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We met Anthony at the BNI Inspire Chapter in Coventry early one Thursday morning a couple of months ago. Now, he did try and avoid us to start with but he needed to try much harder than simply not replying to one email. We’ve moved past that now to the point where Anthony doesn’t (visibly) wince when he sees us – I think he might even quite like us. Or maybe he just likes the opportunity to talk about himself. Probably best to ask him directly to be certain about that @AnthonyJohns0n.
So, Anthony, is a Digital Marketeer (Marketer?) who loves Twitter (it’s his favourite form of social media). His Twitter bio describes him as:
and that’s pretty much how he describes himself in person too. His love for Twitter comes from his short attention span: everything moves so quickly on Twitter that there’s always something new to look at, engage with or a technique to try out. The advantage of the speed is that, if you say something wrong, it’s gone in minutes. Conversely, though, that makes it tough to be heard above the noise sometimes.
As for the rest, he’s not a fan of Periscope nor is he a fan of all the gimmicky stuff you can find for example apps that teach you how to communicate with people because, while he might be a digital geek, Anthony knows the value of a phone call. This is also quite literally meant – a phone call just netted Anthony £10k.
His rationale for why this works? It all comes down to people: marketing shouldn’t be considered B2B or B2C but rather people 2 people. To be successful you need to engage with real people through real content on a real level. It can be easy to forget you’re in work mode or separated from others by technology but people warm to the genuine and authentic.
According to Anthony, it comprises 4 elements: 25% social media, 25% internet marketing, 25% SEO, 25% PPC
You don’t need to ace all of them. We were given Groupon as an example. flick’s Suzee got a Groupon for her Hollywood tour of star homes (as totally irrelevant side note – Suzee was in her element with this. She knew more than the tour guide). Anthony suggested that we wouldn’t have found Groupon for searching for Hollywood Tours but I ended up using them anyway – I found them (or, more likely through the use of cookies, they found me).
Not wanting to fall into the trap of believing what we’d been told about Groupon, we did the search for ourselves. You can see the results below and, guess what, Anthony was right.
This means 15 years ago. He didn’t want to say he’d been in the business for 13 years (surely also a superstitious chap) so he stuck with the 12 year mark. In hindsight, moving to the format of 12a, 12b, 12c seems more entertaining.
In a series of rather remarkable accidents, Anthony stumbled across internet marketing by accident. By accidentally writing a football blog for Coventry Telegraph: he sent in his thoughts on a Cov City match and, in fact, one day he did that five times and all five blogs got published. The result: an accident blogger.
He went off to learn more. Given what he describes as his natural ability to understand systems and a very good memory, he set about figuring out how to be successful by picking apart someone else’s system. It was probably also helpful that he’d always been intrigued by computers and had a ZX Spectrum* when he was young. Once confident that he could achieve, he put his neck on the line with the company he worked for at the time doing a deal with them which gave him 6 months to succeed. He did.
This prompted what Anthony considers to be a very successful career – he “lived the dream for a while” and enjoyed his business (I wonder how many of us can say that?). Quite ambitiously, there are still some goals left to achieve and that’s after setting up Digital 4 Trade and his previous company, the number one SEO company, SEO GO, where companies 5-times his size were using him to white-label their SEO.
*in case you're also wondering what a ZX Spectrum looks like (we had to Google it) imagine an even more basic-looking version of the BBC computer.
(and check out the difference between Google then and now!)
NB - this video is a few years old so the guidance isn’t in keeping with modern day best practice.
We discussed what Old School SEO was (see it in action below):
Did you get it? It was back when you used white text on a white background to simply add in loads of the key words. It seems so far off the SEO guidelines we’re using today.
We also reminisced about the early days of the internet and what we could remember being around at the time Anthony was starting out on this path. We’ve put together a timeline of the evolution as best we could remember but we weren’t 100% sure. What can you remember?
Share your memories with us
The spin – “previously worked with Muhammad Ali”
The reality – did the SEO for the UK website selling t-shirts showing Muhammad Ali and/or things he said.
Apple vs Google – Apple for hands on hardware/kit, Google for the virtual world
Tea vs Coffee – Tea
Cats vs Dogs – Dogs
and that's it for the latest in our guest blog series. Thanks for taking part, Anthony. Would you like to be part of it too? If so, leave us a comment below and we'll get in touch.
