Archive for April, 2009

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Edinburgh Kitchen Company goes live

Monday, April 27th, 2009

360innovate are pleased to announce that the Edinburgh Kitchen Company (EKCO) website has officially gone live.

EKCO required a website solution to promote and display information about the EKCO company, displaying information of showroom locations, testimonials and text on the design process.

360innovate proposed a content managed system that could allow EKCO to easily add and update the pages and information displayed on the pages when and where required.

Would you like a website like this? Contact us.

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Design Crush – edition 6

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Since spring has sprung and as the better weather settles in (much to our delight), here at 360innovate we have come over all green. For this weeks Design Crush, we wanted to talk about using nature in graphics and design that can really transform a flat standard website into something that is full of life and personality.

There are many design trends out there, some come and go, other stick around for a while, and one that always seems to re-surface is the use of nature as inspiration for web design. There are more and more sites out there recognising that with a few clever uses of imagery inspired by nature, you can transform a site and bring it to life. Using shapes derived from nature such as plants and flowers to any type of natural element can transform a rather simple site design into a world of its own, giving it real character and interest. And the best thing about using nature in design is that you have so many options making it very easy to create something that is totally unique to your site. So its easy to bring life into web design using nature as inspiration.

Here are some good examples of how to use nature in web design:

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Diary of the Twitter Newbies

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Its been a while since we have put up a post for the Twitter Diaries; with the office being super busy at the mo, Easter weekend and a bout of the chicken pox, we have found it incredibly difficult to not only maintain our Tweeting never mind blog about it.

In the three weeks we have been neglecting the poor Twitter Diaries we have seen considerable increase in our followers, which is very nice, and weird as it sounds but we have also began to feel part of a wee community- does that sound as geeky as I think it does?

Yet when we first started the Twitter Diaries we did it with the business in mind, the business being 360innovate, we wanted to know whether Twitter would bring any benefit to 360innovate. Benefit being brand awareness or leads for example; and although we may have accumulated over 140 followers each has 360innovate benefited at all?

In a word, yes. Admittedly we haven’t had any Twitter users sending us Direct Messages asking for our branding services… but we have had some positive results which have the potential of turning into future prospects- you just never know!

  • We have seen a dramatic increase in the number of traffic coming directly from Twitter to the 360innovate website and blog.
  • We have identified several conversations and tweets about 360innovate on Twitter, many regarding @johnmcc‘s JQuery blog post.
  • We have been able to communicate with other web design and online marketing agencies in Scotland.
  • We as professionals have benefited from some very useful advice from some influential people in our field.
  • We have been kept up to date with business events happening in the local area.
  • We have been able to share our blog postings to a wider audience.

Whilst you cannot quite measure the success of this in terms of leads and sales, there is no doubt that since beginning the Twitter Diaries there has been a considerable increase in the brand awareness which plays an important part in creating future opportunities.

Moving on to our Twitter tip:

Tip #6

This is perhaps more common sense than a tip as such but if you are using Twitter as a business tool you need to have a ‘Follow Me on Twitter’ link.

If you have a blog ensure that your posts are automatically published on Twitter with a Twitter Feed.

 

 

 

Here’s our stats from this week:

@laurajdavis

Followers 144 (+35)

Following 194

@Pammyweaver

Followers 143 (+28)

Following 187

Keep posted guys…

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Locum Monkey website goes live

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Locum Monkey approached 360innovate with an innovative idea to create a networking website for UK health service professionals that would allow general practice surgeries to find a locum quickly and cost effectively.

Locum Monkey required a website with bespoke web development that had a search facility allowing GP practices to find locum doctors available in the local area to fill vacancies. The website had to be able to produce a list of results and have the functionality to allow the GP practice to send SMS messages to a selected number of recipients to enquire whether or not they are interested in the vacancy . If interested in the vacancy the locum will then have the ability send an SMS message back sayin “yes” and the GP surgeries will then be provided with a list of doctors who have replied to the text as interested.

The Locum Monkey project was a web programmers dream and rather than have myself waffle on about it I would prefer to allow John McCollum, our resident web programmer, tell you about Locum Monkey and its development himself.

“When 360innovate were approached to build locummonkey.co.uk, it quickly became apparent that this project was going to be quite complex. There were many complex features, four types of users with very different needs, and integration with three third party services!

With that in mind, we had had to make sure that the site was properly planned from the outset. Working from the client’s initial idea, we built an initial technical specification which moved through several iterations, until both the client and ourselves were satisfied. We then turned this technical specification into a user-interaction map, defining how each user would interact with the site.

With the planning complete, we began to build the site! We used the Codeigniter PHP framework, as we have found it to be both powerful and flexible. It combines practicality with a lightweight footprint to give us the best trade-off between development time and site performance.

