theEweekly Wrap - SAScon, SEO copywriting and SM language

SEO comes to Manchester

The SEO Manchester community gather in the Bridgewater Hall this week for the inaugural SAScon event. The conference, which was organised by a host of digital Manchester companies, consisted of a host of SEO and social media topics. The conference attracted a number of SEO and social media rockstars and speakers included Paul Fabretti, Judith Lewis and the infamous SEOer Fantomaster. Tom Mason, theEword SEO copywriter, attended the event. Talking about the conference, he said: "It was an enlightening and interesting experience. There were a number of engaging workshops and I was very impressed by the calibre of speakers. "It's an event that puts Manchester on the SEO map and I'm interested to see what next year's conference will bring."

Phrased differently

SEO copywriting hit the headlines this week as a leading industry commentator confronted the way digital agencies go about keyword research. Writing in SEOMoz, Rob Ousbey said internet copywriters would benefit from listening to the actual words used by consumers, rather than rely solely on key generics or hyper-competitive search terms. He argued that SEO copywriting should echo the language use of the consumer. He said: "It's been said many times that a significant part of sales and/or marketing is to solve each customer's problem. This is just another way of getting you close to that goal, and bring you new business at the same time." Ousbey continued his piece by stating that content optimised for conversation may be more likely to result in a conversion. You can read Richard Frost's take on the issue in theEword News.

Youth in revolt

Social media is gradually influencing the way teenagers use language according to a new study. Research by Lisa Whittaker, postgraduate at the University of Stirling, found that 16-to-18 year-olds on the (soon-to-be-defunct) social media site Bebo had created their own unique vocabulary. The report found the site's adolescent users had established their own way of describing certain situations. Someone in a relationship, for example, was described as being 'taken'. Speaking about the find, Whittaker commented: "This is not just bad spelling, which would suggest literacy issues, but a deliberate attempt to creatively misspell words. "The creation and use of their own social language may be a deliberate attempt to keep adults from understanding what is written on the page. By doing this they are able to communicate with their in-group and conceal the content from the out-group."

Social media at SAScon - A review

Hundreds gathered in Manchester yesterday for the launch of SAScon, a new SEO and social conference organised by a variety of Manchester SEO agencies. theEword copywriter Tom Mason attended the event and here, shares some of the pearls of social medium wisdom he picked up from the day.

For an inaugural event, SAScon boasted an ambitious scope; the programme – a mix of SEO, marketing and social panels – had enticed a number of world-renowned speakers. Indeed, the conference attracted employees from Google, YouTube plus several household names in the SEO world.

Internet video killed the television star

Bruce Daisley, head of sales of YouTube UK, presented the morning's keynote presentation.



Daisley was an engaging and entertaining speaker and his speech incorporated a number of revealing statistics relating to user behaviour on YouTube.
Some tidbits from the talk included:

• As many videos are streamed on YouTube as searches conducted on the site


• YouTube scan a century of content every 24 hours


• Facebook is the biggest referrer to YouTube


• 10 per cent of all video views come from embedded video files on third-party sites

During the presentation, Daisley hinted YouTube would be investing more energy into live video streaming (the company has already had some success with live coverage of Jay-Z and U2 concerts) and that logistical elements were being put in place to allow third-parties to begin covering their own live efforts.

Mobile marketers also got something to chew on during the speech; the average iPhone user watches 3-4 videos on YouTube every single day.

The conference then offered attendees the chance to attend a number of different panels throughout the day. Still, a conference is only as good as its speakers, although thankfully, SAScon attracted a collection of leading-thinkers in the social media field. The Search and Social media panel saw Massimo Burgio (founder of SEMPO), Joost de Valk, Google's Andrew Barke and Lyndon Antcliffe discuss the evolution of social media and SEO.

SEO and social media

A number of interesting points were raised from the roundtable discussion, notably de Valk's comment that social media doesn't revolve around Facebook and Twitter (Only 10 per cent of users in his native Holland have Facebook accounts. The majority use the Dutch social networking site Hyves).

Valk went on to discuss his concerns over privacy on social media, in particular on Facebook. Elsewhere, Barke also responded to criticism of Google social search.

"Everything we do is a ranking issue. We're trying to provide the most relevant information," he said.

The panel seemed unconvinced. All however, did agree on the fact that a social marketing campaign needs to have an end goal in mind.



