SEO, Web Design & Marketing, High Wycombe

7 Social Media & SEO Tactics Businesses Will Adopt in 2012

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:40:59 -0500

What will happen in the year ahead? I’m no fan of making predictions, but there are some major social media tactics that we can expect to affect businesses in 2012. Some of these tactics already have been adopted by select companies, but this year we’ll see mass adoption of these tactics by businesses of all sizes.

1. Social Listening for Marketing Intelligence

Last year we saw a plethora of new technology platforms that moved social media monitoring and started crunching some sophisticated data to gauge sentiment to drive marketing campaigns.

In my view, 2012 will be a year where businesses will take a step forward from simply looking at company mentions, debatable “sentiments”, and arguable influencer scores, and instead move toward combining all disparate social data to form a marketing intelligence that drives future marketing campaigns. Quite a few tools are doing this already, but expect to see more.

Marketers will no longer be tongue tied when asked by C-suite “mentions on social media…so what?” Instead, platforms will help marketers make smarter marketing decisions based on social listening.

2. Facebook – Advertisers and Brands will Focus More on Profitability

With Facebook on pace for a billion users, playtime is over. Businesses had in the past put lot of emphasis on the somewhat superficial numbers like number of Facebook fans without taking into account the quality of that fan acquired. What we’ll see instead in 2012 is businesses focusing more on profitability and a laser-sharp ROI focus when it comes to Facebook contests, Facebook ads, and Facebook only promotion.

Businesses will also realize that there is more to Facebook than measuring a linear conversion path from a fan to a paid customer. Marketers will be open to measure non-linear path of ROI measurement like creating Facebook-only promos to drive offline traffic. Retailers are a classic example, where lots of buzz and Facebook-only promotions will be done to drive foot traffic into retail stores. Besides large retailers, we’ll see an increasing number of small and medium-sized businesses adopt this strategy.

Advertisers will start measuring their Facebook Ads campaigns based on profitability that either helps generate revenues or supports in some kind of cost savings. Brian Carter’s new book “The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money with Facebook” is an excellent resource.

3. Google+ - Pedal to the Metal

Google will aggressively roll out new features to Google+ and make Google+ pages more business-friendly. The biggest advantage Google has is its integration with other Google properties, like in its search engine results pages, in paid search ads, Google Reader, YouTube, etc.

Google also put a great internal focus on social last year by restructuring its employee bonus and salary structure based on Google’s success on social. This internal focus ensures that everyone inside the Googleplex thinks of social all the time. So, this internal focus with external push to consumers could make 2012 a year of Google+.

4. Quality Content

We all appreciate the importance of quality content – content that is engaging, relevant, and unique to the user.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen this mad rush (and budget) from companies to create content with the sole purpose of creating content for SEO. But we all know what happened to that with Google’s Panda update! So, in retrospect, Panda was a timely and much needed update from Google.

Instead, what we’ll see in 2012 is a more structured approach by businesses to create content that focuses on provides unique value to readers resulting in higher engagement levels with their community members. We’ll see a more holistic approach from businesses with content, whether it’s videos, how-to content pieces, or other types of content.

5. Community Building

As marketers get sophisticated with planning and measuring their campaigns, we’ll find businesses paying close attention to their existing community members. An increased emphasis will be placed on building an engaged community as opposed to simply amassing numbers. This means community managers must energize their community members as well as engage members for a variety of things like product development, market research, and special product discounts, to name a few.

Community building and management is all about people, content, and consistency. This tactic will be widely adopted in 2012 and will become an integral part of community management.

6. Social, Local, Mobile (SoLoMo)

SoLoMo – the social, local, and mobile triumvirate, will get a strong hold in 2012 with more integrated campaigns combining social media with local offers involving mobile devices. Essentially, socially advocated mobile content has the potential to boost brand loyalty, and this can boost sales among nearby on-the-go shoppers.

Top daily deals sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are perfect examples of this where they using deals to drive local sales. Foursquare is perfectly positioned for this SoLoMo tactic. We’ll see more local merchants signing up with Foursquare.

7. Social Media Drives SEO

Traditional on-page SEO factors will still hold true since it’s all about making your content search friendly, but what we’ll see in 2012 and beyond is strong social media sharing activities will drive SEO results. Last year we witnessed Google’s push to integrate social results into its SERP’s (and the newly launched Search Plus Your World update) and the Facebook-Bing partnership.

Ultimately, SEO will win because conversions will be higher (and relatively straightforward to measure) on organic search. As a result, more businesses will ensure closer collaboration between their search and social teams.

Summary

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the rapidly evolving social media and search landscape. Social and search are also closely intertwined so pushing on few tactics above will impact other tactics as well.

Over to you now: what other tactics do you think we’ll see businesses adopt in 2012?
Register now for SES London 2012, the Leading Search & Social Marketing Event, taking place 20-24 February, 2012. SES Conference & Expo features presentations and panel discussions that cover all aspects of search engine-related promotion. Hurry, early bird rate expires February 3!

via searchenginewatch.com

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7 Social Media & SEO Tactics Businesses Will Adopt in 2012

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:38:21 -0500

What will happen in the year ahead? I’m no fan of making predictions, but there are some major social media tactics that we can expect to affect businesses in 2012. Some of these tactics already have been adopted by select companies, but this year we’ll see mass adoption of these tactics by businesses of all sizes.

1. Social Listening for Marketing Intelligence

Last year we saw a plethora of new technology platforms that moved social media monitoring and started crunching some sophisticated data to gauge sentiment to drive marketing campaigns.

