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Should the Oscars have a category for 'Best Performance by a Piece of Office Equipment in a Motion Picture'? No. Of course not. That would be ridiculous. Nevertheless, some of our favourite Hollywood movies contain pivotal roles from normally innocuous office products.

How many of the following five photocopier/fax cameos do you remember? 

(Warning: Here be spoilers. If you haven't seen a film in the last ten years then go and read something else.)

1. Best Death: Office Space

Some would argue the quintessential photocopier scene. Mike Judge's 1999 satire about three disgruntled office workers who decide to rip off their company via complex accounting fraud features what is probably the goriest movie death for a piece of electronic equipment since the T-101 decided to take a nap underneath an hydraulic press. The three colleagues take long sought after revenge against the MFP for ruining their long days by taking it out into the middle of nowhere and taking turns to pummel it into the dirt - all set against a Geto Boys soundtrack.

Tagline: Work sucks (but a lousy copier sucks more)

      2. Best Character Introduction: Fight Club

The sinister photocopier again emerges as a symbol of white collar frustration and pent up corporate drone angst in David Fincher's seminal 1999 study of the modern male psyche. The narrator works for an insurance company and sees his life stretching out before him devoid of possibility - in order to liven things up he subconsciously creates an alter ego - the exotically amoral Tyler Durden. Before meeting Tyler for the first time we see, through the narrators eyes, subliminal glimpses of his soon to be unleashed dark side - single frames containing out of focus Tylers in the background. The first of these occurs while the narrator watches his colleague operate a photocopier.

Tagline: On long enough timeline the survival rate for every HPLJ9050 drops to zero.

      3. Best Interrogation: The Wire

Okay, it's not a movie but it is HBO, so close enough, yeah? The urban myth of the police faking lie detector tests on ignorant suspects is an old one but in series five, episode one of what is probably the greatest cop drama of all time it's given a new twist. Dapper dressing Bunk Moreland tapes his frightened witnesses hand to a photocopier's glass plate in order to verify his answers. "The machine never lies, son" says Moreland to his terrified mark, who promptly confesses.

Tagline: Read between the lines. (Or maybe just clean your print head) 

      4. Best Causality Paradox: Back to the Future Part II

You'd have thought that where they were going, they wouldn't need faxes. Apparently you'd be wrong. When Marty McFly finds himself in his own living room 20 years in the future in Robert Zemeckis' 1989 sci-fi comedy sequel he sees his future self getting fired by his then  boss for being goaded into a dodgy business deal by his friend Needles ("nobody calls me chicken!"). The message comes through on several faxes placed in Marty's, now I come to think of it, suspiciously 80's looking living room. But all is not lost - at the end of Part III, back in 1985, (the two films were shot together and intended as a single cohesive story) McFly overcomes his tendency towards proving his courage which ensures that he'll keep his mundane future job (?) and the message disappears.

Tagline: He was never in time for his classes... He was never in time for his dinner... Then one day he bought an Amstrad PF600.

      5. Best Getaway Assist: The Usual Suspects

Oh agent Kujan, you came so close to catching the elusive Keyser Söze in Bryan Singer's 1995 neo-noir masterpiece. If only that fax machine had been a little quicker in transmitting the police artist's sketch of Keyser's face (put together from the description of the only other survivor). If only mobiles with cameras had been around in '95 then you wouldn't have needed a fax machine at all.

Tagline: Five criminals. One line up. No connection. Please hang up and try again.

Can you think of any more?

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Approved Index provides a fast and free way to get photocopier quotes. Fill out one simple form and get up to 4 free, no-obligation quotes from top UK copier suppliers.

I thought I'd take some time out from our ongoing series on the small business in a recession to share some thoughts on social media and what the owners and managers of a small company can do to make it work for them.

Social media is prettiest girl at the marketing ball right now: everyone wants a dance. The reasons are clear: it's cheap and it's really, really effective. For proof, see this article on Social Media Examiner: 26 Promising Social Media Stats for Small Business.

