In case you are unfamiliar with Will Ferrell’s character Ricky Bobby, in the movie Talladega Nights, and his ever endearing catch phrase “If you’re not first, you’re last”, it is now quickly becoming the motto for our online marketplace. Where once the prime real estate on the high street resulted in the bulging bank balance, it is now the position on search engines results pages where the battle for dominance has continued.

Due to the massive explosion of the web and in particular online shopping, those top positions on Google can make the difference between a company posting massive profits or being lost in the digital abyss. The importance of search engine optimisation has never been more prevalent. For this we have a certain couple of Stanford graduates to thank. Mr Larry Page and Mr Sergey Brin wrote their college thesis on an idea wherein search engines would ultimately be a global popularity contest with the most relevant, well-connected sites ranked accordingly. This vision gave birth to arguably the most successful company in human history, and as most of you smarty pants out there already know, that company with the funny sounding name was Google.

Google changed how we find our way about the web. It changed our very behaviour because whether we consciously realize it or not, we trust Google to provide us with exactly what it is we are looking for. Between 80-85% of people will click on the top 3 results on Google (or any other search engine out there, just in case Mr Gates over at Bing has stumbled upon my blog), so those positions become goldmines for the companies that occupy them. But therein lies the beauty: these companies cannot stay there on merit alone; they have to work at being the most relevant in their particular field, to prove to Google that they deserve to be there, that Google can happily say they are providing their billions of customers with the right answer to their searching needs.

And that is why, my friends, it is more important than ever to have your website optimised to its full potential or else you run the risk that Google will cast you aside as an irrelevance; and believe me, unless you want your website to be found only by your silver surfer Granny, you should avoid this at all costs.

So, I hear you shouting at the back, “what is this search engine optimisation you speak of?” Basically, SEO is the process of making your website as attractive and relevant as possible to these Google crawlers (sounds very matrix I know) that search the web. This is achieved through a process of proper coding, relevant content and back-linking from other sites. Sounds simple enough right? Wrong! Not only are the man-hours needed to continually update this information unachievable for most business owners, those wily old dogs over at Google consistently change their algorithm (the rules by which the pages are ranked) that only those clever clogs at Google HQ know about. I bet you’re starting to wonder why I’m telling you all this if there is nothing you can do about it, well thankfully there is.

The birth of the Internet has produced a whole new industry of clever marketing types whose very purpose in life (yeah I know I’m a geek, no need to point it out) is to figure out how to grow your business online. If you want your website to capture the massive potential revenue stream available to you then it really is in your best interests to dedicate a part of your marketing budget to a reputable SEO company. The great thing is that even for you sceptics out there, a well-managed search engine optimisation campaign can provide you with tangible facts and figures for your return on investment. You are able to monitor and tweak it every step of the way to carve for your business a slice of the e-commerce fortune. I may be biased, but I don’t think I recall any advertising agencies ever providing that for a customer when charging an arm and a leg to get a billboard up beside your local B&Q.

So you see, it might just turn out to be the best investment you’ve made in the continuing success of your business.

Edinburgh based Social Media marketer Greg Kelly of Inventive Management speaks in front of Microsoft Vice President Bob McDowell and Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust about Generation Y and starting a business by leveraging Social Media

There was once a time, not very long ago, when the power the media held over the common man was as far reaching as the Roman Empire. With a flick of their golden quills, they had the ability to bewitch the masses into packing out cinemas across the country, and the unyielding influence to make novels fly off the shelves and onto every man, woman and child’s bedside table. However, thanks to our very own rebellious leader, the social media revolutionary Che Zuckerberg, we are now able for the first time to storm the gates of the cultured brethren and challenge their omnipotence by declaring “We shall not just eat the bloody cake”.

Please excuse my melodramatic description of this slight shift in power, because although it does signal, I hope, a move away from the decades of spoonfed information from the powers-that-be, the media are not going to go quietly into the night and are mounting their own counter-revolution.

Unless you have been living in the woods for the past year (perhaps planning your own guerilla campaign) it has been difficult to escape the fanfare in the media surrounding The Social Network, David Fincher’s semi-fictionalized account of the founding of Facebook, and the overwhelming collective agreement that this is perhaps the best damn film any of them have ever seen.  It prompts one to wonder, then, why this seminal film of the decade has yet to break the $100 million mark at the box office and was only the 29th highest grossing film of the year.

