Change is in the wind

There's been some changes at Spiral that you might be interested in. Three months ago I set a new course for Spiral.  Reflecting on progress so far I can say this has been one of the best course changes ever. At times it's been hard, challenging and downright sad, yet I have always felt the wind was on my back and we were doing the right thing.

If you compare this course change to that which you might undertake if you decide you want a toned bod' and you may need to shed some weight, have regular workouts, and eat properly. Then with Spiral I saw we needed to do the same we:

• shed some weight and left our Petone office 
• stopped eating "junk food" or websites. Website's were a short-term cash-flow satisfiers and often left us with the feeling that we could have done better but there wasn't the time  
• "beefed up" on our software development and are now at the top of the .NET game (well Cain is!)

There are 4 of us in the team and we are all working from home. Audrey Shearer and Alan Watson in Wellington, Cain Harland in Napier, Maureen Hines in England and the services of 3 outside contractors in Wellington when we need them.   A newly implemented virtual telephony system means that you can continue to call the same number to contact us 04 5862686. You'll find the new system lets you choose who to talk to … or call me (Audrey) on my mobile.

We've been very busy working on delivering projects including a major project to an Australian client. Another project from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, for another ICU clinical trial, is in full swing.  Medical trial software has become an important growth area for us and a significant portion of our revenue. 

Graphical website design is no longer part of our core business and we will work with graphic designers on larger projects. Our functional design skills have been extended and this feeds back into the software we are developing for businesses and organisations needing database-web integration.

We continue to look after our existing clients and will continue to provide agency type services through partnerships with other businesses and local contractors.

Reminders are here

After requests to include reminders for follow-ups in the Spinnaker we are pleased to announce they have been implemented in the Supp PN Nutrition Trial.
Reminders will now form part of the core Spinnaker software, which means everyone gets them when they use our software. We had to make some changes to the user profile settings so that people could opt in or opt out of receiving the reminders.

Heres how they work:
You can opt in to receive weekly reminders on your user profile page,
Once you opt in you will receive an email every Monday with patients listed who are

1. due for follow-ups this week
2. missing follow-up data in the software. You may have followed up but not entered into the software yet
3. due for follow-up in 2 weeks

We hope you find this a useful addition.

HEAT patient transfer successful

The first patient transfer within the HEAT trial was successful this week. 

All the clinical trials using our Spinnaker Software have the potential to transfer patients between locations. The software maintains the double blind nature of their treatment and allows the new location to continue with record keeping seamlessly.   

Here's what you do

The patient needs be transferred by the incoming ICU.

1. The outgoing ICU informs the incoming ICU of the patients study ID and date of birth
2. The RC at the new ICU will to log-in to the trial website
3. select the "Overview" or "Dashboard" page
4. click ‘Transfer a patient’
5. enter the patient’s Study ID and date of birth
6. select ‘Transfer Patient’, then ‘OK’.

The new location can ‘Resupply’ study drug for the patient from the website so there is no need to send study drug with the patient.

Add a video to your website

There are essentially 2 ways to add a video to your Spiral website

1. Upload your video to a video service website like YouTube or Vimeo.
2. Hosting on your website. Send us the video file and we will add it to your site. 

Using YouTube

With your video recorded and edited it's a simple process to upload it to YouTube, there is help on the YouTube website to explain how to do this. Once it's uploaded YouTube will provide you with a code snippet that you can include in your website and the video will look like it is part of your site. The beauty of this method is that YouTube takes care of the conversion to a suitable web format and enables it to be viewed on PC's and Mac's. Your website visitors can watch your video with no extra software and bandwidth is free for you.

Hosting on your website

To include a video on your website and have it hosted on our server you will need to send us the video as the file will be too big to upload through the asset manager. 

Until now there has not been a standard for showing video or movies on a web page. Most videos were shown through a plug-in (like Flash) but different browsers may have had different plug-ins. To watch the video you needed to have the plug-in or to download it to your computer. Using HTML5 we are now able to embed a video in a webpage. Currently there are 3 supported video formats for the HTML5 video element. They are MP4, WebM and Ogg. Older browsers dont support HTML5. This table shows current browser support for the 3 video formats.

