The power of ‘words’ helps to grow your start-up or small business

After my usual chaotic start to the morning of herding children out of the door, into the car and off to nursery or school, I breathe a sigh of relief and turn on the car radio as I drive into work – one of the only times I have a choice about what I want to listen to!

One particular morning, I happened to be listening to a programme about the use of words. The presenter gave an example of how her friend had changed career – mid-life – and went from being a lawyer to a mediator. As a prosecutor, the lawyer would use every word as a bullet to knock down the defendant and prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the alleged offence was committed. As a mediator, he would use every word carefully to build bridges between two parties in conflict with each other, with the aim of finding a way forward.

As a business owner, this story resonates with me. While we all have access to the same suite of vocabulary in the English language, the way in which we choose to use it can have a significant impact on the objectives we are trying to achieve and how we are perceived by others. 

From the way in which we answer the phone, respond to customer queries, present ourselves at meetings and networking opportunities, to how we promote our services through traditional, digital and social media marketing, we build a picture in our customers’ minds as to the sort of companies we are. More importantly, many will draw from these experiences and conclude whether we are credible, experienced, reliable and able to deliver a product or service that meets (and hopefully exceeds) their expectations.

So if you are thinking about reaching out and engaging with new and existing customers, suppliers and, if your company is large enough, employees, think carefully about the way you use your words, how they will be interpreted and how your marketing and communications can be used to help deliver your business goals.

If you are planning a new product launch or you are reviewing your marketing and communications plan, why not talk it through with us? We offer a free 30 minute phone consultation to talk through your objectives with one of our senior marketing and communications specialists. We are a friendly and approachable bunch. Give us a call to learn more about our team and what we do. Telephone: 01264 860060 or e-mail us.

Charlotte Welland, Head of Communications, Scirum Ltd

What are the demographics of each of the top ten social media channels?

Statistics from 15^th June 2014, therefore showing most recent results unless otherwise specified.

1.   Facebook – Still has a large number of young users, but the amount of older generation users is growing, now used internationally and in more high income households too. The average user is on Facebook for over 20 minutes per day. 57% of users are women.

2.  Twitter – Younger population, equally represented across income brackets. eMarketer suggests that this year, 25.4% of British Twitter users will be 25-34 year olds and 24.5% will be 18-24 year olds. The company also suggest that the fastest growing group is people aged 65 and up. 54% of users are men.

3.       LinkedIn – International audience. Gender distribution is 50%. Mainly used by 25-44 year olds who count for 28% of UK users, closely followed by the 55-64 year olds who made up 13%. The average user is on LinkedIn for 7.3 minutes per day.

4.       Pinterest – Mostly used by tablet users and women, 83%. It has 70 million users worldwide, with 1090 visitors per minute with a growth in international traffic in 2013 by 125%. The average user spends 15.8 minutes on the site. 32% of users are aged 18-34, and 45% are 35-54 and only 23% are aged 55 and over. 50% of all users have children.

5.       Google+ - Good for building relationships with other businesses. The most male orientated social network, although no official figures released yet. Google+'s female audiences are most likely to be 25 to 35 year olds. The majority (42%) of users are young adults, mostly 18 to 24. In the UK a great deal of users are single.

6.       Tumblr – 168.4 million Tumblr blogs. Very popular amongst teenagers looking for ways of self-expression, Tumblr is where the youth hangout. It is popular equally with males and females. It is more popular with 13-25 year olds than Facebook. Average user spends 23 minutes on Tumblr.

7.       Instagram – Used for photos. There is a higher percentage of female users than male, majority of users are aged 18-29 previously associated with Pinterest. Lower income households, less than 30,000.

8.       VK – Popular in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Belarus, and Israel, former Soviet Union area. Used in a similar way to Facebook. The most successful social network in Russia with over 106M users worldwide. 

9.       Flickr – Photo sharing platform, in 2012 studies showed that it was used mainly by women, in the UK aged between 35- 44. There are 92 million registered users. In January of this year, 66% of social network users were aware of Flickr, but only 3% of the 8% with a registered account use it. A study from 2010 suggested that Flickr users are unique individuals embrace and are affected by the culture they are born in.

10.   MySpace – Similar to Facebook, post videos, photos and message people, studies from 2012 show it was used mainly by women in the USA aged 45-54. 36 million registered accounts. In January of this year, 73% of social media users in the UK are aware of MySpace, but only 2% of the 9% of social media users that have an account actually use it. 

At Scirum, we have a dedicated team who take care of our clients' social media planning and digital presence. If you are thinking about increasing your social media activity, why not give us a call (01264 860060) or email us?

Grace O'Brien, Digital and Marketing Executive, Scirum Ltd.


For more useful tips and answers to common questions from SMEs, visit www.scirum.biz or follow us on Twitter and Google+, like us on Facebook or join our LinkedIn group.

The 6 essential steps to writing a social media plan

Once you have decided that you need a social media strategy, you need to write one or get someone else to write it for you. If you decide you want to write your own, here are a few steps you should follow:

Step 1: What social media do you currently use? How frequently and why?

Step 2: Who are you trying to target with your social media contribution? This could be current or prospective customers; you may wish to influence stakeholders in industry or government; or end-consumers. You need to therefore clearly define who your target audience is.

Step 3: What are you trying to achieve?

Depending on your objectives and target audience you will choose the most appropriate social media channels. There are three main objectives for using social media:

·        - To increase your reach into potential markets (brand awareness)

·        - To create closer relationships with your community and increase brand loyalty, e.g. existing and/ or potential customers

·         -To better communicate/ inform your target audience about your product/ service and associated issues.

- Ultimately your social media objectives should contribute to your overall corporate objectives, e.g. increased orders, growing brand loyalty, etc.

Step 4: Write a social media plan based on what your target audience is looking for/ interested in and your objectives.

·          - Define the objectives (corporate and social media)

·          - Clearly identify your target audience

·          - Set success criteria

·          - Clearly outline how you will achieve your objectives through the use of social media channels

Step 5: Use analytics to measure your progress and whether you are meeting your set objectives and schedule a regular review of your plan and the analytics report.

Step 6: Adjust your plan according to the analytics reports.


At Scirum, we have a dedicated team who take care of our clients' social media planning and digital presence. If you are thinking about increasing your social media activity, why not give us a call (01264 860060) or email us?

Susanne Hasselmann, Director, Scirum Ltd.


For more useful tips and answers to common questions from SMEs, visit www.scirum.biz or follow us on Twitter and Google+, like us on Facebook or join our LinkedIn group.