The Bright Digital team work across multiple locations using a whole pile of remote collaboration tools, including teleconferencing, video, screen shares, and online white boards. So when Alfresco asked us to link up their five European live events we were surprised ourselves that there wasn’t a cost effective off-the-shelf solution out there all ready to go. We discovered even the high-end video conferencing systems struggle to link more than three locations at once.

To solve the problem we created a bespoke branded interface that linked video from Milan, Paris, Rome, London and Madrid, using simple laptop webcams. So all the locations could see the other locations at the same time.

We also recorded the keynote presentation that introduced the new features and capabilities of Alfresco Enterprise 4 "The Cloud Connected Content Platform". A video of the full presentation will be available to Alfresco partners, but we can give you a brief glimpse of the introduction and the five city link-up here.



If you need a creative way to launch your new product, or something a bit different or special for an event please get in touch.

Are you planning to attend any tradeshows or events this year?  Many of our clients use events as a way to meet prospects, talk with customers, and keep up-to-date with their industry, yet we we are often amazed how few other exhibitors use the basic tools to attract visitors to their stand. 

We have put together a checklist of five ideas to help you plan your stand for your next event or conference. 

Download our checklist here

If you are ready for more ideas exhibition stand ideas just get in touch! 

   

We had just started working with Huawei in the UAE, when an urgent opportunity arose with Huawei here in the UK. The challenge was to help a new partner get ready to launch at a trade show. 

Huawei’s new partner is Redwire Data Centre, and they are building an amazing new data facility in West London. Right now it’s a towering concrete shell, alive with work crews and cranes. It will shortly be 5 floors of the latest technology with all the extra services that keep data-hungry businesses running at top speed. 

Here at Bright Digital we work with clients on a number of trade events each year, so we were well equipped to get the Redwire team kitted out. We developed the company identity, produced an exhibition stand as well AV content and a brochure. This was all delivered in time for the prestigious Data Centre Dynamics conference at Excel in London. Redwire’s arrival into the data marketplace was marked with a highly professional finish and a considered design that allowed the team to focus on generating business opportunities.

In the coming weeks we will be making the Redwire web site work harder and helping the team refine their longer-term marketing strategy as well as preparing for the next trade show, which is already in the diary.  Watch this space for more news about Redwire and check out their webcam link at the bottom of this page to see the new data centre growing day-by-day. 

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The backlash against Facebook seems to be gathering steam. The social networked are complaining more and people with real lives are spending less time connecting via Facebook. I don’t really think people are only now realising that Facebook is the world’s greatest advertising machine. Instead I believe this slow down has everything to do with the expectation of the user.

People have quite happily paid to see advertising in printed publications for years and they understood this to be a fair exchange. Editorial content was nicely mixed with adverts, and in some magazines you could argue that the adverts were as important as the editorial. However, most people don’t go to Facebook to read editorial content. They go to connect with their friends and increasingly their family. Editorial and adverts were never really part of the deal in user’s minds.

So we all went along merrily collecting our contacts and in that process adding a few interests here and there didn’t seem such a bad thing to do for a while. You were after all selecting to ‘like’ things that interest you. All sounds good really from a user and advertisers’ perspective, opting in to see the adverts you want to see is after all the ideal we all strive for.

However, Facebook now has the problem that too many people have been too enthusiastic with their ‘likes’ so for many people when they log onto Facebook now, they aren’t met with cute baby pictures, evidence of a drunken night out or a funny cartoon someone has shared, they are met with editorial and adverts on their wall. Unfortunately for Facebook – that’s not really what the people signed up for.

This doesn’t make Facebook a bad place to advertise. It does mean companies need to consider carefully how often they post content on their wall. Ideally Facebook would also reconsider how the wall actually functions, but as Facebook is already a usability nightmare I say that in trepidation! 

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This autumn we carried out research to find out the extent to which IT Resellers are using social media for marketing purposes. A focus group that consisted of 35 small UK-based companies were quizzed on their social media usage for business, and the findings indicate that the majority of small IT reseller businesses are utilising social media technologies for sophisticated marketing reasons such as growing brand awareness and online PR. However the study also shows that they are not always successful and would like more support from vendors to help them increase sales using such techniques.

Twitter and Linked In are the most popular sites for marketing

Twitter is the most popular choice of social media site for this technical audience to utilise for marketing purposes, closely followed by business social networking site Linked In, with Facebook also proving to be a popular choice. YouTube and RSS feeds are also well used, with less people choosing blogging but, unsurprisingly, even fewer opting to adopt Google + for marketing. Just a few individuals choose less well known social utilities like Vimeo, Flickr, Digg, Slideshare, Foursquare, and using forums. Despite low numbers for less widely used sites however, this shows they are a savvy audience that is willing to try out various sites and utilities to meet their targets.

Keeping it simple – using social media to tell the world about their business

Most IT Resellers surveyed are using social media to release news and online PR, and also to increase brand awareness. Many choose to use social media marketing as a means of distributing content and to improve search rankings, with less of them seeing it as a way to launch a product or to enhance customer services. These findings suggest that the companies we asked see social media as an interface between them and their customers; it is seen as a way of telling the world what they are up to, rather than a tool for customer service, which would take up resources and which requires a fairly sophisticated infrastructure.

It’s trial and error for many IT Resellers; they need more support to succeed

Almost half of the people said social media had yielded results to some extent, with a third saying no results at all were achieved - but a quarter said that solid results had been achieved. This indicates that social media marketing is something that works and doesn’t work in roughly equal measure for IT Resellers. Over half of them say that they would like more support from vendors.  

Summary: vendors should provide social media content as well as advice

Small IT Resellers are keen to use social media marketing to sell more technology products or services on behalf of vendors. With varying degrees of success, most of these businesses are using social media now, and in fairly sophisticated ways. Yet their success rates are hit and miss, so they are keen to know how to be more effective in their efforts. More than half agreed that they would like support from vendors to do this. It is up to technology manufacturers to provide support for social media marketing, and find ways of helping their resellers to market their products or services via the social channels they wish to use. This can be done by providing advice in channel communications about how they can be more effective, but also by actually creating content that they can send out on the vendor’s behalf.

Go comment!

Many technology companies have had a social media presence for a while. But where so many companies go wrong is that they fail to realise the importance of content in the realm of social media marketing. Content is at the heart of any good social media marketing and communications strategy. If you don’t have interesting content to share, then what do you plan to actually do with your social media channel? Social media may appear to be all about spontaneity, but in the real world good social media brand communication is normally very carefully planned, months in advance. In an ideal world, a content creation and distribution strategy would precede the set up of social media channels, but even if you’re a latecomer to the content marketing party and you’re all set up on social media, you should not delay the creation of a content strategy anymore!

