Google or Facebook – Who’s Better at Plying Their Trade?

Who is better at playing their own game, Google (Search Engine) or Facebook (Social Networking)? What would happen if one decided to have a go at doing what the other one did? For example: Google start a social networking site.

Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, are moving into Google’s turf and trying the advertising game as well. Google’s business began from the Pay per Click Advertising that in 2009 accumulated $23 billion. Facebook would now like to have a bit of that – and they are big enough to try.

Facebook and Google are alike in some ways and almost opposite in another. So, they operate alike by targeting small and medium enterprises using a self-serve advertising system. We know that Facebook has taken $1.86 billion in worldwide advertising. Most of that revenue was accumulated from the self–serve tools therefore, not getting into agency fees and additional charges.

Also, $1.21 billion of the $1.86 billion was earned in the US, so Facebook had a 4.7% share of the total online advertising spend.  Based on this information, and normal trends that have been seen before, Facebook will be at 8.8% in 2012. That additional percentage has to come from somewhere.

Despite that, MySpace lost serious ground, members and advertising revenue. In 2012, MySpace ad revenue fell from $470 million in 2009 to $156 million. In the background, Facebook was gearing up to compete with Google. As we now know, Facebook and Google are fighting for market share, as each percent could equal thousands and thousands of pounds.

If Facebook is going to keep chipping away at the percentage share within the market, they will have to get some things right. There is a lot of discussion within the marketing environment that Facebook is almost perfect at attracting/targeting a large audience. However, in doing so, it is not as specific.

This fault with Facebook does not really affect the large companies that post the large brand advert. The ad is seen by massive audience, and the brand will be known almost instantly by its users. The smaller and mid-sized enterprises (SME) however will have a disadvantage.

The smaller and mid-sized companies don’t generally have an instant brand identity, so to a large audience, the message is lost and therefore the advert will not be noticed and received. Google’s key word advertising is specific (hence keyword).  This is where the keyword based advertising is more appropriate. The Google keyword search will be more specific and is more efficient with a better ROI for a SME.

If Facebook wants to challenge Google it must get the SME advertising right.

Storm Marketing Launch Business Mobile Phones

Storm Marketing has today launched a new website that targets the business sector of the UK mobile phone market. Business Mobile Phones has the latest deals on Orange, Vodafone, O2, 3 and T-Mobile and lists the latest mobile phones.

Paul Speakman of Storm Marketing commented on the launch: “BusinessMobilePhones.co.uk will provide the UK business community with the latest mobile phone deals and allow decision makers to compare and contrast the latest Smartphones. We expect the Apple iPhone 4 to get a lot of attention, but some of the Blackberry devices are also very popular with business users. We understand that small businesses will see upgrading their company mobiles as an opportunity to cut costs. This site will help them do just that. Users can compare an extensive range of business Smartphones across all of the major UK phone networks whether the emphasis is on emails, document handling, data handling or high-speed web connections, this site has the most efficient mobile communication solutions for the UK business sector.”

BusinessMobilePhones.co.uk launched in January 2011 and targets the UK B2B mobile phone market.

Storm Launch UK Mobile Sim Card Comparison Site

Storm are delighted to announce the launch of a new mobile phone sim only comparison website – www.simcardoffers.co.uk.

The site has been designed in house by our creative team, and put together utilising Storm’s bespoke website development tools – incorporating some engaging DHTML, Ajax and JQuery functions which give the web user a rich and interactive experience.

As part of the design, Storm has named the sites friendly character ‘Simmy’ – living, breathing sim card character who accompanies the user throughout the website journey.

Storm have partnered up with leading UK mobile providers O2, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Three to offer the best sim only deals, where the site visitor can filter and sort their options based on minutes, text, data allowance, price and more.

Storm Produce Creative for MediaVest Website

Manchester based media experts MediaVest have commissioned Storm to provide creative and build support to their website refresh.

MediaVest plan and buy advertising across the full spectrum of communications channels, from TV and newspapers through to the full range of digital offerings – and as part of their continuous brand developments, approached Storm to create a new website design that will easily integrate with their existing branding and logos.

The project utilises Storm’s experienced creative team to take a concise brief and produce a website theme that is both engaging and search friendly – ensuring W3C standards are maintained but allowing for a rich user experience.

The new MediaVest site is planned to launch in stages – the Storm creative allows for this due to the way that the source code and designs have been developed. The site concept is simple but striking, and the brand guidelines allow for a huge amount of flexibility when MediaVest decide to create a new page or section from their in house content management system.

“We have taken existing branding and styles, and moved them forward organically.” said Andy, Storm’s Head of Creative, “The new site creates a fresh feel but maintains a brand familiarity”.

