Academic bookshop chain Blackwell is ramping up its affiliate marketing and social media activity to build online awareness of its website and engage with appropriate audiences over the next 12 months.

Its representatives say affiliate marketing is currently responsible for around ten per cent of the chain's sales and they consider the channel to be a key platform for growth.

Targeted social media activity will be launched in university towns and communities as part of the plans, with localised Facebook campaigns rolled out and microblogging site Twitter used to promote in-store events, the Blackwell brand and its website.

"We're looking to build online communities where we can really engage with customers," confirmed Jessica Armishaw, head of online at Blackwell UK. "It's an extension of communities that exist in our stores."

She continued: "Affiliate marketing has always been appealing as our brand name is so widely known – we have a great deal of affiliation with universities and corporate institutions through our academic bookselling heritage."

Publisher Random House also recently unveiled plans to launch a social network so fans of its Vintage books can communicate online and write reviews, an initiative aimed at connecting with customers and driving product sales.

Student insurance specialist Endsleigh says its new eCommerce strategy has already seen bounce rates go down by as much as 36 per cent, alongside a 12.five per cent uplift in web page visitors.

The firm's SERP rankings have also improved by up to 6 places for key motor, home and student products, while client log-on rates have gone up eight.5 per cent.

Ian Passmore, Endsleigh's managing director, notes that the website forms the centre-piece of his firm's customer interaction strategy, offering flexibility rather than the "one-dimensional" experience often provided by online outlets.

"The solution has been designed to allow us to display more relevant and targeted propositions – it can also be used by our underwriters to develop more competitive propositions and offers," he explains.

"Customers will not only benefit from a website which is streamlined and easier to navigate, but also from specifically tailored products and advice designed to suit each individual."

The whole insurance sector is aware of the dominant role the internet now plays, Passmore concludes, predicting the new website will lead to "even bigger" business growth.

Endsleigh decided to close its branch network and invest in its online offering after carrying out a "lengthy review" of how consumers wanted to buy insurance.

A significant proportion of businesses have yet to optimise their websites to take advantage of the Google Caffeine update, specifically with regard to updated, new or unique website content, properly and effectively constructed meta tags and quality outbound links related to their site's theme.

Researchers also uncovered trends towards poorly formatted internal linking, no social media involvement or bookmark-sharing icons where applicable and serious issues with page/site download times.

The goal of Google Caffeine is to enhance the user search experience by providing more accurate and relevant results pages, combined with a real-time search feature.

Scott Moir says 85 per cent of firms studied by his SEO research team were not optimised to benefit from the update to Google's search architecture.

"It's obvious that businesses and individuals that depend on the internet for their prosperity have yet to take advantage of the multitude of opportunities that Caffeine presents," he comments. "Opportunities that, if properly applied, will immediately help them gain a marketing advantage over their competition."

Caffeine has been summed up by experts as "an algorithmic change" focusing on more real-time search results and incorporating social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Greater prominence is therefore given to news and real-time information like social media updates and online video.

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