Short Introduction to Google Adwords Quality Score

 

What is Google's quality score ?

At a very basic level: Google's quality score is a Paid Search / Adwords algorithm (rule) which provides an estimate of how relevant the keywords are to the ads, adgroup, campaign and the landing page.  1 is the lowest score and 10 the highest.

Improving your quality score

We work with our clients to improve their 'quality score', by reviewing integration between the below:

• Keywords
• Ad text
• Destination URL
• Landing page 

Understanding quality score

There is some debate as to how much the landing page affects Google's quality score, with many (who have run tests) saying it is a small % of the score.   Researchers have found that rarely will you see a Quality Score of above 3 if your landing page is not relevant.

Useful link to Adwords help to help you check and understand quality score.
What we are certain of is:

• If the most appropriate landing page (relevant to keyword searched) is served then set conversions will increase
• CTR and Keyword relevancy and Adgroups are closely related
• Adverts need to relate to the keywords
• Quality Scores are determined at the keywords, ad text and campaign levels

Benefits of achieving a high quality score

Having a high Quality Score within your Adwords account can lead to:

• Lower costs (CPC)
• Better ad positions
• You can also outrank competitors that have relative CTR and a higher CPC than you

How is your score working right now?

We work with our clients to improve their Google Adwords Quality Score and increase their return on advert spend (ROAS).   If you believe your Google Adwords account could benefit from a third party review, please feel free to get in touch with our sales team.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Geek Video of the Month

The Independent ran an article on the 21st August 2013 asking the question:  Is Google’s Chromecast the future of television?  With the author stating that he believes the £30 dongle / USB device will transform the way you watch your favourite shows.  

Sounds pretty exciting? And this is precisely the reason why the Google’s Chromecast teaser advert / video has won Geek Video of the Month for September.

Find out more about the Digital media streaming adapter developed by Google here:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromecast/

The video, shows a number of situations where you may need the USB attachement, highlighting the main USPs as computer to TV mirroring, streaming YouTube, Netflixs and other sites to your TV.

Google's Chromecast is expecting to hit the shops before Christmas?  Will it be on your Christmas list?

Personally I will be sticking with our Apple TV as this plays videos from many more services than those found on Chromecast.  An additional negative of Chromecast is that it only lets you mirror what is on your PC from Chrome tabs to the TV, also mirroring is not available from a mobile device.   

Alas if we didn’t already have Apple TV, Chromecast would be a must have, as it is a steal at £30! 

It will be interesting to hear more about the devices popularity in the coming months.  

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Team Event: Paintball Warriors

This month’s team event was organised by Martin (Business Development) and Craig (Quality Assurance).   The team were invited to a Paintball Warriors Paintballing afternoon in Wimborne. 

Paintball Warriors in Dorset state on their website in their About Us section that they “offer the very latest innovation in cutting edge paintball technology”.  As we offer the "very latest innovation in website technology" then, we already had great synergy before we even arrived.

We would like to send a big thumbs up to the staff at Paintball Warriors who were extremely helpful and focused on making sure everyone had a great time. We would recommend them to anyone thinking organising a Dorset Paintballing event.

Krishna from Rocktime’s Business Development team was our roving reporter on the day and has provided us a selection of observations on skills spotted. Overall everyone participated well throughout the tournaments and a great time was had. 

Krishna’s top observations on Rocktime players:

 

Safe Player: Craig – he managed to not get even one hit in the whole tournament as he was very careful throughout and used clever tactics to keep away from enemy firing line!

Courage – Kieran Bell – I must say, Kieran Bell at times got in the firing line and got hits but never gave up till the last tournament and kept fighting.  Really impressed with his not give up attitude!

Skillful – Kieron Matthews – he was quick and also rallied team players at times and somehow his team won 3 of 2 battles (cheats! Lol).

Accuracy – Mark – he was focussed and many of his shots were on target.  Though, at times he shot the opponents but few of them denied walking away from the match.

Entertaining – Martin – he made the event interesting and exciting and also was the one to throw grenades etc. and giving a realistic battle ground feel!. Sadly at times, also took consecutive hits on same spot on his hand but was energetic throughout the tournament.

Author: Sarah Griffiths and Krishna Rayalu

Geek Video of the Month

Last week (August 4th of 10th) was the first annual Geek Week on YouTube. So if you are a geek or a wannabe nerd, head on over to view geek culture from around the world.

