Social Media Marketing is now essential for brand reputation and for SEO. But, more than that, it’s an effective way of connecting with existing and prospective customers, and providing customer service.

It’s not enough to set up a Twitter account and post daily about your products or services – you need to maintain an online presence and engage with your followers – just one example of how businesses aren’t using social media to its full potential.

We offer a 2-day Social Media course which is jam packed with advice, guidance, strategic tips, what-to-dos and what-not-to-dos. The course is continually updated with the latest developments in the industry, and you leave ready to begin (or revamp) your business’s social media campaign.

For those who are thinking of coming on the course, or those who can’t make it to Brighton (although we’re happy to train you on site!), here’s our Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing. We hope it helps!

Our #1 Ultimate Most Important Top Tip

The number one thing to be aware of is that social media marketing is not about you - it's about them ('them' being your followers, those who like your pages, your connections and your circles). Never forget to ask yourself what you want to see on social media from a business – and that constant self-promotion is the quickest way to put people off. I see examples of this happening every day.

With that in mind, I’ll take you through how to apply this principle to the various social networks.

Social Media Marketing is now essential for brand reputation and for SEO. But, more than that, it’s an effective way of connecting with existing and prospective customers, and providing customer service.

It’s not enough to set up a Twitter account and post daily about your products or services – you need to maintain an online presence and engage with your followers – just one example of how businesses aren’t using social media to its full potential.

We offer a 2-day Social Media course which is jam packed with advice, guidance, strategic tips, what-to-dos and what-not-to-dos. The course is continually updated with the latest developments in the industry, and you leave ready to begin (or revamp) your business’s social media campaign.

For those who are thinking of coming on the course, or those who can’t make it to Brighton (although we’re happy to train you on site!), here’s our Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing. We hope it helps!

Our #1 Ultimate Most Important Top Tip

The number one thing to be aware of is that social media marketing is not about you - it's about them ('them' being your followers, those who like your pages, your connections and your circles). Never forget to ask yourself what you want to see on social media from a business – and that constant self-promotion is the quickest way to put people off. I see examples of this happening every day.

With that in mind, I’ll take you through how to apply this principle to the various social networks.

In the past week, Google released a video called ‘SEO for start-ups in under 10 minutes’ in which Developer Programs Tech Lead Maile Ohye runs through everything a start up should and shouldn’t do to help gain organic traffic from Google.

As it’s only in 10 minutes the tips are very succinct, but they’re also very Googlecentric to the point of assuming Google is the only search engine worth caring about.

Interestingly, the next day Glenn Gabe published a very detailed post about how most startups get SEO wrong. It’s interesting to get the two viewpoints within days of each other – what the search engines recommend you do and what a professional SEO thinks you should do. They’re not always the same!

So, as a startup, what should you do to ensure that your new site is visible in search?

Well, the first thing we would recommend is to come to Brighton for an SEO workshop. In 1 day you will get to grips with all the SEO basics and you’ll be able to ask questions directly to an SEO expert about your startup!

However, for those who have already been on the course or don’t like in the UK I’m going to run through Google’s SEO tips for startups, without being so Google centric! Many of these tips are also useful for existing businesses  who may have been doing things wrong for a while!

Here are my first 6 tips - keep an eye out for part 2 on Wednesday with 6 more!

In the past week, Google released a video called ‘SEO for start-ups in under 10 minutes’ in which Developer Programs Tech Lead Maile Ohye runs through everything a start up should and shouldn’t do to help gain organic traffic from Google.

As it’s only in 10 minutes the tips are very succinct, but they’re also very Googlecentric to the point of assuming Google is the only search engine worth caring about.

Interestingly, the next day Glenn Gabe published a very detailed post about how most startups get SEO wrong. It’s interesting to get the two viewpoints within days of each other – what the search engines recommend you do and what a professional SEO thinks you should do. They’re not always the same!

So, as a startup, what should you do to ensure that your new site is visible in search?

