123-reg.co.uk

Back in the day, when the internet was in its infancy getting a website up and running needed a team of experts, or a very multi-talented individual with six different hats. Many businesses still follow that model when looking for their first website now, but it needn’t be the case. Creating a website is easy if you choose to use 123-reg Website Builder. The stages however are still the same:

The Creative

The concept of a great site can be a momentary flash of inspiration or weeks of perspiration. What will the first impressions be, how will the pages link, what elements will you include? You could pay an expert conceptual creative or you could choose to use 123-reg Website Builder and benefit from the 100s of website templates to choose from.

The Designer

A concept is fine, but moving that from head, to paper to online is one of the most complicated parts of the process. A designer can hold your hand, make your idea become a reality and move inspiration towards conception but so can 123-reg Website Builder. With a template for almost every style of business, you are not restricted to those set designs either. Each of our templates is customisable, so you can change colours, change elements, even change the number of pages.

The Compiler

Making sense of images, written content, Twitter feeds, etc isn’t easy and you could employ an expert but far better to use 123-reg Website Builder to enable you to drag, drop and organise the way your site looks. Moving elements about is easy. Placing them where you want to place them is easy. Making them work on your website is easy. Using 123-reg Website Builder is easy.

The Coder

Many people will probably consider they might be able to cover the first three skills themselves, but when it comes to coding, well that’s a completely different language! Even if you know HTML and CSS, getting it perfect every time isn’t easy with hand-coding. With 123-reg Website Builder however it can be as with a few clicks and a few mouse moves, the code is created automatically and all to W3 standard. Plus if you really want to try your hand at coding, you still can as everything is customisable (Business package only).

The Publisher

Even if you are a coding wizard or an arty architect, getting the site up online isn’t always so easy, unless you are using 123-reg Website Builder. No need for separate hosting, email or even FTP accounts. All your publishing tools are there built in to your 123-reg Website Builder browser-based control panel. Just a few clicks and a confirm and your new site can be on message and online.

The Statistician

The modern internet is all about tracking and comparing. How many visitors, how long, where, when, where… There are countless tools out there to help but Google Analytics is the one they all look up to and with 123-reg Website Builder it is easy to integrate the same so as soon as you publish you can also be measuring.

Whatever your level of creativity or technical ability Website Builder can help you save time and money by automating the laborious bits that can so often go wrong. The site creation tool was originally designed by web designers  to make their own lives easier and has since been tweaked so that everybody can enjoy the benefits. What’s more you can trial Website Builder for 14 days to see if it can help you get your website online too.

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From the start of May it’ll be possible to register .uk domain names for up to ten years at a time. Our domains and hosting expert Richard Winslow explains what the changes are and what they mean for you.

What’s changing with .uk domain registrations?
“Until now it’s only been possible to register .uk domain names for two years at a time. But from 1 May 2012 you’ll be able to register them for anything from one to ten years.”

“You can still opt for two years if you like, but if you know you want to keep the domain for good, you’ll be able to choose a longer registration term now.”

“This is happening as a result of changes by Nominet, the organisation that manages .uk domain names.”

Are there any other changes happening to the way .uk domain names work?
“Yes – most significantly, you’ll be able to renew your .uk domain names whenever you like, for up to ten years. At the moment you have to wait until renewal is due, and then you can only renew for two years at a time.”

“So if you know you have a domain you want to hold on to for a long time, you can renew now and then not have to worry about it for a while!”

What benefits will these changes bring to domain owners?
“You can protect your .uk domain name for up to ten years, so you don’t have to worry about renewal or expiry so often. You can also renew them when you want, rather than having to stick to the expiry date.”

“Of course, renewing for ten years in advance lets you lock in the renewal price to beat any potential domain name price inflation.”

“Domain names are a key part of online branding for many people. Having a domain name with good history is good for search engine optimisation too – and the longer renewal periods will help that.”

“The changes also put .uk domains on a level playing field with other domains like .com, which can already be registered for longer periods.”

Will domain name prices change as a result of this?
“Nominet is revising its pricing structure, and is likely to charge registrars like 123-reg more to register a domain name for just one year. So if you want the extra flexibility of shorter-term expiry, you’ll probably end up paying a little more for it.”

“Of course, the opposite is likely to apply too – if you register a domain name for longer, you’ll benefit from multi-year discounts.”

“We’ll be reviewing our domain prices in-line with any changes Nominet make – but we intend to stay highly competitive and remain one of the best-value options for .uk domain names.”

If you have a .uk domain for renewal soon, what should you do?
“At 123-reg we’re going to carry on renewing people’s domain names for two years automatically, as usual. We’ll be updating all our renewal reminder emails to explain the new options, but if you don’t want to lock in your domain name for up to ten years, you don’t have to.”

