Introducing Alice - Rocktime Receptionist

Alice Cheetham started at Rocktime in September to cover Kaylee’s Maternity leave, in general practice with new recruits, we ask them a series of random questions and we share the answers with you.

Find out what the above picture relates to below.

+ What is your current job at Rocktime?: Receptionist/Admin

+ What does being a Receptionist/Admin involve?: I act as the first point of contact for clients, I also cover the phones, filing, mail and keeping supplies stocked up, upload Rocktime blog posts and do a whole range of odd jobs here and there whenever needed.

+ What is on your mouse pad?: It’s a Microsoft Advertising one! I have a feeling it may have come from you guys upstairs somehow!

Yes you can thank Flashlight.

+ Were you named after anyone?: My parents jokingly told me once I was named after Alice from the Archers on BBC Radio 4. What a great way to mentally scar a young child.

Will that be Alice Carter? Described on the site’s Who’s Who as a "thinking young woman” believe that describes you well.

+ What book are you reading?: Nothing at the moment! But I was reading through Air Pilot’s Manual Volume 1 – Flying Training by Trevor Thom earlier in the month whilst swatting up for an interview.

So guess your favourate movie is ‘Airplane’ then, shame your name isn’t Clarence: “We have clearance, Clarence. Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?”
You can listen to the original cockpit conversation here.

+ What was the last CD you bought or downloaded!? Disappear Here by Hybrid

Ok, it is confirmed, you are much cooler than the Flashlight team, who have never heard of Hybrid. Andy Clarke (Tech manager) thinks this is quite shameful, as we have (just) found out he is a big Hybrid fan. To follow the trend we checked Hybrid out and they do sound very interesting indeed. BBC Music referred to Hybrid as the “Underground Mavericks” and say “this a record that will easily appeal to lovers of Starkey’s hook-up with Brighton vocalist Anneka and Bonobo’s collaborations with Andreya Triana; but it should also be investigated by fans of the electro-pop of Roísín Murphy, Pendulum’s crossover cacophonies, and Groove Armada’s more interesting turns”

+ If you had your own boat what would you call it?: The HMS Rubber Ducky

Brilliant!!

+ What is your favourite sport? : Mountain biking, since that’s pretty much all the sports I do lately, oops.

+ Are you any good at crabbing? : Haven’t done it before, but I do love poking around in rock pools at the beach!

+ What is your favourite kitchen item? : The humble fork, most useful of all kitchen items.

+ If you were a crayon what colour would you be? : A nice shade of green

+ Which do you prefer sushi or a hamburger? : Sushi, if I don’t have to pay for it anyway....

+ What do you do most often when boredom strikes? : Go out for a walk with my dog, find a friend to pester or play around on Xbox live.

We know you have thrashed all the boys in Tech on “Rocktime Call of Duty Hour” are you sure you haven’t been swatting up on CoD too?

+ If you could go on holiday to anywhere in the world where would it be?: Galapagos Islands, that’s my nerdy zoology side talking.

Giant Tortoises –great choice!

+ Do you have a special talent?: I am a fountain of useless knowledge, probably super useful for a pub quiz I bet.

Did you know that less than 5hrs ago it was reported here that “Harvard researchers have confirmed speculations made 65 years ago by author Vladimir Nabokov regarding the evolution of Polyommatus blue butterflies”.

Pub anyone?

Image sourced with thanks from The Crimson article "Nabokov's Butterfly Theories confirmed".

Introducing Foursquare for Business

Early this month Foursquare announced the revamped Foursquare for Business pages, complete with tools for merchants, venues and brands. We have been very excited about this development and thought it was about time to share the news with you guys.

We wrote about Foursquare back in June 2010: with the post 5 reasons hotels should be using the Geo location based portal. As a recap FourSquare allows you to virtual check-in to your location via your mobile phone (GPS), you can share reviews and tips with your FourSquare community, you can earn points, collect badges and discover new things and with your social network community at large. View the video here:

Now you have had time to digest the concept of Foursquare, back to the New Business Pages.

