3D printing

 

 

3D printing blog written by Jade Artuad, a two week placement student who joined Napier summer 2017 for experience at a marketing and PR agency.

 

I tried 3D printing for the first time at Napier

At first, I thought it would be extremely complicated, but then I learned some useful tips.

The 3D printer I used was Robox.

 

To successfully print in 3D here is what you need to do:

  • Load a model: I used the AutoMaker software, and the first thing I had to do was to load a model. You can either choose one already available or create your own. To do so, you can use a website called Tinkercad.
  • Layout: once you have loaded it you can change the position, size and even rotation of your model. You can also choose the materials that will be used to make it.
  • Settings: the third step is to choose how thin you want the 3D printing to be. The thinner it is, the longer it takes to print. Also, the size of the model affects the printing time. So, it is better to print a small model.
  • Purge: before printing anything, make sure to select “purge”. Doing so will clear material from the print head. Once the purge is over, open the door of your 3D printing machine and remove the material.
  • Make! The last step is to click on “make” and wait until the printing is done.

 

 

 

 

 


Future Robotics Conference to be Held 13th November for 2018

Future Robotics, the UK’s only independent robotics conference, is taking place on Tuesday 13th November 2018 at The Slate, Warwick University.

Targeting companies who are currently integrating or considering integrating industrial robotics into their processes, this conference and exhibition will offer visitors the opportunity to see the latest products and solutions within the industry. The featured CPD accredited seminar program will serve as platform for discussing vital trends, with visitors benefiting from presentations held by robotic experts, manufactures and suppliers.

The exhibition will also feature a live demonstration area showcasing everything from individual components all the way to fully automated systems. Visitors will also have the opportunity to talk with experts about their individual cases and ideal solutions.

To find out more about the Future Robotics conference and how to buy tickets please click here.


Success for WNIE Live 2018

WNIE LIVE has declared their event a success for 2018. Taking place at the NEC in Birmingham, WNIE LIVE 2018 provided visitors with the opportunity to witness hundreds of new products, and the industry’s innovation in action.

As the only UK national instrumentation exhibition, WNIE LIVE offers a great platform for visitors to network; and this year the live demonstration of the IPC Connected Factory eXchange (CFX) IIoT Experience, offered visitors the opportunity to see global equipment suppliers working with industry experts. The experience showcased the benefits of this world-wide IoT communication standard for assembly manufacturing and was observed in real time by a group of 13 engineers located in Taiwan.

Female Leaders in Tech Everywhere (FLITE) also hosted its networking lunch at WNIE LIVE 2018, which included a keynote presentation by leadership expert Alison Reid. Many visitors from the event had positive feedback about the launch, commenting that it was great to learn more about the aim of the FLITE group and to help promote and support females within the tech sector.

WNIE LIVE has received positive feedback from both exhibitors and visitors for this year’s event, with Claire Saunders, Event Director commenting "The UK electronics and embedded sectors are still seen as global industry leaders, WNIE Live successfully delivered a platform for the industry to come together and connect, learn and make key contacts.  Supported by a wealth of exhibitors, and although visitor numbers remained static the quality and level of business achieved continued to be high."

WNIE Live will return in September 2019.


Digital Marketing Summit Southampton 2018

Having joined Napier in September 2018 as a marketing specialist, I thought it would be a good idea to attend this event to help expand my knowledge and interest in the world of digital. The summit consisted of two days, the first day being conferences and the second workshops.

I attended many conferences and workshops which covered a variety of topics such as search engine optimisation (SEO), conversion rate marketing and page speed politics, although in this blog I will be covering topics that stood out for me and ones that I thought really make a significant impact.

Being able to listen and interact with many speakers was great. We got to hear about their background and wealth of knowledge/experience in the marketing industry. Their speeches, workshops and slides were so compelling and engaging and you could really see that the audience was captivated.

The following tips and information on SEO, paid media strategies and mobile index is what I will share with you throughout this blog.

 

SEO

As a marketing specialist, a lot of my work involves digital and I thought it was important to attend the SEO conference.

Kaspar Szymanski, SEO expert and former senior Google employee led the presentation with the topic of exploiting SEO honeymoon period – how to exploit it and make your brand new site rank well continuously.

He presented a few steps that we should consider in the honeymoon period for long lasting SEO performance for any new site.

