Imagine Research and Development

30 SEO, Social Media & Marketing Case Studies that Prove the ROI of it All | SEOptimise

2010-05-08T17:00:00.001+01:00

If anyone still needed any convincing as to the positive ROI of social media and marketing here are 30 SEO, Social Media & Marketing Case Studies that Prove the ROI of it All | SEOptimise.

These studies include case studies covering :

Link building/baiting
Other SEO
Social Media
Blogging
and Others

These took over a year to compile so if you are interested - we think these are worth a look!

Benefits of having an online profile - East Riding Business Network

2010-04-15T17:03:00.001+01:00

I had the great pleasure of helping Jo Branagan, chairwoman of the East Riding Business Network, to develop their social media strategy. One of the most important processes that I advocate is that:

1. You know what you want to achieve. Have the goals that you want to reach - manage your expectations.
2. Set up your website and social media platforms ensuring they have the correct information, photos, backgrounds and are consistent. Also look at your social media policy - do you have one?
3. Ensure that your team understand how to use the social media tools and the social media strategy.
4. Communicate your message - educate your group, organisation, team.

Unfortunately, due to infrastructure problems, after 10 people started logging onto the wi-fi, the system crashed and no-one could access Twitter or LinkedIn.

However, the session went on and with over 50 people in the audience, the East Riding Business Network saw an overnight uptake of their LinkedIn group, with some additional members coming on board as well! Now that's return on investment in a week!

We also had great media coverage from BBC Radio Humberside and the Hull Daily Mail.

Hull Girl Geek Dinner : 11th March 2010

2010-03-08T13:50:00.003Z

We're pleased to announce that Imagine dpm have agreed to support the Hull Girl Geek Dinners (part of the Girl Geek Dinner international community).

The first of this year's series of Hull Girl Geek Dinners, starting on Thursday 11th March, and is being sponsored by the University of Hull. Hull Girl Geeks is about bringing together women who like or work within science and technology, which is pretty much everyone these days. This is the FIRST meeting whereby local business women (and men) and university students are getting together. We hope that we will be able to build this community to encourage ladies from schools, colleges, university and employment /industry to engage with each other and share their tech stories and support.

It will be hosted at Hull's incredibly amazing HIVE venue and we will be having a demonstration (yes - we will be wearing 3D glasses so that we can be 'immersed' into a virtual reality!). Hull Immersive Visualization Environment (HIVE) is based at The University of Hull, next to the Computer Science Department.

This, the 3rd event, is the first of a series of collaborations between Hull Girl Geek Dinners, Leeds Girl Geeks and supported by UKRC and WYLNN.

Our speakers for the evening :

Emma McGrattan

Emma McGrattan - Senior Vice President of Engineering, is responsible for the development and integration of the Ingres database and associated products and technologies. A leading authority in DBMS technologies, Miss McGrattan has been instrumental in the ongoing success of the Ingres product line. She will talk about women in science and the challenges that they face.

Emma Smith-Howe - Will tell us more about HIVE and provide a demonstration of this fantastic 3D facility that all participants will have an opportunity to experience.

so what's a girl geek dinner anyway? -- click the link for more information about the Girl Geek Dinners around the world (yes - this is global!)

The evening will be informal, friendly and chilled. For just £10, you can enjoy some food, drinks and the chance to hang out with the city's brightest creatives, technologists, programmers, entrepreneurs, marketeers, PR professionals and creative & digital girls - we only have 20 places available for the event so you'll need to be quick!

AND Boys/Men? Of course you're welcome!

Either be invited or come with a girl!

The event starts at 6.30 pm

6.30 - 7.00 : Dinner, Drinks and Registration

7.00 - 7.05 : Introductions : nti's Leia Bassett, Jasmine Cornes & Delia MacNamara

7.05 - 7.35 : Emma McGrattan : "Inspiring Women in Science"

7.35 - 7.40 : Q&A

7.40 - 8.10 : Emma Smith-Howe (HIVE Co-ordinator)

8.10 - 8.20 : Q&A

8.20 - 8.30 : Final Note : Jasmine Cornes

8.30 - 9.00 : Networking

Why not join our Facebook Group and keep up to date and informed!

