Don’t know your Twitter from your Facebook?
Wonder what all these people are talking about with their Tweets and Fan Pages?
Think you might be missing out but don’t know where to start?

Join us at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park for a training meeting with a difference.

The meeting will run from 6-9pm and will run as follows:

6-6.45pm
Networking

6.45-8.15pm
Learn about Social Media and how it is relevant to bringing you new business. Topics to be included: Twitter – how to tweet, what to tweet, who to follow and how to be followed (it will all make sense after the meeting!), Facebook, and Blogging to drive traffic to your website.

8.15-9pm
More networking

The cost is £20 (plus VAT) per head, a minimum £10 of which will be donated to our charity project to fund a tower for the Iberian Wolves.

If you would like to attend BOOK HERE.

On 3rd February 2010 Counterpoint Networking in conjunction with Aspinall Business Club at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park. We had a fantastic time, learning about the rhinos from keeper Paul Beer who had kindly come in to speak to us, even though he had a cold, for which we were very grateful!

We learnt about:

• the gestation period in rhinos
• how rhinos are being returned to the wild
• the problem of poaching
• the problem of deforestation in the wild

You can read more about the rhinos on the Aspinall Business Club website and see all the pictures of the meeting here.

The meeting was a bit of a Tweetup (a Twitter meet up!) – we had a number of people who all knew each other through Twitter, some of whom had never met in person! ‘Twitterers’ were:

Counterpoint Members

• Lee Freeman from Kent Business Directory (@KentBusinessDir)
• Hayley Jones of Foreman & Jones (@HayleyJonesUK)
• Jane Unsworth of ABC Simple As (@abcsimpleas)
• and me of course (@Jododds)

Other Twitterers:

• Barry Nutley (@Greenenergychap)  whose new daughter Eleanor Grace was born last week – congratulations Barry!
• Graham Seymour (@ShopperAnon)

To learn more about our Counterpoint members and their businesses click here to view their profiles.

On 25th February we are having our informal networking at the Red Lion Pub (this is because it was a morning meeting this month, so we make up for that with an evening meeting in the same month!) Find out more here.

At the next meeting at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park on March 10th we have local singer Anna Stone performing for us which is something to really look forward to. We will be setting the meeting up as a Tweetup too so that even more new people can come along. Find out more here.

Last night’s rearranged venue for our June meeting was, as usual, great (and thanks to the Red Lion for taking us on at the last minute). And even better that with the lovely warm weather we’re having at the moment we were able to sit out in the garden.

So, the networking was a bit loud as we all sat round a big table and shouted! At one stage I had to get a few of us to do a musical chairs impression and all move down one so that Chris from Copy-Link in Folkestone could get to the opposite end of the table to talk to Jane of ABC Simple as… and Julie from Hestia Property Services!

Simon, my husband, was kept very busy shooing away a persistent seagull from our lovely buffet. Just realised that we should have taken some photos to put on here – we always forget! You’ll just have to imagine a lovely summer’s evening in Hythe.

Much of the evening was taken up with a spirited discussion about online marketing for small businesses, particularly about Twitter and how to use it. Alan from The Icelab and I were kept very busy sharing our knowledge and Chris from The Eye Centre was off to try out Tweetdeck (and get ready for his open day in Hythe on Saturday) and Sheila from Mini Bills was thinking about starting a blog! Jaci from Estate Legacy Services is looking forward to making some changes to her website this weekend too, as one of the people on my online marketing coaching programme. Hayley and Jodie from Foreman and Jones have a new website that we are helping them to put together and Hayley tweeted later to say that she is working on it today – so watch this space!

We were all pleased to meet Maggie who is looking after business development at the lovely Boys Hall in Ashford. We are talking about having a future meeting there. We held one there when we first started and some of us remember having a lovely tour round the Jacobean property. Gordon our very own toastmaster and Graham from Coffee Break Massage who also has a business playing the harp at events were both pleased to do some networking with Maggie as she was telling us that they have held 40 weddings there this year and obviously both of them are potential suppliers (Graham with his harp business, not the massages for weddings – although I can see that he may also have a market there!).

We had a late entry in the form of Trevor from the Microwave Service Company in Sellindge, which started up another conversation about online marketing as some of Trevor’s business happens online. So we were the last to leave following an interesting conversation about what keywords would be useful for Trevor to optimise his site for – what do people search for online when their microwave has broken? Answers on a postcard please!

I think that’s a mention for everyone, but I’m sure you’ll let me know if not! It’s 7am the next morning as I write this and I’ve already had a couple of messages saying what a great night it was last night, so I think we all agree it was a good turnout and lots of fun.

Our next meeting is being hosted by the South Kent Gateway in Folkestone.

Photo Credit MASH DnART

We had a great business networking meeting last night at the Red Dragon offices in Lyminge, Folkestone, Kent. Gareth did us proud with a great buffet and champagne!

I think a good time was had by all; we certainly didn’t leave until 11pm, which is later than our usual finishes!

It was great to see Peter Wood from Hawkeye Elevated Photography for the first time this year; he takes photos of anything apart from people, which often involves having his camera on the end of a very large pole or in a plane as he photographs at construction sites (which sounded a bit scary when they have to fly in places where there are large towers, as he was telling us about).

We have a new member, Jane Unsworth, who is an internet marketer and business coaching specialising in the complementary health and therapies sector. Her profile will be up on the site shortly.

Chris Snow from The Eye Centre in Hythe had a lengthy discussion about Twitter and Facebook and their various merits and uses for small business owners to market their businesses online. You may want to check out our Counterpoint Matters site where I have written articles about using Facebook for local marketing and Twitter for small businesses.

Hannah Joyce from Virtual Girl Friday was there with her fiance, Will, and disappointed that she can’t make the next meeting, which is our Sparkling Wine networking event on 30 June, as she will be on honeymoon! So, I don’t think she was that disppointed really! Best wishes from us for your wedding.

Many members were unavailable last night for various reasons (so it’s just as well we had quite a few guests!) but something tells me that the next meeting (the Sparkling Wine Event on 30 June!) is already in their diary so we will see them there.

Find out more about membership of Counterpoint Networking.

I have posted on our Counterpoint Matters website, where we help small business owners to set up their own quick, easy, search engine friendly websites and I thought I would share it here too.

Because Jo Dodds was on BBC South East talking about Twitter!, which is a great tool for online networking. Check it out…