Copyright © 2010 I-COM International 2010-09-06T15:41:50+0100 2010-09-06T15:41:50+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/why-is-brand-important-299/ We all experience brands every day. This article will attempt to explain why lucid, well realised brands are so essential to success. Firstly what is a brand?A Brand is = Collectively, what people say, feel and think about your product, service or company.A Strong Brand is = A collection of coherent ideas and experiences with a product or service over time.A great brand is a great storydefined by Paul Isakson Take a look at this video for Volkswagen.View hereOriginally created for T.V. this video has been posted online and now exists as a viral. The ad, generally missed on television, has since received millions of hits online and lots of positive attention in the press. The colour palette is rich, and the music is modern and electronic. The story is unique, showcasing Volkswagens commitment to building their cars with care, attention and technical expertise. Lars Axelsson, Volkswagen, describes the rationale behind the concept, As traditional advertising is becoming less effective, and the competition is becoming more aggressive, we believed we needed a more innovative approach to draw attention to the website  In contrast the print advert below, whilst being instantly recognisable as Volkswagen, is completely different in style. The colour palette and design is clean and minimal, especially when contrasted with the viral.  The concept tells viewers how owning a Volkswagen will never go out of fashion. The four icons on the key ring depict four differing styles and cultures, demonstrating Volkswagens unilateral appeal.The final example of a great piece of advertising is a specific microsite showcasing the new Polo. View hereThe microsite expertly balances creativity and the user journey. The videos are cinematic and aspirational. The user experience is well thought out, allowing users to customise their car and build their own tool kit. It gets close to recreating an on-screen experience online.However, does using these disparate forms of advertising render the brand disjointed and incoherent? Do people get different experiences when touching the brand?Throughout all these disparate pieces of advertising material, the brand values come through strongly. All three are innovative, technically excellent, clever and fun. The concept which defines Volkswagen is Volkswagen Thinking, the idea of creating a product which is seen as a democratic people car, but also as a desirable object. So the answer is no, Volkswagen is a strong brand. I personally think this shines through in their advertising, but the proof is in a steady increase in growth and products over a fifty year period; a period in which hundreds of similar companies have ended up on the scrapheap.For a brand to stand the tests of time, it has to have roots that help it stay true over time. Why? Because lasting relationships are built on a foundation of trust. If you are constantly changing who you are and/or what you stand for, how can anyone come to trust you?Paul IsaksonSo in conclusion everything you produce as a company must reflect this brand. A brand identity represents your company's values, services, ideas and personality. A consistent and well-positioned brand can make your company; it can generate loyalty in your customers, and make you the envy of your competitors. By understanding branding we'll be able to help our clients find their values and tell stories that set them apart from the crowd.To end controversially, here is the latest viral video from Diesel. 
 View here
Is this video coherent in the Diesel marketing strategy. Does it reflect their  brand and, more importantly, is it good for their brand? Please comment?If you're interested in further reading there are a few great resources below.Excellent white papers covering all aspects, lots of social media info too.  View hereAuthor of 'brand tags' discusses all things brand
 View hereMore related to User experience a case study on McDonalds and how they utilise branding
 View hereLots of stats and viral videos here 
 View here Web Design 2010-01-21 10:15:47 http://www.i-com.net/blog/why-is-brand-important-299/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/loser-generated-content-are-t-mobile-trying-too-hard-286/ Charlie Brookers weekly Screenburn in Saturdays Guardian TV pages is usually an extremely amusing read. An article published earlier this month this was titled "loser generated content", and it got me thinking about the ways in which firms use social media as an advertising tool. T-Mobile's latest advertising campaign features Josh and his superband, who have come about 'completely by accident' after he was stopped in the street and filmed for an advert in which he said he would start a band if he had free texts for life. Josh now has a Myspace page, can be followed on Twitter and has a website where you can upload pieces of music you have created in the hope that they will be incorporated into the upcoming single that he is going to release (whilst giving up all rights to any future profit to Saatchi & Saatchi). So we have a television advertising campaign, supported with relevant social media, but there appears to be a backlash against the campaign. From the feedback I have received, all it is doing is actively putting people off T-Mobile products, so the question is what's gone wrong?Dont Break the Social Media Rules! We blog a lot about social media here at I-COM; a post about the rules of social media by Keir Gibson gives a good explanation of how to go about running a social media campaign, in which he stresses the need to be upfront, honest, participatory and genuine, otherwise your fellow users will see through you instantly. Josh and his superband are a perfect example of what happens when you try to 'game' social media.  One word runs through all the complaints contrived. T-Mobile has made a mistake and tried to SELL SOCIAL MEDIA to a group of people who have are extremely social media savvy and have seen right through it musicians.  