This event is going to be filmed. By registering for a place, you agree to be filmed. If you have any issues with this please contact delia.macnamara@imaginedpm.co.uk

Managing your social media profile

2010-02-13T14:04:00.003Z

As social media gets firmly established as a web tool in our daily lives, and with more social media products coming to market, I suggest that you create a Google Doc with some of the following so that all you need to do is copy and paste the information whenever you are registering:

A brief description about yourself ... you could even split this into personal, professional, hobby, etc for various networks that you may want to subscribe to.
Your company name and short desription of what it offers ensuring that you have good key words
Educational Details
Professional Details
Areas of Expertise
Social Networks you are a member of such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc
Blogs you maintain
Your interests : These may also be broken down into subsections such as music you like, books, food, sports, etc.

These are only a few items but it should save a lot of time when filling in these profile forms and keeping your message consistent (you can always modify the details within the edit to personalise to each social network).

This is especially useful when using sites such as http://knowem.com/ which will check your brand over 340 popular social media networks and instantly secure your brand across the social web.

Don't forget, to also have profile photos (professional or fun), and you company logo in the same folder so that these can be easily uploaded.

If you have any further items that should be added to this list, please feel free to add it in the comments.

Alistair Campbell on Social Media

2010-02-10T09:12:00.002Z

Watching Loose Women, Kate Thorton interviewed Alistair Campbell about his politics and the media. It was interesting to hear that instead of buying all the newspapers, he now only buys two, and rarely watches the broadcast news. The rest is sourced from blogs and social media.

He points out that the public are not interested in the media hype or points of view (which he feels are pre-determined and with agenda).

In terms of business, not understanding social media, or how information is collated and distributed via the internet is absolutely detrimental to their business. Perhaps the impact will not be felt now, but in the future when our youth, the public/the citizens of tomorrow, who have been encouraged to have a voice throughout their education start to be the consumers, businesses - even SMEs - will feel their impact.

This story follows from:
Citizen Journalism : Shaping Our Future

I Love Polaroid!

2010-02-10T08:57:00.004Z

One of the simple pleasures is coming back as Poloroid bring back their much loved instant film cameras. I personally have one from the 80s and the mini Polaroid version that came out in the mid-90s (many a party shot there). Now in this age of the digital camera, sometimes it's nice to have the "instant" image to be able to give to someone or just hold in one's hand despite any dodgy camera work or ill-timed facial expression.

So, it's back. Here, WebProNews have the interview with Jon Pollock, Polaroid’s Chief Marketing Officer, at CES 2010.

Just when we are getting used to e-books...

2010-02-10T08:36:00.005Z

Out comes the news that a 15-year-old Japanese girl, “Bunny”, made more than $611,000 selling more than 110,000 paperback copies of a novel she wrote by mostly texting on her cellphone.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/

The Japanese have created this form of writing, called "keitai" -- cellphone -- novels, via the mobile phone. This is where a text message is sent to a website and published as a novel.

Maho i-Land is the largest cell phone novel site that carries more than a million titles, mainly novice writers, all which are available for free.

One question to raise is : How will this be adopted in education? Will it be adopted to encourage literacy, albeit short form and digital?

This looks like it is going to be a growing industry - especially amongst the younger generation who are used to the short form texting and using the mobile phone as their "personal source for everything".

For now, though, its popularity and success are determined by the published book sales.

For more information, see Wikipedia : Cell phone novel

YouTubing 101: Northwestern Offers Course on Viral Videos

2009-07-21T05:40:00.001+01:00

On March 19, 2009, Northwestern University 633 Clark Street Evanston, IL 60208, Eric Patrick, Northwestern University assistant professor of radio/television/film believed thatin winter quarter he offered what he believes to be the first academic course on viral videos.

YouTubing 101: Northwestern Offers Course on Viral Videos

Shared via AddThis

Imagine dpm however first produced its course, "Promote your business with video on the web" using the same features for the University of Hull, Centre for LifeLong Learning.

