Copyright © 2010 David Taylor 2010-07-30T07:35:32+0100 2010-07-30T07:35:32+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 David Taylor David Taylor en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 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/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/working-from-home-a-flexible-option-or-playing-the-system-220/ Im working from home for most of this week, and last night had an interesting conversation with my housemates about benefits of the situation.  One does a similar(ish) job to me an in-house web content copywriter for the SEO department of a travel firm.  One is a town regeneration planner (he has explained on many occasions exactly what he does and none of us still understand!) and the other is steadily crawling his way up what is left of the corporate ladder in the banking world!We all have different views on the benefits of working from home, whether you can get as much done, can you get more done, or is the whole thing a fraud?The town planner spends most of his time running around making sure new buildings have proper right-angles, etc., so working from home for him isnt really an option, but the views of the rest of us differ considerably.The banker readily admits he could carry out his job at home if he had to, but in his office people who are working from home are seen as playing the system, everyone thinks theyre really sat round watching Jeremy Kyle wearing a dressing gown!  He cant explain where this distrust has come from it is simply part of the office culture.The content copywriter says she would be able to carry out her job at home but cant; she has no access to her work systems at home.  She cannot access work email or servers.  She also says she doesnt think that she would be able to carry out her job effectively as she wouldnt be in the office environment and feels she needs the close contact with colleagues.This is my second day working from home and what do I think?  I set up access to my work email and files a long time ago so no problem there and I'm able to keep in touch with the office because we're all set up on instant messenger clients for this purpose.  The most important factor is that I-COM is not an office with a culture of mistrust of people working away from the office.  I have successfully been sent work and carried it out with no real problems.  My employers trust me and know that I am sat here working and that trust is worth its weight in gold. Over the coming months, due primarily to the Swine Flu pandemic, the whole of the UK is going to be hit by big absence problems from work, some people will be sick, some will be quarantined by proxy, and some will not be able to come into the office because family members are ill and they have to look after them.It is VITAL for the businesses of Manchester, and indeed the UK, to prepare for this in two ways.  The first is to must make the resources of the office available to the workers, even if this only means setting up an employees email account on their personal laptop it could be the difference between financial survival and going to the wall. The second is that the corporate world must accept that people can work from home and that they arent playing the system; those employers out there who have this culture of mistrust need to rethink their strategies pronto.  I also believe this is going to be the harder of the two tasks, but will, in the end, prove to be one of the most important.So in conclusion, Im getting almost the same amount of work done, hopefully not bugging my colleagues TOO much with phone calls and should be back to work soon. Anyway, got to go know, the adverts are finishing and I want to find out the results of the DNA test. ;) Manchester 2009-07-29 10:00:55 http://www.i-com.net/blog/working-from-home-a-flexible-option-or-playing-the-system-220/ 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/chris-moyles-the-saviour-of-social-media-190/ Now I will be the first to admit that I listen to The Chris Moyles Show in the morning for one reason and one reason only - the man annoys the hell out of me! Combining this fact with a loud, deliberately badly tuned clock radio on the other side of my room and I have a sure fire recipe to make me get out of bed in the morning!However, Mr Moyles has pulled off some fairly impressive things in the world of Social Media - the biggest being introducing twitter to the masses.  Now before I get trampled to death by angry twitterers going on about Wossy, rustyrocket & stephenfry, I will happily admit that yes they have been on twitter longer and have a huge following.However, what was it that bought twitter to the attention of the masses? Not Mr Fry, Ross or Brand but the overweight gobby annoying man from Leeds who started talking and tweeting in Mid March and hasn't stopped since.  And what is really interesting is that it has exploded over popular culture ever since, everybody is at it, google was going to buy it (allegedly) and facebook was going to die because of it.So what is the purpose of this post, well, as I was woken up this morning I heard Mr Moyles wittering on about audioboo.  