10 Ways to Use YouTube for Business in 2010

We all know that YouTube can be fun and entertaining, but it can also be a superb and incredibly cost effective tool for businesses.

With no real need for studio production, you'll find that a high quality digital camera and some simple editing software are all you need to produce professional looking videos that are ideal for YouTube and other video sharing sites.

Here are 10 ways you might use YouTube in 2010...

1. Make announcements

Create a video of your CEO announcing news about the company and send the link out to your team. Ideal for companies whose employees are not all based in the same building and far better than sending an email with a company announcement.

2. Take a tour

Video footage inside a building can be much more powerful than photos and can be used as a great way to showcase a new site or to enable people to see 'inside your company'.

3. Customer service - "how to" videos

Want to let your customers know how to maintain your product, build your product, use your product? Record a simple instructional video and post it on your website or send a link out with an email.

4. Product highlights

Filming your product or facility in use can be a great sales tool and will generally be more powerful that simple imagery. Research shows that video footage is also more likely to be viewed that still images.

5. Report on events

Making a video of an event - be it a conference, product launch, exhibition or company party - means that those that weren't able to attend get a much better feel for the atmosphere.

6. Case Studies and testimonials

Using customer case studies and video diaries can be a very powerful way to help people connect to your company.

7. Training

Give something back to your staff or clients by providing training and guidance in the form of short videos.

8. The expert interviews

Show an interview with an expert or celebrity talking about your product, brand or services.

9. From inside a meeting

Video key meetings and share the contents with your team if people are not able to attend.

10. Set up a YouTube Channel

Create a channel for your company and upload all your videos in one place, along with videos that you have enjoyed and recommend others view. Share the URL of your company channel via email signatures etc and on your website.

And finally...

If you want to find our more I would recommend you read this great book by Michael Miller: YouTube for Business

Getting started with LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a superb way for you to gain credibility in your sector without the need to brag about your connections. You can build your authority and share information through groups and discussions.

Over 3 million people in the UK now use LinkedIn, and the things are set to get even better for the professional network in 2010.

Last month, LinkedIn announced that it is opening its platform to developers who might be interested in integrating LinkedIn into their applications and websites - so expect lots more developments in the coming months.


If you're new to LinkedIn, here are Promote's 10 FAQs to help you get the most from the platform...

1. Should I include a profile photo?
'People buy people' so always include a photo of yourself in your personal profile. Ideally a head and shoulders shot that looks professional and friendly.

2. Can I link my profile to my business?
LinkedIn now has the capacity to include company profiles, so create one for your organisation and encourage your team to include it in their profiles.

3. Who should I connect to?
Only accept connections from people that you know. This way you can be sure that your network remains of the highest quality. Start by inviting people that you have contact with regularly from your outlook address book. Try to personalise your invitations a little rather than just issuing an invitation to everyone you have ever sent an email to (a process that LinkedIn offers).

4. Should I join groups?
It's a good idea to join some groups that are relevant to you as it provides an indication of your interests and is a great way to connect with people.

5. What's the benefit of updating my status?
Regularly updating your 'status' on LinkedIn provides your connections with a quick indication of what you are doing. This can now be done directly from Twitter (and vice versa) so you only need to post your news once to reach two audiences.

6. What other tools can I use?
LinkedIn offers a number of other tools to help you share information with your network. You can recommend the books you are reading or want to read is and share slideshows and presentations. You can can also link your blog and Twitter feed into LinkedIn.


7. Is it worth paying extra to upgrade my account?
There's so much great stuff that's currently free on LinkedIn that I wouldn't recommend that you pay for the extra level of membership, especially if you are just getting started.

8. How should I promote that I am on LinkedIn?
Adding your LinkedIn address to your email signature is a really simple way to encourage people to link in to you. Some people also include details on their websites, blogs, twitter profile etc

9. How much time should I spend?
I would recommend spending at least 30 minutes a week approaching new connections and updating your status in order to see the benefits of an expanding network.

10. Any thing else to help me get started?
A really simple way to ensure you link in with as many contacts as you can is to download the LinkedIn toolbar. This enables you to immediately see if anyone that emails you is already on LinkedIn, and gives you the option to invite them to link in to you with the click of your mouse.

Brilliant IKEA Facebook Campaign

Absolutely loved the simplicity and effectiveness of IKEA's new Facebook campaign which uses one of the key features of Facebook - tagging photos.

For the opening of its new store in Malmo IKEA decided to reach their audience via Facebook.

An account was created for the IKEA store manager and showroom images were uploaded to his Facebook photo album. Using the free tagging feature in Facebook, customers were able to find items in the pictures and put their names on them. The first person to 'tag' an object got to win it.