The Centre for Lifelong Learning has always been a supporter of new technologies and courses and ensuring that adults continue to benefit today through education. It was sad a year ago when HEFCE decided to pull funding for those adults that already had a Level 4 / Degree qualification ... do we really stop learning?

Digital Literacy - the new literacy?

2009-07-02T10:21:00.003+01:00

In 2004, Tessa Jowell talked about "Media Literacy" being the next literacy for the 21st century. Even back then,there was a rise of 15.8% in the number of students on media courses from 2003 - 2004. However, as predicted, children as young as three are learning in the most basic way the sort of skills that are taught on such courses just by touching their parent's technology. They have no fear - they are our "digital natives".

However, media literacy is about the interpretation of media... I put forward that we need to go beyond this ... it's digital literacy - understanding the media, understanding the technologies that include the Web, our mobile phones, our games consoles, etc. This is the essential literacy for the 21st century as it crosses (or covers) all areas: education, health, government, business, community, arts, etc.

So who are we missing? Is it the young people? No - it is our educators and policy makers who are missing out. It is our adult population that still percieve "ICT" as a clunky PC and dry, dull wordprocessing and spreadsheet software... was that communication?

In today's world, perhaps we should be setting some money aside to ensure that our adult learners are catered for (in any industry or circumstance) so that they are not excluded or disadvantaged in a world that is increasingly going "online", collaborative and participatory. Should we not, as we do with our real migrants, not address the induction for our "digital migrants" as well?

Social Media - taking the world by Twitter

2009-06-02T22:05:00.000+01:00

It was only 6 weeks ago when Josie Fraser re-introduced me to Twitter at a Digital 20/20 gathering. I had explored and played around with Twitter but couldn't quite understand why anyone would want to know what I was up to - or more importantly - I wasn't interested in whether they were enjoying the day, taking the dog for a walk or breaking up with their boyfriend.

I have always been a big promoter of using social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, etc within business and education. The popular course "Explore your business with digital" in 2006 was in response to the need that businesses didn't understand how they could utilise this technology. It is a "hands-on" experience developed for the "remote control" generation.

However - what is surprising me this year (2009) is the fantastic, almost exponential take-up of social media tools because of a fantastic app called "Twitter"....

Twitter allows me to keep up to date with what everyone in my industry/interest sphere is doing, seeing and discovering - real time. I am able to share what I am discovering and learning. In one sense, we are human "search" robots and Twitter, to some degree, is the "human" Google search.

Twitter also has really good apps that one can use in many different ways, using different media.

Another beautiful thing about Twitter, is that you have to keep it short... 140 characters - no more, can be less.

Educators and businesses alike would be foolish not to take up Twitter, if not for building their brand, but to find out and share what is going on in their info-spheres.

Citizen journalism - shape our future, our learning and our development.

2009-05-28T12:31:00.002+01:00

.... not necessarily in that order :-)

I first became aware of citizen journalism whilst I was at the BBC in 2003 working for Sylvia Hines, Head of New Services. One area that was being researched was media literacy and how citizen journalism contributed to it or, vice versa.

According to Wikipedia, Citizen journalism (also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic"^[1] or "street journalism"^[2]) is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information.^[3] Authors Bowman and Willis say: "The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires."

If we look at social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook, delicious, etc we can all contribute and share what we see, know and do faster.

One company that was in its fledgling stages was Digital Journal which started to pay its contributors. (See video below)

If we implemented this into our education system - how much more fun and engaging would the lessons be - would it increase the learning (apparently peer to peer learning is the most effective at 90% retention)?

Open Office.org - the rival to MS Office

2009-05-28T12:24:00.001+01:00

Much has been written about the up and up of OpenOffice.org software..... you don't know about it...

OpenOffice.org (OOo) is open source software that is free to the user. It is made up of :

OOo Writer - equivalent to MS Word
OOo Calc - equivalent to MS Excel
OOo Impress - equivalent to MS PowerPoint
OOo Draw - equivalent to MS Visio

BECTA (UK) was reported saying in January 2007, that UK schools should hold off implementing MS Vista and Office 2007. The reason being that the functionality of these products is geared toward the business sector and there is no significant reason to change. Also, these new products don't recognise OOo and Star Documents, which are fast becoming rivals to MS Office.

