• 2 out of 3 of the global internet population visit social networks


• Visiting social network websites is the 4^th most popular online activity


• 13 hours of video are uploaded to You Tube every minute


• 3,600,000,000 photo’s are archived on Flickr.com – one for every two people on the planet


• 5,000,000,000 minutes are spent on facebook each day

• 93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media


• 85% of social media users believe a company should go further than a simple presence on social networking sites and interact with their customers.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg comments ‘This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long-term’.

The results suggest the business may soon offer shares to the public.

Since its creation in a Harvard dorm room – an enterprise which nearly got Mr Zuckerberg expelled from the prestigious school – Facebook has emerged as one of the Internet’s most popular destinations, challenging the web’s established powerhouses.

Facebook unveiled a revamped search engine last month and is testing an online payment system, while the number of users has trebled in just a year. The company had previously projected breaking even sometime in 2010.

The company’s income is on track to grow by 70 per cent this year.

If you’re a graphic designer or web designer for 5 years or more than you’ll find this very very funny indeed.

With 300,000 hits already it’s simply ‘brutally funny.’

Ironically these videos were made using xtranormal ‘text-to-move’ service that turns users’ scripts into mini-films using predesigned characters and backgrounds.

WARNING: Contains strong language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfprIxNfCjk

What’s the sector’s opinion of the Innovation Park on Edge Lane? Do you think it’s achieved its objectives?

I have been to the site several times over the years as a potential relocation for our business, but until 2007, I was more likely to hit tumbleweed than a potential client. It was well kitted out but a soulless and sterile atmosphere, not a creative hub of energy and excitement. Always seemed a little clicky, not really for non uni start ups. ICDC, having worked with some of thier senior web people in 2008, shocking, really shocking, being paid a wonger and takes them 6 months to over engineer a 10 page HTML site. A lot of the people i met wouldn’t cut the mustard in the private sector, or get the same salary.

In my last visit in June 2009, the place had come to life somewhat. More as a university building than an incubator of digital businesses.

There are indeed some very good companies located in the building and born from it; but the question of the initial vision has changed, a lot?.

The recent news from the gaming sector should provide a great new opportunity for the innovation park, in the trusted hands of Gary Miller i feel more confident. Edge Lane for me is taking shape, slowly, but thats no bad thing really. The innovation park has more opporunity now than ever to capitalise on its investment, sticking to the plan is essential.

The Orginal Plan & Vision in 2003

8^th December 2003, The Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) unveiled the branding for Liverpool Digital, as part of Marconi Corporation’s activities to celebrate 100 years of innovation at the Edge Lane site.

Liverpool Digital is a major destination for high-tech digital industries. The site will form a centre of excellence for the information and communications technology sector, and provide a home to business and incubation activities, together with university research facilities, all focused on the Creative and Digital industries.

Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive, NWDA said:
“This is the dawn of a new era. The infrastructure at the Edge Lane site, combined with the availability of Marconi’s specialist skills base, will preserve and enhance Liverpool’s growing reputation for ICT and New Media excellence. Potential occupiers will benefit from the site’s strategic location, mixed-use facilities, high bandwidth fibre infrastructure……. I am delighted and pleased with the new branding, which signifies the start of this new and exciting time.”

Mike Parton, Chief Executive of Marconi Corporation plc said:
‘with the commitment of the Northwest Development Agency – and a new name – Liverpool Digital – the site is set to become a high-tech hub, with Marconi taking pride-of-place at its core.  Liverpool Digital will be an exceptional location and will offer access to the latest state-of-the-art facilities.”

Gary Miller’s recent invlovement is a very very positive step in my opinion.

Rippleffect have won another premiership football contract. They’ve been appointed by Bolton Wanderers FC to create a series of microsites to raise awareness of its non-footballing activities. The new sites cover the club’s educational and international programmes, its engagement with football in the community, and a membership scheme for under 18s.

Rippleffect also announced their win with www.visitleeds.com, (i thought New Mind where the boys and girls from Liverpool doing the whole visiteverywhere.com!) Mando Group have also been announcing a whole series of new business wins recently alongside a recruitment drive for a further 5 account managers. CL5 we have also seen activity starting to pick up for SEO with a big contract win.

It appears from the outside the big website agencies are prospering in the current climate, which is a positive signal to us all.

There’s definitely been a change in the recession which I believe will benefit website design, development and internet marketing companies.

The private sector has had a wake up call on their marketing spend at the same time the national news has been flooding the country with the power, profitability and absolute need of the web for business.

This type of great industry promotion also creates insecurity for those businesses that haven’t quite got a proper online strategy. Or simply more businesses are accepting in 5 years their business will be very internet dependant and it works better and cheaper than traditional marketing!

