Check out our latest blog articles...

• How To Make Your Facebook Promotion Go Viral And Get Thousands Of New Fans

  by Will Schmidt We recently helped run a 3 week promotion for a consumer brand* which saw them get a massive increase in likes (well over 3,000 new fans) as well as lots of engagement from existing fans.  Even more notable was the…

• What you CANNOT do on Facebook. Page admins take note of these rules

  by Anna Gervai Did you hear about Velvet Burger? They are one of the most recent companies to have their Facebook page deleted for breaking the rules. They waved ‘bye bye’ to almost 10,000 fans in the process. You can read their message…

• Are you losing fans? How to find out using Facebook’s secret negative feedback data

  by Anna Gervai Hiding within the Facebook Insights area of your company’s Facebook page is your engagement per post data, and hiding within that is your negative feedback data. If you had never heard about negative feedback till now, then you’re not alone, so…

• Why only 1 in 6 fans see your Facebook page updates & how to fix it + what is Edgerank?

  by Anna Gervai I don’t mean to alarm you but if you’re doing what most companies are on Facebook, then it’s quite likely only 1 in 6 of your page’s fans actually see your carefully thought out Facebook updates from your business page…

• Top 4 B2B social media priorities

  by Anna Gervai If your business sells products or services to other businesses – and if you hear the words ‘social media’ and all you can think is ‘Facebook’ – then I’ll start by forgiving you for assuming social media is not for…

• Quick reference guide to the new Facebook timeline upgrade changes for business pages

  by Anna Gervai Following is the quick reference guide to the major changes Facebook is rolling out in March 2012 to Facebook business pages. Before we jump into the good, the bad and how the changes will affect page admins below; if you’re having…

• Sizes, FAQs and how to for the new Facebook business page timeline upgrade

  by Anna Gervai On March 1st 2012 Facebook rolled out the new timeline design for Facebook business pages. There are a few bugs Facebook will hopefully address before the new Facebook design becomes compulsory on March 31st so there’s merit in waiting before…

• What are the types of Facebook pages and which category is right for your business?

  by Anna Gervai In the process of starting a Facebook page for your business or company, many get stuck when it comes to selecting the right Facebook page type, let alone choosing from the long list of page categories! The good news is you…

• What is a QR code and how do they work?

  by Anna Gervai You might have noticed the increased chat about QR codes lately in New Zealand with them starting to appear in all sorts of media here. Yes, we’re finally catching up to countries like Japan, the US and UK, with kiwi companies…

• Best of the web mashup #1

  by Anna Gervai Welcome to the first of our ‘best of the web’ mashups. These mashups are voted by you, Orchid’s Twitter followers. Every time you clicked one of the links in our tweets, we track that click, measuring what you love and what…

• Infographic: Thank you Steve Jobs

  by Anna Gervai In homage to Steve Jobs, we created this infographic that follows Jobs from the founding of Apple in 1976 to his untimely death in 2011…   …

• Free Facebook advertising you’re missing out on

  by Anna Gervai You have 5 places to advertise your company on Facebook for free that you’ve looked at countless times but may never have thought of, or known how to take advantage of: your photo strip. Seen right at the top of page by…

• 17 mistakes companies make on Facebook & how to fix them

  by Anna Gervai I started this article planning to write a ‘top 5′ list of mistakes that companies make with their Facebook Page, but it soon more than tripled. Some of these mistakes are just pure laziness, others are caused by trying to…

• What the font?! Find out your personality type(face)

  by Anna Gervai I know this burning question is keeping you up at night, so the good news is you can finally sleep sound with the knowledge of what (font) type you are. This clever site asks you to pick from 4 sets of…

• Magento eCommerce website design inspiration: baby and childrens products

  by Anna Gervai This is the start of our new series of website inspiration articles so we thought we’d start at the beginning of life by checking some of the best baby and kids product websites, all on the Magento eCommerce platform. The…

• 10 digital trends for 2011 & beyond + who’s leading the way

  by Anna Gervai It’s always a big ask to keep on top of the ‘latest and greatest’ when it comes to online, with new platforms, apps and technology being launched before you’ve even got your head around last week’s offering. Future trends are…

• Twitter Statistics – Updated stats for 2011

  by Anna Gervai Twitter officially launched in 2006 and started its meteoric growth around January 2009, so how’s everything tracking in 2011? Let’s take a look at who’s doing what and how much of it they’re doing in these updated Twitter stats for…

• 14 ways to improve your Facebook Page for SEO

  by Anna Gervai Who set up your Facebook Page? Have they done it right? Here are 14 DIY tips you can action right now to improve your Facebook Page, that will get you more fans while also boosting your SEO for more love…

• What’s Happened to Facebook Pages? New Upgrade Explained

  by Anna Gervai On February 11th (NZ) Facebook launched quite a significant redesign, which changes not just the look and layout of Facebook pages, but also adds a long list of exciting new functionality (plus a few things that have some people worried).…

• The Psychology of Price

  by Jane Francis Have you noticed how the petrol pumps in Auckland seem to have stopped temporarily at $1.999 per litre—just .001 cents off crossing the $2.00 mark? That  .001 cents means that if petrol went up to $2 per litre, and you…

• Should your business have a Facebook Page or Facebook Group?

