SEO & Social Media Summary March 2012

Posted by Hayden Allen-Vercoe on April 02 2012
Filed in Online Marketing Tips and Advice, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social Media Marketing

The independent list the top 10 most influential Twitter users in the UK – some unexpected names here.

The Next Web discusses Google’s plans for a comment box for G+ similar to facebook’s commenting system. What this does for Edgerank will be interesting to see. The Next Web also talks about G+ plans for vanity URL’s, which are ‘coming soon’.

Social Media Today showcases 3 small businesses that are making it big on G+ and more importantly, how. If your brand is floating around G+ in limbo, you must read this.

Social Media Examiner talks about Google analytics now with social reports
Charlie, Come and bite MY finger! The cute YouTube video is the second most watched video on YouTube. It has also made $500,000 in 5 years!
Yahoo makes good on its promise and sues facebook. Possibly perceived by some as a little desperate on Yahoo’s behalf, but regardless of this, Yahoo are suing facebook over a total of 10 patents….watch this one roll on.

Social Media Today also reveals the 3 attributes required for Pinterest brand success – Quality, passion, fun. Sounds basic, but next time you are uploading onto Pinterest ask yourself is this what you are giving your followers?

Want to know all about facebook Insights? Nan Dawkins at Marketing Land delivers 3 killer metrics from Insights. This needs to be read.

Sticking with facebook, Laila Strong of Search Engine Watch gives 4 ways a brand can get creative with the new Timeline.

Mashable ask ‘is facebook building a search engine?’ According to a Business week report, a team of more than 20 Facebook engineers are working on a vastly improved search engine within the site.

SEO Summary March 2012

Mashable comment on China’s firewall being temporarily down and the rush for Chinese population to get on G+ and FB.

Apple to launch new search engine! Yes that headline got my attention too! Search Engine Land report on Apple’s acquisition of Chomp. It is a search engine, but Google, Bing and all can relax – this is just for apps.

Guess what? SEO is dead…again! Matt Cutts buzzwords this month have been “level the playing ground a little bit”, “over optimization” and “overly doing their SEO”. SEO is not dead (again), but these changes could / will shake things up. Search Engine Land has this in full.

Reported in Web Pro News, the Wall Street Journal has revealed Google’s plans to improve their own search – which in turn may decrease traffic to 3rd party sites. Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land also discusses at the new semantic search in great length. Is this a big deal? Consider this quote from “one person briefed on Google’s plans” as saying the changes could directly impact 10% to 20% of all search queries or “tens of billions per month”….Ouch.

Google’s too much SEO issue is again picked up by Search Engine Land again and discusses whether this is just a fight against spam or SEO. When you look at Google’s own SEO PDF, it seems strange that Google would be penalising genuine white hat SEO tactics.

Shelley Kramer from V3 offers some good advice to counter the above along with V3’s take on Google’s new semantic search.
 
So how about ‘Un-SEOing’? Ted Ives of Coconut Headphones delivers a compelling article on when to un-optimise your copy and how. Sounds madness, yes. Read it though and it becomes an interesting method of optimisation of your copy.

Social Search advice came in the form of 8 strategies to follow (right now) from Search Engine Land. Danny Sullivan also reports that Google is now highlighting the latest posts from Google+ pages and profiles in its search results, at Search Engine Land.

Eric Siu from PR Web sums up what we all should have taken from Google’s Panda update. I totally agree here, follow this one question and you are getting close to some Google love. Simply put, when publishing online can we all, from now on ask ‘Am I adding value?’

The Link issue rages on (should we / shouldn’t we?), Web Pro News deliver a great article on Blog paid networks and the resulting links, stating it is time to stop obsessing over links. An interesting Matt Cutts video also reveals Google do not count most links. W P N summarise exactly what you should be doing to appeal to Google’s ever changing algorithm and is sensible, sound advice;

“Search visibility these days is much more about who’s sharing/discussing your content (especially on Google+), who you are as an author, how fresh your content is, and how in-depth it is compared to your competition”

Orbital Media Improves Rangemaster’s Social Media Presence

Posted by Hayden Allen-Vercoe on March 26 2012
Filed in Online PR, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research

Orbital Media has teamed up with the iconic British brand Rangemaster, in order to help improve their social media presence, through a fully integrated campaign.