Well, the first thing we would recommend is to come to Brighton for an SEO workshop. In 1 day you will get to grips with all the SEO basics and you’ll be able to ask questions directly to an SEO expert about your startup!

However, for those who have already been on the course or don’t like in the UK I’m going to run through Google’s SEO tips for startups, without being so Google centric! Many of these tips are also useful for existing businesses  who may have been doing things wrong for a while!

Here are my first 6 tips - keep an eye out for part 2 on Wednesday with 6 more!

For those of you that know Brighton, you can be a testament to the fact that it is filled with a myriad of great places to eat and drink for every kind of consumer. When you’re here for just a short time knowing where to go on your lunch break is of great importance to most!

Don’t stick to the boring sandwich but taste a bit of Brighton without breaking the bank, here are a few of our favorites...... our 7 lunch wonders of Brighton!

Our key to pricing:

£ - under a fiver

££ - between £5 and £10

Pastrami Sandwich from Flour Pot, Image courtesy of Restaurants Brighton

It is very easy to open up your website on a smartphone or tablet and make the snap judgement that because it loads and the links work you can leave it as it is. However, how many businesses go the next step and think about how usable their site is on mobile devices? Or how attractive it is?

In this blog post, we have produced a checklist to help businesses perform a mobile site audit to ensure their site is as mobile-friendly as possible. Click the image to download theSilicon Beach Training Mobile Web Design Checklistand then read through this blog to find out why each point is so important.

Come on one of our Mobile Development Courses to learn how to create mobile websites and apps from scratch from our industry expert trainers. We run a beginners Mobile Web Design course which is suitable for all skill ranges and aMobile Web Design Week workshopwhich is more advanced, containingHTML5, CSS3andJavaScripttraining alongside an overview ofmobile web best practice. For the more experienced programmers, we also provideiPhone App Development trainingandAndroid App Development Training. Read on to find out why mobile should be a top priority for business in 2012...

Why Go Mobile?

Regular visitors to the site will know how strongly we believe that the future of technology lies with mobile. Our recent mobile post highlighted howApple sold more iPhones and iPads in 2011 than they sold computers in 11 years. That is a staggering stat. Another recent figure claims that1.45 million mobile devices enter the world every day compared to 317,124 births.

For whatever reason, mobile devices have achieved something that desktops and laptops never truly managed - they have become a consumer device. Nobody sees a desktop sitting at home, but people go out of their way to flaunt the latest smartphone and read the news on their iPad on the way to work. They have become a fashion accessory as much as a communication device.

As a result of this, more and more people are accessing the internet on the go on smaller screens. Any business that has not considered a mobile strategy is potential missing out on interest and sales. Mobile use has been proven to have a higher click through rates and higher average spend. So not only are some businesses missing out on potential customers but those customers are likely to spend more money!

Silicon Beach Training Mobile Web Design Checklist

This downloadableMobile Web Design Checklistis not a definitive guide to styling websites for mobile devices but it is a useful list of features to consider to ensure a website works properly on a mobile device.

We have covered how to customise your profile, how to manage your privacy settings, any new features that have been rolled out since our last post and how to delete your account. Because there's so much info we've provided a helpful contents list to help you navigate to the right section!

If you're looking to use Facebook as a marketing tool then you should come on our Social Media course. This 2-day workshop is perfect for learning how to use social media for marketing and can be booked as a package with SEO Training and Content Marketing Training. Call us on 01273 622272 to hear more about the course or to discuss your training requirements.

Update: This post has been updated to include some even newer updates recently made by Facebook.

We have covered how to customise your profile, how to manage your privacy settings, any new features that have been rolled out since our last post and how to delete your account. Because there's so much info we've provided a helpful contents list to help you navigate to the right section!

If you're looking to use Facebook as a marketing tool then you should come on our Social Media course. This 2-day workshop is perfect for learning how to use social media for marketing and can be booked as a package with SEO Training and Content Marketing Training. Call us on 01273 622272 to hear more about the course or to discuss your training requirements.

Update: This post has been updated to include some even newer updates recently made by Facebook.