What you need to know about Pinterest. Well firstly, it’s virtual pin board allowing online consumers to pin photos to the different boards. These photos can vary from your own personal ones such as recipes to an item of clothing you like on a fashion retailer’s website. Other Pinterest users are able to see your pins and re-pin them, like them or follow your boards. Confused? Well don’t be, it’s rather quite simple. You do the same as you would on Facebook and Twitter, if you like something you re-tweet it, share it or ‘like’ it for your friends and followers to see. The only difference is its photo’s your sharing. Here are a couple of examples.

As you can see from the two examples, I’ve created a ‘food and drink’ and a ‘fashion’ board. The great thing about Pinterest is that you can download the small ‘Pin it’ app to your internet browser and when you see something you like, just click on the button. It will automatically pin it for you, which will be shared onto your Facebook page and Twitter.

In February this year, Pinterest had over 10 million users compared to Facebook which had 845 million, Twitter with 200 million, LinkedIn with 135 million and Google+ with just 90 million. Although this number might seem significantly small, remember that it is the fastest growing social networking site. Pinterest has gender domination, with 60 – 80% of users being female and are aged 25 – 34. However, the Pinterest faze seems to be slipping slightly and the total of new users has dropped. The Daily Mail recently published that the total numbers of monthly users had dropped from 11.15 million to 8.3 million and the Pinterest users are steering away from this social networking site. Like with any new online social interest, people like to follow the crowd and keep up to date with the latest craze, so naturally, the total number of new users would be dramatically high. This is when online consumers lose interest and find out that it’s not for them, or they haven’t grasped how to use the social networking site. Not only have the number of users dropped, but there are also some security issues arising which in turn can damage a brand’s reputation…scammers. These scammers have been labelled as ‘cyber criminals’ and another form of ‘black hat marketing’. What are they doing?

They are using Pinterest to send out offensive messages to the users, whilst impersonating another brand. They will pin an image, but edit the URL address and take you to a different site. For example, if you clicked on a pin that  Cadbury uploaded, the URL address will obviously say http://home.cadbury.co.uk/, but if you were to click on it, it could take you to a completely different webpage. This means, users are less likely to click on a pin that has been uploaded from a brand they are following, therefore, decreasing the amount of traffic to the website and a loss of trust in them.

Don’t let this put you off as all social networkings or sharing sites will have the same implications. Unfortunately, these scammers can’t be prevented, but Pinterest are well aware of this and so are all of your favourite brands! Pin away and don’t forget to follow our pin boards too!

It is with great pride that 11 Out Of 10 announce that it has successfully passed the ISO 9001 Certification Audit (ISO 9001-2008) without any major or minor non-conformances being registered.

ISO 9001 is the internationally recognised standard for the quality management of businesses.

• ISO 9001 certification shows commitment to quality, customers, and a willingness to continuously work towards improving efficiency.
• It demonstrates the existence of an effective quality management system that satisfies the rigours of an independent, external audit.
• It is a prerequisite to carrying out any bid for MOD, banking sector or NHS contracts.

Surveillance audits are mandatory every year for two years, and a complete recertification must take place every third year to retain this prestigious recognition.

In addition to ensuring quality internal management systems and processes, the standards also ensure full legal compliance.

This certification is testament to 11 Out Of 10’s longstanding goal to not only meet, but to exceed customer expectations.

I’d imagine a lot of you would have heard or seen these messages recently ‘Add me to Kik…’, ‘Kik me’ or my favourite ‘I’ll Kik you in the face’flying around on Facebook or Twitter. But what is Kik?

1. A Japanese hacking scam?
2. A legitimate messenger app for smart-phone users?
3. Or a new instant messenger app that will die out over the next few months?

Let me start by answering question number 1.