Some of the digital sector growth must also be coming from spend switching. PR seems to be the biggest hit. Over the last 6 months I’ve seen big traditional PR agencies diving in desks for crisis management strategies from the treat of online marketing. But the internet isn’t the controlled environment of their business model and journalist’s lunches! It’s not as simple as being able to up skill as some agencies say the whole different evolving technical theatre that EPR is a snippet of.

Article from www.digitalliverpool.co.uk blog, run by CL5.

The web is notorious for either creating a severe case of writers’ block or freeing-up people to wrote reams of garbage. What techniques are useful for writing web copy that works with the medium and engages with your users?

The web is different to print.
We all read differently depending on the medium we are looking at; interaction with a computer screen is rapid, lazy and critical. Don’t assume then that people will read your webpages in the same detail as your company report.

Use short paragraphs
Web copywriting is more similar to newspaper journalism than writing a magazine article. The column widths are generally narrower, the attention span shorter. Aim to convey one key message per sentence and one to two sentences per paragraph.

Formatting counts
For the same reason, it’s ok online to use text formatting to draw a user’s attention to important phrases or calls to action. Appropriate use of bold and italics is good, underline is bad – as this could be mistaken for a hyperlink.

Upside down
The journalist’s method of the inverted pyramid works on the web too, only the headline information should appear at the top of the page, with increasing levels of information and background data the further down the piece.

Get personal
The web is an excellent medium for speaking with YOU the user. Despite its mass appeal it’s not a broadcast medium that speaks to a collective. The opportunity for the web copywriter is to get up close and personal with the reader with an informal tone of voice, plain speaking and clear communication.

Online Banner Advertising

SME’s & Online Banner Advertising. Does online banner advertising work? Should you be advertising? How much does it cost? All the answers are variable and it depends on your objectives, brand values and how good your website is. Most of the campaigns we see are from big multinational companies who spend millions each year on banner advertising but there is room for SME’s to get impact for far less; you just need the right ad and a good understanding of your customers. If most of our customers are local then there’s quite a few techniques that can be used.

Banner Design & Copy. Often the biggest mistakes are made by SME’s here. Pumping out your logo and strap line is not always the best option. You need a banner that grabs your attention, is accurate in its message. If it takes more than 2 seconds to transmit the message, forget it.

After you’ve designed your banner, what should you do with it?

Geo-Target. This means your banner advert will only appear to people who are in your demographic area. Keeping it local cuts down on wasted traffic and cost.

Set the time. You can have your adverts appearing only at specific times. This can beneficial if you’re either a B2B or B2C company. Your website stats can tell you exactly when your peak traffic times have been in the past, which is a good starting point to setting the times you want your ad to appear.

Keep Track of your Results. You need to be confident that any banner campaign is delivering results and not just wasted traffic. You need to track the visitor from the banner ads and constantly tweak your campaign until your at the optimum conversion rate.

Try to choose the websites do you want to advertise on? You’ll probably know far better than Google the websites your customers probably go to. You can often make a direct approach them and see what there rates are. Advertising on a trusted website goes a long way in banner advertising.

Blog Article from www.digitalliverpool.co.uk - Run and Hosted by CL5.

What’s the sector’s opinion of the new Innovation Park? Do you think it’s achieved its objectives?

I have been to the site several times as a potential relocation for our business, but until 2007, I was more likely to hit tumbleweed than a potential client. It was well kitted out but a soulless and sterile atmosphere, not a creative hub of energy and excitement.

In my last visit in June 2009, the place had come to life somewhat. More as a university building than an incubator of digital businesses.

There are indeed some very good companies located in the building and born from it; but the question of the initial vision has changed, a lot?.

The recent news from the gaming sector should provide a great new opportunity for the innovation park, in the trusted hands of Gary Miller i feel more confident.

Edge Lane for me is taking shape, slowly, but that's no bad thing really. The innovation park has more opporunity now than ever to capitalise on its investment, sticking to the plan is essential.

The Orginal Plan & Vision in 2003

8^th December 2003, The Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) unveiled the branding for Liverpool Digital, as part of Marconi Corporation’s activities to celebrate 100 years of innovation at the Edge Lane site.

Liverpool Digital is a major destination for high-tech digital industries. The site will form a centre of excellence for the information and communications technology sector, and provide a home to business and incubation activities, together with university research facilities, all focused on the Creative and Digital industries.

Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive, NWDA said:
“This is the dawn of a new era. The infrastructure at the Edge Lane site, combined with the availability of Marconi’s specialist skills base, will preserve and enhance Liverpool’s growing reputation for ICT and New Media excellence. Potential occupiers will benefit from the site’s strategic location, mixed-use facilities, high bandwidth fibre infrastructure……. I am delighted and pleased with the new branding, which signifies the start of this new and exciting time.”