“It’s worth carefully reading any renewal notices you receive from us as these will be changing to explain what other options you have.”

“As always, the most important thing is to make sure the payment details we have stored for you are up-to-date. This allows us to renew your domain names automatically – ensuring you won’t lose them if you forget to renew.”

Watch our website for details of changes to our .uk domain name buying and renewal options. You can get more information about renewing domain names from our support website.

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So we’ve given you 25 articles giving you hundreds of ideas as to how you can achieve the perfect template for successful social media. Now here is the final article in the series and the time where we say forget that…

Be yourself

If it was all about everybody doing the same thing, the same way, then the appeal of social media would die overnight. Social media is about personality. The best big businesses at social media have achieved the same by creating a customer facing personality that engages and entertains, as well as informs. You want your company to appear different from the others and social media is the quickest and easiest way of spreading that message.

Be content

Give them content and they will be content. Content literally means happy and that’s what you want. If your customers are happy, you will be too. In this respect, content doesn’t just mean new posts and blog articles, it also means ensuring if they tweet you or post on your wall that you respond in a suitable way.

Be innovative

Following the flock and doing the basics in social media the correct way will get you followers and fans and get your social media working but it won’t win you plaudits. For that you need to do something new or do something in a new way. What it is, who knows, it wouldn’t be new if we told you here. It may just be bringing a new approach that works well in other industries and adopting it in your own. Set the trend and you will begin to stand out.

Be inclusive

Remember don’t look at Social Media as simply another part of your business. Include the whole business  in your social media strategy and everything you do. Remember it is about creating the personality of your business not just one person within your business or one department. Social media can help bring different departments together and help work together but it may need a bit of work.

Be social

If you take nothing away from this article and the 25 others in The A-Z of Social Media, remember that the word social is in the description of social media for a reason. Being social should be fundamental to everything you do and how you do it. It is a two-way thing with every party able to learn from one another, make the most of it.

Be successful

We hope you will.

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Did you read that last week about….?? Probably yes. The internet’s virality means news travels fast, so keeping your blog up to date with the latest news is probably not within your resources, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep it current.

Current gives power

Just as the current down your electricity wire drives  your computer, so the current content on your blog, social media channels, website should drive your traffic. You want to give people a reason to come back again and if they know your site will be regularly updated, or your tweets will be relevant they will keep an eye on your activity.

Current means relevance

Posting about your favourite football team’s latest game is great if you have a football engaged following who come to you for that sort of thing, but if not, don’t waste your time or theirs. Create a niche and stick to it. Ideally if you are the only person able to provide that information people will know to come to you. Either way, make sure you post it as quickly as possible before somebody else gets the information out there and you lose your advantage.

Current means well timed

Of course there is always a fine balance between time of the essence and timely. Especially if you are tweeting your content you need to pay attention to when your audience are most likely to be listening or watching. If you post at midnight but your followers don’t usually engage until 9am, you are more than likely wasting your tweet that will be lost on the timelines of your followers by the time they check Twitter.

Current adds value

If your site is constantly up-to-date, your post regularly on Facebook and your Twitter feed is kept active, people will believe in you more. By showing more effort – providing you are not posting just complete tosh – people will build more trust and respect for you. Your content is often the first impression on potential new customers, even before they think about using your products, so it can be vital in improving your potential reach.

Providing current content is your way of showing your customers you are busy and committed to your business. If your existing content isn’t current, deal with it today, yesterday is too late.

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Sometimes even best laid plans hit a hurdle, but there’s always a solution – you probably just need some help and support.

Here at 123-reg we always want you to get the best out of our services and products so we are constantly evolving our support systems to make sure we can provide the help you need and how you need it.

The 123-reg Support Centre

This is the hub of wisdom for everything 123-reg. It is the fount of knowledge for making the most of your domain name, getting the best from your web hosting and designing a gem using your website builder. It is also your first point of call if you want some help, guidance or just inspiration on using your 123-reg products. The 123-reg support centre is the gateway to many of our support tools.

The knowledgebase

Our encyclopaedia of step-by-step articles, organised in topic areas but equally fully searchable so you can find what you want, quickly easily and without too much fuss. We’ve got FAQs, downloadable guides and support videos too, so there is something for everybody and normally an answer to your question here, so make sure you check it first before you contact us.

The troubleshooting tool

Often big issues are simple to solve – maybe a misconfigured setting or a wrong tweak here or there. So if your email is not working or perhaps your website is not showing, it may not be as worrying as you first feared. We’ve designed a our very own step-by-step self-diagnosis tool that is designed to spot possible issues quickly and simply and guide you to a solution to help you resolve the problem.

