Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Monday, 30 August 2010
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Keep a Personal Touch in the Digital World: Social Networking Tips for Businesses http://ping.fm/vhOW4
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Friday, 27 August 2010
10 Things Employees Want Most
10 Things Employees Want Most: "
Business - Telecommuting - Google - Flextime - Washington D.C"
It’s no coincidence that Steven Slater, the now-famous JetBlue employee, has been elevated to the status of a working person's hero. He did what so many frustrated employees would love to do, if only they had the courage, the beers and the inflatable slide to help them escape a less-than-pleasant office environment.
It should come as no surprise, though, that the most successful businesses are the ones that work the hardest to please their employees, and it's up to managers to make sure they're giving their staffs what they want to the best of their abilities.
After reading the book Why Work Sucks and How to Fix it by Cali Ressler, Jeff Gunther, CEO of the Charlottesville, VA-based software company Meddius, decided he would change the way his staff works by instituting a results-only working environment, often referred to as a ROWE. Meddius employees can work any time from any place in any way, as long as they get their work done. Gunther has found that by giving employees the trust and autonomy they need, they've actually been more productive and loyal to the company.
We've broken down the 10 things employees want that will help you keep them on board.
1.Employees want purpose. Don't assume that a hefty paycheck and regular bonuses are the most important things to your employees. They, like you, want to know that what they're doing on a daily basis has some purpose behind it. 'What people want most is the chance to make a difference,' says Alexander Hiam, the Massachusetts-based author of Business Innovation For Dummies. 'When you have a chance to have your ideas heard and one of them actually gets implemented, it's such a boost.'
Dig Deeper: Building a culture of employee appreciation
2.Employees want goals. To instill a sense of purpose in your employees, be sure to lay out a clearly-defined set of goals for them on a regular basis. At Meddius, Gunther's team of managers re-aligns each department's goals every three months. 'The goals have to be very measurable, obtainable goals,' Gunther says. For the sales team, for example, that might mean setting a goal as to the number of deals the team is expected to close in a certain period of time for a certain dollar amount. Once goals are in place, it is up to each team to decide how to achieve them.
Dig Deeper: How to set business goals
3.Employees want responsibilities. Sometimes the hardest part of being a manager is delegating, but employees crave your trust, and with that trust, should come responsibility. 'People are so busy and harried themselves that all they do is work, they don't really manage,' Hiam says. 'Ask people if there are more things they can do, and then you can catch your breath and be a manager.'
Dig Deeper: How to delegate properly
4.Employees want autonomy. Take it from Gunther, giving your employees freedom over how they work can actually make them more productive. Unless you're managing an assembly line, give your employees the freedom to work in a way that works for them. Daniel Pink, the Washington D.C.-based author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, says, 'Let people figure out the best paths to the goal, rather than breathe down their necks all the time.'
Dig Deeper: How to build a beautiful company
5.Employees want flexibility. In addition to deciding how they work, the experts say employees also appreciate having a say over when they work. Gunther has, of course, set up a radically flexible schedule for his employees that might not work for every office. But, he says, it has enabled him to find and retain top talent for Meddius. 'We've had people who have taken significant pay cuts to work for us, because at their old job they were told to show up and be at the office between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.,' he says. 'Generation Y is looking for a synergy between their personal lives and their professional lives.' Set up a flexible vacation policy or a telecommuting policy that enables employees to work from home. It involves a great deal of trust, but, as Pink says, 'If you don't trust your employees, you've got much bigger problems.'
Dig Deeper: Beyond Flextime: Trashing the Workweek
6.Employees want attention. Just because you're giving employees the control they crave doesn't mean they don't want guidance and feedback. Hiam suggests checking in with them every few weeks, even if it's just for a minute or two. 'Look them in the eye and ask how things are going. Find out what's really going on in their world,' he suggests. 'Responsibility is about giving them a chance to make a difference, but attention is the human dimension of managing.' And don't be fooled into thinking that the traditional annual performance review is your big chance to tell your employees what's working and what's not. In Pink's words, 'There's no way to get better at something you only hear about once a year.' That's why, at Meddius, Gunther uses the year-end to make decisions about promoting employees, and uses the quarterly meetings where goals are set, to address big operational issues within each department.
Dig Deeper: How to communicate employee expectations effectively
7.Employees want opportunities for innovation. Not long ago, Google announced its 20 percent creative time policy, which encourages employees to work on any innovative ideas they have that are company-related during 20 percent of their hours at work. Both Hiam and Pink applaud this concept. 'People need to be given a chance to bring about something new and exciting,' Hiam says. 'Just asking people for ideas doesn't create innovation. It's a culmination of creativity and leadership.' Though you might not be able to give your employees this much time on the clock to work on side projects, you can always foster innovation through employee brainstorming sessions that allow the staff to work with new people and generate fresh ideas.
