Tag Archives: digitalblog

Hello World! #FirstTweet – How famous accounts announced themselves on Twitter

FirstTweet-Twitter

Your first tweet when you join Twitter is both a momentous and pressured occasion. What will you say to your audience of no followers? How will you announce yourselves to the Twitter world? For many high profiled celebrities and brands this becomes even more important, so I’m going to explore what some of the most famous accounts said when they joined Twitter. Thanks to Twitter Discovers #FirstTweet function you can easily find this out without having to scroll through thousands of tweets! So here’s a trip down memory lane at the first tweets sent from some of our best loved accounts.

Top 10 Most Followed Accounts

Let’s start with some of the most followed accounts there are on Twitter:

Katy Perry – 68.9M

Justin Bieber – 63.1M

Barack Obama – 58.5M

Taylor Swift – 56.7M

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/1041806998

YouTube – 50.4M

Lady Gaga – 46M

Justin Timberlake – 44.7M

Rihanna – 44.5M

Ellen DeGeneres – 42.7M

Britney Spears – 41.7M

Quite the mix of tweets there!

Major Brands

Lots of brands have embraced Twitter, and here’s how they opened their tweet account!

Coca-Cola – 2.95M

Starbucks – 7.6M

Nike – 4.84M

McDonalds – 2.8M

Adidas – 2.01M

IBM – 189K

Microsoft – 6.44M

Google – 10.9M

Intel – 4.17M

Disney – 4.27M

Social Networks

And now here’s some social networks first tweets…on potentially a rival social channel

Twitters…first Twitter – 37.7M

https://twitter.com/twitter/status/145344012

Facebook – yep Facebook on Twitter… – 13.9M

Instagram – 38.6M

Snapchat – 632K

Pinterest – 2.2M

WhatsApp – 2.31M

Vine – 13.8M

https://twitter.com/vine/status/294486118227922944

LinkedIn – 970K

Favourite Accounts

And here’s some of my favourite accounts too!

BBC Sport – 3.56M

Mashable – 5.22M

Paddy Power – 509K

The Drum – 128K

Very British Problems – 1.2M

The Lad Bible – 1.2M

https://twitter.com/TheLadBible/status/97977324208799744

Stephen Fry – 9.43M

Buzzfeed – 2.2M

Elizabeth Windsor, Queen UK – 1.25M

https://twitter.com/Queen_UK/status/13373812584

The Poke – 197K

Uber Facts – 10.6M

Sky Sports Cricket – 279K

Simpsons QOTD – 336K

https://twitter.com/SimpsonsQOTD/status/291518336825692160

Match of the Day – 1.25M

The Apprentice – 231K

Lord Sugar – 4.16M

And here’s the first ever tweet sent by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey – 2.95M

Well there’s a quick sneak peek of the first tweets sent out from some of the most influential Twitter accounts there are. One thing that’s quite consistent with them is that a lot set up their accounts around 2008-2009 just as Twitter was taking off, although that was 2-3 years after the first ever tweet was sent. This illustrates that celebs and major brands weren’t as innovative and first movers of social networks back then. However, now they’re some of the first accounts created when a new social network is set up. It has been so interesting seeing what the first things all these accounts said was, and how Twitter has evolved over the years to help us engage with the people and brands we love.

And just for good measure…here’s my first ‘inspiring’ tweet…!

Thanks for reading, and please do share your first tweets with me! For more digital marketing and social media news, please follow this blog and me on Twitter @DigitalStuart.

We’re Live Now! Is Live Social Streaming the Future

It has been quite a few weeks in the world of social media. First we had the announcement of a new live streaming app called Meerkat and then not too long after that Twitter released its own version, Periscope. So what does live streaming involve. Well you sign in via your Twitter account and then essentially record something live! It’s that simple. When you share the stream it’s posted on your timeline alerting your followers you’re streaming something live and they can choose come and view what’s going on. This gives you a live audience of viewers like you’d have for a TV show.

The competition between Meerkat and Periscope has intensified a lot over the last few weeks as more and more brands and celebrities start to use it. However, when Meerkat launched it was groundbreaking, but annoyingly for them Twitter released their version Periscope just a few days later. So Meerkat’s dominance in the market was there for just a few glittering seconds it seemed. But due to them offering similar features gaining users as quickly as possible is becoming even more so important for them.