Think about subject matter - what are your customers' pain points?

As ever, it’s your audience that you should ruminate upon when thinking about what to share via your social media channels. What are the things in their lives that you can positively affect? To give a simple example of what I mean: if you sell cameras, you might think about how you could help your customers become better photographers. Your product or service offering may be more complicated than my simple example, and you may sell to customers via a channel, but the point remains the same: think about what content relating to your product or service will help your customer (whether they are reseller or a consumer) succeed. It helps to get other people involved in this thought process, so try holding a brainstorm to come up with subjects that would help customers. Don’t worry about the type of content (white paper, podcast etc); just concentrate on the subject matter first. Once you have decided on the subjects, then you can think about what form it will take.

Choose formats that your audience can access easily

Content can take many forms. Here are some examples of content formats that you could deliver via social media:

• Blogs;
• White papers, How To guides, branded PDFs;
• Podcasts;
• Animation or video;
• Webinars or webcasts;
• Images;
• Slideshows / PowerPoints;
• eBooks or digital magazines;
• Visualised data such as infographics
• Website content
• Facebook and Twitter updates (with no link, the content is the post itself)

Again, consider your audience and what they are likely to utilise easily – don’t choose formats that will be a barrier between them and the content. For example a more techie audience may well go for less obvious formats like podcasts, as they are likely to own an MP3 player. However if yours is a more average audience that might not own such technology, you might prefer to play it safe and focus on formats that you know they are likely to access easily, like a blog.

Utilise existing marketing collateral

After you have thought about what content you would like to create for your audience to address their pain points in relation to what you offer, it’s time to think about anything you already have that might do this. Remember that presentation by the MD that you recorded last year? Well now it might come in handy! Or how about the presentation that you did explaining how to get the most out of your product? Could that be useful to your audience? Whether you have nothing at all and are starting afresh or have loads of content that could be utilised again in this new guise, once you create content from now on, remember to archive it so it can be utilised at a later date. Re-using content is a great way of getting return on investment from costs associated with content production.  

Select social media channels appropriate to your audience

Now you have a list of subjects that you want to cover, you are clear on what format/s you want to the content to be in, so now you need to think about the delivery method! Which social media channels are most suitable for your audience? Don’t automatically assume that Facebook is the social media channel that will work hardest for you! Yes it has massive coverage, but say for example if yours is a B2B, quite serious, techie audience, then something more business-like might appeal to them more. Consider these mainstream options, there are lots more of course, but these are probably the most well-known go tos when creating a social strategy:

Linked In – great for a business audience

Twitter – perfect for a middle-class, creative or slightly older audience

Facebook – ideal for a youth or consumer target group – good for well-known brands

Google + – still quite tech savvy, lots of CEOs and figureheads are utilising this, good for tech forward audience

Vimeo – a good choice for video or animation showcasing to a more creative audience

YouTube – the main video channel for a wider audience

Slideshare – an excellent way to share PPTs, especially to a professional audience

Flickr – photo sharing for tech savvy audience, and keen photographers

Plan your content schedule - what to post and when

A content schedule is a good idea even if you are a small organisation. Planning your content ahead for the next few months, even though it will take time to do it, will save you time in the long run. You can consider dates in the diary that will be relevant to your business and prepare your content in advance. Also if one person is in control of social media communications and that person is on holiday or ill, then the content schedule comes in very useful for the cover.

Track links, encourage debate, reuse content – and don’t forget to converse as well as broadcast!

With a content schedule in place and your social media channels up and running, it’s important to remember some basic, but nonetheless key points. Firstly always track links so you can see what types of content are most popular and which not so much. Secondly, always post your content in such a way that encourages conversation and comments. You must be prepared to accept good and bad opinion, it’s all good in the social media mix, just ensure you respond appropriately. Once you see what content is working, make a note that it was successful and feel free to post it again, but at an opportune time. Leave a few months so the audience doesn’t feel cheated that you are posting old stuff too soon. Last but definitely not the least important is the golden rule: don’t just broadcast, have conversations too! Search for mentions of your brand or product, or a related keyword and get involved in the conversation. Try to do this in a helpful way; not in an obtrusive way. An example might be an individual talking about a product in a negative way, mentioning the brand name. If you are the brand marketer you should pick that up and respond helpfully. Small companies can do this too; simply modify the keywords that you are looking for to respond on subject rather than on product.

Summary:

1. Devote some time and budget to developing content
2. Organise a brainstorm to come up with subjects that could help your customers
3. Consider the type of content that would be most suitable for your audience
4. Utilise existing collateral
5. Think about the social media channels
6. Create a content calendar to diarise what you are sending out and when
7. Include track-able links
8. Encourage feedback and debate
9. Re-post some content after a few months
10. Don’t forget to converse as well as broadcast

Go comment!

We deserve a big slap on the virtual wrist for not posting a blog for two months. What can I say? It’s an overused excuse, but that's because it's always the reason that people lag when blogging... we’ve just been very busy this summer working with clients! I have decided that every couple of months from now on I’ll be providing a roundup of activity to let people know what it is we are actually busy doing.

Creating interactive content for a live event

The team are in Dubai as I type for the world’s largest technology show, Gitex. For one of the world’s biggest telecoms companies we have created, for the fourth year running, some slick and engaging live event content for their stand at the show. As well as taking all the complex product and service information from the product managers and turning it into whizzy and informative interactive screens, we have also helped them launch a major new product at the show.

Using social media at a live event to generate excitement

At the same live event and for the same client, the team will be whipping up a storm on Twitter and Facebook with the brand’s thousands of followers to generate visitors to the stand, running a competition that people who attend the show as well as those who don’t.

Managing a Twitter customer services channel

For the same telecoms client, we have been managing their Twitter channel for a few years now. It mainly serves as a customer service tool, but also as a PR and brand channel for them. This is something we launched and we continually optimise for them; it has won praise in the national press for providing a great service to customers.

A student campaign on Facebook with viral video, live events, in store promos, and Twitter promotion

We created the strategy, creative and also managed the campaign for two household name brands, who came together to help students preparing to go to university. As manufacturer and retailer, they wanted to sell more laptops to this audience, so we built a holistic campaign around social media and their website, delivering helpful content via a Facebook app that provided emotional and practical advice for parents and students themselves. There was a competition via a viral video, in store promos and live events too. The whole thing was promoted on Twitter and via SEO and online advertising. The campaign has been very successful so far and is still running...

