Little B came into my life on the 18th May 2012, and of course – life has not been the same!  As cliched as it may sound mummyhood and parenting has been a totally new adventure; [...]]]> Hmmmm, it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged here.  The principle reason is this:

Little B came into my life on the 18th May 2012, and of course – life has not been the same!  As cliched as it may sound mummyhood and parenting has been a totally new adventure; at times frustrating, challenging and exhausting, but of course I wouldn’t change it for the world

I’m now back at work part time, working with a range of clients on their inbound marketing requirements, and I’m loving it as much as ever.  However, I’m not getting the time to blog, I’m working on creating content for my lovely clients (including Adventure Yogi, Preseli Venture, The Welsh Farmhouse Company and The Mind Body Spirit Festival) rather than for myself, and I’m also taking an extended break from blogging for State of Search.

Of course I’m keeping up to date with changes and updates in the world of digital.  Since time for me is at a premium I’ve been heartless in sorting through my blog feeds and now I’ll read only the ones that offer me the most value for my time – these are the blogs that survived the great blog cull of 2012:

• Distilled
• Seomoz (I love the top 10 email once a month – pure gold)
• SEOgadget
• State of Search
• Hubspot
• John Doherty
• Seer
• Whitespark, Mihm and Blumenthal for local SEO

Eeek look, I just blogged!

I wrote a blog post regarding ‘next steps for SMB’s‘ for the State [...]]]> Afew weeks ago, whilst logging into one of my client’s Facebook Pages, I noticed a note regarding changes to the review functionality on Pages, and was startled by the implications this could well have on a number of my small business clients.

I wrote a blog post regarding ‘next steps for SMB’s‘ for the State of Search blog – you can read the post on State of Search here.

Essentially, any hard earned reviews included on your business Facebook Page will disappear on the 31st October.  Businesses need to make sure that they archive and keep a record of the data, as well as put plans in place to re purpose the content to make the most of the SEO and credibility building potential of customer testimonials and reviews.

She’ll be pitching her idea for QR codes and product stories – she has some awesome ideas that will help businesses and organisations share [...]]]> My great friend, the rather wonderful photographer photographer and social activist Kirsty Morris is taking part in the Green Dragons Den at the Hay festival on Friday.

She’ll be pitching her idea for QR codes and product stories – she has some awesome ideas that will help businesses and organisations share their stories via the wonders of QR technology.

If you are around and about in the Hay area on Friday be sure to pop by and see Kirsty pitch her plan to the fire breathing green and ethical entrepreneurs who are the guardians of this £10,000 wad of cash.

Since I am bereft of a smartphone I’ve had no experience actually using them myself. I’m assured this code contains relevant information about me, but I haven’t been able to scan it myself:

Hopefully it doesn’t include a link to a picture of a dog in a bikini, or a squirrel wearing a tuxedo. That would be awful.

Good luck Kirsty and let us know how it goes

I’ve been using hCard microformat for ‘contact us’ and ‘find us’ pages on sites for a while, but hadn’t yet tried out the hReview creator. I took the opportunity to try it out based on my [...]]]>

Just been reading around the topic of rich snippets in local search.

I’ve been using hCard microformat for ‘contact us’ and ‘find us’ pages on sites for a while, but hadn’t yet tried out the hReview creator. I took the opportunity to try it out based on my visit to Ultracomida in Narberth yesterday. Here it is:

Delicious!

May 22, 2004 by Claire Carlile

Business

Took the time out of a hectic shopping day to stop off for a bite to eat in Ultracomida. Some of the reviews I have read describe the wait for a table as too long, and the staff as surly. However, we were seated quickly and the staff were sweet. Had a delicious pastrami and celery remoullade panini. Mmmmm, still smacking my lips together now. Highly recommended.

0.3

This hReview brought to you by the hReview Creator.

Delicious edibles at Ultracomida in Narberth

I can definitely recommend a trip to this fabulous eatery if you’re ever out enjoying the varied shopping experiences of Narberth, and they also serve a fabulous tapas.

Their website, however, looks like it could do with some serious love and attention – couldn’t find the address of the Narberth branch, they need to claim their Places page, and they should also take the time to respond to the reviews, both negative and positive. Small businesses take note – remember to provide your full contact details on your website – make it easy for people to contact you, review you, and say nice things about you. Happy days!

Whoops, another 2 months have gone by and no blog post from me! It didn’t take long to break my new years resolution to blog more regularly. Oh dear. My only excuse – when you’re busy working hard for your clients, when you’re creating cracking content for them and helping them socialise it, [...]]]> ….tumbleweed.

