Archive for February, 2012

Feb 23, 2012

How to Increase Your Website Traffic By 30%

Author: mattclarke | Filed under: Lead Generation, SEO

If your business has a website then you should already know the value of web traffic and how important it is for your site to maintain a strong search engine presence. If you don’t then you should read this report, recently published by market research firms, Fleishman Hillard and Harris Interactive.

The report reveals that 89% of all consumers now use search engines to make purchasing decisions.

At Pinnacle, this comes as no surprise to us. We provide search engine optimisation (SEO) services for a number of our clients and the results which we regularly see reinforce the above statistic. A recent analysis of one client’s web traffic shows that after just 6 months of implementing a focused SEO campaign, the site is now receiving 30% more search engine traffic.  

This has been achieved by targeting rankings for a number of keywords that meet specific criteria; based on relevance, level of competition and volume of search. By adopting this kind of strategic, analytical approach, you give your site a far greater chance of being found in the search engines by those people who are actively searching for the kind of products and services that you offer.

To find out how you can reach the 89% of your market online, contact us on +44 (0) 208 869 9339 or email info@pinnaclemarcom.com

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Feb 20, 2012

Do You Know Your Company’s Social Media Maturity?

Author: birgitschoeniger | Filed under: Social Media

After the initial social listening exercise, finding out what is being said about your company and your competitors in the online arena, deciding where you are in terms of your social media maturity will help to give more clarity and show you the answer to the ever occurring question ‘What Next?’.

One fundamental and novel approach to establish your company’s social media maturity comes through a 5-stages model from Forrester Research. It splits businesses into laggards (dormant stage), late majority (testing stage), early majority (coordinating stage), early adopters (scaling and optimizing) and innovators (empowering employees).

Social Media Maturity

Forrester may have undertaken this study to answer questions of how businesses change by adopting social marketing tools however we found that this model could also be a good starting point for companies to reflect on and establish where they are at this moment in time and having established the maturity level the way towards a more unified, coordinated approach lays open.

Read more about each stage here

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Feb 16, 2012

Pinterest: Social Media’s Latest Pin-up

Author: mattclarke | Filed under: Lead Generation, SEO, Social Media

Pinterest: Social Media's Latest Pin-up

In the world of social media marketing, the latest networking tool that everybody is talking about is Pinterest.

Described as “an online pinboard to organize and share things you love,” you might think that the website is nothing more than a scrapbooking hobbyist’s dream; a place to pull together your favourite images and ideas and showcase them as collections. However, Pinterest is starting to drive some serious traffic and this is one of the reasons why it is being widely tipped as “the next big thing.”

Launched in March 2010, the site has enjoyed a modest following for much of its existence, but in the last few months, traffic has increased massively with more than 7 million unique visitors reportedly registered in December.

The basic premise of the site is that users create ‘boards’ which they can ‘pin’ items of interest to. Users can follow other users, ‘re-pin’ content, like, share and add comments.

At the moment, a large proportion of Pinterest’s users are made up of individuals and businesses whose interests and markets are geared towards visual content. For instance, interior designers, fashion labels and wedding planners are using it to create themed boards and the site appears to work well in these scenarios; providing a platform for ideas, products and services whilst also generating credibility for their business.

One obvious benefit that we can see is the potential to generate traffic to your website. Any image that you pin to a board contains a link to the original source. So if you pin content that exists on your own website, you’re effectively creating a link which will contribute to your website’s search engine rankings whilst also having the potential for Pinterest users to find their way to your site via the link. 

It’s difficult to say at this stage whether the site will have a broader impact as a marketing tool. However, as with any social media platform, the most important issue when deciding whether there is any value for your business is whether or not your market is using it. Given the exponential growth of Pinterest’s following, it might well be worth taking a look at.

What do you think?

Can you see a use for Pinterest as a marketing tool for your business?

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Feb 15, 2012

Is Your Website Breaking the Law?

Author: mattclarke | Filed under: SEO, Social Media

Come May this year, your website could find itself on the wrong side of the law and face a fine of £500,000.