Designing a new open source partner portal interface

For this technology software brand, we have provided the creative for an open source partner portal, so that they can build the site itself. We are also helping them organise their partner marketing materials, so they can better support their partners in selling more.

Creating a cross platform mobile application  

For this company, we have built a mobile app that works across all platforms, so that when people interact with it, it doesn’t matter which platform they are using, they still benefit from the app.

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Steve Jobs stepped down from Apple recently. Whether you work in the technology industry or not, odds are you know that Steve Jobs was the CEO of Apple and was person responsible for the some of the most innovative products of the past century, like the Macintosh computer, iPhone, iPad etc. He is a household name, in technology marketing that is quite unusual. The technology sector is too often seen as dry, boring, and stiff! So what was it that made Jobs different? He is a wild-card, known for his partying and philandering certainly – but he is also a genius in his field. Innovative, charismatic, and fun - these are all attributes that, when applied to the head of a company, transmit to the products themselves, and they most definitely apply to Jobs. The fact that the CEO of Apple is a bit of a rock star has definitely has helped Apple products shift. So how does this translate to you and your brand, as a technology marketer?

Bring personality into the marketing mix

Whether it’s you or the CEO, it’s crucial that the brand has a face, one person who represents the brand most often. It’s fine to choose a team of people who will be profiled as faces of the brand, but select one to be the main face. Often it’s obvious who that should be; think of Richard Branson or Alan Sugar. Who would the most appropriate person for the job be? Someone in a suitably senior position would be ideal, a good communicator with a great sense of humour, and most importantly a strong sense of personality. It’s OK to show a little bit of who you are as a brand via your team; in fact it should be positively encouraged. Small or large, if you have a human face to your organisation or company, people are more likely to engage with you on a personal scale, and that will do your business no harm whatsoever. To its most extreme effect, their personality co-exists with the product, i.e. Steve Jobs is a maverick genius, therefore if I buy an iPad I am too. Kate Moss is a sexy fashion icon, so if I buy a dress designed by her, I will be sexy and iconic too. You get my point. You may think this is extreme, but even if you are a small business, you can do something similar.

Use Twitter to show your human side

Social media, in particular Twitter, is an excellent way to show the face of your brand. As well as using it to distribute content, and launch product news, why not post opinion on there too. As well as the official channel with a logo as its profile picture, consider the team having Twitter accounts that they use in their capacity as representatives of your brand, for example @DaveatCompany. Have conversations with contemporaries using such a channel, and don’t be afraid of being a person and not just a brand. Say who is at the helm of the Twitter page. You are more likely to have networking success on Twitter if people are chatting to Dave than a faceless logo.

Contribute articles and comments in relevant places

So how else can you show that your IT business is fun, interesting and knowledgeable? One way to illustrate expertise and get your opinion out there is to contribute blogs and articles to relevant publications. Offer to do it for free in return for your name, URL and a sentence about you and your brand. Not only does this put you and your business across as key thought leaders, but it shows personality, and offers a place to begin a dialogue too. Target publications that your potential customers read to get the best effect.

Summary: use Twitter and blogs to show brand personality but plan, plan, plan!

As with all of the best social media strategy, growing your company using profile marketing such as outlined above requires a lot of planning. It is not a matter of set up a channel and get Tweeting. When representing a brand it is crucial that you create a policy document so that you and others who are communicating as an employee are all on the same page about what to say, and what not to say. Think about your target audience, what they are looking for from you – and then how you can illustrate that via articles, blogs, Twitter etc. Remember, there is no business without the people, so make the most of them and put them in the spotlight!

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that more and more people are accessing the Internet on their mobile phone. In September 2009, just 0.02% of all UK web traffic originated from a mobile device. In *January 2011 this figure was a staggering 8.09% (representing a growth of over 4000%). If growth continues at the rate it did for the latter part of 2010, by June 2011, 13% of UK web traffic will be of mobile origin.

Not that long ago, we went on the Internet on a desktop computer and made telephone calls and text messages on our mobile phones. Now people expect to go online with their Internet-enabled mobiles (Smartphones) and many people only have a Smartphone, choosing not buy a computer at all. In an act that confirms the convergence of mobile and Internet, Google last week purchased Motorola. This move further acknowledges mobile as the vehicle of choice for Internet activities.

First, consider how your brand’s website functions on a Smartphone

Whether you are an in-house or an agency marketer, you need to be thinking about how your /your client’s website is functioning when interacted with on a Smartphone. Stand in your customers’ shoes for an hour and interact with your brand’s website. What is it like visiting the website using not just your own Smartphone, but **other models too (the top browsers for using the Internet on your mobile are as listed below). How is the website performing when you try and carry out several basic tasks? How about the site’s main ‘conversion’ task (booking, purchasing etc)? Try this with several of the main 5 browsers and ask others to test it too to get a broad picture of how the user experience is currently. Don’t forget to test how emails are being received to web-based email providers – this is often overlooked, and many people will received your emails on their mobile phone.

Once you have compiled your report on website performance using Smartphones, start a dialogue with your web team or developer (whichever is appropriate to you) about making moves to optimise your website for mobile internet use. You can choose to make a mobile version of your site, which can be detected and the user automatically redirected to, or you can add a link to the mobile site which they choose to click. Alternatively, you may choose to have just one version of your website and make it as friendly to mobile visitors as possible. These are things to discuss with your technical person. What you should keep in mind is: what is the best option for my visitor? Which option will make it easiest to perform the main function I want them to carry out? Which will encourage conversion?

Mobile internet is NOT all about Apps

When you mention mobile or Smartphone marketing to people, the first thing they think of is apps. For the uninitiated, apps is short for applications and in this context refers to mobile apps, which means application software that has been designed specifically for a mobile phone. They are either pre-installed or more often can be downloaded from digital distribution platforms, the most well known one being the Apple App Store, but there are lots of others too. Apps can be entertaining and / or useful, they can also be used as a mini version of your site. Creating an App which reduces your site’s main function can be one very effective way to utilise their popularity, but you could also create something else which you feel will market your brand effectively. Whether it’s a game, a tool, or something else, make sure it is easy to interact with, encourages sharing, and keep it simple. The Apps market is flooded, so make sure your idea stands out. A marketing strategy is required to ensure your App will be downloaded. Don’t overlook this important aspect.

