June 2010
Let’s get social!
I love nothing more than a chat. There are the social conversations where you participate and listen in politeness, but sometimes there will be a topic that grabs your attention and you need to participate in the discussion. 

• It’s free.
• You can start talking with Australia and the world.
• You can start listening to what consumers are saying about you and your product/s.
• It’s an opportunity to brand your business to the world – how you want consumers to ‘feel’ and think about you.
• It is an interactive marketing campaign for consumers (and should be fun for you).
• It’s your chance to get ahead of your competition and show your commitment to communicating with industry consumers and fans.

But what about Return on Investment – how much will you sell? Granted, there is much debate and no concrete marketing research to show that social media increases sales in all marketplaces, but it certainly doesn’t decrease sales! Some industries and organisations do social media extremely well, such as Dell computers, with online specials; others spend too much time and/or money advertising through this media and lose money.

What I would suggest is to way up ROI with a marketing campaign that has negligible cost against increasing your marketplace awareness and branding in the wider community. And, can you put a cost on being able to take part in conversations with people you may never have had the opportunity to meet?

Why not set-up an account in Twitter and Facebook, look around, see the other businesses within your industry already involved, and consider how you could use these sites to your benefit. 

If you want any suggestions regarding your Social Media campaign or assistance in setting-up accounts/pages, don’t hesitate to contact us on (03) 9851 6500.

Until next time
Megan Barrow
Colledge's Social Media Advocate
 

April 2010
Analyse this!
How are your stats for the past month? No, don’t get out your monthly performance report, I’m talking about an area that is vital in increasing your performance results, your website.

Remember the days when the internet first hit the world and having a website was something to aim for in the future? Then costs decreased and most businesses could organise for an online flier and brochure to be put in cyberspace for the world to see. Then, that would be it, job done! Today, that cannot be it; the job has just begun if you want a successful marketing tool. Today, having a static website that doesn’t communicate with the world – your customers – is a website that will become as visible as a brochure sitting underneath magazines in a cafe.

Don’t get me wrong, as a consumer I want to look at a visibly attractive website that has interesting content and is easy to navigate, and I am more likely to spend time looking through it, once. So great work if that is what you have achieved. But, will I add it to my ‘favourites’ list? Probably not. However, if I see a site that contains updated information, newsletters, BLOGs (what you’re reading now) or is interactive in any way, then yes, I will add the site to my ‘favourites’.

As many would know, when I started with Colledge’s 18 months ago, we didn’t have a website. Now while I admit there are some cosmetic and navigation issues to re-visit and amend, the firm was very happy to have a website live on the internet. But, quietly in the background, I worked (let’s continue that to present tense) on the website, regularly updating information as it arises and Accounting Forum presentations. I knew content is King, and updating content regularly is Queen.

Then, of course, there is this new phenomenon, Social Marketing. I decided to bite-the-bullet and put Colledge’s in any place that didn’t cost: Twitter, Blogger, Slideshare, LinkedIn. All it costed was some set-up time and, now, updating information. A BLOG takes the most of my time, but even that is just an hour or so – dependent on my creative brain power on a given day. And don’t forget adding your profile and website to free listings such as Yellow Pages, White Pages, True Local, Hotfrog, Bigroo.

Not only do all these social media and listing sites increase your exposure, they also lead people to your website, and search engines love websites the more external links they have, fickle I know but all fair in love and war.

So how are Colledge’s stats? An IT friend told me to sign up to Google Analytics, a site that gives great statistics on traffic going to your website; best of all it’s free. It sometimes takes a while, a month or two, before the ‘real’ statistics start to show, but then you are set-up to look at how many people visit your site, how many are new visitors versus returning, what pages people are visiting, how long they are staying on your site, where traffic is coming from (search engines, including key words, or external sites, e.g. Twitter or carsales.com), and more. Also, very importantly, you can check your “bounce” rate, that is how many people go to your website and instantly click off – you obviously want this to be very low.

Okay, now I will answer the question, our stats are good and getting stronger every month. We get a good mix of new versus returning visitors. We have an even spread from our traffic sources – referring sites, search engines and direct traffic. Our visitors spend a good amount of time on our site. Our bounce rate is low. And you know what the most interesting stat is, when I am away on Leave, the visitor rates decrease significantly – social media can’t be such a bad thing after all, hey?

