Computer specialist and online marketing professional

On February 1, 2012 in Business, Development, General, Internet, marketing, Off Topic, Website Design.
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It’s never too long between business card iterations for me; I’ve just designed my fourth version. However, this time round I’ve mixed things up a bit, working from the ground up with new key points and a different overall message.

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’.

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Self Sufficient Website Development

On December 14, 2011 in Development, General, Internet, marketing, Website Design.
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To be self sufficient is to be independent. To be able to provide or support for oneself, without the help of others. Applying this concept to website development can be a tricky task without the correct skill sets. That’s actually kind of the point – the skill sets (rather than set). The goal of a fully functional, attractive and effective website is not one that your average ‘website developer‘ can accomplish single handed – It takes much, much more than a good knowledge of HTML5 and CSS3 (which are awesome, but that’s another post!).

Skill Set #1: Design

Self Sufficient Website Development - DesignFirst 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

Self Sufficient Website Development - DevelopmentPhase 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

Self Sufficient Website Development - ContentThis 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

Self Sufficient Website Development - MarketingOften 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

Self Sufficient Website Development - AnalyzingThe 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.

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5 interesting things about Social Media Marketing

On November 13, 2011 in Business, Internet, marketing.
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Social Media: We all use it, and lets be honest, most of us love it! But it’s a great tool for online marketing, too!

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!

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The new Facebook layout and what it means for online marketing

On October 10, 2011 in Development, Internet, marketing, Website Design.
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If you’re keen on online marketing, you may already know that Facebook is about to roll out a major update to user profiles layouts. This UI update adopts a “timeline” approach, enabling a chronological view of a person’s activity. Using Facebook’s developer centre, it is (and was) quick and easy to view the new layouts before general release.

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

Facebook's new TimeLine layout

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!).

Want to know what this means for Online Marketing? Read More »

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Marketing Application for a Mobile Device

On April 22, 2011 in iPhone, marketing, Nottingham Trent University.
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“Probably the most important report you’ll ever write”.

That’s what we were told at the start of academic year in September. Fast forward eight months and it’s typed, printed, developed and handed in! Now that sounds flippant, but trust me when I say, it was a complete adventure to get done.

I’m talking of cause about my Final Year Project, details of which can be found over on the ‘Final Year Project’ page. To give you an overview, it’s an application for a smart-phone device (the iPhone, naturally!) aimed at marketing a small organisation based in Nottingham, UK.

The principle was simple: Pull content from the client’s existing website and Social Media sources, add locational information utilizing the mobile device’s built-in GPS features and bundle it all in one place for delivery into the palm of a user’s hand!

More than 240 days, 135 pages, 80 source files, 5 Tabs and 1 iPhone Application!

xCode IconAfter iterations of development, implementation and testing, not to mention typing over 130 pages of research, product ideas and project management, the application was finally compiled for the final release!

So, it was quite a large project, as you’d expect from a final year student… Consequently I’m going to write a bunch of blogs over the coming weeks, discussing more precise details ranging from the project methodology to development of particular features. Stay tuned!

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Why is Apple different?

On March 5, 2011 in Apple, iPhone, New Technology.
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Apple LogoLove them or hate them, Apple have possibly one of the best action plans amongst its competitors. There world-wide fame and scheduled product releases never fail to conjure a huge amount of interest from prospective buyers and media on a global scale. Instant PR. Everyone wants to get their hands on the latest Apple product; Whether it be to try to find fault, or to marvel in the ‘magical’ new device.

Retail stores play a huge part in the overall “Apple experience”. When I went to buy my MacBook Pro (for my Final Year Dissertation) walking into the Apple store in Birmingham (UK) was a really exciting experience. I went early to avoid mid-morning crowds at busy peak times. This was a good strategy, with only a few people being seen around town and a relatively empty car park. Except for the Apple store. Considering the lack of people around, the Apple store was still quite busy, and was by far the most popular store. This gives a good indication to the prestige which many consumers hold for Apple as a company, its products and their services.

