NEWS

News, Insights & Opinions
3 essential free tools for content marketers (part 1)
3 essential free tools for content marketers (part 1)
|Andy Thevarokiam
Don’t you just love it when you come across an app, program, website, or chrome add-on which just completely revolutionises your job? Here’s a small selection of them that we... Read more...
Why simplifying content is not the same as 'dumbing down'
Why simplifying content is not the same as 'dumbing down'
|Steve Maybury
There is a feeling that, as a culture, we are dumbing down. A feeling that a fixation with celebrities and pictures of cats, along with supposedly reduced attention spans, means the only way to reach an audience is to join in and churn out endless pointless memes that offer no real value to anybody, beyond fleeting entertainment. That's not the case, of course, but it does create a challenge for those businesses that want to use social media to engage with an audience (which, in 2016, should be virtually every... Read more...
Three simple beginner's steps to improve your SEO
Three simple beginner's steps to improve your SEO
|Podium
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be complicated: it’s true that there are many factors that go into making a webpage rank well (or badly), from disavow files, canonical links, 301 redirects, secure connections and many more. But, there are also many simple and straightforward things you can do to make your site rank better starting with these three key points. 1. Meta Titles It’s amazing how many sites we look at where this key ranking factor has been overlooked. Meta titles are the first thing that anybody sees in a... Read more...
It's Internaut Day, but no room for nostalgia in SEO
It's Internaut Day, but no room for nostalgia in SEO
|Steve Maybury
Today – August 23rd – is Internaut Day, the 25th anniversary of the internet being made open to the public. We’re not fans of the portmanteau – Inter-, as in internet and -naut as in astronaut, symbolising discovery, and it’d be incredibly trite to do what every other blogger is doing today by pointing out what a difference the internet has made to our lives in the past 25 years. Even looking back at how the internet has changed is a slightly painful experience and, if we're honest, not especially... Read more...
How to adapt to the latest social media algorithm updates
How to adapt to the latest social media algorithm updates
|Emma Thompson
Podium monitors algorithm changes in order to adapt quickly and maintain high rankings for our clients. Whether it’s an update to Google search, which impacts SEO, or adjustments to how social media networks display content to users, these changes impact our day-to-day work. Understanding changes to algorithms helps us to gauge how to better tailor our services for clients’ websites and social media pages. If it’s a major change, we’ll adjust our marketing strategy to maintain page one search results for our clients, and to continue driving web traffic from... Read more...
Newcastle marketing jobs: Marketing account executive @ Podium
Newcastle marketing jobs: Marketing account executive @ Podium
|Steve Maybury
Newcastle-based search marketing agency Podium has an outstanding opportunity for an enthusiastic, talented and creative marketing executive to work as part of its growing team. The successful candidate will be required to work across a range of different clients in a variety of industry sectors. We are busy, so you’ll need to hit the ground running and be able to generate interesting, informative social media and website content. This would include written, graphical and video content for social media. The majority of your time will be devoted to social media... Read more...
6 common SEO misconceptions
6 common SEO misconceptions
|Emma Thompson
At Podium we receive valuable market research every time we attend a networking event or new business meeting, and the recent North East expo was great for getting a feel for how Newcastle businesses view SEO. It’s less and less common for us to have to explain what ‘search engine optimisation’ is, which is both helpful and, well, sometimes, not very helpful. In some cases, search has an unfortunately spammy reputation, since a number of companies have experienced poorly managed SEO campaigns. Or, even worse, outdated or misleading ideas of... Read more...
[POSITION FILLED] Podium is hiring – social media recruitment
[POSITION FILLED] Podium is hiring – social media recruitment
|Podium
This role has now been filled. Thank you to those of you who applied. Account executive: social media & online content Full time, salary dependent on experience Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Newcastle-based search marketing agency Podium has an outstanding opportunity for an enthusiastic, talented and creative communicator to work as part of its growing team. The successful candidate will be required to work across a range of different clients in a variety of industry sectors. We are busy, so you’ll need to hit the ground running and be able to generate interesting,... Read more...
We’re on the Podium
We’re on the Podium
|Emma Thompson
We don’t usually sing our own praises, since we have so many impressive clients to ‘shout’ about all the time. However, we do some interesting things, too, and sometimes they turn out really awesome. Sometimes. Emma attempts a Guinness world record Last weekend, I was part of an attempt at making the largest human shamrock. Thought that would be a no-brainer: how many ‘human shamrocks’ have you seen? No, we didn’t get enough people for a Guinness World record – just 287 people short of the world record, which stands... Read more...
