CentreO Blog

In celebration of the New Year there are many vibrant festivities happening in Hong Kong over the days to come.

First Day of Lunar New Year – January 31st: Chinese New Year Night Parade

What: An abundance of imaginatively decorated floats will parade down the streets, expect drums, dragons and lots of drama. The parade will wind through the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui, with traditional Chinese costumes as well as international troupes from all over the world performing their native dances.
Time: 8:00pm – 9:45pm
Where: Tsim Sha Tsui

February 1st: Chinese New Year Fireworks
What: See boats pack the harbour and people thronging the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, particularly the Avenue of Stars, the event is an extended version of Hong Kong’s daily Symphony of Lights show, many people rent a boat to get a perfect view from the harbour. If you’re heading to the waterfront, you’ll need to get there early, as it fills up quickly.
Time: 8:00pm
Where: Tsim Sha Tsui

February 2nd: Lunar New Year Races
What: Try your luck at the horse-racing track, the Sha Tin race-track will be adorned with lanterns and there will be a lion dance. For race fans, one of the major attractions is the Chinese New Year Cup.
Time: 11am
Where: Sha Tin

 Have a Happy New Year!

We have all heard how beneficial networking can be to a small business. However, with the growing number of online networking platforms, we may be starting to ignore the benefits of face-to-face communication.

 We would like to draw your attention to a recent survey that highlights the surprising number of ways in which a small business can benefit from attending face-to-face networking events.

Benefit one: Filling in skill gaps

The survey was held across the UK and included over 430 networkers.

As 87% did admin to looking for leads and referrals, 52% said they also used networking events to find other businesses to collaborate with and 44% said they provided a useful support network.

There seems to be a growing trend among small businesses to work with other small businesses rather that hire employees. This gives them a chance to fill in any existing skill gaps and potentially take on bigger contracts.

Benefit two: Self-improvement and motivation

Nearly 60% of survey participants answered that they networked to learn new ideas and a quarter gained confidence and motivation from networking. A lot of networking events these days also include mini-workshops, discussion groups or expert lectures. This provides wonderful opportunities for people to come up with new ideas for their businesses, whilst meeting new contacts at the same time.

Benefit three: Socialising (in addition to networking)

A notable side-effect of the recession has been the increase in the numbers of people running a business from home. It minimizes the overheads and gives startups a better chance of success. But there is also a downside, as by working at home you miss out on that essential office banter and communication. And that can make you feel isolated. So networking events can help you break out of the routing, see some new faces and share business experiences.

For full details of the business networking events benefits survey, visit:

www.findnetworkingevents.com/survey

 

 

Facebook announced a slight tweak to the News Feed algorithm.

What does it mean? From now on you will see more “text-only” posts from friends in your News Feed and less text-only posts from Pages (as Facebook noticed that text-only posts from Pages did not get much engagement)

Why it’s good: Facebook will push more “link-share” posts from Pages – which is great for promoting your website or blog.

What is a “link-share” post?

If you have seen posts that have an image as well as the title and description post – then you were looking at a “link-share” post.

How to create a “link-share” post?

Add a link to your status update. The image with the title and description should appear automatically. Congrats, you’ve created a “link-share” post. Now you can delete the link in the status box, as the image and description below are now clickable.

Here’s what Facebook had to say about this recent change:

“The best way to share a link after this update will be to use a link-share. We’ve found that, as compared to sharing links by embedding in status updates, these posts get more engagement (more likes, comments, shares and clicks) and they provide a more visual and compelling experience for people seeing them in their feeds.”