The real issue is the HTML5 video element is not supported by Internet Explorer 8 or earlier. 

Remember in New Zealand all our hosting providers charge for overseas traffic. If your video is popular overseas and watched by many then you will rack-up overseas traffic and may be charged extra for it.

Summary

For us in New Zealand YouTube provides a quick, simple, professional and low-cost way to include video on our websites. This is our recommended method.

Moving out, moving on

Today we moved the "big" stuff from our office to the lockup down the road. With plenty of boxes to fill we will be kept busy for another week with packing and actual work before we move completely on Friday.

Its been 5 crazy weeks that started with looking about for a smaller office in Petone (one of our favourite places). With only 2 or 3 of us in the office most days our 123 sq metres was silly. I told our lovely landlord we wouldn't be renewing our lease later in the year and on the same day, entirely unconnected, our neighbour came over looking for more office space. One thing led to another, they really wanted more space in July, we agreed they could move in on the 20th of July.

Yes, I looked around for office space once we had decided to move, but not too hard I admit because over the past few months I've been working at home a couple of days a week and loving it. Our team already has 2 Kiwi's working remotely, one in the Hawkes Bay and another in the UK. The switch from running a partial-cloud office to a full-cloud office didn't seem such a big step, after-all  the cloud is our natural environment.

We are using Dropbox, Highrise, Basecamp, Skype and will add a Voip phone system this week, hopefully customers will get the same or better service from us. We may find a little office to suit or we may continue to work from home. Over the next few months we'll let you know how we get on.

How to run a Facebook Ad campaign

Creating a Facebook ad campaign can be a great way to get your name out there, particularly if you combine it with something people want like a competition. It can be easier than you think to create a campaign and with the tools Facebook provides your ads can targeted to specific groups of people.

The first step on any campaign is to create your advertisement. On the top right of your Facebook page you'll find a "Create Advert" option under the settings button as is shown below.

You'll be taken to a page where you choose who you want to create the advert for; usually you'll be selecting a page for which you are an admin. If you are an admin on multiple pages then select the page you want to create the campaign for.

Facebook has some great tools for pointing you in the right direction when creating ads (they want your money after all so if anything they've made it easier to create ads than to use their sometimes knotty free features). Once you've arrived on the ad creation page there are helpful links all over the place to guide you through the process but I've included a few screenshots here to show some of the features.

Below is the section where you enter the content of your ad. You want a short, snappy headline; Some concise, informative text; and an eye catching picture. Make sure the picture is bi enough to fill up the space available or your ad will look undersized. You also have a choice of where your ad will direct people to. A common one is just to direct people to your page's Timeline but equally useful is to have the ad directing to a competition app that you've set up or had set up for you.

After the basics of what the ad will look like you can choose to target your campaign. The first and most useful tool is to target people by location, age and gender as is shown below. If you are a local business you can make sure you are only targeting locally and in your target demographic.

From there you can also target by specific interests or platforms that your potential customers might be using. This one is a great idea in theory, and it certainly explains to me why Facebook is always so keen to get me to fill out the "Interests" section of my page, but not everyone with those interests will have filled out that section. If you make your target particularly narrow you may miss some potential customers. Having said that there are a lot of people who have filled out the interests sections so if you target those areas you can be sure you'll be going after enthusiasts. This could be a great strategy if you're on a smaller budget and have a clearly defined target demographic.

The final part of setting up an ad is the pricing. It is incredibly simple to do. You just need to set a budget (either per day or for the whole campaign) and set how long you'd like to run the campaign for. It can be a little annoying as it didn't seem to let me select any non-USA time zones for my scheduling but it isn't all that difficult to subtract 19 hours to get California time. Once you've chosen your budget you enter your payment details and go from there. Any time you want to come back and make changes you can and you'll be provided with some great reports on your ongoing campaign.