The word spread through facebook and users started embedding links and images in their own profiles and across news feeds. Hugely succcessful campaign for IKEA with thousands of people willingling promoting the new store.

This simple video explains how it was achieved:

Simple tool to measure Twitter success

In case you hadn't seen it already, we're using this fantastic feature in Tweetdeck that let's you easily see how many people have clicked on a shortened link contained in a Tweet.

It's really useful for tracking the popularity of the links you send out on Twitter and is helping us report back to clients on the success of their messaging.

Just go to 'General' in your Tweetdeck settings and tick the box next to: Show Preview Information for Shortened URLs.

You can then just click on any link (in all tweets, not just yours) to immediately see how many other people have clicked on the link.

Here's the full explanation (with visuals to make it even easier) from Bit.ly

Wonderful new Twinings Tea Advert

It's always a real pleasure to watch clever TV adverts, and I love the new Twinings tea's TV advert which includes the work of live animation artist Ilana Yahav, similar to the work of Kseniya Simonova who won Ukraine's Got Talent this year.

Well done to the agency behind the advert - Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO Ltd - and the creative team of Charlotte Horton and Bonnie Doman.

Discover The Art of ..
Watch the ad...

Google Chrome Explained

I really loved this simple video that explains all about Google Chrome.

8 reasons why we love Twitter

I must admit to being a little shocked in recent weeks to hear a couple of our sector's leading publishers disregarding Twitter as merely a place where celebrities talk about what they have eaten for breakfast.

On both occasions I did my best to explain that Twitter is superb place to access information in a way that has never been possible before.

For those still not convinced, here are 8 things we've got from Twitter in the past month...

1. New business leads - a number of companies have approached us about new business having followed us on Twitter

2. Media relations - we've found opportunities for our clients by following journalists and broadcasters and building relationships

3. News - we hear the news as it happens and can share this with others via Twitter or in person

4. Events - We've attended a events and training that we wouldn't have known about if we hadn't been following on Twitter

5. Coverage - we've shared news about our clients and the media have contacted us to get more details and publish content

6. Images and video - we've been able to share images and video amongst the team and our clients when we're out at events

7. Web traffic - we've driven people to our website and blogs (and we can measure the numbers via Google Analytics and Bit.ly)

and finally and most importantly...

8. Knowledge - We have learnt SO MUCH from Twitter. By following some of the world's leading experts in social media we hear about new developments as they happen. We're also learning by following news agencies, national governing bodies of sport, politicians, government agencies, leisure attractions, fitness experts and trade associations (and of course a few celebs too!)

Women in Leisure - network launched

After many years of discussing it, we've finally established a network for women working in the leisure sector. Our first step has been to create a group called Women in Leisure on LinkedIn, and we already have almost 100 members and some discussions and sharing of news has started.

Hoping this will progress further in the future, with a charity lunch planned for early in 2010.

Using Doodle For Making Arrangements

Discovered this great free tool for arranging meetings and taking polls. It's called Doodle and we've been using it for arranging meetings internally. You get to ask a question (what's the best date to meet for the family celebration at Christmas would be just one example I'll be using soon), invite participants by adding their emails and then sit back and see which dates they choose.

Simple and professional, gets a bit thumbs up from Promote!

‘Freemium’ the future for your business online?

I have just finished reading Chris Anderson’s brilliant new book, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price”. Chris Anderson is the editor of Wired and the author of the 2006 bestseller “The Long Tail”. In Free he outlines how techno­logy has tur­ned “free” from a mar­ke­ting trick into a new eco­no­mic model.

The book examines the economics of ‘free’ and the busi­ness models built around it, contrasting 20th Cen­tury Free (it’s free, but you end up paying for it anyway) with 21st Cen­tury Free (somebody’s paying, but it’s pro­bably not you) and finally introduces “Freemium” (free + premium), which he thinks is the first really new busi­ness model of the web and the future of Free online.

Freemium sees companies gives away 95% of their online ‘stuff’ to customers for free, whilst subsidising this with the 5% of customers willing to pay for a premium version of the product or service.

It’s all really thought provoking right from the start, where Anderson summarises technological trends and the fact that the cost of the building blocks of all electronic activity – storage, processing, and bandwidth – have fallen so far that the actual cost approaches zero.
Free stuff is spreading because of one fundamental difference between the bricks-and-mortar world (which Anderson calls the world of atoms) and the digital world (which he calls the world of bits). In the world of atoms, each item is expensive to produce and distribute; in the world of bits, it costs close to nothing. Generation Y understand this and therefore resent paying for anything that ultimately costs nothing to produce.

One of his strongest arguments is in this digital age there is unstoppable downward pressure on the prices of all things “made of ideas.” A real wake up call for hundreds of industries including music, entertainment, education, photography, journalism, computer software and of course, the encyclopaedia business!

