December 5th, 2009
I have been reading some interesting articles on web trends for 2010 and have found them to be an interesting read. I
however, just find the approach in noting web trends really wide and all encompassing. So I will focus on the business aspects of web trends I believe that will continue to flow in from web trends in 2009 towards 2010. If your business has ignored or not considered some of the major trends and changes of the internet in 2009; 2010 is the year you should consider doing so.
Web Video
With YouTube in itself being one of the top search related engines and growing; web video done by “do it yourselfer’s” is going to continue its monumental growth. A lot of companies are currently using YouTube as the means of delivering uploaded video content to showcase their company’s products and services. For a company it may be one thing to show a product on their website with a graphic and some literature but showing a product doing what it is advertised to do with video demonstrations is another unique level that if not done already, can easily be done.
Cloud Computing
Movement towards working within the clouds; more or less off your desktop; while showed positive signs of growth in 2009 will emerge stronger in 2010. The ability to work anywhere, but able to get to a computer and an internet connection is an area both employers and employees are eying closely. With Microsoft Office having web apps; Live Mail services plus Google Apps and the Google OS on the horizon there is not a lot of reasons to not work anywhere specific such as an office. The world as long as you have a computer and an internet connection will in essence be your office. Other services for collaboration on work projects such as Basecamp will also continue their momentum in their growth.
Social Media
With Facebook just announcing over 350 million users worldwide and Twitter continuing its popular growth; they represent two of the highest impact social media sites that are both hard to ignore and can’t be ignored by business. Being in business means being social; and while the trend of Facebook and Twitter are not new by any means; if you’re business does not have some form of presence on it; you should.
Apps, Apps, and More Apps
Out in front is Apple Inc. with their iPhone and iPod Touch. Business is catching on that if you want to deliver content such as news, products or services in real time to a society that is very mobile it has to be delivered by a mobile application. Major news networks and big business are leaders of the pack in terms of stepping up to the plate and offering applications for mobile devices.
Mobile Device Friendly Websites
As more people are using hand-held mobile devices; this will have to be eventually addressed by the business community at large. What your website displays as on a computer screen and what it displays as on a mobile device can be entirely two different things.
Websites That Deliver Content
Always a trend and will continue to be. If you have a website that is nothing more than a poster board on a pole it is not doing a lot for your web presence nor your company. Give your visitors a reason to come back or to even consider using your products or services. Use web development tools such as content management systems (CMS) to deliver product catalog information, services offered and news about your company and its products and services.
Consider a blog for your company as well. It is written not in the same manner as the deliverables of a CMS system but rather more personal. It puts the human behind the website and the company the blog is representing. The search engines, which Google is the undisputed leader; literally loves blogs and of course content on your website.
Chris
Silentblast Interactive
Tags: Content Management System, Silentblast, Silentblast Blog
Posted in Business Web Strategies | 35 Comments »
December 5th, 2009
On October 15th, 2009; the ASIS Toronto Chapter recognized Silentblast during the ASIS Toronto Chapter Annual 
Law Enforcement and Security Practitioner Awards Dinner at the Panemonte Centre. The award is the same as awards given to ASIS Toronto Chapter Sponsors who contribute both financially to the Chapter and with members who volunteer towards ASIS Toronto Chapter programs and initiatives.
Silentblast; the website design and development firm for the ASIS Toronto Chapter was given the award in recognition of the superlative efforts put forth since 2008 on the Chapter’s website. The ASIS Toronto website has changed in many ways how both the visiting public and its members and guests view ASIS International, ASIS Toronto Chapter and the security industry and profession as a whole. Compliments for the website have come from many including ASIS International members from other countries.
Presenting the ASIS Toronto Chapter Appreciation Award to Antonio of Silentblast is Patrick Ogilvie; Chair of the ASIS Toronto Chapter.
Tags: Silentblast, Silentblast Blog, Toronto web design company, Toronto web development
Posted in Business Web Strategies, Silentblast News, Toronto Web Design | 3 Comments »
October 12th, 2009
Silentblast is pleased to announce the launch of GreenStream Environmental website.
You can visit their website at
http://greenstreamenvironmental.ca/
GreenStream Environmental Inc. provides Emergency Service 24/7/36 for Residential, Commercial and Industrial clients. Silentblast was selected to produce a logo design and also design and develop the website. The site features an integrated WordPress blog engine to keep content up to date.
Tags: Silentblast, Toronto web design company
Posted in Silentblast News, Toronto Web Design | 1 Comment »
October 12th, 2009
Hello readers and welcome back to the Silentblast Blog. You read the title right! YouTube has reached a significant milestone of 1 billion views a day. On October 9th, the official YouTube Blog posted this article; on the achievement. I cannot personally begin to understand the complex of servers and facilities Google must have in order to operate the holdings that Google does both as a search engine and in other business ventures such as GMail, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Docs and so on. They must be adding servers to their stable by the hour.
Awesome accomplishment YouTube and in reality it couldn’t have been done without everyone who uses YouTube and makes it what it has grown into today.