Mike Parton, Chief Executive of Marconi Corporation plc said:
‘with the commitment of the Northwest Development Agency – and a new name – Liverpool Digital – the site is set to become a high-tech hub, with Marconi taking pride-of-place at its core.  Liverpool Digital will be an exceptional location and will offer access to the latest state-of-the-art facilities.”

Article From www.digitalliverpool.co.uk blog, run by CL5.

Maghull Group Launches New Website by Ed

Web Survey Shows North West SMEs Slow to Invest Online

Accessing Public Sector Funding

Liverpool SEO Business wins £50k Investment

Comment: How the Obama campaign became one of the biggest online marketing successes of our time.

The Internet in 2008 played a huge part in getting Obama elected and changing how all political campaigns will be fought in the future. The whole campaign was executed perfectly and last week it picked up the Titanium Grand Prix advertising festival at Cannes Lions

If you are interested in fast cars and motorsports then you’ll appreciate there’s a world of difference between a Lotus Elise and a pimped-up Ford Focus.

One car has been built from the ground-up for performance, the other needs a whole lot of effort and expense before it can look – and act – the business. 

Bolting a spoiler on an Reliant won’t improve its 0-60. Similarly, getting an existing site retro-fitted for SEO can sometimes waste your efforts in Search.

The good news for website owners is that unlike car enthusiasts, getting a website that performs really well in Google doesn’t depend on you having the budget to commission a very expensive website at the start.

Here are some tips to consider what you might look out for in your current site to decide whether it’s ok to just nip to Halfords, or whether you need to visit the Audi dealer.

 -Is your site designed 100% in Flash?

It’s possible to promote and track Flash websites, but if you’re serious about SEO then you need to have an alternative approach. Consider building a simpler, corporate website at a different web address.

-Does your site use images instead of text in the main areas of copy?

To check this Ctrl+right click (Cmd +Alt Mac) and see if it prompts to Save Image file as.  A search engine can’t read text that’s within an image file so your valuable page content will be invisible to Google. 

-How fast do your pages download over a broadband connection?

If your pages take an eternity to load even over a broadband connection there’s a chance your website has some problems with code or content. Google is saying it likes fast-loading sites, your customers are saying they like fast-loading sites, so why wait?

 -Do your webpages use search-friendly URLs?

Click on a menu link on your website. Check out the URL of this page in the white address bar at the top of your browser window. If the address looks similar to this:

http://www.site.co.uk?pg=75f9ff043452f867&cl=1&catid=d5da7fc807074444&mp=a25b0d9958dae6bc&-session=ldcms:5D98491B0f6212A0C2Nsly186DDA

 it’s difficult for search engines to understand your site structure. And if you wanted to send this link via email, how would the recipient know this was your contact page or latest news? This kind of problem can be patched-up but usually means a serious trip to the garage.

For an ecommerce retailer this will mainly be a sale, but it can also be a newsletter subscription, the view of a particular page or just a phone call.

All these interactions can be tracked – and your marketing efforts quantified. If you’re not already considering how users interact right across your ecommerce site then you’re missing out on potentially valuable data and it’s a good idea to seek early advice.

To better evaluate the performance of your ecommerce site, ask yourself if you are having access to the following information:

How many of your site visitors immediately leave your home page having arrived?

This kind of metric is called a bounce rate, Google state that this is one of the most useful pieces of data from your web traffic stats.

What is your shopping cart abandonment rate?

Research in 2008 in the US suggested the average was around 60%. On high-volume ecommerce sites a 2% swing either way can have a significant impact on sales, and minor adjustments to page layout or copy can be all that’s needed to make the difference.

Do you know what the preferred path or ‘funnel’ to purchase is?

The assumption might be that your customers proceed to checkout 2 to 3 clicks from the homepage. The reality may be that customers entering your site via a search result directly into the product pages are more inclined to make a purchase.

Do you have access to your web site statistics?

It’s surprising just how often ecommerce retailers don’t have access to their own web traffic stats. Ask your web designers for the location and password access and if you don’t have them enabled get them to install some for you, both Yahoo! and Google offer excellent free software.

How does Google determine which sites will rank above others in its natural search results?

Unlike web directories that list sites on the basis of editorial review by a human, Google is software that uses a complex maths formula to make its ranking ‘decisions’.

No-one outside of Google can claim to know the whole formula, but outside of a whole range of quality factors that are pretty well published and understood, the popularity of your website is a really important factor.

Google measures this partly by the quality and quantity of websites that have links back to your website. Seeking backlinks has therefore become a big part of the SEO industry, but just as in life it’s a good idea to choose your friends wisely.

Here are some tips to help you achieve ranking success and avoid keeping bad company on the internet.

Start simple by requesting a link to your website from your most obvious and trusted sources. If you are a member of a trade association, are you listed in their links directory?

If you own or manage a number of websites, point your links to the one most important site in the group.

Avoid automated link submission software that promises to deliver 000’s of links. The quality is poor and Google doesn’t like them.