This has resulted in an internet backlash with hate groups being formed on Facebook and numerous anti-Josh Ward comments spattering the web. Next time T-Mobile, I suggest you sponsor some concerts, or openly promote a competition to write the next T-Mobile ringtone. People could upload them to your site, you could have a Myspace page with all the entries, a Twitter account could be set up that people could follow the progress of the competition.  People may not like ringtones, but they prefer them to being treated like a fool! Social Media Marketing 2009-12-22 01:06:45 http://www.i-com.net/blog/loser-generated-content-are-t-mobile-trying-too-hard-286/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/greggs-the-baker-and-the-under-used-twitter-account-282/ During a recent conversation I was surprised to learn that Greggs the Bakers had a Twitter account. I was even more surprised to see that they had a massive number of followers yet seemed to be doing nothing with it. As you can see the account has remained dormant since July and they have tweeted a grand total of 14 times since joining. It seems to me that the business really is missing out on a huge opportunity. Greggs should use this account as a master account, and should then set up a separate account for each store; for example I-COM's local Greggs would be #GreggsLincolnSquareMCR. The benefit of this would be that each store could tweet directly to its local area, giving a large company a really personal touch. They could easily set up a directory of stock, automated tweets such as Sausage Rolls out of the oven in 5 Mins or all pies now half price which could be tweeted throughout the day. Both would drive sales and help build brand loyalty - we all know how annoying it is when you get a cold sausage roll, imagine if you could pop down to Greggs knowing that they'd just come out of the oven! This strategy would also give Greggs the opportunity to discover and respond to bad customer service through any #fail tags. Overall a win win situation for Greggs as a company and their customers, and also fantastic for branding and PR. Social Media Marketing 2009-12-03 16:22:10 http://www.i-com.net/blog/greggs-the-baker-and-the-under-used-twitter-account-282/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/playing-games-278/ It's the time of year that online shopping goes through the roof, and companies like Amazon, Play, and Toys R Us are rushed off their feet with orders flying over the internet. When a friend of mine was shopping for her kids on PLAY.com she came across something that many consumers need to be made very aware of over the Christmas period, inaccurate pricings of goods. I have taken a screen grab of an example of a product which has been priced incorrectly.  PLAY are offering 'buy 2 for 25' on many of their Nintendo DS games, but would you buy 2 for 25 when 1 is only 9.99? This is clearly a mistake made by PLAY, but it is becoming a common problem. Content uploaded onto websites needs to be proof read and checked before being uploaded to a live site. When Christmas shopping online make sure that your basket has taken into account the offers, that you are getting the right deal and when you are at the checkout that the total is what you expected it to be. Inaccurate information on a webpage can lead to visitors becoming confused and subsequently turning their attention to competitors. This is especially true around the Christmas period when customers want to make sure their gifts arrive on time and for the right price. The Royal Mail has officially said that the last Christmas postal date for letters and packages sent 1st class will be 21st December 2009. Make sure you get your prezzies sent out in time! Internet Marketing 2009-11-30 14:41:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/playing-games-278/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/social-media-reputation-management-271/ In today's recession stricken market and unpredictable trading conditions, consumer trust is at an all-time low. Their confidence in brands is being chipped away every time a company fails to live up to customer expectations or standards. Companies can no longer rely on monitoring their offline resources and media history - more and more businesses are pushing time and money into monitoring social media sites in order to ensure they maintain a positive online reputation. In the online world, brands share their results with customers, competitors, bloggers, and users who with one review or blog can bring down the whole perception of quality for future online and offline customers.  This produces an environment where actively managing, monitoring and repairing your online brand is crucial. Brands should be aware of guidelines in each of these areas to help it stay ahead of its competitors and avoid or repair negativity online.Research Your Reputation Researching your online reputation and finding out what is being said about you and where is vital to understanding how much work you have to put into to repairing negativities or boosting positives. Make reputation research a regular occurrence and create an inventory of your findings for future reference as the web is constantly changing along with your audience Don't Try Too Hard to Impress Users You can plaster flashy design, interactive bells and impressive whistles on your sites, blogs and social media pages, but if there's nothing of substance then you will have unimpressed users leaving and potentially saying bad things about their experience to their online contacts in a public forum. Don't Treat Your Audience Like Statistics Your audience may be spending their time complaining, reviewing, tweeting, commenting or posting but if treated like statistics then they will be unimpressed with your attitude towards your customers. There are many people out there that will take an interest in your business. Don't limit your brand's focus to a selected group or segment of "important people" thereby forgetting the growing audience - any one of whom could become one of