Copyright © 2010 I-COM International 2010-03-20T00:21:25+0000 2010-03-20T00:21:25+0000 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/christmas-online-shopping-stats-a-round-up-301/ Christmas may seem like a distant memory now, with the only reminder of the festive period being that solitary mince pie left in the cupboard (they just dont taste the same when its not Christmas); but from an online perspective, there are some interesting results that are worthy of comment. A plethora of stats for online shopping in the UK in the run-up to Christmas have been released over the past couple of weeks. Those of particular interest include:  Cyber Monday (7th December) remained the biggest shopping day of the year, with the peak being 3 million being spent online in the UK in one hour between 13:00 and 14:00 The average order placed online was up by 94% this Christmas, compared to the same period in 2008 The number of goods that are purchased per transaction has also increased significantly, from 2.7 items in 2007 to 3.7 per order in 2009 132 million worth of purchases were made on Christmas Day, an increase of 29% on the previous year (eDigitalResearch) All of the indications from these stats are that peoples shopping habits are changing.  But is this shift a natural process, or are retailers being more savvy in their marketing and actively influencing shoppers behaviour in the direction of online? I certainly noticed that the larger retailers were much more on the ball this time around. For the six weeks leading up to Christmas, I came to expect at least five email messages in my personal email inbox every day from retailers promoting online Christmas offers and products.  (I would suspect that the free delivery over X offers as promoted in such emails had an influence in raising the average order value.  I was sucked into this on at least three occasions in the run up to Christmas!!)I have blogged previously about Marks and Spencers and how their online marketing efforts and social media campaigns are setting the standards for other leading retailers. In the run up to Xmas, there was a further noticeable step up by Marks and Spencers and their contemporaries in terms of their social media usage using Twitter and Facebook to keep customers informed about everything from their deals of the day, to last delivery dates and even updates on delivery delays due to snowy conditions. And with the likes of @chiconomise and @fashionpixies aggregating all offers from UK retailers and directing traffic to online sales, we are being spoon fed all the info we need to make Christmas shopping online easy peasy.There is little doubt that as the number of mainstream stores offering online shopping has grown, people in the UK are becoming more used to researching and completing online purchases. The fear factor has diminished significantly and the demographic of people making online purchases has undoubtedly broadened; and so long as retailers continue to do the right things and target their customers effectively via a variety of channels, all indications are that the online shopping bug will only continue to take a further hold.And what with all the snow and ice, freezing cold temperatures, and queues snaking around the aisles, there is certainly a lot to be said for Christmas shopping from your sofa <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:950285101; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:1404189612 134807553 134807555 134807557 134807553 134807555 134807557 134807553 134807555 134807557;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:36.0pt; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-18.0pt; font-family:Symbol;} ol {margin-bottom:0cm;} ul {margin-bottom:0cm;} --> Internet Marketing 2010-01-25 09:27:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/christmas-online-shopping-stats-a-round-up-301/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/word-of-mouse-302/ Just last week I was asked again by a client, How can I use social media to promote my business? My answer was, It depends on who you want to attract, what image you want to portray, and what kind of publicity you want to generate.We hear people talking about the latest celebrity tweets; we receive emails from past colleagues requesting to join their network - so how should we use what seems to be a spontaneous minefield?If you are a new business just starting up or an established business nervous of how your brand values will reflect in the social arenas, you should approach each relevant site in the same way as you would with any other new advertising medium: test, monitor and report. Define your target audience. Create a personal profile on a couple of social media sites and monitor them for a while. Dont use your company name and dont post anything that will draw attention to yourself until you understand the community and feel the fit of the network is right for your business. Look at your direct competition in order to learn about what networks they use and how they communicate with their audience. Schedule time to regularly maintain and update your online presence. Remember that the post, tweet or comment may only take a few seconds to type but that you should give careful consideration to what you write and the message it sends. Planning and timing is key - consider all your other marketing activities and create targets and incentives. Monitor the feedback and posts to your profile because recording this information will provide invaluable insight into how your product or company is perceived. Most importantly - think before you upload. Social media gives your mouse voice. It can strengthen relationships and create opportunities to attract and engage your target audience. Social Media Marketing 2010-01-22 12:17:37 