A Picture Speaks 1000 Words…What About an Infographic?

Made Essential Reading on 14 September 2011 by Felix Hemsley | No responses

We decided that the usual approach to displaying agency credentials can be a little hum drum and dry, no real personality and often cluttered with information which agencies believe is vital to the reader. Out of this frustration was born the Essential Credentials Infographic, an “at a glance” view of our agency. Highlighting our best bits and incorporating QR codes for those who want to know more, this Essential infographic serves to give a more lighthearted and interactive medium than ever before. Check it out and let us know your thoughts and give us any feedback you feel we should hear.

Google Wave, Google Buzz…Google+! Is this third time lucky for the web giant?

Made Essential Reading on 3 August 2011 by Felix Hemsley | No responses

I’ve often been vocal about Google’s half baked attempts to enter the social space, however Google+ brings a lot more to the table.

Positioned as a direct competitor to Facebook, Google+ sets to leverage the massive influence of parent company Google to become a key player in the ever growing social space. Having just hit 25million visitors, it is well on its way to making its presence known and by creating a ‘Beta’ stage where users must have been invited it has not only added to the exclusivity, and dare I say excitement, but also created the ideal platform for a global launch.

Current visitors to the registration page will be greeted with the following message:

“At the moment, we’re testing with a small number of people, but it won’t be long
before the Google+ project is ready for everyone. Leave us your email address
and we’ll make sure that you’re the first to know when we’re ready to invite more people.”

Is Google+ the new Facebook?

I’ve been pondering this question over the past few weeks as Google+ has grown rapidly (faster than any other social network’s rise) and I believe we’re seeing an additional platform rather than an alternative and here’s why.

• Those who are on Facebook are already familiar with its interface and mechanics
• Facebook still has over 500 Million users
• Integration of Facebook functionality is already widespread across the web
• Existing Facebook users already have their circle of friends
• Digital social dynamics will have been formed amongst online friends and groups of contacts

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Google+ will wither away and be forgotten, but I don’t believe that it will suddenly be taking the Facebook user base away. As we have become more accustomed to the concept of social networks, individuals are more experimental, happier dabbling with other options. Personally I believe that it is this intrigue and “want” to be part of something which everyone is talking about which has driven the rapid adoption and exploration of this new platform. Just as we saw for twitter during its “summer of love”, the growth is rapid, the drop off is quick and what remains are millions of unmaintained accounts.

In an ecosystem which is potentially saturated with social networks and options for every imaginable interest, I’ll be waiting with baited breath to see how Google+ sells its USPs to the masses. The Google+ “Circle” function which allows users to select which members of their community receive which updates is indeed ingenious, but is it really enough to be a deal breaker?

Google, I’ve enjoyed your starter but I shall wait for the main course before passing my final verdict. Bon appetit!

Stop treating me like a Troll, I’m a real person with real opinions!!

Made Essential Reading on 23 June 2011 by Felix Hemsley | No responses

As we find ourselves immersed in the digital age, we’re becoming increasingly obsessed with insight and analysis of user interaction, visits, page views, downloads, goals, conversions and any other metric you care to name. Focusing on blogs the one very important interaction mechanic and function is the ability to comment.

As a content creator and blog editor I look forward to, and get that warm feeling, when someone comments on a blog post with kind words or an alternative point of view.

If I didn’t want people to comment I’d turn off that functionality. Making it a black and white decision either you can manage comments effectively (a great post on the trials and tribulations of trolls can be found at Econsultancy) in which case you read each and every comment and post anything as long as it adheres to your guidelines or alternatively you can turn it off altogether.

However, I’ve recently noticed that blogs which I regularly read – which are by no means big players – are simply not nurturing those who try to participate in commenting on their blogs and in my experience my comments (which contained nothing but kind words and a potential extension to a piece) often don’t even appear. My delightful colleague @richard_turrell has joked that it’s because my opinions are boring, but the whole reason for allowing comments is so others can share their opinions, as a result of this apparent neglect I have become strangely irritated and widely disillusioned by certain blogs.