So how will social live streaming change the social media landscape. It’s such a novel and unique aspect that’s started to become even more prominent in social media. Gone are the days now where you take a photo or video of an event and then edit it and play or post it a few hours or days afterwards. Now you can bring the audience even closer to what you’re offering. The idea of live streaming is nothing new. TV has been doing it for years and years, and YouTube has streamed live many times. But it’s never been at the average users disposal to do it where they become the broadcaster.

Of course with this live streaming comes copyright and ownership issues. If you’re streaming a concert, or sporting game or an event, you’d need to be careful. But maybe recording something live is still the same as doing it then uploading it after it has happened.

It’ll be interesting to see how the rivalry between the two platforms, Meerkat and Periscope, increases over the coming months and whether one steals a march in the market possibly with new features, offerings or campaigns.

Please let me know your views on live streaming by commenting below. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to follow this blog and me on Twitter @DigitalStuart for more social media and digital marketing news!

The development of social media in companies

Imagine the situation. A company sets up a Twitter account, follows some well-known or relevant accounts, then posts a status saying ‘Hello World, First Tweet’, might then send one saying what they offer and might even send a third one with a link to the website. Then they gradually leave it and let the follower count increase and ‘bang’ you’re now a social company. But of course we all know that just setting up a new social media account doesn’t make you the social strategist of the century.

This attitude to social media has now long gone as companies now realise that just doing that is a recipe for social media failure. It’s been amazing to see that only over the past few years how much social media in companies has changed and the opinion of it has grown dramatically.

I remember attending a social media conference last year full of accountants, lawyers and finance professionals who were absolutely blown away by what they were seeing. How can a Facebook page bring me business or leads? Can people actually ask me questions about my products or services online? The room was awash with so much excitement and surprise of how powerful social media was.I then attended another conference with social media professionals a few weeks later and the difference you can imagine when talking to people was incredible. As there I was hearing stories of companies having 300 people in the social media team which blew MY mind this time.

Social media used to be something that maybe the marketing manager would set up and update on the odd occasion. If they fancied it they might reply to a few comments too. But then we got to the stage of having a specialist social media guy to come in and do it. This might have been an intern. Still not much attention paid to it.

Fast forward a few years and it’s remarkable the amount of planning and detail that now goes into social media. We now have actual social media budgets. Money set aside for social media campaigns whether that’s promoted posts or Facebook ads. We now have people coming up with strategies for social media, and how general marketing campaigns can be supported by social, and how social drives those campaigns to success. Community managers create content calendars weeks in advance to plan out what they’re going to post. They also reply to every comment or mention received, rather than ignoring. We don’t just register the number of followers we have, we now analyse the entire follow base, what their interests are, where they’re based, how they interact with the brand and the engagement rates content gets.

A social media team is now essential for any large company that’s taking social media seriously. The team includes community managers, strategists, analysts, buyers and planners. It’s now a whole department in its own right, just like a marketing, HR or finance department. Social media will no longer just be ‘within marketing’. But now a separate entity on its own. So with a whole team of social media people, the investment in it has grown, something unimaginable a few years back when a marketing manager ran a Twitter account on their own.

The future of social media within companies I think is only going to grow even more. Next you will probably see community managers or strategists for specific networks, such as Twitter strategist or an Instagram community manager. Added to this is companies now allocating more and more funds to social media away from outdoor or traditional media. Why invest in a billboard that will be seen by thousands of people over a day, when a social media campaign can be seen by that amount in a second and millions in total.

So it’ll be very interesting reviewing this blog post in five years time to see where social media within companies has gone. For now though its showing no signs of slowing down!

Thanks for reading and please feel free to share your thoughts. For more digital marketing and social media stories and updates, please follow this blog or me on Twitter @DigitalStuart.

How social media has changed our lives

For those of you who haven’t heard social media is a pretty big deal. Social media is no longer just a part of our lives and that website we sometimes look at . Rather it now shapes, dictates and influences our lives and what we do. Think about it. When you get a job, make a delicious meal, go on holiday or take a great a pic of a lovely view, what’s the first thing you do? Of course you upload it onto social media. Nowadays if you were to get married, we’d only find out about it via Facebook, not from you calling or texting someone. So we tell people what we’ve been up to now via our social profiles. Which to some degree is a shame, but at the same time is much easier than telling everyone separately. Now you can message everyone through a simple status! We’re becoming a group of people that’s now not afraid to share with others what we’ve been up. In the past I wouldn’t really want someone seeing the food I’ve made, but now I’d love to show people it!

