SavingDinner Launches online TV channel

In Dallas we recorded a short video with best selling author Leanne Ely of SavingDinner.com. Leanne beautifully answers the question - what is for dinner today... I feature in the launch video of her new TV website (great fun)...

Email marketing 'a hit for The Balvenie'

A single malt whisky distillery has recorded high clickthrough and open rates from a newsletter it sent out by email.

Whisky producer The Balvenie has championed the effectiveness of email marketing in engaging with its customers after receiving several positive responses.

David Mair, ambassador for the Highlands-based distillery, commented that the firm is delighted with the results that it has seen so far.

He noted that it is not just the drinker responses which provide such encouragement, since the clickthrough and open rates also reflect how successful the communication has been.

The emails being sent out are in the form of a newsletter and the firm has seen clickthrough of 25 per cent and an open rate of 60 per cent since February.

Mr Mair added: "We'd love to meet everyone who enjoys The Balvenie in person, but growing interest in our whisky means we have an ever bigger enthusiast group all around the world."

Last week, senior director of Mint.com Lisa Friedman told Marketing Sherpa that businesses can improve the effectiveness of email marketing by optimising send times.

16/11/2009

More links 'improve SEO results'

Online retailers can improve their SEO ranking by adding more links on their websites, according to an expert.

An industry insider has claimed that having more links on a website can promote better search engine optimisation (SEO) results.

Sam Tilston, online marketing director for Zoombits.co.uk, commented that "Google loves large websites" so building up the number of pages and links can make SEO easier.

In his view, this means that having more products can be beneficial, since businesses can have a page for each product and a link for each page.

He used the example of the keyword "Christmas gifts", which can be included on the page of all of the potential presents that an online retailer offers.

Mr Tilston added: "Obviously if you have a large amount of products, like if you're doing a large-scale website, then you need to automate your SEO."

A recent study by Econsultancy and Guava indicated that 45 per cent of companies are increasing their paid search budgets over the next year, while 24 per cent are increasing their spend on online display advertising.

16/11/2009

Social media users 'should vary passwords'

People are putting their employers' IT systems at risk by using the same password for business and personal accounts, an expert has asserted.

Social media users should consider having different passwords for other online accounts, otherwise they could be putting their business at risk, according to an industry insider.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at software developer Sophos, claimed that 33 per cent of people have the same password for all of the accounts that they set up.

He commented that a problem arises when hackers manage to see an employee's social media password, since there is a good chance that the same code or word is used for their business account too.

Mr Cluley explained: "If hackers grab your password on one site, they can use it to unlock everything else about you."

In his view, social network users share too much information when they go online and it is putting employers' IT systems at risk.

According to a recent study by Palo Alto Networks, many companies have outdated IT infrastructure and usage policies, which may not protect them against web-based applications.

16/11/2009

"New model" possible for monetising video productions

An industry insider has suggested that a new form of bringing in advertising revenue for music publishing companies could be a success.

The way that video productions are monetised could undergo a change, if an industry insider is to be believed.

Doug Knopper, co-chief executive officer of FreeWheel, told Laurie Sullivan on Media Post that a "new model" could be on the cards if an agreement with Warner Music is a success.

FreeWheel and Warner have struck a deal which allows the former company to bring in advertising revenue by holding the distribution rights to the international music publisher's videos.

"The music, sports and movie industries are starting to figure out how to make money online," Mr Knopper is quoted as saying.

In order to optimise the monetisation of videos, FreeWheel will monitor their use and has pre-programmed instructions on which adverts can be played with which content, he added.

Warner has a whole host of international stars in its stable such as The Enemy, Neil Young, Red Hot Chili Peppers and R.E.M.

16/11/2009

Language is "important" in social media

Social networks could help brands interact with users by translating their websites into foreign languages, an expert has asserted.

Developing social media services in native languages could improve a brand's ability to communicate with users, suggests an industry commentator.

Co-founder and editor of Social Media Portal Tim Gibbon remarked that connecting with audiences is vital and companies may be able to interact better if they are speaking in their mother tongue.

He pointed out that the perception of a brand can be altered by the behaviour and words that a firm uses.

Mr Gibbon noted that some users may be unable to be quite as expressive as they would like if they are not speaking their first language.

"Language is an obvious step - it is an important and a successful approach if the audience prefers to converse in the native tongues," he explained.

Recently, volunteers from Twitter helped translate the service into Spanish, with each of these interpreters having their own icon to show that they took part, according to Mashable.

12/11/2009

'There will be bugs' on social media sites

An industry expert has claimed that it is inevitable that complex applications such as social networks will have bugs in them.

Social media websites may still have bugs in them which hackers could exploit, suggested an industry insider.

Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley pointed out that social networks cannot be classified as websites, since are actually very complicated applications.

He claimed that there are hundreds of thousands of lines of code involved in services such as Facebook and MySpace, so there is "no doubt" that some bugs will exist.

Mr Cluley explained: "Any code of that complexity will inevitably contain bugs - there's no such thing as a perfect program."

In his view, the real question is how serious these bugs are and how much of a risk do they pose to users.

The error recently found by Yvo Schaap was a very important glitch that could have had terrible consequences for MySpace and Facebook and all their users.

It occurred because while the sites normally prohibit external applications from accessing the service, it was found that one tool slipped through the net and was able see protected data.

12/11/2009