Sorry if it seems like all I do is post infographics but they do a great job of visualising information.  Nice to see the Old Spice campaign up there, probably my favourite campaign recently and obvious to see the influence of the World Cup in South Africa this summer on advertising behaviour.

Spent the best part of my career driving through sales led marketing programmes in the ‘Traditional’ sense, by that I mean hands on events, promotions, advertising campaigns, customer incentives etc. Print has always been a big part of what I have been involved in and it never ceases to amaze me how you can enhance marketing collateral exponentially by using the right print techniques.

That said will the use of digital media completely replace (Or at least replace the majority) of traditional print media? HOPE NOT!

What’s Happening to the Print Industry Infographic:

Take a cycle, ride it where you like, then return it, ready for the next person.  Available 24 hours a day, all year round. It’s self-service and there’s no booking. Just turn up and go.

How it works:

Become a Member online. Cycles will be regularly maintained but we recommend users check each cycle (tyres, brakes, saddle, lights, bell) before taking it from a docking point

If you encounter any issues they can be reported by calling the Contact Centre number shown on each cycle

• Check that the docking point has no lights illuminated
• Insert your key into the docking point key slot
• The amber light will illuminate while your account is being verified
• As soon as the light turns green, undock your cycle by placing one hand on each of the handle bars and firmly pulling it out of the docking point
• Don’t forget to remove your key from the key slot before you set off!
• When re-docking your cycle, return it to any empty docking point which has no lights illuminated by pushing it firmly into place
• Wait until the light turns green to ensure you have successfully docked your cycle and completed your journey
• Remember to get a green light and click at the end of every trip!

Costs are the same whether you’re a Member or not, though Members can buy the most cost-effective (annual) access.  You pay for the right to hire a cycle (access fee) and for the amount of time you’ve got it (usage charge).

Membership or casual use? Membership’s available now. Casual use is coming soon.  Membership: Makes hiring easier.  Casual use: Just walk up and use.

Problems picking up and returning cycles: If there are no cycleswhen you get to a docking station, the terminal map shows where there are some nearby.

If the docking station’s full when you return your cycle, check the terminal to see where there are free docking points. You can get up to 15 minutes extra time if you need to cycle to another station.

Parking a cycle.  You can only leave your cycle at a docking station. Don’t leave it unattended anywhere else. If you have it for more than 24 hours you’ll get a charged £150 for its late return.

Just by accident noticed a beginners guide to WordPress on sale when I was buying some magazines and thought I would give it a go.  All the sites I build for my clients use WordPress, and I am a big fan.  Some more detail below, recommend you get yourself a copy if you are pretty new to WordPress

The WordPress Genius Guide offers in-depth features and tutorials on the world’s most popular blogging platform, from beginner walkthroughs on editing and maintaining posts, right up to advanced design tricks for crafting a more personalised site experience. Features on the WordPress history, the various upgrades, plugins, and hosting options are all included along with Q&As with influential WordPress developers within the community. An absolute must-have for blogging enthusiasts. Plus: a free WordPress CD.

Over 200 pages of expert tutorials and features.

Getting started

• Where to buy a domain name
• Find the perfect web host
• How to install and use WordPress

Creating and managing

• Create and edit posts
• Add images
• Manage your blog

Customising WordPress

• Create and build customised themes
• Add Premium themes
• Extend the power of WordPress with plug-ins

Designing for WordPress

• Create gorgeous graphics
• Create and add backgrounds, headers and footers

Beyond blogging

• Upgrade WordPress
• Exclusive interview with WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg

Free disc complete with 60 minutes of expert video tutorials, ten WordPress themes, project files to help complete tutorials and much more.

Read All About It…

Stumbled upon a cool new way to show off your twitter feed.  Very straight forward, simply pop over to paper.li and using your twitter user name you can create a news feed with all the most popular items.

paper.li organises links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any twitter user, list or #tag.  A great way to stay on top of all that is shared by the people you follow – even if you are not connected 24/7 !

We all know what we should be doing when it comes to on page SEO, keywords in headers, check keyword density etc etc. Whilst we find it easy enough to write posts on our blog it takes a bit more thought to make sure we are writing for both user and search engine. SEO grows in importance as the amount of information and online resource continues to grow.

Anyway, SEO Pressor is a simple WordPress plugin that gives you a helping hand with on page SEO. Just installed it and already liking it a lot. There is a good demo video on the site but basically you just get a little box that gives you a score and suggestions with how to improve the page. This post scores as follows on the keyword ‘SEO’:

Looks like i could be doing better! As with most useful tools this is nothing that clever it just helps you to write a blog post that is MORE search engine friendly which is no bad thing and to us was well worth the investment of $97!

Vimeo is a respectful community of creative people who are passionate about sharing the videos they make. From the beginning, Vimeo was created by filmmakers and video creators who wanted to share their creative work, along with intimate personal moments of their everyday life. As time went on, like-minded people came to the site and built a community of positive, encouraging individuals with a wide range of video interests. Vimeo is based in New York and Portland.

Hundreds and hundreds of customers enjoyed the day and got to expericne first hand why Euro Car Parts are the uK’s No. 1 supplier.  Pictures below are from the stand build, we partnered with Clip Display for the stand and infrastructure development.

[View with PicLens]

Anyway I heard about Vaultpress last week so signed up for a Golden Ticket to text the Beta version, hoping to hear something back anytime soon as I have a large client project on at the moment and would love to automate the backup.  Thought I would share some info from their site or zoom on over and watch the video on WordPress TV.