Consider mobile advertising if your audience is appropriate

When it comes to advertising, mobile offers a new platform for businesses in the form of SMS and MMS, advertising in Apps, advertising in mobile games, advertising for mobile TV, and also audio adverts. Of course all other web advertising that appears via mobile isn’t considered mobile advertising as it is merely being viewed by a mobile; that is, mobile is not the platform it is delivered on. For example, if you advertise using Google Adwords, and your advert is viewed using a mobile, it is still an Adwords advert.

SMS and MMS adverts are both fairly well known to marketers and make up a huge percentage of mobile advertising. However mobile advertising via Apps is fairly new. It can be very effective if your target market is appropriate. Choose an expert mobile advertising network to work with and discuss your target market to see where the fit is for mobile advertising and your audience.

In terms of creative, there is a huge opportunity to do something very creative if your budget and creativity allows, as mobile advertising, such as adverts in Apps, is perfect for rich media banners.  Think about interactivity in your advert; let the user be in control for added impact. If you are designing an advert with a specific mobile device in mind, for example the iPhone, utilise the unique features that mobile device has to create clever ways for the user to interact with the advert. Of course you must keep load times in mind when considering technical cleverness. Lastly, always include a strong call-to-action, just as you would with any other advert!

Summary: Prioritise your customers’ user experience when they interact with your website on Smartphones

Mobile is a subject that really comes down to user experience. You need to think about your customers and their needs. It is a fact that people are moving towards mobile as THE internet vehicle, not as an additional one. Increasingly, we will see people do not have separate laptops and mobiles; they will converge to become super devices that we use to call people with, to shop with, to read with, to watch TV with – and it all will be online. The exponential growth of the iPad and other tablets indicates that people want their device to do it all. More and more people are choosing make calls over the Internet and it will only be a matter of time before all calls are made online. Amidst this changing landscape your brand must move with the times and provide not just an adequate mobile viewing experience, but one that exceeds expectations. The first step towards that marketers can ignore no longer is to test their website’s performance on Smartphones. Only once you’ve addressed the user experience on your website should you think about Apps and advertising.

*Source for mobile internet usage statistics: http://www.tecmark.co.uk/uk-mobile-internet-stats

**The main 5 Smartphone browsers in list of popularity:

Opera (a long list of devices come with Opera Mini or Opera Mobile, such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Motorola to name a few)

Safari (iPhone)

Android (Acer, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and others)

Nokia (Nokia handsets)

BlackBerry (BlackBerry handsets)

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Here at Bright Digital, we are passionate about social media as an effective and quantifiable part of the marketing communications mix for our technology clients. Nowadays, social media has an important place in the vast majority of the marketing strategies we create. It has so many uses and can be extremely effective when used correctly. In terms of channel marketing, which makes up a large part of what we do, we help our clients, many of whom are major technology vendors, use social media to recruit channel members, to communicate with the channel, and for channel reward schemes to name but a few uses. But what about the channel, the IT resellers themselves - are they utilising social media to sell products to end customers? More importantly perhaps, how can vendors support the channel in their use of social media so they are using it effectively to sell more of their products?

We are asking IT resellers this question right now!

So interested are we in this area that we have put together a survey for IT resellers to fill in. A member of our team is calling IT businesses up to ask if they mind filling in the 1 page survey in return for a Guide to Using Twitter that is available to them once they submit the form. We want to know, from the group of people we collect data from, what percentage are using social media currently, if they are getting results – and if they would welcome support from vendors in this area.

Ways vendors could support the channel in their use of social media

Of course, we will wait for the results to analyse findings and then make proposals to our existing clients, as well as propose ideas here on the blog; however we already have some outline ideas for technology vendors that would help the channel to use social media effectively. Here are a few suggestions:

1.    Create How To guides – Create PDFs to be accessed at the Channel resource centre or provided by email. The PDFs would range from the very basic ‘How to get started on Twitter’, to more advanced ‘How to generate and nurture leads on Twitter’.

2.    Build a library of interactive content – Webinars, podcasts, blog posts – all content that could be created to help the channel get started, and run a successful social media project.

3.    Offer project templates – Provide templates for the channel that facilitate effective planning, execution and reporting on social media activity. For example, content planning templates, spreadsheets to track activity and so on.

4.    Provide vouchers to be redeemed via social media – Create reward programmes that use social media exclusively to distribute the goodies. This means the end customers would have to Like / Follow etc the IT reseller to claim the rewards. The vouchers could be tracked back to sale.

We want to help the vendors support their channel

So what’s in it for us? Obviously, we make our living from helping technology companies, so it’s natural that we want to help them to sell more products by utilising this effective sales channel. This fact finding mission will allow us to get feedback on the ways we can do that.

We’ll publish the results of our survey soon.

Go comment!

Google Plus is still in its early days and is not available to everyone yet. It is invite only, and invites can only be sent from someone who is already on there so whilst it’s not open to all yet, it is growing rapidly in its take-up. For the purposes of this blog, annoying and overused as it is, it’s useful to explain its features in relation to Facebook for those that have not yet interacted with it, as most of us are familiar with Facebook by now. It’s similar to Facebook in some ways and different in others. Similar, in that you connect with people; you post content; you can use instant chat to people; there is a stream of status updates and conversations on your homepage; you can share photos; you have a profile page; and you can share videos... Different, in that you can see people’s updates by adding them to a circle - they don’t have to reciprocate for their posts to be visible; you can start video chats (called hangouts) with one or all of your connections; you divide your connections up into groups (called circles) which enables you to decide who you want to share stuff with; when posting you can turn off comments and re-sharing with others if you so wish; and you can recommend (the equivalent of Like), not just other people’s posts, but also sites in the Google listings by clicking an icon (called +1) next to the listing. I’m sure there are loads of other ways that it is both similar different to Facebook too, but these are the most apparent.

Sounds great for individuals but how will brands use Google Plus?

