The most popular Foursquare locations in Manchester

Foursquare, the geo-tagging social network, recently revealed that over 1.7 million people had registered on the site. The game, launched in March last year, sees users 'check into' venues across the country in order to earn points and rewards. The service also acts as a catalyst for impromptu meetings over a coffee or beer thanks to the fact that individuals can see if their Foursquare 'friends' are in the nearby area.

Aside from being a hub for marketing agencies and SEO, Manchester is also known for its keenness to get involved in new social media opportunities. The digital community has embraced a number of different social channels and the city regularly plays host to gatherings and meetups related to social networks. So naturally, Foursquare usage is quite high in the city.

Here are the ten most popular locations in Manchester city centre, based on the number of 'check ins', according to Map.pr.

Rank	Location	Check-ins
1	Manchester Picadilly Train Station	2,636
2	Common Bar	772
3	Piccadilly Gardens	626
4	Arndale Centre	620
5	Madlab	298
6	The Cornerhouse	225
7	Trof	217
8	Starbucks (Oxford Road)	172
=9	Boots	171
=9	Selfridges & Co	171

So, what can we tell from this information?

Manchester's Foursquare users are sociable. Three out of the ten locations are bars or pubs. Furthermore, we can assume they have access to disposable income, given the appearance of the Arndale Centre, Boots and Selfridges on the list.

The appearance of Madlab, the digital community centre, isn't really surprising, given the nature of the city's early social adopters. The top result, Piccadilly Train Station, shouldn't come as a surprise either, considering the amount of commuters coming in and out of the city. This information, however, can lead us to assume that Foursquare users have hobbies or occupations which necessitate long-distance travel.

Why is this information important?

Foursquare gives marketers the opportunity to accumulate a huge selection of data on a particular demographic. If the social channel continues its growth, dispersing across a wider community, it will offer companies the opportunity to collect data about their consumers' interests, hobbies and favourite venues.

Geo-tagging services like Foursquare allow marketers the opportunity to hone their digital and real-world advertising campaigns. These social channels provide an unprecedented level of access to consumers; the only question is, who will take advantage of it first?

You can find more about social media marketing at theEword. Alternatively, you can also follow us on Twitter, @theeword.

iPhone 4 - What's in the box?

Today, theEword saw its first iPhone 4 enter the office. Naturally, theEword SEO blog was first in to see what all the fuss was about.

Here's a few quick pictures for your enjoyment:

theEweekly Wrap - Apple, Google and Facebook

Apple of the day

It's been a massive week for iPhone news. With companies desperate to jump onto the PR coattails of the iPhone 4 launch, a raft of new apps, reports, statistics and figures have been pushed out to the press. Of course, the big story this week was the long-awaited release of Apple's latest baby. Indeed, those Apple devotees desperate to get their hands on the new handset queued for hours to be the first to claim ownership of the phone. And if the sight of thousands snaking down the high street wasn't enough for Apple's Golden Delicious Steve Jobs, the news that the world has spent $29 billion on the company in 2010 probably made him smile. Still, it wasn't all shine for Apple; news of signal problems, screen issues and a rumour of intentional stock shortages blighted the launch with many users expressing their dissatisfaction with the new model. However, given Apple's success rate, the issues probably won't stop people buying one.

Google goes through walls

Google may be attempting to close the growing rift between itself and the publishing industry with the launch of a new paid content system. A report from the Italian newspaper La Repubblica announced that the search engine giant may be readying itself to launch a feature called 'Newspass', a system which would allow users to quickly pay for online content. According to the paper, Google has approach publishers to gauge interest in the software, with the intention of releasing the product by the end of the year. The feature would allow users to quickly pay for content through a universal payment system, rather than submitting their card details to every single site. The announcement of the feature may have come too late for The Times; a new subscriber-only model resulted in a 4.37 per cent decline in market share.

Billionaire

Mark Zuckerberg, better known as Mr. Facebook, told reporters this week that his site could be the first social network to hit 1 billion users. Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France, the founder of Facebook commented that continuing expansion in China, Russia and Japan would see the site break the landmark figure "While Facebook has fewer than 1 million users in Russia, the growth rate is doubling every six months," he told the audience. Indeed, Zuckerberg believes that, while the site probably can't top the 1 billion mark in 2010, it probably has a 'decent shot' in the next few years. In related news, Facebook is rumoured to have blocked a new Twitter application which encourages integration between the two sites. The app, which allows Twitter users to see which of their Facebook friends are on both sites, was blocked hours after it was announced. The two parties are said to be negotiating a resolution.

