Despite lockdown, a collective of creative members from Works Social, the coworking space in Nottingham’s Lace Market, have been able to work together to carry out a messaging, web design and branding project to give Cube Construction Consultants a brand boost and secure its future success.

Cube moved into Works Social earlier this year and has enjoyed the benefits of having 24/7 access to the space and its virtual community during lockdown, when it wasn’t always possible to work from home.

Nicola Slater, Director at Cube Construction Consultants, said: “We specialise in strategic business development for organisations within the construction industry, but when it came to marketing our own business, we were finding it difficult to get across our messages and show consistency across our brand.

“It’s been great to be able to bounce ideas off other members and have a community we can call on, when much of the ‘business as usual’ we are used to is anything but. Having a collective of different freelance skills from web design, branding, development and copywriting has really helped us get the results we wanted.”

Virtual member, Matthew King Creative redesigned the website and brand guidelines. Friend to and ambassador of Works Social, Pixelshrink, carried out the technical development and digital designer and co-founder of Works Social, Han van Oudheusden from picturethis.studio delivered iconography and social media assets.

Han said: “This kind of project is exactly the ethos behind Works Social. Bringing different skills, ideas and values together to support each other, promote our different specialisms and forge strong business connections. It’s been a great project to work on and fantastic that our members have been able to access this community throughout this difficult period.”

Specialising in PR, strategic marketing and copywriting, Rachael van Oudheusden from Big Old House, led the project, saying: “It’s been great to be able to help shape the ideas and thinking of Cube. Nicola and Mark have some brilliant ideas, loads of experience and ambitious plans. They just needed a little steer to hone their messaging, develop their website and brand, plus put plans in place for future marketing activity. From the creative connections we’ve made at Works Social we were able to gather the perfect team to get collective benefit from everyone’s ideas and input. Aces in places really.”

The site and refreshed branding was launched in early November and has been well received. There are plans are in place for the first campaigns and the team is planning to collaborate again in the near future.

The post Giving construction consultants a brand boost appeared first on Big Old House.

While there are positive signs of some businesses emerging and resuming some kind of ‘business as unusual’ and the Prime Minister announcing “Build, build, build” as the mantra to get the economy back on track, there are those less fortunate who have had their industries decimated by this invisible threat, through no fault of their own.

Forever taking the pulse of regional businesses, BusinessDesk.com has been catching up with owner managers,  entrepreneurs and senior managers around the UK to get the lowdown on life in lockdown.  During a short break from crisis comms, social media management and copywriting, Rachael van Oudheusden from Big Old House offered her take on on lockdown life.

Here’s a snippet from the interview…

How has the lockdown and working from home been for you so far?

It’s been a bit of a backwards step to be honest in terms of flexible working. I worked remotely from home for several years when I set up Big Old House and realised that I quite like being around people. That’s why I joined the coworking and event space, Works Social, in Nottingham’s Lace Market to get away from my house! Looking forward to getting back with my desk buddies as soon as possible.

 

What has been the best thing about staying in?

Cooking (and eating!). It’s been really great to spend time making interesting food from some of my favourite places around the world. I’ve started making wiser choices to actively avoid waste – making sure to use what’s already in the cupboards, rather than always popping out for extra things. I now completely ignore best before dates if food still seems edible. If it doesn’t have green fuzz on or smells of booze when it shouldn’t, it’s fine, right?!

Apart from spending April in Colombia, people mainly – family, friends, colleagues and clients. I miss seeing people face to face and miss the productivity of going into a dedicated work environment, as this provides boundaries between work life and home life. The community element is a big part of Works Social too. I’m finding it tough not having the camaraderie of my co-workers to chat with about the crazy times we are all facing and to help spark creative ideas.

 

What previously essential thing have you realised is not actually essential?

Nothing really. In fact, I’ve realised the opposite. Things that I didn’t think were essential are actually so much more important than I gave them credit for in maintaining positive physical and mental well-being. Social interaction, hugs, travel and freedom of choice are all essential to me. It’s been values, or behaviours, rather than stuff mostly though, such as caring, compassion, kindness and generosity that are truly essential.

 

What is the first thing you will do when isolation ends?

As a card carrying CAMRA member, I’m going to dust off my Nottingham City Transport bus pass (who’ve been spectacular in keeping essential services running for key workers, thank you) and jump on a bus into town to support as many local independent pubs as I can get round during opening hours. I would wholeheartedly encourage everyone to join in me in supporting their local pubs too. Give me a shout if you fancy a pint!

 

You can read the full article on BusinessDesk.com…

Meanwhile, the resilience, innovation and adaptability shown by UK businesses has been incredible. We hope that our friends in the leisure, hospitality and retail sectors can hold on and potentially come back stronger than before. The door to Big Old House is always open if we can support you in any way with that. Stay safe out there folks.

The post Day 100: Locked-in with Business Desk appeared first on Big Old House.

