We’ve worked closely with HSD for a couple years now on various marketing projects but they recently came to us suggesting they upgrade their online status, and re-align their marketing spend with the ever-growing digital arena.

The site was designed and brought to life by our team in Chester. We included a unique and editable Layer Slider to display just how HSD can help any factory-based organisation tackle the issues behind expanding their factory or plant premises. With the benefit of a fully customised WordPress CMS system, they’ve been busy beavering away at content in the background for the last couple of weeks prior to launch —  so go take a look at what they’ve got to say!

To view the website, take a look at www.hsdlossprevention.co.uk

We worked closely with their board of directors to ensure the new design reflected their clean & slick approach to how they do business. With over 30 years experience in surveying and project management, they truly are experts for providing independent advice to owners, developers, occupiers and funders.

The site was developed from the ground up with the mighty WordPress platform to enable them to stay on top of their content and keep their website fresh and current.

To view the website, take a look at www.peacockstevens.co.uk

The new releases of the Twitter app will now allow users to take a photo, crop it, enhance it with shadow and lighting options, apply one of eight filters to it, and of course share it to the Twittersphere – all without leaving the app. The filters themselves were created by Aviary, a development house that creates photo-manipulating software kits for mobile apps.

The update comes just one day after Instagram completely disabled the ability to embed Instagram media alongside tweets. That was just the latest rally in an already escalating fight between the two tech-giants.

Twitter’s moves into photo editing and sharing are clearly a defensive stance against a growing threat from the ever increasing (Facebook-owned) Instagram. Twitter has been hosting photos for over a year, and Twitter included in the update that they had the filters in development months ago – a strategic move none the less.

Although it will take considerably more than eight light filters to fight this on-going battle, it will be interesting to see how user trends align with this new update and whether the stats will show a decrease in Instagram usage.

Last night, another Facebook page called Facebook + Journalists noted the image had become the most Liked photo in Facebook history: “With more than 2.1 million likes, this Barack Obama photo is the most-liked Facebook photo of all time!”

Right now, the photo of the Obamas has more than 3.1 million likes!

The new UI is being closely compared to Pinterest, the social site that allows users to pin their favoured items they discover across the net – the main focus being that eBay will be visually-oriented, offering up shoppers who like to just browse a better interface to do so.

Product detail pages on the new version comprise bigger images and cleaner access to production descriptions and specific information, making it seem less cluttered. The redesigned website introduces a much better search experience that is designed to help users find items they are searching for more easily – similar to Pinterest.

PayPal accounts can also be linked directly to eBay accounts now, making it a smoother transaction for users to spend money without hesitation.

A Pinterest-inspired site wasn’t the only thing the 17-year-old company unveiled today. eBay also showed off a new company logo, more simplified than their last.

The company presented the brand revolution at a press event recently where they discussed ‘A New Way To Shop’. To view the entire brand discussion and vision take a look at www.ebay.com/new

Recently, a few decent start-up’s have launched online software to make budgeting quicker and easier. Read on to learn a few tricks in how you can manage your company’s sweet of debits and credits without too much stress.

1. Utilise Accounting Software

If Excel spreadsheets, countless receipts and laborious data entry don’t suit your tastes, you’re in for a treat. Fortunately for us, many entrepreneurs felt the same and a few decided to create an app that would turn their dream version of budgeting into reality.

FreeAgent has been a great asset to our business ever since we decided to switch from the lame old way of doing the day-to-day books. It sync’s with our bank accounts, so we can view our cash flow, transactions, invoicing, clients etc. time spent on accountancy has been reduced which means more time for fun, creative, money making activity!

2. Decide Which Tasks to Outsource

When you’re just starting out no doubt you’ll take on every task yourself. But as business builds, you get more clients, you develop more responsibility and more people expect more of you at any one time. Think about including Outsourcing costs into your business plan – decide from day one what tasks to outsource and put things in place to make it happen.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Around

Money can be a touchy subject, but remember it’s often easier to be transparent with someone about how much you’re paying for a service during in-person conversations, a way of comparing your service vs. theirs. Next time you’re visiting an event or grabbing coffee with other business owners, ask if they don’t mind sharing how much they pay in fees for something you’re looking to buy.

Even though each industry and regional pricing structure is unique, it helps to get a general idea of whether you’re getting value from your suppliers — especially while your company is young.

