Copyright © 2010 I-COM News 2010-07-30T07:36:12+0100 2010-07-30T07:36:12+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 News I-COM News en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 http://www.i-com.net/blog/dont-listen-to-the-social-media-gurus-368/ I am scheduled to give a presentation next week entitled 'Social Media and Business', at the offices of Mathys & Squire LLP. During the talk, which is set to take place on Wednesday 7th July at 3pm, I'll be letting businesses in on the wonderful secret that is social media, outlining how they can use it to generate new business, advertise offers and incentives, create a buzz about their company and connect with customers.I'll also be debunking a lot of the rubbish peddled by these so-called Social Media Gurus, focusing instead on how you can use social media to generate real results for your business.Over the past few years social media has become an extremely powerful force in the world of online marketing - a force businesses hoping to succeed online cannot afford to ignore! If you would like to attend the event contact Tarik: tarik@businessskillsforum.co.uk I-COM News 2010-07-02 12:54:57 http://www.i-com.net/blog/dont-listen-to-the-social-media-gurus-368/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/crains-best-places-to-work-2010-the-results-363/ Congratulations to Crain's, which yesterday put on a fantastic event at the Ramada Hotel Piccadilly. It was really well organised, and everyone from the I-COM team had a great time. Unfortunately I-COM, nominated in the 'Big' category, didn't win, but the fact that we reached the final is a hugely encouraging sign that we're doing something right! The nominations were based on answers to a survey provided by I-COM employees, coupled with answers to a questionnaire posed to directors about methods of rewarding employees, the working environment and work-life balance. I've published the list of winners below, which you can also see on the Crain's site, and wish to extend I-COM's congratulations to each of them:NEARLY BIG categoryWINNER: Adele Carr Financial Recruitment LtdRUNNERS-UP: JLES North West, Peppermint PRBIG categoryWINNER: Imerja LimitedRUNNERS-UP: The ReThink Group Plc, Code ComputerloveBIGGER categoryWINNER: The fresh GroupRUNNERS-UP: Leap29 Limited, JMC ITBIGGEST categoryWINNER: Barclays CorporateRUNNERS-UP: Ralli, The Hut Group  Well done to all the above, just be warned, I-COM is coming for you next year! I-COM News 2010-06-18 10:02:36 http://www.i-com.net/blog/crains-best-places-to-work-2010-the-results-363/ 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/4networking-business-breakfast-tuesday-260110-premier-inn-trafford-centre-west-304/ I'll be sharing my online marketing secrets with attendees to the 4Networking Business Breakfast on Tuesday 26th January, at Premier Inn, Trafford Centre West. The event will run between 08.00 and 10.00am. Here at I-COM we believe that having a great looking website is useless if no-one ever sees it, which is why we offer all our clients comprehensive SEO strategies, designed to get them into the most relevant SERPs to their business. I'll be sharing my inside knowledge on the ins and outs of search engine marketing, including tips on how you can make the most out of your online presence, turning those casual visitors into paying customers. Attendance to the event costs just 10. Book your place today. If you only attend one business breakfast this year, make it this one. I guarantee you'll be enthused, amazed and inspired! I-COM News 2010-01-25 13:50:39 http://www.i-com.net/blog/4networking-business-breakfast-tuesday-260110-premier-inn-trafford-centre-west-304/ 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/junior-staff-required-online-copywriters-developers-and-it-specialists-166/ I-COM believe in personal development, we like to give people responsibility for their own accounts as quickly as possible. Touch wood, this seems to work because not many people leave the business once they're here. We're now ready to expand the business again and we're looking for some fresh talent to come in at the ground level. There are three posts we're keen to fill: Online Copywriter - this person will work closely with the SEO team here at I-COM and will learn how to write copy for the web that is not only found by search engines but captures the visitor's imagination and encourages conversions. A bit of previous experience copywriting would be nice but what's most important is a good writing style and a good standard of written English. Junior Developer - if you know your way round PHP and can show us some of your work we'd love to hear from you. You could be fresh out of college - we don't require commercial experience just technical competence and a desire to deliver great solutions for our clients. Junior IT Specialist - if you're interested in IT and know your way around Linux then this could be the job for you. Our business is growing and our internal IT infrastructure is evolving, we need someone who can initially work with our Technical Director to begin to sort out our IT and develop a strategy going forward. This is a role that will grow with you. If you're interested in any of these vacancies please send us an email to careers@i-com.net along with your CV. If you're interested in either the copywriter and developer positions it would be good to see some examples of your work. We look forward to hearing from you. I-COM News 2009-03-04 16:08:08 http://www.i-com.net/blog/junior-staff-required-online-copywriters-developers-and-it-specialists-166/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/four-new-hires-at-i-com-to-support-new-client-wins-123/ This month we're pleased to announce that we've hired four new people for the I-COM team. Clair Wescott joins the companys team of 5Google Adwords professionals, and David Walsh is the latest addition to the highly accomplished in-house programming and web development team. We're also building our award-winning SEO (search engine optimisation) team through the recruitment of two experienced SEO consultants, who are starting with us next week. The four new staff members round off a successful couple of months for us as we continue to grow and extend our client base. New client wins include The Kit Team, PUMA, The National Obesity Surgery Centre and the Sellick Partnership. Welcome to the business, clients and colleagues. I-COM News 2008-11-13 16:27:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/four-new-hires-at-i-com-to-support-new-client-wins-123/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/seo-jobs-and-web-development-jobs-in-manchester-108/ At I-COM were busy and as we expand our client roster were also looking to expand the team at our Manchester city centre offices. At the moment we have a number of SEO and Web Development vacancies: SEO Consultants Were looking for experienced SEO consultants who can manage the implementation and ongoing SEO for a number of clients. Youll need to be have some knowledge of the full range of SEO tasks including keyword research, SEO copywriting, site reviews/code analysis, analytics and link building. You will be comfortable working in a client-facing role and have some experience of working with HTML and CSS. Junior SEO Consultants If youre new to SEO or looking to learn, were also looking for junior SEO consultants who know their way around the internet to help our SEO team on a range of tasks from copywriting, to tagging to link building. Some knowledge of HTML and CSS would be beneficial. Copywriters We also need in house copywriters to work closely with the SEO team on site content for a wide range of clients as well as blogging, online PR and article submission. While some knowledge of SEO would be helpful, you need to be a good writer who knows how to write catchy copy and has a pedants eye for grammar and syntax. Junior Web Developer We are looking for a junior developer who has some experience of CSS, HTML, XHTML, ASP, PHP, MYSQL, SQL Server to work within the SEO team. Some experience of search engine optimisation would be helpful. Project Manager We are looking for a web developer with experience of PHP, ASP, and ideally XHTML and CSS who wants to work more closely with clients. 60% of the work will be hands on development with remaining 40% spent working with clients and managing projects. Interaction will be with a team of 9 designers/developers and programmers. For more information or to apply, email us at careers@i-com.net. No agencies, please. I-COM News 2008-10-14 16:29:01 http://www.i-com.net/blog/seo-jobs-and-web-development-jobs-in-manchester-108/