The ad you've created will appear on the side of your target's Facebook feeds and should look similar to the ones below. A little something that appears on the right hand side of Facebook feeds. Facebook also gives you a "Sponsored Story" when you create an ad. This is just an item that pops up in the news feeds of people who fit your target criteria and are friends of people who have already 'liked' your page. This can be a particularly powerful tool as it acts as a sort of referral system directing new people to your Facebook page.

So that's Facebook ads. Fantastic little tools for promoting your message on what is an almost ubiquitous platform these days. Have a look and try them out for yourself. You won't be charged unless you enter payment details so you can have a play around for free quite easily. You might be surprised what you can do.

Dog fooding our web site

The term "Dog fooding" or "Eating your own dog food" means to consume your own product and therefore experience it as the user does. Whether it comes from a disgusting true story involving dog food manufacturers or if some one just coined the phrase and it stuck I don't know. However this concept is particularly useful in the world of software development. So at Spiral its time to eat our own dog food and use WebShell, our content management system, for our own web site.

Why it took so long

Because we are geeks we like to get into code and tinker with things and a nuts and bolts level. We all had windows machines with fancy software to edit web sites, every one could read and write at least some HTML and Asp.Net code and felt that being able to code rather than use WebShell gave us more freedom what we wanted with each page.

Why it is now a necessity

Editing on different platforms. With some of our team now running Apple computers and our site built with Asp.Net (a Microsoft technology) we had the problem that all the software to edit Asp.Net sites is built for the windows platform. To add to this people now work from different locations on different devices. We want to be able to make content changes from a home computer or tablet or smart phone, not just the office computer that has our software on it. Webshell fixes all of these problems as it runs in a web browser and can therefore be used on almost any computer, tablet or other device with an internet connection.

With our team members becoming more specialized at their particular roles, the desire to tinker and have total control over code is being replaced with the the need to make changes easily and efficiently. WebShell help us with this by providing a simple and WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface to the web site. No more need to set up ftp connections or run complicated software just to change content, the coding can be left to the programmer.

Experiencing our software as the users do will enable us to provide better support and keep improving WebShell.

Watch the Blog

As we get to grips with the WebShell version of our web site the team will post about their experience as Webshell users and maybe some tips for others. In the long run we can hopefully be more responsive to our customers needs and will be turning out a much improved product.

Webstock 2013

The story begins, as every great story should, with a cup of excellent coffee. After registering months in advance Webstock had finally arrived with its brilliant combination of insightful speakers and endless free coffee/Ice Cream. It is a fantastic event that brings together a diverse array of speakers who look at the vast potential of the Web in an incredibly enthusiastic and excited fashion. It is a group of people who work at the cutting edge of internet innovation and hopefully we at Spiral come away from it with inspiration to improve our products and services for the rest of the year.
 

Inside the Wellington Town Hall at the Webstock Conference

Over two days I learned about the Web from perspectives ranging from Journalists to Web Entrepreneurs, App builders to Media Inventors. The talks were held inside the Wellington Town Hall with periodic breaks for us all to hit up the coffee bars in the foyer or to grab an ice cream from the freezer. There was such a concentration of Web people that both the free wifi provided for the conference and the local 3G cellphone coverage crashed. Too many people were trying to connect.

Clay Johnson gave me an interesting perspective on modern online media, Aza Raskin showed us all the amazing creations that can come from constraints and Tom Coates explored the possibilities that emerge from increasing connectivity. Robin Sloan gave such an interesting talk I went out and read the novel he wrote (it was great! I read it all one Sunday). At the close of the second day I had a notebook stuffed full of insight and head full of inspiration. There was so much there for me and hopefully I can take some of it away to help our customers. 

It truly is a great experience and the topics of the speakers are so interestingly diverse that even completely non-techy people can enjoy them. Some of the past talks are available online here if you want to have a look.

