Fork 'andles! Happy birthday Sookio Ltd
Sookio Ltd turned four at the weekend and we've only just had time to stop and celebrate!
It's been a busy old week, with my talk at The Inspired Group on how to manage your time and beat procrastination when running a small business, plus a trip to Norwich to be interviewed by Keri Lambden for the Web Heroines podcast. And I spent Tuesday evening in a pub in Euston, giving a bitesize version of the Sweet Retweets workshops on writing for social media to the Social Media London meetup group.
Let's have a quick look back at the major projects we've been working on over the last year and think about what's coming next.
We were delighted to start working with Lürzer's Archive at the start of 2012. We look after the web content and social media for this prestigious magazine for the advertising industry, also known as 'the world's most stolen magazine'. The fabulous Rhia Chohan is working on the project full time, producing features and looking after sections like Inspiration and Ads of the Week.
We also run the social channels - a Facebook page which has leapt up by 33% to nearly 25k followers, a Twitter feed which has increased by 40% since we took over and a LinkedIn group. This isn't owned by us and had lain idle for quite a while until we started posting and now engagement has leapt up and members have increased by 44%. We've also set up a channel for Pinterest to make the most of the fact that this is a very visual product.
We love working with London digital agency cScape. The Toshiba We Love Stories project wrapped up in October 2011, and it was a real eye-opener working with the NFTS and such talented students on this Europe-wide contest to produce a viral film. And we're continuing the relationship with cScape through regular consultancy with leading publisher Hodder & Stoughton, helping them craft their digital and social strategy.
Onespacemedia have asked us to become an associate of the company so of course we accepted like a shot. We've worked with them on content and copy for the new Cambridge Enterprise website and are currently helping with the new website for Imperial Innovations. We also worked with them on the campaign for the beautiful new book, The Cambridge Phenomenon: 50 Years of Innovation and Enterprise. We looked after the social media side and produced some of the content for the website. Very proud to see our name in print in the final copy!
We've known radio presenter Angie Greaves for some years now, since I was editor on the Magic FM website. We got talking again when we were judges on the Plan UK blogging competition Blog 4 Girls. I'm helping her develop her online presence and work with her on projects which are separate to Magic.
Our relationship with SEO gurus Cambridge Web Marketing Company is going strong, with us producing regular Google AdWords and SEO-focused articles each month. I'm still writing on digital, social and marketing for Media Week's Wall Blog (although have less and less time to do this with the Sweet Retweets blog to keep up!). And we're busy tucking into a major copywriting job with examination board OCR.
Non-profit organisations
We've also given a lot of time to non-profits, such as the excellent hub for the creative industries in Cambridge and around, CamCreative, and TEDxGranta, for which we curated the content of a whole evening on a theme of Telling Stories in September 2011 and played a big part in the Alive & Kicking event in March 2012. As well as helping define the scope for the day, finding speakers, writing press releases, our main role was looking after the social media side.
I've been acting as a mentor for some students at Anglia Ruskin University, which has been very rewarding. They're all very talented people but it can be hard getting a break in the industry nowadays. Particularly when this whole idea of unpaid internships is becoming commonplace (note to self - don't get into a rant about this). So I'm doing what I can to offer advice, find work opportunities and connect them with relevant people.
What next for Sookio?
Well, we're looking to expand. We've got an excellent small team of editors specialising in different areas, so let's generate more work for them. Let's shape the concept of Sweet Retweets and help everyone from charities, startups and small businesses to global organisations to write brilliantly for social media. Let's carry on producing top-notch editorial services for all our lovely clients. And let's enjoy it while we're at it. Cheers!
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