Every small business is different and although the web is rammed full of how-to guides on budgeting, you won’t know how your business is different until you get started so get as much information from your peers as possible.

4. Overestimate Monthly Burn

Is it better to be safe than sorry? Always.

Most of your expenses can be quite predictable. Office expenses — desks, phones, furniture, computer, and if your company is due to employ you’d to consider, PAYE, travel, entertainment, mileage.

To be successful you must budget for success – as most will agree, but setting yourself up for the least money-related stress possible is always a wise choice. There’s enough to worry about with production, recruitment, PR and marketing — don’t let that unexpected debit put you in the red. Make sure there’s room for a few untimely expenses and if they’re avoided after all, you’ve got extra cash.

What steps do you take to budget more effectively? Let us know in the comments.

Ronaldo’s Twitter feed embodies the safe, after-match commentary we’ve come to expect, beloved of players across divisions and continents alike. In an age where one stray comment can sink the online reputation of anyone with anything to lose, Ronaldo knowingly traverses the rocky landscape with media savvy.  His reverent audience, agog with expectation, are treated into insights such as:

“Enjoying a great fishing afternoon”

“I’m very proud to continue being part of the Toyota family. It’s always great the way that they receive me.”

“I’m proud being named as the top player of the http://Goal.com 50. Thank you”

It should be needless to say that with a son as well-behaved as Ronaldo, the Toyota family is probably tickled pink to have Ronaldo on-board.

#9: Ellen DeGeneres @TheEllenShow – 12,759,638 followers

Ellen DeGeneres cut her teeth on her mid-to-late nineties, self-titled comedy show ‘Ellen’, and the laughs have been coming thick and fast ever since. If you don’t know who she is, just read the mandatory Wikipedia article and then utter endlessly to yourself ‘oh yeah, her!’

But what is her ‘flavor’ ? If you’re one of the handful of people not gleefully subscribed to her feed, here’s a taste:

“Why did the banker quit his job? He lost interest. #ClassicJokeMonday”

(scroll through another 30 tweets on #ClassicJokeMonday)

(no actually, nearly all of it’s #ClassicJokeMonday)

“When does a clock go back four seconds? When it’s still hungry. #ClassicJokeMonday”

“What do you call a woman who stands between two goal posts? Annette. #ClassicJokeMonday”

If you like jokes your Dad would tell, but told by a woman, Ellen’s your man. I remember why I was out all of the time for most of the late nineties now..

#8: Oprah Winfrey @Oprah – 13,093,083 followers

Oprah Winfrey needs no introduction, and her Twitter feed strapline accordingly entreats you to “Live Your Best Life” in a familiarly cloying patticake of self-help garb. On Oprah’s feed, #ClassicJokeMonday gives right of way to the soul train of #SuperSoulSunday:

“Not that spiritually evolved but admire people use the thorns to go to God. “you must die to reborn”#SuperSoulSunday”

Words are difficult, and although she accidentally a few, Oprah’s ineffable spirituality shines through the void, eschewing both rationality and comprehension alike, as her rays of wisdom implore us to be the better us, reaching for the stars like the eagle reaches for its flag… Oprah is, of course, patriotic to a fault when it comes to that ever-present torch of Hope:

“Women’s Eight… So Powerful!!We salute you #TeamUSA !!!”

Perhaps I am hasty in denouncing Oprah’s tendency to issue empty proclamations of unfounded positivity, she is if nothing else, also a practical lady:

“Yep and just saw some guy with A bandana on running in this heat. Kinda cra-cra !”

Snap your fingers and go ‘oh no she din’t’ all you want, she just went there, girlfriend.

#7: Justin Timberlake @jtimberlake – 13,104,880 followers

The Official Justin Timberlake feed is a veritable trip to Timberland, a place I have always dearly held to be much like Wonka’s Chocolate Factory; a sugary-sweet, self-referential other-world, secreting at it’s centre a large lake of brown stuff.

In Timberland, damn near every tweet is a re-tweet, in deserved praise of the illustrious leader and his exalted life, #ThatJTLife:

“@jtimberlake once told a girl to cry him a river and BOOM. The Mississippi was born. #ThatJTLife”

I apologise for failing to warn you about this detonation, but lots of things go ‘BOOM’ nowadays and I thought we’d all be well-versed in the necessary health and safety procedures by now.