 

  • Site performance is an imperative factor especially when it comes to speed as it an SEO factor. Several factors will determine how quick a site will load. Making sure this a top priority will help with SEO

 

  • Link building is about how users and google find new content and therefore link building should be looked at from the first day you launch a new site. The main focus is to drive conversions and brand recognition to boost positive user signals. The honeymoon period is the best time for building links to maintain traffic to the site and tell Google that a new site is the ‘new place to go’

 

  • User signals – Google will love websites that are popular with users and they will have expectations as they look at the snippets – they will either choose or reject results. Therefore every snippet needs to outline what the landing page has to offer. Ensuring your unique selling proposition

 

A check list:

  • Start link building for conversions from the first day
  • Make your site faster than your competitors
  • Manage user expectations with snippets and landing pages

 

 

The Ever-Changing Landscape of paid media

In this presentation, the speaker walked us through some of the latest features and updates across the main paid media platforms. It was full of inspirations and ideas and her suggestions were applicable for the whole marketing funnel.

 

 

In the Awareness stage, at the top of the funnel, she suggested getting more involved in social media such as Instagram stories, Facebook ads, Pinterest promoted pins and Apple Search ads with demographics targeting.

Consideration: local catalogue ads on display, Facebook messenger ads for brand engagement and one that will probably become popular is Facebook augmented ads.

Preference: Google local search map ads, Affiliate location extensions on YouTube Ads and Shopping price benchmarks.

Purchase: Shoppable ads on Instagram, Integration with Google Optimize & Google Adwords and LinkedIn Carousel Ads.

Loyalty: Facebook custom audiences for offline conversions and Facebook messenger ads to communicate post sales.

It was really compelling to hear different strategies that can deployed for all types of industries as many businesses pay too much attention to the bottom of the funnel. One important key element from this is making sure that all traffic you’ve got coming to your site is being used properly and to convert it along the way for any paid media campaign.

 

The Mobile First Index, what, why and more importantly when

Jon Myers, an experienced leader within the digital marketplace with over 19 years experience talks to us about the shift to the mobile first index by Google. This session gave me a great deal of SEO information and a roadmap of what to do!

Mobile search is the new priority for Google and with 60% of searches via mobile it is vital we keep on top of this. After all, users who have a bad mobile experience are 60% less likely to revisit your page.

The following will be important facts to take away with you:

  • Google will not have a separate mobile index, it is the same single index
  • Have a responsive or dynamic site
  • Desktop pages will be phased out where is a mobile alternative
  • Structured data will play a vital part in the mobile-first world

The impact on website performance:

  • Keywords ranking will be affected if your mobile content is reduced and doesn’t contain terms the page was previously ranking for on desktop
  • To maintain rankings; content, images, metadata and alt attributes need to be consistent across desktop and mobile
  • The above needs to be crawlable

 

 

We Have Created Napier's Very Own SEO Tool! - Check it out here 

 

 

 


LinkedIn Lead Generation

Optimizing your LinkedIn page for success

The majority of B2B marketers understand the power of LinkedIn. As well as social networking, publishing content has become an influential tool that allows marketers to forge relationships with prospects. It is a great opportunity for you to show your expertise in your field and connect with others on a professional level.

Understanding how to create posts that hook readers and include a good call to action is imperative if you want to create leads. But what content is the right content? What call to actions should you use?  And what else should you include on these posts?

In this blog, I have accumulated some of the best LinkedIn posts in the electronics industry that I think are worth reading about. We hope this blog creates inspiration for you and your company.

 

Vicor Corporation 

 

Vicor specialises in manufacturing high efficiency power supply systems. The corporation designs and develops modular power components and power systems.  Most of Vicor’s LinkedIn posts include a call to action, for example in the post above; prospects can download an ‘IEEEE paper’. The link will take them to a landing page where prospects will fill out personal details to receive a whitepaper.

Including a call to action within every post will help drive more readers to your content, improve the relationship between your company and customers and increase lead generation.

Although call to actions come in many forms, they all share components that make them compelling. Make sure your call to action is simple and concise, it shouldn’t be highly sales focused and you need to think of how you can provide valued content to your readers and also give them an incentive to take action.

 

Panasonic 

 

Panasonic is an established award-winning company for their range of electronics and SD appliances. On LinkedIn, Panasonic focuses on providing readers with product content and they also have a good flow of information on their page.

Engaging content on LinkedIn is imperative if you want to increase your reach, spark engagement and build brand awareness. Posting regular and valuable content will help create trust with your audience and present yourself as an expert in your field. As seen in the screenshot above, Panasonic gives a short and concise description for the LinkedIn Ad and includes a link for readers to find out further information.

 

Toshiba

 

Toshiba has nearly 1 million followers on LinkedIn and uses great imagery on their posts.

