James Greenwood, Strawberry’s Digital Director, comments: “The idea for StrawberryToo is something Dom, Jonathan and I have been planning for a while now, so we’re all really excited to be putting the wheels in motion. Strawberry has always been committed to offering work experience and apprenticeships, so we feel this is a natural progression to help Hull’s creative and digital sector become better and stronger.”

Dominic Love, Strawberry’s Creative Director, adds: “The aim of StrawberryToo will be to recruit the brightest of local talent and give them some real life experience whilst helping to boost their confidence. The successful candidates will be working on live jobs for real clients, allowing them to learn whilst doing not by watching. StrawberryToo will give them the opportunity to enhance their CV, learn from Strawberry employees and take what they’ve learnt in college or university through to real projects.”

Jonathan Leafe, Strawberry’s Managing Director, concludes: “We genuinely believe the concept of StrawberryToo is a first for the UK. Not only will the StrawberryToo team members gain fantastic experience that will help them to gain employment either with Strawberry or within the local marketing and design industry, it will also benefit local businesses too. StrawberryToo will be the ideal, cost-effective agency for local smaller SME’s, organisations with a youth focus and charities. The team will offer great value work and off-the-wall creative ideas, all under the supervision of a manager and director from Strawberry. Hull is a city on the up, so we hope the concept of StrawberryToo inspires people to get involved and help Hull’s creative and digital community be the best it can be.”

Strawberry, established in 1993, is based on Strawberry Street in Hull and offers a wide range of marketing and design services including website design and development, graphic design, branding and digital marketing. In 2014 Strawberry was featured in The Drum’s Independent Agencies Census, a round-up of the top independent agencies in the UK. Strawberry was placed in the 26-50 employees category and ranked 8th in the poll voted for by clients and 21st in the poll voted for by fellow marketing professionals.

As well as being listed in The Drum’s Digital Census, Strawberry also made it onto the magazine’s list of top 100 design agencies recently. Strawberry is the only marketing agency in East Yorkshire to make it onto both lists, and we are proud of this achievement, particularly as our inclusion is largely due to positive client feedback.

James Greenwood, Strawberry’s Digital Director, comments: “We’re thrilled to have made it into The Drum’s Digital Census and to be featured alongside some of the UK’s top marketing agencies. Since Strawberry’s digital offering was established nine years ago, we’ve expanded our team from just one member of staff to eighteen. This really is a growth area for us as digital marketing strategy is becoming a necessity for businesses rather than a ‘nice to have’.

“We have a strong ecommerce offering and in recent years, have built up our digital marketing team, who can provide anything from online PR and SEO to creative social media campaigns and email marketing. It’s great to be recognised for our efforts in developing this side of our business, however we won’t be resting on our laurels. If we’ve learnt one thing from our 20 years in the marketing business, it’s that nothing stays the same for long, especially when it comes to digital. We constantly have to learn, educate ourselves and adapt to changes in our industry to ensure we offer the best possible service to our clients.”
 

My Computer

When I started my first business in 1989, my first production computer was a Mac IIcx with 4mb ram and a 40mb hard drive with a 6 MHz 68030 processor. Blistering speed for the time.

I've now got a Macbook pro with 8GB of ram and 500gb of (no moving parts) SSD storage and a Intel 7 processor.

That's about 500 times the RAM and 12,000 times the storage. And as for the speed - well I can't even work it out, but it's a lot faster!

Interestingly, the new Macbook cost me a 4th of the price of the Macintosh IIcx too.

The Internet

By 1993 there were only 25,000 web pages indexed, 20 years later it's a trillion or 1,000,000,000,000 (12 noughts)

I first connected to the internet at 2.4kbs. I now connect at 90mb, a trifling 50,000 times faster.

I sent my first email in 1995 and used to get one a week, now I get 200 a day (at least).

On average, every 10 seconds there are: 300,000 Google searches and 500,000 facebook likes.

Marketing options

In 1993 I had press, magazines, direct mail, public relations, radio and TV - I've still got those but I've now also got search engines, pay per click, social, review sites, blog sites and email. The major difference is being able to accurately measure the outcomes of a marketing campaign, often instantaneously.

What's really changed?

Nothing. The tools, yes, but the core of what we do is creative marketing and that's still is what we do well, and what our customers want.

What's coming next...

It's here already - mobile. Some of our retail clients are now seeing nearly 50% of their website traffic coming from mobiles (tablets and smart phones). That's from nowhere 4 years ago and it's only going in one direction. Fused communications, Internet and TV are here now and here to stay, they'll only get close together and better.

Conclusion

It does sometimes feel like you can't get away from it all, you're always connected. I'm still not sure if this makes me feel more in control or somewhat overwhelmed. I suppose mostly the former and on occasion the latter.

Point made. Everyone uses social media. The problem being that people think that social media starts and stops on Facebook and Twitter. It doesn’t. Social media is anywhere online that people exchange views and thoughts. So, with that in mind, you can start to include the BBC, the digital version of the local newspaper, etc. See where I’m going with this?

The question then comes - how can my organisation benefit from social media? You can be an active content generator, that people share and comment on or you can be passive waiting for someone to ask a question that you in turn respond to. Most people are passive users. They use all of these online information and resource services and are happy to view, but never contribute. These are the people that will avidly read the Trip Advisor reviews but never contribute, or read reviews on books on Amazon but never comment themselves. These are your customers.

This affects every business, not just the obvious examples I’ve given here either. If people like you, give them the opportunity to say so in front of all your other customers. In old fashioned terms, these are testimonials. Give them the opportunity to complain too, so that you can answer the complaint visibly in front of the whole internet, just to show how good your customer care really is.

You could be an active content generator, using Facebook, Twitter or a blog to push interesting news, stories or comments to all of your followers who may then share the content if it’s good enough.

By doing this, you are a user of social media. I hope you get my point, one thing is for sure, if you don’t control your online presence others will do it for you!

The group, made up of staff from Strawberry and Gosschalks Solicitors, covered 440 miles during the trip, which was named ‘Tour de Strawberry’, and had just three months to train on road bikes for the challenge. The money raised will be used to help Whizz-Kidz supply local disabled children and young people with wheelchairs and give them support to lead an active life.

Tour de Strawberry was organised by Strawberry’s Digital Director, James Greenwood, as part of our 20th anniversary celebrations. Whizz-Kidz is our charity of the year and so far we’ve held Tour de Strawberry and a birthday party at The Welly Club to raise valuable funds for the charity.

James Greenwood comments: “We are over the moon with the amount of money we have raised for Whizz-Kidz in such a short amount of time. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to train and complete a challenge like this, and meeting the Whizz-Kidz children in London was all the motivation we needed to complete the bike ride. 

“Most of the team members hadn’t sat on a bike in years, so to achieve what we did is something we’re very proud of. Over the weekend it was fantastic to see the generosity of strangers who actually stopped us to donate without knowing who we were. During the challenge the team suffered a few cuts and bruises, but it was worthwhile to return back to Hull knowing we had made a difference. Would we do it again? Definitely.”

Sally Waters from Whizz-Kidz comments: “At Whizz-Kidz we have many people do many crazy things to raise funds for us, but when Strawberry first told me they were thinking of cycling from Hull to London and then back again to raise much needed for funds for young wheelchair users in Hull, I thought they were mad!  But they did it and in such good spirits. They met some of our amazing young wheelchair users at the half way point to remind them why they were doing it. The money they have raised from this amazing bike ride will provide much needed equipment for disabled children in Hull.  We can’t thank them enough.”

The team of cyclists were led by Iron Man athlete and Hull City first team physio, Stu Leake. The rest of the team was made up of Strawberry’s Digital Director, James Greenwood, Creative Director, Dominic Love, Web Designer, Stu Greenham, Client Services Manager, Jenna Lakhdari and Web Support Assistant, Kat Owen. Gosschalks’ Partner, Richard Taylor, and Business Development Director, Steve Savage, completed the group, along with Mark Sweeney, Gordon Savage and Paul Scott who provided support.

The team’s bikes were designed specifically and supplied by Planet X, which is based in Sheffield. They featured a unique design in our trademark blue and the frame was from San Remo’s finest racing boutique, SAB. Team Strawberry also received support from sponsors PhD Nutrition, Weldtite, jayjay media, Beerhouse Self Drive Hire and The Village gym, Velocity Health and Fitness.

James Greenwood concludes: “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors for helping to make Tour de Strawberry happen - their generosity and support has been amazing! Also, a huge thank you goes out to our colleagues, family, friends and social media supporters for spurring us on during the challenge, and listening to our whinging about sore limbs afterwards!”

Photographs from Tour de Strawberry and blog posts from the team can be viewed at www.teamstrawberry.co.uk. If anyone would like to make a donation to Whizz-Kidz they can do so by visiting www.justgiving.com/strawberry20.

Myhomehelper is a memory aid that helps dementia sufferers living on their own. It displays regular, random and timed reminders and photos that assist with daily activities, helping to relieve boredom, tiredness and anxiety. It also helps family and friends to stay in touch via a video calling feature.

The system was created by Kevin Marsch, who developed the idea after his mum was diagnosed with dementia in 2010. After realising the potential of the system, Kevin quit his job of 14 years in 2011 to focus on developing myhomehelper and marketing it nationwide.

We have provided free hosting and website support for the myhomehelper website and are thrilled to see the product (which we think is fantastic!) pitted against the likes of Barclays for a national award. It has received praise from care workers, social services, NHS professionals and even former Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson.

Myhomehelper beat off stiff competition from over 200 candidates to be selected as a finalist in the accessibility category for the Technology4Good awards. The awards were created by AbilityNet and celebrate the hard work of people who use the power of computers and the internet to make the world a better place.

Kevin Marsch, Director of Simpla Solutions said: “Being selected as a finalist alongside the likes of Barclays Bank is great. It gives exposure to myhomehelper that I just wouldn’t be able to achieve on my own.”

Simon Crosby, Strawberry’s Head of Development said: “When we heard from Kevin and what he wanted to accomplish, we knew straight away that we wanted to help him. We think that start-up companies need as much help as they can get and to help a local start-up supporting a worthy cause struck a chord. It’s great that his work has been recognised in this way.”

As well as being a finalist in the accessibility category, myhomehelper is also a candidate in the people’s choice awards. To vote for myhomehelper in the people’s choice award, visit the Technology4Good website. Votes can also be made via twitter by tweeting using the hashtag #T4GMyHomeHelper – the more people who tweet this, the more votes will be recorded.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the BT Centre in London on 4th July – we wish Kevin and myhomehelper the best of luck!

We adopted Whizz-Kidz as our charity of the year to support their work in helping disabled children and young people to lead active lives. The sponsored bike ride will include a visit to the charity’s head office in London, where the riders, called ‘Team Strawberry’, will meet some of the children they are helping.

The bike ride has attracted a high level of sponsorship including support from Weldtite, Planet X, Gosschalks, PHD Nutrition, Jay Jay Media and The Village Hotel gym, Velocity Health and Fitness. James Greenwood, Digital Director and member of Team Strawberry, comments:

“We’ve had a tough seven months of training week in, week out, so we’re all really looking forward to heading off on the bike ride soon. It will be great to meet everyone at the Whizz-Kidz head office and put my training to test – so far I’ve covered 684 miles in training and spent over 44 hours on the bike! Everyone has put a lot of hard work in so can’t wait to test themselves. We’ve had a few injuries along the way but the team is ready and raring to go – I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the sponsors for their continued help and support.”

We chose The Welly Club as the venue for our concert, as the club is celebrating its centenary in 2013. Moscow also played at the club several times during their heyday in the 1980s, alongside big names such as U2, Madness, the Specials and Generation X.

The concert will help to raise funds for Whizz-Kidz and will also mark the launch of Moscow for Pleasure’s new album, Overnight Sensation. Our Managing Director, Jonathan Leafe, comments:

"We've been rehearsing an eighteen song set for the last 5 months so we expect it to be right on the night. It's all original material, some reworked from back in the day but most will be making its live debut. We're all a little nervous, we've really not played live much for 30 years!"

If you’d like to sponsor Team Strawberry and donate money to Whizz-Kidz, please visit our Just Giving page.

Read Team Strawberry’s blog at www.teamstrawberry.co.uk.

The merger is a positive move for all of our current ecommerce and web clients, as Simon and his team bring a wealth of experience, skills and resources to the agency. Strawberry’s Digital Director, James Greenwood, explains:

“We've been working alongside Simon for over four years now on developing our own ecommerce system, so when the opportunity arose to work closer with him and his team, we took it. It really was a no-brainer, as his skill set really compliments our own and we expect to be able to grow the business again with this resource, whilst offering a faster turnaround and support to our customers.

“When we started to develop our ecommerce offering, we set out to provide an enterprise system and we've delivered that. The websites on the system turn over in excess of £3M each year and we're looking to expand on that quickly.”

Simon Crosby, Strawberry’s new Head of Development, adds: “The chance to move in with Strawberry was one that I did not want to miss. Together, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and I’m looking forward to continuing our work together.

“The ecommerce system we developed is capable of powering websites that turn over up to, and in excess of, £12M per annum and can handle hundreds, if not thousands of orders per day. However, at the same time, it's also viable for e-tailers who have more modest trading targets of around £10k per month. I’m excited about working alongside and as part of the Strawberry team to help grow the business.”

The BSC team joins the creative marketing side of the business, bringing the total number of staff to 30 across the whole agency.

Strawberry’s Creative Director, Dominic Love, comments: “Strawberry is very well placed to attract business from both the Yorkshire region and the South of the country. We can offer the service and a product which is as good as anything out there on the market at a northern price! We are delighted to welcome Simon and Matt to the team and believe they will play an important role in the future growth of the agency.”

These are the areas that will be covered in the Penguin 2.0 update:

• Advertorials
• High Spam Queries
• Low Link Value
• Authority Sites
• Many results from the same site
• Panda
• Improved Webmaster Communication

Advertorials

Matt Cutts says: “We’ve also been looking at advertorials, that is sort of native advertising… and those sorts of things that violate our quality guidelines. So, again, if someone pays for coverage, or pays for an ad or something like that, those ads should not flow PageRank. We’ve seen a few sites in the U.S. and around the world that take money and do link to websites, and pass PageRank, so we’ll be looking at some efforts to be a little bit stronger on our enforcement as advertorials that violate our quality guidelines. There’s nothing wrong inherently with advertorials or native advertising, but they should not flow PageRank, and there should be clear and conspicuous disclosure, so that users realize that something is paid – not organic or editorial.”

What this means: The link benefits through paid adverts will soon be ending and sites should not be charging for adverts based on link benefit, or they will be hit by Penguin 2.0. Sites can still pay for adverts and receive referral traffic, but no link benefits will be passed.

High Spam Queries

Cutts says: “We get a lot of great feedback from outside of Google, so, for example, there were some people complaining about searches like ‘payday loans’ on Google.co.uk. So we have two different changes that try to tackle those kinds of queries in a couple different ways. We can’t get into too much detail about exactly how they work, but I’m kind of excited that we’re going from having just general queries be a little more clean to going to some of these areas that have traditionally been a little more spammy, including for example, some more pornographic queries, and some of these changes might have a little bit more of an impact on those kinds of areas that are a little more contested by various spammers and that sort of thing.”

What this means:  Targeted spam keywords such as ‘payday loans’ are being targeted by Google and are developing new ways to counter act spam and improve quality of results.

Low Link Value

Cutts says: “We’re also looking at some ways to go upstream to deny the value to link spammers – some people who spam links in various ways. We’ve got some nice ideas on ways that that becomes less effective, and so we expect that that will roll out over the next few months as well.  In fact, we’re working on a completely different system that does more sophisticated link analysis. We’re still in the early days for that, but it’s pretty exciting. We’ve got some data now that we’re ready to start munching, and see how good it looks. We’ll see whether that bears fruit or not.”

What this means: Stop getting links from low quality directories or other low quality sites.  Be aware of who is linking to your site. Even if you did not authorise the link, it still may impact your rank. Google Disavow link tool will help.

Authority Sites

“We have also been working on a lot of ways to help regular webmasters”, says Cutts. “We’re doing a better job of detecting when someone is more of an authority on a specific space. You know, it could be medical. It could be travel. Whatever. And try to make sure that those rank a little more highly if you’re some sort of authority or a site, according to the algorithms, we think might be a little more appropriate for users.”

What this means:  Google will be the judge on whether or not you are an authority in your keyword phrase. This may make things more difficult for the little (yet just as useful) guys. We’ll see… Tip: use Google Plus and start producing content. We can help with this.

Many results from the same site

Cutts says, “We’ve also heard a lot of feedback from people about – if I go down three pages deep, I’ll see a cluster of several results all from one domain, and we’ve actually made things better in terms of – you would be less likely to see that on the first page, but more likely to see that on the following pages. And we’re looking a change, which might deploy, which would basically say that once you’ve seen a cluster of results from one site, then you’d be less likely to see more results from that site as you go deeper into the next pages of Google search results.”

What this means:  It’s common when you get to page 3 of results to see a cluster of the same domain dominating the page. Google are rolling out a fix to this to improve quality.

Panda

“We’ve also been looking at Panda, and seeing if we can find some additional signals (and we think we’ve got some) to help refine things for the sites that are kind of in the border zone – in the grey area a little bit. And so if we can soften the effect a little bit for those sites that we believe have some additional signals of quality, then that will help sites that have previously been affected (to some degree) by Panda.”

What this means: Google do not announce “Panda Updates” anymore, but instead just roll them out a little at a time. The hope is to “soften the effect” for those websites that may have a little more to offer.

Improved Webmaster Communication

“We’re going to keep trying to figure out how we can give more information to webmasters…we’re also going to be looking for ways that we can provide more concrete details, [and] more example URLs that webmasters can use to figure out where to go to diagnose their site.”

What this means: The communication between webmasters and Google is to be improved, if a site is hit by an update, Google is going to provide more details to help you out of the hole.

What to take from this

These updates are coming and site owners should be aware. Google is on a mission to improve quality and keep its 78% market share. If you have any suspicion that your links are spammy or you have employed an agency that have used artificial techniques, then your site is open to a hit by Penguin 2.0. Remember, it’s all about quality and diversity. If your link numbers have increased very quickly, be aware. Most importantly, make your site a pleasure for your visitors and results will follow.

Has your search traffic been affected in the last 18 months? Need someone to check for potential issues? Call me now on 01482 337145 or email dominic.lidgett@strawberry.co.uk

I’ve outlined some basic steps for growth below, which will help you to determine the areas that you need to improve to help turbo charge your customer service, strategy and marketing. If you’re interested in taking these steps to move your business forward, I strongly recommend looking at David Hall’s free online toolkits, which can be found on the For Entrepreneurs Only website.

Firstly, when considering how to grow your business, you must consider why your customers buy from you and what their key buying criteria is. Don’t know the answer? Ask them. Get someone who isn’t associated with you to ring them up and conduct a customer perception survey - it's easy to do and often very revealing.

This teaches you what's most important to them and what you should be focussing on to do more, or less of, and also gives you a few pointers to determine where your competitive advantage is too.

The next part of the process is to ask yourself, what's your strategy?

If you've not got a clear vision or strong values, then you’re just managing at best. You need to get off the distracting scenic routes and get on the motorway. If you, your management team or your staff are not sure which direction they should be going, they'll all go off in different ones, guaranteed.

Once you’ve considered your strategy, and what direction you need to move in, you need to ask: what are my sales funnels? Many businesses go through peaks and troughs - this is not a good position to be in. You need to flatten this out and make it more predictable.

Do you know how many sales calls you've got to make to get an enquiry? What's your conversion rate? What's your average sale? Finding the answers to these questions will help you to focus on where you need to allocate your marketing spend.

The penultimate stage of the process is to consider whether you have the right team in place. I've spent 20 years building a great team and I'm always looking for new additions to strengthen it too. However, a great team and a great culture does not put itself together. It takes time, effort, training, coaching and mentoring - ignore these at your peril. Your business is your people and don't forget it.

Finally, you have to bring all of this knowledge and insight about your business together to facilitate growth. If you manage to complete all of the above activities, you've got a growth mind set and you're already on your way. I'm proof of that. In two months and five sessions with David Hall, I've hired two more people, we're looking to provide an even better service and strengthen our creative team too. I've also shared these lessons and what I've learned with the businesses we work with, with the overall aim to make them more successful too.

How you go about growing your business is really up to you. The scenic route on A and B roads might be enough for you. But if you want to be on the motorway, then I'm happy to help you achieve your objectives.

Tour de Strawberry was the brainchild of Digital Director, James Greenwood, and is set to take place over four days from the 14th June 2013. We’ve teamed up with client and sponsor, Gosschalks Solicitors, to create a team of novice cyclists who are keen to take on the challenge.

Team Strawberry will be led by Iron Man athlete and current Hull City first team physio, Stu Leake, who is currently putting the team through their paces with weekly training sessions at The Village Hotel’s gym, Velocity Health and Fitness. The rest of the team is made up of Strawberry’s Digital Director, James Greenwood, Creative Director, Dominic Love, Web Designer, Stu Greenham, Client Services Manager, Jenna Lakhdari and Web Support Assistant, Kat Owen. Gosschalks’ Partner, Richard Taylor, and Business Development Director, Steve Savage, complete the group.

The team’s bikes have been designed specifically and supplied by Planet X, which is based in Sheffield. They feature a unique design in our trademark blue and the frame is from San Remino’s finest racing boutique, SAB. Team Strawberry has also received support from sponsors PhD Nutrition and jayjay media.

James Greenwood, Strawberry’s Digital Director, takes up the story: “I came up with the idea for Tour de Strawberry after becoming intrigued with the ‘Wiggomania’ hype surrounding the Tour de France and Olympics. I’d never been involved with cycling as a sport before and thought a sponsored bike ride to visit the Whizz-Kidz head office in London would be a great way to raise some money for the charity.

“So, after floating the idea with the team, we soon had eight people ready and raring to take up the challenge! Since November last year, we’ve been taking part in weekly spinning sessions and have just started to work with PhD Nutrition to improve our diet and fitness. We took delivery of our bikes last week and can’t wait to hit the road to try them out – this bike ride is starting to get very real!”

Whizz-Kidz is a national charity that provides disabled children with the essential wheelchairs and other mobility equipment they need to lead a fun and active childhood. There are an estimated 70,000 disabled children and young people in the UK waiting for a wheelchair that fits their young lives, which is why Strawberry decided to make Whizz-Kidz its 20th anniversary year charity.

Ruth Owen OBE, Chief Executive of Whizz-Kidz said: “Strawberry is a great team to work with, and their expertise has already supported some key work at Whizz-Kidz such as our ITV Text Santa Appeal, and the design of a new smartphone app which we launched at the NHS Expo in March.

“We can’t wait to greet them at Whizz-Kidz HQ after the second leg of their ‘Tour de Strawberry’ in June. The money they raise will give many more children their independent mobility and the chance of a childhood.”

James concludes: “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors who are helping to make Tour de Strawberry happen, and also Team Strawberry, for being great sports and giving up their spare time to help us raise money for a great cause. Over the coming weeks we will be looking for more sponsors and continuing our training to get us in the best shape possible for the ride.

“Anyone interested in our challenge can read regular blog posts and video diaries at www.teamstrawberry.co.uk, we’ll be updating it regularly so watch this space!”

Photo caption:
Several members of Team Strawberry, with Sally Waters, from Whizz-Kidz.
From left to right: Kat Owen, James Greenwood, Sally Waters, Jenna Lakhdari, Stu Greenham, Dominic Love.

With that in mind, here are a handful of copywriting techniques to help you convert your visitors into buyers.

One of the most important tricks is the headline. This needs to be good. Really good. The better it is, the more chance you have of getting the first sentence read and persuading your reader to keep on reading. People will expect a reward for giving up their time, so promise them one. Spell out what they’re going to gain in simple, crystal-clear language. And remember, the opening paragraph is just as important. Use it to push that important promise.

If you’re used to writing in a formal, corporate style and tone, you need to get out of the habit. The trick to engaging with people in print is to write like you speak. Imagine you’re talking to one customer face to face. Keep it clear, brief and conversational. Talk to them not at them. And direct everything you say to that one person, not a group of people – use ‘you’ instead of ‘our customers’, for example. You should also cut out any jargon, break up longer sentences with shorter ones and use contractions, like ‘you’ll’, ‘you’re and ‘we’ll’.

The ‘features tell, benefits sell’ rule is another useful persuasive technique. Your average customer isn’t all that fussed about the details. They just want to know what’s in it for them. So, instead of listing the features of your product or service, spell out the benefits in plain English. Be careful with this rule though. If you’re selling to experts and enthusiasts who want to know the details, then you might be better off plugging those techie features.

Engaging with your customers’ emotions can really help you to persuade them. There are a number of techniques you can use to pull this off, such as telling a story, using power words and empathising with your reader.

Storytelling puts the reader in your shoes. It can make them see and feel things as you would. And once you have them here, it’s up to them to persuade themselves.

Using power words like ‘free’, ‘quick’, ‘easy’, ‘please’, ‘guarantee’ and ‘now’ can spark an emotional response from your reader and help you draw them in. When used carefully and in the right context, they can be very persuasive. So don’t go mad. Cram them into every sentence of every piece of content you write, and they’ll soon lose their power.

When a potential customer reads your content, they’re looking for a solution to something. This is your chance to empathise with them. Find a problem, show you understand and relate, and offer your product or service as the answer.

Lastly, make sure there are a number of calls to action in your copy. This is where you tell the user what you want them to do. Whether that’s to go on your website, call you, buy one of your products, fill in a contact form or sign up to a newsletter.

Or you can just let us do the hard work. Call us now on 01482 337144 or email our copywriter, Chris Arksey, chris.arksey@strawberry.co.uk.

When did you join Strawberry?

I joined Strawberry in January 2013.

What’s happened since you joined?

I’ve not been at Strawberry a particularly long time and I came not knowing a great deal about Digital Marketing. Since starting my apprenticeship, I feel that through a combination of hands-on learning in the workplace and the observation of others, I have already learnt a lot! One of the great things about the industry is that it is always adapting as technology changes, so there’s always something new to learn!

Is it what you expected from an apprenticeship?

I didn’t know what to expect as I’d never really looked into apprenticeships before but everything I’ve come across has been a completely new and unexpected experience for me.

Having been on classroom-based courses and achieving my A-Levels, I can tell you that I find learning from someone who does the work day-in-day-out and being shown how to do something is much better than book-based learning.

What’s the plan for the future?

At the moment, I’m firmly focussed on learning as much as possible and putting into practice the new skills that I’m learning on a daily basis - I have briefly looked into further qualifications for the future.

Would you recommend an apprenticeship?

I’ve only been at Strawberry a short time but I’m learning so much faster than in my previous jobs. With an apprenticeship you get all the advantages of gaining a qualification, earning a wage and learning workplace skills that you can’t learn from a book.

Next up we spoke with our Digital Marketing Apprentice, Andy Keith:

When did you join Strawberry?

I started Strawberry in August 2012 after finishing my A-levels at South Hunsley Sixth Form College - I realised that I would rather start working in the industry now than go to University.

What’s happened since you joined?

Since starting Strawberry, I have been working towards my Level 3 qualification in Business Administration which has helped me to gain skills that I use on a daily basis.

I’ve been getting stuck in with a number of different clients and have been building relationships with various people to help generate valuable links to clients’ websites. I’m finding everything really interesting and the methods I have been using are always changing so it’s never repetitive.

Is it what you expected from an apprenticeship?

To be honest, I didn’t expect a lot from the apprenticeship, I just expected to be doing bits and bobs and making lots of cups of coffee but Strawberry has over-achieved my expectations! They’ve done this by giving me real client work to complete and the independence to work alone. 

The Strawberry team are lovely and they don’t treat me like an Apprentice, they treat me like I am one of the team.  My work load is slowly increasing as weeks go by and it keeps me very busy during the day. Hull Business Training Centre is fantastic too and it’s really easy to get in contact with my tutor who always gets back to me quickly.

What’s the plan for the future?

Well hopefully after I have finished my apprenticeship in June, I will be kept on as a Strawberry team member and be able to develop my skills with the company even more. I would love to work my way up the company and eventually have my own Apprentice to train.

Would you recommend an apprenticeship?

I would definitely recommend an apprenticeship – it’s an easy way to get into the industry of your choice and you gain on-the-job skills that you wouldn’t necessarily get if you went to University.

Being paid to learn is fantastic and if you’re good at what you’re doing, your employer will be more inclined to keep you on as a member of staff once you’ve completed your apprenticeship.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how we help young people kick-start their careers, visit our Strawberry Academy page.

If you’re not familiar with Facebook Graph Search, it’s a new search function within the social network. Whereas previously you could search for the names of people, pages and groups, you can now use the improved Graph Search function to find much, much more.

Graph Search results are based on your individual connections within Facebook. So, for example, instead of searching for brand names, you could search for “brands my friends like” and the results that appear would show you exactly that – with the most popular at the top. By most “popular”, I mean those pages that have the most interaction with your friends, such as check-ins, likes and interaction.

This new search function reinforces the importance of Facebook likes and engagement with your Facebook community. The more likes your page has, the more chance you have of appearing in Facebook Graph Search and growing your community organically. The more interaction your page has with its community, the higher you will appear in Facebook Graph Search results. It also reinforces the importance of ensuring your Facebook page is set up correctly with ‘about’ information, location and category as up to date as possible. If your page isn’t set up correctly in this way, the less likely you are to appear in relevant search results.

Whilst Facebook Graph Search will allow well-known brands and pages with thousands of likes to appear prominently in search results, it also offers opportunities to local lifestyle businesses too. For example, an independent retail store in Hull may not have the authority or budgets to compete with national competitors to reach the top slots in Google. However, in Facebook Graph Search, they can be much more visible to local, potential customers and fans, providing their Facebook page is set up correctly and they are attracting lots of engagement.

Essentially, Facebook Graph Search results act as a recommendation from your connections (friends). You can find lots of new pages, people, photos and videos using the function that you may have missed before. For example, searching for “restaurants in Hull” will bring up all of the most popular restaurants your social connections have liked, visited and engaged with on Facebook. You may find the search results surprising – a local Bistro on the high street could easily gazump a Michelin star restaurant in the search results if their Facebook campaign is more successful!

It will take some time for Facebook Graph Search to be fully rolled out to all users, but it’s worthwhile putting some work into your Facebook strategy now, to make sure you’re fully prepared for when it is.

The importance of social media within the marketing mix has grown over the past few years and it’s simply not enough to just have a Facebook page that is updated every Friday afternoon when you remember. To get the most out of Facebook Graph Search, you must focus on building a page that people have a reason to like. You should develop strategies that attract interaction and post interesting, engaging and quality content on a regular basis.

These updates (called ‘Panda’ and ‘Penguin’ - don’t ask us why!) highlight that Google has made an attempt to get rid of the sites in their system that have great #1 rankings in their search engine, but have done so by using ‘unnatural’ or ‘spammy’ techniques (known as ‘black hat’ methods in the industry - again, don’t ask us why!)

Black hat methods have worked in the past, but Google has those sites on their target list, as they impact upon the quality of result for its users. They aim to provide their user (you) with the most relevant website to the words you search for and they don’t like being manipulated by geeks with clever software.

Typically, if a site is found to have used ‘unnatural’ methods to manipulate positions, the penalty would be a sharp drop in positions onto page “nowhere” or be de-listed from Google full stop.

Since February 2011, there have been lots of updates to the way Google calculates its rankings, which have forced good marketers to rethink how to get the best from Google.

One of the main influencers in improving search engine positions is how many links from other sites your site has. Yet over the last few years, the practise of building links to a site has become heavily automated and easy to acquire, as well as being cheap to do too. The more recent updates have led us to believe that Google wants sites to ‘stop link building and start link earning’. No longer should you just be buying lots of links cheaply on the Internet and hoping for the best...

If a link they find to your site has been acquired using black hat techniques for the purposes of SEO, it would seem that Google doesn't want you to have that link and that they aren’t going to count it. If they find that all links for a site are bought cheaply or placed using unnatural methods, then the site may actually be punished.

So rather than paying agencies (not good ones!) to buy links for your site, why not earn a genuine link by researching your sector and producing link worthy content that will engage visitors or provide helpful information?

Earning a genuine link is all about creating relationships with real people, whether it be finding influencers through social media, blogs or by creating partnerships with sites in your sector. These links will stand the test of time with search engines whilst bringing relevant traffic to your site.

Is your current SEO agency using link building techniques which are openly being ended by Google? It’s still going on! The methods of link building are changing and for your site, you should be looking to embrace the idea of creating good content, being social, creating videos and engaging in the conversations about your brand that are already happening.

Don’t think your site isn’t interesting either. You may well be in an industry where creating a clever video is inappropriate. You may think your niche isn’t an exciting one - fear not! It’s possible to create great social campaigns, generate great links and drive traffic to your site regardless of its purpose.

Make sure you don’t end up on page “nowhere”.

If you'd like to find out more about creating a link-earning strategy, give me a call on 01482 337145 or email me at Dominic.Lidgett@strawberry.co.uk

Strawberry started life in a small office on Strawberry Street in Hull. We remain in the same location to this day, however occupy a much larger space with a design studio, web team and a growing digital marketing department.

Jonathan, takes up the story: “To make 20 years in this industry is a miracle; not many agencies make it this far so to have done so, and grown so much, is a real achievement. I think the key to Strawberry’s success is our ability to evolve and adapt to changes in the industry. When we started out, it was just me and Sue Gibson, Strawberry’s Office Manager, who is still with us now. We had two desks and two computers and we were mainly doing publishing work – something we do very little of now.

“Over the years we have embraced new technology and the services we provide today are very different to the work we did 20 years ago. The one thing that has remained the same, however, is our commitment to adding value to our clients’ marketing strategies and helping them to achieve success.”

To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we have plans to launch a new website and have made children’s charity, Whizz Kidz, our charity of the year with several key fundraising events planned for 2013. Whizz Kidz is well known throughout the UK and supplies mobility equipment to disabled children and young people, whilst encouraging them to lead active lives.

Jonathan comments: “We decided to work with Whizz Kidz because we were extremely impressed with their ethos and the work they do. They also needed help with their website and digital marketing, so thought we could provide them with a great deal of value by completing this work free of charge, at the same time as raising funds. We look forward to working with them during our 20th anniversary year.”

Throughout our 20 years, we have always been keen to help develop young talent by offering work experience placements and welcoming apprentices to the team. Dominic Love, Strawberry’s Creative Director, joined us as a trainee 17 years ago and has seen his career progress with the company. He explains: “When I left sixth form, I knew I wanted to become a designer, however there were very few creative agencies in the area at the time.

“I joined a course run by the council and came to Strawberry one day each week as a work placement to give me a stepping stone into the industry. I soon realised that the techniques taught on my course were out of date and that learning first hand on the job was more valuable, so I soon became a full time member of the team. I’d say the biggest change during my time at Strawberry is technology and the deadlines we have to work to. 17 years ago we had to send proofs and photos to clients through the post and an urgent advert would take 2-3 days to deliver. Now, with email, an urgent advert can be turned around in 30 minutes but still requires the same attention to quality and detail.”

Our strategy to adapt with new technology saw James Greenwood join the company nine years ago to help establish our web offering. James is now Strawberry’s Digital Director and his team has grown from just one to fifteen members of staff. He comments: “Prior to joining Strawberry I worked in various creative and consulting roles. When I saw the opportunity at Strawberry I jumped at the chance to help develop its web service, recognising this was going to be a massive growth area. Nine years later, we are still growing, particularly in the field of digital marketing and ecommerce. We have a fantastic team and a portfolio of clients I’m extremely proud of – here’s to the next 20 years of Strawberry.”

It’s important to set up a plan as early as possible – a proactive approach is key to protecting your business. Read on to find out what we can do for you and how we’ll do it.

What we do

Your existing and potential customers are deeply influenced by what they read about you, so it’s vital that you listen and respond to what’s being said about your brand. We’ll develop a tailored, sophisticated Reputation Management strategy that’ll help you:

• Increase your conversion rates and drive up sales
• Reduce the damage negative comments can do
• Turn bad reviews into a force for good
• Improve the way you communicate with your customers
• Encourage more consumer engagement
• Nurture your customers’ trust in your brand
• Achieve higher Google rankings for positive comments and reviews over the negative ones

How we do it

Through online PR, social media and SEO activities, our dedicated Digital Marketing team will:

• Carry out an initial assessment on general comments through news sites, blogs, forums and social networks
• Set up on-going monitoring tools to carefully and thoroughly observe what people are saying about you online
• Consistently monitor key words/terms and general searches for your brand
• Listen and learn from all positive and negative feedback, comments and conversations you receive
• Respond quickly, honestly and publicly to your customers on your behalf
• Report to you monthly on all activity and set up further strategies if and when you need them

If negative mentions rank highly for your brand name, we can distribute positive press, news and create a strong social presence to dominate page 1 of Google, and, in the process, push negative mentions to lower search results positions.

We’ll make sure your brand is always seen in a positive light – get in touch with us today to see how we can make that happen.

Contact Jenna on 01482 337144 or jenna.lakhdari@strawberry.co.uk

Research has shown that bad reviews are one of the most popular features on a website. It makes sense, then, that you should be harnessing them instead of hiding them. By listening and responding to what your customers are saying – especially the dissatisfied ones – you can help to encourage engagement, increase conversion rates and sales, and improve your brand loyalty.

Customers engage more and spend longer on your site

You might think your potential customers will be completely put off by seeing bad reviews on your site, but that’s not the case. According to Reevoo’s survey, bad reviews are good for business, less than 1% of consumers leave a retailer site after seeing one badly-reviewed product, they spend four times as long on the site when they interact with bad reviews, and they convert nearly 70% more often.

Bad reviews help consumers make the right choice

Your customers aren’t looking for reasons not to buy from you, they just want to make the right choice. If they’re spending money on your products or service, they’ll want to weigh up the pros and cons so they can make an informed decision. By publishing negative feedback you’re helping them avoid disappointment, which will cut out the need for after sales support and the cost of returning the item.

Remember, not everyone will agree – a negative point for one person may be a positive for someone else.

Your customers will trust you more

Reevoo’s survey shows that 68% of customers trust reviews more when they see both good and bad scores, and 95% suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don’t see bad scores.

Bad reviews give your customers the reassurance to believe the good reviews – if they’re all positive, it’ll look like you’ve tampered with them or hidden all the negative ones. If you lose trust at this stage, you’ll risk losing sales of both existing and potential customers.

Negative feedback is free market research

They might be talking negatively about one of your products or aspects of your service, but they’re still talking about you. You can use this valuable criticism as an opportunity to improve your products or service – listen and respond to these bad reviews and you’ll have a chance at converting those people into happy, repeat customers. Read my post, Bad reviews: are you listening and responding?, for tips on how to turn bad reviews into a positive.

If you need help on how to deal with bad reviews, we’ll steer you in the right direction.

Contact Jenna on 01482 337144 or jenna.lakhdari@strawberry.co.uk

To mark the occasion, we spoke to some of the female members of the Strawberry team to find out the biggest achievements of their career so far…

Jenna Lakhdari, Client Services Manager

“The achievement I’m most proud of is completing and passing my Masters in Marketing at the University of Hull. It was hard work but worth it!”

Sue Gibson, Office Manager

“Working at Strawberry since its inception and throughout its many changes over the years has been my greatest achievement!”

Donna Helmore, Account Manager

“I feel that the position I have now is a massive achievement - I get to work with high profile clients, keeping their accounts in order and organised. It's a big responsibility!”

Sarah Roustoby, Online PR Manager

“My biggest achievement to date is helping Strawberry to introduce a new online PR service and working hard over the past two years to make it successful. Oh yes, and meeting the Chuckle Brothers has to be high on the list too …”

Courtney Wood, Online PR Executive

“Mine is completing my apprenticeship. I joined Strawberry in 2011 as an Online PR Apprentice and have worked my way to become a full time member of the team. I graduated from my apprenticeship recently and it was a proud moment!”

Claire Pashby, Graphic Designer

“Achievements for me include when I graduated with my HNC and HND in Graphic Design, plus when I worked on the Hull City AFC programme at Strawberry.”

Kat Owen, Digital Support Executive

“My biggest career achievement to date is completing my apprenticeship with Strawberry and being hired on a permanent basis.”

Jade Woodfield, Graphic Designer

“Mine would definitely be winning the Hull Daily Mail 'Outstanding Young Achiever in Education & Business Award' in 2011.

OK, so we couldn’t leave the boys out! Here are a few of their greatest achievements …

James Greenwood, Digital Director

“The growth of Strawberry’s Digital department is definitely a career high for me. We have grown from a team of one (me) to a team of 15 and we are still growing!”

Simon Willans

“Achieving a first in my Internet Computing degree was a big achievement!”

Dominic Lidgett

“My biggest career achievement is that I helped to develop Strawberry’s Internet Marketing and SEO service. Our digital team now includes six team members – it’s great to see how it has grown over the years.”

Now that we have social media to vent our opinions, it’s even easier for your customers to honestly say what they think of you, whether that’s glittering feedback or a scathing review. It’s natural for marketers to flinch when they see bad things being said about their brand, but you’ll only do harm to your reputation by turning your back to it.

Bad reviews are an opportunity, not a problem

Think of them as free market research. Complaints are usually more detailed than the positive comments you get, so it’s far more useful at providing an insight into the areas for improvement. You can also use them as a chance to show off how responsive you are, and as an opportunity to win back unhappy customers and convert the ones that are sitting on the fence.

Listen, respond and be quick about it

What you should do is listen and reply quickly and honestly to what people are saying about you. Ultimately, your unhappy customers just want to be heard. By taking in those negative comments and letting your customers know that you value their custom and feedback, you’re telling them that you really care about improving your products or service to suit them.

Make sure your response is public as well as personal

When customers tell you what they think over Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, they’re publishing that feedback publicly, so you need to make sure you respond publicly. It’s all well and good to have excellent personal customer service, but if existing and potential customers can’t see how you’ve handled the complaint they’ll assume you’ve ignored it – that can be enough to put most people off your brand altogether.

Above all else, be human

Your relationship with your existing and potential customers doesn’t just rely on how quickly and thoroughly you reply to the bad reviews – you’ve got to back that up with being open, honest and approachable.

Those one star reviews and cutting remarks might be a bit of an eyesore at first, but if you really want to demonstrate excellent service and back up your reputation, now’s the time to start using them as a force for good. Get in touch with us today to see how we can do just that.

Jenna on 01482 337144
or jenna.lakhdari@strawberry.co.uk
 

Mobile internet use was revolutionised when the iPhone was released to critical acclaim in 2007. Whilst not the first device to offer the internet via mobile, it was the first to allow users to surf the internet on a mobile handset effectively. Since then, virtually all manufacturers have entered the smartphone market leading to a huge boom in smartphone sales.

The development of touch screen mobile handsets led to Apple revisiting tablet ‘PC’s’ with the release of the iPad. Again, Apple did not invent the tablet genre but by simply doing it better, they captured the market. Apple has sold 84 million iPads in 2012 at last count and has stolen a march on their competitors. 84 million iPads. That’s a lot. The number of tablet devices being sold is only going to go up too, as Google and Amazon have recently released more cost accessible devices, as well as Apple releasing their own iPad mini. I think I know what Santa’s sleigh will be full of this Christmas...

Tim Cook, the Apple CEO claims that "we’ve sold more iPads than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire line-up”. Taking into account other suppliers and looking at the market as a whole, it’s clear that we’re now in the ‘post-PC era’. Put simply, the web is being consumed by more people on a tablet/mobile device than on a traditional mouse and keyboard-powered machine.

Having said that, I’m willing to bet that most people still assume their website visitors are using a ‘proper’ PC, after all, that’s still the mental picture you have of someone using the web.

The good news is that websites can now be designed and developed in such a way that the device being used doesn’t matter. ‘Responsive’ web design means that regardless of what device the visitor is using, the site ‘moulds’ to the device. These modern techniques are OK if you’re developing a brand new site, but if you’ve already got a site, what can you do?

Firstly, check your web statistics. Don’t just check how many visitors are coming to your site, but check what they do when they get there, which content is popular and importantly, which device they used. With our clients’ sites, we’re seeing a huge increase in visitors from tablets and mobile devices and it’s only going to go up even more over the next 6-12 months.

I’d be surprised if you don’t see the rise in different devices, however if that’s the case, don’t write it off and declare yourself immune. Check again in three months and again in six.

If you do see the rise, the first thing to do is check your site on a few different devices. One of the obvious things to check for is ‘hover’ menus and ‘rollovers’, where something on your website only happens when a mouse cursor is hovered over the object. You can’t hover a finger on a touch device so you may find key content simply doesn’t work. If you use Flash, check it on an Apple tablet or mobile. You’ll notice it doesn’t work and so it may be that an important message you want to deliver to your users is invisible on an Apple device!

You’ve a website for a reason - to make the phone ring, reinforce your brand, to receive orders or to get email enquiries. To get the best out of a key marketing channel for your business, you’re going to have to embrace the ‘post-PC era’!

Another way to find your customers

Although Facebook and Twitter have the widest reach, they may only give you a small percentage of leads. Try using industry-specific social networks to find and engage with your target audience – sites like Spiceworks for IT professionals, and i-Meet for event planners.

Ask your audience what they want

Don’t just guess – invite people to tell you what they want. Use social networks to ask the questions, listen to what they have to say, then get thinking on some fresh ideas to suit them.

Tailor-make your content

Your target audience are more likely to follow up on your content if it’s personal and relevant to them, so make sure it is. And remember – the better the content, the easier your potential customers will be able to find you through Google.

Reward your readers

People don’t just want to be entertained – they want answers to their problems. Give your readers a solution, and write content that’s unique, exciting, interesting, engaging and worthwhile for them to read.

Don’t be shy – go social

Your content needs to reach as many prospective customers as possible – if you hide it away on your website, no one will find it. Sharing your content across social media channels and the web will give you chance to engage with the people talking about you. The more engaging it is, the more likes, retweets and conversations you’ll stir up, and the higher chances of it going viral.

Mix it up

It’s not just about what’s in it, but how you deliver it. Really think about the best way you can present a piece of content to your potential customers, whether that’s through a video, blog, webinar, white paper, e-book or infographic.

Cold calling – don’t knock it

It might not be as sexy as social media, but cold calling still works. It’s worth remembering that nearly every interaction with your audience starts off as ‘cold’ – it’s the time, effort, skills and resources you put into your content marketing strategy that help to build warmer relationships with them.

If you need a steer on your content marketing, get in touch chris.arksey@strawberry.co.uk.

We spoke to several students and their parents for over a few hours and at one point had to split up as we had a queue forming! It was great to meet so many students with a genuine interest in marketing and to be able to give them some top tips on how to achieve their career goals.

Many of the students we met are very career-focussed, which is fantastic to see, and keen to take us up on the offer of gaining some real work experience as part of the Strawberry Academy.

We set up the Strawberry Academy because we are committed to helping inspire Hull’s next generation of creative talent. We don’t want to see the ‘brain drain’ continue where our highly skilled graduates and young people think they can only have a long term marketing and design career outside of the city.

Our work experience programme is open to school, college and university students, along with graduates who would like to find out more about agency life after completing their degree. If you would like to visit Strawberry for some hands-on work experience or simply want some careers advice, get in touch and we’ll point you in the right direction.

It's long been known by internet marketing professionals like ourselves, that some of our rival agencies have been buying Facebook likes and Twitter followers, but to what purpose?

We'd be lying if we said that we hadn’t considered it in the past, but couldn't think of a good enough reason to do it other than to:

1. Fool the client
2. Fool other Facebook users

But that's just fooling ourselves really, isn’t it?

Real fans should engage with a page by liking, sharing and commenting on your content, because they have a genuine interest in what you have to say. Fake fans offer little value other than to make you look more popular.

So today is a good day for people like us, who do things by the book to build long term, quality internet marketing programmes rather than those who have a scant knowledge but are happy to charge for little or no value anyway.

The same applies to search engine optimisation (SEO). There is no quick fix and no direct route to the top of the search engine rankings other than a thought-out, creative and well executed plan of action.

Then results will start to happen and continue happening.

If you’d like to find out more about how to build your Facebook following legitimately and encourage engagement, or alternatively develop a long-term SEO plan, we can help.
 

So how do you survive? I’m not going to give the whole game away here, feel free to get in touch with me if you would like some advice specifically for your website.

Whether you are a company or an agency, the chances are your link profile has been examined since the Penguin update and you have either not noticed any major change in organic traffic and conversion or you have logged into Google Analytics and spit out your coffee and wondered where your traffic has gone.

If your rankings have not recovered from the latest Penguin update and you are on the lookout for answers, read on. You may have begun to clean up your onsite keyword spam, stopped posting links on blog networks and read many articles about the Penguin update but with no upturn in results.  Luckily the Penguin update is an algorithm that calculates using a high number of factors and ultimately results in a score to determine the rank of websites in the search results. To beat the Penguin update you must first understand it.

What does Penguin do?

The Penguin update has the primary function to examine your external link profile to detect what it deems as ‘unnatural’ activity. One of the main signals of unnatural activity appears to revolve around anchor text. If you have been hit by Penguin it is likely that you have an over-optimised inbound link profile, as determined by the ratio of your inbound link anchor text.

What does an over optimised external link profile look like?

Which anchors do you think are represented by the large pieces of the pie? Exact match keyword anchor text or (money) keywords.  Before Penguin, this type of link profile would have had you laughing your way to the bank. However, post Penguin, this link profile lacks diversity as over 75% of it’s inbound links are made up from four anchor text keywords. To Penguin, this is a big giveaway as an ‘unnatural’ profile. Have you checked yours?

Want to see a healthy link profile – Penguin Proof

The anchor text is distributed much more evenly but there are still some big pieces left? There are 4 main anchor text types that are likely to make up the largest part of the anchor profile.

The naked URL: These anchors are most likely variations of the original url and are the strongest signal to Google of a natural link profile. Example http://www.strawberry.co.uk straw,berry.co.uk, http://www.strawberry.co.uk

Brand Anchors: Some variation of your brand name of the destination website, Example strawberry

Brand keyword hybrid anchors: These anchors consist of some variation of your brand name mixed with a relevant exact match related keyword, example ‘strawberry web design’, ‘strawberry seo’, ‘strawberry pay per click’.

Junk anchor text: These anchors can apply to the destination site but are neither exact match or brand related.  They are known as “junk” anchor text because, prior to Google Penguin, SEOs  used to try to avoid these type of anchor text since they passed no signals of relevance to the destination website. How the tables have turned.

The majority of the healthy link profiles consist of variations of these 4 types of anchor text. A tip is, as you move forward with your inbound link building, try to avoid exact match non brand targeted keyword anchor text. Stick with the 4 types above.

If you have found yourself hit by Penguin your first step should be an audit into your inbound link profile to find out your inbound anchor text distribution. Once you know this you can go about cleaning up your profile and reclaim your lost traffic.

If you require further information please get in touch dominic.lidgett@strawberry.co.uk

Here are my top five reasons for becoming an advisor:

1. It's rewarding. Helping a group of young people at the end of their school lives to open their minds towards business, entrepreneurship and thinking differently has to be a good thing.

2. It's taxing. Working with young people is frustrating, however, it makes you work hard to think at their level. What's great about students is that they don't know what they don't know - it's very liberating!

3. It's inspirational. Seeing your team grow from young 'rabbits in headlights' to confident, articulate and organised young men and women is a real inspiration.

4. It's frustrating. They're not completely focussed on Young Enterprise, they have exams and other things to do. Remember, this is only part of their life, not their full life as we would consider our working life to be.

5. It will make you proud. The single, proudest moment of my life was seeing a team that I had help mentor win the Grand Final and go to represent GB in Europe. Honestly, it doesn't get much better than that.

How can you get involved?

There are two types of advisors - rookies and experienced - like me. I'd recommend you do your first year with an experienced advisor as it makes it a lot easier, but even if you don't, the support that you get from Melinda at Young Enterprise is excellent.

Also, what you may not know, is that over the last 10 years or so the Humber region has been the most successful region in the UK and nearly every single Hull School is participating this year. They say that success breeds success - so why not be part of it? I guarantee you'll enjoy the journey.

Please contact Melinda at Young Enterprise - melinda.oreilly@young-enterprise.org.uk - she'll be very happy to talk you through how you could become involved.

Here are my top five things not to do, followed by my top five things that may get you an interview:

Top five things that will see your CV end up in the bin …

1. Dear Sir / Madam

Really? I think that if you want a well-paid job then you should at least take a bit of time to find out who hires at the agency. Ask yourself, do you think I should waste my time bothering with you when you couldn't be bothered with me?

2. A generic letter

Please, make it personal.  I need to know why you're writing to me - do you like the work we do? Are you passionate about working for us? Why should I believe that you REALLY want to be here or are you just after a job until a better offer turns up?

3. Spelling

Don't get me started. It really isn't that difficult - there are spell checkers out there that will take care of most typos, but then there are human beings that will do an even better job.

4. Grammar

Like the point above - it's just attention to detail. I know it seems that the modern world doesn't care about grammar and the correct use of the apostrophe - but I do, and most agency bosses will too.

5. Portfolio

Don't show me all of your work (especially if it's college or university projects), show me the best, well thought-out and successful work you've done.

Top five things that may get you an interview…

1. Personalise the letter (and focus on a few agencies that you like the look of rather than everyone)

You have to know who you're writing to, who hires and why they hire. You have to make the letter about the agency - what work do you like of ours and why? What are you passionate about and what are your personal goals? A little tip here - don't just copy what it says on our website - look at our social channels and press releases you can find - do some proper research - get a feel for us.

2. Catch my attention

If you're a designer then make sure your CV and covering letter reflects that, after all, that's the job you're after. If it looks like it's come from an accountant trainee, I'm highly unlikely to be impressed.

3. Impress me with your portfolio

Put together a well thought-out and developed CV and portfolio both in a PDF presentation (I hate PowerPoint) and online (as that's where you'll be designing eventually).

4. Volunteer

There's nothing like getting through the door and at a desk doing some real work whilst gaining some experience too. If you get work experience, treat it like a week-long interview. I received an un-personalised email recently asking for some paid work experience. Did the person applying not realise that when we give work experience, it ties up some of the team and they pass on vital knowledge, and very rarely does the person having the work experience contribute to the team? Not surprisingly, the answer was no.

5. Be yourself

We mainly hire because we like the work, the person, their personality and see passion and commitment with a good attitude - that counts for most things. However, just as a good measure, make sure your social channels are tidy - if you know what I mean.

Good luck!

Tasked with reinventing the sporting club website and ensuring it worked on mobile devices, we set about designing the new site with some of the newer methods of web design in mind. The site has "responsive breakpoints" targeting common devices being used today with an "m." mobile site to allow delivery of content in a different context on a smartphone. We initially wanted to deliver a completely fluid site to do away with the need for a separate mobile site, but during the early stages of the project, it was clear that a separate, more targeted mobile site was going to deliver the best experience to the fans of Hull KR.

We were also asked to ensure revenue from the site was developed and came up with the idea of Rovers Shopping Directory, allowing the fanbase to shop with retailers they'd use anyway whilst supporting the club.

Key highlights are the increased stats within a match report with incredible data being made available to us every 30 seconds during a game, a "hands-free" fixture list and league table (also updated via a data feed) as well as the great work Hull KR perform in the local community coming more under the spotlight in it's own section.

The initial feedback from the club and it's fans (via Twitter, Facebook and forums) has been really positive. Working with Joe Clutterbrook, the Marketing Manager and project contact for the re-design at Hull KR, we look forward to building on the initial launch with continued improvements as well as the launch of another new feature for the site (If I told you what it was, I'd have to kill you.)

The team we have at Strawberry have worked hard on creating what we initially dreamt up, so thanks to Stu, Matt, Dan, Jamie and Adam in no order for not only allowing me to write some code on the site (ha!) but for putting up with me changing things at the last minute in an aim to get it as good as we could. Thanks to the club and Joe too for leaving lots of room in the brief for us to be as creative as we could be. 

Lastly, as a Hull born sports fan, it's really pleasing to have completed the set. We've now got websites with all three professional sporting clubs in the city and ensures I've always got someone to cheer on at the weekend.

James

From Sunday, sites must obtain "informed consent" from visitors before saving cookies on a machine. The rules are designed to tackle privacy issues resulting from the growing use of cookies which track users' browsing habits. The issue is in the getting of the users consent - and it's something which the wider industry is failing to agree on too.

What is the law?

The new law is intended to help protect people's privacy. For example, if you search for "cars" in Google, they uses cookies to remember this. Later in the day, on another website, Google may target car ads at you because they remember who you are. This might not sound too scary until you think how many thousands of searches you do on Google, and how much they probably know about you as a result.

The vast majority of small websites don't do this of course, but they do track visitors to their website, e.g. via a tool like Google Analytics, and they use social media plugins like Facebook Like buttons. Sadly, this law appears to outlaw all of this entirely. If you think this is a heavy handed approach, you'd be right.

The law does allow an exception for "strictly necessary" cookies, such as those used to remember when something has been added to a shopping basket. These cookies would be expected by the user implicitly for the action they requested to be carried out.
The trouble is that most sites (certainly all Strawberry developed sites) use Google Analytics, which uses cookies, so even if you have a site which isn't ecommerce and doesnt have a login, the likelihood is that you need to comply to the new law.

The industry as a whole think the law is unworkable, heavy handed, hard to police and will have to change. Having said that, it is now law. It's been interesting seeing the solutions some of the bigger sites are coming up with -

• BBC - they show a message at the top of the page on your first visit to the site. If as a user you do nothing, consent is assumed.
• John Lewis - don't show a message at all but have placed a series of pages on the site with a link in the header called "Privacy & Cookies". http://www.johnlewis.com/Magazine/Feature.aspx?Id=567&intcmp=privacy
• Amazon - have added a page in the footer - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/BIT/InternetBasedAds

I've selected these three deliberately as they are in fact, all breaking the new law. To comply, the user must be opt in and the concern within the industry is that most users have no idea what cookies are and that asking them to allow them will confuse rather than help in protecting them. It's intrusive and could risk visitors leaving your site, especially if your competitors don't do it!

Does anyone comply yet?

Yes, although none of the big sites are in a massive rush to get a solution in place and in fact, the UK Government admits that it's own sites are unlikely to be ready in time. Good eh? (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18194235)

Some example sites which do comply:

• http://www.ico.gov.uk/ (see the ugly message at the top?)
• http://demo.cookieconsent.silktide.com/ - one of the "nicer looking" ways of complying

You have three choices as we see it:

1. Do nothing. Remember though, you would be breaking the law.
2. Amend your policies on the site to include cookie content. This is what we've done on our site - http://strawberry.co.uk/legals/privacy-and-cookies - and whilst strictly speaking it's breaking the law, we're comfortable that as we've taken care of the privacy of our users and supplied the information as to what cookies we use, that it is a fair compromise. There are some grey areas and we're using them to assume consent.
3. Add the full consent pop up and comply fully with the law.

We can't recommend anything other than 3 legally but hopefully this information will allow you to form your own opinion on how you want to proceed. If you decide on option 1, then at least it's an informed decision. If you decide that options 2 or 3 are the right way for you, then please get in touch and we can help get your site ship shape.

If you've any questions, please email and I'll do my best to help out.

James

Tom, who is based in Leeds, saw the opportunity advertised on Twitter and knew it was right for him immediately. He had been working at a web agency after graduating from University and has now left this role to focus upon his new business full time.

Jonathan Leafe, Strawberry’s Managing Director comments: “Last year, after seeing figures released stating that 1 million 16-24 year olds were unemployed, we knew we wanted to do something about it. So, we set about looking for a young entrepreneur who needed help to get their internet business off the ground. We offered them a monthly salary to support them for a year and the backing of our team, who are experts in ecommerce and online marketing.

“We were looking for a balance of entrepreneurial spirit and a great idea and found it in web design graduate, Tom. It will be a lot of hard work to get the venture off the ground but it will be worth it. Tom impressed us straight away and was exactly what we were looking for. Ambitious, clever, with a good idea and strong work ethic – pretty much all the tools you need to succeed as an entrepreneur.”

After advertising the opportunity, our website received four times the amount of traffic than the previous day – highlighting just how many people were interested in the position. We won’t be releasing details of the business idea at the moment, but will be regularly updating our social channels with details of Tom’s progress and when the business is ready to launch.

Tom concludes: “Once I saw the Strawberry advert I knew it was for me. I’m always thinking of ideas and was desperate to be my own boss too – it was an opportunity too good to miss.”
 

Acknowledgement to Oliver Emberton, Managing Director of Silktide for much of the background information to this.

Oliver says:

"From May 2011 a new privacy law came into effect across the EU. The law requires that websites ask visitors for consent to use most web cookies. This was then given a year's grace, so it will actively come in to force on 20th May 2012.

Nearly all websites use cookies, which are an extremely common technology for remembering anything about a visitor between webpages. for example: Cookies are commonly used for login, remembering preferences, tracking visitors and more.

The new law is intended to help protect people's privacy. For example, if you search for 'cars' in Google, they uses cookies to remember this. Later in the day, on another website, Google may target car ads at you because they remember who you are. This might not sound too scary until you think how many thousands of searches you do on Google, and how much they probably know about you as a result.

The vast majority of small websites don't do this of course, but they do track visitors to their website, e.g. via a tool like Google Analytics, and they use social media plugins such as Facebook 'Like' buttons. It seems that this law appears to outlaw all of this entirely.

To comply fully you'd have to interrupt visitors and ask them permission to use cookies. This is clearly not practical and potentially very annoying."

So what are we recommending?

It's now a good time to work with us to prepare a new privacy statement to include detailed information about the cookies your site uses. Once the terms and privacy statement for your website are set correctly, we suggest you wait. We'll monitor what the big boys will be doing to comply with the law and see what, if any, fall out there is. Let's face it, if the Government really want to enforce this, they'll start with one of the top 10 sites in the UK and try and worry us all into doing it! At that point, we'll be able to recommend a consistent and usable approach that solves this problem and one that internet users and your customers will be familiar and comfortable with.

Get in touch if you want us to help you further with this.

We are also working closely with Gosschalks Solicitors for those of you who want a more belt and braces approach to the cookie law.

Read what the BBC have written about the UK's cookie tracking deadline here.

Guests included members of the local business community and friends of Strawberry, along with Olympic hopeful Luke Campbell and Hull KR players Jake Webster and Ryan O’Hara, who presented several prizes on the night. During the evening, the Strawberry Seeds team held several fundraising competitions with unique prizes including signed Hull KR memorabilia and a signed Keira Knightley picture, along with wine gift sets donated by wine merchant The House of Townend.

The world wine tasting event was planned during task two of The Apprentice-style competition ‘who wants to be an entrepreneur?’, which was titled ‘The World is Your Oyster’. Following the event, the Strawberry Seeds team will enter the boardroom on Wednesday 25th April to present their fundraising efforts to David Kilburn (Hull’s very own Alan Sugar) and find out if they have made it through to the next stage of the competition!

Jade Woodfield, Strawberry Seeds’ Project Manager for task 2 comments:

“The whole team is really pleased with the event. It was well attended and everyone had a great time! To fund the wine tasting, we used our £100 seed fund from Young Enterprise and held a St Patrick’s Day fundraising event at our office, so all money from ticket sales and competitions could go towards our final profit total. It looks like we will have exceeded £1,500 profit from the event which will go straight to Young Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber, although we are still receiving donations so hope this figure will rise!

“The whole team would like to take this opportunity to thank the House of Townend for giving us a fantastic venue for the evening, Epicure's Larder for donating our cheese and the guests who helped to make our night a great success. The next stage is the Boardroom and we are all crossing our fingers we have done enough to make it through to the final task!”

You can view more photos from the event over on our Facebook page!

When did you join Strawberry?

I joined Strawberry in March 2011 after deciding to leave sixth form where I was studying Maths, Psychology, Sociology and RE.

What’s happened since you joined?

Since I’ve joined Strawberry, I’ve passed my level 2 NVQ in Business Administration and I’m currently working towards achieving a level 3 NVQ in Business Administration. Strawberry has helped me to develop skills and learn a lot about PR (which I didn’t have a clue about when I began… I wouldn’t have even been able to tell you what PR is!). 

I’m also one sixth of Strawberry’s ‘who wants to be an entrepreneur?’ team, which raises money for the Young Enterprise charity through a competition in the style of ‘The Apprentice’. The tasks we’ve been given have been a lot of fun and have helped to develop our skills, pushing us out of our comfort zones and is a really interesting project to be involved with.

Is it what you expected from an apprenticeship?

Until I began my apprenticeship, I didn’t know much about them so I had no real expectations. All I knew about them is that you get to experience what it’s like in a working environment whilst simultaneously gaining qualifications - Strawberry has delivered in this respect and made me part of the team. I learn lots every day and I’m constantly challenged.

What’s the plan for the future?

I’d love to be able to continue to develop skills and work in this industry!

Would you recommend an apprenticeship?

I really would recommend an apprenticeship to anybody; it’s a great opportunity for people who are keen to have vocational training and eager to get out into the workplace. Going down the apprenticeship route, you gain qualifications, work experience and receive a wage throughout. And you learn lots too!

• Online shoppers spent an average of just under £1,500 on 39 items each last year, new report shows.
• Online retail sales rose 14% last year, and a similar increase is expected this year, Kelkoo said.
• Online retail sales increased by 14% last year to more than £50bn, with predictions that the growth will continue to hit high streets, according to a new report.
• "We predict that British online retailers will enjoy an average rise in online sales of 14% this year."

"Over the last five years internet retailing has improved substantially thanks to the use of affordable 'always-on' internet connections, simple and secure payment systems and the increasing popularity of mobile devices, combined with the growth of mobile-based retail sites.”

"All of these factors should help online retail sales and retail sales via mobile devices to continue to thrive in 2012."

So, why has this happened? It’s fair to say that in recent years online retailers have become more creative, increasingly savvy and their service levels have improved (e.g. faster deliveries, better communication). Any online retailer will agree that competition is tough, so prices reflect that because consumers can so easily price check in modern browsers. Finally, the whole process has got significantly easier and the consumer is more familiar and less frightened to shop online than ever before.

So what's next and how can you possibly succeed in the world of ecommerce?

You've got two options:

1. Be niche - occupy a sales area that no one else does. Sales volume will be smaller, but your margins in comparison will be larger.
2. Take a competitive area and be, well, more competitive.

Both require a significant investment in online marketing to chase that all elusive page one listing in Google. This will get you the traffic and then you can make the sales. Once you've acquired the customers, you must treat them well and reward them for their loyalty.

Then you can work on the intricacies of conversion rate improvement and cost of customer acquisition. For example, we worked on one client's ecommerce website and reduced Google AdWords spend by 30% year on year whilst seeing a growth of 35% in sales – this had a huge impact on the profitability of the business.

Let's face it - online is going to play a massive part in the future of retailing - it's only going to go in one direction. Do it well and enjoy the rewards.

If you’d like to find out more about online marketing or ecommerce, you can contact me on 01482 337130 or Jonathan.Leafe@Strawberry.co.uk.

You can read the full Guardian article here.

It was free for people to take part in the artwork and one lucky person featured will win an iPod touch. The social media campaign caught people’s attention as they shared what they love about Hull on Facebook and Twitter. The idea behind the ‘Love Hull’ campaign was to promote a positive image of the city and it has been a great success, as Strawberry’s PR Manager and member of the Love Hull team explains:

“We are delighted with the response we received to the Love Hull campaign. Over 1,400 people liked our Facebook page so they could be featured in the artwork and we were retweeted by lots of local high profile tweeters including John Prescott, Richard Garcia and Peter Levy, along with lots of local businesses. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors: Signs Express, Ultralets, One Stop Golf, Rix, GKD, BSC Solutions, MKM, 543 Dental Centre, Eltherington Group, Hanson Electrical and Airkool. A special thank you also goes out to The Deep for giving us a great location to hang the picture.

“As part of the ‘who wants to be an entrepreneur?’ competition we were told that we must raise £1000 for the charity to make it to the next round by working to the brief ‘grand designs’. We decided to create a grand design that featured over 1,000 people and knew the focus of the artwork should be about how great Hull is. We’ve been hit hard by the recession and don’t always get treated fairly by the national press so we thought it would be a good opportunity to challenge some misconceptions about Hull.

“Lots of people have shared what they love about Hull with us – from their favourite places such as High Street, Hessle Road and the Marina, to their top places to eat out. However, it was widely agreed that it’s the people that makes Hull great – which is also why we wanted to feature over 1,000 local people in our artwork!”

The artwork can be found and viewed for free next to the ground floor lifts at The Deep. For more information about the campaign or to share what you love about Hull, visit www.facebook.com/lovehull.
 

So, without further adieu, lets hear some predictions for 2012:

James Greenwood

Abigail Flavell

Simon Willans

Stu Greenham

Dominic Love

Jonathan Leafe

Jamie Wright

Jade Woodfield

Dom Lidgett

Jenna Lakhdari

Carl Pieper

Matthew Woods

So what do you think?

Have we missed something big that’s going to happen next year? or has one of Strawberry predicted something you think will never happen in a million years, nevermind 2012! Then tell us what you think on Facebook or Twitter. We'd love to hear from you!

We've been helped along the way by Angela and Sue at HERIB but more importantly (sorry ladies!) by some fantastic clients of HERIB who were patient with us, showed us their world and told us what needed to be better.

We're grateful to all at HERIB for inviting us to help with this project, but we're most grateful for the help offered by Sheila, Malcolm, Jason and the gang.

The site is live today and we're proud that we've managed to create a website which is visually appealing for those fortunate users who can see it but, and more importantly, fantastic to use and easy to navigate for those users using technologies such as screenreaders or zooming software.

We're committed to maintaining the site for the team at HERIB to make sure that their clients can get to the data and information that they need - and whilst I'm sure that this will mean tweaks and changes over the next few weeks as the site settles in, the site is ready for use today.

We're always learning how we can make things better for those users who need our help - this is just step one for the HERIB website but we're proud that it is now available to the clients who need it the most.

James

Have you just left University or college and are looking for a job or maybe something else? Have you a good idea for an e-commerce or internet business, but don't know where to start?

Maybe we can help.

We're offering an opportunity to a talented, go-getting, entrepreneurial individual with a good idea and help to make it happen.

Our offer is simple: we'll give you a desk, a phone, a computer and the backing and support of Hull's largest marketing and web agency - on top, we'll even pay you £1k a month for 12 months to help support yourself whilst the venture gains momentum.

You'll be actively mentored and encouraged to get your business idea off the ground and profitable. At the end of the year, the shareholding of the business will be equally held between you and Strawberry and we'd hopefully continue to support you into the future to take your business as far as it can possibly go.

Our input into the business will be your expenses, overheads and our expertise.

Your input is you!

To apply for this opportunity you need to email: entrepreneur@strawberry.co.uk

We don't want your CV, we want a personal statement and a brief description of your idea of between 100 and 200 words maximum. If shortlisted, we'll invite you in to Strawberry for a full presentation.

Remember, we're investing in you and your idea. This could be just the opportunity that'll change your life.

However, the people that need to buy into your brand, first and foremost, are the people who will be representing it.

"Designing and selling a brand to a client is like convincing them to wear clothes that they didn't buy themselves." Paula Scher, www.pentagram.com

Sometimes, during the design stages of a new brand, the above quote can seem appropriate. However, taking the time to listen and develop alongside a client during the process will always produce an outcome which will accurately reflect the company, encourage them to embrace it and will ultimately ensure success.

We were recently approached by a company called Plas-Tech Thermoforming, who wanted us to design and develop a new website for them. I looked at the existing website and branding and I have to admit - it said dirty overalls and oily machines that went kerplunk.

I went to visit the client with this in mind (my first impression!) and whilst the outside of the building didn't really change my opinion, I was in for a bit of a shock!

The factory was immaculate, superbly organised and they were doing clever stuff on expensive machinery - pretty much the opposite of what their existing brand said.

I knew instinctively what was required. As well as a new website, a rethink of the whole brand would be necessary along with exploring brand pillars that more accurately reflected the organisation.

I’m pleased to say that they went for it - and now the company has a brand that accurately reflects the business. People that will never visit the factory will no longer be left with the first impression that Plas-Tech is a back-street operation. They will now view the company as top line, highly skilled, technical and creative with a team that can do simple to unbelievably difficult work.

The rebrand has been a great success. We even heard back that employees were so enthusiastic they were picking up pots of paint in their spare time to redecorate the factory with the new brand colours!

The new brand image has given Plas-Tech’s employees an identity, an idea of who they are and where they work. This will inspire them and the company to pull together to work as a whole with a shared vision. That, after all, is what a good brand should do.

When the sales team are on the phone and point potential customers to their website, the response they receive is now more a case of "okay, let's talk!" rather than "are you sure you can do what you say you can do?" and we are delighted to have helped them achieve this result.

The work doesn’t finish there - a brand with the right start and direction creates the perfect platform for a strong brand in the future.

You can view the brand image we developed for Plas-Tech in our online portfolio or by visiting www.plas-tech.co.uk.
 

When the worldwide web started, it was enough to have a simple website with basic information on BUT that's certainly no longer the case - your website has to do so much more. However, for you to benefit from having that all singing, all dancing website, it has to be visited. Right?

Visitors will come one of three ways:

• Directly - they're specifically looking for you
• By chance - they're sort of looking for you
• Casual search - they happen across you

All of this starts with the search engines but there are other things that you could, and should do. That's where content marketing comes in.

We assume that you're an expert in your field, so let everyone know you are - write blogs, issue white papers, post some videos, post some images of projects, comment on forums, have a Facebook page, make sure that your LinkedIn profile is up to date and that your using it.

Whilst this may seem a lot of work (it is actually!), it really is worth it. All of this additional content will expand your digital footprint and your customers will be exposed to your brand across many different channels. We call it "elevating your brand".

This is totally tangible - give yourself some objectives and some easy to measure indicators and see what happens.

Done right, the volume of leads will be greater, the quality of those leads will be higher and your brand will be seen as a leader its field.

These activities generally take effort so you may choose to share the load with an agency (hint, hint!) who shares your goals or do it all yourself. Either way, the sooner you get started, the better. This is not an overnight fix - it's a slow burn that produces dividends in the longer term.
 

Dodds was a name I was already familiar with - they're already well known in the building trade for roofing services and have been successfully doing that for the last 15 years or so. So when they explained that they've also been doing solar panels I was a little bit surprised but as they started to elaborate why they went down this route it started to dawn on me what a good business idea it was.

It adds up: they've enormous credibility and a reputation for quality work and many hundreds if not thousands of satisfied clients around the county; they're used to going on to people's roofs and they are going to be around for a long time.

They're already doing very well in the agricultural sector - and I can assure you dealing with Yorkshire farmers is not the easiest task, they've even done some very large installations on commercial premises for clients such as Wykeland and they definitely know how to pick good suppliers.

More recently Dodds have been looking at the residential market. Unfortunately that market is crowded with many cowboys offering all sorts of promises. All I can say is that If I was going to invest a substantial amount of money in solar panels it would be with Dodds - unfortunately my house isn't suitable for panels - how many of these cowboys installers would tell me that before walking away with a big fat cheque of mine?

Most web developers use a thing called a "reset" stylesheet and most web guys use one which is widely available and well adopted. However, there is a line in the reset stylesheet which, unless careful, can hinder the use of the site for some users.

The guilty party? Well, its - outline: 0;

This removes the default outline of an element - seen usually when a page is "tabbed" around.

The issue lies in people using a default reset stylesheet and then not setting an a:focus state to replace the default browser handling of the outline. Yes, sometimes it is ugly - but it's only really there and used by those people who need it. To ensure this works for those users, you can either remove the line from the reset stylesheet (which allows the browser to deal with it by default) or add some CSS for the a:focus state, such as:

a:focus { outline: dashed #000 thin; }

Try it on this site. Hit the tab key a few times and you'll see an outline appear around the currently selected item indicating which element on the page is currently selected. It's not the prettiest thing but helps those that need it.

I realise this might be teaching a few to suck eggs but I think the masses forget that this is one of the little things that make a big difference and highlighted by our work with the guys at HERIB.

James

PS We've been guilty of this too in the past - it's an easy thing to miss but an easy thing to fix.

We're talking about the 'Cookie' law. In really simple terms websites use cookies to monitor what a user is doing as they interact with a website. These cookies then stay with the user in their browser.

The spirit of the law is to protect people from advertisers who use the cookies to display related adverts to them based on which websites they've been visiting.

Well, that's right of course - we would all see value in privacy. However, a blanket cookie law misses the point, as almost all websites actually need cookies to function properly - especially ecommerce websites. And if you want to use any monitoring packages such as google analytics  - you need cookies too.

This law is in force now but they've given a stay of execution until May next year before they start taking people to task.

So what should you be doing in the meantime? Nothing at the moment as the industry is working on a response. But rest assured we, in conjunction with Gosschalks, will be advising our clients as and when we know what to advise!

A common view, and one which I agree with, is that this network is for high-value professionals that want to connect with each other on a business level – extending a personal brand through a well-written profile, recommendations from other professionals and participating in group discussions.

For brands selling to consumers, I don’t believe this platform is the correct one to add into the mix. Customers want a personal touch and want to be able to connect to the personality of a brand and there are other social tools that can deliver this perfectly i.e. Facebook. LinkedIn was built for business jargon and all content is created for a professional rather than a personal environment.

However, one cannot easily dismiss the idea that it can be used effectively for the business-to-business sector. The network is built upon trusted connections and relationships. Companies have the ability to create ‘company pages’ which contain a descriptive profile. This in-turn becomes a very powerful sales tool when trying to speak to other companies or authoritative individuals you are interested in working with.

A company page communicates who works for your company (it’s a good idea to encourage your staff to link their profile to your company page), company information, location and insights into the type of experience your staff have. You can also include a link to your recent blog posts on a company profile which allows people to read your recent news and find out more about your operations.

In addition, LinkedIn allows you to create groups. This function could be useful when trying to connect with other individuals or businesses on a professional level. Groups can be ‘closed’, which means that people need to request to join, or can be open for anyone to get involved with.

So it is right for a brand? To build your professional personal brand, yes. It may open doors to future job opportunities and allows you to network with people you may never get the chance to meet face-to-face. However, for it to be added to a company’s marketing mix, in my opinion, it largely depends upon what business sector you are in.

As with all marketing campaigns, activities that work for one company may not be right for another. When embarking upon any type of social media activity, whether Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, you must review your business aims and objectives and what you would like to achieve. If companies go ahead without thinking about it first and it’s done badly, then this can be more damaging than not doing it all!
 

Strawberry’s team is headed up by project manager Stu Greenham and also includes Jenna Lakhdari, Sarah Roustoby, Adam Gilleard, Jade Woodfield, Courtney Wood and Abi Flavell. Each team member brings different skills to the group ranging from graphic and website design to public relations and event management.

We decided to put a team forward for this year’s competition because it fits perfectly with the ethos of the Strawberry Academy, which focuses upon helping to develop young creative and business talent. In addition to helping young students gain work experience, the Strawberry Academy also helps Strawberry employees to learn new skills to move forward with their careers.

Jonathan Leafe, Strawberry’s Managing Director takes up the story:

“Strawberry has close links with Young Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber as I have mentored local school teams in the past, so when we were approached to take part, we jumped at the chance! We are always pushing our staff to excel both in their everyday jobs and personal development. I think this competition is an excellent opportunity for teams to build relationships, have fun and ultimately raise money for a very worthy cause. Young Enterprise helps to develop the entrepreneurs of the future, which is vital for the economy both on a local and national scale.”

Following the first project briefing on Wednesday 5th October, project manager Stu Greenham explains that his team is looking forward to getting started:

“The first brief is simply two words: Grand Designs. We have to raise at least £1000 to make it to the next round so there is definitely pressure to succeed. Our team is very creative so design is right up our street and we have already discussed several ‘grand’ ideas! Everyone is really keen and excited to be taking part in this competition. We want to have fun but are also looking forward to getting involved with entrepreneurial activities that we wouldn’t normally get chance to do in our everyday jobs.”

Young Enterprise is the UK’s largest business and enterprise charity and was established in 1963. Young Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber helps to inspire 15,000 young people to learn and succeed through enterprise every year and ‘Who wants to be an Entrepreneur?’ is designed to help raise funds for the charity.
 

Strawberry would be a different place without Apple products. Here's the thoughts of some of our team...

"RIP Steve Jobs. I bought my first Macintosh back in 1989 and have bought at least 100 since. They always were and still are the best. People talk about how they look as being the most important thing. That's partially true, as they still look the best as does the iPad, iPhone and iPod. But what sets Apple apart from all other computer manufacturers is that they just work. All Apple products are a triumph of both form and function. Thanks Steve Jobs, you actually did change my life and for that I shall be forever in your debt, your memory will live on for generations to come."
Jonathan

"Our industry would be very different were it not for Apple, and of course Steve Jobs was a phenomenal influence on the company and its products. In the 1980s Apple's computers helped to revolutionise design and publishing, and the original Macintosh was the first commercially successful machine to feature things all computer users today take for granted – such as a graphical user interface and a mouse. Under Jobs' direction, Apple excelled at taking familiar, everyday products – computers, mobile phones, MP3 players – and refining them into intuitive, elegant devices that are a pleasure to use."
Mark

"I've not always been a "Mac Fanboy" but over the last few years I've become very much an Apple convert - even my home is an iHome with multiple iPhone's, iPod's, iPad's and Mac laptops. Watching my son who isn't quite 2 yet using an iPad highlights how much Apple have gotten right over the last few years. He can pick it up, slide objects around and start his Elmo videos. It's both an intuitive interface and a lovely object to hold. Steve's vision changed not only our industry but our homes and everyday lives too. Some feat and one which I doubt will ever be repeated."
James

"Taking a company he started in his garage with a school friend to what Apple is known as today is something most people can't even dream of. Many aren't aware of how after forming Apple, he was then kicked out after a power struggle to later return and be its savour; inventing game changing devices like the iPod and iPad. He even bought Pixar, turning it into an award winning animation studio, that was eventually bought by Disney - you wonder where he got the time to do all of this from! Steve Jobs was and still will be an inspiration to me and to thousands of others and I hope the rest of the Apple team do him proud in the years to come."
Stu

The artwork on this post is by Jonathan Mak and can be viewed on his website - we liked it so much, we borrowed it.

Obviously good companies need to pay attention to their customer base but on occasions, rightly or wrongly, a disgruntled customer may post a negative comment. However, an honest business and one that responds will win the respect of their customers.

Nowadays, it is becoming more crucial to add Online Reputation Management to the marketing mix, as the internet develops and individuals become more savvy it is vital to monitor all aspects of the World Wide Web. Businesses work hard to build a brand and a great reputation but this can be damaged should they not be in control of their online presence.

By being one step ahead and being aware of what people say about your brand online, will give you the awareness and the opportunity to suppress negative mentions entirely and with a variety of SEO methods, push them lower on the search engine results page to decrease initial visibility. But the key is to deal with these customers and transform them from your biggest critics into your biggest fans – but this doesn‘t happen overnight.

Strawberry feels very strongly about this procedure and urges businesses to be aware of their online reputation. What’s the solution? You might not like the idea of social media but if people have something negative to say, they will say it whether you're there or not.

Some of our clients have experienced this problem recently and following research we think the people putting their brand down aren’t even customers. Therefore as part of our services we have developed an Online Reputation Management process which constantly monitors key word searches, news websites, blogs, forums and a number of the social networks to assess general comments and make sure people find YOU for your key search terms, not negative comments or rogue websites.

This also involves blogging, social media and other SEO activities, which should form an integral part of your marketing plan.

As we understand this procedure will change case-by-case we are happy to develop an Online Reputation Management process unique for you. 

• If you're a restaurant - definitely.
• If you have an information website - probably.
• If you have a B2C ecommerce site - maybe (price checking probably although mobile commerce is clearly rising).
• If you are B2B then probably not - you could make assumptions that they want specific information (such as your address).

So taking that into consideration what should you be doing now?

Well, if you're lucky enough to have an analytics package on your existing site, what does it tell you? You can find out if mobile devices have been accessing your site easily enough. It'll probably be a low percentage of overall visits, but the key thing to investigate would be the growth of the percentage. Is it growing rapidly month on month?

Most relatively modern websites will degrade and work, of a fashion, in a mobile browser. (I'm not including tablet devices in this as they work pretty much the same as a laptop does although the Apple iPad won't display anything using Flash). Why not check your website later on your smart phone? You may want to consider a few tweaks here and there.

The key is to ask yourself "what's important to a mobile user?" and then present your content accordingly or if you have the budget; the Holy Grail is to create a complete version of your website which is mobile friendly in its entirety. When a mobile user lands on your domain name the device being used will be detected and the user directed to a specific version of the website.

The latest industry thinking is to design for mobile first and use clever technologies to enhance rather than using technologies to degrade to a phone.

However, the advice given today may be totally different in the near future. Web browsing habits are changing, the internet is getting faster and what people do today will undoubtedly be different tomorrow!

If you've got a boat - even better - but don't let that dissuade you from looking. I can just imagine getting home from work, sitting on the balcony enjoying a glass of wine watching the world go by, or popping to the bistro for a bite to eat. Heaven!

The only drawback is that it's not close to where I work. I suppose if you had the funds it's also a perfect weekend getaway. The yachties tell me that you can get to Lincoln very easily and if you want to, it's also possible to get out on to the open sea as well. I'll leave that to them though.

I congratulate Beal for having the courage to follow the dream and put their full effort behind the The Quays, Burton Waters project, it certainly deserves full marks at every level. We are delighted to have helped Beal Homes to support this stunning development with creative advertising and promotional literature.

Please find a location on the North bank of the Humber - it'll be just as successful!

Strawberry has just been appointed to design and build a new website for the Hull and East Riding Institute for the Blind (HERIB) and it has to be perfect for all of the charity’s clients, from those with a slight visual impairment to those that are fully blind and lastly, those with full vision. It's not an accident that those with full vision are last on the list of importance.

The experience of wearing the simulation glasses was enlightening to say the least and I recommend that EVERY web developer try them to truly empathise with the needs of the visually impaired. Isn't it being arrogant assuming what it's like? I think so, and frankly, I've been guilty of it too. To try and help our team during the development of the site, I arranged for HERIB to visit our office on Friday 26th August to let the whole Strawberry team try out the glasses and experience what it’s like to be blind themselves.

Each team member wore the glasses and completed various tasks such as using the web or even just walking around the office wearing them. We're fortunate to have a good development team who are experienced in using coding techniques which aid the visually impaired but wearing the glasses really helped us to understand the challenges that people with a visual impairment face.

We all now want to do as much as we can to make browsing the internet a more enjoyable experience for people that are visually impaired. We have never performed this level of testing before (we're in the middle of heavy user testing) and are confident it will help us to do a better job.

After interviewing some people with a visual impairment recently (thanks go to Sheila, Malcolm and the gang!), I discovered that some big brands are simply getting it wrong. I discovered that little brands are getting it wrong. I realised that we were getting it wrong.

Ideally, I’d love to see the introduction of an ISO standard (or something similar) for the quality of websites. Anything that is more than a bunch of best practice guidelines that are complicated to read and that are wrapped up in internal politics. Equally, I appreciate this would be virtually impossible to implement and police and so is never going to happen - it's therefore got to be left to the industry, agencies and each individual web developer to make a difference.

We're working hard to make this a project to be proud of – a project that we can learn from and through sharing some of those lessons with you, a project that maybe readers of this blog can learn from too.

Myself and other developers will be writing little tips for developers who've not got access to the resources we have had on this project, publishing videos of user testing we've done and sharing any links and external resources we've found useful during this project – make sure you bookmark us (or use the RSS feed) to avoid missing any....
 

I have always lived and studied in Hull. I attended Hull University many years ago and completed a BA in Business Studies as well as progressing further to achieve an MSc in Marketing.

I am a very dedicated person, always looking for new challenges and to achieve new goals within work and my personal life. Then on the flip side I am a very fun loving individual who loves to socialise with friends whether that be going out on a night out, going to the cinema or going to the gym. I also have two dogs therefore love spending time with them and my partner.

How did you get here?

After leaving Hull University, I was given the opportunity to work for a Lincolnshire based Marketing Agency – where over the past four years I have learnt a great deal about traditional PR and a number of other various communication and marketing tools.

However, I was looking for a change and a new challenge, something to develop me as a person further and Strawberry looked like a great opportunity for me. I loved the look of the team, the company as well as their forward thinking processes…..so here I am!

What do you love about working in marketing?

Marketing captivates me, how quickly it moves and how one day it is completely different to the next. It is always changing especially with social media platforms developing and becoming great online marketing tools.

One form of marketing communication may be right for one client but not for another. We need to understand our clients’ businesses and where their customers are. Working with a mix of clients and communicating tools on various platforms fascinates me.

What attracted you to Strawberry?

Strawberry is very well known in the Hull area and one of the best at what it offers. Therefore when thinking about working closer to home, Strawberry stood out as a very impressive agency and one that I would love to be a part of.

I am very dedicated to helping clients grow and understanding them and their goals – if they succeed we have done our job correctly therefore I could relate to the Strawberry strap line – Listen, Think and Create.

How are you enjoying it so far? Are there any projects you are looking forward to working on?

Everyone seems really nice! I am looking forward to getting up to speed on the systems used, client database and what we offer as well as getting to know and being a part of the Strawberry way of working.

What inspires you?

Individuals above me, those that have succeeded and developed their own company from scratch. I find I can learn a lot from them and I am always open to learning.
 

So, when we heard about the changes, we naturally wanted to find out more and make sure we knew the impact they would have.

What actually changed?

To understand the changes, it helps to know how Google Analytics previously tracked session data compared to how they are tracking session data going forward.

Before today, Google Analytics ended a session:

• When more than 30 minutes elapsed between page views
• At the end of the day
• When a visitor closed his or her browser

If the visitor returned to the site after one of those events occurred, a new session would begin.

On 12th August 2011, the following changes have been made to session tracking:

• A session is no longer ended when a visitor closes his or her browser window (which means a visitor can leave and come back within 30 minutes on a given day, and their session will continue, even if they change browsers)
• A session will now end when the traffic source for the user changes. This means that if an organic search visitor leaves the site and comes back through a Google AdWords or Pay Per Click ad, his or her previous session will be ended and a new one will start.
• As before, the end of a day, or the passage of more than 30 minutes between page views, will cause a session to end.

The impact

Google has stated that this change may slightly increase the number of visits tracked to a site, but based on their research, “most users will see less than a 1% change”.

This latest change also allows Google Analytics to track attribution data more accurately following the recent ‘multi-channel funnel advanced tracking data change’. This allows you to track the attribution of a conversion from the first-click source e.g. Google AdWords to the last-click source e.g. Google Organic. This is extremely useful when recording the effectiveness of pay per click marketing as it tells us from which source a customer originally found your website.

If you’ve seen any changes in your analytics data since this change was implemented, please leave us a comment, or drop me an email at dominic.lidgett@strawberry.co.uk and we can discuss this with you in more detail.

A few weeks ago the Strawberry team ran into a problem when requesting Tweets on some of our websites that pull in their respective Twitter feeds. The problem was that unauthenticated calls are permitted at just 150 requests per hour; unauthenticated calls are measured against the IP of the server or device making the request. We have several servers but inevitably each server hosts several sites which leaves us with some sites having the same public facing IP. With the ever growing amount of our sites that involve Twitter feeds, we were starting to reach the 150 requests per hour limit fairly often.

So what was the solution? The fundamental solution behind it all was to use OAuth; Twitter's API authentication method. This would allow 350 requests, per hour, per authorised feed. Basically, it means that once authorised, each site could make 350 requests per hour. You can read more about rate limiting in the Twitter documentation.

My first thought to solve the problem was to find an ExpressionEngine plugin that uses or allows OAuth authentication. Unfortunately, there isn't one. I then thought, could I take the existing first-party Twitter Timeline plugin from the guys at ExpressionEngine? There laid another obstacle - after looking through it, it lacked features we needed and I felt that I could do a better job myself.

Features Missing from Twitter Timeline

There were several things that the Twitter Timeline couldn't do ‘out of the box’ (including working all of the time):

• Use the OAuth method to pull in tweets.
• Support custom cache expiry time (if you don't get much traffic, you could even disable the cache).
• I found that the Twitter Timeline sometimes didn't link certain parts of a Tweet. Sometimes link URLs, usernames and hash-tags were not linked.
• Allow the user to flip between time/date styles (I wanted the ability to flip between date wording like 'About 3 days ago' and regular date formatting).
• Offer the ability to disable retweets.

Required Features

After discussing requirements with the team, and through several iterations of the Twittero plugin, the final feature list includes:

• Ability to exclude retweets.
• Show replies.
• Custom cache expiry time (and have ability to disable cache during development).
• Custom time formatting as mentioned above.
• Number of tweets to pull in via the API, and number of tweets to show (due to the structure of the Twitter API, and to prevent multiple API requests, this may need to be different depending on the showing replies option as this cannot be exlcluded via the API).
• Custom HTML formatting using standard EE-like template tags, i.e. <li>{twittero_tweet} {twittero_time}</li>.

The Build

Credit where credit is due, the initial base of this project uses @abraham's ‘PHP twitteroauth Library’, as recommended by Twitter. This library allowed me to dive straight in and build the plugin. Previously I had built a few small ExpressionEngine plugins and have had years of experience tinkering with PHP, so I was already familiar with the setup of it all.

One of the main things I wanted to get right was the caching of the Tweets. A really popular website could easily eat through 350 requests per hour. I took the approach of creating a simple text file and storing the Tweets in there. The plugin then compared the cache file timestamp to the cache limit set by the ExpressionEngine tags within the templates.

The plugin has turned out a lot better than I had first planned, steadily getting better and better. Now it is at a stage where we at Strawberry feel it can benefit other ExpressionEngine developers. Don't worry, it's free.

You can download Twittero and keep up to date with its development on GitHub. Let us know what you think – your feedback is always appreciated!

Note: This plugin can only be used once per page.

After a tendering process that went on for some time and despite our very best efforts we were unable to meet the prices quoted by others nor come to an arrangement including sponsorship that was acceptable to the club.

Needless to say, we want to have it on record that we've enjoyed every season of working with the club since 1990/91 despite some very challenging times along the way.

We wish the Allam family the very best for the future and we'll now enjoy watching the football looking from the outside rather than being at the heart of the club which we enjoyed for so long.

Best of luck to the Tigers!

Jonathan, Dominic and James

The internet can obviously help with the latter and social networking websites and blogs offer fantastic opportunities to make you attractive to employers. Unfortunately, they also have the potential to make you unattractive to employers too!

So, we are now asking our Strawberry Academy students to consider what their ‘online profile’ is like and whether it genuinely reflects them as a person. Twitter accounts, blogs and some Facebook comments are public and can easily be found with a quick internet search. Yes, we may all have a rant about a TV programme or a sporting team every now and again, but people looking and applying for jobs need to be more careful than ever before about what their online profile says about them.

In effect, social media profiles and blogs act as a ‘digital CV’ and just one look can turn an employer off for good.

Social media is all about sharing opinions but it’s a good idea to take a step back and think before posting. Here’s a little exercise that will get you thinking. Look at your Twitter account – would you like your employer, or potential new boss to read everything that you have posted? What about your Facebook account – are all of your posts suitable for all of the people on your ‘friends’ list?

These issues are highlighted in an article we found titled Facebook: Five Things To Avoid. We’re pretty sure none of you will get yourself arrested due to your social networking habits but the article provides food for thought!

New Facebook photo-tagging settings

Another thing to be aware of is the new ‘face recognition’ update that Facebook has rolled out recently. When users upload photos to Facebook, suggestions are now made to encourage them to tag their friends in the photos.

Whilst people aren’t automatically tagged, Facebook is urging people to do so more than ever before, which could unfortunately mean you are tagged in more embarrassing photos than ever before! Yes it’s clever, but some people feel this feature is one step too far!

This feature has been turned on automatically, but for those of you who are worried about it, don’t worry, as it can be disabled. Simply follow these instructions to switch it off:

1.Log-in to your account and visit your privacy settings
2.Click on customise settings
3.Visit the ‘things others share’ section
4.Click ‘edit settings’ next to ‘suggest photos of me to friends’
5.In the box that appears change ‘enabled’ to ‘disabled’ and click OK

Our new PR Apprentice, Courtney Wood, joined us at the end of March 2011. To help her develop the writing skills she needs to make it in the world of PR, we asked her to write a blog post about her first month with us. We think she did a great job and we are sure that by sharing her experience, Courtney will help to inspire future Strawberry apprentices. So here it is: a diary of Courtney’s first month with us!

My first month as an Online PR Apprentice, by Courtney Wood

When I left school, I was fixed on going to Sixth Form and presumed that I’d carry out the whole two years there, but after a few months, I soon realised that it just wasn’t for me! I attended St Mary’s Sixth Form studying Maths, Psychology, Sociology and Religious Studies for six months. Although I really enjoyed the social aspect of college, I found the learning aspect of college not so enjoyable and just a bit too much like school.

Studying at St Mary’s School for five years and being at the Sixth Form there for six months resulted in it becoming a bit too familiar; it wasn’t exciting or fresh anymore. I wanted to experience something different; I was eager to have a change. Although I was cautious about stepping out of my comfort zone, I decided that I had to leave college. I stepped off the educational path and started to head in a different direction. It was important to me to find something that I would enjoy more, yet would still be rewarding and beneficial to me.

After I decided to leave college, I applied for several full-time positions in administration while working a couple of extra days a week at Tiger Leisure – my Saturday job. After a month job-hunting I soon recognised that this wasn’t the right option for me at the moment, mainly due to the fact that I’m inexperienced, young and don’t have a lot of qualifications. It soon became apparent that a job wasn’t going to be an option for me, so I was forced to go in a different direction… again.

Plan C: apprenticeship. I’d never really known about apprenticeships before I started looking for one for myself. I was under the impression that all apprenticeships were for more manual jobs such as engineers, hairdressers and bricklayers! However, I soon realised when I went to Hull Business Training Centre that you can get apprenticeships in more office-based jobs such as business administration, customer service and IT. This was ideal for me and it was exactly what I was looking for.

Within a week at Hull Business Training Centre, I’d had two interviews and had secured myself a position at Strawberry. Fantastic! It had all happened so quickly that I didn’t really have time to be scared about it; I was more relieved that I had finally gotten a job! Naturally, I had a few nerves but they were soon gone after I realised how supportive Strawberry are and how they cater for people like me with the Strawberry Academy.

Before I started, shamefully, I knew absolutely nothing about Strawberry. However, once I’d had an interview and did a bit of research, I saw what a huge impact Strawberry has on the local community through the various charity events they have organised such as the 24 hour website build for The Smile Foundation. My first impression of Strawberry was that it had a nice working atmosphere and that it would support and help me to learn. During my interview with Strawberry, the company seemed very friendly and came across as very professional.

Week One:

I was clueless about what PR was when I first came to Strawberry, so on my first day I was unsure of what I would be doing! Naturally, I was apprehensive about that aspect, but I was looking forward to learning about it and I’m eager to learn more in-depth about it.

Attending Hull Business Training Centre half a day a week allows me to learn everything I need to know to achieve a level 2 NVQ in Business Administration. In my first week there I learnt about the postal system and communication. I wanted to do this course because it will help me in the future and if I keep progressing with it I could even get into university (although currently I don’t want to go to university, it’s still nice to know that the option is still there if I change my mind).

An apprenticeship seems the perfect balance between college and the workplace, because you receive the benefits from both - qualifications, work experience and a wage. I’m hoping that my apprenticeship will give me skills that I require for a job in the future. Apprenticeships are like a stepping stone into the world of work.

In my first week I was getting to know the staff and their roles within Strawberry; I learnt about all the different departments, not just PR. I’d never even heard of some of the jobs that the staff do before, I didn’t even realise that some of the jobs were done by people, for example with Google AdWords, I thought Google just decided which website went on which part of the search engine - I didn’t know that people could influence their rank on a page. I didn’t even know people worked for Google! I thought Google was just a massive clever computer!

During my first week at Strawberry a large majority of my time was spent researching the clients, finding out what work we do and who we do it for. It was important to get a good understanding of these companies so I knew a bit about who we were writing Facebook statuses and tweets for. During the induction process, I learnt about a lot of new things and found it all very interesting!

Week Two:

In week two I was starting to get used to working full time and I was familiarising myself with the social media accounts that I help to look after. I carried out a lot of research and created a few spread sheets.

My second week at Strawberry included being introduced to Jade. She has had a similar experience to me as she too was an apprentice at Strawberry, worked part-time at Tiger Leisure and went to Hull Business Training Centre. It was good to see the success that an apprenticeship can bring you and it motivated me.

Since my role at Strawberry involves Twitter, I even joined Twitter myself to help me understand more about it! I followed lots of interesting celebrities which resulted in me understanding the world of Twitter and the different language and hashtags that are used. I got to know all the do’s and don’ts of twitter and I gradually started to get my head around it all. I read an interesting book called ‘Twitter Power’ which gave me an even better insight into the complicated Twitterverse!

Not only did I look at Twitter, I also looked at Facebook. I found it very strange to look at Facebook from a business perspective rather than a personal outlook - it was no longer just a place where you talk to your friends, it was a place where businesses would market their products and reveal the latest in company news. I also learnt a lot about blogs and did online research to help out Sarah, Strawberry’s PR Manager.

Researching Google AdWords was another key task of week 2, I was learning about click-through rates, keywords, campaigns, search engine optimisation and quality scores. This obviously took up quite a bit of time because there is so much to learn!

I wrote a press release during this week as well about my appointment at Strawberry and had my photograph taken by a photographer to go with my press release and to go onto the Strawberry website.

Putting my postal skills that I learnt from Hull Business Training Centre the previous week into action, I learnt how the postal system at Strawberry works. I used these skills to post bottles of Rio Rosa Mosqueta beauty oil to reviewers in order for them to give their verdict on the product over Facebook for others to see.

Week Three:

I really started to get stuck in during week three, I was writing draft tweets and statuses for the social media for a brand new client. I was handed the responsibility for posting regular updates on Twitter and Facebook, which meant that I had to manage my time and monitor activities on the accounts. I learnt how to use new software and technology such as TweetDeck. In week three I’d been given more responsibility over administration duties and I had to think about writing skills and how to write for different audiences.

In my course at Hull Business Training Centre that week I learnt about what duties a receptionist has such as answering the telephone and how to deal with customers. Also, I learnt about waste in a business environment, how to reduce the amount of waste that you make and what alternatives there are to using paper in an office environment such as emails and using scrap paper instead of fresh paper.

I had my first client meeting in week three; I was quite nervous as I’ve never been to a meeting before but I found it very interesting and learnt a lot about the company we went to meet. It was exciting to see a company in the early stages of starting their social media and was great to hear the ideas both Sarah and the company had – it gave me a fantastic insight into the social media aspect of PR.

Week Four:

This week consisted of me keeping on top of updating the Facebook and Twitter accounts for companies. As Sarah was on holiday this week, I had to reply to the public’s social media enquiries to our clients which I was a bit nervous about because I didn’t want to make any mistakes or give out any wrong information!

I also made my first phone calls to the companies during week four which I was apprehensive about because I was nervous that they’d ask me something that I didn’t know the answer to. But it was absolutely fine and I realised that I didn’t really have anything to worry about.

At Hull Business Training Centre that week, I learnt about different types of office equipment, how to use them, what to be aware of when using them and what not to do when using them. I also learnt how to write documents such as memo’s and letters, this involved trying to improve my typing skills. Everything I learn at Hull Business Training Centre is relevant to my job, this is another perk to having an apprenticeship because you’re learning about stuff that you actually need to know and will become useful to you, rather than at college where you’re learning things that you perhaps won’t need in the future.

I’d been studying online for my diploma in social media marketing and had completed the studying for it in week four, so I took the exam, and passed it! This diploma will help me at Strawberry as it showed me how to use various programmes more in depth such as Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and Audacity.

My first month at Strawberry…

Obviously starting anything new is going to come with an element of apprehension but I’ve really enjoyed my first month at Strawberry. I learnt lots about PR and find it very interesting and I’m enthusiastic to learn more. I’m glad that I’ve come to Strawberry for my apprenticeship and I’m looking forward to see where it’s going to take me.
 

The Workshop is designed to give you a taste of agency life and specific training on the tools you will need to make it in the highly competitive web design and development industry.

Held at the Strawberry offices this summer, our Web Workshop will give you the opportunity to chat with our New Media Director, James Greenwood, who will lift the lid on the Strawberry process and give you a real taste of agency life. This will include discussion on the proposal stage, wireframing, design and the all-important build phase.

Who should come?

Anybody is welcome, however we think this event is suited to the following individuals:

• Students currently on web related courses at either a college or university.
• Graduates who have recently completed a web related course at either a college or university and are currently applying for work in the industry.

So get in touch today – we look forward to hearing from you and sharing some of our specialist knowledge! You can enquire by emailing our PR Manager, Sarah Roustoby, at sarah.roustoby@strawberry.co.uk or via twitter.
 

For Entrepreneurs Only is a group made up of like-minded entrepreneurs from the Hull and East Yorkshire area. Each member has founded and runs a successful business and is passionate about improving the state of the local economy through motivating, educating and passing on their valuable knowledge to other aspiring entrepreneurs.

The aim of the group is to help and support entrepreneurs that want to set up a business and create employment in the Hull and East Yorkshire area. Each member of the group has a specific area of expertise that they can provide support with, in Jonathan’s case, he is on-hand to provide specialist advice about advertising, business strategy, internet marketing, joint ventures, media relations, public speaking, staff development, hospitality, marketing, social media, web design and training.

Jonathan comments: “It’s great to be involved with a group of individuals that are motivated to help improve Hull’s future. Together, I genuinely believe we will be able to make a difference and if jobs are created thanks to our help, that’s a great achievement!

“I’m a big believer that passing on your first-hand knowledge to help those in need is one of the best ways to learn. That’s why I was so keen to develop the Strawberry Academy – so young people could learn and kick-start their careers by following the advice of other team members. For Entrepreneurs Only follows the same principle.

“The local economy has been hit hard in recent years and needs as much help as possible to get back on its feet. I know that there are some very talented potential entrepreneurs out there who just need a push in the right direction to help achieve their goals.”

You can view Jonathan’s profile by visiting the For Entrepreneurs Only website. 

I have been employed at Strawberry since 1996. After working for two large corporations previously it was refreshing to come to a small company where decisions could be made quickly so you could get on with your job and cut through red tape. I was being made redundant and just applied on the off chance to see if there were any jobs going. I was interviewed on the Monday, offered the job on the Wednesday and started work the following Monday!

What’s changed about the company since you started?

The size for one - when I started there were only four other people in the company, now there are 25. It has been good to see the company grow and achieve success over the years.

Like everyone, the biggest change I have experienced in the last decade is the digital revolution. When I started this job if someone hadn’t sent their copy for an advert we would have to ring them and wait for the post to arrive the following day. Sometimes it could take a week to get copy and for an advert to get approved. Today it can be emailed to us in the morning, sent on proof several times and approved within an hour or so. The wonders of technology! We can even design adverts based on the content of a company’s website, so they don’t always have to send us any copy either – we literally do everything for them providing a service that is second to none.

What tips would you give to aspiring designers trying to break into the industry?

You might have to start off as an apprentice or on a trial basis, but I’d say 95% of our juniors started this way and were taken on within a year. One of the good things about a small company like Strawberry is that if someone sends in a great CV that impresses Jonathan they can be given a chance straight away, they don’t have to wait until an actual position is advertised as we are expanding all the time.

What projects are you currently working on?

We have just finished the advert sections of the 2011 Bridlington Guide and 2011 Visitor Guide for VHEY which we have done for the last few years and are working on the VHEY Mini Guides for Bridlington, Beverley and Hull as well as their annual Hull & East Yorkshire Attractions Map.

We have been producing the monthly magazine, 24seven lifestyle, for the last 3 and a half years which has tight deadlines and the last few days of production are always extremely hectic. We are constantly raising the bar in the quality of the design and all rise to the challenge to ensure the magazine looks fab and is error free. The whole mag has just been redesigned to steer it more towards a ‘lifestyle’ type magazine that will appeal to more people hopefully.

We produced the Rowley Manor wedding brochure last year and we’re starting work on a couple of other wedding brochures shortly. Usually, the publisher sells the advertising space and we do everything else from designing it, writing it to liaising with advertisers to get their adverts designed and approved.

Last year we designed various event leaflets, flyers, invites, newsletters and posters for Dove House Hospice free of charge. We are carrying this partnership on into 2011 so are providing all the design work they need for this year too. They are currently planning to open Dulcies café onsite at Chamberlain Road that will be open to visitors, staff and members of the public. We are designing the logo, branding and other marketing material.

We also produce artwork for perimeter boards at various football and rugby clubs across the country.

What do you enjoy most about working at Strawberry?

I enjoy the variety in my job. No two days are the same. There are always different brochures we are producing with different target audiences so adverts have to be designed accordingly and no two adverts are the same. Over the years we have produced brochures for car showrooms, hotels, restaurants, wedding venues, golf clubs, racecourses and magazines amongst others. Another thing I like is the ‘no blame’ culture that Jonathan fosters, everyone gets on well and there is always someone to help if you are stuck with something.

What inspires you?

Music. Great photography. 

Before I started looking for an apprenticeship, admittedly, I’d never really heard of Strawberry! However, when I did a bit of research, I realised what a fantastic opportunity it would be to work here. Through research, I found out about all of the work Strawberry does for organisations like Dove House Hospice and The Smile Foundation, which presented Strawberry in a good light. The Strawberry Academy further attracted me to the company, as it is obvious that the team puts a lot of time and effort into training young people and helping them to learn.

What did you do before Strawberry, how did you get here?

Before Strawberry I went to college for approximately 6 months at St Mary’s Sixth Form – but soon realised this educational path was not the one for me. So naturally, I started job-hunting, which eventually lead me down the apprenticeship route. I didn’t really know what an apprenticeship was, but after being told a bit about it I was extremely keen to pursue one! So I got in touch with Hull Business Training Centre and a week or so later I found myself at Strawberry!

As a student in the Strawberry Academy, what have you learned so far?

At Strawberry so far, I have learned about social media marketing, what PR and marketing is and I’m starting to learn more about Google AdWords. I’m extremely enthusiastic about my future in the Strawberry Academy and can’t wait to see where it’s going to take me.

Would you recommend the Strawberry Academy to other aspiring marketing professionals? If so, why?

Of course, it’s a fantastic opportunity to gain some work experience and the Academy provides you with a chance to learn and start your career whilst giving you support and guidance.

Why did you decide to go down the apprenticeship route?

I decided to go down the apprenticeship route because it gives you on-the-job training, a rate of pay, work experience and qualifications. I regret that I didn’t do it sooner!

What’s most enjoyable about working for Strawberry so far and what are you looking forward to doing most?

So far I’ve really enjoyed my time at Strawberry (even though at the time of writing this it’s only been a few weeks!). The team is lovely and very supportive. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and to see where this opportunity is going to take me. I’m enthusiastic to start writing tweets, Facebook updates, press releases and helping out with the PR duties.

What inspires you?

It’s inspiring how at Strawberry, some of the experienced team members are former Strawberry Academy ‘goers’! It shows me how Strawberry has moulded them into their roles in the company and helped them gain the skills they need. It also shows me how good Strawberry is if they’ve continued to work here after their apprenticeships have finished!
 

Jonathan Leafe, Managing Director of Strawberry takes up the story: “Apprenticeships are in the spotlight at the moment as more employers recognise the value of giving young people on-the-job training. We have always been committed to giving young people work-place experience and last year appointed our two most recent apprentices to full time positions once they had finished their courses.

“In fact, we have developed the Strawberry Academy to focus on giving young people a chance and to help them take their first step into the design and marketing industry. Courtney is already showing great potential and is grasping the skills she will need for a career in PR. She is already confident and we will help her to develop her career throughout her apprenticeship and hopefully beyond.”

The Strawberry Academy offers students aged 14 years and older an opportunity to gain work experience and kick-start their careers either through a school programme of work experience, an apprenticeship placement, a graduate placement or graduate traineeship.

Courtney Wood comments: “I chose to go down the apprenticeship route and to pursue a more vocational path as I prefer a more hands-on learning style. This is a fantastic opportunity for me to gain qualifications and work experience. I’m enthusiastic to see where my apprenticeship will take me and would recommend the apprenticeship route to anybody. PR seems like a very interesting industry and I’m thoroughly looking forward to learning lots more about it.”

Our PR team was set up as a result of clients recognising the importance of offline PR, online PR and social media, and it is becoming increasingly busy. Courtney’s help will prove invaluable in helping to grow the department further. 

The problem: They needed it quickly, but we had a very busy production schedule.

The solution: We decided to build the website, free of charge, in just 24 hours …

Yes that’s right, we’re not kidding! On Friday 25th March, the Strawberry web team took on the challenge to not only stay awake for a full 24 hours, but to during that time create a full multimedia website from scratch that looked great and met all of the client’s requirements.

We are pleased to say that we did it! It was a hard slog and it took the web team a couple of days to recover afterwards, but the results we achieved were fantastic. The charity was over the moon with the end result and we received lots of positive feedback via our Twitter and Facebook profiles.

So, how did we do it? As many of you reading this post will know, websites usually take at least a couple of months to develop from scratch, so to produce one in just 24 hours is certainly challenging. We won’t lie, coffee, Red Bull and a mountain of goodies supplied by The Smile Foundation helped us to get through the day (and very long night!).

Our New Media Director, James Greenwood, takes up the story: “The 24 hour website build was certainly one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done and I’m sure the rest of the web team would agree! At the start of the day we had to set up the hosting and crack on with the design immediately. The client loved the design we came up with so we managed to get this signed off quite quickly, which allowed us to create the HTML5 templates by mid-afternoon.

“The templates were separated into different sections for coding including the header, footer and content area. The CSS work was then started whilst the content management system was plugged in. Styling whilst editing the content and making the content management system was a nightmare – but we got there in the end! This was all taking place with radio interviews and photographs being taken around us – it was probably one of the most hectic days we have had in the office for a long time!

“At about 6.20am we had an hour off – some of us caught 40 winks, some of us watched TV, the rest of us played with our kids who had decided to wake up at the crack of dawn! We returned to the office for 8am to check our work, upload photos and check for any dead links. Then, the website went live!

“Those of you who are reading this that also follow us on Twitter will know that we tweeted about our progress throughout using the hash tag #smile24. You will also know that we celebrated the site going live with a cheeky glass of Pimms! Following that, we went home and slept. All weekend.”

So there you have it – that’s how we managed to build a website in just 24 hours. No, we didn’t develop any time stopping skills like Hiro Nakamura from Heroes, we simply worked as a team, planned for any problems that could arise and drank lots of caffeine. You can see the full website in all of its glory by visiting http://heysmilefoundation.org/. You can also see some photos of the team from the day (and some more unflattering ones the following morning) on our Facebook page.
 

Well, now you know. The only trouble is the journey to get to the stage where you actually spend less than you earn is a long and hard one. Poor account management often ends in tears. There are no tricks or tips that make it any better either. I’ve read countless books on the subject and they all go around in circles.

In reality it’s quite simple – match the search term with your AdWord advertisement and send them directly to what they’ve asked for – simple. Well not really, as the amount of work to do all of that would mean that you actually can’t get on with your day job or go home to see the family.

You need to feel your way slowly into it and see what works and what doesn’t and adjust as you go along. And then maybe, just maybe, you’ll make some money using Google AdWords.

Google has for as long as they have been around left us all baffled as to how you get on the first page. And let’s face it, if you’re not on page one – you’re nowhere.

In reality it’s a quite simple but laborious process. It all starts with having realistic expectations. Being on Google’s first page with a highly competed search term isn’t going to happen to all but those who put the maximum effort in. And even then it still might not happen.

What we believe is that to get where you want to be, it’s all down to quality. A good website build with the right level of keywords and content backed up by a SEO plan of link building will do the trick.

The link building is the difficult bit – this means social networks, blogs, and articles around the internet, plus directory listings.

In the not too distant past, some less than honest companies used to claim that they’ll get you to the top of Google. What they didn’t say is, they could do that providing your keyword search was along the lines of ‘white cat on a red road in Goole’.

Don’t fight it, embrace it. You don’t even need to get involved. That’s the beauty of it. You can be totally passive and just see what the rest of them are up to.

However, I really still don’t care what Chris Moyles is having for dinner. And that’s my main point. Cut out the rubbish and be clever.

So, how is it good for business? If you can get people who like or potentially will like to engage with you on your social networking sites then they effectively become your ambassadors and they should be treated as such.

They should be notified about all the inner circle stuff that’s going on with your company or brand. And rewarded from time to time. They’ll reward you back by recommending you to their friends and probably continue to buy from you. They’ll even tell you when you’ve done something wrong, and if you’re smart, you’ll be able to put it right in front of all your loyal customers – so even more brownie points there.

But please, if your are going to do it, then do it. I can’t stand Facebook pages that had a last post from over one month ago or worse. You must engage – that’s why it’s called social ‘networking’.

Enter e-shotting – a quick and cheap way to send out to a mass audience of email addresses. Which also worked fine until everyone started doing it. Not only that, unscrupulous operators started spamming. So the end result was too much email, lack of relevance and annoyance from people who just saw their inboxes filling with crap.

This seemed to be calmed somewhat with better mail programmes and providers extracting what they considered to be spam. The only problem being that it would invariably take some important emails with it.

Then it should have got better still with legislation indicating that before marketers started sending email out ‘willy nilly’, they had to have people’s permission to send it to them. So the reverse of opting out – they had to opt in before you could send them an email.

Where does this leave us? Well you need to be accurate and smart. You need to make sure that the emails you send out are targeted and have great content.

Then you may just, but only just, get some response from it. However, as part of the marketing mix, if you’re preaching to the converted, i.e. your existing customers, then you should definitely be doing it. But please do it well and don’t fill my inbox up with rubbish anymore.
 

Whilst it’s vitally important to spend time getting your message right and making the design look appealing, there are also several other factors that come into play when creating a successful marketing email. From our research, we have compiled a list of ten top tips that should be taken into consideration before embarking upon a campaign.

Content

1. Content: Generally, recipients will judge the importance of your email by the title. If you get them to read on, the initial text/ image MUST give them an idea of what’s in the rest of the email or they will hit the delete button. If they are interested they will read on. Remember the old advertising adage: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

Technical

2. The ideal width is 500-600 pixels. This allows the email to be viewed correctly in the majority of email viewing panes.

3. You should think about and give special consideration to webmail services, for example Hotmail.

4. You should include a ‘view in browser’ link.

Design

5. Simple layouts and tables work best – you don’t want to confuse the reader.

6. Whilst design is important, you need to make sure that your design will work in an HTML email.

7. The design should be able to get around anti-spam filters and what they are looking for. The content of the email should be written to avoid spam filters too.

Legal

8. You should give people the opportunity to unsubscribe if they wish. There’s no point in continuing to send information to people that don’t want to receive it – let’s just focus on the warm leads!

9. You should stay abreast of the law when it comes to email marketing and be aware that if you are found to be a ‘spammer’ you can get fined! This could also result in you being blacklisted.

Follow-up

10. Once you have designed and mailed out your email, the next (and arguably the most important) phase, is to measure performance! How many people opened it? Did your sales calls increase? How many people took advantage of your special offer?

So what shouldn’t you do?

Whilst looking for some examples of best practice, we also found some marketing emails that didn’t make the grade. You obviously want as many people as possible to open, read and take in your message and you also do not want to be marked as spam. So, whilst following our advice above, you should also strictly avoid the following!

1. Writing in CAPITALS – this can be viewed as spam and let’s be honest, can make you sound a bit ANGRY!

2. Using too many different font sizes, styles or colours

3. Using the terms URGENT! and IMPORTANT!

4. Including ‘dead links’ that do not link to anything

5. Sending email campaigns from your personal email address

6. Including too many images

7. Including text in images

8. Using background images

9. Making spelling mistakes – always get a fresh pair of eyes to check the email before you press send!

10. Finally, you should make sure that you clean up your email lists regularly to ensure you are not emailing incorrect address.
 

Abi Flavell, Graphic Designer

“I think designers and those in marketing have a keener sense of their social responsibility. The state of the economy is causing us all to take stock of what we have, be grateful for it and more aware of worthy causes that need us to get behind them and champion them.”

Donna Helmore, Account Executive

“I believe that in 2011 more business will invest in internet marketing. If they haven't got a website they will get one and companies that do have a website will put more money into it. Also, I think that mobile advertising will increase.”

Jonathan Leafe, Managing Director

“This year is all to do with balance. Making sure the communication to customers, both new and old, is slick and to the point. A combination of advertising, direct mail, emails and a great website to direct them to and onwards to a sale is the way forward. Spend well and keep it simple.”

Dominic Love, Creative Director

"2011 will see an even greater change in the way we all 'engage' customers when creating brands and marketing campaigns - a clever mix of creative, clear and memorable and of course communicating on a 'social' level - this is something we can't ignore."

Carl Pieper, Creative

"With the technological advances which gather pace every year - it's really changed the way we look at print design and gaining the most impact from using or simulating creative techniques which we haven't seen for decades. 2011 will be the start of the revolution!"

Jenny Bendelow, Publishing Manager

“I predict that the use of QR Codes will become more commonplace everywhere.”

Matthew Woods, Web Designer & Developer

“I predict there will be an increase in group buying websites like Groupon. We will also see an increase in mobile web usage and mobile accessible websites.”

James Greenwood, New Media Director

“I predict the rise and rise of mobile ecommerce, increased adoption of HTML5 and surrounding technologies.”

Simon Willans, Web Designer & Developer

“I think that by the end of 2011, the US military will begin ‘invading’ social networking sites for ‘anti-terror’ measures. I also think website censorship (China-style) will creep in within the UK by the end of the year.”

Stu Greenham, Web Designer & Developer

“I think that location based services will really take off, be it augmented reality type apps or just the continued rise of things like Google, Facebook places, Gowalla, Foursquare etc. I think as more apps/devices integrate these features it will become more mainstream!”

Sarah Roustoby, PR Manager

“The popularity of social media will continue to rise. We will see more social-media orientated marketing campaigns and may even see the emergence of new social sites – such as Quora.”
 

I’m originally from Queensland, Australia, and have been in the UK for 3 years now. I came to Hull with my boyfriend who plays for a local rugby team and I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent here so far.

When did you join Strawberry?

I officially joined Strawberry in January 2011, however I spent a month doing work experience here in December. I was really keen to get into the local marketing industry so doing work experience was a great opportunity to learn more about the company and what the role would involve.

How did you get here?

Back home in Australia I developed a passion for marketing whilst at college completing courses in sales, marketing and event management. I managed to get some good work experience whilst I was at college which spurred me on to get a job in event management for a leisure firm. This involved arranging one-off music events product launches to fashion shows and 3 month dance competitions. When I arrived in the UK I spent some time working in a local beauty salon as Assistant Manager and at a local gym, then at the end of 2010 decided it was time to get back into marketing, so gave Strawberry a call!

What attracted you to Strawberry?

When I made the decision to move back into marketing, I did some online research into local agencies. Strawberry appeared to be one of the best in the area and I was really impressed with the company’s attitude to work experience and giving people a chance. I initially thought I’d be able to come and get some experience for my CV, however true to their word, they gave me a chance and took me on full time a month later!

How are you enjoying it so far? Which projects have you been involved with?

I love it! Each working day is different and I’m getting the opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients. My role is to support key accounts and the rest of the team so I’m learning lots at the moment. I’m currently working with MKM, PPH Commercial and Gemtec, however I’m sure this list will grow quickly!

What inspires you?

I’d have to say that I’m inspired by seeing how other people have achieved their success. Some people at Strawberry have worked their way up right from being a junior, or work experience student, and achieved great things.
 

Donna is originally from Queensland, Australia, and has previous experience in event management, in addition to qualifications in marketing and sales. Having not worked in the industry since she arrived in the UK, Donna decided it was time to get back into marketing and contacted Strawberry with a view to gaining some work experience for her CV. Donna explains:

“After leaving Australia I worked in the leisure industry and also as an Assistant Manager at a beauty salon in the local area. However, I soon decided that I missed event management and marketing so started to do some online research to find out more about local agencies.

“I approached Strawberry to gain some work experience because the company displays a real commitment to helping people progress their careers – through initiatives such as the Strawberry Academy. I was delighted when they welcomed me into the business for a month’s work experience and this worked out so well I was offered a full time position."

Donna concludes: “I’m now working on some of Strawberry’s key accounts and loving every minute! I have never worked in an agency environment before so it’s great to be working with such a diverse range of clients – every day is different.”

Jonathan Leafe, Managing Director of Strawberry, comments: “We are pleased to be starting 2011 by appointing a new member of staff. When Donna joined us for work experience at the end of last year, we immediately recognised she would be a great addition to the team. She’s enthusiastic, a keen learner and great with our clients. She will play a pivotal role as we continue to grow over the coming year and respond to an increasing number of new business enquiries.”
 

I started at Strawberry straight out of University almost 5 years ago. I wanted to be the best and work for the best. Strawberry stood out head and shoulders above other agencies of this type in the area.

What’s new with design? Have you noticed any new trends in client requirements?

Design is embracing and working with a new economy. Chic simplicity is a big look at the moment, a paired down feeling that celebrates the essentials; colour, typography and sleek photography. Clients have a lot less money to play with which causes us designers to listen hard to what the client needs and be really inventive with our skills and expertise.

What’s most enjoyable about working for Strawberry? 

My colleagues and the varied work. Every day is different. 

Do you have any advice for aspiring designers trying to break into the industry? 

Get your CV/Portfolio right. First impressions count. What makes you different from everyone else? 

What projects are you currently working on? 

I’m currently working on a catalogue redesign for Hider Foods, advertising for Beal Homes and a new corporate identity and website for the Sunderlandwick Estate. 

What tools do you use? 

Photoshop / illustrator / quark / indesign. 

Finally, what inspires you? 

Great Typography. Colour. People. God.
 

Things are going really well. It’s great being part of a big team and having the back-up and support of other people highly skilled in the industry and the software I use. I work with 4 other designers and developers and we all give each other ideas and advice. I also have a training budget at Strawberry, so attended the Dibi Web Conference last April.

What tools do you use?

I code in X/HTML and CSS, alongside the JQuery library and ExpressionEngine.

Have there been any big developments in the web design industry over the past year?

Yeah, most browsers are now starting to support CSS3 which is great news. CSS3 makes web design much easier and allows developers to be more creative without generating extra workload. It helps us to come up with better designs and can also make client amends much easier and quicker!

What will be the next big thing?

Definitely the introduction of HTML5. Browsers will be starting to fully support it in the next couple of years and should make the web development process more efficient.

Have you noticed any trends recently?

More clients are requesting bigger footers for their website. As more companies undertake social media marketing, they are asking for links to their blogs, twitter and facebook pages to be more prominent. Traditionally, footers weren’t styled in this way, but the space has definitely become more valuable in the past year. Clients are also asking for large RSS icons to be added to their sites too, so visitors can be kept updated about new content.

What projects have you/ are you working on?

The first project that I completed at Strawberry was a website for Hull Women in Business. I also worked on the new KC Stadium website.

Is there a website that has inspired you lately?

Yeah – the CSS3 effects on this website are amazing http://desandro.com/articles/

Visit Jamie’s website at http://www.iamjamie.co.uk

I’m really enjoying working with a larger team and collaborating on projects –whereas in my previous role I would be the sole designer and developer. I’m getting on well with the team and I’m learning more about the software programmes we use.

What attracted you to Strawberry?

There are a variety of reasons! The main reason being the opportunity to work as part of a larger team on some new and exciting projects. Until recently I was living in Scarborough and working at Strawberry gave me the chance to live and work in a bigger city too!

What tools do you use?

As you would expect, I use a variety of tools. For my coding I use Notepad++ and for further development assistance I use various plugins and extensions in either Firefox or Google Chrome. The majority of my design work is carried out in Photoshop, although I do use Illustrator from time to time.

Have there been any big developments in the web design industry over the past year?

The main thing I’m keeping an eye on is the development of HTML5 and CSS3, particularly CSS3 – because it’s making a lot of useful design elements easier to create which ultimately enhances the user experience.

What will be the next big thing?

It will be some time before all of the main browsers fully support CSS3, but when they do it will be pretty awesome!

Have you noticed any trends recently?

I have noticed a lot more designers focusing on graceful degradation for older browsers, instead of making them look exactly the same. In my opinion, modern technology shouldn’t have to suffer to cater for the likes of the older technologies.

Is there a website that has inspired you lately?

Fellow Strawberry colleague Jamie Wright’s website was quite amazing to look at. It just shows some of the power CSS3 has to offer. The colours may be a little extreme, but it still looks funky!

 

7 years I think! I came here as an employee having worked at a few local web based companies. I started life as a ‘proper’ software engineer writing point of sale software for a national retailer. The retailer wanted to sell online (early ‘Naughties’) and my interest in working with the web was stirred! I eventually left the software house I started my career at and proceeded to work at another agency for 2 years before spending a whole 11 days contracting. I saw the role at Strawberry advertised and ended up here. After 3 years, I was invited to invest in the company by Jonathan and I became a director. It’s been a bit up and down (like all jobs), but I love it here.

What attracted you to Strawberry?

Strawberry has worked with Hull City for a long while and I knew Strawberry did the ecommerce store for The Tigers. I’d spent a lot of time working on various ecommerce stores and thought it was about time I combined my love of Hull City and ecommerce!

On top of that, after meeting Jonathan, it was clear there was a desire for Strawberry to become a leading web agency – it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

Did I mention we work with Hull City too?!

What’s changed about the company since you started?

Loads! The web team was initially me – and now we’re up to 13! No longer do we just employ web developers, we also have a dedicated support team as well as online PR and online marketing specialists. To be honest, it’s virtually a different company now to the one I joined.

What tips would you give to aspiring web designers and developers trying to break into the industry?

I think the key thing is to have a ‘personal brand’. Have your own website, have a twitter account and blog about industry stuff (as well other stuff that interests you). This shows the people who do the hiring that you’re enthusiastic, that you keep up to date and that you’re interested in the industry as a whole rather than just after a job.

A good agency gets lots of CVs and job enquiries so it’s important that you’re armed with more than just a Hotmail address.

What are the latest industry trends? What will be the ‘next big thing’?

As soon as I write this sentence, it’ll have changed! The web industry is moving so quickly……

Having said that, I think the opportunities that HTML5 and CSS3 are bringing to developers will be at the root of the ‘next big thing’.

I’ve a feeling that the way we consume the web is about to change again – I don’t think it’s going to be long before Web Analytics are saying that most of a sites visitors are coming from a mobile browser (iPhone, Blackberry, iPad, Android Phones etc etc.)

What projects are you currently working on?

We’ve lots of ecommerce sites on the go at the moment – our ecommerce in-house software was started in January 2009 and we’re racking up clients at a pretty good rate. I think clients like the fact that it’s totally bespoke to them and not an ‘off the shelf’ solution which is what other agencies and freelancers provide.

Is there a website that has inspired you recently?

At the time of writing, there are a few.

It sounds cheesy but our Strawberry site got the creative juices flowing – it uses HTML5 and CSS3 (mentioned above) and was a real collaborative effort amongst the development team.

Other notables are: http://shoeguru.ca/ (stunning design), http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport (the way information is categorised and ease of use) as well as http://www.bountybev.com/home.html (clever one page design) and http://www.nytimes.com/timesskimmer/ (lots of info, driveable by the keyboard)

What do you enjoy most about working at Strawberry?

There isn’t a way of saying this that doesn’t sound cheesy but here goes….

It’s a team of creative people working in a creative environment at the time of a digital revolution.

What’s not to love about that?

Read James' personal blog at www.jamesgreenwood.co.uk

The Recommended Agency Register is designed to help businesses source marketing agencies that are recommended by their clients. It’s prestigious ‘Top 100’ list is a round-up of the best agencies in the UK to deliver a high level of customer satisfaction. More than 400 agencies were considered for the list and 22 companies from Yorkshire made the grade.

Jonathan Leafe, Strawberry’s Managing Director comments: “Being featured in this year’s RAR Top 100 is a fantastic achievement for Strawberry and a great way to end a successful year for the company. We have appointed five new members of staff this year, won a selection of exciting accounts, introduced new services and were nominated for our first ever national marketing industry award. It’s safe to say that we intend to build upon this success in 2011 and make our way even further up the RAR Top 100 list!”

To be included in the Recommended Agency Register, agencies must receive a high rating from a minimum of three clients via the online RAR process. The ratings are spread across pre-defined criteria including client service, creativity and value for money. Only agencies which pass this quality threshold make it into the register and only these companies are invited to appear in the Top 100. 

Jade joined Strawberry as an apprentice after she left Sixth Form and worked so hard that she finished her apprenticeship in ICT two months early. Her determination to succeed resulted in her full time appointment as a Trainee Graphic Designer with us earlier this year.

Winning this award is the icing on the cake for Jade, as she comments: “It’s such an achievement to be recognised for the work I’ve done since I joined Strawberry. My willingness to learn and enthusiasm has really helped me to develop the right work-place attitude and improve my skills since I started my apprenticeship. I hope other young people will look at the route I took and realise that you can achieve success through apprenticeships – you just have to work hard and be committed.”

Jonathan Leafe, our MD concludes: “It has been a great year for Jade and we are all very proud of her at Strawberry. She has learnt a lot since she joined us and her role has now been reversed, as she is now responsible for providing guidance to the work experience students that come through the Strawberry Academy.

“We are always keen to give young designers a chance – whether that’s one week of work experience, a month long placement or a full time trainee position. Jade’s success just goes to show that working hard and gaining work experience can help you to achieve great results.”

Watch the video of Jade and her fellow finalists that was shown just before the award was announced below:

Dominic Lidgett, our Internet Marketing Executive talks us through some of the useful techniques we adopt to help our clients with conversion rates:

The landing page – the first impression

The success of paid search marketing campaigns is directly related to the first page (landing page) a visitor sees after clicking on an ad. It can be a home page but with paid search, this isn’t advised, as another, more targeted page on your site would have a greater benefit especially for ecommerce sites. The correct look, layout, copy and sign up or purchase options are all key to optimising landing page results and increasing conversion rates.

The landing pages of a site serve as the introduction to your organisation and provide the first pieces of information about the site and the products or services you offer. They also help the visitor to decide if they should proceed to the next step – whether that’s to purchase, make a phone call or sign up. The site needs to quickly show the visitor signs of credibility that instils trust to the visitor.

The right paid search structure

Account set-up:

The correct paid search account structure is key to the success of a site and healthy conversion rates. An incorrect paid search account structure can potentially waste a lot of money before mistakes have been realised.

Tips:

• Set your goals
• Think about your budget before you start
• Undertake competitor research
• Use multiple campaigns with different daily budgets
• Group your keywords and ads into tightly formed relevant ad groups relating to a unique product/service relevant to the targeted landing page
• Perform keyword research
• Decide a keyword bidding strategy
• Make use of keyword insertion in ads
• Experiment with keyword match types
• Geo targeting
• Test day parting to find your most successful part of the day
• Make use of negative keywords

Finally, analyse your account data constantly and TEST, TEST, TEST!

Landing page conversions

The goal of the landing page is determined by what you would like the visitor to do. If you have an ecommerce site, your primary conversion would be a sale, although there are a variety of other conversions you could measure. These include the addition of a product into your shopping cart, which will help you look into how you can decrease shopping cart abandonment rates.

For example, let’s say you sell tennis shoes, meaning your conversion is the sale itself. So your primary landing page conversion rate would be the number of purchases divided by the number of visits to the landing page or unique visitors. This can also be segmented down to the campaign type itself, meaning you can look at conversion rates from natural traffic from SEO campaigns vs. email campaigns vs. any other campaign type you could be running.

Whatever your goal, be aware that the effectiveness of the landing page can be measured, allowing you to better allocate where you spend your advertising budget.

Increase landing page conversion rates

Once you’ve chosen your keywords, created your paid search campaigns and are driving visitors to your landing pages, what if they aren’t converting? You’re paying for their traffic, but not getting leads and/or sales out of it. How do you increase your site’s landing page conversion rates?

Test, test and test again! We cannot stress enough how important this testing phase is. Design, layout, copy, and page elements are all extremely important for landing page optimisation. A few changes we test to increase landing page conversion rates include:

• The addition or removal of images. Image quality is extremely important especially for ecommerce sites.
• Testimonials and symbols of credibility
• Calls to action
• Long copy vs. short copy – find out which works best for you
• Layout/navigation
• Sign up/ purchase buttons
• Personal or professional styles
• Colour schemes
• Relevant copy and messaging by source type

On the day in question, our efforts attracted the attention of several high profile tweeters and reached a massive twitter audience of more than 187,000 people! These included England footballer Kevin Davies, England cricketers Jimmy Anderson and Matthew Hoggard, The Drum magazine, Inspired Mag, Hull City footballer Ian Ashbee and Politician John Prescott. Karoo also got involved by encouraging visitors to its website to turn it pink and visit our website to find out more about the Wear it Pink campaign.

In addition, the Strawberry team managed to collect over £100 on the day by dressing up in pink clothes and selling pink cup cakes. Some of you may have seen the pictures on Facebook. James Greenwood, Strawberry’s New Media Director comments:

“We are delighted with the amount of money we raised and would like to thank all of our clients for taking part. We really wanted to get involved with the Wear it Pink day because breast cancer is a subject close to many of our hearts here at Strawberry. The whole team got involved and helped to make the day a success.

“The money we raised is a mixture of client donations for turning their website pink for the week and public donations. We decided to spread the word through Twitter and Facebook and by lunchtime we had been re-tweeted by the likes of Jimmy Anderson! The amount of attention we received via Twitter just goes to show the power of social media and how quickly messages can spread. We even saw traffic to our website increase by an astonishing 500%.”
 

• Green Planet Solutions (or should we say ‘Pink’ Planet Solutions?!)
• MKM Building Supplies Ltd
• BSC Solutions
• Gosschalks Solicitors
• Abbey Medical Group
• Dee Atkinson Harrison

The whole Strawberry team is in the ‘pink’ spirit today. We have paid to wear some rather fetching pink hues and several members of the team are selling pink buns – check out our Facebook and Twitter profiles to see some of the pictures from our office throughout the day!

Please get involved!

If you would like to donate some money to this charity and help to fund some of the world’s most innovative and promising breast cancer research projects, visit our Just Giving page. We will be picking one of today’s donators at random to win a gorgeous pair of silver earrings too!

Click on the banner below to donate...

I used to work part-time at the Hull City shop as a Sales Assistant and that’s where I first heard of Strawberry. I saw some of the great design work that Strawberry had done for Hull City, including the match day programmes, and thought it would be the perfect place to do my apprenticeship after completing my A-Levels.

I have always had a passion for graphic design so decided that instead of attending university, I would aim to get some on-the-job experience at a local creative agency. Strawberry offered me the opportunity to enhance my skills with no major restrictions and I can safely say that in the time I have been here, I have never looked back! I was recently appointed to the full time role of Graphic Designer after completing my apprenticeship and I’m enjoying all of the new challenges that come my way!

As a Strawberry Academy graduate, what did you learn from the experience?

I have learnt things that I didn’t even know were possible. I have learnt how to use six new software programmes from scratch and feel very confident with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Quark Xpress, File Maker (our internal admin software), Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Distiller. Also, experiencing life at a competitive and successful marketing agency has given me the opportunity to develop good interpersonal skills and learn the complex operation of a company.

Would you recommend the Strawberry Academy to other aspiring designers? If so, why?

Yes - without a doubt! It provides you with a great start to your career and the means to go further in the marketing industry. The graphic design job market is very competitive and the experience gained in one year of being an apprentice can kick-start your future and open many doors.

The academy route provides you with full time employment, a rate of pay, plus enjoyment and accreditation. As I gain more experience, I am looking forward to passing the knowledge I have gained over the past nine months to other Strawberry Academy students. I would love for other young individuals in the Humber area to experience this and improve their skills and future!

What projects have you enjoyed working on?

I really enjoyed working with a local Young Enterprise Group to help them design their company report and I’m looking forward to working on similar projects. I also enjoy designing for Dove House, a local charity that we support. Dove House always holds fun events, which I can produce fresh, distinctive and unique designs for with my own individual style.

When I first joined Strawberry, I was surprised to be ‘let loose’ on projects but that really is the best way to learn. I treat each project as ‘my baby’ if you like, which taught me to be efficient, thorough and perform to my highest ability. When you see the finished print product, it really makes you proud! I also thrive on designing fashions spreads for 24Seven Magazine. I am in my element with this!

What’s most enjoyable about working for Strawberry?

Hearing positive feedback for my designs is always very enjoyable! Most days are different and I really love the diverse nature of the job. Getting a behind the scenes view of a marketing and advertising agency is very interesting and the team at Strawberry has made the first year of my career very special.

You are involved with the Humber Apprentices Panel – how does this fit in with your work at Strawberry?

The Humber Apprentice Panel (HAP) has given me, as a learner, the opportunity to gain more confidence in discussing my view and future. It has also helped me to develop better communication and debating skills, which helps with my work at Strawberry. I meet with representatives of major student bodies such as the NUS to change certain elements of apprenticeships in order to create improved futures for people in the Humber region and across England. It was great to have the support from HAP whilst carrying out my apprenticeship.

What inspires you?

I would say that I take inspiration from my colleagues at Strawberry that started out as trainees like me and climbed further up the ladder to reach their prime position in the work place. It encourages me to follow their path and make the most of my opportunities. Being nominated for a Mail News & Media Business award is also pretty inspiring! I have made it to the final of the Young Achiever in Education & Business category and can't wait to find out the result in November!
 

If you visit Google now you will see the search results changing as you type your query. This 'search-before-you-type' feature as Google has dubbed it has been designed to give users the most likely search results given what you have already typed.

Google is telling us that there are many benefits of Google Instant, the main one been a time saver potentially allowing users to save between two and five seconds per search. Google is also estimating that they can save users 11 hours each second! This is quite impressive.

All this fancy time saving technology is all well and good, but what will it mean for search marketers?

Pay Per Click

When the first rumours of Google Instant started appearing, paid search advertisers like me did our research on how this change would affect our client accounts. Naturally, if people can see results as they type, then this is bound to increase the amount of impressions received which will have a knock on effect on click through rates (CTR’s). Google has taken steps to nullify this fear by stating that an impression is only counted if a user takes action to choose their query by hitting enter, clicking the search button, clicking a link on the page or by simply not typing for more than 3 seconds.

Google still stresses to us that the new feature may increase or decrease overall impressions, taking all this information into account, I can say that Google Instant ‘will’ impact on impressions and CTR’s so it is worth watching closely within your accounts.

Google also says that Google Instant is designed to improve the quality of your clicks because the system will help users type queries that are more closely related to the information they are trying to find which will potentially be a good thing.

SEO

Google Instant is potentially more concerning for SEO marketers rather than PPC, as this change will have an effect on keyword referral data which is vital. An example would be, if you wanted to search for ITV all you have to do is type “i” and my result will appear. Does this mean that the highest traffic driving keyword is going to be i? Not very useful so we will see.....

Google Instant will surely also affect long-tail traffic which is important for search marketers. As many site owners tap into long tail searches to gain a percentage of traffic that now may never be reached. For example, a user typing a query may find a result from another site before they have completed typing their query. A change in keyword strategy may be required.

Currently I am not sure about how this change will affect us. Google has always positioned themselves as a search engine with no frills which lets it’s results do the talking. This change goes against that and seems to me to be a needless attempt to separate themselves from rival search engines, when for me, they never needed to.

The DADI Awards recognises work done by digital agencies and rewards innovation, strategic thinking and effectiveness. This is the first time we have put our work forward for judging so are looking forward to November when the winner of our category is announced.

This year’s DADI Awards attracted entries from agencies across the UK and finalists include well known brands such as Adidas, Channel 4, BBC, Lucozade, Red Bull, Wonderbra and Reebok – so we are in good company!

We will keep you updated of our progress – wish us luck!
 

I have been working at Strawberry since it was first established in 1993 and have seen the company grown from a team of two (me and Jonathan Leafe) to over twenty! I originally came to know Jonathan after answering his advert for a ‘mouseketeer’ in 1991. We started Strawberry in a small corner of our current office building and it’s great to see how much the company has, and is still growing now.

What’s changed since you started?

I’d say the biggest change has been the introduction of new technologies over the past 17 years. When I first started working at Strawberry, we were typing copy into documents from hand-written client notes and the introduction of floppy disk seemed like a revelation!

Obviously things developed quickly from then on but it’s funny to think back to how we used to work. Also, Strawberry has changed dramatically from a primarily design-led agency to a full service agency offering everything from e-commerce websites to public relations.

However, one thing that has never changed is our relationship with Hull City AFC – we have been designing their programmes ever since Strawberry started.

What software do you use?

I work in Quark Xpress, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator for my design work and also use Excel and internal administrative software on a daily basis.

What’s new with design? Have you noticed any new trends in client requirements?

I guess the biggest trend over the past few years is clients requiring integrated designs for their websites to tie in with brochures and offline advertising campaigns.

Do you have any other responsibilities?

I’m Strawberry’s work experience coordinator so have a good relationship with many of the local schools and colleges. The majority of our work experience students are of school age, however we will accommodate university students too.

So do you have any tips for people who want to work in the marketing industry?

We are committed to helping talented, enthusiastic individuals enter the industry which is why we have set up the Strawberry Academy – to help students of different ages gain experience and learn more about agency life.

We welcome anybody who is keen, interested and willing to learn. The industry is very competitive at the moment so work experience is a great way to give you an advantage.

What do you most enjoy about working at Strawberry?

I’m now in my 18th year at Strawberry so can safely say that I really enjoy the job! There’s never a dull moment and it’s particularly enjoyable when you can develop a good rapport with clients.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on the marketing material for national building supplies merchant MKM. This involves designing adverts, point of sale material and brochures for individual campaigns and ensuring MKM branch managers can view them on the website ahead of ordering what they need.

Finally, what inspires you?

Good design!
 

KC’s business services team designed the technical infrastructure that the e-commerce programme sits on and provides continuous support as the number of transactions steadily increases. The servers currently host 11 of our e-commerce websites including local and national brands such as www.tigerleisure.com, www.motorwayshop.co.uk and Bristol City FC’s online store,www.bcfcmegastore.co.uk.

Mark Conway, Director of Business Services for KC, comments: “It’s great to see one of our clients celebrating such success! We are delighted to have helped Strawberry take over £1M in online transactions. We strive to work in partnership with all of our business customers to help them achieve their goals and look forward to helping both Strawberry and BSC Solutions develop the strength of their e-commerce offering.”

James Greenwood, New Media Director for Strawberry continues: “It goes without saying that we are delighted with how our e-commerce platform is performing. As more new clients come on board, additional pressure is put on our servers and the KC team is always on the ball with advice and solutions should any problems occur. Our account manager, Ben O’Leary, is in regular contact with us which has helped us to develop a genuine partnership with KC.”

Simon Crosby, Managing Director of BSC Solutions, concludes: “Having met with Mark and Ben at KC, I am confident that KC’s business team cares about our success. We have built a close relationship with them since we built our e-commerce programme. We can rely on them to be flexible without any stresses – which is essential when it comes to hosting e-commerce stores!”

BSC Solutions is an IT consultancy based in Hull, which provides expert advice and bespoke software solutions to a variety of businesses. 

KC offers the local business community a variety of support services including telephone systems, scalable hosting solutions, business broadband, server back-up and business mobiles.
 

I’ve been at Strawberry for almost two years, and since I started, our clients have become a lot more understanding of search marketing. Instead of simply dipping their toes in the water, they are committing full budgets to internet marketing campaigns because they know that the returns on investment can be potentially very high.

How is it going so far? Are there any differences with your previous job?

I had a decent grounding and learnt the basics of internet marketing in my previous job, however at Strawberry, I’ve taken those skills and progressed whilst taking on a lot more responsibility. In my previous role, I had an account manager to lean on, whilst at Strawberry, I’m solely accountable for my own clients and find it very rewarding.

What does your job entail and what tools do you use?

I’m responsible for building, monitoring and analysing the traffic to our clients’ websites. I use Google AdWords and Google Analytics to measure traffic, PPC editors to make changes to client accounts and several reporting tools to report on progress.

What’s new with internet marketing?

The importance of online PR for brands is becoming apparent and budgets from clients are increasing – especially since Google introduced real-time social results in search pages. It’s a great and easy way to get your brand noticed for a low cost. Mobile marketing has become vital with more people using smart phones which make it easier for people to view sites and potentially purchase products. It’s important for PPC account managers to show their clients’ ads on mobile phones more than ever, as they may be missing out on an increasing amount of traffic. Site speed has become a ranking factor too because Google’s goal is to help its users to find information as quickly as possible. How quickly a site loads definitely fits into that.

What projects are you currently working on? Is there a project that has exceeded your expectations recently?

I’m excited to be working with some well known national and international brands including The Katz Group and Eastern Airways. We have a number of new e-commerce sites launching this year so I’m currently setting up pay per click campaigns with these clients whilst the sites are being built ready for launch. I’m particularly pleased with the Eastern Airlines campaign, which has recorded great results and exceeded targets over the past year.

What do you enjoy most about working at Strawberry?

I enjoy having the responsibility to manage all my clients and make the key decisions which affect the income generated through their websites. My colleagues are great and I get good advice from senior staff members about how to improve our clients’ results and my own personal development.
 

I started back in October 1993 with Susie Gibson and we’re both still here today after 17 years! Prior to that I’ve been a shipping agent, a professional musician, an account executive for an advertising agency, a marketing manager for a hotel in Spain and when I got back to England, I set up my own design agency business, which eventually became Strawberry in 1993.

What was your vision for Strawberry?

The vision is still the same as it was in 1993. To build long-term relationships with clients so that we grow as they grow. To build those relationships we have to be really good at what we do and supply it at a reasonable price.

What’s changed about the company since the early days?

The internet has changed almost everything. The way we work, the services we supply. The turnaround for jobs is so much quicker than in the early days and the general IT awareness throughout the production chain is a big factor in this. Oh, and that we now have 25 staff!

What tips would you give to aspiring marketers trying to break into the industry?

Have a strong sense of what you want to achieve, be enthusiastic and get your foot on the ladder at any level to show people what you can do. And most importantly, never stop learning.

What are the latest industry trends? What do you anticipate to be the 'next big thing'?

I think we’re in a state of consolidation. Companies are looking to keep things tight, well organised and be ready for future prosperity gained through doing things smarter and better. And nothing is going to stop the e-commerce juggernaut.

What do you enjoy the most about working at Strawberry?

I love the variety. We work in almost every industry you can think of and whilst they are all different there are so many similarities. I’ve learned so much for every client we have, after all if we don’t fully understand their business we can’t operate successfully.

Finally, what inspires you?

I’ve recently started working with sixth formers from a local school, mentoring them in their young enterprise year. They are bright, so enthusiastic and have uncluttered minds.
 

Both Katherine and Jade studied for their apprenticeship at the Hull Business Training Centre and joined the Strawberry Academy in 2009. The academy is designed to source, train and develop local talent and also caters for school work experience students, university placement students and graduates.

The girls were both given a real job from day one and benefited from hands-on learning, as Jonathan Leafe, our Managing Director, explains:

“We are delighted to have successfully appointed our two latest Strawberry Academy graduates to full time positions. They know the company inside out and have show great dedication – not only in furthering their careers but doing a great job for us and our clients. They have made a real impression here and are an asset to Strawberry.

“We are always on the lookout for bright students. We really want to help people start careers in this industry and are keen to encourage talent to stay in the local area – not migrate to Manchester or Leeds. In fact, we are running a web workshop as part of the Strawberry Academy later this year to give web design students and graduates a taste of agency life.”

The National Apprenticeship scheme provides the ideal way for students to gain experience and qualifications, as Katherine explains:

“By studying for an advanced apprenticeship in IT, I’ve dramatically improved my knowledge, however, working every day in a busy agency has really given me the confidence I need to move forward in my career. I’m dealing with clients, working on real projects and boosting my skills whilst learning from people who have been working in the industry for years.”

Jade comments: “I’m really pleased to have been given a full time position at Strawberry. My colleagues have really helped me develop and I have enjoyed the mix of both education and work over the past year. I’m sure I’ll carry on learning throughout my career and would definitely recommend the apprentice route!”
 

Dabbling with new techniques

We had been dabbling (my own personal site being a rather big dabble of note) adding CSS3 on client websites as a simple, progressive enhancement (for example: KC Stadium and Edwin Snowden), so carrying this forward-thinking ethos into our new site really was a no-brainer.

As CSS3 is yet to be finalised as a specification, and support for the new features aren’t fully supported, we have to use “vender prefixes” with the new selectors so that they can work in the browser. What is a vender prefix I hear you ask? It’s a word that you place before an element of CSS specific to a certain browser’s rendering engine. For example, Apple Safari and Google Chrome both use the Webkit rendering engine therefore if you want your new CSS3 selector to work in those browsers you need to use the prefix “-webkit-“. For Mozilla’s firefox it is simply “-moz-”.This means that for the meantime (before the CSS3 specification is finalised) we have to write multiple lines of CSS to target each browser and in turn ensure that everyone sees the same effect.

Covering all bases

With all these different prefixes being used, as well as some of the browsers not fully supporting all the new selectors yet, it can get very confusing. Something that we all felt was essential, was even if the browser you use to view our site doesn’t support the new CSS3 selectors, then you can still use the site without ever feeling like you’re getting a substandard experience.

An example of this is that if you are using Internet Explorer (which doesn’t support CSS3 yet) then you will not see the transition effect between the colour white to black on the navigation links when you hover over them, instead seeing the colour change instantly. Another issue is, what happens when the specification is finalised and the prefixes become irrelevant? Well, we have ensured that for every line of browser specific CSS3, there is the equivalent without the prefix, so that when the browsers support CSS3 without the vender specific prefixes, we already have the no prefixed code ready and waiting.

The same approach has been taken for pieces of CSS3 that aren’t currently supported by certain browsers.

The example here is that Firefox does not currently support CSS3 transitions (but will be in the very near future), so when applying this CSS3 technique we’ve placed the same code with the “-moz-" prefix too, so that when the new version is released, our site doesn’t need to be altered to utilise the new features.

In action

I guess you’re now really wondering what it all looks like? Below is a code snippet of some of the CSS3 used for the navigation links on our website:

a {
   -moz-transition:color .2s ease;
    -ms-transition:color .2s ease;
     -o-transition:color .2s ease;
-webkit-transition:color .2s ease;
        transition:color .2s ease;
}

If this doesn’t make any sense then here is an explanation: it is a CSS3 “transition” that will change the link elements “color” over a time span of 0.2 seconds using the “ease” effect.

As you can see, we target Firefox with -moz-, Internet Explorer (9) with -ms-, Opera with -o-, Google Chrome and Apple Safari with -webkit- and then have the final selector without a prefix (placed last to ensure that when it comes into use that it can override the previous statements).

Further Reading

If this article has merely whet your appetite and you want to learn more then check out these articles and resources that I think would be helpful in gaining a greater understanding:

• http://css3.bradshawenterprises.com/
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/05/27/css-three-connecting-the-dots/
• http://trentwalton.com/2010/03/22/css3-in-transition/
• http://css3please.com/

As our website URL is http://www.strawberry.co.uk we th,ought it was about time we tried to obtain the Twitter name ‘Strawberry’ when we unveiled our new branding in June 2010. We are pleased to say that we managed to and since then, we have received several requests asking how we went about it.

In response we thought we would write a blog post to provide some advice to other businesses out there that may be in the same situation as we were.

When we started tweeting, we did so under the username ‘Strawb_Hull’ – which wasn’t ideal but it served us well. When we started to look into obtaining the name ‘Strawberry’, we found it was an inactive account and hadn’t been used since 2007. Whilst many people join Twitter to simply observe and never tweet, we thought we had a good case for transferring the name over to us – especially as we are a trademarked business.

So, we started by visiting www.twitter.com/help/escalate. This brings up a form where you can submit a request. We did so and chose the options ‘I’m confused and have a question’ regarding an ‘inactive username’. In the space provided, we explained that we are a company called Strawberry and were using Twitter to promote our business, however found that people were searching for us using ‘@Strawberry’ instead of ‘@Strawb_Hull’.

We fired this message off to Twitter and received an automated response full of instructions of what to do next. For us, the best route was to ‘trigger a review’ of the inactive username ‘Strawberry’ so that it would become available.

Within 30 days, we received a response and were able to change our username to ‘Strawberry’. To ensure nobody else could take either ‘Strawberry’ or ‘Strawb_Hull’, we immediately set up another account with our old name and tweeted a message to direct people to our new page. This meant that anybody following an old link to ‘Strawb_Hull’ could still find us on Twitter.

So there you have it. It wasn’t easy or quick, but with a bit of help from Twitter and some persistence, we managed to acquire our new Twitter name!
 

Dom and Carl presented the finished article to Jonathan and I and we were both blown away. A really modern brand, with some great ideas for how it would work on the web. 

I then presented it to the developers as we'd only have a few weeks in our schedule to build it. One of the developers (who shall remain nameless!) had an interesting reaction:

"I love it - but how do you expect us to build it?!"

Well, they did and it's exactly as we wanted it - this is the brief story of how we did it.

Prototyping

For some of the more flashy bits, we needed to prototype. Adam and Jamie set off prototyping pretty much all the JavaScript calls we'd need. We then spent a good few hours as a development team in the boardroom discussing how we thought the filtering and tagging system should work. We changed our minds several times - in fact, we changed it back again during the build. Prototyping the areas which we knew might cause us a problem was a very necessary step.

HTML5 and CSS3

We decided we wanted to use HTML5 and as much CSS3 as the browsers would allow. HTML5 isn't supported by default by any of the existing Microsoft browsers but by applying some JavaScript, we knew we could fix this. This means the site won't function in Internet Explorer(s) without JavaScript enabled. In fact, JavaScript is relied on heavily throughout the site and testing without JavaScript enabled gave some interesting results. JavaScript is employed by 99.9% of browsers, so we decided we wanted to push the boundaries of what we can currently do within a browser, and not spend as much time worrying about the lack of JavaScript as we do for some of our clients site. 

Ultimately, it was me that decided to go down the HTML5 path, so if you're a web developer reading this and you think we've made a mistake in adopting HTML5, I'd love to hear from you.

Jamie is going to write a full post on the use of CSS3 - it'll be posted in the near future so make sure you've got our RSS feed bookmarked.

Expression Engine

We've opted to use Expression Engine 2 even though it's still in beta. Again, you might call it a "brave" decision and we could have opted to stick with the tried and trusted 1.6.9 version, however this site was about pushing the boundaries of what we are able to do right now and that meant using version 2. It's been stable - our resident EE experts have found it good to work with, which gives me the confidence to at least consider adopting it for clients sites.

Getting the content together

This is always the hard part of any web build - gathering content can sometimes be a long and ardous task. Not this time - Sarah simply got on with it and delivered it to the development team before they needed it and typo free. It's safe to say that we didn't need to employ Lorem Ipsum during this build which is a good thing! Thanks Sarah!

The Next Step

There is more we want to do - we want to do a mobile version of this site. We want to tweak areas of the site already and it's only just gone live. We're committed to ensuring that this site continues to get the love and attention it's had over the last few weeks and we're committed to writing posts about what we're up to.

The last thing is for me to thank the designers, developers and authors - I'm proud of what we've done in a short space of time and they should be too.

The Strawberry Academy is open to students of all ages – from 14 years right through to university leavers and beyond. It is designed to help kick-start careers and also gives us the opportunity to work with young people that have new, fresh and interesting ideas. We have close working relationships with our local education establishments to help source potential candidates – however direct enquiries are always welcome.

The Strawberry Academy is broken down into five categories:

Work experience:

• For school students ages 14-15 years old completing their GCSEs.
• One week’s work experience as part of school programme.
• The student is given a project to complete throughout the week, where they learn to use key software programmes and manage their time.
• We work with the following schools – Hull Collegiate, Hymers College, Wolfreton, South Hunsley, Cottingham, Bishop Burton, Andrew Marvell, Hessle, St. Mary’s College, Longcroft.

Apprenticeship placements:

• For students aged 16 or over.
• In conjunction with the National Apprenticeship Scheme.
• On-the-job experience with mentoring from other members of the team.
• A real job from day one.
• We work with Hull Business Training Centre – all enquiries should be made through them.

Graduate placements:

• Up to one year-long, full time work placements for university students.
• Putting the skills they have learnt at University into practice.
• Client-facing and working on creative projects from day one.
• An ideal opportunity to gain valuable experience before graduating.
• We also cater for individuals who want to spend a day or so here at Strawberry and get a feel for agency life.

Graduate Trainee:

• Fast track learning for talented graduates.
• Will work with clients from day one to offer a first rate service.
• Mentored by other members of the Strawberry team.
• Given as much responsibility as they can handle.

Investing in our future

In addition to providing work experience and mentoring via the Strawberry Academy, we are also committed to helping members of the Strawberry team enhance their existing skills.

Each individual member of the Strawberry team has an annual training budget to take part in seminars, courses and workshops that they think will be of benefit to them.
In the past, our team members have taken part in Business Link events, Prince2 courses and worked to achieve Google AdWords accreditation, in addition to attending industry exhibitions throughout the UK.

Helping the local community:

We take part in many events throughout the city, to share our knowledge and provide advice to those who need support. In the past, we have:

• Presented lectures to college and university students.
• Talked at business events to share our knowledge of SEO.
• Held seminars to teach local business people the benefits of internet marketing.
• Given presentations about ‘cheap’ marketing for charitable organisations.
• Spoken at many networking events about the benefits of Internet marketing and online PR.

A system that works!

Several members of our team have taken part, or are currently taking part in the Strawberry Academy. We have two apprentices working with us at the moment, a university student on placement and several graduate trainees. In fact, our Creative Director is the original Strawberry Academy graduate!

Simon’s previous position involved website design and development, print design and developing iPhone applications – a specialism that we are looking forward to moving into. He has relocated to Hull to take up his new role after having lived in Scarborough since he graduated from the University of Hull with a degree in Internet Computing.

Simon comments: “It’s great to be working as part of a larger team on some exciting, new and varied projects! Strawberry has a great client base and an impressive portfolio of work. My first job has been to help complete the new Strawberry website, which features some very innovative design, and I’ll soon be working on Strawberry’s e-commerce projects too. Strawberry has a strong commitment to developing the skills of its employees, so was the obvious place for me to progress my career.”

James Greenwood, Director of New Media says: “I’m delighted to welcome Simon to the team. We are currently experiencing steady growth and are receiving new client enquiries all the time – which has resulted in us appointing four new web designers and developers in the past year alone!

“We have also branched out into offering online PR services so Simon is joining us at an exciting time. I’m looking forward to working with him on our upcoming projects and I’m confident his technical skills will be an asset to our growing team.”

The construction of the new stand at Hull RUFC’s Chanterlands Avenue ground is a major step for the local club and is part-funded by Sport England, the RFU and membership packages. The packages available include the ‘First XV’ - a premium membership of which only 15 are available and ‘Founders 50’ – which is limited to the founding 50 members of the new main stand.

The club has also introduced a ‘donate a brick’ scheme to help raise money as Ron Gibbin, Hull RUFC President, explains:

“We have invested heavily in our grounds over the past few years to create a first rate rugby venue for both our players and fans. We have upgraded our pitch and our investment is culminating in the completion of our new state of the art stand and dressing rooms.

“Whilst we have relied on sponsorship from local businesses to fund the new stand, instead of asking for donations, we decided to introduce several membership packages that allow businesses and individuals to share in our expansion and be a part of the club and its future.”

Jonathan Leafe, Managing Director of Strawberry, comments:

“We are delighted to be one of the first businesses to take advantage of the Hull RUFC ‘First XV’ membership packages. Strawberry is always keen to support local sporting clubs – we are patrons of North Ferriby United, sponsor a local golfer from Beverley and work very closely with Hull City AFC and Hull KR. We look forward to the completion of the new Hull RUFC stand and enjoying our membership from some of the best seats in the house.”

The new Hull RUFC membership packages are proving popular, however some are still available to purchase. Those interested should contact Chris Murphy, Geoff Lound or Leroy McKenzie at the Hull Sports Centre on 01482 348142.

Andy Tate, Bonus Arena Manager and member of the Superstadium Management Company team, explains the significance of the new website:

“I was tasked with the role of commissioning a modern, updated website for the KC Stadium several months ago by our Chairman, Adam Pearson. He was determined that we build closer ties to the local community so we appointed Strawberry to make his vision a reality. As a large sporting venue with a high profile, we felt it was important that our new website not only looked great – but helped users as much as possible.

“You wouldn’t believe the number of calls we used to receive asking for directions and information about events! Our new website is now a great information resource for people either visiting a sporting game, wanting to hire a room or attend a function. It also includes detailed contact information so people can get in touch with the right people first time – instead of having to go through our reception. We are delighted with the work Strawberry has done for us – the design is great and we intend to develop the functionality as time goes on.”

James Greenwood, Strawberry’s New Media Director, comments:

“We were very excited to work on this project – as it’s such an important venue for the local area. We are always keen to promote the great things that are happening in Hull and developing a new website for the KC Stadium seemed like the perfect opportunity! There is plenty going on at the stadium and Bonus Arena so we wanted to create a user friendly, easy to navigate website that included a comprehensive events calendar. We are really pleased with the result and look forward to developing the website further in the future.”

The KC Stadium was opened in December 2002 and has a total capacity of 24,995. It is run by the Superstadium Management Company and hosts a variety of sporting events throughout the year – including from sporting matches, conferences and social events.

The Install

We are now at over twenty Expression Engine installs and having used many CMS systems in the past, Expression Engine is one of the easiest systems to install. With its own install file you can have the core system setup within minutes with no PHP knowledge needed.

To make sure your server is compatible with Expression Engine you will need the following:

• At least 10MB of space
• PHP version 4.1 or newer
• MySQL version 3.23.32 or newer
• PHP must have XML support
• Your server must have the following MySQL grant privileges (for tables): SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, DROP, ALTER, CREATE
• Your MySQL server must not be running in Strict mode
• To take advantage of the image thumb nailing feature your server must support one of the three image manipulation protocols: GD, ImageMagick, NetPBM.

You will also need at least minimal experience with HTML and FTP access to your server.

Expression Engine Tags

Having built over twenty Expression Engine websites to date, the first hurdle to get over was understanding the tag system Expression Engine has implemented. We have found that there are a few different ways in which to come to the same conclusion and after our first couple of builds we came up with a standardised way of templating all of our subsequent Expression Engine builds. From this we have made slight changes, but the core template code always stays the same.

The Add-ons

Expression Engine comes with a wealth of add-ons. They allow for every eventuality that you could come across when building a website and to date, we’ve currently not come across anything within a website that we couldn’t implement.

Below is a list of add-ons we are currently using within the majority of our Expression Engine builds.

Field Frame - Field Frame is a field type extension developed for Expression Engine by Brandon Kelly. The extension is a must for every Expression Engine build. Field Frame gives us the ability to extend our field type range, from just simply text areas and text fields to a rich list of field types including Check boxes, Selects, Radio Groups and the Matrix. There are also a few add-ons built on the top of Field Frame most notably Wygwam. (http://pixelandtonic.com/fieldframe)

Wygwam - The Wygwam field type allows integration of the popular CKEditor WYSIWYG editor into Expression Engine. The only issue we did come across with the add-on is the fact you need to use relative image paths and make sure you have the latest Field Frame extension installed.

LG Better Meta - Like the title suggests this module creates easy to use Meta tags within the Expression Engine control panel. Before we found this useful module we spent hours implementing Meta information into every section of the website builds, LG came up trumps on this one. (http://leevigraham.com/)

LG HTaccess - We inherited this extension from tutorial videos when we first started using Expression Engine and have used it on all projects since. This extension allows us to quickly create an HTaccess file for a project that eliminates the index.php from the URL. (http://leevigraham.com/)

The Experience Internet modules and extensions - a range of modules and extensions we’ve used extensively by a friend of Strawberry’s, Stephen Lewis. (http://experienceinternet.co.uk/software/)

Free Form - The Free form module allows developers of Expression Engine websites to easily create forms on the fly and post submissions. We have implemented this module and extended the functionality by building AJAX controls to integrate error and success messages within our web site pages. (http://www.solspace.com/software/detail/freeform/)

Other useful add-ons - We also use Image Resizer, Twitter Timeline, Category ID, Word Limiter, Edit Alert, File, by Mark Huot and REEOrder.

This list isn’t exhaustive - we’ve used others, and experimented with lots. We’re also a big fan of Stephen Lewis’ plug-ins - we would say that though as he’s not only locally based to us but we’ve worked with him on a big EE project too!

Safe to say, we’ve fallen in love with EE and look forward to using EE2.0 in a production environment!

Jonathan Leafe, Managing Director of Strawberry explains:

“We have raised funds and worked with Dove House for many years, and have always offered our services free of charge. At the beginning of this year, we decided to make the relationship official and encouraged them to bring all of their design work to us.

“The work that Dove House does for the local community is fantastic and more businesses should think about the ways in which they can be supportive by offering their services and expertise for free. The hospice relies on the goodwill and hard work of fund raisers from the local area and we are keen to do our part to ensure this money isn’t used on promotional design work.”

Lorraine Pritchard, Director of Human Resources comments:

“We are delighted with the work Strawberry has completed for us. They have helped us to free up some valuable money that can be directed to other parts of the hospice. We receive fantastic support from the local community and it’s always a big help when businesses offer their support. We will be working closely with Strawberry for the rest of the year and hope to appoint a new agency at the start of 2011.”

Dove House provides care for those in the local community with life-limiting illnesses. They are specialists in palliative care for people with a wide range of illnesses. There is no charge for the care Dove House provides, therefore the hospice relies on donations from the local community and support from the local primary Care Trusts. Dove House is currently aiming to raise an additional £2.5M in funds through the ‘Love You 2’ appeal, to complete an extensive re-development of the hospice site at Chamberlain Road.

When I first started to work in the PR industry 4 years ago, online PR simply involved ensuring client websites were up to date with press material and issuing e-newsletters on their behalf. The internet wasn’t ignored, but magazines and newspapers took precedence and the majority of my time was spent building relationships with journalists.

In just a short amount of time, how things have changed. With the massive online social media explosion, press officers are now tasked with the role of building relationships directly with a group of new ‘content creators’ – the public.

The death of the newspaper?

I’m confident that targeting traditional media will still remain a core part of the PR package – especially for business to business clients. However, a good online presence is now essential in order to reach the growing number of people that consume their news on the internet. Niche websites, social networking websites and handheld devices all offer the consumer an up-to date, real time alternative to newspapers and magazines.

As a result of this trend, newspaper sales are inevitably declining and it is estimated that up to ½ of the UK’s regional and local titles will close within the next 5 years. This prediction is supported by the recent news that The Times and Sunday Times Online will be charging £1 per day for its news content from May 2010. Whether this model of charging for online news will work – who knows? But if newspapers are changing their approach, it goes without saying that PR professionals must too.

Benefits of online PR

People simply don’t ‘absorb’ news online like they do when reading newspapers. They share, rate and comment on it – and it’s these actions that press officers need to be aware of and responding to. Any good PR person worth their salt recognises the opportunities social media channels such as blogs, forums and social networking websites present.

They allow you to listen, gauge opinion and most importantly – strike up a conversation and react to those discussing businesses, products and brands – whether positively or negatively.

Whilst online PR is great for reputation and brand management, its benefits are twofold, because it is ideal for SEO too. We all know that ahead of making a purchasing decision, we will visit the website of the company in question to undertake research. E-commerce websites in particular must be as easy to find as possible and online PR is the perfect tool to achieve higher natural search engine rankings – a topic alone that can form the content of another blog post!

The changing role of the PR professional

There’s no doubting that online PR and social media will be the ‘buzz’ for 2010 and as a result, the industry is forming closer ties with the world of new media. This is great for full service agencies, because they have the expertise in-house to offer a first rate, integrated service. PR professionals can no longer just profess to be the ‘words’ people! They need to stay abreast of what’s new online, embrace technology and not be afraid to stray from the traditional PR approach.

I’m a prime example of going through this transition. Until recently, I was a bit of a technophobe and didn’t even have a twitter account. I simply couldn’t face sitting on my computer all night after doing so all day and only visited facebook occasionally. However, since I started to use a blackberry, I’ve been hooked! My online networks are at my fingertips 24/7 and I’m building new relationships online every day. In fact, I recognised just how important social media is for businesses when I started using twitter. I had an ‘issue’ with an international fashion retailer and complained on twitter. Within 24 hours my problem was sorted and I’m now a happy customer again and letting my friends know.

As a consumer, I appreciate the value of interacting with brands online and as a PR person, I’m adopting new techniques to offer a modern, relevant service to my clients.