Twitter was the conduit through which I discovered I was second on the list. Bryony Thomas of Clear Thought Consulting was one who alerted me:

Hey @MickDickinson check out confirmation that you are one of Bristol's blogging heroes... http://cot.ag/eZltLr

January 5, 2011 3:38 pm via CoTweetReplyRetweetFavorite

@bryonythomas

Bryony Thomas

Graham Hall subsequently posted a subjective review of Top Bristol Agency Blogs.

…if you know of other blogs in and around the Bristol & Bath area you feel deserve mention, then please forward this link to them.

Business blogs: alive and well in Bristol.

In this final instalment of interviews with Owen Rees-Hayward of thingloop I ask the Bristol-based businessman about risk, criticism and optimism.

thingloop makes it easy to lend and borrow physical objects (tools, books, DVDs and so on) with people in your social network. Save money. Save the planet. Borrow stuff.

Do you need a one-track mind to succeed with a new business?

“You need to be a realistic optimist. Business start-ups involve risk, there’s no escaping it. So you need to be comfortable with the risks involved, and whilst straining for success you need to be aware that failure is a possibility.

“On the flip-side, even if you succeed you will undoubtedly make mistakes along the way, and these will most likely be public! You need a certain confidence to embrace the possibility of public failure, and criticism, it’s not something that anyone dreams of.”

What kind of support can you expect from friends and family?

“That’s an interesting question. Starting a business is not something most people do, so most of your friends and family probably won’t understand a lot of what you’ll go through. At times this can lead to feeling lonely and isolated. You need to be able to cope with these times.”

How?

“Co-working, shared office-space and incubators can ease this, helping you connect with others in a similar situation.

“Along the way you have good and bad days. Being able to step back, get perspective and not take things personally goes a long way to keeping you sane!”

Image via cowcoop.org

I recently did a Twitter interview with Stu Bradley, a brave man who decided France was where he wanted to be in business.

Stu’s a Yorkshireman who waved goodbye to Blighty for a new adventure in the Loire Valley. He set up Le Chant d’Oiseau, a campsite-plus-holiday-gites destination.

Read a full transcript here.

One of the many benefits of online social networking is the unexpected contacts we make with fascinating people. How would I have met Stu Bradley, a Yorkshireman running a business in the French Loire, if it wasn’t for Twitter?

Don’t ask me why I first followed Stu’s tweets (@LeChantdOiseau). Something to do with the Loire, maybe, a place with special memories for me. I’m a francophile who’s interested in business, so Stu’s ‘running commentary’ on the trials and tribulations of a Brit abroad running his gite and campsite holiday destination was right up my street.

An Englishman in the Loire

While the exact circumstances of our initial contact are lost in the mists of time, I gradually got to learn more about @LechantdOiseau (the songbird) each day. I discovered Stu’s blog and Facebook page – and soon I was hooked.

Those daily updates and insights painted a brilliantly colourful, human picture of an ex-pat entrepreneurs’s life. I also came to realise that these narratives I enjoyed so much were really great social marketing.

Please get to the point

On Thursday 25th November at 11AM I’m doing a Twitter interview with Stu. Sign up below. Please tweet using the hashtag #crosschannel

I’ll be asking questions such as:

• how come you moved to France?
• what challenges does a ‘rosbif’ face to get a business off the ground?
• what have you got against Stihl strimmers?

#crosschannel = 11AM, Thurs 25th Nov

Please join in with your own questions for Stu!
The hashtag is #crosschannel – it would be great to hear from you.

In this, the fifth instalment of an interview with Owen Rees-Hayward of thingloop, I asked for Owen’s thoughts on ‘what makes an entrepreneur?’

thingloop makes it easy to lend and borrow physical objects (tools, books, DVDs and so on) with people in your social network. Save money. Save the planet. Borrow stuff.

What sort of characteristics do you need to get a new business off the ground?