The Agenda for the Geek Week was as follows:

• Blockbuster Sunday 

• Global Geekery Monday

• Brianiac Tuesday

• Super  Wednesday

• Gaming Thursday

• Fan Friday

• Best of Saturday

This month’s ‘Geek video of the Month’ was part of Geek Week’s Brianiac Tuesday and features 10 Videos that will make you smarter. Excellent work.

You may also want to get involved with the Geek Test that is featured on their channel, to find out ‘What’s your Geek IQ?”.

We are really looking forward to the next Geek channel takeover, hopefully for a month next time, as their is clearly too much Geeky content being shared.

Well done to Jason Bradbury (of Gadget show fame) for launching his own YouTube Channel 'Supa Robot Attack' on Gaming Thursday, the channel brings remote controlled fighting robots to YouTube.
Sounds fun!

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Team Event: Go Ape Tree Top Adventure

A great afternoon was had at Moors Valley Country Park, where the team experienced the outdoor ‘Go Ape Tree Top Adventure’.   We chose a great day for it, the temperature was ranging at about 18 degrees, which was ideal for the amount of physical activity that was required.  It was an awesome group activity, with team members giving each other encouragement to take the difficult crossings. Lots of giggles and some great photos have been shared.

• Krishna (New Business) battled through a recent cricket injury with a smile on his face when climbing up the many ladders.
• David (Web Development) progressed with gusto through the 1000 metres of high rope crossings, giving those who needed it confidence to progress further.
• Fiona (Search Marketing) showed no fear on all the activities, coming down the Zipwire like an elegant fairy.
• Kieran (Design) showed adventure with a head first landing into the wood chip from the last big Zipwire.
• Farah (Project Management) went for the difficult crossings on the swinging rope bridges and got so involved in completing the course managed to rip her trousers.
• Alex (Director) took the first jump on the free fall drop Tarzan swing, with much force. Think he was trying to impress his two lovely boys who were watching on the forest floor below us.

We would highly recommend this activity to other companies as a great team bonding event. We will definitely be booking again. Lots of smiles and lots of fun.

Thanks to David and Alex for organising the event. This month's team event: ‘Paint Balling’!

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Top Ten Tips for LinkedIn for Business

We are regularly asked for our top tips for engaging on social networks. Sharing with you this month, our top ten tips for engaging and optimising on LinkedIn, including updates and optimisations on Company Pages and personal LinkedIn accounts.

Feel free to share your LinkedIn tips in the comments section below.

Top Ten Tips for LinkedIn for Business

1. Know who, what and why you are looking to connect on LinkedIn. Define your goals. Listen and search.

2. Edit the description of your Company Page. Add keywords within speciality section. Choose the most appropriate industry. Optimise on the products and services pages. 

3. Create a professional headline and a summary about you and your experience on your personal account.

4. Select an appropriate networking approach. Send a personal message when reaching out and connecting. 

5. Develop a campaign on the Company Page to create community dialogue. 

6. Get involved with communities / Engage in group discussions and news. 

7. Add interesting and useful content to your Company Page, the type of content that would receive recommendations, likes, comments.

8. Follow influencers and news channels, so that stories you are interested in appear in your 'Home page' feed. 

9. Stay up to date with changes within the LinkedIn network.

10. Cross promote other social channels from your LinkedIn Company Page and personal profile page.  

You may also be interested in reading our Top Ten Twitter Tips for Business and Pleasure.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Geek Video of the Month

This month’s 'Geek Video of the Month', shares ‘10 amazing science stunts from the psychologist, author and performer that is Richard Wiseman. View his website for a 30 second introduction slide show on him here: www.RichardWiseman.com

We sourced the video from Richard’s YouTube channel ‘Quirkology’, which has nearly 800K subscribers. Well done team Wiseman!

Some of these science stunts featured on this video you will remember from school, others were totally new to us. So if you do have a need to impress your friends, class mates or neighbours, this Summer, with impressive science stunts, then Richard’s Quirkology YouTube channel is a must watch.

Enjoy ;) 


We would love to know if you are thinking of trying out any of these interactive experiments. Feel free to comment below.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Top Ten Twitter Tips for Business and Pleasure

We are regularly asked for our top tips for engaging on social networks.   Sharing with you this month, our top ten tips for engaging and optimising on Twitter.   Feel free to share your Twitter tips in the comments section below.

