What is the importance of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to the University of Salford and specifically to Salford Business School? The University has approximately 250 websites and the main websites receive hundreds and thousands of visits every year. So why should we worry about SEO and what is the point in Social Media and Social Media Marketing? They can never be monetized. Time is a precious commodity, Social Media Marketing eats time and we need to use our time where it will most benefit the University of Salford and Salford Business School. Right?

Right if you are only interested in website traffic but if you are interested in meeting the needs of your customers, students, stakeholders and research partners, then SEO and Social Media Marketing are fundamental:

• SEO, when used properly, and in the context of meeting the needs of stakeholders and business school students is powerful.
• SEO enables the correct visitor to find the most relevant content quickly.
• The use of appropriate header tags, title tags, alt tags, keyword density and linking strategy not only improve the ranking of the University of Salford’s content but also better meets the needs of the Business Schools student or research partner.
• This is the start of a productive online relationship.

Social Media is the means through which relationships are developed and enhanced. The Business School at the University of Salford has a number of Facebook pages run by the School or by students to enable shared experience, tips, services and commentary. Whilst SEO helps to raise awareness, the Social Media platforms when used as part of a multichannel and integrated engagement solution create the engagement, the conversation, the loyalty and the advocacy.

And what about those 250 websites? We are currently working to reduce the number and increase the quality of websites across the University of Salford. Promoting 250 websites, not only spreads effort but it also results in the cannibalisation of web traffic and dilutes the impact of the SEO and the engagement.

So choose the content most needed and wanted by your audience, map the channels most likely to reach your target audience and focus your SEO and Social Media efforts in those areas. This is a win win for the Business School, the University, the students and other interested parties. Best practice in SEO and Social Media is taught at the Business School in a pragmatic and relevant manner. As Head of Digital at the University, I am keen to ensure my skills are current in this rapidly evolving field and experts in user journey, SEO, Analytics and conversion are hard to find. That is why I am taking the course.

I project manage training for the web and media industries, but I’m not a trainer myself. I’m also being made redundant in a couple of weeks, so the topic of jobhunting, freelancing and career development has been on my mind whilst attending this training. You’d be surprised what you can do with search to get hired:

My plan is a little less audacious but already getting results: my blog visits are more consistent where before they spiked and flatlined too erratically, and I’m monitoring profile views from new individuals on LinkedIn whom I’m then able to contact directly.

Here are some of the items on my current to-do list, with an explanation in SEO and Social Media terms as to why it’s worthwhile, and where I’m up to on it:

1. Get Blogging!

Why? Search engine algorithms are keen on sites that renew their content on a regular basis, including blogs. For a freelancer or jobhunter with few resources other than a web connection and a PC, blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, Posterous or Livejournal are a great way to manage an online presence. By adding regular, relevant, well-structured posts, even an individual can build a self-marketing advantage by following good SEO practice.

Progress: 50%. My WordPress blog (mothertown.wordpress.com) has been live since last Autumn, but I’m only managing 1 post per month when I should be updating weekly. One problem has been that I’m blogging on multiple topics in one post, which isn’t great from an SEO point of view. 1 topic per post makes it easier to target keywords, and simpler to create relevant H1 and H2 headers. Another error: all of my old, pre-training posts link out to sites where in some cases I need to go back and add nofollow attributes to certain links to prevent “leakage” of my PageRank. A further omission has been not “claiming” my blog on Technorati and other blog directories. Even though their outbound links carry nofollow attributes, it’s part of a larger strategy to build links with other, more established bloggers in the community.

2. Optimise my blog’s “About” page

Why? The static “About” page is more important than my blog posts in a lot of ways: it’s essentially a landing page and my opportunity to present my skills in a way that will draw relevant search traffic. Running any of the free SEO tools on the front page of the blog – where all the posts sit – demonstrates that it only serves WordPress’ own ends, where I have far more control over the content of the static About page.

