Running a social media campaign is a time consuming business and the urge to set up a series of auto-updates can be overwhelming. It can also be quite effective if done correctly, but does have a series of drawbacks which prevent it achieving the same response as a personally run campaign; however, the time saved may justify this. So should you keep it personal or auto-update?

Obviously the biggest drawback with automated updates is the removal of personal response to your followers and fans. In automating the campaign you are unable to react as quickly or personally to any comments, questions or answers you may receive from those following you. It can also look as though you are ignoring a potential client if you don’t respond to their request but keep updating with other information – not a great selling tactic.

Similarly, it means you can only update pre-determined material, rather than reacting to industry news and events as they happen.
On the plus side, auto-updates enable you to update your site 24 hours a day, potentially interacting with followers around the globe in a way that would not be possible if you were only able to update in working hours. As any conversations that begin this way will be subject to delays because of the time difference, the downsides of auto-updating are largely offset.

In reality, a mixture of auto and personal updates will probably not harm your businesses social media profile, the damage really only occurs when a campaign becomes reliant on it.

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Web hosting via a Virtual Private Server (VPS) is one of the most popular solutions currently on the market, and for good reason. It’s affordable at all levels of business and, with the right web hosting company, is generally highly reliable. However, by its very nature, VPS means that your website’s resources will be limited as the space of a single web server is split between varying sites.

The alternative to this is Cloud Hosting, which combines multiple web servers to create a single network. The resources of this network are then allocated to and disseminated amongst sites as they are required. The result is generally less down time for your site and quicker loading speeds.

This type of hosting is now very popular amongst bigger corporations running a large number of websites or hosting numerous pages and products, Google, Bing and Amazon are three major examples. However, the reason it is popular with these big organisations is that it suits this type of company.

Cloud hosting is a very expensive option and while it does guarantee less down time and faster loading, the difference between VPS and Cloud is probably not worth the extra outlay, unless you intend to grow your business across numerous web sites which will require extra resource. For the time-being, a Linux-based solution is probably a better option.

If your company grows to encompass ten or more sites, or you find yourself hosting a 1000 page + website then cloud hosting may be a worthwhile investment; however, most SME’s will find that VPS remains the ideal, cost-effective solution for their site.

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There is a wide range of web design languages that are now available to even the most amateur of web masters. Every major computer company has created some form of web design language; but despite this increasing competition, the market leader remains the highly efficient client-server model of HTML and PHP.

HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML) is a client-side web programming language and the simplest way to create a web page. It has minimum technical requirements and uses a series of ‘tags’ to delineate your text. These tags, which cover all eventualities from paragraph breaks to bold and italic formatting, then instruct the computer how to display your site.

Once you understand the tag format and the different symbols used, it is a remarkably easy language to use which can display your completed webpage instantly, allowing quick identification and implementation of corrections. The only downside is that HTML is quite limited in many respects and so it is often paired with the server-side language Hypertext PreProcessor (PHP) to create an efficient and flexible client-server model.

PHP is a more dynamic language which is compatible with all major operating systems and web servers. It opens many doors kept closed in a pure HTML site, with lots more opportunities for customised design. The combined effect of the languages is cost-effective, high impact and can handle pretty much anything an SME website could require. For these reasons, the HTML/PHP client-server model is the most popular around and likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

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Launched in 2007, Tumblr has until now been one the many social media programmes which has attracted a cult following, but never reached the mainstream heights of Twitter, Facebook et al. However, industry insiders now believe that this multi-media platform may be about to reach a tipping point of popularity, with 15,000 new users every day and, like Twitter before it, will soon explode into the next big thing.

But what is it?

Tumblr is essentially a blogging platform that allows users to post text, images, audio, links, videos, and quotes to a short form blog, known as a Tumblelog. As on Twitter, these Tumblelogs attract followers who can subscribe to your feed and there are options to both like and re-blog information, ensuring that strong postings with informative or useful content are disseminated amongst the community.

Tumblr’s creator David Karp designed the forum with ease of use and access in mind and it has also been made the subject of an app, allowing it to be accessed and used from anywhere. Therefore it is a highly popular forum for those wishing to post various types of files quickly and easily.

If Tumblr does take off as predicted, there is a strong advantage to be had in beginning to develop a Tumblelog now. The forum is especially suited to companies wishing to run a multi-format social media campaign quickly and easily. The programme combines the ease and speed of Twitter with the multi-media aspects of Facebook to create a powerful social media tool that could begin to eclipse many others in the coming months.

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Social bookmarking is one of the less talked about areas of social media, but it’s growing all the time as sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit continue to develop their facilities and their audiences. So what is social bookmarking and how can it help your social media strategy?

Social bookmarking sites allow internet users to organise, archive and search for resource bookmarks online. These sites catalogue the bookmarks of resources which users find interesting, helpful or feel the desire to share, but not the files themselves, creating a highly efficient resource which can be accessed from any computer.

This makes social bookmarking an excellent tool for collating approved resources for market or business research, but the real value is in the way it can disperse information on your company, creating a wide audience base with built-in social recommendations.

The great thing about social bookmarking is that users add comments, or meta-tags. These can be anything from comments to a rating of the article’s quality. Consequently, good and informative pages can be high-ranked and well disseminated via user feedback, rather than overly focusing on SEO. As the site is socially based, articles that thrive are passed onto new audiences, complete with a personal recommendation which can lead to a higher uptake of readership and better conversion rates of readers into customers.

A strong social bookmarking strategy can ultimately lead to more hits for your website and an increasingly strong reputation as an online thought-leader.

