Replicated on this website, I’ve moved away from the dated strapline (‘computer scientist and IT professional’) in order to better reflect my career path, hobbies and passion. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to present:

John Alexander Rowley – Computer specialist and online marketing professional’.

So maybe a strap-line launch party would be a bit much, but I thought I’d take this time to go through the new lines added to the new cards – coming to a wallet near you soon.

computer and technology specialism

Ok, number one. I think the first few words are pretty obvious (especially to those reading articles on this site). The vast subject of computing and even broader area of technology is fundamental to my education, career and hobbies.

My grandfather used to say “There’s no such thing as a specialist”, and I tend to agree. However, the definition for ‘specialist’ over at ‘the free dictionary’ is pretty accurate to what I’m trying to convey. ‘One who is devoted to a particular occupation or branch of study or research’. Add something about pastime into the mix, and we’re just about there.

online marketing strategy development

This is much more accurate to my career path than the previous ‘IT Professional’. Whilst I hope I remain professional, I definitely don’t work in IT. I’m sure there is thousands of online marketers across the country that get as wound up as I do when approached with the line “Oh, you’re in IT then, right?”.

Online marketing is another massive and complex area, covering campaign analysis, brand promotion and online presence management, to name but a few. Add email & social marketing, search engine optimization and Pay-Per-Click analysis and you’ll hopefully have an overview of what this sentence is attempting to define.

website production and analysis

Half way through now. Phew. The keyword ‘production’ caused some concern. Attempting to summarise ‘design and development’ (as per previous business cards), website production covers the whole journey of a website: initial graphical mock-ups, structure design, coding, maintenance, updating and migration. Not to mention database management and server setup / migration.

The ‘analysis’ postfix was added to identify the overlap between online marketing and website production. As mentioned SEO and PPC, as well as SERP supervision and keyword investigation are all integral to producing a successful website.

business information management

My final point relates to my final year and experience in the industry in an effort to depict my business comprehension. With one third of my final university year being business orientated (as well as a twelve month placement the previous year) I feel this is justified as I continue to develop my personal credentials.

Studying and actively engaging in elements such as project management, KPI production and business analysis assists me in fine-tuning my knowledge of organisation’s critical information. Handling and analysing this data is defined as the process of ‘business information management’.

So, we used a migration specialist, SEM Solutions, to aid with the process. They handled the database copying, which is always the tricky bit, and uploaded the entire file-structure (public_html in the case of the old server). This is really the first two points to be aware of.

1 – Exporting / Importing databases can be hard! Make sure you know what you’re doing before attempting this (I tried it once and ended up having to recover my articles via wayback-machine and Google Cache, although that was a few years ago!).

2 – Check your full URL paths. When linking directly to files, if you include the web root folder from the FTP be sure it’s the same on the new server. For example, on the new server is uses ‘http_docs’ rather than ‘public_html’ as the web root folder.

There’s another similar issue here; the server back-end UI. Be sure you inquire about which one comes with a server before making the switch.

3 – CPanel vs PLESK. Parallel PLESK is new to me, as I’ve always used old faithful CPanel. PLESK, despite looking less functional and more dated (in my opinion, at least) has similar sections in terms of functionality. It’s quite well documented too, as is CPanel, meaning a switch between the two shouldn’t be too much of an issue (it wasn’t for me, at least).

There was one final issue, which caused the delay in migration. It’s a site specific problem, but it can be applied to almost any website with a contact form.

4 – Mail Transfer Agent. The issue we encountered was the following: We have a contact form. It adds data to a database. It also emails the data to a range of email addresses and produces an XML (more to follow). The contact form was functioning, but it seemed sporadic in the emails (they always came through blank despite the data being added to the database. The solution, you ask? Well, after a few days of head-scratching we discovered it was in fact ‘\r\n’ in the functions file of the form being rendered differently by the new server’s MTA (QMail as apposed to EXIM). This produced an additional line break which ended the header section of the form.

