Search Engine Optimization

 What is a search engine?

A search engine is a set of programs that searches and identifies items within its database to match the searched criteria. It is no surprise that websites aim to boost their traffic through these search engines. But how can this be solved/helped? Let’s have a look at 10 possible ways.

1.      Keywords

Using keywords relevant to your website is a great way to improve website traffic. Using words such as ‘free delivery’ or ‘natural ingredients’ makes it easier for your website to be discovered through search engines.

2.      Quality Content

The content on your website should be engaging and relevant. It should be created specifically for your websites readers. A great way to boost your websites is to offer solutions to problems faced by readers of your content.

3.      Ads

Digital ads are a great way to boost website views. Putting ads throughout social media channels allows your website to target your specific customer base.

4.      Public Relations

Websites mentioned through press releases and TV often have their website traffic greatly improved. It gets your business in from of new possible customers , improves credibility and boosts awareness.

5.      Website Analysis

Conducting a website analysis is a great way to boost website traffic. A website analysis gives you the opportunity to learn about your audience and what is attracting them.

6.      Emails

Keeping current readers is vital to boosting your website. Sending regular reminder emails such as weekly newsletters and content offers encourages them to visit your website.

7.      Video/Image Marketing

People tend to have very positive reactions to information through video and imagery compared to text. Using inviting and engaging imagery/videos may attract new viewers.

8.      Internal Links

Throughout areas of your website, including links to other areas of your website is a definite way of boosting your website traffic.

9.      Technical SEO

Technical search engine optimisation will offer solutions such as fixing links and redirects and setting up languages, ensuring readers have a positive experience.

10.  Content Guests

Having guests with valuable insights contribute to your website can greatly improve your website traffic. For example, inviting a credible blogger to voice their opinion with in a blog post of yours will encourage their followers to read, as well as further encourage your own followers.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks blog and I cant wait to be back with some more content for you all soon!

E-Commerce and Internet Technologies- Some Great Opportunities

 

Hello everyone!

For this week’s blog I’ll be talking all about e-commerce.

So what is e-commerce? E-commerce put simply is a method of buying and selling good and services digitally(online). But what are some ways that businesses can use e-commerce? Let’s have a look at some examples below.

 

A New Gym

Websites such as Glofox are perfect for a new gym to conduct their services. Glofox is an online website that aids businesses in taking bookings and payments, builds unique branded apps and offers marketing and sales tools. For a new gym, Glofox can automate communication with members and offer an automatic payment service(such as monthly membership fees).

A New Clothing Boutique

Shopify is an excellent pick for a clothing boutique to get their business up and running. Shopify offer a Pos service allowing businesses to close sales quickly with their software and take all payment types. Shopify can build the business a website for clients to recognize them and browse/buy products, and use a connected back office to sell in person, online, through marketplaces and on social media.

A Cafe

I believe a café would benefit hugely from Square. Square is a great platform for selling both in-store and online. Square offer an all in one mobile POS system. Square allows businesses to accept all payment types with next day bank transfers, build an online store capable of taking orders, send invoices for goods and services, manage employees and track inventory, and offers marketing and loyalty tools for businesses.

 

E-commerce platforms are vital in today world for the success of businesses. I believe that the three e-commerce options above would be extremely beneficial to not just the types of businesses outlined, but for possibly any business. However, if these aren’t quite right for you I have left some links to other great platforms below for you to check out.

I really hope you all found this weeks blog informative, let me know if you have ever used any e-commerce platforms for your business!

 

Woocommerce: https://woo.com/

Sumup: www.sumup.com

SimplyBook: https://simplybook.me/en/

Hubspot: www.hubspot.com

all about engagement!

 

Welcome back to my blog!

 

This week is all about engagement. Everyone has an idea of what the word engagement means, but do we really understand the concept? Let’s have a look at some ways to ensure engagement in your blogs!

Consistency

Consistency is vital is an engaging blog. Posts should be made on a regular basis, offering predictability for your irregular readers, as well as constant new content for your regular readers.

Engagement Encouragement

Encouraging likes and particularly comments throughout blog posts is a great wat to improve engagement. Inviting the reader to comment through prompt questions is a great way to improve visitors likelihood of feeling comfortable to leave a comment.

Imagery

The use of images, charts and videos makes your blog immediately more appealing to viewers, encouraging engagement. Images help the reader to visualise the information you are writing and relate more to it.

Inviting Headlines

Clarity is important when deciding on an engaging headline. By simply reading the headline, readers should know what the blog post is about and why they might be interested to read it. It should be relevant and attention-grabbing to encourage people to become intrigued immediately.

