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Jonathan Houston

Jonathan Houston is passionate about digital marketing and digital strategy. During the day, Jonathan fulfills the role of Lead Digital Marketer for Deloitte Consulting’s Technology division where his primary focus is to ensure the continued development of the division’s online profile. Jonathan’s work at Deloitte Consulting includes strategy conceptualization, focusing on the alignment of the business strategy and the digital plan as well as assisting Deloitte’s clients on fulfilling their digital objectives.. When not at work Jonathan can be found with his gorgeous wife Bernice, on a squash court or running around in the blazing sun on a cricket field.

RECENT POSTS

• Three reasons business needs a complete social mindshift

  There are a load of businesses and people out there still grappling with terms like "social media marketing". But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The truth is that there are a lot of organisations out there that still don't know how how to sell themselves to other businesses.In my mind there is a drastic shift that is needed. And the social media revolution (yes, I said revolution) has spurred on this need for evolution in business to business ...

• Google Knowledge Graph: Forcing businesses to amplify great content

  Google's Knowledge Graph is generating a lot of hype. For good reason too, it’s a big leap forward in the early stages of the semantic web.A semantic web has context and not just content. This means that when you search for the Taj Mahal, as an example, you get results on the Taj Mahal that you were actually looking for. So if you were looking for the iconic building, that’s what you will find. If you were looking for ...

• Could in-store navigation tech be a shopper’s worst nightmare?

  So GPS is great, but it has its limitations. As soon as the satellites can’t see you; your signal is lost. This is particularly true when you are trying to find your way around a shopping centre or an unfamiliar airport.Luckily for all directionally challenged shoppers out there, Fraunhofer (Europe’s largest application-oriented research organization) will allow in-store or in-mall navigation by allowing your device to communicate with small sensors scattered strategically throughout the building.The system (currently called MST-SmartSense Sensor) is ...

• The Next Web’s IE9 partnership: the future of advertising or a load of crock?

  Websites, especially ones that only provide content, have to constantly find new and interesting ways of ensuring that users click on their display advertising. This is the only way that they can stay in business. But where do you draw the line between objectivity and "advertorial"?The Next Web is a four-year-old online publication that is focused on spreading the latest news about internet technology, business and culture. Boasting an average monthly audience of around 5.1-million (absolute, not unique) and around ...

• Does Denny’s have the ultimate recipe for online marketing success?

  Denny’s is America’s breakfast diner of choice. But it also seems to have got the recipe right (excuse the pun) when it comes to serving up (I can’t stop!) excellent online content that gets its audience’s mouths watering and coming back for more! But what exactly has it done and are there some real world lessons for the rest of us?Denny’s was going through a bit of a revenue slump a few years back until it hired Frances Allen as ...

• Is the digital industry shooting itself in the foot?

  The titles that digital marketers are giving themselves these days are rather unbelievable. From “guru” to “specialist” to “strategist” and beyond (Buzz Light-Year would be proud). But are these titles that those who are using them, by and large, can actually live up to?In case you missed it; this is going to be more of an opinion piece about the digital industry as a whole, with a particular focus on how some individuals within it (both locally and internationally) are ...

• 7 of the dirtiest tricks SEO agencies can pull

  We have all heard the terms “black hat” SEO and “white hat” SEO; but what exactly are some of the downright nasty tricks that SEO practitioners can pull? How can we safeguard ourselves against these unscrupulous vigilantes?Let’s start with a generally accepted definition of what constitutes Black Hat SEO techniques. Simply put, Black Hat practices are those which:Generally contravene the search engine rules and regulations Create a poor user experience Unethically present content different to users and the search engine spidersThe following ...

• What the hell is social business anyway?

  Is social business just another term competing with other faddy social trends (Social media, social networking, social media marketing, social CRM...the list goes on)? Or is there really some substance behind it? How do we start making this concept work and do we really understand it?The thing that business and business owners need to remember, regardless of their size and their market, is that times change and people change. So as baby boomers give way to millenials and the digital ...

• Mobile and video are where it’s at with online advertising

  As media consumption habits change, so must the habits of anyone wanting to be found online change with them. As of 2012, the vast majority of online advertisers in the US are shifting their budgets to mobile and video because this is where most people consume their online media.This is what the US market looks like across the digital landscape for 2012 :According to a study by eMarketer; almost half of all US advertisers (49%) planned on boosting ...

• How Brazil became an internet advertising powerhouse

  Brazil is a making waves in the tech world. A growing number of tech startups are emerging from the Latin American country and it's investing heavily in tech infrastructure. Small wonder then that online advertising is also on the rise.In a 2011 survey, IBOPE (a large media and marketing firm in Brazil), sheds some light on why Brazil is showing a surge in advertising spend within their home market.Total advertising spend in Brazil rose 15.8% year-on-year when ...

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