tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393Wed, 16 May 2012 15:00:34 +0000Google Universitytailored news contentsnakeoilPandaweb globalisationMartin Fellcontent writergrammarDirectNewsjobpunctuationBlackberryframesecommerceLinkedInSearch Engine Optimisationbrand marketingHeadlinesbusiness blogging404AndroidOxford commaGoogle +1GA testfacebookmicro bloggingAdferomobile internetonline videoAdfero SEO teamsmartphonegraduate jobsGooglemultilingual webChris TrimbleGoogle AnalyticsiPhoneSEOserial commaGoogle Analytics IQ testdiggtwitternewsfeedmarketingemail marketingsocial mediadeveloping worldKaren WebbercontentRoss McTaggartcontent farmshttp://blog.directnews.co.uk/noreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)Blogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-7050304498292500603Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:05:00 +00002012-01-24T13:34:06.249ZAdferoHeadlinesgrammargraduate jobscontent writercontentI had my first experience of hiring candidates about a year ago and have run recruitment days for Adfero almost every month since then. While this doesn't qualify me as an HR expert, it does mean that I've seen the CVs and cover letters of hundreds of hopeful copywriters, journalists and creative writers all eager to join our company. Having started with Adfero a little less than four years http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2012/01/how-to-write-killer-cover-letter-for.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ross McTaggart)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-5841547734124281529Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:52:00 +00002012-01-10T15:52:24.705ZgrammarKaren Webbersocial mediatwitterbrand marketing At the start of 2012, few large businesses are still unsure whether they should get involved in social media. Using platforms such as Twitter to generate leads, market to a target audience and engage with customers - whether that's listening to them or responding to them as part of a customer service function - is commonplace, regardless of which industry you operate in. However, social media http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2012/01/5-reasons-youre-losing-twitter.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-5531398485619108337Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:42:00 +00002011-12-30T15:46:22.481Zsmartphonesocial mediamarketingSEOonline videoMartin Fellcontent As new year rolls around the prophets come out in force and anyone who is anyone in the world of digital marketing starts talking about the future. But looking ahead isn't easy - especially in these days of smartphone proliferation and Panda updates. So before we delve into what the future holds - which is probably best left for a new year blog post - it makes sense to hold the experts of http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/12/did-all-those-2011-marketing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Martin Fell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-8817980724400640609Sat, 24 Dec 2011 12:37:00 +00002011-12-24T12:37:41.873Z We hope all our blog readers and customers have a very merry Christmas and a prosperous 2012! http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/12/we-hope-all-our-blog-readers-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-6136210867557547634Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:01:00 +00002012-01-04T10:15:12.451Zbusiness bloggingAdferoDirectNewsfacebookGoogleSearch Engine OptimisationPanda If you publish content and you don't get a kick out of checking your Google Analytics stats, then you should ask yourself if you're doing it right. Analytics data is critical in the online marketer's quest to publish content that is relevant and useful to visitors, which is why there is general outrage when Google tweaks the way in which it presents this information. Anyway, I had the http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/12/directnews-analytics-2012s-top-news.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-6940902080037699893Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:37:00 +00002011-12-12T14:38:24.785Zemail marketingGoogle +1Karen WebberfacebooktwitterGoogleThe digital industry must be among the most rapidly changing sectors. Just in the last year, Google has made more than 300 updates to its search algorithm, Google+ was launched and became a major contender in the social networking arena and Facebook's population overtook that of Europe. But what other developments caught the eye of some of our in-house experts? I've asked a few colleagueshttp://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/12/digital-best-of-2011-and-some-2012.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-4149896331356448915Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:43:00 +00002011-11-11T16:47:07.060ZAdferoKaren WebberDirectNewsjobcontent writer Candidates researching our company often take to social media and message boards to ask the question: "What is it like working for Adfero?" TZCE35UUPT6B I'm not going to give you the answers to the recruitment tests in this post, but having worked in the News Feeds department for the best part of seven years, I can share my thoughts (and those of some former colleagues) about the job of http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/10/working-for-adfero-insiders-view.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-890439901367885390Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:50:00 +00002011-11-24T10:29:50.657ZKaren Webbersmartphonesocial mediaSEOecommercemobile internetI know what you did last winter. You struggled to get around because of the snow, your heating bills skyrocketed and you shopped less. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the harsh winter and the disruption brought about by the heavy snow across many parts of the UK kept people out of the shops. And this year it may be the same story, if not worse. James Madden, UK http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/10/is-your-website-ready-for-winter.