Many agencies are experimenting with social media: at Napier we’re very active using a range of online tools to improve our communication and that of our clients. I’ve recently received a copy of an extremely interesting dissertation about the use of social media by PR agencies written by Sophie Plastow that is based upon new rese4arch. I’d thoroughly recommend that anyone working in or managing an agency reads it: if you want a copy you can request one from Sophie.

Tags: CIE, Clients, Email, ESE, google, Misc Marketing, Online

EPD has launched a white papers section on the EPDonthenet.net website. The new section allows engineers to run a keyword search for white papers, something that I’m sure will be an interesting service. Although Google remains the first port of call for many engineers looking for technical information, the need for specific, detailed information often means they end up searching several manufacturers’ sites. If the service takes off it could provide a valuable resource for engineers as well as an efficient way to promote products. As hosting is free, I see no reasons why companies would not choose to include their white papers on the EPD website.

Tags: CIE, EPD, google, Online, UK

Users of the Google Webmaster Tools may have noticed that the page rank information has disappeared in the latest release. As Susan Moskwa of Google explains on a support thread:

We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it. 

Susan refers readers to more information that reveals that there are over 200 different “signals” that can affect how a site is crawled, indexed and ranked. In fact Google started discussing omitting PageRank from the tools in 2007 (who says the Internet moves fast?). PageRank was often over-emphasised by SEO professionals because it was a nice, easy number that could be presented to a client, so this move is a clear indication from Google that it really isn’t the key metric. For more information, have a look at a great post by Derek Powazek about SEO myths (thanks to TWIG for the link).

Tags: ESE, google, Online, USA

Google has given up trying to act as an advertising agency for certain print publications: maybe online really is a good idea! What initially appeared as a logical idea – Google could sell an print advert by splitting it up and selling to several advertisers – didn’t work. Personally I’m glad that they’ve stopped: I felt it was creating a page of classified adverts, rather than a completely new model for print advertising. An approach that works online doesn’t necessarily work in print, a fact that Google and its advertising customers have recognised.

Tags: google, Misc Marketing, Online