Tag Archives: Karen Boswell\’s blog

Jul 09 2010
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Content, Search

content is king

The internet serves billions of users across the globe and is composed of millions of networks linked to deliver a vast array of content.

But there is a lot of bad content. I’m sure you’ve all come across something that looks dull, irrelevant or confusing.

So what makes good content?

You make good content. Or at least if you want your site to be interesting you should be creating good content. So where do you start to ensure that your target audience will stay on your site once they find it?

  • First things first, ask yourself, what’s the purpose of your website? Define your purpose at the beginning, before you even write the first piece of content. Otherwise you’ll waste time and money going round in circles trying to find a reason for writing content.
  • Who are you talking to? What is the best way to communicate with these people? Do you actually need a website or is it a blog that you need?
  • Content is king to both your visitors and to search engines. Don’t just fill the white space, research and plan what you have to say then clearly structure your delivery.
  • Don’t overcomplicate your language, use straight forward words that your users will understand. It’s also worth noting that the passive voice gets a better response…
  • Hone your humour, informal language doesn’t always result in popularity. Again consider who will be reading what you write and run a sarcasm check before you publish it.
  • Most importantly proof your copy and check for spelling mistakes. There’s nothing worse than having your audience send a smug note informing you of an error!

And finally but very importantly, if you can pretty up your site with some visual imagery that’s great, users react to well laid out and considered sites, but don’t get distracted, content is still king.

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Jul 07 2010
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Debates and Discussion points, social media, social networking

Is privacy dead?

We’re all used to ticking opt out boxes to keep our details hidden but in a world where everyone is connected over the media of the internet, is the ability to control who has access really that secure?

I’ve had this debate with so many clients, friends and family members and it comes hand in hand with just about every mention of Facebook (I’ll point out now that 95% of these conversations are with older generations).

How many times have I heard ‘But I don’t want people to know what I’m up to every minute of the day’ and then two seconds later a shrieking squeal followed by ‘Ooh look at that picture, my how he’s grown! Quick flick through the other pictures so I can see…’

There are many critics of the internet, Steve Rambam a private investigator specialising in internet cases once said ‘Privacy is dead – get over it’. He may be right, if someone digs hard enough they could probably find some dirt on me but I publicly display what I want people to see and control how that is presented. It seems more that it’s the lack of understanding that people are afraid of.

So in simple words these are the things you need to check for if you’re nervous:

  • Who your information will be passed to
  • Why the information is being collected (if you allow it to be)
  • How the information will be used and when
  • How you can access information the organisation holds about you

All this can be found in any disclaimer for any site you visit or use.

With particular reference to Facebook, read this blog by my friend and colleague Jim. Here he talks specifically about Facebook Privacy. I think you’ll find it very useful.

I don’t really have an answer for you all, being immersed in the digital world I suppose I have more trust in it, I’m just as wary of the next door neighbour who constantly tries to steal my raspberries, the man in the shop who tries to short change me and the estate agents not doing a very good job of selling my house. None of whom I deal with online.

I guess really it’s just having the understanding to make an informed decision about what you share… what do you think?

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Jul 05 2010
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social media, social networking

What’s all this noise about?

Social media is often met with scepticism when you’re trying to entice a client into their brand interaction world online. The majority don’t want to poke their head above the parapet for fear of being shot down in flames by their consumers, but really it’s not that scary if you approach it in a sensible way.

Start with monitoring what people say about your brand, you can subscribe to services such as Brandwatch to do this. Companies like this will gather data from all different types of blogs including micro blogs like twitter, plus larger blogs like WordPress and Blogger. It will also gather information on your mentions from video and image sites like YouTube and Flickr plus social networks and news sites to name but a few.

Once collected the data is cleansed and analysed for you. By subscribing to a brand monitoring service you will be able to filter through all the online noise and establish who is saying what about your brand including what they’re saying, where they’re saying it and how often. Is it positive or negative? Are other people responding?

By understanding the platform of social interaction surrounding your brand you will be better placed to engage in a considered and appropriate way.

If you’re still not sure most services such as Brandwatch offer a free trial or demo so have  look around and see who’s talking about you.

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Jun 28 2010
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Client questions answered, W3C, Web Standards

W3C explained

One of the most common discussions when talking with a client about the delivery of a site or web application is whether or not ‘it’s to standard’ but what does this actually mean?

The W3C or World Wide Web Consortium (3 W’s and a ‘C’ for consortium) is the main international standards organisation for the World Wide Web. The organisation is headed up by none other than Sir Tim Berners-Lee and consists of a number of some 350 odd members who continuously develop the standards for the web.

So what does that mean? Well, by having a regulatory body for web standards it ensures that all developers around the world web use a compliant standard coding style and that means that you won’t get errors which in short (and this is the bit the client will like) that means it will save time and money.

Now if you want to sound extra clever you can explain to Mr Client that validated webpage’s are accessible, browser compatible, error free, fast loading, and properly indexed in the search engines. This is good because your target audience and Google will like you.

