Category Archive:Fresh Brew Blog

Should you have any quer…. ugh! Stop it!

How often do you fall into auto-mode? When speaking… when typing….? We go into this “zone” (and I’m no different) where we say what we want to say, and then we finish it all off with a good old spoonful of “Standard Business Talk” at the end…

The

Should you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

bit.

I read a brilliant article on the Business Insider this morning, where they speak about exactly this type of thing. Getting away from stiff office jargon and colloquial “buzzwords” that tend to annoy more than they impress. Words like creative, innovative, motivational, track record, problem-solving, being used in your business profile….

Focus is, and has always been on content that provides value. And at a point in time, these buzzwords also provided value. They were innovative. They were descriptive, and they sounded brilliant. However, if, like me, you find yourself slipping into bad habits once in a while, and you start signing your business emails off with the usual phrase, perhaps it’s time to re-think the purpose of your message, in the first place. What are you saying? To whom are you saying it? And most of all – remain true to your character.

What about a “I am excited about working with you” or event just a, “Just let me know if you have any questions”.

Or maybe even not!
If there are questions, they’ll contact you. They have your email address, for goodness sake! 🙂

Christmas can be local – just try!

ShopLocalThis year, in support of the Buy Local that we’re involved in, we decided to purchase ALL (or as many as we could) of our gifts, from businesses in our community. Being someone who tends to shop online for most things (the age of electronics!), we headed out one chilly Saturday morning.

In all honesty, we didn’t expect to be very successful. The old stigmas of village-shopping still ringing in my head… too expensive, too “eclectic”, too small a collection etc etc etc.

Proud to report back that within an hour and a half – our ENTIRE Christmas list was completed – with the most unusual, yes even eclectic, gifts that were just perfect!  Proud!

Sometimes you just have to give something back…

How wonderful it has been to get stuck in and involved in a local community with so much promise, so much potential, and most of all – a community that is passionate about promoting all that Beaminster has to offer.
2012 has been a somewhat topsy-turvy year for the little town of Beaminster. Located in West Dorset, Beaminster is nestled amongst the rolling hills and stretches of neon green that only a typical English Summertime provides. The torrential summer resulted in one of the main routes into and out of the village, being closed off. Relying not only on local support, but also largely on the passing trade by visitors who are en route to the Jurassic Coast, the businesses in Beaminster had to face a very stark reality.
It really was down to the community to stand together and fight to support the businesses. Not only to show support for the business community, but more important, to be a demonstration that we CAN go against the grain. The negative doom that is all-too-often portrayed in the media – didn’t have a match on the passion and enthusiasm of the people who are looking to flip the perception that the town is anything but dying!

Being a resident in Beaminster myself, how wonderful it was to be able to use what Fresh Brew does best and contribute to a wonderful campaign: Be a Local, Buy Local, Buy in Beaminster!   Without any hope or agenda, the mission was purely to stand together in a time of challenge, relying on the expertise, abilities and skills that are so bountiful throughout the community, and build something that will continue for many years to come!
Keep an eye on our site… we’ll have an update on this soon!

Social Media peer pressure? Forget it!

In a world that almost pushes us to conform and follow trends, and be where the action is, I’ve been paying rather close attention to some of the activity and behaviour on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn recently. Amongst all the usual Tweet trends and fads, RT this for a prize or Please help me spread the word etc etc (admittedly having followed the same trends and fads before), I almost become paranoid about the what to DO and the what NOT to do instructions. Caught up in the fan fair of ensuring you do things THIS way or THAT way, how refreshing it was to read a few articles that seem to have stuck out at me over the course of the past few weeks.

All echoing the same thing.
ORIGINALITY
 
Scary as it may be, although there may be etiquette in social media, and there may be ways that could improve your chances of building awareness of what you’re trying to say, and influencing your audience, is there REALLY a right and wrong way to behave on social media?
I think we tend to forget that Social Media is exactly that… it’s SOCIAL. Stop trying to “learn” how to behave on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn, and rather just be yourself.  Imagine the social media environment to be exactly the same as being at a party with a number of people you don’t know, you may have met, you would like to get to know – and think about how you behave. You wouldn’t introduce yourself  and then immediately say, “hi… why don’t you buy what I’m selling”… (or maybe you would… but then I probably wouldn’t talk to you…). You’d take the time to get to know people, strike up conversation (yes, even if it is about the weather at first…). You’d perhaps find out from people you know / resources you have,  about the person you would like to get to know – and when you strike up a conversation, you’re informed.
We speak to people who are interesting to us. People that give us reason to want to talk to them. Not people who dominate, order us around, over-talk, over-sell. So why should the Social Media world (and Twitter in particular) be any different?
So if you’re new to the social world, observe, experiment but most of all – be unique. Be original. Take note of the etiquette surrounding social media – and take note of the things that annoy or attract – but do not become so obsessed with how to behave, that you completely forget the reason you’re there:  To get to know businesses and people, and to have other businesses and people get to know you.
Try new things. Experiment with applications. If you like it – you like it. There’s nothing wrong with it. There may be people with loads of opinions as to why you shouldn’t like it – and that’s OK. But it doesn’t prescribe how your social media behaviour needs to be drafted.
Don’t forget your inquisitive spirit – observe, remain unique and grow.

We’re inspired by iPhoneography SA

iPhoneography SAWe’ve been inspired recently by a phenomenon taking the mobile world by storm, called iPhoneography. Doing what it implies, iPhoneography is the taking of photographs using your iPhone – and playing with visuals to create beautiful shots of every-day life, and Marc Forrest (@marcforrest / www.marcforrest.com) has taken it 1 step further and has introduced some iPhoneography exhibitions that allow anyone and everyone to have the chance to enter their photos into a competition to be displayed at various iPhone stores and venues throughout South Africa.

Why not check out what Marc is doing at his iphoneographySA.com website or by connecting with him on Twitter.