Dig Deeper: 10 employee perks we love
8.Employees want open-mindedness. When your employees come to you with their ideas, you need to treat them with equal parts sensitivity and honesty. Be sensitive because, according to Hiam, the more an employee gets shot down by an authority figure, the less likely he or she will be to make suggestions in the future. It's also important to be honest because, as that authority figure, you may know what's best for your business and what's not. You don't have to accept every idea that comes your way, but, Hiam says, 'Don't just shut someone down. Say, 'Here's what I know: years ago we tried something similar. Here's what happened. Give some more thought to your idea, and come back if you think you can make it work.''
Dig Deeper: A little enlightened self-interest
9.Employees want transparency. When Meddius publishes each department's quarterly goals, Gunther does it as well, not because he needs reminding, but because he believes his employees should be cognizant of where the organization's going. 'Employees, especially the younger work force, want transparency,' he says. While it's not necessary to publish that information, Hiam emphasizes that the communication channel between a manager and his or her employees should always be open. 'That's why you need to build it by talking about ordinary everyday things,' he says. 'You need to have rehearsed talking about ordinary things before you can talk about anything major.'
Dig Deeper: Testing a company's commitment to transparency
10.Employees want compensation. Your employees do need to provide for themselves and their families, so, of course, salaries, bonuses and benefits are important, but perhaps not in the way you might think. Pink's research on what motivates employees has led him to one conclusion: 'The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table.' He says it's better to pay people a little more than the norm and allow them to focus on their work than to pay them based on performance. 'Don't pay people a measly base salary and very high commissions and bonuses in hopes that the fear of not having enough food on their tables will inspire them to do extraordinary things.' The way Gunther has employed this strategy is by providing his employees with full health care benefits at no cost, so they can rest assured that their families are fully protected. 'It's a huge expense, but to employees, it's really valuable.'
Dig Deeper: The price of a healthy staff
Business - Telecommuting - Google - Flextime - Washington D.C"
Forget About Social Media for Business and Marketing
Forget About Social Media for Business and Marketing: "
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Social Media for marketing is not top of mind for businesses. Hot off the press from eMarketer:
Social media has increased its importance around the world, and while social network advertising continues to grow quickly in the US, spending in other markets is set to rise even faster. But brand marketers still don’t feel social media is the most effective way to reach their international audiences
This causes a dilemna. To follow the beat of your own drummer and maximize the opportunity others fail to see? Or is it more important to pay close attention to this chart and follow the crowd with a local website, TV and print?
My guerrilla marketing instincts say to do both and create a synergy between the many resources. My guerrilla marketing gut says there is no "magic bullet" and combining the tools to connect with potential clients means that social media is another piece to the puzzle. What do you say?
You can pick up the new ebook 'The Reality of ROI and Social Media Marketing" to push you into the 21st Century. It is a fast and easy read.
Searches down 1.7 Billion in July
Searches down 1.7 Billion in July: "
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According to the Nielsen, searches on the Internet were down 16% from the previous year.
Article:
Top U.S. Search Sites for July 2010
The number of searches conducted in the U.S. over the last year has decreased by 16% from 10.5 billion in July 2009 to 8.8 billion in July 2010. MSN/Windows Live/Bing was the only one of the top three engines to have experienced an increase in search volume – a 28% increase from 0.9 billion to 1.2 billion.
For more: Contact The Nielsen Company or read about their global consumer & media expertise.
Read the rest of the article...
Can we take a walk for a moment in virtual land? What is the actual process?
A person with a need or want sits down for a moment and types in a search term. In the old days they would pick up a phone book or watch the advertisements. Now they search in the search engine box.
The results are shown on the page. They typically have no photos though there are exceptions. Videos are available at times but really, videos are not what people are looking for. Those who search want an answer, not to spend more time looking for an answer.
There are hundreds of thousands of results for any item that is searched and even if nothing comes up related to the search term, there are always suggestions.
To find what they are looking for is an obstacle course--pure and simple.
Bring on the IMANUT crowd. (Internet Marketers Are Not Usually Trustworthy). They are attempting to create web pages and search terms to be at the top of the search. It matters little that they have no guarantee, no phone number or address. It matters even less that in 6 months they will have moved on and leave the purchasers with marginal products.
Twitter and Facebook are on the scene. Both have recommendations. Online businesses are beginning to wise up and understand how to create banners and advertising which pops up for those who have already visited.
Since technology is beginning to 'label' each browser with history, each email address according to interests, and credit card statements shows purchases, there is an easier method to get the attention of the consumer BEFORE they even know their own need.
Search engine software gives results which are filled with non-relevent information. You can download an APP for every category or interest. Advertising technology is now anticipating the needs while online with targeted advertising. Therefore we could say that the game is afoot for online service.
It used to be so very impressive that a search engine could scour the world and find 15 million results for a search phrase. "For me?" a person would say to themselves. "You went and found that many for me?" No longer is it impressive.
Think back 15 years ago to the original eBay days. To find something of interest required long hard hours of searching by trial and error. The systems have improved. They now have a much more streamlined method for searching and results are narrowed down. With better monitoring systems, eBay even has methods in place to tell a seller: "Do better" and a grading system where sellers won't last long if they are not excellent.