JT isn’t just explosive, he also ignores the fundamental laws of thermodynamics:

“@MistyZachary: @jtimberlake can do the moonwalk on the sun” #ThatJTLife”

It would be remiss of me to ignore JT’s cerebral side, I wouldn’t mess with him at Connect Four bro:

“@jtimberlake JT once won a game of connect 4 in 3 moves #truestory”

Whilst this is seemingly not part of the aspirational lifestyle encapsulated by #ThatJTLife, it is for this single fact that he deserves to be more widely recognised.

#6: YouTube @YouTube – 14,703,800 followers

Following YouTube’s feed is a bit like following ‘@air’, and ‘@water’, and ‘@food’ and ‘@shelter’. The contribution to our online lives of YouTube cannot be overstated, and whilst their feed very much has a pulse, the mind inevitably wanders back to the question of “who’s writing this anyway?”

“Tony Hawk and his friends from @RideChannel have a few surprises for their fans. http://goo.gl/iNZ1B”

Ok.

“Violins, ghosts and heavy metal. You rock! MT @LindseyStirling: Check out my new video. My favorite cover yet:) http://youtu.be/TCL94-MsxYc”

Ok, so there’s a personal pronoun – you are a someone apparently..

“LIVE NOW: @TheTemperTrap is taking the stage in our New York office, people. Watch! http://goo.gl/S2nS9”

And you’re excited!! I was afraid I might just be wading through the calculated press releases of a marketing department, but you’re .. you!

#5: Kim Kardashian @KimKardashian – 15,675,839 followers

Firstly, a question: Is her surname a version of her surname with a typo, that just somehow went viral and nobody bothered to correct it?

I should, however, set aside my syllabically-induced shudders of terror. Why the hate anyway? In what’s apparently-not-a-retweet, Kim opines in a manner worthy of Oprah:

“Happiness is a choice…join team happy and get off team hater! Who even has all that time to hate!?!”

She has a point. I could learn from this feed.

“Trust yourself http://bit.ly/QyqtRa”

Sage.

“Love you @brittgastineau http://instagr.am/p/OAbdZQuS9y/”

Well, naturally. But the better me or the actual me? It seems Oprah doesn’t hold the monopoly on pop-psych pronouncements, and Kim’s feed leaves the better me feeling warmer and fuzzier than the actual me, which is now craving the minty fresh blast of a self-administered shotgun mouthwash.

#4: Taylor Swift @taylorswift13 – 17,112,669 followers

Buoyed by the generous doses of self-help spoon fed me so far, the better me wondered if it could possibly feel anymore tranquil. Then I chanced upon the flower bed of Taylor Swift’s Twitter feed. Dreaming, I fell asleep amongst the flowers..

“”Ever see those commercials where it’d be all ‘Taste the rainbow’ as the sky rained Skittles & wish so bad you were there?”- @taylorswift13”

Actually, much as I’d hope to be wearing the correct Personal Protective Equipment should I be in the vicinity of JT next time he goes ‘BOOM’, I would also hesitate to endorse this desire of Taylor’s, at least not without a hard hat. Skittles falling from the sky would surely have a dangerously high terminal velocity, and their crispy shells trouble me.

“Evidently, it was ‘face paint Wednesday’ last night. @ashavignone drew a unicorn on @ClaireWinter’s face. Impressed. pic.twitter.com/Ve2efUta”

On Twitter, every day is a something day! #ClassicJokeMonday, #SoulTrainSunday – stand aside for ‘face paint Wednesday’. Betwixt and ‘tween the colourful spectacle of a Skittles shower, and unicorns, Taylor highlights the uneasy tension of living in a reality devoid of these essentials, and instead burdened with the need to exchange tokens of currency in return for goods and services:

“Went to get coffee today-opened my change purse. Sea shells fell out. Barista goes “Sorry, we only take cash or credit.” So there’s that.”

#3: Barack Obama  @BarackObama – 18,269,710 followers

At last, Tweets You Can Believe In. It’s not that I’m willfully cynical, but all of these celebrity feeds have left me feeling a little queasy. As if I’ve consumed a metric tonne of candy floss on an empty stomach. I am in need of spiritual nourishment, and Oprah can’t help me.

“Share what the President’s plan to extend middle-class tax cuts means to you using the hashtag #2200dollars.”