The objective of the pages is to help businesses owners attract new customers and maintain brand loyalty. There are two types of brand pages those for brands which have a physical location and those that are not tied to a physical location such as university, manufacturer.
For those brands not tied to a physical location, here are the instructions for setting up a brand page on Foursquare: http://foursquare.com/business/brands

Currently Foursquare are making the brand pages manually at the request of partners, so if interested they invite you to download a form. News in the self service tool will be available to all very soon.

After your brand page is set up you can start leaving tips for your followers, a few examples from Foursquare are listed below:

The New York Times guided their foursquare followers to the best spots to visit while in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Windows Live Photo Gallery helped their followers locate the best spots in their cities to take photos.

Havaianas directed their followers to the best local spots to watch World Cup games, where they shared soccer trivia and gave away free flip-flops.

TravelOK.com helps their users unlock Oklahoma’s best-kept secrets, find discounts and discover hidden attractions throughout the state.

We (Flashlight Team) are increasingly being invited to create geo targeted campaigns for our clients. If you are interested in Geo location services or after viewing the above links perhaps you simply want to find out more about Foursquare and how it applies to your business then please get in touch with Rocktime Sales.


Author: Sarah Griffiths

Martin shares his thoughts on mCommerce

This year one of our New Year Resolutions is to share with you more content about our personal experiences with online technologies. Martin Bradbury, Business Development at Rocktime is kick starting us off, as he talks about his experience and thoughts on mCommerce, enjoy.


My thoughts on mCommerce

I recently purchased an Android Powered smart phone, and I find myself very amenable to buying apps through the Android Market. The process of actually spending real money through my mobile feels uncannily natural and very easy, leaving me safe that I can trust Google Checkout with my hard earned cash.

So now I can browse through Android Market, find an app or a game worth buying (ok, that's sometimes a struggle!), click click and I've bought it and a minute or so afterwards, it's installed on my phone and ready for me to enjoy. So there you go, Google Checkout has my credit card details and I'm happy for them to have it. So where is this all going?

I'm mentioning this because it's got me thinking about how much mobile app's have done for mCommerce. It's not just Google Checkout or the Apples App store that has got us spending money on our mobiles. Many of the high street retailers such as Marks & Spencer and John Lewis have mobile versions of their websites that not only allow you to browse, but also order online from your mobile phone. So now you really can choose your next pair of golf socks while relaxing in the bath or if like me you have a penchant for neck ties, why not order a couple of Patrick McMurrays while waiting for the bus to turn up.

You may be thinking that these sites are just marketing fluff and should not be taken too seriously. Well you would be very wrong, they now form an integral part of many retailers revenues streams.

In fact one of the Directors at online fashion retailer ASOS recently tweeted that the company had taken in £73,000 in one day from its mobile site alone... no small apples then.

So is it feasible for SME's to develop mobile enabled sites or apps to create this additional revenue stream? Yes of course! Because of the their size, mobile sites are far cheaper and simpler to develop than traditional site and are not only good for extra income, they can add an element of coolness to your business and also allow you to break into new markets and engage with new audiences.

Here at Rocktime we love mobile tech, and we are really excited about the pace in which mCommerce is becoming part of everyday life.

Developing stand alone mobile sites is something our tech guys have been doing for some time now and they will happily talk to you about it until the cows come home. So if you fancy a cuppa (or two) and a chat about mobile commerce or mobile apps then give me a call. Alternatively, browse to the Rocktime mobile site on your own mobile device (it's really easy and quick), just open your mobile browser and tap in m.rocktime.co.uk.


Author: Martin Bradbury

Top 10 Mobile Marketing New Year Resolutions

The Flashlight Seach Marketing Team at Rocktime would like to share with you their top ten mobile marketing resolutions for the New Year. Need any help setting up yours?

Then feel free to get in touch with Rocktime Sales to arrange a meeting.

Rocktime's top ten mobile marketing resolutions

1. Educate others to think of mobile marketing as a strategy
2. Assist others to understand more about how their website will look on mobile devices
3. Understand more about who uses what devices
4. Educate others on how they need to integrate analytics to their mobile apps,
don't just track downloads
5. Embrace the 'KISS' principle when designing mobile apps and mobile sites
6. Keep abreast of the mobile marketing statistics & trends including QR code technologies
7. Review the ROI of our own mobile campaigns and pass on learning to others
8. Establish our expertise by asking questions
9. Increase relevant visitor traffic to our mobile app and mobile site pages
10. Set some big goals and analyse the metrics to increase sales & leads

Why not head over to Mashable to take part in their poll to find out 'how others plan to change their life this year in the world of gadgetry and technology': Tech-Related Resolutions Poll at Mashable.