Watch the results for August. Will searches be down from last year again? If you can anticipate and understand why, you will stay ahead of the game.
Someone is searching for your business product or service every day. How they do this is quickly changing and their patience is wearing thin.
What can you the entrepreneur do? Get laser focused. This is not new. The advice and counsel has already been given.
You have a service or product that people need or want. Be the master of it and have an online presence to share that expertise. The more an entrepreneur decides to be an online mall, the more difficult it will become. An entrepreneur is not Walmart, Target, eBay or Amazon. These companies will operate online differently than an entrepreneur.
What are you the master of? What do you love? It is time to choose.
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Monday, 23 August 2010
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Digital Marketing for Sport - 3 Reasons Why Sport Marketing Needs Social Media
Digital Marketing for Sport - 3 Reasons Why Sport Marketing Needs Social Media
Sponsoring an athlete, sports team or an event is not just about signing a big cheque and getting your company name on the side of a car, a sign in the stadium, or even your logo on the shirt. For those of you that know me, you know that Sport is my passion and I’m also involved in business consultancy and digital marketing as well, so there is my connection! I have a passion for rugby, cricket, football, windsurfing - well anything that moves actually! So here is my take on Digital Marketing for Sport:
Sports marketing is no longer just about getting money from big companies. For the campaign to be effecive, you have to be able to demonstrate the ROI of a sponsorship deal. Measurement and analytics for off-line marketing are traditionally very difficult. It is almost impossible to know which radio or tv ad actually increased sales, and which ones lost money. You don’t know which billboards brought visitors to your website. And you certainly don’t know which logo placement or "after match" interview was responsible for any increase in sales.But social media can do all of that, and much more . Here are three things social mediacan do for sports marketers:1. Social Media Can Prove ROI in Sports MarketingThe great thing about social media is that it’s easy to demonstrate the ROI to your business. With tools like Google Analytics you can build an effective measurement system to see how many people found your website, requested additional information, downloaded a white paper or purchased something on-line. You can measure the success of a campaign and figure out which variables, messages, day of the week and even time of day brought the best results. You can see if you your website gets spikes in traffic before, during, or after an event and whether the spikes are taking place in a particular location or city, or if they’re more regional and spread out. You can even set up different URLs, landing pages and do A/B split testing to see which variables brought the best results. With social media, you can see who’s talking about your brand, manage your reputation and interact with the "fans" who are the most vocal, whether these are positive or negative. You just can’t do that with a billboard, radio commercial or a TV ad.2. Social Media Can Help to Grow a Sports Marketing AudienceThere are many social media tools out there that can help. In fact, the list is almost endless and there are also lots of ways to connect with customers online. Facebook and Twitter are obvious places to start. Twitter is a great tool for interactive connections with your favourite team or sport. You can use tools like Twitterment, NearbyTweets, and even Twitter’s own search function to find people who is interested in your team or sport. Use Twitterfall or TweetDeck’s search feature to watch for discussions about your team or the event that you are planning. Make sure that you connect with these fans, and discuss the team, the players, the drivers, the horses, the weather and the event itself. The main point is not try and sell them anything or talk about your company. However, you can hold a special contest or make a special offers For example, if our team finishes in a certain place or higher, the first 10 people to tweet us gets a coupon for a free widget or a discount on a particular widget. But other than that, just talk about the things that interests the fans because this is not about YOU!3. Social Media Can Deepen Relationships With Fans and CustomersSo if you are sponsoring a horse racing event, enhance your customers’ experience on race day by live blogging, tweeting, and video streaming from the stands, the riders, the sponsor’s tent, or even the finishing line.
- Get some behind-the-scenes shots (assuming you get permission from the team) at what it looks like in changing room.
- Hold a special Twitter chat with a racing driver or one of the team members.
- Have a give a special video greeting or tour of the stadium for fans.
- Set up a blog and ask different team members to blog about their experiences over the season, complete with photos and videos.
Social Media should be an integral part of your Digital Markeing plan. The big advantage of Social media is that it lets fans see the "behind the scenes" events they might be missing and that they are very interested in. Help them feel like they’re part of the experience and get them involved. By doing this, you make them feel more like they are a part of the team. They’re insiders, they get special knowledge about the team, the athletes and the event. By feeling connected, they’ll become more of a fan, not only of the team, but of the organization or brand that helped them get there.
At WSI we are experts in generating leads for your business, enhancing your credibility and helping you stay in touch with your customers or "fans". Social Media is one of our core competencies, so give us a call and we'll help grow your business. Use the contact form or just give us a call on 01580 819529.Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Why Sitemaps are so important
Significance of Sitemaps
Today, there are numerous Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques that help you to optimise your website, but one technique whose importance is undervalued at times is aSitemap. A Sitemap is really a page on your website that indicates the complete structure of your site including various parts, links among them, and so forth. In short, it gives an in depth listing of your website layout. Sitemaps are extremely useful as they make site navigation easy for visitors plus help search engines index the site.
