Future Gazing fun

In case you haven’t read enough prediction pieces for 2012, I’ve just provided my two penn’orth to the Royal Mail’s Mail Media Centre website.

Here is a little snippet:

What’s in store for direct marketers in 2012?

Social media in 2012
Katie Lee, owner, Miramus Media

Customer service goes social
Many companies already realise that social CRM is a low-cost and effective way to engage with customers. Customer service teams specialising in social media will become more popular, especially as companies start to make use of the increasingly sophisticated social media measuring tools to monitor success rates and tweak activity.

Long term strategy replace short term stunts
These higher end technologies are all well and good, but the single biggest change in the new year will be that more brands, having understood the power of social marketing and witnessed the growth in social shopping, will start to build a holistic, sustainable social and digital media strategy rather than relying on one-off stunts.

Read the full article: What’s in store for direct marketers in 2012?

Why your social media strategy needs more thought and less chatter

That was the rather lengthy, title for my Internet Week Classroom talk in November.

Possibly, I got a little carried away when it came to naming it. I won’t deny it.

But really, the premise was pretty simple (honest).

If we spend a little more time thinking, and a little less time tweeting, (or attempting to make virals, or updating the company website, or paying SEO agencies to write drab copy that gets our Page ranking up, or plopping promo links onto Facebook) we can do something sustainable, special and maybe even a little bit sexy with our brand’s online presence.

Better social media strategies are simple

It might shock you to discover how often we’re invited in by companies who have a whole social or digital media campaign about to launch but who can’t really tell us why they’re doing it (hint: the answer is not because everyone else is doing it, or because you need to increase sales, or because the PR agency had a really neat idea for a microsite).

But it’s actually a fairly simple to get the basic elements of your social and digital media marketing right. So I may have made the title complicated, but the contents were entirely straightforward:

Brands can turn their digital media presence from bad to brilliant by asking THREE simple questions.

And what are those questions? Why? Who? and How?

And that’s all there is to it!

Internet Week Europe

Check this out! Dork Adore has been given a lovely new look Dork Adore.

Want to learn the secrets of good blogging? Need to understand the point of it all (or find the best way to convince your boss of the point of it all)? Want to know how to increase your readership, choose the right things to write and own your media?

Well, that’s why I’m here!

Come along to my Workshop “Building Better Blogs” tomorrow at Weber Shandwick‘s offices on Gray’s Inn Road.

Learn the secrets of good blogging!

The Blogging Workshop has been set up in association with Mediatrust. Any company seeking to explore or enhance their online profile will benefit from some very practical advice — and there will be an opportunity to ask me specific questions about your website or blog. I’ll also be giving some examples of blogging hits and misses and showing you how you can “own your media” online.

As part of the half-day media training workshop I’ll be covering:

• Why blog?
• How (and where) to set up your blog
• Secrets of good blogging — including my rules for how a successful blog should be put together.
• Finding your voice
• Developing readership
• Networking in the blogosphere

Also making an appearance will be Paul Murphy, who will be giving a short presentation about his work at the BBC. Paul and I will be on hand for a blog surgery at the end of the workshop, so you can ask us for specific advice and feedback.

Get tickets now!

I’m told there are still a few spaces left, so if you want to sign up, head over to the Mediatrust website. I look forward to seeing you there!

If you can’t make this one, don’t worry! I’ll also be running workshops in online media training in the coming months, so sign up now to register your interest! Alternatively, I can come to you to coach in-house. If you want a company full of web supremos, get in touch with with me here.

P.S If you’re still not sure if you should come or not, there will be a slide featuring a *hilarious* picture of a horse, which should be reason enough.

Camilla Wellton - Catwalk Genius designer

We’ve been working with a number of new clients recently, producing some fantastic web editorial for their sites. We’re especially excited to have the opportunity to work with designer fashion site, Catwalk Genius.

We’ve got nearly 10 years’ experience at creating quality editorial in fashion and women’s lifestyle, so it’s great to be able to give the wonderful people at Catwalk Genius the sort of content they need. And because we know the very best writers online, we were able to convince the blogging marvel that is Gemma Cartwright to get involved with writing us some fantastic copy.

Gemma was founding editor of some of the UK’s biggest online fashion magazines, including Catwalk Queen, Shoewawa and The Bag Lady. As well as working for a number of UK fashion start ups, Gemma edits her own magazine, Big Girls Browse “The Curvy Girl’s Guide to Fashion” — so the fact that we convinced her to work for Miramus is even more of a coup.

You can check out some of Gemma’s brilliant blog posts for Catwalk Genius below:

How to invest in fashion… without being dull!
Beckham vs Burberry?! British Fashion Awards Nominees Announced
Catwalk Genius designers hit London Fashion Week
Eudon Choi and Holly Fulton snap up support from Elle’s Talent Launchpad

Recommended Reading:

Running AOL’s latest blog: ParentDish UK Miramus put together a full team of writers, editorial plan and style guide to launch AOL’s excellent parenting site, ParentDish UK

Blogging for business. Katie Lee talks to Shaa Wasmund about the importance of writing online web content for your business site.

The Secrets of Blogging – Join one of our amazing blogging workshops to discover the key to really great quality online editorial.