As I said, site specific. But if your experiencing similar issues it’s worth checking the PHP functionality for unnecessary line breaks!

5 – Permissions. A final note – Check your permissions! The XML mentioned above was failing to be created (even temporarily) due to permissions! This is something a ‘live chat assistant’ can usually do over the chat-box.

Skill Set #1: Design

First things first – You need a good design. The attractiveness of a webpage can affect the users perception of credibility, the read rate and of cause, overall bounce rate. Here Photoshop is your greatest ally, quickly (a relative term at best!) mocking up several designs at (again relatively) little cost.

This skill set is as much about prior experience as it is intuitive design ideas – although the two do generally go hand in hand. Knowing what your audience likes is, perhaps, a skill of it’s own – ‘Monitoring’. Being able to take ideas from thought to paper (or canvas, in the case of Photoshop) is another paramount feature of designing.

Skill Set #2: Development

Phase two – The area that most ‘Website Developers’ are associated with. And with good reason. This code orientated skill set is based on taking the designs (from oneself, in a self sufficient methodology) and converting them to a functional structure. This often includes the knowledge of HTML, with DIV’s being the favored method for website structure.

CSS, a styling method, is also a must know language for development. The method in which a self sufficient developer does this is up to the individual; either opting for the quicker inline technique, or the more structured style sheet approach.

Skill Set #3: Content

This is the area that many, including myself, find most challenging. When done well it seems effortless and can definitely be the difference between a successful website and a struggling domain. But creating content for a page is a lot harder than it may seem from an outsiders perspective. Text is the key to most websites, and can change rapidly with altering trends. It does seem, for now at least, that the whole ‘Web 2.0′ friendly and personal approach is here and in full swing.

Text is only the start of it: There is images to contend with too!

Skill Set #4: Marketing

Often overlooked, this is probably the most important factor to producing a successful website (along with content, which is king, of cause). AdWords, Search Engine Optimization and all those other online marketing tools are essential for getting the word out to your potential readers / customers.

Managing your search engine result position (SERPs) with your chosen keywords is a fun and ongoing battle. SEO isn’t a one-time action: It takes constant maintenance (within reason) to ensure your audience keeps on flowing to your site (and converting, if that’s how you roll!).

Skill Set #5: Analyzing

The final piece to the self sufficient puzzle, analyzing those visits to the site is important in order to identify your strongest areas, possible pages of improvement and generally keep track of how you’re performing on the web.

You can track your performance against others, too. Competitors, friends or similar websites. Analyzing a developed website doesn’t mean that you’re finished: A good (proactive) self sufficient web developer will continuously use these individual skill sets in parallel to get the best results.

Demographics

Aligning your company’s demographic to that of social media users is critical in proving the campaign / strategy is worth while. There’s lots of useful information on demographics of social media users out there. For example, he older generations involvement with Facebook has almost doubled over the last year (up to 43%). Different social platforms have different demographics, so be sure to check out a range of sources to see which platform/s are most useful to your campaign! (LinkedIn is the most used social network for over 50′s, however it’s a very B2B platform, which may not suit all strategies).

Engagement

So, you’ve selected your demographic. If only it was that simple! You’ve also got to consider how your target audience interact with social media. For example, do 45-55′s comment on blogs more than 25-35′s? Theres one source (Forrester) who have a pretty awesome hierarchy ladder/model which considers the engagement level of users (Inactive/Spectators/Joiners/Collectors/Critics/Conversationalists/Creators). Identifying the percentages for each of these groups within your demographic can help you plan your strategy more precisely and predict which elements of a platform will be most utilised.

Strategy

Now you’ve got your demographic, your interaction model and your platforms of choice. It’s time to use that information (there’s lots more you should collect, too!) to produce your strategy. This essential document will map the usage and policy of your social campaign. To produce one can take time, but there’s lots of online documentation. The basis of a strategy usually orbits around four sectors; Monitoring, Analysing, Interacting and Engaging. This approach should form the foundations of a personal, customisable and iterative strategy.