those "important people" in the future. Know Your Outlets Know the places where your brand is appearing, whether its an obscure forum, purposefully set up social media site or personal blog. After all, how can you mange or repair your reputation if you don't know who's talking about you and where they go to do it? Remember, however, that it's not just the blogs you must look out for - some of the most negative comments come from the comments sections of blogs. If you're looking to defend your brand then these comments are the ones to take time to answer.Give Your Brand Personality and a Face Companies don't have conversations, people do. Remember that these feeds and sites are portals for your customers/clients to communicate about you and with you, a person - not a faceless corporation or business. Oscar Wilde said, "Being yourself is far easier than putting on a front." You are more likely to receive positive comments or repair negative comments by having a person take an interest in what customers are saying (through social media or blogs) because people can relate to a person who is speaking with them directly and answering their feedback than they can with an enquiry for or an email address. Acknowledge the Good as well as the Bad Remember reputation is made up of both negative and positive comments, reviews and feedback. Monitoring and acknowledging the positive is just as important. If you are already known on the web or offline then you need to remember that your customers helped you get there. Engage with users and customers leaving positive comments and attempt to build a community amongst your customers because those happy customers could be your strongest defence against negative comments when they happen. Think before You Tweet Twitter is a great way to give your brand personality and seem more 'human'; but for companies using it there is a thin line between good and bad. Remember tweets are automatically set to 'public access' so your foul ups are seen by all. Learn before doing and avoid the following: Don't "hard sell" through tweets Don't spam people or harvest email addresses for spamming Don't tweet about mediocre or old industry content Don't use ALL CAPS Don't spell things rong Don't over tweet And lastly, don't tweet while intoxicated Finally, if you've learnt nothing from this post, at least take a page out of the 'book of real world' and treat online relationships similar to real-life relationships. Think of those traits in your staff or favoured people in your life (e.g., honesty, respect, confidence, uniqueness, informative and worth) then apply them to your online brand personality. Social Media Marketing 2009-11-18 10:26:53 http://www.i-com.net/blog/social-media-reputation-management-271/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/can-you-take-the-criticism-5-ways-to-benefit-from-negativity-269/ As a Copywriter and writer in general, I cop for my fair share of criticism. I got it all through Uni on my creative writing course (which consisted of a group of people sitting around chewing up your hard work, saying things like Im not sure what your characters motivation is here and Whats going on with the dialogue here?), and now I get it at work from clients and colleagues I dont like it, but Ive learnt how to deal with it. Criticism can be difficult to handle and many people find it impossible not to get hot under the collar when faced with poorly thought out constructive criticism; but from time to time it really is useful. As someone who soaks up a lot of it, I feel vaguely qualified to offer a few tips to those who find themselves immediately adopting the defensive stance in any battle of wills: DONT get angry: Without a doubt, this is the most fundamental way to combat the misery that often accompanies negative criticism. If you get angry and defensive, the person giving the criticism will mirror you (unless theyre unusually restrained). Staying calm allows you to focus on the positives, and if there arent any then its not very constructive anyway so you can ignore it. LISTEN to the criticism: Believe it or not, sometimes other people do know better than you. This is something I had difficulty coming to terms with as I believe that I am 100% right, 100% of the time. Unfortunately, even if youre a world leader in a given field you can be proved wrong, even the Theory of Relativity has been proven to be flawed. If you sit back and listen carefully to the criticism, you just might learn something. DONT stoop to their level: If the person who is criticising you is doing so in an angry or aggressive manner, dont stoop to their level. Remain calm and offer reasonable responses to their criticisms easier said than done, I realise. This is a point that applies to both online and offline criticism. Often online criticism, particularly on forums, messageboards and blogs, can be particularly vehement thanks to the anonymity of the internet and the lack of significant repercussion dont end up like these guys. ACKNOWLEDGE your mistakes: If the criticism points out a flaw that youre aware of and have been trying to correct, acknowledge it. None of us are infallible and admitting that you are aware of the areas in which you need to improve will make you appear gracious, and could help you improve in the long run. DONT sulk: Children sulk, dogs whine when you dont feed them scraps from the dinner table if you have to take a hit then just suck it up. Try to learn from it; if theres nothing to learn just try not to let it get to you and think mean thoughts about the person instead. There you go, now its down to you. According to Psychology Today The alchemy that turns the bitter dross of negative feedback into the gold of professional development is purely from within. The language is a bit flowery, but the sentiments right. For an example of how to deal with online criticism on your blog, see the comments section here. Copywriting 2009-11-16 10:09:58 http://www.i-com.net/blog/can-you-take-the-criticism-5-ways-to-benefit-from-negativity-269/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/online-word-of-mouth-in-action-and-why-the-x-factor-can-teach-us-all-a-lesson-in-public-relations-265/ If you are not one of the 16.6 million viewers who tuned in to watch the X Factor last night, heres a quick round up of events The X Factors terrible twins, John and Edward, who have been slated since their first audition by Simon Cowell, ended up in the bottom two with Welsh teenager Lucie Jones after the public vote. Result, one would have thought. Finally, John and Edward are set to leave the competition and the real singers can be left to do battle. The judges all followed expected suit with Danni and Louis both voting to keep their acts, and Cheryl voting for the far superior singer Lucie to stay in the competition, leaving the casting vote to Simon Cowell. A devious look spread across the multi-millionaires face, as he voted to keep John and Edward in the competition, forcing a Deadlock situation resulting in the talented Lucie Jones being sent home from the competition. Being the cynic I am, I couldnt help but feel that Mr. Cowells decision was somewhat calculated, to say the least. Not only does the exit of Lucie Jones from the competition reduce the competition to face his own acts in the competition, but more importantly, has sparked a massive furore in the press, blogs and social media websites. Xtra Factor presenter @Hollywills tweeted "I'm happy for jedward, at the same time so sad for Lucy, she was a talent!" last night and even our own maestro, Tim Roberts, is talking about last nights X factor: "unbelievable simon cowell has lost the plot I thought he said x factor was a singing competition!" Logging on to Facebook similar status updates a plenty with more that half of those shown on the live news feed being about last nights X Factor. Furthermore, as I write this post, Jedward (the crudely coined media abbreviation for the horror of an act that is John and Edward) is number two in Twitters trending topics list. The marketer in me cant help but be impressed. One small decision has sparked thousands of pounds worth of PR coverage and got everybody, or nearly everybody, talking about the show. Why should Simon Cowell spend any money advertising and promoting the X Factor when the media and public are doing a great job for him? Whether the outcome of such an amount of public debate and discussion will be more votes for the better singers remaining in the competition (your favourite needs your vote) or more votes for John and Edward (to annoy Simon Cowell and maybe even make them win the thing) one thing is certain Cowell will be laughing all the way to the bank. Love him, hate him or just want him to be less supercilious, one cannot but admire the genius of the man: The press are talking about it, the viewers are tweeting about it, all there is left for Mr Cowell to do is sit back and count the money rolling in Social Media Marketing 2009-11-09 14:58:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/online-word-of-mouth-in-action-and-why-the-x-factor-can-teach-us-all-a-lesson-in-public-relations-265/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/manchesters-blog-awards-demonstrate-the-real-power-of-blogging-257/ Last night (October 21st) saw the annual Manchester Blog Awards take place at Band on the Wall. The event was part of the Manchester Literature Festival and is always a good night. If the turnout was any indication, blogging is indeed alive and well and taking on a range of subjects. It's my understanding that every year the list of nominations grows, and thus it is becoming increasingly difficult for the judges to choose shortlists for each category.  You can find the list of winners here.What exactly is the appeal of blogging?There is a lot of lip service paid to the idea that bloggers are wannabe journalists presenting inaccurate, badly researched and subjective news stories, but I would contend that the role of blogging is complimentary to that of good journalism, and that any decline in the newspaper is more down to a lack of good journalism and a reluctance to modernise (but that's another subject entirely). Blogging is about opinion, and it's about people. So what bloggers do, if they do it well, is provide a mass of unique voices giving their personal - and often very stilted - take on subjects they feel passionately about.Anyone taught to read critically should understand this, but should also be able to see the value in reading blogs. You can find a blog about anything these days, should you wish to, and the majority of them offer highly alternative views. Blogs can act as a barometer of public opinion for instance, the mainstream news may present a particular story as important or a particular viewpoint as definitive; if bloggers are saying something different then it's a clear indication that the public isn't in complete agreement with the press.Blogs can also be extremely useful from a commercial perspective. If, as a company, you do something very right or you have a product that people are going to want to know about, if you can get bloggers on board you can often make a bigger impact than with traditional marketing methods - because nothing is more powerful than a recommendation from a trusted source.  If you accidentally do something wrong, however, they'll also be the first people to take you to task for it - so it's best to keep the bloggers on-side. Take RyanAir's example - a blogger made a post about their online booking system and they responded by calling bloggers "lunatics." Have a look at the negative PR this has generated - as well as the bad will within the blogosphere: Enlarge image in a new windowIf you really want to do something special, however, you'll join them. Simply write passionately about the things you like and let customers and potential customers get to know you. This gives your customers the impression that not only are you a person who shares their views, but also that you will deliver a top-notch service. Social Media Marketing 2009-10-22 14:11:09 http://www.i-com.net/blog/manchesters-blog-awards-demonstrate-the-real-power-of-blogging-257/