The support ticket system

Probably the easiest way to reach us and help us to help you. Our Ask a Question tool just needs you to login to the 123-reg Support page and ask away. You can even upload a screenshot. Your request is then automatically sent to a member of the 123-reg team with expertise relating to that issue, so you should get your issue dealt with quicker. Every ticket you raise is stored in your archive too, so should you get a familiar problem crop up again, you have your own personalised solution close to hand.

Live chat

Let your fingers do the talking. Our online live chat support team are here to deal with your queries. When our team are online, just click the Live Chat icon at the top of the Support Centre page and ask your question.

We’re on the end of the line too

Traditionally, if you needed help you pick up the phone and we’re no different. Who you gonna call?? The 123-reg support teams can be reached on the telephone Monday to Friday on 0845 859 0018. Calls are charged at 10p per minute plus network extras.

You can also reach us via post

We know that for some people traditional methods are important, so rest assured we don’t forget them. You can contact us via traditional mail at:

123-reg, Webfusion Ltd,
5 Roundwood Avenue,
Stockley Park,
Uxbridge,
Middlesex,
UB11 1FF

So getting in touch needn’t be such a chore and solving your issues is actually a fairly straight-forward process and it works very well.
Of course, we continue to work hard to improve this and also do all we can to make sure the problems you face are few and far between, but just in case you do need to contact us, we suggest you bookmark this page as it has every link you may need.

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It was 2010 that the world first really became gripped with social shopping. Online shopping had already begun to become a serious rival to the high street, with voucher codes fueling the rise and then social networking elements kicked in too.

Traditional trade

The internet is often only a reflection of the physical more traditional world and money off vouchers are nothing new – Coca-Cola are known to have used them as far back as the 1880s in an attempt to gain new customers. They thrived for years but coupons were typically limited to 50p off a next purchase or maybe a Buy One, Get One Free offer. The internet changed that, they became easier to get hold of and easier to use. Sites began springing up across the internet harnessing these codes, first via more traditional web forums and then on voucher specific sites. Some businesses like Myvouchercodes.co.uk were set-up with vouchers forming the whole base of their business plan.

Bulk discount

Then came the bulk offering versions. Quidco and Piggyback leading the way. Bigger buying power, meant bigger discounts to be offered to the customer. Instead of 50p off, discounts stretched to 10% and more because more people were buying, the social buying phenomena was spreading.  The big success in social shopping has been Groupon leading the way in the collective buying power regime. Even bigger bulk buys, and some sexy marketing buzz via social media has led to many discounts on sites in excess of 70% with those taking the offers actively encouraged to share their bargain news with their friends and followers.

The changing economy may have had an impact too in the popularity of codes, vouchers and discount buying but the social media revolution has been at its heart. The ability to show off, share the love or simply spread a marketing message to a new market has seen social shopping snowball beyond just a bargain-hunters paradise. The modern generation like to share and brands like them sharing too. Buyers re-tweeting their purchase news are unwittingly also acting as unpaid but highly targeted brand marketers, and even highly traditional businesses are beginning to take notice of that.

Where next?

How shopping evolves next is yet to be seen. Some high street retailers have attempted to merge social sharing with traditional browsing but with limited effect. Trend reports suggest that more and more people use high street outlets to touch and feel a product before heading home and searching the web for the same product at a cheaper price and then surfing some more for the best discount code too. Future technology such as 3D printing may have an impact on how customers research products, but it does seem that voucher codes, social shopping and certainly social sharing are here to stay in some form or other.

We’ve long been supporters of voucher code type websites and have recently launched out first Groupon campaigns too and we will continue to support social shopping and other ways of offering top deals on our top products.

What do you think about social shopping? Where do you think it will head next?

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Location, location, location. It’s a phrase that for years most small businesses will have had at the heart of their original business plan, but the internet has changed things dramatically. Where as once where a professional set up practice, or where a specific type of retailer opened a shop, was as much to do with location as product and service, the global take-up of the internet meant location no longer needed to be an issue, contactability and distribution were more relevant.

Or rather they were. Social media now offers businesses the opportunity to take advantage of location once again and there are lots of benefits to be had too.

Increasing footfall

Admittedly, it’s not for every business. Location-based social media marketing can do wonders for increasing foot traffic to businesses but only if footfall is important to their business. Cafes, restaurants, bars in particular are using social media to great effect in bringing more people in through their doors.

Encourage check-in

Getting visitors to your shop, venue or premises is just step one. Getting them to enagage with you once there is the next. Set up a check-in at your location. This could be via specialist location-based social media like FourSquare or Gowalla or via something more of an add on like Facebook Places. People love gamification and if you give them a chance to login, many will. Encouraging them to do so is easy too, via incentives for check in or frequent visitors. Offer  discount for every fifth check-in and not only will you probably see some come back more than they would have without an incentive, but you can also immediately identify your potential brand ambassadors.