Social media was explored when esteemed social media marketers Judith Lewis, Paul Fabretti, Massimo Burgio, Will McInnes, Phillip Buxton and James Lowery sat down to discuss the fundamentals behind a social campaign.
All of the speakers agreed a social media was at its most effective when deployed with an end goal in mind.

"The people who have a specific goal will get the most out of it," said James Lowery.

Meanwhile, Judith Lewis was quick to point out that good social campaigns engage with the customer. "Social media is about interaction," she commented.
Paul Fabretti also highlighted the need for preparation of consumer research: "I would spend two or three weeks looking at the conversations and the competitors. Make sure the mediums and channels [of the campaign] are relevant."

Engaging with the right audience

Finding the right medium to appeal to users was explored in the 'Running a Pan-European Search Campaign' panel. The workshop, which included Bas Van Den Beld, Andy Atkins-Kruger, Massimo Burgio and Kristjan Mar Hauksson, explored the techniques SEO companies can used to appeal to different EU markets.

Bas Van Den Beld started the session with some very strong points about history and culture.

"Europe is a massive melting pot of different cultures. Lifestyles and attitudes vary considerably depending on the country. There are over 200 languages in Europe and different countries require different approaches."

The panel went on to discuss how to target different countries. In particular, Atkins-Kruger talked about the need for correct translation and insider-knowledge when working on a foreign campaign.

Marriage proposals

One of the final panels saw a discussion about the use of social media for corporate marketing. Phil Jones, Malcom Coles, Neil Hardy, Will McInnes and Ian Croxford discussed how a successful SM strategy could be incorporated into a pre-existing marketing push.

"Social media isn't the silver bullet," said Phil Jones. "It requires time, attention and trust in order to be successful."

Coles meanwhile stressed the importance of experimentation. Referencing the recent social media catastrophes of Vodafone and Dominos, he said: "People have a short memory when it comes to social media."

Jones, the sales and marketing director of Brother UK, co-ordinated the company's initial foray into Twitter. He went on to discuss the future of SM strategy and revealed that he could envisage a future of 24-hour call centres devoted to social media response.

In one of the more memorable lines from the conference, Jones said:

"Engagement often leads to marriage."

How to: Schedule tweets in Twitter

During a 24 hour period, user activity on Twitter peaks between 12pm-1pm, 5pm-6pm and 8pm-9pm. Sadly, many social media marketers only run their campaigns during the working day; between 9am and 5:30pm. This means that an account effectively goes into radio silence during one of the busiest times on for users.

However, using the Hootsuite Twitter service it is possible to maintain a presence during busy periods, even when you're not physically at a computer. The site features a scheduling option, allowing social marketers to broadcast tweets outside of office hours. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to set up a scheduled message.

To begin, select which account you want to broadcast the tweet from.



Compose your message and press the 'send later' option. It is also possible to include a link, a hashtag or an '@' mention into this message.



Select the time you wish to send the update.



Press the 'Schedule button'. The tweet should then appear in the 'pending tweets' tab in the column below.



This scheduling option allows you to retain a social media presence even when you are not physically able to compose a tweet yourself. Good practice suggests that you reply to all @ mentions as soon as possible.

Nexus One UK launch imminent

It may have fallen off the radar somewhat in recent weeks but the Google phone is about to launch in the UK.

Vodafone UK rolls out Nexus One

Vodafone UK has announced that it will start selling the Nexus One on Friday, April 30th 2010. That means British consumers will be the first in Europe to get their hands on the Google phone – it comes out in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands next month. For the record, Vodafone UK price plans start from £25 per month on a two-year contract, although the handset is free for those who shell out £35 per month and upwards. Customers will receive 1GB of mobile data as standard.


A brief recap

In case you've forgotten, the Nexus One was unveiled on January 5th 2010 just as the hype machine threatened to spiral out of all control. Based on Google's Android operating system, it featured a 3.7-inch screen and a 5-megapixel camera with geotagging. Hopes were high that it would prove to be a serious player in the smartphone market and open up whole new mobile marketing opportunities. So the theory went, iPhone ads were a mixed bag at best while Google was the undisputed master of digital advertising and had just shelled out £450 million to snatch leading mobile display provider AdMob from under the noses of Apple.

