It seems the new Apple iPad has completely polarised opinion, as always, on  what people think a new product like this should do and what it actually does do. The general consensus from those that do not like it seems to be that it is nothing more than an enlarged iPod Touch; basically the same but with a bigger screen so what is the point. Why not just buy a NetBook or a laptop if it is a question of size and ease of use? Read the rest of this entry »

I have this morning received a presentation from a company in our arena of the Marketing, Online and New Media space. Within this presentation a ‘new word’ was used time and time again. The word in question? IMPACTFUL. Now, being a fan of the English language and it’s continued progression, my immediate reaction was to reference in Google.

In my opinion, the first description was quite apt - of which can be seen at the following URL (or by typing ‘impactful’ into Google.co.uk) http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=impactful
or can be seen below…

“A non-existent word coined by corporate advertising, marketing and business drones to make their work sound far more useful, exciting and beneficial to humanity than it really is. This term is most frequently used in “team building” seminars and conferences in which said drones discuss the most effective ways to convince consumer zombies to purchase crap they clearly do not need or even want.”

In summary, the use of this word clearly demonstrates a distinct lack of vocabulary from the writers point-of-view. Maybe the use of words like, ‘effective’, ’successful’ or maybe ‘has impact’?

Ian

Be Search Friendly
What is the point of having a great site if no one ever sees it? None of course!
Before creating your content do you keyword research, what terms your audience or users to your site are likely to search upon, and what keywords they will use. Build the structure of your content around your search engine optimisation with these keywords and keyphrases.
Read the rest of this entry »

The challenge was to increase Outline Skincare’s online presence to increase web traffic, generate sales and increase ROI, while actually driving down overall marketing spend.

Miromedia were recommended to Outline as specialists in search engine optimisation, pay-per-click, email broadcasting, link building, online PR, and social media

The solution was an online marketing strategy which included removing programming issues, managing and adding keyword strategies, content creation and restructure of page layout.

Benefits Since working with Outline when compared to the same previous year period, we have achieved:

• 46% increase in turnover when compared to this time last year
• 60% decrease in marketing spend

And most importantly this was all achieved during a recession!

To download the Outline Case Study please click here.

The vi command in Linux provides the most basic of text editing capabilities from the command line. It is both useful and at the same time extremely clunky without the proper command knowledge. Most of my searching on the web has resulted in many pages assuming that if you know the vi command then you must also know how to use it… I Linux therefore I am, or some such.

However to someone that generally doesn’t need to use the editor that often it can be frustrating trying to make a single character change in a file only accessible via SSH without having to copy the file to a desktop machine, change and copy back. Luckily I have found the following command cheatsheet for the editor:

ctrl-F :Page down
ctrl-B :Page up
$ :Move cursor to end of line
^ :Move cursor to beginning of line
:1 :Move to first line of file
:$ :Move to last line of file
/ :Search for a character string
? :Reverse search for a character string
x :Delete the character at the cursor
dd :Delete the current line
p :Paste data that was cut with x or dd commands
u :Undo

a :Add text after cursor
i :Insert text before cursor
R :Replace text starting at the cursor
o :Insert a new line after the current

esc :Switch from Input mode to Command mode

:w :save without exiting
ZZ :Save and exit
:q! :Exit without saving

So far this small but concise list has proved extremely helpful, all of a sudden the linux vi editor has become a very handy tool to have.

Purchase of MySpace four years ago by Rupert Murdoch heralded a new dawn for social media and social networking. Suddenly these sites were big business. With a 330m price tag many scoffed, but critics were later silenced when a 670m advertising deal with Google for three years was agreed!

Soon however that deal will come to an end and with it more than half of MySpace’s entire revenue. But there are far more important concerns for MySpace and for British born Bebo. Bebo was purchased at a staggering 640m in March of last year by AOL. Those concerns are the decline of these once all dominant sites at the fickle hand of social media users.

