Netdata Projects

Starting with Social Media – Part 2 Micro-Blogging

2009-06-16T09:26:00.006+01:00

As discussed in part 1, when I spoke about Google Alerts, listening is as important as broadcasting your message.

Both these aspects of social marketing are perfectly embodied in the simplicity of micro-blogging.

So What is Micro-Blogging?
Twitter is the leading exponent of the micro-blogging format, so we’ll take our cue from them though other services may differ slightly, but basically it allows you to post a message no longer than 140 characters. This message is similar to the status updates you find on Facebook.

And What is the Point of That?
People use this service to post messages about subjects which range from particle physics, to what kind of sandwich they are having for lunch, and at first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking that there isn’t much use in any of it. But the revelation comes when you use the search facility to find things which are of interest to you.

It’s important to remember that there are some 40 million people on Twitter, and this number is growing rapidly.

Using Twitter, you can effectively listen to other people’s conversations. For instance someone may enter a message such as ‘Going to Edinburgh for a week, can anyone recommend a good place to eat?’. And if you happen to be a restaurant owner you can reply directly to them. This is a small but powerful way of communicating directly to potential customers.

Twitter also allows you to search for people you may wish to ‘follow’ on a regular basis. These can range from celebrities to leading figures from all walks of industry, all of whom are providing regular updates which you can ‘listen’ to. The simplicity and immediacy of Twitter has seen it become a place where news breaks first, and this means it can give you a valuable edge when tracing new developments in your marketplace.

The other aspect of Twitter is it’s a very easy way to promote the personality of your business. With these small, informal messages you can subtly develop a relationship with others.

So How Do I Use It?

Register
Registration is pretty simple. Visit https://twitter.com/signup and fill out the form.
The next step is to sign-in at https://twitter.com/login, then either search for people you are interested in following, or use the advanced search to find subjects or key phrases.

Once you find people who are publishing relevant information to you, you simply click ‘follow’

The next step is to get people to ‘follow’ you, and this is where you really begin to learn about social networking.

Gaining a Following
Social Media is about one thing, ‘6 Degrees of Separation’. The theory is that we can be connected to everyone on the planet in 6 steps at most.

So if you post a message to 5 friends they will post it to five other friends and so on until eventually everyone has seen your message.

Many people believe that this means you have to be ‘friends’ with as many people as possible, but this is missing the point.

Social media is about communicating on a personal level with people and they can still choose whether to listen to you or not.

The best ways to succeed are as follows:

Follow relevant people, other people judge you on the ‘quality’ of your friends (if you follow everyone you will quickly find your inbox gets jammed)
Publish useful information, let people know what your business is doing that might be helpful to them (special offers, improvements etc.)
Don’t publish too often, 4 or 5 times a day is usually more than enough, but this depends on how relevant your comments are.
‘RE-tweet’ other people’s comments which you find interesting, and maybe the favour will be returned

Monitor what other people are doing and see what feels right for your business and spend time developing relationships. Listen, as well as talking.

Useful Tools
There are many tools available to help you manage your ‘Tweets’.
Two of the best are ‘Twhirl’ and ‘Tweetdeck’, both of which sit on your desktop and keep you informed when anything happens in your circle.

There are also many tools which will help you integrate Twitter into other social media apps, like Facebook, which is, coincidentally, our next topic.

Anderson, Shaw & Gilbert - Contract Win

2009-05-29T12:49:00.003+01:00

We're pleased to announce that we have recently won a contract to develop the new Anderson, Shaw & Gilbert website.

As one of Inverness' leading solicitors and estate agents Anderson, Shaw & Gilbert have provided legal services to the Highlands and Islands since 1881.

We will be providing them with a fresh, clean website which allows visitors to search through their property listings, as well as finding out more about their legal services. It will also be easier to update and conform to web 2.0 standards of useability and accessibility.

We'll let you know when the site is live.

Starting with Social Media – Part 1

2009-05-08T11:14:00.003+01:00

Some of you will be fed up hearing about it, others will be intrigued but confused so let’s ignore the buzzwords, disbelieve the hype, and let’s get down to how this ‘social media’ thing can help your organisation.

I’m not a ‘marketing guru’, a ‘futurologist’ or a ‘fad addict’. Just someone who’s been working online for a decade and gotten used to sorting out what’s useful and what isn’t. So, over the next few posts I’m going to cover several aspects of this heady marketing field, and hopefully put it in plain and simple words, with a few pictures to back it up.

Feedback and questions are always welcome, that is what it’s all about after all.

Step 1: Get yourself a Google account
Whether you see them as benevolent demi-gods or malignant internet tyrants, Google are (for the time being) unavoidable, and very useful to you.

