How AI is Transforming the Conference Space

How AI is Transforming the Conference Space

Inspiring Design Trends for 2022

Inspiring Design Trends for 2022

Top 5 Social Trend Predictions for 2022

Top 5 Social Trend Predictions for 2022

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16 Feb
2022

How AI is Transforming the Conference Space

by Jodie | in Digital, Events, Industry, Support | on 16 Feb 2022

Artificial intelligence, and more specifically machine learning, is the ability for computer systems to take tasks that normally require human intelligence. While for many people AI can seem unnecessary for the daily tasks they undertake, there are in fact many ways that it can enhance your conferences and events.

Chatbots

You may have had a negative experience with chatbots in the past, but they are getting more sophisticated rapidly. In the future, they will save you a lot of time in the run-up to your event. Unlike you, who needs sleep and a social life, chatbots can be available 24/7 to provide support for your presenters, vendors, and attendees. Given a small investment of your time to train it on common questions, the chatbot will save you far more time so you can focus on the bigger tasks.

Curated attendee recommendations

Today, as an event organiser you cater to a wide range of interests by creating agendas that appeal to a broad audience. The sessions are generally tied together by a common theme in the keynote and spotlight sessions.

The demand for curated, personalised content however presents a great opportunity for us to improve the overall event attendee experience. Instead of leaving attendees to make their own decisions by going through hundreds of session summaries, we can facilitate meetings by organising schedules and directing attendees towards certain individuals during networking portions of digital events.

Data from virtual events

Switching to online events has given us a vast amount of data to work with and analyse with ease. For example, we can see exactly who attended a particular event and when they arrived/left. We can then use this to inform who is interested in what and feed that into a machine learning application to curate attendee recommendations (or of course manually curate it).

Voice recognition – multiple languages

It’s likely that your event will be attended by multiple nationalities, and to promote inclusivity we can use voice recognition to, in real time, display subtitles in various languages. Apps such as Wordly facilitate this, which attendees can download to their mobile devices to have easy accessibility in the language they choose.

Video recap software

You can also save your attendees the hassle of having to take notes or photographs of slides by using video recap software such as CLIPr. This allows your attendees to have a batch of searchable and indexed content from your event. Machine learning techniques can even help us to identify key topics and highlight sections of relevant content dependant on the attendee viewing it.

Facial recognition

Many of us use facial recognition every day to unlock our phones, but we can leverage this technology to even greater effect in the event space in several ways:

  • We can analyse the traffic flow of people in and out of the event, what stalls they are visiting and the ‘dwell time’ at these stalls.
  • For both logistical and health reasons, we can track occupancy levels in various sectors and monitor social distancing where necessary.
  • Focusing on faces, we can even monitor engagement with a particular event by tracking the emotions that play out on individuals’ faces as they watch, be it boredom, fascination, or agitation.

Of course, in all these cases attendees would need to be made aware of any monitoring happening and consent to its use. But having this data will give you a wealth of information to streamline your event offerings in the future.

In summary...

You don’t need to utilise all these techniques by any means in the future to run a successful event or conference, but as you can see even by adopting one or two into your workflow you can gain real benefits.

If you’d like some assistance implementing machine learning techniques for your event or conference, then watch this space; we are currently developing some exciting offerings of our own. We also have a bespoke matchmaking service to facilitate targeting networking for your attendees. Get in touch to learn more.

05 Oct
2021

What made the world stop?

by Keely | in Industry, News | on 05 Oct 2021

Many of us will have vowed to cut down on our social media usage at some point since it became a mainstay of our lives. But to have it taken away altogether yesterday for over six hours proved that it had become a vital underpinning of our modern society.

WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook (all owned by the latter) are used by over 3.5 billion people for both personal communication and core business activities – what made these apps all fail and halt everyday life for so many of us?

In an official statement, Facebook cited a faulty configuration change for the outage, but what does this technical jargon actually mean?

