The list of speakers is phenomenal and if you are anything like me, a kid in a candy shop, the excitement has just about killed me and it’s only Thursday! Huge companies like @british_airways and the the social media manager of Sainsburys (@simonlp) will be in the mix with founders of the likes of Our Social Times (@lbrynleyjones), Whisk (@nickholzherr – The Apprentice) Useful Social Media (@gnjohnson) and editors from @londonist – Ronke Phillips (@ronkephillips – ITV News) e

Monday Yvonne spoke about why and how the law has changed, today she explains: WHAT IS A COOKIE? A cookie is a small file, typically of letters and/ or numbers which is placed/ downloaded on to a user’s device or browser when a user visits a website. It can store and transmit information to the server of websites (re)visited from that browser/ device. WHY ARE THEY USED? Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide inf

WHY HAS THE LAW CHANGED? The 2002 European Directive upon which the 2003 UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations were based has been revised by a 2009 EU Directive. This required the UK to implement such revisions in to its own law which it introduced on 25 May 2011 through The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (the “Regs”). The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced a one-year grace period thereby del

I thought a nice colourful subject to ease us into the week was the order of the day.  We all know that colour is important, especially when choosing the right one for your company, brand and promo material.  In one instance it could change someones perception of what you do and how you do it.  That is why you should take time and either think or re-evaluate what schemes you are using right now. According to KISSMetrics… 93% of consumers place colour and appearance above othe

We all want a memorable landing page on our sites right? But a well designed front page has so many elements to consider, not just the colours, graphics & images. Unfortunately. Here’s my top 10 musts for a fabulous landing page: A good looking headline. Seems obvious? well you’d be amazed at how many people are trying to be too clever here. Do some research and ask people if they GET it? Also – if you are running Adwords, make sure the keywords are consistent. The headlin

Welcome to 2012! How’s the head?! OPT have talked mostly about social media and how it can help your business.  We hopefully all know now that it is unavoidable.  You just have to make the decision to either employ someone to look after it or adapt and introduce new jobs into your daily routines. Let’s begin this year, by hammering home some mega easy and positive steps towards getting your business out there online in 2012. Honing its online presence and giving your baby a r

Some of the most basic web pages, with full SEO rich content are the most popular, because of the SEO work that has gone into it. So many people spend all their time on a great website. Flash and other sorts of exciting, design based content are being phased out because Google doesn’t recognize it anymore. One thing is for sure, you need time and huge amounts of patience and commitment.  Followers, customers and clients DO NOT happen while you are sleeping! Ask yourself this

Keywords are basically the words that your customer/client would type into Google to find you.  If you were a catering company, I would take a guess that ‘catering hire’, book caterer’, ‘party food’ and ‘event catering’ to mention a few are up there towards the top of the keyword ladder. They are vital words and mostly come in pairs, to add into your content on your webpages.  If you wish to get technical, there are strategies as to where these keywords should be placed in yo

More small businesses are using social media as a means to develop their business and generate leads. They use it to: Attract new customers Promote company brand Communicate their company news Keep in touch with their current customers The main faux pas of most small businesses from our research is a lack of understanding of how social media can help them. Whether that be born of fear of ‘moving with the times’, a lack of creativity or just laziness, ultimately the business w