Sharing our Top Ten Twitter Tips for Business and Pleasure


1. Know who, what and why you are looking to connect on Twitter.  Define your goals. Listen and search.


2. Be responsive to those who contact you on Twitter and look to connect with new people every day.  


3. Use Twitter lists to organise influencers. Understand Twitter Etiquette. Try not to be too salesy and watch out for spammers. 


4. Talk about what interests you, share articles on topics that interest you.  Share thoughts, tips, resources that will help your target connections.


5. Use hash-tags to help others find topics you are interested in.


6. Build relationships, respond to tweets, add value to the stream.


7. To maximise on re-tweets, keep tweet length to 70-100 so to leave space for RT @username and comment.


8. Treat others here as you would at a networking event. Engage your followers and speak to them.  It’s just as important online as offline to be authentic, fun, creative and where possible, inspire others with your words and action.


9. Stay up to date with changes to Twitter.


10. Cross Promote other social channels from your Twitter account.

You may also be interested in our Top Ten Tips for LinkedIn for Business.


Author: Sarah Griffiths

Team Event: Exhilarating Experience

As part of our monthly team events, Farah and I arranged for the team to experience a RIB Speed Boat Ride along the Jurassic Coast which is located just a 5 minute walk from our Head Office.

We are very lucky indeed to be working so close to the coastline, alas all of us are guilty for not making the most of it.
The RIB ride was arranged with Poole Sea Safari, who has received some fabulous 5 star visitor rating reviews on their Trip Advisor account.  It was great to see that Poole Sea Safari were responding to the positive comments on Trip Advisor too. Great online customer engagement, we like it! The comments they had received on TripAdvisor was the main reason for booking this trip, it gave us confidence that everyone was going to have a great time.

The team spent a lovely afternoon together on their 90 minute coastline tour, learning about the local wildlife, geology and the history of the coastline.  Along with the interesting commentary, the team also learnt what ‘donuts’ are in skipper terms, and that “iPhone 5’s” are water proof!

The passengers enjoyed every minute and were buzzing with compliments after the trip.

The ride started off sedately out of the shallow harbour but soon got up to an exhilarating speed. The views offer an amazingly different perspective, being so ‘up close’ to the geological folds and layers of the rock formations and cliffs from The Triassic to Cretaceous Eras. Another highlight was cutting the engine and floating into a cave of nesting guillemots and puffins. It is easy to see why the Jurassic Coast is England's first natural World Heritage Site. It was a ‘naturally’ great shared experience and a good laugh!

Further compliments included: A Rib-Tastic afternoon, exhilarating experience, highly recommended and one to remember.

Last month's team event included a Pool Competition and prizes were awarded for not just the winners, but those who provided support and encouragement.

This month Alex and David are planning the team event.  Should be interesting!

Author: Sarah Griffiths and Farah Khan

Geek Video of the Month

Sharing with you a topical Geek Video, topical as relates to Wimbledon and ties in with our most popular blog subject Google.

For the past two weeks the American Pro tennis player Bethanie Mattek-Sands (AKA: Bee), often referred to as the Lady Gaga of Tennis thanks to her non traditional outfits on an off court, has been part of a select Google Explorer group of about 1K people who are testing Google Glass in the products pre-release format. To keep up to date with the project, follow Project Glass on Google+ or view some of their Google Glass introduction videos over at their YouTube Channel.

In summary 'Google Glass' or 'Google Glasses' is a voice activated device designed to be worn as a pair of spectacles. It can be used for activities you would normally use your phone for, for example: take pictures, reply to emails, check diary, view sat nav directions...

This video is a good example on how you can use Google Glass in your daily life.  Bee reports in the video: 

"Glass helps me stay organised, so I can stay focused on my tennis and what I need to do"

Personally I love the part in the video, when she is packing her bag and she has her packing list, right there in her eye line. Brilliant ! I would find this feature so useful when wrapping presents at Christmas time.

I Google so much, Glasses would be ideal for me, to find out about the things around me.

Bee will be reporting back to Google's Explorer team soon, giving her thoughts on usability and what things could be improved upon.   

So are you excited?  Can you see yourself embracing Google Glasses in the coming years? 