 

There are two key aspects to internet routing when dealing with a company as large as Facebook – BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) and DNS (Domain Name System). We can think of BGP like a road map detailing the best way to get to a particular site, with DNS acting as an address system detailing to location (IP address) of each website. While smaller websites do not take charge of their own road map and address system, Facebook have a whole world of connectivity that they maintain themselves. This, as we can see, complicated matters.

All software systems need regular updates to continue running effectively, but when Facebook deployed their latest update yesterday, they effectively told the BGP ‘road map’ to remove all paths to Facebook. This then meant that there was no way to find each website address.

This affected everything that Facebook runs, so WhatsApp, Instagram and even Facebook’s internal servers; employees were locked out of access-controlled offices and had no access to email!

So that of course made it a challenging problem to fix. The people who could diagnose and sort it were both physically and remotely shut out.

While it hasn’t been confirmed, Facebook eventually had to physically travel to and manually reset the servers in California.

Most of us woke up this morning with relief to see our favourite apps fully functional again, but we’re sure that at Facebook everyone is focused on making sure this doesn’t happen again.

 

27 Sep
2021

Why is web accessibility important and how is it carried out?

by Keely | in Digital, Industry | on 27 Sep 2021

Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them.

There are also strong business benefits for accessibility. Accessibility modifications overlap with other best practices such as mobile web design, usability, design for older users, and search engine optimization (SEO). This means that accessible websites have better search results, reduced maintenance costs, and increased audience reach, among other benefits.

So, what can we think about when we build our websites to make them more accessible? We’ve come up with a list here of the things we like to bear in mind; even implementing just one or two into your own site will make a massive difference!

1. Alternative text for images

Images should include equivalent alternative text (alt text) in the markup/code. The alt text should summarise the purpose of an image. The source filename of the image should not be included because generally it is not useful to a visually impaired user.

2. Transcripts for audio

Providing a text transcript makes any audio information accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as showcasing it to search engines and other technologies that can’t otherwise hear.

3. Keyboard input

It must be possible to use all of your site’s major features via a keyboard – including accessing all pages, links, content, and so on.

4. Choose colours carefully

Colour-blindness spans a wide spectrum and affects different people to varying degrees. So, you need to make sure the colours you select on your site contrast well to ensure that everyone can distinguish between various elements on the page.

 

5. Use headers to structure content

Adding different header levels will make your content much easier to understand and improves the flow of the page. This will also help screen readers interpret your pages.

 

6. Underline links

Even though it may look stylish, removing the underline from links makes it difficult for colour-blind users to see them. So, we need to make sure that links are underlined where possible.

 

7. Use relative CSS units

Low-vision users, and a lot of people over 50, increase the browser default font size to make text easier to read. Absolute units such as pixels ignore this user choice. If we use relative units like EM and percentages however, they re-size according to the screen size and/or user’s preferred font size and work on a large range of devices.

 

These are just some of the many ways we can think about making our websites accessible. To learn more check out W3C’s comprehensive guide, or contact us today to see how we can help you to help others.

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21 Apr
2021

AI in Marketing

by Keely | in Industry, Marketing | on 21 Apr 2021
Artificial Intelligence is transforming the world around us every day, with all industries developing new innovations to change the way they work. It has been a massive buzzword over the past few years, and it seems that nowadays we can’t be without it. But how is it changing the marketing industry in particular?

What is Artificial Intelligence?

First, we need to define what we mean by AI; by now everyone’s got their own definition, but IBM provides a comprehensive one:
“artificial intelligence refers to the ability of a computer or machine to mimic the capabilities of the human mind—learning from examples and experience, recognizing objects, understanding and responding to language, making decisions, solving problems—and combining these and other capabilities to perform functions a human might perform, such as greeting a hotel guest or driving a car.”
So, it’s easy to see why some people are terrified of AI ‘taking everyone’s jobs.’ AI does have the capability of automating all manner of tasks conventionally part of many roles, but this does not mean that people will be redundant. In fact, it will allow individual to focus on more intensive activities, while leaving the tedious tasks to an AI system. There is no doubt a lot of these in marketing. AI systems also have the capability of processing an incredible amount of data, producing tangible outputs that marketeers can then use to generate leads. So, what are the specific ways that AI is being used today in marketing?