In my view, 2012 will be a year where businesses will take a step forward from simply looking at company mentions, debatable “sentiments”, and arguable influencer scores, and instead move toward combining all disparate social data to form a marketing intelligence that drives future marketing campaigns. Quite a few tools are doing this already, but expect to see more.

Marketers will no longer be tongue tied when asked by C-suite “mentions on social media…so what?” Instead, platforms will help marketers make smarter marketing decisions based on social listening.

2. Facebook – Advertisers and Brands will Focus More on Profitability

With Facebook on pace for a billion users, playtime is over. Businesses had in the past put lot of emphasis on the somewhat superficial numbers like number of Facebook fans without taking into account the quality of that fan acquired. What we’ll see instead in 2012 is businesses focusing more on profitability and a laser-sharp ROI focus when it comes to Facebook contests, Facebook ads, and Facebook only promotion.

Businesses will also realize that there is more to Facebook than measuring a linear conversion path from a fan to a paid customer. Marketers will be open to measure non-linear path of ROI measurement like creating Facebook-only promos to drive offline traffic. Retailers are a classic example, where lots of buzz and Facebook-only promotions will be done to drive foot traffic into retail stores. Besides large retailers, we’ll see an increasing number of small and medium-sized businesses adopt this strategy.

Advertisers will start measuring their Facebook Ads campaigns based on profitability that either helps generate revenues or supports in some kind of cost savings. Brian Carter’s new book “The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money with Facebook” is an excellent resource.

3. Google+ - Pedal to the Metal

Google will aggressively roll out new features to Google+ and make Google+ pages more business-friendly. The biggest advantage Google has is its integration with other Google properties, like in its search engine results pages, in paid search ads, Google Reader, YouTube, etc.

Google also put a great internal focus on social last year by restructuring its employee bonus and salary structure based on Google’s success on social. This internal focus ensures that everyone inside the Googleplex thinks of social all the time. So, this internal focus with external push to consumers could make 2012 a year of Google+.

4. Quality Content

We all appreciate the importance of quality content – content that is engaging, relevant, and unique to the user.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen this mad rush (and budget) from companies to create content with the sole purpose of creating content for SEO. But we all know what happened to that with Google’s Panda update! So, in retrospect, Panda was a timely and much needed update from Google.

Instead, what we’ll see in 2012 is a more structured approach by businesses to create content that focuses on provides unique value to readers resulting in higher engagement levels with their community members. We’ll see a more holistic approach from businesses with content, whether it’s videos, how-to content pieces, or other types of content.

5. Community Building

As marketers get sophisticated with planning and measuring their campaigns, we’ll find businesses paying close attention to their existing community members. An increased emphasis will be placed on building an engaged community as opposed to simply amassing numbers. This means community managers must energize their community members as well as engage members for a variety of things like product development, market research, and special product discounts, to name a few.

Community building and management is all about people, content, and consistency. This tactic will be widely adopted in 2012 and will become an integral part of community management.

6. Social, Local, Mobile (SoLoMo)

SoLoMo – the social, local, and mobile triumvirate, will get a strong hold in 2012 with more integrated campaigns combining social media with local offers involving mobile devices. Essentially, socially advocated mobile content has the potential to boost brand loyalty, and this can boost sales among nearby on-the-go shoppers.

Top daily deals sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are perfect examples of this where they using deals to drive local sales. Foursquare is perfectly positioned for this SoLoMo tactic. We’ll see more local merchants signing up with Foursquare.

7. Social Media Drives SEO

Traditional on-page SEO factors will still hold true since it’s all about making your content search friendly, but what we’ll see in 2012 and beyond is strong social media sharing activities will drive SEO results. Last year we witnessed Google’s push to integrate social results into its SERP’s (and the newly launched Search Plus Your World update) and the Facebook-Bing partnership.

Ultimately, SEO will win because conversions will be higher (and relatively straightforward to measure) on organic search. As a result, more businesses will ensure closer collaboration between their search and social teams.

Summary

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the rapidly evolving social media and search landscape. Social and search are also closely intertwined so pushing on few tactics above will impact other tactics as well.

Over to you now: what other tactics do you think we’ll see businesses adopt in 2012?
Register now for SES London 2012, the Leading Search & Social Marketing Event, taking place 20-24 February, 2012. SES Conference & Expo features presentations and panel discussions that cover all aspects of search engine-related promotion. Hurry, early bird rate expires February 3!

via searchenginewatch.com

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Exhibiting at the Wycombe Business Expo 2011

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:36:31 -0400

Good news everyone! We will be exhibiting (as BeSeen Marketing) at the 2011 Wycombe Business Expo on Fri 28th Oct.

Visit http://www.wycombebusinessexpo.com for more information.

Look forward to seeing you there!

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BeSeen Marketing, Telephone Change, New Support System & other news...

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 10:14:27 -0400

Hello all!

Hope everyone’s keeping well. I’m writing this just before I jump on a plane for a week’s holiday. Looking forward to it immensely! I’m back in the office on the 12th of October but my colleague Hayley will be pleased to help out with any queries or problems that arise while I am away. You can contact Hayley or any of my other colleagues on the office line: 01494 678671.

In other news, plenty has been happening recently! Keep reading…

Telephone Number & The New Company

I setup “BeSeen Marketing Ltd” at the start of this year and our new website will be going live very soon (he says!). We’ll be sure to let everyone know when it is online so watch this space! As mentioned above, the BeSeen Marketing office landline is 01494 678671 (my old number 01494 259141 is no longer in use).