  by Anna Gervai The pros and cons of each for your company and how to get started… Many of our clients had Facebook in the ‘too hard’ or ‘wait and see’ basket in 2010, but have realised they can no longer ignore the power…

• Permission is not a marketing tactic

  by Anna Gervai I was reading the book Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin recently and came across this gem of a chapter I just had to share about building a permission marketing database in the world of ‘new marketing’. I had sat…

• Would you like fries with that? How to Use Cross Sell & Upsell

  by Anna Gervai The most famous cross-sell comes courtesy of McDonalds: “Would you like fries with that?”. The next time you go to any fast food restaurant I’d be shocked if they didn’t try cross-sell or upsell techniques on you. Others you’ve probably heard…

• 21 Ways to Get More Followers on Twitter

  by Anna Gervai The title says it all really, so let’s just get straight to the tips! Some of these you can do the moment you finish this article, some will take you a little more time or effort, but all of them…

• 11 business benefits of blogging … are you missing out?

  by Anna Gervai Usually I spend ages writing a catchy introduction to our blog articles on Marketing Gum, but this time the first point is so powerful I don’t need to… # 1 – 126% More Leads In a January 2010 study of 2,300 businesses…

• 6 tips to get others to create content for your blog for free

  by Anna Gervai You know how valuable a blog can be to your business. You know how every article you add gets you more love from Google. More traffic. More leads. More sales. You started off great, but now you’re getting busier and…

• Facebook Statistics for New Zealand

  by Anna Gervai These days, Facebook has become a part of our daily conversation. Those who aren’t on Facebook are met with incredulous looks. Whether you’re fan of Facebook or not, it has fast become ‘the’ social media tool that your business apparently…

• Twitter Statistics – finally! New stats for 2010

  by Anna Gervai There had always been a surprising and frustrating lack of stats about Twitter compared to many other social media tools; so when I discovered a veritable cornucopia of statistics I was so shocked I just had to combine them all…

• How long should a blog article be?

  by Anna Gervai Ahhh, the big question. Please don’t hate me, but there just isn’t a simple answer to this one. Luckily however, I have found some interesting stats and expert opinions that help answer the online version of the age-old question ‘how long…

• 5 easy ways to build your email marketing database

  by Anna Gervai You know how you sometimes read a business article or watch a ‘how to’ video and you get one of those Homer Simpson ‘doh’ moments because the advice is so simple you kick yourself for not thinking of it before…

• The best day and time to send your email marketing

  by Anna Gervai I wrote a white paper in February called Whatever You Do, Don’t Send Your Email Marketing On… (shameless plug) but, in my usual fashion, it’s a pretty detailed document that is going to drive you Impulsive and Ambitious types crazy. So…

• Why segmentation never worked like it should have

  by Dane Lowe Segmentation is often viewed as the Holy Grail of marketing. People chase after it, hoping that it will solve all their woes. Very few find it, and even fewer make good use of it. The reason? Perhaps, much like the Holy…

• 6 strategies for using Twitter for your business (chart)

  by Anna Gervai Following is a superb chart created by Ogilvy’s 360 Degree Digital Influence group. It provides a simple ‘how to’ overview for using Twitter depending on your strategy, including: - Customer relations - Crisis management - Corporate reputation management - Event coverage - Product Promotion & Sales -…

• Choosing the right Social Media tools for your target market

  by Anna Gervai With so many social media tools out there, how do you choose the right ones for your business? Start by working backwards. Define your target market then use their favourite social media tools. When it comes to target markets, 3 of the…

• The best time of day to tweet & how often to post to Twitter

  by Anna Gervai After finding out the ideal number of tweets per day is a lot higher than I would have guessed (more about that in a moment), I was curious to find out the ideal times to tweet. That’s what led me to…

• Trust Me. 
  Buy Now!

  by Dane Lowe We humans sometimes have trouble with trusting strangers. Its no surprise. The web is full of eCommerce merchants peddling their wares, forcing features and benefits down our throats and then calling us to action (“Buy Now! Or are you stupid?“).…

• The 4 people your website needs to speak to

  by Anna Gervai You can probably name a few different personality profiling systems. One example is the popular Myers Briggs that many businesses use to evaluate potential employees. The way you go about making your buying decisions online also relates to your personality. Most of…

• Your customer’s 3 brains and how to sell to them

  by Anna Gervai You don’t have a brain. You have 3 … Spock’s constant frustration over the Star Trek crew’s inability to act logically, is because logical thinking happens in our 3rd brain. Someone needs to sit Spock down and break the bad news gently,…

• The #1 mistake that’s losing you customers

  by Anna Gervai Are you the sales guru in your company? The one who knows the most about your products and services? Do you employ staff who look after customers’ endless queries? Do you have a stand-out salesperson? You know the one, that…

• Social media for newbies: Getting started fast and free

  by Anna Gervai You wouldn’t consider running a business without email and a phone number to keep in touch with customers, yet the majority of New Zealand businesses still have Social Media sitting in the ‘too hard’ basket. You may prefer your customers to…

• Can your gut instinct pass the test?

  by Anna Gervai Take this quick, simple test below. Don’t ponder on your vote, just make your mind up quickly, let your gut instinct decide for you. All you need to do is pick the best pricing structure from these 2 options (see picture…