Michael Dell of Dell computers has mooted the idea of using Google Plus Hangouts for customer service. He posted on Google Plus, naturally, that “I am thinking about hangouts for business. Would you like to be able to connect with your Dell service and sale teams via video directly from Dell.com?” The response has been very favourable, and it confirms that, as Twitter and Facebook have become tools in the marketing kit, Google Plus will be also inevitably be used by businesses. So, what else can we expect to see from businesses using Google Plus? Focusing on how technology companies, here are some ideas that we may well see materialising in 2011 / 2012…

• Hangouts (live video chats)

o  Live product launches: scheduled online events to launch new kit

o  24 support: customer service, as Mr Dell suggests

o  Ask the expert: live chat with staff members

• Circles (a way for you to group your connections)

o  Customer circles: brands communicate en masse to their end customers

o  Channel circles: the same, but with their channel

o  Personality building of senior staff: encouraging customers to add their team members to circles and thus increasing visibility and encouraging loyalty

• +1 recommendations

o  Incentives for +1 recommendations, like access to exclusive content for example

 

The main benefits for brands of the Google Plus’s unique features

The most obvious benefits to Google Plus are the Circles and Hangouts features. Circles are great as you can now select the people you wish to share with, i.e. you don’t have to share everything with everyone – just like in life. Hangouts are a winner as they allow much richer communication, full stop. Facebook will probably follow suit with similar features, as they are losing people as I type just for these two features alone. When it comes to brands using Google Plus, these two things are extremely powerful, as they will allow brands to interact with their audience in a targeted and much more enriching way.

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The word marketing brings many different ideas to mind, mostly designing cool gadgets, posters and standing in front of the scary looking group, much like dragons’ den. But as I soon came to realise there was a lot more to it then that. This consequently shocked me, impressed me and scared me. When Bright Digital had confirmed that I was able to work with their Oxford branch I knew that this would be a great experience and really put me out in the field of marketing, not only that but it would look really impressive on my university application. It would increase my confidence and ability in writing, which I can definitely see as a career prospect. I thought to myself, even if I am just running around making tea or shopping errands, I would still be surrounded by brilliant brains discussing the ins and outs of various ideas and like a sponge I would sit back and soak it all up. My mind was put at ease though as soon as I met the lovely team I would be spending 6 ½ hours a day for a week with. I took part in many different activities from fixing a table leg to collecting data. I really felt like a member of the team and everyone was extremely welcoming.

I began with some simple things, yet not easy. Searching for images to be used in advertisement campaigns. I enjoyed this even though it took a very long time clicking though pages of images, page after page. Also brainstorming ideas for future advertisements based on a brief specification, I got involved in the finance side of working in a small office by dealing with petty cash (not to mention the spending of the money on shopping trips) where I had to fill out a form and use my (moderate) math skills. I found I had a brand new skill while working at Bright Digital. I discovered I have a talent for writing twitter messages. Seeing as so much advertisement is viewed through the internet nowadays, I was asked to work on drafts for a competition that will run soon. This involved thinking up probably over 100 tweets and making them all about the same subject, but each different and entertaining. I presumed that this would be very simple; however I found that as the time went on, and the tweets increased, it was much harder to come up with new ways of putting things. I was officially tweeted out!

So I went on to collecting data and information, such as travel costs, and putting them into a spreadsheet, and finding the nearest FedEx office. This involved making phone calls and sending emails. Throughout the week I also got involved in collecting information from the internet, about bitly links, and putting that also into a spreadsheet. And as I initially assumed, I did make cups of tea. I was also given the job of choosing a couple of best photographs from a selection (a large selection), which would later be used in campaigns.

Throughout the week I observed my fellow workers as they bravely prepared to meet an impending deadline and it became obvious to me how committed they were to their work. I was inspired by their ability to keep working until 2 in the morning, go home, and then come back in the early morning to start work again. I also felt admiration as they kept calm and level headed throughout all the frustration. I enjoyed talking to them about my future prospects and ideas, and also talking about their own past and got lots of very useful advice. Something which surprised me was how well everyone worked in a team, sending emails back and forth, calling, texting, IMing. Yet they got everything completed and still had time to have pizza at lunch. That was the most surprising thing about my work experience, the communication between colleagues and the warm environment which they created.

The part of work experience which I think I enjoyed the most was the proof reading. Not only did I enjoy reading other people’s work and getting an insight into Bright Digital’s current projects, but to actually get the chance to make a difference and improvements to something which other people, from around the globe, would read was very exciting. I felt like I was helping others improve their own skills, not that they weren’t already excellent, but also improving my own technique and learning from what others have written. Giving my own opinions on the text, correcting mistakes and just making sure it all made sense. I felt this was an important part of the process of getting things done and out. This experience has been extremely useful and has taught me a lot about the behind the scenes work, that most ordinary people don’t have the chance to see.

 By Rachel Yates

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As a technology marketer, no doubt you have thought about whether or not your technology brand should have a Facebook page. Maybe you’re a Facebook fiend in your non-work life, and have quite a good understanding of how it all works; or maybe you don’t use Facebook at all and don’t have the faintest idea what it’s all about. Either way, it will probably be on your radar to some degree, a niggling question mark that you really must get around to addressing. Or have you already got a Facebook page but you’re not totally convinced what the page is actually for?! Don’t worry, you aren’t alone!

Here are 5 simple reasons why you should get a Facebook page for your technology brand.

1.  One Facebook Like equals 20 visitors to your website per year

This stat was recently wheeled out by Hitwise. And whilst it won’t be true of all Facebook pages, their data is reliable enough to provide a general indicator of how a Facebook page might perform in terms of sending traffic. Although it is worth pointing out that this data is based on major retailers’ traffic as a result of their Facebook pages. Nevertheless, this is a useful indicator if you or a colleague is unconvinced about social media marketing, or if you need to secure some budget to go towards social media. It could be interpreted as something more along the lines of: “If you have a successful Facebook page, you could send 20 visitors per year for each Like...”

We all know that visitors need to convert to truly matter, however even a quick click on then off again arguably has worth in that they are at least exposed to your website and may well return later. But ideally you want each of those visitors to convert in some way; if not buy (or the equivalent), then you want them to at least engage and take a further step along the process to becoming a lead, for example sign up to a newsletter, follow you on Twitter, fill in a web enquiry etc. So make sure these types of conversion are linked to regularly from your Facebook page.

2.  People spend 3 x more time on Facebook than on Google

In the past online marketing has all been about getting people to come to your website. Driving targeted traffic that converts so they become customers. People found your site through Google and other search engines, but nowadays people are spending more time on Facebook than on Google. Instead of visiting Google as their first port of call when they go online, many go to Facebook first. People now find websites through friends’ recommendations, and not just through searching on Google. And rather than logging in and logging out intermittently, many people are logged into Facebook via their mobile phone permanently, or have their Facebook account open all day in a tabbed window, whilst they simultaneously work or study. So, they are online, via Facebook, for much of their lives.