Sitemaps commonly fall into two categories. One is a HTML version which is for human website visitors and helps them navigate through the whole site and find the information they are searching for. The other Sitemap is an XML version that is intended for the search engine to know about all the pages on the website including all the URLs that may go unnoticed by the search engine spidering your website.Sitemap advantages - There are several benefits of using sitemaps and these are listed below:
Quick Navigation - A sitemap helps a visitor know where to locate particular information he is seeking on the site. It acts as a guide to enable easy navigation through the site without wasting time to find information.
Search Engine Indexing - Sitemaps help search engines learn about any updates that you just make on your website. It is not guaranteed that the search engine bot will instantly index the updated webpages. However, the modifications will certainly be indexed considerably faster when compared with when there isn’t any sitemap.Broken Links - If you have a site that contains a lot of content pages which are not properly linked to each other or have broken links then using sitemaps will help search engine bots to index your pages better.
Dynamic Content on Site - Sitemaps are also very helpful if you have a site where your content is updated or changed frequently. The search engines can be immediately informed of this change through your sitemap. However, this will not assure you that your changed pages will be indexed right away.
New Site - If you have a new site with very few links in it, sitemaps can be very helpful. This is because the search engine spider crawls through documents by following links from one page to another and if your site does not contain proper links, it would be difficult for the bots to index them.Sitemap Process - To create a Sitemap for your website there are a few simple steps that you need to follow. First, a Sitemap has to be generated after which it needs to be uploaded to the site and then finally Google needs to be notified about it.
Sitemap Generation - A sitemap can be generated in two ways. One is by using an online tool that can help you generate the sitemap and the other is by downloading and installing a sitemap generator. The first option is much easier compared to the second one as there are several online sitemap generation tools available free of cost that make your work simpler. The second option of downloading and installing a sitemap generator is a little difficult but enables you to gain a better control of the output.
Uploading and Submitting Your Sitemap - Once your sitemap is created, it has to be uploaded to your website and Google needs to be notified about it. In order to notify Google you have to add your site to your Google Sitemap account. However, if you don’t already have a Google Sitemap account, this is the time for you to create one. Also, it is important to know that adding a sitemap to your account requires a verification indicating you are the legal owner of the website.
Additionally it is important to know that Google does not guarantee that all the URLs in your sitemap are going to be spidered and indexed. For instance, if there are any image URLs in your sitemap, these will not be crawled and indexed. However, your sitemap can help the search engine to know more about your site layout which will help it to crawl your site better and faster when compared to not having a sitemap. Webmasters usually benefit from submitting sitemaps and will not be punished for it.
Learn more about a specialised digital marketing strategy for your firm at http://www.wsionlinebiz.co.uk or give us a call at 01580 819529.Social Media can boost your organisational productivity
Social Media is all pervasive and finding its way into many forms of personal and business life. It can also work in the workplace as organisations can turn to social media platforms to improve communication with their staff, it has been suggested.
Martin Lyne, SME marketing director of Everything Everywhere, the communications company behind the Orange brand, said that positive communication benefits businesses. He recommended that business leaders take advantage of technologies offered by smartphones such as videoconferencing and emails on the go. They are predicting up to 15% improvements in productivity in one of their latest reports. You can read the full report here.'Ensuring your company has a presence on social media networks including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are a great start for any small and medium-sized businesses wanting to increase their profile using social media,' Mr Lyne added.'This will not only increase your company profile on search engines including Google, but it can also be used as a recruitment tool to grow your business.' Last week, a report from Everything Everywhere/Orange suggested that good communication skills are crucial to creating a strong business. Being well connected and having a good online presence also boosts an organisation's success. Here at WSI Digital Marketing in Sussex we work with client to help them design and implement great social media strategies to help clients make operational efficiencies and also increase revenues and save costs.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Seven Ideas to Help You get Content for your Blog
How do I get inspiration for my business blog so that I know what kind of articles, videos or podcasts to post is a question that at WSI Digital Marketing we are often asked. One of the great ways is to read other peoples’ business blogs – and not always blogs in your own business niche as you can be inspired to develop content learning from others.
Here is a video with 3 tips:
So here are another seven ideas that might help you develop a content strategy for your business blog:
1. Get ideas from your RSS feeds – remember to model not copy articles respecting the copyright of the original site where the content is posted and always give attribution and a link to the source article
2. Explore the blogs listed in the Technorati blog directory HERE or in other niche directories
3. Review the list of business blogs that are listed in other peoples blog rolls – the list that many bloggers have on the side bar of their business blog
4. Do a search within Google using the Google Blog search engine to find other business blogs for inspiration
5. Review your email, your Facebook Page or Tweets that you receive for questions that your people ask you and turn those answers into blog articles
6. Think about the questions your clients and customers have asked you over the last 3 months and turn those questions into articles – but make sure that you don’t disclose confidential information about your clients
7. Look at award winners of business blogging competitions – for example the short list of the Digital Marketing Awards which was announced recently and hosted by Ashville Media – you will find the shortlist HERE or the list of blogs nominated for a blogging award for Best Business Blog with the Irish Blog Awards
Note: If you already have a business blog and are in Ireland you might be interested in being nominated for the IIA Net Visionary Awards 2010 – nominations for best business blog and best business podcast are open alongside many other categories through 2010.
