The last week of November marked an auspicious event for the MediaVision team- the annual end-of-year celebration. The much anticipated weekend trip to the Breede River was not only a reward for all the hard work of a busy and successful 2011, but encompassed the company ethos of maintaining spirited and passionate staff members to ensure only the highest quality of work is produced. The directors, Louis, Thomas, Brett and Melissa go to great lengths to ensure that the MediaVision team works as a single motivated unit, extending work activities after hours, much to the appreciation of the employees. After all, for a search marketing and SEO team to succeed as we do, individuals must be passionate, creative, willing to share ideas and of course, enthusiastic about simply coming to work in the morning.

As copywriters entering a new year we need to take a look at how the internet has changed in 2010 and what this means for 2011. Online writing is a crucial aspect of the internet – while a picture may tell a thousand words, sometime it takes words to explain something more clearly.  Various groups have put forward their predictions for what is in store for online writing in 2011, and how this will affect search marketing services. Below are some predictions:

If you ever had a mother that was slightly obsessed with manners (which my mother definitely was) there is no doubt that you have been taught a certain degree of etiquette. From saying please and thank you to not putting your elbows on the table, etiquette is expected and respected in a vast majority of social circles. Just as we exercise etiquette amongst our friends and family, so should we exercise a degree of etiquette with our social media strategy as a part of our brand. Do you bring politeness and etiquette into your social media brand strategy or do you prefer to turn your nose up at the need for manners?

So if you haven’t already heard, Twitter has recently bought over and now has the rights to their very own web analytics company, Smallthought Systems. Through this, it is likely that Twitter will soon offer their own analytics service and this recent business move has brought the issue of Twitter analytics to the forefront.

There has been an ongoing debate as to whether acquiring a Twitter analytics package or system is worth it as many feel that free tools and general knowledge will let you do your own analytics for free. There is however a few Twitter analytics packages that will help you track as well as store and save all your related Twitter information under one roof.

Kids are growing up a lot quicker these days. I am still surprised when I spot a 10 year old girl with a full face of make up on, chatting away on her mobile telephone. I always wonder what they are talking about – what can so important that it cannot wait until school starts the next day? I am sure though that I could learn a thing or two from someone 15 years younger than me when it comes to computer technology and social networking because as much as I am connected to the social networking scene, I am sure these kids have tumbled further down the rabbit hole. If kids are walking around with mobile phones attached to their ears 24/7, there is no doubt that they are constantly connected to social networking sites just as much. The issue of social networking safety has always been a prominent one and even though the age requirement for logging onto Facebook is 13, there is no stopping young children connecting to their favourite social networking site and interacting with others who are much, much older.

We have all been there. We are sitting around the dinner table with friends and someone brings up the topic of Facebook. When we are confronted with the question “are you on Facebook?” (Isn’t this obvious?) We scoff and mumble, “oh, hardly ever.” But the truth is that even though we do not know it, many of us hold social media addictions, and these addictions are not the dirty type that we can keep secret from the world. If you are a social media addict, everyone knows it. But just as much as the everyday Joe is dealing with a social media addiction, we have to sit and wonder – are brands just as addicted to utilising the benefits that come with social media and the ability to connect?

Is it just me or has everyone recently discovered infographics? I am used to seeing simple graphs, tables and pie charts popping up here and there when reading informational articles that contain statistics but it seems that recently, many individuals have turned to the use of infographics in order to draw more attention to their topic. These reader friendly “pictures” are now making what could be potentially boring information easier to read but does this mean less solid information and more visuals for the reader in the future?

The social media industry has now also taken on the use of infographics in order to engage customers with statistics and facts as well as involve readers with the article itself. One infographic that got an extremely popular response was the Mega Shark. This simple graph is based on a so-bad-it’s-funny B grade film and looks at the possibility of a shark eating a plane. A brilliant form of satire, this infographic is informative and highly humourous.

I personally do not follow brands on Twitter or Facebook as I am rather afraid of being bombarded with product related tweets and status related service updates. I did follow a brand for a while on Facebook but their “computer giveaways” were so irritating that I deleted their group with a “god riddance” mumble For many companies, it seems as if digital advertising on social networks is free advertising as well as free reign and many do not stop at one or two promotions but rather go status and tweet crazy 24 hours a day. With possible new restrictions on digital media related advertising, the rope might be considerably tightened on this so called free reign as the higher powers watch what brands come up with.