“In the digital realm you can try to keep Free at bay with laws and locks, but eventually the force of economic gravity will win.”

In keeping with the theme ... here's a free download of the book.

How to get more people using stairs...

Superb viral on YouTube.

Advertising agency DDB and Volkswagen teamed up for an experiment they called the 'Fun Theory', in an ambitious attempt to try and change people's behavior in Sweden.

The transformation of subway stairs into a piano increased stair use by 66%.

Perhaps we should set try the same in London to get people using the stairs on the Tube.

Brilliant summary of social media

If you had any doubts about the importance of social media, just spend the next 5 minutes watching this brilliant video. Definitely one I will be using for the opening of my presentations in the future.

Facebook team up with Sport England

Interesting to hear more about the partnership between Sport England and Facebook - the first long term partnership between Facebook and a public body in the UK.

The deal is said to be worth up to £20 million and aims to contribute to the delivery of the Olympic legacy from 2012 - more people playing sport.

By using the social networking site’s influence Sport England hopes to bring people together and transform the way sports bodies relate to the public.

There will be a Facebook ‘Sport Hub’, which will enable NGBs to engage with over 20 million people who use Facebook in the UK. This 'hub' will feel like a Facebook fan page, but will also feature innovative new applications enabling sports bodies and teams to organise and market sports events.

Users will also be able to challenge people in their area to compete against them and then share the results across their networks.

Facebook is to provide an in-kind investment of £5 million a year until March 2013, which will cover the development of the ‘Sport Hub’, as well as pound-for-pound matched advertising spend on Facebook for brands and NGBs to use Facebook ads to encourage people to play more sport.

Students and young people who use Facebook will be the first to benefit - starting at this year’s university freshers’ week. Sport England is piloting the scheme through British Universities & Colleges Sport and six sports. The pilot has an ambitious target to get 12,000 students participating in sport in just four months.

Get on Your Bike

This summer's holiday in South West France with the family saw us enjoying the incredible cycle path network. Miles and miles of superb, wide, flat cycle paths, made cycling a real pleasure for all ages and a result we piled on the miles and rather than the pounds as we kept active enough to relax and enjoy the delicious french food on offer.

It was with more interest that usual then that attended a session on 'Active Transport' at the BASES Annual Conference last week. Professor Jim McKenna, Adrian Davies, Dr Ashley Cooper and Andy Smith gave an enlightening summary of why our nation is so poor when it comes to travelling anywhere by bike and what's being done in some areas to combat this.

Dr Cooper gave some frightening statistics for the UK in comparison to other European nations. A tiny proportion of British school children cycle to school, yet in Denmark over 65% of 15 year old boys cycle.

His PEACH Project analyses children's activty patterns on the way to and from school. It turns out that Year 10 Girls that cycle to and from school are SIX times more likely to meet the government's daily activity targets. Other research from Derby seems to be indicating the same - it's not just the cycling, but once kids or adults have been active on their journey, they are more likely to be active at other times in the day too.

The UK government in the 1960's chose to mirror the US and focus on car ownership as am indication of 'progress', with massive investment in building roads and motorways. Elsewhere in Europe it seems there was a more balanced approach and the infrastructure for cycling was established.

It appears the habits of decades will be incredibly tough to reverse as experts and charities in this area desperately try to encourage the car loving British public to jump on a bike rather than getting in the car for even the shortest of journeys.

Amazing work of Kseniya Simonova

What an incredible talent from the Ukraine. Kseniya Simonova is a 24 year old artist who first started making drawings like this on the beach last year!

She won Ukraine's Got Talent with over 13 millions viewers with the creation of a moving animation that portrayed life during Uktraine's Great Patriotic War against the Germans in World War II.




Here is another of her performances:

Can Social Media Make History

I have always loved the powerful presentations on TED.

TED is a small nonprofit organisation devoted to 'Ideas Worth Spreading'. It launched in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

The annual conferences in Long Beach and Oxford bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes!). I download them to my ipod and watch them when I'm on the train or waiting in a queue.

Here's a superb presentation from Clay Shirky 'How Social Media can Make History'.

Tour of Clyde Williams Building at Loughborough

Had a great day back at Loughborough University culminating in a lunch meeting with the eminent Professor Clyde Williams.

It was amazing to tour the incredible new state of the art Clyde Williams building which is part of the University's School of Sport, Exercise and Human Sciences and was opened by the Princess Royal last month.

The superb £12m construction houses 27 laboratories, four teaching rooms and a large lecture theatre, along with facilities for physiological, molecular and environmental technologies including two climatic chambers, a sprint lane and bespoke training and testing equipment.

How very different from the labs there when I was at Loughborough.

