Apple has launched a new social-networking service designed specifically for music fans directly within iTunes, joining the social arena of facebook and Twitter.

Ping, is a social music discovery service, which is now part of iTunes, which is used by over 160 million users.

Steve Jobs of Apple announced the launch at the apple keynote press conference at the Yerba Buena Centre in San Francisco.

“We’re launching Ping – it’s a social network that’s all about music. It’s like Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes. You can follow your favourite artists and friends and discover what music they like and are downloading.”

Jobs also unveiled a new, compact Apple TV set-top box, that can fit in the palm of your hand, which can “stream” content, such as music, films and television shows from the likes of YouTube direct to your tv.

This news marks an exciting endorsement of the social media platform as the mass adopted route of current, trusted information.

Get your social media plan right, together with a good s.e.o plan on your main site, and you are setting your brand up ready to take on the opportunities of the fast evolving online marketplace.

Talk to studio 8 for more details on how we can help you.

Info@studio8search.com
01865 842525

Facebook Places is one of Facebook’s newest additions. The location sharing application can be used for the following purposes:

1) Let your friends know where you’re hanging out

2) See where your friends are.

3) Help you see what’s going on – Discover new places to visit

4) The digital trail: You will be leaving trails. You will then be able to go and look at these in years to come.

5) Each place has a page, so you are able to see where your friends have checked into

This new application means that when users find a place they really like and really want to share with their friends they can, just by checking in either via their iPhone, Touch or iPad.

It could be a  restaurant, an amazing walk or a brilliant gig, whatever it is you can share this with your friends at the touch of a button.

To read more about Facebook Places check and how to use it visit http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Facebook-Places

If you would like to discuss how Studio8Search can help you with SEO/Social Media Optimisation and Online Marketing, contact us on:

01865 842525

info@studio8search.com

There are millions of websites in the world all aiming to reach the dizzy heights of Google. It is every businesses dream to get that number one position for that number one search term or keyword, but have we all been overlooking something?

Have you noticed more recently how when looking for information on your favourite search engine you now see more and more images and video appearing amongst the text of the Google page? This is a term Google refers to as Universal Search.

Universal Search is Google’s blended search idea which basically is all the ‘Vertical Search’ (specialised search such as News, Video, Images, Local and Book search engines) shown together with the standard results from regular search.

This is a huge oppourtunity for your business to dominate the organic search results when optimising your website. Imagine you sell ‘Picture Frames’ and you want to focus on the search term “black picture frames”.

You can utilise all of the platforms Google is using to present search results for ‘black picture frames’ to your favour by creating blog posts with video, images, news items, tweets from twitter, facebook and more in relation to the phrase.

This route will not only allow users to receive a more engaging experience of your brand, but will help you reach more searchers and turn that traffic into sales.

For example : research has shown it is 50 times easier to index video and image content to the 1st page of Google compared to text based listings.

It is now essential when creating your  universal search strategy to consider this in the ever changing world of online search.

We are fortunate to be in a position to have an in house team of videographers and photographers who can create your perfect media to ensure your Universal Search strategy is at its best.

Call us on 01865 842525 or contact us here

Social networking site Facebook has seen a huge growth in the number of organisations using it as a means to market their businesses. It enables the opportunity to create a social media presence, increase brand awareness, learn about customers needs and communicate with customers easily.

Once you have set up your account use the tips below to improve visabilty:

• Upload a logo or photo with a web address at the bottom. It won’t be clickable, but fans can see where to go if they want to visit your website.
• Complete your info page completely. Here you can have a clickable web address, company overview, mission, and products (in your company overview, you can list links to pages on your website, your newsletter signup form, other social media)
• Create a landing page using FBML – it’s Facebook’s version of HTML.
• Don’t forget the sidebar. Anything you can put in your tabs, you can also put in your sidebar.
• Post often.
• Link to your page from everywhere. If you want fans, you have to let people know you’re on Facebook. Put an icon or link in your newsletter, on your website or blog, in your email footer, everywhere.

Create the perfect Facebook page

To discuss how Studio8Search can help you with Social Media optimisation and SEO contact us on:
info@studio8search.com
01865 842525

A recent survey by eCommera found that on average 42.6% of British consumers are making purchases at least once a week online and the average spend per consumer is £71 per month.

One of the key reasons consumers are turning to online options is price, 60.4% of people who took part in the survey believe they get a better bargain than on the high street by going online to shop .Another key reason for shopping online is the convenience of having items delivered and of course the wide range available online

To read more on this visit http://econsultancy.com/blog/6397-brits-spend-71-a-month-online?utm_medium=email&utm_source=topic

A average online spend of £71 per month

To discuss how you can increase traffic to your site contact Studio8Search

info@studio8search.com

01865 842525

Facebook users are being targeted in a scam that offers them a chance to install a “dislike” button.

This new scam fools users into allowing a rogue application to access their profile page, which then posts spam messages.

The scam also involves getting users to enter an online survey where the scammers are then paid a sum of money once users complete this.

Another way in which the scammers are targeting users is by using messages that start with ‘OMG, shocking video’,” these appear to come from your Facebook friend, so the user trusts the links.

The dislike button scam prompts people to download an application with the message:

“Download the official DISLIKE button now.