Advertising

With the right data, AI-powered ad tools can detect patterns at scale in your advertising data, then predict what changes to campaigns will improve performance against a specific KPI. This can all happen in seconds, rather than the hours, days, or weeks it might take a human to analyse, test, and iterate across campaigns. This allows you to increase your return on ad spend and reduce the amount of money you spend on staff time and ineffective ad budget.

Copywriting

AI has the potential to both curate and generate content, then get the right people to see it on the right platforms. At the moment this is limited in range, but in the near future AI could develop initial drafts of content based on certain restraints

Personalised recommendations

Intelligent algorithms can help personalise a user’s website experience – By analysing hundreds of data points including location, demographics, device, interaction with the website, etc., AI can display the best-fitting offers and content
 

Chat bots

Compared with manual customer service, AI chatbots have many advantages, allowing businesses to go beyond the traditional “one- to-one” form of customer service to support to a number of customers at the same time and in different time zones. Of course, AI chatbots don’t need to rest, so they can answer customer queries around the clock and in real time. This makes them both highly efficient and able to provide support outside of office hours, improving customer experience.

It does have to be said though that just because a system uses AI doesn’t mean it’s accurate. AI outputs are only as good as the inputs into the system. If the data it is given is inaccurate, not fit for purpose or too sparse, the system cannot be expected to give good results. Nevertheless, it is an exciting field and worth the hype!
06 Apr
2021

22 years of PDC

by Keely | in Industry | on 06 Apr 2021

Introduction

PDC is a digital agency that has been trading since 1999 & generates revenue by developing bespoke marketing websites & digital platforms. With more than 20 years of experience in the digital world, our passion drives us to build online experiences that have maximum impact and relevance, enabling customers to make real connections with their audience.

We are ‘technology-driven’ and ‘relationship oriented’. We love to build strong ongoing relationships with our customers and their companies.

 

Early days

PDC was founded on 7 April, 1999. In those early days we were focussed on providing web sites and web knowledge to local companies. Some of our early customers, like the Lingerie Company, are still with us 20 years later.

The stimulus of working with lots of interesting companies on a variety of industry sectors was really gratifying, spanning everything from balloon rides to bespoke floor coverings

Training and SEO

Early on, we provided training in Business Development for what is now Birmingham City University, and the Fachhochschule (technical university) Braunschweig Wolfenbüttel in Germany.

In those days Altavista and Yahoo! were the main search engines. Before Google, choice of keywords, good keyword placement and keyword meta-tags were all important. Google gradually grew in popularity and began to dominate the process of search engine optimisation by 2005.

Google introduced the concept of ‘Content is King’, and aimed to give the searching customer what they were looking for. This meant that Google connected the customer with the most valuable web site.

Facebook and other social media were becoming very popular by 2010 and formed part of a strong Internet marketing strategy. At this time, we were training companies in Internet Marketing and Social Media and this led to many fruitful relationships.

A battery of SEO measurement and optimisation tools became available. The MOZ SEO suite started in 2004, Google Analytics started in 2005, Hubspot in 2006 and SEMRush in 2008.

Creating attractive web sites and social media pages for customers, we have been using these tools to provide SEO and content development to small and large (national) companies ever since to achieve very high visitor numbers and remarkable conversion rates.

We have created valuable content around such diverse topics as:

  • Cyber security
  • IT in education
  • Damp proofing and rising damp
  • Hospital, library and business removals
  • Low carbon vehicles 

 

Web Portal Administration Suite

PDC designed a set of bespoke, specialised software products (web portal, members’ area, CRM, e-commerce, document repository, collaborative workspace, document review area, meeting organiser, SEO, etc.) to meet evolving client requirements.