Google phone sales disappointed

However, it hasn't quite worked out that way. Nexus One sales were hugely disappointing in the US; mobile analytics firm Flurry estimated that Google only sold 135,000 phones in the time it took Apple to rack up its first million. What's more, the next iPhone should emerge later this year with Apple already confirming that iPhone OS 4 will incorporate multi-tasking and a new advertising platform called iAd. Even Microsoft is threatening to make up ground after a well-received launch for its first phone, the Kin.


What next for the Nexus One?

It would be wrong to suggest that Google's success hinges on the fortunes of the Nexus One. Let's not forget this is a company that grew revenues by 23 per cent in the last year, posting remarkable quarterly revenues of £4.38 billion earlier this month. And the disappointment of the Nexus One was partially offset by its immensely popular Android mobile operating system, which continues to claw away market share from iPhone OS.

However, the mobile web is a huge growth area as more and more people purchase smartphones and handheld-devices like the iPad. The day is fast approaching when the majority of British consumers go online through handsets rather than laptops. In that context, Google will be concerned about its failure to tap into the lucrative US mobile marketing sector so far with the Nexus One. Time will tell if history repeats itself when the Nexus One hits Britain on Friday.

Richard Frost

theEweekly Wrap - Google, Mobile Marketing, Apple

Spiderwebs

A Google Webmaster Help thread has shed light on how often the search engine's spider crawl a website. The Google Webmaster forum, which often sees employees hint at the inner-workings of the search process, explained that the search engine employs to index a website. Google staffer John Mu revealed that the crawler responds to the update frequency of a sitemap. "If we find new content there every time we crawl, we may choose to crawl more frequently," he wrote. The news was also reported on SEO Roundtable earlier this week: "This is pretty much how Google decides to crawl your pages. If you update your pages frequently and you have a normal PageRank, Google will likely crawl your web site more often."

Phoned in

Those working in online and digital marketing raised an eyebrow after it was revealed users in the US spend half of their mobile internet time on social networks. The study, commissioned by Ground Truth, found around 60 per cent of mobile internet use was spent on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Time spent on portals, such as Google News, accounted for just under 14 per cent of mobile internet usage. "While the popularity of mobile social networking is widely believed, this is the first time we have been able to truly quantify just how much the category is driving adoption of the mobile internet with actual usage metrics," said Evan Neufeld, vice president of marketing at the company. The data, which was collected between March 28th and April 4 2010, was collected from 3.05 million individuals in the United States.

An Apple a day

In related mobile marketing news, Apple recorded a massive 90 per cent jump in profits over the previous three months. An incredible 8.75 million iPhones were sold across the globe between January and March, helping the company to increase its profits from $1.6 billion (£1.04bn) to $3.5 billion (£1.9bn). It was, according to head-honcho Steve Jobs, the best period (outside of Christmas) in the company's history. The news comes as Apple prepares to launch the iPad in the UK. Preorders for the device, don't start until May 10th, although the sharp-eyes of Manchester SEOer Richard Frost have already spotted the option to run Google PPC adverts on the device. Writing on theEword blog, Richard said: "It's likely that there'll soon be a sizeable market for iPad PPC ads in the UK. Although whether those ads are good enough to drive conversions is another matter altogether."

Facebook v Google - Clash of the Titans 2.0

The internet is buzzing with the latest news from the f8 conference in San Francisco. Mark Zuckerberg is declaring war on Google and his weapon, the assurance of a new ‘social’ internet, seems a formidable one.

The battle between the two internet giants is by no means new. A rumoured takeover bid along with the creation of the Facebook-rivalling site Google Buzz do nothing to dispel the feeling that Google is more than keen to quash this ferociously ambitious social networking upstart.

While Facebook recently beat Google to first place as the USA's most popular website, it is still, however, just a social networking site. Google, on the other hand, remains the world's most famous multinational search engine, offering countless web-based services and even finding the time to take on entire countries.. In terms of services provided and general control over the internet, there would not appear to be much direct competition between the two.

The social internet experience

The recent f8 conference has changed all of that, however. In a series of announcements regarding new Facebook developments, Zuckerberg has stated his aim is not only to best Google in terms of popularity but to replace the search engine as the heart of the online experience.

