Facebook Timeline

Although announced at the end of last year, the new look Facebook Timeline hasn’t been a compulsory change for all 800 million plus users of the social networking site. Some people were able to get access to the new features but the majority are still using the traditional Facebook page layout. All this is about to change though with Facebook making the change compulsory over the coming weeks with users having seven days to play around with their new profile once clicking get ‘Timeline‘ before it becomes permanent. The idea behind Timeline is that it’s “the story of your life and [a] completely new way to express yourself.” The creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, says that he wants users to share their entire lives on Facebook yet still have complete control over how they share their content online. The new change hasn’t gone down too well with the social giants users though with many upset over the new features but some are enjoying the new layout and are being very creative with the design of their new Timeline.

Streaming Shows with NetFlix

The speed of the Internet has increased dramatically since its introduction and has allowed for a whole new range of sites, services and features. One such service which has improved dramatically over recent years is the ability to watch and stream movies and TV shows over the Internet. This month saw the UK launch of Netflix, the US online and DVD rental service and with a one month free subscription the sign up has been very positive. The service allows users to watch the latest movies and TV shows such as 24, Doctor Who and South Park whenever they want on a variety of devices including PCs, laptops, smartphones and video game consoles. But is this high uptake rate going to continue once the monthly subscription rate starts after the free period ends?

Netflix has been fairly active on the social media circuit gauging customers’ opinions and as with any direct customer feedback it hasn’t all been positive. Whilst Netflix has been posting about its great range of titles and increasing its catalogue range, users have responded directly back saying the range is limited and that they will leave as soon as the free period ends. The majority of users have said the service is good though but Netflix needs to make sure customers are happy to continue paying for its service. Social media is a great way to get instant feedback from customers and although it hasn’t all been positive for Netflix, hopefully they will be able to addresses the issues raised, improve its catalogue range and then engage more positively with users on its social media sites.

HeadRed Google+

The other week we blogged about the integration that Google is going to be introducing between its social media site Google+ and the search engine itself with ‘Search Plus Your World’. If you haven’t got one already then now is a great time to set up your Google+ profile and find out what it’s all about. If you have a personal Google+ profile or a business page then why not add HeadRed to one of your circles? The HeadRed Google+ page features the latest news and postings from ourselves as well as circles featuring interesting people from the world of SEO and the Internet.

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At the end of last week Google issued its latest update to its search algorithms, but don’t worry as this isn’t another big change like the Panda update of 2011. In fact on Google’s Inside Search blog they state that only one in 100 searches might see a slight reordering of search results and that equates to less than 1% of global search.

The algorithm update is to penalise sites that feature too many ads “above the fold” and make it hard to find the actual content on the page. Content should be visible as soon as a user lands on a page so Google is looking to not rank sites as highly that feature too many ads making up large sections on a site’s initial screen. As always it’s important to focus on the user experience on a website and if someone visiting can’t find the content they are looking for through the forest of adverts, they are unlikely to return.

Google have said that this is only one of more than 500 improvements to search that they are planning to implement this year, so whilst this one isn’t a major change that you will likely need to worry about, it’s always worth noting the changes that the search engine giant is rolling out to make searching the web a better experience.

To find out the latest news about Google Search and SEO, make sure to follow the HeadRed blog where our SEO Coventry team will be keeping you up to date on the latest.

A quarterly survey by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has reported that companies’ marketing budgets for what is considered the main media forms – TV, radio and press – have been cut, whilst Internet advertising has seen a big boost. Whilst there is an old saying that, “when times are good, then advertise your business; when times are bad, then advertise even more”, this advice isn’t being heeded. Confidence among UK marketing executives is at the lowest levels for three years.

So if companies aren’t advertising during the break in Coronation Street, having a page spread in the national newspaper or being featured on local radio, what are they doing to promote their products or services? The survey found that many were favouring price discounts and online advertising over the traditional advertising methods and with only 10% of marketing executives having a positive outlook on the financial situation for the ad and marketing industry, it’s no wonder we are seeing more companies utilising online methods for advertising and marketing.

The great thing about online advertising is that it’s not just restricted to adverts located on different sites that allow companies to advertise online. The dominance of social media on the web has allowed many retailers to engage with their customers and advertise their products directly to their audience. On Twitter, there are numerous companies that are constantly advertising throughout the day, with businesses such as video game retailer GAME, online entertainment retailer Play.com and fashion giant Next all engaging with users on a daily basis. It’s not just the big companies that can utilise social media as a form of advertising either, with smaller local companies being able to target people based on location and offer their services and products.

With Twitter, Facebook and Google+, any company has easy access to a huge audience, so it’s no surprise to see companies favouring online over the traditional methods of advertising. That’s not to say that offline marketing is dead though. The survey found that firms are looking to increase their budgets in 2012 compared with last year and with major events such as London 2012 Olympics approaching, advertisers will have a large audience to target.

To discuss how a social media or SEO Coventry targeted campaign could help your business, get in touch with HeadRed.