Ockham's Razor states that all things being equal, the simplest and most direct solution with the fewest number of steps is usually the correct answer to any problem. It's a powerful philosophy named after William of Ockham who popularized the strategy centuries ago. When I find myself at a stalemate, I often think of this age-old principle.
The problem is that business leaders and entrepreneurs like to pride themselves on their originality, intelligence and problem-solving skills. The thought of deciding on the "simplest" solution or the "too obvious" choice causes otherwise smart decision makers to bypass the right option.
Most of us are guilty of needlessly complicating business with complex spreadsheets, fancy jargon or far-sighted business plans. Here are six examples showing why Ockham’s Razor can work for you:
The beauty of a simple solution is that it won't be difficult for your team members, throughout all layers of your organization, to understand the vision. The more complicated the directive, the greater the jeopardy that the message will be lost in translation as it disseminates from the top down. A clear, concise vision that can be boiled down and communicated directly maximizes your chances of everyone "getting it." This is half the battle.
The more things that have to happen right for your business to succeed, the greater the risk. As Jim Collins wrote in Good to Great, enduring, outstanding companies focus on what drives their economic engines, a single ratio that highlights a single 'X' that will produce the highest return. Companies able to grow quickly are ones who have a clear understanding of what drives them. They also can replicate their successes quickly and efficiently.
Overly complex strategies not only are hard to implement, they often make it more difficult to gauge results The most successful companies have a straightforward direction, along with clear and simple measuring sticks that keep them on track.
Africa are to get Facebook beamed from Space!
The internet.org initiative reaches social medianetwork deal with French company Eutelsat that will see much of sub-Saharan Africa receiving internet.
Facebook has reached a deal to have free internet beamed to some of the most remote parts of Africa via satellite.
Through Facebook's internet.org initiative, the company offers access to a number of services including weather, news, health and Facebook itself, for free. Most connections currently come through traditional fixed and mobile telecoms networks, which provide sparse coverage.
How the words you use on Twitter can predict how much you earn!
An academic study has sorted through Twitter profiles and found that certain words correlate with certain wage brackets.
Are you more likely to tweet about beauty or a corporation? Say 'bae' or tweet about politics? The words you use on the social platform may indicate how much money you make, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, University College London and Microsoft Research in Cambridge.
The study looked at the information from 1,000 Twitter bios about what job each person did, and ranked the jobs in terms of average wage - based on information from the Office of National Statistics. They then analysed the words that these people used on Twitter most often.
"Users with higher income post less emotional (positive and negative) but more neutral content, exhibiting more anger and fear, but less surprise, sadness and disgust."
They found that people who tweet about politics more often are more likely to be on a higher income. The researchers attributed this to the fact that with higher levels of education usually comes higher wealth, and also because the political classes are often the financially elite.
Instagram names Harry Styles as the UK’s most followed account!
The One Direction star is the most popular Instagram account in the UK, according to Instagram, the photo sharing network.
One Direction star Harry Styles has been revealed as the UK's most popular Instagram account, as the platform celebrates its fifth birthday.
Styles shares photos with his 13 million followers, giving them an insight into One Direction's life on the road alongside images of creative powerhouses Stevie Nicks, Nirvana and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The popstar narrowly beat David Beckham to the post, despite the fact Beckham only joined Instagram five months ago to mark his 40th birthday! In that time, the former footballer has amassed 12.8 million followers, gaining an incredible one million fans within a single day.
Don’t panic!
Facebook isn’t going to charge to keep people's posts private!
To make it official, we’re publishing it in the media: there’s no need to post an informational message on the social network to warn friends
Facebook is not planning to make its users pay £5.99 to keep their status updates private
“Now it’s official! It has been published in the media. Facebook has just released the entry price: £5.99 to keep the subscription of your status to be set to ‘private’. If you paste this message on your page, it will be offered free,” claims the widely-circulated chain message.
“If not tomorrow, all your posts can become public. Even the messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. After all, it does not cost anything for a simple copy and paste.”
This particular hoax has been circulating since 2009 in various forms. At least this time round, it is not accompanied by a link that attempts to install malware on your computer.
Facebook’s privacy settings remain the same, with posts and accounts able to be kept private by using the drop-down menu while publishing them, or the general-settings menu.
The 2015 Local Search Ranking Factors Report is out, and it’s a must-read for anyone in the local SEO arena. As you may know, the survey polls roughly 40 leading local SEO practitioners on what they believe to be the variables most responsible for driving rankings in Google local search results.