The internet takeover will apparently be achieved through the use of a new open graph protocol. Similar to Twitter's @anywhere feature, the idea is to incorporate the Facebook experience into other websites by including a 'Like' button which allows users to register their approval of chosen content and share this information with their friends. The open graph protocol also enables companies to access these preferences in order to tailor a user’s online experience to their individual tastes.

By amassing such an extensive database of user information Facebook could easily start stepping on Google's toes when it comes to social advertising and personalising users' online experiences. Zuckerberg evidently believes that Facebook's new developments prove its superiority over Google at catering to the public's needs: "People are discovering information not just through links to web pages but also from the people and the things they care about."

With Damon Cortesi , founder of UntitledStartup, making such inflammatory statements as "Facebook has won the internet," we here at theEword are just wondering whether Google regrets setting up a Facebook page.

Google's Guide to URL Removal

Following on from my news story on the main site this morning about the Google Government Requests tool, I stumbled across a series of posts entitled 'URL removal explained', in which the Google Webmaster blog has been educating users on how to request content removal. As Susan Moskwa, one of Google's Webmaster Trends Analysts, wisely states: "There's a lot of content on the Internet these days. At some point, something may turn up online that you would rather not have out there."

While it might suit some to have the offending content deleted and wait for it to naturally disappear from searches, Google acknowledges that there may be occasions when it’s necessary to remove something a little quicker. Enter the Webmaster Central Blog and its Handy Guide to Expidated Content Removal.

Removal of content you don't own

In 'episode 3', the blog tackles the specific problem of requesting the removal of content that doesn’t belong to you. Where the verified URL removal tool may be used when you can prove yourself the verified owner of the content, the public URL removal tool steps in when this is not the case.

The first step in such circumstances, Google suggests, is to contact the owner of the site and ask them to block Google from crawling the URL or delete the page completely. When this has been achieved, the Public URL tool can be used to remove content through the ‘Webmaster has already blocked the page’ option.

If you suspect that the webmaster in question is being less than honest when they claim to have removed the content, Google advises checking their robots.txt file to see if the page has been disallowed, the page’s HTML source code to look for a meta noindex tag and finally making use of an add-on like Firefox’s Live HTTP Headers to double check the HTTP response to the URL. When you are sure the content is gone, you can request a cache removal.

Lastly the tool offers an option for removing any inappropriate content which has made it through SafeSearch. If a user comes across anything they feel should not be listed while using the filter, Google provides a SafeSearch option for removal requests to be submitted.

A guide to iPad ads on Google

The iPad is the biggest product launch of the last few years. Google is the biggest provider of PPC ads. So really it was only a matter of time before the two would meet.

Setting up iPad PPC ads

Sure enough, Google has announced that online advertisers can now run iPad campaigns on their all-conquering PPC platform. All you need to do is log into AdWords as normal and select 'devices' in 'Campaign Settings'. The resulting page lets you target 'desktop and laptop computers' and/or 'iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers'. These include Android phones, the iPhone/iPod touch, Palm phones and now – you guessed it – the iPad.

If you've somehow bypassed the Apple hype machine (although frankly, this is hard to imagine), the iPad is basically just a big iPhone minus the calls. Users can read e-books, watch HD videos, listen to music and so on, but it is web browsing that will really interest online advertisers. At its heart, the iPad can be viewed as one more medium for delivering traditional PPC ads.

What is the iPad demographic?

The ability to target early adopters with deep pockets (US prices range from £324 to £538) is obviously tempting. What's more, you can actually let tech-savvy consumers download your iPad app straight from the ad. To do this, simply link to the download URL of your iPad app in the text of the Google PPC ad.

One thing worth pointing out, however, is that the size of the tablet market is still an unknown quantity in the UK. Pre-orders of the iPad won't start until May 10th 2010 (at the same time as Apple confirms the non-US price tag) and the first devices won't ship until the end of the month.

iPad demand has been strong

But if experiences across the pond are anything to go by, the iPad could quickly become an important consideration for PPC advertisers. In the US, more than half a million iPads were delivered in the first week alone and Apple admits that the demand has far exceeded expectations. Apple even had to postpone its international rollout just to cope – the iPad was originally due to launch in the UK at the end of April.

In short, it's likely that there'll soon be a sizeable market for iPad PPC ads in the UK. Although whether those ads are good enough to drive conversions is another matter altogether...

Richard Frost

Twitter - What's in a username?