Benchmarking

Your social campaign has been running for a while. Is it successful? Don’t know? Then why bother? Just like PPC, SEO and pretty much any other business element, things should be tracked! This tracking falls into two main sectors: Return on Investment and Key Process Indicators. Tracking these goals can be tricky, but there are lots of free (and paid) tools out there to help! Followers : Following ratio is a good example, as is Sentiment, strength and passion.

Results

Without results, don’t expect your social strategy to survive. This is linked (obviously) to benchmarking. It’s been shown, however, that if it’s done well, it can have amazing results! Take, for example, the 7 million views of the ‘Royal Wedding’ video hosted on YouTube by T-Mobile, the 20 million impressions by the ‘GoGranny’ SuperBowl campaign or the 25% increase in users for Under Armour’s ‘Ultimate Intern’ Twitter competition!

What?

For those of you that don’t know, Google Analytics lets you track traffic, keywords, campaigns and other interesting stuff that basically makes a successful website (page hits, visitors, demographics, traffic… The list goes on!). So, you used to have a 24 hour wait to see useful results, but now you can track website traffic down to the second (or minute, or hour). It’s a great dashboard layout (as is all of the Analytics pages… AdWords should take a leaf!) and is simple to understand. Wondering why you need to know who’s on your website at any specific time? Well you’ll have to wait until the ‘Why?’ paragraph, I’m afraid!

Where?

To get there is easy! Just log into your Google Analytics account (If you don’t have one, why not!) and make sure you’re using the new version. (You can switch to the new layout in the top right). Done that? Good! Now, go to the Home tab (top left) and then select “Real-Time” from the left most column! Hay presto, you’re done!

Why?

For some, knowing who’s on your site at a specific time is well useful! For example, say you just sent out a new email campaign. Gone are the days of waiting 24 hours to see conversion rates via Google Analytics, now you can see your page views increase as it happens. You can also get a better idea of how web behaviour changes throughout the day (for example peeking / dropping at lunch?) and lots of other cool stuff, too! I could watch it all day!

So there you have it

So there you have it, a very (very!) brief overview of Google Analytics Real-Time! It (could) change everything. At the very least, it’s a cool, and long awaited for some, feature from Google.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to my timeline Facebook profile (annotations to follow!)

Iv’e blacked out the parts of the profile which remain (pretty much) the same, and highlighted four new / highly altered page areas.

When you see the new layout for the first time, it’s quite shocking. Not much has remained the same. I think a lot of people will be put off by such a large change at first. Anyway, that’s not what I’m here to talk about… So let’s get onto the four annotations.

Firstly, there’s the all new “cover” for your profile. This is a banner across the top of the profile, which users can customize by uploading their own images. Note that I’ve already been playing with mine, to incorporate the profile picture (which lays over the top of the cover). The introduction of these “covers” is a huge step for brand awareness via Facebook pages, as I’ll discuss in a minute!

The second alteration is the timeline. Contrary to previous speculation (including my own previous article) the timeline takes a vertical approach, rather than a horizontal one. The “horizontal rumors”, as we shall call them, were imagined with the possibility of reducing the amount of content under the fold of a typical profile. The ATFC (Above The Fold Content) has been addressed with annotation four, however!

Annotation number three comes in the form of conglomeration. Friends, Photos, GeoTagging, Likes, Music and much more are now accumulated in respective groups (almost like Folders) which can be expanded independently. This generally tidies the profile (in my opinion) and leaves more room for the all important “wall”.

The final point is the wall itself. Facebook have divided the area into two columns (4″ to 9″ wall, for those in the building trade?!) to maximize on space saving. This works well, especially with a blue timeline running down the middle to show when individual posts were added.

It’s a good looking, next generation profile layout (and it’ll look lovely if replicated for Facebook’s iPad app!).