I have seen this phrase in retweets on twitter and know a couple of people who use it.  Essentially, it is a an micro audioblogging site, you can record audio blogs and upload them to audioboo, you can also follow other peoples 'boos' and listen to them if you wish.  Now, yeah, it has a bit of an underground following but nothing massive.  My question is - will Mr Moyles talking about audioboo promoting it on his radioshow cause the same explosion in micro audioblogging that he has with his radioshow?Is Chris Moyles - the annoying gobby man from Leeds the saviour of Social media?  Social Media Marketing 2009-05-06 17:02:07 http://www.i-com.net/blog/chris-moyles-the-saviour-of-social-media-190/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/seo-smcmcr-rofl-165/ It was a very wet night as I trudged towards The Northern on Tib Street. And cold. And windy. Did I mention it was wet? Yes. Ok, the scene is set. I knew what was going to happen.  I was going to spend the next 3 hrs locked in a pub with 'long haired new media type' people. People who think that Twitter will save the world and SEO is done by people who don't understand the internet, don't know squat about the web and are usually seen on watchdog - people that hate with an unimaginable passion - people that do SEO.So it was with some trepidation that I went along to my first Social Media Cafe event in Manchester.I think maybe 40 or 50 people were there, and I have to say it was very interesting and enjoyable.  I very much enjoyed listening to Mario Cacciottolo talk and demonstrate his website www.someoneoncetoldme.com. and how it came into existance.After a break we split off into 3 different groups, I chose the Social Marketing in Marketing and PR group and the conversation was lively, to say the least!  During the session we talked about how social media (which in this session was represented mostly by Twitter) played a part in each of our industries which included journalism, Public Relations, SEO and Marketing.  What I learned from this meeting was that we all have an idea of what social media is - and each idea is unique we all have a somewhat skewed perspective of what we think each other does.Twitter is a perfect example: what some see as a communications revolution that will change the world - others see only as a new tool that can be used to target and talk to people.My own opinion on this is that Twitter is fun, it allows you to find like-minded people.  It can also play a part in bringing traffic to your site. However, I do believe that it is a fad and unless it changes and adapts it will die out eventually. Sorry, but I have to be honest!I believe I summed it up last night by saying "The words of the conversation come from our minds, Twitter is just an alternative to vocal chords!"At the end of the session we have agreed to meet again and start a blog for professionals in Manchester and how we can use social media together, which I-COM has volunteered to host for free because we want to do our bit to help foster discussion within the industry that will benefit everybody. Today, thinking about the Social Media Cafe today and what I learned from it, I have to honestly say, "not much."  Last night there were lots of voices shouting about how what they did was right and how others were wrong.  However, what DID happen was by the end of the meeting the professionals in Manchester who use social media within their industries agreed to to co-operate and work together.  In this city, if we can agree how to use social media together, sharing our ideas then as professionals and as a city we will be one step ahead.  Got to go now, I need to tweet lots of new people... Social Media Marketing 2009-03-04 15:01:57 http://www.i-com.net/blog/seo-smcmcr-rofl-165/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/if-the-pirate-bay-walks-the-plank-when-will-google-be-thrown-over-the-side-161/ You would have to have been stuck on a Desert Island for the last few weeks to not know about the The Pirate Bay's ongoing court case in Sweden which started on Monday. The Pirate Bay argue that they aren't guilty of pirating music and videos as they do not actually store the information themselves, they just allow users to find other people that have these files using torrents. These are files allow people to use peer to peer clients such as bittorrent to exchange files. Legally, The Pirate Bay are correct. They don't actively supply pirated files to anyone - they are a search engine; they aren't the pirates, they are the drunken madman in the bar that gives you a treasure map! However, this has got me thinking. Wednesday night I watched the Brits Awards and was rather enamoured with The Ting Tings, so I thought, "I'll download a copy of their album." When I searched Google for "ting tings torrent," I came up with the following: Enlarge this image Now, If The Pirate Bay website is a search engine and