Christine, you finished your City & Guilds ITQ Social Media Certificate in April 2013, how has your business grown since?
I have two businesses:
- Tangram Marketing. As a marketing consultant since 1997, I was based in traditional marketing. Doing the social media course gave me the knowledge and confidence to expand the business so I could offer good social media and digital marketing advice as part of the marketing solution. The course opened my eyes to the variety of social media channels available and made me think carefully about how and why a business should select a particular channel based on their audience.
- The Late Breakfast is a networking group in Oxfordshire. Before the course, The Late Breakfast was using social media, but it was very scrappy. What I learnt from the course made us more structured, consistent and more successful.
“I can’t imagine where the businesses would be now, without the course – we certainly wouldn’t have grown as we have”.
Tell me more about Tangram Marketing.
Tangram Marketing’s ideal client is small, owner-occupied businesses with less than 20 employees. The owner has to buy into the need for marketing – both financially and personally as, particularly if they want to use social media, they will have to be prepared to allow followers to know the people behind the brand.
Ideally, I will work as a regular, ongoing part of the business. I will always start by putting together a strategic marketing plan (could be 1 page or more) and will either implement the plan myself or manage the implementation. I like to be involved in the implementation to start with as it allows me to get to know the client base and makes me more informed about the audience. I will then often train internal staff or use trusted associates to continue the implementation.
Can you remember why you chose our course?
Well, of course, I knew Mary through networking. I was confident Mary would provide me with a supportive learning environment which would help with the fear factor – it was scary getting back into learning as well as learning something new! I realised it would be challenging, but I knew I could complete the course in the right sort of learning setting.
So 2017 – what are your aims for this year?
I want to build on the digital marketing / social media services and support I provide. I can see a great need for it and I am being approached more and more for help.
Contact Details
You can contact Christine:
M: 07968 957977
T: 0118 952 6992