My communication with some clients has shown that, understanding search is also hard for them (and of course it should be as it is not their industry, try asking me what I know about engineering!…).

To try and overcome this problem I have put together a guide to search jargon that I hope will help those who don’t know much about search marketing to understand what we do. Most of the terms described are in the simplest form and are of course far more technical in reality.

Search Engines – are machines that index other websites, allowing you to search using a specified choice of word. Search engines exist to the user as a web page. However, behind the scenes the engine is running a complex set of algorithms, which are configured by developers to bring up the most relevant results depending on the search term

Algorithm (algo) – is a program used by search engines to determine what pages to bring up in search results for a given search query – its the technicality that goes on behind the scenes when we enter a search term

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – is the term used to describe actions associated with researching, optimising and positioning a website within search engines to achieve maximum exposure for that website.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – is the process of increasing the number of visitors to a website by achieving  a high rank in the search results of a search engine. The higher a site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that users will visit the site. Research indicates that users tend not to click past the first page of search results, therefore high rank in search engine results pages is desirable for obtaining traffic to a site. SEO, and the processes associated with it, help to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be indexed and favourably ranked by the search engine.

Target Search Engines – this is the choice of search engines targeted in a particular campaign, the most popular targets are Google, Yahoo and Bing. You might also target the same search engines in different countries.

SERPs – this is shorthand for Search Engine Results Pages, and refers to the pages of search results that are generated when a user types in a key word or phrase into the search box.

Organic Search Engine Results – are sometimes called natural results; these are what are displayed right down the centre of the Results Page when you search at a search engine. Although they are supposed to occur naturally they can be manipulated by using SEO techniques and in most cases are not paid for directly to any search engine.

Organic Search (campaign) – refers to the strategies and tactics implemented by SEO professionals to improve the organic search results for a brand or set of key words/phrases.

Paid Search (campaign) – this is also known as PPC (pay per click). It is when a relevant text advert with a link to a company page is displayed in search engine results when the user of a search engine types in a particular phrase. Companies bid for rankings and the bid amouint is  charged every time someone clicks on the ad. The most common PPC provider is Google AdWords, and you can recognise AdWords as the results which appear as ’sponsored listings’ at the top of the page and on the right hand side.

Keyword / Key Phrase – is the word or phrase that a  search engine user enters into a search engine when searching for something – for example if I am searching for Tesco, the keyword I might type in is ’supermarket’.

Keyword Research – is the hard work carried out by SEO professionals of determining which keywords are appropriate for targeting in an SEO Campaign.

Target Key Phrases – are a highly researched list of keywords or phrases that have been selected as appropriate to target after extensive keyword research. In order to create target key phrases Zeta undertakes a complex key phrase analysis and research process.

Primary Key Phrases (PKP’s) – this is a term used to group the most important key phrases in a campaign. The primary key phrases are deemed the most competitive, have the highest search volumes and are the most relevant.

Brand Key Phrases – are key phrases that feature a brand name or the brand names of products stocked or sold by a supplier– e.g. if our client was Pepsico -  Pepsi drink, Pepsi can, Walkers Crisps, Pepsi would be brand key phrases.

Non-Brand Key Phrases – are keywords or phrases related to a brand, products or services but not mentioning the brand name itself – e.g. (with relation toPepsico again) drinks manufacturer, drink cans, cola, fizzy cola.

Analytics – the most common analytics program is Google Analytics. In simple terms Analytics is used to gain, analyse an report statistics and data relating to website usage, traffic and conversions.

If I have missed any out which you would like us to define please let me know.

The debate between these teams rarely stops here at Zeta. We work through our individual desires together for each project and by listening to one another (with the occasional raised voice) we achieve results that we can all be proud of.

However, workflow can sometimes dictate that we need to outsource development to one of the many extremely talented teams that Zeta occasionally work with externally.

Getting your design vision across when elements cannot be discussed in real-time  and face to face can be tricky, so here are a few of the techniques we use to help communicate our work in order to minimise project time scales and deliver outstanding results on budget.