There is one blog in particular which I can no longer read as none of my comments have ever been posted, which to me is counter-productive, lazy or just plain bone-idle, which has ultimately lost them a reader and an engaged one at that.

In summary: If you’re keen to write content online and you have a comments section on your blog, then manage it in a structured and timely fashion. If you believe you don’t have the resource or time to handle them, then I suggest you turn commenting off. But whatever you do, please don’t neglect your readers who are trying to have some input, they have invested time reading your content and replying, the least you could do is do the same.

The Fallacy of Syndication in Social Media

Made Essential Reading on 13 June 2011 by Felix Hemsley | No responses

In all aspects of marketing, we’re forever discussing how content should be tailored to the audience, not out of a desire to multiply work, but because getting the right content to the right people really matters. From a social media perspective, the easy mistake is to stretch resources by jumping on board each and every platform that your target audience may be on and instead of taking the time to strategically review where best to focus your attention it can instead turn into a game of profile survival with content syndication becoming many marketeers’ saviour.

By syndication, I mean the automatic sharing of content from one social profile to another; for example you post a tweet and it appears on your linkedIn news feed. A fairly innocuous activity at first glance, simply sharing that one piece of information with all your contacts… But is it so innocuous? For all our talking about leveraging the social space and ensuring that what we’re saying is relevant, is this syndication a direct violation of our own social morals? Continue reading “The Fallacy of Syndication in Social Media” »

Will your success bring down your site?

Made Essential Reading on 27 April 2011 by Felix Hemsley | 1 response

Our online presences are increasingly the first point of call for potential customers, contacts and leads, but is that site able to handle a dramatic traffic shift. With the ever increasing use of corporate blogs, it’s easy to imagine how a single article may become your most valuable asset. Creating something which resonates with your audience is a vitally important aspect of writing a blog and whilst you hope it will be shared across the social web and read an inordinate number of times, have you considered the ramifications of what may happen if you’re a little more successful than you thought?

In my spare time, I write and manage a road biking blog which has now been running for almost 2 months. My existing community base (built up via twitter) helped support the blog launch and create a readership for my content, driving a regular base level of traffic. However, I began a discussion with an individual via twitter who was planning a trip away and was an ideal candidate for guest blogging. To cut a long story short, we posted her content upon her return and she let her community know. Little did I know that her community included the global press officers for one of the top pro cycling teams. Before I knew it I was being bombarded by emails asking if the content could be posted on team fan pages, pro teams were retweeting the content and the exclusive video and pictures were spreading like wild fire!

This was fantastic, what great exposure for the blog. The usual 15-25 visits a day we’re being over shadowed by the 150…200…250…300…visits it was now receiving. I couldn’t complain, I had been handed a silver platter of exclusive, high quality content. But I had made one oversight…my infrastructure. No sooner had I been high on the elation than I had an emergency email from my web host saying I had reached 98% of my traffic quota for the month. By the time I had logged in and upgraded my hosting package, my site was down. Visitors were met with dead pages, traffic was reaching a dead end. This looked bad, on both me and the author and every other person whom had shared the link!

If this had been a business scenario, these visitors could have been potential customers and all they would see is an error page. Hardly the ideal landing page solution! It’s hard to plan for traffic spikes, but it is something which should be carefully considered when carrying out publicity or running traffic driving campaigns.

Where does twitter’s business model leave small companies?

Made Essential Reading on 12 April 2011 by Felix Hemsley | No responses

Let me first set the scene. I recently read “Has Twitter abandoned small businesses?” over at The Wall UK which looked at how the high costs set by twitter are pricing the small businesses out of the game, unlike AdWords which allows every person no matter how small their budget to have a go!

With pricing starting at $5000 on Twitter’s marketing platform for its “promoted tweets” I am inclined initially to agree that small businesses are unlikely to be able to part with that kind of cash…but this did get me thinking about the whole concept of twitter’s newest evolution!

