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December 15th, 2011 by michael.frier

Do the rules of SEO also apply to Dating?

Dating meets SEO

The romance that can spark through using SEO tactics

My friend raised a very good theory to me the other day which I felt deserved expanding further. He proposed that the rules for good SEO can be utilised for winning the heart of someone you desire.

After five minutes of thinking this through and perhaps one too many alcoholic beverages, the true genius of this theory began to shine through. After all, Search Engine Optimisation is all about getting your site to appear on your audience’s internet searches as often as possible and in the most prominent position. Let’s face it, the early days of dating is all about trying to stay on someone’s mind as much as possible, (but, you know, in a good way, not in a “I’m creeped out because this person’s in my head, kind-of-way”).

So, below I have taken this general idea and listed the five key rules to effective SEO and posed the question, does this also apply to the art of ‘making a move’.

1) Keyword search is the first step

For SEO purposes this is vital. You must know the keywords that your audience use to search the topic you are discussing. That way you can build your site and tag your posts to ensure you are appearing on the correct searches and start building upon your ranking.

For dating this is just as important. You need to do some research into what words gain the interest of different types of people. For instance, if they’re from the Shoreditch/Hoxton area then you’ll know that certain words will catch their interest. Use words like ‘dub’ or ‘retro’ in one of your first sentences and you’ll notice an increase in attention. I’d also recommend dropping in something about some form of art or design degree or at least the name of a DJ best friend you have (or have just made up) who’s latest work can be heard on Soundcloud. Similarly, if they’re from the lovely southern countryside, then try vocalising a hatred for the 50% tax bracket and suggest that foxes are actually a true scourge on our wonderful woodland regions. This will almost certainly peak their interest.

2) Build an easy navigation

When trying to make your site SEO friendly it is important to link between pages. Search engines like sites to be easily navigated.

When trying to stay on the mind of a “seed waiting to blossom” (as the same friend calls it) it’s important that they can get to you easily. Facebook, Twitter and general ‘social research’ are all there to ensure you keep popping up on her mind. Facebook and Twitter can also give you some good indications on keywords – for instance they may have have ‘liked’ TOWIE, suggesting that your opening conversation should almost certainly be about vajazzles and definitely avoid any classical literature (Charles Dickens will mean nothing to them).

3) Give good links

When it comes to SEO, each link you have facing your site is like a vote. It’s people saying that they found your topic interesting and others might too. Search engines take this into consideration and it’s the quickest way to boost your position.

One of the keys to successful dating is friend approval. Similarly to getting links from relevant sites, you want to create links from the person’s friends to yourself. If they see that their friends like you then they will think “oh…well they must be a nice person because I trust my friends opinions” – the beauty of this is that it works even if you aren’t.

4) Content is vital/it’s what’s inside that counts

Search engines like sites with regularly updated content. With that in mind, it’s important to build good content and use the correct keywords to tag each page. Also, let’s face it, there is no point boosting your SEO if nobody wants to read what’s actually on the site.

With dating, good content translates to good personality – I am not sure why this matters to people but from my understanding it does.  On the plus side, this does mean that anyone with a good personality can be attractive – it’s all about emphasising your best attributes. I’m not talking about dominating your date with a massive personality, but you need to try to impress. Looks can only get you so far, but if there’s nothing beyond a glossy front page, you’re not going to retain much attention after an initial look.

5) Own your domain

To reach the top of Google rankings you must hire a good hosting service with fast and stable servers. Search engines will not wait too long to load your page. Worse yet, they hate it when your page is off the air and if it is repeated many times you fall in rank with certainty.

We all know which domain really counts when courting and if you want to impress you best start owning it! There is nothing worse than putting all that time and effort into getting the person into your domain and then letting yourself down on the final hurdle – and if it is repeated let downs you will drop down their rankings with certainty.

To summarise…

The same tactics that will take your webpage to the top of Bing and Google will also help you land the object of your affection. Which, in my mind, one hundred per cent disproves the theory that none of us techie geeks can land a date on a Friday night, and instead spend it on Warcraft until the early hours.

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May 9th, 2011 by michael.frier

Technology dominates the most powerful Brand Index

Millward Brown’s most recent brand index has placed six technology companies in the top 10, with Apple taking the top spot from Google. Apple is now valued at £93bn (a rise of 84%), whilst Google is valued at $111.5bn (a drop of 2%).