1. Layer Comps

Photoshop layer composites are all too often neglected by designers. Developers should not have to manually turn layers on and off to find different elements or pages in your design. By learning to use layer comps correctly you can be sure that your work is being viewed in the way you intended. It will also cut down the weight of your psd. You do not need to duplicate layers when they have different styles or positions. Layers comps will do all of this for you. There are also scripts attached to these layer comps (accessible via the file menu) which will automate saving the different stages of your design in one easy click.http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/photoshop/articles/phscs2mrlaycomp.html

2. Photoshop Animation

When designing motion elements (flash/javascript etc) it’s useful for both the designer and developer to animate the interaction roughly. It can give you a much better idea of the user flow and conveying movement in words only is asking for trouble, even basic movement is better than a static storyboards and descriptions. I’d advise you to create a separate psd for your animation file though because merging and rasterising multiple layers can become useful when animating.

3. Design Elements psd
Separate your websites interactive elements into one psd. One file with your buttons states will save a lot of time later in the project. Think about disabled button states, default, rollover and visited styles. The more information you get across at this stage the happier you’ll be with the results.

4. Collaboration Suites
Being able to annotate your work and explain design elements to developers is crucial. Remember as well that’s it’s a two way street, you shouldn’t just be telling people what to do. Any creative process is improved when all the parties involved feel their opinion is valid and if you can’t have that conversation in real-time somewhere to have a creative conversation is vital. There are several creative collaboration suites to choose from. Here at Zeta we use Concept Share. I can highly recommend it.

5. Screen casting
Ever taken instructions off someone and wished you could listen to what they said just one more time? Notes from phone conversations never cut it, so screen cast your thoughts and send a video. Your developer can take it one point at a time or go back and clarify points as and when they chose. You don’t get inundated with questions and the developer knows exactly what they are doing, everybody’s happy.

Communication is key in any creative environment and in my experience these are definitely some of the best ways to work smarter rather than harder when overseas development is necessary.

The purpose of our trip was to see exactly how green coffee beans are roasted, quality tested and packaged. It was also a great opportunity for us to meet the PR team who will be working on the launch of one of Rogers new exciting products. Watch this space for more news!

It was a particularly interesting day for me (apart from having to get up at 5.30 in the morning) as it was my first visit to the plant. Having worked on the Rogers Estate Coffees account for almost 2 months now it was great to finally meet some of the UK team and experience the coffee roasting process – that I have spent hours writing about. And not to mention the incredible coffee aromas throughout the factory that certainly kept me awake!

I was extremely surprised that the roasting process is managed by just a small team of very capable and hands on people. Although they use machinery, there is also a lot of attention to detail required from the workers to roast the coffee beans. For example each batch of coffee is roasted for between 17-20 minutes, and under different temperatures  according to the required strengths and flavours. Graham, the master roaster, keeps a watchful eye on the temperature control gague to ensure the perfect roast.

The best part of the roasting process was learning about ‘cupping’ – when Graham taste tests each and every batch of coffee for colour and taste, and we also got the chance to test one of the freshly made batches.

I (@aimeecarmichael)  appointed myself chief photographer that day – check out my lovely pics  on our flickr account here: www.flickr.com/photos/zetadigital, there are some great shots of @bradfry and @willcustard in blue hair nets!

Visit the Rogers Estate Coffees website to learn more about the coffee roasting process!

Google go on to recommend upgrading to one of the following:-
• IE – At least Version 7
• Firefox – Version 3+
• Google Chrome – Version 4+
• Safari – Version 3+

As Project Manager at Zeta I would go further and recommend that you install the most current version of your chosen browser as IE 7 is already outdated with IE 8 being the current version of Internet explorer.

With Google now running as much as 13% of all active internet sites either directly or on behalf of one of the various services Google provides, this is going to make it very difficult for people to put off upgrading for much longer.

So what are you waiting for… Update your web browser now if you have not already!

As technology becomes increasingly pervasive in all our lives we need to be able to interact with it more efficiently.  Computers are okay when you’re at your desk, but there’s so many times when you need to access the web where turning on your computer is too time consuming and your smart phone interface is too fiddly to use (yes even on the iPhone).

What is the semantic web?

The web we know today is designed for humans. We can efficiently navigate between 1000s of databases and accomplish tasks that would have been really time consuming only a few years ago, but these databases are not designed for machines so we often find ourselves have to struggle to interact with many systems to achieve what are, in principle, simple tasks.