The online gold rush of 2010 is gathering pace. Late last year, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams revealed the social networking site would be releasing a host of deleted and inactive usernames back into the wild. Last week, Search Engine Land reported that Twitter is moving that little bit closer to allowing users to choose from millions of previously locked-down monikers.

According to report, deleted titles will be the first batch of usernames put back into circulation.

So why the goldrush?

A general Twitter username makes the account easier to find. Users searching for business or topic on Twitter Search are presented with a list of relevant results. If an organisation is using a generic moniker, it is more likely to be discovered in user queries.

Of course, an appropriate nickname will also help a Twitter profile show up in SERPs. As social media marketing becomes more prominent, companies want users to be able to quickly find their Twitter or Facebook profiles. Claiming the appropriate nickname on Twitter is the best way for a social profile to appear in the listings for a related search.



Of course, many companies want a strong brand in order to establish themselves as the leading provider of a specific service. Indeed, users may be more likely to perceive an organisation with a relevant username as the best source for a product.

So what happens next?

There is no set date as to when these deleted usernames will be released, although companies and individuals can keep abreast of the situation by signing up for notifications about their desired moniker. Indeed, the popular Twitter Counter has established a service which emails alerts of the availability of specific usernames if and when they become available.

Follow theEword on Twitter for further developments regarding the release of inactive Twitter usernames.

theEweekly Wrap - Webmaster Tools, Chirp and Webby Awards

Google helps SEO

Google gave the SEO world goose bumps this week as it upgraded its Webmaster Tools site to include clickthrough data. The new feature, which allows site owners to see the number of users who have clicked to the site via search engine results pages, has been met with high praise. "Google wows webmasters with new search reports," screamed a headline from Search Engine Roundtable. Indeed, industry analysts have reacted just as enthusiastically to the news. Comments from SEO analysts on internet forums included, "The most interest Webmaster information published to date", "A+ move on Google's part" and "That is amazing." Other new features included the ability to see the pages displayed on SERPs for specific keywords, as well as data for every ranked phrase (rather than the first 100, as previously available). You can read theEword's analysis of the new feature in this blog from developer Nick Price.

Twitter chirpy about future

Chirp, Twitter's first official developer conference, was held this week. Naturally, the social media website took the opportunity to revel in the spotlight, revealing a host of new features. The big news of the conference was the latest geolocation function which would associate tweets with specific landmarks such as coffee shops and bars. Other announcements included an official Twitter URL shortener, the release of promoted tweets and the news that the Library of Congress will begin archiving status updates for research purposes. Speaking about the archival project, Alex MacGillivray, Twitter's general counsel, said: "I think it shows the tweets are an interesting part of the historical record. "This project however is not about us, it is about our users and the fact they use the service to chronicle these amazing events. It is not something we imagined when we were forming the service," he added.

Red carpet

No doubt the BBC pulled a wry smile after being shortlisted for 24 Webby awards this week. The site, which is set to be dramatically downsized after proposals from the BBC Trust, was nominated for awards such as best news site, best podcast and best politics website. Elsewhere, the Guardian picked up three nods for a Webby award, while Foursquare landed a place on the shortlist in the best mobile social networking category. The shock of the announcement came after Facebook and (less-surprisingly) MySpace were overlooked for best social networking site. The Webby Awards, considered to be the internet's version of the Oscars, is now in its 14th year. Launched in 1996, the ceremony sees websites from around the world compete in a variety of online categories. Past winners include Yahoo, Google, the New York Times and Al Gore.

Webmaster Tools receives Top Search Queries upgrade

This week saw a major upgrade to the Top Search Queries section of Google’s Webmaster Tools, providing much more detailed and better visualised data.



The most obvious change to the page is the inclusion of a new chart, similar to those found in Google Analytics, that displays impression (when your site appears in the search results) and clickthrough (when users click through to your site from the search results page) data for specific days. As with the old version of the page results can still be filtered by search type and search location whilst the date range filter has been expanded upon to allow the user to select specific days as opposed to just fixed date ranges. A new filter has also been added to allow the user to filter the results by a specific search term.



A change that may upset some users of the top search queries page is the relocation of search result position information. Previously this was available straight away, however the new layout requires a query to be expanded before the information is available.