How do I become a social media guru?

The short answer: get involved. Post often and post about stuff that excites you. Chances are, if you're revved up about something it'll have a similar effect on at least a few other people.

Here's the longer version:

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare and Google+ are fantastic for targeted marketing. When people share, like or Tweet your posts they distribute them to a network of connected people with whom they share certain characteristics. These characteristics might include ones which make them suitable to your business. For example, someone who's had a good experience with your company might decide to follow you on Twitter. The next time you Tweet an offer they might re-Tweet it to their followers who are all much more likely to be a suitable customer (due to what they have in common with the original customer) than a person picked at random off the street.

In order to capitalise on this effect you have to be active on social media platforms on a regular basis. It's no good Tweeting or posting a Facebook update once in a blue moon and expecting an uplift in website visitors or footfall in your shop or restaurant. Much of social media marketing is down to maximising your chances of catching the eye of the right person at the right time - prompting them to react by further sharing your content or acting on the invitation/offer. Your chances are increased the more often you put something out there. As your network of followers/friends etc grows this catch-the-eye effect becomes more likely due to the law of big numbers.

So, all I have to do is post constantly?

Sorry: it's a bit more nuanced than that. Constantly posting about nothing in particular will just turn off those followers you've been lucky enough to pick up.

The best thing is to be honest - post when you're genuinely excited about something that you want to share.

But I run a small business - I don't have time for this!

Yes, you do.

The most labour intensive part of the whole process is setting up your Twitter, Facebook, Google+ accounts. That'll probably take a couple of hours if you do it right and add plenty of profile information (after all, you want people to know that it's the real company, where you are, what your logo looks like, what your website address is etc). But you can spread this out into 20 minute chunks over several days if you really want to stick to the 20 minute rule (you're so pedantic!)

You more than likely have a smart phone from which you can access Twitter, FB and the rest. Why not set a reminder at regularly spaced intervals, say four times a day, to do some social media updating? Some of these reminders will end up being ignored, or you won't feel like you have anything to share at the time - but it will keep reminding you and getting you in the habit of thinking about it. You'll end up engaging with social media at least once a day - the absolute minimum if you're to achive guru status.

Pretty soon though you'll get the bug - when someone likes or reTweets your stuff and you know your marketing message is propagating out into cyberspace (we still say that right?) you'll want it to grow and grow.

Okay, I'm enthused. What next?

The actual posting only takes up about half of our alloted twenty minutes. What should you be spending the rest of the time on?

My answer: musing.

Yep, have a think. (In the marketing industry we call this strategising) You can do this over your porridge in the morning, in the shower, the car or while you're doing boring repetitive tasks of which most businesses seem to have one or two.

What should you be thinking about? Who are your customers and why do they like your company? What can you do to make them tell their (online) friends about you?

Don't be afraid to think outside the box: in fact, out of the ordinary stuff tends to be more likely to catch on. A cafe I visited recently was giving away free cups of coffee to anyone who checked into FourSquare while inside. You might think a cafe giving away free coffee is business suicide but if each of the people who took up the offer spread the message to 50 friends (who are likely to be local remember) that's a pretty good return on (i'm guessing) 30p's worth of coffee grounds, hot water and milk.

So think about what your business can do to get people Tweeting, Liking and +1-ing about you. You're probably an expert on your business sector so don't be afraid to share your knowledge with the world - people appreciate an expert, love to learn and love to share knowledge. Then stick it out there the next time you get a reminder and watch your social media influence slowly grow.

It does require patience and discipline, but, considering the outlay, the returns are practically infinite.

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Larger company looking for help with social media marketing? Get social media agency quotes from Approved Index.

In our last blog post we laid out the case for not following the predictable path of cost-cutting and downsizing that most businesses fall prey to during a recession. We argued that in the current business climate large companies are mostly locked into a beggar thy neighbour type strategy of cost reduction (in fact where they are pursuing growth, they're doing it through takeovers and mergers) and that small businesses hold the key to recovery through their innovation and risk taking.

