One of the biggest mistakes that a business can make in Facebook marketing is to link a Twitter account to their Facebook page. You may think that this is a timesaving solution, but there are some very good reasons why each network deserves its own updates. Continue reading
Viral marketing can get your message out in front of a huge number of people. However, many of them are basement-dwelling teenagers who are not part of your target demographic. Instead of aiming for exposure spikes, focus your content marketing campaign on gaining a positive reputation among relevant, valuable followers.
There are definitely things that you can do to make your content more likely to be shared and retweeted. Make sure that your content has engaging titles with breakout potential. Don’t restrict yourself to producing niche content that is only of interest to your direct audience. Cultivate influencers in your industry, and piggyback on relevant news stories that get lots of attention. Continue reading
Remember Lego? Grafton Media‘s Dave Baxter reminisces and checks out a new ad campaign that’s bringing it back.
“Imagine” is the beautiful new Lego campaign by Hamburg advertising agency Jung von Matt (I wish my name was more exciting). The poster series shows minimalistic Lego designs based on some of the worlds most beloved cartoon characters, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to The Smurfs, The Simpson to the boys of South Park. Continue reading
So we wandered back into the office this morning after the usual Easter break, and conversation wasn’t long in turning to the two Billion Dollar deals struck over the weekend. Most of you will already be aware that Facebook acquired Instagram yesterday for US$1bn in cash and stock, but the fact that Microsoft also bought a slate of patents from AOL for the same price since last we spoke my be coming of news to many. But why? And what exactly does it all mean? Continue reading
More and more bloggers and content marketers are relying on negative posts, articles and website content. Using negative content may attract attention in the short-term, but long-term it builds up resentment, and erodes trust. Don’t sacrifice your hard-earned on-line reputation by succumbing to negativity! Continue reading
Choosing an SEO marketing firm can be a difficult choice, especially with so much to choose from. In this post, Grafton Media discusses some important things to consider before you set off searching for a company to market your online business. We provide some useful tips for those planning to get their site onto the first page of Google and other search engines:
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Strapped for cash but still after that perfect website? Need some advertising lined up for that January sales rush?
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Insufficient knowledge of the Internet as an advertising instrument has led to many online businesses making a loss. The marketing strategy of these businesses is so focused on driving traffic to their website that they ignore the importance of creating and maintaining a powerful online brand. At Grafton Media we offers the following thoughts about brand building, to help your marketing strategy develop: Continue reading
Twitter hashtags are simply words or phrases with the hash symbol (#) attached to the beginning (e.g. #hashtags, #Twitter, #marketing.) They are used by Twitter users and social media experts to search for tweets related to their area of interest. Many Twitter users subscribe to specific hashtags using the saved search facility, while others perform regular hashtag searches of topics that they find interesting. If you have used your hashtags correctly, your tweets will show up in the list of search results when a Twitter user searches for your chosen hashtags. Using hashtags as part of your Twitter marketing strategy means that your tweets will be read by a much wider audience.
Choosing your hashtags
When choosing which hashtags to use for your tweets, it’s important to think about your target audience and which search terms they may be using. For example, if your company sells cat food, your target audience may well be cat owners, but they are unlikely to search for hashtags like #catfood. They are far more likely to search for hashtags like #cats and #pets. Ideally, you should use no more than 2-3 hashtags per tweet. Don’t annoy your audience by making every word a hashtag.
Where to put your hashtags
Placement of hashtags is generally best at the end of your tweet. If this is not practical, try to place them at the beginning. Placing hashtags in the middle of your tweets can be distracting and confusing for your audience.
Using “trending” hashtags
Trending hashtags are hashtags that have become extremely popular within the Twitter community. Hashtags “trend” when they are being used, and searched for, by large quantities of people. Trending hashtags are usually short lived, but if you use these hashtags at the right time, your tweets are likely to be seen by thousands of people who you would not usually come into contact with.
Use your Twitter homepage to keep an eye on which hashtags are trending. When you spot a trending hashtag that you think you can contribute to, send out a tweet using the hashtag. Make sure that your tweet is relevant to the topic. Don’t “piggyback” on the success of a trending hashtag by using it to market unrelated content, as this will only serve to annoy Twitter users.
