Business Leads UK Blog ~ Containing blogs and comments by our members

Check out the latest Business Leads UK blogs and comments by our members. If you would like to have your say on how to generate business leads published here then all you need to do is SIGN UP TODAY for FREE down the left.
Nov 30th

WWE signs biggest-ever international TV deal with BSkyB

By The Isogon Group

Media and entertainment company World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has agreed a five-year extension of its present deal with British Sky Broadcasting that will take their partnership to the 25th year.

The length of the previous contract, which expired in 2009, was also five years. The recently signed deal runs through 2014.

“It’s the largest international television deal that WWE has ever done,” Andrew Whittaker, Global President at WWE, told SportBusiness.

Under the new agreement, 104 hours of first-run programming will be aired on the Sky 1 channel on top of the content delivered via Sky Sports.

An additional feature of the new contract is the offering of WWE programming in high-definition.

“Sky is quite advanced in their delivery in HD programming and WWE being delivered in HD is extremely positive for our viewers in the UK. The property comes across very, very strongly. HD takes us to a whole new delivery level,” Whitaker said.

The WWE Global President added that some aspects of the previous deal will now be enhanced, “Our mobile deployment in the UK is significantly larger now then it was before, as it’s our online activity… Obviously, the pay-per-view continues.”

0 Comments
Nov 29th

Facebook business or pleasure?

By Jon Davey
Facebook is probably the largest social network on the planet with 300 million active users and 50% of their active users log on in any given day!!

How do you use it for business or pleasure?
2 Comments
Nov 27th

Join the I Love Windsor group on Face Book

By Jon Davey
Windsor Castle - I Love Windsor .co.uk

I LOVE WINDSOR .CO.UK has just been launched using Face Book aimed at all those people who loved visiting, would love to visit and love living in Windsor, UK.

Using the Face Book social media platform we would love to have 100,000 members of our I Love Windsor group by Christmas.

Can you help us? Tell everyone you know to tell everyone they know that there is a great new group of Face Book for all those people who love Windsor and guess what it’s name is I LOVE WINDSOR and what’s even better you don’t need to go searching for it.

Just type in WWW.ILOVEWINDSOR.CO.UK into your browser and it will take you straight there...

Come on in, sign up and get posting all the great things you know about Windsor so the world can see and know who, what and where to explore when they get here.

Thank you.

Jon Davey
Social Media Director and NEW Business Generator
Call 01753 852904 or 07881 744495

• I can direct your social media distribution
• Generate business leads for sales teams and sales professionals.
• Use existing social networks and build bespoke social networks for YOU.

Jon is available to talk on social media and business lead generation using the web. Please review his latest comments and please connect via the following channels:

• Me: JonDavey.co.uk - T @jondavey
• Local business: BinB News - Events - LinkedIn - T @binbnews
• Local FUN: I Love Windsor
• National distribution: Business Leads UK
• Profession: Social Media Directors

Thank you.
0 Comments
Nov 25th

Free Social CRM launches to help SMEs win more business from social networking

By wecandobiz

Service helps businesses grow online and offline relationships

London, UK – 24 November 2009: WeCanDo.BIZ Limited, the online sales leads and business referrals network, has launched a Social CRM addition to its established website to assist small business owners to turn their social networking contacts into customers.  Called WeCanDoCRM, the service is free to all businesses at www.wecando.biz.

Social CRM is the merging of social networks with Customer Relationship Management to help businesses manage and build customer relationships using the information that customers freely share through their online profiles.  Social CRM also includes using social networking resources to help improve customer dialogue.

Focused towards small business owner/managers looking to use social media to help grow their businesses, the new features announced with WeCanDoCRM enable:

-          Consolidation of contacts from website enquiry forms, Microsoft Outlook, Google Mail, Yahoo Mail, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ecademy and existing customer databases to one location, making contacts and customers easier to manage and communicate with

-          Improved data currency and accuracy through linking CRM records with public social networking profiles

-          Access to further rich data collected from public social networking profiles to supplement customer information already held

-          Advanced Customer Relationship Management features such as lead & sales management workflow, HTML email & mobile SMS (Short Message Service) campaign marketing, customer surveys and rich reporting as an upgrade option

-          Integration to online accounts systems, such as Kashflow, providing full sales workflow from leads through to invoicing.

These new Social CRM features are in addition to the many business networking features of WeCanDo.BIZ, including Biz Need business sales leads; and an endorsement system to share customer endorsements on your social networking profile, blog or website.  The WeCanDo.BIZ website has over 12,500 registered users.

“As I build contacts online WeCanDoCRM captures customer data straight into the system  – that’s fantastic, as I can be straight onto potential opportunities with fundamentally no delay or need for administration,” says Will Hawkins of Healthy Business Ltd., a WeCanDo.BIZ user and early adopter of WeCanDoCRM.  “I have access to information about my customers that many large businesses can only dream about!”

“A lot of business owners are scratching their heads, trying to work out what social networks can do for them, how they build their contacts and then how they convert them into customers,” says Ian Hendry, founder and Chief Executive of WeCanDo.BIZ.  “The fact is, there are opportunities being presented all the time through social network connections, but unless you record them they’re quickly lost amongst the noise.  WeCanDoCRM assists in building rich customer profiles of your online and offline contacts; then provides tools to help advance the relationship to the point where business gets done — quickly and easily.”

