Author: Lauren

How did you spend your lunch hour? On Twitter, on Facebook? Or maybe you took a photo of your sandwich with Instagram. These days, social media rules the (communication) waves.

If you can contact your recipient by the click of a mouse, why would you bother to phone or, heaven forbid, arrange a meeting? Offering users the opportunity to avoid face to face interaction, social media channels are at risk of breeding an anti-social generation.

Participation in social activity, in real time, is key to human development – it helps us judge characters and form relationships. No app or hashtag is powerful enough to simulate this experience.

Facial expression 🙂 and vocal intonation are all lost through social media channels, and to some extent, so is your right of reply. Would you ever just get up and leave a meeting without explanation or hang … [Read More]

Pinterest is like a simulation of the perfect world. Whenever I have browse, I instantly see my dream home, the perfect outfit and the most delicious dinners. It’s a never ending source of temptation.

If you’re looking for a way to visually tease potential customers – there’s no better social media platform. With approximately 20 million users to date, Pinterest’s power and pinfluence (I couldn’t resist) is growing.

How does Pinterest work?

Rather than words, users share images. The network allows you to create different boards under different subject headings. For example, you might have a board entitled ‘My Dream Homes’ or ‘Places I’d like to visit’. If you see an image pinned by another user that relates to your boards, Pinterest allows you to ‘repin’ that image into your own collections. The overall idea is to create a fluid vision of your interests … [Read More]

I'm a sucker for a good advertising campaign. I can't help it. Usually I'm drawn to anything topical, or something which has managed to create a social buzz.

Take this weekend's Jubilee celebrations for instance. I was swayed into purchasing some royally themed biscuits, purely because they were named 'queen for a day' and packaged in all the necessary patriotic paraphernalia. I was drawn in, by the not-so-subtle marketing message. Striking an accordance with your audience is an important avenue to explore when marketing your services. The most successful way to do this is to present an interest in shared topics, opinions and current ideas.

Generating a conversation with potential clients or customers is an effective self promotion tactic. It also makes for the beginnings of an accurate and current advertising campaign. Whether you work for a door handle manufacturers or a handbag retailer, it's important to contribute and interact … [Read More]

The Information Commissioner’s Office have announced they will not be fining websites that fail to meet new cookie rules

The new cookie law which is to be implemented from the 26th of May states that websites must provide information to site visitors where users will have to give their consent to the placing of cookies. This law technically came into force last May from the EU directive, but the ICO gave UK sites a year before taking enforcement action. (Information taken from www.pcpro.co.uk).

Cookies are a small text file that is stored on your computer or device when you visit a website. A common cookie is traffic log cookies which help identify which pages are being used. This helps to analyse data about webpage traffic and improve a website in order to tailor it to customer needs. The information is used for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is … [Read More]