This capability allows us to build long-term relationships with clients by providing a comprehensive suite of front-end and back-end digital solutions.

In 2000 we implemented a web portal and members area for the British Technical Council, now known as The BTC Testing Advisory Group, which serves the motor and petroleum industries. BTC is still a customer with us today.

In 2001 we provided a portal and members area for CEC, the Coordinating European Council, developing performance tests for fuels, lubricants and additives for the automotive and petroleum industries.  This portal serves many companies from Texas to Japan and all over Europe.

We have since developed members areas for many associations and research organisations. Most of our contacts at CEC and BTC are large companies, and we are very comfortable working in this environment.

The size and significance of our customers is important to the reputation of a growing company like PDC. A contact made at CEC led to a project for BP, one of the largest companies in the world. We had to create our design solutions in line with BP’s design guidelines.

 

Technical Network

Then, in 2008, we were asked to take on the CEC Test Monitoring System (TMS). This online system monitors several rig and engine database CEC tests. This makes it easy to capture and analyse real-time reference test data and is key to maintaining test quality.

Members can display, analyse and compare reference test results in graphic format across all key test parameters, making this a powerful tool for monitoring test quality against ISO 17025 and spotting data trends.

 

Research Network

The techniques and facilities that we had developed with CEC and others enabled us to make a bid for the SMMT Foresight Vehicle project. Foresight Vehicle at the time was the UK’s prime knowledge transfer network for the automotive industry, administered by PDC for SMMT

The Foresight Vehicle R&D programme aimed to promote technology and stimulate suppliers to develop market driven enabling technologies for future motor vehicles (cars, taxis, HGV’s, buses and light commercial vans).

PDC then became involved with the Centres of Excellence for Transport Telematics and Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies (Cenex). The latter is still highly productive in this field.

We assist Cenex in organising the UK’s largest Low Carbon Vehicle (LCV) event, providing an ideal platform for UK capabilities to showcase and engage with informers to discuss emerging technologies, industry issues and what the future holds.

PDC was involved with the relevant Knowledge Transfer Networks KTNs, and at one time we were moderating the Low Carbon KTN. Also, we have provided an online platform for many research and technology demonstration projects and also managed the funding and approval process.

 

Design

In the early years we established how to design attractive and effective web sites, getting the visitor to the sales proposition within two clicks, and making it easy for customer then to respond.

Selling commercial vehicles for Lex Group/ RAC was a significant exercise. For Finning CAT we were selling a variety of used heavy equipment like excavators, dozers and backhoes and wheel loaders in four languages, using database lookup tables

In addition to our own excellent design capabilities, we have provided a technical service to design houses, to realise their original designs and layouts as web pages. We have worked with several design houses in London, and as far as Australia. We’ve also worked in Japan and China on low carbon web sites, albeit without leaving Market Bosworth.

Our first printed documents were the Foresight Vehicle Technology Road Maps, from 2004 on. We expanded our design for print capability to include conference volumes for  Low Carbon Vehicles and Future Powertrains, among others. And, in due course, we have designed vehicle liveries and exhibition stands. 

 

SIMPLE

PDC has been engaged with several Universities, most recently Imperial College, Birmingham, Leicester and Derby  Universities. PDC have been researching with the latter two to develop and create a Digital Platform, integrating multiple services into one single solution to become the market leader for small business and project development.

PDC will provide an affordable, superior alternative by automating and ‘modularising’ our bespoke front-end and back-end solutions. This will allow customers to choose and instantly activate digital solutions as required (e.g.: create a marketing website or activate additional services such as SEO, CRM or a document repository, etc.). The internal project name is ‘Project Simple’.