When the building was opened the ever humble Professor Williams, who joined the University in 1978 said: "I still feel very much a part of the sport and exercise science community and am still active in research and other academic activity so its a strange feeling to have a building named after me. Its something I never expected.

"When I came to Loughborough my first job was to clear the locker rooms that had been assigned as our lab. For 30 years weve been doing great research in sub-standard conditions and I've fought long and hard to get a better facility, but this is better than I ever could have expected.

"It's been a long time coming and I'm delighted with what we have now and what we can hand over to the researchers of the future."

Like Mother like daughter when it comes to obesity…

It feels like we’re constantly bombarded with the latest research about childhood obesity, but yesterday’s stats reported in the 'International Journal of Obesity' were really thought provoking.

The new study by the Plymouth's Peninsula Medical School has revealed a clear link in obesity between mothers and daughters and fathers and sons, but surprisingly there was no correlation across the gender divide.

It turns out that obese mothers are ten times more likely to have fat daughters than those of healthy weight and obese fathers are six times more likely to have obese sons – but in both cases children of the opposite sex were not affected.

According to the researchers, it's "highly unlikely" that genetics is playing a role in the findings as it would be unusual for them to influence children along gender lines. They are attributing the results to some form of "behavioural sympathy" where daughters copy the lifestyles of their mothers and sons their fathers.

Obviously this research leads to suggestions for interventions aimed more at parents than children. Professor Terry Wilkin, who published the findings in the International Journal of Obesity, said: 'It is the reverse of what we have thought and this has fundamental implications for policy. We should be targeting the parents and that is not something we have really done to date.'

It would be fascinating to establish if the same ‘mother / daughter’ principle also follows for more positive lifestyle factors such as exercise and physical activity. As the mother of three daughters it will encourage me to get my trainers on get running more often.

How to create a social media strategy

As the world rushes headlong into social media activity, I really enjoyed this presentation that highlights the importance of planning your activity.

How to create a social media strategy

View more Microsoft Word documents from David Griner.

Crowdsourcing - review of the book

Just finished reading Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe. Fascinating summary of how huge numbers of people are coming together and collaborating to influence the world through Web 2.0 developments in digital technology and the internet. Really enlightening - I highly recommend it.

Here's the author's summary:

Change4life ad - 60 active minutes

It was good to hear the FIA plans for moreactive4life on Friday at the Communications' Forum. Looks like it will be a fantastic boost for the fitness industry this summer.

Here is a link to the latest advert for Change4Life which focuses on 60 minutes of activity a day for children.

New Gatorade TV advert

Very excited to see the first TV advert for Gatorade in the UK.

I first worked on the brand in the UK in 1992 - so it feels like it's been a long time coming!

The advert - 'we love sweat' - got its first airing at half time of the Rugby Premiership on Saturday. It was created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO.

An Introduction to Social Media

Following our presenation at IHRSA in March, we've had a few requests from people who wanted to see the slides.

Via the wonders of Slideshare... here it is!

Making The Connection : An Introduction To Social Media

View more presentations from sueanstiss.

Management Gurus Share Expertise

I really liked this simple new initiative, where lots of the UK's leading business experts share their management insights online at YouTube. So far 73 have been uploaded.

Free music from Spotify

Enjoying the wonderful Spotify - great for free music at work and at home. It's now available for everyone and you can use it on your iphone too.

Really liked this simple guide to getting the most from the system.

What's in a name

Three teachers at my daughters’ school got married this Easter and all changed their names. It’s an interesting dilemma for any modern woman. Do you take your husband’s name because it’s the socially correct thing to do or retain your identity by bucking tradition and keeping your maiden name? My advice to any woman about to enjoy her big day – keep the name you were born with.

I’m not a raging feminist, but it seems pretty obvious that in a world which is becoming more and more about connections and networking, it’s odd that women still choose to virtually give up their identity by changing their name as they walk up the aisle. This is even more the case for working women who may marry a little later in life, having established a reputation in a business.

If you search for friends or colleagues from your younger years on sites like Facebook or LinkedIn you’ll know it’s so much easier to find the men that the women. So come on ladies - enjoy being married, but don't turn your back on the past.

The state of play for women's sport

It was fascinating to hear Sue Tibballs from the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation on Radio 5 this morning raising profile for the shocking statistics in the UK around women and physical activity. Only 3% of women play competitive sport and by the time girls leave school they are half as active as boys.

We enjoy watching sport on TV at home, but three young daughters I am so aware that it's generally all male role models they see whether it's rugby, motor racing or the Tour De France. Hardly surprising when you hear that only 5% of sports media coverage is devoted to women. We rarely get to watch women competing except for events like the Olympics or athletics World Championships.