The main changes between Acuras Ltd and BeSeen Marketing are:

New offices - we’re now based in lovely Beaconsfield
New staff - we now have a full time account manager (Hayley) on board with us
Better processes - new systems and better processes means we’re more efficient and we can service all of our valued customers better

So as you can see, things are moving in the right direction and we’re excited about the future of the business. Thanks for being part of the journey!

New Support System

As part of on-going improvements to our business, we have introduced a new support system which helps streamline support requests with the minimum of hassle. For any support issues or change requests, customers can now email us on a designated email address and a ticket will be autoamtically created. The relevant staff member will be assigned to the ticket depending on whether it is a server issue for example or a change request / bug.

The great thing about the system (in our opinion) is that all communication can be done via email i.e. you can reply by email to a ticket comment alert and it will be logged on the ticket notes automatically.

We provide this support service inclusive of our web hosting packages but we also are starting to offer monthly / annual maintenance services which add even greater value to what we do. If you’d like to learn more, please drop me a line by email, phone or tweet me!

Anyway, that’s all for now! Look forward to catching up with you soon, and thanks for reading!

Jon

Twitter: @iamjonjackson
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/iamjonjackson

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How Google makes improvements to its search algorithm (Video)

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 05:55:09 -0400

Google makes 500+ tweaks and improvements to its search engine algorithm every year. Based on scientific analysis, and real user feedback, these improvements drive Google’s search features and underlying algorithms.

Enjoy the video!

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Android Mobile App Development with Phonegap & Eclipse

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:30:05 -0400

The importance of mobile apps and the mobile web is clearly indicated by the pervasive nature of mobiles and smartphones in today’s world. When developing websites or apps for mobiles, there are two main approaches:

Mobile Web Applications - effectively a website, or web application, optimised for use on mobiles
Native Mobile Apps - apps that are downloaded onto your mobile device and use the native features of the phone

There is in fact a third approach which is a hybrid development style of the above two options. Mobile app platforms / frameworks such as PhoneGap, jQTouch and Sencha Touch allow you to author “native” applications with web technologies (HTML5, Javascript). There are pros and cons to this approach and some further reading is available below on this topic…

Web vs. Native Mobile App? Forrester Says Do Both

Is HTML5 Ready for Prime Time vs. Native? (Mobile App Development)

How Are Native Mobile Apps Better? Help Me List the Ways…

That said, we played around with PhoneGap and the Eclipse IDE briefly and thought we’d share some screenshots with you of the Android Emulator.

Until next time!

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Social Media and your Digital Footprint

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 11:50:21 -0400

Article contributed by Pauleen Craknell

To quote @markshaw, “Twitter is about real people, talking about real stuff, in real time”

This means we all talk about things we feel at that moment, so if we are in good spirits this shines through our stream and if we are in bad form we tend to express it too. What about when a client has irritated us, or we have had a bad day, or feeling blue and fancy a ‘tipple of beverage’ not forgetting we sometimes feel playful or prank-ful and express this emotion in many ways. What about debates, discussions on trending topics and our views? after all we are real people are we not?

Social platforms whether Facebook or Twitter encourage us by their very nature to be ‘real’ as do many of the users of these platforms. How many times can you recall a tweeter saying, “I’m sick of broadcasters” or “Not real people” what about the tweets that say, “Be real or get off” (get off replacing a more frank expression) There is without doubt pressure to be ‘real’ on these platforms if you want to be accepted, to fit in, to be part of a community. So if you are not being your true self, are you being real? If you are being real are you putting your business/work reputation in danger? But if you’re not, are you in danger of not being accepted? I can hear many of you now saying, “oh, who gives a (careful!) monkeys!” well there is the point! You might be surprised just who does give a monkeys (to keep it clean although untrue to myself).

I read an article today where one woman has just suffered a business loss because of her efforts to keep it ‘real’- she happened to tweet out “I can’t wait to finish work” and “its wine o clock”. A potential and almost ‘done deal’ client decided to check out her social media streams to learn more about who she was/is and based on these tweets he pulled the project from her citing: “I don’t want someone who is happy to finish work or has a drink problem”. The author of the article also said “I used to follow someone, who was always tweeting about how stupid his clients were. He never named them, but would tweet what he called the stupid questions they were asking him” note the “used to follow” he went on to say, “Is he free to do that if he wants to? Yes (thankfully). Would I recommend him to one of my clients or contacts, knowing he may insult them in that way? Not a chance!”Last week I read an article by @Nikki Pilkington on the subject of Klout score and recruiting. Well actually I contributed a two liner to it when I was asked, as a recruiter would I consider the Klout scores of a candidate to influence their interview potential, in short I said no. However, I do know of recruiters who will check out your digital footprint and allow it to influence their decision as to whether you are right for the interview/position, or who will try to determine your real understanding and passion of social media in order to fit a clients job spec, “must have good understanding of social media and be passionate about using it and must be able to see the bigger picture and how it can impact a brand”.

Just need to say here, I DO NOT as a recruiter for the SM environment use your digital footprints to ascertain the answers to these questions but I do ask if you utilize any platforms and what is your understanding of it, I do ‘test’ your knowledge, experience and skills of SM platforms and tools if the job requirement demands this. I am not one for just taking a CV at face value so I will, prod you and test you whether on knowledge or technical skills where I can BUT I never judge your potential or suitability on your streams.BUT, there are those who would and unfortunately those that already DO, these people are existing clients and potential clients, they are potential employers, hell, even the organisers of SM meetups and events check out your digital footprint, as do some of your followers or linkedin connections and even your Facebook buddies and they judge you on it.

