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In this guest post, James Christie of Social Media agency No Pork Pies looks at how Twitter has become so influential in today’s society, even having a say into the planning of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
The Royal Yacht Britannia: now permanently moored in Edinburgh. Picture by Ian Mackay
In April 2009, it was announced that the British public would now be allowed to follow the Royal Family on Twitter at @BritishMonarchy (it now has 280,790 followers).
Commenting on the development, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The Queen has been advised that it’s up and running but there won’t be any members of the Royal Family tweeting.”
A year later, the Queen ‘joined’ Facebook. “The Queen has approved the decision – she knows all about Facebook,” an aide assured us.
With this supposed knowledge of social media and micro-blogging sites, our sovereign is sure to be aware of how social network communities have reacted to the idea that a new royal yacht should be built to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
The idea was first floated by the Daily Mail; the newspaper launched a campaign to build a luxurious new yacht in October 2011. The Mail backed the campaign with several lengthy articles and an impressive artist’s impression of what the yacht might look like (complete with a theatre and a deep sea submersible). However, the campaign sank without trace until 16th January 2012 when The Guardian published a leaked letter from Education Secretary from Michael Gove. Read the rest of "Will Twitter finally sink the idea of a new luxury ship fit for a Queen?"
Posted by Guest Author in Facebook Tips and Tricks, Guest Blogs, Internet, Social Media on February 1st, 2012| No Comments »
The great Top SEO Trumps Blog Off has begun!
We have been slaving away creating the top SEO Game of the Decade. To get your hands on one of these limited edition Top SEO Trumps packs we are inviting you to take part in our Top SEO Trumps Blog Off!
Here’s a preview of how the cards look:
Simply write a blog post that meets the conditions below to be in for a chance to win.
There are 46 Top SEO Faces from the SEO world, each ranked by:
- Popularity on the web
- Twitter followers
- Google+ contacts
- Fanciablility (we are keeping our judges a secret for this category)
- Geek Cred
Can you guess who is hiding behind Danny Sullivan? If you can’t guess or want to see the other 45 Top SEOs then you can follow all those who made it into to pack by creating your own SEO circle from this one we made earlier, just click on the image to view or add this circle in Google+:
35 Limited Edition Top SEO Trumps packs are up for grabs.
Anyone can enter: SEOs, marketing people, social media specialists, bloggers, content marketers, and students, anyone who thinks they can write a good blog.
There are so many ways of winning that the playing field is wide open, there is a really good chance of winning so it’s worth a go. As all great SEO’s and Content marketers know, generating great content is just par for the course anyway. What have you got to lose?
Not only that, if you are one of our 35 finalists we will publicise your fine post using our many social media accounts, and link to it from all of our resources and blogs, as well as on our own well ranked site, so it would be good for your SEO too.
All you have to do is what you do best: write a great blog post.
How to win
- Write a blog post that contains a link either to one of these links
http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/seo-top-trumps OR http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/seo/
- Tweet a link to your post to: @sbttraining with the message: “My SEO Trumps entry” and the Hashtag #seotoptrumps
It’s as easy as that!
For example if this was my entry I would tweet:
@sbttraining My Top SEO Trumps entry http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/seo-top-trumps (or shortened version) #seotoptrumps
You can publish your blog post anywhere (not necessarily on your own blog) as long as you identify yourself as the author somewhere in the post and tweet the link with hashtag as above.
After the closing date April 1st 2012
Votes will be counted and verified and prizes will go to the authors of the winners of the following categories:
- The 5 funniest posts
- The 5 most original posts
- The 5 most useful posts
- The top 5 posts that drive the most traffic to the destination link.
- The 5 top most liked posts on Facebook – where that information is available
- The 5 most +1’s on Google Plus
- The 5 most tweeted posts – where that information is available
Good luck and get blogging!
Become a future top SEO trump with our many SEO related courses. SEO training will provide you with the best practice approach to optimising websites and content for higher rankings, you can then use the knowledge learnt on our Social Media course to market your website and build strong brand identity. If you want to measure how your site is doing (and your social media efforts) then Google Analytics training is essential, while Advanced Google Analytics training is available for those who already use it on a regular basis. Don’t forget, we also now provide Content Marketing training – great for building brand and author identity whilst gaining valuable backlinks!
Posted by Heather Buckley in Competitions, Facebook Tips and Tricks, Google+, Guest Blogs, News, Offers, SEO, Social Media on January 25th, 2012| No Comments »
Look into my crystal ball...
2012 has historically been a hot year for predictions. The finishing of the Mayans cryptic calendar has been touted as a sign of the ‘end of the world’ by many a pessimist, citing Nostradamus’ prophecies as the evidence they need that the end is nigh.