Series: Browser Share Experiment

"Which browser are you?" is a question I’m often asked. I have to admit, I used to quite like Internet Explorer. When I used it, I never had any problems and the sites that I built at the time were simple enough that they never had any problems, whether they were displaying in IE or in Firefox. Chrome hadn't been released at that point and Safari didn’t exist for the PC, which is my platform of choice. Nowadays, however, I use Firefox as I find I just can’t do without Firebug, one of the features that, for me, make it the most reliable browser on the market.

There’s always news about the different browsers available – in Germany people were advised firstly not to use Internet Explorer and then Firefox due to apparent security risks. Add to that the fact Microsoft was also made to let European users choose their own browser - instead of automatically forcing them to use Internet Explorer - and you have a massive debate on your hands.

While this debate continues to dominate, I still hear complaints about all of the browsers from all sides. If I don’t hear that Firefox is continually crashing (a problem I’ve luckily never had) it’s that Internet Explorer isn’t rendering things correctly or that Safari or Chrome is running slower than normal.

With this in mind, I’ve set out on a journey to see which is the best, most reliable and secure browser today. That isn’t to say that what I find may be a universal answer – but it may be the best solution for me. And who knows? My mind might change as to what is the best browser for me.

With that, let’s round up the most popular browsers in a little list:

• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Safari
• Chrome

So, I hear you ask, how am I going to test this? Well, first of all I’ll start by using the latest version of each browser for a week. That’s it – one whole week. I’m not going to test any specific elements – I don’t want to make it too technical. After each week I’ll report back to you with my opinions on the best and worst parts of each browser and my experiences with it.

Think of this as a mini experiment, from an unbiased party, about browsers. Everybody has their own opinion on which browser works best for them– I’m just on a mission to find mine! See you in a week.

The importance of a good logo

In most cases, the logo is the first point of contact that you will have with your user. Whether it is on a business card or your website, the logo represents you and your company. It's vital to make the right impression, whether your aim is to inform, create sales or just to get your name out there.

A good logo should always be relevant, memorable and clear, while still delivering the message that you want to send. It’s also important to ensure the logo is simple and not overly complicated, and that it works well in black and white or flat colours. Let’s look at these points in a bit more detail:

• Relevant
This means that the logo should relate to the industry and company that the logo is for. For example, using a cupcake or loaf of bread as a mark for a bakery or a cup of coffee for a café would be relevant. Another important thing to consider is that you don’t make the logo too clichéd, in which case it won't stand out or be unique.

Both 'Wine Searcher' and 'Harvester' logos by Gareth Hardy

• Memorable
Some of the best logos are the most memorable. Think for a moment of your favourite logos – what are they? Among my most memorable logos are Apple, Microsoft and Twitter. What is it that causes us to recall these logos – are they easy to remember, or just visually pleasing? Some logos are of course memorable for all the wrong reasons – take the recent AOL rebrand, for instance, or the 2012 London Olympics logo. These both caused controversy, but as such they are more memorable for it.

2012 London Olympics Logo

AOL Logo

• Deliver the message The key to a logo is to correctly communicate a message. This could be as simple as what your company is about and what you do, to displaying your ethos and ethics. This is where the imagery used and the typography is important as, for example, using the wrong typeface could make or break the logo. This is also where suitability comes into play – is it suitable to use a grungy font for a logo for a solicitors firm, or would you use that for something such as a rock music event?

'Kosher Wine Express' by Euan Mackenzie

• Clear
It is essential that your logos are clear. This relates to Deliver the message, where you need to ensure that the correct impression is made. Logos should be clear not only so that they communicate messages clearly, but also so that they are usable. This means ensuring that your logo can be used across many different areas – perhaps in video, on stationery or business cards. If your logo isn’t clear then it will likely not display correctly on the variety of media you want to use it on.

