The findings from the survey have shown that social media has evolved into an essential marketing tool for a lot of businesses, with 66% saying their marketing campaigns would ‘suffer’ without social media activity.

Other key findings include -

• Globally, there has been a rise of seven per cent in the proportion of businesses successfully recruiting new customers through social networks.
• One third of companies in the UK (33 per cent) devote up to 20 per cent of their marketing budget to business social networking activity.
• 52 per cent of businesses globally and 48 per cent in the UK use the channel to engage, connect with and inform existing customers.
• In the UK, 50 per cent of firms encourage their employees to join business networks, compared to 53 per cent globally.

These are very encouraging figures as social media marketing is a fantastic way to market your business…time to get the other 59% on board!

For more information about social media marketing please the call the SEO Nottingham team on 01623 650333.

Up until now, it is possible for a business or blogger to place a link to their twitter page on their website, however anyone wanting to follow that Twitter account would have to click the link, be taken away from the page they’re on, onto the Twitter page, and then have to press the follow button on the page, meaning 2 whole clicks…1 more click then most people want to do!

But now, by simply filling out a few fields of information, you will be provided with an embed code to place your very own follow button on your page, which with 1 click, will add the ‘clicker’ to your followers list, increasing your followers, and saving the user a whole click!

So, if you have your own page and twitter account, make sure you  and get yourself a trendy follow button right now!

If you would like some help in  getting your follow button onto your website, or any help with anything else web design or social media marketing related, then please call our friendly team on 01623 650333, and they will be happy to help.

The application splits Twitter into several different panels, so users can have an overview of different aspects such as direct messages, tweets from friends, and mentions among other things. The application is the most popular Twitter application with a 19% market share, only behind the actual main Twitter website which has around 45% for new updates.

The application also allows integration with other social networking websites such as Facebook and Myspace, however with Twitter owning the the app now, it is unknown whether they will continue to allow it to support competitors.

For more information regarding getting your business online and using social media marketing through outlets such as twitter, please call our friendly SEO Nottingham team on 01623 650333.

The micro-blogging social networking site – which is thought to have over 200million users – has been at the centre of controversy with the high court in regards to the use of ‘super-injunctions’ which several celebrities have used recently to cover up discretions in their personal life.

These injunctions are put in place to make it illegal for the press such as newspapers or websites to name the specific celebrity, whether or not they know who it is. This has, however, not stopped Twitter users from using the power of the internet to repeatedly name the high profile footballer who had taken out one of these injunctions – something which has angered him, and the courts.

However, with the San Francisco companies decision to open up an office in London, it is thought they will be much more susceptible to English laws and open to prosecution for what their users say.

What moves will be taken against Twitter remain to be seen, however, will court sanctions and legal action be able to silence the millions who use Twitter and the internet as the playground of free speech? Not without a rightful backlash.

For more information regarding Twitter and how you can use it to, either, out rich men with more money than sense, or even for growing your brand via social media marketing, then please get in touch with our friendly SEO Nottingham team on 01623 650333.

On a Google video, Cutts explained that most shortened url’s work just like regular 301 redirects – where the page rank, anchor text and overall ‘link juice’ is passed on to the final destination website.

Cutts said “If we try to crawl a page, and we see a 301 or permanent redirect, which pretty much all well-behaved URL shorteners will do, in general, there really shouldn’t be any harm to using custom URL shorteners in your SEO. The PageRank will flow through. The anchor text will flow through”. He also warned however that many Twitter links are ‘no follow’ and therefore will often not flow through the page rank.

Google openess to accept shorterned URLS for SEO purposes is no surprise since new CEO Larry Page has announced that the company needs to go more social, and a big focus is going to be put on it throughout the year – which started with the new ‘+1′ button to rival the facebook ‘like’ and may well end with a fully fledged Google social network.

For more information regarding anything SEO related then call the SEO Nottingham team on 01623 650333.

Recently released figures have confirmed what we all sort of already knew, social networking websites are now the most popular in the UK, overtaking entertainment websites to be 12.46% of all internet usage.

However,  recent statistics have also shown that businesses are still missing out. Although internet shopping is huge, and social networking is the most popular internet activity, only around 16% of all exchanged links actually point to ‘transactional websites’ – websites who sell.

It really is simple, yet so many people are missing out. A presence and a good following on sites such as facebook, twitter and youtube can really increase the traffic and brand awareness of your website, plus recently there has even been increased suggestion that it will rub off and help with your main site SEO. So what are you waiting for?

For more information on how to get yourself onto social networking sites and how it can help you, or anything internet marketing and SEO related, called the friendly dijitul.com team on 01623 650333.