So visit https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?

Register and sign-in.

With your Google account you can now access Adwords, Adsense, Youtube, Google Maps, Analytics and a very neat little function called Google Alerts.

Visit http://www.google.com/alerts

Here’s a screenshot.

Simple huh? Too simple?

So what does it do?
Well, Alerts simply let’s you know when specific search terms have been mentioned on the web or blogs, groups etc.

And why should you use it?
As you will find out more and more, social marketing is as much about listening as it is about broadcasting your message. Alerts lets you know what people are saying about your organisation, enter your business name and you’ll be sent an email every time it appears on Google’s radar.

But, and this is the good bit, you can also monitor what is being said about your competition as well.

Alerts lets you monitor lots of different terms, and with a bit of practice you’ll narrow it down to the ones that are important to you.

What do I do with this information?
If you find your business is being mentioned a lot, and in a complimentary fashion you can now visit these people and thank them for their kind thoughts.

Establishing and maintaining relationships is the key.

If your business is being criticised then you can :

A) If it’s true, listen to your marketplace and learn some valuable lessons, and make changes accordingly

B) If it’s wrong, correct people’s misunderstandings and deal with the problem directly

And if you’re not getting mentioned at all, it’s time to look at your marketing strategy and you could do a lot worse than follow the next few posts to help get you noticed.

So there you go, it’s a small start, but an important one.

Next step, micro-blogging. Join the twittering masses and find out how apparently trivial updates can change your business.

Is there such a thing as web 3.0?

2009-04-17T15:23:00.002+01:00

I haven't been posting onto my blog very regularly recently and ironically this is because of the internet. Inverse to all predictions we are actually very busy at the moment, and, like all self-employed people, I am grateful for it. However, this has led to me not being able to spend as much time on my social networking as I would like.

But, as everyone knows, keeping up with the daily machinations of the world wide web isn't easy, and in my business (and probably everyone else's) it is fundamental to at least keep abreast of what's happening out there. Hence I have my 'Twhirl' app floating on my desktop all day long whilst I bury my head in practical daily tasks like layout, useability, accessibility, seo and more besides.

So now and again I am raised out of this web designer's dwam by a little dinging noise. 'Twhirl' has alerted me to the latest updates on my Twitter network. Inbetween the ongoing furore over the conviction of Pirate Bay's founders, Newsnight requesting Stephen Fry's opinion on the matter, and various other bulletins I see someone opening a discussion on Web 3.0. on LinkedIn.

And I pause.

Web 3.0! I'm still trying to explain to clients what web 2.0 is all about, and now we have an upgrade, why wasn't I told?

And the truth is I was, by a web 3.0 app.

So what's it all about then?

Well, if web 2.0 was all about the democratisation of internet publishing (and I mean that in the widest sense possible) via blogging, RSS feeds, podcasting, youtube etc. Then it seems that web 3.0 is about how we gather and how we use this information, as well as how we publish it.

Social networks, micro-blogging and aggregators are the key to this, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, LinkedIn, Twitter, Friendfeed, the list is endless. But all have two things in common, intimacy and immediacy.

So I started digging a little bit deeper in order to educate myself, and to prevent the embarrasing situation of someone supposedly less web savvy than me bringing up the subject. And to be honest I'm still not clear on the specifics. All of the talk rings familiar bells and bears huge similarity to the discussions about web 2.0 several years ago; it is all about marketing.

Yes there is a huge and very welcome change in the way people are conducting business, what customers expect, and how people communicate. And the aforementioned websites are all growing geometrically to facilitate this. But I'm still wary of the motivations behind those marking this period as a watershed in the history of the web. And, when it really comes down to it, I don't feel the need to box up and re-brand such an amorphous media, but I understand that some people do.

My clients are generally too busy focussing on their own industries to be too bothered, but, at least if they ask I can give them a short explanation without feeling the embarrasment of not knowing, then I can return to my developer's fugue.

Sixth Sense Computing -

2009-04-01T11:44:00.003+01:00

It's not often I am blown away by new innovations, but some things just tickle my 'geek' buttons.

This video below will explain more than I ever could.

(Stick with it past the toilet roll talk and you'll see what i mean)

Macleans Bakery Website Launched

2009-03-20T13:15:00.003Z

Macleans Highland Bakery have been producing buttery shortbread goodness for four generations, and it's still a family concern.

We recently received a commission from them to re-design their outdated website with e-commerce functionality and a full content management system.

Users can now view their product range in detail, request info and make comments on the products, and staff can easily update all text, links, images, products and articles through the content management system.

They were also keen to expand their overseas markets particularly in the far east, and to this end we integrated Google's translator facility into the site. This has been a successful feature as it provides a relatively accurate translation of the site into complex languages like Chinese and Japanese.