A lot of smart phone users have recently downloaded the Kik app onto their phones, but within minutes deleted it due to listening to some Chinese Whispers. We all know not to listen to gossip or rumours that have been spread…by whom? You don’t know. The rumour is that Kik is a hacking virus scam that will get into your phone, shut it down and take all your information. OK, I can see why people are worried, I deleted it last night, but then thought why I have I not heard about this from more reliable sources like the news? Oh wait, that’s right, Sky News have reported it for being a hacking scam and for all users to delete it. Oh wait again, no they haven’t. If Sky news published this, then the other news channels and mainstream newspapers would have also followed lead, but have any of you actually heard this from them? Did you know that Kik has been around since October 2010? Do you really think top mobile brands such as Apple would really allow a piece of technology that will hack into millions of phones worldwide? No. It will be too damaging to their brand reputation…look what happened with Blackberry recently? I would imagine that the likes of Apple, Android and Blackberry would have done their research first, tried and tested it with a fine toothcomb before allowing it onto their platform.  With Kik being around for over a year now, surely these Japanese hackers would have been caught by now? The new rumour is that Kik will charge you £70…whatever next?

That’s the rumour sorted, onto question 2.

Kik was first introduced in October 2010, but it has only recently become popular over this last week. When this new instant messenger app was first launched, it received 1m downloads in just 15 days and has now reached over 6m users worldwide….eeeeeesh, times that by £70…these Japanese hackers will be laughing! To sum Kik up in just a few words, it’s the latest free instant messenger app that is basically the same as BBM and Whatsapp…but newer and was founded by Ted Livingston. To all BlackBerry users out there, BlackBerry has removed Kik from App World, which is why you have to download it using a link. It allows users to send quick messages, upload photos for free and tells you when it’s been sent (s), been delivered (d) and read with an (r). So, be warned if you don’t want to reply back to someone or are avoiding someone, they know you’ve read it! It is a tried and tested legitimate app that has no doubt had the rumours started due it being new! There are plenty of articles out there that have given the app the heads up and mark of approval. Mashable being one of them, the most popular social and technology blog site worldwide. Kik have been working alongside the operating systems, Android and iOS for over a year.

‘First launched in October 2010 and we’ve since grown to millions of users on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Symbian, becoming one of the most popular mobile apps’.

http://www.kik.com/blog/

And finally, question 3.

It may not last long, you might get bored and we tend to do that a lot! We’re not easily pleased and is always looking for the next new thing, but only time will tell. People are already getting bored with seeing their friends’ status asking them to ‘add them on Kik’ or ‘not downloading Kik because you can afford to send a text message’. Well, those who post the latter, don’t most phone contracts offer you unlimited or a certain number of free text messaging per month? No one wants to pay 10 or 12p per text message! Not everyone lives with gold coins or has money growing on their trees, as much as we’d like to. The majority of phone consumers today have a smart phone which comes with free instant messaging anyway like, BBM and iMessenger? What’s the difference? It would be the same as someone telling you to stop sending BBM messages and text or phone someone instead! It’s the 21^st century guys, technology is where we live. When people tell you to use a computer to write a message to someone instead of using instant messaging, how many of you would (apart from when at work of course or supposed to be doing work)? You’d probably use your phone instead to send a message on Facebook or on Twitter. My guess is that Kik will eventually die out when the next new thing comes along.

There is a lot of hearsay about and you do need to be on your guard, as you never know, it could well be a hacking scam. I know I will be, but until I hear or read it about from more reliable, trustworthy sources, it’s staying.

For now enjoy Kik, don’t enjoy Kik, but tell us what you think about it? My advice is to all those who have Kik, only accept your friends and no one randomers who start talking to you! They could be anyone! There is a block app…use it!

So that time of year is upon us, decorations are going up, songs are being sang, Santa’s are cruising down the streets and bank cards are burning…..yes, you guessed it…in the words of Noddy Holder…IT’S CHRIIIIISSSTMASSSS (I’m sure I have carefully placed this joyful song in your head now)!

We all have our favourite Christmas songs (The Pogues Fairytale of New York), Christmas Adverts (Coca Cola without a doubt that surprisingly came on early this year and The Celebrating 25 years of Magic Toys R Us) and the films are rolling out on TV too…Elf and the classic “I’m going to give you to the count of three to get your…” Home Alone!

Here at 11 Out Of 10, we’ve decided to get into the festive spirit and decorated our new office into a Winter Wonderland…well close…ok a few tinsel here and there, but it’s better than nothing! We also had a Father Christmas drawing competition…feel free to vote for your favourite! Christmas party went under way at Akbars in Manchester …yes you can tell it’s male dominated office going out for a curry for your works do…but it was delicious…word of advice though, don’t eat a whole a chilly unless you are prepared to suffer with the consequences…mention no names!