VaultPress secures all elements of a WordPress site:

• Simple setup in 3 easy steps
• Backup to three separate cloud services
• Protection for the entire WordPress environment, including the WordPress files (theme, plugins, options), content (posts, photos, videos, audio files), and all comments
• Real time, continuous backup and synchronization, ensuring no loss of content or files in the event of an issue
• Quick and easy restoring of files when necessary

Click on the link below for the download:

SEO Cheat Sheet from Conversation Marketing (54)

The Benefits of .co

• Protect your brand (True for any extension)
• It’s new so availability will be good
• Has global appeal / perception
• Closely associated to COmpany, COrporation, and COmmerce.

In general if you are a UK business operating within the UK you should opt for a .co.uk domain name, no harm in registering alternatives to protect your brand but don’t lose sleep over it.  If you are interested in knowing a bit more about domain names below is a list of general extensions and there meanings: (TLD = Top Level Domain)

• .aero – air-transport industry: Must verify eligibility for registration; only those in various categories of air-travel-related entities may register
• .asia – Asia-Pacific region: This is a TLD for companies, organizations, and individuals based in the region of Asia, Australia, and the Pacific
• .biz – business: This is an open TLD; any person or entity is permitted to register; however, registrations may be challenged later if they are not by commercial entities in accordance with the domain’s charter
• .cat – Catalan: This is a TLD for Web sites in the Catalan language or related to Catalan culture
• .com – commercial:  This is an open TLD; any person or entity is permitted to register
• .coop – cooperatives: The .coop TLD is limited to cooperatives as defined by the Rochdale Principles
• .edu – educational: The .edu TLD is limited to accredited postsecondary institutions (nearly all 2 and 4-year colleges and universities in the U.S. and increasingly overseas, e.g., Australia and China)
• .gov - governmental: The .gov TLD is limited to governmental entities and agencies in the United States
• .info – information: This is an open TLD; any person or entity is permitted to register
• .int – international organisations: The .int TLD is strictly limited to organizations, offices, and programs which are endorsed by a treaty between two or more nations
• .jobs – companies: The .jobs TLD is designed to be added after the names of established companies with jobs to advertise. At this time, owners of a “company.jobs” domain are not permitted to post jobs of third party employers
• .mil – U.S. military: The .mil TLD is limited to use by the U.S. military
• .mobi -mobile devices: Must be used for mobile-compatible sites in accordance with standards
• .museum – museums: Must be verified as a legitimate museum
• .name – individuals, by name: This is an open TLD; any person or entity is permitted to register; however, registrations may be challenged later if they are not by individuals (or the owners of fictional characters) in accordance with the domain’s charter
• .net – network: This is an open TLD; any person or entity is permitted to register
• .org – organisation:  This is an open TLD; any person or entity is permitted to register
• .pro – professions: Currently, .pro is reserved for licensed or certified lawyers, accountants, physicians and engineers in France, Canada, UK and the U.S. A professional seeking to register a .pro domain must provide their registrar with the appropriate credentials
• .tel - Internet communication services
• .travel – travel and tourism industry related sites: Must be verified as a legitimate travel-related entity

This information was taken from a Wikipedia article on domain names, they also have a full list of country extensions if you are interested?

MW marketing social media profile

All Top

http://my.alltop.com/mwmarketing

The purpose of Alltop is to help you answer the question, “What’s happening?” in “all the topics” that interest you. You may wonder how Alltop is different from a search engine. A search engine is good to answer a question like, “How many people live in China?” However, it has a much harder time answering the question, “What’s happening in China?” That’s the kind of question that Alltop tries to answer.

Digg

http://digg.com/users/mwmarketing

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online.

Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwmarketing/

Flickr is one of the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. It has 2 two main goals: To help people make their photos available to the people who matter to them and to enable new ways of organising photos and video.

Linked In

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/markwardell

When you join Linkedin, you create a profile that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. You can then form enduring connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to a vast number of qualified professionals and experts.

MW marketing Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/MWmarketing

Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

MW marketing Posterous Micro Blog

http://mwmarketing.posterous.com/

Posterous is a micro blog and a dead simple way to put anything online using email. Launched in July 2008 Posterous has been steadily growing and adding features. It makes it very easy to share thoughts, photos, audio, and files with your colleagues, friends and family.

MW marketing Tumblr Micro Blog

http://mwmarketing.tumblr.com

Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors, to your theme's HTML.

MW marketing Twitter

http://twitter.com/MWmarketing

Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now. Twitter asks “what’s happening” and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately.

MW marketing You Tube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/mwmarketingltd

Founded in February 2005, YouTube is the world's most popular online video community, allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.

Slide Share

http://www.slideshare.net/mwmarketing

SlideShare is a business media site for sharing presentations, documents and pdfs. SlideShare features a vibrant professional community that regularly comments, favorites and downloads content. Content also spreads virally through blogs and social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter.

You have the choice of pregnant or not pregnant and at time of writing there was only 27 days 15 hours and 37 minutes to go and you can vote as many times as you like so if you feel that strongly you can be a real influence on the outcome.  Quick excerpt from the site:

The BT advert series starring Kris Marshall and Esther Hall first screened in 2005. The recent storyline has centred on Adam and Jane’s wedding, but in this latest instalment, you get the chance to take the story in a new direction and decide on whether there should be a new addition to our BT family.

Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

Give it a go, you have nothing to lose and it takes about a minute to get a report on your site. PLUS, Hubspot also provide a great way of assessing your twitter profile with twitter grader.