Whilst I applaud the great work that is being done by the like of the WSSF and the FIA to attract young women into physical activity with more dance and gym based programmes, let's not forget the amazing power of sport itself - and in particular team sports.

Like many people, I struggle to regularly fit exercise into my day, but the one thing that I will always commit to (whatever the weather) is playing netball with my friends in Maidenhead on a Monday night. There's something amazing about playing within a team and all the positive social benefits that brings in addition to the physical activity.

In the fitness industry there's much talk about how people can maintain their levels of motivation. Commitment to a team or another person is undoubtedly a massive motivator - there's a reason that we've played in the same netball team for almost 10 years.

Bigger Stronger Faster

I watched an incredibly thought provoking film on the flight back from San Francisco last week. Bigger, Stronger, Faster is a 2008 documentary directed by Christopher Bell about the use of anabolic steroids as performance enhancing drugs in the United States and how this practice is linked to 'the Amercian Dream' in terms of sports and appearance.

It's a really clever film that manages to also be funny and troubling at the same time. Christopher Bell turns a spotlight on the US as a country that that willingly turns a blind eye to cheating until it decides to get completely hysterical about it.

Having had a conversation with someone representing Dwain Chambers just the night before, the film was particularly pertinent, especially the sections questioning the consistency of attitudes to steroid abuse in the US, and interviews with Carl Lewis.

I would recommend it to anyone working in sports and fitness - very enlightening.

27 facts and 20 examples about social media

Enjoyed this presentation from Slideshare...

27 facts and 20 examples about social media

View more presentations from Christian Palau.

Promote meet Jonny G - Mr Spinning

First day at the IHRSA trade show yesterday and we were lucky enough to chat to Jonny G, the founder of spinning.

Such a nice guy and it was great to witness his new product in action - Kranking. It's already been a massive success in the US, and we can't wait to start shouting about it in the media when it launches in the UK, where it will be distributed by Matrix Fitness Systems.

The Kindness of Strangers

A nice story that perfectly illustrates the new attitude towards sharing in the world of social media.

In preparing my presentation for IHRSA next week, I came across a wonderful powerpoint deck on a site called Slideshare. Positioned as the world’s largest presentation sharing community, the site has hundreds of wonderful presentations on a range of topics from Finance and Education to Health and Fashion. This presentation I found included lots of the facts and figures I planned to use, but displayed on beautifully designed slides.

I will admit that my initial instinct was 'wow - how can I steal this for my presentation it would save me hours'. I emailed the lady that had created the presentation to explain my situation and not only did she say she was happy for me to use the slides, but she emailed over her entire deck with notes too!

So a big thank you to Marta Z. Kagan and here are her details for anyone in the US looking for a talented and very kind social media specialist:
Blog - http://bonafidemarketinggenius.com/ Twitter - http://twitter.com/mzkagan

New developments in Google Calendar

We've used Google calendar in the office for a couple of years and find it's brilliant for sharing diaries across the team.

This week Google announced that you can now access the Google calendar even when you are offline, which will be really useful for when the team are out of the office.

Other fab free applications that we really like...

Logmein - allows everyone to access their computer as if they were sat at their desk. Completely free and has been so useful for the team (especially when everyone was snowed in at home last month).

Powwownow - conference telephone calls. Again they offer a free service that literally takes 2 minutes to set up and works really well.

News from the FIA Vanguard meeting

I was really impressed today to see all that the FIA is doing both on the political front with Andree Deane and the public affairs department, and around events and campaigns with Dave Stalker and his team.


In terms of music licencing and potential changes in fees which could dramatically affect the industry, the FIA is talking with the PPL in order to prevent the potential crisis unfolding in Australia this month, where clubs could be faced with a possible 3,000 percent increase in fees for playing copyrighted music in Australian group exercise classes.

Fit for the Future launches in less than a month with a pilot in five areas - Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Suffolk and Torbay. The FIA is still recruiting operators to participate in this groundbreaking scheme, which sees government funding gym memberships for 1,000 young people in each area.

And it's full steam ahead for the FIA health and fitness conference in Bolton on June 9/10 which runs alongside the FIA Industry Summit. The whole event concludes with the FIA Ball of Fire where over 900 industry professionals with dress to impress and celebrate the FLAME Awards, which are sponsored again this year by Matrix. FLAME judging has just moved into the 3rd stage with over 90 sites still involved, more than ever before at this point in the process.

It also looks like this summer's moreactive4life campaign, which is an official sub-brand of the change4life campaign will be a huge success. Targetted to get some people 300,000 on the road to regular exercise - it will make a significant contribution to the government's goal of 1 million people this year.

Anyone that remembers the FIA's longterm success with Commit to Get Fit, will recognise that this is much bigger, hugely improved version that will be free to all participating sites and should have shedloads of national and regional media coverage.