Well, the bottom line is, we just aren’t paying as much attention to the media’s battle cry any more. Our world has been changed forever by the internet, particularly, in recent times, Social Media. Ironically people were more inclined to listen to what their ‘friends’ and ‘friends of friends’ had to say about The Social Network than the media juggernaut, which was endorsing a film about the very thing that may bring their world crashing down around them. Ah irony, don’t you just love it.

I believe this Musketeer approach of ‘all for one and one for all’ media attack will only heighten as they try and cling on to the power they had become accustomed too, hoping that by collectively backing the same horse, they will blindside Joe Public into believing that their life will indeed not be worth living without succumbing to their mass message.

The real beauty however, that I believe lies in this social media revolution, is the breakdown of information asymmetry which has been prevalent in our global society for far too long.  To quote Wikipedia:
“In economics and contract theory, information asymmetry deals with the study of decisions in transactions where one party has more or better information than the other. This creates an imbalance of power in transactions which can sometimes cause the transactions to go awry.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_asymmetry

A world where we all have the power to make decisions based on an even share of information and the opportunity to broadcast our own views and opinions is the kind of place I want to live in, don’t you? Viva La Revolucion!

Having downloaded the Kindle App for my IPhone the other day I stumbled across Origin of Species, Charles Darwin’s robust description of evolution by natural selection. After devouring the highlights of Mr Darwin’s work on the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh, which I like to think was quite similar to the author’s expedition in South America aboard the H.M.S ‘Beagle’ that inspired his work, albeit with more indigenous Glaswegians, it made me think about just how we humans have evolved over time and especially how the internet has most recently opened up an entire new chapter in our history.

The Internet is only just over 6000 days old, which makes it a mere infant compared to other revolutionary tools invented by man such as the wheel, which has been part of civilisation since we were all wearing loin clothes and spearing woolly mammoths. This makes me wonder why anyone would shy away from such a powerful tool that is opening up a whole realm of exciting opportunities by adopting the mind-set that they, and especially their business, has no place on the information super high way. As the internet grows day by day it will become more interwoven into every facet of our lives than ever before, providing a personalised connection to the world as a whole. I know there will be sceptics out there who may think I’ve gone the way of Tom Cruise and been watching the Matrix too many times, but this is not a notion based on speculation but on fact supported by the brightest minds around the world.

We are at the very beginning of a new era which will change how we work, live and play and if you, and especially your business, do not start making changes to embrace this new way of thinking then I’m afraid natural selection will take over and your business will go the way of the Dodo. I look forward to you all joining me on the next momentous 6000 days.

The passion I hold for social media marketing is based on the unflinching belief that it is an evolution of communication based upon openness and transparency, making us all prosumers (both the consumer and producer of information) in the worldwide network. Gone are the days where the man with the biggest marketing budget held the key to fame and fortune. Gone are the days when we had to suffer the constant onslaught of questionable information, distributed through the media by savvy P.R people.

But as they say, where there’s a will there’s a way. A big part of my job when working on a campaign for a client is finding the social media influencers in their target market, and through engaging content and nurturing the relationship we hope to produce a new brand ambassador. However, I hope this sort of approach does not descend into the murky waters of questionable agreements being set up between the guys with the big cheque books and those influential bloggers and twitteratti out there who we look to for honest and impartial opinions.

I do believe that this new generation of marketers and opinion-leaders will have more moral fibre than to succumb to the wooing of the fat cats–which our predecessors in the press and television bought into hook line and sinker. This is the beginning of the transformation of communication. Just watch out for those cupcakes; they may be poisonous after all.

These principles apply to web design as to the design of anything else. In fact, such principles are even more important for a young medium like the web, which even now has few rules and standards that are widely followed (though this is improving).

There is an ugly clamour for originality in web design, and it leads to confusion and vulgar style. I, with good old Massimo, would like to put a stop to this.

A Web Site is Designed to Work

Notice I didn’t say “A web site should be designed to work.” If it hasn’t been designed to work, then it hasn’t been designed at all. If it looks nice but nobody knows how to navigate around it or find the contact details, then what you have is a design only in name. Visual appeal is only a small aspect of design, and while it is an important one, it is not fundamental. It is an added bonus if your new corkscrew looks good, but looks were not the primary motivation behind its design. What is more important is the aesthetic appeal of a thing that feels good to use.