Over the next few posts we'll try to suggest some ways in which small businesses can take measured risks in order to reap large rewards. We'll point to some potential avenues of growth that, while they do involve some up front expense to exploit, could lead to capturing some of the markets that the large corporates are too cautious to go after and emerging from the downturn in a much stronger position than before.

The first such suggestion is ecommerce.

Taking your sales online not only opens up your catalogue of products and services to a much wider audience who are suddenly only a couple of mouse-clicks away but also allows you to exploit the accessibility and cost-efffectiveness of online marketing channels. With only a few hours research any business owner is able to start taking steps to promote their business online - be it through social media channels like Twitter and Facebook or by tweaking your website to make it appear higher in Google search results (a process known as Search Engine Optimistion). With an ecommerce website in place, any successful marketing activity will drive customers directly to your place of business and potentialy result in sales.

As well as facilitating this have-a-go approach to marketing using tools like Google analytics with your ecommerce website make it possible to track exactly where on the interent your website visitors are coming from, which search terms they're using to find your site and which ones are actually converting into sales  - allowing you to work out who your best customers are and tailor your marketing efforts for these kind of people.

Getting an ecommmerce website up and running won't be cheap - you're looking at an expenditure of at least £1k for a decent website. In straightened economic times and with bank finance so hard to get hold of we understand that that's no insignificant sum. But when you consider that online sales in 2011 topped £62bn while high-street spending dwindled, and that over the last year the number of small businesses trading exclusively online rose by 31%, you realise that getting your products and services online is a no-brainer.

Preaching to the converted?
Okay, we know we're writing a blog entry here and that if you've found our site because you're interested in the internet and business that you're probably trading online already. So, do we have a suggestion for you, the experienced e-commercant?

Yes: M-commerce.

Mobile phone users were the source of 2% of all ecommerce transactions in 2011 and with the proliferation of smartphones that figure is expected to more than treble over the next few years. With that in mind, ask yourself this: how mobile friendly is my ecommerce site and am I doing enough to embrace smartphone using customers?

If your site isn't optimised for use on a mobile device which has a small screen resolution, limited bandwidth capabilities and possibly no support for Flash you could already be missing out on a significant number of sales - especially if what you're selling is aimed at younger, more tech-savvy customers.

Whether you need to develop a mobile website or mobile app is a question to which you should give careful consideration (and you can get more advice here) but what's certain is that smartphones users are the future of ecommerce.

The first month of 2012 is almost at an end. The days are getting longer and, while temperatures aren't showing signs of rising just yet, it's getting slightly easier to believe that spring will one day arrive.

But will 2012 be a springtime for British businesses emerging from the long winter of recession, or is the economic climate set to get harsher still?

January's business news provides rather a mixed forecast:

1. HMRC showing welcome readiness to resolve small business tax disputes. (DOF Online)
HM Revenue and Customs has (rightly) come in for a bit of a barracking in recent years. Making secret tax deals with corporations like Vodafone and fouling up PAYE tax codes for 1.4m people in 2010 has significantly undermined confidence in the government department. They've also repeatedly been accused of victimising small businesses in order to increase the tax take and help cut the UK deficit. A move by HMRC to introduce a new Alternative Dispute Resolution service aimed at small to medium sized enterprises is welcome then, as outlined in this article from Director of Finance Online, though time will tell whether the new system makes it out of pilot and how much good it will do.

2. Small businesses are the 'real internet companies' says, er, Google(?!) (Telegraph)
In a rare display of humbleness for the search engine giant, Google exec Matt Brittin said at a conference in Brussels that online behemoths like Skype, eBay and Google istelf are not the 'real internet businesses' but that that title rests with SMEs, the 'unsung heroes of the economy'. It seems that Google doesn't mind a bit of competition after all - presumably as long as that competition isn't offering a product or service that Google itself offers and is too small to pose any kind of threat.