What does this mean for Brand Awareness and Online Marketing?

Ok, so that’s an introduction to some of the new features of Facebook timeline profiles, but what does this mean in terms of online advertising?

Well, for starters the cover (as aforementioned) provides a huge amount of screen space for getting brand identity out there. Take the space as a free 850 x 315 billboard! It’s the first thing customers will see, and it makes a big impact if done well. Grab their attention – check!

Take, for example, the RedBull Facebok profile. It’s clever use of the cover really stands out, and accompanied with the custom background (I’ve not looked into this yet, but I think it may only be for pages rather than profiles) and clever display picture gives a great aspect of brand identity. You’re not going to confuse this page for “Monster: Energy Drink” anytime soon! RedBull have a large online marketing presence, and some of their campaigns have been added to the wall; Including a video and imagery.

Similarly, McDonalds have produced a great looking cover, and let the profile picture do the explaining. That’s fine for a globally recognized brand, but smaller organisations may have to do a little more explaining in their banners! Anyway, so McDonalds have promoted their Free WiFi with a lovely large promotional image and used the “about” information (below the profile picture) to describe their service (not that they particularly need to!)

To conclude, the new Facebook interface brings much more customization and a greater identifiable page to the profiles. Remember the day of totally custom MySpace profiles? Well, it’s not quite THAT changeable, but it’s a perfect blend of standard format layout and unique profile content!

The new Facebook layout will give a new slant on Facebook based marketing, and I think we will see more and more organisations taking to social media advertising as this new layout is rolled out.

First off there is the revamp of the Facebook profile pages, up until now laid out somewhat uniform, with the profile picture on the left, paragraph of information at the top, stream of tagged photos parallel and the wall below. It seems, however, that this is soon to change; In favor of a timeline approach style! This new style will (probably) conglomerate tagged pictures, status updates and activity on the social networking site, to eliminate (or at least reduce) the amount of content hidden beneath the fold (beyond the view-able screen without scrolling).

Secondly, as discovered a while ago, the iPad Facebook application is “launching soon” according to a 9to5 Mac article. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if it launched alongside the Facebook UI updates!

So, this change again will inevitably cause a current of opinions in the world of Social Media… With everyone holding their own thoughts (and most posting/tweeting their feelings) be prepared (Social Sandbags?) for the next wave of “I love/hate the new Facebook layout” status’.

I leave you with this famous quote from Winston Churchill;

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

The solution?

Navigate to the following page;

• Go to “edit my profile” of your Facebook home page.
• Click “Profile Picture” in the left hand menu.

And then;
Beneath your profile picture, “Edit Thumbnail” and “Remove your Picture” links there is a “Row of photos at top of profile” and an “Unhide All” button. Hit that. Not much happens to confirm the process is complete, but go check out your profile page. All the tagged photos of you will now be accessible, with the most recent 5 appearing in the image stream on your page!

• 28% of small businesses said they used a corporate Facebook page
• 18% own a LinkedIn Profile
• 8% have a company blog
• 6% use YouTube or similar video-streaming service
• 2% own a corporate Twitter account

With over 2 million enterprises in the UK alone (according to the governments ‘Office for National Statistics’) that’s over 1.4 million businesses which don’t utilize Facebook, the world’s largest social media / networking website (with over 750 million users!).

Seems crazy, given the focus and publicity of these potential market avenues! Sure some businesses wouldn’t find all of the options necessary, but with such a high volume of service based business in the UK I can’t help but think some of the 1,000,000 businesses with no social media avenues are missing out.

Case Study: Ultimate Hairdressing, Wolverhampton.

To give an example of how Social Media can be applied to a range of industries iv’e used a case-study of my local hairdressers. ‘Ultimate Hairdressing Wolverhampton‘ (UHW) have recently re-branded after a number of years as a franchise. The newly devised business requires a number of Social Media avenues to keep them engaged with users in as many ways as possible.

