Last week Elliot (WDL MD) and myself joined other businesses from the Colchester area in meeting our allocated students from Colchester Institute’s Career Academy.

Back in July 2011 I first went along to the Institute to hear about their new IT Career Academy. During the event I was encouraged by the energy and enthusiasm of those who spoke so passionately about the Partners in Business programme. When I returned to the office I discussed the event with Elliot and we both decided to join up. CRB’s were filled in, and forms were signed and sent off. There was no turning back at that point.

Having committed ourselves to mentor a student over the next 18 months we were both unsure of our role, about what we were supposed to do, and ultimately what kind of student we would get.

Our ‘mentees’ were hand-picked for us by the staff at the Career Academy and the pair were great company during our first meeting. They had lots of questions about what we did and our experiences of working life, and in a room full of other mentors and mentees, we were left to our own devices to find out as much as we could about each other and seek out opportunities to build our relationships on.

The introduction lasted about 45 minutes and we arranged to meet again in a couple of weeks for a second meeting. Elliot and I asked them to think about what they wanted to achieve from the programme and to bring some questions for us to go through next time.

The Career Academy is a fantastic opportunity for both the students and the mentors alike and we can see many benefits for both of us during the months ahead.

A few of our responsibilities as mentors include;

• Preparing the students for employment and/or higher education by helping them gain the necessary skills to be ‘work ready’.
• Establish a positive, personal relationship with the student through regular interaction and consistent support.
• Help the student to develop life skills and instil the framework for developing broader life-management skills.
• Increase students ability to interact with people/groups from various backgrounds by introducing them to different environments.

Any tips would be welcome!

I know I can speak for Elliot too, when I say that we are apprehensive about the next 18 months. We are both acutely aware that we have a responsibility to give what we can to our mentees and to help them to achieve their personal goals. But equally (pressure aside), we are excited and looking forward to the challenge.

No doubt we’ll keep you posted during the process and who knows you may be hearing from our mentees at some point in future too.

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As you may, or may not be, aware, WDL employed a new Digital Marketing Specialist at the start of December 2011 to look after new and existing clients’ Internet Marketing accounts. That new employee is me, Emma.

I wanted to write a company blog post to introduce myself and explain more about my background, the work I do, and the work I will be doing, at WDL.

Colchester, here I come

Life in Colchester began for me when I was 18 and I moved from a very small town in the West Country – Devizes, in Wiltshire, is famous for its castle, the Wadworth’s Brewery (famous for its 6X ale sold across the UK) and having one of the most impressive set of canal locks in the UK.

‘Why did I leave the gorgeous countryside to come to Colchester?’ I hear you ask; I moved to study a degree in Linguistics at Essex University and hopefully start a new life in a bigger town with more opportunity than the small town I was leaving.

During my stint at Uni, I specialised in foreign languages (Spanish, Portuguese and Italian), how people learn foreign languages, the hidden meaning behind what people say (Pragmatics) and the neuroscience of language (how it is stored and recalled from the brain), including language disorders (e.g. Specific Language Impairment and Aphasia).

I graduated from Essex University in 2007 with a 2:1 (Hons) in Linguistics and moved into my first job five months later as Online Editor of Compareandsave.com.

What on earth is SEO when it’s at home?

Initially, I was employed solely to write the content (e.g. news, blogs, guides, etc.) for compareandsave.com but, to do this well, I first had to get to grips with how the internet can be used to increase the visibility of products, services and opinions.

So, it was here that I was introduced to the world of Digital Marketing (I define this as ‘communicating to your target audience about something, using the internet as the medium in which the communication takes place’), including Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, Email Marketing , PR and, most importantly, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), which I’d never heard of before.

Within the first few days of my new job, I started to learn that a degree in Linguistics was actually going to come in handy in Marketing and SEO, much to my surprise.

After all, in my humble opinion, Marketing is about communicating to others and my knowledge of the language used to communicate was going to help. Plus, search engines need to be ‘linguistically trained’ in order to understand what a searcher intends to find when he types a query (a word or phrase) into Google or Yahoo so that the most relevant results (web pages) can be returned. What’s more, search engines need to know how queries/words relate to each other in case other results/pages might be helpful to the searcher (i.e. synonyms).

Being fresh out of Uni, I could write – I’d done nothing but write essays for the last 4 years (there was a bit of partying in there too, though) – and the search engines love content so it was a match made in heaven.

Oh yes, the worlds of SEO and Marketing are all about the Linguistics.

What does this mean for WDL’s current and prospective clients?

I have the training, tools and experience to help you achieve increased online visibility and get your site in a better shape to rank well in the search engines – and it’s something I love to do.

For example:

If search engines love content then, so do I.

After solely managing all the content for one of the UK’s biggest comparison sites, I bring with me the tools to advise clients on tailor-made content strategies for their website(s). Once the content is planned out, I can write (or commission someone else to write) content that meets your customer’s demands and those of the search engines.

If search engines like looking at your site(s) in minute detail then, so do I.

Search engines rank websites based on hundreds of relevancy factors. I have the understanding of these (publicly-available) relevancy factors and the keen eye to find elements on your site(s) that need to be fixed in order to have a better chance of appearing for the queries that your potential customers make in the search engines. I can also look at the wealth of information provided by analytics programs to find areas where your site is and isn’t performing optimally for your users.

Of course, my experience can mean a lot more to you than the above two examples so, if you are looking to improve your website, not only for the search engines but to give your customers/users a better experience on the web, get in touch with me and I will do my very best to help you on the way to Online Marketing success. I look forward to working with you in the future!

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When Lloyd was recently browsing the Essex Apprenticeship website he was shocked to see his face at the bottom of the page. After a short pause and a head scratch he remembered about the apprenticeship competition entry video he sent off months before and heard nothing back from.

Apparently he had won and his video (although not sticking to the brief) was being displayed on both www.essexapprenticeships.co.uk and www.dbtraining.org.uk.

We hope his slightly comical attempt at showing what an apprenticeship is like will educate and inspire other young people to follow in his foot steps and find an employer themselves.

The Apprentice is Given a Camera to Play With

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A while ago we posted a blog entry about our apprentice Lloyd. Having been working here at WDL for almost 7 months Lloyd is well and truly a member of the team and has integrated into the world web design and development. So much so we decided to let him loose with a camera!

Last week Lloyd was contacted by the people from the Apprenticeship Scheme who asked if he would like to make a film about his time at WDL and the apprenticeship scheme. Lloyd says, “I made the video to enter the http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/ competition to be showcased on their homepage explaining what apprenticeships are and what mine at WDL is like.”

Although the film was made in a day, because he was given such short notice, we had to share it……

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Say hello to the new additions to the WDL family.

In March WDL welcomed (from left to right) Lloyd, Daniel and Russell, who each bring with them areas of knowledge, expertise and experience, which will help ensure WDL’s steady and continued growth.

To see their profiles and meet the rest of the team visit about us

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We are currently looking to appoint two young people on the Apprenticeship scheme. We are inviting applications for Business Administrator, and Web Designer positions. Check out the “>Apprenticeship Matching Scheme for further details and to apply.

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WDL is delighted to welcome Sarah Edwards to the team. Sarah graduated from university in 2008 with a first class degree in Graphic Design. She loves creating layouts and imagery, especially using photography, traditional mark making techniques and the freedom of digital media. Importantly, Sarah will add a much needed female touch to the office!

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We are looking to recruit a web designer and internet marketer to join our team. See the jobs page for more details.

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