Chris
Silentblast Interactive
Tags: Google, YouTube
Posted in Internet Buzz | 1 Comment »
October 11th, 2009
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Silentblast Blog. We have been busy at Silentblast the last few
weeks doing work with certain clients on vertical improvements to their website as well as new clients to our portfolio. Recently launched for the ASIS Toronto Chapter were Content Management System adjustments in their Employment opportunities areas. We streamlined the process for the webmaster whereby before if a company wanted to post an employment opportunity they would submit all the information to the webmaster and it would be reviewed and then posted.
Now what is done, is the employer representative creates a profile by registering, submits their own employment opportunity into the back-end of the Content Management System and an email is sent to the webmaster of the site for review and approval.
Silentblast also added a completely new area to the website called Ontario Colleges. ASIS Toronto Chapter is promoting their organization to students in the various law and security related programs by promoting membership in ASIS International. Also incorporated was a Content Management System similar to the Employment area whereby College representatives register and they can now post college placement opportunities for students.
Silentblast also changes some of the key graphics in the website design to freshen up the website as the original graphic selections had been in place for a little over a year. Its a simple solution to face-lift the website design somewhat at a minimum of cost using stock photography.
Also in develeopment currently is GreenStream Environmental Inc. which provides Emergency Service 24/7/36 for
Residential, Commercial and Industrial clients. Silentblast was selected to produce a logo design and also design and develop the website. The site features an integrated wordpress blog engine to keep content up to date.
Site features currently in development:
Chris
Silentblast Interactive
Tags: Content Management System, Silentblast Blog, Toronto web design company
Posted in Content Management, Silentblast News, Toronto Web Design | 7 Comments »
October 3rd, 2009
Twitter is without a doubt one the largest social media sites on the planet. On average depending on which research
avenues you search on the internet; Twitter gains roughly anywhere between 12000 and 20000 new unique users a day. We have a Twitter account at Silentblast and use it somewhat sparingly to promote some changes done within Silentblast such as revisions to the website, new client portfolios, and promotion of blog articles. Feel free to check it out here; http://twitter.com/silentblast
While we don’t Twitter as maybe as much as we really should, nonetheless we do have an account and are re – visioning as it were our social networking strategy to go beyond just the website and blog.
A Twitter account named similar to your company can help in getting your brand or organization out there. Again, with a short URL it is not hard to advertise your current web presence, blog and company to a wide audience and gain a following.
I am personally relatively new to the Twitter phenomena so I have not a lot to say on the subject at this juncture other than I recognize absolutely the potential for marketing is there. I have however found this excellent article on Copyblogger on How to Use Twitter to Grow You’re Business. A very interesting read I must say.
Chris
Silentblast Interactive
Silentblast.com specializes in providing customized web design services for small and medium sized businesses in The Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Tags: Silentblast, Silentblast Blog, Toronto Blogging, Toronto Social Networking
Posted in Business Web Strategies, Friends and Resources, Toronto Social Networking | 1 Comment »
September 20th, 2009
Hello readers and welcome back to the Silentblast Blog. This article is more or less a follow up to the blog article I did
on Blogs – To Allow or Not Allow Comments but more specifically to the issue of responding to commentary on your own blog posts should you have made the decision to allow comments on your blog.
What most of you should and will have to understand about commentary on blogs is like all things in life there will be good and there will be bad. There is a saying so to speak that is more or less an equation; Internet + Anonymity = ***hole. There is a lot of truth actually in that equation. I have been across various blogs and forums and you will be sure to read commentary to an article or forum post that has been hijacked in some shape or form by an individual or group of individuals who post way off the topic in usually the most vulgar form of way to their commentary.
With a blog, you can set the commentary permissions so that you have to go into the “Dashboard” using Wordpress as your blogging engine as an example and approve the commentary. Free speech purists view this more or less as censorship and while there is no argument to the context of the meaning of the word censorship as they apply it; I think they fail in understanding sometimes that speech or the written word comes with responsibility.
So where is the line in a commentary you may receive on your blog that will determine whether you approve it or not; let alone as well you have the ability to edit them? The line so to speak is up to the individual or business that is operating the blog in my view. For example I control the blog for Silentblast and decide what commentary is approved or not. I have been pretty transparent in my approving in that I have allowed comments that were not entirely favorable; mainly to me or what I have written about. As long as they didn’t cross over into outright attacks or vulgarity; I have allowed them and then commented on them.
In my responses I have endeavored to not attack back because it is not professional from a business perspective. This I would highly recommend because all that is going to happen is a back and forth match that just makes your blog look bad, your business and the person writing the articles. Now if you answer with some tongue and cheek type humor to me that is fair game as long as you’re generally nice. In my view, nothing is wrong with a bid of a scolding because at the end of the day everyone should play nice in the sandbox.
Do you have to respond to each and every comment? I don’t thinks so. But if for example you receive 6 comments on a particular blog posting and they are all generally commenting in the same fashion or asking possibly the same line of questions; you should respond at least once in that thread of comments and absolutely answer the questions.