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Google’s so-called ‘sandbox’ is one of the search engine giant’s many tricks to ensure their results remain relevant and of good quality. While this is excellent news for those searching, it does present a potential pitfall for new sites. Newly hosted sites can be placed temporarily by Google in a ‘sandbox’ while their quality is ascertained. Release can take anything from a few days to a couple of months, causing a major loss of traffic to new sites. So how can you avoid the sandbox becoming a sandtrap?

Run a soft launch: Putting your website live a few pages at a time can help avoid the sandbox. Pages are indexed as they appear, so by the time the whole site goes live Google is familiar with much of the content and less likely to sandbox the site.

Use an existing domain: Using a domain name which is already familiar to Google can help you avoid the sandbox, meaning your site is available to your market far quicker. However, using an existing domain for a new business will greatly limit the addresses available and your branding opportunities. It is also potentially very expensive to acquire.

Choose your keywords carefully: It’s great to compete on popular keywords, but very difficult to make a high-rank. Competing on less popular keywords will secure you a higher ranking and make the site appear more relevant.

Content is king: As with so many parts of Google, if you provide what they’re looking for – excellent, relevant content – you’ll be left alone. Make sure your site contains high-quality, original content and it is likely to be released quicker, or avoid the sandbox altogether.

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When choosing a domain name, you need to think carefully about its suffix:

.com – The most popular top-level domain, in use since the Internet began in 1985. Companies anywhere in the world can own a .com domain and there is some evidence that it is prioritised by google.com in rankings. Consequently .com is an excellent choice if you wish to target an international audience.

.co.uk – A second-level domain name, specific to the UK. Many countries now have their own unique second-level domain suffix. It is seen as analogous to .com in many countries, although does geographically bound your site. As a result, while you may rank higher in national search engines, like google.co.uk, it can not compete internationally, where .com will always trump. For this reason, .co.uk is an excellent choice for targeting the domestic market. It also tends to be cheaper than a .com address.

Other domain names you may like to consider are:

.biz –A top-level domain intended to denote a business site. It is not geographically bounded, but does not have the popularity of a .com address. To own a .biz domain, you must prove its use for business and/ or commercial purposes.

.ac.uk – A second-level domain which is industry specific. This can only be used by academic institutions and is highly popular in this field, where it is seen as a mark of quality. Consequently many researchers focus on .ac.uk sites.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that there is nothing to stop a website owning a .com and .co.uk or industry specific version of the same address, for maximum impact.

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The targets of any in-house communications team tend to be three-fold: firstly, to protect their company’s reputation; secondly, to publicise their company’s achievements; and thirdly, to help attract and retain the best staff for the company. This last point may sound like a job for the HR department, but if the first two targets aren’t met, chances are you’ll never achieve the third. Previously on this blog we’ve discussed social media in relation to targets one and two, but how can social media help with recruitment?

When recruiting via social media, the main aims are the same as any other campaign: know your audience; develop a strong, long-term strategy; and look to engage with potential employees.

Once you’ve begun a campaign, keep it going regularly. Whether this means blogging, updating social networking sites or website content, up-to-date content shows a dynamic and contemporary company which will attract talent to match. Sluggish sites with few updates and outdated information have the opposite effect and can be detrimental to your recruitment drives.

The ongoing growth of social media is a fantastic opportunity for recruiters, opening up an amazing talent pool which stretches far beyond the usual boundaries of agencies, job pages and speculative applications; it just requires the right strategy and the correct platform to take off.

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Social media is so prevalent in people’s lives now, that many companies will be tempted to rely on the skills their staff have developed in their own time. While use of social media outside work does create a good basic skill set and understanding of the various technologies involved, it is not enough to implement and execute a full business strategy within the office. This is where social media training for business comes into play; but what are the main home / office differences?

Audience: Personal accounts on social media tend to be aimed at people you already know, work accounts are aimed at attracting attention, especially from your potential client base. Training can help employees adjust their social media mindset to accommodate this change of focus.

Accountability: What is appropriate to tweet as a personal opinion is not appropriate to say under the banner of a business. The lines can be easily blurred and social media training in the workplace is an excellent way to set and disseminate strong and easily followed guidelines.

Strategy: There is no real need for a strategy in personal use of social media as most people are not aiming to meet sales targets or establish reputations. Business use relies strongly on a far-sighted strategy to succeed, with all angles of social media use tied into this. Social media training can help your staff to understand this strategy and how to best work towards its goals.

Training can and should fit around your business needs, whether it’s an ongoing course in short bursts, or a condensed one – two day course. Regular refresher courses and an ongoing open dialogue within the office will also ensure that you, and your staff, get the most out of this powerful internet tool.

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Once you’ve created your website, you want to make sure as many people as possible can see it. There are several technical steps you can take to ensure your website is attracting the attention it deserves.

Make sure it’s browser compatible: Check your website in as many browsers as possible. Every browser has different ways of reading things which means that something which shows perfectly in Internet Explorer may not display properly in Firefox. Making sure your website design can be seen across the widest variety of browsers will ultimately gain you more visitors.

Set up a test server: You should never edit a website live, or throw something up online which hasn’t been tested. Once your website goes live, everything can be seen online, including any mistakes in the draft. A mistake-free site is one of the easiest ways to impress customers, attract search engine attention and gain rankings.

Back up your site: You never know when your site will be the victim of a server outage, or a hacker. Both occasions can, in their most extreme circumstances, result in the need to re-establish the site. It’s rare that this happens, but if it does, back-up is essential to get the site online again quickly, to minimise disruption and avoid missing out on lost business.

Be wary of Flash: Although Flash is popular now, it’s never a good idea to base your entire site design on its usage as it does cut out a proportion of visitors. A substantial number of people don’t have Flash – and they won’t download it just to access your site!

If you’re looking for help with accessible website design, contact NS Design for a free no-obligation consultation.

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