Archive for October, 2009

Google Sidewiki, what does it mean to your business?

Friday, October 30th, 2009

For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Google Sidewiki it is a tool that can be installed onto your browser and allows you to add information or comments to a web page. These notes can then be viewed by other visitors to that website.

Side wiki screenshot

The benefit of Sidewiki is that it is of course another way of sharing knowledge online, passing on comments, thoughts and advice which may be useful to other users of a website. The downside of Sidewiki for businesses is that it does exactly that, allows users to leave comments on their website.

This of course can be beneficial to a business if people are contributing in a positive manner, however, on the occasion a business may encounter negative press or come under criticism for this, that or the other. With the introduction and the growing popularity of Sidewiki businesses could face having negative comments and reviews haunting their website.

Google claim to be ranking each comment within the Sidewiki based on relevance, determined by the writers previous contribution and feedback from other users- users have the ability to mark whether the comment was useful and report abuse. It is doubtful that these safeguards will do anything to protect businesses, or any brand for that matter, from users looking to spread malicious and defamatory claims around the internet. Given the influence user generated content has upon customers decision making it is no surprise that Sidewiki has caused a certain ripple amongst PRs and marketers as no doubt their jobs will become increasingly more difficult if Sidewiki hits off.

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MLM Insolvency goes live!

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Alert! New Website!

MLM CPS Limited is a personal debt management company that provides advice and assistance to individuals and directors of companies who are experiencing financial difficulties.

The main aim of the website redesign was to realign the brands online image and bring it up to date with the current company goals and aspirations. 360innovate designed an information rich website which compliments the company branding and presents a strong image of the company.

MLM-1

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Real time search results

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Both Google and Bing have just announced that they will now be including Twitter updates in their search results.

The official Google Blog said

At Google, our goal is to create the most comprehensive, relevant and fast search in the world. In the past few years, an entirely new type of data has emerged — real-time updates like those on Twitter have appeared not only as a way for people to communicate their thoughts and feelings, but also as an interesting source of data about what is happening right now in regard to a particular topic.

Bing claim that their search facility “you can now search for what people are saying all over the web about breaking news topics, your favorite celebrity, hometown sports team, and anything else you use Twitter to stay on top of today.”

The deals will see Twitter messages, links and posts appearing in the search engine results almost as soon as they have been posted on the websites themselves, giving searches the ability to access information and news as it is happening. Looking at previous news stories that have broke on Twitter, including the Hudson plane crash and the balloon boy story, it is clear there is a demand and requirement for the search engine to provide audiences with the information as and when it happens.

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Writing the perfect product description

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Writing effective copy is an important component for any successful website and the same attention and care should be afforded to product descriptions.

First Things First: Target Market

Before writing a product descriptions you must have a firm understanding of who the target market is. They are who will be purchasing your product and you need to understand how they will be shopping and what information they will be looking for.

Defining Features

Highlighting the products defining features or specifications is a good place to start when writing the product description. Already understanding the target market will enable you to look at the product and know what information that market is looking for.

The Blackberry smartphone is typically a business phone and the target market would be professionals that can use the phone as a business tool. The Blackberry product description, within the O2 website, has been designed and compiled to highlight the key features that would make the product attractive to the target market.

o2 blackberry description

However, the main disadvantage all online retailers face is the fact that a customer cannot pick up and feel the product nor can they read the back of the box. Therefore although it can be beneficial to highlight the key product features of an item you still need to provide as much information as you feel necessary to inform, educate and persuade the customer of the product. This does not mean copy the entire product manual nor does it mean swap the customer with swathes of text telling them about how the texture of the product feels but it does mean providing enough information so that the customer feels they are getting better value for money.

Habitat product

In the above example you can see that along with providing the key features of the product Habitat throw in ‘Good to Know’ information where they have provided the customer with care instructions and further detail which will aide them in the decision making process.

To exemplify the importance of writing good description look at the following examples, all are product descriptions for YSL Touch Eclat for Men.

YSL Touche Eclait

Given that the product is a make up item specifically for men; a market who are perhaps not so used to purchasing make up, not familiar with the jargon and who would maybe need even more persuasion than women to purchase the item; the bottom two descriptions are very limited and not effective at all. Going the extra mile to provide additional information on the product and its application greatly enhances the shopping experience for the customer thus increasing the likelihood of converting a visitor into a sale.

Keep it original

Not only does an informative product description inform and persuade customers to buy it is also very search engine friendly. However, don’t copy and paste your descriptions from another website, always keep the content throughout a website unique and original, the search engines work to provide searchers with relevant and distinct web pages. So, to not only improve conversions rates having original product description can also be beneficial for the product listing in the search engines.

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Enter Offline, Win Online

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

We at 360innovate are keen marketers and social media fans, and we are always on the look out for brands and organisations using unusual ways to promote and market themselves online.

One recent example of using a fun and interactive way of increasing an online presence is MPHO, a London singer. At a recent gig in Glasgow the singer asked all the crowd to pose for a photograph, just before posing and shouting the obligatory ‘cheese’ MPHO announced that the photograph would be posted on the MPHO Facebook page and a member of the crowd in the photograph would be selected and be the winner of lots of  goodies. To find out who the winner was of course would require logging into Facebook and going to the MPHO page. Such a simple yet effective way of getting offline fans to interact with the online presence, where of course they can access further information and songs from the singer.

