Copyright © 2010 I-COM International 2010-07-30T07:23:15+0100 2010-07-30T07:23:15+0100 http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. http://www.i-com.net/blog/ http://i-com.net/images/icom-net.gif http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. I-COM International blogmaster at i-com dot net I-COM International I-COM International en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 http://www.i-com.net/blog/who-is-the-biggest-fartt-on-twitter-372/ I'm not the most prolific twitterer in the world, I often wonder like many people whether I'm a good twitterer and if my thoughts have any value to anyone. We were talking about this in the office the other day and being someone who's fond of playing with numbers I came up with a very smple metric I like to call the FARTT (Followers As Related To Tweets) index. Simply speaking the index counts how many followers you've obtained per tweet you've made, there is only one criteria and that's that the tweeter must have made at least 100 tweets. Not having a lower limit means that the results can be somewhat skewed.FARTT = No. of Followers/No. of Tweets madeI know that there could be lots of interpretations of this index but as a bit of fun it's quite interesting. Using it I've already identified two distinct groups of people - celebrity tweeters stand out from regular people using the index as they tend to have higher FARTT scores. @stephenfry is the biggest FARTT I've found so far with a score of 266 when I last looked.Regular twitterers scores seem to generally sit in a range between 0 and 2.I'm pleased to say that amongst I-COM's twitterers I'm the biggest FARTT, various scores are detailed in the table below.  @tykemike: 1.75 @timothyjroberts: 0.53 @thenarrowescape: 0.42 @jamesroome: 0.41 @pgreenhalgh: 0.40 @annagruber1: 0.37 @keirgibson: 0.12 @justhipper: 0.10 I'd be really interested to find the biggest FARTT amongst our readers, if you have a score higher than ours let us know. We'll send a prize of a whoopee cushion to the person with the highest score that contacts us by the end of August. Social Media Marketing 2010-07-17 18:19:55 http://www.i-com.net/blog/who-is-the-biggest-fartt-on-twitter-372/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/help-a-good-cause-less-than-one-minute-of-your-time-and-its-free-357/ Longstanding I-COM client and fantastic charity, the Foundation 4 Peace, needs your help! The charity, based in Warrington, has been shortlisted in the Best Education Project category in the National Lottery Good Causes awards for their Survivors for Peace programme.  The programme helps victims of terrorism to deal with the traumas they have faced and create positive experiences out of their devastating stories. To find out a bit more about the charity and scheme, see this short video from one of the charity's supporters, Olympic swimmer Steve Parry All it takes it two clicks of your mouse - simply click here to be taken to the Survivors for Peace Lottery Causes page, and then click Vote Now. You don't even have to leave any personal details to cast your vote. Voting closes at midday on Friday, 18th June - so please show your support by voting and passing the details on to your friends and contacts. To find out more about the work undertaken by the Foundation for Peace and how you can support them, visit www.foundation4peace.org  On behalf of the Foundation 4 Peace and I-COM, many thanks for your support. I-COM News 2010-06-04 14:10:46 http://www.i-com.net/blog/help-a-good-cause-less-than-one-minute-of-your-time-and-its-free-357/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/manchester-growth-show-wednesday-april-14th-334/ The good people over at Business Growth Show have asked me to lead a seminar tomorrow on 'Why SMEs Should Blog' at their free event at Ramada Manchester. The day starts at 9am and ends at 3pm, and I'll be leading the first seminar, presenting what I feel are the ten key benefits of blogging from a business perspective. The Manchester Growth Show is a great opportunity for local business leaders to learn more about other industries and potentially grow their businesses as a result. Run by the team at Corkscrew Events, the Business Growth Show has been facilitating networking and new business connections in cities across the UK since 2003. Tomorrow's Manchester event will also feature speed networking, talks on networking and an eclectic collection of exhibitors from a range of industries. Hope to see you all there! I-COM News 2010-04-13 09:20:09 http://www.i-com.net/blog/manchester-growth-show-wednesday-april-14th-334/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-is-success-325/ Whilst catching up on my reading on the weekend I came across a Poem that sums up perfectly my thoughts on what success is all about so I thought I'd share it with you!What Is Success?Its doing your work the best you can,And being just to your fellow man;Its making money, but holding friends,And staying true to your aims and ends;Its figuring how and learning why,And looking forward and thinking high,And dreaming a little and doing much;Its keeping always in closest touchWith what is finest in word and deed;Its being thorough, yet making speed;Its daring blithely the field of chanceWhile making labor a brave romance.Its going onward despite defeat,And fighting staunchly, but keeping sweet;Its being clean and its fighting fair;Its laughing lightly at Dame Despair;Its looking up to the stars above.And drinking deeply of life and love;Its struggling on with the will to win,But taking loss with a cheerful grin;Its sharing sorrow, and work, and mirth,And making better this good old earth;Its serving, striving, through strain and stress;Its doing your noblestthats success!