I certainly can. So Google if you are reading this, the answer is yes, I would love to be part of your #glassexplorers team, send me a pair!

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Geek Video of the Month

This month's Geek Video was sourced by Fiona Anderson, from the Flashlight Search Marketing team.

The 37 second video promotes a 'pro-type' smartphone which changes shape dependent on whether it receives a text, email or phone call.  The idea is that the flexible smart phone technology will provide visual cues as to what type of communication you are to engage with.  The 'brains' behind this are researchers at Queens University Human Media Lab in Canada.

Despite all the work that must have gone into developing this prototype, the flexible smartphone reminds us of those 'little red palm reading fish' (named 'Fortune Teller, Miracle Fish') that you receive in cheap party bags. If it curls up you are happy, lies flat bored, raised edges in love etc.  The fish are a novelty and we believe the above is too.

What do you think?   Can you envisage this technology being used elsewhere in the home or office?

Personally, rather than changing shape to tell me whether I am to receive a call, text, email etc, I would be more interested in the smartphone if it was able to jump out of my handbag  (or where ever I put it down!) and walk, or roll over to me, or even better, fly. (Harry Potter Talking Letters AKA Howlers!).

Now that would be smartphone progression!

Author: Sarah Griffiths (Sourced by: Fiona Anderson)

Optimising for YouTube

We recently found a fantastic resource on YouTube to help people and brands ensure that their videos reach the widest possible audience.  And we just had to share it with you.

The useful content provides a comprehensive overview on YouTube video optimisation and discusses the importance of meta data and thumbnail optimisation.  The resource also provides additional advice on adding annotations, channel optimisation, how to maintain the channel feed and using YouTube analytics.

We are really impressed with the content. Hope you are too.  Please visit the YouTube optimisation guide here.

If you don't have time to digest the content straight away, but wish to launch/host videos onto a channel such as YouTube, then we have shared our "must do lists" for video optimisation below:

Video SEO Optimisation

• Add meta data information while uploading - title and description for your videos.
• Add links to your website
• Create a video sitemap and upload the video sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools

Video Sitemap Requirements (Google)

• Title: This should be the same as the title of the page your video appears
• Description: Make this exactly match the meta description of your page
• Play Page URL:  The canonical URL of the page your video appears
• Thumbnail URL: By thumbnail they mean a high resolution image up to 1920x 1080
• Raw video location/URL: This URL is found in the embed src link you find when you go to share a video and click embed.

If you require further assistance with optimising one of your video channels to increase traffic and customer engagement, then please do get in touch.

Author: Aysegul Yigitbasi and Sarah Griffiths

Introduction to Adwords Enhanced Campaigns

Early in February this year, Search Engine Land shared their thoughts on the news of the latest Google Adwords update, titled: 'The Big Adwords Update: Enhanced Campaigns Puts the Focus on Mobile'.

The February 2013 Adwords update has been designed to simplify PPC campaign management across many devices, and seeks to increase the use of mobile advertising. Paid search managers are able to set different bids and show different ads based on a user's device type, location and time of day, all within one campaign.

Google have remained progressive with their Enhanced campaigns and on April 22nd Google let their advertisers know that all enhanced campaigns will now include social annotations when they can improve ad performance, (without additional edits to the campaign).  In order to receive this feature your Google+ page must have a significant number of followers and be linked to the website that matches the URL of your search ads. You can learn more about this particular feature here and the launch of a way for advertisers to reach app users; with 'ads in apps'.

Following the recent advancements, Google reported that since launch of the enhanced campaigns:

"advertisers have already upgraded over 1.5 million campaigns and have shared many success stories"

As enhanced campaigns reduce the overall number of campaigns you need to create (as you no longer need to create separate campaigns for each target devise type or location), this will save time and generate a better return on ad spend (ROAS).

We are welcoming the increased ROAS, the time saving, the more comprehensive reporting, the simplified budgeting and dynamic delivery to show the right ads to the right person at the right time. A great move by Google product teams and a very useful feature. Naturally, some transitional concerns may arise from sites, for example, some e-commerce sites, where mobile doesn't traditionally convert as well as desktop.

Some of the main features of enhanced campaigns include:

• Powerful advertising tools for the multi-devise world: Ability to manage your bids across devises, locations and time. 