 

Apple’s strong brand value will not come as a surprise to many people. Us media types are usually found walking through Central London clutching on to iPhones, or if we are feeling especially important that day, an iPad. These two products have been Apple’s major successes in recent years, allowing the brand to appeal to a consumer market and an enterprise market simultaneously. They have essentially done this by making their products really cool and really useful at the same time – or at least giving us enough of an argument to convince our IT managers that we simply can’t live without an iPhone, other PR agencies would surely mock us if we turned up with a, god forbid, Nokia.

 

Google on the other hand have had a year of crisis after crisis. The campaigners for data privacy always seem to end up at the door of Google and have such hurt their brand image. They now appear to be the evil company that they are, having managed to keep the ‘funky start-up’ image going for far longer than deserved. However, a 2% drop isn’t exactly crisis times. They are still seen as a company pushing technological innovation – their work with Twitter during the Egypt crisis was a massive coup for the brand name in that respect.

 

The other interesting mover in the index is Facebook, which made its debut in the top 100 at 35; achieving the highest increase in brand value at 246 percent. I am sure that next year we will see Facebook sore into the top 20, if not the top 10, as Google, Facebook and Apple continue to be the technology brands making the most noise. I am sare that Microsoft and IBM will forever be a permanent fixture in the top 10 but it these three that dominate our consciousness.

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May 6th, 2011 by michael.frier

How to PR the Assassination of a Global Leader

I think it is safe to say that newspapers this week have been completely dominated by reports and analysis of the death of Bin Laden (and Kate Middleton shopping in Waitrose). No one has enjoyed this more than the White House Press Office, who have done a fantastic job in keeping control of the story – although a few cracks are starting to show today. Although it is fairly obvious to state that the Bin Laden killing was an operation planned to the most miniscule detail – I must say I didn’t quite realise the outreach of this planning. It seems fairly clear to me that, perhaps not before the event, but certainly within moments of it the White House PR Team were put on full alert and were immediately devising the best way to present the news to the public.

 

Decision One was easy: Obama would present the news alone on Live TV. This was not the militaries’ success…this was not the Allies success…this was Obama’s success. It was the announcement that made America forget their divisions – healthcare bills, broken Guantanamo promises and poor economic results were forgotten as America revelled in their revenge and Obama’s success. One of the first things revealed to the press was the image of Obama watching as the operation took place, orchestrating the moment American’s have been waiting a decade for. This was Obama’s victory and it was the announcement that kick-started the ‘Campaign to Re-Elect to Barak Obama’.

 

However, it was the PR that followed the announcement that really took my notice. The propaganda machine immediately kicked in. If you are going to ‘murder’ a world leader, you better make sure the world hates him. And that’s where the White House PR machine comes in. Bin Laden was immediately painted as the hate figure. Reports from the White House included: Bin Laden hid behind his wife (later stated she jumped in front of him) and Bin Laden shot at the troops (later stated he was unarmed). Both these reports aimed to make this not seem like an assassination of revenge, but the attempted capture of an evil criminal.

 

Over the last couple of days these reports have started to unravel and truths have been revealed. However, the impact of this has been blunted by the nicely timed trip by Obama – to Ground Zero, the site of Bin Laden’s biggest atrocity. Obama’s trip to New York ensures that the stories of 9/11 victims have filled the paper and Bin Laden’s ‘evil persona’ is at the forefront of all stories – clouding over the fact that all was not as we were told. It has also allowed Obama to walk through the crowds like a heroic leader coming to tell of his success at war.

 

The whole story has really been quite the coup for the Obama administration. They have controlled the story from word go, they have made sure that the press has focussed on the aspects they want whilst hiding the more contentious points. The Bin Laden Assassination should be all future governments model on how to PR the assassination of a global leader and ensure the press and public stay onside.

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April 20th, 2011 by michael.frier

Oh the hard toil’s of PR – why my life is more stressful than a Docs

Today I read that the lovely people who put together CareerCast.com’s 2011 report have finally highlighted the plight of the PR. In fact, they have found that PR is the second most stressful job (after pilot); whilst working in the healthcare industry provides you with the least amount of work pressure. PR more stressful than being a doctor? Can’t see why that wouldn’t be true…

I mean we have all had those days when you receive an email at least once every 5 minutes asking you to ‘action’ something – whether it be finding an image for a journalist, drafting an award entry that’s deadline is only in a month, or pulling together a press release that’s already been scheduled to go out in just two weeks’ time. These tasks are often only broken up by the extraordinarily pressurising act of pitching for new business…where you are so desperate to come up with a creative idea that you hold brainstorm after brainstorm (which is essentially just people screaming random and hilarious ideas at you for an hour). Then these heart-pulsating days are finished off with the hyper stressful client and journalist after-work drinks…where God forbid you have to actually act like a normal human-being for the course of an evening. It is days like these that I think…why didn’t I just become a doctor, what’s at stake then? People’s lives…pfff…how’s that ever gonna be stressful.