What is the attraction to OOo ... it's free to use. So now that you've got it... how do you use it?

Get training from Imagine dpm. Visit http://www.imaginedpm.co.uk

An opportunity to re-write you acceptable web use policy

2009-05-28T09:52:00.000+01:00

Once again it has hit the White Papers about Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) for the internet and and web use.

We have an opportunity here to open a dialogue with our colleagues, our departments, our partners, our customers, as to how we can use the internet (in particular social networking) to improve our business processes and become more effective.

One company I know has a very strict limit on the number of emails a staff member can receive. This would be ok if files being sent weren't large image files (as is the nature of this particular department) and with several recipients internally and externally. Hence, within 3 weeks the Inbox is full and emails can not be received nor sent. Even more distressing is that once emails are archived, they can't be accessed from the webmail service.

A social networking site like Elgg could help with this information flow and collaboration. Only one document is posted. Changes can be tracked. Discussions can be monitored. Teams can work together more effectively.

So although some institutions may want to "lock down" access, I would recommend to take this opportunity to revise the way your staff work and communicate, determine acceptable use policies and implement responsible web use. Communicate these policies so that you can maximise the use of available technologies that are allowing us to be more collaborative, more effective and more efficient if we allow them.

TEC White Papers recently offered the following White Paper about MessageLabs:

Employee Web Use and Misuse : Companies, their employees and the Internet

Internet Security Information is also known as : Internet Security Information, Internet Security Overview, Computer Network Security, Internet Security Systems ISS, Internet Network Security, Internet Information Services Security, Internet Security Review, Internet Security Test, Internet Privacy, Compare Internet Security, Internet Security Ratings, Company Internet Security, Employee Web Use, Employee Internet Use, Employee Web Security Service, Data Security Employee , Employee Surveillance Monitoring Internet Security, Security Threats Services Internet Usage, Assess Employee Internet Use, Internet Security Problem.

Internet Use and Misuse

Where do you draw the line? Is it okay to send the occasional personal email at work? What about a little internet shopping or spending sometime on social networking sites, playing online games, downloading pirated movies and music, gambling or downloading porn? The internet has created new opportunities for mischief and new challenges for managers.

Worldwide worries

In today’s office enviornment, employers have a relatively new issue to deal with; employees wasting time online and putting your business at risk. A large proportion of corporate web traffic is non-work related: gambling, music downloads, personal webmail, social networking and even pornography sites.

According The ePolicy Institute, of the 30% of bosses who terminated employees for web violations in 2007, 84% cited the viewing, downloading or uploading of pornography and otherwise offensive or inappropriate material as the reason.

Web misuse can have serious implications for your business:

Reduced productivity. If employees spend their time on a social networking sites such as Facebook, they’re not spending it doing their job.
Security problems. Malware hides on websites and can install itself as users browse infected pages. MessageLabs Intelligence reports that the number of new, malicious websites blocked each day by MessageLabs nearly doubled (91 percent) in just one month with 3,968 new sites intercepted daily.
Legal risks. When users download inappropriate material to their computers other employees may take serious offense which in turn can create legal liabilities for managers.
Wasted bandwidth. Internet connections cost money. If half your bandwidth is taken up with non-work relatd web traffic, you could potentially be paying twice as much as you need to and your business-critical communications could be running at half their speed capacity.
Unlicensed software. When users download and install software from the internet, they create a legal risk. Software piracy is illegal. If an organization uses illegal copies of software, it may face a civil suit and company directors risk criminal penalties.
Reputation risk. Social networking can create opportunities for employees to leak confidential information or spread damaging rumors online. Bad behavior by a single employee can reflect on the reputation of the whole organization.

Blocking non-business internet access

In the face of all these problems, many managers’ first reaction might be to block all employee access to the internet.