“You definitely need a passion for your idea and a vision that you can communicate with enthusiasm. You have to invest a lot of time, energy and money into trying to making it happen. Plus, you have to make sacrifices along the way. So you really need to believe it’s worth it!

“I have faced up to a lot of challenges. You must persevere, and not give up at the first hurdle.”

If the business is your idea, then you get to make all the decisions, right?

“Not necessarily. Whatever the business you’re in, you need to be flexible. And if you’re part of a small team, people will generally operate in different roles, bringing their own expertise. A team is made up of the sum of its parts. So you need to be comfortable with the fact that others will be more expert than you at certain functions, and they will make better decisions than you.”

Any tips on managing your time?

“I have things on the go all the time so personal organisation skills are a must. Anyone starting a new business will be juggling a lot of balls at once – usually too many – so being able to prioritise is vital. It’s not easy. For instance, most days I’ve got ten ‘must-do’ things on the list… yet there is only time to complete three!”

In the next instalment of this interview, Owen talks about how to shrug off mistakes and deal with negative criticism.

Productivity Ninja Lee Cottier runs excellent workshops on time management and how to get stuff done.

Advocates of inbound marketing (like me!) have long known the technique’s inherent power. Quality content positions you and your company as ‘players’ – and prospects are drawn to you.

Answer the basic questions your prospects ask online – without selling – and trust and credibility follow.

Inbound marketers use content to reach buyers directly, leapfrogging gatekeepers and other intermediaries, such as editors and publishers.

But too often we overlook the traditional media release. A good story – well-written and relevant to the publication’s readership – might be just what the editor ordered.

I was able to help Bristol entrepreneurs Salima and Mohamed Garti gain good coverage for their new patisserie using traditional PR. It certainly helped them establish a positive reputation amongst Bristol people. And it made me re-think my attitude to ‘old-fashioned’ PR.

Read the full case study here.

The third instalment of my interview with Owen Rees-Hayward of thingloop focuses on competition, money and the recession. But don’t worry – it’s all positive!

thingloop makes it easy to lend and borrow physical objects (tools, books, DVDs and so on) with people in your social network. Save money. Save the planet. Borrow stuff.

Are there any competitors in your market?

“There wasn’t any competition when I started seriously looking into the idea. In the last 18 months, the market has changed entirely. The collaborative consumption market has exploded, and while there are no direct competitors, there are a number of start-ups in the space.

“Even if you’re not competing directly for users, you may end up competing for media/press coverage.

“That’s one thing you have to bear in mind with web start-ups: there’s little in the way of barriers to entry. Even if you don’t start out with competitors, if your idea has any legs, it won’t be long before someone spots the potential and launches a competing service.”

Did the fact that we are in recession affect your plans?

“No, certainly not negatively. As thingloop helps people save money, it’s probably a good time to launch.”

Did you work out how much money you would need to get through the first months/years?

“Yes, I did some basic number crunching, calculated the burn/investment rate. I had to include things like salaries (or maybe the cost of your mortgage and bills), development and running costs (web design, software development, legal advice, hardware, office space, marketing, etc). It all adds up…”

The next (fourth) part of this series sees Owen lift the lid on skills, hindsight and local business support.

In the second instalment of my interviews with Owen Rees-Hayward, founder of thingloop, the focus is on market research and how it informs business viability. Pretty important stuff for any new business. I for one was impressed and surprised in equal measure by what Owen has to say here…

thingloop makes it easy to lend and borrow physical objects (tools, books, DVDs and so on) with people in your social network. Save money. Save the planet. Borrow stuff.

What kind of market research did you do for thingloop?

“thingloop exists in a wider emerging market, sometimes referred to ‘collaborative consumption’. This market didn’t really exist when I began exploring the idea of thingloop.

“For an existing market, you are able to ask the standard questions. How much is the market worth? Who are the incumbents? How are they doing? Is there space for a new entrant? How will you compete?

“For an emerging market, or one that doesn’t yet exist, things are a little trickier. Research amongst family and friends doesn’t really cut the mustard, although if everyone tells you the idea sucks, well, then it probably does!