Progress: 80%. I need a H2 tag! At the moment there’s a big “About” sitting there – no use to the crawler bots. This page will never be 100% complete, because I’ll always be assessing what keywords and phrases should be included to attract potential employers. Running the url through Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool, some of the suggested keywords aren’t the business or activity areas I actually want to target, so I’ll be delving deeper into this over the coming weeks. I also ran the tool on a potential competitors’ site, which gives me a new set of keywords to target via the About page, plus topics to consider blogging about.

3. Optimise my social profiles, and start thinking strategically

Why? Facebook’s user graph continues to grow, especially in terms of visit length, and in the diversity of use: businesses are not only “checking you out” on Facebook but pro-actively hiring using the platform’s unique features, sometimes stealthily, as German digital marketing agency Jung von Matt/Neckar demonstrated last autumn. Critically, Google have now admitted that they’re measuring social media signals for PageRank, which for individuals means that connections and proactive, positive discussions on any flavour of social platform increases their visibility, just as it would for businesses.

Progress: 75%. My LinkedIn profile page has had a radical rebuild to feature keywords in terms of skills, industries and partner businesses I’ve worked with, and like the blog, this will be an ongoinge process. I’ve staked my claim for online real estate with a LinkedIn vanity url (www.linkedin.com/in/simonpaulknight) – which creates a contextual link to influence search results should someone be searching for me by name.

There’s less jobhunting power with my Facebook profile compared to LinkedIn (but again with a custom, contextual url: www.facebook.com/simonpaulknight), but that may change over time – they may even attempt to acquire or conquer LinkedIn over time. But Facebook (and Twitter) are all about conversations in realtime, and so I’ve made a more committed effort to update frequently and engage in relevant conversations, made a little easier when using a multiple-channel desktop client such as Tweetdeck, which lets me add the same update to Twitter and other social networks in one go.

Why should we measure Social Media ROI?

Companies need to be able to measure the cost of Social Media, for better or worse, in order for it to have an impact. But many companies don’t have the faintest idea about where to begin when it comes to measuring social media metrics and the Return on Investment (ROI).

A recent report by Emarketing published by NIBS Spectrum (a solution provider for small businesses) indicated that 86% of business who attended their workshops on social media strategies had adopted some social technologies, most said they were using the tools for marketing (57%) and internal collaboration (39%), while almost 30% reported using social technologies for customer service and support.

However, the debate in measuring Social Media ROI has confirmed some executives still prevent any form of experimentation until their questions and concerns were addressed in calculating the Return on Investment with real-world business performance metrics.

Despite the broad adoption of Social Media tools such as Facebook & Twitter, measuring its effectiveness lags behind. Only 16% of those polled said they used social media measuring tools for their programs. Additionally, more than 40% of respondents didn’t even know whether the social tools they were using were capable of measuring ROI. This means that companies are jumping into social media without actually accounting for how it will impact their business and what, if any, value it will add.

Around 25% of this survey suggested they had reached the “strategic” phase of their social media policy. Those in the strategic phase are considerably more likely than those in earlier phases of the process to measure their success. Generally, the number one goal targeted and measured by marketers is an increase in web traffic.

There’s an fascinating blog post called “measuring Social Media”, written by Jim Estill who’s on the board of BlackBerry makers RIM. It suggests that brand awareness is the new measuring stick of a successful marketing campaign, and that only the first set of eyeballs are the ones you pay for — everything after that is word of mouth. This follows on from an earlier piece Jim wrote suggesting that ROI in marketing is a false term.
While they’re both interesting reads, the idea that ROI and metrics are difficult to measure isn’t quite true; In fact, social media can offer some of the best metrics for ROI around. All you need to do is set what you want to achieve and how long you want to spend achieving it — and then measure your results against that.

Twitter – One of the darlings for any product launch, service or business, Twitter not only offers instant eyeballs but great returns as well. Again, measuring your impact is relatively simple:
• What was your retweet value?
• How often was your hashtag used?
• How many times was your vanity URL used?
• If you used something like Sponsored Tweets, what was the cost versus click-through and conversion?

Facebook – Fast becoming the key destination for many businesses and their products, Facebook offers some great built-in tools as well as demographic options to help gauge a campaign:
• How many new fans did you make over how many you targeted?
• How many times was your promotion message liked?
• If you built a Facebook application, how many times was it installed/shared?
• Were you successful reaching your target demographic (Facebook Insights can help you here)?

