Archive for July, 2009
David Cameron condemns Tweeters as tw*ts
Posted by Phil Page in Thoughts & Opinions, World News on July 29th, 2009
The Register’s recent article perfectly illustrates that people should be more careful about what they say regarding new technologies and the people that use them, especially if you’re trying to get into Number 10.
Cameron has definitely risked alienating a large demographic by slatting the people who use Twitter and it’ll be interesting to see what other foibles he can make in the future.
Longmynd Hike Sponsorship Forms
Posted by David Harrison in World News on July 28th, 2009
I mentioned last week that my brother and some of his friends were going to do The Longmynd Hike this year and that Severn Internet would be sponsoring them. They are looking to raise money for two very worthwhile charities, with one of them, MacMillan Nurses, being a charity I have raised money for myself in the past through Round Table.
It will be interesting to see how well this Blog and also the various Tweets I make help the sponsorship drive! I am not overly precious about being the only logo on their clothing, so if anyone else would like to sponsor them directly (except any competitors obviously!) please let me know by replying to this post.
The sponsorship form is attached, so please feel free to download and raise even more money! Long Mynd Sponsorship Form
Thanks in advance for your help.
Culture Colony moves to full testing …
Posted by David Harrison in Company News, Facebook, New Contracts, Web Site Launches on July 23rd, 2009
Culture Colony is a great concept aimed at developing the Arts Community in Wales through collaboration and networking opportunities. It might almost be described as a mini Facebook where artists can showcase their work.
At present the site is still in test mode, but feel free to try it out and your comments will be much appreciated.
http://www.culturecolony.newsitetesting.co.uk/. The site includes some pretty clever video streaming so if you are looking for something similar please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Pay your employees to leave!
Posted by David Harrison in Facebook, Thoughts & Opinions, Twitter on July 23rd, 2009
It is surprising what one comes across after a period of random surfing, but this one was pretty amazing to me. I ended up there from reading about Amazon’s takeover of Zappos, but the Zappos culture is surely one of the reasons why they are so successful http://bit.ly/T0pWt gives you more information, but in a nutshell Zappos gives people the option to walk away early with a $1000 bonus! Sounds crazy? As they say though, it does mean that you know everyone who stays is a committed employee!
At Severn Internet don’t go quite that far, but we do have relatively relaxed working practices with people working from home, coming in a bit later or other such things. I think a relaxed environment makes for a more productive environment – no doubt they will all be in here soon asking for tomorrow off! It also helps the environment of course so a good thing all round really.
Severn Internet to sponsor Longmynd Hike team ….
Posted by David Harrison in Company News on July 21st, 2009
Severn Internet are pleased to announce they will be sponsoring a team to take part in the annual Longmynd Hike. This is a particularly gruelling event, but my crazy brother and some of his friends are going to give it a go! Having previously taken part in The Three Peaks Challenge on a number of occasions I know they will do it.
All monies raised will be going to charities associated with Dispraxia and Cancer. If you’d like to make a donation, please email me your details.
Newspaper digests on your desktop …. and track your competition
Posted by David Harrison in Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions, Useful Stuff on July 15th, 2009
Paul wrote a good article on newspapers and their imminent demise yesterday … here is a slightly different take on the printed word …
I quite like my newspaper! Reading The Sunday Times over breakfast and through a lazy Sunday is one of life’s true pleasures in my opinion, but through the working week it is harder to achieve this due to lack of time – in my case I also live in the middle of nowhere so can’t have it delivered to read over breakfast anyway!
What to do?
I am a bit of a news addict – I listen to it on the radio, watch the TV news and also still read the papers. What I am doing now however is using technology to improve my news gathering and better satisfy my craving. I am doing this without any effort and also for free. I am focussing on the topics that interest me and can scan stories related to those subjects from a number of sources quickly and easily.
How?
I use Feedly which in my opinion is the best way to aggregate your news and any other data that you want to follow. It essentially provides me with my own personalised newspaper and it is free – rather than paying for The Times, Financial Times and Telegraph I now get all their stories, or at least the ones that interest me, in one place. I think it is great and would strongly recommend it!
In a business sense, as part of our research setting up social media campaigns and any online marketing campaigns we will research not only what our client is up to but what their competitors are doing. We do this through Google Alerts, which then feeds into Feedly. We obviously use this to see what our competitors are up to aswell! If you don’t have a Google account this is one good reason to have one for sure! Every time your competitor is mentioned in a new article or post you will know about it – which has got to be of some value, even if you are just a nosey parker!
Try out Feedly!
Newspapers face a problem..a big one.
Posted by Paul McSweeney in Facebook, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions on July 14th, 2009
Newspapers are dying out..there is no doubt about it. Competition from online media sources has meant they have had to adapt.But they have hitherto not found the answer. Especially amongst the teenage readership where numbers are ever depleting. If this continues, we will have no newspapers in 20 years..Old habits die hard and teenagers are already used to getting all the information they need online via their PC or mobile phone. Moreover, 24 hour televised news channels and online news sources are free. Newspapers need to grab the interest of teenagers; for older generations they have an enjoyed an unconditional relationship. (old habits again)
Radio is suffering the same fate. Ipods allow teenagers to choose what they listen to and when without the endless radio chat and adverts..Radio faces similar challenges..their future customers are turning away from them. The Ipod is by far the most favoured listening device among teenagers.
But their main source of entertainment are social networking sites such as Facebook. They need to be seen to be on the latest crazes and feel under pressure to do so. Facebook enables them to create an achieveable illusion of themselves through the constant updating and refining of their profiles. Furthermore, they can engage in conversation with others..Facebook and My Space users continue to increase.
So what for newspapers..if they are going to attract any teenagers, my suggestion would be they need to target them first and foremost. What are teenagers into? Reality TV, Hollyoaks and the like; fashion, celebrity gossip.. So with that in mind, political expenses, interest rate predictions, inter alia. won’t cut it with these teenagers..A newspaper that focuses on teenagers will sell..but you can’t just throw out a generic product and hope it will fit all shapes and sizes..newspapers need to realise this.
Bishops Castle Beer festival a great success ….
Posted by David Harrison in World News on July 13th, 2009
Well, I hope you managed to get along to the Bishops Castle Beer Festival as suggested … a great time was had by all and all the pubs I visited seemed to be doing a roaring trade so good luck to them and if you didn’t manage to make it this year, make sure you do next time!
Bishops Castle Beer Festival Update
Posted by David Harrison in Thoughts & Opinions, Useful Stuff on July 10th, 2009
Purely in the interest of market research I happened to be in The Three Tuns last night when I bumped into a somewhat tired looking Mick who happens to be the brewer from the Three Tuns Brewery. Mick has obviously been working flat out in terms of getting plenty of the brewery’s beer ready for the festival.
He also mentioned however that there will be over EIGHTY beers available at this years festival. I defy anyone to sample every one of them! Even though Nev at The Six Bells is not a web design client of Severn Internet He does deserve a special mention in this post as he has over thirty beers available apparently. Given that The Six Bells is at the bottom of the hill, you may want to consider moving towards there rather than starting there I’d suggest!
Anyway, it looks like the weather is fine and as I said the other day there is camping available very close to the brewery. Do try and get along – it is a really good event.
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