• Smarter ads optimised for varying user contexts: Ability to show the right creative, sitelink, app, social annotations (where suitable) or extension based on the context of your prospective customers and the devise they are using.

• Advanced reports to track and measure new conversion types: such as Phone Calls over 60 Seconds Counted as Conversions, digital downloads, and conversions across devises.

Benefits to Businesses

To help explain further about how your business can benefit from Google AdWords enhanced campaigns, the Adwords blog post on the February 2013 update, gave the below three examples:

"A breakfast cafe wants to reach people nearby searching for "coffee" or "breakfast" on a smartphone. Using bid adjustments, with three simple entries, they can bid 25% higher for people searching a half-mile away, 20% lower for searches after 11am, and 50% higher for searches on smartphones. These bid adjustments can apply to all ads and all keywords in one single campaign"

"A national retailer with both physical locations and a website can show ads with click-to-call and location extensions for people searching on their smartphones, while showing an ad for their e-commerce website to people searching on a PC — all within a single campaign"

"You can count phone calls of 60 seconds or longer that result from a click-to-call ad as a conversion in your AdWords reports, and compare them to other conversions like leads, sales and downloads"

Learn more about enhanced campaigns

To understand more about how you can reach customers, at the moments that matter, across devises with more relevant ads, please visit the Google Enhanced Campaign landing page or watch the above video.

Google plans to update all Adwords PPC campaigns to enhanced by June, this year.

Should you have any further queries on launching paid search campaigns, please do get in touch and contact our sales team to discuss your requirements further.

Author: Fiona Anderson and Sarah Griffiths

Geek Video of the Month

Our Geek Video of the month was sourced from the Bit Rebels' blog (top blog for Geek News, Tips and Trends) who profiled the JWT Intelligence 'Our 10 trends for 2013 in 2 minutes' video, which researched lifestyle trends for 2013. Read the Bit Rebels take on the video here.

The video is only 2 minutes long and features some great content on the lifestyle of 'digital natives'; a lifestyle we may all soon be living.  The purpose of the video is to profile the JWT Intelligence's 171 page corresponding report, which is available to purchase.

Find out more about JWT Intelligence, the New York based HQ, Marketing Communications brand and their methodology for retrieving all the data over at their website.

The research is relevant to a UK audience, as the survey included 519 Americans and 497 from the UK.

We are especially interested in this video as several of the featured trends for 2013 link with the work we are conducting for our clients; such as database developments, personalisation, connectivity from objects to brands and peer power / social media strategies.

The 10 Trends for 2013 include: 

1. Play as a competitive advantage
2. The Super Stress Era
3. Intelligent Objects
4. Predictive Personalisation
5. The Mobile Fingerprint
6. Sensory Explosion
7. Everything is Retail
8. Peer Power
9. Going Private in Public
10. Health and Happiness Hand in Hand.

If we can help you get ready for the 2013 online digital lifestyle trends, then we would love to talk to you further. Call our Sales team on 01202 678777 or visit our contact us page.

We hope you all enjoy your Sensory Explosion this year and here's wishing you a happy on the move shopping trip.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Acquiring Fans on Facebook

Research from Efficient Frontier (Jan 2012) found that on average, brands are acquiring fans at a rate of 9% per month.

Are your fans/likes growing at this pace?

If you regularly post updates but get little feedback from fans, it may be because you are talking rather than conversing. Because, people don't go out and "like" random pages for businesses that they haven't already used, or plan to use.

Customer Engagement is key

Facebook isn't just about broadcasting your news; it's about customer engagement and via the sharing of interesting content, enhancing your brand awareness to the friends of your Facebook page fans.  The above image is from the Mothercare UK Facebook page, who regularly post 'Facebook Exclusive' offers, giving their customers a reason to 'like' them and stick around.

To increase engagement on your own business Fan page, consider who your customers are and how your customers want to engage on Facebook (i.e. helping shape the brand, contests, visual experience, events and incentives for sharing).  Secondly, consider what they search for on Facebook, where else are they active, take a look at the other related pages where your target market are regularly commenting, what is a hot topic?

Who are your customers?

Along with viewing popular conversations/engagement, questioning what your fans want from your page and considering who your fans are/will be, will help you develop engaging content.

For example, for hotels, guests' needs will differ from those interested in family breaks to business trips; fun breaks to activity bases; somewhere quiet to a lively restaurant; local attractions to events at the hotel.