YouTube – More than just a fun place to see kids hurt themselves on bikes, YouTube is a key tool in any marketing campaign now
• How many views did you get?
• How many Likes and Favourites did you receive?
• How many downloads did you get (on video sites that allow downloads)?
• How many embeds has your video seen elsewhere on the web?
• How many subscribers did your channel attract?

Do you measure your ROI in your Social Media campaigns?, if so, please let us know your thoughts….

The debate continues…………..

Presentation slides at the “Effective use of social media” themed open evening of the Search & Social Media Marketing course held on 20th January 2011 at the Hive.

Special thanks are due to the #SSMM panel: @Psychobel
@SmartRich @Alastairw99 @alexmossSEO @and TimTheGuest

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) jobs Manchester – an industry overview

As an experienced copywriter and media enthusiast, I’ve long been aware of how search and social marketing are changing online journalism. In my day job I see first hand how each serve clients looking to improve their web presence, but I was keen to know more about the mechanics of both.

While strengthening my knowledge in this area would undoubtedly give me more to offer in my role as an SEO copywriter, I would also have the perfect playground to test out the things I would be learning. As the person in charge of online marketing for the Grimm Up North movie weekender in Manchester, I was already using social networks for film marketing and festival promotion – but now I had the chance to see if I was doing it right.

Firstly, I addressed the ‘conversion versus branding’ debate, deciding that our event would be better using an optimised website to sell tickets, with social media creating a brand identity and greater awareness. Starting with Google’s AdWords, Analytics and Webmaster tools, I began a process of keyword research and site monitoring. In turn, this led restructuring the site to improve navigation and revising all on-site content to reflect a more search-friendly approach. Off-site, I began targeting some of the industry’s most influential bloggers and building a relationship that would trade ‘exclusive’ information and festival access in exchange for content and links on their pages.

Naturally, this external content began to feed into the existing Facebook and Twitter campaigns, allowing us to grow our list of followers and create a #GrimmUpNorth hashtag that would be monitored using Social Mention. Visitors to the main site could see – thanks to an integrated widget – the level of engagement we were having and join the conversation, which in itself became an incredibly useful tool for feedback during the weekend itself. Finally, an event listing was set up on Foursquare to reward users for checking in, with a special prize awarded to the Grimm Up North ‘Mayor’ at the closing night ceremony.

Once the film festival was done, I turned my attention to my own website FilmRant.co.uk, which would be where I would continue to publish my own film writing, but would document my adventures in film marketing, festival promotion and social media. Once again, I redesigned, restructured and optimised the site, using guest blog posts for linkbuilding and revitalising the existing Film Rant social networking channels. 

If there’s one thing I’ll take as a hard lesson learned is that online film festival marketing – like any other search and social media campaign – requires careful planning. With this knowledge and much more, I will now approach future tasks with confidence, but with the readyness to adapt and grow in a field that changes every day.

Applications on mobile devices – are they turning us into anti-social individuals? How many applications are there now? There is no point in counting, as more will be created before the day is out. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare are many of the current forms of social networking mobile applications turning us into a group of anti-social individuals, lacking the proper social skills; similar to “hoodies” for the 21st Century. Head down, feverishly tapping away on your device, not paying careful attention to what you are doing, or what is around you, for the need to be kept up-to-date with the latest information. Companies, in particular, now see the benefit of being able to do business within the mobile marketplace in a blog written by Raam Thakrar, the CEO of Touchnote He raised a number of key areas of benefit for the SME marketplace in "Taking advantage of mobile phone technology" with one being M-Commerce. He believes it will only be a matter of time for customers to make safe transactions on their mobile phone as the mobile phone is the only form of technology they have close to them at all times. However the issue of security is raised as mobile phones does not offer the same level of protection as a computer when buying online is concerned, plus it needs individuals to be confident of making these purchases in this manner, despite high levels of physical theft or misuse.