For the user interface, we made extensive use of the jQuery library. Again, this library provides lots of ‘out of the box’ functionality without impacting on site performance.

Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of the site was the integration of an SMS messaging system. Users can send text messages to locum doctors who may be looking for employment, or can build their own databases of mobile numbers to send texts to. In addition, SMS replies can be sent ‘to the site’, resulting in a hassle-free and interactive experience for all.

The emphasis for this site has always been on the user experience, and I think we have succeeded in building a fun, attractive, and above all, useful site.”

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Get the product in front of the consumer

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Getting the product to the consumer requires placement and promotion, aside from your website and using search engine optimisation to promote your website in the search engines there are various ways that you can get the product in front of the consumer.

Google Product Search

Many shoppers, when looking for a product will search  online, Google provides a Product Search service which automatically produces the relevant products to your search. Shoppers can quickly and easily find your products when you submit them in Product Search, delivering you more traffic and helping you increase sales. Inclusion in the Google Product Search is completely free; there are no charges for uploading your items or charges for the traffic you receive. Ranking in search results is based solely on the quality and relevance of your product listings.

Social Networks

Fed up of hearing about social networks? Yes, we thought so but they do work! If you are selling online, or in fact selling offline too, and want to market your product for free then social networks are a good place to start. Bebo, Facebook and the like are a good place to start in terms of brand recognition and building a customer base.

With the internet having a large fashion community there are several social networking sites tailored to clothing, fashion and style. Websites such as Stylehive, Polyvore and Zoo Qoo are all websites focused on design and fashion. Each of the websites are successful in marketing a product in a different way, Stylehive is a product bookmarking website, Polyvore allows you to create outfits or mood boards with the products from registered businesses and Zoo Qoo is a website where creatives can share their passion for their respective field. Essentially these social networks, well any social networks, has the potential to generate a viral buzz about your product.

Retailers on Polyvore
Retailers on Polyvore featuring dress from New Look, shoes from Dorothy Perkins, cutlery and plate from Debenhams, Crest toothpaste from Walgreens, chair from CasaSugar.com, lampshade from missprint.co.uk and crisps from snackaisle.com.
Twitter
Tailing on from social networks is Twitter, operating in a different way Twitter can be an excellent way to give advice, answer questions and keep customers updated with the latest products. By keeping your chat interesting, following Tweeple with similar interests etc and not being too aggressive with the sales Tweets then you will (hopefully) gather a collection of followers. Check out @ASOS and @playcom for an examples of how to communicate with your Followers.

Price Comparison Websites

Consumers often use the internet to find the best bargain and to ease their search they will use Price Comparison websites. Register your company onto the likes of PriceRunner and Kelkoo to make sure that your product is being considered along with the rest of them.

Ebay Shops

Setting up an Ebay shop is another way to get your products out there, not only can you benefit from all the traffic on the Ebay website but you can have access to many marketing tools.

Blogs and Forums

Whether you read blogs or not thousands of consumers do, and they look to bloggers and forums to receive honest and impartial advice. There are literally millions of blogs and forums and no matter how absurd your product may be guarantee there will be someone somewhere talking about something similar. If you find such a blog, email the blogger telling them about your product and if you are feeling flush you could even go to the extent of sending some samples or a tester. At the very least keeping up to date with what the industry bloggers and forums are saying, and get involved- give advice, refer to your product and do not be scared to give away any ‘insider secrets’- bloggers and those interacting with the blog respect honesty.

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BBC Blunders!

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Have you heard the latest slip up from the BBC? Apparently this morning on the BBC Breakfast show,  a Mr Watson mistakenly called Google a browser! Yes you read right, while talking in the business feature about Google’s growth and the issues surrounding behavioural targeting, Chris Watson was quoted saying that if a user did not like Google they could “close the browser and use a different one”.

Of course we all know that Google is in fact the most popular search engine and one of the most popular websites throughout the world. However it is easy to sit here and criticise, I wasn’t up at the crack of dawn with the pressure of thousands of people watching me and listening to my every word while sweating under the bright studio lights. So I feel for Mr Watson, if I was making a blunder like that, I would hope I wasn’t on national television at that unfortunate time!

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Feed us some RSS…

Friday, April 10th, 2009

The Guardian reports today that only 73 of the 472 councils in the UK has an RSS Feed of their news section. This may seem like quite an insignificant fact but RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication)  are an incredibly simple, and free should I mention, way to communicate with your customer.

What is RSS?

RSS is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. Having an RSS Feed on your website allows users to grab that specific stream of information and feed it into a Feed Reader or News Aggregator, such as Google Feeds.