-Author UnknownHere is to your continued success... I-COM News 2010-03-22 08:27:55 http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-is-success-325/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/page-rank-link-building-and-the-resurgence-of-content-261/ Now Google has removed PageRank from Webmaster Tools and is rumoured to be removing it from the Google toolbar soon, what impact will this have on linkbuilding in the future?To be honest Google's PageRank was never an indicator of SEO success for a website. In fact, here at I-COM when we are looking to improve the organic visibility of a website and need to source suitable links, PageRank has never been a key metric to us, we look initially at the content of the web site and whether the web page we are sourcing the link from is on-topic. You've probably seen web pages with back links that appear out of place on the web page - and while this form of link building may still have some value in the short term, its ability to generate qualified traffic and pass authority and trust (now key factors in all the major search engines' algorithms) is very limited. What this means is that you now need to source links from web sites that have quality useful content for visitors. Not only do we need to create good content on our own web sites but we have get links back from sites with good content. And how do we get these quality links back from other web sites? Firstly we can spend the time looking for related sites within the same niche or topic - a time-consuming task which will prove useful in both understanding the niche or topic and finding suitable back links. Secondly we can generate good quality useful content which is worth linking back to from other on-topic sites. Over time the content will generate natural links back to the web site. It's important to remember that the days of sourcing back links from anywhere and anyone, as long as the Page Rank is good, are now long gone. Search Engine Optimisation 2009-11-02 09:51:12 http://www.i-com.net/blog/page-rank-link-building-and-the-resurgence-of-content-261/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/business-north-west-2009-harnessing-the-social-media-beast-254/ Over the last few weeks, Tweeters, Bloggers, Facebook and Myspace users have ridden their impossibly tall horses into battle with Jan Moir and Trafigura / Carter-Ruck, and on both occasions have achieved a sort of victory. In both cases the public outcry, largely facilitated by Twitter and other forms of Social Media, resulted in something of an about-turn in policy for Trafigura / Carter-Ruck and a removal of surrounding advertising and a change of headline for Jan Moir's Stephen Gately piece. We couldn't ask for a better example of the power of Social Media to influence vast numbers of people and to effect real change.Business North West 2009 It's this power that more and more businesses are hoping to harness as a method of promoting products, providing real-time customer feedback and pushing related businesses and offers. However, it's an extremely thin tightrope to walk - Social Media is intended as a means of socialising; if your business starts using it to promote itself and push advertising on unwilling recipients, you could be in for a backlash akin to the one experienced by Habitat earlier this year. At this year's Business North West conference, we are hoping to demonstrate how Social Media can be used for your business via an experiment which hopes to take the conference online, creating a medium for conference-goers to upload live comments, images and videos relating to the speakers, exhibitions and events. The following accounts are those which have been set up, whether by I-COM or another individual or business involved in the event, specifically for Business North West: Flickr Twitter Facebook FriendFeed Blogsome Xanga SlideShare Tumblr LiveJournal Wordpress Blog WetPaint Blogspot Scribd Well be inviting attendees and their colleagues back in the office to contribute using extra PCs installed at the I-COM booth, iPhones, Netbooks, Blackberries and Laptops.Growth through Innovation The Business North West conference is now in its third year yet has already established itself as the North Wests most important business networking event. It is this kind of innovation that will see it continue to grow, and will also serve to demonstrate the huge potential of Social Media as a positive force for your business. Business North West 2009 takes place at Manchester Central on the 28th and 29th of October. For more information, visit our events page or the official Business North West website. Social Media Marketing 2009-10-19 16:55:37 http://www.i-com.net/blog/business-north-west-2009-harnessing-the-social-media-beast-254/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-to-look-for-in-an-internet-marketing-expert-211/ At a recent seminar I attended I was asked what the qualities that someone should display who goes under the title of "Internet Marketing Expert."In my opinion a true internet marketing expert should be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of the current position and objectives of the business and sector they are going to work in. Write a cohesive Internet Marketing Strategy to achieve those objectives. Demonstrate that they can and have implemented SEO strategies to gain higher Search Engine Listings Understand how Social Media Marketing can be utilised in the Internet Marketing