MacNow, It’s probably important to mention here that a lot of computer scientists, software engineers, and basically your average “Tech Guy” don’t like Apple. Why? Because they over-price for products which “Don’t perform” as they should. I’m not one of these “Tech Guys” because I love Apple. I seem to find myself time and time again defending their products, trying to convey that they aren’t targeted at the technical end of the spectrum (like Linux) and are more about beautiful design and providing a good interface between your average consumer and a wealth of features. Ok, so they are expensive, but it’s an Apple product!

So, what makes Apple really stand out from the crowd? For me, it’s not about the functionality, the price, the retail stores or even the products. For me, it’s the way Apple operate. The anticipation of the latest Apple product is exciting, and you know it’ll only be a couple of weeks between announcement to rolling out! Jobs does a great job (excuse the pun) at this, his enthusiasm and natural presentation skills at keynotes really pulling consumes in!

Mac2Most importantly though is my favourite line when trying to justify Apple’s greatness; “Apple don’t design new products, they design new categories“. Take MP3 Players. They were (lets be honest) a little crummy before the iPod came along. Fast forward to now and all other MP3 players are pretty much obsolete. Let’s try phones. The iPhone came along in 2007, and completely revolutionised the way which phones are today. Phones boasting touch-screen technology, Apps and other similar features are common place, but still can’t rival the fluidity and popularity of the iPhone. Finally there is the iPad. Don’t get me wrong tablets were already around, but the iPad took it to a whole new level. Competitors didn’t know what to expect and had to go completely back to the drawing boards.

To conclude, Apple are different. Some people love them. Some people don’t. But either way, you have to admire what Apple have done for the industry. Ask someone you know to name the first “hand held device” that comes into their head, and I think they will probably say something like “Oh, like the Apple <insert product here>”

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Kniect – What’s the fuss all about?

On November 22, 2010 in New Technology.
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Kinect comes marketed with a bunch of key-phrases. Revolutionary. Amazing. Outstanding. But what’s the fuss all about? I saw the live demo at GameCity 5 and was pretty blown away with some of the things on display. However, this week I went along to a housemate’s place of work to test it out for myself and the results were mixed. I started off playing ‘Kinect Adventures’, a Wii style action/adventure set of mini games. It was pretty fun. However it didn’t hold my attention for very long. After about 20 minutes I found myself bored of jumping from side to side, avoiding crash mats and jumping to speed up a cart.

Xbox 360 ControllerIt made me wonder, with the evolution of motion-based gaming (Wii, PSMove, Kinect) where has it left the hardcore gamers who want a more serious experience? It’s not that I don’t like being active, I work out each morning, but when it comes to gaming I want to be able to kick back, relax and chill out. None of this “jump around” and “experience the game like never before”. It’s a brilliant piece of technology mind, and will do really well I’m sure off the back of the success of the Wii. It’s just not for me – and thousands of other serious gamers! I’ll take my 6-axis any day!

Interested in Kinect? Brilliant prices for the full system and game over at Play.com

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Career Prospects – Doors and Directions

On November 14, 2010 in Business, General, marketing, Off Topic.
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Iv’e been absent from the blogosphere as of late, and there is a good reason for that. It’s called ‘Final Year’. Iv’e had (and still have) three pieces of work in for the end of Monday (using Dropbox!). So, why am I blogging and not cracking on, I hear you cry! Well, there is a good reason for this.

This post isn’t like the usual post you’ll find on this site – It’s actually a blog about… ME! Final year work has really brought home the frankly geekyness behind the degree which I’m doing. It’s software Engineering (Computer Science basically) which is pretty well as deep as any course will go into computing. Now, I’m not saying its a bad degree, after all some people love this kind of thing (100101011010) but its just not me! (If you don’t get the joke in the previous brackets it’s not you, either!).

The whole thing just seems like computing for computing’s sake. After a year in industry I really have had my eyes opened to the bigger picture. The marketing, the collaboration and the use of computers to accomplish goals, rather than accomplishing goals for computers. I guess what I’m trying to say is that although the course I’m on is fine, and I’ve learned lots of really interesting stuff over the first two years, the placement I undertook was much more inspirational and was definitely the kind of work I’d like to be doing in 12 months, rather than the work I’m doing now!

As a quick example, I’ll talk a little about some of my modules. I think you’ll get the picture. My favourite module would definitely have to be a toss up between ‘Business Analysis’ and ‘Human Computer Interaction’. Although there is almost no emphasis on computers at all in BA, the HCI module is really the softer side of computer science – The principles behind good design and how design is interpreted.