'High Contrast Photography' by Gareth Hardy

'Hanuet Wine' by Euan Mackenzie

• Simple
The best logos work because they are simple. This isn’t to say that you can’t include a complicated mark, as seen below in several designs. Although these designs may look complex at first glance, with plenty of graphical elements and colours used, you can see that they are laid out in a way that is still easy on the eye and easy to digest. Images – Elena Savi’s new logo, Arka Nuova – brohouse @Logopond, iDream images – Siah-Design @ Logopond, Bee by AlexanderSpliid @ Logopond

Personal Branding logo by Elena Savitskaya

'Arka Nuova' by brohouse at Logopond

'iDream images' by Siah-Design at Logopond

'Bee' by AlexanderSpliid at Logopond

• Works well in varying colours/instances
One of the most overlooked but most important things about creating a logo is ensuring that it firstly works well in black and white. Remember that people may be printing out emails or documents from you but it’s not always going to be in colour – and if your logo doesn’t translate well without colour, then it won’t display well and will look unprofessional.

Both 'Camryn Holt' and 'Orkney Campers' logos both by Euan Mackenzie

I hope this has given you an insight on the importance of having a good logo. If you have any thoughts or questions, or just want to add to the discussion, feel free to comment on this post.

theEweekly Wrap - Google property, WordPress 3.0 and Twitter downtime

A place in the SERPs

Google got onto the property ladder this week, launching its long-awaited property-finding service. The new feature, which is integrated into Google Maps, offers house-hunters the chance to see the abodes up for sale or rent in a particular area. The system, which includes property listings from PropertyLive, Countrywide and Zoomf, allows users to explore homes in and around an area, as well as being able to refine their search by price and number of bedrooms. "In a survey conducted just before Google Street View launched across the entire UK, a fifth of those surveyed said they had used the service for househunting," crowed the announcement on Google's blog. "We hope they’ll find this new feature really useful for exploring what’s available in neighbourhoods right across the UK." For those interested, the nearest property to theEword is located a mere seven minutes away; a lovely 4-bedroom semi-detached next to Old Trafford stadium.

Word up

The SEO community woke up on Friday to discover a new version of popular blogging software WordPress. The 3.0 version of the programme, which includes a host of new features, has been met with a positive reception with many authors praising the modifications. Changes in the update include custom post types, menu management, multi-site capabilities and custom shortlinks. The software, which has been in development for six months, was announced on the official WordPress blog yesterday evening. "Arm your vuvuzelas," wrote Matt Mullenwag, founding developer of WordPress. "WordPress 3.0, the thirteenth major release of WordPress and the culmination of half a year of work by 218 contributors, is now available for download."

There be whales

It's been a busy week for the technicians at Twitter. As many of theEword's Twitter followers have pointed out, the popular micro-blogging site has been suffering from repeated spells of downtime this week as a result of technical upgrades on the site. The staff at Twitter acknowledged the site's instability on Tuesday with an entry on the official blog. "We're working through tweaks to our system in order to provide greater stability at a time when we're facing record traffic," stated the post "However, we certainly are not happy about the disruptions that we have faced and even caused this week and understand how they negatively impact our users." More positive news came for Twitter on Thursday with the release of Promoted Tweets, a new paid-for service for advertisers. Disney was the first company to take advantage of the service, highlighting its latest release, Toy Story 3.

Location, location, location: Twitter unveils new Places feature

Twitter has finally released the long-awaited Twitter Places, a new feature which allows tweeters to tag updates with their location, offering the chance to provide more information in their tweets without taking up vital character space. Users will be able to tag their tweets with well-known places, create their own landmarks or view all the tweets from a chosen location.


The official Twitter blog uses the example of people tweeting from football matches in South Africa to demonstrate Twitter Places’ usefulness. “It helps to know where a Tweet is coming from—is that person watching the game on TV or is he actually in the stadium?” said Othman Karaki on the site's blog.

“You can also click a Twitter Place within a Tweet to see recent Tweets from a particular location. Try it out during the next match—you will be able to see Tweets coming from the stadium.”

Integrated features
The ability to place tweets is not the only feature of Twitter Places. The new application will also include full Foursquare and Gowalla integration; when a user of either social networking site checks in to a location the information can now be displayed on Twitter. People can also check out their favourite places on Twitter to see who has checked-in.

