Initially built for keen bloggers to write an online diary, Wordpress have developed into a high popularly and flexible site builder that continues to offer a range of desirable plug- ins.

One aspect that all companies strive to maintain an impressive performance is for SEO. Wordpress is SEO happy, allowing users to easily add features within their site to ensure their content is optimised in Google.

Wordpress is the best system to use, making updates and enhancement only a few steps away. The dashboard interface is beautifully built and beginners can easily pick up on how to maximise their output.

As open-source software, programmers are continuously working on extra features to help Wordpress users benefit further. With so many available, there is usually more than one plug-in available to serve an individual aim. Easily search for what type of plug-in you require and install them with a click of the button! There are also multiple plug-ins to help protect your blogs from spam comments.
Your Wordpress site is easily changed with loads of free themes available to choose from. Web designers are always keen to share and express their skills meaning that you never go short of themes and ideas for your website with Wordpress.

Wordpress is not only suited to blogging, full e-commerce stores can be created! If your business is looking for a new way to launch their brand to new customers, than Wordpress could be the best way forward. For more information visit the Wordpress community!

Take a look at our tips below, and hopefully you will be in a better position to exploit the social media market for your business.

Blog
Your company blog is the primary starting point of all social media success. As the driving mechanism for attracting website traffic, your site SEO can immensely improve with regular content. User-generated content is highly engaging, and produced regularly and becoming in-demand, you will soon obtain regular subscribers to your RSS feeds.

Social Networks
There are millions of them out there, not all containing the right audience and appeal for every business. The main attractions are Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, but not all of them offer the marketing platform your business needs.

Facebook demands highly interactive and regular content flowing through a fan page. In comparison, Twitter is an easy tool for establishing followers, for whom to advertise your content to in the hope of being distributed further. Linkedin remains the more corporate of the three, creating an ideal location for marketing the profile and individuals of your company.

Multimedia
User-generated content such as videos and graphics are the most popular type on the web. Content needs to be engaging to ensure users return, but also redistribute. Virals have become a driving point for many marketing agencies looking to ‘spread the word’ of a brand. Adding essential characteristics such as humour and controversy will ensure the message reaches a larger audience.

This can be achieved using a brand channel within YouTube and feeding content through the company blog so that the content can be easily distributed via your RSS feed.

As the first instalment of a two-part post for social media, we will reveal essential tools for monitoring social media to ensure desirable brand reputation is maintained next week.

The user’s journey begins on the home page after arriving via the search engine. A common user will have an idea of what they want or need, therefore won’t be looking to spend too much time flowing through your website.

People don’t visit every page and the majority also skim text to obtain the key information they require.

The navigation needs to be plain and simple. Use simple words that explain precisely what lies behind each link. Users will lose patience with a website that sends them to pages that consist of nothing related to what was being advertised.

Make it easy for users to see what their next step should be. Include clear calls to action on every ‘business’ page that jump out at the user. You can omit them on secondary pages that just provide information.

Try to ensure your HTML page titles are valid and relevant. This is not only useful for SEO, but for users who bookmark your website. Choose a favicon that stands out next to those of competitor sites that users are likely to visit and bookmark alongside yours.

Our last tip would be to create regularly updated features such as a blog, ensuring an RSS feed is available for subscribers. Try not to bombard users with sales messages, content such as this provides greater value in the long term.

Hopefully these initial factors can help you identify essential elements of your website navigation. Want to talk more? Keep in touch via our Twitter account @themediacube.

Most forums allow members to insert links to their signature. So the more links to your website, the greater probability for more visitors and search engines to visit. The more links with appropriate anchor text pointing to your website, the more appealing to search engines. SEOA is a forum dedicated towards helping people discover new SEO techniques. Each forum tends to specialise in topic, making forums very productive and important for many online.

Participating in forum chats doesn’t have to be about building up links. Many people interact within online forums to build up relationships and expand their contact list. Helping people with questions or concerns they may have, could work in your favour further down the line.

