Qube Media.

We're hiring again: web marketing consultants, producers and assistants

We're looking for talented and experienced web marketing consultants and web producers. We're also hunting for intelligent, capable marketing assistants - we'll be posting the full job specs for all three positions on the Qube website shortly.

If you think you've got skills that would make you a good addition to our Brighton-based web marketing team, get in contact. But you must have relevant web marketing experience and a knowledge of search and social media marketing.

Email us to tell us more about you and your experience: jobs@qubes.co.uk

No agencies please. Really. Not maybe, not we'll think about it. Just no agencies.

FaceBook goes all gooey in the middle

FaceBook have announced Mars are going to be the first advertiser to offer products for sale via the social network, kicking off on Valentines Day.

But before you scoff (no pun intended) at the idea of buying a Mars Bar online, when 45p and your local newsagent can do the job a whole lot quicker – the Celebrate application is a bit more clever than that.

The concept builds on the current 'gifts'  system but instead of sending friends virtual beers, teddies or a snowstorm, you send them a box of chocolates. Your friend pops their phone number into the app, gets sent a barcode by text message, which they then redeem in store.

As the first direct response venture on FaceBook, it's in both parties' interests that this is a success, and taking a needs-lead approach and offering a benefit, rather than the hard sell of traditional advertising puts it in good stead.

Read the full article at Marketingweek.co.uk

Will Yahoo's fate give Google dominance?

Yahoo's currently stuck between a rock and a hard place and whatever decision it now makes is raising concerns about the online competitive landscape.

Following Microsoft's hostile takeover bid, at $31 per share, and with no other offers, shareholders could get lawsuit-happy should they turn it down.

As Michael Arrington at TechCrunch points out, the only other solution might be to outsource search advertising to Google, which could boost cashflow and justify snubbing the big blue beast.

Yahoo's pride aside, Michael goes on to say that Microsoft might be seen as the more competitive way to go by the DOJ (who could put a stop to either deal), rather than Google swallowing up one of it's market rivals.

While in principle this makes sense, how much difference would it really make? In Q4 2007, Google took 77% of total search marketing spend, with Yahoo taking a comparatively measly 18%.

One company engineering a monopoly is always a bit worrying but if marketers and advertisers have already decided Google's where they want to spend their money, is there really much left to monopolise?

Beware the Super Advocate?

Blogging - someone's got to do it! And with that in mind it's becoming more and more important for marketers to pay attention to the 'online super advocate.' This is a person with a voice, an interest in your area and a following online. Their opinion matters and some believe they could make or break your brand with just a few words.

What’s the solution? Communicate with them. Seek them out and bring them on board. If you tame your super advocate with some well-timed correspondence, information and VIP treatment early on, they're much more likely to reward you with good publicity when you need it.

Read more on the Super Advocate

The Recommendation Generation

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a hot topic here at Qube, which is why this article in Marketing Week has piqued our interest.

It's clear that sites like Facebook and MySpace are becoming a powerful machine to drive sales. Not only that but communicating with what they are now calling 'The Recommendation Generation' will be vital to the success of your brand in the future. But where to start?

Well, Nigel, our social media guru, offers some handy insights into wading through the quagmire of buzzwords (like, 'the recommendation generaton') and simply making social networking sites work for you.

LSI - the new SEO?

LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing apparently (although for Shamen fans it'll always be Love Sex Intelligence).

Instead of stuffing copy with keywords SEO style, LSI is about using synonyms to optimise search ranking. Interesting article on it on Seopher.com.

Virtual working anyone?

Forrester reckon that within five years, 3d virtual worlds will be as important for work as the web is today.

According to their report, the over 30s are going to have the biggest problem adjusting to this as that age group is generally suspicious of the whole thing and think Second Life and the like are full of deviant personalities. Which sounds pretty much like your average corporate anyway.

Update on Qube, client wins etc...

We've started the New Year with a bang... here's quick update on what's going on with us, along with some recent client wins:

- Email marketing software provider, Pure, has commissioned us to manage their paid search and seo (natural search) campaigns. We continue to provide strategy and content for their own email marketing portal and newsletter, the Email Marketing Manual.

- Galleon continues to use Qube to develop the online strategy (including web, email, social media campaigns) for the Sony BMG backed Apollo's Pad. Watch this space, as there's some exciting developments with this project in the coming weeks.