Another way social media is changing our lives is how we interact with brands. Now when you have a compliant, question or enquiry we are less likely to pick up the phone and call the company or send an email. But now we go to social media whether that’s Facebook or Twitter to get the answer. In the past we’d mention a brand in a post and think there’s about a 10% chance they’d reply to us. However now I personally feel if I ask a question on Twitter I expect an answer. I mean if your company got a phone call enquiry you wouldn’t ignore it, so why ignore a tweet.

Social media is also at the forefront in our daily lives when it comes to finding out about what’s going on in the world. We now usually find out the breaking news stories from what’s trending on Twitter rather than on the TV or in the newspaper. This has made us more knowledgeable about the latest current affairs and trends something which we probably weren’t as in tune with if we watched the six o’clock news or picked up the local paper.

So it’s not an underestimation to say social media plays a huge part in our daily lives, and as more networks develop this trend is only going to grow more!

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to comment! For more social media news please follow this blog or me on Twitter @DigitalStuart.

Twitter Intensifies its Rivalry with New Features

Twitter recently announced plans to introduce a few new features for its users to increase the usability and interface of the social networking site. These new features include group messages when sending Direct Messages and the ability to capture, edit and share video content that’s up to 30 seconds in length. So what do these enhanced features mean for Twitters user base and their rivalry with other social networks.

Now being able to send messages to a group of people means Twitter is competing more against other established apps such as Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp. One of drawbacks of Twitter was that their Direct Messaging system wasn’t that useful and was really there just as other social networks have it and because people might use it. I personally don’t really utilise the Direct Messaging feature on Twitter as there are so many other uses like Retweeting, Favouriting and discovering trends that I use it for. For brands having this new update could save them a lot of time when contacting users to tell them something such as they’ve won a prize. Twitter has always been behind when it comes to messaging but now as they’ve placed greater emphasis on it, their competition against the other networks might increase, and see Direct Messages being used more.

Twitter’s new video feature for me is one of the best things they’ve done for some time as it was frustrating recording a video then not being able to upload it onto the network. If you wanted to upload a video to Twitter you’d have to do it via their app Vine, from YouTube or another video streaming site such as Vimeo. But now users can record them, edit to a desired length, then share to their audience. This is a great move for brands who can add more creativity to their content and not feel restricted to just status updates with words or images. Vine is a wonderful tool for 6 second videos on loop, but now being able to record 30 second ones means more can be put into it and edited to something that’s of a higher quality…rather than a rush. The engagement rates for brands will also increase due to the improved content quality and variety in posting, something which us social media people love to monitor. For the rivalry of Twitter this is an essential feature due to Facebook and Instagram now both allowing autoplaying videos, so this feature has never been so crucial for them.

Both these new updates for Twitter illustrate that the social network has got some good plans to keep its competitive edge on the other networks out there, which is needed having recently seen Instagram having more active users than it. For me Twitter has been quite lazy recently as they don’t seem to be evolving as much as other social networks. You look at Instagram for example, they’ve introduced many new features, as have Facebook and Snapchat, but Twitter does seem to be quite reactive. Looking at Twitter now and a year ago, there’s not many changes in terms of functionality. The interface has changed a lot, but the new features are the first for some time.

So the new features Twitter has installed have been a welcome change to users and marketers a like. Let’s hope this is the start of many.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to follow this blog and me on Twitter @DigitalStuart for more social media and digital marketing news and views.

Is the value of a Snapchat Ad really worth $750,000 per day?

This month Snapchat announced plans that they’re going to start charging brands the astronomical figure of $750,000 or about £500,000 for ads on the platform per day. For this amount of money brands get to show an ad to the social networks youthful and teenage audience…which will promptly disappear in 24 hours. So let’s break this down further. That means a brand would be paying $31,250 an hour, or $520 a minute or $9 a second. For me the figure that is most telling is how much brands are paying a second, as Snapchat ads, stories and messages only last up to 1-30 seconds. So if you’re posting an ad that lasts 30 seconds, you’ve just coughed up $270! Of course there’s no guarantee that the recipient will see out the whole ad, as they might just delete it, thus money wasted!

