Blogs
Our bloggers are here to share their experiences, challenges and ideas gained from their work with online communities and helping organisations engage with their audiences.
Thursday 2 May 2013
Really clever things are happening on Vine and Instagram, two free social apps that ask us to communicate through images. How can not for profits make the most of them?
About Vine
Vine is still quite new and may be unfamiliar to some. Vine is to video what Instagram is to photos. Like Instagram, it’s based around a stream of recent videos from your contacts. Videos are a maximum of 6 seconds long and loop continuously. They can be posted directly from Vine to Twitter and...
Tuesday 30 April 2013
Did you know that around the world there are over 80 colloquial names for this common land-based crustacean. But why should this matter to you?
View the whole infographic >
The humble woodlouse is known by many names
Across the UK and around the world there have been over 80 colloquial names recorded that people use to describe this common land-based crustacean. Did you know that in Devon you can hear people talking about 'Chiggley-Pigs' where as in Scotland people refer to them as '...
Wednesday 20 March 2013
User Experience, aka 'UX', is talked about a lot within the web development world, yet many people are still unsure of what this thing is actually all about...
... so let's take a look at the who and what of this intriguing design discipline and why it's needed.
Who Does UX?
User Experience professionals are a hybrid of web developers, psychologists, designers and business analysts all rolled into one.
Their core responsibility is to ensure designs are easy...
Thursday 14 February 2013
As a digital account manager, much of my time is spent redefining project requirements. Wouldn't it be great if we could start at the top, and talk directlly about the unpleasant 'b' words before anything else?
The very best and absolute worst thing about digital projects is that anything is possible. You can achieve whatever you want to online if you put in enough thought and effort. But this is where things get tricky. No sooner have you started throwing around exciting ideas, fabulous...
Tuesday 5 February 2013
I attended a content strategy course last week and was asked to put a blog together on what I had learned. Rather than write about what I know about content strategy, I thought I would write about what all the fuss is about and why it has become important.
So, content seems to be the new buzz. We’ve had the social media/hash-tagged hype but the latest thing on everyone’s minds is content – but why? It’s not new. We have always had content; the World Wide Web is full of it.
Well, there are a...
Tuesday 15 January 2013
There’s a lot of hype about content out there at the moment. And rightly so! Good content is the meat of a website, helps you stand out in search results, and is the foundation of digital engagement.
But don’t get distressed if it seems too big to get your head around all at once. Yes, you do need a content strategy and you'll most likely need to audit the older content on your site to assess its relevance and style. In the short-term, here are 10 ways to help you take meaningful steps forward...
Thursday 6 December 2012
I’ve been doing some volunteer work with SOBS, Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide. In addition to providing face-to-face support groups across the UK they run a private online community for people to come together and talk – this extends their face-to-face support and helps them reach those who cannot physically attend a support group.
One of my colleagues at Sift approached me to work on this with her, having no idea that I have personally experienced bereavement by suicide. In two days it...
Friday 2 November 2012
You may plan a great new website with all the functionality to engage your members online – but without a strategy for producing a stream of compelling content over the coming months and years, how can you get and hold their attention?
A conversation rarely ‘just happens’ – without someone stimulating, stirring and prodding, it soon dries up. And unless that person needs ideas to float, news to share, information to impart, questions to ask, the conversation won’t draw the real expertise of the...