 

e-conferencing

In the lockdown, many of the conferences and exhibitions that PDC usually support could not go ahead onsite. PDC developed a solution for an online event, in a new novel format with themed sessions scheduled across multiple days. This was not just a webinar but a conference with chairperson, speakers and Q&A sessions. Members were invited to make a company capabilities pitch, followed by facilitated networking which helped members make valuable new business contacts.

 

After 22 years, PDC is still technology-driven and people-oriented. We continue to renew and develop our products, and to respond to market opportunities. We have relationships with customers in a spread of industry sectors. Many of our customers are friends, and many of our friends are customers.

 

 

 

17 Feb
2021

Virtual Events

by Keely | in Digital, Industry | on 17 Feb 2021
The ongoing pandemic has thrown the entire events industry into uncertainty; we can no longer set dates for in-person events for the foreseeable future. This is why it is a great time and resource investment to start thinking about taking your events online.
Whilst hosting virtual events is not an ideal situation by any means for most of us, there are several unexpected benefits unique to moving online. Here we have looked at 9 ways that virtual events can positively impact your organisation, whether during the Coronavirus pandemic or long after.

1. Capture a new and potentially wider audience

  • Provided that someone has an internet connection, they can tune into your event no matter the geographical location. This exponentially expands your reach and could even generate a new in-person audience sometime in the future!
  • What’s more, it is easier for attendees to fit virtual events into their schedule, dipping in and out of the day as they choose whilst also getting their own work done. The convenience of this is sure to please the crowd.

2. In-depth analytics

  • It goes without saying that it is much easier to track online engagement than in-person. Whilst you cannot physically track your attendees’ attention span, it is possible to get continuous insights into session attendance, resource viewing and networking connections made.

 

3. Cost reduction

  • Venue hire can cost tens of thousands of pounds a day, and additionally you must factor in the cost of food and drink, accommodation for speakers, and venue insurance. Virtual events can offer potential cost savings depending on your platform, promotional activity, and support requirements.

 

4. Easy to manage

  • When running a physical event, you will often find yourself with the impossible task of being in several places at once. In contrast, simply having one or two laptops on hand will allow you to control every aspect of your virtual event. This is also reflected in greatly reduced number of people that you will need to employ for admin and management purposes.

 

 

5. Easy to collect feedback

  • You likely send your physical attendees a feedback survey after the event has passed. This has a less successful response rate than gathering this feedback right at the end of the session, which is what many virtual platforms offer when a participant leaves a session.

 

6. Environmentally friendly

  • Physical events incur thousands of miles travelling, which of course has an impact on the environment. Virtual events negate this completely, allowing your organisation to play their part in the fight against climate change.

 

7. Increased engagement

  • This may at first glance seem counter-intuitive, but research has shown that people are 30% more likely to initiate a chat with somebody virtually than in person.
  • Additionally, it is possible to gamify the experience online, with quiz features, challenges and a points-based leader board for attendance and engagement with resources throughout the day.

 

8. Scalable

  • While in-person events are limited to the venue size that you hire, virtual event hosting plans can expand and contract. This allows you to focus on your reach without maxing out capacity.

9. Reliability

  • Perhaps the most crucial point – whilst there is still potential for technical failure, virtual events do not have to be called off for adverse weather, venue issues or global pandemics…

 

So, you need not see virtual events as a hinderance by any means. Some of us may even find we make a more permanent switch to online thanks to these benefits! Of course, there are many obvious benefits to running your events in person. But a hybrid of the two may be a mainstay looking into the next decade.

Get in touch with us today to see how we can help bring your event to life!

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09 Feb
2021

Safer Internet Day

by Keely | in Industry | on 09 Feb 2021

The 9th February 2021 marks the eleventh globally celebrated Safer Internet Day, aimed at helping young people navigate online resources. The theme for this year is ‘an internet we trust: exploring reliability in the online world.’

