Is SMARTA a smarter way to start a business?
Have Theo and Deborah backed a winner?
Last week saw the launch of Smarta, a new advice and social networking destination for budding entrepreneurs. But is it a smarter way to do business than existing sites like Business Link and LinkedIn?
Well it’s certainly prettier than Business Link and there’s some great resource on there, as well there should with Bebo founder Michael Birch, Dragons Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden, plus Yo! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe backing the venture.
Its success remains to be seen in the community it can build. I worry LinkedIn is too ahead of the game now. Smarta only has a handful of faceless profiles slowly being added to the site. Will we spend time getting our profiles and network to the same level as where we’ve invested elsewhere?
To blog or not to blog?
“Should we start a blog”? is the first question I’m often asked when consulting with companies on new media. So here’s the short answer – no, don’t feel you *should*.
More importantly you can’t blog in isolation. What I mean by that is a blog is not a soapbox for your CEO to regurgitate corporate messaging. Social media is, well, social. Web 2.0 allows people to interact and engage in two-way, three-way, 100-way + conversations about topics they’re mutually interested in.
There’s many good reasons to start a company blog, almost as many as why you shouldn’t start one. Sometimes something as simple as a webcam can have a far greater reach than trying to talk about the company’s annual results – see Ceddarvision.tv
Before writing you need to listen first.
About:
I'm Darika Ahrens and I help brands develop marketing strategies for Social Media.
My background is in Public Relations for companies like Orange, Microsoft, Philips, HTC, Yell.com, and Estee Lauder. I've worked with and trained some of the UK's top agencies.
In 2009 the Financial Times referred to me as "a new breed of business matchmaker" due to my network of contacts and way I work creating bespoke teams to deliver projects.