What is the answer to this issue? It is not a new concept that perception in business is everything, the whole perception point is an accepted business strategy for any corporate vision. So do we need to be more careful with our new digital footprints and the perception we have created previously? But then if we stop being ‘ real’ are we at risk from being excluded from the communities on the platforms that we use? Maybe ‘real’ in digital terms like everything in life is about being careful, watching what we say, what we do, the opinions we express, the stance we take on issues, presenting a front.Sort of takes the ‘fun’ out of social media don’t you think?

Maybe there would be no issue and thus no problem if those people who are checking out your digital footprint took them for what they are, a print you leave on a communication tool that is a social network as well as business one and encourages you to be real, show and express every emotion, reaction and opinion.If they themselves understand social media, work within it, supply a service around it and are passionate about using it, understand its use by others, and let’s not forget its value, surely they are the ones at fault and should be questioning their own actions and whether judgement by digital footprint is acceptable.

In real life terms and especially business, there is no getting away from the fact we as a whole community have created another way ‘to be judged’ ‘to be checked out’ and gave them the tools to do it- we just need to be careful we don’t give them ammunition to fire a weapon at us!What’s your position on this people? would really like to know.

Article contributed by Pauleen Craknell

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How not to run a Business Twitter Account

Fri, 20 May 2011 11:00:21 -0400

Article contributed by Andrew Percival (aka. Laz) of LMT Social Media Consultancy

By now most businesses with a customer facing role will have stumbled upon the idea of a having a Twitter account. It is a great way to talk to your customers and garner feedback in a friendly and casual manner.

But not everyone has quite the hang of such a powerful tool for enhancing their brand.

Case in point;

Last week I had the misfortune to leave my Oyster card on the train to East Croydon. After ringing a friend to see if they could smuggle me theirs through the grating at the side of the station so I could get out they suggested I ask the station staff for help. Those of us who travel on our blighted rail network don’t really expect a lot from the staff so I felt I was clutching at straws in going to them for help.

But my cynicism was washed away when the well oiled machine of customer service at Balham station (where I had got off) sprung into action, managed to find my oyster card based on my vague description of where I was sitting and hold it for me so I could go to the end of the line and retrieve it.

Such fine work deserved a reward so later that day I decided to broadcast my praise for the good people at Southern Trains via the loudest medium I have at my disposal, Twitter.

This was easier said than done. Attempting to search for their official Twitter account only came up with two contenders, one train driver with a personal account and another who clearly wasn’t a fan of Southern Trains (and I’ll come back to that later.)

Speaking to the train driver he was pleased his colleagues had gone the extra mile and he pointed me in the direction of the official company account although he did state “I think they’ve missed the point a little.” I gushed with laudation at Southern Trains and the next day I got a perfunctory reply.

Now, most celebrities I have on my Twitter feed rebroadcast praise from their followers like attention starved teenagers via the retweet function. Southern Trains did not, a act I find quite surprising considering how precious unsolicited commendations are in social media.

When I receive messages of satisfaction and contentedness on the Twitter accounts I manage it feels like I’ve struck gold and I’m hammering away on the retweet button in a flash so all the world (and especially Google) can see.

One Twitter user who does understand the retweet function is the Anti-Southern Trains account. Clearly not a fan of their service this user recently ran a game amongst their followers whereby people would comment that they like Southern Trains less than whatever they found particularly disagreeable in their lives (usually Nick Clegg or some kind of genital injury!)

So, in not broadcasting good customer feedback when they get it and allowing their Twitter account to be buried underneath a torrent of (quite amusing) customer dissatisfaction I can agree with the redoubtable train driver when he said “I think Southern Trains have really missed the point a little.”

Article contributed by Andrew Percival (aka. Laz) of LMT Social Media Consultancy

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The Top Four Annoying Social Media Personalities

Mon, 09 May 2011 10:54:12 -0400

Article contributed by @IamSilverFox (http://flavors.me/silverfox)

Recently I read an article about social media ‘breaking points’. The author was discussing issues they had had with certain social media habits. They listed issues like excessive swearing and the use of certain derogatory terms as their ‘breaking points’ i.e. the point at which they would unfollow someone on Twitter/Facebook.

Now because I am such an advocate of Twitter, its uses and limitless power in so many realms - including business, personal and social - I hate to have to do this, but the ‘breaking point’ article got me thinking. Behind these social ‘faux pas’ are the people who commit them. Therefore it’s only fair (and fun) to call the social media ‘personalities’ responsible out on their appalling behaviour. I’ve made it my duty as an active civilian within our ever expanding social media planet to make a listing of the top offending personalities. So without further ado:

The Name-Dropper Example: “Oh yes, I’ve partied with Prince Harry.”

The skinny: If you’ve met a celeb, an influential business personality or even a member of the royal family, you’re gonna want to tell people about it. It’s only natural and it’s also pretty cool for you to be able to share your experiences. I myself have boasted about meeting Pierre-Henri Raphanel (set the world’s speed record in a Bugatti Veyron SuperSport at 401km/hour). I mean, this is what social media is for, no? Well, yes, but no. There is a certain etiquette to the manner in which you should be expressing these celebrated meetings, i.e. don’t name-drop 20 times an hour. Excessive mentions will be seen as bragging and really, no-one likes a showoff. And we especially don’t care that you know someone, who knows someone, who is an extra in The Only Way is Essex.