Imagery is often essential to helping your content look engaging. Using relevant high-quality images are powerful with most people responding to visuals. When choosing an image for the ad, make sure it is high quality and is relevant to the post.

 

Siretta

 

 

Siretta specialises in designing and manufacturing cellular modems and signal analysers.

Siretta’s LinkedIn posts include hashtags, a useful strategy, even on LinkedIn. Using hashtags can help surface your post to people who may find it relevant and allows readers to find the post by searching for a particular word or phrase on LinkedIn.

Although using hashtags on LinkedIn may not be everyone’s cup of tea if you do use them make sure they are relevant to your content, company and industry.

 

Read some of our other blogs:

 

 


What French journalists expect from agencies

Last summer, Jade Artaud joined Napier for a two-week placement for experience at a marketing and PR agency.

Jade interviewed four people from different French magazine organizations on the topic of what journalist expect from agencies.

Jade asked them several questions, but we have selected the best questions and answers from two interviews which we think are the most relevant.

 

Alain Dieul, editor of Electronique Composants & Instrumentation magazine

 

What do you expect from agencies and clients? In which way, can they be helpful to you?

I expect to receive press releases, in DOC format, and it is imperative they contain images in JPEG.

 

How important is it to have content in French? Do you ever use content sent to you in English?

I don’t read press releases written in English. The process takes a lot of time, that I don’t have. Also, it is already complicated to read all the French press releases I receive.

 

How will social media change journalism and publications? How important is social media to your job today?

With two types of magazines to take care about, I don’t have time to deal with social media. Also, regarding the content of my journals, social media is not the right platform to target readers.

 

Didier Girault, journalist for ElectroniqueS magazine

 

Do companies need an office in France before you will cover them?

No, if the information provided is likely to be of interest to French readers. Obviously, news regarding the supply of a product in Germany, for instance, will not be relevant to our readers.

 

What has been the biggest change to business to business journalism in the past 3 years?

I think the main change is due to the introduction of Internet and mobile telephony. Since then, social media appeared, and every company created its own website, etc.

On the one hand, journalists spend more and more time selecting relevant news among several data still high, received through emails, newsletters and as a result, they have less time to look for information during investigations. On the other hand, using Internet allow journalists to rapidly find information they didn’t have access to before, leading to original cross referencing.

Today, there is an influx of information, which constitutes a general problem (affecting both journalists and readers). The fact of “following” news constantly, tend to blunt critical thinking and can lead to a return of fatality.

 

What do you think will be the biggest change in the next 3 years?

I think there will be less and less appeal towards the research of raw data, and at the same time, a strong demand for structured articles (files, summaries, reports...) that will be used for the training of engineers and technicians. In the end, this is the training that will become important.

 

 

François Gauthier, managing editor of L’Embarqué

 

What do you expect from agencies and clients? In which way, can they be helpful to you?

I expect classic things such as press releases and contacts. Agencies are useful to network with people in charge of businesses.

 

What has been the biggest change to business to business journalism in the past 3 years?

The biggest change has been the rise of digital publishing. It is becoming more and more popular.

 

How important do you think blogs will become? According to you, could they replace publications?

I don’t think blogs will replace publications.

 

 

What French journalists want from agencies (based on Internet research)

 

Following on from this Jade did some research on what French journalist want from agencies.

  • Relevant information: PR professionals should know what journalists are working on, what they are interested about and what the latest topics they dealt with are.
  • Quality rather than quantity: it is better for journalists to receive a few press releases related to their area of expertise rather than receiving a press release each time an agency writes one. If an agency sends too many irrelevant press releases, journalists will no longer take the time to read any of the content and further emails from the agency will be automatically deleted.
  • To gain time: journalists are asked to be highly productive, which is a source of stress. PR agencies need to reduce journalists’ workload as much as possible. Regarding press releases, for instance, it means sending two versions: one written in English and one in French to French journalists. Not only does it speed up journalists’ work but it also increases the chances of a rapid publication for the press release.
  • To make contacts: journalists expect that PR agencies will allow them to meet key figures such as the chief executive officer of a company. They want the appointment to be well-organised and schedule rapidly.

 

French journalists and social media

 

 According to a study conducted by CISION, most French journalist view social media as a useful tool for their job. Among the 290 French journalists who participated to this study, 91% use social media in their job. The most popular ones are Facebook and Twitter. Facebook comes first, as a way for journalists to publish and promote their articles. Then, they use Twitter to be aware of the latest news and buzz. Social media also allow journalists to evaluate the impact of their articles thanks to comments, likes and shares. In fact, social media can even become an indicator of what works and what doesn’t, leading 59% of French journalists to adapt their content accordingly.