Archive for the ‘All’ Category
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UK social media traffic overtakes search
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
New statistics just out have revealed that UK social media traffic has overtaken search engine traffic in the UK.
According to Experian Hitwise;
“Social networks now receive more UK Internet visits than search engines. During May, social networks accounted for 11.88% of UK Internet visits and search engines accounted for 11.33%. May was the first ever month that social networks have been more popular than search engines in the UK.”
Experian Hitwise said visits to social networks as a percentage of UK internet visits had increased over the past three years by five percentage points, while visits to search engines had decreased from 13% in 2007, to 11.33% in 2010. With Facebook accounting for 55% of all social networking traffic in the UK, it is offering an increasingly strong alternative to leading search engine Google.
Opening external links in a new browser window
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
For the majority of websites that we work on, clients tend to request that external links open in a new browser window so visitors are not lost to other sites.
On first inspection, this may appear to be a reasonable request and that the client’s wishes may hold water. However, and this may sound controversial, we don’t develop sites for the client, we develop sites for the client’s users; after all, it’s the users that have to use the site (the term ‘users’ is a bit of a giveaway really). For the majority of target audiences, basic principles of usability that have stood the test of time within our ever changing and fast moving digital industry can be applied. So, here’s why when the client says “I want all external links to open in a new browser window”, the discussion begins!
At Mixd we build to the highest accessibility and usability standards, and follow 2 main sets of guidelines:
- W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) XHTML strict validation
- WCAG2.0 (World Content Accessibility Guidelines) level AA and in part AAA
We advise against forcing any on-site links to open in a new window, as to do so would invalidate both of the above. From a usability point of view, forcing this upon the user is considered bad practice and all modern browsers give the user the option to open in a new tab or browser window if they wish to do so.
A huge percentage of web users navigate using the browser’s back button. New window links mean that the back button stops working; often leaving the user confused or even worse, annoyed. Instead of keeping users from leaving your site, it may have the opposite effect by preventing them from returning when they actually want to. With certain pop-up blockers enabled, external links may not open properly either. Furthermore, new windows may also open in the background and not be seen at all by the user.
Instead of opening in a new window, we suggest adding ‘(external link)’ or a symbol after external links to indicate to the user the links which will make them leave your site.
Jakob Neilsen (largely considered the world’s foremost web usability expert) mentioned this in points 1 and 2, back in 1999 and this is as true now as it was back then; http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html
Bob on the main stage
Friday, August 28th, 2009
When Bob asked for a day off, we thought he just wanted to enjoy a long Bank Holiday weekend. He did mention that his band was playing a gig, but did we expect to see him on the front page of the BBC site, being touted as a headline act at the Leeds/Reading Music Festival?
We do hope he has a good weekend, but we sincerely hope his Sex Isn’t On Fire.
Utilising Twitter for business
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Twitter is a free social network and micro-blogging service which has been everywhere recently. Companies big and small are using it across the world to get their message out there to thousands within seconds. Twitter does not need to be a one-dimensional method of communication however and if used properly it can be extremely beneficial for your business.
Most of you will have logged onto your Twitter account yesterday morning and seen a brand-new homepage, and very nice it is too. The key difference you will notice from the old homepage is that the emphasis has shifted very much towards searching the millions of Tweets passing over the network. It is the search function which can bring real benefits to your business or organisation.
How can Twitter benefit your business
The capacity to reach an audience of thousands with your latest business news or updates is obvious. But using the search function can take Twitter well beyond the trivial “what I had for dinner” notion and act as a key tool for you in business. Below are what we consider the key benefits of using the search facility within the network:
- You can instantly search for anyone talking about anything in your field of business, potentially giving you new leads
- It allows you to find anyone talking about or sharing an opinion on your product or service, giving you the chance to gather feedback
- Finding out what your competitors are up to or what people are saying about them has never been easier
- You can find any comments that have been made about your business, whether positive or negative
- The potential for business networking and making contacts is huge
Using the Twitter search function effectively
Twitter have made the search function very flexible by making use of some expressions which will allow your business to return more specific results. Here is an outline of some things you can enter in the Twitter search box beyond the generic keyword(s) search and how it can work for you (what you need to enter in the search box is in bold):
- near:harrogate – Makes your search results specific to a certain area, great if you want to work locally
- “looking for a website” – Matches the exact phrase “looking for a website” If someone is looking for a website, you can find them
- web design OR graphic design – Search Tweets which contain any of the words “web design” or “graphic design”, a lot more specific than a keyword search
- design -CAD – Searches for “design” but excludes all Tweets containing the word “CAD” (computer aided design), allowing you to exclude areas of business that you are not interested in. You can also exclude your own Tweets if you Tweet often enough!
- since:2009-07-01 - Returns Tweets which have been posted since the beginning of July. If your business searches regularly, keep a note of your last search date and you will only see recent Tweets
- from:mixd – See what a specific business or organisation has been saying
- to:mixd – Shows Tweets directed at a specific business or organisation i.e. Tweets that start “@mixd ….”
- @mixd – Search for references to a certain business or organisation i.e. Tweets that contain “@mixd”
- #help – Matches hash tags posted within Tweets, for people that have dedicated the tag as an important search term
When you look at the example below, you can really see just how specific your business can get with your searching and how powerful a tool it can be:
“looking for a website” OR “looking for design” -CAD near:harrogate since:2009-07-01 #help
You can instantly find anyone who is looking for a website or looking for design (not computer aided) near Harrogate since the start of July, who needs help! The benefits in searching this specifically are enormous.
Want to start using Twitter?
We recommend using CoTweet which is ideal to focus your company’s Tweeting and is used by some of the biggest companies in the world.
CoTweet allows your business to set up user accounts for as many people as you wish across your organisation, letting everyone contribute and manage your Twitter output. The main benefit of course is that it allows you to focus all your Twitter activity into one area. CoTweet also has a very good search facility, an archive and an inbox which allows you to see and store messages people have posted to your Twitter directly using the “@” symbol. We have been using CoTweet (still in Beta) here at Mixd for the past few months and we couldn’t recommend it highly enough!
At Mixd we encourage the use of Twitter as a marketing tool alongside any web project we undertake and hopefully you can begin to see the true potential of making Twitter work for your business.
Matt strengthens the growing Mixd team
Friday, July 10th, 2009
Full service creative agency Mixd welcomes new recruit Matt to the web design and development team at the studio in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Matt spent his first days at Mixd at the beginning of 2009, working with the team for a couple of days a week… he has already settled in well and served his time on a number of Mixd projects. When the vacancy became available, he was the obvious choice and should take to his full-time role like a duck to water. Matt joins Mixd as an Interactive Developer, specialising in ‘bells and whistles’ and all things digital.
Phil Shackleton, partner at Mixd commented, “We’re delighted that Matt has chosen to join the team here at Mixd. He has considerable experience of developing technical solutions, gained within an agency environment, and has previously worked with many blue-chip brands including Howies. I have no doubt he will be an asset to the agency. Plus, he doesn’t drink tea or coffee, so that’s one less brew to make when it’s my round”.
Mike Danford, partner at Mixd commented, “When do you ever make the brews Phil?”
Here’s to a successful future with Mixd and it’s good to know that even in the current ‘economic downturn’ (not my words, I heard them on the news), it’s onwards and upwards…
Mixd summer adventure day
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Following on from last year the Mixd team will be venturing out into the great outdoors once again this summer to tackle a new Via Ferrata (Italian for “iron road”) adventure course at Howstean Gorge in Nidderdale. Without wanting to scare all those taking part a Via Ferrata is a “mountain route” which is equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges! Ooooh… the excitement builds!