Here are a few of our favourite films that remind us of Christmas…the selection is somewhat random!

• Elf -

“Buddy the Elf, what’s your favourite colour?”

Running a company blog can be time consuming and you might think it’s a waste of your time, but there are many benefits to having a regularly updated blog. You can create a more enhanced user experience, add a personal side to your website, as well your business and improve your rankings in the search engines.

We have pulled together our top 5 tips to help you in your blogging journey:

1. Make the content interactive
The best blog posts always have interactive content and we would strongly recommend that you use images, videos, links, questionnaires, games, etc to make your posts more interesting to your customers. There is so much media to consume on the internet and you have to set yourself apart from the rest and make your blog content attractive.

2. Target keywords
There are many SEO benefits to having a regularly updated company blog and if you can target keywords naturally in your content, it will contribute towards good rankings in Google. Remember to add 1 or 2 keywords into the post, but be careful not to overdo it as it might be seen as spam. It is always beneficial to add keywords into the title and link the keywords in the blog post to the page you are targeting that specific keyword.

3. Have a schedule and make it a team effort
Create a blog schedule for your business and stick to it! Posting a minimum of twice a month is recommended for the average blog. Allocate one person in the company to organise the running of the blog and try to spread the posts amongst different people in the business to ensure you display the expertise to your customers.

4. Ensure your content is unique

Do not copy and paste content from competitors, news sites or any other website, this is looked upon negatively by Google and the other major search engines. Create your own content about relevant and interesting subjects, this will increase the likelihood that others will link to the blog or share it on social networks.

5. Share you posts

You MUST share your blog posts using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to get your post in front of a larger audience and get it noticed quicker by the search engines. Delicious, Stumble Upon, Reddit and Digg are social bookmarking sites that are also really good for sharing blog posts on the internet and spreading the word about your posts.

The points above will get you moving in the right direction but we would recommend that you read other blogs on a regular basis to understand it from a user point of view. If you are struggling to keep you blog updated please feel free to let us know and we will be able to help you out.

The 11 Out Of 10 team have FINALLY moved offices and are beginning the process of re-branding themselves into the big digital world!

This talk of moving offices has been on talk since I arrived at the company back in August and here we are, sat down at our new desks with a brew! Even though we were practically sat on each other’s laps, with the new additions to the 11 Out Of 10 family, me being one of them, the new move was right on queue and we have room for even more digiteers!

Over this last week, the boys have been hard at work, carrying the new furniture into the office and putting it together. I would just like to clarify that, even though the guys did carry the majority of the furniture, it did not seem ideal for me to carry something that was quite frankly, bigger than me and no doubt weighs more too! Saying that, I did carry a few table legs up and wheeled my stuff over in a chair!

Our new office is about twice the size of our previous home, with taller ceilings and more windows. This alone has made it feel more spacious, though, we may need to invest in a couple of speaker phones to communicate with one another!

One of the other main reasons why we decided to change offices was to have whiteboards, and a flat screen. This will enable us put more creative ideas together, whilst keeping a chilled atmosphere.

Due to all of our hard work today, moving in, the directors treated us all to a Dominos pizza…each and wowzers, you could literally stick a fork in us all right now, but well worth it!

Keep an eye out for more brand changes for 11 Out Of 10, with the new website and new logo.

From, the 11 Out Of 10 team!

[Show as slideshow]

We all have a link to the creative genius, whether it’s an iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple Mac or iTunes, there is a connection that will keep his memory alive.

Steve Jobs was the guy who made a device that allowed us to listen to our music, make calls/ text, and browsing the internet, watch videos / movies all on one small technological devise, the iPhone.

Steve Jobs has worked with Apple for the past 35 years and has changed the world in terms of technology and how we use it. Apple is paying their tributes by changing their homepage to a photo of Steve Jobs and writing a short memorable message as a mark of respect on the second page.