What other ways do you get inspiration for content for your business blog articles and content plan?
Social Media and Social Networking
Social Media and social networking is big in the UK, but how big really is the social media phenomena? As you know from a previous post there are still a huge number of people in the UK that are not online. So there is two sides to this story and you can read my recent digital post on the 10 million people that have never used the internet in the UK and what WSI in Sussex and other companies are doing about that with the sponsorship of Martha Lane Fox, the UK digital champion. However, on the positive side and for the majority in the UK, the social media and networking train is steaming ahead and in the UK alone, about 85% of the population is online and they spend over 6 hours every day on various social media sites. Also nearly 60% read blogs and 64% have their own personal profiles on one of the popular social network sites. It is these sort of numbers, this level of activity and general popularity of social networking has created interest in the forthcoming film "The Social Network". The film "The Social Network" will make its premiere at the New York Film Festival and then spread to cinemas nationwide in the US on October 1st. The story is based on the founding of Facebook and you can catch a brief preview of "The Social Network" on our previous blog post. The numbers from Simply Zesty who have put together a clever video with many interesting social media related facts and figures. Whilst these numbers apply to the online UK population, I suppose the general theme can apply to other countries as use of the internet and social media continues to grow at a massive pace. Check out the social media numbers here on this video and you can see the original posting. Let us know at WSI Internet Marketing what you think, do these numbers resonate with you and or your business.
Marketing is a Process, not a Black Art
Here at WSI Online Marketing we know that Marketing is not a black art but like most business operations it is a process and should be treated as an integrated process and not as a set of one off unrelated activities. As marketers, we create the product, promote it, give it a price, and put it on the shelves. All the stages in the process are important and are dependent on each other.
To be a successful at marketing, there are 5 things we need to do. We can't miss any of these out or do them in the wrong order or we will fail. So just in case, here’s the list of my five tips to make sure we stay successful as marketers:
1. Goals
There should always be a reason for everything we do and those are our goals If you don’t have clear goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable and Timebound) then we are in deep trouble. Digital Marketing makes the setting of SMART goals easier. We recently wrote a digital marketing post on why it is easier to set SMART goals in the digital marketing space. It may be starting up a Twitter page, or setting a low price for a product but we must know the reason why you are making that decision. And that reason is your goal. It should always be the starting point of any plan or decision. Keep reminding yourself of it and make sure you are moving in the right direction.
2. Strategy
How are we going to achieve our goals? We need to be very specific. When you think that a Twitter page would help you build an online presence, hopefully you just don’t say, “I will just set up a Twitter page.” First and foremost, you must have a good reason to think that Twitter is the way to achieve your goals. Second, you should be thinking about the content you are going to put on Twitter to add value and engage with your Tweeps (your followers), the colours and images you would use to portray the right brand or image, etc. You go into the details, and think out of the box. Strategy also includes choosing the best medium to reach your consumers. Whether you are using traditional or digital marketing media, it is essential to integrate individual marketing efforts, and ensure consistency across all platforms through the process.
3. Tools
Marketers need the right tools to help them do their jobs. In our digital economy, our tools are getting more sophisticated and complicated so we really need to keep updating ourselves. We need to know what the latest tools can do for us and we need to understand them well to find out what is the best. And that includes all the digital marketing media and platforms. Recently at WSI, we have done several workshops for marketers, and were initially shocked by their lack of knowledge of the digital world. As marketers, we can’t afford to be worse than consumers at the tools. Also, it is important to see how we can creatively transform the use of these tools to attract and engage with clients, consumers and prospects.
4. People
Consumer behaviour is one of the most interesting and important parts of marketing. If we spend the time and get to know people, we can give them what they want. Don’t assume anything about your target audience. Market research is key before you start working on your strategy. Communication is so important, we need to communicate in the right way and at the right time.
5. And everything else
As marketing consultants or marketers, our days will be very varied. We can be promoting caravans one day, and beer the next. You can’t sell anything or persuade anyone if you know nothing about your product category or the people using it. You can’t just know about marketing, you need to know about cars, cosmetics, camping and everything else. So it is an opportunity for life long learning!
Here at WSI, we are a pure play marketing company that focusses on digital marketing to work with our clients to help them leverage the power of the internet to increase sales, reduce costs and make operational efficiencies in their business.
Monday, 16 August 2010
Why Print still Works
At WSI Digital Marketing we talk to our customers about the importance of an online marketing strategy as more an more PR and advertising moves online. However print is still important and we do have graphic designers with both print and web competencies to ensure we can work on an online/offline campaign.
Most businesses I speak to, especially SMBs, are reluctant to dispense with physical documents. Why? Because they work. We no longer have to convince people an investment in online content is important – even necessary – but I don’t know of a single company that’s made a complete switch from print to online marketing strategies.