Facebook

Facebook, as aforementioned, boasts over 500,000 users. That’s a lot of potential you could be missing out on without a company page. Facebook is a great platform to display photos, communicate with customers and market special events/offers. Using a Facebook Page (rather than a group) UHW can demonstrate not only model hairstyles but also produce albums of consumer’s haircuts.

‘Tagging’ users in an album such as this would allow friends of the newly trimmed customer to see the end product, spreading the word to a much wider audience than just those who get updates from the UHW page. This wildfire style of social marketing removes the boundaries of subscriptions; If each customer has on average 300 friends, and Ultimate Hairdressing takes 20 haircut photographs a week, that’s a potential of 6,000 Facebook users being recommended to UHW.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has a reputation for being IT Industry specific. However, a huge variety of companies use the ‘Professional Networking Site’ to, well, network! Perfect for starting ventures, LinkedIn provides the ability to manage a professional identity and engage with similar professionals (not to mention consumers and colleagues, too!).

Whilst less of a marketing tool than Facebook, LinkedIn is a business tool which can be utilized by companies such as UHW to access knowledge, industry specific information and produce new professional orientated opportunities.

Corporate Website & Blog

Ok, so a website isn’t really a form of Social Media (not saying that every company shouldn’t have one!). However, a constantly updating blog (or online journal) can keep users informed of ‘behind the scenes’ on-goings. UHW don’t currently have this platform available, but articles could include their success in the ‘Trend Vision 2011′ and other stories which consumers may not necessarily know about.

Other articles could include featured haircuts, ‘A day in the life of’, new looks and salon updates. These articles could be shared via other social media sites too, further spreading the news. Competitions and special offers could also be detailed via a blog. Best of all, it’s free if you have some computer knowledge and an existing website.

YouTube

YouTube isn’t overly useful for everyone. Personally, it’s my least favorite of the social medias (in a marketing context). That said, videos do tend to have much higher click-through rates (I looked into it during my Mobile Marketing application development).

UHW could (and do) already use YouTube to show events (namely the Trend Vision 2011 finals build-up). With specific, rich media content such as this, users are much more likely to take an interest in the company as an organic, dynamic entity. Furthermore, videos can be embedded into other social media (Facebook, LinkedIn) as well as on Websites or Blogs.

However, bare in mind that a poorly developed, inappropriate or out of context video can have a negative effect on consumers. Make sure you only show customers highly tuned, relevant videos.

Twitter

According to the survey I read, only 2% of companies have a Twitter account. This, at first, surprised me. But come to think of it, there is a lot of confusion behind Twitter; What it does, and how to approach customer feedback.

Personally, I like to think of Twitter as a two-way communication tool, where as Facebook is more one-directional (outwardly). Each business should have a specific set of guidelines regarding feedback, and any responses should always be professional and with the company’s principles at the center of comments. That said, replying to ‘Followers’ is a brilliant way to engage your consumer base, and give an element of transparency to an organisation.

There is other ways to utilize Twitter too; Follow relevant companies also on Twitter (networking), Detail promotions and offers (advertising) and supply links to articles, blogs and Facebook albums (self-linking).

Twitter is an area that UHW are just getting into, and there are still questions to be answered and a clear route to be established. However, it’s definitely (in my opinion) worth persevering with; It’s much more than just for celebrities!

Conclusion

To conclude, there are a number of Social Media options available, each with their own advantages and marketing strategies to hand. These strategies are no longer specific to the technological industry, with something suitable for almost every organisation imaginable.

If your company or business doesn’t already have social media integrated into it’s website and business plan; Why not? Business plans are constantly evolving, and more recently ‘web strategies’ have become common headings amongst almost all of them!

Just a quick one folks; Need a beautiful word based tag cloud? Want to customise the colours, direction, font and make your personal cloud look gorgeous? Want to generate the contents of the cloud via website content or entering custom values? Give ‘Wordle‘ a go!