Whilst this may be awkward for some, the trade-off is that a lot more data about that query can be made available. Position results are now broken down into range, with the top 5 positions having their own entry, the 6th to 10th positions lumped together and after that the positions are listed by what page they appear on as opposed to a specific position. As well as search position results, each query now shows the pages from your site that were displayed on the results page for the given term.

Another less obvious change, but just as valuable, is that data is now available for all queries whereas previously only the top 100 would be available.



Whilst the changes are clearly a great improvement over the earlier versions of the page, there are few things missing from the new version that some users may miss, such as filtering search types by product and exporting search position data – but hopefully it won’t be too long before this data makes a return to the top search queries tool.

Meet the team - Chris Greener

Chris Greener is the latest Manchester Masters winner to join theEword team. Here, the Newcastle-born student talks to theEword blog about online marketing, Bob Dylan and music festivals.

Howay man.

Hello.

So, what are you doing here at theEword?

I'm here as part of the Manchester Masters scheme. I was among the ten winning candidates from 2009. This is my third, and last, placement of the programme.

Well, it's good to have you on board. What are you doing for us?

I'm part of the online marketing team. It's great to be at the forefront of marketing. Encouraging users to visit a website is a science, so it appeals to my logical side.

Right, so how did you become interested in online marketing?

After passing my A-levels, I enrolled onto an apprentice scheme in Newcastle for a structural engineering company. During the programme, I was given an online marketing project for the company I was with at the time. My interest in the medium grew from there.

So, what do you hope to learn from theEword?

This is really my first B2B placement on the Manchester Masters scheme and I'm looking forward to the experience of interfacing with clients and businesses. I'll be working on research projects and PPC campaigns during my time here, so there's a lot to look forward to.

Ok, next question. You're on Celebrity Come Dine With Me. Who do you invite for dinner?

The musical greats. I'd resurrect Phil Lynott (frontman of Thin Lizzie) and Jimi Hendrix. Bob Dylan would also get an invitation. And we'd talk about anything but music.

Gaze into the future for us Chris. What do you want to be doing in ten years?

It's up in the air at the moment. The Manchester Masters scheme has allowed me to learn a host of new skills and techniques. Although, I've got dreams of owning and running my own music festival somewhere down the line.

You a bit of a music fanatic?

Definitely. I'm going to the Exit music festival in Serbia this year.

Zabaviti! [Have fun!]

An introduction to SEO copywriting

Carli Harris, the latest addition to theEword SEO copywriting team, shares her thoughts on her first day in the office.

As a Film Studies and Philosophy student at the University of Manchester, writing has become a large part of my university career. It wasn’t until I became aware of theEword and the highly glamorous world of copywriting, however, that I found an outlet for the skills I have developed from spending the past four years slaving over 3000 word Philosophy essays.

I have been extremely lucky to have been granted the opportunity to take part in a work placement programme here at theEword and I am pleased to say that my first day has been a very enjoyable experience.

Being ‘thrown in at the deep end’ writing product descriptions has proved very educational and it is interesting to see the process that goes on behind writing copy for the internet. I am also fortunate to be taking part in the placement alongside a team so highly skilled not only in their field, but also in opening tricky orange juice bottles and swing dancing.

As a hopeful future commercial or SEO copywriter, during my time here at theEword I would like to gain an insight into the various techniques and methods behind copywriting as well as getting a good experience of the many different styles in which I would be expected to write.

By working for a company as successful as theEword and being surrounded by such a friendly and dedicated team, I am sure my time here will be both enjoyable and educational and I look forward to gaining the skills and experience I need to pursue a career as a writer.

Wanted: Digital marketing trainee

theEword is on the hunt for a digital marketing trainee. The role, which would see you working on a number of different online campaigns, is ideal for a recent graduate looking to enter the wonderful world of internet marketing.

So what can successful applicants expect from the role?

Working directly with Mark Baker, our head of online marketing, you'll have the chance to experience life at the forefront of digital marketing. You'll be given the opportunity to learn new skills, develop your knowledge of the online sector and play an active role in the day-to-day operations of theEword marketing department.

The role is initially for three months although, if you impress us, there's a good chance we'll offer you a full-time role.

About you

Ideally, you'll have a digital or marketing background and an understanding of the foundations of online marketing channel would be ideal. Furthermore, you'll be a quick learner and able to absorb new skills. Most importantly though, you'll have a genuine passion for the digital sector.

If this is you, send a one-page CV plus a covering letter to jobs@theeword.co.uk.