Full e-commerce functionality will also be included shortly which we will take the website to a new level.

For mouth watering treats visit the website here.

Tweetdeck Adds Facebook Updates

2009-03-17T12:37:00.003Z

There's no doubt about the popularity of Twitter in the UK anymore as these latest figures reveal:

"Market research company Nielsen Online says Twitter grew by 1,689% from February 2008 to February 2009.

That means there are now more than 1.78 million people signed on.

This time last year the social networking site only had 100,000 members." Source BBC News

This also means that it's time to get onboard for your business as well, but it's not always easy keeping track of all your followers and those you follow, and that's where something like Tweetdeck comes in.

Tweetdeck allows you not only to tweet till your heart's content but also to follow everyone else you are interested in via your desktop.

Based on Adobe's AIR platform it's a very slick interface, here are some screenshots:

And with their latest added Facebook functionality you can now also track your friends' Facebook updates as well.

Looks like a very promising piece of kit.

Outdoor Capital Seminar

2009-03-09T14:52:00.004Z

Just a quick Monday update on what we're doing this week.

Our e-Tourism seminars keep rolling on, and this time we are heading for Fort William to help the Outdoor Capital of the UK keep up with the latest trends in internet developments and marketing.

We're sure that attendees will be suitably impressed by our latest information on using Social Media for marketing. It's a whole different approach to the web and one which cannot be ignored if you really want to develop relationships with your customers.

Looking forward to it.

ScotHot 2009

2009-03-05T16:56:00.003Z

As part of our relationship with the Scottish Tourism Forum we provided two shortened seminars at the Scottish Hospitality Expo on Tuesday and Wednesday.

These seminars saw our first public airing of our new stream of marketing through Social Networking and introducing businesses to the concepts which Netdata Projects will be promoting over the coming weeks.

A lively venue and some high profile speakers, including Marco Pierre White and the First Minister Alex Salmond, provided a good atmosphere, and we hope attendees went away with some new ammunition for their online strategies.

Thanks again to the Scottish Tourism Forum for their ongoing committment.

About Netdata Projects

2009-02-25T11:56:00.002Z

With the ever changing nature of the internet, and our growing portfolio of expertise, we decided that it would be a good idea to develop a completely separate strand of the business. Known as ND Projects this will focus more on our seminars, consultancy and social networking streams.

Netdata Ltd. will continue to deliver web design and devlopment, hosting and domains etc. and we'll continue to move both sides of the business forward, but we believe that this split will result in a more focused service for all potential customers.

Latest Workshop Dates Announced

2008-03-10T23:18:00.000Z

Following on from our very successful E-Tourism workshops towards the end of last year, we have just finalised the latest events for March and April.

Last year we travelled to the remoter parts of Scotland to help boost knowledge of the internet and how it can be applied to your business, with an emphasis on the tourism industry. We visited Lochgilphead, Fort William, Portree, Forres, Inverness and Stornoway.

And now we're set to head to the far North. With Wick, Lerwick and Kirkwall the next stops on our grand tour.

Again we'll be accompanied by the Scottish Tourism Forum, and with Rene Looper of Tuminds Ltd., to help give you the benefit of their own experiences.

The dates for the latest workshops are as follows, we hope you enjoy:

19th March 2008 - Wick
31st March 2008 - Lerwick
25th April 2008 - Kirkwall

Further details can be found on the HIE Workshops website

Rene's Roadshow Rhapsody

2007-11-16T23:11:00.001Z

Our final seminar of the year took place in Inverness today. It's been a good run, and we're grateful for having had the chance to go all across the country, from Lochgilphead to Stornoway. I hope that all of the businesses who attened have learnt something, and it's good to get a chance to meet the people who are actually using the techniques we teach.

It's no lie to say that we learn as much from them as they do from us. And it helps us to focus our seminars more keenly on the required subjects.

The seminars have definitely been enhanced with the involvement of ex-hotelier Rene Looper. Who has gallantly filled the 'dead zone' after lunchtime, with his real life experiences in the hospitality industry. Thus reinforcing the seminar topics and presenting them in a more poignant way for the delegates.

Rene's latest project http://www.greaterspeyside.com/ has also helped us to illustrate other topics more vividly. Particularly regarding destination management and streamlining content.

I'd also like to thank the Scottish Tourism Forum and Iain, Elaine and Sharon, for organising the events and fuelling me with cups of coffee.

Hopefully there are lots more to come in the New Year. (but let's get Xmas out of the way first).

HIE Workshops Forres

2007-11-15T23:10:00.000Z

The 2nd last of this year's HIE e-tourism seminars took place in Horizon Scotland, Forres today. A bit of a 'home' game for myself and Stewart.