MediaVest clients include Thomas Cook, Barratt Homes, Holland & Barrett , JD Williams, Hidden Hearing, Screwfix, Bradford Exchange, ghd, Bupa and more.

For more information about how Storm can help you with your business branding and website, check out the ‘branding and design’ section of our website.

Manage Your Own Website With Storm’s Content Management Systems (CMS)

Storm strives to create websites that work. With this in mind, we have developed a core set of CMS modules which allow our clients to edit the content of their websites without compromising the design, accessibility and SEO aspects of the site.

Each CMS that Storm produce is different. We listen to the clients requirements rather than tell them what they need. The systems can be as simple or as complex as required, however – we always maintain that the client should be able to use the systems without any prior knowledge of websites or HTML – providing the user with an instantly recognisable interface. Any user that is familiar with applications like Word is able to update their website.

Our bespoke CMS systems incorporate cross platform editing, full audit and event history, multi-tiered user access, a secure administration area and the ability to integrate with CRM (customer relationship management) data and systems. These facilities will give clients the control and freedom needed to run their website exactly the way they want – whether it be simple text, integrated images or a more complete rich media experience.

You can learn more about our Content Management Systems at Content Management Systems

Storm Marketing Define SEO Strategy

Storm Marketing have years of experience in SEO. Our link building team has built up a database of thousands of websites categorised by sector and market. We actively target link partners by topicality and relevance.

Our link partners MUST have a close logical association with the theme of the client’s site. Inevitably there is a degree of interpretation involved here but the association should be intuitive, and they should add value to our clients’ visitors, giving a focus on the user experience.

We see little or no point in soliciting links from direct competitors to the client. Firstly they are unlikely to return the link and secondly the search engines are likely to see these links as “artificial” – we focus on partners that have complimentary sites.

Search Engine algorithms are dynamic, we have a set of rules that ensures that our links will keep within their guidelines, such as be on-topic , have relevant content,  avoid “Black Hat” Tactics, Avoid excessive or off-topic linking and above all Avoid spamming techniques.

We develop sites to W3C standards, and always optimize for cross browser compatibility – allowing for rich and interactive sites to be deployed with no fear of damaging the user experience. Utilizing semantic code allows us to improve the accessibility of web documents, and we always recommend achieving a minimum of “Level A conformance” to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. When undertaking a project, take a proactive approach to accessibility, and consult with the client to ensure we achieve the standard they require.

Storm knows how the search engines have evolved and where they are heading in the future. We have achieved top rankings in the most competitive verticals including Mobiles, Gambling, Travel and Finance. We have developed our own systems for SEO from which we can provide real-time access to fundamental aspects of SEO, Content Writing, Link Building, Keyword Density Analysis and so on. Our clients benefit from our insight with detailed reporting at a granular level. We practice what we preach when it comes to SEO as we use an identical methodology for all of our own in-house brands.

For more details of SEO services offered by Storm Marketing click here Search Engine Optimisation

New Storm Marketing Website Launched

Storm Marketing are proud to announce the release of their new website www.stormmarketing.com.

The site utilises a number of different client and server technologies to present a fresh and vibrant user experience that showcases Storm’s experience and talent.

Early reactions have been very positive, with users especially liking the personal profiles of the senior team at Storm.

“The concept for the site was very organic with ideas coming form every member of the team this made my job very easy (lie). Its always hard when the site is for yourself because you become the client from hell.” said Andy, Storm’s Head of Creative.

“I wanted the site to capture the ethos of storm and I think we have achieved that with the little tweaks like the illustrations of the team but also to show we are not just another marketing company. Another main part of the site was for it to fit in with the creative we already have, so there were no gaps between the offline and online creative.

The feedback we have been getting so far is good so lets hope that it continues, I have already starting thinking about the next version.“.

Storm Develop Online Print Management System

Storm have completed development of a bespoke print management application for midlands based print firm Lion FPG, allowing businesses such as Lloyds TSB, Towry Services and Arriva Trains.

The system, developed in PHP, allows the client to quickly and easily select printing and stationary requirements based upon pre-defined stock lists managed by Lion FPG. The user then submits the order online, which is instantly presented to the account manager for processing.

The system is fully content managed and allows printers to individually manage clients, stock lists and delivery information at the click of a button, taking feeds from their existing internal CRM systems.

Mark Jones, Customer Account Manager for Lion FPG said “Our customers love the new system, ‘very user friendly and much faster than the old site’. They particularly like the new feature of displaying images for each product listed. From our point of view its working really well, and comparing it to our old system it’s so much easier to update and manage “.

Storm have many years of experience providing Inventory Management and CRM systems for a diverse range of business and markets.  To find out more about Web and Application development contact us on 01785 215 676 or click here.