Google Feeder

The benefit of having a RSS Feed on your website is that users can have easier access to reading your news and blog posts in their news feeder, meaning that they will probably be reading what you are saying much more than if you were relying upon them visiting the website every so often. Further to this RSS feeds syndicate your content making it available to other news outlets, websites and blogs. Other webmasters can use a RSS Feed to display your article on their website with ease and also providing a link to your website. There are also many RSS Syndication websites such as Technorati where your company blog or news is available to a very wide network of people.

Technorati

“Technorati.com indexes millions of blog posts in real time and surfaces them in seconds. The site has become the definitive source for the top stories, opinions, photos and videos emerging across news, entertainment, technology, lifestyle, sports, politics and business.”

Ok, so RSS may still not appeal to webmasters; not every website has a news page or blog nor does every business owner want to rely upon a feed as a means of communication. However, in some instances a RSS feed really can play an incremental role as a marketing and communication tools.

Council websites, as already mentioned, can be using RSS feeds as a free way to communicate and keep people within their catchment area informed of any local news and announcements should they wish. Looking at Renfewshire Council News page, there is plenty of interesting information and the council are obviously using it as a means to communicate a strong message; yet there is no RSS feed to allow readers to receive regular updates even though the council has gone to the effort of setting up a Facebook page, of which there are 30 members. Similarly Glasgow City Council have gone to the effort of establishing a Twitter account which has accumulated a total of 351 followers.

Sharing content online is one of the fastest growing trends online, and although social media is an excellent tool to increase traffic to websites, having an RSS Feed is one of the easiest and pain free way to distribute your news, information and event announcements.

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Design Crush – edition 5

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

For our 5th installment of all things nice in the world of design, we wanted to talk about how a website can use design to promote more usability and to actually convert visitors into sales or lead generation. Many people get so caught up in design, they forget the basic function of the website. The primary purpose of a site is to try to create custom for the business. However, there is a fine line between the design of a site and the call to action.

A call to action is a simple marketing tool in which design is implemented to direct visitors to a specific or desired action. With web design this can be often seen where people are directed to form fill-ins and contact pages. With many online retail websites using call to action to attract customers to buy their products it can be the difference between more sales or less. A clear and eye catching call to action in an optimal part of the web page can make all the difference.

Good examples of successful call to actions can often be seen from charity websites. These website heavily rely on call to actions to promote donations from their visitors. Most have very striking call to actions that are well deigned to entice people to donate. An example of this can be seen from the Scottish SPCA website. Here there is a donation button that is obvious and clear to users while not being too in your face which can be off putting.

However, getting the call to action just right can be easier said than done. Another example of a charity website that could have a slightly improved call to action is Children 1st. Here, the donations button is at the top of the page where many people may glance over. Also the size and colour could be changed to make it stand out. So this site could benefit from re-thinking the position, size and colour of their call to action to attract more visitors to the sites desired function.

If you need help with your websites call to action, then get in touch!

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Running for the Greyhounds

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

We’re all about the charity here at 360innovate, none more so than web programmer John McCollum who has only gone and signed himself up for Glasgow 10K run in September.

He is doing on behalf of The Greyhound Awareness League; GAL provide emergency medical care and re-homing for greyhounds who are often abused and abandoned by the racing industry. They work without financial support from the government or the racing industry, and are funded entirely by donations.

Show your support for John by sponsoring him on JustGiving or if you are feeling more charitable go to www.gal.org.uk and apply to foster or adopt one of these beautiful animals.

We will let you know how he gets on in September!

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March Madness

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

In the USA March Madness refers to the the national basketball tournament but in 360innovate March Madness refers to the hectic (but very exciting) month we have had!

We have saw the launch of several client websites and the addition of some pretty exciting clients and contracts.

TLC Childcare

360innovate are to update and refresh the existing TLC Childcare website, providing a cost effective and user friendly content managed system.


Datec Technology

Datec Technology is one of Scotland’s leading electronic recyclers and IT Asset management companies in Europe. 360innovate have been appointed to provide a new website for Datec, the company requires a content managed website that reflects the current branding and allows for its future development.


UTOP Travel

Having already been appointed the task of designing their website, which we did with great applaud,  UTop Travel have now decided to invest in some online marketing.


GMI – Gas Measurements Instruments Ltd

Gas Measurements Instruments Ltd designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of robust and durable gas detectors. 360innovate won the contract to provide GMI with a content managed web solution replacing the existing website with a a fresher look and additional funcitonality increasing the interaction of users.


Cumbernauld College

360innovate are delighted to announce that we will be launching an online marketing campaign for Cumbernauld College, turning the existing website into marketing and enrolment tool that will greater support the traditional marketing campaigns run throughout the year.

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