podcast
Blogging: New Media, Business and the Law – PODCAST
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Blogging: New Media, Business and the Law
presented by The IIA and Fleishman-Hillard
RECORDED
21 March 2007 – The Shelbourne Hotel Dublin
COMPERE CIARAN BUCKLEY Fleishman-Hillard
CLIENT DIRECTOR, BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS
introduction by Julian Davis head of consumer & brands in Fleishman-Hillard
SPEAKERS ARE
* Tom Murphy, Public Relations and Community Affairs, Microsoft: How Marketing and PR people can take advantage of these technologies.
* Sarah Carey, Sunday Times, Blogger turned columnist, talks about the way in which blogging is affecting traditional media.
* Richard Delevan, Business Editor, Sunday Tribune: Columnist and blogger, outlines how the failure of Irish companies to embrace new media means that they are missing out on new markets and better employees.
* TJ McIntyre, Barrister, Lecturer in Law (UCD), Consultant with Merrion Legal Solicitors: The privacy, defamation and copyright issues that arise in new media and the old legal issues that impinge on this brave new world.
duration 2 Hours 13 Minutes – podcast service provided by Brian Greene www.talkingvoices.com
Uncategorized
Do you really want to edit your CSS?
Not likely. Most entrepreneurs in small businesses have enough to be doing with getting the text right for their website without learning obscure skill sets. (CSS=Cascading Style Sheets. An adjustable template on steroids)
There are a couple of good alternatives to Sitekreator around and one of them allows to do just that!
Weebly – www.weebly.com
This one is a prettier interface than Sitekreator and thus will suit some users well. It is also template driven and offers some additional functionality such as the ability to download your site as a zip file and “pre-filled” integration with Google Maps. Their service is currently free.
Squarespace – www.squarespace.com
This service is pitched somewhere between websites and blogs – it uses the efficiency of blog publishing tools to allow you to build a website as well. And with Squarespace you can start with a template and then adjust that to suit yourself. This flexibility makes this service attractive to designers who may want that customisation without having to learn to use a tool such as Dreamweaver.
The Squarespace service does not have a free component – it starts at $7 a month with $17 a month being the most expensive. For the hosting and content editing of any business site I would always be more happy to pay so that the business model of the service is clear.
This is a screenshot of part of the Squarespace customisation interface showing the complexity of that page – this is where you get to tinker with that CSS.
The next couple of posts will look at some collaboration tools online and also the state of Government support for internet adoption by small businesses.
keith
Uncategorized
Build your own site – Sitekreator.com
After the euphoria of the dotcom days settled it became clear that most businesses could comfortably survive without a website for a while longer. Internet use in Ireland was slower to catch on than had been forecast and it is only in the last year or so that broadband penetration has reached the tipping point.
Today we have finally caught up with those forecasts! It is increasingly important for most businesses (probably still not all) to have a website – with nearly 50% of the population using the internet and research being one of their top activities. (For more information see the IIA State of the Net reports here)
For many businesses the process of getting their first website is daunting. Web developers have to charge €400 to €600 a day for their services so even an entry level site can be expensive. This leads to a part of the market considering the option of building their own site.
There are a number of tools on the market that make that possible – however there are big differences between them. One of the best ones that I have found is Sitekreator – a web based tool that is usable by entrepreneurs with no html skills or training. This is the one I use on the training programs that I run so my comments here are based on my experience with SME’s on those courses.
Summary
Although it’s interface is not always intuitive Sitekreator allows a normal computer user to build a business website in 10 to 12 hours. The $7.95 a month package that they offer includes hosting, the use of your own domain name and the ability to use funtionality from other places on the internet (such as forms, calendars etc)
Control over Look and Feel
Sitekreator is template driven and users have always found one that suits their businesses. With a couple of them you can also include your own custom header – an image that you can make up to include your logo etc. Some of the templates are basic – however they are getting better as the service develops.
Affordability
While the service can be used for free it is the $7.95 a month level that is most attractive to SME’s.
Functionality
Because Sitekreator allows you to include snippets of HTML within your site it is possible to build in all of the basic functionality that a small business will require. That includes calendars and forms (using the Wufoo service)
The End Result
Have a look at these – some sites built in the last couple of weeks by entrepreneurs in Kilkenny using Sitekreator. Design purists will not necessarily like them – however they do the job. And they are fully updatable and maintainable by the business concerned – one of the keys requirements for them.
www.2ofakindband.com
www.allpatchedup.com
www.callan800.com
www.fitzgeraldfleming.com
www.kilkennyphysioclinic.com
Reliability
The Sitekreator service can be slow at times – however it is only once been unreachable in the last couple of months. The business model is clear and the founding company is in existance for 9 years.
My next post will look at a couple of interesting alternatives to Sitekreator that take a slightly more complex approach and so open the door to more control over the look and feel of the sites that can be developed.
keith
Uncategorized
Intro – SME theme
Hi, my name is Keith Bohanna and I will be filling the guest blogger spot ovet the next two weeks. I am a non-techie consultant and my work focuses on helping small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) to use the internet effectively. My own blog is at keith.bohanna.com.
My posts will have two themes:
- Reviews of various online tools that could make life easier for entrepreneurs in SME’s. The internet has changed a lot over the last couple of years and services and functionality that were the preserve of large businesses have now been made available to the rest of us!
- How the various state bodies support (or don’t support) the use of the internet by businesses. The track record of the government on this is patchy – to put it mildly.
Looking forward to hearing your comments over the next 2 weeks and thanks to Fergal O’Byrne for the invite.
keith