Free Social Media Surgery for Businesses in the North West
Excitement is building ahead of next month’s Social Media Surgery.
The theme of the popular monthly informal networking event that attempts to help Manchester businesses embrace the social media revolution in order to grow their company is ‘Is Twitter any good for marketing’.
Taking place on the second Tuesday of every month at Innospace (Manchester Metropolitan University’s business incubator) on Chorlton Street between 5-7.30pm, Manchester Social Media Surgery events offer real life advice and case studies from an experienced panel of digital and social media marketers who discuss social media projects and issues presented by the audience.
The April 13 event is employing a Dragons’ Den format with up to £5,000 worth of expertise and knowledge in the form of advice from the experienced panel.
Social Media Surgeons at the event include:
Simon Wharton of search engine specialists, PushON
Adrian Slatcher from Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA)
Louise Bolotin freelance journalist who has worked for the BBC among others
Bruce Thomas from social media agency Modern English
The evening will be chaired by Jon Clements from PR firm Staniforth.
There will also be an opportunity to hear how a company that has received advice from the Surgery has fared.
Manchester Social Media Surgery events are organised on a voluntary basis by myself (Chi-chi Ekweozor, director of Real Fresh TV, the social media training and implementation consultancy) as part of the outreach work of the popular Social Media Cafe Manchester network.
The Dragon Dens format for the April event is already attracting interest, as evidenced by the comments about the event on regional media and marketing portal How-Do.co.uk.
Here’s the first, rather acerbic comment:
“I guess you get what you pay for hey? OK, so it’s a nice idea but what client is going to go to this thinking that it is nothing more than a lion’s den of new fangled “experts” teaching them a load of common sense.”
Thankfully, in true social media style, previous attendees of the Social Media Surgery piled on to comment on the article and defend the events. Read the rest of the comments at How-Do.co.uk. Manchester business weekly Crains have also profiled the Social Media Surgery and business reporter Samrana Hussain will be attending the April event.
Questions on using Twitter for marketing can be submitted to the panel here prior to the event.
I asked Rick Guttridge, Managing Director of Smoking Gun PR, the newly launched Manchester PR firm what he thought of the Surgery and this is what he had to say:
“Social media is a vital tool for any business and learning how best to use it strategically can be challenging. For SME’s in particular, social media appeals as many tools are free but they must be prepared to invest enough man hours into making it work.”
Dave Mee, Design Director of TANDOT, co-director of MadLab the popular collaborative community hackspace in Manchester’s Northern Quarter and a regular surgeon at the events considers the surgery a valuable resource for organisations to learn from established practitioners in the area and learn valuable lessons from their peers.
He adds:
“The informal nature of the event encourages openness amongst people coming to grips with a new medium, as well as discovering it’s not as alien as it may at first seem.
Core web properties are adopting the rebalance that communicative platforms have brought through social media, and future organisational success will be predicated on how well they can adapt to embrace and play well in this area.”
Attendees to past Social Media Surgery events range from Prospects, the UK’s official graduate website, Chetham’s School of Music and small businesses and non profits like Heaven-Spa.co.uk and artistic network Sustainable Theatre.
Regular attendee Jordan Wilson recently commented on the value of the Social Media Surgery after attending similar events of questionable quality(!):
“As social media is now THE ‘buzz’ word, it seems every man and his dog is trying to climb aboard but many have no clue why, how or what they need it for. I have recently attended various business workshops/networking sessions and have had the same outcome in most. For those who haven’t already embraced social media in a logical and practical way for them and their business, there is a surge of people adopting any type of social network medium they can get their hands on, without any thought into suitability or what they want it to achieve.
There are now a few workshops dealing with this problem and actually providing people new to SM with a very helpful beginners guide. Instead of just jumping onto the confused bandwagon, they give people a chance to really understand SM and therefore be able to tailor it and use it to its full potential for their own area and objectives.
A few cropping to mind are:
Manchester Social Media Surgery – #mansms – Free (Free tea/coffee & biscuits too!!)”
Read on for more of Jordan’s insightful comments.
Refreshments at the April Social Media Surgery event is sponsored by Euroffice, the UK’s leading office supplies company.
To attend, sign up here. You can also submit a question on using Twitter for marketing.
What do you think? Would you find such an event useful? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Related posts:
- Manchester Social Media Surgery welcomes Crain’s Manchester Business
- Record Turnout for Free Social Media Surgery for Manchester Businesses
- Free Social Media Surgery for Manchester Businesses in October
- Free Social Media Surgery for Manchester Businesses in November
- 5 Questions Businesses Are Too Scared To Ask About Social Media Marketing