“I did a lot of online research, exploring the web looking to see if anyone else was doing the same or anything similar to thingloop. As it turned out, at the time, there were only a couple of US sites vaguely similar in concept, but they weren’t going anywhere.”

How did you work out if your business idea was viable?

“To be honest, I’m not sure I did! We were launching into a future full of unknowns, as new markets are hard to quantify.

“That said, I tried to get the basics right, the financial planning, and so on, and to quantify as much as I could.

“Secondly, and probably most importantly, I got all the advice I could. There are a number of organisations in the Bristol area who can offer great guidance and support to new businesses: from the better-known business advice centres like Business Link, BRAVE and BEN; through to tech/web incubators like SETsquared, UWE Ventures and Spike Design. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of most of these organisations when I started out with thingloop, and would have really benefited from their input!

“Thirdly, you can approach the project using what is known as the Lean Startup model, which basically involves releasing a product as early as possible. The idea being that there’s no point investing loads in creating a well-polished product that no-one wants. Rather it’s more valuable to get feedback early. Why not release something that’s got a few rough edges? If people like it and you get some traction, then you can invest in refinements to take it forward.”

In my next post on thingloop, Owen shares insights on competitors; and why launching a new business in a recession can be a good tactic.

Owen Rees-Hayward came up with an ingenious way to make easy the sharing of physical objects (tools, books, DVDs and so on) with people in your social network. He turned the idea into reality and called the online community thingloop.

Borrowing stuff from people that you know and trust gives you access to all the goodies your friends are willing to lend. It saves money and it saves the planet.

This is a pretty radical concept. Intrigued, I asked Owen what issues he and his new web business were facing. The answers to that question became a six-weekly ‘business start-up diary’. I’m posting all six action-packed episodes starting today.

A radical concept that challenges the idea of ownership

Bristol-based Owen Rees-Hayward founded thingloop after several years working in software development. It’s not unusual for an entrepreneur to earn his chops while working for someone else, then to ‘step sideways’ to start their own business. But Owen has a genuinely radical idea that could change how we regard ownership: a free service to help people borrow instead of buying.

What made you want to start a business?

“I guess everyone probably begins the journey for different reasons. For me, the desire to run my own business came before the idea. I just knew I wanted to have a go. So, it made sense that I look at doing a web start-up as my background is in web-based software.”

How did you come up with your idea?

“Once I was committed, I made time every week to brainstorm ideas and evaluate possibilities. I kept a folder containing my thoughts and analysis on the more promising ideas. I must have had hundreds, if not thousands, of ideas pop into my head over that time. Maybe about 20 made it into the folder.”

Why thingloop?

“After about three months, I settled on the idea of thingloop. Initially, It wasn’t the most exciting idea I’d had… but I kept thinking about how useful it could be to share, catalogue and retrieve belongings safely. The concept grew on me over time as I began to realise its true potential. Now I think it’s a fantastic idea.”

What is thingloop?

“In a sentence, thingloop makes it incredibly easy to lend and borrow physical objects (tools, books, DVDs and so on) with people in your social network. It’s also got a very practical side, too, as it helps you to track who you have lent your stuff to, so that you actually get it back! We’ve all had that experience of lending something out, then forgetting who we lent it too.

“At the same time it’s revolutionary in allowing you to catalogue your stuff and make it visible to your social network – your friends, neighbours, work colleagues, family, and so on. It’s as if you and your friends all live in one giant house. Want to watch a movie later in the week? Go to the giant shared DVD shelf and pick from hundreds or even thousands… Need a tool for a DIY job? Then go to the giant tool shed.

“I’m also really excited about how thingloop can help people save money. Why rent when you can borrow? We’ll be reducing peoples’ carbon footprint through reuse. And, at the same time, I’m hoping it will enhance community life, and help people to gain access to things they maybe couldn’t afford.”

Thanks to Rudy Millard who originally published the Business Start-up Diary on Guide2Bristol (Aug/Sept 2010).