Absolutely. This is Government Two-point-Oh in the making. I think $2200 is the approximate cost of staging a Skittle shower in a small localised area of a city somewhere, and having a unicorn painted on my face, and also being able to actually afford that coffee after all.

It’s all so down-to-earth. Always a considerate husband, Obama faithfully re-tweets his other half’s tweets;

“”I want you all to remind folks that Barack has cut taxes for working families by $3,600.” –The First Lady in NH last week. Remind=RT.”

He’s also into sports:

“Bringing home the gold and training the next generation of American heroes—U.S.A. Gymnastics has a lot to be proud of: pic.twitter.com/mpODzBae”

I wanted something more down-to-earth when I came to his feed, and I got it in spades. Where’s Taylor again?

#2: Britney Spears @britneyspears – 19,259,021 followers

Eclipsing the President of The USA in a predictable triumph of style over substance, Britney’s feed covers all the stuff that’s rammed in our faces pretty much every day in the celebrity gutter section of most tabloids. The X Factor, USA. And, The X Factor (USA). And..

“Final day of boot camp for @TheXFactorUSA… gotta make some tough decisions today. Wish me luck!”

Rooting in this feed.

“Simon treated us to some southern food today. Now I need to get him some mushy peas! http://viddy.it/O1RHdb”

Not sure what South she is referring to, but it’s hard to imagine Britney ingesting a slithering eel or two without it at least going viral on Youtube.

“Simon needs to stop stealing my scooter! RT @TheXFactorUSA http://twitvid.com/PPFQ1  We caught a video of how @SimonCowell got to work today!”

It’s all about Simon apparently, he is such a tease..

#1: Lady GaGa @ladygaga – 28,030,142 followers

Michella Obama may just have to content herself with being the First Lady of the US Presidency, for we all know the real First Lady of The USA to be the crotch-thrusting gyno-terrorist Lady Gaga. And it’s war:

“Don’t worry I’ve been txting Wintour all morning trying to get that cover queens. next im sending bagels to VOGUE (complex carbohydrate war)”

Complex carbohydrate war. Also, War on Formatting:

“make sure when writing about my new album/project ARTPOP that you CAPITALIZE the title, *its all in the details* good morning twitter!”

Befittingly, she out-does both Oprah and Kim by simultaneously referencing the Olympics and squeezing in a trite, feel-good observation:

“Woohoo! Gold for the ladies! just want to squeeze them! So much talent and beauty. Did u seem all holding hands? There’s no “I” in team.”

I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

Footnote

All follower counts were right as of the 7^th August according to wefollow.com. You don’t care about this. I don’t care about this. They would probably care massively..

The redesign has not been without controversy; critics highlight a move towards social networking sensibilities as being something of a retrograde step in the site’s evolution. It seems that in embracing so-called ‘social features’, the company has migrated away from ‘Smart’ to ‘Smart-Casual’, although the Mountain View-based company are keen to emphasise the improved ease-of-use of the site over and above any sartorial changes. “We’ve started to roll out a simpler and easier way to navigate Homepage experience that offers quick access to the relevant information and updates that help you be great at your job,” sighed a canned statement from Caroline Gaffney, Product Manager at LinkedIn.

No Jacket Required

As such, the slacks and loafers may have to remain in cold storage for some time yet. So what are these ‘social features’ ? Outwardly, the home page remains defiantly ‘similar but different’, with ‘People You May Know’ and ‘Jobs You May Be Interested In’ positioned exactly where they were prior to the re-fit, and many the changes are small and understated. Images lose their border, and overall the focus is on providing larger images to enrich the user experience in this age of diverse DPI devices.

A more significant addition, one which serves to blunt the sharp lines of the company Pinstripe and arguably marks its shift towards a suit jacket and T-shirt combination, is the introduction of ‘LinkedIn Today’. Like. Share. Comment away. ‘Poking’ has thankfully not infected the site’s corporate lexicon, signaling some concessions to the professional origins of its remit and hopefully a considerably longer amount of time is yet to pass before users are asked to push each other’s buttons.

YOLO

Instead, the more important changes are taking place very much behind the scenes. Updates at the top of the LinkedIn homepage are composed of articles and updates based on what your ‘network’ is reading, sharing and commenting upon, in a mindless ‘me too’ gesture towards the Facebook News Feed. Instead of a couple of flashes of dipped headlights in the dark hinterland of ‘between jobs’, users are now encouraged to swap and share positions on the topics of the day in an orgiastic riot of positivity, as well as ‘connecting with each other’ in the manner to which they are accustomed.

