That’s all very exciting but what happens when the Universal Analytics installation doesn’t work?

When installing Universal Analytics across a variety of managed sites I was faced with a group of sites that just would not report any activity. Everything had been installed correctly, the tracking code was plainly visible in the right place when viewing source, but all I got was a bunch of flatlined dashboard graphs and this in the admin console:

One thing gave me a clue: every one of the problem sites was running the Joomla content management system (although some of my Joomla sites were reporting to Universal Analytics perfectly fine); then I worked out that every one of the problem Joomla sites had been built using a site template that relied on the Mootools javascript library.

A quick test confirmed that Mootools and the Universal Analytics tracking snippet do not play well together – when Mootools was disabled Universal Analytics began functioning normally. While we wait for an updated version to resolve the conflict, here’s a quick fix. Un-define the ga.create method in your analytics.js snippet like this:

if(!ga.getByName) ga.create = undefined; //add this line to your GA snippet
ga('create', 'UA-XXXX-X');
ga('send', 'pageview');

That is all! Get tracking!

– Simon

This recipe produces the most delicious shortbread biscuits I have ever eaten. If you are worried about calories then DO NOT make them. They are full of everything bad for you.

This recipe makes a huge batch – so make them for Mother’s Day gifts and you will still have some for yourself.

• 480g Butter
• 360g Sugar
• 700g Flour
• 125g Cream
• Bar of chocolate or bag or chocolate chips (the nicer the chocolate the nicer the biscuit)

Cream butter and sugar for ages then add cream. Mix until beautifully creamy. Add the flour and the chopped chocolate or chips. Roll out and cut into shapes and place in a hot oven until cooked.

Thanks little brother :)

–Kelly

Getting your email newsletter or sales offer in front of your audience is one thing; getting them to read it is another. One of the most effective ways of getting a reader’s attention is to write as if the email is a message sent straight to him or her individually by a real person.  We all turn off a bit when we see an email from a business sitting in the inbox, so sending as a person at the company can increase open rates dramatically. An email from “John Smith – Example Inc <john@example.com>” will  be opened more often than an identical email sent by “Example Inc <admin@example.com>”.

But beware: that means the text of the email will be read as if John Smith wrote it. The text can’t refer to John Smith in the third person anywhere  - if John Smith of Example Inc sends out an email that contains the news

“Example Inc’s John Smith received the Awesome Guy trophy at the Acme industry awards last week…”

the illusion is broken, and all of a sudden that personal communication is revealed as bulk mail written by one of those dreaded marketing people. We all know it’s bulk mail from the dreaded marketing people, but we don’t like being slapped in the face with it.

So when you get that text back from the copywriter, make sure it’s not only grammatically correct and technically accurate… make sure it reads right. Writing in a real human’s voice is one of the strongest tools in an email marketer’s arsenal when it comes to getting that message read, but it’s an illusion that is easily dispelled. Someone who’s just been slapped in the face with the reality that John Smith didn’t actually write and send this to him or her personally will be less likely to click on that  button or follow that  link!

The South Australian Wine Industry Association has become the first major industry to adopt and use the new State Brand. The launch of Adelaide – The Wine Capital of Australia coincides with the multi-million dollar campaign by SA Tourism to push visitors to the Barossa, which will be unveiled in June. This Wine Capital initiative has been driven by the SA Wine Industry Association with the support of Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA), reports The Barossa Leader.

Click here to read more.

I often get asked “so what is it you actually do?”

I often think of the pressure I would put on my clients to have a good snappy answer for this at the ready. I used to call it “Homework” for a marketing planning day where I asked them to come to the meeting prepared to give me a 30 second commercial answering … What is your core business? What do you offer? How do you offer it? What sets you apart? What will get people excited? … and give it to me in 30 seconds. To those clients of mine reading this I’m so sorry!

My 30 second commercial takes me about ten minutes to tell, but I love a good long story, often over wine. However from the conception of the company until now our underlying ethos has stayed the same: make use of your existing relationships. It doesn’t matter that the tools for doing this over the years have changed; it doesn’t even matter that over the next five years who knows what we will be using to communicate with each other. The fact that we are communicating and continuing to communicate with those people who want to have a relationship with us is paramount.

I was sorely irritated when a client of mine said to a third party that I was a “traditional marketer” and they needed someone more “in tune with the trends”. But as I said above it doesn’t matter what the tools are as long as you are getting the results – and to be honest with you some of the traditional marketing tools are still the best for relationship marketing.

Ah ha! Relationship Marketing I hear you say … what is that?

So back to the initial question. “So what is it you actually do?” We use whatever tools are necessary to ensure that you continue to have a long-term relationship with those people who want to have a relationship with you. Did you get that, because we have been doing this as friends for years. Great friends are people you invest time and money in and keep in contact with. Stop contacting them and you’re no longer front of mind, stop finding time to talk to them and you’re no longer front of mind stop spending money – dinners, drinks, birthday presents – and they’re soon gonna find another friend who values them.

