C7 Charity Calendar

Nutcracker Design and Marketing does it again for charity and joins forces with C7 Contractors to help Compton Hospice ‘raise the roof’.

In the past Nutcracker have been involved in numerous fundraising projects in support of local charities. However nothing in those earlier projects could have prepared us for our latest venture.

Nutcracker were approached by Justin Thomas of C7 Contractors, one of the Midlands premier painting, decorating and minor repairs companies based in Bilston, to design and produce a calendar in memory of Ron Harrison a former employee who died in August this year of cancer.

The idea to create a calendar came from amongst Ron’s colleagues, however this was to be no ordinary calendar!

The guys at C7 Contractors decided that they wanted to participate in creating a ‘naked calendar’ in memory of Ron as they believed that this would create a smile from up ‘above’ whilst also contributing to raising funds for Compton Hospice, a charity close to the hearts of Ron and his family. It has been said that ‘given the opportunity, Ron would have posed for every page’.

Nutcracker gave both time and resources to help C7 Contractors achieve their goals and ultimately raise funds in Ron’s memory. The team at Nutcracker worked collectively on the design and production of the calendar and managed the photography within it, their efforts coupled with the enthusiasm of C7 Contractors, is sure to make it a prosperous success.

Special recognition was given to Nutcracker and other contributors for their ‘dedication and commitment to helping others in such difficult economic times’.

The calendar has been created as a means of helping Compton Hospice ‘raise the roof’. Calendars go on sale for £10, of which £8 goes to Compton Hospice.

C7 and Ron’s family gave further personal thanks and praise to Nutcrackers ‘Graham, Rob, Stew, Dave and Neil for creating the calendar, despite the ‘best efforts of Justin’.

This year Compton Hospice needs to raise over £6 million. From every £1 donated to the hospice, 86p goes directly to patient care. By purchasing this calendar, you will help Compton Hospice to support people with life limiting illnesses and to provide the very best in palliative care in the memory of Ron Harrison.

In the past Nutcracker have supported various charitable causes, including the county air ambulance, Compton Hospice, Cancer Research, Wolverhampton MS Society and Guide Dogs for the Blind and greatly enjoyed this latest fundraising experience.

Nutcracker has been a part of this venture and so could you. If you would like to purchase one of C7’s calendars which go on sale on 2nd December 2010 and be part of it too please contact C7 contractors.

Social Media Signals and What it Means for SEO

Social media marketing has grown up. Those still labeling social networking as nothing more than a fad just need to take a look around (The Social Network won three Oscars and has been called the movie that defines Gen X).  Any marketing professional who has yet to incorporate some aspect of social media marketing into their business model might want to consider a new profession.

While it’s still tricky to measure monetary ROI, social media is here to stay. It has already severely impacted how consumers and companies interact, how people connect and communicate with each other and can make or break a brand online. It was just a matter of time before social media starting impacting SEO.

Back in December 2010, Google’s Matt Cutts released a video confirming that Google looks at social sites like Twitter and Facebook to help determine ranking positions. Matt Cutts went on to say that not only was Google incorporating social networking sites into their ranking algorithm, but that Google was also figuring out how to take into account the credibility and authority of the author behind a Tweet or Facebook post.

In Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Land article, he reported that “who you are as a person on Twitter can impact how well a page does in regular web search. Authoritative people on Twitter lend their authority to pages they tweet.” He posted his email conversation with Google, who wrote that a link carried more weight based on the author, “…especially in the “Top links” section [of Google Realtime Search].” The more a link is reTweeted, Liked or reposted, the stronger the social signal is behind it. This indicates to the search engines that the link is useful and relevant to users, so it is more likely to rank.

So what does all this mean for SEO?

The use of social signals means that companies that have social networking sites but haven’t been actively using them need to pump up their online activity. Since Google recently moved their social search results from the bottom of the page to the main body of search results, having an active social media campaign is more important than ever.

All SEO and other marketing professionals need to have a robust social media marketing program as it makes sense for their clients/company. They need to be producing quality content that followers/Fans are going to want to share and republish.  It’s not enough to remind people of the company’s existence, social media marketing has to give users a reason to connect and engage. The better a brand reaches our across its social networking profiles, the more links are going to be generated, the better authority it is going to build for itself and the more likely the brand is to rank well.

It’s important to remember that social media and social signals are not the magic bullet to boosting a site’s rank. It’s only one more piece of the ever-expanding puzzle that determines a site’s importance and relevancy. That’s why companies can’t sacrifice their offline and other online marketing techniques in favor of social networking. Marketing campaigns need to be diversified so that is one section takes a hit, the others can pick up the slack (The recent Google update that took on content farms, for example). A well-defined and blended approach helps a company from all angles, steadily increasing its perceived value.

And it’s inevitable that because Google declared social signals to be a contributing factor of their algorithm, the spammers and black hat SEO practitioners are going to try to find a way to game the system. Just like content farms cluttered Google’s search results, it shouldn’t be surprising to see social search spam trying to take over. It’s already evident when companies create generic profiles to follow themselves in an effort to boost their follower/Fan numbers. That’s why Google is trying to incorporate author authority into the mix, to weed out those fake online personalities that exist just to endorse a brand/company. Companies should focus on attracting real, human followers to help promote and spread their messaging. Connecting with industry authorities lend credibility, both in the eyes of the search engines and consumers.

The Bottom Line – Social signals and SEO

SEO is an on-going process. Building meaningful relationships with consumers takes time and effort. A company is not going to build up their social signal overnight without raising an eyebrow or two from the search engines. It’s all about establishing significant connections with real people, so useful links are given the credit they deserve. Some level of social media marketing should be incorporated into every company’s marketing campaign, as it best fits.

Written By:

Nick Stamoulis | Search Engine Optimization Journal | @NickStamoulis

Nutcracker and ‘social media’ can improve your web impact

With around 500 million users and counting, Facebook and Twitter have become a vast and dynamic marketplace of potential customers and networking opportunities.

Nutcracker can place you amongst potential customers searching for ‘Tweets’ relating to your business or offer in the same way people use Google and other search engines.

As more people share your information across social media the more prevalent your organisation name will become, making it increasingly visible to search engines.

Social media creates what is known as a ‘viral effect’ as 'fans' and 'followers' spread word about your offer, for free, increasing brand awareness, trust and unbiased third party testimonials.

However, building a good following on Facebook or Twitter can be time consuming…

This is where Nutcracker excels, for advice call 01384 455 141 today.

Where have all the clicks gone?

Sometime around mid October, Google changed the way it displayed search results. The effect of this on some sites was a drop in traffic of up to 80%.

Nutcracker can reveal that this was not an isolated occurrence, as the effects have changed search results across the web. While some sites are seen to be losing traffic, others report a 30%+ increase.

The details of the change are still unknown but it is thought that Google altered the algorithm that determines the way search results are ranked. This is potentially very serious for sites that sell products or generate leads as a sudden drop in traffic could mean a considerable decline in revenue.

Nutcracker has found that so far the changes in traffic have remained constant, indicating a deliberate adjustment of the way Google works. Our search engine optimisation team are familiar with this type of potential problem and can confidently adjust their SEO procedures to harmonise completely with the revised Google software.