Plan Explain and demonstrate where they have utilised online reputation management strategies to improve Search Engine listings, Internet Real Estate and promoting of the brand, product or individual. Demonstrate where they have used copywriting to achieve high conversions and usability not just search engine listings. Demonstrate how the utilisation of article and blog submission has helped one of their clients to gain a) New Clients and b) Internet Real Estate Clearly discuss the importance of link profiles and off site search engine optimisation. If they can provide examples of where they've done all these things you truly have an Internet Marketing Expert in front of you. Unfortunately our industry is plagued by a lot of self publicists and individuals that see the internet as a way to make a quick buck. Our advice to you is make sure you check them out before you spend any money; speak to the people that they have worked with and get personal recommendations, don't be satisfied with on-site testimonials or videos - make sure you pick up the phone and speak to someone. If they are a true internet marketing expert they will have proven, tried and tested techniques, but also an individual plan for your business! The process of employing an Internet Marketing Expert should go from initial consultation, through to strategic planning and effective implementation that brings measurable results. Good luck and I hope this has helped you to start thinking about the questions you should be asking prior to employing the services of an Internet Marketing Expert! Internet Marketing 2009-07-30 12:33:15 http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-to-look-for-in-an-internet-marketing-expert-211/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/smcmcr-revenge-of-the-seos-215/ I'm looking forward to tomorrow's Social Media Cafe at the BBC in Manchester.  I've been to 5 of them now and have enjoyed the time I've spent a them and the people I've met.  I've even made a couple of friends!  There are a LOT of SEO people signed up to visit this one - 14 including myself.Whilst the members of my profession have suddenly swelled the ranks, there seems to be a lot of other people that have signed up as well.  I truly hope this large group of people mix, intereact and all take away something useful from tomorrow's event.  With all sorts of professions represented from Journalists to PR people to Web Designers we all have a chance to talk, listen and learn.But deep down, alas, I am a cynic.  I am also a Star Trek fan as well and therefore believe in alternate universes. There is one thing I would LOVE to see in an alternate universe where the July #smc_mcr was still being held at The Northern on Tib St.... The length of the attendance list!  Search Engine Optimisation 2009-07-06 16:35:20 http://www.i-com.net/blog/smcmcr-revenge-of-the-seos-215/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-recession-there-is-a-home-for-arts-graduates-internet-marketing-213/ When out with a large group of friends and relatives recently, I found myself sat opposite a friend of the family who owns a business. The business is relatively small, and according to my vague understanding has something to do with marketing. Anyway, we got to talking and, as a recent graduate myself, I inquired as to his thoughts on the age-old Degree vs. Experience debate, those two dark monoliths of the employment market. Youll forgive me for paraphrasing his response, wine has somewhat muddied my memory, but it went something like Oh degrees, yeah theyre relatively low on my list of priorities to be honest. What Im looking for is someone who has a proven track record in the job, good experience, and someone whos going to fit into the team. As a recent addition to the I-COM team, Im not long out of the employment market myself and am well aware of the pervasiveness of the must have at least one years relevant experience job advert addendum how it used to upset me, sitting at home endlessly browsing Monster for something, please something that was relevant to my degree subject (English Literature and Creative Writing). Ever the glutton for punishment, like a limpet I clung to the idea of Copywriting, the Holy Grail, yet time and time again my lack of experience was holding me back, but how could I get experience if no-one would give me a job without experience? Did no-one care about my three years of toil at university? Is it Worthless Though? If you ask me (and you havent, but Ill tell you anyway), its not; not at all. Its just that were entering the whole university experience with a muddied perception of what well have at the end. Unfortunately, an arts degree, or any kind of degree, is not an automatic pass into the employment market. There is an increasingly prominent idea that University constitutes some sort of step in a career ladder, and the institutions themselves are encouraging it. Universities nowadays advertise themselves on their statistics; how many people have gone into full-time employment, what jobs are they in, how much are they earning? Now, if youre there for a Medical or a Law degree, this is no doubt true. In fact Law graduates can expect to earn between 24% and 30% more than people who left school immediately after A Levels. But is it really true of an Arts degree? Of course not. If you choose Arts, youre choosing philosophy, history, literature; youre choosing a path of intellectual inquisition and acquisition. What youre not doing, is getting your foot in the door, climbing a rung in the ladder or particularly impressing your future