Use Facebook to seek out and engage with local news stories and regular events where there may be a potential for a tie-in with your page. For example, hotels could offer group rates to an event or conference organiser and invite the organiser to tag the hotel page when mentioning the discount for the event to attendees/delegates.

Goals and expectations

When tasked with the objective to 'enhance your Facebook page acquisition rate', two good places to start are establishing goals for your Facebook page and considering why your target audience would like your page / what are they expecting?

As a means of example, we have listed below ten goals for a Hotel Facebook page and ten reasons why a fan may want to join a Hotel Facebook page.

Ten goals for a Hotel Facebook page

1. Extend marketing campaigns
2. Community engagement (attract fans of your friends) / be a story teller.
3. Generate extra web traffic
4. Boost brand awareness and increase brand loyalty
5. Support customers and receive instant feedback
6. Increase bookings to accommodation
7. Increase bookings to events
8. Increase bookings to conference and meeting rooms
9. Keep up with the competition
10. Obtain further insight into customer base (using Facebook insights)

Ten expectations / reasons why a customer may 'like' a Hotel Facebook page

1. They are passionate about their location (images)
2. They let me know about events happening in the area
3. They like to share with me the special Facebook promotions
4. They inspire me to get creative in the kitchen
5. They are eager to know how the hotel can make our stay even more comfortable
6. Should I post a recommendation on the page, my Facebook friends will see this
7. They keep me up to date on those who supply the hotel
8. They are helpful and generally care that I have had a pleasant stay
9. They share their latest reviews from customers and citation websites (i.e. Trip Advisor)
10. They make me feel part of their story

We hope you can relate these goals and reasons to your own business and that it will enable you to think more strategically about growing your Facebook page popularity.

Should you require assistance for social media strategy and growth, please visit our Social Media Strategy page or contact our Sales team today to discuss your requirements.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Geek Video of the Month

Jack (year 10 student) joined Rocktime last week on a two week work experience placement. He has mostly been working with the web developers as this is a career he is considering pursuing.

Rocktime's Search Marketing team tasked Jack with a quest to find this month's 'Geek Video of the Month'. Jack had to source three potential Geek videos and one would be chosen for this month's Geek Video of the Month. And here it is!

We are pleased to announce that Jack has been very successful. He interpreted the brief well, did some good research and was able to provide creative ideas. Jack's choice of Geek video is certainly worthy of being voted 'Geek Video of the Month'. It is truly awesome!

The Geek video was created by Microsoft in 2011 titled, "Productivity Future Vision" it has been very popular with over 4m views. The video looks at what technology will be like in 5 to 10 years time, focusing on how people will get things done at work, home and on the go. The video is six minutes long, but well worth the watch. Our favourite part is the on the go interactive smart phone booking of a charity concert.

As with all visionary projections it can stir up controversial comments but we think it is a good way to demonstrate how so many of the science and technology features in the video are already coming to life just 2 years later.

To find out more about the video we found a related article over at Computer World, titled:
"Why Microsoft's vision of the future will really happen".

Other videos sourced by Jack include:

A very recent (3 weeks) ago news of a Transparent Mobile Phone prototype developed in Taiwan and a trailer of the World's first and only 3D drawing pen the '3Doodler'. The video outlines how the 3D drawing technology works and sectors that may be interested in using the tool.

Potentially Jack may win Geek video of the month for April too.

Thanks so much Jack for providing such great content, it has been great working with you. If you continue with the blog you created, please do let us know about it over on Twitter @RocktimeSocial.

Author: Sarah Griffiths & Jack Williams

Geek Video of the Month

As we like to give focus on the blog to rising trends, this month's Geek Video of the Month, comes via the Hybris Software YouTube channel, titled "Shopping Gets Sexy with Hybris" the video includes technology such as in-store NFC tags, gesture-based product navigation and geo-fenced alerts.  The video highlights that "window-shopping" need not be a low margin activity and shows how window shoppers can socially engage with a product, even when the shop is closed.

For more information on NFC tags, read our latest blog titled is; NFC the next big thing?

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Is NFC the next big thing

NFC stands for “Near Field Communication”,  it is a set of standards for (NFC enabled) smart-phones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity.   It is known in the mobile market, predominantly for mobile payments. 

