“Here’s Johnny!” – 16 Movie quotes to inspire your social media marketing

“To be or not to be..” – classic one liners are nothing new – they’ve been around for as long as stories could be told, and the most memorable have become part of our every day language. What makes them memorable is that they’re draped in emotion – sorrow, pain, joy, laughter, inspiration, shock, horror, fear, or just plain nostalgia. The classics may last forever.

Who doesn’t love a good one liner? Hollywood in all its story telling grandeur has become the place to conjure up those classic moments of cinema that will be remembered and repeated for years to come. We’ve had some epic deliveries from true Hollywood legends over the years. Script writers’ hearts must dance with glee when they realise they’ve come up with a magic bullet which will live on far beyond the box office takings.

I don’t claim to be a movie buff by any stretch, but a modest love of films mixed with a passion for using social media in the right way for business has led me to come up with a few ‘lessons to be learned’ from some of Hollywood’s great one liners. And if the lessons can help along the way, even better! Enjoy…

1. “Go the distance” – Field of Dreams

One of my favourite movies!

The fact is, social media is not a fad. It’s not something that will work overnight either. If you expect to get a return on social media for your business, you’ve got to commit the time and energy. As Kevin Costner sat in that Iowa ballpark with the wonderful James Earl Jones, he realised there was more to this than first appeared. As is the same with social media – you mustn’t quit after a week when you don’t see the results. Perseverance is essential – keep plugging away and you’ll eventually crack the code. Don’t sell the farm prematurely – you may never know what you’ll be missing..this is for the long haul!

Comprehensive 15-point checklist for creating or improving your website

Creating a new website, or having one built for you, can be challenging for businesses, particularly if it’s your first attempt. A good web designer should keep you right, but some may be focused on how good it looks or how their state of the art functionality works, and often there are key considerations which fall by the wayside.

Your planning is key, and communication with your web developer to ensure they know exactly what you want is critical for the success of your new site. The problem for many businesses is that they’re not quite sure what they want so it’s difficult for them to be specific when briefing a web designer. This list should help you to think about some of the different elements.

1. Objectives

Define your key objectives for each page. What is it you want to achieve? If you have more than one key objective, make sure you prioritise. Do not try to over complicate your pages by trying to achieve too much. Every page should have its own purpose, and a clear single objective. Some pages may be focused on capturing an email address, or subscribers to a blog, others may be focused on getting social shares or follows, or watching a video, whereas others will clearly have the objective of converting visitors to sales, getting a booking, requesting a quote, or filling out a contact form.

Why a business blog is a honey trap for customers

Marketing has changed, and businesses of all sizes and from all industries need to keep adapting their strategy in order to ensure their marketing efforts are effective and their businesses continue to thrive. In recent years, blogging has become one of the most valuable tools in marketers’ kits. Yet, many businesses are oblivious to how much value it can add, and have yet to get to grips with blogging for their business.

The new age consumer

Thinking back to a world before Facebook, Twitter, even the internet, consumer behaviour has changed dramatically. The internet and the explosion of social media means we as consumers now have access to mountains of information at our fingertips. Amongst all of this information, we are exposed to thousands of marketing messages every single day.

We’re only human, so it wouldn’t be possible for us to take all of these messages on board, even if we wanted to. So, we have instinctively learned to filter the messages, meaning we only tune in to those which we deem to be relevant to us and in some way provide us with value.

That means, out of the thousands of marketing messages we’re exposed to every day, only a very small fraction gets our attention and seeps through. The rest are filtered out.

21 Twitter dos and don’ts

Getting started on any new social media platform can be a challenge. Apart from learning the ropes in terms of how the site actually works, you’ve got to get to grips with the lingo and the general etiquette of each platform. Today, I spoke at a seminar on social media in Fermanagh, but we had so much to cover I didn’t get around to sharing some general tips on Twitter etiquette, so for those who attended (thank you!), and even for those who didn’t, here’s a quick run down of what I believe are the main dos and don’ts when it comes to Twitter.

Twitter Dos

• Go public – That’s the nature of this platform, so don’t keep your account private. If you’re using social media for your business, it wouldn’t make any sense anyway!

• Respond – When someone interacts with you, get back to them and continue the conversation. This is the kind of engagement you want with your customers, potential customers and your network.

• Show your appreciation – Thank people who have taken the time to follow or retweet you – and try to personalise the response if you can. This can also be a great conversation starter.

• Reciprocate – It’s nice to be nice as they say, so as well as showing your appreciation for those helping you out, think about how you can help them. This is a two way street, and they’ll appreciate it.