Speaking of corkscrews, here’s mine, a two-step “waiter’s friend”.

This is not only my favourite corkscrew design; it is the best corkscrew design. Although we each have our preferences, people have enough in common that universal principles can apply – that’s exactly where design comes in.

There are good sound reasons why you’ll never see a good barman or waiter use anything else (unless they have a barscrew-type cork-pulling machine):

• Proper worm-type screw, rather than the horrible type that has a solid central core with a ridge around it.
• 2-step action: the neck rest is articulated so that the cork can be pulled in two movements. Using a single-step waiter’s friend corkscrew risks shearing the cork laterally.
• Efficiently connected elements: when closed, the tool takes up a very small space. It is not bulky or heavy.
• Its utility makes it a pleasure to use.

Design is Not About Originality

The discipline of design is constrained by rules and principles that apply universally, and these must be observed and combined to make a design work for its target audience. You will certainly make an impression by doing something wacky, but is that really all you want to do? Don’t your customers or users deserve to be treated like adults? Respecting people’s natural inclinations, habits and expectations is a win-win approach. If a web site or software interface is more usable, your customers will hang around for longer and keep coming back.

Here is a small selection of these universal principles:

The golden ratio or the rule of thirds
The eye is naturally drawn to points about one third distance from the edge of a rectangular space (such as a web page).

Recognition over recall
The users of an interface, like a web site, should be able to choose from a selection, rather than having to recall what they have to do. This makes their experience effortless.

Complex information requires simple presentation
This seems obvious, but it’s a notorious weakness of designers to mirror the complexity of the content in a complex layout. It is vital for communication that designers strive to resist this temptation.

Proximity
Things that are close together are perceived as being related. Links on a web page should be grouped naturally as determined by their inter-relationships.

Propositional Density
Propositional density (PD) is the amount of information that is conveyed in an object or element (such as a logo). It is not simply about the amount of information contained, but the amount that is effectively communicated. In such an element, there are surface propositions (Ps), and deep propositions (Pd), the latter being the underlying meanings. How these are related is expressed by the equation:

PD = Pd/Ps

Consistency
A consistent, solid, stable design with no surprises has been shown to improve usability. This is a measurable result.

This is just a small sample, but they illustrate that design is not primarily about “getting creative” or doing things nobody else has done just to catch attention. Originality, if it is to be effective, should be subtle, and creativity simply backfires if all constraints have been cast aside. As my father always says, you have to “work within the confines”.

Then, Make Your Web Site Beautiful

In fact, if you’ve followed good design principles you may already have a beautiful finished product. Look at that corkscrew. It is purely functional, but this in itself makes it a beautiful object. Now, this doesn’t always work: we’re all aware of functional yet hideous buildings. In web design, too, the extent to which a web site requires extra work to improve the visual appeal depends on the kind of site it is, and what its function is.

But on the whole, following the principles of good layout and typography will immediately reveal your professionalism. Some of the best designs do not call attention to themselves.

Design is a Profession

Even the most artistically talented people can make terrible designers, because they don’t know how to apply the universal principles. And crucially, they want their work to stand out; this is the right and proper thing for an artist. But a designer, on the other hand, should never aim for his or her work to draw attention only to itself.

Design is a profession that thrives and is useful only insofar as it follows established standards or combines them in intelligent careful ways so as to develop the body of standards.

But here’s a parting thought. Even though originality should not be the aim of design, neither should un-originality.

References: Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler.

Here is a great article by Social Media Examiner to help you get started!

The night was made even more delightful due to the very generous sponsors:

• Food by Illegal Jacks (if you haven’t been – put it on the must go list)
• Beer by Stewart Brewing (my favourite was Hollyrood – “Pale, Light & Hoppy”)
• Wine by Vino Wine Shops (really enjoyed a glass of white)

There were tons of other fantastic sponsors who donated to the raffle as well as very generous cash prizes such as Attacat – click here for a full list!  I will make a special mention to Sandstorm Kenya as I was overjoyed to win the messenger bag as a prize in the raffle. Picture courtesy of Stills Gallery

The attendee list read a little like the Who’s Who of Social Media/Digital Media in Edinburgh and a worthy bunch to follow on Twitter if you’re looking for great insight, great chat and excellent blogs.

I find it next to impossible not to volunteer for everything, so when the ladies mentioned they were looking for cake bakers for their Charity Bake-off I, of course, put my digital hand up.