Fingers crossed that it all comes off for the FIA. 2009 could be pretty significant year for the association and the entire industry.

Twitter etiquette?

I attended a conference last week and heard about a Political Editor from Reuters who was attending the Economic World Forum Annual Meeting in Davos last month and 'tweeted' some of the key announcements from the conference floor, which were then picked up and appeared on websites immediately.

In effect, the information was out there faster than the 'Reuters' wire' which is renown for being the first place journalists pick up news stories.

Apparently, when asked by his bosses about what happened, the individual concerned said that he was just moving with the times and the technology available. I guess if he wasn't tweeting then someone else at the conference might have been.

Following last week's furore as politicians used Twitter during President Obama's first address to a joint session of Congress, it also begs the question about etiquette too.

Tempted as I was to 'Tweet' a few highlights from the FIA Vanguard session today, you'll be pleased to know that I didn't. But I will summarise them in my blog later this evening.

Twitter exposed

Very funny piece about Twitter from the Daily Show in the US.

What's not to love about ebay

Having heard at the weekend that a friend had found some great items of furniture his new office on ebay, I ventured onto the site on Sunday morning. I was delighted to find one massive 'lot' of furniture including 14 desks, 12 chairs, 12 pedastals, 12 full size dividers, 8 stationery cupboards, meeting room table and chairs, filing cabinets etc, from an office clearance near Oxford.

The excitement at winning the bid at 8pm on Sunday night (£1,020) was nothing compared to the excitement this morning when we saw all the fantastic furniture and the lovely vendor also suggested we might like to take all the huge white boards, telephones, cabling etc too.

It looks amazing in the new office. After 15 years of gradually gathering difference bits of furniture as we have grown, it's a wonderful feeling to have everything looking so professional.

Not sure what we will do with the eclectic range of furniture in the old office. Perhaps we should try ebay?

Warm up act for Seth Godin

Whilst I am thrilled about the fact that Katie and I have been invited back to speak at the IHRSA conference in San Francisco later this month, I have just discovered that the speaker on in the hour before us is no less than 'best selling author, entrepreneur and agent of change Seth Godin.'

Godin has written ten books that have been bestsellers around the world and has just posted his 3,000th blog. I'm on blog number 18 and my first book is still just an idea in my mind.

No pressure there then.

Two new people join the Promote team

So pleased to be welcoming two new recruits to Promote this month.

Kate Godber joins us following her journalism degree at Sheffield University. She's a bright cookie with 4 A grade A levels and Katie and I liked her so much that we almost offered her the job on the spot when we first met her at interview. Kate joins us tomorrow morning as an Account Executive.

Grant Rowley is our second brilliant appointment this month. Not only does he brings loads of sports PR experience (having worked on accounts including the London Marathon for Flora), but he's he appears to be a perfect 'Promote person' too. Grant joins us as an Account Manager and will be taking over the Gatorade account.

Exciting times ahead for us this year.

Squash & Racketball look to the future

Spent yesterday with the team from ProActive West London exploring the future role of the County Sport Partnership (or County Sport and Physical Activity Partnership as they might soon be known).

Really inspiring presentation from Justyn Price at England Squash and Racketball, with highlights from their Whole Sport Plan. The future for squash and racketball in the UK looks incredibly exciting. Interesting to note that 38% of their facilities are in Local Authority sites and 8.3% in Higher Education and they are looking to focus on these areas to assist venues in maximising usage.

It was also really refreshing to hear from an NGB that clearly recognises and celebrates the demographics of its participants. Of those currently playing squash 82% are male, 51% are aged over 35 and those in the higher social bands outperforming all other sports by 12%.

With so much focus on getting children, women, SMEs and those from deprived areas involved in sport, it's easy to forget that increased levels of physical activity benefit everyone's health. In the Active People survey over half a million people play squash, with an impressive 380,000 stating that they would be interested in playing in the future.

England Squash and Racketball are also developing programmes to appeal to a wider audience, with programmes for young women like 'squashaerobics', which include a group workout on court activity followed by basic racquet skills.

England leading the world squash rankings. If their other development managers are anything like Justyn Price then I have no doubt that squash and racketball will meet its goal to become on of the country's best known sports by 2012.

The Hidden Secrets of the Creative Mind

It seems there is a reason that I so often find myself saying 'I had this great idea in the shower this morning.' Psychologist R. Keith Sawyer, author of the book Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation refers to the three Bs - bathroom, bus, and bed - as places that stereotypically produce groundbreaking ideas.

There are more interesting ideas for business people on this forum, where his interview if featured.

Email signatures

I was just about to call someone, but realised it's going to take a little longer than planned as I need to find their telephone number BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO EMAIL SIGNATURE!

