How B-DACS’ Digital Graduate is Moving the Company Forward

Last October, B-DACS took on Rob Dickie through Glasgow City Council’s Digital Graduate Internship Scheme. Initially brought in on a short-term contract, Rob has now managed our website, social media channels and digital marketing strategy for a full year, helping B-DACS move forward in the digital age. In this post, he explains what he’s done in his first year in the role and the impact it’s had on the business.

‘I joined B-DACS through the Digital Graduate Internship Scheme. As well as helping recent graduates into employment, the scheme was designed to inspire local businesses to generate real returns through social media and their website. While most small businesses now have some kind of online presence, it’s much harder to find those that are exploiting it to its full potential.

‘When I started with B-DACS, the company was in the process of redeveloping its five-year-old website. The old site looked dated and there was no way to edit any of the text. If you went by the information online, B-DACS was still based at the Drummond family home, which it hadn’t been for two years! When I was researching the company, I had to make a couple of panicked phone calls with the scheme’s organisers to confirm I wouldn’t be working out of a house in Uddingston!

‘That situation illustrates how important it is to keep your website up to date. If I’d been a potential customer or someone who had seen a traditional job ad, I might well have been put off by the address. That was one reason I was keen to make sure the new website had a fully-functional content management system, as any modern website really should.

‘My other motivation was that I didn’t want the website to be just a place where people could find our (hopefully correct) contact details. To generate business, it needed to be visible to people looking for our services and contain valuable content to make sure they kept coming back.

‘As well as creating informative pages to outline our key services, I started writing regular blog posts and case studies to really go into detail about specific topics related to our work. I also do a lot of work in search engine optimisation, making sure our links appear near the top when you’re searching for something relevant on Google.

‘It’s all too easy to start producing content with the best intentions, only for it to tail off after a couple of months. So, we developed a long-term digital strategy and continue to update it depending on the needs of the business. Along with the work we’ve done on the website, we also have several social media channels, notably Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. We update them on a regular basis, so follow us to make sure you don’t miss anything.

‘My role has expanded over the year that I’ve been here and I’ve also taken more responsibility for PR and advertising. We’ve gained media coverage for stories as diverse as our successful office launch and a harrowing seagull attack. Our work in youth development has also attracted attention. We had a photoshoot for our Investors in Young People award and we’re currently getting filming done, both in the office and out on site, because of our work with Jobs & Business Glasgow. It’s great to be able to share these achievements through our blog posts and social media.

‘As a result of the work I’ve been doing, we’ve seen an increase in telephone and email enquiries and received positive feedback from customers, partners and suppliers. We feel that business will continue to grow, particularly as people are using the internet more and more to find the kind of services we provide. While most of our competitors haven’t fully embraced the digital market, we’re learning a lot about how best to manage our business online and setting ourselves up for the future.’

Finally, here are some interesting statistics from Rob’s first year with B-DACS:

• 172 people visited the new B-DACS website in December 2013, compared to 1,594 in July 2014
• Written 31 blog posts and 15 case studies, which can all be found on our website
• Gained 253 Twitter followers, 134 Facebook likes and 54 professionals following our page on LinkedIn
• Posted nearly 1,500 tweets since we launched the account
  

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