The other drawback of Snapchat’s ads, if the cost hasn’t already made you faint, is the fact you can’t target them to specific users. So it literally is a mass Snapchat message with no personalisation or anything. I mean for something generic like food this might be ok, but for something specific such as womens clothing, I personally don’t really want to see that (my days of wearing womens clothing are behind me). So the fact you aren’t able to target is a big issue. But I guess the cost is the reason for this. If Snapchat decides to release a targeted ads system, the cost I presume might be lower as you are hitting fewer users. Although it might actually be higher as you’re targeting more specifically!

The question to ask is why and how can Snapchat ask for so much from brands. One of the reasons is that it’s one of the fastest growing apps and social networks around with over 30 million users and this isn’t showing any signs of slowing down as more people sign up and brands look to exploit it. Also there’s a high value to get ads to people’s smartphones and through Snapchat’s ads brands can achieve just this. That’s because when you receive the snap, this is the only ad you see, as it’s not like a website page with loads of banner ads, it’s one ad that takes up your screen. Some might compare this to Instagram’s ad strategy too.

Is there actually any benefit in paying this amount of money? I mean is there actually any value in it, will you get a decent return or any if that. It’s quite hard to determine the ROI of these ads, and a lot will depend on the call to action. If it’s ‘opens’ then this isn’t really a great metric although clicks or website visits/sign ups might be a better determinant of success. Either way it appears Snapchat hasn’t really thought about this yet, nor really has any brand.

So only time will tell whether brands pay the handsome sum of $750,000 for an ad, or will Snapchat rethink this cost strategy. Thanks for reading and please do comment on your views of Snapchat’s ad cost. In the meantime, please do follow my blog and me on Twitter @DigitalStuart for more digital marketing and social media news.

My Marketing and Social Media Predictions for 2015!!!

First of all let me take this moment to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! In this blog I’m going to highlight some of my predictions for 2015 in the social media and marketing space.

Instagram to Continue its Growth 

I recently wrote how Instagram now has more active users than Twitter and in 2015 I expect the photo sharing app to continue its growth in users. It wouldn’t surprise me if Instagram introduced many new features in the coming months of 2015 in addition to the recent ones. Also Instagram for business will increase as brands look to take advantage of Instagrams growing audience.

Social Advertising Spend

Many brands are now allocating funds for social media usage whether that’s for Promoted Posts on Twitter, Facebook ads, or investing in creative content, I expect more money to be spent on this growing trend. Brands are now spending more money on digital marketing activities such as social media, search or mobile, meaning greater focus is on these areas rather than traditional marketing.

The Rise of Snapchat

2015 should see the mobile app Snapchat increase it’s presence on the social media space. At the moment Snapchat only allows you to send photos but recently they announced plans to introduce a payment system called Snapcash, so more new features could be added to the app. I expect Snapchat to add greater enhanced features such as profile pages, more filters on Snaps and possibly a greater messaging system. Of course these are features that would enhance Snapchat’s service.

Mobile to Grow Even More

Every year we say that mobile will grow in the coming year, and you kind of think how much more can it grow?! But 2015 will once again see brands and consumers presence on mobile increase. This rise will see brands spend more money on mobile whether that’s creating or developing a mobile optimised site, introducing mobile payments or releasing an app, this sector is rising. Additionally, mobile advertising will grow as brands try to secure the screen on smartphones, as apps such as Twitter and Facebook enhance their advertising platforms. Also more people now have smartphones so brands are seeing this opportunity to advertise to a whole new audience as well as offer their products and services online.

Wearable Technology All The Rage

Wearable technology is going to rise even more as the year progresses through releases such as Smartwatches. This could see more watches that now offer users the chance to send texts, access email and other apps…oh…and maybe it’ll tell the time too.

Big Data will be…Big

Gone are the days of looking at data from your customers and ignoring it, but now these figures are becoming even more vital to gain great insights into a brands audience. 2015 will see social media and marketing managers analyse more data than ever to really find out who their audience is and what they like. This will see an increase in brands using analytics tools to see for instance what interests their social media followers are in to, where they are from, who they follow, whether they’re male or female and a whole multitude of other stats. All these demographic, geographic and psychographic insights will enable brands to create content that is more tailored to the audience, thus increasing engagement.

