Social Media Marketing and Woman's Hour

Yesterday I had the pleasure of looking after Jane Garvey and the team of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour during their on location broadcast from 54 St James Street in Liverpool, home of The Women's Organisation.

The show was themed around female entrepreneurship with a panel including young entrepreneur Sharmadean Reid of WAH Nails, Dawn Gibbins 'secret millionaire' of Flowcrete fame, level headed Sophie Cornish of notonthehighstreet.com and Chief Operating Officer of ASDA Judith McKenna.

Following the live broadcast I was lucky enough to have chance to pitch a question at the panel. I asked "I know small businesses can be scared of social media, but do you think it is important for businesses to embrace it?".

Sharmadean Reid of WAH nails explained that she had been ahead of the game when marketing her business, starting with a blog back in 2006. She said "I wouldn't have a business without social media".

Judith McKenna added "It's the number one way to get customer feedback". She was followed by Sophie Cornish who commented "Social media is worth doing and I would say ignore it at your peril". Sophie added "what I would say is don't spend TOO much time on it".

Dawn Gibbons admitted she was quite new to Twitter, but that she had successfully managed to link her facebook and Twitter accounts up, much to the irritation of her children.

If you would like advice around social media strategy for your business, contact me on joaustinmarketing@gmail.com or tweet me as @marketing_jo