WeCanDoCRM Social CRM is powered by the InTouch CRM platform and is available immediately, free to all businesses from www.wecando.biz.  WeCanDo.BIZ Pro Networker membership is an optional upgrade enabling small businesses to use social media to grow even faster from £19.95 + VAT per month with no contract.

About WeCanDo.BIZ

WeCanDo.BIZ is an online new business network for sales leads and referrals. Using social networking methods to broker valuable new business relationships, it provides simple tools to members which help generate sales leads, leverage customer referrals and win new business.  The web-based service is available to all businesses at www.wecando.biz.

0 Comments
Nov 25th

Miles Amoore FPA Feature Print Web Award Winner 2009

By Jon Davey
Last night at the Foreign Press Association Media Awards in London, Miles Amoore won the Foreign Press Association’s Feature Print Web Award for his article

Blood Brothers Scarred by War

Below you can see the quality of the journalists he was up against from TV, radio, print and of course the web.

Bronze Mother Gorilla and Child Sally Amoore

I first met Miles after his mother had been given an award, ironically by the Armed Forces Art Society for her and even more ironically presented by Kate Adie!!

Read this early article by Miles, written to celebrate his mothers win:
Sally Wins London Art Award

When I heard of his dream to become a journalist I suggested he pop round for a coffee and we would see how we could help each other. I have a website, On This Day in History and a vision to make it more interesting but this would take a ton of hard work and I had no budget. Miles Amoore, keen to keep his brain busy and do something that could up his profile read 40,000 words a day and wrote 15,000!! In November 2006 he started work on breaking each day into its own micro site. The most popular of which is still a page on the microsite for 2nd December about Herman Cortes, the day he died: 1547 Herman Cortes (still 3rd on Google)

A few weeks later, on the way to dinner with John Redwood MP at his club up in London, we also have PoliticalEditor.co.uk which brought in the diplomatic aspect of his ambition to become a foreign correspondent, our man in... Miles told me of his pending interview with The Newbury Weekly News and if I minded... of course not, this is your life, live it...

The rest is history, 12 months later he was in Afghanistan with a copy of Seven Pillars of Wisdom in his kit bag!

"Well done Miles, when we met in the park on your birthday you said you might never write another piece like it ... well if you don’t you’ve got this Award which represents recognition by the true professionals in your trade ... what better accolade could you have? And it's only taken you 3 years ... just think what you'll achieve in the next 30!!

Enjoy the limelight, double your fee and keep your bloody head down!"

Jon Davey
Social Media Director
And mate of an Award winning journalist don’t ya know!
0 Comments
Nov 24th

Then Cleopatra Caesar : Now Murdoch Microsoft

By Jon Davey
Cleopatra & Caesar were on different empire building teams and came together for fame and fortune ... history repeating itself but with different empires, this time Murdoch & Microsoft combing to beat a mortal foe GOOGLE !!

Google earns billions from its pay per click model and gets 90% of all the searches here in the UK.

Bing isn’t on the same page, even Microsoft execs use Google a former Managing Director of Microsoft UK told me at a business networking event last month !

Rupert Murdoch has the lion’s share of offline media and he’s determined to look after it ... combining with Microsoft and blocking pages makes sense as many journo’s use the web to search for more information on their story ... and they will pick up content from other news sources and replicate that in their releases ... as Steve of the Birmingham Mail showed.

Today anyone can set up a social network and ultimately we are all able to share our thoughts and opinions with the world. The quality of an online community, social media site, network, whatever you want to call them defines itself by the management team.

If they want to be heavy handed then those with the opposite opinion will be pushed / bullied away and that community will become known to have a strong leaning towards x ... it will then attract people who agree and love x ... it will then be sponsored by those whose target market is the perfect X !

I think there will be millions of social networks around the world all with a specific focus ... the number of people who work for each social media network will be directly determined by the audiences willingness to pay membership and or sponsors looking at a target market ... without money it is not a business but a hobby site ... natural selection will determine which are which ...

Mr Rupert Murdock or indeed any publisher out there looking for a Social Media Director should knock on my door and we can talk about your mission and work out a social media strategy to help you be king of your chosen castle.

Jon Davey
01753 852904
 
0 Comments
Nov 24th

FIFA to hold extraordinary general meeting

By The Isogon Group

FIFA, football’s world governing body, has announced an extraordinary general meeting in Cape Town on December 2 to discuss a series of pressing matters.

Thierry Henry's handball in the World Cup play-off game against Ireland, the discovery of a match-fixing ring by German police and trouble surrounding the Algeria-Egypt qualifier are all expected to be on the agenda.

The executive committee was already due to meet on December 3 on Robben Island to discuss the draw to be held the following day.

"Due to recent events in the world of football, namely incidents at the playoffs for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, match control (refereeing) and irregularities in the football betting market, the FIFA president [Sepp Blatter] has called an extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee," said a FIFA statement.