The verdict: Tolerable when relevant, but unfollow worthy when OTT.
The Social Celeb

Example: Steven Holmes, aka, Kanye West bait. The skinny: It’s probably a little unfair of me to pinpoint Holmes as an example of this hugely irritating category seeing as it was never his intention to become the social media ‘celeb’ that he did. However, when Mr West follows you, you better be ready to wave obscurity out the door.

The issue here however is not the fame in itself, but how often, this tends to change the level and quality of interaction with the individual. Persnickety responses to follower engagement ensues, and more often than not, we have a social media Kim Kardashian on our hands, i.e. someone famous for nothing. Cue the social media ‘pack mentality’, i.e. “OMG Kanye’s following him! I NEED to follow him too!” The verdict: Highly irritating and a waste of valuable social media space when pompous and sadly, vacuous.

The Social Media ‘Royalty’ Example: Alexia Tsotsis, i.e. @alexia, journo for TechCrunch

The skinny: I love Alexia. She’s one of the funnier members of the Social Media Royal Family. However, Alexia shares her Princess of Social title with dozens of paupers. These paupers are often camouflaged as royalty via hundreds of thousands of followers.. and an original content to regurgitated rubbish ratio of 1:500. Again, the issue isn’t in the numbers, but the quality of engagement and content offerings. If you’re not at least partially generating discussion within your audience, then why are you online? Granted it isn’t humanly possible to keep up with 300 thousand different conversations (unless like some, you had a team Tweeting for you), but when engagement is limited to humorous witticisms with your colleagues or social media personalities of your own ‘calibre’ then what is the point?

The verdict: If you are part of the social scape, your success is determined via the feeling of attainability and usefulness. If you do not engage, there is no point. Unfollowed.
The Social Media Link Lover

Example: “Check this out: www.ilinktoomuch.com, and this www.ihavenooriginalcontentofmyown.com and this www.zerofreethinking.com” etc.The skinny: It is wonderful to share valuable content you’ve found online with your followers. I do this often, tweeting up to 6 or 7 links a day, with a brief description, or captivating commentary to garner attention. The problem with this social media personality is often, there are no opinions and no engagement re the links.

It’s one thing to share, but if I don’t know what you think of what you’ve tweeted then you’re as good as spam to me. What’s even worse are those links to sites with pay walls. See, why would you do that? If you’ve excited me enough to click on your link, now you’ve gone and ticked me right off because I’m curious and unsatisfied. And let’s be honest, most of us will not pay to see a single (or a dozen) articles that can probably be sourced from elsewhere for free.The verdict: Everything in moderation. Too much of anything is annoying and not enough of something is also pointless. Link moderately, discuss generously.

However, these are only MY top four picks. There is a host of other like social media personalities whom also succeed in ruffling my netizen feathers. These include ‘The Sarcastic Social Sorcerers’, ‘The Oh La La Lieutenants of Social’ and ‘The Social Media Reality Revelers’; not to mention ‘The Footy Socialite’, ‘The Social Smut Smurfs’ and many more. Have I missed any out? Which of these social media ‘breaking point’ personalities do you recognise? Which irritates you the most?

Article contributed by @IamSilverFox (http://flavors.me/silverfox)

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Recent Work: SEO and Social Media strategy implementation

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:05:21 -0500

2011 is turning out to be an exciting year! Plenty of new work in the pipeline and new opportunities presenting themselves.

I wanted to take the time out to let you know about one of the projects we’ve been working on recently though (among many others!)

The Client

MPW Window Cleaners is a local window cleaning company that has been established since 1984! They specialise in both residential window cleaning and commercial window cleaning (high rise office window cleaning using cherry pickers or abseiling techniques etc…)

You can check out their websites below:

MPW Residential Window Cleaners
MPW Commercial Window Cleaning

The Brief

We were commissioned to develop a tailored SEO and Social Media strategy for both the MPW website. The ideal end result would be for MPW to be able to reduce their Adwords bill and to be able to rely more fully on sustainable organic SEO traffic as well as Social Media channels to increase new business (and encourage repeat business)

What We Have Done

We conducted a full keyword analysis and review of the client’s current websites, implemented changes on their websites and setup a new Blog, which was fully integrated with their websites as well as their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts which we also setup / optimised. On-going content distribution and social bookmarking (among other techniques) ensures an ever improving position for MPW.

We have updated the “Our Work” page on the Acuras website with a summary of this project also: http://www.acuras.co.uk/our-work#seo-social-media

Thanks for reading (as always!) and we look forward to seeing you again soon…

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Social Media Marketing: Part 4 - So Why Bother With All This Social.. Media.. Stuff?

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:28:06 -0500

Is Social Media a fad? Could be; it depends on your definition of the word “fad”. Was email a fad? How about the Internet as a whole? Or computers?

More importantly, it is worth focussing on the fact that new products & services come along at a tremendous rate on the Internet these days. If they prove useful though, they tend to stick around.

How can Social Media Work for You?

So what is so useful about Social Media for business right now? Here’s a summary:

Social Media can bypasses the “gatekeeper” (e.g. a company receptionist) and allow communication directly with the decision makers. This may change in the future, but for now, it is a great benefit.
There are millions of bloggers & “Twitterers”. They have the capability to influence others. If you encourage positive interaction through social media, your positive reputation can potentially spread virally. Social Media is effectively an online channel facilitating word of mouth referrals and recommendations.
Over time, you are able to reduces your marketing costs without reducing your number of leads.
Part of the reason that costs are reduced is that your marketing efforts can be so much more focussed and deliver a higher success rate. Social Media campaigns *can* offer significantly increased conversion rates. For example, CTRs on links sent via Twitter DMs or mentions can be pretty high. Note: this does not mean that you should adopt a “SPAMMY” aproach to social media marketing and blitz 1000s of users with @ mentions. This will NOT benefit your business long-term.