A diverse array of businesses attended from small b&b's to larger concerns such as Johnstons of Elgin and the Knockomie Hotel.

Hopefully everyone received some useful insights into how to improve their web presences and we wish everyone good luck in improving their online strategies.

Stornoway Workshops

2007-11-15T23:09:00.000Z

Continuing our travels with the E-Tourism workshops, we recently conducted one in Stornoway. The course was keenly attended and (we believe) well received.

This seminar illustrates how keenly the internet has been adopted by the remoter Scottish locations. Which I guess is no suprise, as it these very locations which have the opportunity to benefit most from the technology.

The connection was amazingly quick, considering there were 10 laptops running off the wireless. Thanks to the effort and ingenuity of Connected Communities, who managed to create their own DSL system on the island. Necessity is not only the mother of invention but also of improvement.

All delegates showed a particular aptitude and knowledge of web issues, which hopefully we helped them to enhance.

I'm only sorry I didn't get to spend more time to explore during my first foray to the Outer Hebrides.

And thanks for the comment Helen, I hope you enjoy blogging.

Search Engine Mythology

2007-06-14T23:08:00.001+01:00

It still seems that there are companies out there, promising the Earth to their clients when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation and website rankings.

Having worked in the building industry I can't help but see the parallels.

So many people but their faith in others who have knowledge and experience, to get a job done which they cannot do themselves.

I always advise my clients to avoid anyone who 'guarantees' a top listing in Google's organic results, but not everyone has the benefit of a friendly advisor to hand. So, just to re-iterate, nobody can guarantee the top ranking on page one of any given search result. Not even Google themselves. That's how they designed it.

Google's entire empire rests on the validity of their search results. A bond of trust has been developed between themselves and the user. And an unwritten pact to deliver where possible accurate and relevant search results. So it makes no sense that all companies can be top of the rankings.

Search engine optimisation isn't a silver bullet. But, like most worthwhile things, it requires effort.

Coding is only the start of the process and developing content and valuable reciprocal links is the main part of the battle.

But, ultimately, your site has to be useful to those who use the internet. So whilst SEO is important, it's what your site does and how well it does it that matters.

New Workshops for June

2007-06-14T23:08:00.000+01:00

The success of our e-business seminars and workshops keeps rolling on. HIE Moray have again asked us to present a series of 6 seminars from the 25th till the 29th of June.

Topics featured will be:

Best Practice Web Design & Web Review
Supplier Management Principles and Web Review
E-Marketing and Technology Management Review
Search Engine Optimisation & Advanced E-marketing Techniques
E-business integration techniques & E-commerce Database options
Benefits of Broadband & Content Management Options

If attendance is anything like our E-tourism seminars in January then we'll be chock full.
Thanks again to Horizon Scotland for providing us with the perfect venue for all of our forthcoming e-business events in 2007.

E-Tourism Workshops

2007-02-21T23:07:00.001Z

After our first round of E-tourism workshops last week, we were over-subscribed. Feedback has been excellent so far and we're having to present more workshops to satisfy the demand.

Everyone has shown great enthusiasm and willingness to share their own experiences of using the internet to promote their business. Even submitting themselves to a 'Pop Idol' style crit of their websites, which gives me the chance to play Simon Cowell, but hopefully in a more constructive manner.

Our main aim with the workshops is to increase the level of knowledge for all businesses in the Moray area, in the hope that they can compete more effectively in a busy marketplace. And hopefully we are helping them do this.

Thanks must go to Horizon Scotland for the venue, HIE Moray for the organisation and, most of all, to the local businesses who have taken valuable time out to attend.

E-Tourism Workshops

2007-02-21T23:07:00.000Z

Search Engine Optimisation - Content Coding

2006-07-04T23:07:00.000+01:00

'Content' Coding Optimisation

These are the parts of your coding which tell your computer what to display via your browser. And there are several key parts to take into account.

Keywords in your text:

The keywords you decide upon should also have a certain prominence and weight in the visible text of your site, its links and its images. This can also be checked using Web CEO.

This is a fine art and a light-handed approach should be used.

Relevancy:

The one thing Web CEO cannot check is the relevancy of that text. Don't try and squeeze your 'keywords' in as often as possible, and sacrifice good plain English which makes sense. This is far more important than 'prominence' or 'weight'.

'Alt Tags' - Alternative Tags

Provide 'Alt' tags for all images on your site. These were first introduced when modems were slow, and some people switched off the images in their browser to speed up their surfing.

They provide a text description of an image, which not only gives an enhancement to your images, but it is also vital to 'Screen Reader' software, which is used by the visually impaired.