The least favourite modules would certainly be either Advanced Analysis & Design or Advanced Software Engineering. These two (both Advanced versions of the second year modules) are very computer specific and aim at developing mainly coding practise and designing the code (rather than the user interface like in HCI). They are much more ‘Computer Science’ than the first two, targeting much more in depth content (in depth to computing, that is).

I guess I’ll wait and see what happens by this time next year. One thing I am very happy with is my Final Year Dissertation, which incorporates a healthy balance of graphical design (HCI), marketing / business (Business Analysis) and coding (Soft Eng). I think it’s safe to say though that Iv’e developed considerably since year 2 at university and am certainly more focused on where I want to be in 12 – 18 months time!

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GameCity5 Stewarding – The Results

On October 31, 2010 in General, Nottingham Trent University.
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GameCity5 stewards badgeSo, It’s Sunday, and GameCity came to a close last night with a Mario tea party, followed by an After-Party for the stewards and staff!

During my time stewarding there, I got to talk to a lot of people. Not just gamers and geeks (If I’m honest that’s who I expected) but a much wider range of people. After all, there was a big white tent with booming music in the middle of Nottingham city centre!

I would estimate that about 60% of passers by didn’t know what GameCity was, which is what I expected. Those who came specifically already had a good idea of what it was all about.  It made me think how beneficial a mobile device application would be; marketing the event and explaining the concept behind GameCity to some of the audience who didn’t already know, and didn’t have time to stop and chat to a lovely, friendly steward!

The second thing was the schedule of the events within the festival. Due to Nottingham Council restraints (littering and other regulations), we couldn’t hand out flyers to promote the event. Because of this, stewards had to approach individuals and  talk directly about the fun things going on inside. Leaflets could be handed out inside the tent, but by that point the attendees could see what was happening. This backed up my idea for a piece of marketing software even more, free to download, which would get people’s interest and tell them of events taking place on certain days.

Not everyone would have the same device, but looking at the majority of mobiles at GameCity, I would say that the iPhone far outweighs any other device on the market. Some quantifiable research was done on site, and will be analysed soon.

sically, stewarding at GameCity5 was an awesome experience, definitely one for the CV, and one I’d love to do again next year! It also backed up my points about the added marketing of an iPhone application (or something similar) to draw even more people in and bump up attendance figures even more!

I’d like to thank Mira, who organised all the steward rotas for the event, and all the other GameCity staff, as well as everyone else involved, for making my “background literature review” so much fun!

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Make money online: Affiliate Marketing

On August 17, 2010 in Affiliate Marketing, Business, Internet, marketing, Website Design.
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Affiliate Marketing. Iv’e heard this word tossed around all year, but never really delved into it that much. It was only last week when writing my previous article about student laptop deals that I found myself wondering why I was sending my hard-earned traffic to another site with nothing to show, I mean, not even a friendly thank you! This, coupled with a wise word from my old manager, was enough to get my heart racing and mind into gear. “What is Affiliate marketing?” I asked myself, “and how can I use it with MY website?”.

I started by heading over to AffiliateWindow, a site all about affiliate marketing. Here it described how I could be making money online, quickly, simply and with relatively little effort. Now, to make big bucks everyone knows you need to do more than sit back and watch the money roll in (unless your Google!), but I was after a relatively small amount! It is a small venture, but a venture none-the-less!

After paying £5.00 to AffiliateWindow which has now been credited back into my bank, I started linking to merchants. Let’s go back a step to stage one for a minute: Affiliate Marketing is, in essence, using other websites (affiliates) to send traffic (customers) to eCommerce websites (merchants). If you do this and it results in a sale, you get a commission of the sale (usually about 2% – 10%). The customers can often get special discounts too. Everyone’s a winner!

There are other methods of doing Affiliate Marketing (using banners, discount codes etc) but I think this is the most popular method. It means JohnAlexanderRowley.com is officially classed as a ‘content website’ aka A website that reviews and discussed items that it is affiliated with.

Anyway, I’m already affiliated with PC World, Laptop Direct, Play, Maplin and LoveFilm – and there is more to come! Check out some of my articles which make use of this handy money making tip!

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