There are lots of benefits for children and young people when using the internet, such as staying connected with friends and family, enabling innovative ways of learning and creating new ways for them to express themselves. But there are also risks that we need to make children aware of should they run into them.

 

Grooming

  • Children may be at risk of being groomed if they have an online profile on any platform. If children are posting personal information online, then perpetrators can use this to groom young people. In addition, contacting children and young people is easier than ever if they have an online presence. Anyone can make a fake profile in minutes.
  • This is why you need to make sure that you and they are able to apply sufficient privacy settings to their accounts, explaining that contact information and posts should only be visible to friends and family that are part of your real life. Children and young people should also be aware of what they are posting online in any case, making sure as much as possible to avoid using personal information. The best way to stay secure online is not to contribute life details at all.

Cyberbullying

  • Bullying is sadly still all-too commonplace in schools, and this can be intensified by bullies utilising the internet to continue their tirade 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In a recent study, 56% of young people said they have seen others be bullied online and 42% have felt unsafe online. Harassment, rumour-spreading, impersonation and exclusion can cause children and young people long-term depression and anxiety.
  • Children and young people need to know that they must talk to a parent, guardian, or a teacher who can then step in to mediate the matter or even contact the police. Cyberbullying should never be taken lightly; lockdown has only encouraged further online bullying in the past year, so young people need to know that they are not alone.

Upsetting or explicit content

  • Not everywhere online is filtered, and so there’s a chance that your child will come across content related to radicalisation, racism, sex or violence.
  • Many browsers and PCs have a child-safe mode built in that you can activate to be effective immediately.

Doctored images

  • In an age where any photo can be ‘beautified’ in seconds, it is crucial that young people understand that what they see may not be reality. Social media has increased both male and female eating disorders, feeling that they must conform to a particular body type that in reality is impossible for them to achieve. We are all able to look up fake content such as this in seconds, and it is very rare that an image will identify itself as being edited.
  • Children and young people need to be aware that these images are commonplace on Instagram in particular, and that every body is different and doesn’t have to conform to a fake ideal.

Email scams

  • To us it may be obvious when an email claiming we have won £1000 comes through. But children and young people may not be so aware. It is important that they know to always be cautious with these things, and show them to a parent or guardian before taking any action.
  • Take a look at our blog ‘8 ways to spot fake news’ for tips on what to look out for.

 

Just as not all people are bad, not all internet usage will be malicious; in fact, there’s a chance that children or young people won’t come into any of these issues. But it is crucial to make them aware of the risks and open up a dialogue moving forwards. The internet is a great tool, as long as we all use it responsibly.

 

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06 Jan
2021

New Year, New Trends – What are the Key Internet Marketing Trends for 2021?

by Keely | in Digital, Industry, Marketing, Social Media | on 06 Jan 2021

2020 was the year that businesses, small and large, all over the world were forced to change their ways on how they operate, with many products and services moving to online platforms and employees continuing to work remotely as a result of the global pandemic.

In addition to this, lockdowns and isolation periods have also caused a change in customer behaviour, meaning all the necessary changes to digital marketing will continue to change and evolve throughout this year.

So, what are these changes to internet marketing and what is it that we need to look out for in order to engage new customers as well as to keep hold of existing ones? We’ve outlined 5 areas below:

1. Social Media Marketing

The pandemic has resulted in people spending more time online than ever before, so in order to keep earning a profit, it’s crucial that you commit to your social media marketing resources.

As we keep coming in and out of lockdowns, physically going to a shop to browse or buy is getting more difficult, especially when non-essential shops have to close. Many people don’t want to leave the house at all or unless absolutely necessary, resulting in the increased use of online platforms instead. This is where having a strong social media presence is necessary to reach your target audience, as well as ensuring that your company brand and products/services are getting noticed and then shared around by users and potential buyers.

2. Interactive Content

To get a higher rate of engagement in your social posts and/or website, you will need to increase the interactivity of your content. This is a good way to get your audience’s attention and engage with them, as well as showing that your business is up to date.