If the substance of the questions are significant enough you should create another blog post specific to the questions as a follow up blog article. It is positive to your blog obviously but it also shows you are actively responding to those who do comment on your blog. You should as part of your business blogging strategy set aside time to review comments to your blog and answer the questions or comments that other leave.
Doing so will begin slowly a culture or commentary on your blog which is good in the development of your blog. It takes time to get responses to articles. I will be the first to readily admit that I love seeing comments to articles I have written. I don’t think there is a blogger on the planet that doesn’t like some type of positive commentary obviously. Bloggers just understand that sometimes the comments will not be nice and you just have to deal with it professionally.
Chris
Silentblast Interactive
Toronto Web Design
Tags: Silentblast, Silentblast Blog, Toronto web design company
Posted in Business Web Strategies | 4 Comments »
September 13th, 2009
Hello readers and welcome back to the Silentblast Blog. Today I am going to speak generally about business blogging. I know I have talked about blogs and blogging in general and why businesses should consider having a blog but I never really discussed business blogs from the perspective as part of a business plan.
As everyone should be generally aware a “business plan” is essentially a formal statement of planned business goals. The web design and development of a web presence for example can be included in a business plan. Even more important if the business tends to derive most of its revenue and deliverables from the internet; than the business plan will certainly have significant areas of the overall business plan where there is focus on internet, website development, search engine optimization or SEO as it’s commonly referred to and content development.
Somewhere definitely in the mix of will be most likely as well social media sites such as Twitter, FaceBook or LinkedIn and of course blogs. One of the things that have to be clear for business decision makers will be what is the focus, direction, goals and objectives for the business blog. What are the expectations of the blog as it pertains to the focus, direction, goals and objectives and then of course how the message is delivered and who delivers it?
From a business standpoint unless your business is comedy per say, the blog will tend to be more of an informative, editorial, press release sort of tone. While there are blogs that are satirical in nature or adult themed in both content and language that tends to not be the approach of business if they wish to incorporate a blog.
So for business the focus, direction, goals and objectives for a business blog can be some of the following if not more:
- Public Relations – mission statement, company vision, new developments
- Education and Product Information – giving your customers information on your products and services and even information on how to use them
- Development and Research – garnering feedback and suggestions from your clientele
- Community Development – developing a client community around your products and services, charitable efforts of your company
- Marketing and Sales – announcing new products and services to your customers
Blogging for business ultimately will take time and if there is no inherent commitment to invest time into the development of a business blog than it should not be high on the list of business priorities. All stakeholders within a business have to believe in the process. If you wish to establish yourself or are already established as a professional business, your blog has to reflect that.
Chris
Silentblast Interactive
Toronto Web Design
Silentblast.com specializes in providing customized web design services for small and medium sized businesses in The Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Tags: Add new tag, Toronto Blog, Toronto Blogging, Toronto SEO, Toronto web design company, Toronto web development
Posted in Business Web Strategies, Toronto Web Design | 10 Comments »
September 13th, 2009
Silentblast is pleased to announce the web design and development of the Styles Model Management Inc. website. Currently there is a teaser/microsite up that Silentblast designed that you can visit below.
Styles Model Management Inc.
Current Site Features
Chris
Silentblast Interactive
Toronto Web Design
Silentblast.com specializes in providing customized web design services for small and medium sized businesses in The Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Tags: Add new tag, Silentblast, Toronto web design company, Toronto web development
Posted in Silentblast News, Toronto Web Design | 3 Comments »
September 13th, 2009
Hello readers and welcome back to the Silentblast Blog. Interesting news article I read some days ago about a couple from the US, Mellisa and Jackson Brandts were hiking in Banff Alberta and decided to take a photo of themselves for keepsakes. They had set up their camera to auto-shoot some pictures when they were noticing this little squirrel scurrying all around them checking them and the camera out. When their camera snapped a shot of them sitting down the squirrel at that moment decided to stand up and look directly into the camera.
It didn’t take long for the power of the internet and of course some encouragement from friends to submit their photo to National Geographic and then CNN also did a news story on the couple and their camera adventure with the squirrel. From that moment, the squirrel, now more affectionately known as “Crasher Squirrel” has taken the internet somewhat by storm.
The picture of Crasher Squirrel seems to be popping up everywhere; including Silentblast. Here we have a photo of him popping up in front of a billboard with the Silentblast logo.
To read the original “Crasher Squirrel” news article you can find it here; “Web Goes Nuts for Crasher Squirrel”
There is also a website where they have the Top Ten Crasher Squirrel Pics
To modify your own pictures to include the Crasher Squirrel visit The Squirrelizer
Have some fun with it; bring Crasher Squirrel into some of your family photos, wedding pictures and your travels.
Chris
Silentblast Interactive
Toronto Web Design
Silentblast.com specializes in providing customized web design services for small and medium sized businesses in The Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Tags: Crasher Squirrel, Silentblast Blog, Toronto Blogging, Toronto web design company
Posted in Internet Buzz, Silentblast News | 4 Comments »