Podium’s client shortlisted for North East Business Awards
Podium’s client shortlisted for North East Business Awards
|Emma Thompson
Podium’s long-standing client, Newcastle Clinic, has been nominated for the Services Award in the North East Business Awards. The award category fits the clinic perfectly, as it offers a differentiated service to regional patients: it houses an open MRI scanner, which serves claustrophobic patients as well as large or overweight patients who wouldn’t fit in a traditional scanner. Newcastle Clinic’s customer service is unrivalled in its sector, with minimal wait times, supportive and knowledgeable staff, and a welcoming, comfortable reception. Utilising client reviews that have poured in through the Newcastle... Read more...
Maintaining Google rankings when launching your new website
Maintaining Google rankings when launching your new website
|Podium
Launching a new website is an exciting process. It’s a process that should refresh and revitalise the image of your company, improve the customer journey and most importantly, it should develop your business. But what happens when it’s done wrong? The enquiries stop coming in, the transactions stop and your traffic falls off a cliff. Disaster. What should have been an exciting time for your business has potentially destroyed it. Why? There are a whole host of reasons why this happens but simply put, if the transfer to a new... Read more...
Social media campaigns: inform, educate, entertain… and engage
Social media campaigns: inform, educate, entertain… and engage
|Steve Maybury
When the BBC was founded by Lord Reith in 1922, it aimed to inform, educate and entertain the British public. These three concepts provided the foundation stones for public service broadcasting, and to some degree or other, it has continued to this day: it remains part of the BBC’s current mission statement. It’s a sensible ambition for all media content – whether you’re writing a blog or news article, recording a Youtube video, writing a tweet or just making a Facebook post, if it can be one of entertaining, informative... Read more...
Case study: digital marketing versus print advertising
Case study: digital marketing versus print advertising
|Emma Thompson
There are some business professionals out there who aren't yet convinced of the value of social media marketing. (Too) many still rely on traditional advertising techniques or believe that social media is not helpful for business. We recently had the opportunity to demonstrate the value of social media marketing in comparison to traditional print advertising. And the numbers speak for themselves. After only one week of Podium’s strategic social media use, the web traffic increased by 40%. This is in comparison to the statistics from the entire month following the... Read more...
Upcoming Google Penguin update could influence search results
Upcoming Google Penguin update could influence search results
|Emma Thompson
Google is set to reveal an update to its algorithm that will make Google Penguin react in real-time. The Google Penguin algorithm was first released in 2012 in order to ensure that sites are following the Google Webmaster Guidelines. It introduced a variety of punitive measures for sites using ‘black hat’ or spammy SEO techniques. This meant that the quantity of links linking to a website no longer mattered as much as the quality of those links. An update to the algorithm is predicted to happen within the next month... Read more...
[POSITION FILLED] We are hiring (again): talented writer sought...
[POSITION FILLED] We are hiring (again): talented writer sought...
|Steve Maybury
Position now filled - sorry! However, we are a growing agency and genuinely do keep interesting CVs on file, so if you want to send your details in to us for consideration in the future, please feel free.   Account executive: online content & social media Full time, salary dependent on experience Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne We have a new graduate position available. An outstanding opportunity for an enthusiastic and talented communicator to work within a growing digital marketing agency. The successful candidate will be required to hit the ground running and... Read more...
Majority of web traffic now via mobile devices
Majority of web traffic now via mobile devices
|Steve Maybury
It's now more crucial than ever to make sure your business' website is offering smartphone users the best possible experience, after new industry figures showed mobile devices such as smartphones are now the most popular method of getting online. Smartphones are now responsible for a third of internet access, up from 23% in 2014, according to Ofcom’s 2015 Communications Data Report. Laptops, meanwhile, have dropped from 40% of online connections in 2014 to 30% in 2015. The surge in popularity has been attributed to the take-off of 4G networks, meaning... Read more...
Newcastle digital marketing agency Podium recruits three
Newcastle digital marketing agency Podium recruits three
|Steve Maybury
Newcastle-based digital marketing agency Podium has appointed three new staff as part of an ambitious growth and business development programme. Podium, based at Regent Centre, Gosforth, has appointed Graeme Miller as account director and Iwona Soroka as account executive. Newcastle University student Faye Ripley has joined on a 10-week summer internship. Graeme is a business adviser with almost 20 years’ experience working with North East businesses across a number of sectors. He has previously worked for Go Digital Newcastle, Sky, the Care Quality Commission and Business Link. He joins Podium... Read more...
We're hiring: senior account exec, full time POSITION FILLED
We're hiring: senior account exec, full time POSITION FILLED
|Steve Maybury
Senior account executive: online content and social media Full time, salary dependent on experience Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne An outstanding opportunity for an enthusiastic and talented communicator to work within a small but growing digital marketing agency. The successful candidate will be required to hit the ground running and be able to confidently handle a large number of client accounts, focusing on online content, social media accounts and other digital marketing. Degree in a marketing-related discipline preferred. Non-graduates with at least two years’ agency experience will be considered. The ideal candidate must... Read more...