Sarah Mitchell makes some great points in this article.
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Influence is Bliss: The Gender Divide of Influence on Twitter
Our Digital Marketing Practice at WSI in Sussex follows the great marketing advice and blogs from Brian Solis who has clearly inspired many marketers with his enlightened posts and blogs.
10 years ago comScore reported that the number of women on the Web in the U.S. had surpassed the number of men. In 2010 comScore still finds that women are the digital mainstream and social networking is central to their online experience. In celebration of the 2010 Blogher Conference, comScore released a new report, “Social Networking Sites Reach a Higher Percentage of Women than Men Worldwide.”
The Brian Solis blog
Saturday, 14 August 2010
How Big is Your Digital Marketing Plan?
Digital Marketing is both a science and an art. For anybody that is running an online business you will come to realise that there is a lot to do, a lot to learn, the business landscape keeps changing and internet technology is moving fast. What is going to happen in the next 6 months, never mind thinking and planning strategically for the next 1/2 years. In my days in the large corporate world we used to do 5 year plans! Can you believe that....? Very soon you will come to the realisation that to succeed, you need to do the most if not all of these things:
and if you are in business then you need to find a way to actually (shock horror) make money...In addition, there will be some offline marketing that you may need to do and blend in with your digital marketing plans. I won't write another long list but you may go to trade shows, advertise locally etc. I'm sure you are getting the picture. You will need help and we at WSI in Sussex are here to help you. We have a group of digital marketing experts that can work in innovative ways with you to increase your online credibility, drive targeted traffic to your website and help you stay in touch with your visitors through an appropriate communication plan.
Correct Spelling is Key for Successful SEO
Correct Spelling is important for SEO
Checking the spelling of the content on your web site may seem like a trivial exercise but it is becoming increasingly important for the SEO ranking of your business website. However, it is very important to ensure that you write good content. Think about the accessibility and readability of your content for your web visitors and for the “spiderability” and indexing by the search engines.
Web visitors often spend less than 5 seconds on a page so checking your web pages’ spelling is a vital exercise. First impressions are very important and if visitors perceive the content and quality of your site is poor, they will leave your site very quickly – especially visitors with cognitive disabilities.
The cost of embarrassing web site errors, such as mis-spellings, has increased dramatically as search engines are placing a greater emphasis on the quality of content. Here at WSI, we have noted that search engines rank web sites higher when they are free from spelling errors. Clearly, the results of higher search engine rankings lead to:
§ More visitors
§ More potential customers
§ More potential sales
Therefore, it is important to make sure that your web pages are free from embarrassing spelling mistakes to ensure that your on-line presence is friendlier to both humans and search engines.
Quality Content is important for SEO
Traditionally, Search engine optimisation consultants have often failed to take into account the effect that good writing and good spelling can have on the ranking of a web page. However, traditional wisdom is changing. Correct spelling will make a good impression and will increase your on-line business credibility which is a very critical factor for increasing your business revenues.
Do you check the spelling of the content of your web pages as they are posted? If not, you should improve your SEO quality assurance processes and spell check your web site content before it is on-line. Act now, tomorrow could be too late, so why not do it now?
If you need help we have the tools to test your site so sign up for our Webscan report today. If you want help or want to discuss this or any aspect of implementing an effective Digital Marketing System for your business, call me on 01580 819529, contact our Digital Marketing Office or email me at anthony@wsionlinebiz.co.uk
LinkedIn for Your Business
The principle product manager at LinkedIn, Ian McCarthy, said: "We've made the conversations within groups similar to face-to-face professional interactions by removing the wall between original remarks and off-site content such as shared news articles." We can help you set up and optimise your LinkedIn account so get in touch with our Digital Marketing Practice on this linkLinkedIn now has over 4 million uses in the UK and over 60 million worldwide and is the premier professional social networking site and is a great tool for marketing your brand, products and services. If you are serious about digital marketing then both you and your company should have a profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great tool for building business relationships by joining industry or shared interest groups. There are thousands of groups for you to explore in LinkedIn and find one that suits your business interests. Recently LinkedIn has added a Facebook style ‘Like' button to its Groups service allowing members of this professional social networking site to show their appreciation of discussions or shared content and to get involved in the conversation.Content flagged with the ‘Like' button will then show in users' news feed and members who consistently use the function, and have a large number of followers will be flagged as ‘Top Influencers', giving their ‘Like' greater worth. LinkedIn has improved the look and feel of Groups conversations by adding the link-sharing feature, already applied to the homepage, within the Groups page. This feature will make it easier for the user to know about the professionals participating in a particular conversation, and will help them to browse through conversations, post comments and engage in these conversations.
