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Why you need to Schema now, not later

Last week I came across a great thought-provoking article by Carrie Hill on Search Engine Land outlining a few underutilised ways of implementing schema.

Much of the article was technical common sense until I read the words: Schema Now, Not Later.

Anyone that has read my previous posts on Econsultancy (especially those on the Knowledge Graph) will know of my love of all things structured, which is why it was such a joy to hear others lauding the virtues of schema.org mark-up.

Social media engagement is a tactic, not a strategy

While most brands are focused on increasing social media engagement, the smart ones are looking beyond Likes, towards building genuine, long-term relationships with their customers.

I was joined in a webinar last week by Eugenie Gijsberts from Dutch bank, ABN AMRO.  

it’s one of Holland’s largest financial institutions and Eugenie, sounding remarkably genial for someone at the sharp end of corporate communications, is responsible for managing the company’s social customer services.

How Burberry uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

As a reaction to its declining fortunes a few years ago Burberry decided to overhaul its marketing strategy and the company currently allocates around 60% of its ad budget to digital.

For that reason it’s often highlighted as a brand that’s ahead of the curve in terms of social marketing.

That obviously makes it the perfect subject for our regular series looking at how major brands use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.

This follows from similar posts focusing on ASOS, H&M, Starbucks, Coca-Cola and Red Bull…

The slow death of the homepage

The slow death of the homepage is underway, in the sense that there no longer is a “home” page i.e. a page that acts as the only entranceway for visitors to access a website and its vast content.

The emergence of side doors generated through search engines, social media, mobile devices and more has morphed the homepage into a way for companies to brand themselves online rather than act solely as an access point.

Penguin 2.0: who were the winners and losers?

A few weeks have passed since Google’s long awaited and much speculated Penguin 2.0 update, and with the dust beginning to settle, we took a look at its impact in the UK.

There’s been no shortage of hype in the run-up to Penguin 2.0, with everybody’s favourite Google spokesperson and distinguished engineer Matt Cutts describing the forthcoming update as ‘a big one’ back in March.

But, so far at least, has it lived up to its billing as Google’s most advanced piece of spam-fighting technology to date?

Encouraging content collaboration through user stories

Many web projects begin with a long list of requirements submitted by various stakeholders across the organisation.

However, these ‘wishlists’ are often divorced from the needs of the user.

I spend most of my time working with clients on their digital strategy. These are large organisations, containing many stakeholders, spread over many different divisions and departments.

These organisations often lack strong digital leadership and their websites are crippled by internal politics relating to content and prioritisation.

8-highlights

Eight highlights from the Future Of Digital Marketing Malaysia

For the first time in Asia, the great and the good of the Malaysian and APAC digital marketing community gathered in Kuala Lumpur recently for the inaugral Future Of Digital Marketing (FODM) Malaysia conference.

Attended by over 400 delegates, and organised in conjunction with the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia and Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC), the event saw eight talks.

The talks echoed a key theme articulated by MDeC chief executive officer Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, that “the next wave of economic growth will come from the knowledge-based economy, with digital technology as a key driver of progress”.

Here are just some of the highlights from an excellent conference.

Twitter’s five tips for agile marketing in the moment

The beauty of Twitter for marketers is that it allows you to be agile in coming up with marketing messages and responding to your customers, which can in turn increase brand loyalty.

However this requires a certain level of creativity and planning from brands if they wish to set the right tone and avoid an epic fail.

In a talk at our Future of Digital Marketing conference Twitter’s Bruce Daisley gave his tips for how brands can set themselves up to respond effectively to current events and make the most of marketing in the moment.

The full video is available at the bottom of this post, however I thought it would be useful to pick out some of the highlights.

Daisley pointed out at the beginning of his talk that he sees Twitter as an interest network rather than a social network. This is heavily influenced by the fact that 80% of Twitter’s 10 million UK users access the service through mobile.

How Google knows what we’re thinking: enhanced campaigns and session-based search

The way we search for things is changing. We don’t use keywords on their own anymore; we ask questions of Google in a more conversational way.

Google is getting better at understanding the context of what we’re looking for, and developments like Knowledge Graph and enhanced campaigns are a direct result of that contextual understanding. 

As a result, what advertisers do in AdWords is changing too. 

AdWords Image Extensions: what’s the big deal?

Google acknowledged today that its new ad format, AdWords Image Extensions, is now available in a wider beta.

There’s not been that many pick-ups on this new ad format just yet but am sure with the wider beta adoption more will come. Now, what’s the big deal you may ask? Using imagery to support the sales and marketing process is as old as time itself.

Ground-breaking? No. But it has potential to improve qualitative metrics.

Emerging Platforms and Trends – watch our latest #IMW13 hangout live

This session will be a feast of everything new. We’ll touch on future TV, digital out of home, and the multiscreen experience. Anything you want to talk about, we will! Come join us to discuss the future of marketing and how it’ll affect what you do and when you do it. 

Update – unfortunately we suffered Google+ connectivity issues during this session, and were forced to cut the hangout short-we’ve posted the first part of the session here, and will post a follow up post with more detail soon. 

Watch the hangout live >>>

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