Use of ‘Buzz’ Words

Using buzz words such as free, easy, proven, more, yes and imagine will increase content engagement as they inspire the reader, and often give them the right push to take action

 

The success of blogs is viewed based on engagement, making it arguably even more important that the content within the blog itself! I have some links below if you would like some more ideas for how to increase engagement for your blogs. I hope you enjoyed this post and please let me know some ideas that have worked for you when it comes to increasing engagement with your blog posts!

'Big Data presents several potential ethical and social challenges'- My Thoughts

 

Hi everyone!

As you can see, this week’s blog is all about big data!

For those unaware, Oracle defines big data as “data that contains greater variety, arriving in increasing volumes and with more velocity”. Sources of big data are being driven from AI, bringing a world of ethical and social challenges. In this blog post I’ll be discussing 3 different social and ethical issues associated with big data.

Privacy

There are many fears in today world that big data’s velocity, volume and veracity brings a huge threat to fundamental privacy. Big data analyses massive amounts of structured and unstructured data extremely quickly, giving businesses new and improved ways of analysing their consumers. However, some of this data analytics brings forward the challenge of privacy. In some businesses, CCTV is now being used to track customers movements through the store and help the business in product assortment. New processes such as this is worrying for customers who’s movements are being constantly watched and analysed likely without consent.

Algorithm Bias

According to a case study on the Robo-Debt scheme in Australia, the sources of algorithmic bias are data bias, method bias and societal bias (Akter Et Al., 2021). Algorithmic bias are outcomes that may have an adverse impact on protected or unprotected groups. For example, algorithms have been developed to predict a patients pain from an x-ray. However, this algorithm was solely based on white patients, being completely inaccurate for patients of colour.

Ownership

Ownership is a huge ethical challenge that comes with big data. People who share personal data to companies often feel that they do not have ownership of this data, having no control over how it is used or benefit in any way from the use or sale of their data. Data is not viewed as property (therefore cannot be stolen) and therefore people providing this data are offered very little legal protection if it is used in a way they are not comfortable with.

As you can clearly see for the examples above, although big data brings extensive benefits to businesses, social and ethical challenges make the development of big data in our world today extremely concerning for unaware consumers.

I would love to know how you feel about this topic, does it scare you? Do the benefits out way the challenges? Let me know in the comments!

My Experience on Trailhead-Building CRM knowledge and earning credentials

 Hi all and welcome to this weeks blog post which is all about my experience working with Trailhead. Trailhead is a flexible and free online training platform offered by Salesforce. To explain it in a bit more detail, please watch this short video below.

 

So now that you’re all aware of what Trailhead is lets dive right into my experience on the platform this week!

I chose two different modules to complete: Commerce AI and Cybersecurity Risk Management.

Commerce AI

Commerce AI was an extremely interesting module to take due to its current relevance. This module gave me some great insights into the opportunities that generative AI has created for digital commerce, as well as some of the features that generative AI is offering. I was really surprised to find out that there is a range of benefits stemming from generative AI for both customers and merchants. I learnt that Commerce AI’s offers huge benefits aiding in areas such as commerce based goal setting , product descriptions, commerce concierge and customer unique promotions. If this sounds interesting to you I have attached a link to all of the specific courses I completed at the end of the post. 

Cybersecurity Risk Management

As someone interested in the world of finance, I chose Cybersecurity Risk Management due to its vital importance in the finance industry in the modern world. This Trailhead module had two sections; Cybersecurity Risk Management and Skills of a Cybersecurity Risk Manager. The sections described the goals of managing cybersecurity risks, the importance of cybersecurity management and the role of a cybersecurity manager in workplaces. I found this module was extremely insightful and described in detail how cybersecurity must be managed in all areas of the world. Good cybersecurity risk management enables a company to respond to events timely and minimise business disruption and financial losses. If you are interested in a cybersecurity role, Salesforce have some great information regarding this career path here: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/career-path/cybersecurity/

Overall I have really enjoyed discovering Trailhead and I am very excited to further my knowledge by completing more trails and modules in the future. Please let me know in the comments below some interesting courses that you completed and I will definitely check them out!

Links to Courses:

https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/commerce-gpt-quick-look/learn-about-commerce-gpt

https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/being-a-cybersecurity-risk-manager

 

Enterprise Applications: Where are they used?

 Hi all! This weeks blog post is all about enterprise applications, so to begin I have attached a great video below that explains what ERP systems are all about.