Social media engagement is all about non-intrusively engaging with potential and existing customers where they are already spending time, in this relatively new social space. Brands and individuals co-exist on Facebook in a mutually beneficial capacity. But you must get the balance right to be successful, firstly encouraging people to Like your page (see future blogs on how to do this), then connecting with them by posting useful content to drive traffic and sales. 

3.  Facebook marketing can offer a high level return on investment

It is a mistake to think social media, and Facebook specifically, is a free channel that won’t cost you a penny. Yes, it is free to have a Facebook page; however it takes a lot of time to, firstly, create a page that looks good; secondly, time to create the content to post on there; lastly, time to devote to engage with individuals and build Likes. However, dedication of time or staff aside, social media marketing does offer a great level of ROI if done effectively. If you build lots of Likes and post shareable content then your marketing collateral can go far. It is also a great channel for reusing old collateral such as videos, white papers or blogs. It is not necessary to advertise on Facebook, however this can be an effective way of driving traffic to your page, or direct to your site.

4.  Publish multimedia updates, quickly and easily via your Facebook page

Updating the company website, particularly if you are employed by a large technology company, is often not something that can be done in 5 minutes. You may quickly want to post something time-sensitive to your audience, but you are not able to get it live within minutes because there is often a process with several people involved that you have to go through to get ‘sign off’. If you have news, or a video, or a competition for example that you wish to quickly tell your audience about, then a Facebook channel is very useful. Not only will it allow you to post quickly and easily, but it allows multimedia content, and there is a built in comments field and viral capacity too.

If you wanted to do something more clever and interactive on Facebook, then this is possible too. Facebook isn’t the most flexible interface in the world; however they are improving the ability to do more clever coding and so on so you can incorporate Flash entry pages and so on. We will be blogging about this soon so watch this space...

5.  Facebook marketing is more relevant for technology companies than other sectors

Marketing experts have always talked about brand loyalty. Well, nowadays, thanks to social media, people are ever more engaged with the brands they are loyal to. People feel passionate about their favourite brands; they feel that the brands they choose to engage with speak volumes about who they are as people, so they are happy to publicly declare their approval and affinity with them. And technology customers tend to be particularly passionate and interested in engaging. Many will be more than happy to connect with you on Facebook so you are able to maximise the marketing potential that the channel has.

Even if you are a small company who specialises in branded products, you are in the business of computers, so it’s a no-brainer to be active in the field where your perhaps more technically savvy customers are most likely to be. A technology brand is more likely to succeed in social media marketing than, say a building materials brand simply because their customer feels more passionate about their product, and also because a technology customer enjoys interacting online and expects for their favourite technology brands to be there too. So don’t let them down!

Summary

The bottom line is that Facebook is a massive communications platform for a huge amount of the population. And as a technology company it is likely that a large portion of your customers are spending time there. Why not take the opportunity to engage with them where they are already hanging out? Its effectiveness is proven for sending traffic, interacting with customers and building loyalty, and it is great for quick, timely updates for your customers. But this blog comes with a caveat: if you are going to create a page, then invest proper time and energy and budget into it and do it well, as there is nothing worse than a floundering page that is rarely updated. Good luck!

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Bright Digital social media client Etisalat has been shortlisted in the category of Best Social Media Initiative in the Asia Communication Awards. Last year, Bright Digital launched the UAE telecommunications company into the social media arena with a brand new Twitter account, Facebook page and blog.

The success and high visibility of the project earned Etisalat lots of attention and praise as the main purpose of the social media channels is to offer helpful customer service. Bright Digital enabled Etisalat to better serve their customers by using social media to provide essential customer service, build customer loyalty, raise awareness of products and services, run successful competitions, publicise events, and manage their PR.

 

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Edgerank is an algorithm (a type of formula for computers) created by Facebook that determines the visibility of a post by an individual or brand amongst that individual or brands’ friends or fans. As far as marketers with Facebook pages are concerned it is the magic formula that decides which of your posts your fans will see and in what order. Get it right, and you will enjoy great exposure and engagement with your customers via Facebook. Get it wrong and, well you won’t get much out of your Facebook presence at all!

How does Facebook Edgerank work?

There are three factors that decide your Facebook Edgerank score: Affinity, Time and Weight. ‘Affinity’ refers to the relationships that you are building on Facebook. The more your fans have interacted with you, the higher the affinity score is (and the better the Edgerank). ‘Time’ relates to the regularity of posting; so the less you post messages the lower your Facebook Edgerank score will be. Lastly, ‘weight’ is about how popular your posts are with everyone, so that takes into consideration the Likes, Comments and Shares. Again, the more you get, the better the Edgerank. Incidentally, comments matter more than Likes when it comes to Edgerank.

Why does Edgerank matter?

As a brand, when you post something on Facebook, you want as many people as possible to see it. You want your message to be highly visible amongst your audience so it has as big an impact as possible. Edgerank determines how many people will see your message, so it’s crucial that you keep these three factors of the algorithm in mind. Your Edgerank is constantly evolving so it’s important to do what you can to keep it as high as possible. How do you do that? Well, it’s all about quality and consistency.

Build Affinity with your fans by interacting on a personal level

To affect your affinity score with your fans on Facebook, you must create relevant and worthwhile content that builds your relationship with them. Does your content make them laugh, or engage them in some emotional way? Can you engage in one to one conversation with your fans to build relationships? Invite them to converse interact with you, and encourage loyalty and interaction by making all posts as meaningful as possible.

Update regularly so your Time score stays high

If you post regular updates your Edgerank score will reflect that and you will have increased visibility amongst your audience. It’s as simple as that! As marketers we sometimes shy away from communicating regularly with our audience; we don’t want to bombard them. In many practices, email marketing for example, it’s right to think this way, however with social media and in particular Facebook, it is much better to post regularly. How often? One wall post a day is a good solid amount, making sure that every message is worthwhile and not just there for the sake of it! Never post regularly at the expense of quality. All posts must be valuable and not there simply to affect your Edgerank score.

Gain Weight by creating great content

To gain Weight in this sense (or popularity to put it another way) you have to create likeable, shareable content that encourages comment. Think about each of these things that you want them to do and ask yourself whether the post encourages them to do that. You don’t have to explicitly request that they share, like or comment of course. You can encourage them subtly by asking questions, running competitions, showing you care as a company – give them something they want to tell their friends about!