When the user has given it permission to access their profile, it updates the user’s page with a link and a message: “I just got the dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!!”
To read more on this story visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10987725

To discuss ways in which you can improve the amount of traffic coming to your site by using social media and SEO talk to studio8search about how we can create a bespoke plan to suit your budget.
Info@studio8search.com
01865 842525

Facebook applications aren't always what they seem

Facebook which launched in 2004, has gained around 100 million new users in the last six months.

Facebook said the number was “an important milestone” and added that it was “humbled and inspired” by the stories of its users, which it is asking people to share on the site.

The UK currently has around 26m Facebook users.

Facebook is now the digital word of mouth. With so many people wanting to share information online it’s like a snowball.

Mr Zuckerberg (creator of facebook) recently said that the site was “almost guaranteed” to reach one billion users.

Get your facebook page now an optimise for the future with studio 8 search!

There has been alot of Talk about HTML 5 recently mostly because of Steve Jobs at Apple’s decision not to support Flash on the iPhone and iPad.

Well what is it and why should you care? This article may be of interest to you :

Hulk VI was great, but w hat should you watch this evening? Before heading off to work in the morning, you click to some trailers on a movie Website, but you don’t have time to watch many. So you use your mobile phone to snap a picture of the 2D barcode on one of the videos; the phone’s browser then takes you to the same site. On the commuter train to the office, you watch the previews over a 4G cell phone connection. A few of the movies have associated games that you try out on your phone, too.

Remember when every Website had a badge that read “optimized for Netscape Navigator” or “requires Internet Explorer 4″? In the old days, people made Web pages that worked best with–or only with–certain browsers. To some extent, they still do.

The new flavor of the HTML–the standard program for writing Web pages–is called HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language version 5); and HTML5 aims to put that practice to bed for good.

Specifically, HTML5 may do away with the need for audio, video, and interactive plug-ins. It will allow designers to create Websites that work essentially the same on every browser–whether on a desktop, a laptop, or a mobile device–and it will give users a better, faster, richer Web experience.

Instead of leaving each browser maker to rely on a combination of its in-house technology and third-party plug-ins for multimedia, HTML5 requires that the browser have built-in methods for audio, video, and 2D graphics display. Patent and licensing issues cloud the question of which audio and video formats will achieve universal support, but companies have plenty of motivation to work out those details.

In turn, Website designers and Web app developers won’t have to deal with multiple incompatible formats and workarounds in their efforts to create the same user experience in every browser.

This is an especially valuable advance for mobile devices, as their browsers today typically have only limited multimedia support. The iPhone’s Safari browser, for example, doesn’t handle Adobe Flash–even though Flash is a prime method of delivering video content across platforms and browsers.

“It’ll take a couple of years to roll out, but if all the browser companies are supporting video display with no JavaScript [for compatibility handling], just the video tag and no plug-in, then there’s no downside to using a mobile device,” says Jeffrey Zeldman, a Web designer and leading Web standards guru. “Less and less expert users will have better and better experiences.”

Makers of operating systems and browsers appear to be falling into line behind HTML5. Google Chrome, Apple Safari,Opera, and WebKit (the development package that underlies many mobile and desktop programs), among others, are all moving toward HTML5 support.

For its part, Microsoft says that Internet Explorer 8 will support only parts of HTML5. But Microsoft may not want to risk having its Internet Explorer browser lose more market share by resisting HTML5 in the face of consensus among the other OS and browser makers.

HTML5 is now completing its last march toward a final draft and official support by the World Wide Web Consortium.

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Source: http://www.pcworld.com

If you are concerned about cost, establish an online presence for your business using local listings.

Google Places is a simple means to get online.

The basic listing is free and it’s an easy way for online searchers to find you. You need to make sure your listing content is correct and is the same for each of the online sources you’re posting to.

The only spend incurred is the time you take to set up the listings which is a small price to pay for getting yourself found online.
The result is the guarantee that your business will be found when local shoppers are looking online for your products and/or services. The process isn’t difficult; follow the step by step directions as presented for Google Places or Yellowpages.com, for example.
For a small monthly fee, you can upgrade to the enhanced listings which allow more info and content to be included in your listing. With a little bit of work and a small cost you have established an online listing that will give visibility to your business and drive traffic to your site. Once your info is posted, you don’t have to do anything else aside from editing should any of the contact/location content change.
The alternatives?
Many small business owners may be more familiar with long-standing advertising media such as yellow pages, newspaper ads and radio ads. However, these means of advertising provide little if any means for measuring their efficacy.
How can one measure the value of media that is so difficult to track? The alternatives may be well known, but with the arrival of online marketing those methods of publicising a business do not provide the same value as an enhanced business listing such as those described above.
Where do the above tactics get small businesses? You want people to buy what you have to offer.

In order to gain customers, the public must know what is offered. How do customers discover what a business has to offer? Advertising! One of consumers preferred methods to shop is to do so online as we all live very busy lives.
What is the easiest, most affordable form of advertising and one that we now know more and more people are turning to? Online advertising. Billions of searches are carried out online for businesses just like yours every day. Get advertising online and be found!

To discuss ways in which you can improve the amount of traffic coming to your site talk to studio8search about how we can create a bespoke plan to suit your budget.

Info@studio8search.com
01865 842525

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