MSc Marketing at Salford Business School: One Year Later

Time flies and it seems to move faster when you keep yourself busy. Just what I've been doing ove the last 12 months: Keeping myself busy. 

It was a sunny but windy day of 2014 when Marta submitted her dissertation after a year of sleep depravation and thousands of hours of sitting down reading, summarizing, analyzing, writing, editing, reading and rewriting. Now that I rethink it I don't actually remember how weather was. Most likely rainy (sleep depravation times, remember). 

The day after the DD-day (Dissertation Deadline) I came back to the place I had been working as an intern, now as a full-time worker. For a person who's been living on internship salaries and zero-hour contracts, having a full-time position felt like a dream. Contract, holidays, salary over the minumum wage, travel expenses... the whole lot: the paradise of the postgraduate. 

It's been a year of hard work at Web Shop Direct: Getting used to the company, learning about the tools I use in my everyday, but also learning about the products and the sector. I not only need to choose the best plugin for my blog about tights or knowing how to analyse on Google Analytics the traffic coming to this blog, but also sharing interesting and useful content. So, yes, I've been learning about hosiery and, on the meantime, I've become a little bit of a Fashion victim. Ask me about Fashion trends or celebrities, I rule it. 

Grades came and I happily got a Distinction (Yay). Then Alex Fenton asked me to join the Little Chip Awards on the Placement/Aprenticeship category and (surprise suprise) I happened to win it. Yes, it's an award for being an intern, but I have always been a good intern (References can be provided on request). 

More recently our amazing website for pretty amazing bikinis and swimsuits has gone responsive and, luckily, UK Tights has also moved to a responsive design. Furthermore, a new online store for Fine lingerie sets and lovely nightwearis coming live very soon. As you can see I can't help myself: I like keeping myself busy and I couldn't ask for a better job (or a greater job place). 

I'm going to use my own recipe and creating a calendar of contents with posts for every month. Does this sound good to you? In the meantime, why don't you tell me (and whoever reads this) what did you do on your first year after uni? 

How Facebook has changed our lives in 10 years

Today Facebook is ten years old. Time flies. Why did you sign in? In my case, I just wanted to keep in touch with some foreign friends after my stay in Italy. Around 2010, being on Facebook became compulsory for people and for companies, too. Here there is the video Facebook has launched today. 

Life has change in ten years and, without realising, you have became more social thanks to Facebook.

Post by Facebook.

1. You are nobody without a Facebook profile. Few year ago, the million dollar question was "Aren't you on Facebook?" Indeed, even if they don't use it any more, almost everyone has a profile yet. Since your mother until that small pub o social centre in your neighbourhood. You know it isn't cool any more, but you still use it to gossip. I won't tell anybody. 

A Facebook user wishing Facebook a Happy Birthday (Source: Facebook)

2. You have so many friends you can't even recognise them. You aren't alone. They are not friends but acquaintances. Do you remember that friend of your friend who took a picture of you? Or that girl you met in a conference three years ago? Sometimes it becomes harder to recognise people, as it is a current trend to change your Facebook name for a pseudonym, apparently because they think Facebook won't spy you if you have a nickname. 

3. You hate receiving Facebook Messages. Everybody does, but it happens to be very usefull when you want to send a more informal email to an old friend or a colleage. I used to find Messages very useful as a substitute f Messenger, until I started to hat it, as some people don't understand midnight is not a good time to start a conversation on the chat. That is why its app is one of the most downloaded and hated. 

Some people don't share the celebration mood (Source: Facebook)

4. You know closer your friends (and acquaintances). Traditionally, religious and political opinions were left appart from regular conversations. Now timelines are packed with highly personal opinions. You can easily know if your friend is a cat or a dog person even if you don't use Instagram, as pictures of kittens and puppies are as popular are photos of babies. 

5..You go party or holidays to post it. Holiday photos are taken to be shared on Facebook.Social travellers look for wifi desperatelly when going abroad, so that all envy them. Going out is another version on this phenomenon, as it seems a cocktail cannot be enjoyed without sharing it with all your Facebook friends. 

Wishing Facebook a Hppy birthday and a soon recovery of "coolness", I still have a vital question: 

Does anybody knows what is a "poke" for?

What is the most effective Social Media network in Spain?

When doing business abroad, it is vital to have into account the similarities and differences in the choosing of Social Media networks. British people have a different behaviour than Spanish one. As I am Spanish, I have decided my first post will talk about which Social Media platform should be used to succeed in Spain. 

Source: mkhmarketing

Did you know Spain is the 5th country of the world in the use of Social Media? 

Apparently, Spanish enjoy building online relationships as much as they like establishing offline ones. So, if a British company wants to internasionalisate and decides to go to Spain, one of the first steps should be designing a Social Media plan. Another important detail should not be forgotten: Social Media pages should be translated into Spanish if Social Media strategy is focus in customers. 

Another interesting point is that the 60% of Spanish believe what their friends recommends online and only a 18% do not believe social recommendations, these figures meaning a high confidence of the Word-of-Mouth between Spaniards. 

So what Social Media shall be used in Spain?

It depends. It basically depends on the target, although there is a Social Media platform common for all ages in Spain: Facebook. According to Socialdente, 16 millions of Spaniards have a Facebook account. Facebook should definitely be imprescindible. Not convinced yet?. What if I tell you Facebook is the second most visited page in Spain? 

Source: Mashable

On the other hand, Twitter has become very popular, achieving 4,5 millions of accounts in 2012, which makes Spain the 3rd in the rank of World Twitter penetration (Source: Mashable), after Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. In my opinion, though, Twitter's penetration is quite important in the urban and most populated areas of the country, while other Social Media networks may be more influential in rural areas of Spain. Its users are, generally, young people and professional adults. Besides, the also high penetration of smarthpones in this country has definitely beneficed Twitter. 

What is Tuenti?

Source: Tuenti

If your target is very young, Tuenti should be your first choice, as it is very important in Spain. Maybe its popularity is the reason why Telefonica has recently acquired the 100% of the company, or maybe it is the fact that Tuenti is growing notably in the Americas market. Besides, Tuenti achieved 12 millions of users in 2011, 90% of whom are from 14 to 35 years old. 

What should I use to B2B communication?

Definitely LinkedIn. The 4th most important Social Media network in Spain is LinkedIn, having 2 million of users in Spain. Recruiting through LinkedIn is not very common between Spaniards, but it is often used as a professional agenda of contacts. Personally, I strongly believe LinkedIn has a huge potential in Spain. Time will tell.