Friday, 13 August 2010
Green IT and the Enviroment - Innovative Ways to Market your Business
In June I wrote an article on a non - digital marketing way of marketing your business. In that article I argued the case for marketing your business by reducing your carbon footprint and communicating your plans and progress to your customers and prospects. This is a great way to show your company credentials in the light of concern for the environment. In the article I made reference to the Carbon Footprinting guide is available online as an interactive PDF at http://www.carbontrust.co.ukI have recently written an article for the savvycitizens website from the BCS, the chartered institute for IT which covers Green IT and the Environment. Environmental problems, and the role of Information Technology in them, are getting more consideration than ever. Some of the main issues today are rising energy prices, global warming and old equipment piling up in storage and landfills. Exactly what is sustainable IT? Sustainable or “green” IT is a catch-all term used to describe the manufacture, management, use and disposal of IT in a way that minimises damage to the environment. As a result, the term has many different meanings, depending on whether you are a manufacturer, manager or user of Information Technology. You can read the full article on Green IT and the Environment here.
Market Your Business the Green Way
Carbon Trust - How to Market Your Business Another Way
The carbon footprinting guide outlines three key steps that your business can take to:
1. Calculate your company’s carbon footprint - by measuring the greenhouse gas emissions produced from all your business activities and setting a target for reducing emissions in the future. The guide also explains how you can have your business's carbon footprint independently verified so that you can communicate your claims integrity and confidence.
2. Assess, communicate and verify the carbon footprint of a product – all products have a carbon footprint which includes carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are emitted across its entire lifecycle from design, production, distribution, normal use and final disposal.
3. Use a carbon footprint for ongoing carbon management – the first step is to establish a carbon management programme to reduce emissions for your business. A carbon management programme will show thought leadership and can help to encourage innovation and create cost-savings across your business.
Carbon footprinting is a hugely helpful tool for understanding the impact your business has on climate change. The Carbon Trust has created this guide to help you understand:
- what makes up the carbon footprint of your business, product or services
- how to measure and communicate it effectively
- how to use that footprint as part of your long-term plan to reduce carbon emissions
Carbon Footprinting can also help your business to demonstrate thought leadership, cut costs, improve operational processes and meet reporting requirements for environmental legislation and is a great way to market your business!
The Carbon Footprinting guide is available online as an interactive PDF at http://www.carbontrust.co.uk
Regards from WSI Digital Marketing Sussex
How The Internet has Changed the Way We Communicate
How the Internet is changing the English language and the ways we speak As a linguist and an ex-English teacher, the evolution of language has always fascinated me. Since the 15th century, the English language has evolved under the influence of technology but I would argue that this has been more in terms of style than structural changes to the language. The first big change came in the 15th century with the use of printing presses which introduced new standardised grammar, spelling and punctuation styles. In the 19th century, telephony brought in new patterns of dialogue as people could speak to each other at greater distances. Radio and TV broadcasting in the early 20th century introduced us to new styles and brought us sports commentators, chat shows and interviews. However, it is the internet that has had a massive change both in the way we speak and how we write English. Who could have predicted that internet technology would have brought us so much diversity? For example, just think of the different technologies and the way we communicate in English using these technologies: * the world wide web itself We do not speak or communicate in the same way when we are blogging as when we are texting and each technology has its own style of the English language. These different styles of communication have exploded and will continue to evolve and you can see it in all forms of online marketing or offline marketing materials Whilst the internet has produced some new vocabulary or “internet slang”, there are only a few hundred new English slang words in a language which has over one million words. So the 20th century slang of "groovy" and "funky" has given way to phrases like "lol" (laugh out loud), and "brb" (be right back) in the 21st century - but they are still relatively few. So, although there are some new punctuation formats, e.g. emoticons, there have been no significant changes to grammar patterns or verb endings. The main change has been the style of language that we use when we communicate. Lots of purists and people would like to preserve the correct way to speak English. However, no one can stop trends in style and slang from changing the way we communicate. Whether it is cave men's drawing on walls, writing in sand with a stick, or sending a "tweet" to the other side of the world, the English language is something that will never be permanent and will be constantly changed by technology. Anthony Burke
* email
* chat rooms
* instant messaging
* the virtual worlds of games
* blogging
* twittering
* mobile phone texting
* social Networking
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Quote of the Day
“Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.” George Bernard Shaw
On the radar phrase
“Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.” — Henry David Thoreau
Why should I set up my business online - Really I was asked this recently!
I met someone today that is starting out in a fairly niche retail business and she asked me "Why should I put my business online?" - shock/horror!So the short answer I gave her was that by putting her business online she can avoid the overhead involved in setting up a real world high street business. No need to get an overpriced shop front, buy shelves, fill it with stock, pay local authority business rates, employ staff, etc, etc. I recommended that she could put some of that money into a monthly adwords budget to get totally targetted traffic to her offer and if she could get herself a really well designed and optimised site or landing page(s) where she would be good to go straight away.The other major difference that I pointed out between online and offline businesses is that offline you set up and hope that you get the footfall to wherever you were able to open up. Online you can create the footfall so all you need is a good offer that somebody will respond to. Seems obvious to me but lucky for her she has a rich daddy (unlucky for him) who is funding her but I am not too sure how much unnecessary expenditure he wants to incur!Anyway, if anybody reading this post wants help with setting up a targetted website for a new or current business then just get in touch with our digital marketing team and tell us what you are looking for and what you expect. You will not be disappointed.I think this has been my shortest blog post ever :)
The dos and don'ts of moderating your firm's social network pages
Tamara Littleton looks at the legal and etiquette risks and issues surrounding the moderation of your organisation's social network pages. http://goo.gl/SRrp
The dos and don'ts of moderating your firm's social network pages
Tamara Littleton looks at the legal and etiquette risks and issues surrounding the moderation of your organisation's social network pages.