It makes sense to block certain sites outright. Pornography sites are an obvious example, but most companies may also consider gambling and game sites as utterly unrelated to work, potentially time-wasting and block them as well. Ninety-six percent of employers who block web access are concerned about employees visting adult sites with sexual content. Companies also use URL blocks to stop users from visiting game sites (61%), social networking sites (50%), entertainment sites (27%) ; sports sites (21%) and external blogs (18%) according to the 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey from American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute.

However, completely blocking internet access may not be the right approach for your business.

Monitoring employee behavior online

Monitoring inappropriate use may seem to be the lesser of two evils compared with blocking access to large parts of the internet. Having blocked the worst websites, you may wish to trust your employees’ judgement. You may want to allow employees access to social networking sites if it means that they can organize their social life without spending hours on the phone. You might also allow people to shop online if it saves them time and lets them achieve a better work-life balance.

Keep in mind, when you decide to allow employees access to the internet, it is in your best interest to ensure that they are aware of the laws around electronic communications in the workplace. The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) makes it clear that a company-provided computer system is the property of the employer. U.S. employers have the legal right to monitor all employee computer activity, transmissions and content- including incoming, outgoing and internal email messages, as well as web surfing, downloads and uploads. Making sure your employees are aware of the laws surrounding internet usage may encourage them to use better judgement when surfing the net.

Policy matters

It’s clear that blocking or monitoring web use requires careful thought. Any decision needs to be backed up by a clear, acceptable usage policy for the internet. The MessageLabs sponsored whitepaper, Not Just Words: Enforce Your Email and Web Acceptable Usage Policies (AUP), written by The ePolicy Institute, is a good resource to help determine what should be covered in your AUP.

Each company has its own ethos. Some managers may take a more laissez-faire approach while others want to lock everything down. Some people need full access to the web and companies may wish to give some departments or individuals more latitude than others. A good example is your Human Resources department who might use Facebook or Linkedin for recruiting purposes. The use of social networking sites may be suitable in that capacity, but your Finance department may not have a work-related use for such sites.

When thinking about employee internet access and your company’s well-being, consider the following:

Do I have a solution in place that can effectively block web-born malware, viruses and spyware?
Does my solution allow me to create web filtering and monitoring rules for different groups or employees? How flexible is my solution?/li>
Have I clearly defined a written Web Acceptable Usage Policy?

In the end, it comes down to choice. Where do you draw the line? How do you balance individual access with the overall protection and good of the business? What is the correct balance between monitoring and blocking? There is no right answer. It varies from company to company. But there is, perhaps, a right way to go about it.

Our Solution: MessageLabs Web Security Service

Because the MessageLabs service operates in the company’s network of data centers, there is no hardware to buy, no hefty up-front capital costs, no ongoing upgrades or maintenance and no software licences; just a predictable per-user fee.

From a single portal, managers can set up policies – blocking sites individually or by category. They can also set different policies for different types of users. The same ClientNet portal gives managers detailed reports on internet use in their company. In addition to policy management, Skeptic™ technology gives MessageLabs a unique – and powerful – way to protect its clients against web-born malware. When your employees ask for a web page, the request goes through our system first so we can scan the page for malware and check it against your company policies.

The MessageLabs Web Security service gives companies the ability to monitor and enforce their internet usage policies; whether they are very restrictive or very liberal, whether they favor monitoring or blocking. MessageLabs service brings site monitoring and URL filtering together with industry leading anti-virus and anti-spyware protection. As the world wide web becomes an increasingly more important business tool, companies need the best possible solution to help protect their computer systems, their reputation and their employees. MessageLabs delivers those tools."

The Problem with Social Media in the Office

2009-05-27T14:18:00.000+01:00

An excellent article from emarketer.com: A growing number of executives and companies are utilising social networking tools as part of their business and operations strategy. They could, like some educational institutions, put a "clamp" on this technology and try to prevent its use - thus disempowering their staff and not utilising the potential for collaboration/knowledge sharing/business, etc.

Alternatively, they could take this opportunity to review their acceptable use policies and ensure that not only are all staff communicated to, but also trained about responsible use - thus empowering their staff.

As social media becomes the norm, I hope that teaching and practising "responsible use" will also be implemented within our schools and educational institutions.

From http://www.emarketer.com : MAY 27, 2009 - Set profiles to private

There is some good news and bad news about workplace social media.