Okay so now think about that in terms of your business. It’s all there. All that you need to do, right down to the old they’ll tell ten friends and so on and so forth.

Stop spending your money waving at people who might be your friends and start telling people who are your friends that you appreciate them.

Do it today!

Email them, put something nice on your Facebook page, tweet it for goodness sake, oh … my … god give them a discount off your online store! Then they will tell other people that you are a great mate! Those people will visit your website and see how transparent and trustworthy you are because of all the testimonials on your website and the number of shout outs you have on Twitter and Facebook and they’ll want to be your mate too.

“So what is it you actually do”. That’s what we do … and then we measure it!

So if you want us to do that for you just give me a call and I’ll buy you a beer … or a wine … or a coffee. Because I love a good story!

– Kelly

Small businesses are either unsure or too busy to fully capitalise on the potential of social media, an industry analyst says, after it was revealed only 27% of SMEs are utilising social media.

This figure comes from a report published by Yellow Pages in partnership with the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association.

The report is based on a survey of 1,951 Australian SMEs regarding their usage of social media marketing. The survey reveals only 27% of small businesses and 34% of medium businesses have a social media presence.

…

“It’s clear that social media has enormous potential when it comes to marketing,” says Matt Thomson, co-founder of social media marketing firm Connect Social Media.

“The problem is, most small business owners are unsure and too busy to fully capitalise on social media’s potential.

“The average small business owner is simply too busy running their business to focus on keeping up with their Facebook page.

“And for the ones that do spend time on social media, they are often overwhelmed with where to start.”

Read more at Smart Company.

You can make the meringue but I just get the smallest meringue from the supermarket and cheat!

Meringue
1 egg white
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 T coca powder

Choc-chilli Ganache
100g Lindt chilli chocolate
1/4 cup thickened cream
1 t chilli flakes1 t extra hot chilli powder

Using an electric mixer beat egg white until stiff, add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until all the sugar is added then add the cocoa.

Spoon heaped teaspoons of meringue onto baking paper lined trays and bake for 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 150 degrees Celsius. Leave in the oven to cool

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over boiling water and melt. Remove the bowl from the heat and add the cream and the chilli until you are satisfied with the spicy heat.

Sandwich the ganache between two meringues and put aside until set.

Enjoy but warn your guests before they try them … or not!

Firstly, download all the photos from your Instagram account so that they’re not lost when the account is closed. You can do this by using an online service such as Copygram or Instaport.

Secondly, just visit this address and follow the prompts:

https://instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/

The Internet tonight is filled with much wailing and gnashing of teeth from photographers, Internet marketers, and social media junkies, and this stumble by Instagram will leave a  gap in the market. Like nature the Internet abhors a vacuum. What will take Instagram’s place?

Instagram has become part of an Internet-marketing specialist’s toolkit. It has a great reach, allows for key social/viral content sharing with searchable hashtags and integration with Facebook,  Twitter, and Foursquare streams, and it is still dominated by iPhone users – the most valuable consumers of all.

But now Instagram has revealed an updated Terms of Use document and Instagram users do not like what they see.

Instagram said today that it has the perpetual right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification, a dramatic policy shift that quickly sparked a public outcry.

The new intellectual property policy, which takes effect on January 16, comes three months after Facebook completed its acquisition of the popular photo-sharing site. Unless Instagram users delete their accounts before the January deadline, they cannot opt out.

Under the new policy, Facebook claims the perpetual right to license all public Instagram photos to companies or any other organization, including for advertising purposes, which would effectively transform the Web site into the world’s largest stock photo agency. One irked Twitter user quipped that “Instagram is now the new iStockPhoto, except they won’t have to pay youanything to use your images.”

“It’s asking people to agree to unspecified future commercial use of their photos,” says Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “That makes it challenging for someone to give informed consent to that deal.”

That means that a hotel in Hawaii, for instance, could write a check to Facebook to license photos taken at its resort and use them on its Web site, in TV ads, in glossy brochures, and so on — without paying any money to the Instagram user who took the photo. The language would include not only photos of picturesque sunsets on Waikiki, but also images of young children frolicking on the beach, a result that parents might not expect, and which could trigger state privacy laws.

– Cnet

More coverage at NYTimes

Starting next month, anything you post to Instagram can be used by Facebook — and Facebook’s partners — in perpetuity, for any purpose, for no compensation, and without your knowledge. If you’ve been using Instagram as a marketing channel or as a device to generate buzz for a client campaign (as we at CCM have done many times) that means your work will be out of your control as of January 2013. The only way to get around these new Terms of Use is to delete your account.

Which, incidentally, I have just done.

Sorry Facebook, but… no.

– Simon

• 33% of all online donations made during the year are made during December?
• 10% of all online donations made during the year are made on the days December 29, 30, and 31?

If you’re a non-profit organisation the message is clear: talk to your people – your donors, your fans, your email subscribers – during December.

The team at Stayclassy have collated some great advice into a thought-provoking infographic (excerpted above).  Check it out.