http://www.i-com.net/blog/word-of-mouse-302/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/its-snow-joke-for-online-retailers-292/ Excusing the obvious use of a bad pun, many retailers have seen a 13.5% drop in sales due to the snow and icy weather that is gripping the UK. The weather has also hit online sales with large online retailers such as Amazon unable to provide normal delivery to customers. While large online consumer goods retailers have been hit due to their dependence on postal services, other online retailers have seen a surge in sales, most notably supermarkets. Due to the bad weather and driving conditions, many customers are opting to utilise home delivery services for their weekly grocery shopping; although many supermarkets have struggled to deliver to all their customers. Service websites and gambling sites have also seen a big surge in online sales; for example, Auto Windscreens who have seen a 700% jump in online sales due to drivers booking in cars for repairs while working from home. These mixed fortunes for online and offline retailers suggest a need for many online retailers to have contingency plans in place if they are unable to deliver during periods of bad weather or postal strikes. Possible solutions could be free delivery during periods where delivery is un-available or slower than normal and marketing campaigns on standby that can be tailored to take advantage of these situations or to ensure sales remain constant during any experienced disruption. Internet Marketing 2010-01-12 14:08:19 http://www.i-com.net/blog/its-snow-joke-for-online-retailers-292/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/meeting-real-time-content-needs-287/ Last week I wrote a blog post about how Google is changing by including a Twitter feed in some of its search results and also that it is now visiting websites more often for the latest news to include in its search results, often referred to as real time search. Often when producing articles or press releases for clients we aim for them to tie into a recent news story or event. This got me thinking about the response rates and the speed at which we produce content for a website and how Google influences when we produce this content. Previously, for a small website you could expect Google to find new content and crawl old content about once a month. With the increased speed at which Google trawls websites, in some cases this may be as regularly as every couple of hours - if you update your website daily or several times a day. These factors will no doubt have an effect on the way users of Google behave. Google has such an influence on its users lives that those who use it will become used to Googles real time search and as such begin to demand more timely news and regular information from any sites they visit. As such, those sites wishing to maximize their online presence will need to update more regularly. It is important to meet this real time demand for information if businesses are to meet a users expectations and remain competitive as Google changes the way it works. Search Engine Optimisation 2009-12-17 09:41:42 http://www.i-com.net/blog/meeting-real-time-content-needs-287/ 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/email-marketing-at-its-most-risible-260/ We've been the target of one of the most badly gauged email marketing campaigns I've seen in a long while today. This morning the blog inbox had the following awaiting me in the "spam folder." Enlarge image in a new window There was a logo for the product and text telling me I'll be a beacon of light. That's nice. What a waste of 10 seconds. Did it spark my interest? Not really. It sparked my laughter. I forwarded it on to a colleague as an example of some of the amusing spam we get. He laughed. Out of idle curiosity he clicked the link and laughed some more.  Then we got on with our day. Just now I got a second email from the same company. It turns out they're an email marketing company offering an email marketing product. How do I know? They sent me this: Enlarge in a new window A few points on this: The first sentence is grammatically incorrect. This makes me think the company is unprofessional. I don't want to be hassled via email by them, if I were interested I'd phone so now I won't be clicking any more links on their spam emails (I won't even be opening them, TBH). We offer email marketing here at I-COM, which these guys would have seen had they looked at our site and chosen to email targeted leads rather than every email address they could scrape. Good email marketers don't email market to businesses that offer the same services being offered in their e-shot. The moral? A decent email marketing campaign needs to give you a genuine reason to click and needs to target the people who might actually care - and it shouldn't be so pushy that it encourages those same people to block you. Internet Marketing 2009-10-29 14:43:06 http://www.i-com.net/blog/email-marketing-at-its-most-risible-260/ 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/choosing-a-web-designer-make-sure-hes-google-friendly-249/ We have an old adage in internet marketing that goes as follows, "If your website cant be found, it doesnt matter how good your web design is." This led me to ask the following question: why do so many of our prospective and current clients say, "Ive spent thousands with my previous web design company and I hardly appear in Google?"  