Industry focused forums also encourage professionals to share their thoughts and ideas online. With valuable input, your information and suggestions could help provide future solutions for the industry and help drive business forward.

As a marketing tactic, forums propose decent productivity. However, this shouldn’t be taken as a cheap and quick marketing tool. Relationships and links take time to build up and more often than not, people give up before experiencing the true returns.

The Media Cube are digital marketing experts based in Kent, who are always surfing the web helping fellow professionals. In fact we are online right now; so why not come and find us on Twitter, @themediacube.

Do you require advice about how to build relationships online and the various forums available to meet and help people? Which forums have you found helpful and have you gained positive feedback in the process?

Drop your comments and thoughts below, or if you would prefer, you can send us an email and see how we can help each other.

The new year is just around the corner and with a financially challenging year behind us, companies are eager to get back on the right track.

So to move into 2010, The Media Cube has proposed a few online tips that will provide the foundations for company success from January. Happy New Year!

Website – As the home for your business there is always a demand for continuous developments. Take half a day to revise the content on the site and be confident that your customers can easily travel on a ‘user journey’ and discover exactly what they need. This may require rewriting content or increasing calls to action, but whatever the demand, ensure the website efficiently represents the brand.

Social Media – If you are still slow to explore the social platform as a business, 2010 will be an ideal time to start. With millions of people using social networks online, a company will find it hard to justify being unable to find a suitable target audience. With continuous developments of user options and social applications, businesses are discovering new ways of achieving extra exposure within the social market.

Advertising – Are your products and services a) gaining the desired exposure to your target audience, and b) returning a high ROI? If not, re-evaluate your advertising spend and consider alternative options. PPC can be a highly productive way of promoting services, however setting up a campaign can be challenging and time consuming. The need to review budget, keywords and conversion rates could mean investing additional expenditure with an external agency.

Want a unique 2010 brand redevelopment strategy? Get in touch with us and see how we can make next year the burning platform for success with your business.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In much the same way that a company will outsource the development of their website or the creation of their press advertising to ensure they maintain a professional look, businesses are now looking to film production companies to provide that same level of support for their online video.

It might be all right for a personal blogger to sit at home in front of a webcam, but it’s an entirely different thing if you are a business trying to promote yourself online. In the rush to get something online some businesses can make the mistake of thinking anything is better than nothing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A poor quality video is more often off-putting to the viewer and does not reflect well on the associated business. That’s not to say that you need to go to the expense of producing a broadcast TV quality commercial to get your message across. With developments in technology and video editing, it’s now possible to give the illusion of video just by clever use of still images. This has meant that very quickly a business can add dynamic video presentations of products.

This addition of video content to websites that had previously only had static images increases the involvement of customers with the product and has proven to increase conversion rates by over 55%.

This development of online video has a very close synergy with what we have been developing over the years with our online marketing strategy. By adding video to your website, or using online videos through outlets such as YouTube, a company can see a dramatic increase to their website traffic over a very short period of time. Coupled with our blogging service, adding video content to blogs brings them to life in a way previously not possible.

That is why we at The Media Cube are pleased to announce our partnership with the award winning production company, Click’s Media Studios.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click’s Media Studios already supply UK and international customers with productions filmed and edited to the highest standards, using the most advanced hardware and editing software. They are able to create any corporate video or audio-based project, from simple photo slide shows set to music, to cinematic CGI sequences and musical film scores and have worked with a range of prestigious clients, including Toyota, Virgin, Sony, Audi, Warner Brothers, Grey London and Channel 4.

This partnership means that we are able to offer a range of packages to clients to fit both their needs and their pockets. With the price for our starter package as little as £347, now you too can start to benefit from adding online video to your marketing plans.

If you want to see some examples of what we can do for you, please have a look at the videos we’ve included on this posting of projects we’ve done for other clients.