Hover your mouse over an image on this site and a description of it should appear.

Structured Text

Have a clear structured layout for your text. Allow the search engines to find out what the main points are and what their importance is by using 'Header' tags. These can be ordered as 'Header1', 'Header2' etc.

Use the list "<li>" tag when making bullet points. These further help to de-lineate what your content is about.

Validate Your Coding

All coding should adhere to the World Wide Web consortium guidelines. They invented HTML, and the developers of browser software use this when designing 'Internet Explorer', 'Firefox' etc.

Having valid HTML code will mean your site works on as many platforms as possible. And if you use 'Style Sheets' you should also validate this. You can check both of these by clicking here ....

Search Engine Optimisation - Meta Tags

2006-07-04T23:06:00.001+01:00

'Meta Tag' Optimisation'
The 'keywords' associated with your site allow other computers to assess their content. To effectively use these 'keywords' you have to consider the following:

Which words reflect your site best

How prominent are they in your 'Keywords', 'Description' and 'Title' tags

What 'weight' do they have in these tags

Keywords

This should be a short list of words (about 20 or 30 max.) which people might use to search for your site.

Title

This is the title which appears at the very top of each web page. It should provide a summary of the page.
Description

This is a brief description of your web page, about 100 words or so long at the most.

Of course, not everyone has the time or inclination to be a coding expert so help is at hand, with many analysis tools available on and offline such as :

Web CEO

Submit Express

You can also use a site like 'AnyBrowser' to generate good 'Meta Tags' to use on your website.

Search Engine Optimisation - Intro

2006-07-04T23:06:00.000+01:00

The internet is still essentially an information medium. And where web information is concerned the Search Engine rules.

It is impossible to have an effective web presence without being aware of Search Engine Optimisation.

So what do search engines want from your website? Well, search engines want to deliver as good a service as possible to their customers and delivering relevant results is what matters to them. In the main they judge your site on relevant content, useability, and popularity.

They guard their secrets very well, the algorithims that they use to judge your site are deeply complex and ever changing, but there are a few basic principles to follow.

The first of these is to understand how search engines see your site. And since computers don't have eyes, they have to read the coding behind your site. By 'right-clicking' on any web page and selecting 'view source', you can get an idea of what this coding looks like.

Parts of this code is used to layout the text and images that you see through your browser, and other parts provide information to other computers.

These are called 'Meta Tags' and are the first place to start when optimising your site. The main 'Meta Tags' to be concerned with are as follows:

Title (a heading to be displayed in the browser)

Keywords (words which relate to your website content)

Description (a brief summary of your site and its purpose)

E-Marketing Tips - Assessments

2006-07-04T23:05:00.001+01:00

So you've created your blog, uploaded your podcasts and you're paying Google for your sponsored links, and what difference is it making to your site?

Are visitors happy with your site, are they spending time (or money) there? How do you find out?

Well, there are two main ways of getting the information you desire :

Ask your customers directly

Observe what they do with your site

The simplest way to get information is to ask your customers what they like/dislike about your site. Add a simple feedback form on your website, or you can email them.

But a more effective way is to examine your website stats. And for this the best tool by far is Google Analytics. This allows you to view not only how many visitors you get, but where they come from; how long they spend on your site; what pages they dwell on; which pages make them leave; and how they got there in the first place.

Analytics is not currently available to everyone however, and there are other options:

Webalizer (usually available via cPanel)

Click Tracks
(software)

Web Trends

Stat Counter

Web Log Expert

There are lots of other tools available across the internet to help you track your marketing, try clicking here for a sample

E-Marketing Tips - Paid Strategies

2006-07-04T23:05:00.000+01:00

Paid Strategies:

The advantages to paid strategies are that you can generally get a good idea of how much traffic your advertising is generating. It also easier to target specific customers or sectors. These include:

Sponsored Links:
This method allows you to place an advert on a search engine, whenever the appropriate search term is entered. The position of your advert is dictated by a bidding system, which judges the price by popularity of the search term and what other people are bidding.

Google Adwords

Overture

Site specific advertising:
You can place an advert or a link on high-traffic sites which would be relevant to your business. So if you are a hotel owner you could advertise on Expedia or the like.

Affiliate Marketing :
Affiliate Marketing is basically an electronic version of paying other websites to generate revenue on your behalf, or they can pay you. You find people who will direct customers to your site and give them a commission when/if a customer makes a transaction. You can also offer to use your site and direct potential clients to other websites.

So for instance, if you have a car hire company, then you could direct customers to a particular hotel website, and they would pay commission to you, or vice versa.

There are many models available and you should research this area in-depth before proceeding. But the main benefit is that you only pay when you have received a benefit from it.