Let’s look at an example.

The iPad on the move in the semantic age

In semantic age I might use my iPad as a GPS device in my car.

I jump in my car at 10am and select my destination from my address book, it’s a 4-hour journey so the iPad asks if I want to stop for lunch on the way. I choose a time and place that will be a nearby at 1pm and we set off.

As I set off it queries the database at trafficmaster.co.uk to check for any areas that are moving slower than unusual and picks the best route based on the time of day I am travelling.
To keep me entertained, it chooses some music for me using my last.fm profile: cross referencing the time of day with the kind of music I typically play.

It already knows how much fuel I have in my car because every time I fill up it makes a note of how far I travelled since the last stop and it checks my credit card statement to see how much fuel I put in. Looks like I don’t have enough fuel to get where I’m going so it asks petrolprices.com  where it can find the cheapest petrol on-route taking into account the cost of the detour – it just saved me eight quid by taking me on a ten-minute diversion.

As I cross into the congestion charging zone my it pays my fees for me right away – no sense waiting: it doesn’t get any cheaper.

I arrive at my destination effortlessly and pull into the nearby council car park. After stopping for a few seconds it asks if I would like to pay for parking and how long I plan to stay. My account is debited and Boris is happy.

And just for good measure, my iPad noticed that one of my friends, whom I haven’t seen for a while, is also in town today; so we exchanged emails and meet up for a coffee.

So with just a score-or-fewer taps on my iPad I have completed an array of database interactions that would take me the best part of an hour to achieve using today’s technology.
All of these things are possible using current devices (an iPhone or another GPS enabled smart phone)  but the human has to do all the heavy lifting. As the web evolves all these systems will be able to talk to one another and we will be free to sit back and enjoy ride.

More little tasks for us

Technology is providing us with an ever-increasing array of systems to make things “easier”. But it all adds up to more and more little tasks for us to do. More things I can’t be bothered to turn my computer on for.

The iPad is a great advance in human-machine interfacing. It’s a natural way to accomplish all these little tasks with a lot less effort, with a device you can have to hand and that is already sitting in standby mode waiting.

What the iPad is

The iPad does everything most people do on their computers every day. The “average user” doesn’t need vast amounts of storage or processing power, they just want to browse the web, watch a movie and send a few emails. If Apple are to be believed the iPad does all these things better than a  computer. And let’s face it – the interface of the modern computer has only had one major evolution in 50 years – the addition of a mouse wheel.

The iPad doesn’t do anything new – like the iPhone it does everything people really want but better. If you have used the multi-touch track pad on the latest MacBooks you will already have an insight into how slick this thing is going to be.

People will tell you that you can get all this in other devices with higher specs and lower prices – but that doesn’t mean a thing. I bought a MacBook Air – the lowest specced and highest priced laptop on the market – because it did exactly what I needed perfectly, millions of people have chosen the iPhone over more powerful devices for the same reason.

What’s missing?

For me the biggest disappointment both in the iPad and iPhone 3GS is the absence of a video conferencing facility. I can image a device like this would be perfect for iChat video calls with the family that you can make casually wherever you find yourself instead of sat in front of a desktop computer. A device like that would finally bring video calls into the mainstream.

But I guess they have to save something to make people upgrade in 18 months time.

The worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean in 200 years struck Haiti on Tuesday 12th January 2010. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck near the Haitian Capital of Port-au-Prince, where it devastated the tiny nation, causing an unknown number of deaths and widespread destruction.

Social Media was the first to tell the story

Despite being the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti’s Internet connected devices were key implements in telling the rest of the globe about the emerging crisis.

Twitter

Twitter was a key tool for distributing images and information from Haiti — just as it has been in a number of other crises across the globe. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that images sent via Twitpic and other Twitter-based photo services were hitting the Internet long before news agencies produced anything similar. And as Haitian officials were giving their reports on what happened, eyewitness accounts from Haitians in messages of 140 characters or less were already widespread. People were given further insight when the Los Angeles Times published a list of Twitter users believed to be tweeting from Haiti.

Wordpress

A Wordpress-powered blog called Haitifeed is also delivering a steady stream of first-hand accounts as well as mainstream media reports from across the globe.