Armed Forces Safety Pointers

The New Zealand Herald reported this morning that the Defence Force has issued a handbook to personnel with guidelines on how to use social networking. I mention this because there are useful tips even for those of us who dont work in the military. It warns that piecing together information through the internet was easy, and adversaries were very good at pulling together information to create a complete picture. You could substitute "new boss" for "adversaries".
The handbook said staff should avoid speaking negatively about supervisors  or revealing sensitive information. I would add avoid speaking negatively about anyone on facebook was a bad idea.

Armed Forces Safety pointers included:

• disable the option to be tagged in online games
• check photos and videos, before posting, for anything of a sensitive nature
• disable the GPS function (if you dont want people to know where you are)

These are sensible tips we can all apply. The saying goes "loose lips, sink ships" ... dont sink your ship with inappropriate behaviour, unkindly words or ignorance of privacy functions on Facebook. 

How to post a photo to Twitter

Posting photos to social media is one of the best ways to connect with your followers and customers. It gives people a chance to get a feel for your company and to see a little more of its soul. It gives others the chance to see your company as more than just the services or products you provide. You can showcase your staff or show off some pictures that give your company a little more personality.

Twitter is a great place to put up a few photos. Along with Facebook it is one of the best places to be focusing your social media efforts. Tweeting your photos is neither difficult, nor time consuming so it can be a great way to get them out there. Starting is as simple as clicking on the camera button underneath your tweet box.

You can then enter your tweet as usual in the text box. Twitter takes some of your character limit to add the link for the picture but you still have enough to write a decent little message.

You can see below how the tweet looks. Twitter is not just for text messages. You can see that photos too can easily be tweeted.

If you have a Twitter account linked to your phone it should be even easier to tweet pictures. Mine has a simple "Tweet" option on any photo I take.

So you can see how easy it is to post photos to Twitter. When the opportunity presents itself for a good shot take the few extra moments to get the photo. It doesn't have to be a professional looking shot (the beach shot above was taken on my phone). You're not using this in an expensive print promotion. Anything that will give others a bit of an insight into who they will be working with is ideal. So start taking photos, start posting them to Facebook or Twitter and just see what the response is. You might me pleasantly surprised.

Your Online Goals for 2013

A new year gives many of us a fresh chance to look at things. A chance to look at what we might be doing differently over the next year. In the online context this is particularly important as the web can change so much in 12 months. There are always so many new ways every year to use the web to your advantage.

So where should we start? Yes there is a lot out there that is new but for small businesses in particular you'll want to be focusing your efforts on a few key areas. The good news is that you should have heard of these areas to focus on. There is a lot of new software out there but there is no need to start the year by going out and puzzling your way through a series of increasingly more esoteric social media platforms.

In fact the starting point is usually your website. Even now in the age of social media the website remains the bedrock of your online presence. If someone hears about you and wants to know more, then chances are your website will be their first port of call. The start of a new year is a great time to make sure that your website is fully up to day and to give it a bit of a general review. Check that all of your details are correct and update any staff changes or other basic information. Then you might want to make sure that you still have the right keywords in your pages. Can Google find you easily? Do you need to do some SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to ensure that you are being found? Finally you'll want to have a look at the overall design of the site. This is the part that will change the least; all you need to be doing is checking that your design is still relatively fresh. You certainly don't need to be changing this every year but the example below really shows how even cutting edge website design will eventually need replacing.

Does your site look like this?

Facebook is another area we recommend having a look at. This is a platform that becoming increasingly important and I see as having too parts to it. The first part can in some circumstances take over some of the roles of a traditional web page. A business Facebook page should have on it your location and contact details so that anyone searching on Facebook can easily find you. It is also a chance to take people browsing Facebook back to your main website. The second part revolves around engagement. This is simply putting stuff on the page. It doesn't need to be fancy it just has to be there. If you put links to your Facebook page on your website or email marketing you can build a community. Ten minutes each day or even just each week gives you a chance to interact with this community and show off the personality of your organisation. Simple things like photos of an office lunch can show a different side to your clients or customers and help to build a stronger relationship between you. Have a look at our page here.