SMS Marketing
Similar to email marketing you can use the ubiquitous text message to get in touch with your customers. This is good because of the personal relationship peopl have with their phones, and the fact that they tend to take them everywhere.

Websites such as
SMS 2 Email offer bulk text messaging services at reasonable prices.

There are guidelines and legal aspects on using these services for marketing and you should read the following...

Caveat: Always research paid advertising strategies. There are a lot of companies online offering these services, and not all are suitable for your business.

E-Marketing Tips - Free Promotion Methods

2006-07-04T23:04:00.000+01:00

If the search engines fail you, or you can't wait the 6-8 weeks to get a listing, then there are many other options for promoting your business online. These fall into two main categories :

FREE Strategies

PAY Strategies

FREE Marketing:

As a rule FREE marketing strategies are a bit more vague in the results they produce, however, they can be effective and they are free so utilising some of the following methods should be considered.

Blogging

Producing your own 'Web Log' is not only fun. It can provide another way of letting people know more about your products or services. Blogs also get listed in Search Engines and this can form part of your 'Link Strategy'.

Blogs which offer useful advice, are entertaining, or are controversial usually perform the best.

Podcasting

Podcasting is similar to 'blogging' but you use sound files (mp3) instead of text. This is very important if you are involved in the music industry, or any kind of public performance or speaking. You could even just do a podcast offering advice or handy hints for any industry.

RSS Feeds

Really Simple Synidcation - Allows you to distribute your content around the globe easily. Any kind of infromation can be distributed this way, and once you have created it, you can offer it up to anyone who is interested.

You can also put other people's feeds on your site, and this provides extra content.

Google Videos

Google videos is the visual equivalent of podcasting and blogging. It allows you to upload movies you have made.

Email marketing

Email marketing can take many forms. From newsletters, to offers and general updates. It keeps your website fresh in the mind of people.

There is a modicum of 'netiquette' invovled with any form of email campaigns, and the DTI website has a good guide...

Linking Strategies:

Getting links into your website from other sites can mean valuable extra traffic. Not only that, but all the websites you have links on will be registered with the search engines as well. Which means your name will appear to be 'popular'.

You should however take care to list yourself on sites that are relative to the area you are working in. If you have listings in a lot of irrelevant sites the search engines may mark you down for this.

E-Marketing Tips - Part 1

2006-07-04T23:03:00.000+01:00

The search engines are the first place to go when marketing your site. This is because the major engines still let you submit your site for free, and achieving a good ranking on Google can mean a large amount of traffic to your site, for little expense. As well as this, the process can take several weeks (or even months), so submitting your site as soon as it is launched is a good move.
Search engines want to deliver as good a service as possible to their customers and delivering relevant results is what matters to them. In the main they judge your site on relevant content, useability, and popularity.

Directories :
Getting into a directory can mean that the major search engines will pick you up without submitting, but it is vital to read the 'submission guidelines' before proceeding.

Some of these directory sites still use real people to edit the submissions, and because of this the search engines put a lot of stock in their opinions.

Open Directory Project
About.com
GoGuides.Org
Web-Beacon

WebSavvy
Gimpsy
WoW Search Engine and Directory Service

Search Engines:
The following is a list of search engines who still maintain free submission.

Google
All the Web
Gigablast
AltaVista
Lycos
Yahoo!

HIE Moray Seminars Get Going

2006-03-30T23:03:00.000+01:00

Just delivered our 'taster session' to a small but keen group of local businesses yesterday.

I'm always amazed and intrigued by the diversity of people who attend these events. And my innate fear of public speaking is usually overridden by the interesting discussions generated. And it's always good to make a contribution to their success.

Yesterday we had everything from ceramic flower designers to a Brazilian brother/sister music duo. Which shows how far reaching and hopefully beneficial the interweb can be, even in a relatively unpopulated area like Moray.

The seminars are open to all (within that area) and if you want to know more then visit www.hiemorayworkshops.co.uk for more details.

The Beige Invasion

2006-03-18T23:00:00.000Z

The web it seems is not immune to the all-consuming blandness which has been slowly eroding all kinds of creative industries recently.

Music has definitely been drawn into a malaise of well-produced but inoffensive tripe, with the likes of Norah Jones, Jamie Cullum, David Gray, Katie Melluah, James "cockney rhyming slang" Blunt and Daniel Powter to name but a few of the perpetrators of this tapioca of trite nonsense. Get a nice voice, a nice face, a nice personality and a nice producer and bob's yer biscuit (rich tea of course, for blandness).

