Last week’s half day session on “Up to speed in digital marketing and social media” http://www.pmforum.co.uk/training/ , went really well. Thanks to the participants and to 7 Bedford Row barristers http://www.7br.co.uk/home/home.asp for hosting. In terms of the areas of most interest to delegates:

Tools:

  • Monitoring and measurement
  • Saturation levels
  • New ways to reach markets
  • Audience profiles
  • Creating social media hubs
  • What’s available
  • Channel assessment
  • Small firm examples
  • Use of social media properly
  • Engagement
  • Risk
  • Return on investment (ROI/ROMI)

Strategy/Implementation:

  • Social media policy
  • Gaining buy in from users
  • Gaining buy in from senior management
  • Social media strategy
  • Integration
  • Legal issues
  • Using champions
  • Tool/channel selection
  • Internal education

At the end of the session, these were the areas reported as being of most interest and value:

  • Overview of social media usage in professional service firms
  • Understanding the terminology
  • The need to step back and plan (channels and content)
  • Focus
  • Google+ for collaboration and webinars
  • Measurement tools such as Klout and PeerIndex
  • Guidance on developing and updating social media policies
  • Implementation diagram
  • Best practice examples
  • Content management guidance
  • Audience research
  • Blog outreach
  • Improving your personal digital reach
  • Integration into campaigns
  • The various resources provided

As well as the various examples I provided, the following professional service firms were also displaying excellence in the area: Mishcon de Reya (solicitors), Withers (solicitors), Deloitte and CBRE. I’m trying to persuade CBRE to provide me with some examples and a short blog about their work with video.

The exercise on developing client/buyer personas was felt to be helpful and most observed that they weren’t focussed enough on the exact nature of their different audiences to be able to identify appropriate on-line communities accurately.

I’m still pulling together material on the promised update on digital marketing qualifications – but this previous post may help in the meantime http://kimtasso.com/old-and-new-digital-marketing-qualifications/