3. Small business lending still weakdespite project Merlin (Telegraph)
Project Merlin, an agreement between the Government and the top four banks (Barclays, Lloyds, RBS and HSBC) was finalised almost a year ago in February 2011. The terms were that those banks would lend a total of £190bn to business in 2011 including £76bn to small businesses. So how did they do? Not very well apparently. The banks not only missed those small business targets but also saw a drop in new business lending of 6.1% year-on-year in the three months to November. What are the prospects for this situation changing? Pretty bleak as even larger businesses are now reporting that bank credit is hard to get. As the banks continue getting their balance sheets in order to better cope with the Eurozone crisis small businesses are urged to try alternative sources of investment capital such as http://www.fundingcircle.com/ - a peer to peer social lending programme or http://www.crowdcube.com/ - a crowdfunding enterprise.

4. Auto enrolment pensions for small businesses delayed until 2017 (Guardian)
Those small business owners still grappling with this year's tax return (we hope you've remembered today's deadline) will be relieved to hear that the introduction of at least one administrative headache has been delayed for another 5 years. The auto enrolment scheme was set to bring up to 10m workers into pension schemes for the first time but the DWP have cited "exceptionally tough economic times" as reason for delaying the introduction of the programme - under which employees are automatically enrolled on their employers' pension schemes - until 1st April 2017 for companies with fewer than 30 staff.

5. Facebook to offer free ads to small businesses (Sky)
A generous month for internet giants indeed, January also saw Facebook announce a £4.2m giveaway of ad credits to businesses in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Individual buisnesses can get up to £83.16 each of free credits and there will also be free events run by Facebook and local Chambers of Commerce throughout the country explaining how to set up a business Facebook page and use it to engage customers. More sceptical heads might see this as a response to Google's recent introduction of brand pages on their new social network Google+ which, if used shrewdly by businesses, can have a similar effect to advertising.

Those of a less cynical bent are just happy to get free stuff.

There are many great SEO tools out there that are available to new and experienced webmasters or digital marketers. Not only do these tools help you with analysing the performance of your own site, they are also ideal for checking the status of your competitors' websites, which should greatly help you in terms of SEO and potentially enable you to leap-frog said competitors in the rankings.

So without further ado, here are the tools that your competitors do not want you using to see what they are getting up-to with their websites, in no preferential order.

1 - SEOmoz Toolbar
This is an excellent tool and a great add on to your web browser. This tool has been developed by the talented people from SEOmoz and it enables you to see a great deal of very useful information.
This toolbar includes tools such as:

• Website link checker
• Highlighting tool for internal & external links & keywords
• On page element checker which highlights h-tags, Meta data, alt-text & text to code ratios
  
• Page attributes, such as links both to and from your domain, and domain authority according to SEOmoz's ranking factors
• If you have the full membership to SEOmoz you will get access to all their tools, but there is still limited access for non-members.

2 - XML Sitemap Generator

This isn't a browser add on, but a tool that will help you create an XML sitemap for your website. Sitemaps are a good way to prompt search engine crawlers to find your content and get it indexed. The XML sitemap will help to indicate to the search engine crawlers which pages are the most important, and therefore which they should crawl first.

3 - SEOquake

This is a similar package to the SEOmoz toolbar but one that doesn't get appended to the top of your browser. Right click to access this SEO tool. It has some great parameters to help you with your SEO research.

Some of the best features of this tool are:

• Alexa rank functionality
• Robots.txt indicator and XML sitemap indicator, which are both unobtrusive
• Excellent multi keyword analysis tool, very useful for finding out both short-tail and long-tail keywords
• A quick and reliable competitor domain analysis tool, that can relay information such as page rank and Alexa rank quickly

4 - Open Site Explorer

A great tool that is available to all, and it's from the guys at SEOmoz (again). Open Site Explorer allows you to analyse not only the links to your own website, but you can check the links that are going to your competitor's websites too. It's available through the SEOmoz toolbar but it comes in handy when you don't have that available.

