Business

Lee Fuller and Ali Gallop (on top of van) at Marble Construction in Farnborough
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Doing the Bizzle for businesses on Facebook

By Tim Harris
February 01, 2012

TWO entrepreneurs from Farnborough are currently touring the area in a camper van to help local businesses get more in touch with Facebook.

Former school pals Lee Fuller and Ali Gallop, who live in Farnborough Road, are visiting companies in their 1981 Bedford Camper Van on their ‘Social Bizzle UK Tour 2012’.

Lee, 28, and Ali, 27, plan to help businesses improve their marketing via the social media website, free of charge.

Lee said: “We hope to help open people’s eyes to the ways Facebook can help marketing for their business.

“Thousands of small businesses are already on Facebook, but many struggle to use it effectively. We basically teach them how to use it as a powerful marketing tool to help win new customers.

“It can also help them be more interactive with customers.”

The former Cove School pupils are touring one business every two weeks in the Farnborough, Aldershot and Fleet area.

When asked about the thinking behind the camper van - or as they have called it, the ‘Bizzle Bus’ - Lee said: "If we are pulling up in an Audi A4 or a Ford Focus it doesn’t have quite the same effect.

“It is our unique way of showing businesses what we are doing with Facebook.”

The Bizzle Bus’s first stop was Marble Construction, in Farnborough. Social Bizzle arrived at the crack of dawn and spent the day with the management team.

Stuart Wyeth, company director of Marble, said “The guys, in just a few hours, completely transformed our understanding of Facebook for business.

“They make it really simple to understand and we can’t wait to put the ideas into practice.”

Lee and Ali also provide online training tutorials, so companies they visit can carry on with Facebook after Social Bizzle have departed.

The Social Bizzle UK Tour started locally, but Lee and Ali have received such a strong response that they hope to take the Bizzle Bus further afield.

“We are going to make it UK-wide,” added Lee. “There is little restriction to where we could go. I want to take it global.”

More information about the tour can be found at www.facebook.com/socialbizzle.

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Social Bizzle - great idea guys. Well done - loved the web site; I normally can't be bothered watching marketing videos on web sites as most are dull - but I kept watching yours. I think that this shows that there is some really good creativity and substance behind what you are trying to do. I wish you every success.

Mind you - you haven't changed my ambition to be the last person on planet earth with no Facebook presence. I have been known to tweet however ;-)

pjt
03/02/2012 at 14:56

This is Lee from Social Bizzle. I just wanted to clarify the comments made by Pigfarmer on this article. We do indeed charge businesses for access to our online training (the pricing is soon to change).

However, this article is in relation to our UK Tour. Any winners of the tour get a free days training and 12 months FREE access to our online training product, so in fact the article is 100% true.

If you visit our Facebook page, you will see that.

Lee Fuller, Farnborough

Social Bizzle
02/02/2012 at 16:38

The article mentions that they want to help free of charge: "Lee, 28, and Ali, 27, plan to help businesses improve their marketing via the social media website, free of charge"

but on their website after looking, you find that its actually £495 per year if you look here www.socialbizzle.com/join-us/

The idea is great, and fair play to Lee and Ali for setting it up, and proving a service small businesses are crying out for, but mentioning that it is free is wrong (so to clarify my comment is directed at the article not the guys)

Pigfarmer, Farnborough
02/02/2012 at 14:28

This is refreshing! Local boys getting local businesses up to speed on social media. From what I understand, social media is the future. In some ways web 2.0 sites such as facebook are rekindling community involvement.

Alexkazam the magic man!
02/02/2012 at 12:08

It's great to see entrepreneurs from Farnborough getting it right. I for one could do with some Social Marketing help, how do I find out more? My carpentary business isn't as booming as it once was.