Simon Hughes, Student, Staffordshire Business School
‘Conkers’ is a day out at an activity centre in Derbyshire, where a group of new Staffordshire University students spent a day during Welcome Week. The day is used to bring people out of their shell and get them involved with various activities that involve communicating and working as part of a team.
The day started out and there was not much interaction between each member of the group and when we arrived at conkers there was still very little interaction while waiting to be split into teams to take part in several activities throughout the day.
When the students were separated into teams, I could see how they were bonding and forming a rapport with their teammates. I strongly recommend this to any person looking to improve their team working skills plus it’s a great confidence booster. It will also help them to ‘find their voice’ to help with communication skills.
The first part of the day was mainly about the communication within their teams. They had to get a bucket of water through an obstacle course, without losing too much water and not letting it touch the ground.
All the teams seemed to have a lot of fun no matter what the weather.
The second activity of which the teams took part in, was aimed at helping them build their self-confidence and to believe in themselves with a high wire walk.
They also had a lower wire for those who had not got as much confidence.
The third activity the team took part in was called `bush craft` where they were split into smaller groups to build a shelter showing their ability to work together as part of a team.
They also had to build a fire under the instructor’s guidance, by gathering wood so that they could toast their marshmallows.
By the end of all the activities, it was apparent that all who took part gained something positive from their experiences. Team working skills and communication were improved and it also helped with their self-confidence.
for internet access. Therefore, it is a necessity for businesses to make sure their marketing is working as effectively as possible for mobiles. Geolocation is the ability to show where the mobile device, and the user of the device, are located using the built in GPS. The best thing about using geolocation data is that it knows where mobile users are in-real-time. Therefore, it enables businesses to create a tailored and relevant promotion to target these potential customers in a more effective way. For example, it can be used for presenting coupons or adverts to potential customers when they are in the same street. Geolocation can target users in a few different ways. However, the three most common are:-
If you only have a small marketing budget, social media can seem like an ideal way to promote your product or service. Twenty years ago marketers could only dream of having access to such a huge audience so quickly. However, where does one start?
why use Facebook if you’re primarily targeting a business-to-business audience? (Sometimes, there’s good reason to do so, but you need to know why). Spend time to make sure you know who your intended target audience is and what the key message is that you want to communicate with them. Only then can you identify and choose the communication methods which best fit your message and audience.
Know how to create synergy – try to use the same or similar content more than once if you can. So, if you write a blog or post something on LinkedIn, can you direct people to it via Twitter? Could you use the copy for some promotional material or a newsletter? When you put something on YouTube, how can you maximise its use? It’s pretty obvious, but not everyone does it. Encourage customers and staff to send in stories which you can promote. I’ve found that people get a buzz from seeing something they’ve submitted being used or published and it creates a virtuous circle and they submit more material….