The invention of Smart phones and variations of iPads means a new big juicy screen, clarity to write what you want when you want, turning individuals into mobile businesses, able to have the power of a PC in their hand. From a social networking aspect, people are able to interact through recording, uploading and updating information or content to view and receive vital information then comment on without the need of powering up a computer. However, with the ability to update details, are we missing out on vital information in the real world? Lets have a look at some o the drawbacks of the "social mobile devices":

Windows 7 Phone Ad

With innovations like FourSquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places people are eager to “check in” on a mobile device to a variety of places and venues to gain badges and rewards for unlocking new venues and places of interest. This could be a great thing until you start adding “friends” or worse the person in your “relationship” as they will be able to track you easily, especially when you have to “work late” on that “important brief for the boss by the end of the week”!

Spelling anyone?

Here’s a great test. How badly has your hand writing suffered over time since you have been using a computer? What about spelling? Do you find that you use more in the way of “text language” when talking to people instead of full sentences? (Cheers m8! C U l8r! ) ) Is this attributed to the amount of characters Twitter allows per tweet, or just a convenient way to get a long message across in abbreviations.

The “Cheers” Factor

Remember Cheers? The Boston bar where “Everybody knows your name”? Like any local, the idea of interacting with people from long-standing relationships has been replaced with requests from total strangers just because they frequent the same establishment. The idea of being socially accepted using this means your circle of friends has grown immensely, even though there is nothing in common with that person apart from frequenting the same venue.

So, what about the future?

Virtua Friends or “iM8s” may be a great acquisition in the short-term through these various applications, however there is nothing like leaving new mobile phone technology alone for a while to gain a sense of reality in the “real world”. Meeting someone in person provides a different set of emotions, a real relationship through having some kind of history or background:

Window 7 Phone

T-Mobile advert

Overcoming any stress-related mobile phone abuse

The number of mobile phone and hand related injuries will continue to rise from the extension of texting, so here are some exercises to overcome any pains that may surface

• Tap each finger with the thumb of the same hand. Repeat five times.
• Pull your thumb firmly with the other hand. Repeat five times.
• Wrap an elastic band around the tips of fingers and thumb and open your hand against the resistance. Repeat 20 times.
• Palms down wrap an elastic band around each thumb and force apart. Repeat 20 times.
• Tap the palm and back of your hand on your thigh as quickly as you can. Repeat 20 times.
• Massage thumb web, back of forearm and front of forearm. Two minutes.
• Press and rub in a circular motion the painful nodules in those muscles. Thirty seconds for each nodule.
• Reach up high with both arms and shake your hands. Reach down low with both arms and shake. Repeat three times.
• Arms at 45 degrees, squeeze them behind you.
• If it still hurts after a week of doing exercises, wrap an ice pack on sore hand and arm parts. Do not put ice directly on the skin but wrap in a thin cloth or piece of kitchen roll. Ten minutes on, 10 minutes off. Repeat three times.

More and more businesses are looking towards new technology to keep people informed of the latest news and information, possibly due to these devices being readily available for mass consumption. Most noticeably, the BBC wanted to close a number of their websites, and instead channel it through iPhone applications, in a blog created by Rory Cellan-Jones entitled “Governement apps: a case for the axe?” So, just as we are getting our heads out of the sand like ostriches, there seems to be a movement to get us looking down again to interact with the world.

With that in mind, I’m going to call my mate and arrange to meet up in the pub… then log in to Foursquare to “check in” to the venue we’re going to meet up in, and do the same on Facebook and Twitter. If I need people to know how popular I am…

Make sure you check in here when on the Search Social Media Marketing course

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING; `SHOW ME THE MONEY’

No matter how much of a `feel good’ factor any business has about social media, in the end, hard-headed marketing managers only really ask one question; `How can we make money from using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all the rest of these time-consuming networks?’

The answer lies in identifying particular `tribes’ of users who are potentially your customers, your brand champions, your harshest critics when things go wrong, and born communicators – yes, some people are going to do your marketing for you. How cheap is that?

THE FIRST FACEBOOK UPDATE WAS A CAVE PAINTING

As the well known Twitterer @lesanto noted recently, Facebook 40,000 years ago was a cave painting. The update was `We hunted and killed today, it was good.’

