Talking Twitter tips over breakfast at 4Networking in Slough
The Top 10 Tips for Twitter Newbies tour of 4Networking meetings took Morgan PR down the M4 from Newbury in West Berkshire to 4Networking in Slough this morning to a lovely warm welcome.
Slough are a friendly group and the delightful banter that is the hallmark of every 4Networking meeting I have been to was in evidence, not least from seasoned networker and friend of Morgan PR, Juswant Rai, from the Utility Warehouse, who was on particularly sharp form this morning! Of course, as ever the audience we keen to have the secrets of Twitter revealed to them.
I took them through key steps that anyone new to Twitter should take and was able to illustrate why, for example you should use hashtags rather than abuse them like Habitat did over the Iran Election! Getting Twitter right from the earliest stages can avoid an awful lot of pain down the line and ensures that this particular social media channel pays dividends.
It was also great to plunge into another trio of 10-minute one-to-one meetings – something unique to 4Networking – that gives the chance to learn more about a fellow networker and leap forward on that all important relationship building.
My first was with Peter Henry from Focus on Growth, a charming man who explains succinctly how he helps people who are often in business but have lost sight of the business. He also readily recognised the potential for Morgan PR to help his clients promote the growth they achieve with him – and equally that we encounter businesses who need to be more focused before they can truly benefit from tools like Twitter or public relations.
Lisa Green was a lively sales representative from internet specialists Urban Media and we were keen to explore the inevitable ways that our overlapping businesses could help one another and there were definitely some opportunities there. Significantly too many networkers worry about competitors when collaboration is a key way to grow your business. It is rare that there cannot be some form of synergy and this was certainly the case with Lisa from Urban Media.
Synergy was also in evidence with Clare Kiddell, an account manager from design agency Avatar Creative. Straight away she recognises how much companies like ours need one another. She also won the unofficial prize for best business card – on the back it listed the following words: ‘passionate, approachable, focussed, flexible, diverse, fresh, successful, reliable, experienced, and professional.’ Talk about congruence, she epitomised all this and more and is someone else I’m looking forward to working with – and we already have a specific project in mind.
After the meeting plenty of people we keen to chat I had a lovely fourth one-to-one with the clearly talented Rachel Giles from the RG Partnership who specialises in re-uniting companies with taxes spent on research and development – apparently an incredible 45 per cent of companies do not claim back the tax on R&D – unclaimed money worth billions! Sadly it turns out the copious research on social media we carry out to stay top of our game does not qualify!
Speaking of one-to-ones, this afternoon I met up with a terrific photographer Derek Gale and his wife and business partner Nicky of Gale Photography. I first met Derek through Faringdon Business Breakfast Club – and he was kind enough to capture Morgan PR in action when we spoke at FBBC last year. Following our meeting I am delighted to report we will be working together soon! It is also worth checking out the Gale Photography blog too!
Is there anyone you should be having a one-to-one with?