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This is extraordinary. Within a week of first seeing this campaign go viral on Facebook, around a third of my online friends now have a profile picture of a cartoon character from the past. I myself have been tempted to change my profile picture to my look-alike Snufkin from the Moomins.
But who has created this campaign?
The original message that Facebook's users were publishing as a status update reads: ‘Change your FB picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal is not to see a human face on FB until Monday (Dec 6th) Join the fight against child abuse & copy and paste to your status!'
It was thought that the NSPCC were behind the campaign until a statement published on their Twitter page denied any involvement: ‘Although the NSPCC did not originate the childhood cartoon Facebook campaign, we welcome the attention it has brought to the work we do.’
Within the last 24 hours new viral status updates have circulated Facebook stating that the campaign could be used as a smokescreen for paedophiles to easily target children online. This must have alarm bells ringing at the NSPCC press office, or would it?
It appears the NSPCC has already received large amounts of exposure through a campaign they did not even create. The statement published on Twitter is evidence to suggest they are happy with the coverage via Facebook alone and I'm sure this story will be picked up by many national and regional media outlets.
Regardless of who created the campaign should it be for a best of intentions, or heaven forbid anything sinister, this is proof that viral campaigns should you have a clever idea, can go way beyond anyone’s expectations.
For more information on the work carried out by the NSPCC, please visit www.nspcc.org.uk
After a long wait for part three in this series of blog posts, we are finally here. I have managed to find time in the day to actually write up and review search engine optimisation (SEO) and Google AdWords.
I have to say that over the last few weeks since part one in this mini series, many people have taken their time to help write the blog entries and share their views. Thank you to all of those involved and to those who have taken time to read each post.
SEO
My first a major concern regarding SEO is that Google are changing their algorithm almost daily. The changes in Google's algorithm are making it harder for those keen on SEO to ensure you are at the top of a natural search on Google.
The benefit for any SEO business would be that when Google changes its algorithm they can yet again charge their client for more work. The issue is that I just can't see how young PR professionals can afford this kind of service.
Now you could argue that it should be the responsibility of that certain PR professional to study SEO for themselves and ensure they are high up the ladder in Google's natural search. However this requires a certain amount of expertise and can be very time consuming.
Without any real help for specialist SEO businesses, the maintained dedicated the editing your website, adding keywords and hiding words within your HTML, I can only see a limited benefit to SEO. It would be my advice that the best way to increase your online presence would be to ensure you have good content on your website or blog, but mainly to get interactive with other bloggers. By getting interactive, leaving comments and feedback on other websites or blogs, you could find that you are making quite a name for yourself. The more clicks your site gets, the better your SEO. I also think it is also vital to remember that you need to make regular updates on your site and blog, and key it relevant.
Google AdWords
During the last few weeks those who have taken time out to talk to me regarding have all shared the same views of Google AdWords.
This factor in Google AdWords seems to be the one thing that is putting people off using Google AdWords. That factor, is nothing more than the coloured outline that surrounds your advert, as seen below.
It is my opinion and quite a few others that this outline alone would be the reason why people wouldn't click on your ad. The general view is that this outline just makes the advert look unreliable and untrustworthy. It is important to state that after further discussion around this factor that we all concluded that we are all big users of the internet and very sceptical of ads online. For those who are not regular users of the internet this ad may look more appealing, but the users at that time would have to be the judge.
Once again money is the main downfall to this tool. It seems the more money you have, the more you can pay for the certain keywords you want. For those who have a bottomless pit of money, they can easily rule Google AdWords without worrying about the threat from small businesses.
Conculsion
The major factor that dominates both of these tools is the one thing that makes the world go round. I wish that factor was love, but its money.
There is no doubt that Google AdWords could easily be dominated by the big players in the world. It's good when you have a friend at Google who sets you up a free account, but should BBC writer Andrew Davies decide he wants to get into PR, he could easily pay Google more money for the keywords that I currently "pay" for.
The same needs to be said for SEO. SEO is only as good as the company running your SEO activity or as long as you are constantly updating your content and refining your SEO tactics. The organisations with large sums of money will once again be able to dominate in this area.
Money aside, it is my view that young PR professionals should be looking more towards SEO as a way to get further up in a Google natural search. I believe we should all take a little time to study SEO and find some quick and easy tactics to improve your Google ranking. However, I truly believe it is more important to keep updating your blog with relevant and interesting content and use social media to improve your ranking and visits to your site/blog.
Comments and feedback
Please feel free to provide any comments and feedback. I'd like to encourage a debate on this subject and that is only possible with your help. Any sensible comments will be published on this blog.
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