The good news, according to Deloitte, is that nearly one-third (30%) of executives said social networking is a part of their business and operations strategy.

A smaller, but still significant, number reported leveraging the Web 2.0 tools to build their brand, communicate internally, recruit employees and engage the workforce.

However, 55% of executives admitted that their companies do not have an official policy for social networks—and 22% would like to use social nets, but don’t know how.

Now for the bad news: There can be some serious downsides to using social networks—which even enthusiastic users admit.

Nearly three-quarters of employees agreed that it’s easy to damage a company’s reputation on social media, including 24% who strongly agreed.

Still, 53% of employees felt that their online profiles are none of their employers’ business. More than one-third never consider what their bosses, clients or colleagues think before posting.

That can lead to some iffy content and potentially harmful publicity.

“While the decision to post videos, pictures, thoughts, experiences, and observations to social networking sites is personal, a single act can create far-reaching ethical consequences for individuals as well as organizations,” said Sharon Allen of Deloitte. “Therefore it is important for executives to be mindful of the implications and to elevate the discussion about the risks associated with it to the highest levels of leadership.”

Some employees are doing just that: 61% have made significant adjustments to their social network pages to reflect their public nature—without the prompting of their superiors."

Rubbish!

2008-04-05T17:56:00.000+01:00

Right! Write! I have been rubbish at keeping up with the blogging.

So whats up. (I would like to put an apostrophe there but my laptop wont allow it). My husband and very good friend (I dont know which one is more PC to put first) said a very profound thing the other day:

"There is no such thing as "human rights" only "human responsibility". If everyone wereresponsible for themselves and for their fellow human beings, there would be no need for human rights."

Further on during the week, this came up in conversation with an HR Lawyer - dealing with Employment Rights. Once again, this same rule could be applied to Employment as well.

If employees were responsible for themselves and for the business (ie. understanding that every moment they are paid to do a job, should generate revenue to pay not only for themselves but also for their maintenance in that role) then companies should see a better workforce.

I was in the Navy for 8 years and this sense of responsibility for ourselves, our colleagues, the Navy and the country was instilled from the moment we joined. It meant that we all strived for excellence yet were loyal and committed to one another.

I strive for this at Imagine dpm and hope that other companies also see the value in this approach.

Small Business Accounting Software

2008-01-09T13:55:00.000Z

For a lot of small businesses the cost of software is normally a big one... as well as very confusing as to which product to use.

Imagine dpm likes to point the arrow to new products to try that are available online for accounting.

At the moment, Imagine dpm is trialling various accounting packages and they range from very simple to quite extensive depending on your accounting experience.

One that I like that is incredibly simple and easy to use is:

http://www.instantadmin.co.uk/

It isnt online but it is useful for the up and coming sole trader or start-up. Cant say much for their support staff or customer service though but hopefully this will improve as time goes on... perhaps I caught them on a bad day???

Happy Birthday for Imagine dpm !

2008-01-09T10:40:00.000Z

Today is Imagine dpm's 2nd birthday and 2008 is looking good for all (Happy New Year to everyone).

Last year was a very good year in terms of digital and online developments with Facebook taking the forefront of social networking sites and Slide.com also moving up the ranks in terms of sharing pictures and video.

This year, we're going to see a lot more of video editing sites .. so you will be able to upload your video footage, audio and images and create your masterpieces online. I will be reviewing this through the year and letting you know how it all goes.

Open source software is another one to watch in 2008. Imagine dpm fully supports open source software as an alternative to better known software produced by Microsoft, Adobe, etc. Our resident open source software expert, Saalo Sparkes, will be testing the systems and reporting on systems that will help small businesses - word processing, financial software, photo editing and, hopefully later on in the year, video editing.

This year, Imagine dpm is also getting involved with more charities and social enterprises and we will be "spot lighting" them as we go. Last year, Imagine dpm had the pleasure of working with Peace Mala to create an educational dvd with animation, video and music all created by the community of Hull. To view the video, go to www.youtube.com/imaginedpm.

Anyway - must go for now! Happy New Year!