And TV too has descended into a morass of unadulterated tedium. The never ending stream of consciousness pouring out from every member of Joe Public, defies the poular belief that the world is in a downward spiral because people are basically just so beige that it is hard to believe we're on a fast train to hell.

And having just read an article on Web Design Trends for 2006 I am beginning to fear that the dangerous sparks of creativity which the web has always engendered will be snuffed out. Apparently, with the rise of blogs, wikis, xml extranets and so on, the trend is towards standardisation and the inevitable sameiness this brings.

Ah! ha! Well, standardisation is what we've all been asking for, and there's no doubt that in some ways it helps more and more people to produce content for the web without having to be html literate. But I just hope that it isn't too successful and I end up living in a world where me doing the ironing is the top rated tv show, and all I listen to is Norah Jones on a loop.

Maybe hell is closer than I thought........

The ghost of internet past

2006-02-08T23:02:00.000Z

Whilst working on the latest series of seminars for Netdata and HIE Moray I've been designing a quick 2 minute presentation to sum up the entire history of the web. Of course I made it doubly diffcult by going right back to the invention of the telephone. Well I had to start somewhere, and being as I live in Edinburgh, where better than with Alexander Graham Bell. But when he uttered the famous words "Mr Watson. Come here. I need you" in 1876, he obviously knew he had made a great invention, but just how great he couldn't have known.

Humans love to communicate and time after time any invention that involves communication (even one-way) becomes all pervasive. The postal system, morse code, the telegraph, telephone, radio, TV and the mobile phone have all had a huge effect in bridging the physical gap between one human and another.

But the internet was also born out of post-war paranoia and justified fear. Paranoia over mother Russia's space exploration and the justified fear of the atomic bomb. And from these negative emotions was born the idea of a communication system which had no hub, no centre point, no 'Achilles Heel' . A self-replicating network of nodes. Destroy one and another takes its place.Thus the internet slowly, amorphously developed and continues to sprout forth its digital tentacles into every aspect of our lives.

Parasitical? Viral? Maybe. But it is more a reflection of your own particular world vision .

I prefer to believe that it creates more than it degrades and that my Edinburgh born fellow citizen, Mr Bell, would have been chuffed indeed.

By the way, what did he need Watson for anyway?

World Wide Web Workshops

2006-01-31T23:01:00.000Z

Over the past few years at Netdata we have been aiding Highlands and Islands Enterprise in raising the profile of electronic commerce within the local business community. The benefits of e-business to such a diverse and sparsely populated part of the country are potentially huge and have already been embraced by a lot of companies.

Highland Innovation are just one example of this. They have gathered a name for themselves in recent times for inventions such as the hand-held breastchecker amongst many other things and have more recently been trading online to reach a far larger marketplace. This has seen them garner interest from all corners of the globe.

But with the gradual upsurge in usage and knowledge of the web, it is now time to re-assess the approach that businesses should take for the coming years.

With this is mind we are currently developing a series of seminars aimed at local business who want to move up the ladder of e-business. These seminars will reflect on Web v1.0 as well as progressing the users onto the latest advances and hopefully help them to broaden their scope and take advantage of Web v2.0.

The workshops will be taking place from April onwards....updates to follow.

AOL? Discussed? (disgust?)

2006-01-30T23:01:00.000Z

I don't think I've ever been a fan of AOL. This hasn't always been a rational dislike, though what they did with Netscape was inexcusable, and some of my dislike has simply come from a general Michael Moore-esque paranoia of large corporations. But, recently, I have grudgingly spent some of my precious man-hours on the AOL website.

The reason - advertising. Simple, apparently uncynical, well presented advertising.

The recent spate of AOL/discuss promotions has slowly seeped into my sub-conscious until I just could not resist its allure any more. It poses basic questions about the internet, information and ultimately about humans themselves.
The addition of comment from respected individuals from all backgrounds has given it kudos, and it generates healthy debate through a simplistic format.

But most of all, it made me think. Something which I like doing probably too often, but there are plenty of people around who could benefit from a bit more time in contemplation and discussion.

So what exactly did it make me think of/about? The basic abstract properties of the internet. Its nature and essence, and therefore our own.

I have long held a belief that technology (like art) only reflects us, it rarely changes us. For instance, PC's can tell you a lot about the individual that owns them. You install a basic framework like XP, and then use that to do your bidding. And after a few years of ownership, a computer provides a nice little snapshot of its owner. Whether you fill hard drive with mp3's, movies, games or pornography, all provides a glimpse into your thought processes. But it isn't the technology that does that, only yourself.

And the internet is the same. It only allows us to propogate a digital version of humanity, not to re-define it. It is in some senses, impossible to define the internet. In philisophical terms it exists, but in physical form it has no outline, no recognisable shape that makes it easier for humans to delineate, pigeon-hole. Ultimately it is whatever you want it to be, a friend, lover, workplace, opportunity, demon, or simply nothing at all.