Luckily, not all predictions for next year have to be so gloomy; there are plenty of developments yet to come out in the tech world. here are our top SEO predictions for the new year.
Google service integration
Now the most used browser on the web, Google Chrome has always offered more than just a smooth and seamless web browsing experience. With Google having their fingers in a lot of pies, many of their services are becoming integrated with the browser.
Google services such as Google Docs, which is already proving itself as an excellent file sharing facility, and Google+ (which is covered as part of our Social Media training course), the rival to Facebook which is picking up steam, will find themselves more embedded with Google’s software, encouraging a growth in collaboration and sharing.
The ability to install a wide variety of apps and extensions to your browser not only gives you a tailored browsing experience it also opens the platform up to being more than just a browser. Expect to see these built upon, with Chrome borrowing from Google’s Android mobile operating system’s seamlessly customisable app and widget based set up.
The new social sharing revolution
While Facebook is still the daddy of the Social Media world, Google+ Business profile pages still have a lot to offer. Using these pages to share content will become a vital tool in your SEO tool box, especially with the potential of Google+ having more of a stronger bearing on Google’s search results in the near future. Read the rest of "SEO Predictions for 2012"
Posted by Daniel Twigg in Mobile App Development, News, SEO, Social Media on December 21st, 2011| 3 Comments »
Christmas Cards – the first form of mass communication?
Sir Henry Cole commissioned the first Christmas card in London in 1843. He was a busy and rich businessman who had tired of the practice of writing letters to friends and family every festive season (which was traditional then for those who could afford postage costs).
He came up with the idea and commissioned illustrator John Callcott Horsley to design it. The illustration of a family with a child drinking wine proved controversial but turned out to be a phenomenal success. How many business ideas still remain popular after 100 years?
First Christmas card
So what has that got to do with Social Media?
Well, Cole had helped introduce the Penny Post three years earlier. This allowed people living in Great Britain and Ireland to send letters weighing 1/2 ounce or less to anywhere within the kingdom for one penny. Sir Henry Cole had played a leading role in pushing for the Penny Post, believing cheap and easy communication was needed for the growth of business. The masses took advantage of this to send Christmas cards; it was no longer only for the rich and aristocratic. So you see the Christmas card was the first commercial mass communication system, designed as a way to offer seasonal greetings without having to write out hundreds of personal messages.
Make something special and original
How do you feel when someone makes something just for you? A homemade Christmas card, a hand knitted scarf, a Christmas bouquet made from hand picked holly tied with a crimson satin ribbon. You feel special. Successful social media marketing is all about making people feel special, it’s about appealing to what makes us human, it’s about personalisation, connectivity and conversation. Read the rest of "Social Media Marketing, It’s Christmas Every Day"
Posted by Heather Buckley in News, Social Media on December 20th, 2011| No Comments »
Facebook’s latest blog asks you to consider that the person sitting next to you in a crowded place is likely to know a friend of a friend of a friend of yours. The article argues that the widespread adoption Social media makes this is even more likely. The changes in the way we consume and share content makes it likely that any post you read, share or publish on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc. could be read by one or more people on your commute to work.
On Monday Facebook released two studies that looked at the ‘anatomy of Facebook’, the most interesting takeaway from the data released is that there are only 4 degrees of separation between Facebook users. This figure that has shrunk since 2008 when it was originally claimed by Frigyes Karinthy and popularised by a play written by John Guare, that everyone was on average approximately six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person on Earth. As social networks and connections grow, is Marshall McLuhan’s Global Village becoming a Global Cul De Sac?
Anatomy of Facebook
This isn’t the first study of its kind. Earlier this year research showed the average degree of separation between Twitter users to be only 3.43. However, due to limitations of that study and the more common practice of following celebrities and weak acquaintances, the Facebook study is grabbing more headlines. Unlike the Twitter study, which was limited in the number of tests, Facebook examined all 721 million active Facebook users. That’s over 10% of the world’s population! Add to this the more personal approach to Facebook in which connections are more likely to be both real-life and digital and yesterday’s figures give the most accurate study of social networks to date.