allows me to find an illegal torrent to download, and they get fined/shutdown/put in gulag/made to walk the plank, then shouldn't the same thing happen to Google? Legal Note: I'm not implying or telling anyone that I or I-COM think it is right to illegally download anything!!! Internet 2009-02-20 08:32:46 http://www.i-com.net/blog/if-the-pirate-bay-walks-the-plank-when-will-google-be-thrown-over-the-side-161/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/sell-out-your-facebook-friends-for-a-burger-143/ Today, is a sad day for the advancement of communication via social media sites. Burger King has unleashed upon the world Whopper Sacrifice. Pick ten friends and delete them from your Facebook account and you can get a free Whopper. This is a great advertising ploy if ever there was one and, according to the website, at the point of writing this post, 231,287 people have been sacrificed by Facebook users to claim their free Whopper. But let's think about this a bit more; Social Media is meant to be the next big thing, a new way for people to communicate and exchange ideas. We hear it all the time, but how useful and important can interactivity and communication via social media be if you are willing to get rid of 10 people for a free hamburger? Yes, you reply, but I've got hundreds of friends on facebook so i can get rid of some of them. This really begs the question, if people agree to "befriend" anyone that likes the look of them on Facebook, are these 'virtual relationships' really worth anything? In the end, what is this free burger promotion: a funny, clever viral campaign or a damning indictment of the shallow and pointlessness of social media 'relationships'? Whatever it is, I'll have mine with extra cheese and no pickle! Social Media Marketing 2009-01-14 14:35:05 http://www.i-com.net/blog/sell-out-your-facebook-friends-for-a-burger-143/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/online-pin-is-bursting-the-offline-bubble-139/ Exchange and Mart has always been a stalwart of the UK secondhand car buy and sell classifieds. Today it has been announced that Exchange and Mart is ditching the newspaper to go purely online. Some people may look at this with a fond sadness - thinking that it is yet another victim of the credit crunch. However, the realistic way of looking at this is that more and more consumers are becoming web savvy and use the internet for more and more purposes - a vast amount of them being for retail. Occado, Waitrose's internet delivery people, has reported an increase of 25% over the holiday period. Think about that - 25% growth of a relatively expensive food chain during a recession! In 2001 we had the dot com bubble - now we have lost Woolworths, and Zavvi and Marks & Spencers are each cutting over 1000 jobs. Online businesses are weathering the recession better than most and in some cases growing in a world where offline businesses are going to the wall. Are we going to see a reversal of 2001, were everyone will ditch offline business and the rocks that they will be clinging to will be online business? Internet 2009-01-07 16:20:19 http://www.i-com.net/blog/online-pin-is-bursting-the-offline-bubble-139/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/an-seo-freelancer-sells-his-soul-125/ Hi, my name's David and I am one of the new kids on the block here at I-COM. Please be gentle with me as this is my first posting into the blogosphere! I'm going to talk about something close to my heart, agency SEO'ers vs Freelancers.  Now up until 2 weeks ago I was myself a freelance SEO.  Its a strange world that all of the agency people may not know about, we travel to networking events and pounce upon the unsuspecting; we avoid the pyramid scheme people at the same events (you know who you are...) and we get to work with some truly odd people. The celebrity lookalikes, the arrogant performance artists, the MANY companies who run off with your SEO proposals and who you never hear from again,  the band who "want a bit of MySpace".... And when we're not doing the jobs that all the big agencies turn down we're huddling in corners telling each other that the agencies are rubbish and we are much better. Well it's a nice dream but at the end of the day - and it breaks my heart to say this - it just isn't true. If you want quality SEO you just have to pay for it, even 5 or 10 hours a month from a quality SEO firm is going to help you over the long term. If I add up the hours I did and what I was paid freelancing I was getting less than minimum wage as I had to do 3 or 4 times more work than I had quoted just to be competitive and because I couldn't live with the fact that the results I could deliver for so few hours wouldn't deliver much value to the client. So I say to all you noble freelancers out there, in the current economic climate, start seeking the sanctuary of a SEO firm, I promise you, if you come in from the cold won't regret it! Search Engine Optimisation 2008-11-27 16:03:37 http://www.i-com.net/blog/an-seo-freelancer-sells-his-soul-125/