Facebook

On Facebook, a group called Earthquake Haiti now has over 230,000 members. The group is largely being used for people to show support and trade news reports; however, there are some users who seem to be posting critical information including pleas for help to injured Haitians.
Skype

With telephone service toppled due to the earthquake, those on the ground turned to Skype to speak with the media, aid organisations, or to communicate with loved ones overseas. A Connecticut-based missionary organization that works in Haiti used Skype to communicate with their people there to get a sense of the devastation. Pedre also used Skype to give CBS News and many other media organizations a first-hand report about Haiti’s crisis.

Social media tools are emerging as a new type of news media, especially during times of crisis communications, were such channels are being used to primarily disseminate information about the happenings to the rest of the world as and when it is happening. Even US Rappers such as Busta Rhymes, P Diddy, Kanye West  use their fame via social media platforms to urge donations and spread the word to fans and followers alike http://hhboard.ihiphop.com/hip-hop-news/456798-diddy-kanye-west-tony-yayo-more-plead-haiti-earthquake-relief.html

To read the full version of this article visit Aimee’s Blog: http://easywriting.co.uk/2010/01/18/haiti/

The hackers were able to exploit security vulnerabilities in the 10-year-old browser and operating system  combination of IE6 on Windows XP.

This was a zero-day exploit, which means it was a new-found vulnerability that the vendor (in this case Microsoft) and antivirus / security companies were unaware of. Meaning there was no security fix for this issue.

The main reason many companies including high-street names and government organisations  are still using this dated browser is applications they need to use were not written to be standards compliant and instead were specifically written to work in IE6. This means that despite the fact we have already gone through IE7 and now onto IE8 the old dinosaur of IE6 will not die.

The lesson to be learnt for project sponsors and developers is: if you are creating or designing an application, make sure you future-proof your applications and investment by ensuring you are compliant with the most current standards – rather than tying yourself to a single browser or vendors’ technology – as that will always end up holding you back in the future.

As an internet user, as well as using a good antivirus program, always make sure that you are using the most up-to-date versions of your web browser to increase security.  You might also consider using one of the alternatives to Internet Explorer: Safari, Firefox and Chrome.  Microsoft applications -  which include IE – have been reported as one of the top programs to hack by cyber criminals (Forbes 2009).

The original comments by Hands, were originally published by the Times on the 26th December 2009 (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6968036.ece)

I understand the design industries reaction to the comments made by Hands, his comment of;
“Modern graphic design [software] packages surely allow anyone with an average brain to design something as good as, or better than, what we see in front of us here”

first made steam blow out of my ears, but looking at the new NHS logo you can understand why someone of little design experience would think this. If you only look at the finished product of the NHS logo you might also question the high cost for this project. However, if you have ever worked with the public sector you might know of the tedious processes and meetings you have to go through to get a contract started, never mind completed.

Many companies say that when they take on public sector work there is rarely a clear proposal that provides a good understanding of what is required. This is followed by endless drawn out meetings where design ideas are pondered over by people with no relevant qualifications or experience who only know what they don’t like and invariably throw out the best ideas.

I believe the main problem is the projected processes the public sector is chained to which only makes it possible for large companies, that are geared up to cope with the bureaucratic process, to compete for PS contracts.

Greg Hands says; ‘Surely adding two digits doesn’t need to be outsourced at all. Civil servants can do this themselves.’ On the face of it £12,000 for what seems to be a poorly executed logo does seem excessive but what we don’t know is the journey the agency was put through to get to the point of the final design. It could well be that £12,000 doesn’t adequately compensate them for the time and commitment made? We don’t know.

What we do know is that if the Public Sector cleaned up and simplified the processes it uses to award and manage these outsource projects it would bring the agencies costs down. That in its self would make way for a larger variety of providers to have a chance to compete for PS contracts and this could bring considerable benefits.

Picture this;

Whilst I am watching some week night TV with a glass of red wine after a hard day at work, I browse at my Facebook status update feed on my Blackberry. The topic choice seems to be inundated with one word statements of colour. Yes, a substantial amount of my Facebook friends are quoting different colours as their status updates. The majority are partial to ‘white’ at least that is what I noticed.

