On 31st July 2009 Mozilla FireFox was downloaded 1,000,000,000 times and counting! As the milestone mark approached a twitter account was created with regular tweets of the latest download count, to view the latest figure click here
Firefox downloads pass 1 billion
So as Windows 7 is being released without any Internet Browser being pre-installed in Europe the question one must ask is, is this a sign of Firefoxs market dominance as user numbers continue to grow? As I have mentioned on this blog, I have always been a supporter of Microsoft, but sadly IE8 was just to slow on my machine and I converted to Firefox and have never looked back!
Step 1 – Sign Up – choosing a username which represents you or your company. If your lucky enough to have a well known name that people will look for and will be followed you may choose to use your own name (i.e. twitter.com/yourname) but if your using Twitter for your company then I imagine your company name would be a better choice and you can always use your own name as the contact details within your account, that is, out Twitter account is itpie (twitter.com/itpie) but when viewing our profile the account is attributed to me Geraint Rhys Jones.
Twitter Icons
Step 2 – familiarise yourself with the twitter website and complete your details. The home screen will list the latest tweets from the people you follow, profile shows all your tweets and shows what others will see when they view your profile. Find people is where you can search for people and invite people depending on your e-mail client. Settings is where you complete all your personal details. You also want to familiarise yourself with the language used on Twitter, though this will come with time and experience, but a quick guide of the key elements are below.
RT = ReTweet – when you decide to re-tweet someones message
@username = indicates a message directly to a person which is open to be viewed by other Twitter users, this is different to a direct message (DM)
#Keyword = a hashtag (#) is often placed before a keyword that is a hot topic, the Twitter home page shows the top hashtags being tweeted about in the right hand column.
There are many more elements to Twitter and Twitter themselves have released a guide so it may be worth reading it when you get the time.
Step 3 – personalisation – a lot of users have a unique background advertising their business details and services or having a bio about the twitter account owner. The one major decision to make is the profile picture, some people use a personal image and some use a company logo, twitter and many social media users recommend using a personal image as social media is about personal communication, either way, please do add an image as the worst sight is the standard brown twitter image, once you’ve decided what is best for your business, jump into the Settings>Picture section and upload your image.
Next you want to add your personal background, this is easily done if you have the right tools, essentially you need to use a graphics programme and then create your background which should measure approximately 1600 pixels wide and 1200 pixels high, if you decide to have a column on the left then it is advised that this is 200 pixels wide to ensure nothing is lost when viewing it on a low resolution monitor. Then its into Settings>Design to upload your masterpiece.
Step 4 – following people, though when you setup Twitter you may have decided to follow some people and you may have found a number of people you want to follow already now is the time to join some twitter directories such as Twellow and WeFollow. These directories help to get you found and also are directories you can use to find people with similar interests or within an industry your interested in, there are more directories but these are two of the main directories.
Step 5 – Start using Twitter and then prepare to take it to the next level with a Twitter application. Once you start using twitter you can easily tweet from the twitter home page, but you will find that the feed doesn’t refresh automatically and once your following a lot of people you will begin to miss tweets. In order to monitor what is going on with our Twitter account we use TweetDeck and would highly recommend it. TweetDeck allows you to group the people your following and shows any direct messages sent or received, it also allows you to monitor whenever someone tweets at you. But the best thing about TweetDeck in our opinion is the notification, TweetDeck automatically refreshes and notifies you of the groups who have tweeted allowing you to decide if you want to browse the latest tweets or carry on working. The final part which goes hand in hand with TweetDeck is bit.ly, bit.ly is a url shortning website which is used by TweetDeck and allows you to shorten urls, saving on important characters when tweeting urls but more importantly, provides you with analytics so you can see how often your urls have been clicked. Register with bit.ly and if your using Firefox you can install the additional plug-in.
Once you have completed the above 5 steps you should already be tweeting and really enjoying being part of the Twitter community, we only hope you follow us for more helpful advice, tips and tricks. (http://twitter.com/itpie)
If you’re an experienced Twitter user then you’ve probably heard of #FollowFriday where you recommend people to follow, well I’m introducing #LushFriday which is a chance to indulge and share your indulgence with other Twitter users.
On the last working Friday of the month we will be indulging in our favourite lunch – which is just an excuse to go to Lush the butchers in Penarth for one of their amazing baguettes and tweeting about it with the hashtag #LushFriday or better still posting a TwitPic.
#LushFriday gourmet food if your lucky
So take this opportunity to treat yourself to whatever your stomach desires, Chinese buffet, burger, cookies or a fresh hot chicken baguette, it’s #LushFriday which means the calories don’t count (if you count calories) and after a month of hard work, you deserve a treat!
Join us in making Twitter the best fed place on earth every #LushFriday and come dine at the largest Twitter table there ever was!
The government tweeting isn’t a new thing, we follow 10 downing street and there are other government departments on Twitter, but now the government has embraced twitter and released a twitter strategy discussing how and why they intend to establish and manage a corporate presence on the microblogging social network Twitter.com
IT Pie has launched a new website, the website belongs to YourMotive.com, a company who specialise in motivation, offering team building events, working with students on the edge of mainstream education and providing fitness coaching to teams of all ages and abilities, the YourMotive.com team have the experience and enthusiasm to help its clients achieve their goals.
YourMotive.com Website screenshot
Director Gareth Fish says “We all have aims, for education, for business, for sport, for life. Structuring these aims into achievable goals, and gaining the skills & self belief to achieve them is key to helping us reach our full potential. At YourMotive.com our passion is in helping you get there! A dedicated team working alongside and engaging your school, organisation or sports team, to bring expertise, ideas and structured programmes that will ensure you achieve your objectives”
It is the opinion of Trevor Harris, a lecturer in the Department of Film and Media at Lampeter University, that the title ‘Father of the Internet’ should be given to Welsh scientist Donald Davies.