Ireland's Football Association formally asked for a replay of the France-Ireland draw after Henry’s blatant handball, which FIFA refused, and on Friday German police said they had dismantled a match-fixing gang with more than 200 suspected members operating in nine European leagues.

The Egypt-Algeria qualifier on November 14 in Cairo and subsequent play-off in Khartoum four days later were also surrounded by controversy. Twenty Algerian fans were injured in clashes with Egyptian fans across the Sudanese capital that night and according to Algerian press reports, crowds of football fans attacked homes of Egyptian workers in south-eastern Algeria.

0 Comments
Nov 24th

Making a website work for you from the very beginnning

By marketingcollateral
The Circle of Life?

We are often asked to build a website in a few hours or even a few days. So, we put together the "circle of life" of a website. With the help of Joomla Developers website production values. Be aware therefore, that if you want a website that works, this process will help you. Skip any one of them and you are asking for trouble!

When thinking about building a website this planogram is a good start. Intially you will want to "Set Goals". The goals will be around the actual look and feel of the website, the reasons behind having a website and frankly, what you think the website should do for you and Search Engine Optimisation to enable your website to be found by your potential users.

The Developers will then interpret your "Goals" and produce a costing and build proposal that will give you an idea of circle_of_life.jpgwhere you are going and what you can actually achieve within your budget requirements. The design is done and the "framework" for the site is built.

This is a very important aspect as you will want to see the home page, and secondary pages and if the website is to be transactional, you will want to find and appoint a suitable payment gateway and ensure it meets your needs as well as your customers.

You may want extra functionality and these are called extensions. For instance, you may want a "recommend a friend" option, "Sign up to our newsletter" an inbuilt email marketing function and of course a "shopping cart".

All these aspects are what we call the "Alpha Phase" and it is this stage that is critical as most clients (in our experience) tend to show the site to colleagues or friends and this can get negative reactions as everyone out there is a "web designer" and it can often cause untold problems and situations with your developer and designers - remember at this stage of development the "site" is not finished and often times you may feel peer pressure to implement some of your friends and colleagues suggestions before the site is ready to be fully tested or even fully designed.

The "Beta" phase is where we test that the funcionality actually works properly, auto responses are tested and the payment gateway (if there is one) is fully implemented and the payment process is finalised. Corrections are made if necessary and further development is undertaken to ensure the site is compatible with all browsers, all video players and mobile communication devices. The stable phase is where you can feel assured to send the site out to your colleagues and friends to "critique" the site, the developers can then implement any suggestions that they or you have not thought of in the development stage, if any amendments are done, we go back to Beta Phase and re-test and ensure the site functions correctly. Once all this is done - Only then can the site be released to the general public and any Search Engine Optimisation can be implemented.
1 Comments
Nov 23rd

Ground Based Aerial Elevated Mast Photography

By PhotoElevate

Photo Elevate is a company based in Tiptree Essex, specialising in Low altitude aerial photography often referred to as Elevated Photography or Mast Photography. Photographs are taken using a 50ft telescopic mast attached to a customised vehicle or tri pod system, this enables the photographer to capture stunning pictures of properties, landscapes and events not normally seen from the ground.

A high-resolution digital camera is attached to a remote controlled pan and tilt head at the top of the mast. The whole system including the camera is controlled from below via a lap top computer which views real time images the camera sees. These images are downloaded where they can be transferred to CD or printed out on site.


This method of photography has hundreds of applications including private commissions, estate agents, outdoor functions and sporting events, hotels, pubs, golf clubs and businesses, building and archaeological surveys, architects, insurance claims, advertising agencies and many more.

Photo Elevate is a friendly professional company fully equipped and competent to carry out all elevated photography work to the highest standards and although it is based in Essex, the company covers Kent Suffolk Norfolk Hertfordshire Bedfordshire Cambridgeshire and East Anglia. all UK.

Visit  www.photo-elevate.com
0 Comments
Nov 23rd

They need me over at Starbucks ... best connect but how?

By Jon Davey
Social media strategy manager perfect for Starbucks!

Just read in the Seattle Times that Starbucks seeks managers of social media, digital strategy 

It’s a story by Melissa Allison who is obviously a regular writer with over 1000 stories to her name ... and I guess she likes coffee as it says under her banner ... Melissa Allison tracks Seattle's — and the world's — caffeine addiction. That’ll be a yes then!! 

Hi Melissa and Starbucks if you are reading this ... I’ve been around the web for 10 years and have recently redefined myself with a Caramel Brulee Latte type title of Social Media Director. 

I’d be interested to have a chat about what you have going on and how I could be of assistance. 

I found this opportunity using a Twitter filter system that is just brilliant ... I posted it onto my website using our CMS, developed in the dark ages of 2003-4 ... but like all old things, Google loves it and so if you are tuned into their alerts, which of course you are, this will probably land first through there ... over to Ping.fm to give that a nudge ... followed by a few lighter touches to help our visibility elsewhere. 

I’ve got a story idea for you Melissa with a Royal twist! 

Jon Davey 
Social Media Director and NEW Business Generator 
Call 01753 852904 or 07881 744495 
0 Comments