Content is the King of 2015

The marketing term that has been banished round for some time is ‘content’, and how ‘it is king’, and this will continue to be the case in 2015. There’s never been a more valuable time for brands to create and post content whether that’s a photo, a video or a status update which is interesting, shareable, creates awareness, is fun and of high quality. That’s why brands will invest money in developing this content whether that’s in house designers or outsourcing it to agencies.

Real Time Marketing (RTM) is the REAL Deal

More brands are now taking the opportunity to exploit internet trends and popular news stories with creative and humorous content. I’ll take you back to the summer when Apples ‘Bendgate’ was in full flight, and brands quickly jumped on the bandwagon. This is a classic example of a news story creating a massive influx of hilarity and fun from brands. I’ve previously written about how Real Time Marketing is the way to go as it illustrates to a brands audience that they’re current and at the same time keeping an eager eye on what’s going on in the news. I fully see more brands allocating time and money to creating great RTM campaigns in the year to come.

Of course, RTM isn’t always the best strategy to take as if you, and your competitors are all doing it, it doesn’t make it unique anymore. Thus it’s very important to have the first mover advantage of getting there before anymore else and getting something out quickly. However, always be aware that misfortune could happen to anyone…so it was Apple one day, it could easily be you another day…

Storytelling

When we say storytelling we aren’t about to tell you a fariytale…or maybe we are depending on the brand, but this is how brands can differentiate themselves by telling us a story of their brand or campaign. Take for instance John Lewis’ successful Monty the Penguin Christmas advert. This told us the romantic story of Monty and Mabel the penguins and their search for love and to spend Christmas together. These stories add emotion to us as viewers and in some cases make us relate with the narrative…maybe the love side, not being a penguin! Having a great story behind how your brand started or your campaign attracts the audience and creates fantastic social media content!

Personalisation

Brands more than ever are not trying to just post content that is targeted at the masses, but now is aimed at niche and specific people who can then in turn relate to it. The upcoming year will see brands trying to be much more personal with their activities. Obviously this won’t mean posting 100,000 different Twitter status’ for 100,000 followers, but a greater number of posts will target a brands audience. This comes hand in hand with big data and analysing a brands audience, as when they can see who their audience is, personalisation becomes easier.

There’s a lot of Talk about Chat Apps

One thing I’ve noticed over the past year is how much chat apps such as WhatsApp and We Chat have grown, and 2015 won’t see this stop. However, brands haven’t really exploited them yet, maybe because of their nature, but I’d be excited to see how brands in 2015 will use these as the apps audience base grows.

A New Social Network? Is it needed?

There’s always one social network that suddenly grows and takes the social media landscape by storm. 2011 was Google+ (more a drizzle), 2012 it was Pinterest, 2013 was Instagram and 2014 was Snapchat, so who will it be in 2015? There might be a growth in current networks but could an entirely new one come to our attention. But is another social network needed? I mean I work in social media and am amerced in it everyday but even I struggle to follow what’s going on, on my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and all the others, so how someone that doesn’t work in social media copes I don’t know! I don’t think my life at the moment needs another social network. I’d maybe prefer it to replace a current one. However, if the new network was unique and did something completely different I might find time for it!

So there’s some of my 2015 predictions! I’ll probably be writing a blog post in December to see if any of these happened…or if my mystic meg abilities are totally wrong! if you have any predictions for 2015 please feel free to comment. For more digital marketing news follow this blog, and me on Twitter @DigitalStuart .

Like or Dislike the Idea of a New button on Facebook

After much speculation and public demand, Mark Zuckerberg recently suggested that he’s considered putting a ‘Dislike’ button on Facebook in addition to the standard Like button. But this was merely a consideration, not something that would be installed anytime soon as Facebook tries to add more emotion to its posts.

I think a Dislike button isn’t a great idea due to the potential berating it could give Facebook users. Consider for a minute. I’ve updated a lovely photo of the London skyline, and bang! Someone clicks Dislike. I immediately feel depressed and sad that someone doesn’t like by post. So a Dislike button in this context is a nightmare! Although the other side of it is if you do update your status with a sad post such as a family member passing away, people would engage with that. There’s nothing more awkward that Liking a sad and emotional status!