Starting your own trend
Getting a hashtag to “trend” is no easy task. However, if you can come up with an original hashtag, or even resurrect an old favorite, to capture the imagination of a large amount of Twitter users, you can create a huge amount of exposure for your marketing campaign. Choose hashtags that encourage Twitter users to share something about themselves and their lives. For example, hashtags that encourage people to divulge their favorite movie (e.g. #myfavouritemovies) are more likely to gamer attention than a simple movie (#movie) hashtag.
Using hashtags to communicate with your customers
Hashtags can also be used as a way to receive feedback from your customers. Choose an individual hashtag that no one else is using and ask your customers to use the hashtag in their communications with you. This can be a good way to answer frequently asked questions, rather than having to reply directly to every single query. Remember to keep track of your hashtags and reply regularly. Desktop clients such as Tweetdeck and HootSuite can help you to organize and keep track of your hashtags.
If you’d like help with your social media campaign, check out how Grafton Media can help you and your company.
With the advent of regularly changing search engine algorithms, it is essential to keep in touch with latest trends to prevent your website from dropping down a search engine’s page rankings. Grafton Media bring you this blog post full of tips and tricks to help stay ahead of the game:
You may have a superb product line and excellent customer support, but none of these matter if your website is on page 10. Most internet users want to find information fast, minimising their search time to reach the requested information as quickly as possible. In this regard, it becomes a top priority to ensure your information is presented on page 1 of the search enquiry. Fortunately, there are a number ways to achieve consistently high page-ranking results for your website.
1. Quality
Current search engines weed out poorly written website content in favor of quality. Taken from the point of the internet user, a person does not want to wade through pages of badly composed information before finding your site. In response to this problem, search engines rank information quality as a high priority. Make sure all the content in your website provides well-constructed prose presented in a format that appears informative and structured. Avoid producing fragmented sentences or paragraphs stuffed with keywords.
2. Article
Creating a section in your website that provides informative articles can help distinguish your site as a premier website and raise your page ranking. Your article section should provide high quality written prose that complements your website content. Instructional articles for your product range prove to be both useful to your potential online customer and rank highly with search engines. Original written work ranks far higher than articles containing duplicate content from elsewhere on the internet. Use professional freelance copywriters to write engaging and informative search-engine-optimised content if you do not have strong writing skills.
3. Keywords
Avoid keyword stuffing at all costs to prevent your website ranking from plummeting. If your page content contains more than three percent of keywords, then rewrite the content. Use two-and three-word phrases as your keywords in order to match the natural style of searches entered into search engines by internet users.
4. Images
A search engine crawler takes website images into consideration for ranking purposes, so its important to maximize the extra points you can receive by placing images on your website. Make sure you combine text with images because the combination raises your ranking. Write original image text that is not duplicated anywhere else on the website page.
5. Social Networking Links
Social networking sites are a useful tool to increase your website ranking. Search engines currently rank the affirmation of your website from clicks by social networking sites as positive confirmation of your website’s usefulness. Place approval links to Twitter and Facebook on your site at the end of the content articles to build traffic and increase your page ranking.
The dynamism of search engine algorithms means that you need to keep up with the current SEO thinking to ensure your website receives the page ranking that you want to achieve. Using a combination of top tips to create a balanced structure to your website to reflect contemporary design and user expectations will enable the search engine crawlers to rank your website pages in the upper echelon.
At Grafton Media we provide a full range of search engine optimisation services to boost your website ranking and turn around. Contact us today for further information.
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Grafton Media is proud to announce the launch of it’s latest client site!
Edwards Services and Solutions (ESS) - http://www.edwardsservicesandsolutions.com
ESS managing director, Sue Edwards praised Grafton Media for their exceptional service and quality end produce. Speaking on Thursday, she said:
“The Grafton Media team recently designed a new website for my company. The quality of this site is unbelieveable. It’s eye-catching, professional and most importantly, the SEO is of an incredibly high standard.
The quality of service I received from the team was exemplary. They worked in close consultation with me, the most minute detail was discussed until I was happy, and the team kept me updated with developments. One of the challenges facing them was working with me to design a logo for the company… Again, no detail was left to chance, and they explained everything in detail and ensured I was totally happy before forging ahead.
I will definately be using Grafton Media in the future for my on and off line advertising and marketing. I cannot recommend them highly enough.”
Grafton Media has also been appointed to manage all future media communications and media buying for the company, along with other services to be announced soon.