With this in hand, the new iPhone 4s will be released in the UK today, in which many mobile phone operators such as Orange and O2 have been offering their customers special deals. Unfortunately, for me I have just upgraded my ‘fantastic’ pink Samsung Tocco to an iPhone 4 only a week ago. Although you may think, why didn’t I wait another week? I was in fact an iPhone ‘virgin’ and judging by people’s opinions (including a close friend of mine who is obsessed with Apple and an Apple merchandiser to himself), the ‘new’ changes to the phone were quite irrelevant to me and I would have known no different! It is pleasing to say that a couple of the boys in the office will upgrading their iPhone 3G to the new iPhone 4s this weekend and are literally buzzing over it! So, we will see how both phones compare!

Keep an eye out for my next blog comparing the iPhone 4 with the iPhone 4s.

On Wednesday, 19^th October, Apple will be hosting an employee event in honouring the memory of Steve Jobs.  Leave your comments on Steve Jobs or your favourite Apple product below.

All those that have a Blackberry phone will be aware that their server has crashed….for another day.

There were constant Facebook messages and tweets on Monday from Blackberry users, all complaining that they can’t use their phone for BBM messenger. I just brushed this off, thinking it may have been a quick mobile phone network provider’s service that was down (as us Orange customers will know) and that it will be sorted in a matter of hours. However, when I got home last night, messages of outrage were will still being expressed.

Orange sent out this message to their Blackberry customers -

‘Hi from Orange. We’re sorry, some BlackBerry customers are still experiencing problems with sending & receiving emails, browsing the internet & using BlackBerry Messenger. BlackBerry are looking into this urgently and hope to resolve it soon, so there’s no need to get in touch. Thanks for your patience’

Whilst getting ready for work on Tuesday, I quickly heard on the news that there were server problems at RIM’s Slough Data Centre. This problem didn’t only cause a huge issue in the UK, but for the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa too! News has just broken out that it has reached the U.S. and Canada! Who would have thought that the Berkshire town of Slough would cause such mayhem?!

Blackberry owners have been complaining on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The below message made me realise that one, it’s to do with the Blackberry themselves and two, how glad I am to have an iPhone!

And so the problems continue…

It has now been reported that Blackberry users are experiencing a new service disruption and are unable to send messages or emails too. So, first it was not being able to send BBM messages or browse the internet and now this? What can the phone be used for? Just when you thought the worst was over…absolute outrage!

Blackberry has around 70m users around the world and how many of these do you think are slightly unhappy right now? Quite a lot I’d say!

Blackberry has already seen a drop in market share to their rivals Apple, so could this take a turn for the worse for the popular smart phone brand? We’ll have to see how they deal with this and what they give their customers in return.

This is perfect timing for Apple as they are due to launch the iMessenger today. Doesn’t look like Blackberry will be feeling too fruity right now!

But, I guess I had a lucky escape with upgrading to an iPhone, the Blackberry was an option!

Are you a Blackberry victim? Leave your comments below and tell us your views on this.

It is obvious that celebrities or well established brands and individuals will gain a staggering amount of followers. We can all admit to watching X Factor at the weekend and in last night’s vote off show, Take That singer and the new ‘Simon Cowell’ X FACTOR judge, Gary Barlow sent out his first tweet in during the xtra Factor show and gained over 2000 new followers within seconds.

Gary’s tweet was sent out around 10pm last night (9^th October) and now has 287, 514 followers, in which I would like to contribute to!

Now, obviously, we can’t all achieve this in such a short space of time, but here are a few tips to help you get started!

• Share relevant information to your followers – who are trying to target? If you’re a business, tweet messages that are key to what you do.
• Tweet interesting messages and information that can gain a response and not pointless posts –

People don’t want to know this!

• Post fresh content including videos, images,  blogs, press releases etc… This can gain a response and will appear on the respondents Twitter feed, therefore give you more attention.
• Join in with conversations. You would in a normal everyday setting, why not online too? Getting yourself known is a good way to gain followers!
• Re-tweet relevant/ interesting articles, blogs and put a reply with it.

• Tell the world what you think about what has been said whether its industry news or any latest news.
• Get involved with #FollowFriday (#ff) and respond back to those who mention you in a #ff.
• Be witty and humorous with your tweets, keep your followers interested. They are more likely to respond back to you or re-tweet to their followers.
• Try keep the number of people you’re following below how many followers you have (shows you’re not too keen or desperate for followers).

Hope this helps to kick start your Twitter followers numbers!