A new report, compiled by comScore, has shown that Google+ users on average spent just 3.3 minutes on the social networking site during January, according to an article published by CNN.
The figure shows a decline in the amount of time spent on the site compared to the 5.1 minutes spent per user in November and the 4.8 minutes during December.
Meanwhile, Facebook – a site popular for social media marketing initiatives – was used on average for 7.5 hours during January – displaying the huge gulf in usage between the two rival networks.
According to CNN a representative from Google could not be reached to comment on the figures.
The report is likely to prove disappointing reading for Google – who’ve placed a large amount of emphasis on creating a network to challenge Facebook’s dominance.
CEO Larry Page previously told employees that 25 per cent of their bonuses would “be tied into the company’s social strategy that year,” according to CNN.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
A study conducted by Upstream has found that around 27 per cent of consumers based in Britain and 20 per cent of those in America would stop using social networking sites, if it came to a point where they felt like they were being bombarded with an excessive amount of advertising, according to an article published by The Drum.
The 2012 Digital Advertising Attitudes Report featured results gathered from 2,054 adults in United Kingdom, and a further 2,105 adults based in America.
Around 66 per cent of consumers stated that they felt like they were already being subjected to an excessive amount of advertising and promotions – such as social media marketing campaigns.
Commenting on the results, Upstream’s president, Marco Veremis, said: “The volume-based advertising era is dead on both sides of the Atlantic and companies need to put effectiveness first, reducing the frequency with which they speak to consumers, delivering only high quality, relevant and timely messages.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
ClickThrough welcomes Oliver Pyper, online copywriter to our in-house content team
In this team member profile we meet with Oliver Pyper, ClickThrough’s online copywriter, to find out what his role entails, what he did before he joined us, and where he likes to eat breakfast.
Who are you? –Oliver Pyper online copywriter at ClickThrough.
When did you start at ClickThrough? – On the first day of November, 2011.
What will you be doing at ClickThrough?– I’m working on a wide range of copywriting projects for our clients, including website copy, blogs, linkbuilding articles and press releases. I’m also involved, along with Ali Harris (content manager), in the day-to-day maintenance of ClickThrough’s Facebook page.
What were you doing before you arrived at ClickThrough? Where did you work? – Immediately before I started at ClickThrough I was working at a small retail business in Birmingham, where my duties were copywriting and SEO. The company’s DIY approach to SEO meant that I learned all the essentials by diving straight into keyword density and html, and monitoring the results in a very back-to-basics way. This has – I hope – given me a hands-on approach to my work, with an understanding that a focus on SEO is inseparable from the role of online copywriter.
Before that, I was working as a digital media intern for UK Arts International – a Worcester-based arts management company.
What are you most proud of in your career to date? – Getting the job at ClickThrough. Apart from that, one of my first major copywriting jobs was a complete rewrite/redesign of the website for The Harder They Come, the stage musical, when I was working for UK Arts International. I’m quite proud of my management of that project.
What do you love about your job? – I’ve always enjoyed writing – when I was about six I decided that I wanted to be an author, when most kids wanted to be firemen or astronauts. I went on to study writing at Dartington College of Arts, which was a melting pot of artists, musicians and the like. To be able to satisfy my desire for creativity in a role that is both challenging and rewarding is a dream come true.
What is your favourite book? –Life: A User’s Manual by George Perec. He was a French writer, and one of the most famous members of the Oulipo writers’ group. Each separate chapter very systematically describes the content of a separate room in a Parisian apartment block, which sounds extremely boring, but actually provides a springboard for some stunning storytelling. The very straightforward writing style, the methodical method of production and the constraints that Perec set himself whilst writing all appeal to me very directly. It also contains the best plot twist ever written, without really having any kind of linear plot at all.
I basically love any author that writes simply and elegantly: Vonnegut, Capote, Kafka, Joyce, Ivor Cutler, to name a few examples.
What is your favourite film? – I don’t watch many films, but nonetheless there are a few that have a special place in my heart. The silent comedies The General and The Circus, by Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin respectively, are my favourites of the genre. To name some directors who have made a film in the last 30 years, I love Michel Gondry and Werner Herzog, and I adore the Twin Peaks pilot episode by David Lynch, if that counts. I haven’t even seen Star Wars.
Name your top three songs – This is going to be really tough, because my geeky music fandom knows no bounds. I’ll have a go anyway: 1. Savoire Faire – Family Fodder. This loose collective of musicians was active at the same time as a whole raft of moody post-punk bands, but whilst they share several reference points, they couldn’t be more different. This song is noisy, skilful, English, French, poppy, difficult, repetitive, changeable, everything. 2. Crest – Stereolab. The best band of the 90s lay bare their manifesto in a single song. A two-chord guitar riff and a gradually ascending bassline somehow make it sound like it’s always pushing towards a conclusion but never getting any closer, like making it to the top of Everest and noticing that somebody’s put another Everest on top. 3. Time Out of Mind – Steely Dan. Because it sounds like drum syrup.
What do you like doing in your spare time? – I play confused synthpop with my band, El Burro. Apart from that, I can often be spotted around Birmingham at gigs, arts events and any café that serves a good breakfast.