I assumed these bizarre actions were symbolic of the British nation’s fascination with the snow we have been receiving in the last few days… white being the colour of snow etc….

The Answer

Unbeknown to me until I reached work this morning, this heavy shower of colour themed status updates on Facebook was the making of a clever viral marketing ploy, rumoured to have been designed to raise awareness of breast cancer. It seems the idea was for people, namely females, to state the colour of the bra they were wearing, but males were getting involved too.
Right okay, so… I have discovered that most of my friends wear white underwear then…

I Tweet searched ‘Facebook colour’ ‘Breast cancer awareness’ and similar terms to find a plethora of interesting tweets confirming that this was in fact the reason.

How exactly does this help Breast Cancer Awareness?

A question many people were asking across Twitter is “I don’t see how telling all your Facebook friends your bra colour is helping breast cancer”?

Good point! But we need to look outside the box to see the positive impact of this from a PR and Marketing perspective. After all (although the altruistic nature of charities can be debated) the aim of Breast Cancer charities is (or should be) to increase awareness of breast cancer so that the public can spot the signs early and seek medical help. Therefore if the Twitter searches alone is anything to go by, it seems that my colleagues and I were not the only ones out there intrigued to find out what was going on. The social media conversations surrounding breast cancer and Facebook colour status questions have exploded. A quick search on Google further confirms that thousands of us were posting on forums and discussion boards in desperate need to find out why our friends were telling us what colour bra they were wearing.

So whilst this is not curing breast cancer or directly calling people to donate money, it has certainly created a big hype and awareness surrounding the issue… and in the words of one great twitter user, “the fact we tweeted & asked bare Qs raised our awareness!”

What does this mean?

It seems the most effective campaigns are user led rather than brand led. If you notice there is no information to say this viral was started by a cancer charity (in fact rumours on the web say it was started by a group of girls who wanted to confuse their male friends!) who it was started by and its purpose is irrelevant. It sparked the online conversation about a topic and this is the effect that more and more brands are looking to do via social media outlets.

This is not the first and will not be the last example of the power of social media, only two weeks ago we last witnessed the unrivalled power of Social Media, when Rage Against the machine beat XFactor winner Joe to Christmas number one (check out Henry’s blog post on The Rage Against The Machine Facebook Campaign).

Measurable effects of the colour campaign

I will update this blog post tomorrow with some statistics from Google insights to see how search terms were affected during this campaign.

Additional Information

Check out the Guardian’s Review about why 2009 was the year of Facebook: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/28/facebook-users-social-network

Yesterday Rage Against the Machine (RATM) become the first UK Christmas number one from downloads alone. The Facebook group “Rage against the machine for Christmas no.1” boasts 975,476 members and was the catalyst to the most exciting chart battle for years. The Facebook campaign directly challenged the X Factor’s dominance for the Christmas No 1 slot – X Factor winners have dominated Christmas number ones for the last four years.

Over the last ten years we have witnessed a communication revolution. The rise of online shopping, the blogging phenomenon, iPhones and smart phones and online advertising spend overtaking TV advertising. The rise of social media has shaken up the marketing and advertising industry by introducing new dynamics to communication.

The RATM Facebook campaign really highlights the digital revolution we have experienced and thus makes a perfect end to 2009. It proves that online campaigns can make a serious impact on society and firmly reinforces social media as one of the most important technology developments of the past decade (and possibly the last 50 years).

If you think traditionally the X Factor single should have won. It had:

• A 12-14 week show on Saturday and Sunday nights
• A proven history of successful X Factor number ones with four previous winners
• A hugely successful record label financing the single
• High street sales; HMV, etc

The RATM campaign had

• £0 financing and marketing budget
• No store sales
• And a song which was 15 years old

But where it lacked in investment it scored in emotional connections with the UK population. Facebook gave people the opportunity to really make a difference and be heard. The viral campaign spread within days and topped 500,000 members in under a week.

The power of social media cannot be ignored. It has challenged the traditional forms of advertising. Consumers will be heard and must be listened to. Brands which do not listen will simply not be around in the future. Companies need to move their communication efforts to where their target consumers are, and many statistics show that as of 2009 more and more of us are spending time online especially engaging on social media.