About theEword

theEword is an innovative digital marketing agency, situated on the edge of Salford Quays. The company, which was founded in 2007, offers a range of services across a number of different online channels and mediums.

From Twitter with love

Free daily newspaper The Metro today revealed MI5 would begin to evaluate the future careers of staff members based on their knowledge of social media sites.

Speaking to the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee in March, Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5 said knowledge of new online technology, such as social media, was necessary for counter-terrorist officials.

"I think some of the staff perhaps aren't quite the ones that we will want for the future," he commented.

His thoughts were echoed by Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Parliamentary sub-committee on counter terrorism, who said:

"Our enemies use every available method to attack including using technology. We have to be aware of the imminent threats of cyber attacks and the old generation of MI5 have to be completely comfortable using computers and the latest technology."

The move from MI5 demonstrates just how integrated social media has become in our daily communication. Indeed, the British Secret Service are not the only official body to have used Twitter and Facebook to aid in their work.

In January, Scotland Yard tracked down Craig Lynch, who had escaped from prison in 2009, by following his updates on Facebook. Earlier in 2010, a British man was arrested under the Terrorism Act for a tweeting a joke threat to bomb a UK airport.

There are an estimated 5.5 million Twitter users in the UK and, according to a report into social networking in 2009, they're more than happy to share information with the online community; over 40 per cent of tweets were person in nature, relating to someone's activities or location.

While the use of these updates has been explored from a marketing perspective, it is clear that government bodies are becoming more aware of social media, taking steps to harness the service. The closure of the whistle-blowing Nightjack blog demonstrated that official sectors are prepared to act on the perceived-defamation of the police force.

The news that MI5 is starting to focus its attention on social networks shouldn't come as any big surprise. Indeed, other bodies have used it successfully over the past three years.

Just don't expect its employees to start tweeting content along the lines of 'Smashed up the Aston again', or '#ff @Scaramanga, @Oddjob and @Dr_No'.

theEweekly Wrap - Bebo, The Telegraph and Apple's iAd

Bebo bye-bye

Bebo, the struggling social media network, is in danger of being closed down after AOL made the decision to cut ties with the site. Bebo, which cost AOL £557 million in 2008, had been struggling under increased competition from Twitter and Facebook and after the failure of several cost-cutting measures, the US company decided to abandon the site. Jon Broad, head of AOL's start up acquisition and investment unit revealed the news to Bebo's 30 employees via email. "Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space," he wrote. "AOL is not in a position at this time to further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking." While the company is continuing its efforts to find a buyer, social media marketers have a bleak view about the future of the network.

Telegraphing SEO

The Telegraph has started to integrate SEO into online articles, according to its head of audience development. Talking to Search Engine Watch, Julian Shambles revealed the UK broadsheet is training editors and journalists to apply search engine optimisation tactics to content. "Search engines are important. It [SEO] doesn't mean changing the quality of writing. It means how we can give writers the understanding so they know how they can affect their articles to do better in search results," he said. Indeed, the implementation of SEO copywriting at the Telegraph has helped its audience rise from 7 million visitors in 2007 to 31 million in December 2009. The Telegraph is just one of the many media outlets turning its attention to SEO copywriting. Recently, the BBC announced it would be giving journalists the opportunity to add SEO-friendly title tags to articles.

iMobile marketing

Tech gurus Apple have announced a new mobile advertising platform. The system, revealed this week in a high-profile press conference, will give iPhone app developers to the chance to incorporate advertisements into applications. The platform, cunningly named iAd, allows advertising content to be displayed inside an application. Presently, users are forced to exit a programme before they can access advertisers' content. Developers will receive 60 per cent of all iAd revenue, while Apple will take 40 per cent. Many mobile marketers have commented the move puts Apple in direct competition with their once-bff Google. Indeed, Google recently purchased ad group AdMob. Still, many believe Apple's move will benefit Google; writing in Marketing Pilgrim, Jordan McCollum said that the search giant would probably now avoid accusations of being a monopoly in the market.

SEO for mobile sites

Senior programmer Adrian Mursec shares some top tips on mobile SEO.

Mobile devices have come a long way since I built my first WAP site at college. Thankfully, handsets have pretty much caught up with PCs and can now render HTML pages, with some models even managing to cope with JavaScript and Flash.