All because of a ‘cookie.’

Find out if you’re about to become a law-breaker by reading this blog post.

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Feb 13, 2012

Can eBooks Meet Changing Social Demand?

Author: nevenarasic | Filed under: Social Media

The advent of eBooks offers readers new possibilities for interaction, sharing and exchange of ideas: it’s called “social reading”. The mechanism is quite simple, thanks to platforms such as Thecopia 3, Findings 4, Readmill 5, etc. or even through Amazon’s Kindle, it’s possible to share with other readers our thoughts, notes and comments.

The system, with the consent of the reader, tracks how and what is read, what comments are made and if the reader likes the book or not. Data is stored online and then processed in order to highlight interesting annotations made by others, recommend similar books to those just read and appreciated, connect readers to each other.

But let’s be frank: is it worth losing our privacy and having our reading habits scrutinised in exchange for a personalised recommendation service? And do they ever recommend items that you would be interested in reading anyway?  

A fascinating blog post I read recently raised many interesting questions about lending eBooks. It explains the challenges users face due to licensing restrictions. Apparently many eBooks can’t be lent – well some of them can -but it is possible to share them only once and after that, no more lending.

Lending is entirely up to the publishers, and the publishers, despite charging real book prices aren’t providing real book benefits, such as the ability to send the book to whomever you want, much less resell the book.

So can we still talk about “social reading” if we are not allowed to share books with other readers as we used to do?

“Can eBooks Meet Changing Social Demand”? Maybe the right question is “are they trying to shape the Social Demand”?

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Feb 8, 2012

How to survive at exhibitions

Author: andrewtown | Filed under: Business, Events, Exhibitions, Technical Magazines, Technical PR

The European trade exhibition season is under way with preparations well advanced for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and Embedded World in Nuremberg.  Many of us have trodden these paths on numerous occasions but, for the first time visitor, it is always helpful to have a guide.

In this respect I can highly recommend the Embedded World Survival Guide written by Paul Whytock, Editor in Chief of Electronic Design Europe.  Paul clearly has survived many Embedded World events, which can only reflect positively on his ‘How to’ guide.

Pinnacle Marketing will be in Nuremberg assisting various technology companies and we look forward to meeting many old and some new faces there.

If you have any other tips or recommendations for visitors to these or other trade shows, we would love to hear them.

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Feb 6, 2012

Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, which one to choose?

Author: admin | Filed under: Technology News

While the rivalry between browsers gets stronger each day, the main question we all want answers to is “Which browser is best to use?”

The industry leaders such as Google, Internet Explorer and Firefox are working at alarming rates to make their product the one to use in 2012. Google has been working on new versions of Chrome; Mozilla has been working on improving Firefox whilst Microsoft has taken on a rejuvenated team to do big things with Internet Explorer. 

So which browser should you be using?

Based on market share figures only, published by measurement firm StatCounter, Google Chrome has been predicted to have the biggest market dominance.

The statistics showed that Google Chrome was the only browser to have seen an increase on its market share with a 11.4% increase from 15.6% in January 2011 to 27% by the end of the year. 

On the other hand, both Microsoft and Firefox experienced a drop in their share. Microsoft experienced a 7.4% drop from 46% to 38.6% whilst Firefox fell 4.9% from 30.6% at the beginning of 2011 to 25.7% by December.

What are your thoughts? Do you think Google Chrome will be the best browser for 2012?

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Feb 1, 2012

Elektronik Industrie under new leadership

Author: carolinelule | Filed under: Business

As of today Elektronik Industrie is under new leadership.  Siegfried Best, who has served as editor-in-chief for the past 9 years, retired his post on 31 January 2012.

Taking over editorship of the publication is Hans Jaschinski. Hans is a highly experienced and esteemed editor, and has worked at Hüthig for over 25 years.

Although Siegfried will no longer work for Elektronik Industrie, he will continue to be a presence in the electronics industry working as a freelancer.

We wish both Siegfried and Hans all the best in their new roles.

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