Post great content regularly and you’ll have great Edgerank

It is very important to be aware of algorithms. We know that content, incoming links and clear tags and filenames is what Google’s algorithm is looking for to be ranked highly in their search results, so we create our websites around those principles. We want to be visible in Facebook’s Top News feed and so we will adhere to these Edgerank principles too. However, much like optimising your website, if you are doing all the right things anyway you will already naturally get a high Edgerank. There are no quick ways around it, no black hat methods or tricks of the trade. Like most online marketing it comes down to creating great content that will be useful to your customers – and being in it for the long term.

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Content marketing is the thing right now, most marketers will agree. If you’re not familiar, the term refers to the practice of distributing content, which could be a white paper, blog, video, presentation – or any other form of content that can be shared online – normally using social media sites and utilities. Content marketing is a great way to illustrate expertise, drive traffic to your website, raise awareness, build brand loyalty, and so on. But when it comes to content marketing, we tend to focus on the content itself and never give a thought to the viewing experience and how the content is interacted with. This is down to the fact that most social media sites provide us with the means of viewing the content, whether it is video, text or images. We no longer have to think about the way our content is viewed and interacted with – and I think maybe we should be paying more attention to it!

Before social media we thought more about how to present content

Without social media sites content marketing as a marketing concept pretty much doesn’t exist. But before social media, what did we do with all our content? For a long time people had to come to a website looking for specific content, rather than a piece of content coming to them as it now can via social media. Before social media I feel we gave more thought to how people consumed content and the way it was presented, as normally we as publishers had to create the viewing platform as well as the content. We often had to create the means of consumption ourselves or at least use an existing tool and modify it somewhat to fit, i.e. embedding a video player into the website and so on.

In the rush to create content we have forgotten about high value production

As marketers we rightfully celebrate content that can be easily put together and distributed to everyone’s gain. People can now easily and freely create and distribute content without technical knowledge, concentrating just on the content itself. This is mainly a good thing; however I think we have somewhat forgotten that the actual viewing experience (the interactive element) is integral to consuming content online. In the midst of this rush to create and share content quickly, we sometimes forget about the worth of high quality production values – both when it comes to the content itself, and also the method by which we view it.

We should showcase great content in more imaginative ways

Social media has empowered the user and given everyone a chance to be an online publisher; don’t get me wrong, this is a great thing. However, it has to be said that it has moved many brands away from investing in really nice, polished content that is presented slickly, and is also enjoyable to interact with. We must remember that there are times when it is worth spending money on a well researched and useful piece of content that is presented in a glossy and slick interface that wows. People are so used to viewing content on social media websites in ways that they don’t even have to think about, (videos on YouTube, powerpoints on SlideShare, images on Flickr, white papers on PDFs etc) they forget that there are other ways to view content if we let ourselves be more imaginative.

Help people enjoy what they are looking at by thinking about how they interact with it too

At Bright Digital this subject cropped up time and time again. Often we enjoyed content but it was let down by the way it was presented. We realised that when you consume content online you cannot separate the content you are viewing from the way it is viewed. Why are there not more options when it came to how you presented content online? In answer to our frustration about frequently low-fi production that let down otherwise sound content, for example shown on tiny screens or using awful page turning software, we created VMO.

Create an event around your content

We wanted a way of bringing great content to the fore in a way that excited the viewer. We wanted both the content itself to be good but also interacting with it had to be fun too. VMO stands for Video Magazine Online and is our way of being a bit more imaginative when it comes to presenting a mixture of words, images and video. We hope that interacting with VMO is intuitive and enjoyable and the feedback we received from clients who have utilised it so far has confirmed this. Of course you can embed sharing facilities into a VMO, and therefore it is another example of content marketing, but first and foremost it stands up for content that is thoughtfully put together, without the interactive experience being secondary.

What do you think? Do you care how content is presented? Does it affect how you consume the content itself?

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When I talk with businesses about building leads using social media one question is inevitable. 'Can't we just open a whole bunch of Facebook and Twitter accounts to say nice things about our company?' If you wear any kind of marketing hat you have likely heard the same question, and probably more than once?

It usually does not take long to explain why this is unwise and the question is often a good starting point for conversations about the value of social media. Here is my list of favourite reasons not to use fake accounts.Perhaps you can add more?

Audience

Some of the reasons businesses choose to invest in social media are search engine placement, brand awareness, community building, public relations, promotion and lead nurturing. Progress in any of these areas needs an audience to see your online messages and building that audience takes investment. First you will need to decide which of the many online channels on offer works best for you. You might choose Twitter, Facebook, your own blog, LinkedIn, specialist forums or online industry publications. Reaching your audience using any of these channels requires worthwhile content and regular updates. I would rather build this audience on behalf of my brand to present positive messages and useful content than spend my time on fake accounts.

Authority

The best online 'brands' have built excellent reputations as authorities in their field. They usually achieve this status through useful, unbiased content, produced by recognised contributors. The better ones attract a significant audience, called followers, friends or subscribers depending on the online channel. Such authorities typically guard their public reputation carefully. In the best cases their online content is amplified by a knowledgeable audience who add comments, link to the content or repeat it in their own channel. Fake accounts can hope for this kind of authority.

Authenticity

The social media audience is very quick to judge the authenticity of an online presence. When we began using Twitter to reach out to customers of a large telecom client we received constant questions about our credentials. Thankfully our profile links to a legitimate website, consistent ‘bios’ and genuine human voice eventually won over our audience. These are some of the points visitors will check, whether they find you on Twitter, Facebook, your own blog, a forum or a directory site. They will also look at your content to see whether you are interesting, informative or just plain entertaining. Only then will they decide whether to follow you, ‘like’ your content or subscribe to your social media channel. Fake accounts rarely pass these tests and if no-one is listening what's the point?

Time

Building audience and authority takes time. Even authenticity can rarely be achieved overnight. You presumably want your online presence to contribute to your marketing goals and this requires planning and content. Building fake accounts that can never truly deliver audience or enhance your company's online reputation will take a lot of time. Can you afford to spend your time this way?

This list  turns around neatly to make a checklist for online interactions.  Are you reaching the right audience?  Is your content authoritative? Is your online voice authentic?

Finally a quick look at the other side of this issue. Are you concerned about your competitors using fake social media accounts to discredit you? Please take heart. The list above applies to any fake account your competitor might try to use. We know this goes on and have seen it happening, but it is rarely successful. A large international PR agency recently illustrated the pitfalls of chasing the wrong ball using social media. In their case Google (their target) received significant publicity for a product that had been, until then, largely ignored, while Facebook, their client, earned another dent in its online reputation.

Social media is a very public arena. Honesty is always the best policy.

