Tuesday 9 April 2019

Tips on how to monitor social media success

Social media can play a vital role in marketing and spreading the word about your business. 

Learning how to measure social media success all begins with your core goals and what your business wants to achieve. Nobody but you can determine your own success without some sort of end goal in mind. These goals could revolve around increased engagement, new followers or increased referral traffic.

There are various social media analytics you can use to measure whether or not your efforts are paying off, this data gives you an insight into what people are responding to and engaging with on your social channels and you can then use this data to measure the growth and effectiveness of your social channels.


Each social platform has its' own analytics or insights tool:

Twitter uses Twitter Analytics
Facebook uses the Insights tab
Instagram uses the Insights tab

You can monitor many different aspects of your social media channels, but here are 6 we suggest you start with for marketing success!




Monitor follower growth 

Your total amount of followers represents the amount of people who have taken an interest in your business or content. Ideally, you should consistently grow your following. This means the content you’re sharing and the ways you’re engaging your audience need to be enticing enough to attract new followers.

Monitor likes, comments, share and reactions

Analysing how your audience reacts to the content you post and share is crucial, this will help determine whether your audience is interested in your current content and help you access what content to create in the future for maximum engagement.

Monitor engagement 

Knowing when your audience is most likely to engage with your content is important as it means you can post your content when your audience is the most active to increase your reach.

Determine your reach

Your reach combines the number of people you’ve reached both within and outside of your audience. When people engage with your content, their activity is usually shared with their connections, which increases your page’s reach.

Examine click rates 

Click rates help you understand how your followers engage with you, why they’re engaging, and what’s making them click on different links.

Track Referral Traffic from Social Media

For your business you will want to track your referral traffic from social media to see where people are before visiting your business’s website. Unlike the other metrics listed above, you’ll find your referral traffic data in your Google Analytics.

Social media isn’t easy and can be a big trial and error exercise but using these monitoring tools can help make sure you are on the right tracks.

If you are thinking about starting or growing a business and looking for advice, contact the Enterprise Hub team to find out more about our funded support on 0151 706 8113 or enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk



Thursday 4 April 2019

How Can Enterprise Hub Help You?

Enterprise Hub is the enterprise gateway for new business support in Liverpool City Region (Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley, Wirral, St Helens and Halton). The programme offers expert advice and support to those who are thinking about starting a business or in the early years of developing their business and looking to grow. The programme is  open to men and women and services are delivered via a partnership of expert enterprise support organisations.
For those thinking of starting a business you can receive support to:
  • Understand the process of starting a business
  • Research a business idea
  • Build a comprehensive business plan
  • Develop a marketing plan
  • Create financial forecasts to understand the costs of running your business and potential income
  • Identify sources of finance to get started
If you are running a business based in Liverpool City Region that has been registered and trading for 3 years or less you can receive advice on how to grow your business such as:
  • Developing a business growth strategy
  • Understand when and how to take on your first staff
  • Evaluate your marketing and develop further marketing skills
  • Review your finances and access development funds
  • Developing leadership skills
Whatever stage in your new business journey, you can get in touch with the Enterprise Hub team who can link you to local support to offer you expert support along the way.
Want to hear from people who have benefited from the programme to get a better idea? This link will take you to their stories. 
And if you feel ready to tap into support give our team a ring on 0151 706 8113 or drop a line to enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk.
Enterprise Hub is part funded by European Regional Development Fund and free to access. 

Tuesday 2 April 2019

Allan Dances Towards Success


Former Royal Navy rating Allan Gregory was working as a warehouse driver when he was signed off on long term sick. While he was off work he started helping his dance partner Jan by DJ’ing for her dance classes and realised he would like to do it for a full time job.

Allan decided to explore becoming self-employed, and turned to St Helens Chamber’s Start-up team and the Enterprise Hub for support to start his business JanAllan Dance Associates.



Allan Commented: “Myself and my dance partner Jan appear to be good at what we do and we get a lot of compliments when we dance. I love dancing and its great having a hobby as a job, what more could I want?

“That first year when I was sick and DJ’ing for Jan I thought, ‘I can do this, I can make a living’, so I went self-employed.

“Now I’m earning enough to live on and pay my mortgage. I don’t charge the earth to DJ but I’m making enough to live on. I can get up at half nine in the morning if I’m not teaching, and can work flexible hours. It’s absolutely fantastic and I love it.”

Allan met with a dedicated business start-up adviser who supported him with writing his business plan, and also attended the Chamber’s free ‘Understanding Enterprise’ workshops where he learnt the fundamentals of running a business.

He added: “The very beginning was brilliant it set my mind at ease, I had no idea how to do the books or anything like that or the legal side of things.

“Stella mentored me, she showed me how to do my tax returns and gave me the template for all my books. It was absolutely fantastic.”

JanAllan Dance Associates offers a range of entertainment including dance tuition, private dance lessons, mobile DJ, dance holidays and afternoon and evening socials.

Now in his second year of trading, Allan is looking to reach a younger market with his dance classes and has future plans to find his own dance studio.

“This year I have a valentine’s dance coming up which I hope will be a success. I also love the DJ side of the business, I have hit the right formula and play the right music because of the background in dance I know what will get people on the dancefloor.”

St Helens Chamber is part of Enterprise Hub, the enterprise gateway for business start-up support in Merseyside.  Offering expert advice and support to anyone thinking about starting a business including help to:

  • Understand the process of starting a business
  • Research a business idea
  • Build a comprehensive business plan
  • Develop a marketing plan
  • Create financial forecasts to understand the costs of running your  business and potential income
  • Identify sources of finance to get started

Enterprise Hub is funded by the European Regional Development Fund. For more information about the support available from St Helens Chamber to start a business, call 0845 340 9980, email startup@sthelenschamber.com, or visit http://www.sthelenschamber.com/startup