Posts By: Stuart Dinnie

MDi TV Episode 6 – Link Building for Construction Websites

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Episode 6 of MDi TV focuses on link building for websites within the construction industry. Link building is an important part of an SEO strategy. It’s not just about developing great content, but also about getting other people and businesses to link to it, thus increasing the authority and popularity of your website.  In this video I’ll explain what link building is, which metrics are relevant when focusing on acquiring links from other websites and how PR departments can also help with implementing link building activities.

I also provide some ways in which you could acquire links organically rather than having to pay someone or an agency to create links for you, sometimes bad low quality links. When building links you must focus on quality rather than quantity. It’s better for search optimisation to have 10 good quality links pointing to your website, which may take a little longer to achieve, than 1000 low quality links gained in a few weeks. Read More

A review of 15 construction companies using social media in 2011

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Read our 2015 update of this post here.

In June 2010 we carried out an analysis of how the top 15 construction companies in the UK were using social media to connect with their audience online. The analysis clearly indicated how many of these multi-million companies were simply ignoring social media by either not having a social presence at all or, if they had an account, it was used as a tool to simply broadcast company news. Whilst this is at least a start, social media channels can be used as a conversational tool to connect with members of the supply chain and your target audience, conducting research or just interacting with other people within the construction industry and having interesting discussions. Nearly 17 months have now passed and I have decided to revisit this analysis and investigate whether there have been any positive changes.

**Update: We have created an infographic comparing the 2010 and 2011 findings, to see it please visit http://bit.ly/top15infographic

The Construction Index publishes an annual list ranking UK construction companies according to turnover so I have picked the top 15 construction companies of 2011 for my analysis. Looking at the two lists, there have been a few companies who have moved up whilst others have dropped below the top 15. The notable fallers are Amey UK, Bovis Lend lease and Sir Robert McAlphine who will not be included in this updated social media analysis. Instead they have been replaced by Enterprise, Keller and Costain who have moved up into the top 15.

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LinkedIn introduces Group Statistics

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LinkedIn have launched Group Statistics whereby you can view the statistics for each group that you’ve joined. I recently just left a few groups which I felt were full of spammers, feeds, no discussions or lack of engagement, lack of value and no real growth. The new stats may help marketers identify which groups they should join to get the best value from. Alternatively if you have your own corporate LinkedIn group these stats will help you understand how your group is performing and help you identify growth, target audiences, job functions etc.

Take a look at the stats for the CIMCIG group (one of which I enjoy participating in and advise all marketers within the construction industry to join):

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MDi TV Episode 5 – How to create content for your construction website

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Welcome to another episode of MDi TV. This week Ayaan talks about how to create content for your construction website.  To kickstart your content marketing plan you have to first conduct an internal audit to identify any information gaps. This makes you think about your different audience segments and the types of content they consume. Thereafter, Ayaan discusses why you should create content in different formats and how to use various online channels to promote and distribute this content.

We hope you enjoy the episode and if you would like us to discuss any specific topics please contact us via email or send us a tweet at @pauleycreative.

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3 Reasons Why You Should NOT Use QR Codes

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This post was updated in 2015.

Over the past few months I have noticed a growth in the use of QR codes in advertising from construction companies, especially by those who advertise in RCI Mag for some reason. I personally think QR codes are great and a very innovative way to deliver specific messages and add value to the user, customer or prospect. I just want to repeat the phrase again  ‘and add value to the user, customer or prospect’! One more time ‘and add value to the user, customer or prospect’!

Ok, so I’m not going to go into how it all works but what I do want to highlight are 3 good reasons why I think you should not use QR codes as part of your online marketing campaigns. Here we go:Read More

Fresh Thinking: Data drives effective mobile marketing strategies

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On Tuesday I attended the second Fresh Thinking session hosted by Jobsite in London. The first one featured Scott Stratton and Amanda Hite talking about social media and its impact on businesses. This time round, Tomi Ahonen and Tony Fisher spoke about the topic of the day, which was mobile. It’s the widest reaching technology today with over 5.8 billion active mobile users expected by the end of 2011. How has it changed the way people and businesses communicate? What digital footprints (identities) are we leaving behind and what do we do about the growing privacy concerns? Essentially, I came to find out what place mobile has within construction marketing plans and how it can be used to add value to our customers and clients.

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MDi TV Episode 4 – Blogging best practice

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This new episode of MDi TV discusses a topic suggested to us by Helen Johnstone from Competitive Advantage in our LinkedIn group. Pritesh explains the reasons for having a corporate blog and what platforms (Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr) are best suited to your business needs. Whether you want to increase quality traffic to your website, build trust through thought leadership or position yourself as the ‘technical expert’ in your industry, blogging has to be done on a consistent basis to reap any rewards. Look at your internal resources to identify who will be producing your content, how often it will be published and what topics you will be writing about.

Hope you enjoy the episode and please let us know if you have any topics or questions that you would like us to discuss.Read More

Black hat SEO tactics that are killing your search rankings

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Firstly, what do I mean by ‘black hat’? These are search engine optimisation techniques used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. These practices might provide short-term gains in terms of rankings, but when you’re caught using such spammy techniques you’ll be penalised (and even banned) by search engines. Some companies may be prone to using these practices because they’re impatient and don’t see immediate results from their ‘white hat’ SEO  techniques. Remember, SEO is a marathon and not a sprint.

To avoid getting penalised by search engines, we have listed a few black hat tactics that you should be aware of.

Examples of black hat seo tactics:

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MDi TV Episode 3 – Social Media Time Management

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This episode of Whiteboard Wednesday features Pritesh and Ayaan talking about how to manage your time effectively on social media. They discuss the importance of defining business goals and objectives before developing your social media strategy and then allocating your time according to how active your audience is on the various social networks. Tools such as Google alerts makes it easier to monitor product and brand mentions, whilst Hootsuite and Tweetdeck allow you to schedule tweets thereby helping with time management. Pritesh and Ayaan also suggest a 30 minute plan of activities you can do every day to manage your social presence.  This can vary slightly for every business, depending on your objectives and your internal resources (eg size of marketing team).

If you have any questions that you would like us to answer in another MDi TV episode then please drop us a line via email or tweet us @PauleyCreative.

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Increasing the visibility of your construction product website in search engines

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I was kindly asked to present at the RIBA Insight Consultancy Day for its members, mainly product manufacturers and suppliers. Over 100 delegates attended the day which saw a range of topics presented and discussed including ‘BIM take up amongst professional services’ and ‘what do Architects want from product CPD’s’ and an ever popular topic ‘Adding Social Media to your Construction Marketing Mix’ presented by Paul Wilkinson.

Finally my presentation on increasing the visibility of construction product websites in search engines and ensuring they are found by specifiers, architects, engineers and designers when they are looking for new products, services or businesses for a particular project or problem. The presentation can be viewed below. Feel free to leave any comments or questions in the comments section below.Read More