Whoops, another 2 months have gone by and no blog post from me! It didn’t take long to break my new years resolution to blog more regularly. Oh dear. My only excuse – when you’re busy working hard for your clients, when you’re creating cracking content for them and helping them socialise it, writing content for your own blog does tend to take a back seat. So if you want to write something nice for this little old blog – please let me know

However, whilst things might have been quiet on my own blog, they’ve not been quite so quiet elsewhere. I was really chuffed to leave my sweaty pawprint in these places:

• On Lyndon Antcliffs Cornwall SEO blog – writing up some top tips from Paddy Moogan’s “It’s all about the links” presentation at ThinkVis.
• Julie Joyce, my favourite filthy linkbuilding swami, from LinkFish Media was kind enough to publish an interview with me on Search Marketing Gurus. I loved this, and was very happy to be able to include a picture of Sam Murray with a monkey on his head. Here’s that again for anyone that missed it:

Don't tell him...I don't think he's noticed the perching primate

And then….

• I became State of Search’s newest blogger and today I published my inaugural post over on their site.

How cool is that!

Whoah – so I have actually been pretty busy – so please don’t berate me on the blogging front. And in other, non worky type related news – you know a row a boat right? I row with a lovely bunch of people at Porthgain rowing club. A big wooden clinker built gig, on the sea. With 5 other chicks, and then some guy that sits at the end, steers, and shouts at us (thanks Tom, we couldn’t do it without you!).

On the first bank holiday weekend of May, I headed on over to the Isles of Scilly for the 22nd world pilot gig rowing championships, and my 8th year competing in this marvellous event. It was awesome. Preparation for the event included lots of 7am rowing sessions at the weekends, as well as lots of gym and lifting of weights. Fair play, it was also accompanied by lots of cake eating sessions, I believe that is how one achieves ‘balance’!

Pulling hard - that's me in the pink hat! Check out the matching blue fingernails. That's just how us Porthgain ladies roll.

It was an awesome weekend, and we won Ladies Group D – our first year on the podium, and we were very, very pleased.

On the podium. After 2 bottles of champagne, I'm suprised we managed to climb the stairs. Good times.

OK, I feel like I have sort of updated my blog now. More soon, maybe

Facebook’s algorithm for seearching for things is not the same as Google.

Facebook provides value, stickiness and engagement.

Is your audience [...]]]> Liana ‘Li’ Evans is first up.

You have to realize that facebook is not a search engine. It’s hard to find things on facebook if you are not connected already.

Facebook’s algorithm for seearching for things is not the same as Google.

Facebook provides value, stickiness and engagement.

Is your audience there?

It is a very 1 on 1 connection of facebook. If you want to make connections you need to be ‘real’.

If your audience is there – lurking – but not engaging you could consider using facebook ads

How do you create stickiness?

Create something that keep them coming back – for example games.

Twitter has only 200 million registered accounts, but only 20% of them are active – whereas Farmville has over 50 million active users.

Needs to be:

• fun,
• needs to reward, and
• needs to give them a reason to get their friends involved.

Engagement

• contests can engage people – they can fill rooms.
• when your content is valuable your audience will let you know.
• valuable applications get used – e.g. tripadvisor
• you can cross promote engagement – e.g. linkedin, facebook, twitter etc
• add value to groups – NOT spam.

Distractions

• valuable applications connect and distract e.g. trippit and foursquare
• badges create distraction
• quizzes
• even profile pictures can distract:

Creating distractions can create value – for example tagging.

Facebook ads

• are your people engaged or are they lurking?
• if they are engaged you can use it to create even more engagement oppotunities
• you can target by age, geolocation, what they ‘like’, what groups are they part of, advanced demographics etc

BUT it is not Google PPC. People get burnout of ads.

Points to note:

• don’t blend your ad with facebook colours
• use bright colours
• use vibrant artwork
• use peoples faces, encourages clickthrough

Landing pages are super important.

Use the data to hone your campaigns.

Summary:

• Facebook marketing takes resources and time and needs to be planned for
• Needs co ordination, and also needs to be integrated into email, other social channels, and make sure you set goals and measure.

Remember…

• People get bored
• Its about their experience, not yours
• your audience decides the value, not you!

Next up is Massimo Burgio, from Global Search Interactive

He’s here to talk about the tactics that are going to get you killed in facebook…asks -

“who has had an account closed by facebook?”

Need to push the boundaries to understand the terms and conditions of use.

Facebook is often disabled, every minute of the day someone is complaining and asking ‘why has my account been disabled’?

But what if your account or clients account gets disabled? It DOES happen!

There IS a facebook police. An editoral team, and they are mean!

They can, and will, disable your account.

Understanding the risk

Shows video – facebook manners and you

You can be disabled for these reasons:

• not being human / using a fake name (people can report you for this)
• using a personal profile to promote a business / organisation
• posting copyrighted material
• importing too many RSS feeds to Facebook notes
• promoting business on walls / groups
• scraping information off of facebook
• getting reported as abusive by other users
• starting hate or obscene groups
• adding too many friends at once
• joining too many groups
• placing too many links on posts or messages
• sending too many pokes at once

How to seen as a spammer on facebook

• keep placing Facebook ads that have been refused
• adult content, profanity and obscenity
• promotion illegal activities
• promoting liquor beer etc

Remember the consequences…you leave a digital signature and it won’t always be possible to delete it.