MPHO Facebook Comp

Using a way of involving the customer and making it a more personal experience (or fan in this instance) from the word go is one of the most effective means of getting your offline customers online. B2C companies could follow this photograph example by holding competitions offline then posting the winners on their website or social media profiles.The same could be applied to B2B execs showing at an exhibition- all business cards collected will entered into a prize draw the winning one will win a prize then have their scanned business card posted on the company website/Twitter/Facebook/blog.

Having the customer there in front of you is the easiest way to get them to participate; and the curiosity/eagerness to win will get them online. It’s a win-win situation. Increased brand awareness, increased traffic to your website or social media profile, puts the company in a positive light and at the end of it one lucky person gets a prize!

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Scottish Green Awards

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Following on from our previous post announcing that 360innovate client Piper (Parents in Partnership Eco Representative) and Piper project consultant Mike Ferrigan have been shortlisted for a Scottish Green Award 360innovate are happy to announce that Mike did in fact scoop the award for Best Green Campaigner.

Well done to Mike!!

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Design Crush – edition 17

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

When you think of patterns, what is the first thing that comes into your mind? Many would think of the 70′s or Gran’s carpet, but patterns have made a huge comeback over the past few years, thanks to establishments like Ikea who promoted the use of bold colours within home furnishings. However, within web design, patterns are being used more readily; with faster download speeds and better file sizes with the use of vector graphics, patterns are being used more and more for background images within web design than ever before.

Patterns are now used often throughout web design. However, they usually go unnoticed, remaining in the background and enhancing the overall design (hopefully!). These background patterns are used to replace standard background colours, creating a more inviting atmosphere fitting the overall style of the site and boosting the branding and image of the company.

The reason why patterns are popular for background images within web design is because they are extremely versatile, creating a unique space and increasing the sites personality, setting it apart from others. Within the e-commerce sector, websites using patterns within their background can be seen often, but many other sectors choose to use patterns to add a touch of character to their sites too. Here are a few examples that we have come across:

It is easy to create completely different styles by utilising background patterns. Whatever look and feel you want to achieve with your website, from crafty and homely looks to ultra modern and sleek designs, patterns are so diverse enabling you to transform a relatively ordinary website into something a little less ordinary.

Here are a couple of great resources for downloading free patterns:

Squidfingers

Bgpatterns.com

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The possibilities of social ecommerce

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Social  media and online retailers go hand in hand these days, retailers are wisening up to the fact that social media plays a powerful role in the marketing mix and provides an influential platform for promotion that nothing offline could compete with. However, where the high street will always come up trumps is the sociability factor, yes we can Tweet about an item we want to buy but online shopping still lacks the personal and social interaction many people experience when they are shopping on the high street. Being a keen shopper, both online and on the high street, I always wonder how far online retailers can push the boundaries in terms of creating a user experience that has the best of both worlds. Many are almost there but shopping online still hasn’t turned into the social experience shopping on the high street is, whether that is possible I don’t know but I feel online retailers could be taking greater risks in an attempt to try.

Facebook have a wealth of ecommerce applications letting you recommend products to friends, try clothes on a virtual you and view upcoming collections similarly there are a host of ecommerce social websites where members can chat and browse products amongst other things.  However, there seems to be a distinct lack of retailers bringing social media to their ecommerce website, yes they may have a link to their Twitter and Facebook page but there isn’t anyone really introducing social media into the mix.

It all makes sense in my mind, on the high street it is ritual for girls to go shopping together picking outfits together and assuring each other that ‘no your bum doesn’t look big in it’- I dare say males are in on it as well shopping with friends or at the very least shopping with a girlfriend. This is because shopping is a social activity and shopping online should be no different. Whether you are shopping for an all in sound system or an outfit for a Saturday night it is fair to say that we value the opinion and view of our friends.

With this in mind it got me thinking of the possibilities of online social shopping…

With a large retailer such as Amazon social shopping is definitely a possibility. Imagine if in the not so distant future you were able to go to the Amazon website, log into your Facebook account, and ask your friends what their opinion is of a specific product or alternatively make product suggestions- a functionality that, as you could imagine, would work a treat at Christmas!

One retailer already venturing into such social territories is Asos who this year introduced Asos Community. An online social community for existing Asos customers to chat, keep up to date with the Asos news, post photos and discuss fashion. A brilliant idea and excellent use of social media and with over 60,000 members it is obviously popular but I have to wonder how many of these people actively use the Asos Community as I notice that all existing customers are automatically made community member.

Everyday millions of people log into Facebook (or Twitter, LinkedIn, Bebo or MySpace) and the average number of friends a user has is 130- all it takes is for one friend to recommend a product to his entire friend list for that retailer to gain a couple more customers- some of which may have never even been on the website before!

It really is a simple process, logging into a social media profile is daily ritual for many people and once logged in we often stay logged in for the entire day popping back on every so often to see what the chat is. Is it possible for users to be logged into Facebook, go shopping and on participating website be given updates for that specific website- what your friends have been looking at, what they are recommending to other, what they are reviewing and even what they need your advice about. So far it seems the biggest leap retailers have made is to provide a link where you can Tweet about an item or post it on Facebook through their branded application, which is a bit long and tedious. Social shopping should be easier than that and offer greater interactivity amongst users.

I imagine that we will soon start seeing greater fusion between social media and ecommerce, so far the majority of retailers have taken tentative steps towards introducing social into their ecommerce shopping carts, however, I predict that it will soon become an essential way of enhancing user experience with retailers pushing social shopping to the max.

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