Facebook’s study shows that:
- 721 million users studies share 69 billion friendships
- 50% of Facebook users have over 100 friends while the average friend count is 190 (skewed by users with 1000′s of friends)
- 99.6% of all pairs on Facebook are connected by 6 hops (5 degrees)
- 92% are connected by only 5 hops (4 degrees)
- The number of hops has decreased from an average of 5.28 in 2008 to the 4.74 in 2011
- 4 degrees becomes 3 degrees when the data is restricted to single countries
- 84% of connections are between users in the same country
- Users tend to cluster towards age groups, especially for younger generations
While this article looks at global connections it is interesting to note that a large number of connections are local/age based. This trend is strongest for users around their 20′s – as they’re more likely to befriend school, college and university acquaintances and not have made many connections around the world. However, for the sharing of information a somebody in Brighton only needs one friend in another country to share their content and they hav global reach. Read the rest of "Social Media’s Four Degrees of Separation and the Global Village"
Posted by Craig Charley in Facebook Tips and Tricks, Google+, News, Social Media on November 24th, 2011| No Comments »
Image by gnuckx on flickr
If you are regularly guest blogging and publishing content in order to get quality back-links and provide fresh content for your website, then we think you are doing a great service for your SEO and Social Media strategy.
After the lastest Google freshness update, content marketing has become the most powerful weapon in your artillery, the most respected authorities in the world of SEO are all agreed on this one. Looking for the best and most popular posts on the web is a must if you want to keep up with what’s hot and what’s popular (this is all important for those vital media shares) but what is acceptable and what amounts to simple plagiarism? It’s not just a moral dilema, Google will penalise duplicate content.
If you need more help with your SEO and social media then we offer some great deals on SEO Training, Google Analytics courses and social media training. Below Christopher Fielden, a published author, offers his opinions on the subject of plagiarism - all in his own words!
Plagiarism Definition
If you nick someone else’s idea and pretend it is your own, that’s plagiarism.
Inspiration Definition
If you see something which tickles your imagination enough to write an original story, that’s inspiration.
Examples of the Differences Between Plagiarism & Inspiration
If you went to see Lord of the Rings in the cinema and then decided it ‘inspired’ you to write a book about Rodeo Shaggins and his landscape designer, Jan-Flys Ganges, who discover a magical toe ring which has been imbued with the wrath of the dark lord Flower-on and will bring an end to all that is peaceful by covering the land with the unholy stench of ghastly garlic gases unless the ring is transported across Middle Birth and thrown into the fiery belly of Mount Bloom, that is stealing someone else’s ideas. That is plagiarism.
Read the rest of "Why Inspiration Should Never Party With Plagiarism"
Posted by Heather Buckley in New Free Resources, News, SEO, Social Media on November 21st, 2011| No Comments »
Yesterday, Google unveiled Business Pages for Google+, a feature they’ve been promising for months. At first only a handful of businesses were able to create a page but it now seems (at least for us!) that Google have opened up business pages to the public and business pages are springing up left, right and centre.
Before you do anything else – circle our page on Google+ by clicking this button:
Google+ Business Page Layout
Here’s how our brand new Google+ business page looks:
As the page is similar to a personal profile you can use our guide to pimping your Google+ profile on business pages too. Make sure you stand out from the crowd!
The business page concept will be very familiar to those who use Facebook Pages. Even the way you switch between personal and business profiles with a drop down menu is straight from Facebook: Read the rest of "Google+ Business Pages Comprehensive Guide"
Posted by Heather Buckley in Google+, News, Social Media on November 8th, 2011| 1 Comment »
Well Facebook Timeline still hasn’t been rolled out but you can still get Facebook Timeline early. In the mean time however, Facebook have released a Facebook security infographic that calms some of the privacy concerns highlighted in our post about the latest Facebook changes.
While the infographic doesn’t address issues with default sharing settings that could potential lead to embarrassing info going public, it does reveal a number of methods Facebook does to protect your privacy that you won’t be aware of, charting the security measures you go through from logging in to going offline.
These measures are all focused on reducing spam – Facebook claims less than 4% of shared content on the platform is spam – and protecting your account from hackers. Personal favourites include LinkScanner which automatically checks links for spam when they’re posted on Facebook and the Trusted Friends feature to help you log in to your account when you forget your password or have had your account hacked.
The Trusted Friends feature involves picking some close friends (remember they will be responsible for helping you log in so pick wisely!) who can send you a unique code when you’re locked out – a bit like handing a spare house key to a trusted neighbour just in case. Although this key they can’t use to access your Facebook so it’s not like handing out your password.
We’ll have to see how well Facebook’s security holds up on Saturday if the Anonymous threat to Facebook turns out to be real. Interestingly the reason behind the attack is due to Facebook’s privacy issues!
The only feature we think is missing is a way to address public chain posts which are remarkably similar to the old chain emails, with messages such as ‘If you don’t pass this on to 7 people you will die’ and ‘pass this on 6 friends and you’ll meet the love of your life at midnight’. Read the rest of "Facebook Security Issues Addressed"
Posted by Craig Charley in News, Social Media on November 1st, 2011| 2 Comments »
