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.

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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. (more…)

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
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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). (more…)

Twitter triumphed last week in a media battle for free speech. I’m sure you’re now familiar with the Trafigura story, but if not here’s a quick recap.

Trafigura are an oil trading company accused of illegally dumping toxic waste off the Ivory Coast. In a desperate attempt to save face they instructed their lawyers, the firm Carter-Ruck, to impose a super injunction (an injunction on an injunction so said media outlet can’t publicly announce that it can’t publicly announce something) on the Guardian newspaper (who initially broke the story). And so they could not publicly report their findings or the parliamentary goings-on in regards to the Trafigura toxic issue.

However you can’t hold down social media and the collective conscience of the internet, soon the blogosphere was buzzing with the story but of course at that point, no one knew exactly what the story was, exactly why the Guardian had been gagged or what exactly was being discussed in parliament. Twitter soon became the platform on which people were communicating in order to solve this puzzle.

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With the huge growth of social media and in particular twitter, for a bit of fun it got me to thinking about types of bird and how they compared to the types of people who use social media. So here are some suggestions about social media bird types.

Which one do you feel you’re part of and feel you relate most to? Also can you think of any more?

Parrots; without a single original thought of their own, members of this group simply copy other people’s contributions. On twitter this is even supported through the use of retweeting, RT or via. Of course reasonable RT is excellent but Parrots go way beyond the simple retweeting of items of particular interest but in essence their only contributions are copies of other people’s content. (more…)

When talking to business owners and marketing people about social media, often the stated primary objective is “more sales”. This is of course understandable but your audiences on social media are not just people who might want to buy your services or products directly but which are just as important.
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I attended “Harnessing The Power Of Twitter” in London last week, a conference organised by Internet World. It brought together an array of digital marketing specialists, twitter pioneers, and business owners.
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On Monday 15th June I was watching the evening news on TV showing a peaceful demonstration against the elections’ results in Iran. However peaceful, this demonstration flared up in panic and anger when police forces started to shoot in the crowd, killing a young man.
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Twitter has decided to offer verified accounts after experiencing problems with the supposed account of well known baseball manager Tony La Russa in the United States.

Worried about users impersonating people on Twitter the service will start with public officials and famous people who are likely targets for this practice. (more…)