“Before any of this happens you need to develop a corporate social media policy!”

You ned it to protect your company and brand, and it should apply to the whole ecosystem of the web, not just Facebook.

One liner social media policies

• Be nice
• be honest
• don’t release proprietary info
• don’t be stupid
• be real and use your best judgement

Speakers: Lisa Myers – Verve Search, and Jens Munch – Strategic Partnerships, Google

Some stats:

Is it facebook, twitter, digg, bebo, foursquare [...]]]> Lisa starts by thanking us for being up this early, she’s surprised there aren’t come more tired faces given the party last night!

Mmm, yes – well some people were taking photos of themselves in toilets late into the night…looking hot seochicks!

What is social media?

Is it facebook, twitter, digg, bebo, foursquare etc?

Social media is about you, it’s about what all of us do with this technology. These sites are networks are the tools:

“Social media as a marketing discipline isn’t getting your brand up on facebook, it’s about what you do when you get there.”

She gives some stats on how HUGE social media is.

Pepsi and the superbowl – big advertising spot. In 2010 they ditched it and put a third of their annual marketing budget into their social media marketing campaign.

How do you use social media for business?

The RULES:

• Listen
• Engage
• Be honest
• Don’t be a dick

Pillars of social media

• Social networking
• Viral Campaigns
• Online PR

Make sure you know what you want to achieve, what is your objective? Is it link generation, brand awareness, traffic, conversions? Or all of them?

Who is your target audience? Age, gender, location. Twitter might be not the best channel if your customers are 50 plus.

Social media marketing elements

• content marketing
• site seeding
• link baiting
• online reputation management and monitoring

Blogging as where businesses should start and where social media skills can be honed.

• gives your product or service a personable voice,
• develops a positive reputation online,
• expansion of content,
• reaching a wider audience

BUT it’s not easy as setting up and go…

You need to consider

• what is going to be the main topics of the blog (categories)
• who is going to be blogging (source appropriate bloggers)
• who is going to be managing the blog?

Gives the example of SEO chicks – they chose people with a wide range of experience.

Tips

• Find the right bloggers
• Use wordpress
• Use special plugins to make it easier to SPREAD the content

Online PR – is basically getting your comtent out on the web

Not the same as traditional PR. Traditional PR companies often struggle with the social media approach.

The process:

• do your research (list of sites, find out as much about the site owner as you can)
• hunt down the most appropriate contact
• tone of voice in email, although best to call!
• tailor your email to person
• be direct, don’t waffle
• develop a relationship
• follow up
• always, always, be polite and personable

Viral marketing – usually larger campaigns that appeal to a broader audience, but doesn’t neccessarily need to be, and doesn’t have to be a huge budget.

BUT it does need to be creative and have a solid execution. It won’t go viral otherwise.

“Needs to be clever, funny or appealing.”

Once you have got a great idea you make the content – but don’t just leave it up on Youtube and not do anything with it. You can’t just leave it there – you need to socialise it through your social channels.

Spread the word using the channels – don’t forget stumbleupon – don’t just use twitter and facebook, it can be huge in generating traffic to sites.

Gives the facebook example of a compaign for breast cancer awareness on facebook. ‘I like it on the floor….’ which got alot of media coverage.

Low cost, easy to do, but very effective.

PS When doing social media marketing, don’t forget to harness those potential links – DON’T FORGET SEO!

Social networking

Don’t forget that twitter is about sharing, and communicating, NOT broadcasting.

Rules of twitter

• Don’t over think it, be yourself
• Share information and links
• Listen
• Use #hashtags to organise and search
• Twitterlists are useful if you are following hunders of people, use then to discover new people.
• Flattery will get you everywhere (!)

Monitor your social media

Who is mentioning you, what are they saying?

Lots of free tools, like social mention. There are lots of complicated paid tools but the free ones work well for small businesses.

Blogpulse will monitor mentions in blogs. Also use to discover new content – see what other blogs are writing about similar topics.

CoTweet helps you schedule your tweets. Good for agencies – scheduling multiple accounts throughout the day.

Free social monitoring tools

• raventools.com
• socialmention.com
• blogpulse.com
• tweetbeep.com
• klout.com
• tweetmeme.com

Paid social media monitoring tools

• radian6.com
• buzzcapture.com
• lithium.com
• trackur.com
• sentimentmetrics.com

Real examples

Paulo the burger man in Surbiton – you can tweet him from the train and let him know what you want when you get off the train!

#sescrapmas where you tweet a picture of your worst Christmas gift.

Brand awareness for a fun campaign and a good amount of participation.

Q and A

Should I worry about duplication of content across platforms?

You can change it across platforms, consider your audience and community in each place, and tailor your message accordingly. It can look lazy if you put the same thing across all of the platforms.

She says she is going to try and make her presentation without mentioning JC Penney – great content but it’s getting tired….;)

Define:content

Content as the life-stream in search marketing.

Examples of great content: