The internet is everywhere; we have it on our laptops, tablets and phones. We use it watch a film on the train, to shop for groceries from our living rooms and even to check our Facebook profiles before we get out of bed in the morning. So, for anyone looking to sell a product, advertise a service or simply tell the world your thoughts with a blog like this one, knowing how to get people to see what you are about is key to the success of your endeavours.

With this in mind, and combined with the fact that marketing is my bread and butter, I thought it was high time that I brushed up on my skills with a search and social media marketing course that would help drive traffic to the University of Salford website.

Success is in the search

I write a lot of content as part of my job and so personally, I was keen to use this course to get a better understanding of the processes behind creating optimised copy to maximise my SERPs rankings.

I’ve learned a lot about how you can use optimisation tools such as Google Adwords Keyword tool and WordStream in order to generate key words for content and PCC campaigns that can really make a difference to the volume and type of traffic you are attracting to your site. By using these tools to identify appropriate phrases it really is possible to increase traffic through both organic and paid for results rankings.

What your traffic says about your site

If you have ever looked at a page of analytics and had no clue what was going on then I can sympathise, but analytics tools such as Google Analytics are essential to find out more about how well your website is working and who’s looking at it.

For one, if you have just set about optimising your site, you can see exactly how your changes are affecting your traffic in real time. You can how well your landing pages are performing, work out what content is attracting people to your site and what they are doing once they are there.

The optimisation process is always ongoing, you need to tweak, review and tweak again to keep your site at its best and understand what your audience are looking for from your offering. SEO support tools such as SEOmoz can help, offering comprehensive services to keep track on what is going on behind the scenes. This in turn will help to maintain quality traffic and enhance your sales and conversion rates meaning you will (hopefully) start to see a tangible ROI for your time and effort.

It pays to be social

The world of social media can also be a confusing place, especially if you grew up in the days before the internet became a staple of everyday life and the only place you’d ever seen a mobile phone was in a film.

But today, a well co-ordinated social media campaign can really help you to get noticed online. It’s all about creating communities, starting conversations and getting your brand on people’s browsers through continued engagement.

Everyone’s heard of Facebook and Twitter – they are both great platforms where you can create a presence and start to build a following for your brand, but there are many other platforms out there that can be of use. Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Pinterest are just a few examples that can help you to create new communities and expand your existing following.

Putting theory into practice

After completing the search and social media marketing course, I feel it has helped me to consolidate my existing knowledge in these areas and allowed me to take a more co-ordinated and comprehensive approach to social media. The SEO processes I have learned are already helping me to write more effective copy and I have already started to think of new ways to engage with my target markets, such as taking advantage of emerging platforms like Google+.

Moving forward, I am looking forward to developing my new skills and hopefully seeing an improvement in the effectiveness of my online activities, and my continuing to review and refine my activities, I am sure I will be able to see a positive return for my endeavours.

Hi Everyone!

As part of the SSMM course, I have decided to carry out a brief diagnosis of Salford University’s current online brand management from an international recruitment perspective and with a focus on social media engagement.

I am an experienced international marketer with a strong interest in search and social media marketing within an international context, more precisely within the field of Higher education. I started the course hoping that my academic background in intercultural business communication and current work experience would provide me with some foundation and inspiration for the implementation of SSMM to my current field.

Attending the SSMM course has provided me with a more structured approach to online brand management and strategy thanks to the use of key tools at diagnosis stage and planning stages with the confidence that the practical and theoretical elements of the course will strengthen our marcomms plan and enable us to measure our success (for example with regards to qualitative/ quantitative data, campaign tracking, choice of key words, etc).

From a micro perspective, the SSMM course has enhanced the way that I look at content and provided me with the confidence to be more creative to really maximize content use through appropriate campaigns, media channels and more importantly to fulfil different purposes.

For example, embedding some video content in the shape of webinars, or as part of a slideshow would make content more lively and interactive and achieve different goals such as providing an insight on current experiences that international students are having on campus but also showcasing the quality of our teaching and the credentials of our academic team. Releasing this on our own site as well as social media such as Facebook and Youtube would make the content readily available and searchable for prospective international students. Another way to use video content to run short campaigns would be to put a spotlight on our international students’ opinion on a current topic, which could also be beneficial to demonstrate how engaged they are with current affairs, thereby reflecting the key selling point that our courses embed theory with real world issues. The video could be used via our established promotional networks (CRM companies, Agent network) and other social media (Facebook and twitter) where prospective international student will be naturally encouraged/ pre-disposed to comment/ respond.

As international recruitment means engaging and interacting with prospective students from a range of countries ,cultural sensitivity is required and cultural differences apply in terms of social media use. For example, students from India tend to post more statuses and pictures with a spiritual note (sayings, quotes, etc) rather than an update on their daily life as most UK students would. Chinese students typically use Facebook and instagram to illustrate their social lifestyle with pictures of special places they have been to and friends and family associated with the moment. Some prospective students may or may not click on “like” to show their willingness to be associated with a brand just like some may choose to use social media for a more immediate response from a corporation such as the university. I believe this indicates that an informal context such as social media definitely provides a platform where people seek not only responses but also a personal touch, which could in the long run reflect some form of loyalty to the brand (for example, via an alumni group on facebook, shares of pictures post graduation, click and likes , etc…) Understanding how cultural differences apply to the use of Social media will become crucial in our social media engagement strategy.

Age, demographics and other social and economic factors definitely pre-define the way prospective students use social media and this should be reflected in the way we target our international audience and the way we choose to present ourselves digitally. I found the use of HITWISE particularly interesting for that purpose but as any other good tool, there is a price to pay to be able to use it!

Another crucial point would be linguistics and key words, as overseas students may search for the same thing; for example “scholarships” but depending on the country they are from other terms might also be used such as “bursaries” “discount” “award” and there may be local preferences which could affect the SERP from a particular region. Therefore an awareness of preferred search key words is necessary depending on the region targeted.

In terms of the more technical elements of the course, although I did find them useful and interesting to learn about, I cannot say they will have as much of a direct impact on my current activities. However, the fact that I have learned about them has definitely provided me with a greater awareness of what to ask and look for when interacting with SEO/ Web teams/ agency counterparts.

Overall, the course was a very positive experience and I have really enjoyed learning about SSMM. The knowledge I have acquired will definitely help me in my current field but is definitely transferable to any other in this day and age where everything is going digital and online.

See you all online!

I’ve seen the practise of SEO described as both an art and as a science, and indeed one of my primary considerations when enrolling on the SSMM course at the University of Salford was to ensure I received an authoritative, impartial, and academically applied grounding in the subject rather than a purely commercial one.

Tackling a new art or science project can seem very daunting though, and as the weeks rolled by and multiple layers of influence in the online marketing sphere were revealed, it dawned on me how search engine marketing has many parallels with the world of sport – the concepts of which I can understand much more easily. My sport is football (soccer, if you must), but I think the principles can be extended to virtually any sport you follow – let me know if I’m wrong!

So how can a football team’s success on the pitch mirror a website’s performance on the Google playing field?

League Tables

The Search Engine Results Page (SERP) can be viewed in much the same way as a football league table – the most successful at the top, and with each page back, we can think of lower and lower divisions in the football pyramid. Just as smaller clubs still have their own supporters, so less well-optimised websites will still possess devotees, but the “big boys” at the top will continue to attract the majority of attention and new fans. It is thus the ultimate goal of each club to move up the rankings and become number one.

The Tactical Battle

Christmas trees, diamond midfields, flat back-fours, 4-4-2 or 4-3-3? If these don’t sound familiar to you then they are a selection of tactical formations football manager’s choose to line up their teams, in the hope they will best perform in that way.

A website owner needs to employ tactics in the same way, from how their site is structured (about Sitemaps) to the keyword strategy they employ. Keywords are like the best players on your team, and you want them to control the action on your website, so it is important you select the most “talented” ones you can – and play them in their strongest positions!

A number of tools are available for keyword research, and just as football clubs scout for new players – website owners need to search for terms which will strengthen their “keyword squad”.

Football managers will often check out their opposition to gain a measure of their relative strengths and weaknesses, and via tools such as Open Site Explorer, online marketing managers can do the same to gain a competitive edge.

Style of Play

In order to engage fans and keep them paying at the turnstiles, it is important to offer them a good experience. A fluid style of play with dashes of flair and inspiration, allied to displays of commitment and honesty will satisfy most football fans – and so too, quality content must be the basis of any website aiming to attract supporters and to keep them. Provide a dull, dreary slog and don’t expect to sell many season tickets.

Optimisation of imagery, copy and load speeds are fundamental to an online operation, and a grasp of the basics with a clear vision of how a site “should” work are required before any grand notions of growth and progress are considered.

Giant Killing

Unless your team is blessed with the backing of a billionaire benefactor, getting to the top and staying there is perhaps unrealistic, as the resources available to you cannot compete. Every season though, we hear of David versus Goliath clashes where the little guy wins.

Aristotle spoke of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, and this in football relates to teamwork – everyone pulling in the same direction, with no prima donnas or shirkers in the team.

In the field of marketing, if all aspects of the business are “on message” then success is more achievable. In the online competition for Page ranking, niche or well reasoned keywords can bring success to smaller enterprises who cannot compete head on with large multinationals.

Resting on Laurels

Once a level of success has been achieved, it must be tempting to soak up the glory of a job well done. Be warned though, the competition does not sit still. After a long journey to the top, and will more resources to call upon than most, Manchester City were satisfied with their squad and playing style and changed very little form the formula which brought them success. Their rivals though, Manchester United, invested and adapted resulting in a reversal of fortunes for the neighbouring clubs in the following campaign.

Liverpool F.C., for so long the dominant force in English football, failed to move on from their last championship-winning team and allowed it to become old and stale – they have never fully recovered since, as rivals became more successful and generated more revenue.

Huge high street stores such as Comet and HMV have both failed to move on with the development of online business to disastrous effect.

It is strategically vital to nurture a website in line with developments in the industry and market place, because being left behind can have dire consequences to the visibility and hence profitability of internet traders.

Rules of the Game

Football has a host of governing bodies from FIFA on the world stage, to UEFA in Europe and the FA in England. All have regulations, but the game has generally consistent rules of play which all must obey.

Search Engine Optimisation has no official rule book, but, in the Western world at least, Google can realistically be viewed as the governing body. Such is Google’s dominance as the search engine of choice, that satisfying the demands of its “algorithm” (a tool employed to measure the authority and worth of websites) can be likened to playing by the rules.

Infringements to the laws of the game in football can result in penalties and suspensions, as can infringements to Google dictates when optimising websites. There are many cautionary tales on the web relating to Google’s “Panda” and “Penguin” penalties.

Just like the offside rule in football, Google’s considerations for it’s algorithm are widely confused – but if everything were clear cut and predictable, the beautiful game would not be so exciting, would it?!

This Manager’s Future

My client, Idyll Home, are a relatively young company, and I suppose could be considered a lower division team at present. There is plenty of talent and ambition there though, and I hope to utilise the skills and knowledge acquired on the #SSMMUOS course to push for year on year promotions to the Premier League!

One thing’s for certain about SEO though…it’s a funny old game!

I’m coming to the end of my time on the Search and Social Media Marketing course at the Universtiy of Salford and it’s time to look back and analyse what I’ve learned and how I can best put it to use at work.

Let me start off by introducing myself . I‘m Rachael and I currently work in a full mix marketing role for international student recruitment at the University of Salford. My role involves all elements of the marketing mix from marketing and advertising strategy to marketing communications to writing for the web to finally….social media!

My experience of social media is somewhat of a mixed bag. Personally I’m a big user of social media with profiles on facebook, twitter, linkedin, bebo(i know, im too old), pinterest…..but professionally there have been some nerves. This is where the course has informed me and given me some ideas for future working. But let’s start at the beginning.

Where are we now?

Working for a large public sector organisation, we’re not the most dynamic or organised when it comes to embracing “new technologies” on a wide scale. What tends to happen, which I suspect may be the same across many industries, is that you have a large handful of people across the organisation who are particularly interested in social media (and I count myself in this group) who try to use this for professional purposes. And then you have the rest!!! There is somewhat of an ingrained fear that there are so many platforms we wouldn’t know where to start or that we will post something unsuitable, and inadvertently take down the organisation in one foul tweet, which all too often results in an “if you can’t do it all, do nothing” approach.

So, what happens?

When there is a culture like this I suppose it makes sense that we stick to the main platforms that even the most anti-social media among us have had some exposure to, ie Facebook and Twitter. This at the very least gives us a social media presence if only for back and forth communication on a small scale.

What should we do?

This is where I feel the search and social media marketing course has made a real impact on my thinking. I felt at beginning the course that I had quite a decent knowledge of social media. However, what I’ve been missing, and what I feel many marketers in a role like mine are probably missing is the importance of the “search” aspect. This one element should inform the whole of the rest of the strategy – both social and other! Tools like SEOMOZ and Opensiteexplorer, the classic Google analytics and tweetdeck newer tools like found can and should first be used to determine what your customers are searching for and how and most importantly if you’re website and social presence is measuring up – this can then inform how and where you need to engage with them socially.

EG: At the moment we find that international students use our facebook page as a customer service type forum to ask questions . We have always put this down to the fact that the majority of our digital advertising is via facebook and therefore encourages this type of interaction – however, could this actually be a symptom of our website not delivering the answers or that our website is not ranking highly for the search terms they are entering?!

We also use twitter for a more “social” interaction, and I have to admit I’ve been slow to adapt this for the international market due to the nature of enquiry on facebook. I’ve fallen into the trap of fear that I won’t be able to respond in time and it will have a negative impact on our brand!!

The problem is with a small team, we can’t do it all. However, each week following our class I come home with a list as long as my arm of new tools to try new ways of optimizing, new link building ideas and the strong feeling that we are way behind where we need to be.

So, how do we change this?

Well, I think the first step is to look at your target market and look at all of the social media channels available to them. For me, working with international enquirers and applicants I need to be aware of what channels they are using not only to search for courses and universities but also to get more information be it from the uni or from peers. How are they searching? What are the lead in times for the conversion of an international student ie how long before the start of a course do they start to research? Are they using directory sites or are they going straight to google/bing etc. Are they using long or short tail searches? What course titles make sense internationally? Do they search in English or in their own language? Are they social media savvi or would they prefer the traditional contact of email and phone?

It is knowing the answers to these questions that will inform a future social media strategy for the sake of international student recruitment.

And most importantly I need to remember…. you don’t need to be on every platform, just be where your customers expect you to be! Easy eh? I’ll keep you posted on my progress. Thanks for reading.

My initial motivation for joining this Search and Social Media Marketing course was to learn about social media and how I could leverage it as part of my marketing planning when I was ready to start a website to become an entrepreneur.

Build a website for free?

Unfortunately I am starting from grassroots level, and I don’t even know how to make a web page.  Well, not quite true.  My thoughts were :  “How can I get a website for free ?”, so I went on a 1-day WordPress course to learn to do it myself.  But of course to start a website like I am planning, will require far more complexity and development, whilst also considering other important aspects such as SEO factors, how to build in marketing planning upfront, and not forgetting about social media and its impacts.

I did manage to do one trial and start a website – a little website – for a charity I run called Children of Africa.  It’s not quite complete, but do take a look – this is what can be built in a day.  Of course it is still missing rather a lot of necessary website content, but that will come in time.

Impact of the course on my planning

I have been blown away at how much I have learnt over the past 10 weeks.  My approach on how to make a web page has been dramatically altered.  I would never have understood the importance of website content, about social media and how powerful it can be, or how to think about the marketing planning upfront.

I hope to start working on my new website very soon.  The planning is going very well, and I am trying to incorporate everything from the course as I go along.  I believe I have identified a niche in the market, and really hope that I will be able to capitalise on that, to provide a service that almost every home-owner may want to consider at some point in time.

I promise that this budding entrepreneur will return and update this article once it is up and running, but until then you can either follow the journey on my blog, or just … Watch this space!

I initially joined the search and social media course at Salford University to update my knowledge on how best to attract and engage with the potential new customers in Manchester, and therefore grow my business. My business is Blush Dance, a pole dance, aerial fitness and burlesque dance studio, we have a website and all the usual social media platforms, where we post pictures from classes, videos of our dance performances and parties. Most of our class participants find us online, however I was keen to use all of these formats together with more effect so I signed up to the course to help me understand how I could do the online thing with much more sass.

In four weeks I have acquired new knowledge and implemented strategies to help improve my online marketing. For example I learnt my website ranked in the first 4 listings on google for keywords such as Pole Dance Classes in Manchester, however search pole dancing lessons and we were only just making the first page. Using tools such as the keyword master and searching incognito in Google chrome proved a healthy way to monitor how we were being viewed by potential clients, and how they were searching for us.

I have learnt the importance of good content and am putting into practice how to work my keywords into interesting articles to engage and attract customers to my website. I am improving my ability to getting all the key words in the right order, and finding high authority websites which are interested in publishing content about increasing dance skills, strength, co-ordination or flexibility. I have started with our current clients, a list of dance studios offering a range of lessons. I checked their page authority through opensiteexplorer and I will be writing interesting articles for their clients, which integrates keywords to create reciprocal links and help increase traffic between both businesses.

I was already sold on the importance of social media for business marketing, we daily engage with our dance students via facebook and twitter. In the past I have received direct sales from both facebook and twitter, so I particularly enjoyed learning about socialmention and twitter chat. I plan on using these to check the strength of my brands’ social media presence. I will be putting together a strategy and setting targets to monitor my websites progress. I will also be using Twitter chat to enable me to discover the pole and aerial fanatics who are engaging in discussions surrounding my expertise on twitter and also plan on hosting my own pole and aerial dance twitter chats.

So thanks to all the help from the industry experts, peers and tutors at Salford University I now have more knowledge and confidence to put together an online marketing strategy for my dance business and lots of new knowledge and goals to improve our online presence.

Hit by Google Panda? Problems with SEO? Poor ranking web site?

These were some of the issues my company Dayinsure had. Dayinsure usually ranked well for most search terms but in particular Temporary Car Insurance and Short Term Car Insurance, were always listed in the top 3 of SERPs.

Thanks Google Panda!! At the end of February 2012, our visitor numbers suddenly dropped by around 60%. Some of our more long tail keywords hadn’t changed but our main search terms had plummeted down the rankings. Our current SEO company, although helping with good rankings for our long tail keywords, couldn’t seem to repair our Google Panda hit!

SEO for most businesses is quite a scary subject, or dark art as some call it but as an I.T. company, we wanted to try and understand it. We looked for courses that may help us and found that the University of Salford run a Search and Social Media Marketing course, so I booked onto it.

The training takes place at Media City in Manchester and is a fantastic place to learn. And right from the start, you realise that SEO is not as scary as first thought. If there is one thing to take from the course, it’s the words, “Content is King”. Content is so important. Reading it, sharing it, liking it, tweeting it or blogging about it. How ever your content is used, it’s important when your write it that it is relevant to the subject and is written in a natural matter so no keyword stuffing etc.

The course has helped us to understand the correct way to implement SEO. I’m not an SEO expert yet but having a basic understanding of the rules and the things that you should be doing really help. Attending this course will help you communicate with your SEO agency in better ways or allow you to bring SEO in-house, just be aware that SEO is not something you should do if you have a spare couple of hours here and there. You need to spend a lot of time on SEO in keyword research, writing content, internal and external link building, social media and others.

I would recommend this course to anybody who has been hit by Panda or Penguin, or anyone who just wants to understand SEO. One other great thing about the course is the industry experts each week. These experts spend over an hour each week explaining their industry expertise and how you can apply the same techniques. You can even ask them advice about your own web site and they are more than happy to help.

Have you been hit by a Google Algorithm update or have a similar story? Ask me a question or just get yourself on the next course!

Q. How do I know half of SEO companies can’t be trusted?

A. Because the other half tell me so. . .

In fact I get told quite a lot by SEO companies so I thought I would attend Salford University’s SSMM course to help me make an informed decision when it comes to choosing a future SEO partner.   Previous to joining the course finding an SEO specialist wasn’t too difficult as there are not too many days go by when I don’t receive an email or a sales call from an SEO company.   They generally all start the same:

“Just been looking at your website, it’s really good but I couldn’t help noticing. . .”

At this point the pitch takes one of two approaches – either the use of vanity or fear to get my attention and the sale.

• Vanity in terms of getting my site onto page 1 of Google and ahead of my competitors. Because surely that’s where I’d like to be.
• Fear because apparently there are Panda’s and Penguin’s roaming the internet that are taking no-prisoners when it comes to poorly managed websites.

From here I’m told there are a lot of SEO companies that can’t deliver what they promise so I should be careful who I trust my business with.

I should explain . . .

Let me clear up one point I don’t work for large blue-chip organisation whose company logo would appear on an SEO companies website as sign of kudos and respectability.   The company I work for, Wray Bros www.wraybros.co.uk is good at what it does and I believe has an enviable reputation in the B2B janitorial sector.

Nevertheless, it isn’t a household name nor is it a company with a huge marketing budget.  So for all the courting I don’t kid myself we are a marquee signing.  As an aside, I’ve often wondered – As we have a limited budget does that mean I’ll always be fishing from a poorer quality pool of SEO specialists?

Or could the same observations be made with companies blessed with much larger marketing budgets and recognised brands? Perhaps someone from a blue chip company could shed some light whether all things are relative?

As mentioned the intention is to use the information gained from the SSMM course to build my knowledge to become more effective in my search for the right SEO partner and to become a more productive and contributing client.

The original plan

The plan was to review potential supplier websites to determine if they follow the best practices as highlighted on the course.  Some of the tools I was keen to use to compare SEO companies

• Google page Speed Insights: Google Page Speed Insights.  A higher score would tell me those sites that have invested time in making sure their site is running efficiently to enhance the user experience.
• To review their own company and staff blogs to see what makes them tick and what they’re passionate about.
• Use Open Site Explorer or Firefox SEO Book in order to benchmark across a number of potential suppliers to determine how they perform in regards the number of linking domains and their domain authority to see how they could rank against each other

A change of direction

However, the more I learned from the course and listening to guest experts talk in-depth about best practices for on-site optimisation and use of social media etc it dawned on me whatever quirks the SEO companies I have come into contact with may have a fair amount of the problems of unmet expectations have come from myself.  There you go, I’ve said it – I’m a customer who isn’t always right!

I have since come to realise whereas I thought when I employed an SEO specialist I was paying for knowledge and results, in-fact in now understand I am paying for knowledge and their time.  As I have a limited budget what can I realistically expect of someone to achieve with limited time.

Perhaps, if I think and act differently I can use that limited budget more effectively?

The new plan of action

Over the following months the intention is to differentiate the Wray Bros website from the many competitors within the janitorial supplies market.  The plan and the starting point is to get back to basics and ensure the redeveloped website foundations are sound before considering new activities such as proactive link building or using social media.

The first phase of the plan is not to get fixated by traffic volume but concentrate on the conversion rate.  This is to be achieved by becoming an authority in our field by developing unique and helpful content.

One aspect of the janitorial market is that the majority of distributors use the same images and copy supplied to them by the manufacturers without thought of its suitability for the web or the fact their own competitors are using exact same material.

First phase for redeveloped website is to improve the on-site optimisation

• Re-visit the product copy to make it engaging, keyword effective and more importantly original
• Develop supporting content that help a user make an informed decision, i.e. produce user guides COSHH risk assessment documents, dilution guides and best value guides, e.g. microfibre mops or traditional mops.
• Fully optimise the site’s 4000 product images through better constructed file names and alt attributes to help differentiate from the competition
• Re-visit the sites title tag structure and ensure I was targeting relevant keywords
• The urls have been improved by using hyphens and removing surplus or irrelevant terms and again using the relevant keywords.
• Whilst the approach has been to improve the content and visual appearance we have also been mindful not to impact on load times.
• From the first phase I want to create some meaningful metrics. I’m proposing to:
  • Monitor visitor duration and page views to determine if the content is making a difference.
  • As we sell consumables I’m interested in new sales. Yet the key metric will be the number of repeat purchasers.

Second phase activities include

• The same supporting content mentioned above will be used as the basis for creating a knowledge bank blog.  The intention is to provide free knowledge and advice on cleaning and hygiene issues in order to become a company worth knowing.
• Actively seek customer feedback and star reviews for the site to help build trust and credibility
• Build in time to commence a link building programme
• Review user behaviour and re-visit the site content to determine how to improve visitor numbers

Finally, what is my view on SEO companies and my limited budget?

The Salford University course has definitely provided me with some useful skills to be more self-reliant yet it has also made me realise the value of a good SEO specialist.   I believe I can use that limited budget more effectively with especially with specific targeted activities? So the next step is to find an SEO specialist and now I know that easily more than half of SEO companies CAN be trusted.

Hey there,

So i’m now on attempt two of attempting to enter the blogging world so you’re in for a treat!

To give you some context we’ve been asked to write a blog post about a topic that we’re aware of that’ll let us demonstrate our skills – currently this is going well as I’m being forced to write this on two keyboards – one where the letter ‘b’ doesn’t work and the other doesn’t have a working ‘ctrl’ or ‘space’ – clearly the first rule of social media and blogging is test your equipment first!

So to give you some background I should start off with a topic that i know about – me and where I work. My name is Huw and I work in undergraduate admissions in the School of Social Sciences of the University of Manchester (Hence the witty title!) basically if you want a Degree in Development Studies, Course in Criminology or a Programme in Politics then let us know. Most of my role involves various admissions processes but where it comes into Search and Social Media (and the reason i’m here) is that I am also responsible for updating areas of our website and course information profiles.

So this blog post will be talking (briefly) about some of what I’ve learnt though the course, we’ll also be doing a presentation about this at the open evening where hopefully i’ll be expanding the points below with what i do not and what i’m hoping to do. I just wanted to raise a few key points that I’ve taken away from this course. Nothing technical – but just how my awareness of how SSMM is increasingly important and not how if we’re not making the best use of this then we’re just missing a trick.

• Search and Social Media Marketing is a mindset – It’s not something that I’d considered too much in the past- concentrating more on just providing information that was useful but paying attention to what you’re writing , why?, who are you talking to?, what tone are you using? and how will people find and access this information? Even subtle changes to language and tone can be effective and structuring keywords and optimising your page can mean that your content is even more accessible. If you have better content and more people can find it then it’s win-win!

• You’re not writing or designing for yourself – Whilst this sounds a bit obvious it is an easy trap to fall into – designing content for a website that appeals to you but not necessarily your target audience is a bit of a danger – forms of communication and the forms of social media that you might use need to be appropriate and it might be the case that your users want a different experience than you intend- also expect the unexpected – your users won’t necessarily find content or perform actions in the way or order that you would expect them to – with Search such an integral part of the web experience people will pop in and out everywhere so it’s best to be prepared!

• Content is King – definitely a phrase that you will hear repeatedly on the Search and Social Media Marketing course! – it’s familiar because it is so vital. Marketing campaigns or improving Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is helpful, but it is engaging – unique content that will attract people. We’re on the web for a reason – whether it is to provide information, engage with people or sell things – but it is only your content that will get your users to this end point!

• Social Media is Social – Again this seems like fairly common sense but from the examples that I’ve seen it’s important that you’re talking with and not talking at people – engagement can be really useful – particularly where you’re trying to build a sense of community or stronger sense of brand. Key though is that you need to know what you’re doing before you get started (i do now!) and that what you’re doing and the social media that you’re using is appropriate for what you want to do. Don’t just have social media for the sake of it- but it really can work for you if done well.

Well – That’s just some of the things i’ve picked up (amongst the many others) – hopefully this is useful for you – though if you have any ideas about what you feel are the most important concepts in SSMM i’d be really interested in hearing them – please comment or tweet me (seamless social media usage there?) @huw.peters

Thanks for reading!

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