Monthly Archives: February 2012

Using Web Widgets For Brand Building

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Also known as a badge, app or gadget, a web widget is a small standalone application that is typically created in DHTML, JavaScript or Flash and installed on a webpage by a site owner. Although the widget displays on the page, it resides on its developer’s web server, being referenced when the page loads.

Examples of simple widgets are stock tickers, clocks and calendars. But widgets can be far more complex, using the various rich media functions of JavaScript and Flash to perform as mini applications in their own right.

In social media, people use widgets to enhance their personal pages and add them to blogs, profiles and community pages.

Because the functionality and design are completely controlled by their owners, widgets can be branded and contain embedded links that click through to specific web pages. And being free of charge, easily installed by pasting a few lines of code into a page, and lightweight, widgets offer an opportunity for brands to create something that can be shared.

Branded widgets should reflect the business that built them. The Expedia widget, for example, acts as a search tool that will take users to holiday and hotel offers on the main Expedia website. The Apple widget displays product reviews and downloads.

By developing a useful, engaging widget you create a mechanism for your audience to promote your business at a relatively low cost. Potentially a widget could spread virally across the web, being passed from user to user, and the more websites your widget is on the more people are seeing your brand without ever visiting your own site.

An Introduction To Digital Planning

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What is digital planning? Well it depends on who you speak to, there isn’t a standard answer. Different agencies approach digital planning in different ways and their planners would describe their roles in dissimilar terms as this presentation from Heather LeFevre demonstrates.

Below I’ve listed what I think are the 9 core aspects of digital planning, but first let’s set the scene by looking at traditional advertising account planning. You’ll notice that digital planning sometimes compares to traditional planning but is often quite different. Continue reading →

How Financial Services Can Use Social Media

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As we are all aware, social media has radically altered the way businesses can market to their customer base. Some brands like Pringles and Skittles have been able to create a fan base that happily interacts with their various social media activities, but these tend to be in the FMCG sector where entertaining, shareable campaigns are more easily accepted by their customers. What about more “serious” sectors, how can they use social media to reach out to an audience?

This post presents findings I’ve discovered specifically about the issues facing financial services organisations with regard to social media marketing and offers some  recommendations for how they can improve their activity. Continue reading →

Mobile Site vs Native App? Quick Checklist To Help You Decide!

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Mobile site versus native app.

Although both mobile websites and native apps are accessed using a smartphone such as an iPhone, Blackberry or an Android device, how each one fits into your online strategy depends on the technical, marketing and user experience constraints. Here’s a quick checklist to help you decide!  Continue reading →

8 Ways You Can Use Virtual Worlds For Business

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I live in Birmingham whose famous sons include Ozzy Osbourne, Joseph Priestly, Edward Burne-Jones and J.R.R. Tolkein. Tolkein of course was famous for his tales of Middle Earth, that fantasy land populated by trolls, elves and dwarves. That got me thinking about virtual worlds and their place in business.

Generally virtual worlds aren’t particularly popular for business. If marketing managers are aware of them, they tend to regard them as games or gimmicks. According to research carried out by Forrester in 2009, only 11% of companies are using virtual worlds in any kind of business activity.

However there are examples of virtual worlds being used seriously for marketing. Computer networking firm Cisco used Second Life, probably the most well known virtual world, to save over $100,000 when they launched a new server.

what is a virtual world?

A virtual world is a three-dimensional, web-based simulation of the real world (though usually with a few sci-fi elements, such as teleporting thrown in). Its population is made up of graphic depictions of its users, called avatars (the Sanksrit term for an incarnate god!). Avatars aren’t necessarily true likenesses of the individuals they represent; your avatar could be a man, woman, creature or object.

Although a virtual world might look like a game, it’s not. You don’t compete against other players and there is no particular goal that would make you a winner. The purpose of the virtual world is to interact with other users and form relationships as you would in real life.

So how exactly can companies use virtual worlds to promote their products and services to customers? Read on to see my top 8 business uses for virtual worlds. Continue reading →

27 Questions For Website Requirements

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A key part of the website development process is the initial stage of of requirements gathering from the client. This is where a web development agency will ask the various questions to find out exactly what the client wants or expects from a new website.

But what questions should the agency be asking? Below I’ve listed 27 that could be put to a client. Continue reading →