Without wishing to insult anyone, in this day and age, not having a simple email signature with details of your full name, company, telephone and web address, is a bit like using a scrap of plain paper to write to people rather than using the company letter head. It's just not professional.

Here is a very simple 3 minute tutorial to show anyone how to add signatures. So no more excuses.

Rant over.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR

My husband despairs that the only books I read these days could be classified as 'business, biography or self help.' Long gone are the days of reading fiction for pleasure.

It's rare to find a business book that you can't put down, yet this weekend I read David Meerman Scott's 'The New Rules of Marketing and PR' in just a few hours.

It's a great read for opening your mind to the way in which you can use online news releases, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing and media to reach audiences.

He even offers some free stuff with a link to the key elements of the book online. Enjoy!

The future of LinkedIn

Superb day at the TFM&A conference.

Very entertaining session from Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group UK. He also offered access to a free presentation about the recession and its effect on the marketing sector.

An interesting analogy that people's buying patterns in a recession take on an 'Atkins' approach. His view is that it's not in human nature for people to slightly reduce consumption levels. Instead they are prone to making really big changes, completely re-framing their behaviour. This can be seen as people change where they choose to holiday (UK rather than overseas), where they shop (Asda rather than Sainsbury's) and what they purchase (dramatic increase in the sale of frozen foods).

Another interesting session in the afternoon with Kevin Eyres, Managing Director Europe of LinkedIn. It was reassuring to hear so many people in the audience with the same issues as me. Namely, that whilst LinkedIn is fantastic for creating business networks, it is very limited in its application and has, to date, been very poor at helping users to understand its capabilities.

Hopefully this will change in the future with new services being launched in recent months including a learning centre. Mr Eyres also alluded to their researching opportunities around Twitter etc.

Clearly they need to sort this out before LinkedIn suffers the same fate as Friends Reunited.

Technology for Marketing and Advertising show

If you are keen to find out more about opportunities in digital marketing and advertising and have a spare day this week, then why not pop along to TFM&A (the Technology for Marketing and Advertising Show).

This impressive event takes place at Earl's Court 2 this Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb 24-25), with speakers from organisations including Facebook, YouTube, Google, LinkedIn, the BBC and Reuters.

Five of our team will be at the event - hope to see you there.

Customer service in the fitness sector

I changed my hairdresser for the first time in 15 years this weekend.

The reason? I was disillusioned that they didn't value me as a very loyal long term customer. So having spent around £1,000 a year at Toni & Guy in Windsor, and despite the fact that I was perfectly happy with my hair cuts, I decided to experiment with something different and was tempted next door to the new Rush salon by its special offers and superb customer service.

Despite the fact that I have been visiting the same salon for so long, I was never made to feel truly valued by them.

The reason I tell this story is that how I felt towards Toni & Guy is how so many loyal members of health clubs must feel too. It was over 15 years ago that Peppers and Rogers wrote The One to One Future highlighting the simple truth that it’s cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one. They identified that there are only four types of customers – prospects, customers, loyal customers and former customers – and that your loyal customers are happy to spend more money with you.

The things I feel our industry could learn from my experience at Rush...

- Customer service was excellent. From the way in which the coffee is served on its own little tray with a cafetiere and biscuits, to the attentive way the same person colours, washes and cuts your hair. My visit was full of little 'delighters' - those extra things that make you feel special.

- They did a great job of getting all my contact details on that first visit, email address, birthday, age group, how I had heard about them etc . I know they are going to use this information to start a dialogue and relationship with me as a customer.


- They gave me lots of lovely freebies and samples as I left which made me feel warm and friendly towards them and more likely to refer. Slightly superficial I realise - but who doesn't like free gifts?

- They have an incredibly powerful referal technique offering both me and anyone I refer 50% off the next appointment.

It's all too easy to focus on getting new people through the doors, but ultimately Rush appear
to recognise the importance of keeping regular customers happy and generating referrals.

Health club operators please take note.

Too much Radio 5 Live

Sat watching The Brits in the week - my annual attempt to get a little more in touch with contemporary music.

I'm not embarrassed to admit to being a fan of Girls Aloud (who couldn't love Cheryl), Take That (see you at Wembley in June boys), Coldplay and James Morrison.

But just as I was enjoying watching the show, and poor Kylie's attempt to look natural on stage (had she modelled herself on Sam Fox in 1989?), bands started to appear that I had never heard of. Ever. And there were lots of them... Seasick Boy, Elbow, Santogold, MGMT, Beth Rowley, Elbow.

Clearly I need to start listening to more than Radio 5 Live.

