The show is owned by Ann Hawkins, Business Growth Specialist and founder of The Inspired Group.

Ann and Eric Swain were co-presenters from Show 1 - 67

What happened to Ann and Eric?

Ann has been commissioned by Pearson Plc to write New Business: Next Steps with Ed Goodman of The Cambridge Business Lounge. This is aimed at businesses between one and five years old and is due to be published in October 2014 - if they meet the deadlines!
Eric is satisfying more and more clients at Equinet Media and while they are both still fascinated by the world of social media they decided to hand over the reins to guest presenters who can bring new ideas to the show.

Guest Social Media Show Presenters

 - Anna Lawlor

Co-Director of Social i Media, Anna is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with 15 years’ experience. Anna was previously editor of The Financial Times Business’s flagship investment title and has been published extensively in the majority of UK national newspapers. She is an experienced journalist, editor, commissioning editor, proof reader, copywriter and all-round ‘safe pair of hands’ for all types of content delivery.

She is currently a contributor to the Guardian Media Network, a commissioning editor for The Guardian’s Social Media Marketing series and blogs on Medium.com about digital media and the future of journalism.

Link in with Anna Lawlor and follow her on Twitter.

 - Anna Marsden 

The other half of Social i Media, Anna, has been compelled by technology-enabled communication since writing her Masters’ thesis on Identity in Cyberspace in 2004. Anna is a member of the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) Social Media Council and as a PTLLS-qualified trainer and a Hootsuite Certified Social Media Professional, she thrives on sharing knowledge which is actually implementable.

Having gained her ITQ in Social Media , Anna advocates working alongside clients to best achieve their aims and objectives using new technologies. Anna has trained marketeers from Cambridge Network, financial PR specialists and C-suite level professionals from small businesses and charities across the UK.

Link in with Anna Marsden, or follow @SocialiMediaUK for all things #SocialMedia #ContentMarketing #PR.

Ann Hawkins

With 25 years in business to call on I mentor business owners who want to create something special. I’m insatiably curious about how businesses and people work and always keen to explore new ideas. Business has changed and so have I. The way social media has changed the relationships between businesses and customers is a major part of the strategy work I do with businesses.

As well as this show I’ve had four years of presenting on The Business Hub - the weekly radio show that is designed to help anyone in business succeed and run Google Hangouts.

If you want to ask me  a question you’re welcome to email me, find me on my own website  or catch me on Twitter @AnnHawkins or on Linkedin

Bevis Neil Moynan ‏@BMoynan

“@AnnHawkins oozes a combination of warmth, empathy class and knowledge presenting #TheBusinessHub”

Eric Swain

 

Eric was born in a little country West of the UK called America. He admits this knowing full well some of you may have mixed feelings about it.

With a background in marketing strategy, social media and mobile technologies, he helps clients make meaningful sense of the brave new world where the customer controls the business ecosystem like never before. He’s been knocking about the place for the past 20 years as a consultant, agency head, director, head of marketing or sales (or both) for companies from tech startups and mobile app developers to brewers and vending machine brokers.

Once described as “smart, good-looking, athletic, persuasive and brilliant” on an anonymous feedback form he found, Eric is enthusiastic about real, honest communication and enjoys writing his own online bio whenever he gets the chance.

Until they tire of him he remains Client Services Director at Equinet Media, an inbound and content marketing agency of no small reputation.

Feel free to take issue with this bio by chasing Eric down here @ericswain, here LinkedIn, or here Social Media Show.

 

Ann’s social networking story

I call it social networking because that’s what I do. I network and ask questions and cause a ruckus and connect people. I swear and I laugh and I speak my mind and have fun. 

I was introduced to blogging by the inimitable @LloydDavis in 2005 and so had already built up a head of steam and 1,000 + readers by the time I started using Twitter in January 2009. About that time I transferred from Blogger to WordPress with the Inspired blog.

Twitter opened up a whole new world of people to connect with and I love the fact that a photographer in New York whose work I admire and tweet about, will recommend my mentoring work and send out links to my blog because he likes what I do. We’d probably never have met without Twitter and will probably never meet in the flesh but we’re friends and comfortable enough to insult each other, much to the amusement of our followers.

This is just one story of many great experiences I’ve had on Twitter and I’m still stunned that over 3,000 people seem to like what I do there and many have become friends and clients. I can honestly say that my use of Twitter and LinkedIn has been responsible for a huge increase in my business and is now providing my son with a part-time income as he trains to be a scuba diver in Mexico! 

When LinkedIn loosed its stays and allowed the hoi polloi to join I found another way to connect with people and created The A-Z of Business Success radio series just by asking questions and inviting people to share their ideas. This also brought a huge surge of interest in my business and although its over two years old I still get new subscribers every day. We also helped a lot of businesses launch new products. It's been a lot of fun talking about business in all sorts of different ways.

Like many people I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook and pay lip service with a page for The Inspired Group.

I’m not an evangelist, expert, guru or ninja in Social Media but I know how to help small businesses decide if they should be using it as part of their business growth plan and, if they do, how to avoid the pitfalls and snake oil sales people who are flooding this market.

Because I network and I’m confident about talking to a lot of people I’m often mistaken for an extrovert. I’m not. I’d rather talk about you than me.

Talk to me on Twitter @AnnHawkins, on LinkedIn and Google Plus. Join The Inspired Group on LinkedIn and Facebook, join the Social Media Show community on Google Plus - whatever suits you.