Now as much as I may have just mocked the stress involved in PR, the fact is there are some pretty tight deadlines and quite heavy workloads. And considering the fact that most people that work in PR (myself included) haven’t actually done a day of hard-labour in their life – I can see why they would answer a survey and say their job is very stressful. However, I do have to question those healthcare professionals who said they don’t have pressure at work…it is one of the few industries where decisions can actually be life and death. I would think that would bring with it a certain amount of pressure. Pilots can clearly see that having people’s lives in their hands comes with a fair bit of pressure…why can’t the doctors and nurses of this world take the responsibility as seriously.

To be honest, I think I have come up with the reason the reports results has come out like this. We all know how terrible the Healthcare sector is at basic administration work, there is every possibility that they just filled out the survey incorrectly. Also, Dieticians came in as second least stressful job…I have to ask, did anyone take into account the stress the weighing scales in their offices under-go every day?

I also, enjoyed the fact that the reason given by Tony lee, publisher of the report, for PR being such a stressful job was: “As traditional forms of communication transition to digital, those who want to remain employed need to embrace new technologies or find a new career.” I have to admit; learning how to use Twitter has sent my heart racing with angst on almost a daily basis. Lee followed that amazing justification with a superb clarification on what a non-stressful job, unlike PR, entails – “Professions that involve low stress usually have very little danger and minimal physical demands.” – I must say that when I was younger I never fancied myself as a daredevil, but now I have seen first-hand the high amount of danger involved in my day-to-day routine as a PR; it is clear I was born to be one. And, well as for minimal physical demands; clearly all the miners up North have it easy compared to us PR’s – mining for coal…pff…try inserting a whole wad of paper into the photocopier at work – that’s physical exertion.

Finally, I’d just like to say that advertising account executive’s came sixth – four places below PR – I knew we were more important!

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April 15th, 2011 by michael.frier

Cameron & Cable: Messaging blooper or change of strategy?

Yesterday I saw for the first time the Coalition really leave behind the messaging of a coalition unified on all fronts. It was the battle of words that David Cameron and Vince Cable had yesterday that really illustrated the difficulties of keeping two fundamentally different parties on the same message and perhaps a change in the governments PR strategy.

 

One of the more awkward press cycles for the Coalition started with Cameron’s speech proposing a cap on immigration. Following the speech all seemed well; this was a policy agreed on by both Tory and Lib Dem members of the Coalition Cabinet…except one rather high profile member on the Lib Dem side. Vince Cable didn’t quite agree with Cameron’s policy – or at least his presentation of the policy – and of course decided to have this argument in the usual channels provided for government policy dispute…the press. Vince Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg of the BBC, Cable suggested that Cameron’s want for “good immigration, not mass immigration” was “very unwise”.

 

At first this seemed to be a major messaging blooper on the part of Vince Cable – he had gone off Coalition message and was now directly contrasting the Government viewpoint. Or was it Cameron’s fault for using language that was ‘too strong’ to announce the policy? At this point, you would have been forgiven for asking, where was Vince Cable’s PR keeping in tow? Or, had Cameron’s speech not gone through Coalition scrutiny for wording?

 

As the dust settled it seemed that both Cable and Cameron had not actually gone off messaging; they were in fact one hundred percent on message – just not Coalition message. They were on Party message. Cameron made his immigration announcement whilst visiting Southern constituency of Hampshire, a traditional Tory stronghold – but one that the Lib Dems have always been a strong challenger for.  His strong rhetoric was a clear attempt at pulling moderate-Tories away from being scouted by Lib Dems and back into the party bosom. Cable, on the other hand, was illustrating that there is a difference between the Parties and that voters will not be voting for the Coalition but two separate set of ideologies.

 

Yesterday’s upheaval came not long after Clegg was caught on tape saying to Cameron, “If we keep doing this we won’t find anything to bloody disagree on in the bloody TV debate”. Clearly at this point the Party head’s were worrying that the messaging of Coalition unity was blurring the messaging of the separate Party’s values. Perhaps Clegg’s words then and Cable’s today signified a new era in the Coalition. Since it’s formation it has been screaming as loud as it can about being ‘unified’. Perhaps now, as council elections approach, Party allegiances are returning and the messaging is moving to one of ‘separate Parties working together’ rather than ‘one government’.

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November 5th, 2010 by michael.frier

Seven men went to Mo….