Delighted.

The irony that a word with such happy and positive connotations can create such negativity has not been lost, but if you look more closely, seriously, are you really delighted?

Let’s break it down:

No issue there.

Then let’s look at some of its synonyms:

very pleased, glad, happy, joyful, thrilled, overjoyed, ecstatic, euphoric, elated, blissful, enraptured, on cloud nine, walking on air, in seventh heaven, in transport of delight, jumping for joy, beside oneself with happiness, excited

Most (over) used in appointment releases, CEO statements, good news announcements – delighted crops up all over the business pages and on company websites, every single day.  But, imagine if you replaced ‘delighted’ with its alternatives in the following statements:

Company X CEO said: “I am in seventh heaven [delighted] about our new manager of widgets.”

MD of Local business Y, replied: “I am on cloud nine [delighted] about our new shed facility.”

Independent baker, of Bake Biscuits said: “I am beside myself with happiness [delighted] about our new range of cup cakes.”

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Instead, why not use your good news story or announcement to add a bit of personality and include a few key messages? Tell us how you really feel, show people what you really think.

It is ordinary people doing extraordinary things who run businesses. Real people with real emotions and genuine stories to tell. Readers can (and should) be able to relate to you.

Why not tell people it’s been a really tough slog over the last few years so it’s great that we’re in a position to be hiring again?  Share that you’ve had a fantastic period of growth, which exceeded your expectations. Empathise that the team can’t wait for another pair of hands to join them to share the workload, because they’ve all been running round like headless chickens for six months and are knackered!

‘Delighted’ in business to business communications is an overused phrase, which is lazy and repetitive (IMHO). If ‘delighted’ is truly the case, the world works in some very happy offices and every business decision is sending people into a euphoric state.

Big Old House has recently celebrated its first anniversary and while proper chuffed, happy and thrilled all spring to mind, so does relieved, grateful, lucky and phew!

Let’s be honest, it’s not quite that giddy in the real world and we could expand our vocabulary to give our content some real insight and make ‘delighted’ a state of mind we aspire to.

If you have a story to tell and need a hand doing it, we’d be as excited as a two year old at a birthday party about it if you dropped us a line.

The post Are you really delighted? appeared first on Big Old House.

There is an ever growing list of social media shortcuts to abbreviate interactions. These save time and help to fit in as many points as possible into posts, to encourage conversations. However, keeping track can be a challenge.

Sprout Social has kindly curated the 75 Most Important Social Media Acronyms used in marketing today. Not only do they apply cross Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus and LinkedIn, they relate across all Business to Business and Business to Consumer activity and every business marketeer is likely to encounter at least some of these abbreviations in day to day life.

From encouraging conversations on Twitter through to general day to day business terms, as well as the technical stuff, marketers and businesses need to know the latest terminology to engage with their audiences and the agencies they work with.

 
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Do you know which campaigns are most successful at creating UGC or what tactics are having the best impact on your CR? What are the TOS of your ESP? Is your POTD generating worthwhile PVs?

AFAIK if you don’t keep up with the latest lingo you are seriously living in FOMO.

ICYMI or you’re SYH and thinking WTF? NVM…Get in touch for a conversation in full sentences about getting a handle on your next marketing project.

[Image credit Indigo Digital]

The post Do you know your social media shorthand? appeared first on Big Old House.

According to the study by Ipsos Connect, titled “Facebook and Instagram: Motivations and Mindsets”, Instagram is a place where people look for insider perspectives and insights, giving them a window into a different world, while Facebook represents their real world, the people and perspectives they care about and want to discuss.

Facebook IQ Researcher Vicki Molina-Estolano, highlighted the main finding of the report was that Facebook better satisfies people’s need for empowerment, recognition and connection, while Instagram more strongly fulfils their desire for fun, relaxation and discovery.

“On Instagram, people follow celebrities, get DIY inspiration and are visually transported to new places – while on Facebook, the primary appeal is connecting with family and friends.”
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The report looked at types of content, different user demographics and how millennials are interacting with both social media platforms. It seems that from a marketing messaging point of view Facebook is where people are looking for fact based, opinion led, personal content and Instagram is where they go to escape and dream about the what if.

So craft your content carefully…keep Facebook ‘friends and family’ friendly and inspire and influence through Instagram….or drop us a line and we’ll help with your copywriting.

Source: “Facebook and Instagram: Motivations and Mindsets” by Ipsos Connect (Facebook-commissioned online survey of 7,809 people ages 18–64 in AU, BR, FR, JP, UK and US who use Facebook and/or Instagram at least weekly), May 2016. Among survey respondents, 5,642 use both Facebook and Instagram, 1,802 use Facebook only, and 365 use Instagram only. The study also included 120 qualitative participants. Data is on average across all markets and refer to people who use both feeds unless otherwise noted.

The post Posts vs Pictures: Facebook for friends and Instagram for inspiration appeared first on Big Old House.