To kick start the campaign will be giving away a Rangemaster cooker worth £1,999, on the brand’s Facebook page. Click here to have a look https://www.facebook.com/RangeMasterUK.

We will then promote the competition to the world utilising optimised social media techniques; through these techniques we aim to bring thousands of people to the Rangemaster Facebook page. This will be made possible by contacting our vast blogger database and encouraging them to feature the campaign, we will also contact influential press targets and conduct optimised tweeting. However, these are only a few of our methods for developing the brand’s presence.

In only 4 days the Facebook page “likes” increased by over 200% - and this number is always growing!

We will update you on the success of the campaign soon…

What is Pinterest?

Posted by Hayden Allen-Vercoe on March 13 2012
Filed in Social Media Marketing

‘What is Pinterest?’ has been a common question in recent months. I am not surprised either. Pinterest is the fastest growing stand-alone social network of all time.

Just last month, it was reported that Pinterest hit 10m monthly uniques in US. That’s pretty awesome, but doesn’t exactly explain what is Pinterest.

Pinterest is a social network best described as a virtual pinboard, or even a visual bank. Pinterest has the equivelants of Facebook’s ‘Like’, Comment and Share functions (Like, Comment & RePin) and you can follow other user’s boards.

The image based platform is a simple idea (it’s always the simple ones that work best). Users create and name Boards and post relevant photos onto these Boards. These Boards are then categorised under one of the 32 general Pinterest categories.

Simple, effective and visually stunning.

What’s good about Pinterest?

• Easy functionality in Pinning images from the internet to one of your Boards.
• The Boards can look fab!
• The social side of Pinterest is very appealing. You can find friends from other social networks and follow them.
• You can follow just a Board of interest, rather than a person.

What’s not so good about Pinterest?

• Do we need another social network?*
• Time…Once you catch the Pinterest bug, prepare to give it a lot of your time.
• Results – Just what do you get from a collection of images?**

*Yes, we do, when it looks as good as Pinterest does. This is more about creating something visual that means something to you, which can then be shared with other people.
**Your collection of images could be your upcoming landmark Birthday present wishlist, which can be viewed by friends and family. Your collection of images (Board) could be research for your latest project / blog article. Your Board could even be something that provides you with inspiration.

(I guess this means Pinterest is a good thing)

Who is using Pinterest?

According to Mashable, Pinterest interest (I like that!) female users equate to 62%, but was originally 80%). Early adoption from the fairer sex is not surprising when you look at Pinterest possibilities and current popular themes – recipes, fashion, Weddings….

When I heard that Women used Pinterest more, I wanted to test that this stereotype was correct. On Pinterest, I searched for ‘Men’s Brown Boots’. The search returned just one solitary pin (image).

I then searched ‘Brown Boots’. I was met with Board after Board of brown boots, with 99% being Women’s brown boots. Latest figures do confirm that 80% of US users are female, whilst in the UK it’s 60/40%. The High Definite have an amusing infographic on who is using Pinterest:

Obviously a joke, but to limit Pinterest to Women would be short-sighted and a touch sexist. I did a search on ‘Rugby’ and found numerous Boards and Pins (as well as quite a lot of Ladies rugby shirts, but I have done that point).

And I am not saying Rugby is just for Men, that too would be sexist – just trying to demonstrate Men’s interests are covered on Pinterest!

How do I use Pinterest?

Pinterest is currently invite only. You can request an invite from Pinterest direct or from someone you know that is already using it. My invitation came 24 hours after my request from Pinterest.

Once you are a member, you can get Pinning. Pinterest start you off with a couple of Boards. You just need to name them and categorise.

You can take images from other Pins / Boards on Pinterest (RePinning), just hover over the image and the “Repin” option will appear. Or you can take images from any web page. You need to install the ‘Pin It’ button to
your bookmarks bar via the Pinterest Goodies page. This is a simple drag and drop operation. Anything you pin is automatically credited back to original source of image.

