A few weeks ago I ran a workshop for Unlimited Regional Award Winners (covering Yorkshire, Lancashire, Newcastle and Cheshire).
The workshop was around getting social enterprises online – and how they can do this cost effectively. The winners covered a wide variety of businesses from health and well being to projects for mental health to databases for Air Ambulances
Here are the notes from the session – and good luck to you all.
Getting online:
Buy Domains from 1and1.co.uk. Once you’ve got your domain name, you will be able to set up email addresses through this account.
Websites
Weebly or WordPress.com for free websites. You can upgrade some of the premium features on WordPress.com for a small fee.
Open Source Software
Try Open Office rather than Microsoft Office. This software offers the same functionality for free.
Open source accounting packages are available too:
http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/24/featured/best-open-source-accounting-software.html
Search Engine Optimisation
Have a read of the Google Starter SEO guide as a simple guide to starting getting your website ranking in the search engines.
Social Media
Use LinkedIn as a means of boosting your online credibility. Here’s good guide on LinkedIn for business (you have to give your email, but they’ve never contacted me in 3 years!). Hubspot LinkedIn for business.
Work out where your audience is and focus the time spent on engaging with them in the relevant channels. If it’s about building awareness in partner organisations – invest the time in building links from their website into yours.
If it’s about fitness around helping managing mental health – make sure your website comes up in the rankings for ‘gyms leeds’ or ‘personal fitness instructor leeds’.
In this instance where the business is based on a location – don’t forget to set up Google places to boost your SEO.
Then use social media (blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and forums) to create the buzz and hook people in.
Read more on social media, SEO & email marketing at Hubspot.