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Many of you will be familiar with the recent story about Facebook’s PR firm being recruited to smear Google regarding privacy issues. In the end all Facebook have achieved is to hold a mirror up to their own issues surrounding users’ privacy. By attempting to highlight Google’s shortcomings in this area they have simply served to bring attention to their own flaws. An interesting story on many levels, but what can the technology marketing manager learn from all this?

Be clear about your own privacy information

When thinking of privacy issues surrounding marketing to an existing or potential customer, we must consider information: the information we want to gather from them and how clear we are about that fact. Of course, we want to get information as we make contact with them so we can streamline and improve our marketing, but by being open and clear rather than burying privacy terms in small print, we will foster a relationship based on trust rather than one that is based around sneaking information and not being clear about the basis on which we are communicating with them. In short, don’t bury dodgy information sharing terms in small print; give your customers a clear chance to opt out of any third party information sharing.

Don’t concentrate on bad mouthing other companies; it only makes you look bad

Like many mothers say to their children, if you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all! This is a wise mantra when it comes to marketing too. Whether you use PR companies to do the dirty work for you or you do it yourself, if you concentrate your energies on other companies and highlighting why they are bad, you are wasting precious time and energy that could be spent on highlighting your own company and why you are so good! It’s always wise to be aware of your competition, but never try to further your own cause by bringing them down.

 

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First things, first... HTML stands for Hypertext Mark-up Language and is the language used to build websites.  Without HTML, there would be no internet. HTML allows a web browser to interpret developer code into nice, content rich web applications. HTML 5 is simply the latest version of HTML.

For marketing managers, especially in the technology sector, it’s important to be aware of the significant updates in web development that will affect the end user’s experience of the brand. HTML 5 is such a development, so we thought you might like to know more about it...

Separate versions of a site are no longer required for each browser

HTML 5 brings many benefits to the online audience. The main one being that it allows content rich websites built in HTML 5 to be read by any browser (a browser is what you use to view the Internet with, like Internet Explorer or Firefox), allowing for seamless, beautiful websites to be enjoyed by all. There is no need for the developer to create several versions for each browser to interpret. From the user’s perspective this means a much more consistent experience, no matter what browser you use to view the site. You won’t be penalised either for not having the latest version of something, you will merely see the older version.

Rich content that will add to the overall experience of your website

Building animation or adding video and sounds to a website can sometimes be troublesome and require the use of a wide variety of tools. With HTML 5 this is no longer a problem, saving money and time.  HTML 5 allows video embedding, high quality drawings, animation and other types of rich content without using 3^rd party programs or additional plugins.

Other more techie benefits

HTML 5 has a real SQL database stored on the client machine allowing developers to save data client-side. Also, the new forms for HTML 5 are much more advanced, with the addition of sliders, search boxes, client-side validation and other more advanced functionality; both these things mean that it’s now much easier for developers can create even better websites for users.  

A better interactive experience for your customers

With the advent of HTML 5, we should see an increase in the amount of polished, content-rich websites which will bring users a much better browsing experience. Next time you are in a meeting discussing the website and how to improve it, why not suggest HTML 5 for the preferred development language? There’ll be major techie brownie points in it for you!

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Over the past month, there has been a lot of speculation about the recent Google Panda update amongst marketers. But to cut through the chatter and get to the important stuff, we thought we would round up the main points for you – and share what we think you should learn from it...

Optimising sites to appeal to the Google algorithm

At the heart of Google’s search facility is something called an algorithm, which is a type of formula, and Google’s way of deciding what ranks where for search terms. It is a way of deciding what is high quality and what is not, and for a good few years now it has been commonly agreed that it is mainly based on two things: quality content on the website, and incoming links from other high quality websites (that act as a vote of confidence for that site). Content is easy to build and therefore you can positively influence your listing in this respect; however it is more difficult to acquire incoming links to your site from other great sites, so this has been more of a challenge for website marketers. In the effort for great backlinks, our advice has always been concentrate on content, and that way people will link to your site organically. But businesses have not always chosen the high quality content route in their mission for incoming links, instead choosing quick but poor quality methods that won them links back in a matter of minutes...

Panda update penalised sites with backlinks from content farms

Every now and then Google tweak and update their algorithm so it remains relevant to the way that people are creating websites, and correctly reflects which websites are worth their salt and which are not. In the recent Panda update, Google shifted lots of results around to reflect the new algorithm which appeared to concentrate on the quality of the sites where links were coming from. In doing so a lot of sites were penalised for having backlinks from things called ‘content farms’, which are low quality websites that contain poor quality, so called ‘articles’ (often sparse and poorly written paragraphs of text submitted by site owners themselves) which contain backlinks to people’s sites. They exist purely for people to post links to their sites to help them shift up the rankings and are of no worth as articles in their own right.  

Unfortunately article submission to content farms has been a low grade technique employed by many SEO companies (who told their clients that this was a valid way of creating links). Many businesses relied on such methods, which for a while yielded results, but have since been punished severely as a result by losing any rankings they had.

Social media activity is now part of the Google algorithm

Also noted by industry professionals was the fact that now, social media activity is being indexed by Google, and insiders have confirmed that social media activity is now a factor in the Google algorithm. This shift marks Google’s acknowledgement that people now have other ways of finding websites asides from search engines – and that way is social media. This addition to the algorithm is Google’s way of keeping relevant and should indicate to you as a marketer that you should be using social media as a channel for people to interact with your website.

Build great content, get involved with social media, and think of other routes to your site

1.  Build content that adds value, not just to get rankings

Always ask these questions when creating content: does the content stand up on its own? Is it useful, purposeful, well written and valuable to the audience? If the answer is yes then great. If content is being created just for SEO purposes then it shouldn’t exist. It has to add value to the reader in other ways too.  

2.  Use social media as a communications channel - and to grow your search presence

Google has recognised activity and mentions in social media as a barometer of a site’s quality and popularity. This is not to be sniffed at! If you aren’t already active in social media, start to think about a social media strategy that would work for your business. Which channels or utilities do your customers use? How can you connect with them using social media? Now we know Google are recognising this as part of their algorithm, you have another reason to get involved.

3.  Recognise other routes to your site rather than just relying on Google search

People no longer rely 100% on Google search to find great websites. Think about your audience and how they operate; are there other ways to send people to your site? Social media is one way, but what about online advertising, campaigns, events, or direct marketing? Even it is very important to understand what Google is looking for to rank you well, it is unhealthy to rely too much on them, and a good idea to invest energy and money into other ways of generating traffic to your site.

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