Matt Cummings from Devon-based Webrecruit.co.uk talks about how his company put Google Adwords to work

This podcast was recorded at a Wired West event at the University of Exeter on 25th June 2008.

Advice from TBX1′s ‘Reverse Dragon’s Den’ panel in Plymouth, June 2008

This podcast was recorded on June 20th 2008 at the Future Inn in Plymouth and featured a panel of local businessmen taking questions on what the current credit crunch means for small businesses.

The Plymouth panel comprised • Richard George of Scream-IT • Damon Leszner of Pacific Staff • Joseph Louie of The Astor Hotel • Barry Cole of Riviera International Conference Centre and was chaired by Jeremy Filmer-Bennett of the Devon and Cornwall Business Council.

The event was set up and hosted by The Business Exchange .

Thanks to everyone who has supported and contributed to the G2B@podcast over the last six months. It’s been enjoyable and it’s now time to move on to more focused things!

Do visit us at www.mukaumedia.co.uk and at www.mukau.co.uk and keep in touch!

Its G2B@#19 – the business networking podcast for Devon and Cornwall, and the times they are a-changin’

This week, we’re podcasting from the Eden Project and having a re-think about the Devon and Cornwall business networking events listing.

In the news there’s a marketing job at St.Michael’s Hotel Falmouth (or St. Michael’s Hotel Falmouth,- depending on which version you prefer), a quick review of A1 Business forum and an intro for Business For Breakfast Southwest networking.

This week’s feature – how to get your online reputation under control with the ‘mu:kau 5-point guide: 1) Buyers trust other buyers, not you 2) Monitor what’s being said about you 3) Make it important and make someone responsible 4) Respond! 5) Be pro-active – encourage your customers to tell you what you’re doing right and wrong in YOUR space, not someone else’s!

And remember, bad reviews are acts of punishment. The crime isn’t the grubby hotel room or the dud product – the crime is not listening!

We give the ‘not listening’ award this week to 3 mobile for not listening. Cost saving devices like Indian call centers full of people trying in vain to make sense of problems in a second language while your customer turns purple with rage = not listening.

This week’s recommendation is Chris Seidel’s ‘Poor Person’s Image Mapper’ – thanks for that, Chris, wherever you are. You can see the results here.

And a hello to Sam from The Works in Cornwall – and welcome to podcasting

So what’s on your bedside table? This is how the books stack up in our house:

Sam’s side: something or other by The Dalai Lama, ‘Warwick, Kingmaker’ by some old timer, ‘The Long Tail’ Chris Anderson, ‘The Sound of Laughter’ Peter Kay, ‘Full Moon’ Peter Light, ‘Podcasting for Dummies’ (unfinished – no, unfinishable), ‘Brave New World’ Aldous Huxley.

Clare’s side: ‘Wherever You Go, There You Are’ Jon Kabat-Zin, From Here to Longevity Mitra Ray, ‘The History of Love’ Nicole Krauss, ‘The Belvedere Accords’, ‘Wild Swans; Jung Chang, ‘A Quiet Belief in Angels’ R.J.Ellory, ‘A Friend Of The Family’ Lisa Jewell, ‘Time’s Arrow’ Martin Amis and ‘Tricks Of The Mind’ Derren Brown. Whew.

What does your bedside table say about you??

Music from the most excellent and now legendary Sinister Dexter with ‘Chasing the Clouds Away’.

• Why we’re not going to be listing networking events for the immediate future

• How the G2B@podcast will be changing

• Online Reputation Management – why it matters and what you can do about it

• What’s on your bedside table

• Networking news

• Who’s not listening? The great SPAM ‘unsubscribe’ game

Don’t forget, you can take part with voicemail comments on any of the above – and use our voicemail to promote your business. Free. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. All you have to do is pick up the phone, dial 01752 548771 and tell who you are, what you do and what great offers or products you’ve got on offer.

And if you’re nervous calling to promote yourself and your business ask yourself this question: what would Richard Branson or Duncan Bannatyne do?

[Yesterday, I got some work by just by sidestepping my nerves and picking up the phone to call someone organising an upcoming event. "Are you planning to podcast the keynote speeches?" "Um.. no, hadn't thought about it" "Would you like to?" "Yes, actually"]

Jeremiah’s Journey are looking for 30 volunteers to run on May 25th to help with fundraising. It’s a great charity and it depends entirely on dontations to carry out the great work it does, so if you’ve got legs and you know how to use them, let Sarah Wilson know on 01752 763666.

Fresh from Freezing Tavistock Town footie club, it’s Show#18 of the G2B@podcast! “Put your f—- studs down, fatty” was our favourite quote that didn’t make it onto this podcast.

It’s show # 18 and we’ve thrown it together in one take standing in the freezing night watching football because we’re sooo short on time. In this show we’re talking to people about ‘Online Reputation Management’ – what it is and why they should be thinking about it. We ask Alastair Banks of Optix Solutions in Exeter what he thinks about ORM and pay a visit to a really nice Ecademy Cornwall meeting to find out what Andy Coote of Bizwords, Dan Turner of Red Sugar and Kath Marsh of Atlantic FM think about ORM.

We’re also lucky enough to have had a conversation with Nancy Williams of TigerTwo - a specialist consultancy set up to help businesses learn about and manage their online reputations. Despite our rather nasty Skype connection, Nancy’s insights still make great sense and I hope we’ll be hearing more from Nancy in the future.

And I forgot to mention this in the show, but 5 minutes after making a post to this blog about ‘online reputation management’ last week, I got an email from ReputationHQ – a US company who make software for people to monitor their online reputations. I should have known they’d be in touch – at least it proves they know what they’re doing. Let’s set a trap: “Hey, Jeff, show our listeners you’re listening!” (watch for comments, below..)

And here are some tips we didn’t mention in the show – I must remember to talk about this next time, it’s really, really important.

Thanks to David Polkinghorne or David’s Healing Farm, Mike Kevern of MK Consultancy and Mary Lunnen of Dare to Blossom for your comments and well done for taking the time to promote yourselves – for free! All you had to do was call 01752 548771, and it didn’t hurt a bit, did it?

Call us with your views on 01752 548771 or via email at g2b@mukaumedia.co.uk