Similarly, Twitter Places will have full API functionality, allowing developers to use Twitter Places in other applications. The feature will also support a variety of browsers, meaning that people can use it on Safari and Internet Explorer as well as Chrome and Firefox.

So, how does it work?
According to the blog, Twitter has worked in close conjunction with TomTom and Localeze to create Twitter Places. Using data from both companies, the social networking site has been able to pull together well-known places and their geographic locations into a comprehensive map system.

If someone wants to tweet from one of these locations they simply have to select it from a list; if it’s not there, the user adds the address and place name and the location gets added to the Twitter Places database.

A handy guide to using Twitter Places
So you’ve heard about the new feature Twitter Places and can’t wait to start telling your friends where you are all the time. How do you go about it?

Enabling the feature
Fairly simple. Just go to your Account settings and check the box marked ‘Add a location to your tweets.’


Selecting a location
Underneath the tweet box there should now be a ‘Search places’ option. All you have to do is type in the location you wish to tag your tweet with and select it from the list.


Adding places
If the place you require is not featured on Twitter’s listed locations, it’s easy to add it on. Merely click on the ‘Add this place!’ link and fill in the address and place name when prompted.


It is also possible to move the map pin to your precise location in order to achieve greater accuracy.

Exploring Twitter Places
Once a tagged tweet has been posted, followers can click the geo-pin in the tweet and find out where it has come from. It is also possible to click the place name within the tag to explore all of the most recent tweets originating from that location.


Twitter Places is expected to roll out in 65 countries this week. Twitter is also expected to be working on making the feature compatible with different brands of smartphone, so it seems the micro-blogging site is expecting it to be very popular. If this proves to be the case, one can only hope that Tweeters don’t start using it to take ‘following’ too literally.

theEword Academy - Managing a company Twitter account

Social media manager Tom Mason talks about the golden rules when tweeting for an organisaion.

As social media manager for theEword, it's my responsibility to manage and execute the strategy for the company's official Twitter feed. As with all corporate accounts, there are some very specific guidelines as to what the stream can and cannot feature. Here are just a few of the ways we use the service:

Self promotion

theEword SEO copywriting team creates fresh content for theEword throughout the working week. These articles, which focus on news and opinion from the SEO industry, are perfect fodder for the corporate Twitter feed.

Why?

Twitter is an ideal news broadcast service. It offers companies and individuals the opportunity to highlight their content in the hope of garnering retweets or inbound links. It allows your articles and your brand to gain a substantial increase in coverage.

Staff news

theEword Twitter account often features news about daily life at theEword. It features photographs of the team at work, as well as posting updates about birthdays and other special occasions.

Why?

Corporate Twitter accounts are often accused of being dull; accounts which seldom offer anything other than the latest account win or back-slapping blog. By offering followers an insight into the life in the company, you're able to give the account some personality, demonstrating that there's more to corporate culture than ties and meetings.

Retweets

theEword Twitter account frequently retweets updates from the users it follows. Manchester has an exceptionally active SEO community, many of whom post engaging and interesting articles on their personal blogs. Much of this content finds its way onto theEword Twitter stream.

Why?

Retweets are the fuel of a successful social media campaign. It demonstrates that an account is an active member of the Twitter community, rather than just a mouthpiece for promotion. Your followers don't just want news about your own blogs, but rather information about the industry as a whole. By offering content from a third-party, you're establishing yourself as a resource rather than an advert.

Interactions

theEword often throws its hat into conversations about the industry, as well as readily responding to queries related to SEO, social media or development.

Why?

Interaction gives you the chance to form a relationship with your followers. It offers the opportunity to provide a service and create a bond between potential consumers and the company.

Talk to us on theEword on Twitter for more information and advice.

theEweekly Wrap - Google, Apple and FourSquare

Lick of paint

Google annoyed nearly everyone in the SEO industry this week after revealing a new homepage style. The design, which drew widespread criticism after its release yesterday, removed the calm and comforting background of Google's site, replacing it with a random image (or if users log in, a picture of their choice). "To provide you with an extra bit of inspiration, we‘ve collaborated with several well-known artists, sculptors and photographers to create a gallery of background images you can use to personalize your Google homepage," read the official Google blog. Many SEOers were quick to point out the search engine seemed to be following Microsoft's lead on the design change. Indeed, Bing has been offering the same feature since its launch in 2009. The change did not go unnoticed over in the Microsoft camp either, with Ashley Highfield, managing director of Microsoft's consumer division in the UK, saying: "Imitation, however pale, is the sincerest form of flattery."

