The analysis from ShareThis could prove really helpful if you’re looking to optimise your social media campaigns. One of the metrics used in ShareThis, which reaches 400 million people a month through social media share buttons across web content worldwide, is the Audience Index.

The Audience Index allows website owners and publishers to compare social audiences against 850,000 other sites and to find out what types of visitors your site attracts

The there’s the “Social Reach” metric, which measures the “true value of shared media across the web by looking at outbound sharing and inbound social traffic”.

This means that you can now get a more accurate measurement of how a piece of content circulates around the world wide web after it’s been shared across any service, rather than just the simple number of shares counted by a single service such as Facebook.

It seems that according to ShareThis, Facebook accounts for 45% of all shared content across its network, followed by email with 34% and Twitter on 12%.

You can see now why ShareThis might just be the tool you’ve been looking for to assess how your content gets around the web.

WebCreationUK can help you bring your Twitter or Facebook page up to date with one of our social media packages, come speak to us for more!

A recent study estimates that a third of all companies now use blogging for marketing purposes. This is predicted to rise to 43% in the next two years, according to eMarketer. There’s also evidence that smaller companies are becoming more enthusiastic adopters of blogs than larger companies.

Meanwhile, in the consumer market it is social media use that is growing faster than blogging.

According to eMarketer the difference between corporate and consumer social media use is that companies and businesses are finding that blogs fill a specific niche that other forms of social media can’t do so well.

Blogs are claimed to more effectively “drive site traffic, improve brand awareness, generate sales and improve customer service”.

You can speak to WebCreationUK about blog intergration on your website or any of your other web design needs.

We have come across a great new job title: Network Weaving. A social media company in Glasgow has recently announced the appointment of their first Network Weaver.

So what exactly will this job entail? It seems that a Network Weaver’s job description includes a wide range of social media actions including:

• Sharing resources, links and information about a company

• Building relationships with network members by linking to their blog posts and commenting on blogs, be-friending them on on-line social networks and celebrating their contributions.
• Working with different people on multiple channels such as e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and blogs
• Engaging with an inviting others to join conversations – as well as facilitating those conversations.

And while some of these actions and conversations will be actionable, at other times they are simply to build relationships for the future benefit of a company.

We reckon that the Network Weaver job will become more popular in the next few years as more companies aim to engage in on-line and social media marketing.

WebCreationUK have social media packages available, speak to us for more information on social media and website design.

Facebook is suing another company for the use of the word “book”. If this seems a tad outrageous to you then you’ll probably be keen to hear further explanation. The competitor that Facebook is suing is Teachbook, because Facebook claims the rival is offering a “similar service for teachers”.

The exact words from Facebook are these:

“The problem is not merely that they use the word “book”. You’ll notice that we have no complaint against Kelly Blue Book or Yellowbook or others. However, there is already a well-known online service with “book” in the brand name that helps people connect and share. Of course the Teachbook folks are free to create a similar service for teachers or whomever they like, and we wish them well in that endeavor. What they are not free to do is trade on our name, create confusion, or dilute our brand while doing so. Additionally, it’s important to note that where there is confusion or brand dilution as there is with Teachbook and Facebook, we must enforce our rights to protect the integrity of our trademark.”

Facebook is also trying to register the word “Face” as a trademark.

If you would like to know more about social media packages and web design, then speak to WebCreationUK, you can also follow us on Twitter.

One of the biggest complaints from customers is confusing ecommerce websites. With so many rival websites it’s therefore important that your web design is as slick and customer-friendly as possible.

Here we bring you some top tips for ecommerce web design. If you are looking for great ideas and beautiful ecommerce design then check out the portfolio of WebCreationUK.

Six great tips for ecommerce and e-retail websites

Good navigation: Buying a product should not be a challenge or a bid to get your customers to solve a puzzle. Make the buying process straightforward. From reading about the product, to  popping it in their basket, to getting to the checkout, all processes should be simple and signposted.

Search option: A “search for product” option is a great idea. Sometimes a customer wants to quickly find out if you stock one product and to save them scrolling through long lists of products or accessing various categories they could find exactly the product they want within seconds of searching.

Call to action: Make each part of the purchasing process simple. Add call to action buttons such as “buy now”, “add to shopping basket”, “go to checkout” throughout your ecommerce website.

Less clicks is more: Shorter buying processes will gain you customer friends. If the purchase process is long-winded then they will be tempted to head to another site. It’s important to let customers have a chance to check their purchase list but apart form this the procedure from choosing the product to buying it should be simple and straightforward.

Clear prices and labeling: Customers want to know what a product is and how much it costs. Delivery costs are also important. So make sure all these points are covered, simply and clearly.

Customer service: A customer service that is easily accessible, such as an email response or live chat, will give customers greater confidence and trust in your on-line company.

This could be an interesting piece of research if you are aiming to attract the most potential customers to your ecommerce site. Especially if you use discount vouchers and social media marketing platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

A report, by price comparison website InvisibleHand, has found that traffic to internet shopping sites is 75% higher at 4pm on a Wednesday than at the quietest times. There is a 52% rise in the number of people shopping on-line on a typical workday afternoon compared with mornings. Meanwhile, on-line shopping traffic is 11% higher at 2pm than at midday.

Sunday night is the second most popular time for on-line shopping after Wednesday, with a 27% increase over Saturday night.

Could it be that office workers are turning to on-line shopping when they are most bored? And that Sunday night TV is not good enough to hold the attention of the average person as they switch on their computers instead?
Whatever the conclusion of this report, it does give a few clues for ecommerce businesses.

WebCreationUK currently offer an e-shop summer special. If you are looking to set up your own ecommerce store, speak to us for more information on your web design needs.