25 Random Things About Me

I not a fan of chain letters, but must confess that I rather like the latest craze on Facebook which is '25 Random Things'. The idea is that you write down 25 random things about yourself and then 'tag' 25 of your friends to do the same.

So here are mine...


1. My Dad was a PT instructor in the Metropolitan Police

2. My only A grades at ‘O’ level were in ‘needlecraft and dress’ and ‘food and nutrition’. At the time my brother said this qualified me to make me a good wife. My husband now questions my ability to cook or sew.

3. I love Thomas Hardy. My youngest daughter Tess is named after Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

4. I wanted to be a PE teacher when I was at school.

5. I start a lot of books, but don’t always finish them. I am currently reading 4.

6. My middle brother was a Gladiator – at the Birmingham NEC not in Rome.

7. I ran the London Marathon in 2001. Not sure I will be running another.

8. Having shared all significant birthday’s with my twin brother as I grew up, I married a man who was born two days before me. When I am feeling selfish, I begrudge the fact that I have to share my birthdays.

9. My dad was on the Krypton Factor (the first series in the 1970s)

10. I met my husband when I attended a conference for Gatorade at The Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara.

11. I regret never representing my country at a sport. Not too late to qualify in age group triathlon when I have more time to train.

12. I love lots of American Drama – NYPD Blue, Gray’s Anatomy, ER, Brothers and Sisters, Weeds, Lipstick Jungle. All time favourite series is without doubt The West Wing.

13. An ex boyfriend competed at 5 Olympic Games.

14. I was a vegetarian for 7 years, but weakened one night and shared a Chicken Korma with Karen, my sister-in-law.

15. I still play netball fairly regularly – Goal Defence.

16. Song that most makes me smile: ‘There must be an Angel’ by the Eurythmics.

17. I really love cabbage and sprouts. Must be the vegetarian thing.

18. Wish I’d learnt to play the clarinet when I was young.

19. My favourite film of all time is 'Love Actually'.

20. The last film I saw was 'Hotel for Dogs'. On Valentines Day evening with 5 children. How times have changed.

21. I worked at Harrods on a trainee management programme for a year when I left school.

22. I truly believe that in life “what goes around comes around” and “you reap what you sow”.

23. My love of Australian red wine and bread will prevent me from ever remaining a size 10… or 12.

24. The most excitement I have ever felt at a sporting event was when I won the Hounslow Borough Championships for the one length breast stroke in 1977 (age 11) and beat Wendy Vincent.

25. I would have liked to have been an actress.

Mashable

Just discovered a fantastic blog for all things going on in the Web 2.0 arena - mashable.

With over 100,000 followers, TIME voted the blog in its top 25 by last week saying: “Besides relaying the latest news about Web 2.0 giants MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, it’s loaded with tips on enhancing your own social networking experience.”

Now I just need to find more time in my day to read all that fantastic content.

And now for the good news? 9,000 jobs at KFC

Disappointed to see the only bit of 'good news' celebrated on the BBC last night was the fact that KFC will be creating 9,000 new jobs. Of course I appreciate that new jobs in this climate are a great thing - but should we be getting so excited about 9,000 jobs at KFC, which tells us it will be opening as many as 300 new outlets in the next 3-5 years to add to the 760 already on our highstreets.

Martin Shuker, the KFC CEO proudly boasts that two weeks ago they opened a new drive-through in Worcester and it brought in £100,531 in the first week. He goes onto to say that you can feed a family of four for a tenner and clearly that's where lots of their new customers are coming from.

Not wishing to go all 'Jamie Oliver' on you (especially as I don't do much of the cooking in my house), but surely as a nation we should be doing all we can to show people that you can cook wonderful meals for a family of four for a tenner - rather than picking up a bargain bucket of fried chicken for the kids.

For all the government is doing to fight childhood obesity with the likes of Change4Life and Be Active Be Healthy, it's going to be a tough battle when they are fighting the likes of Colonel Saunders.

Beverly Eckert

I found myself in tears this morning as I read the story about Beverly Eckert who died in the Buffalo plane crash on the way to a memorial for her husband who was killed in 9/11. Pretty poignant words from President Obama : "Tragic events such as these remind us of the fragility of life and the value of every single day."

The expanding world of Twitter

The world of Twitter seems to be completely taking off and reaching the masses this month and much of that seems due to Stephen Fry.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that he was on The Jonathan Ross show saying how amazed he was to have 50,000 follows, and now he has 178,000! When he launched a new shop for T shirts online yesterday it was swamped with 40,000 visitors in the first few minutes. Clearly demonstrating the power of a strong online fan base.

The Promote team are starting to Tweet along with others in the world of active leisure - like LIW.

It's been entertaining following celebrities like Jonathan Ross, Philip Schofield, John Cleese and Stephen Fry who are witty and concise with their tweets.