Our Pinterest Page

Perhaps other social media options interest you? Twitter is a great way to get you message out there. One retweet can mean you'll reach tens of thousands of people. Pinterest is a fantastic way to post images of product you are selling. The images will always link back to their original location no matter how many times they are shared or repinned so for anyone with an online store it can be a golden opportunity to gain exposure in new areas.

Follow us on Twitter here

Email Marketing is one of the most effective tools an organisation can use to keep connected with their client base and it offers one of the highest returns on investment of any marketing tool. A well designed campaign can be prepared in a few hours or even less than one hour for a shorter "announcement" style message. The problem is that it can be so easy to put off sending out a monthly announcement and it eventually can get to the point where it falls off your radar altogether. So the new year is a great time to be looking into bringing back your old campaigns or starting from scratch if you've never used it before. A new email template and a schedule of sending can be all you need to keep yourself sending them out each month. We've found that the best way to make sure that campaigns go out on time is to have two people that share the responsibility for creating and sending. The two of you can remind each other and having someone else working on part of the campaign makes the job feel a lot less daunting.

If you take these tips to heart you can really make the web work for you in 2013. The key in all of them is keeping things current and maintaining contact with your client base. You name will be fresh in people's minds and your branding will become familiar to them. You don't need to be on every new platform that comes out to get the most out of the web. You just need to make sure that those platforms that you do use are utilised to the best of your ability.

My personal favourites of 2012.

The web changes every year, growing constantly and opening up new ways to share. There have been so many new innovations this year on the web. Here are just a few of the things that have come over my horizon this year and that I consider to be the best of the web in 2012.

Listening to music online has been getting progressively easier over the past few years and Spotify has taken the experience to the next step. You get a six month free trial period that includes radio style advertisements or you can pay a simple flat rate fee and you can listen to as much music as you want ad free. As permanent connections to the internet have become more and more pervasive this sort of service has become much more practical, especially with the explosive growth of smartphones. To me, Spotify represents the movement of data away from our personal devices and into the cloud. It is the mainstream of society finally taking advantage of some of the larger potential of the web.

You cant have the internet without pictures of cats apparently so I'd better add one of those to the list as well. Because not everything has to be useful, sometimes it's just cool.

Pinterest was launched a couple of years ago but it has really exploded over the last twelve months. A simple way for users to share pictures they've seen online it has become one of the fastest growing sites in history. People are sharing everything from travel dreams to favourite recipes.This is a great site to browse if you're looking for inspiration and it is a great way to organise images online. See something you like? Just pin it and you can come back and have a look again later. And because it always maintains a link back to the original source it has huge potential for selling online. Any image someone likes can be shared virally and it will always link back to the shop it was originally pinned from. If that isn't exciting for anyone selling online I don't know what is.

This has got to be up there as one of the biggest things to hit the web in 2012. The most popular video on YouTube of all time it is of course Psy's K-Pop sensation, Gangnam style. Where else but on the web would a Korean pop song have the chance to spread across the world. It is so easy to share anything and everything with friends online these days that even something as strange (and amazing) as Gangnam style can get to the point where is has been viewed nearly a BILLION times on YouTube. People of all ages will recognise that opening beat and Psy's dance moves are being used in clubs, at sports games and anywhere else this incredibly catchy song is being played.

Making this list has made me wonder about what the future has in store for us. What is being developed out there right now and what might the internet look like in a year's time. It's an exciting time to be online as social sharing makes it even easier for products and services to gain access to larger markets. It could be a cute picture of a kitten and a funny video that spreads like wildfire or it could be a new service offered online. You never know what's going to be next.

Tips for great business photos.

Written by Jin Cowan - www.jincowan.co.nz

We don't get a second chance to make a good first impression. A good business portrait is one of the most effective tools to build credibility and rapport with your potential clients.
The purpose of business portraits is to:

• Convey your brand image
• Portray trust and professionalism
• Capture your passion and your individuality

Here are a few tips that will help you to have a easy session and achieve a great result:

Clothes

For a great head and shoulder shot,  the rule of thumb is keep it simple.