ClickThrough Marketing employees Chris Knight, senior account director, and Jene Pedder, account director, have tied the knot in the first ClickThrough wedding following a three-year office romance
They searched, they found love. ClickThrough Marketing employees Chris Knight, senior account director, and Jene Pedder, account director, have tied the knot following a three-year office romance.
We’re proud of our linkbuilding strategies here at ClickThrough. Now Chris and Jene have forged our strongest link yet with the first ever ClickThrough wedding!
The historic occasion was held in the beautiful St Nicholas Church in Codsall, Wolverhampton – close to where Jene grew up. Family and friends – along with several ClickThrough employees – crammed into the church to celebrate the big day.
Jene looked dazzling in her elegant dress, complete with jewelled tiara and furry shawl, whilst her Knight in shining armour left his sword and shield at home, opting instead for a handsome, understated suit.
After an emotional exchange of vows, the couple and their guests went to Somerford Hall in nearby Brewood for their reception.
The occasion was marked by a heartfelt speech from Jene’s dad, some hilarious stories from Chris’ best man, and the revelation – during a speech from Chris’ dad – that our senior account director used to be obsessed with fairies, and claims to have found one at the bottom of his garden as a child!
Our happy ClickThrough couple chose Oh Yeah by Roxy Music to accompany them as they treaded the boards for their first dance. Afterwards, Chris surprised Jene with his own inimitable rendition of Bill Withers’ Aint No Sunshine, accompanied by a band.
Afterwards, the guests hit the dancefloor to boogie to some cracking tunes, and didn’t stop until the early hours.
It was a beautiful day, and there were more than a few teary eyes amongst the ClickThrough staff as we celebrated this special union between two firm friends.
Jene and Chris met at our offices here in Lichfield. According to Jene, the pair “didn’t talk for two months,” until – in a scene that reads like a modern-day romance play – a mutual client brought them together on a sunny balcony in Lichfield.
Chris popped the question during a romantic weekend break in London, ostensibly to see his favourite band play a gig. However, he had other plans – laying on a romantic meal, a luxury hotel stay and a day of sightseeing around the capital.
We wish Jene and Chris the best of luck in their future together.
Following the formation of Twitter’s partnership with Datasift, companies will be able to access archived tweets – dating back to January 2010 – for market research purposes, according to an article published by The Drum.
The tweets are being offered by the two as a tool for marketers to use when planning social media marketing campaigns.
Datasift’s marketing manager, Tim Barker, told BBC News: “No-one’s ever done this before. It’s a brand new service that we’re bringing online – it’s a massive technology challenge because of the amount of data that is pumped out every single day.”
Barker added that Datasift took in around 250 million tweets each day; the tweets are then analysed for their content – such as whether they mention a brand, company or service in a good or bad light.
Although the partnership might have been welcomed by marketers, it has already drawn criticism from some sections – with privacy campaigners arguing that back-dated tweets shouldn’t be sold on to third-parties for a profit.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Guinness has launched a social media marketing campaign aimed at getting its fans on Facebook involved in a mass celebration of St Patrick’s Day, according to an article published by The Drum.
The Irish brewery is aiming to set a world record for the largest St Patrick’s Day celebration by encouraging its Facebook fans to share a pint with friends.
To get involved in the event, all fans have to do is make a pledge either on the official Guinness website or the official Facebook page.
Senior brand manager for Guinness, Nick Britton, has said that the campaign is designed to capitalise on the promotion of the ongoing RBS Six Nations tournament.
He said: “St Patrick’s Day falls on the same day as the England vs Ireland Six Nations rugby match, so licensees have the potential to drive sales even further by combining these celebrations and offer consumers a fantastic night out.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
It is now a year since the first Panda update was rolled out and many sites have seen some alterations to the rankings as a result; for some, negative but for many others the Panda update provided a wake up call to update and add unique, quality content which has invariably improved ranking results post-Panda. There does also seem to have been the required cull of content farms and scrapers that were beginning to litter the SERPS and cost Google the reputation for relevance that it has built up over the years. However, in its wake comes the Search Plus Your World integration which many view as a less than positive advance.
Whilst it may seem logical for Google to integrate search with many of the other Google properties (G+, maps, etc) and personalise the results according to search history, known likes/dislikes, the social signals generated by others within your social network, and so on, the resultant SERPs when you are logged into your Google account are not to the liking of many.
For instance, a search may pull up discussion, opinion and social networking profiles rather than the original content, and there is an ongoing debate in the blogosphere about whether these ‘secondary’ layers of information are actually as relevant as the current emphasis on social signals in the SERPs would make out. After all, much of the commentary on a piece is often not as well researched or knowledgeable as the genuine article or the original information, particularly when the searcher is in ‘research mode’ rather than, say, shopping mode where reviews of products etc are of some value in the decision making process. It is this drop in the perceived quality of the returned results that appears to be taxing many in the SEO/SEM and search world.