David Mihm began the survey independently a number of years ago and now manages it in his role as director of local search strategy with Moz. The survey is very extensive, and I can’t summarize all of it here.
The “snack pack” was top-of-mind for all the participants, but tactical responses varied widely. Below is the high-level summary of the ranking variables and the consensus view of their relative influence.
Source: Moz
The top consideration, according to the group, was “On-Page Signals,” followed by a relatively even distribution of other factors: Link Signals, My Business Signals, External Signals, Behavioral (i.e., clicks, calls, opens) and so on. The big takeaway seems to be an emphasis on quality and the incorporation of an expanding range of signals.
Several local SEOs were arguing to stay the course, get the basics right. Indeed, the most valuable part of the study is probably the individual practitioners’ color commentary on the findings. Below are just a few excerpts:
Darren Shaw, Whitespark
With the new local packs having only three spots, the local organic results have become much more important. We’re putting more effort into content, links and unstructured citations for our clients these days. Media mentions appear to be particularly powerful. Even a single mention in a local paper seems to provide a significant boost to both local pack and local organic rankings.
One of the first things I recommend to anyone who wants to be successful is to find a mentor. Seeking out the opinion and advice of someone who is currently doing what you want to be doing will help you in a myriad of ways. You’ll avoid heartache and the costly mistakes made out of naivety.
But how do you get that conversation started? Social media has made it easier than ever to reach out to the experts who inspire us.
I believe experts want to help. I certainly do. Sure, I’m busy, but let’s keep it real.
I’ve been writing about product licensing online for years now. When I receive an inquiry about a topic I’ve covered at length in a previous article, I’m happy to quickly respond with a link to the corresponding article. But I always wonder, “Does this person know how to use Google?”
It makes more sense to study a subject until you feel like you know it well and then approach an expert for his or her advice. You’ll have a firmer grip on the perspective you seek. To be honest, most experts aren’t going to be willing to answer question after question, so make it a good one!
Context is always helpful. Who are you? Why are you sending this message? Experts like to know. A long-winded explanation isn’t needed. I’m talking about something as simple as “aspiring product developer” or “engineering student.” Doing so will humanize you.
What expert doesn’t love hearing what they do is appreciated? Try to be as specific as you can. When someone references my book or an article I’ve written, I know that they’re already at least a little bit familiar with my work. I love that.
Experts can’t weigh in on the exact scenario in which you find yourself, because doing so wouldn’t be sincere. They simply don’t know enough. I know I don’t want to give anyone bad advice. Focus instead on asking more general questions.
I cannot stress this enough! Knowledge is what you’re after, isn’t it? Focus on starting a dialogue rather than confirming an opinion. When people reveal what they already think about a subject in their initial inquiry, I’m wary of getting a conversation started. The reality is that it isn’t going to be much of a conversation.
Experts just want to share what they think, not convince anyone of anything. I wonder why the person messaged me in the first place if his or her opinion is already formed.
I think a lot of what getting someone to help you comes down to is being genuine and thoughtful. Taking the time to craft a well-written, error-free message is one way of doing that. It tells the expert that you care. They’ll care more as a result.
Addressing me as “Steven” is far from a deal-breaker, but if I’m being honest, it makes me feel like you haven’t put very much effort into your message. After all, it’s such a simple thing to do. I might be especially sensitive to this, because my name is easily misspelled!
By Stephen Key.
Facebook Notes may soon be getting a major facelift.
The company is testing a refreshed design for its long-ignored Notes feature that makes the stories look more like blog posts than standard Facebook updates.
“We’re testing an update to Notes to make it easier for people to create and read longer-form stories on Facebook," a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable.
The new design, first spotted by Facebook user John Biesenecker, is cleaner and makes Notes look much more like blog posts rather than extended Facebook statuses. It features a cover photo and a new look for the headline and body text; notably, it doesn't include a sidebar with ads and other suggestions as older versions of Notes do.
IMAGE: FACEBOOK
As with most of Facebook's experiments, the changes are being tested among a small group of users who are able to access the new features from Facebook's website. The company isn't saying whether the feature will ever be available to a broader audience, but it could be a sign that more changes are coming to Notes, which hasn't been significantly updated since 2010.
Over the last several months, Facebook has introduced a new Instant Articles platform, live video streaming and a new embeddable video player. So the addition of a more full-featured blogging platform would appear to fit in with the company's growing emphasis on content that keeps users engaged ... and on Facebook.