So Facebook wants to add more emotions to their posts. Maybe it could be like a questionnaire answer template. ‘Like A lot’, ‘Like’, ‘Moderately Like’, ‘Moderately Dislike’, ‘Dislike’, ‘Dislike A lot’. Or maybe I want to indicate that I’ve ‘Laughed’ at your status or ‘Felt Sad’. Whatever the type of engagement you get it’ll be quite complicated with so many emotional options, but at the same time gives the user more freedom over engaging with status’, rather than just to Comment, Like or Share.

It appears that Facebook is in the early stages of this new engagement approach, but this could be the next big change for the social network.

Many thanks for reading and please feel free to share your comments. To keep up to date with the digital marketing industry please follow me on Twitter @DigitalStuart, or click Follow on this blog.

Why I did a Digital Marketing Internship

There are many great articles and blogs about the value of doing an internship, so I thought I’d write one from a students perspective on why I did an internship and what I learnt from it.

It’s July 2011, and I’ve just finished my second year of uni and I am due to do a gap year working…however there was one problem… I had nowhere to work!

My initial intention was to work somewhere like a shop for the year…but then I thought it’d be worth applying for somewhere that could help me in my career. So the idea of doing an internship was very appealing to get into the job area that I loved the most, marketing.

One of things I noticed was that many of the internships I looked at were three months and were unpaid. So my plan was to do three 3 month internships throughout the year to gain as much experience as possible…and also meant I had to start saving money!

I eventually found the perfect internship for a digital recruitment agency in London with the job title of a Marketing Intern…applied for it and was ecstatic to get it.

The first four months of my internship were unpaid with just expenses paid, but then from January 2012 I was fortunate enough that the position became a paid one, which for me was so overwhelming and amazing that my work was valued enough to become a paid member of the team.  Something which I’m extremely grateful for.

My internship lasted up until August 2012 which meant I had worked an entire year. For me this was brilliant considering when I signed my contract to join it was for two months and unpaid. So to stay an entire year and for it to be paid showed that working for free does have its rewards in the end if you work hard and embrace the company’s culture.

So here are some of the reasons why I took an internship and what I learnt:

The Work Experience 

This is probably the most important reason why I took an internship. I had virtually no work experience at all…apart from three weeks work experience in Year 11. So the idea of taking an internship was to build up the experience on my CV.

The great thing about the internship was that I could find out about the working environment and what a normal day entails…and the London commute. Also the experience of interacting with fellow employees, being part of a team and generally being involved in whatever goes on during the working day was something I hadn’t experienced really ever before, so it was incredibly valuable.

The Life/Social Experience and Meeting New People

For me there are two types of experiences, the ones you gain from the daily working environment and the ones you get outside of that. Doing an internship was a perfect chance to meet a group of new people that weren’t from school or uni or even people my age. I was extremely lucky that every person I met and worked with were just awesome and so welcoming & helpful. This ensured that I made friends there that will stay with me forever.

But it was the small things like going out for lunch with work mates, finding out what interests people have, meeting different personalities, going for a drink after work or attending the work Christmas party which were all part of the life and social experience of working during the year.

Learning New Skills and Developing Existing Ones

Another reason I took an internship was to learn new skills and develop the ones I’m already competent in. The internship definitely achieved this as I picked up so many new skills both personal and professional whilst working such as the added responsibility and being independent, self-confidence, the ability to adapt and many more. But there were skills which I had that I wanted to improve further such as my creativity, organisation, marketing & business knowledge and working in a team.

One area which I feel I developed a lot was my ability to be motivated and driven. This was exemplified by the fact I was unpaid for four months, which for some people might not motivate them. So it was good that I was motivated to perform tasks to the highest possible standard even though I wasn’t being paid. But it was without doubt the work experience that was more valuable than money.

These skills haven’t just helped me with my final year at uni, but will for my entire working life.

Learning about Marketing and Digital

The one area which has always interested me in business is marketing, so the internship was an opportunity to see what type of career it could be. It was very useful to find out what working in a marketing team entailed and the kind of marketing activities that the team does such as the social media presence, organising events, managing the website, researching and creating marketing related material.

Also working in the digital industry has made me decide that this is the career path that I want to get into, something the internship was a valuable experience to find out.