This means we can apply many of the same optimisation techniques used on a normal website and transfer them across to a mobile site.

General tips on optimising your page for a mobile device.

• Avoid using JavaScript – Although many mobile devices are compatible with JavaScript there a still many more which won’t be able to render it and those which could have compatibility issues.


• Minimise CSS - Do this by cutting down on CSS rules and including them directly in the head tag of the page without a separate .css file. This will not only make the page load up more quickly but it will also require fewer file lookups per page request.


• Standard meta – For a mobile site I keep a similar meta structure to any other site. The title tag goes at the top of the list for importance. Remembering not to stuff the keywords, meta is important as it will help in reducing page size. Keeping the description to 10-15 words will help as most mobile search engines won’t display much more than 60-80 characters.


• Handheld-friendly meta – Remember to tell search engines that your site is made for or at least compatible with mobile devices by including the handheld meta tag:

<meta name="HandheldFriendly" content="true" />


• URLs – Keeping URLs SEO-friendly is easy enough but for mobile devices it's good practice to try to make sure they are as short as possible. Remove the www. at the start to reduce every URL by four characters before you even type in the domain name. By using .htaccess file rules you can also remove file extensions such as .html which would normally be another five characters. In total that’s nine characters the user won’t have to type in to a mobile keypad for each URL.


• Inline – Normally this is something I would avoid but since we wanted to speed up page processing and cut down on CSS files it is OK to include extra attributes to HTML elements such height, width, align etc.


• Design – You can cut down on the need for image-heavy designs by making the most of HTML styling such as dashed borders and colouring. This will help on page load speed and file requests.

Overall, mobile site optimisation is like a more intense version of general on-page SEO. Taking small changes such as SEO-friendly URLs and making them ultra short to help usability and cutting down on file requests is only the start.

The technology behind mobile websites is progressing at a faster speed today than any other technology on the market. In my opinion, the best technology to keep up to date with is that which shows growth and not just what is popular at the time.

The graph above shows the trends in mobile devices. Opera mobile browsers which mostly support Flash and JavaScript have shown growth over the last year where as iPhone popularity looks to have dropped. Meanwhile, Nokia mobile browsers have remained steady throughout the year and both Blackberry and Android - although not as popular - have still shown good growth, suggesting it might be worth investing in compatibility for these browsers if you want to increase mobile visitors to your site.

theEweekly Wrap - MySpace, marketing and internet privacy

Don't stop believing

Flagging social network MySpace has teamed up with hit US drama Glee in an effort to entice users back to the service. The site, which many consider to be singing its final notes, is offering members the chance to star in the next season of the musical programme - currently shown on E4 in the UK - by submitting an audition tape. The bosses behind MySpace will be hoping the new campaign stems the exodus of users to rival social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. "Once an online hotspot attracting musicians and movie stars, MySpace has almost capsized in Facebook's wake," wrote Mercedes Bunz in The Guardian. "After the sudden departure of its chief executive, Owen Van Natta, recently, the new bosses decided to focus on what they've got, and that is several million active users left, and a huge media company in the background," she continued.

Show me the money

New figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau revealed online marketing investment continued to rise over 2008-2009. The study, conducted in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers, found internet adspend grew from £3.54 billion in 2008 to £3.54 billion a year later. The 4.2 per cent rise in online marketing came despite the deepest recession since World War Two. "Ten years ago, online was a new medium with high expectations but backed by little commercial reality," said Eva Berg-Winters of PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Since then, it has matured to become an integral part of our lives, which marketers have learned to trust." A separate report from an American digital marketing group revealed that 81 per cent of companies are planning to run paid search campaigns in 2010. The SEMPO State of Search Report surveyed just under 1,500 companies across the globe.

Analytical advances

Former Google employee Brian Clifton has speculated that users will become more concerned with issues of privacy over the next five years. Speaking to Search Engine Land, the former head of web analytics for Google EMEA said searchers would start to limit the amount of personal data they shared online. He argued that the SEO industry needed to accept the shift in user attitudes. "The key is putting the user in control of their privacy. We have a long way to go in this area," said Clifton. "I would like to see the industry lead the way in protecting online privacy." Most recently, Google introduced the option for web users to remove their data from user-tracking software Google Analytics. Approximately 80 per cent of digital organisations in the UK use the software to monitor the number of site visitors.