Real Life Social Media Marketing Case Studies

So these are a few reasons for getting involved with Social Media for your business. But does it *really* work? The logic seems sound, but what about in practice; in the real world? Well, here are some positive examples we have experienced:

We conducted a localised search on Twitter for people tweeting about topics we were interested in. Over time, we followed several people using this method. We also sent personal (non-automated) @ mentions to some of them. Several 2-way conversations were started. On some occasions, we outlined what we offered (sometimes it is better to wait until you are asked - your profile should explain what you do so people you connect with can find out what you do if they really want to). A month or two after initiating these connections, one user expressed an interest in getting a quote for a project they had in their pipeline but wouldn’t be able to handle in house. This relationship has the potential for long-term benefits including repeat business.
We regularly tweet about what we’re up to and what technologies we use (e.g. Wordpress, Magento E-commerce etc…). We generated a fresh enquiry for a new e-commerce project via our Twitter account from one of our followers who we had met and engaged with via Twitter only. In fact, the interest was on behalf of someone they knew (word of mouth in action!).
We are members of several relevant groups on LinkedIn. I occasionally set aside half an hour or so to go through some of the most relevant & active ones and post comments to existing discussions and occasionally start a new conversation if I think it would be of interest to other members (e.g. a popular Blog post relevant to the group in question). One of these posts of mine generated a fresh lead from a LinkedIn member we had never communicated with before relating to the technology that we had posted about.
I decided it would be a good time to start a LinkedIn group related to Internet Marketing for professionals & buyers within a certain geographical region (Look us up on LinkedIn - we’re called the “Thames Valley Internet Marketing” group). I promoted this on Twitter and our Blog. I also invited a select few of my existing LinkedIn connections to join, one of which I had connected with 6+ months previous but had not managed to work together yet. The invitation to the group nudged them into asking for assistance on a potential project in their pipeline.

As your targeted follower network grows, the number of incoming leads will naturally increase also. It’s all about getting in front of people, and staying in front of people, without getting in their way and becoming annoying!

What often discourages people is the on-going effort required. This can turn out to be quite minimal though, if planned & managed properly. The most important thing is to have a plan; a strategy for your social media marketing. You will not see results over night.

Interested to learn more? Talk to us!

Tel: +44 (0)1494 259 141

Email: info@acuras.co.uk

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Social Media Marketing: Part 3 - Twitter... Engage & Enjoy!

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:18:10 -0500

Our previous article focussed on LinkedIn and how to setup your profile. This article moves away from LinkedIn and onto Twitter. So how can you use Twitter to benefit your business? Here is a high level step by step guide to getting setup and then making use of Twitter as an on-going Internet Marketing tool.

Getting Started with Twitter

First of all, you need to register for an account on the Twitter website. First off, register your personal / company username immediately on Twitter before it becomes unavailable. The more popular a platform becomes, fewer username handles become available.

If you are completely new to Twitter, after you have registered your main Twitter account, don’t touch it. Yep, you heard me correctly! Why? If this is going to be your main Twitter account, you want to avoid looking like a complete novice in front of those already using Twitter as you could damage your reputation, leading to… yep, you’ve guessed it… lost opportunities! And we don’t like lost opportunities!

For this reason, setting up a “test” account for you to mess around with is a good idea. This relieves any pressure to understand the whole thing from Day 1. Spend some time looking around and following people to see how they use Twitter etc…

Setup Your Twitter Profile

Assuming you’re ready to roll with your main Twitter account though, you will need to setup your profile effectively. Don’t forget to:

Upload a profile picture (ideally your personal photo or a company logo)
Add an informative description. What you do, and where you do it!
Link to your website. Silly not to.

Grow Your Network of Twitter Followers

The next steps involve growing your network and actually tweeting.

So how do you grow your number of followers? A good starting point is to follow people you know. Also, follow people you don’t know but who are tweeting about relevant subjects to you or who are prospective customers (e.g. people who are local to you - can be effective in connecting with new people just around the corner from you).

You can also include your Twitter account on business cards, other stationery, email footers / signatures. Growing your network of connections on Social Media platforms is an ongoing process so have fun promoting yourself to other Twitter users! But remember, don’t SPAM and don’t force Twitter upon prople who aren’t ready for it yet!

What to Tweet?

But what should we tweet about? Twitter is all about tweeting… suprisingly! You won’t be able to grow your network very effectively if you don’t tweet anything or if you only tweet spammy sales messages. Here are some ideas of what you can tweet about:

Latest news within your industry
Useful tips & hints
Tasteful humour. Show that you’re human!!
Interesting quotes or phrases (use sparingly)
Be social - say hello, good morning and goodnight!
What you’re up to (preferably related to your profession, rather than your daily eating habits!)
Listen and engage - read other people’s tweets (listen) and respond with @ replies that either express gratitude or agreement with their thoughts (engage). It’s not worth picking fights on Twitter, but politely putting across your own thoughts on a topic can be a great way to start a discussion.

Hope these points proved informative. Part 4 of our “Social Media Marketing” series will be coming soon.

Want to learn more? Talk to us!