5 - Google Analytics & Google Webmaster Tools

If you work on increasing visits to a website then I recommend adding the tracking code of these two tools. Both provide extensive and invaluable data which can aid tactical improvements to your website, as well as informing your overall marketing strategy.

The list of features is extensive, and includes data on site visits, keyword rankings, what keywords were used to access your website and social media engagement such as Google+ activity.

Both tools are provided by Google and are generally intuitive with links to FAQs and intruction guides to help you get to grips with the functionality.  These tools are invaluable yet many websites owners do use them - so take advantage whilst you can.

6 - Redirect Checker

This website should be saved in all savvy website owners favourites list. The simple site can quickly tell you what types of re-directs you have on your site - really useful when you're removing or altering content and you want to confirm that you're sending the search engines the correct type of redirect code.

7 - Y-slow
 
This is a tool that will tell you the download time of the pages on your website.  This is particularly important to know as Google put a lot of credence into page load speed times, so if yours aren't optimised properly then be prepared to pay the price (in lost rankings).  Make sure you use this tool to bring the specific culprits to your attention.

8 - Whois

This is a nice little application that can tell you some useful information regarding not only your own website, but also your competitor's website. The site can tell you information such as the following

• Domain name
• Registrant
• Registrant type
• Registrant's address
• Registration status

Particularly handy if you would like to acquire a rival domain name, or would just like to spy on one of your competitors.

This is just a highlight of some of the many SEO tools out there aimed at helping you bring more visitors to your site.  I hope you've found it useful.  Are there any tools you use regularly and would recommend to other marketers and site owners? 

Another busy week in the office and another busy week trawling the internet looking for interesting topics of conversation. So as tradition dictates it is now time for my Friday round-up of some of the best posts, videos and general online ephemera that has garnered my attention in the past week.

The first post that I have enjoyed this week was from Google. The post was titled Measuring and optimising Fairmont's social media efforts with Google Analytics. It's an interesting post about how the Fairmont business implemented advanced segments and tracking in order to measure the success of individual social media campaigns. I find it an interesting article as there is a lot of dispute out in the marketing world over the validity of social media, due in part to the lack of being able to track or record conversion or success rates.

                                        

The second article that has caught my attention is related to user generated content, and strictly speaking I found this article last week, but only got round to reading it early this week. The article is all about user generated content (UGC) and this is an area that we at Approved Index are focusing a lot of interest at the moment, and it is something we are going to be enabling on the Approved Index website in the future. The article is very interesting and goes into good detail about the potential benefits of maximising your UGC offering. Read the full article here How To Get Users To Promote Their Own Content.

The third and final article that I had in my RSS feed and got round to reading this week was regarding homepage re-design. This is an interesting topic and one that I take a great interest in as it can be a risky, yet very beneficial move for a website. This article sums up three good points on what you should be considering when beginning the process of implementing a new homepage. Read the full article here Redesigning Your Homepage: 3 "Must Do" Steps.

We are at the end of another busy week of work, so that means only one thing, its my roundup of some of the best blog posts that I have read in the past few days.

This week these posts are all related to one topic, that is the new development from Google, succinctly called Google+. I have posted a rather extensive rundown of its key features earlier so please check that out if you want to understand some of the rudimentary areas that I have personally found interesting when using Google+.

But as we all know, its always helpful to get information from other people in the know, hence the roundup.

Firstly, there is a great review from SEOmoz regarding their own early thoughts on this new system, you can read that review here Google+ 15 minutes a day.

The second article I found interesting, especially when trying to align marketers efforts with utilizing Google+ was the presence of businesses on this social sharing platform. At the moment this platform isn't available for businesses to use, but this post has some interesting thoughts about what may happen when it does open up it's doors to business. Read the full article here Google+ for business is next.

The third post I found useful and wanted to share is from Google themselves, this gives you the thoughts behind Google+ and it also displays some interesting videos showing you how to use the functionality on Google+. Read the article in full here Introducing the Google+ project.