Solid colours and simple classic cuts photograph the best. In another word, avoid stripes and patterns, bold graphics, complicated cuts and bulky jewellery.

Wear something with a conservative neck line, such as shallow V-neck or turtle neck. Similarly wear long sleeves rather than short sleeves. Bare arms, shoulders and low cuts will not look flattering in head and shoulder shots.

Last but not least, for us to look relaxed and confident, always wear comfortable and well fitted clothes.

Make up and grooming

Think it as the makeup / grooming for a nice evening out. Well done but not over done.

Many of us prefer a natural look and some don't normally wear makeup. However a well applied layer of foundation will help even out your skin tone under photographic lighting, and help achieve a natural and flattering result.

Posing

A great portrait is never about staring into the camera with a stiff smile. Go into the session with the confidence that you will have a great result. Your photographer should be an expert to coach you to feel relaxed, and guide you as to how to pose. Once you're relaxed and feel confident, your facial expression will follow. Whether it's a heart-felt smile, or a mysterious look, your photographer will capture the natural expression, with the most flattering or interesting lighting and angle, to create a compelling portrait of you who has a great story to tell.

Style

A class studio head and shoulder shot is the convention, but who said this is your only option? Include your work place in the image, go to an interesting location, use a prop, have actions. You will be surprised how a simple change of approach could add context, depth and individuality to your portrait, and engaging your audience on a more personal and emotional level.

Talk about different options with your photographer, and they will help you to realize the image in your mind!

Your photographer should have checked out the location before the session, so he or she is prepared with the knowledge and the equipment to capture that unique and timeless portrait.

Why you should have team photos on your website.

In a busy world with so much going on it can be hard to keep even the most critical parts of your website up to date. Sections that seem less important often barely warrant a thought. Images of your team may seem to be a trivial addition and often the "About Us" section of your site can be sadly neglected.

However even some basic photos can make a real difference. The image below is of a long page cut into three that has tracked where the user's eyes have been looking. As you can see their interest is less and less as they go down the page but critically you can see that their eyes stop on almost every image on the page. The larger the dot the longer their eyes were fixed on that point. This user actually spent 10% more time looking at the photos than reading the bios.

People images are where the eye is spending much of its time.

Studies have shown that this kind of engagement only comes with photos of real people. Stock photos often will be completely ignored. The more time a user spends on your page, the more time they have to take in information and be convinced to buy your product / use your service. The longer a user is on your site the more likely they are to take the next step and contact you.

Team photos are a great chance for you to get some images on your site of real people. It will give users something to engage with when they visit your site and it will help to keep them on the site for longer.And by putting these photos in an "About Us" section, possibly with a few short bios you're also giving clients and potential clients a chance to get a feel for your staff. Don't neglect that poor section of your site any longer. "About Us" may be working harder for you than you think.

Why I like Hootsuite.

Keeping on top of all your social media accounts can be a bit daunting and rather time consuming. For maximum impact you need to spread out your posts over the week but spreading your time out across the week can distract you from other tasks and hamper your productivity. Thankfully there is software out there that can help you manage all of this. There are a few options out there including TweetDeck and Seesmic but the one I personally use is Hootsuite. It allows me to see several different social media platforms at once, it allows me to see stats on things like links clicked on and it allows me to schedule posts to appear anytime in the future. Best of all the basic version of this software is completely free.

The ability to schedule posts is particularly useful as you can set up what you would like to post for the week (or the month, however long you want) in one big chunk without all of it appearing on your pages at once. While it remains really important to continue to monitor what is going on on your pages so you can engage fully with your followers this can make posting to social media a much more efficient process.

The free version of Hootsuite has a few options around reporting as well. They are not nearly as in depth as those of the full version but it can show you how many people have clicked on specific links that you have posted. While limited it is always good to be able to get some feedback on which content your followers like the most.