We are now in an age where individuals are becoming more savvy to the efforts made by marketers to tempt them, their web knowledge is greater than ever before, navigating the internet is second nature. All of this means that advertising in any format online is becoming increasingly approached with scepticism by the user. This scepticism can be seen with AdWords where users are clearly identifying them as marketing, where historically they were increasingly seen as “relevant results provided intelligently by Google”! But don’t get me wrong, in a search engine I believe that the interactive nature of the user and their reason for being there aligns perfectly with AdWords, and I believe Adwords can be a hugely powerful tool. Continue reading “Where does twitter’s business model leave small companies?” »

TFM&A – The Explorer’s Recap

Made Essential Reading on 12 April 2011 by Simon Mould | No responses

TFM&A is the UK’s largest & longest running multi-channel marketing, media & advertising event. Covering everything from direct mail and digital to data and CRM, TFM&A is a great source of information and an ideal means to see how the marketing and advertising industry is evolving as technology progresses.

This year, Charlotte Olney (who previously shared her findings here on the blog) & myself set off to the event in search of industry developments and hot topics…and a lesser spotted pink T-Shirt, but that’s another story!

1. Data is everything.

Marcel Holsheimer – VP Marketing, Unica

Boots: CRM – Advantage card.

In order to make this work Boots had to be clear on what they wanted to achieve from all the data they were soon to be capturing. To make sure they were targeting their promotions and communications correctly they needed to be thinking about:

Who are their customers? – Age group, parental status, sex…
What is being purchased? – Cosmetics, medication, electricals, photo processing…
When do they shop? – Lunch, after work, weekends…
Where do they shop? – Close to work, near home, along their journey…
Why do they purchase? – Range of products, quality, availability…

To the above you could also add “How are Boots’ customers purchasing?” Online, in store, cash, card…
Continue reading “TFM&A – The Explorer’s Recap” »

Top 5 Key Findings from the TFM&A Show 2011

Made Essential Reading on 5 April 2011 by Charlotte Olney | 1 response

I want to start this post by saying “Hello”. I’ve not written for The Essential Blog before so this has been a long time coming and it was a great experience.

My main role for Essential is to create, distribute and report on client emails. As writing is not in my everyday role, I had forgotten how much fun it can be. I found it helped me to evaluate my thoughts in greater detail and discover ideas I would not have otherwise.

Anyhow, enough about me, you’re here to hear about the TFM&A exhibition, so here goes…enjoy!

The Technology for Marketing and Advertising show (TFM&A) is the UK’s largest and longest running multi-channel marketing, media and advertising event. It is held yearly at Earl’s Court in London. Having previously exhibited at the event it was great to be a visitor and attend all the seminars on offer. I attended day 2 of the show; Wednesday 2nd March, 2011. Below I have outlined my 5 key findings from the day. Continue reading “Top 5 Key Findings from the TFM&A Show 2011” »

Get The Essential Blog on Your Smartphone in Just 1 Touch

Made Essential Reading on 1 April 2011 by Felix Hemsley | No responses

How convenient would it be to have your favourite blog just one simple touch away on your smartphone? To sit on the train or in a coffee bar and not have to remember the URL or trawl through endless bookmarks within your mobile browser? Well wonder no more as you can now access our blog directly from your mobile desktop by clicking on our shiny new desktop icon.

To download the icon directly to your mobile desktop you’ll need to bookmark the page to your home screen on your phone. The screens below show the three quick steps you need to follow to set this up for an iPhone,

 

B2B Social Media; Let’s Get Granular

Made Essential Reading on 15 March 2011 by Felix Hemsley | No responses

There’s one word which has probably dominated and distorted the social space for many years; Viral. It resonates with so many people in so many ways, and evokes a whole array of emotions. When I hear it, my blood runs cold and my eyebrow is raised. The cause of this used to be solely the concept that viral is a result of something, not a certainty identified during planning, but now, in the B2B environment the reasoning has been amplified.

I have recently spoken of the differences of buying cycles between B2B and B2C environments, and this post is something of an extension. In the B2C space the focus is on exposure, on creating content which more people see than that of your competition, which is remembered by customers more emotionally and shared more freely. But this is simply not a dynamic which can be directly translated into the B2B environment. Continue reading “B2B Social Media; Let’s Get Granular” »

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