Look for opportunities to get your site mentioned in high quality websites such as broadsheet newspapers, major review sites or high-traffic blogs.

Don’t be tempted to participate in reciprocal link and Free for All link building schemes. You could end up in some bad neighbourhoods on the Internet  – and this damages both your reputation and your popularity.

Where would you look to find out what’s going on in Liverpool’s Digital Sector? ACME and the Design Initiative represent the creative sector as a whole. ICDC law upon to itself and does little to float my boat. When you start have a proper look there’s not a public sector site that I think is well designed, current and helps showcase Liverpool’s digital sector.

There’s some serious web design, SEM, Game Design and ICT businesses in the city. Adding them all together in one decent website and you’ve got the start of what could be an open platform to promote our cities digital business and become a resource for us to find out what’s going on.

We’ve been creating great digital work for a decade. We deserve and need a decent platform to show the world what’s going on in Liverpool’s digital sector.

I’m not suggesting a website is going to be the answer, or it hasn’t been thought of before now but I see nothing being done.

I’d like to see the digital business owners get together and start discussing what would benefit us and what could be done to improve our Digital Liverpool brand.

Online PR – Search Engine Marketing

Since the majority of us don’t have Google’s bankroll for huge Pay Per Click camapigns, you are left to find less expensive ways to drive visitors to your websites. Online PR could be part of your answer – sharing your company news and views directly over the Internet.

You can get decent online exposure starting from £60 using a news distributor such as www.prweb.com.

Or you can do down the free PR route by sending your stories out using sites like www.clickpress.org or posting them to your Facebook account.

Online PR kills two birds with one stone. Besides getting traffic for your site, you are also creating exposure for your company. By having the possibility of your press release being picked up by multiple media channels, you can quickly and cheaply get eyeballs looking at your product or service.

TIPS to good Online PR

1: Plan a mini-campaign of three press releases over 4-6 weeks.

2: Writing a good online press release is critical, you should consider

• 300-500 words – one page max!


• People tend to scan web pages, not read them. Keep it simple.


• Make sure the first paragraph sums up the story.


• Include 3-4 links back to your website.

Or you can do down the free PR route by sending your stories out using sites like clickpress.org or posting them to your Facebook account.

3: Think about the ‘keywords’ that your customers might use to find your product or service and use them in the press release title.

Unlike traditional media, with online you can easily select the target audience you want to deliver your message to. The results are quick and your press release can be picked up and shared with millions of potential customers.

You will know exactly how effective your online Press Release has been by tracking the new visitors to your website. Online results don’t lie.

Online PR allows does deliver a good ‘Bang for your Buck’ in search marketing terms and in our opinion, this will continue to grow through 2009.

Formby Hall dominates local search results across highly competitive leisure sector keywords. Formby Hall Golf Resort and Spa is a new 4* boutique hotel north of Liverpool and home to the UK’s first National Residential PGA Academy. CL5 was chosen to maximise the impact of the launch campaign by implementing a six-month search marketing programme.

In 2008 Formby Hall completed a major £14m investment resulting in stunning new spa facilities, a brasserie restaurant, cocktail lounge and 62-room hotel, all complemented by an 18 hole championship golf course, a new 9-hole par 3 course and 26-bay floodlit driving range.

The sheer range and quality of the offer, supported by a first class website, suggested the search marketing campaign had great potential. Our challenge was to get visibility in a very competitive search environment and grow web sales referrals.

CL5’s first task was to use software and competitor research to quickly identify a target keyword list across the six key areas of the business. Keyword ranking in search pages is used to measure our campaign performance and the target list is used to optimise the page content for the search terms that potential customers in this market were actually using.

A structured programme of link research and link building was undertaken to boost the website’s popularity in Google. This included paid submission to high quality directories such as Yahoo! together with a range of industry-specific portals, plus large scale link submission to free search engines and high PageRank UK directories.

Technical improvements to the site’s readability in search engines were implemented and monitored using the webmaster tools utilities in Google, MSN and Yahoo! In addition, CL5’s expertise in interpreting site traffic data from Google Analytics was a useful source of information for our client to assess the performance of their ongoing marketing activity. 

A range of small scale Pay-Per-Click advertising campaigns in Google AdWords were devised to support specific sales activity in the hotel, to test market different keywords and to promote Formby Hall to new audiences. This data has proved invaluable to direct future advertising spend in hotel, spa and golf related markets. 

Reputation counts in the hospitality industry. So in addition to our search marketing work, CL5 pro-actively monitored customer reviews from important referring sites such as Trip Advisor as well as ethically seeding forums and other review sites to help manage brand reputation.

The traffic figures speak for themselves, the number of unique visitors to the website rising 73%, non-brand keyword traffic rising 40%, average page views up 80% over the 6 month campaign and over 20 keyphrases gaining a top ten organic ranking.