This highlights what Robin Wight of the Engine Group spoke about at Like Minds in Exeter 2010. Human beings evolved in tribes of around 150-180 people. Our brains cannot truly `know’ more people than this, plus the number gives us a range of skills which helps group survival. So human communication is irrevocably tied to our evolution. That means Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and every other social network is underpinned by this same DNA-mapped reality.

Those who think they have 2000 `friends’ on Facebook are wrong. You don’t know these people. Those who simply broadcast on Twitter, without using Retweets, hash tags or @ replies to have a conversation, are on an ego trip. That isn’t social, it isn’t a conversation.

Any business can head down a digital one way street by simply broadcasting messages, but in the long run, they risk hitting a dead end in marketing terms. You have to listen.

CASE STUDIES; SEO IS CHAPTER ONE, SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE BOOK

I chose two small-medium sized companies as case studies; Frution Broadcast based in Manchester and London, plus MCi Tours, based in Altrincham to test the knowledge acquired on this course.

Fruition’s search ranking is low ( see more background at my Posterous blog ) and the site is heavy with slick flash player media. But the company doesn’t really want public visitors, they want relatively few music industry players to visit the site, be impressed, then hire them. But the SEO site audit did highlight one benefit.

One thing we all know is that people in the UK are looking for jobs right now. I found `event planning jobs’ were the top rising search UK term, up 190% in the last year. `Event co-ordinator’ was up 50%.

I refined it geographically and seasonally in Google trends;

Searches in England showed a spike in August 2010 and London, then Manchester, were top cities last summer.

So Fruition could place a house ad on their site in August, maybe blog and Twitter it too, plus run a PPC ad in the Manchester area during August, leading to a specific job application landing page.

The response could be huge, if so, people could be held on file by Fruition – a talent pool basically, full-time or freelance. All that would save a large amount currently spent on recruitment agency fees or local media advertising. Crucially, it also saves hundreds of man-hours phoning around for staff each year at peak times.

So in terms of using SEO research, we are showing the client the money trail – recruitment gets quicker and cheaper. Result.

THINKING LIKE A CUSTOMER

MCi Tours wanted more people on their motorcycle holidays for 2011, winter is their peak booking season, kicking off with the UK motorcycle show.

Working with MCi Tours’ boss Al McFarlane, we identified three things that could be done over winter to improve things.

1. Audit and tweak the website layout and content to make it more `SEO-friendly.’

2. Try and capitalise on the link traffic that’s coming MCi Tours way. Make it relevant, as well as increase it.

3. Use social media to drive more potential motorcycle touring customers towards MCi Tours – especially those interested in Route 66 US tours, as there seems to be healthy demand at present.

SEO X-Ray revealed just one external link to the site. One of things I’ve suggested to MCi Tours is that they try to get a link from the FSA, because MCi are authorised agents for motorcycle travel and breakdown insurance. Having a link from a government site would be gold dust – we can but try.

SEM Rush found 288 searchers went to MCi Tours site looking for `Motorcycle breakdown insurance.’ Interesting, as it isn’t a core part of the business, but it shows a healthy demand in the market. The fact is many UK insurers do NOT recover your motorcycle from across the English Channel – there’s an opportunity here.

We made a tweak to the site and put `Travel Insurance’ in as a H2 sub-heading and flagged it on the home page separately. MCi Tours didn’t want to commit to a full social media campaign, building Facebook conetent and a fan base of Twitter followers, but they did send a customer database email out announcing their presence at the UK bike show and the FSA-authorised travel insurance.

The result was seven holiday bookings prior to the show, whereas the previous best was two bookings in early November.

SEO works. Good news. The better news for me is that MCi Tours have retained North Point for a six week social media campaign, with live blogging, video clips from the show, posted on a new MCi wordpress blog, also on You Tube. Plus we are building a base of Twitter and Facebook followers running up to the show which opens on the 27th November – see you all there!

THE FUTURE IS MOBILE

One of the things that emerged from TruManchester was that mobile recruitment is growing fast. According to Jobsite UK it still only accounts for around 6% of all traffic, but mobile use was up 390% from Jan 2009 – April 2010. ( source; Jobsite Whitepaper ).

