Top Tips for freelancers: how to keep Project Management simple

Working as a freelance Project Manager requires excellent time management, communications, stress management and planning skills. It also requires good self-motivation and discipline. Here are our top tips to help you keep your cool as a Project Management freelancer.

We also write regular guest blogs on PRINCE2 Training, Project Management Training and Social Media Training in Brighton, Sussex - get in touch if you’re interested.

Read the rest of "Keeping Project Management straightforward when freelancing"

Posted by Andy Trainer in Project Management on July 5th, 2010| 1 Comment »

5 businesses you can start for/with the neighbours

Silicon Beach Training offer a wide range of Business, Management and IT courses – including PRINCE2 Training, Social Media Training and Six Sigma Training – all in Brighton, less than an hour by train from London. Thanks to Emma Jones from Enterprise Nation for this guest blog post.

A recent report reveals the UK is less than half as neighbourly as it was three decades ago with 49% of Brits saying people know more about their favourite celebrity than they do about their neighbour. But neighbours can make for good business; Emma Jones suggests we get to know them and offers five business ideas that are plain perfect for the folks next door.

Read the rest of "5 businesses you can start with your neighbours"

Posted by Guest Blogger in Business Skills, Guest Blogs on July 5th, 2010| 1 Comment »

At Silicon Beach Training we offer a wide range of IT, Business and Management training courses including Project Management training, PRINCE2 training and Six Sigma Training in Brighton, Sussex. We’re always looking to network with others interested in Project Management and have even compiled a list of the best Project Managers to follow on Twitter.

Check out this list of 10 excellent Project Management blogs: there are so many different blogs to choose from, my choice below focuses on blogs that are a bit different and provide personal angles on Project Management…

Read the rest of "The Best Project Management Blogs"

Posted by Heather Buckley in Project Management on July 2nd, 2010| 4 Comments »

Spirituality and Social Media: Wisdom 2.0

We offer a range of Social Media training in Brighton, Sussex, as well as Google Analytics Training and our SEO Course. We’re always interested in new points of view so get in touch if you would like to write guest post for us – we get lots of traffic and good rankings ;-)

Thanks to Mark Walsh of Integration Training who wrote this guest blog, with an interesting take on Social Media…

Spirituality and social media are not words that are often seen together. Technology and spirituality have long been divided for historical reasons but this need not be the case…

What is Spirituality Anyway?

I’m assuming social media is a familiar idea and you’ve not been a monk in a cave for the last ten years, but spirituality is a woolier idea because people tend to mix up a number of areas when discussing it. It can includes states of awareness (from just paying attention to drug induced altered states), a particular kind of intelligence that people may have, or people’s overall development along “structures of consciousness”. The latter usually involving increasing perspective and self-awareness (“the man who knows himself is wise”) and a growing circle of concern for others (which is why it might be considered “spiritual” to give to strangers in need for example). Spirituality can also be defined simply as that which is meaningful to people.

Spirituality is and interior and behavioral concern and not the same as religion which involves external social structures and norms. Spirituality is also not just for new-age hippies but an increasingly accepted and discussed part of life, even in a technologically rich workplaces.

Read the rest of "Spirituality and Social Media"

Posted by Guest Blogger in Guest Blogs, Social Media on June 30th, 2010| 2 Comments »

Improve your bottom line with Foursquare

As providers of Social Media Training, we’re always interested in how other businesses are using these tools in their marketing, we also offer our SEO Course and Google Analytics Training in Brighton, Sussex. Here Helen Wilkinson, co-owner of Metrodeco, explains how to use Foursquare:

Remember when Twitter sceptics claimed it was a passing fad that was only good for knowing what Stephen Fry was eating for breakfast? Then along came the outing of oil giant Trafigura as a global flytipper, the tidal wave of moral outrage against Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir and a near revolution in Iran.

Twitter was a central player in all three stories and, suddenly, we all realised the immense power we now have to coalesce around a movement or an idea and run with it.

So I’d urge a little scepticism of your own when you hear the inevitable tutting from the same cynics when they scoff: “I already know what Fry’s eating. All Foursquare adds to my life is that I now know where he’s eating it – so what?”

Whether you are a restaurant, travel agent, gardener, circus, accountant, movie star or spaceman, Foursquare will help you find potential customers and understand what motivates them in ways that were previously unimaginable.

I’ll tell you here how Metrodeco, a small tea shop in Brighton, is using the site to do this (here’s our Foursquare page) – but first, a note of caution. Foursquare gives users the ability to hold businesses to account like never before – in fact, I bet your business is already on it without you even realising. Go to Foursquare’s website – you don’t even need to log in – and search for your business’s name. There’s a good chance people are already checking in. Feels slightly uncomfortable, doesn’t it?

Read the rest of "How to use Foursquare for Business"

Posted by Guest Blogger in Brighton, Business Skills, Guest Blogs, New Free Resources, SEO, Social Media on June 28th, 2010| 8 Comments »

20 top tips to get blog traffic and comments

At Silicon Beach Training we offer a wide range of Social Media Training courses including WordPress Training, Blogging Training and Search Engine Optimisation Training in Brighton, Sussex.

The problem encountered by many new to blogging is finding your audience.

Most people will read a blog post without commenting or sharing, however:

• A blog with several comments will encourage others to comment
• A blog that’s been recommended by one person will encourage another to recommend it
• A blog with clear bookmarking, sharing, and comments will encourage people to do so.

Here are 20 tips to help you grow your blog traffic, comments and subscriptions:

Read the rest of "How to get blog traffic"

Posted by Heather Buckley in Sales & Marketing, SEO, Social Media on June 27th, 2010| 2 Comments »

Review of Sendible: efficiently schedule Facebook updates and posts

Silicon Beach Training offer a range of  Social Media Training courses, we also offer our Search Engine Optimisation Course and Google Analytics Training in Brighton, Sussex.

A tool for scheduling Facebook updates or tweets may sound crazy to the casual Social Media user, but it’s something really quite invaluable for businesses taking their Social Media Marketing seriously – allowing you to both save time and always update at the best times.

There are loads of great Twitter applications for scheduling tweets, many of which allow integration with other social networks like Facebook e.g. colourful HootSuite is smooth to use and TweetDeck has recently introduced scheduled updates, however it is so far a bit flaky for Facebook scheduling (see HootSuite v TweetDeck, although TweetDeck has since added scheduling).

In contrast to these Twitter-centred apps, an excellent application I’ve just discovered that works really smoothly with Facebook updates is Sendible (Facebook page here).

Read the rest of "How to schedule Facebook updates and posts"

Posted by Heather Buckley in New Free Resources, SEO, Social Media on June 25th, 2010| 4 Comments »

Find Facebook applications & add them to your Business Page or Profile

Finding and adding Facebook applications can be a bit of a muddle, but as we noted in our top Facebook marketing tips, Facebook apps are invaluable for engaging with people and making your page standout from the crowd. Read on for our simple step-by-step guide to using Facebook apps.

If you found this helpful, you may be interested in our wide range of online marketing training courses including Social Media Training, SEO Training and Blogging Training in Brighton, Sussex.

Read the rest of "How to find and add Facebook applications"

Posted by Andy Trainer in Facebook Tips and Tricks, New Free Resources, Social Media on June 21st, 2010| 2 Comments »