employers, which is why so many arts graduates turn to teaching. Studying the Arts at university is almost the direct antithesis of the business world, which is why all those Arts graduates are sitting around twiddling their thumbs after graduation saying What now?, whilst all their ultra-organised marketing and business studies contemporaries are already eating at the captains table and applying for The Apprentice. All Change Now every man, woman and his/her dog goes to uni (has this popular saying suffered from the PC treatment?), theyve had to diversify, which is no bad thing. Surely theres no-one pining for the good old days when women werent allowed and foppish, upper class men lounged on the lawn musing aimlessly (well, maybe...). The Arts has been left behind, and all the proper jobs are for business, science and engineering graduates, unless youre willing to do a post degree conversion in accountancy, law or some other vocational subject. But dont listen to those miserable types you know the ones, moaning about all the debt theyve accrued during their university careers, desperately trying to rain on everyone elses parade as a salve for their own inadequacies. There are homes for arts graduates in business, and there are Arts-based opportunities for the chosen few with the killer combination of drive, ambition and creativity (If only...). As long as youre not the kind of person who gauges success by how much money you earn (or owe), you can feel good about your Arts degree; perhaps you even want to be a teacher. Dont Get Lost in Translation Arts degrees are chock full of translatable skills research skills, writing abilities, creative thinking and the general worldliness that comes with knowing a little bit more than your peers about where weve come from, not to mention the fact that youve stuck with something for three years, met deadlines and come out with a recognisable grade at the end. We know the papers are doom and gloom, just look at the swine flu debacle; they may as well report on the common cold. Its therefore inevitable that they will also report on the grave state of affairs in the UK jobs market, not to mention the state of graduate employment, as its a fantastic way of having a dig at a Labour government who encouraged more and more teenagers to consider university. What Im saying is, pay them no mind. Yes things are bad at the moment, but the internet is a limitless resource, constantly expanding, and the freedom it allows also allows for economic capitalisation and consistent business expansion. Arts degrees can be easily translated into the world of internet marketing, copywriting and web design choosing the right words to perfectly describe a clients product, targeting your copy to appeal to a particular audience, researching keywords that will ensure your website is found by the right people, designing a website that looks fantastic and is easy to use   Dont get lost in translation, steer clear of those graduate sales adverts and hold out (if you can) for a job that will utilise the skills youve acquired. Its done; you cant go back so you may as well go forward, and moaning about student debt, which is relatively small and friendly in real-world terms, wont help. Wear that BA with pride, re-draft your CV and get yourself back on Recruitment.com, Monster, Jobsite, Prospects, etc. You know the drill. I-COM News 2009-07-03 11:28:47 http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-recession-there-is-a-home-for-arts-graduates-internet-marketing-213/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/gocompare-googling-by-the-rules-204/ Some people watch stocks go up and down, SEOers watch listings. One of the most watched sites is GoCompare. They advertise heavily on TV which drives strong brand awareness people know the GoCompare name. What typically happens is that they then go to the internet and type GoCompare into Google and follow the link to the site. They have a bit of a problem in that their listings seem to come and go. About a month ago they didnt even appear for searches on their own name. Instead a number of affiliate sites to whom GoCompare need to pay commission appear. The rumour is that GoCompare had been penalised by Google for not following their guidelines and trying to do things to manipulate the search results, the most recent occurrence being a repeat of something that happened around a year ago. This is a cautionary tale, which demonstrates why SEO needs to be done within accepted guidelines; the listing slip must have cost them a lot of money in affiliate commissions and increased TV advertising. Theres also a learning point to recognise that you cant try to cheat the system. When you receive emails from companies that say theyll quickly get you to the top of Google, be careful. If it seems too good to be true its likely theyll be using a short term trick to try to cheat the system it may give you go short term results but if found out you could be quickly demoted. The positive side of the story is that demotions need not be permanent, if you can show the engines youve tried to correct what youve done wrong its likely youll be able to recover the situation given time. Needless to say I-COM follows the Google guidelines as closely as possible and have helped a number of businesses get back their listings after other SEOs have brought them down. SEO by the rules may not always deliver the quickest results but it does deliver results that stick. Search Engine Optimisation 2009-06-16 08:51:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/gocompare-googling-by-the-rules-204/