A few good ways to do this is by live sessions, surveys, asking questions and holding polls & quizzes. Another idea is to offer giveaways and create competitions to get people talking and sharing. A few prizes won’t break the bank, especially when it’s a great opportunity to build up the number of followers and potential customers.

3. Ensure your Business Information and Local SEO is Correct

One of the most essential things for small businesses is to ensure your company details and local listings are up to date and established across all platforms and search engines.

‘Google My Business’ listing is quite useful in giving valuable information about your company. Say you own a café for example, if someone is walking around a town and searches for café’s nearby, you will display on the search if your information is up to date – and obviously you would want the right contact details to be visible if they were to contact with any questions.

With this in mind, ensure that your local listings have a specific area to make sure your business is picked up and found in the ‘near me’ search, as well as keeping finer details up to date such as opening hours – you don’t want to be closed when you state to be open.

 

4. An increase in Voice Searching

Now that many people are using voice assistants like Siri and Alexa etc, it means that it’s not just text searches that your content needs to be optimised to.

With this in mind, you need to ensure that your content is available in both voice and textual cases, meaning a change in the types of keywords you use in your content. For example, when people speak to Alexa, they mainly use words like “why” and “how” in order to receive the answer they are looking for, so if your tone is more conversation-like, you are much more likely to be shown in voice searches.

 

5. Using Messaging Apps for Marketing

Messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are now two of the main platforms that this generation uses to engage with friends and family. However, with the ever-changing times there’s now huge potential for business as well, with Facebook continuously developing new features in this area, there’s a great opportunity to engage with a huge audience of where there is now over a billion users on both the above platforms alone.

Although Messaging apps are a huge part of communication, you still can’t be without the trusty email marketing platforms, which is also going to be a big part of 2021 as these instant messaging platforms are where people are most active day to day. And on the topic of instant messaging, live chat options are very popular for any questions from an extensive audience, so incorporating something similar using one of the common platforms could be a good option for your business.

All in all, digital marketing has no fixed approach or eternal rule book to abide by as it’s ever changing with the world around us, so all we can do is focus on our goals and follow the current trends where appropriate.

SEO and interactive content that gives informative and beneficial information to your market is crucial for engagement and maintaining your existing audience.

Dedication to your social media marketing resources and creating your own individual content by your distinctive brand will help to make a difference to your online presence.

We hope that 2021 is a better year for all!

(Images: undraw.co)

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25 Mar
2020

PDC’s Lockdown-Friendly Workout

by Keely | in Industry | on 25 Mar 2020

This is a complete at home workout that can also be made low-impact or neighbour friendly by removing the jumps. Give it a go and let us know how you get on! See the pictures below for an explanation of some of exercises you may not have heard before.

Warm Up

· Hip circles
· Torso twists
· Arm cross swings
· Boxer shuffle
· Inch worms
· Jumping or stepping jacks

Bodyweight Circuit

– 3 – 5 rounds
– 1 minute each exercise
– 10 seconds rest between exercises
– 30 seconds rest between sets

· Squat – jumping or no jump
· Single Leg Balance / Good Mornings – if doing the single leg balance do 30 seconds per leg
· Press ups – full, on knees or in a box position
· Mountain climbers – jumping or stepping
· Superman lifts
· Leg raises
· Side plank thread throughs

Cool Down

· Boxer shuffle
· Torso twists
· Shoulder rolls
· Shoulder stretch
· Chest stretch
· Wide toe touch stretch
· Standing glute stretch
· Quad stretch

 

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17 Jan
2018

Should Facebook for Business still be a Priority?

by Charlie Jones | in Industry | on 17 Jan 2018
Should Facebook for Business still be a Priority?

Over the past few months, there have been some major changes to Facebook that will ultimately change the way people use Facebook for Business.

What are the latest Facebook updates?