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-1598782642148758401Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:01:00 +00002011-10-07T17:02:30.811+01:00facebookecommerceRoss McTaggart Does the rapid rise in spending on Facebook Credits suggest a Facebook App store is on the way? It's been a busy few months for Facebook with updates and new offerings being announced practically on a daily basis. First came the on-page changes that now see the most interesting or popular stories being served up first on users' news feeds, as well as a Twitter-style news ticker that runs http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/10/giving-credits-where-cash-is-due.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-887496634161206052Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:35:00 +00002011-09-23T13:38:27.565+01:00Google +1Karen Webbersocial mediafacebook Are you ready for Facebook's so-called announcement of a lifetime? Any of the 750 million Facebook users who have accessed their profile this week will no doubt have had to get their head around a bunch of new updates introduced by the social network this week. Facebook announced the latest updates in a blog post earlier this week, explaining how changes to the news feed are supposed to http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/09/today-facebook-will-change-your-world.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-1359869314937179975Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:33:00 +00002011-09-02T16:18:11.404+01:00Google +1Karen WebberGoogle AnalyticsSEOSearch Engine OptimisationThe Google+ project is gaining momentum, so let's take a look at what's new with the +1 button. Back in June, I wrote about the rollout of Google's +1 button to global search results pages. So what has been happening since then? Webmasters the world over have been adding the +1 button to content on their pages, but more importantly, they can measure its effect on their incoming traffic. Shortlyhttp://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/09/whats-latest-with-google-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-8778236009113829754Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:38:00 +00002011-08-26T13:54:15.416+01:00Karen WebberGoogle Analyticsnewsfeedsocial mediatailored news contenttwitterSearch Engine OptimisationThe newsfeed that gets published on our corporate page is written purely with customers in mind. We like to give those interested in the DirectNews service an overview of the industry we work in, so every day I write something that will tell them something new and interesting about mobile marketing, online newsfeeds, social media or whatever the big story for the day is. Optimising content for http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/08/manchester-united-and-social-media.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-1776130038086905685Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:48:00 +00002011-08-18T16:55:23.109+01:00multilingual webgrammarKaren Webbertailored news contentSearch Engine OptimisationPandacontentweb globalisationcontent farms Panda has gone truly global. The Google algorithm update was unleashed outside the USA back in April, but it is only over the last week that non-English sites have been affected by the changes incorporated by the search engine to boost quality sites and penalise those that fail to offer value to users. Google fellow Amit Singhal announced on Friday last week that websites in all languageshttp://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/08/achtung-vorsicht-vor-dem-panda.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-2370649621607614672Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:22:00 +00002011-08-12T09:27:13.154+01:00BlackberryKaren WebberiPhonesmartphonemarketingAndroidmobile internetcontentWe keep being told that 2011 is the year of the mobile. I've not bought into the idea, because every year brings so many technological advancements that it seems a bit premature to single out these 12 months of developments as the most groundbreaking ever. However, the rapid rise of the smartphone is a phenomenon that is worthy of discussion. The gadgets have been blamed for facilitating the http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/08/mobilise-for-marketing-success.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-718691303031023202Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:01:00 +00002011-07-12T10:00:41.514+01:00LinkedInsocial mediatwitterIf you are anything like me your first few months as a member of LinkedIn went something like this: punch in job title and place of work, upload picture of self looking fun yet employable and accept numerous connection requests without making any contacts of your own. Obviously I was playing it all cool and disinterested until I was sure I wasn't the only one at this particular social media http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/07/getting-most-out-of-linkedin.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ross)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-5932455146942297534Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:39:00 +00002011-07-05T08:41:48.324+01:00punctuationgrammarDirectNewsOxford commatwitterserial commaChris TrimbleThere's an image branded into the back of my mind. My MS Paint skills are rubbish so I'll just describe it to you. It's a white circle, with a thick red border - the sort you associate with traffic signals. In the middle is a comma followed by the word 'and', like this: , and Written above the sign, in what looks suspiciously like blood, is a warning: EVIL – DO NOT USE Several people are http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/07/let-comma-sense-decide.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Chris)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-3144908345395249287Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:05:00 +00002011-07-15T16:49:53.361+01:00multilingual webGoogle +1facebookdeveloping worldGooglemobile internetcontentweb globalisationGoogle's rollout of its +1 button to global search results pages is an exciting one. I'm not convinced it's going to be significant competition for Facebook's Like button – not yet anyway – but it got me thinking more broadly about web globalisation and the multilingual future of the internet. I'm lucky enough to come from a country with no fewer than 11 official languages (I speak two fluently http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/06/global-google-1-points-to-widening-web.