The Losers
Surely such big sites can’t just head to obscurity and disappear? Don’t be so sure, British social networking site Friends Reunited enjoyed a 120m purchase from ITV four years ago and was recently valued at one sixth of the figure. The decision to swap from a paid model to a free one came way too late. Users have voted with their feet, the brand is damaged and they won’t be coming back.

Bebo’s traffic dropped 24% this year and now stands at 9 million. As original Beboers come of age they migrate to Facebook suggesting a digital coming of age, Bebo’s biggest problem is that new younger school kids aren’t replacing them below. By Hitwise’s estimates, Bebo’s unique users have fallen 18%, from 8.5 million in April 2008 to 7 million one year later, while Facebook has seen 63% growth to 23.5 million unique users.

Further problems are predicted for MySpace and Bebo, both sites are in comparison very expensive to run and a decline in traffic is hitting their cash flow hard. Add to this MySpace’s deal with Google which is about to end and Bebo’s financial backing in doubt following AOL’s disbanding from Time Warner.

The Winners
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are enjoying massive increased popularity however. Twitter for example, has seen a 4,000% increase in new users since the start of this year to 2.5 million unique users a month. Add to these 3rd party apps which add another half of this traffic leading to an even greater impact! Facebook now control 45% of all social media activity on the internet World wide.

Most interestingly it is those social networking sites that have refused to sell to large greedy corporations that have ultimately succeed. Twitter more recently refused a huge deal with Google to advertise on the site.

And while large companies scratch their heads wondering what happened, it seems to me obvious that the reason for the decline is the worst marketing sin of all: assuming your audience are mindless fools, incapable of resisting advertising messages. MySpace is advert saturated, Bebo is advert saturated, and Friend Reunited charged you to watch their adverts. We are savvy, we don’t like adverts, and if the site is advert saturated we leave.

Even facebook fell into the trap, changing its simple and appealing interface for a multi-paged and advert heavy profile. An exodus I’m sure would have taken place had Facebook not been the best of a bad bunch. This could still see the end of Facebook in the next few years?

Ric McHale

Being a football fan, I like to keep abreast of the daily news. And what a week it’s been so far. It all change for the Premiership revolving doors and especially frustrated Chelsea. It strikes me that the boys at Stamford Bridge are having a crisis - one which is similar to a teenage girl that wants to be seen to go out with the most popular boy in the school. And, more surprisingly it appears that Avram Grant is about to be made the school team captain again - but we’ll have to wait and see on that one.

On a lightly lighter note. Has anyone noticed the similarity between Sam the Eagle of the Muppet Show and Avram Grant (below on the left)?

Ian Hancock
MD and sports fan

It appears that all at Miromedia have been so busy with customer projects over the last month, we’ve had no time to update our blog. Well watch this space, because we have plenty to say about Online Marketing, SEO, Email Marketing, Web Design and other more general comment - and not just focused within our industry. So, come on Miro guys, pull your blogging fingers out. Maybe we can even get Roland to produce a Hungarian blog!

Google have launched Knol, their wiki style information site comprised of articles posted by registered users. Got a subject that you want to share with the world? Then why not share it on Knol. If you do you have complete artisitc control of the authored article and can even put your face to it, unlike Wikipedia which is basically an informational ‘open shop’.

Seems this is a departure for Google into the realm of content ownership, certain searches on google bring up Knol in the search results, taking valuable search indexing from other sites. Google is of course claiming this not to be a problem but how long before people begin to question whether Google turning up in it’s own results is fair?

At the risk of appearing Apple blog heavy I’ve stumbled across an new app from Wordpress that allows you to write blog entries from you iPod Touch or iPhone.

Experiences using Safari on the iPod were not too satisfying with Wordpress’ causing Safari to crash. This app however makes the whole thing much easier and quicker.

It has a handy preview feature allowing the blog to be seen as it would when published. As yet no rich text editting, so no adding links or fancy font colours. There’s the option to add pictures straight from your photo library or take a new one with built in camera.

So far it all works very well, the only draw back being the strain it puts on your typing finger!