Steve Richards

Digital marketing background, having co-founded Swordfish in 1998.

MD of social media agency, Yomego since 2008. Launched the Social Media Reputation (SMR) service which provides data combined with actionable insight tailored to clients' marketing strategies and KPIs. The 'SMR score' benchmark is a popularity index which ranks brands alongside their competitors.

The opportunities (and pitfalls) of Google+ branded pages

The launch earlier this week of branded pages on the social network, Google+, will have registered on the radar on many marketers.

But is it worth them getting involved? And how should brands go about it?

by Steve Richards 09 November 2011 09:42am 1 comment

Will f-commerce succeed?

At the end of September, Magners announced that it is starting to sell limited edition cider directly via its Facebook page.

Asos was the first UK retailer to open a fully transactional Facebook store in January this year.

On the face of it, f-commerce seems to be taking off, so should brands be launching F-commerce stores?

by Steve Richards 12 October 2011 09:46am 7 comments

Five tips for using Facebook for customer service

If we get bad customer service online, we vote with our feet. We stop doing business with the company in question, or take action against it. We call it out on Facebook, Twitter and (in the famous case of United Airlines) we notoriously write songs about it.

Although most brands use social media to market themselves, relatively few provide really excellent customer service.

Here are my top five tips for getting customer service right on Facebook...

by Steve Richards 09 September 2011 09:30am 13 comments

Social media: what happens when the L-plates come off?

We’ve seen a real shift this year in the understanding of how social media can be integrated within consumer-facing organisations.

The conversation has moved on from ‘how do we get involved in social media’ to ‘which areas of the business do consumers expect to interact with us over social channels?’

Social marketing has evolved, brands have a clear focus on ROI, and the debate is altogether more sophisticated.

by Steve Richards 27 July 2011 10:11am 8 comments

Will Olympics sponsors make the most of social?

Billions are spent by global brands on sports sponsorship. Olympic sponsors will have to learn the lessons from last year's World Cup and make the most of social media to get value out of their sponsorship deals.

by Steve Richards 03 May 2011 11:42am 2 comments

Top 50 brands in social: seven key takeaways

What we learned from analysing the top brands in social media, and food for thought for brand owners starting to look at social reputation monitoring.

by Steve Richards 10 March 2011 10:20am 4 comments

The top 50 brands in social media

We've been charting the performance of the top 50 brands on social media (and looks at why some brands have done better than others), and there are some interesting results.

by Steve Richards 17 February 2011 09:31am 16 comments

Lessons in social media for universities

Despite Facebook having its roots in universities, the education sector has an uneasy relationship with social media.

by Steve Richards 14 February 2011 10:36am 6 comments

What your online reputation can tell you

Monitoring what your customers are saying about you online can help you develop a better product. However, some travel companies could do more to improve their online reputations.

by Steve Richards 18 October 2010 14:37pm 1 comment

How can brands use Facebook Credits?

The full introduction of Facebook Credits, and their availability (in the US at least) as gift vouchers in offline retailers, opens up a whole new world for brands on Facebook.

The early adopters are, as expected, social gamers: Facebook and Zynga settled their differences earlier this year to agree that players of Zynga games (such as Farmville) can use Facebook Credits to buy virtual goods.

The implications are enormous. Suddenly, Facebook offers a new revenue stream for brands, and has itself a sustainable revenue model that doesn’t rely on the fickle advertising market.

by Steve Richards 09 September 2010 09:14am 0 comments