Tel: +44 (0)1494 259 141

Email: info@acuras.co.uk

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Social Media Marketing: Part 2 - Your LinkedIn Profile & Recommendations

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 11:35:17 -0500

In our previous article in this series on Social Media Marketing, we gave an overview of Social Media and the important part it plays in being found ahead of your competitors. We particularly looked at LinkedIn as a platform for growing a network and building a sustainable pot of contacts which can generate leads.

This article aims to run through some important features of your LinkedIn profile which you should be making use of. An incomplete profile can turn potential customers off and result in missed opportunities. So how can you maximise the effectiveness of your LinkedIn profile?

Upload a Profile Photo - This is an important part of your professional profile. It allows potential customers or employers to put a face to the name. It encourages trust and shows you to be a “real” person who takes networking and new opportunities seriously. Uploading a company logo is acceptable but really you should be using LinkedIn to forge personal relationships which can lead to new business opportunities. Admittedly, I’ve been guilty of resorting to using the Acuras logo instead of my mug-shot. This is definitely on my list of to-dos to change! LinkedIn has a whole section devoted to companies so your company logo and details can be added here instead of your personal profile.
Include an informative “Professional Headline” - Explain what you do (and where you do it). As an example, “Internet Marketing Consultant in High Wycombe” could be classed as a good description. Sure, it could be tweaked or added to, but it gets the message across and will benefit you when people search for “Internet Marketing in High Wycombe”. A poor example of a personal tagline would be “MD of Acuras” all on its own. This doesn’t tell viewers of your profile anything about what you do or where you do it.
Make use of your extended description. In the “Summary” section of your profile you can add in more details about what you do and what services you offer. Make sure you cover all of your main offerings, again, to avoid any missed opportunities. Don’t miss out your “Specialties” either.
Fill in details of your past experience - You should add previous jobs and experience to your profile in order to build a more complete profile. Relevant jobs and experience are preferable as they show potential buyers / employers what experience you have relevant to their needs.
Fill in details of your Education (past & present) - Professional qualifications can boost your personal image, and show you as academically accomplished. It can also be a nice way to build common ground with potential customers if they have been to the same schools or universities as you. You’d be amazed at how such a simple thing can act as a great starting point for a conversation and open up new opportunities.
Get personal recommendations - Last time I checked, getting 100% profile completion according to LinkedIn requires at least 2 recommendations from other LinkedIn members. Obviously the LinkedIn “Profile Completeness” guage isn’t the be all and end all, but it’s a nice indicator. And just to be clear, once you get to 100% completeness according to LinkedIn, don’t stop requesting recommendations! So how do you get recommendations on LinkedIn? A good way is to recommend other professionals you know and who you feel deserve a recommendation (worthwhile clarifying this!) and likely they will reciprocate. Requesting recommendations from a few key clients with polite covering notes explaining the reason for the request can also be beneficial.
Integrate your LinkedIn profile with your Twitter account & Blog - Remember that an important part of Internet Marketing is about being seen and in front of your prospects on a regular basis. Keeping your profile up to date with regular status updates and Blog posts etc… is an unobtrusive way of staying in front of those who check their LinkedIn network activity (either by email or on the LinkedIn website for example).

In the last point above I mentioned Twitter, so how exactly should Twitter play a part in your Social Media Marketing strategy. Tune in next time for Part 3 of this series to find out! Nothing quite like a cliff-hanger to end an article! I hope you enjoyed the read and you’ll pop back again soon…

Interested in learning more? Talk to us!

Tel: +44 (0)1494 259 141

Email: info@acuras.co.uk

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Social Media Marketing: Part 1 - LinkedIn & the Importance of Search

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:30:29 -0500

Why is Search Important?

It is now a well established fact that most B2B buyers use “search” to find suppliers. Before we race ahead of ourselves though, “search” does not just mean Google! Google are incredibly important when it comes to online searches, but other platforms play a key role as well.

Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, or business networks such as LinkedIn, include search as a key component of their platform. They can all be used and abused in different ways.

If you think about the reasoning behind Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), the goal is to rank highly for relevant keyphrases so that potential customers can find you before they find your competitors. The same principle applies to the social networks. If a potential buyer searches LinkedIn for companies in your region that do what you do, can they find you? or do your competitors steal the show?

How to use Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Marketing your business effectively on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn etc… requires a tailored approach to each platform, yet the underlying principles remain the same:

- Be Helpful

- Be Seen

- Don’t spam!

How to Use LinkedIn

So how do we apply these principles to LinkedIn marketing? Well, success on LinkedIn starts with having your personal profile set up effectively. There are plenty of articles and tips out there on how to do this, so I won’t go into the details here (subject of a future blog post no doubt!).

So once you have your profile setup, you need to start building your network. The obvious way to get this started is to connect with those you know. You can import your address book into LinkedIn and let them fire off invites to all those you wish to connect with.To grow your network beyond those you already know on Day 1 can obviously be acheived by connecting with individuals you meet in your business dealings or face to face networking.

Expand your Network & Make New Connections

What about being able to expand your network and target new prospects without having to leave your laptop though? Anti-social? Perhaps! But let’s not forget that many (most?) successful business relationships can be sparked from an initial online encounter (of the good kind!). If you strike up new business relationships online, this doesn’t mean they have to stay online!

So how can we make these new connections? This is where LinkedIn Groups and LinkedIn Answers comes in useful. We’ll focus on LinkedIn Groups for now. LinkedIn Groups are effectively self-contained social networks within the larger “global” network of LinkedIn users. Groups are normally quite specific to a certain topic, industry or profession and allow like-minded professionals to meet and share ideas. They also allow buyers (or employers) to connect with potential suppliers (or employees).