What does it mean in broader terms?

Social media is time consuming, so in the near future, when perhaps 50% of mobile phone users are comfortable using Smartphone browsing, stripped down, graphics heavy interfaces will become the norm. Time spent magnifying screens to tap in passwords painfully slowly, or enter a whole stack of personal data won’t be popular. Smartphone software developers are going to have create social network tools that can be used quickly, easily and intuitively.

Humans are lazy, we like the familiar. Those who insist on bombarding their Facebook `likers’ with spam updates that don’t prompt any conversation, any meaningful interaction, will fall by the wayside. Those companies who already infest Twitter with irritating 140 character PR messages, repeated twice a day and autopost replies to followers just don’t get it. You can’t automate every conversation, people are different, even if they want the same things.

The companies that develop QR code digital `fingerprints,’ which a user can access as their default gateway to the company, a kind of Polaroid snapshot `app,’ will find more business heading their way.

Mobile apps that shortcut the time involved in searching for insurance, jobs via LinkedIn, or buying gig tickets on Facebook, will make small fortunes for those who do it right, and lose large fortunes for those who back the wrong horses. Software which tracks people’s eye/mouse movements and detects their body language via webcams has incredible potential. Where our attention goes, our money follows…

Companies who use social media stripped to its essentials, the basics of human communication will always find a market. If you sell your Facebook Farmville crops to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant and get paid in real money off vouchers, people will buy into that. It is human nature.

SMALL BUSINESS, BIG VALUES

`Brands must be useful and confer status on the user.’

Robin Wight again. It takes an adman to sum up the psychology of why we buy.

So small businesses; there are 500 million people on Facebook, find your `tribe’ within that global nation. Some 300,000 new users open a Twitter account each day, joining 105m already on the network and there are 600m Twitter searches by trend, name or topic each day. Mine that gold dust, it is worth digging deep for it. Social media allows you to set your own algorithms; location, interests, age, occupation, circle of friends, Facebook apps used etc. People buy from people, so show a human face to your company. Be a friend first, a salesperson second.

Do you sell to the trade only, not the public? Use LinkedIn.

Mark Williams, known as @Mr_LinkedIn on Twitter recently noted that this network has probably halved the amount of B2B PR and trade shows that anyone does in the UK. You can join relevant discussion groups and announce conferences, webinars, invite potential buyers to look at your new product video on Vimeo or You Tube. You control it, it’s your online business media – not a big publisher’s trade show or magazine.

If you want to start a conversation, that leads to conversion. Go social.

Alastair Walker

North Point

Join us on 17th November 2010 for blog post presentations! As part of their SEO & Social Media training, participants in Salford Business School’s ‘Search & Social Media Marketing’ course are writing individual guest blog posts which will be available soon on www.searchmarketing.salford.ac.uk

Why might you wish to attend these presentations?

1. If you are interested in joining the course yourself in the future – the next course starts on 10th February 2011 – this is an ideal opportunity to see what others have learned and speak to them directly to find out if this course is for you;
2. If you are looking for potential collaborations or new freelancers or employees who are well trained in the latest developments in the area of Search & Social Media Marketing you can meet our course delegates;
3. If you are simply interested in meeting people in the Search & Social Media Marketing field and sharing experiences.

The Search & Social Media Marketing course offers students ‘Search Engine Marketing Professional Organisation (SEMPO) Institute Online Training’ certification and practical examples shared by guest speakers from local agencies such as PushOn, Latitude, MEC Manchester and academics from the Information Systems, Organisations and Society (ISOS) Research Centre. The final week of the course offers delegates the opportunity to summarise their learning experience over the weeks and to demonstrate their knowledge in a practical task such as writing a guest blog post on a topic of their choice.

What are the guest blog presentation details?

• When? – Wednesday 17th November 2010
• What time? From 16:00 to 20:00
• RSVP deadline (for refreshments) – Friday 12th November 12:00 noon
• Where? – University of Salford, Maxwell Building
• How to book? – email Kate Bowes K.Bowes@salford.ac.uk, telephone: 0161 295 6352

Who are the delegates?

