Interesting post on the Harvard Business Review blog that makes the case for not spreading yourself too thin when it comes to social media. While some argue that brands need to keep up and be represented on a variety of social platforms in practice this can prove challenging. Even if you consider only the biggest social networks that still means you having a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. You could add Foursquare to that — some do seem to think that it will have a good year. Read More »

Imagine the scenario: you’re a retailer and your latest marketing campaign to promote a new product drives thousands of people into your stores.  But when the customers arrive they cannot find the products on shelves, so most people leave empty-handed.

The analogy is just as true online as it is on the High Street – an optimised website that appears high in search engine rankings is of little use if, when the thousands  of online customer visit the site, they cannot find the product they want.

The solution is Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO): realising the importance of usability, and how the journey the user takes from landing on the site, is vital to whether a customer makes a purchase or not. Read More »

Earlier this year I co-authored the IAB and Microsoft’s Search & Social Media report with the delightful Amy Kean. Included in this I wrote about brands considering social network pages instead of microsites. Benefits include strong SEO performance and potentially improved user experience because people inherently know how to use the likes of Facebook. Read More »