Interesting Article from the BBC about Twitter and other social networking sites.

BBC Article on Social Networking Sites

You and your Website

As more and more Irish people get a broadband connection, there are more and more people using the Internet as their first port of call when looking for a business.

Because of this your website is increasingly the first impression a potential customer will get of you and your company. As with any other method of communication, or indeed shop window, it's vitally important that you create a good first impression.

If a customer is looking online for a company that provides your service and they find you and two of your competitors, chances are they'll ring or contact the company with the most professional looking website first. If you have the best website in cork for your industry and you'll be ahead of the competition before your potential customer even picks up the phone.

Whatever the overall use of the site will be, the very least you should have is a smart, modern, up to date website, that is intuitive in both layout and navigation. This will give a positive first impression of your company and will increase the chances of your site generating a lead for you, which is after all it's purpose.

You simply can't afford to cut corners

You simply can't afford to cut corners when it comes to your website. Some companies will offer to build your site for next to nothing, these companies often won't take the time to get to know you and your company and as a result the site will lack planning, be done in a rush and the end result is that you'll wind up with a site that is not as effective as it could, or should, be.

So Why Pride Web Design Cork?

Unlike the budget web monkeys, who want to get the job done as quickly as possible, Pride Web Design Cork will

• Take the time to get to know you and your business
• Take the time to work out your online goals
• Plan how best to get your message across to your customers
• Plan your website, we don't throw your content into a template and leave you to it
• Professional, Friendly & Patient service from beginning to end
• We produce "Top End" Websites at "Mid Range" prices
• We will link your to the power of Web2.0
• We will work with you on your online strategy, we don't just hand you your site and leave you to it.

Good planning = Good website

Skip the planning stage and you'll probably end up with a website that does nothing for your business. Trust us, we've revamped enough sites to see the difference a quality site can make for a client.

A quality site will soon pay for itself!

A well planned, well designed and well executed website may be more expensive to get up and running but a quality website will very quickly pay for itself and should last the test of time.

Saw this on YouTube, not a bad video on Web 2.0

Making Web 2.0 work for you

EAMON McGRANE

THE BATTLE to integrate Web 2.0 tools into day-to-day business practices will continue to be a significant issue for companies, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) new technology forecasts.

As a term, Web 2.0 has been in existence since 2003. It was coined to describe new ways of social interaction and sharing information in different ways, such as blogs, wikis, widgets, social networks, mashups and bookmarking. The distinguishing characteristic from previous web technologies is interaction.

The PwC report points to one problem with social networking platforms - much of the activity on the consumer web is frivolous and some of the companies experimenting with social software seem preoccupied with the superficial aspects of it.

According to Ciarán Kelly, head of performance improvement consulting at PwC, both sides of Web 2.0 need to be mixed. Instant messaging could take care of the more "small talk" aspects of communication and sharing.

"There is a huge amount of noise in terms of the amount of information people are being hit by with BlackBerrys, voicemail, IM, webmail and so on. With so much communications incoming it can be difficult to see the wood for the trees. I think what Web 2.0 is attempting to do is distil that noise into information that is relevant to you."

PwC has been using Web 2.0 technologies - specifically internal blogs - to solicit ideas and suggestions for how to make the company a better place to work. Previously, an e-mail would have been circulated. However, the nature of blog entries means that ideas are developed more organically.

Kelly underlines the importance of being able to share information quickly and organically by positing a scenario where government could use Web 2.0 tools for a procurement strategy. For example, if a department had to buy watercoolers, PCs, telephony and so on, it could informally set up a collaboration mechanism across all departments asking who else had bought similar items and how much they had paid for them.