It was back in 1965 that Donald Davies developed ‘packet switching’ a system that enabled computers to communicate with each other by sending information in small segments which were then reassembled in the right order. Without packet switching, it is unlikely any of us would ever have heard of the likes of Google or Facebook.
Trevor Harris said: “I never met Donald Davies, but for those that knew him, he was thought of as an unassuming man but one who deserves as much as anyone to be thought of as the father of computer communication.
“While working at the United Kingdom’s National Physical Laboratory, Donald’s invention of packet switching made the internet, and ultimately the world wide web, possible.
“In any dispassionate analysis of the development of today’s pervasive personal computer technology and its impact on our lives today then Donald Davies, a humble man from Treorchy in the Welsh mining valleys, is one of the most outstanding figures in that history.”
So there we have it, once again Wales can lay claim to being part of, if not the founder of something we all use and take for granted today.
Other amazing things to come out of Wales (aside from IT Pie) include Artificial Rain, the Hydrogen Fuel Cell, X-Rays, Mail Order Shopping and our favourite…The Equals Sign
It was reported on the BBC website on July the 10th that ‘A strung-out musician who blames United Airlines for breaking his prize guitar has taken revenge by writing a song that has become a YouTube hit.’ Today this news story has made the national morning BBC breakfast news in UK.
The musician, Dave Carroll blames United Airlines for breaking his $3500 Taylor guitar and following a long fight for compensation has released the first of 3 Music videos aimed at United Airlines on YouTube
The video to-date has received 3.5million views and has over 25000 positive reviews along with almost 17000 comments on the video. The times has reported that within four days of the song going online, the gathering thunderclouds of bad PR caused United Airlines’ stock price to suffer a mid-flight stall, and it plunged by 10 per cent, costing shareholders $180 million. Which, incidentally, would have bought Carroll more than 51,000 replacement guitars.
United Airlines are trying to claim that “His video is excellent and we plan to use it internally as a unique learning and training opportunity to ensure that all our customers receive better service.”
It will be interesting to see if the other two parts of Carroll’s trilogy will have a similar global impact? – But a more pressing question is, are you using Social Media to support and promote your brand?
We just found this on-line thanks to Perry Belcher (http://twitter.com/PerryBelcher) hosted on www.slideshare.net.
It’s an excellent presentation by an American/Canadian firm Espresso (http://brandinfiltration.com/) highlighting the power and importance of Social Media.
Take a look at the presentation and let us know your thoughts. The figures make you realise how important Social Media is, and why you need to be part of it! Need help, then drop us an e-mail or pick up the phone and give us a call (enquiries@itpie.co.uk or 02920711607)
Today I want to discuss the importance of using a professional website developer, I have encountered many businesses who either use a family member or friend, someone they know (maybe a student studying IT or Website development), attempt to build the website themselves or use what we call an ‘off the shelf’ package. None of these methods will produce a website that will be technically or visually as good as one made by a professional website developer.
1. The first and most obvious reason is Expertise – A good web developer should build a cleanly coded website and include a minimum amount of essential SEO on the website. As they work in the industry they will have knowledge of and understand the latest technologies and trends that are happening (i.e. Twitter, Blogs etc) and be able to advise you on how they could benefit your business.
2. The next reason is that a professionally designed website is virtually always much better visually than a non professionally designed website (though obviously some people do have a good creative eye and will be able to design a beautiful website). It is important to remember that your website is a window on your business, many people will visit your website and form an opinion of your business based on your website: amature website = amature business. No matter how good an impression you make when you meet this person they will review your website and this will partly form their opinion of your business.
3. As mentioned, some people will opt for an off the shelf/Out of a box packages which will require the website to conform to set features or a set frame work that has been pre-built into the package, no matter how much freedom these packages claim to offer the user you will still have to work within some form of frame work, where as using a website developer means complete freedom of design and functionality.
4. Another issue faced when not using a professional website developer is that little or no support is available. If a friend or someone you know has built your website in their spare time, then when something needs updating or maintenance is required it will be done when this person has the time. A professional website developer has an invested interest in making sure your website is live and up-to-date as it reflects their work and will probably be in their portfolio so potential clients could be looking at any one of the websites they have built. Worse still, if you have bought an ‘off the shelf’ solution there will certainly be no invested interest in you or your business as you are just another anonymous user, through using a professional website developer you can develop a personal relationship with them and a good developer will inform you of any business opportunities they see for you and other clients, either through networking and collaboration or through adding additional or the newest, latest features to your website.
5. The final reason is it will ultimately be cheaper, amature a website can cost your business money through missing out on business. If you are lucky enough to have the ability to build your own website, your time would surely be better invested in running your own business and potentially earning money. Also if you have an off the shelf package, although it may be cheaper in the 1st year, over 2 or more years it likely to cost more: Off the shelf packages usually range from £10 – £30 a month or more.
A final thought, imagine someone informing you that they were going to do what your business offers themselves, do you believe that they would be able to do the work to the same standard that a company specialising in that industry would be able to offer?
IT Pie has launched a new website, the website belongs to Lapider who are Chartered Building Surveyors and Architects based in Penarth. Click here to visit the Lapider website
Lapider Website Screen Shot
For further information on Lapider please read below:
“Lapider is a firm of Chartered Building Surveyors and Architects based in Penarth near Cardiff, providing a broad range of design and construction expertise.
The professional collaboration between Building Surveyors and Architects is a fusion of the visionary and practical that transforms clients’ aspirations into reality.
Lapider believe good client relationships are key to unlocking creativity. We are approachable, working closely with our clients to understand their needs and requirements, to provide a quality, cost effective and efficient service.”