NFC technology is not new and the first NFC enabled phone was released back in 2006, since 2011 we are seeing more and more reports on the opportunities available of using NFC in marketing campaigns.  

The above image is from a 2011 campaign run via Nokia with Proxama (NFC and Mobile Commerce Specialist) in Vox Cinemas.  Details of the campaigns were widely reported; The Drum online magazine covered the campaign here.  We feel that this ‘mobile content delivery’ is less clunky than the traditional QR Codes for engaging with offline information. How Stuff Works: What is an NFC Tag?

Mid January our favourite Internet Marketing Blog Econsultancy, reported five trends from CES that marketers need to know.  Guess what? NFC made the list. 

This month’s geek video comes via the Hybris Software channel, titled: Shopping Gets Sexy with Hybris” the video includes technology such as in-store NFC tags, gesture-based product navigation and geo-fenced alerts.  The video highlights that "window-shopping" need not be a low margin activity and shows how window shoppers can socially engage with a product, even when the shop is closed. We love this approach. We are watching trends in NFC Smartphone adoption with interest and noting those using the technology within their digital marketing strategies.  

Mobile/Social Marketing is becoming a lot less about broadcasting information in a more succinct way, it is moving more towards engaging customers in digital experiences with your information. 

NFC allows the tech savvy consumers to engage, interact and communicate with brands. We will keep you up to date with others using NFC on this blog.  Should you wish to help your company stay ahead of the digital, mobile and social news, talk to our sales team today about our Integrated Marketing Services. 

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Pinterest for Business

Pinterest, once classed as the third most popular social network in the US, is a visual social network for 'pinning' images and videos to users' own or other pin boards (which are collections of 'pins' usually with a common theme).  The social network encourages it's users to download a "pin it" button on their computers, so that they can share/pin any images/videos they find on the web, that they want to share. The pinners/users distribute your content for you, by repinning, liking and sharing.

Find out more about the social network over at our: Introduction to Pinterest Blog published in February 2012 and our Utilising Pinterest for Brands and Business Blog published in March 2012. 

In November 2012 Pinterest launched brand pages for businesses. After being active on Pinterest, the social network will allow you to advertise your website address (top level domains only), so that the users of Pinterest can find out more about you.  Once verified, you will receive a 'tick of authority' next to the website name.  

Via a business's landing page Pinterest are helping businesses get the most out of their network by providing advice on how businesses can use the network to:

• Tell their story
• Build a community
• Send traffic to the website
• Identify what is working well and how to develop further.

Find a useful 'pin board' of Brands and Businesses using Pinterest here:

http://pinterest.com/mshahab/brands-businesses-blogs-on-pinterest/

The above image is from a recent Pinterest Christmas campaign from Joules Clothing.  They invited Joules Clothing fans to Pin 5 items that they would love to get to Christmas, on their boards and email notify them via email of their Pinterest Board URL.  The campaign was integrated with Facebook, with a custom Pinterest tab.

The benefits of the Pinterest campaign to the brand include:

• Organic sharing of their products around Xmas time.
• Profiling the brand to a creative community which suits their target market
• Increased traffic to the website on product pages.  
• Gain increased followers on company Pinterest board and Facebook for further campaigns.

The Flashlight Search Marketing team are briefing a number of clients on how to use this social network for business growth, with focus on campaign integration.  

If you require any assistance learning how this social network can benefit your business, visit the links listed above and should you require further assistance talk to our sales team.

Author: Sarah Griffiths (AKA Pinterest Addict)

Geek Video of the Month

Google has defined the definition of 'Geek' as a person with eccentric devotion to a particular interest.

So it seems fitting that this month's Geek Video gives praise to the 22 year old Digital Film Design student 'Kaleb Lechowski'.

Lechowski received attention from Hollywood executives after they viewed his six minute sci-fi animated film, titled 'R'ha'.

Thanks to his impressive work, he is now headed to Hollywood and there is talk of the potential of making a full feature movie from his ideas.

View the talked about short above and find out more over at Mashable about; what the experts say, the films that inspired the short movie and what's next for the talented student.

Mashable Entertainment Article: 22 year olds sci - fi short gets Hollywood attention

Congratulations Kaleb, we are looking forward to seeing your name in the credits list, when the time is right for you to launch your full featured movie.

Author:  Sarah Griffiths