One could also wonder whether it is forcing often reluctant businesses into the world of social at a time when resources to handle such an addition to any marketing campaign are often in short supply and there is only one thing worse than not doing social media marketing, and that is doing it badly. For the unknowledgeable, social media marketing can be a minefield, and even for those in the know, it is all too simple to make a PR faux pas in a mere 140 characters, or less. There are always going to be companies for whom social media is not a prerequisite to doing good business, but looking at the SERPs recently, it has become increasingly difficult to visualise that scenario as the social results start to take up more and more space, and Google becomes much more of a suggestion engine than a search engine.
There is a definite time and place for social results in the SERPS, but it is still difficult to see where a link to a G+ profile where a discussion is taking place about a link to an article or infographic elsewhere should take precedence over the original item. Social is where the buzz is at present, but should social results be included when you are logged in to the detriment of other, possibly more pertinent, results?
The personalisation of results is also causing problems for some in understanding their ranking from others’ point of view. For instance, if you regularly visit your own site whilst logged in to Google, this will automatically bump it up the SERPs for you. Ditto if you have an active social circle, whose own searches, likes, +1s etc will affect what results appear for you. However, someone who has never visited your site and has a different social circle will not see the same results as you, making it hard for SMEs and businesses with little understanding of the search engines to understand what their marketing budget is achieving unless they know to log out of Google (and preferably use another browser altogether to compare results).
It all comes down to quality and relevance and freshness, and yet it is hard to see how the latest changes within the Google search engine will continue to stick to these benchmarks. Are you seeing an increase in social results in your searches? How do they affect your SEO decisions? Do you feel that the results are of lower quality than previously or on other engines eg Bing and Yippy.com? Would you prefer a social option, or a research button, or some way of indicating to Google more precisely what you are searching for? Should there be an Unlike or -1 button for Google results to show them how many were not relevant, fresh or of good quality? We’d be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments…….
Job Title: SEO Optimiser and Link Builder
Salary:Up to £23k depending on experience and ability
Location: UK, Midlands
City: Lichfield (near Birmingham)
Contract Type: Permanent
Are you an experienced SEO, with an excellent knowledge of current SEO tools and page rank techniques? Do you have experience of competitor analysis, technical site analysis and on-page SEO and link building? If you are looking for a challenging role in a fast paced technology driven environment and have a logical, analytical and creative approach, you could be what we are looking for.
ClickThrough Marketing is one of the UK’s fastest growing Digital Marketing agencies specialising in SEO, PPC, social media and website conversion optimisation. We have a number of high profile, nationally recognised clients including major retailers and manufacturers.
We are looking for an experienced and talented SEO Optimiser and Link Builder to join our team. We will provide the right applicant with a challenging role where they can further develop their skill set. You will get a chance to work on a number of campaigns, for a wide range of high profile clients.
The role will involve analysing the search engine marketing performance of client websites and creating & implementing strategies designed to improve their performance.
A minimum of two years’ experience of strategic SEO is required, with strong knowledge of link building tools & techniques and a working knowledge of HTML & SQL. A BSc in a computing discipline would be an advantage, but not essential.
Salary will be dependent on experience. The company is growing rapidly and you can anticipate more responsibility and the opportunity to build on your skills considerably.
We need a hard-working specialist with a proven track record in internet marketing, who is excited about becoming part of a fast growing digital agency.
If you are interested in this vacancy use the details below.
Employer: ClickThrough Marketing
Contact: Zoe O’Neil, Operations Director
To apply please call 0800 088 7486 or contact us.
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Speakers at the OnMedia NYC conference have attempted to pinpoint the reasons behind a number of brands’ decisions to close their Facebook stores after just over a year, according to an article published by Search Engine Watch.
Although a popular platform for social media marketing campaigns, Facebook has seen Gap, JCPenney, Nordstrom and GameStop all close their stores on the site.
CEO of 500Friends, a company offering social loyalty technology specifically designed for retailers, Justin Yoshimura, speaking at the conference, highlighted common misconceptions about the social networking site amongst businesses.
He said: “Opening a storefront does not mean you have a social commerce strategy. Consumes want to shop on your store and want to interact with your brand on Facebook.”
The speakers at the conference, according to SEW, speculated on the reasons behind the closures, concluding that:
- “A brand’s e-commerce website typically gets more visitors than its Facebook page.”
- “Facebook commerce shouldn’t be narrowly defined as storefronts. Instead it encompasses other activities, such as loyalty programs and rewards.”
- “And commerce on Facebook is still in its experimental stages.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Blekko, a recently founded search engine, has started testing search ads on its SERPs (search engine results page), according to an article published by Search Engine Watch.
Launched by Rick Skrenta in November 2010, Blekko has the backing of Russian search engine, Yandex, as well as a number of venture capitalists.
The site is currently working with a number of large brands via Google and Bing feeds, but according to SEW “doesn’t have direct relationships with any confirmed brands as of right now.”
The ongoing tests are currently small-scale, rendering the likelihood of PPC marketing campaigns being conducted on the site in the near future highly unlikely.
Skrenta stated that some of the ads are provided in searches linked to slashtags, adding: “We’re still ironing out the kinks.”
He also stated that Blekko would measure its success based on RPMs – revenue per mille (thousand), estimating that search traffic would be worth between $50 and $100 CPMs (cost per impression).
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, PPC, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