Well when choosing a web design company you may consider many factors: Does their design match my branding? How easy is it to purchase products/services? Does their price match my budget? While these are very valid questions, if you select a web design company which has no experience of search engine optimisation, there is a chance your website could be designed in a way that prevents search engines such as Google from finding and understanding 90% of the pages on your new website - not a good start considering the investment you have just made. The way people search online has changed in recent years and internet users are now search using very specific keyword phrases; for example, rather than searching for a Sony Camera, users may now search for Sony D320 Cybershot. You want your product pages to appear for these types of searches, but if your product pages are too many levels down from the home page, they may be ignored by Google and you will lose potential sales. If your website is struggling to get pages listed or "ndexed" in Google, it can often be costly to fix. If you have this issue, it may be easy for your SEO consultant to advise you on how to fix it, if you need to make web design changes to your site it will be expensive to resolve. When design problems are serious you can resolve them by: employing web designer experienced at building search-engine friendly websites to resolve your issues redesigning your website entirely - using a web designer who knows how to design for search engines These design issues often occur when the web design company has had no input from any SEO specialists. I-COM is a full service internet marketing agency with web designers and web developers working closely with SEO consultants. We are happy to answer any questions you might have about integrating SEO into your web design. Even if you already have a web design company designing your website, I-COM can provide SEO consultancy services to ensure your website is designed for both search engines and visitors. Search Engine Optimisation 2009-10-12 14:18:15 http://www.i-com.net/blog/choosing-a-web-designer-make-sure-hes-google-friendly-249/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/internet-access-makes-jack-a-happy-worker-248/ So it's lunchtime, and I'm online, flitting between the Manchester Evening News and the Times when I recall a conversation I had with a friend a couple of days ago.  Last Tuesday he had gone into work to find that MSN, Yahoo and Facebook had been universally blocked for all - apart from senior management.  He opened his Email inbox to find a company-wide email saying that these sites were now blocked as the staff had been wasting too much time and 'productivity levels' had been decreasing.  On top of this they were going to be monitoring which sites were being accessed and possibly block those as well (my friend has a friend in the IT dept - banks and utility companies are next up for the cyber-guillotine).Now this has got me thinking about using the internet during work hours.  Obviously here at I-COM we spend a fair part of our day surfing the web - it's integral to our job and we would be out of business in a week if we couldn't, but if we need to pay a bill, check an email or read an online paper then that's fine as well.This doesn't mean we all come into work and log onto Facebook, but in this day & age shouldn't employers trust their staff enough to give them access and say "Feel free in your lunch hour or if you're in work early."?The people that have made this decision seem to be remarkably short sighted. Employers will find that it's the little things like this that will keep or even boost productivity in their workforce. Come the time when they need people to come in on a weekend to help out and go the extra mile, removal of perks like this will be strong in the mind of the employees.This leads me to a second thought: with so many of our day-to-day tasks carried out online (everything from ordering pizzas to paying bills) how long will it be before internet access - like a water-cooler or bathroom facilities - will be an employee's right?  I have also spoken to other friends and this seems to be a remarkably common policy, so I'm throwing the question open to you: Are you allowed to use the internet at work for personal use in your lunch hour? Have you had it taken away as a company policy recently, and if you have, what result has it had on morale?Don't worry we'll keep your answers anonymous! Internet 2009-10-09 09:25:02 http://www.i-com.net/blog/internet-access-makes-jack-a-happy-worker-248/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/toptrianglecom-secret-of-an-internet-marketing-experts-success-243/ I've just been catching up with my reading of Crains and came across an interesting article entitled "Feed magnate saves skip broker from trash" This article deals with the news coming from the the Administrators of TopTriangle.com, the online skip hire business which was run by Mark Attwood, self proclaimed internet marketing expert. The article says that the insolvency practitioners SFP are investigating allegations that in addition to factors associated with the market downturn, internal fraud may also have contributed to the collapse of the business.The London-based insolvency firm SFP said its forensic team had identified various areas of concern in relation to the company's trading activities before it folded in March with debts of almost 1m.Toptriangle has now been bought out of administration by a company called Perfect Associates in which Mark Attwood holds shares but isn't a director. In the past Mark Attwood has used Toptriangle as an example of how his abilities as an internet marketing expert has driven the business to success. The Crains article seems to suggest that Toptriangle might not have been as successful as Mark Attwood had proclaimed through his blogs and public speaking.According to an estimated statement of affairs, the deficiency to unsecured creditors is in the region of 938,816, with many skip hire companies owned money. SFP said unsecured creditors were unlikely to see any dividend. Internet Marketing 2009-09-29 10:52:40 http://www.i-com.net/blog/toptrianglecom-secret-of-an-internet-marketing-experts-success-243/