If you don’t tick the above boxes by not having validated webpage’s the opposite will happen and no-one will like your site. So that’s what it all means, simple really.

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Jun 21 2010
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General, new technology

Achieving digital balance

The online world evolves at such a breakneck speed it’s easy to get sidetracked by the latest shiny gadget or cutting edge technology.

Once we lived in a world where clients would phone up and say ‘We want a website’, now more often than not the call I take is ‘I saw this and I want one for our businesses’.

The key is to strive for digital balance. Remember the business requirement but add in enough innovation and excitement to keep your client and the audience enticed. By delivering a balanced media plan you will achieve a greater ROI by allocating accountability and measurement to each media chosen. By being media and technology neutral your results will be integrated and effective.

I’m not saying that you should ignore new technologies and only rely on the tried and tested, absolutely not, but don’t just adopt technology for technology’s sake.

Start with your staple ingredients of a tried and tested planning model, add in a dash of innovation, a spoonful of pioneering technology, a splash of something daring then check it against your ROI model.

If it all adds up you’re on way to achieving your digital balance.

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Jun 16 2010
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3D, A geek moment, Fun Stuff, Interesting stuff

The new X-Box ‘Kinect’

It’s ‘sleeker, smaller and quieter’ and according to the Vice president of Microsoft, the X-Box 360 ‘Kinect’ is the next revolution in gaming.

With 250GB HD and built-in wi-fi the console brings you technologies that allow you to use your voice as a control, plus movement and gestures.  The team at Microsoft have created new partnerships with the likes of ESPN in order to build more intelligent software that recognise you and your opponents to add in more interactive dimensions to the world of gaming.

You might worry that this will be detrimental to the quality you expect to receive as historically we’ve all experienced rich high-definition video but Microsoft promise they’re not moving away from delivering this quality and look to better their three massive blockbusters: Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty.

One for your wish list to Santa, the ‘Kinect’ is due to hit stores by the end of this year.

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Jun 15 2010
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Client questions answered, Search

Know your audience, know your keywords.

Or ‘secret’ words as one particular client of mine likes to call them, but honestly, there’s no black magic or secret formula involved, if you know your audience you should know your keywords.

A Keyword is simply a word that users commonly use when searching on the internet for particular information. If you get into the mindset of your users and understand the keywords they use when searching, then you can increase your keyword density (number of times a keyword is used on your site) to boost your natural rankings within search engines.

This is part of the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) process which is fundamental to the visibility of your site against competing sites online. By knowing your target audience and optimising for their journey and not yours you will be favoured by the search engines and therefore they will recommend your site above others.

Get the basics right first. Make sure you have correctly identified your target market, understand the language they are using and try where you can to include these keywords in your site. You will of course still have to use the language that you need to sell your product or services so make sure that you don’t lose the relevance to your site along the way. The key is balance.

Get the balance right though and you will generate a higher volume of quality visitors to your site which in turn will help your conversion rates and boost your business.

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Jun 09 2010
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Debates and Discussion points, Interesting things on the vine, Mobile, new technology

Blue lego bricks

Ironic that I’m typing this on my iPhone but numbered are the days that I shall do so. I’m getting pretty fed up with the battle between Apple and Adobe. Anyone else out there have a view on this?

Adobe took a big step towards reconciliation recently and announced their ‘Packager for iPhone’ tool. The Packager is a key aspect of Adobe’s CS5 update to its flagship creative suite, due for release to the market just days after Apple’s damning words iterated by the ‘legendary’ Steve Jobs.

At a recent Apple meeting he announced an amendment to their app development terms and conditions effectively banning the use of Flash.

So I’m looking into the HTC Evo 4G, it looks pretty good. Perhaps we can turn all the abandoned iPhones into a work of art, each one can resemble a blue Lego brick, we can call it ‘In the absence of flash’…

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Jun 09 2010
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Interesting stuff, Interesting things on the vine, Mobile, social media, social networking

Foursquare: The Facts

Foursquare was founded by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai.

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website and game.

Foursquare is built primarily for smart phones.

Foursquare has more than 600,000 people checking in at this moment in time.

Foursquare grew more than 10% during one conference (SXSW). That hasn’t been done since Twitter.

Foursquare employ 16 people. The square root of 4 is 16… See what they did there?

If you want to know more, check out their blog.

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Jun 03 2010
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General, musings

If you don’t make mistakes, you won’t make anything

Being wrong is ok, failures and false starts are a precondition of success.

Some of the most successful people and companies I know are so, because they allow themselves to fail. Edison made over 200 light bulbs before he made the one that worked but he learned something from every mistake before reaching the end result.

It is the wrong turns in work and life that define us, risks are a measure of who you are. Those of us that take risks will end up leading more fruitful lives. Knowledge is built upon things that happen but if you stop taking risks and only keep the same knowledge it will quickly become unoriginal, and lets face it, who wants that label.

So, go on, get it wrong! It’s the right thing to do.

‘Fail. Fail again. Fail better.’ Samuel Beckett

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