Explore Feed

Back in October 2017, Facebook began trialling an ‘Explore Feed’ which would see boosted posts in Facebook’s News Feed, and organic posts moved over to the new Explore Feed.

Engagement Bait

In December 2017, Facebook announced that they will be penalising businesses and brands who use ‘engagement bait’ – posts that contain ‘tag’, ‘like’, ‘share’, or ‘comment’ within their content to encourage users to engage with their posts.

Less Prominent Business Posts

Now Facebook has announced its new algorithm update that will make business and brand posts less prominent on a user’s news feed, allowing their ‘Facebook Friend’s’ content to filter through first.

Why has Facebook released these new updates?

According to Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team, users of the popular social media channel aren’t happy about seeing branded content filling up their feeds whilst their ‘friend’s’ posts are pushed aside and sometimes missed.

Users said, “they dislike spammy posts on Facebook that goad them into interacting with likes, shares, comment, and other actions”.

When speaking to the Facebook community, Zuckerberg said: “public content – posts from businesses, brands, and media – is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other”.

After hearing what their users had to say and reviewing Facebook’s algorithm, Zuckerberg and his team felt it was time for Facebook to be updated to please their all-important users, and take Facebook back to its roots of being a networking platform for friends and family.

When will the updates happen?

The trialling of the Explore feed began in October and seems to continue. People may have noticed already that many business/brand/media posts that aren’t boosted, have been disappearing from their news feed but boosted/sponsored boosts are still within sight straight away.

Facebook began rolling out the engagement bait updates in December, so users should begin to see less of the spammy posts on their News Feeds over the next couple of months, if not already.

As for the new algorithm update, this has just rolled out, so it could take a couple of weeks to hit user’s feeds, though it is important for businesses to jump onto the updates now!

What does this mean for Facebook for Business?

As if the Explore feed trialling wasn’t enough, all three of the new Facebook updates are going to have a major impact on Facebook for Business, especially those who are a small to medium-sized businesses who do not have the budget like the big corporate companies.

The updates all seem to have a domino effect on each other. For Example:

Let’s say a small florist business is on Facebook and only has a small budget for their online marketing. This means that they mainly rely on engagement from their organic Facebook posts.

Here’s where it begins to get harder for the florist.

Facebook begins to trial the Explore Feed feature, which means the florist’s organic posts are now being pushed out of a user’s News Feed. In order to stay in the News Feed, the florist uses some of their budget to boost some posts and uses phrases such as ‘like’ or ‘comment’ on their other posts to try and keep their engagement and reach.

Facebook then roll out the ‘engagement bait’ update, which forces the florist to stop using phrases such as ‘like’ or ‘comment’ as they do not want to be penalised. This then forces the florist to use more of the budget for their Facebook marketing.

Now let’s throw in the new algorithm update that pushes business posts to the bottom of the pile unless they are boosted. The florist has now used up the majority of their budget and can no longer afford to keep posting boosted posts.

SME Businesses will no longer be able to attain the same marketing strategy or budget they had been using for Facebook previously, and with organic reach significantly declining on Facebook, should SME businesses stop prioritising Facebook and begin to concentrate on other social media avenues to market their business and brands?

So what are we doing about it?

Throughout 2018, we are going to be undertaking research into the new Facebook updates.

Our aim? To find out whether or not Facebook Business Pages should still be a priority in your business marketing strategy.

There are so many unanswered questions, but really we want to find out:

  • How Facebook for Business changes for the corporate businesses compared to the SME businesses.
  • If organic posts are still worthwhile.
  • If businesses and brands move their attention towards other social media platforms.
  • How quick the ‘engagement bait’ posts take to disappear.

Facebook News Feed Guidelines

Are you feeling lost as to what you should now be posting on your Facebook Business Page?

Here are some official Facebook guidelines to give you an idea of what content you should be posting: https://www.facebook.com/help/publisher/newsfeedguidelines