I haven’t baked anything from scratch in a long time but I was committed (and it was for the kids) so of course, I set out to make the best of it.  After a week of fretting about what to bake and watching YouTube videos on how to decorate cupcakes (cupcakes are all the rage these days), and each time deciding that I just wouldn’t be able to pull it off, I finally Googled a perfect North American stand-by: The Strawberry Shortcake. The recipe I used is here (thanks “Judy & her Mom”).

This has been a favourite of mine since forever. A lovely sponge-cake with whipped cream and strawberries; simple, elegant and absolutely delicious. The best I have ever had was made by my the nanny of my childhood best friend Shauna – the late, sadly missed and all around beauty, Mrs. Patricia Pettifer.  Nanny’s cakes were legendary and I can still taste the strawberry shortcake she baked for Shauna’s 9th Birthday party (and I think she would have been proud of mine).

So it was with obvious delight that I won the coveted Attacat Mug as the 2nd place prize in the bake-off competition.  See a delightful picture of the masterpiece below – again courtesy of  Stills Gallery.

I can’t speak highly enough of the hard work and dedication of all involved to make it such a successful evening. I only wish I had of met more of the attendees. I write in hope that there will be a next time, ladies…let me know if you need a hand organizing the next one!

I will definitely aim to make it to #EdCM at least once a month and would urge anyone interested in networking with some delightful, intelligent, warm and welcoming people to do the same.

Special mentions for some really lovely people I did get a chance to speak with:

@Vgibson, @GeorgiaArtus, @techsitc,  @attacat_han, @craigmcgill, @colingilchrist,  @noexcusesedin, @littledishy, @btocher, @shellbryson and of course…Nadine, Kay, Danielle and Carrie

*on Twitter “Users can group posts together by topic or type by use of hashtags — words or phrases prefixed with a #"

ecce78f1a09e4e2cbc85abb3556e8512

The most easily recognizable early ancestor would be the Bulletin Board System (BBS), which appeared in the late 1970s and remained popular until the mid 1990s. A BBS would generally be run by one system operator as a hobby, from his or her home. Themes for BBSes were far-reaching, from various hobbies and interests to software piracy to pornography. Access was achieved, one at a time, via a dial-up connection to the system operator’s phone line, incurring calling costs which, if calling long distance, could end up very expensive.Therefore users of a particular BBS tended to be localised, and meet-ups were common, like a pre-Twitter Tweetup. Incendiary, I met my first boyfriend at the age of 15 at BBS Coffee Meetup – turns out he was not meant to be, but my life long love for Social Media was born.

At the same time, commercial outfits such as Prodigy and CompuServe launched their services online. These services were also very popular, and allowed more mainstream access to social networking – for a fee.

By 1995, the world wide web had become available via private ISPs. Usenet, a discussion format which resembled a more easily accessible form of the BBS, became incredibly popular, giving birth to internet staples such as Godwin’s Law, which states that as a discussion continues, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis approaches one. This paved the way for what we now know as the internet forum, which is still a popular format today.

In 1996, AOL launched ICQ, the first mainstream instant messaging (IM) system, today having over 100 million accounts registered. IM systems today include MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype and many others

The late 1990s saw the launch and rise of blogging sites such as Livejournal, Open Diary, Diaryland and Blogger (now owned by Google). Blogging became incredibly easy and accessible, though it had been in existence in one form or another since the days of the BBS. These sites allowed comments and feedback on posts, and also the development of networks and friends lists.

One of the most important social media developments was the launch of Napster in 1999. Napster enabled the sharing of mp3s online and was shut down in this capacity in 2001 due to mass copyright violation. It did, however, pave the way for P2P (peer-to-peer) sharing, where users make their resources (bandwidth, files etc) directly available to others. This has led to the development of Bit Torrent clients, which source different parts of a file from multiple users (“seeds”), relieving the strain once borne by an individual resource.

Continuing the theme of copyright violation, 2005 saw Youtube for the first time. Now owned by Google, Youtube allows users to upload video clips up to ten minutes in length, post comments and further video responses. Copyright violation was rife in the early days of Youtube, though now broadcasters freely offer many programs through the site.