Another neat feature is the link shrinker. This is especially useful for Twitter with its character limits on posts but it can also be really useful if you want to post a long, messy looking link. Put it on the link shrinker as you can see I have done below, hit the "shrink" button and you'll have one much shorter link.

I have not needed to use any of the pay features so far. I think for a small or medium business the free version of Hootsuite is more than enough. I could see the full version becoming much more useful when you have multiple people working on your online social presence and catering to a large audience. The best way to find out more about it is to sign up and try it out. It has loads of features that even I don't use due to the nature of our community but some of you out there might find really useful.

Have a look at hootsuite.com to see if you might find this tool useful for your business. For anyone that does give it a try I'd be really interested to hear how you find it and what you use it for the most. Just send us an email or leave a comment below.

Get the most out of your business Facebook page.

As Facebook becomes more important for businesses it is becoming more common for your Facebook page to be the first point of contact that you have with your customers, at least for basic information about who you are. To ensure that you are getting the most from your Facebook page you need three basic things. You need some basic information about your business so that potential customers can get an idea about who you are after a quick scan. You need to have your contact details available, particularly a link to your website. Finally you need to make sure that your page is optimised to be found. Thankfully Facebook has made this easy with a couple of simple categories.

Facebook gives you the option to add "Place Topics" or sub-categories to your business Facebook page. This will not only display on your page but will also be indexed by search engines, meaning your Facebook page is more likely to come up in a search. On Facebook it is already possible to search a location for a specific type of business. Adding place topics to your business page will make it easier for you to be found.

Your location is also important to have available on the page because Facebook already has the location of most of its members. If someone is searching in Facebook for a particular type of business or even for your business' name it will provide a list of those businesses closest to the searcher before listing businesses further away. If you don't already have your location listed then you can do so by clicking the 'About' button on your own page then editing in there.

With these simple additions you can get more impact from your Facebook page with minimal effort. As more people see Facebook as an alternative source of information to traditional websites it really pays to have some basic information up there and to have done some simple optimisation. Even if heavy social media engagement is not part of your online strategy at the very least it will help to point traffic your direction.

Podiatry website launch showcases new software.

Congratulations to Jennifer and the team at Butler Pelvin & Associates who’ve just launched their new administrative software at the NZ Podiatry conference to rave reviews. As Jennifer said, “everyone loved the new website.”

The administrative software means Butler Pelvin can easily manage the membership database for any not for profit organisation. Features include:

• Membership joining and renewal
• Membership insurance
• Advertising and registering for events
• Membership CPD
• Classifieds
• Supplier Information

Podiatry NZ is the first organization to use this software. Members can promote their business to the public as well as mange their own education and membership details online. Check out the website here www.podiatry.org.nz .

We’d like to thank Jennifer for the opportunity to be involved in this project.

-Audrey and the team at Spiral Web Solutions Ltd.

Do you need a mobile website?

Spiral just recently created its first mobile site for a customer. It has been exciting for us as this is a great area to be working in. We can see so much potential for some of our customers. People are staying plugged into the web more and more. It is increasingly common for information to be accessed from a smartphone or tablet far from any traditional computers. The web is now in your pocket wherever you go.

 

Our latest creation

Why is a mobile site important to have? Well it depends on your business. The key advantage of a mobile site is always going to be its portability but equally important for good mobile access is its simplicity. It is never going to be more complex than a full website but it shouldn't be. It should be as simple as is can be while still maintaining the basic functionality you're aiming to achieve. One of the key limiting factors with mobile internet is the potentially low speed of the connection. The internet simply will not be as fast climbing up a cellphone signal as it is sprinting along a high speed broadband connection. So if your business would benefit from being more accessible for people on the go perhaps a mobile site would benefit you.

Looking quickly at the site Spiral has just recently created we can see these aspects at work here. NZRAB has a mobile site that is very simple but does exactly what needs doing. In this case a Real Estate Agent can easily check the credentials of an architect while on the go. Perhaps while showing or viewing a building. It is a great example of the benefits of having a simple, portable website that can be accessed easily. It is quick to load on any mobile device due to the streamlined design but it also conveys all of the information that it needs to.