Cadbury reveal new product on Google+

What with Google announcing this week the inclusion of Google+ into search results, it will be interesting to monitor whether companies increase their presence on Google’s social network. One such company already using Google+ to their advantage is the chocolate manufacture Cadbury, who announced a brand new product via the social site the other day; the Dairy Milk Bubbly bar. This is considered to be the first time a company has used Google+ to introduce a new product and Cadbury was keen to let this be known by posting “remember this moment: the first time Cadbury revealed a new product on Google+”.

Although over 2,000 people have the Cadbury UK brand in one of their Google+ ‘circles’, the company maybe didn’t have complete faith in the Bubbly bar spreading throughout the net via Google+ alone, with reveals on Twitter and Facebook soon after. This is unsurprising due to the vast number of more active users on the other two social sites but it shows that companies are starting to view Google+ as a viable source for marketing activity.

Facebook add ads to news feeds

At the end of last year, Facebook announced that they would be soon implementing paid sponsored ads into users news feeds and this week saw the feature begin to appear on some people’s profiles. Facebook has featured adverts on its pages for a while now that can be related to anything, not just products or services you may have ‘liked’ and only appear outside of your news feed. These new sponsored ads will appear directly in your news feed but the difference is they will be related to pages that you have previously ‘liked’.  Say for example you like the KFC Facebook page, a sponsored ad could appear in your feed for a new burger that they are offering and be listed as a ‘Featured’ news item. This allows companies to offer new products or services directly to people that have expressed an interest in their company.

The reason some are viewing this as a bad thing is because of the terminology Facebook has chosen to use. If a news feed item is listed as ‘Featured’ then users may not be aware that this is actually a paid advert. Should they instead be listed as ‘Sponsored’? It will be interesting to see how users react to this or if they even notice as Facebook continues the slow roll out of sponsored ads into the news feed.

2012 Twitter Trending

The start of 2012 has seen a similar phrase appearing in the top trends in the United Kingdom everyday and if it continues we will be seeing it for the rest of the year. This year is a leap year and “Page # of 366”, where # indicates how many days into the year we are, has for some reason become a popular phrase to include in Tweets for a large number of Twitter users. Twitter is a great source for breaking news but sometimes the trends list can be taken up by useless phrases such as this. Although many users are using the phrase, not everyone is keen on seeing it everyday for the rest of the year and as one disgruntled Twitter user Tweeted today “Page 13 of 366 is trending… If this continues all year, I’ll officially know how little time ppl on twitter have”.

HeadRed offer web design and SEO Coventry services with over 11 years of web experience. Get in touch today to find out how an SEO campaign can offer  greater visibility to your site for more visitors, enquiries and new business.

Ever since Google launched its new social network, Google+, rumours have been flying around about when and how it would be integrated into search results. Well, now we know. Yesterday, Google announced the biggest change to the way search results are displayed for many years. They’re calling it ‘Search, plus Your World‘ and it could have a huge impact on the way people find content on the web.

The big idea is to merge ‘public’ search results with content from the searcher’s Google+ social network by adding three new elements: Personal Results, Profiles in Search and People and Pages.

The success and impact of these changes depends on how many people sign up to Google+ and start using it regularly. At the moment, with the dominance of Facebook, it’s hard to imagine users switching to Google+ en masse, but having said that, the uptake of Google+ has been huge with over 50 million users signed-up in a little over 6 months.

HeadRed will be keeping a close eye on the changes to keep our SEO Coventry clients fully informed.

This week The British Heart Foundation (BHF) revealed a new advert to promote the use of CPR featuring hard-man ex-footballer turned hard-man actor, Vinnie Jones. After earning a reputation as a tough man on the pitch during his time as part of the ‘Crazy Gang’ playing for Wimbledon FC, including that famous picture of him getting to grips with Paul Gascoigne, Vinnie then went on to star as a range of hooligans, criminals and a powerful comic book villain in films such as Lock, Stock and Two smoking Barrels, Snatch, Gone in 60 Seconds and X-Men: The Last Stand. But does the actor keep up his hard-man persona in this video?

The video is a very clever parody of the ‘Vinnie Jones’ character and shows him playing a gangster teaching how to perform CPR. The BHF have said that anyone without insufficient CPR training should not perform the “kiss of life” but focus on hands-only CPR instead and Vinnie shows how to perform the life saving procedure to the beat of the Bee Gees hit “Stayin’ Alive”.

Have a look for yourself.

The video has been a success for The BHF with the YouTube video on the official channel receiving over 150,000 views and nearly 5,000 likes. The video has also been picked up by a wide range of online news sites and blogs this week as well as featuring heavily on social media sites. Facebook has seen the video shared multiple times and a large quantity of positive comments on The BHF wall. The campaign has also been trending throughout the week on Twitter with the promoted hashtag #hardandfast trending as well as other phrases relating to the video meaning many people were discussing the humorous video.

The “Hard & Fast” video has been a great example of a successful online campaign to promote a good cause and message. The humorous angle taken by The BHF has appealed to many people who have then shared the video with friends via social media networks and the life saving advice featured in the video has meant coverage by a wide range of news sites. Online coverage of this level is beneficial for both conveying a message to a wide audience and can also lead to an increase in search engine rankings. More links to a site can mean improvements in rankings and sharing content via social media sites is a great way to gain these links.

If you would like to discuss a social media or SEO Coventry based campaign then get in touch with HeadRed today to discuss what we can do for your business or organisation.