Social networking websites received around 2.4billion visits in January 2011, accounting for some 12.4% of all internet usage in the country. The average time spent on each social networking site per visit was 22 minutes.

Facebook is unsurprisingly the one which attracts the most visitors, whilst entertainment/social media crossover youtube came in second and and Twitter third.

These new statistics may point to the fact that social networking sites are increasingly incorporating entertainment aspects in to their sites, being able to watch videos on Facebook, and Youtube increasingly adding to its huge collection of videos.

Either way, social networking seems to be consuming another victim, and its pretty clear these days, if you aren’t involved in it, then you are missing out.

For more information on internet marketing and how to increase your exposure through social media, give the dijitul.com team a call on 01623 650333.

Here are a few tips on trends you can exploit and how you can maximise your potential in the digital marketing age.

1. Web Design/SEO – The internet is central to a majority of lives right now, if you’re reading this then you’re on the internet, and all of these tips depend on the internet for them to happen. The internet is built up of websites, so why not get your business as part of this, if you have a website available for people to freely view, you are exposing yourself to millions of potential customers. SEO/Search Engine Optimisation then plays its part, by tweaking your website, you can get very high on Google, and expose your business to even more people!
2. Google Places – Google Places is the perfect little ‘side dish’ to your main website, or a web presence for those awaiting a full website. It lets you place information about your company, such as name, location, pictures and a description all on a page which people can find by using a location specific search, eg: ‘_____ in Nottingham’.
3. Youtube – Many people see Youtube as a place to watch music videos, watch a dog riding a bike, and then argue about the video they just watched! but there is much more to it than that, Youtube is actually a form of social media website with a huge fan base. A viral video is the perfect way to get your business name out to many people if it is done well. If you can make a video advertising your company, with a really big, grab your attention moment, people will remember it, and send it to their friends, in turn, spreading your name further.
4. Facebook/Twitter – Facebook and Twitter have become the social networking giants in recent years, with hundreds of millions of users between them. They can both be quite hit and miss with marketing as many people use them purely for recreational purposes, not to find someone to build them a website or repair their drains. However, with so many people signed up to each, it is definitely something worth trying out, and if you can get the right friends and post the right things, believe us, it does work!
5. LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a social networking website with a more professional twist. LinkedIn is a fantastic place in which you can promote yourself to other business owners or potential clients, and with 90 million users, there’s plenty to pick from.
6. QR Codes – QR, or ‘Quick Response’ codes are the perfect modern day way to drive smartphone users to your business website. More and more smartphone users are using the QR code readers on their phones to read codes on everything from websites to, tickets and business cards. QR codes generators can be easily found using Google.

If any of these methods either seem complete gobbledygook, or you are interested in pursuing one of these methods further but feel you need more help, please contact our friendly team on 01623 650333.

With the emergence, and then international takeover of social networking leader ‘Facebook’ over the last few years, Google have become slightly wary of the way in which peoples internet usage habits are changing, with everything becoming much more social – an area where Google is generally lacking.

Despite being the worlds largest and most popular search engine, along with owning popular companies such as ‘Youtube’ Google are missing the social media piece of the puzzle which already covers search, video sharing and advertising, but without the social networking platform to work on, they are losing out large amounts of traffic and revenue.

Google have already begun to incorporate ‘Tweets’ into their search results, possibly as a show of what they could do with full control of Twitter. However, with Google’s huge warchest of funds and the companies new goal of purchasing a new company every month, it is hard to see Twitter staying out of the hands of Google for much longer.

Could this lead to one of the biggest internet wars of all time? With a popular social media website in their arsenal in Twitter, Google could then continue to assert themselves as the ‘complete’ web company, and lead them into a direct competition with Facebook and their 500 million strong army of users. Whatever happens, it could change the landscape of the internet forever!

With social media still at the forefront of everything web, you and your company are missing out if you do not have a presence. For more information on Social Media Marketing or Web Design, Please Call 01623 650333!

Search engines such as Google and yahoo made up 11.33% of internet visits last month (may 2010) whereas social networks accounted for 11.88% – so although their lead isn’t too great – winning is winning!

The growth of social media (IMO) can be put down to one thing – smart phones! Since Facebook and twitter have been made available through iPhones, Blackberrys and the rest of the Smartphone family, anyone who is anyone can get involved in social media.

When we speak to some of our customers about social media, they reply with talk of it being something “their kids use” and that they don’t think its their cup of tea. Well, that’s where you are wrong – even if you are not a fan of tea, you should really sample a cup of the social media blend, its free, direct, and very easy to use.

Are you making the best use of Social Networks? Has your business got a presence on Social Networks?

We can help with social media training and optimisation – just give dijitul media a call on 01623 650 333 and we’ll tell you how Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and the other Social Networks can help you get more exposure.