But it is our choice, perhaps that's the point......if there is one.

The Emperor's New Clothes - "Sod the iPod"

2006-01-25T22:59:00.001Z

"Sod the iPod", I heard a friend say recently. This statement was greeted with 'Crusade'-style cries of 'heretic' from the immediate assembly, which I must admit I found somewhat embarassing because, in some senses, I have to agree.

Although the web and media are my own playgrounds and workplace, I do have to stop and check myself regularly. We've all been here before. 2000/2001 and the dot com crash came as no surprise to anyone with a modicum of perspective, and I myself welcomed it. Nihilism isn't always about destruction, it is actually about creating something better from the ruins.

So what my friend was saying was, what is so great about the iPod? It is after all only a hard drive with MP3 software installed. Pretty though it may be. It is not, as some appear to think, a magical cure for shallow lifestyles. It doesn't make you glamourous, it doesn't make you cool, and it definitely won't make you successful.

Now I understand peer pressure when you're a teenager, having committed most of the fashion mistakes of the 1980's I feel well qualified to comment. But the assembled group were all in their 30's, and although not always the case, each of them should have known better.

And of course I'm cursed with ageing, but I still think it appears to sum up the lack of depth and social engagement in modern life.

So I second that emotion.......if you'll excuse the poor musical reference, but my playlist is limited.

Spam and Your Control Panel

2006-01-25T22:59:00.000Z

At Netdata we get a lot of customers asking how to control the level of spam they receive, and there are many ways of doing this. The most effective ways are by utilising the control panel anti-spam features on your domain.

The newest version of Cpanel allows you to use two features: Spam Assassin and BoxTrapper Spam Trap. Both of which can be tweaked in many ways to deny unsolicited emails.

Spam Assassin uses algorithims to give any inbound email a score out of 10. And, depending on where you set your threshold, Spam Assassin will make sure that any email which scores lower than that threshold will be diverted to a spam box or even deleted.

So, for example, if you set your threshold at 10, you will probably still receive a fair amount of spam, but if you lower the threshold to 5, you will receive less. The trouble is balancing unsolicited email you don’t want (spam) against unsolicited emails you do want (new business enquiries).This is usually a matter of trial and error to find the right level for your business.

Visit the SpamAssassin website for more details or call Netdata for advice.

Disruption is Good

2006-01-25T22:57:00.000Z

Disruptive Technologies come in various guises, and it’s a term which has negative connotations when you first hear it. But, it appears to be a good thing, or at least a very popular thing. Digital photography is one example.

Althought the quality of digital cameras is inferior to traditional film based cameras, their popularity greatly outranks their more-mature counterparts.

And so it is with Skype, possibly the ultimate example of a ‘disruptive technology’, albeit in a slightly different way.Skype is a FREE piece of software which saves you money on phone calls. Simply download it onto your PC and use your PC to call another Skype user for FREE over your broadband connection. And you can also use Skype via your PC to call a normal landline at greatly reduced prices.

So there we have it, a FREE piece of software which saves you money, and has already made a fortune for its developers (having just sold it to Ebay for £1.4bn). Try taking a business plan like that to your own Bank Manager and see his reaction.

Its good to see that not everything that’s ‘too good to be true’, isn’t.

2006 - The Year the web grew up?

2006-01-24T23:55:00.000Z

With the start of a New Year comes a bold new confidence in the Internet and what it can do for all of us. Certainly 2005 had a number of interesting developments but it looks like this year will see a lot of change, and, as ever, a lot of hype.The buzzword is definitely "Web v2.0", but what does this mean? Well, because it is essentially a marketing phrase it remains difficult to completely pin it down but we're going to try anyway."Web v2.0" is a steady realisation that the interent is finally beginning to live up to some of its expectation. It is a mixture of converging technolgies and disruptive ones.The ubiquitous mobile phone is converging with Wi-Fi and Broadband to bring us high speed web access anywhere (given time). More and more services are being offered solely online, and proving to be effective. And pioneers like Google and Skype are proving to be a thorn in the side of many businesses by giving away state-of-the-art services for FREE. And yet they still make vast sums of money.Broadly speaking Web v2.0 is a way of summing up the fact that the internet has put to bed most of its bad memories of 2000/2001, and is finally showing signs of coming-of-age. With ever-increasing usage and decreasing prices of broadband, greater education and a general knowledge of how the web works filtering into the collective sub-conscious, it may finally be deserving of some of its hype.So 2006 will be an interesting year and if you're not on the bandwagon yet, I think it is probably time you hitched up.