Author: Sarah Griffiths

Top SEO / SEM New Year Resolutions

The Flashlight Search Marketing Team at Rocktime would like to share with you their top ten search engine optimisation resolutions for the New Year. Need any help setting up yours?

Then feel free to get in touch with Rocktime Sales to arrange a meeting

Rocktime's top ten SEO / SEM resolutions

1. Review keyword density on our product pages
2. Reoptimise our page titles and descriptions
   
3. Consider what we are not talking about on our website in line with 2011 trends
   
4. Continue to explore new ways to connect with our prospects online
   
5. Revisit our internal linking strategies on our website
   
6. Shout more about out blog posts on social networks
   
7. Establish Local SEO targets & give focus to geo location targeting
   
8. Create compelling content people will want to share
   
9. Create new accounts in line with Social Media Strategy
   
10. Set some big goals and analyse the metrics to increase sales & leads

Why not head over to Mashable to take part in their pole to find out 'how others plan to change their life this year in the world of gadgetry and technology': Tech-Related Resolutions Poll at Mashable.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Top 10 Social Media New Year's Resolutions

The Flashlight Search Marketing Team at Rocktime would like to share with you their top ten social media resolutions for the New Year. Need any help setting up yours?

Then feel free to get in touch with Rocktime Sales to arrange a meeting.

Rocktime's top ten social media resolutions

1. Share more about what we are learning in house
   
2. Engage more online & offline with our partners
   
3. Create better content for the benefit of others
   
4. Create a social media landing page from Twitter
   
5. Add more prominent calls to action to our website
   
6. Continue to explore new ways to connect with our prospects and increase our relevant visitor traffic
   
7. Publish no less than one blog post a week and guest blog for our partners no less than once a quarter
   
8. Establish our expertise by asking questions
   
9. Engage, engage, engage
   
10. Set some big goals and analyse the metrics to increase sales & leads
    

Why not head over to Mashable to take part in their poll to find out 'how others plan to change their life this year in the world of gadgetry and technology': Tech-Related Resolutions Poll at Mashable.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

SEM New Year Resolutions for 2011

This week the Flashlight Team will be sharing with you their Search Marketing (SEM) New Year's Resolutions for 2011, focused on SEO, PPC, Social Media and Mobile Marketing.

Sarah (@sarahgriffiths), 'Head of Search' at Rocktime says:

"We are very excited about our 2011 plans and throughout January will be setting some large ROI targets to grow the Flashlight division further, a large focus for our team this year is Local SEO/SEM and Mobile Marketing strategies".

The Flashlight Team hope you can steal some ideas from their 'Search Marketing New Year Resolutions' and would like to mention: where you don't have the resource in house, why not contact them to see how their online marketing expertise can fit in with your business.

New Year Resolution blog posts focused on Search Marketing, Social Media and Mobile Marketing will be delivered to you Wednesday to Friday this week.

In the meantime the Flashlight team would like to recommend that you visit this article over at Mashable, where they have listed 10 websites to watch in 2011, worth a look to gleam some inspiration for your own website development plans.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our blog readers a prosperous New Year.


Author: Alice Cheetham

Geek Video of the month

This month’s Geek Video chosen by Dan (Rocktime: Web Developer). Dan wishes to send Geek Cred to the Lego Antikythera Mechanism.

The machine, modelled after the ancient Greek original, can calculate the date and time of the solar and lunar eclipse over a hundred year period – and guess what it is made of LEGO.

The guy who built this amazingly geeky machine is Andrew Carol, who has passion for mechanical devices and Lego, so he put his two hobbies together and built a working version of the Antikythera Mechanism.

If you want to find out more about Andrew’s work and the theory behind this magnificent piece of Lego Engineering check out his web page here.

Author: Alice Cheetham