So, now to you, how are your stats for the month?

Megan Barrow
Executive Assistant 

 

February 2010

Queenscliff, networking & understanding personality
Colledge's inaugural Automotive Accountants' Network Conference
A beautiful, sunny afternoon, on the rooftop of the Vue Grand Hotel with 360° views of Queenscliff, was a spectacular way to meet the starting group of Colledge’s inaugural Automotive Accountants’ Network Conference on Sunday 21 February 2010. It was a lovely way to start off the conference sitting in the sun with friendly faces and overdue catch-up conversations.

After the sun hid behind the incoming clouds, we headed to Vue Grand’s beautiful, 100 year old dining room. With beautiful high ceilings and cornices, a grand piano and ballroom atmosphere, our business casual attire seemed a little out of place! Beautiful food with a table of great people was a perfect way to end the day and look towards the business of tomorrow’s session.

First point of business Monday morning was to get the group doing what they do best, discussing issues in the automotive, accounting world. To get the forum started were various "whiteboard items" that were submitted by the participants.  Topics included VACC Contracts; Police Checks; SRO and Stamp Duty disclosure; Finance Companies; Staffing Ratios; Marketing; Era Net; National Consumer Credit Protection Act update; Company Cars.

Colledge’s is extremely fortunate to have a group of fantastic Automotive Accountants who attend our forums. They are a group generous of spirit in assisting colleagues from different franchises with empathy for the high-level work expected as a dealership Finance Controller/Accountant. I have worked administratively in many fields and taken part as minute taker or participant in countless meetings in various businesses, and I truly have never experienced a group like this one and it is a true joy to be part of – which will make sense when I get to personality types.

Colledge’s main presentation was The Role of the Chief Finance Officer (CFO). Angelo asked everyone to write down a list of what they think their role encompasses; it was then discussed as a group. Angelo then presented the reality of their 19 duties and expectations. As one participant noted “no wonder we’re tired!”. It was an interesting topic to have them appreciate how huge their role is and how important they are to their dealership and Dealer Principal.

Rachel McIver was our external presenter for the afternoon. An external presenter always brings an expectation of new knowledge presented differently and Rachel did not disappoint. Understanding Personality, while maybe sounding simplistic, ended up being quite the opposite when the group was asked to describe an amiable, expressive, analytical and driver personality. Hmmmm, not so easy, we initially discovered.

As the session progressed, we filled in a questionnaire to receive our personality results later, and then discussed further the four Bolton & Bolton personality types. The group started to have more descriptions of the different styles and their “needs” and we also discussed where we believed people within job positions would sit, including within the dealership; we were not always accurate, a risk of stereo typing. And then it was time to guess where we thought we would be within the styles. Most thought they would be analytical, you know, being accountants! Our presenter admitted to being a true expressive-expressive, if we hadn’t guessed, she said.

Then our questionnaire results were revealed and there were more than a few people surprised with the reality that they were the opposite of what they thought they would be. An interesting moment was when Rachel and Angelo used their great dramatical skills to role play greeting people and we had to guess the personality type, when we heard "oh that is me!" from one of the “surprised” participants.

Rachel took us through the personality types and how we need to look at how we relate to others (not vice versa), whether in business or in our personal life, and think about what communication style others would understand best. But never to stereotype people (as we discovered from our questionnaires) and never use to judge. This session was to be used for good, not to be manipulated into negative.

Whilst time limited us at the end, it was a most enjoyable and fun afternoon and a time to reflect on ourselves and our workplace, and even how we can and do sometimes stereotype.

And with that, it was time to say our goodbyes and head back to our Melbournian home suburbs.

On behalf of Colledge’s, namely Angelo and Ed, I would like to thank the Vue Grand for their wonderful facilities and hospitality, and Rachel McIver for her excellent presentation. We would highly recommend people to the venue and to discuss Management and HR topics with Rachel.

This “amiable” person who "encourages harmony and team happiness", would also like to thank our fantastic group of participants, without whom the event wouldn’t have been so successful, and hope they enjoyed their day/s as much as Angelo, Ed and I had in bringing it to you.

With this event’s success, Colledge’s has high hopes to have bigger and even better conferences in forthcoming years.

Megan Barrow
Executive Assistant