Provoke Design

Provoke's Online Marketing Insight, What Would You Like To Know About?

Forget Facebook IPO And Focus On Raising the Value Of Your Own Content Offering

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SME site owners might be forgiven for their  sense of unreality and feeling far removed, indeed, from the global media razzamatazz surrounding the Facebook IPO last week. Valued at $104 billion ( £65bn), it was the technology industry’s biggest initial public offering, the second-biggest ever and it means that Facebook could be now worth nearly $140 billion (£88bn)!

Yet the announcement that GM was withdrawing $10 million ( £6.3bn) from the social network giant in paid ad spend due to poor results may strike a chord with some eCommerce owners. But where does the real fault lie if performance is not happening?
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Can We Fathom the Human In the Search And Social Algorithm?

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The Google algorithm is a creature of endless fascination, not only to online marketing professionals but also to site owners and eCommerce who can become obsessed with chasing PageRank.

By now, we should all be aware that it is ‘human’ raters who are involved with providing research input for algorithm programming. Consequently, it definitely helps to know how their work may have an influence on Google SERPS, even though the process largely remains shrouded in mystery despite tantalising glimpses …
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Social Media Engagement Is No Longer Limited To The One In Ten!

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It’s not uncommon to hear eCommerce owners complain of either receiving very little useful interaction at their blogs or on social media networking sites. There can be many reasons why follower traffic can be non-responsive or appear only interested in spraying a spammy link. Not least in learning how to earn the trust of their targeted audiences.

However, new studies reveal that in fact, around three quarters of online users in the UK do actively participate in some form of social media activity, contrasting starkly with the long held belief that it was “ just 1 per cent of users who create content and 10 per cent actually engage”.
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Is Twitter Better Than Being On Facebook?

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The call for website owners to seriously integrate social media into their daily business routines can sometimes just end up with ‘being on Facebook’, while other companies find they have a better affinity with Twitter audiences.

In the growing and complex multichannel of search and social content networking, it should never be a case of simply doing either Facebook or Twitter …
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Frustration With Registration Is No Social Recommendation!

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Four in every five visitors provide deliberately inaccurate information when a website requests registration before specific content can be accessed. However, the findings of a recent UK survey into user behaviour may not be that new or surprising.

More importantly, they seem to show just how weary and disillusioned consumers have become with sites who have failed to change and adapt to the present search and social realities of the online world and towards meeting today’s needs for relevant customer experience.
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Understanding The Art Of Social Media Content Creation.

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The message is loud and clear and the pressure is on! On top of everything else that an SME site owner must now do day in, day out is to inform, educate, entertain and generally provide superlative value content. The constant aim is to stimulate target niche audiences by attracting attention, gaining trust and winning their engagement.

So how can a busy eCommerce constantly come up with a rich supply of fresh, relevant content of value without falling back on sales messages and self promotion?
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When Finding The Time Means Falling Behind With Social Media

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“ Yes, we do social media, we have a blog and we’re on Facebook”, said the business owner, “… and we do it when we can find the time!” It’s not an uncommon story. A first look reveals the last blog was posted 4 months previously, and an announcement on Facebook about a tradeshow stand number.

A closer look reveals the usual typos, awkward grammar and ad hoc use of capital letters. It’s a scroll down through large paragraphs of cliché and bloat-text mixed in with how eCommerce imagines ‘social’ should look like in an attempt to be reader friendly.
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Algorithm Set To Rid Sites Of Fake Reviews.

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Like moths to a flame, cheating Google has always proved irresistible to countless thousands of site owners and their low–rent SEO partners in crime. Whenever a credible and successful traffic metric is identified, along come the spammers, fakers and auto-software makers.

Following repeated campaigns to cut back on poor quality content, aggregator and link farm sites, Google’s latest move is aimed at cleaning up another popular but increasingly untrustworthy method to shimmy up the ranking pole – fake reviews!
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New Google Tool Guide Aims To Improve SEO Keywords And Customer Experience.

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Need a little help with your PPC ads? Your kind and friendly search engine, Google, is now offering even greater clarity on how it views your efforts in constructing Adwords. Their stated aim is to create,” … a permanent data-centric dialogue with advertisers on how to improve their campaigns and create a better experience for potential customers”.

But this is just Google looking after its own interests in an increasing ‘walled garden’ online world – isn’t it ?
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Search And Social Marketing Tailored To Fit.

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Personalisation of search – the big issue driving online marketing in today’s multichannel environment. It’s the reason you notice ads appearing from websites you have recently visited. Google is unifying data from across its various services in a bid to build more specific user profiles.

While around a half of consumers claim they actually welcome relevant follow up content, one in six of eCommerce say they lack any coherent marketing strategies to adequately deal with navigating the multichannel maze of infinite consumer behaviours.
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