The Speed Office has engaged in a bit of a hairy scenario this week. Seven members of the Speed Team are now officially taking part in Movember, under the team name Shaving Grace. Movember is essentially growing a Moustache for the whole of November and being sponsored to do this by people that get a certain schadenfreude from you looking like a complete tit. It is actually for a very worthy cause, The Prostate Cancer Charity – one man is killed every hour by the disease in the UK alone and it is the most common cancer in men.

Moustache growing in Speed has been going for nearly a week and it is safe to say that only John Brown (@brownbare) can argue he is actually styling the Mo’ right now. The rest of us are clearly still prepubescent and are now either sporting a bumfluffy lip or, as in the case of Matthew Watson (@mpwatson), seem to becoming more clean-shaven than ever. There are many claims that this is due to having light hair – but if we are very honest, it is a lack of manliness.

My own personal experience of Movember…it’s degrading. My girlfriend spent the first half of the week begging me not to do it; apparently she did not want to spend the next month stood next to a man resembling a 1980s German Backpacker. That was my analogy; she opted for comparing a Mo’d me to a paedophile…which was lovely. The second half of the week only got worse as my girlfriend failed to even notice I had grown one – she either can’t stand to look at me anymore or my Mo is not quite the Tom Selleck magnificence that I hoped it would be – I suspect my girlfriend was right and I will soon be sporting a Molestache on my top lip.

Still I hold high hopes for the rest of the month! Having wracked my brains I have figured out that those with the Mo’ always become leaders. There are many obvious examples which I am sure you can guess…I like to think that the growth of a Mo will automatically make me seem like a leader and pay rises, promotions and general good things will come my way before Movember has come to its razorsharp end. The only problem I do see on the horizon is when I have face-to-face client meetings whilst looking like John Waters love-child.

You may ask why we have subjected ourselves to the abuse that has obviously been hurled at us from our colleagues…yes obviously it’s a good cause…but really its because the definition of a Mo-man, as stated on the Movember site, “is a man dedicated and true to the cause of fine moustachery; aware of his responsibility to honour the moustache.” And who wouldn’t want to be a man like that.

Anyway, it’s a good cause and you know you like it when Speeples make tits of themselves – so please do donate generously here.

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August 27th, 2010 by michael.frier

Top Tips for Live TV – or “don’t be a moron!”

Over the past few months there has been a series of high profile bugger ups on live news broadcasts. It is the role of a PR to ensure this happens as little as possible. PRs have the marvellous job of being able to push people in front of these cameras knowing that if they say the wrong thing the spokesperson not the PR will look a berk. PRs then get the joy of critiquing that person on exactly where they went wrong and why they now look like a complete buffoon. However, I thought I would help these Public Relation Advisors everywhere by including below my three favourite top tips (with glorious examples) of how to not look like a moron on TV.

Top Tip #1 – Live TV is not the time for swearing

After weatherman Tomasz Schafernaker stuck his middle finger up at BBC New’s 24 Simon McCoy it was then reported that he had previously called Glastonbury “Muddy Sh*te” rather than “Muddy site”. Though I am sure he was not wrong with this particular Freudian slip, it does lead me to ask: who ever put this man on live TV? He is clearly far too stupid! However, if he just followed the golden rule of not swearing on live TV then he may have avoided such criticism.

Top Tip #2 – Don’t try to ‘sex up’ serious news events

The weatherman with the silly name follows other brilliant live TV mess ups which have led me to ask the question: who put this moron on TV? This often comes when people try to make a news story that much more exciting. Kay Burley, in true Sky News style, is often caught out trying to make stories that much more headline grabbing. For instance, during Sky News coverage of the 9/11 attacks she somehow felt the need to hyperbolise the biggest news event of a generation by greeting viewers with this fantastic gem, “and if you’ve just joined us, the entire eastern seaboard of the United States has been decimated by a terrorist attack”. Kay managed to top this by asking the wife of Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright “Do you think if you’d had a better sex life he wouldn’t have done this?” Clearly the wife’s fault! I don’t know about you, but when I don’t get any for a while – I just have to strangle someone. Perhaps Kay Burley should have taken this tip to heart. Both these events were already huge stories; she did not need an attempt to make them bigger.

Top Tip #3 – If national news cameras are near you, behave!

This rule is a big one. If there are cameras around you, make sure you are not doing wrong otherwise you will be caught out and will look a moron. Remember ‘that banker’ who was watching porn on his company computer whilst a live TV interview happened behind him. He was nothing to do with the broadcast, just having a normal day at the office – and let’s face it, whose normal day at the office doesn’t involve the watching of pornographic movies. Sadly, he seemed to forget that this national news interview would be happening right behind his desk – he quickly became far more interesting than the actual story. What a banker!

