2 major changes within Google and Pinterest are the main platform developments

Each month we review the developments in digital marketing and share our alerts on what we see as the "must-know" developments across all the digital marketing platforms.

We also share some of our own advice for marketers. This month we start with two new free guides to help with marketing planning. Watch out for more advice on Planning and Strategy in the Autumn as we countdown to 2014 with our new #PlanToSucceed campaign.

Strategy and planning

2014 Digital Marketing Trends briefing. Each year, I look ahead to review the latest trends in Digital Marketing to help define digital technologies and marketing techniques which give options for companies to grow their businesses. This year, I have identified 22 Digital Marketing techniques that demand attention and you can listen / download a free briefing I have recorded.We hope this trends roundup…

The best of BrightonSEO Conference 2013 in a Nutshell

The other week, the team and I ventured to Brighton for the annual SEO conference organised by the lovely folks at Site Visibility. Here, I’ve compiled my thoughts on the best speakers of the bunch and suggested how their insights might be implemented by brand owners.

[Editor's note. Readers interested in this article may also like to check out this post from Rhian Simm's on 5 key SEO takeaways from BrightonSEO].

This roundup is from the speakers who really stood out, dropping invaluable tips and drawing on fascinating case studies to illustrate how to get the most out of SEO which I thought would be most useful to share.

Speaker Oliver Snoddy on Real-Time Marketing for any Brand

Speaker: Oliver Snoddy - Head of Planning, Twitter UK

Mr…

6 illnesses B2B (and other marketers) may suffer from

No I don't mean "sick" in a "down-with-the-kids" way, just "ill". I like useful infographics, that's our bag, but really like this one since it's useful and funny - well to me anyway. These look like common ailments across sectors...

Kudos to g2m Solutions - I like the way they integrate it with a B2B Healthcheck CTA on their site, although not on the infographic. If you're looking for treatment, Rene Power also has his infographic showing 7 Steps to a Brilliant B2B Marketing Plan.

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Not a major update likely to impact rankings as the headlines suggest?

Importance: [rating=1] For commercial Purchase Intent Queries

Recommended link: Search Engine Land FAQ by Sullivan

Mainstream media such as the BBC have picked up on what they call a "Major Upgrade to Google’s Search Alogorithm". This sounded like something we should alert readers too particularly since it is said to affect 90% of users. However, it has been in place for one month already, so this suggests it won’t have a significant affect on rankings otherwise the impact would have been seen already.

It was announced in a slightly bizarre way, not through consumer-facing Google’s Inside Search blog which covers big announcements to the interface or consumer algorithm or Webmaster Central which alerts about algorithm changes limiting spam which have a major impact on rankings such as Panda and Penguin.

Instead it was announced at what the BBC called…

How is Amnesty using social media for campaigning?

To coincide with this week's new Guide on the social media for charities, we thought we would take a look at these examples of how Amnesty International are using social across the main platforms Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. Of course, Amnesty have been enthusiastic adopters of digital media and social media for campaigning from the outset, and need to manage many presence around the world, so they're an interesting case. For each network we have pulled out some examples of good practices for positioning a Not-for-profit on its page, status updates and encouraging interaction and action. As an international organisation, Amnesty also have the challenge of managing a different presence in different countries, so we will use a few different examples although this doesn’t illustrate the integration across channels which they seem to manage well within an individual region.

Facebook

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More reasons for businesses to share on Pinterest

Importance: [rating=4] Recommended link: Pinterest blog: new article pins for media sites and Ad announcement Pinterest has recently developed their pins for media sites, so articles on pins can now include the Headline, Author and Story Description including a larger link. 'Article pins can help writers, media and other businesses reach new audiences, get more referral traffic and extend the lifespan of their content' It appears Pinterest are trying to keep up with business needs this year, as can be seen by their developments including promoted pins and free analytics. Its usage is growing at 48.7m uniques users per month, and they are clearly extending functionality and usage for mobile users, to improve shareabilty and facilitate content sharing. So what does the new pin look like for Media Sites?  The New York Times, Fortune…

New Verdict research for retailers

Here we're sharing new e-commerce findings by Verdict, who surveyed over 10,000 on-line shoppers to reveal a forecast that the 'UK’s e-retail market will grow by almost 50% over the next five years to reach £50bn by 2018. One pound in every seven will be made online'.

Something that I found interesting and surprising from the research is that

‘Only 4% more people considered store shopping more enjoyable than online, a gap that’s lowered since the 25% recorded 18 months ago'.

The report highlights some other interesting findings about buyer behaviour:

35-54 males prefer Internet buying.Mobile consumers are savvy enough to know that they will only buy from a trusted, secure network as expected.Smartphones and tablets are used by consumers in-store to research prices and product details. 41% research in store before they purchase online.67% of respondents still shop from their ‘living room’ – second screening…

4 Alternative options for reviewing SEO effectiveness now most keywords are "not provided"

Importance: [rating=5]

Recommended link: Search Engine Land

It’s now two years since Google started restricting information about the search keywords used by searchers to find a site when they were signed in to their Google account. Over this period these not provided encrypted search terms have gradually increased as shown below as different browsers have added encrypted search.

This alert is to let you know, if you haven’t heard, that a recent change by Google means that ALL searches from Google will now be encrypted even if the user isn’t signed in. In effect, this removes specific SEO search query data from Google Analytics.

This change means that, for most sites, counts of specific search terms in Analytics are now unrepresentative and highly misleading. In the Search Engine Land article…

An introduction to the "Hero's Journey" method of storytelling

Your product or services will likely solve a problem for your customers, or fulfil particular needs and wants. No matter how boring you view this product, it sits within a ‘story arc’ that can always be made interesting to consumers facing the challenges that it solves. In Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a basic pattern of storytelling is defined as a ‘monomyth’ or ‘hero’s journey’. This is a pattern that can be seen in a wide range of storytelling from around the world. Essentially, protagonists within a story go through a number of common stages, as below:

From Homer’s The Odyssey, to Medieval Romances and modern sci-fi adventures such as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and Avatar, this story arc persists: The protagonist is inspired to go on…

Reviewing SMS options and how to optimise them

Given the extraordinary penetration of mobile phones, it is unsurprising that short message service (SMS) would be an impactful marketing medium. Nonetheless, the statistics make for mighty impressive reading. 98% of text messages are read, with the average response time a mere 90 seconds (compared to 2.5 days for an email). 75% of people prefer receiving ads via SMS and 70% of Americans would like to receive mobile coupons from their favourite businesses, with SMS coupons more likely to be redeemed and shared than mail or newspaper coupons. Furthermore, SMS marketing campaigns are opted out less than 5% of the time. So how can SMS fit into your marketing efforts? Holly Barber, Marketing Manager at FireText, outlines some of the main ways in which SMS marketing can be used across a range of businesses.

SMS marketing strategy tips

Fill in the gaps – Barber says: 'If you…