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen Webber)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-4414785665024816219Tue, 24 May 2011 14:58:00 +00002011-05-24T17:50:21.840+01:00social mediafacebooktailored news contenttwitterSearch Engine OptimisationA 'credit' model might hold the key to encouraging more news feed content to be shared on social networks.Back in August last year, Mark Zuckerberg forecast that the next big thing to "blow up" would be social commerce and, if the current investment activity in Silicon Valley is anything to go by, he was pretty much spot on.With social selling sensation Groupon poised to launch an IPO that could http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/05/like-for-like-can-online-publishers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ross)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-8740605358382048952Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:17:00 +00002011-04-14T17:44:49.657+01:00newsfeedtailored news contentGooglePandacontent farmsRolled out in the <!--?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /-->UK earlier this week, Google's Panda update has already had quite a dramatic impact on the visibility of a number of popular sites. <!--?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /-->The latest algorithm update is focused on weeding out poor quality sites and has http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/04/rolled-out-in-uk-earlier-this-week.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ross)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-7977086661032134154Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:53:00 +00002011-04-04T15:49:00.060+01:00SEOGoogle Analytics IQ testSearch Engine OptimisationcontentThe DirectNews writers top up their SEO knowledgeLast week, Martin Woods our search and social media expert came to the London office in order to speak to the editorial team about the latest trends and updates in search engine optimisation. Martin's presentation picked out some recent examples of how tailored news content had proven its worth to our clients by not only boosting visitor numbers, http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/04/density-is-dead-viva-la.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ross)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-459065929202423200Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:27:00 +00002011-03-17T12:16:19.504Zsocial mediaSearch Engine OptimisationcontentMore and more of the industry's biggest online publications have finally decided that an ad-funded model holds little long-term promise and are now going to ask their readers to pay for their news content online through subscription. The Telegraph is set to charge from September and the UK's largest selling regional daily newspaper, the Express & Star, is also planning to put some of its online http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/03/subscription-is-super-model-more-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ross)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-5891741602680588387Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:30:00 +00002011-02-16T17:38:44.896ZSearch Engine OptimisationcontentDespite the grim, cardboard-grey skies that have hung glumly over DirectNews HQ this week, the writing team have been cheered by the news of AOL's purchase of online newspaper, The Huffington Post. AOL's CEO Tim Armstrong has already announced some changes, saying that he wants his editorial team to up their output and deliver on a number of key content targets over the next quarter. Similar http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/02/aols-purchase-of-huffpo-is-good-news.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ross)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-3170375355701832503Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:53:00 +00002011-02-10T08:22:30.986ZContent is the most powerful weapon in any online publisher's arsenal and making your site stand out against your competitors can be a long battle, but it is certainly worth the fight. As a member of the editorial team the challenge we face each day is ensuring we are writing tailored content for our clients that is not only unique and engaging, but also competitive, or search-visible. In my http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/02/content-and-clicks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ross)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-6206351838506056525Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:03:00 +00002011-01-19T11:44:43.490Zsocial mediaSearch Engine OptimisationWelcome once again one and all to the DirectNews blog. Some of the team nearly didn't make it back to the office after being stranded in far-off lands in man-sized snow drifts, but we're up and running now and back plotting our takeover of the digital content realm. What's new? Most of us here in the office will know that the department has undergone some restructuring in the last fewhttp://blog.directnews.co.uk/2011/01/directnews-blog-is-back-online.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ross)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4725253687380844393.post-5940942478009319555Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:27:00 +00002010-10-26T13:35:18.636+01:00SEOGoogle UniversityGA testGoogle Analytics IQ testSearch Engine OptimisationAdfero SEO teamSo as autumn passes into winter (we’re already fed up of Christmas displays in the shops and it’s only halfway through October!) the SEO team also sees a couple of changes. We say farewell to our Dutch friend Nicolien (and her delicious cupcakes that fuel us through the more difficult tasks), but we also say hello to new guy Martin – joining us with a background of design and skills creating http://blog.directnews.co.uk/2010/10/welcome-martin-and-google-analytics-iq.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benn)0