Social Media Portal

Matt Watts from Pioneer Business Systems on digital and social media marketing

Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your name and what do you do there at Pioneer Business Systems?

Matt Watts (MW): I?m Matt Watts and I am the digital marketing manager here at Pioneer Business Systems. I look after all of our online presences such as websites, social media channels and online advertising activities, such as PPC. I also handle all of the reporting on each of these areas.

SMP: Briefly, tell us about Pioneer Business Systems and how is it connected to 4Com?

MW: Here at Pioneer Business Systems we provide business phone systems to UK SMEs, by using the savings we can make on calls, lines and broadband to fund a new feature-rich system so that it doesn?t cost them any more than they are already paying.

Pioneer Business Systems is part of the 4Com group of companies, one of a number of subsidiaries providing telecom services to UK SMEs.

SMP: When was the company founded, how many people work there and how is it funded?

MW: 4Com was founded by Daron Hutt, our chairman and managing director, in 1995.  We now employ over 180 people; the majority of which are based at our Head Office in Christchurch, Dorset and the remainder are field based so that we can install and support our customers more quickly.

SMP: What does your role include there at Pioneer Business Systems and what does a typical day look like?

MW: In my role I?m responsible for all of Pioneer?s online assets and activities, so things like the website, social media channels and our PPC activity. A typical day for me will start by checking my emails and having a brief look over user stats from the previous day to see how we performed and where that sits within our overall performance. One of the great things about my role is the variety, some days I?ll be in discussions about new website projects, others I?ll be writing content and others will be focussed around analysing data to see if there?s better ways we can be doing things to provide a better user experience.

SMP: Tell us more about your office call game Captain Call Dare Challenge , when did it launch and why did you create it?

MW: Captain Call Dare launched at the start of December with the aim to make office phone calls far more interesting. It came about because we recognised that office phone calls probably aren?t the most interesting thing in anybody?s day, but at the same time they?re unavoidable, so we decided to create something to make them a more fun part of your day.

As part of our recent re-brand we?ve developed on the series of characters (or ?dudes? as we call them), so the Captain seemed like a natural step when we were thinking about how to design and build the game.

SMP: Who is it targeted at, how can they get involved and what are the objectives?

MW: The game is targeted at people who are office-based and have to deal with office phone calls, either incoming or outgoing, or conference calls on a fairly regular basis. You can get involved by heading to the website. The idea is that you can play Captain Call Dare on internal calls then share your score with your colleagues via social media, or challenge them directly using the ?Challenge a Friend? feature that appears when you finish your game. 

The overall objective is just to make office phone calls more fun and to breathe some life into what can be a fairly dry topic.

SMP: When does the challenge end and what do you hope the outcome will be?

MW: We?ve created this without a set end date, in fact we plan to update it on a fairly regular basis. For example, we?ve already got ideas for a Valentine?s update and an Easter update. With this kind of game, we didn?t feel the need to set and end date as people will always need ways to make internal calls more interesting.


SMP: What are the challenges that you?ve encountered and how are you overcoming them in what you have been doing so far at Pioneer Business Systems?

MW: The main challenge for us is making our industry more interesting for our audience. If you look at the business telephony marketplace there are plenty of fairly uncreative, dull websites that don?t live long in the memory and make it hard to differentiate brands from one another. We?ve overcome that with our re-brand, the re-working of our website and with creative content such as Captain Call Dare. The website leans on video content, the main business phone systems page is designed to be a little nod to the old-school phone and the whole website is designed to be a far more interactive than just stock imagery and text.

SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far?

MW: This may sound obvious, but seeing it work. We?ve seen time on site increase significantly since we set the new site live, as well as a number of our other key metrics being vastly improved. We?ve substantially improved the number of visitors to the site and the amount of business enquiries it generates. So it?s been a great success so far.

SMP: What do you think is going to be the most interesting aspect regarding digital or the next 12 to 18-months and why?

MW: For me, it?s the increase in the personalisation of search results.  We?ve already seen Google present different results based upon where you are, and we know they?re starting to differentiate based on device (e.g. only mobile friendly sites being shown/ given preference from mobile search). I see this continuing to expand leading to greater variation in search results, particularly beyond the top 3-5 results.

SMP: What are your top five predictions for digital marketing and social media for the next 12 to 18-months?

MW replies with:

• Increase in the frequency of Google?s algorithm updates.  I see them being smaller, but more frequent changes.
  
  
• Less content, better targeting. Companies will create less, but spend more time and money appropriately targeting what they produce.
  
  
• More brands attempting to display genuine personality across all media, but especially social.
  
  
• A continuing move to one experience across all devices for greater brand consistency. Towards the end of the 18-months, this will need to include wearable tech as an important factor.
  
  
• Social Media platforms trying to do more to appear secure and prevent hacking.

SMP: What are your top overall five digital marketing and social media tips?

• Stop asking ?Will this help us sell?? start asking ?How does this help/engage my audience?? the results will speak for themselves.
  
  
• Decide what your brand?s tone of voice is and carry it across all media.
  
  
• Try to engage more with your customers via social media. Getting them to engage can be tough in some industries, but if they do you must interact with them.
  
  
• If your website isn?t mobile friendly, it needs to be. If it isn?t, don?t be surprised if you?re website doesn?t show in the results when the user is searching on a mobile device.
  
  
• Don?t be afraid to be a disseminator of information rather than just a creator.  If someone has something you think your audience will be interested in, share it. As an example, we recently shared a great BBC piece on 5G networks as we knew our audience would be interested in it.

SMP: Best way to contact you and Pioneer Business Systems?

MW: The best way to contact us would be via our website and for me personally via LinkedIn.


SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?

MW: Crunchy Nut Cornflakes for breakfast and a ham sandwich for lunch.

SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?

MW: I made gingerbread Christmas trees for the team last week. They turned out pretty well, which was surprising!

SMP: If you weren?t working at Pioneer Business Systems what would you be doing?

MW: I like what I do, so as dull as it seems, probably a digital marketing role elsewhere!

SMP: When / where did you go on your last holiday and why?

MW: My wife and I went to Florida. I got the chance to go out there when I was younger and loved it but she had never been so we spent a couple of weeks travelling around various parts of the Sunshine State.

SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?

MW: Check emails, followed closely by our social media accounts just to make sure we?re on top of everything.

SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?

MW: I?d have to go with telepathy. It would be helpful in my role to know what people were thinking!


Interview conducted in February 2015, see @pioneerbusiness and @4complc for the latest.

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