If you can’t handle me at my worst, you don’t deserve me at my best

This adjustment of LinkedIn’s presentational tactics is doubtless an attempt to slip back into the two horse race between Facebook and Twitter from behind, in a fashion that will be simultaneously derided by those attached to LinkedIn’s strong emphasis on doing business, and welcomed by those who think Facebook is the internet.

With this in mind, we have presented three e-commerce trends that show the directions in which online shopping is moving, along with some insight into how businesses and consumers can get to grips with web-based retail.

1. Unique or Commoditised Products

The success of Etsy and other sites selling artists’ work online relies on the consumer’s desire for unique products that are difficult to find anywhere else. Due to the time and effort used to create these products they tend to compete on originality and aesthetics as opposed to price. The most important goal for these websites is establishing a brand with a reputation for quality, which will in turn bring in sales.

In contrast to this, commoditised products such as electronics are big business in the ecommerce world. Pioneers of online retail such as Amazon and ASOS will generally have the most success from this, as consumers prefer to buy from large, well-established brands due to their competitive prices. However, small businesses have found success through affiliations with major retailers. Lifeproof, a line of waterproof and shock-resistant iPhone cases, were able to penetrate the mainstream audience through aligning themselves with BestBuy.

2. Remarketing

A new technique for ecommerce is “remarketing”- using multiple touches to generate continued interest in the product. Ads appearing online that seem tailored to your interests show remarketing at its finest.

When a potential customer visits a website and then leaves without making a purchase, companies can ‘follow’ them on the Internet. Ads and offers will appear on other pages the potential customer is viewing.

The negative aspect of this very direct type of marketing is the possibility of users being uncomfortable about the idea of ads following them around. However if they are still considering the purchase of the item they were previously looking at, these ads can persuades them towards this.

3. Mobile

According to Think Mobile with Google, 81% of smartphone users access the Internet on their mobile devices, with 59% using the Internet on their phones while waiting. With this in mind, ecommerce sites that are mobile optimised, or have a streamlined mobile application, will get more sales. Being able to access the Internet from mobiles could spell trouble for high street retailers, as consumers can compare prices in shops to those online in an instant, before making a purchase. This suggests that catering for smart-phone users when setting up an e-commerce shop is essential for keeping up with a rapidly changing market.

Ecommerce will continue to develop, and these trends may shift or become obsolete. One thing, however, that remains important is the need to build a loyal following through competitive prices and by providing a quality customer service. Staying on top of e-commerce trends will give your business a firm advantage when interacting and communicating with customers.

Worried on how effective your Meta Keywords are in your recent SEO efforts? Spending countless hours maximising your content and searching for the perfect percentage of keyword density? This week Google shows the world of startups some SEO basics to get the ball rolling.

On Tuesday Google released a video that provides startups with tips and ideas on how to master search engine optimisation in just 10 minutes.

The video is packed with advice specifically catered to small businesses with websites with 50 pages or less looking to rank only a handful of related search terms. It explains how to choose the best keywords, include analytics code in your site and how to approach marketing in general.

“It’s great to have a fancy site, but try not to focus so much on site fanciness that you don’t actually have indexable and searchable text,” Maile Ohye, GWT Developer, said in the video. “You want to use relevant keywords naturally in your text. These keywords are like query terms that normal people would use to find your product or your business.”

“The anchor text for every link should also be clear and include keywords, whether you are linking to your site or another. This means that “click here” is not descriptive enough phrase to highlight with a link. Instead, it should be “product specifications” or something that better matches the link with the content.”

Ohye also goes on to explain major things to avoid: “Avoid hiring any rogue or shady SEO Company — if they guarantee rankings, it’s too good to be true,” she says. “Don’t participate in 3 way link schemes or buying links for the purpose of upping your PageRank.”

Another common question often on the lips of startups and those looking to spread their brand online is whether they should invest time and resource into social media.

“Play to your authentic strengths,” Ohye added. “It’s likely that your company has limited resources so if your CEO likes to tweet, go ahead and let them. If you have a salesperson who really enjoys Facebook, that’s terrific… and let them interact with the community there.”

We recommend everyone takes a quick look at this video, as we know Google updates it’s algorithms regularly with new ways of determining what’s credible and deserves authority.