So do companies use these enterprise applications, and are they successful? In my study on this topic I have found that many companies have successfully implemented ERP systems into their business; PWC, the NBS and Red Bull Racing are some examples that I will briefly discuss below. 

PWC use the enterprise application SAP. They are an international company providing for over 200,000 customers. Their strategic process is to attract and develop talent, create insights, understand client needs and deliver distinctive solutions. You can read more about this on their website here: https://www.pwc.co.uk/who-we-are/our-purpose/strategy/business-model.html

They use SAP’s cloud ERP specifically designed for their professional services. They use the ERP system to standardise the work carried out over all of their global offices. In the video created by PWC for SAP’s website, they report that the ERP system offers their company new capabilities for project billing. SAP is also used throughout PWC to provide benefits such as analytics transformation, XaaS, business transformation, enhanced customer experience and risk and regulatory compliance. 

There is another very interesting company that use SAP for their business operations and global fan engagement: the NBA! As one of the most popular global sports associations, the NBA’s business strategy is to keep their fan’s experience up to the highest level, as well as gain revenue from innovative sources such as TV deals, merchandise, corporate sponsorships and league-wide initiatives. As a result, it is vital that the NBA keep track of their financial operations and have the technology to provide their fans with a sufficient experience. The NBA use SAP’s Cloud ERP to manage their business. This helps them achieve scalability and flexibility in their financial operations as well as offers their fans unlimited access to the leagues entire statistical database. Interestingly, the NBA have also chosen to adopt SAP’s human capital management software ‘SAP SuccessFactors’ to help promote equality in their offices and support a more diverse workforce.

Keeping to the theme of sports, any of you who are familiar with Formula 1 will definitely know of Oracle Red Bull Racing. In 2022, Oracle became the main title sponsor for Red Bull Racing, a deal that was worth approximately $500 million. Since then, Oracle have become a vital piece to the exceptional success of the team. Red Bull’s business model is to attract customers to buy their drinks through various marketing strategies, one of which involves sports/ athletes such as formula 1. The f1 team used precise race strategies for each grand prix and perfectly executed driver pairings in order to come as high as possible in the constructors championship, therefore ensuring them a higher budget for the following season, while constantly promoting their energy drinks. The team use Oracle for driving simulations for their drivers, through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure(OCI), allowing the drivers to train their reaction to strategy changes throughout the race. OCI software allows the drivers to practice before the race, and also allows the team to run simulations that give them probabilities of the success of their strategy. The software has given the team a distinct competitive advantage and has aided them in winning the 2023 Constructor’s Championship as well as Driver’s Championship for Max Verstappen.

As you can see from the examples above, Enterprise applications are seen throughout many of the most successful companies to date.

I have left some links to some websites of other ERP system providers that you may be interested in below. If you have enjoyed this weeks post make sure to let me know and thank you for reading!!

SalesForce: https://www.salesforce.com/eu/?ir=1

Hubspot: https://www.hubspot.com/

Information System Implementation- Why the Struggle?

 Information systems are vital to the success of many businesses in todays world. But what are they?

Information systems are a set of interrelated components that collect, process, store, and distribute information. This information is then used by the company to aid in decision making and control. Information systems are implemented in order to meet the companies future goals, enhance their process/service, solve internal and external problems and to take advantage of new opportunities. However, the complexity of setting up information systems are often overlooked.

Firstly, a lack of time management often leads to an unsuccessful information system implementation. In the NHS case study completed in this module, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt hoped to have the NHS paperless by 2023, however deeply underestimated the volume of work involved in the project, resulting in a 40% reliance on paper still (Chetty, 2023).

Lack of suitable budgets is another reason for businesses struggling to successfully set up a new information system. Implementing an information system is extremely costly. Bloch et al. found that half of large IT projects end up going over budget. As a result, businesses are left with an information system that is not fully capable of meeting their needs and no further budget to mend this.

Finally, a severe lack of specialist resources and support causes companies to struggle significantly with the implementation of a new information system. In order to set up an information system, an educated team must implement the system, employees must then be correctly trained, and support must be available for any system crashes or confusion. In the NHS case study, it is explained that health organisations would need to change their business procedures, as well as convert all physical information to digital, taking up to 20 hours of a doctors time for training. This high time constraint is likely to face deep opposition from medical professionals, causing a struggle for the organisations to be successful with their new system.

Overall, information systems, if implemented correctly, can bring many benefits for organisations. However a poor management of this implementation can cause deep struggles or complete failure of the project.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks blog, please let me know your views on the topic!