Four is the magic number

It came as little surprise to find out that Apple had a new version of the iPhone in the works. The new model, which was announced this week by head Apple Steve Jobs, had already been leaked into the public domain after a tester had lost the handset in a bar. Still, while none of the iPhone 4's specifications came as a shock, the phone was well received by the media. You can read more about the new model in a special theEword news story by SEO copywriter Carli Harris. In related news, UK telecom giant O2 annoyed a large proportion of its Apple subscriber base by announcing data caps for iPhone 4 users. While 3G owners had previously enjoyed unlimited data transfer on existing contracts, those hoping to purchase the latest Apple model will have to limit their mobile browsing to under 500Mbs or 750Mbs, depending on their package.

Four Snub

The Chinese government embraced one of the latest social media channels last week, blocking users from accessing popular geo-tagging game FourSquare. Beijing took the option to ban the location-based service, which sees individuals post their whereabouts to friends, after it became apparent users were leaving messages of condolence when 'checking into' Tiananmen Square, site of the 1989 protests. The decision to block the site coincided with the 21st anniversary of the event which saw the death of over 3,000 students and demonstrators. While it is illegal to discuss the incident in public, dissidents of the communist regime often protest using social networking sites. Indeed, this is not the first occasion where the government has restricted access to the internet and, in 2009, users were unable to access Twitter, Hotmail or Flickr over the anniversary of the massacre.

Google experiments with Experiments: New split testing tool is ACE

Google has announced the beta trial of AdWords Campaign Experiments, or ACE, a new tool designed to help advertisers test campaign changes. The tool takes the form of a ‘simultaneous split test’, allowing users to run a new or modified campaign alongside the original, ensuring greater accuracy in test results.




Previously, AdWords users could only keep an eye on the success of any ad changes by measuring how the campaign was faring before the changes were made. As the Google Inside AdWords blog points out, this style of testing can’t account for external events that happen as the test takes place. Weekends, holidays and user behaviour have been cited as just some of the occurrences, largely out of the advertiser’s control, which may affect a campaign during a test.

Faster, more accurate tests

This is where Campaign Experiments steps in. By allowing the user to run their original campaign alongside the new experimental one, the results from the test can then provide far more precise statistics. Measuring both campaigns simultaneously ensures any differences noted in test results are definitely down to campaign changes as opposed to other events.




"ACE allows you to perform faster, more accurate tests by executing your experimental campaign alongside your original campaign," Product Marketing Manager Courtney Lischke posted on the Inside AdWords blog this week.

"By performing this type of simultaneous split test, we can tell you precisely if your campaign changes produce statistically significant results."

Unfortunately, the beta test of the tool is only currently available to advertisers in the US but, as Google is always trying to work with marketers to improve their service, we’re sure they are keen to get the ball rolling on a worldwide release as soon as possible.

Search engine results celebrities

Yahoo announced today that they have signed up international football icon David Beckham for a new $100 million (£69m) advertising campaign. The marketing push, which begins tomorrow, sees the ex-Manchester United star advertise exclusive World Cup news and content from the search engine.

Yahoo isn't the only technological giant to enlist the help of a celebrity to promote their brand though; search engines and tech companies from across the globe have pulled in famous faces to front a new marketing drive.

Here are some of the best:

Microsoft: I'm a PC, 2008

Microsoft hired a number of famous faces for its "I'm a PC" campaign in 2008. Singer Pharrell Williams and actress Eva Longoria were among the many celebrities to proclaim their love for the Windows operating system as the company tried to re-establish its brand against Apple.

Apple: Get a Mac, 2002

This international campaign for Apple Macs featured different celebrities depending on which country you happened to be watching the advert in. Viewers in the United Kingdom were treated to local comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb as the two, playing the roles of PC and Mac respectively, discussed their relative merits and flaws.