Here are some of the delegates:

Jamie Carter

Marketing/Digital Design Manager/SEO/ Web Design

Chris Ellison

Marketing Assistant at PJ Web Solutions

Jane English

Design & Marketing at Cetus Solutions Limited

Michael Fraser

Project Manager at Sizzle Media

Steven Flower

Technology Enabler at Substance

Richard Hayes

Marketing Officer at School of Art & Design, The University of Salford

Keith Hobson

Director at Cortelmedia

Noel Mellor

Copywriter, journalist, blogger

Laila Naqvi

Student at The University of Salford

Mark Sanders

Online Communications Officer at Salford Business School, University of Salford,

Mike Towers

Director Mantra Design & Print Ltd

Peter Vella

Sales and Marketing Director at Countryside Properties (Northern)

Alastair Walker

Freelance copywriter at Source PR Cheshire

Chance to master Google is a UK first

Leading lights from the region’s new media industry have joined forces with academics in the North West to produce a groundbreaking new course designed to improve search and social media marketing skills.

The University of Salford Business School course in Search and Social Media Marketing is aimed at both individuals and businesses keen to boost their chances of getting their websites on the first page of Google’s rankings. Moreover, delegates will develop skills in using websites as a business tool focussing on delivering return on investment.

It’s the first in the UK to earn accreditation from the global leader the US-based SEMPO Institute and is the result of a unique collaboration between leading figures in the Manchester digital marketing industry — including PushOn, Latitude and Mediaedge:cia — and the university.

The 10-week evening course

The 10-week evening course, which has been developed so that it will appeal to both business owners and professionals alike, has been put together following research in the digital sector.

Simon Wharton, Managing Director of PushON, said:

“This course is going to bring the knowledge of those in the trenches on a level with those in academia and will give great exposure to anyone wanting to update or develop their Search and Social Marketing skills.”

And Richard Gregory, Chief Operations Officer of Latitude, adds:

“Search and Social Marketing is an industry that has experienced exponential growth over the past decade — a course that allows delegates to reflect on the past and prepare for the dynamic future is exactly what is needed.”

Leading to a recognised qualification, the course will also feature plenty of input from industry speakers from the region. It will offer business users a chance to understand the cutting edge techniques required to get their businesses in front of a huge market of potential customers.

It will feature material developed by SEMPO — a global non-profit organization serving the search engine marketing industry. Katie Donovan, Managing Director of the SEMPO Institute, says:

“We are delighted that Salford Business School has selected to use our online courses as support material for this class. A relationship with such an innovative university as Salford enables us to further our charter of educating the next generation of search marketing professionals.”

Open evening for the Search and Social Media Marketing course

A special open evening for the Search and Social Media Marketing course took place on July 29 at 5.30 pm at room 516 in the Maxwell Building at the University of Salford.

Salford University is proud to announce another innovative course to teach the essentials of Search and Social Media Marketing.

Search & Social Media Marketing benefits to you:

• Access to the latest thinking and practice in Search and Social Media Marketing
• An industry respected qualification
• Enhancement of your employability profile and client recognition
• Opportunity to further your skills and knowledge of Search and Social Media Marketing
• Learning method to suit your day-to-day commitments: one evening per week attendance with online support

Choice of full programme or just Foundation or Professional:

• Search and Social Media Marketing Foundation – if you are new to this area
• Search and Social Media Marketing Professional – if you are already a practitioner

The course prices

• Foundation – £1000
• Professional – £1500
• Combined price for both of the above is £2000

Dates

Course start day is Wednesday 15th September 2010

The evening sessions will take place over 10 consecutive weeks

Booking a Place

If you would like to book a place on the course, please complete the online booking form; please make sure you indicate the level of study – Foundation or Professional.

Alternatively you can contact Victoria Hartley on 0161 295 3547 to reserve a place.

Victoria Hartley – Search & Social Media Marketing Course Administrator
Salford Business School
Enterprise Hub
University of Salford
Salford, Greater Manchester
M5 4WT, UK
Tel:+44 (0)161 295 3547
v.hartley@salford.ac.uk