And it’s not just everyday office workers who need this tip re-iterating to them 24/7. Who can forget the marvellous ‘bigotgate’. Although probably having little effect on the outcome of the election, it couldn’t have helped. Our own Prime Minister (at the time) Gordon Brown, surrounded by advisors, still forgot that national news cameras were listening in when he referred to Gillian Duffy as a “bigoted woman”.

Both Gordon Brown and our lonely banker really should have remembered that when you are near news cameras and journalists, you really should be on your best behaviour!

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July 27th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 27/7

BBC – BlackBerry pose ‘security risk’ say UAE

The United Arab Emirates has said that it could move to restrict or monitor BlackBerry mobile phones, as they pose a “national security risk”.

ComputerWorldUK – Jailbreaking iPhones is deemed legal
Apple has lost its bid to criminalise “jailbreaking,” the practice of hacking an iPhone to install unauthorised apps on the smartphone, following a decision by the US Copyright Office and the Library of Congress.

CIO – Wikileaks and Guardian newspaper reveal Afghan War secret documents

The Wikileaks website has released its controversial ‘Afghan War Diary’ (AWD), a 91,000-file collection of reports detailing disturbing and previously unreported incidents involving US and other NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The Daily Telegraph – ‘Most people’s purchases influenced by social networks’

The majority of consumers now consult ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ on social networks, such as Facebook, before choosing to purchase a new item, according to research firm Gartner.

The Guardian – Ofcom: Broadband ISPs are pulling a fast one

Average speed 46% below that promised by ISPs. Mandatory code and clear penalties vital, experts say

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July 9th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 09/07

The Register – Symbian malware creates mighty zombie army

Mobile malware that affects Symbian Series 60 handsets is being used to create a botnet.

Management Today – Power cuts and burst pipes cost SME’s nearly £600m a year

38% of SME’s hit by a ‘business breakdown’ last year, according to new survey. As if the recession, the budget deficit and VAT wasn’t enough to worry about, it seems that the nation’s SMEs are in the midst of another expensive crisis. ‘Business emergencies are apparently costing smalled firms some £598m a year in repairs and lost earnings.

ZDNet – Kent village puts up funds for fibre broadband

A small Kent village is using public funds to subsidise BT’s installation of fibre in the area, which would otherwise have missed out on a super-fast broadband connection.

BBC tech – Google expects new China licence, says Schmidt

Google boss Eric Schmidt has said he expects the internet giant to be granted a new licence to operate in China.

ComputerWorldUK – Peter Mandelson named Internet villain of the year
Lord Mandelson was named Internet Villain of the Year at the ISPA awards, last night.

The Daily Telegraph – Biz Stone: Twitter is the world’s fastest growing search engine
Talking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Stone revealed the statistic – which means Twitter’s search engine is serving more than 24 billion searches per month compared to Bing’s approximate 4.1 billion and Yahoo!’s approximate 9.4 billion combined.

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July 8th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 08/07

The Register – Amazon.co.uk takes on Tesco

Amazon’s UK tentacle is upping its range of goods for sale to include thousands of grocery and food items and lashings of lovely booze.

The Daily Telegraph – Mozilla unveils Firefox 4 beta

Firefox 4, the latest version of the popular internet browser, has been released as a public beta, and adopts some of Google Chrome’s features.

Computer Weekly – Marks & Spencer online sales grow 49 per cent

Marks & Spencer’s online business M&S Direct saw sales rise 49 per cent in the first quarter of the new financial year. Overall UK sales were up 4.4 per cent, with the online side of the business playing a strong role in the performance. The company has invested in its online business in recent months. It extended its Shop Your Way multi-channel ordering service to more than 400 stores and has launched a fully mobile-enabled website.

Total Telecom – Ridley Scott teaming up with YouTube on documentary
Google-owned YouTube described it as a “historic cinematic experiment” intended to “document one day, as seen through the eyes of people around the world.”

Management Today – £35m a year for the Business Link website? Really??

Opinion was split when new business minister Mark Prisk announced the Government was pulling the plug on Business Link: although many business owners have long considered it a total waste of taxpayers’ money, others sing its praises. However, it is now reported that the website cost the taxpayer an extraordinary £105m over the last three years.

The Guardian – Facebook applications requesting permission to steal your data

The world of Facebook can be a dangerous place, as two separate incidents this week have proven.

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