Getting into One of the Fastest Growing Industries

I didn’t realise it until I started working in the industry, but digital is huge! It’s well-known that many companies are expanding their digital operations, whether that’s starting a social media presence, developing an app, a better website or just budgeting more for online marketing than offline. But being in this fast-paced, creative and dynamic industry was a great introduction to work. It was ideal as being involved in digital recruitment meant I didn’t just learn about one aspect of digital marketing, but a broad range of areas ranging from web design to mobile to search.   

Making New Contacts

An internship gave me the opportunity to meet a number of people who hopefully when I leave uni can help me find a job in digital. This was another reason for doing an internship as the old saying of ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’,might be true.

So those are some of the reasons why I chose to do an internship and I would recommend it to anyone. Even if you aren’t lucky enough to get paid I found that the experience you can put on your CV shows you’re committed to that career or job area and that you’re motivated not by money but for experience you can gain which is essential in these tough economic and employment times.

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to comment on my blog with your thoughts. Or you can follow me on Twitter for digital news @digitalstuart.

Did you say Paperclip…no I said Pay Per Click

When you hear the words ‘Pay Per Click’, you may think the person is saying ‘Paperclip’, however, they are surprisingly different. See a Paperclip is something which holds paper…whereas Pay Per Click is a search marketing term. This blog is going to get a camera and take a quick Digital Snapshot of what PPC is.

PPC is when a company pays for ads to be displayed in the results of a search engine in relation to keywords which have been entered by the user.

So why’s it called Pay Per Click? It’s called this as the advertiser only pays for the ad when it’s clicked on. So if no one clicks on it, then there’s no charge.

The PPC ads are the friendly advertisements that you typically see on the right hand side or directly below your search engine in the paid listings part of the page next to and above the organic/natural search.

The position of the ad within the search results is based on how much the advertiser has bid, so the more you bid, the greater the chance you have of being higher up in the search results. The bids are placed on keywords. So the key is to unlock those keywords! For instance, if you sold expensive watches, you could bid for keywords such as ‘watch’, ‘watches’, ‘expensive watch’, ‘luxury watches’…and so on.

You can also use ‘Negative Keywords’, which are words which when searched for you don’t want your ad to appear in. These could be ‘cheap watches’, ‘low priced watches’…and so on.

This makes PPC a highly targeted marketing tool, as the advertiser knows that when their ad appears, the user is in their target audience and could potentially purchase.

The actual PPC ad might be a text description accompanied by a picture and a link to that offering. So these prominent calls to action entice the user to click on the ad.

One of the best ways to manage a PPC campaign could be to use a helpful program called Google Adwords which enables you to bid on keyowrds in order to lock them down, create the actual ad, track the analytics and use reports on how the ads are performing.

So, what are the advantages and disadvantages of PPC.

Advantages

The advertiser doesn’t pay unless the ad is clicked on

Highly targeted approach through the use of keywords – Improves the chances of a sale or lead

Have a rough idea of where you’ll rank in the search engine in accordance to how much you have bid

PPC ads can be displayed quickly, rather than SEO results which take longer for the pages to be indexed by spiders/robots

Simpler than SEO as your rank is based on a bid amount – Whereas SEO requires re-structuring pages

PPC can be used as a branding tool

Can calculate ROI for each keyword and a campaign

Manage a campaign effectively via programs like Google Adwords

Disadvantages

PPC ads aren’t trusted as much as they are seen as advertising

The bidding process could see a lot being paid for keywords which could make it an expensive campaign tool

PPC campaigns require expertise and knowledge in areas such as the bidding process, keyword selection and managing the entire campaign

To remain competitive and ensure that a high ranking is kept it can be time consuming to manage a PPC campaign in-house

Unethical actions could occur from users or competitors constantly clicking the PPC ad so that you keep paying for the ad (though after a while the search engine will register this and the advertiser won’t be charged)

And that’s PPC!

So just for fun, here are some advantages and disadvantages of Paperclips.

Advantages

Keeps paper together so you don’t lose it

Some paperclips have a solid metal structure to keep paper positioned well

They come in different colours and sizes to accommodate colour preferences and the size of the paper

You can make a paperclip chain from many paperclips which can be used for a necklace or just for fun

Disadvantages

They can be quite sharp, and you might get injured from them

You can be restricted to the amount of paper it can hold

….and here’s the worlds most famous paperclip…Clippit!!!

Clippy

 

 

 

 

 

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Stuart