Google: Search On, 2009

Google's Search Stories aimed to reveal the personality behind the search engine. The campaign, which was notable for its slot during the American Super Bowl commercials, followed the search queries of a number of different users. Including iconic D.C Comics hero Batman.


AOL: The Internet, 2006

Back in 2006, AOL hired the soothing tones of British thespian John Hurt for its marketing campaign. In two videos, entitled 'good' and 'bad', Hurt presented arguments for and against the internet. theEword blog has embedded the 'good' video above as the bad version is a little too depressing for our taste.

SERPs, heat maps and teamwork

In case you missed it, Richard Frost wrote a fantastic piece over on the main site last week about what would happen if Google swapped paid and natural results on their SERPs. The idea is that the company could generate more revenue if it were to swap its right and left hand columns, based on the fact that roughly 35 per cent of clicks go through PPC listings, contributing around £15.6 billion income. The article asks what would happen should the switch take place, with some interesting results.

The idea for Richard's piece came out of a conversation with our lead developer Adrian Mursec, who'd played around with the concept on the way back from a meeting. I'm proud of the way our staff are able to talk through ideas with each other and turn them into such engaging content.

The new article harks back to a blog I wrote last year about the effectiveness of the then newly launched Bing in drawing attention to its sponsored listings by tweaking its layout in comparison to Google (see the image on the right). That piece showed that by having its paid results closer to the main body of natural listings, Bing was better at drawing users' eyes over to the right hand column – almost twice as good as Google, in fact.

The use of heat maps in tracking user behaviour is something which I find fascinating – the idea that we can literally see what visitors see; keep a record of the things on our websites which they find most interesting. Is the news feed too close to the fold? Is anyone looking at it? Are more people drawn to the non-clickable image at the top left; and if so, should we turn it in to a link? Asking questions such as these – and arriving at the answers via A/B testing – is a vital part of improving conversion rates.

theEweekly Wrap - World Cup, YouTube, Mobile marketing

SEO Africa World Cup

A new study from Hitwise has revealed the extent of World Cup fever in the United Kingdom. The research, which focused on queries related to the 2010 world cup in South Africa, found nearly 25,000 terms were used to find information regarding the tournament. As you'd expect 'world cup 2010' was the most popular query with nearly 5 per cent of all searches. 'England world cup fixtures' claimed fourth place with 1.7 per cent of queries while 'world cup 2010 wall chart' notched up 1.1 per cent. Speaking about the research, Robin Goad - research director at Hitwise - said the results contained some surprises. "2,700 of the World Cup related searches last week contained the term 'England', while 6,900 included '2010'. However, the term that pleased me most last week was 'Panini world cup 2010', the 38th most popular variation. It's nice to see that in the era of iPads and games consoles, good old fashioned football stickers remain popular."

YouTube Candidate

Politics and social media collided this week as both Facebook and YouTube embraced those walking in the corridors of power. Earlier this week, YouTube launched a number of features for politicians hoping to win over the electorate. The YouChoose 2010 campaign toolkit was rolled out for federal and state candidates hoping to engage the digital electorate in the upcoming months, giving candidates the chance to host branded channels, interact with voters and offer longer videos. The launch came a day after research firm comScore found over 178 million American users had watched video (like YouTube) online during April. That's roughly 84 per cent of the entire US internet audience. In other political news, former U.S president George Bush Jnr. signed up for a Facebook account. Social media site Mashable commented: "Politics aside, it’s good to see another prominent political figure embracing social media just enough to get a taste of what people really think and feel."

Mobile momentum

It's been an interesting week for mobile marketing. On Tuesday, Google announced it would begin listing direct links to applications on mobile search results. The move, which will allow users to directly purchase iPhone and Android apps from searches, is designed to streamline the download process. Furthermore, individuals will also be able to read reviews and view the ratings of a particular application. The move comes as Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, said mobile marketing was altering search trends. Speaking at the D8 technology conference in Los Angeles this week, Jobs said: "We discovered something — people are going into apps. They’re not just going onto to websites. And people love apps." A recent study from comScore suggested that Jobs may be right. Mobile searches rose by 90 per cent across the United States over April, boosted by increased app usage. Indeed, news access via applications rose by 124 per cent over a year, while online retail rose by 91 per cent through application usage.