Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Newspaper circulation in South Africa

 

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

New algorithms for search engines: 7 tips to improve your Google ranking - A blog by one of our PRGN partners in Europe

Google has changed the search algorithms three times between 2011 and 2013. The following tips will help you to land as far as possible above on the searches hit list:

Constantly creating new user oriented content (Content) on your own website. This means that visitors will stay longer on your website and Google shows that their side has a high relevance for certain topics.
Ensure that the content coming from you - best links to your site (Back links) - will be published on reputable websites such as online magazines and communities guides. This is also for Google a central indicator of the relevance of their Internet pages.

Do not pay for the mass positioning of the same content (Duplicate Content) or back links on sites such as pseudo press portals or web directories that were obviously created only to distort Google results in favour of certain pages. Google ignores such entries or even "punishes" companies appearing now in such "spam pages".

Design your website content, structure and technique so that Google can analyze all the content easily and classify it thematically. This is achieved, among other things, by defining and integrating the best possible keywords, creating a user-friendly structure and eliminating hard-analyzable elements such as very large images and flash animations.

Take care when providing new content on your site that subject matter and scope "fit" for your company. Google could otherwise classify your online appearance as a spam page. A small specialized business, for example, should not publish news on a wide range of subjects every day.

If you lack expertise or staff, you can be supported by experienced agencies for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Public Relations (PR). While an SEO agency is a great way to lay the foundations (point 4), PR agencies are inherently professionals in providing customer-driven, high-quality content and place it on reputable websites (Point 1 + 2).

Choose SEO and PR agencies who know the respective other side and work together efficiently and effectively. This guarantees an optimal strategy, an optimal conversion and an optimal Google ranking.

Industry-Contact AG (IC AG) in Hamburg and seo support GmbH from Berlin are close partners for this reason.

Uwe Schmidt is with IC AG Public Relations Agency in Germany and a member of the Public Relations Global Network. A grouping to which HWB also belongs.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Social media: Be prepared to be overwhelmed

'Elections 2014 will be the first national poll in South Africa where social media will be a key part of political campaigns. Well, much more so than in the past,' says HWB social media guru Martin Slabbert.
In coming weeks you could be swamped with political tweets, status updates, Youtube videos, and posts.
How do you cut through all the noise?

There could be some political comments which will offend or disturb you. In the past, people could shout objectionable comments at only political meetings. Thanks to social media, the reach of their soapboxes has grown exponentially. Our Constitution guarantees free speech – people have the right to say things that you may not agree with.  Of course, this does not mean that comments that would have been subject to legal challenges in print or in broadcast are somehow now acceptable on social media.

Most political parties already have established communication teams that work purely on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and any other available channel. Martin says this means that there is a great chance that you may be exposed to messages of 'vote for me' or 'we deserve your vote'.

Take everything you read with a bag of salt. Make sure you can verify that the message indeed came from the legitimate political party, and not from some hoax account. It happens to film stars and musicians; why can’t it happen to politicians?

As election day draws closer, Martin believes social media will get very noisy. His final tip: Be prepared to be overwhelmed.



Friday, February 7, 2014

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Keeping it straight

Businesses that sweep honesty under the carpet while they make a fast buck get short shrift from clients in the long run.
That has always been true, and social media has made it even more difficult for the smooth operators to flourish. It takes just an instant for a dissatisfied consumer to leap onto Twitter, Facebook or a blog and make their displeasure known.
However, our motivation should not be the fear of being found out. We ought rather to depart from a point of integrity, and consistently deal in a manner that is ethical, open and honest. This is what HWB strives for in our dealings with clients and it is the quality we look for in our clients and service providers. Our founding statement remains Focus, Attention to Detail and Follow Through.
Our drive this year will be to continue to work with integrity. In this manner we hope to grow our business – and assist our clients to grow theirs – to new heights in 2014 and beyond. 
Take care out there

Evelyn John Holtzhausen
CEO at HWB Communciations