Video Marketing is growing and growing
Video Marketing is a major growth area in the area of online marketing. Based on some recent analysis and research, performed by the Pew Research Center, 57% of people in America have downloaded online video and 19% download video daily. As PCs are gradually replacing televisions for a lot of consumers and mobile technology continues to develop, it can be expected that the use of video for many business and personal activities will continue to grow. The same study also discovered that over half of the users who are enjoying video were sharing the video clips with a number of people, showcasing the viral or person to person advertising feature associated with this method. Showcase your businesses qualities - online shoppers really want authenticity and transparency and they need to know who you are and what your organisation stands for and is all about. Video is an excellent approach to promote your qualities. As yet there is reduced amount of competition. The majority of companies continue to advertise their business websites by making use of articles or blog posts. However, only a small percentage of them take advantage of videos. This means that the level of competition is a lot less. As outlined by a Marketing Sherpa analysis about Video Marketing published in January 2009, 57% of internet marketers who have made use of video for advertising reasons are usually happy with the results. You should be doing it for your business!
Video and audio are powerful forms of content and they are rapidly developing as the advertising tool of choice for most companies both big and small. They offer a lot of advantages over regular print content, including:
Press Releases - Top 10 tips
Press releases should form part of every business's strategic digital marketing and online PR mix. Therefore, you need to make sure that your efforts are well spent by ensuring your press release has every chance of being published on the sites that you post to it to. Writing a press release that does not attract attention and get published is like writing a letter and forgetting to post the letter. When time is money, this is just a waste when you could be doing something else more productive. Here are my top 10 tips for getting your press releases published: 1. Make sure the press release title has some form of time related information 2. Try and make the title ‘event based’ 3. Do not use FREE in the title 4. Do not ask a question in the title of your press release 5. Make sure your title does not read like an advert 6. Make your press release location specific 7. Make sure your press release title has more than 20 characters 8. Avoid offensive material 9. Make sure you understand and stick to the accepted format of a press release 10. Finally, spell check and get someone to proof read your press release Contact our digital marketing practice to help you with your business press release
Your press release should talk about something that is current i.e. your press release titles should be specific to the present and not generic. The more time dependant the better. e.g. John Smith's Camping Center Launches September 2010 Charity Sale to Support the Children in Need Campaign. This is a good title, as there is a time dependant element here because we are talking specifically about September 2010. If you can include the actual day and time of the event then even better.
As in the previous paragraph, the title of your press release should ideally focus on a specific event that is happening or planned to happen that you want people to know about and the body of the release should clearly describe the event.
The inclusion of Free in the title usually signifies to the press release reviewer that your press release is spam and not a great news item for their site and will probably not get listed. Avoid at all costs!
If you ask a question in your press release it can look like an article rather than a press release. If this is the case then post the article on an article site. The reader of a press release site is different from that of an article site. Press releases are factual and event based, with readers looking for up to date information. On most press release site you will need to substantiate any facts or claims that you publish in your press release
If your title says something like ‘£5 off this weekend at John Smith's Camping Center’ then that is not going to get past the reviewer. You need to make it more relevant and put in more of a story. Try and give the ‘reason why’ it is happening.
Give your press release FOCUS by mentioning the location that your press release is relevant to. This makes sure that the reviewer knows that this press release is relevant to their traffic.
Short titles usually indicate short and badly written press releases and so the reviewer might just give up at the title. However, don't go to the other extreme. For example, super long titles either, anything over 150 characters is way too long and will probably get you left unpublished.
It may seem obvious but most sites will not post releases referring to pornography, gambling, racism or other offensive topics. Most press release sites use Google adsense to generate some of their revenue and so are bound by Google’s terms and conditions which do not allow adverts to be placed on sites with such content.
Make sure you read the guidelines for the press release site. Usually these include the requirements for Title, Introduction, Body and then About us section. Many press releases don't have the ‘about us’ section of the press release. This is not a reason for instant deletion but it doesn’t look professional. In a previous blog post we posted about the importance of standardising on a "boiler plate" or "about us" section for all your press releases.
It may seem obvious but press release reviewers will review your press release carefully. A press release reviewer will delete your press release if the grammar is poor or if it contains spelling mistakes and errors.
10 Secrets of Online Lead Generation
Online lead generation programs should increase your profits. It’s simple to get more traffic, more clicks and even more revenue. The hard part is establishing and maintaining a lead generation campaign that increases your customers, sales, and the efficiency of your marketing over time.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
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