Be Active, Helpful & Professional

If you show yourself to be active, helpful, and well informed on what you’re talking about, prospects will be more inclined to contact you. As long as you keep on being helpful, you will have the freedom to occasionally advertise (althought I prefer the word “mention”) what you do. This can sometimes act as the nudge for someone to get in touch. But remember not to overdo it. There is no excuse for SPAM. Plastering a group with adverts for your “amazing” company will not only turn customers away, it will damage your reputation, and likely result in you getting banned from that group.

It’s all About the Right Kind of Visibility

Finishing on a positive note though, LinkedIn can offer a wealth of opportunities for making new connections and capturing new business. It’s all about visibility (being seen) and adding value (being helpful).

Remember, If you’d like some assistance with getting to grips with LinkedIn, do let us know. We can be contacted via email on info@acuras.co.uk or you can call us on 01494 259 141. We’ll be happy to help.

Next Time

We’re already looking forward to publishing Part 2 of this “Social Media Marketing” series next week. We’ll keep you posted!

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SEO Strategy: Let’s Stamp out Mindless Link Building! Let’s Educate!

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:41:09 -0500

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is NOT a brute-force technique that results in success based on quantitative results. Quality is key.

Unfortunately there are too many “SEO companies” out there touting their link building services promising big numbers of links. They even claim to deliver high quality links, which sounds great.

But… first rule, if it sounds too good to be true… then research, research, research! Ask questions, get real, live examples of past work. Ask HOW they do their work.. if they won’t tell you, walk away.Unfortunately, because of the nature of Search Engine Optimisation, it is tempting to market SEO “products” or services around numerical values (e.g. number of links). But this is not what gives the most positive long-term results.

Because some companies are marketing SEO as a “numbers” game, how can we expect potential customers to demand anything different?We need to educate customers as to what high quality Search Engine Optimisation campaigns typically involve. Rarely would any two SEO campaigns be the same. Mindless link building is not the way forward. Intelligent SEO strategy is the way forward…

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SEO Strategy: Let’s Stamp out Mindless Link Building! Let’s Educate!

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:41:08 -0500

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is NOT a brute-force technique that results in success based on quantitative results. Quality is key.

Unfortunately there are too many “SEO companies” out there touting their link building services promising big numbers of links. They even claim to deliver high quality links, which sounds great.

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New Thames Valley Internet Marketing Group on LinkedIn

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:11:05 -0500

Just wanted to share with everyone the new LinkedIn group that has been created with Internet Marketing professionals in the Thames Valley in mind.

Say hello on the Thames Valley Internet Marketing Group here: http://linkd.in/InternetMarketingUK

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Local SEO Strategy & Usability: Text Telephone Numbers a No Brainer!

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:10:15 -0500

Including a local telephone number on your business website is typically a “no brainer”. Including it as text (instead of an image) means that the search engines will pick up on the number in their indexing. Now… this *may* have positive effects on your search engine rankings in local searches.

Having a number with a local area code may be noticed by Google etc… as an “on-page trust identifier” which could help you rise above the competition who do not display a local telephone number on their websites. At the time of writing, there is no conclusive proof of this (we don’t know Google’s algorithm!) but there have been some interesting studies into this potential ranking factor (among others). There is also something to be said for including your telephone number in your meta title and/or descriptions; the thinking behind this being that your telephone number will show up in the organic search engine results. Why is that useful? Well, arguably it can set you apart from the crowd, particularly if telephone sales are important in your market.

From a “standard” SEO point of view though, even if a local telephone number doesn’t yet affect the search engines’ rankings, there’s a good chance it may well do in the future, so it’s a good idea nonetheless.From a usability point of view, it is wise to include your telephone number and contact details on your website in a prominent location, ideally on every page.

There’s some good further reading on SEO & Usability related to local telephone numbers and contact details below. Enjoy!Further Reading:
http://www.seosmarty.com/how-to-optimize-your-site-for-phone-calls/
http://www.goodusability.co.uk/2009/06/providing-contact-details/
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/is-there-such-a-thing-as-on-page-trust-factors-poll/10696/

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5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. we have lift off!!

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:37:41 -0500

Yep that’s right folks… the day has finally come!! Almost a year in the making (ouch!), we have finally launched our brand spanking new website: www.acuras.co.uk

We feel it is a real step in the right direction for Acuras and will push us forward in 2011. We have distilled our main offerings down into a more concise (and hopefully clearer) list of services:

Give us a visit and let us know what you think. As always, if we can help with anything, just let us know!

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Multi-language Drupal Website Builds

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:20:26 -0500

Over the last couple of months we have been working on a large multi-language Drupal CMS website build with a partner internet marketing company for their client.

Drupal is an open source Content Management System (CMS) which is ideal for building flexible and robust websites.

From the Drupal website:

Drupal is free, flexible, robust and constantly being improved by hundreds of thousands of passionate people from all over the world.

We have been involved in the following Drupal work on this project:

Template coding and integration into Drupal
Installing necessary Drupal modules (Translate module, SEO / Meta Tags module etc…)
Setting up site structure for 4 languages with 25+ pages for each language

Got your own Drupal build / customisation project in the pipeline? Get in touch if you’d like a competitive quote from Acuras on delivering the build for you or your client.

We look forward from hearing from you!

You can email us on:
info@acuras.co.uk
or call us on:
+44 (0)1494 259 141

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