Now that we’re well into the first month of the New Year I started to think of what might be a few digital marketing New Year Resolutions for a business in 2010. Many will already be doing many of these things but if not then maybe these will help you. Read the rest of this entry »
Today I am having a look at the questions of B2B brands and their approach to social media.
Gartner predicts that in 2010 more than 60% of Fortune 1000 companies will engage in some form of social media. As social media touch the majority of the population on a daily basis, it is natural enough that consumer brands now embrace these to connect with their consumers or fans. What about B2B brands?
Because of the fear of seeing industrial know-how escape them and strategic market information being leaked to the competition, many B2B brands are still risk-averse to giving up control to user-generated content, and to openly connecting with the wider public. In fact, many B2B brands have so far denied themselves the opportunity to fully realise the potential offered by social media. Read the rest of this entry »
Snow has been here again, reminding me on my last trip to Paris, for XMAS, on Eurostar.
So to start this year’s blog, I thought that I would look back on my Eurostar experience over the Xmas period as I was trying to go to Paris to spend holidays with my French family.
Soon after five trains had broken down in the tunnel on December 19th, Eurostar started to send email updates every day, asking their customers to check the Eurostar website every evening at 8pm for traffic information.
Real time search results. Recently we’ve seen both Google and Bing attempt to include Tweets in their SERPs however it was apparent from the out-set that they weren’t quite ready. From a ranking perspective it simply didn’t seem fair that people could get a number one result just because they were the last person to tweet a certain search term. So this year hopefully Google (and the other search engines) can develop a fair and effective way of integrating real time search.
Conversion rate optimisation. One of the most important reasons for a business to improve its online presence through SEO is because it wants more people to find its website and to make more money. However often the conversion rate isn’t as high as it should be. We’re now into the realms of conversion rate optimisation and this year I think it’s going to be important for more agencies to introduce CRO as part of their standard SEO process. It’s very measurable, normally with a good ROI when done well and therefore should be an added string to any SEO bow.
I was awake at 4am the other day thinking about how I would get to work if the forecast 8 inches of snow was correct. Then it dawned on me (not the actual dawn, that’s not til 7.30am) that it didn’t matter because I could work from home. During the big freeze in the winter of 1963, Britain was a much more industrial nation – factories closed and public services really struggled, although more schools stayed open because most people lived close enough to walk. Now, broadband internet means that a great number of employees can work from home. When it snowed 2 years ago, I walked to work through the snow, 3 miles across the fields. This time, I just turned on my laptop. Read the rest of this entry »
Every Christmas, my wife Karen asks me what I want for Christmas and provide her with a list. This year I thought I’d get some advice from the good people on twitter.
So a little while ago I posted a tweet ‘What’s the best book you’ve read this year?’I have had some excellent responses and now have a fabulous Christmas wish list.
What’s interesting is the quality of the books mentioned and the diversity of them which illustrates the quality of people on twitter.
‘What has this got to do with social media?’ you may be wondering. I say ‘Everything’ in that social media is a superb way of gathering opinion and information and doing something like this proves its power and usefulness to me yet again.
To thank the people who recommended books I’ve included your twitter ids below with the books you read this year that you loved most and to you I say ‘Many thanks’. If anyone would like to add their own suggestions in the comments section of the blog or comment on others recommendations, please feel free to do so.
Here’s the list exactly as they were tweeted:
@arjantupan One best book? Hard. Here some: White Tiger, Lean Thinking, Black Swan, Democracy Kills
@arjantupan Oh, And Tribes, of course. And, for the Americans and Dutch: The Island at the Center of the World
@Dunkndisorderly Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer. Amazing book
Read the rest of this entry »
White Hat Media recently appointed Duncan Birch to the role of Business Development Manager.
Duncan previously worked for Email marketing company Pure360 in their major accounts division where he signed brands such as the leading pet charity PDSA, the Evening Standard and Jones the Bootmakers.
Prior to this, Duncan worked as an executive search consultant in the home entertainment sector, managing relationships with major content providers such as BSkyB, the BBC, and in the mobile data business.
Jeremy Spiller, MD, commented:”Duncan brings to White Hat Media his solid experience of the digital media sector in sales and business development. He will be instrumental in accelerating our growth and winning major clients.”
Download the press release: NewsRelease_Appointment_Dec09
For further information please contact:
Anne Collet – White Hat Media – Tel: 01273 704771 – Email: anne.collet@whitehatmedia.com
White Hat Media developed for BTR Direct, UK based e-tailer of DVDs and Blue Ray discs, an automated open source e-commerce shop, enabling the retailer to easily manage and sell over 65,000 product references.
BTR Direct operates in a competitive market. They needed new technology to accommodate a larger number of products, without impacting their staff structure. After having consulted a number of agencies, BTR Direct’s MD, Peter, believed that White Hat Media’s expertise in open source e-commerce based solutions was the best choice for his business.
Read the rest of this entry »
From a journalistic point of view, search marketers can come under a lot of lexicographical fire when it comes to writing copy. However, I strongly believe producing keyword rich content does not have to come at the sacrifice of quality prose.
Writing is a craft, as is optimising content to perform well in the search engines and it’s fully possible to have the two working in perfect harmony. Just before I started an SEO internship through Wired Sussex all those fateful years ago, I was doing some research and came across an article on search marketing written by Charlie Brooker. Now I don’t want to join a cult but if Charlie started one just show me where to sign. In his article the self-confessed ‘miserablist’ warned against prose manipulated for Google and the dangers these new trends posed for quality reportage. And although his points had a faint whiff of truth, anyone in the industry knows that it’s quite possible to write content that not only is picked up by the search engines, but it also enjoyable and informative to read.
Last week, a major American airline fired one of their employees for having engaged with a customer after the latter had expressed his opinion on the poor usability of its website.
Facebook and Twitter, to name just two of these highly popular social media sites, give (un)happy customers / citizens a very powerful and instant platform to make their voice heard, to an extent that has never been seen before. For fun I cherry picked some “customer experience related” twitter posts this week, which I’ll leave for your judgement (please note that they are strictly reflecting their authors’ opinion, neither mine nor that of White Hat Media). Read the rest of this entry »