In 1997, the site seen as the earliest form of social media as we know it today (known as “Web 2.0”) was launched. Six Degrees (derived from the concept of the six degrees of separation) offered extended networking options to friends, friends of friends and friends of friends of friends. Six Degrees boasted 1 million users at the height of its popularity, though is no longer online. Next came Friendster in 2002, which today is most popular in Asia and continues to grow. 2004 saw the launch of Myspace, which allowed users full customisation of their profile as well as the addition of music and video. By 2006 it was the most popular social networking site, overtaken by Facebook in 2008. Facebook also launched in 2004, and today boasts over a staggering 400 million users. In 2003 we saw the launch of LinkedIn, a social network for businesses, now with over 70 million members.

Digg, a site allowing users to vote on the links of others, was launched in 2004. It took off in 2006 and can cause huge surges in popularity for particular sites. Delicious (del.icio.us), launched in 2003 works on a similar principle, with users voting on tagged web content from other users. Photobucket and Flickr arrived in 2003 and 2004 respectively, allowing users to share photographs and host for embedding in blogs and other social media.

Twitter arrived in 2006, capturing the imagination of celebrities and non-celebrities alike. Today the microblogging website, allowing short announcements of 140 characters, has over 100 million users.  Technology today has advanced to such an extent that we are able to combine almost all of the top social media and social networking tools to be used in conjunction with one another.

As mentioned earlier, image hosting sites can be used for embedding elsewhere on the web, and Youtube (as well as Vimeo and other video-hosting sites) for posting video clips on Facebook, MySpace or elsewhere. These clips can be Tweeted (that is, published via Twitter), voted for via Digg or Delicious, or “Liked” on Facebook.

Sound too easy? It gets better. The introduction of mobile web technologies with Microsoft Windows, Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone iOS operating systems has allowed for access to social media from mobile phone handsets, and also from the newly-introduced Apple iPad. It is so easy to link in to these services – often many at a time, updating Twitter and Facebook in unison, for example – that of course new real-time social media sites have sprung up. The real-time, location-based network Foursquare encourages users via a range of incentives to post their whereabouts, be it indulging in retail therapy, or having a pint down the pub. It even uses GPS (Global Positioning System) to make sure you aren’t cheating.

So where to next? Just as Star Trek helped us out with inspiration for automatic doors, mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets and USB flash drives, perhaps we should be tuning back in to the world of science fiction for clues. 2002’s Minority Report seemed impossibly futuristic less than a decade ago with personalized biometric advertising and advanced touchscreen computer systems, not dissimilar to those also seen in CSI. A glimpse into the future? Most probably, IMHO.

Leave a comment and share your stories about using some of these early platforms!

Edinburgh Celebration June 30th 7pm at Chop Chop Leith – Book your ticket today!

£18.50 pp, includes:

• Celebration Dinner
• Free BYOB (no corkage charges)
• £12 Voucher for your next visit
• Prize draws

June 30th – 7:00 pm
Chop Chop Leith, 76 Commerical Quay, EH6 6LX
Google maps
Schmap.it

We are looking forward to celebrating Social Media Day with you – please help us spread the word far and wide using hashtags: #smday, #edinburgh

If you’re not aware, Chop Chop have recently become very active with their Social Media (Twitter /Facebook Fan Page /Blog) and embrace the opportunity to meet and help celebrate Mashable’s Social Media Day with the Edinburgh Community.

Their new Leith location opened on June 14th.  If you haven’t been to Chop Chop, they are an award-winning (and phenomenal) Chinese restaurant who specialize in dumplings from Northeastern China. This event is open to anyone with a keen interest in Social Media in Edinburgh.

Join us for a special celebration dinner, with unlimited Banquet for only £18.50 pp (and get a £12 voucher on the night) plus free BYOB and the following specials.

Chop Chop Special Offers

• Everyone will be entered in a draw for an all-expenses-paid day at the Open Golf Championship at St Andrews on Saturday, 17th July.  This includes an open bar all day plus breakfast, silver service lunch and afternoon tea. You will have a choice of free transport from and back to central Edinburgh or parking at St Andrews. There are nine places to be won!
• Everyone who participates in a short survey about the new restaurant on the night will get a £12 voucher to be redeemed at Chop Chop Leith by 31st August.
• Free unlimited Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) with NO CORKAGE CHARGE, beer or wine

Mashable have created a dedicated web page for all the events worldwide.

Any questions? Contact:

Laura Mcgregor – Inventive Management
Twitter: @smallbizally

Check out this fantastic local blog:
http://thesocialpenguinblog.wordpress.com/