 

A mobile website will be particularly useful if many of the people who will be looking at your site spend a lot of their time away from an office. It is great if providing access to a database is one of the key goals of your current website. The key of every mobile website is to be simple, easy to use and effective. Perhaps your current website works well on mobile devices and fits these three criteria. But if not then it might be something you should be looking into. Feel free to give us a call or send us an email if you're curious and would like to hear more.

My Favourite Things Mobile.

Mobile seems to be the flavour of things this month so to go along with this theme I've come up with a quick list of all of my favourite things mobile. The mobile internet allows us to tap into the vast potential of the web from anywhere with phone service. These apps and mobile sites are just a few that I think are the most useful or interesting.

Metlink Mobile

Metlink - So useful for anyone who uses public transport. It can help you find the nearest bus stop or relevant timetable. And as most buses now have gps units installed in them this mobile site can tell you exactly how far away from your bus stop they are. I find this useful every morning as I can check if the bus has gone past already once I get to the bus stop.

Google Maps - Handy when you realise you don't know how to get somewhere in your own city. A lifesaver when you get lost somewhere you don't know, whether you're on holiday or heading off to a business meeting. If you can get a data connection when you're in another country this can be particularly useful. I'm usually pretty good at getting my bearings but I got completely turned around coming out of a subway station in Toronto once and had no idea which way I was supposed to go from there. Luckily I could check the maps on my phone which showed my location and I could easily see where to go from there.
 
London 2012 Results - So the Olympics are over now, though the Paralympics are only halfway through, but this was a great app to have while it was on. I'm expecting something like this from all major sports events from now on. Not only did it have schedules and results but it also had the option to be notified for specific events. I just had to select my favourites and I'd get a notification when they were starting.

An Example game of Words

Words With Friends - This is basically just scrabble but you can play with anyone anywhere. You can play with your friends who have the game too or with a random opponent. I have an ongoing game right now with a friend who moved to the USA and with its inbuilt chat its a great way to keep in touch.

Flipboard - One of the greatest things about the mobile internet I think is the ability to access personalised content anywhere. Flipboad allows you to choose which media sources you want to hear from. It can pick up images from your Facebook and Twitter accounts and mixes it in with stories from the Economist and BBC News to create a personalised magazine on your mobile device. Whatever mix you want.

Stuff - While Flipboard is great I do need to get my fix of New Zealand News as well. Stuff has a great app I can have a look through in the mornings to catch up on the top stories in the country. While the layout and content are great I have noticed a few times that it can crash unexpectedly. It is still a fantastic application and despite the occasional frustrating episode it only takes a few seconds to get back on so it still makes my list.

The mobile web is one of the great areas for potential growth in the future. As more and more people are connected to the net 24/7 through smart phones and tablets there is a great opportunity to move into some of this previously underutilised time. I'll still read a book on the bus sometimes but I am equally likely to be checking the latest news. Not only that but a good mobile site or app will make people's lives much easier. I like these sites and apps because they either help me or entertain me at times when I previously had much more limited choices.

Adding a newsletter subscribe button on Facebook.

This might seem we're going a little overboard but how can we not be excited! It is a combination of two of our favourite things. A sublime combination of both Facebook and Mailroom. Well, maybe just a slight overlap but we think it is exciting all the same. 

It is a great new feature we can do for those of you who have a newsletter you send out through Mailroom. You can now have a subscribe button added to your Facebook page. Check out the Spiral one below.

The Spiral Facebook page. Now with the option to subscribe to our Websavvy newsletter.

You can even have your own image as the logo for the button. All anyone has to do to subscribe to your newsletter from there is to enter their name and email address and presto, you have a new subscriber.

We love everything to do with both Facebook and Mailroom right now so we loved having the chance to combine the two in one project. It's a great opportunity to leverage your position on Facebook into more subscribers to your newsletters, giving you another chance to get your message out there.