Some websites even have a ‘Pin It’ button at the bottom of each post and you can expect to see more sites adopting the Pin It button in the future.

By adding (unique) descriptions to your images, you are more likely to have your Pins / Boards found by other users, so it is worth writing a short piece for each image you Pin (even ‘Men’s Brown Boots’).

Now all you need is a touch of creativity. Make a board of your favourite chart topping bands if that takes your fancy. Make a board of images for your companies latest product, create a series of images that make up your ideal wardrobe.

However you decide to use Pinterest is up to you. This is your online scrapbook that you can share with your friends. I have a feeling Pinterests growth is not about to flat-line any time soon.

Why you shouldn’t hate facebook Timeline! (and a very cool Timeline feature)

Posted by Hayden Allen-Vercoe on March 09 2012
Filed in Social Media Marketing

Oh look! A change to facebook, the new Timeline feature.

Oh look again! Lots of cross people saying they have had enough of facebook and are going to ditch the social network completely (and if you want, look again – they are still on facebook!)

What is it with change? Why the big issues? Why the negativity?! The facebook ticker was the last big aesthetic change. Personally, I didn’t like it, but I didn’t moan. That was then, now I think it is a valuable addition to the user experience.

I am all for the new Timeline feature, I think it works well and gives an excellent visual history of your life story. Starting with your birth, you can furnish your Timeline with major milestones in your life.

One of the big gripes surrounding Timeline is that of privacy. Yes, that old chestnut. If you want a decent level of privacy on facebook, you can get it – just change your settings.

Timeline does not make your private content public. Your settings remain the same. What Timeline does do, is reveal what you posted in 2007 a lot easier.

Now 5 years ago, I might not have been the perfectly level headed and thoroughly decent chap I am today…I wasn’t. And some of my postings back then might have been a little unsavoury…maybe? Fortunately, I have grown up. But Timeline has made it easier for these past updates to be found. Oh No!

But this is where people are getting it wrong. This is a good thing. Get your house in order. YOU can now go back through your timeline and clean up any regrettable updates that seemed to be previously buried by time.

Still not convinced? Still hate facebook Timeline?

How about a cool Timeline feature to sway you further on why you shouldn’t hate facebook Timeline?

Timeline movie maker allows you to make a movie of your life using your facebook updates, videos and images. Customize the soundtrack and edit the images. You can then share this with your facebook friends.

Hate facebook Timeline? Really?! What’s not to like?....

One of Orbital Media’s best social media campaigns so far

Posted by Hayden Allen-Vercoe on March 05 2012
Filed in Social Media Marketing

One of Orbital Media’s best social media campaigns so far - Sudocrem helps the NSPCC raise £25,000 and doubles its social media presence.

In mid-January, Orbital Media launched one of its best social media campaigns to date. What’s more, this campaign was the most charitable too - the Sudocrem and NSPCC “All Babies Count” campaign.

The campaign united Sudocrem’s effort to increase its social media presence, with the NSPCC’s desire to raise money for its “All Babies Count” campaign.

Orbital Media encouraged people to support the NSPCC’s “All Babies Count” campaign by “liking” the Sudocrem Facebook page or tweeting about the campaign using the hashtag #allbabiescount. For each new “like” of the page Sudocrem would donate 50p towards the campaign and for each tweet 25p.

The All Babies Count cause tackles cruelty to children across the UK - this very worthwhile cause sparked huge social media interest in the Sudocrem brand and was a roaring success.

As soon as the campaign began, it ignited a fanatical twitter following and the hashtag #allbabiescount spread like wildfire. Celebrities such as James Corden and Sinitta, also retweeted the campaign – reaching out to millions of followers.

Furthermore, Facebook users shared and commented on the “All Babies Count” cause in their thousands, therefore, pushing it up Facebook newsfeeds and increasing the campaigns EDGE ranking.

The results were absolutely phenomenal - tweets reached thousands and the Sudocrem Facebook page rose to almost 18,000 “likes” by the end of February.

The key results of one of the best social media campaigns we have managed were: a massive web interest in the Sudocrem brand and £25,000 raised for a truly brilliant cause.

For more information about All Babies Count click here.