Free advertising

The best asset of location based social media is it has sharing your brand at its heart. It is free advertising for you to everybody it is shared with. Each check-in by default shares that location with friends, followers and watchers. What impact that share has on potential customers can be tailored to an extent by tweaking the message that is shared and also the other offers people can find about your location. It is also more likely to be better targeted than a simple press ad as the followers are more likely to have a shared interest and many now admit that friend recommendations – a check-in is basically a statement saying I am proud to be here – heavily influential their own buying decisions.

Track your customers

As we’ve already said by monitoring your check-ins  you can quickly identify your brand ambassadors, but equally if they are checking in with you they are probably checking in elsewhere too. With a little bit of effort you can very quickly build a profile on what other things seem to entertain or influence those customers and perhaps tailor your own efforts too.

Location-based social media has a lot to offer a lot of businesses, ironically often the smaller business too. However, like every aspect of social media, how and what that is depends very much on your business and where you want to take it.

Are you using location-based social media? If not, what puts you off?

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Did you know that Google run a daily puzzle challenge? The Google-a-Day sub-site is designed to improve your googling skills and of course help Google in their ever continuing thirst for knowledge.

Each morning at 00:01 EST (That’s 05:01 GMT), Google sets a new puzzle and also posts the answer to the previous day’s teaser. If you love cryptic crosswords you will love Google a day, and even if you don’t it is a great way to hone your search knowledge and skills.

Google have even made it easy for you to avoid finding other people’s posted answers by setting up a special search tool that hides all such comments, while still letting you use all your favourite google search skills.

Certainly worth checking out, but be warned it can be addictive.

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As with every answer related to social media, there isn’t just one answer to when you should post – every business is different, but there is certainly an increasing volume of research into what works best when.

Look at it Scientifically

Dan Zarella the social media scientist at HubSpot is one of the leading lights in the research of timing and if you are new to the subject you can’t go far wrong if you watch his Science of Blogging webinar. While that is specific to Blogging it provides a great overview on how to look for trends as to what works best and when.

Zarella strongly believes that the pattern of when people most often re-tweet articles, links or posts is trend that is most likely to bring in traffic. Remember it is your existing customers you are looking to engage first. When do they retweet? They are more likely to retweet you than a stranger so make sure you feed them accordingly. As a longer term plan look to your target markets too, or industry influencers you would like to engage with. When do they retweet? Again make sure you are serving them up  relevant content at relevant times.

Different things for different networks

Just as different social networks respond better to different content, so they respond at different times. Zarella once reported tht he was amazed to find that Facebook really was a personal tool, whatever the content. His analysis found that over half of the shares on Facebook took place over the weekend – probably a result of the many companies blocking access to Facebook specifically on corporate networks.

What are you posting?

Content is also relevant. So try to capture the mood that your followers will be in at a particular point in the day. Though-provoking pieces are best posted in the morning when your followers are more likely to be in that mindset to be inspired.

Get into the groove

Of course, posting at a certain time that you have scientifically researched only works if you are posting regularly. If a follower knows you post at 4pm every Wednesday, make sure you hit that deadline every week. Some may be looking out for it and if you miss it, you may also miss out on their advocacy of your brand and products.

Remember though, what works for others may not be best for you. You should know your own customers best and with the host of social media analysis tools available out there, you should be able to see when your existing followers are most active. If you a global brand with constant worldwide traffic, much of that is immediately out of the window too but work with the information you have to hand and build up your knowledge of your customers and you will soon understand how and what works best.

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Big isn’t necessarily best in social media terms, as we hope you have begun to understand from reading the 123-reg A-Z of Social Media, however small can be bad. You won’t be a success in the social media arena if your reach is too small and you certainly won’t see suitable returns either. So get expanding your networks now.

Follow those you would like to follow you

It’s quite simple, but in the social media world, many feel almost obliged to follow you back if you follow them. If that person is somebody in the industry or somebody you would like to do business with then you are halfway towards getting them to take proper notice of what you are doing social media-wise.

Build your prospects

Those sort of tactics are not reserved for Twitter either. If you are a sole proprietor or a figurehead within a bigger organisation Facebook offers a great way to expand relationships with prospects, customers, and fans. Be reactive and proactive. Facebook will prompt you of birthdays of those you follow, so take the opportunity to re-invigorate that link by saying hello. It could make a difference.

Follow only those who are relevant

Again, following a fake pigeon account, or buying followers is not going to benefit your brand. Yes, you will gain followers but those numbers also need to show potential of engaging with you too. If they are robot accounts – and there are a worrying amount of these about nowadays – there will be no chance of engaging with them and effectively they become a wasted figure.

So remember it is not just big, it is potential too and spotting that is down to you. You need a growing network to get more out of social media and if you are doing things right, natural growth will follow, but sometimes may also need a little nudge.

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