This is something I was only giving a talk about today to a group of business people here in the south east. I was explaining that social media needs to be managed correctly by staff of businesses if they are going to use this tool to attract traffic to their business using Facebook.

I had mentioned that facebook had over taken Yahoo and Microsoft already and this news today that this has happened this week has huge implications for the search world in general.

Companies will now be wondering if they should get a website and Facebook should now be exploiting this fact with their advertising costs and web designers/ programmers guru’s should be writting Apps for facebook.

The Whole World’s In A State O Chassis !

If you remember the quote from,  Juno And The Paycock then you will know what I mean. If we look at this in other terms, lets say 10 years ago we needed to find a telephone number where did we look ? Yes in a big yellow book in the office, now that big yellow book has been demoted to “Computer stand for your Monitor”

The whole world is changing, now we look for information online usually Goolge. But if Google have been toppled off the number 1 position in just 3 short years, what is next?

Food for thougt, chewing gum for the brain.

Enjoy the St Patrick’s Day where ever you are

I should paint a picture a little clearer, this is a small rural business in the west of Ireland, 3 people, 1 in the office and 2 out on site working with clients in a service industry.

Whilst some work was been carried out on their website/hosting by ourselves we had some downtime. (I have to put my hand up and say that it was from our part that they emails were being queued on the server, meaning they were not being pushed through to their office pc, but waiting to be pushed towards them)

So we started work on this hosting/email facility for this one email address at about 3 in the afternoon and we had hoped it was sorted by about 6pm that evening but alas now we know that it was still not functioning the next morning and that afternoon too. Once we twigged what it was we were able to rectify it and they got the emails, minus the spam etc etc.

What did we learn?

1, that we now have a new procedure in place to make sure the email set up is signed off

2, that a business not having email, even for 1 day, with 1 email address, can be considered closed down!

Yes, we got a call from the client stating that people will think they are closed down and that in a recession not to have your emails responded to is very serious to a business. I agreed and we have resolved the matter now and all is well, but I really was able to see if from a customers point of view too.

Are you answering your emails?

Do you only answer your email at 9am, 13:00 and then again at 17:00?

The recession has meant that we all assume that if we dont hear back from a business that they have gone out of business.

Conclusion: Answer your emails and do it sooner than your competitor will.

(I’m learning too here folks, I’m not the fastest when relying to people either!)

Get Listed.

The idea is not new, but the way we have structured the site should help get the site listed in search engines, I know they have a big hill to climb going up against the major players in the Irish health market, but this dedicated team has promise.

We have made the site to allow a user to get listed in a category of their choice or even two or three, then the user can enter a payment to get listed straight away.

Would would like to wish John & Clare and the team the very best with the new site and we will be keeping an eye on you guys to see how the stats and listings go.

Services provided:

• Domain name registration
• Web Hosting
• Web Development
• Website Design
• Training
• Ecommerce

www.irishhealthdirectory.com

Scam Email = Delete.

If you do get an email like this just look at the location of the link that the image will bring you too. It will be a strange website address that hopefully google will have blocked by now.

My advice is to delete then call us to set up a spam filter for your email so these type of emails are not slowing down your business day. You are busy enough without having to deal with this type of confusing email.

Call Cada Media Ltd on 053 9430748 and talk to Dave Jordan about setting up a spam filters for your staff email today.

While we were at it we created a brand new fully content managed website that will give the girls the ability to upload and amend all the sites content. The last time we gave them this type of functionality was for the shop part of the website just before St Pactricks Day a few years ago.

When we came back into the office following the bank holidays we saw thousands of products. They had stayed up all night for the long weekend and packed their on-line shelves !

The new redesigned site will now give the girls the ability to upload to a Gallery Section they requested to show off their bridal Bouquets and also to give them an area to have an online wedding fair. This business is no stranger to the lime light and they have been featured on TV & print media in Ireland.

To be honest. . . We love’m, they are interested in their products and this is evident in their passion for their industry. I wish all people in business could be like this.

I would like to wish them the very best in their new redesigned website and I hope they don’t stay up too late packing the order boxes as I hear there has been some late ones recently.

Services Provided

• Website Redesign
• Content Management
• Ecommerce Integration
• Hard Work !

www.allaboutweddings.ie

We were delighted to help out Grant in the early days of setting up his business. Having a shop is great, having a shop that is open 24/7 is better. Knowing how to communicate your message through the social media websites and attract buyers to your online shop is all part of what we do every week at Cada Media Ltd.

A small helping hand by giving him access to broadband meant that instead of standing idle waiting for customers to come in, it meant that Grant could do his online marketing and promoting whilst he wasn’t dealing with customers in the shop.

One small piece of advice we give many other people looking to sell on the Internet is to look at Open Source software to help cut down on the initial set up costs. Although they can need some customisation and tweaking as many are originally very basic and have to be configured. I think the programmers do this to give jobs to the ones installing them and setting them us.! Us mainly!

Anyway, you can purchase this type of software, but you should also look at ZenCart or OSCommerce too as they are used by thousands of online shops around the world. We too use and set this us for businesses too.

Wreckless is currently OSCommerce and since its original install it has had many upgrades, many plugin’s installed and configured, many designs. In fact I think its also been totally revamped and the database backed up and the entire site overhauled by Webdream. A fantastic job if I do say and well done to Joel Driver for his work.

Tonight’s presentation will be great for people in Gorey to see how a local lad can come good and really use the Internet and it’s strengths. Remember the snow in January and all the shops closed. . . . Guess who’s online shop was still taking orders?

Well done to grant and all at Wreckless on demonstrating that the web and shopping are ideal partners.

There is also a presentation from someone about a business directory for Gorey, but since we also have one called Gorey Links, I won’t reinvent the wheel there!

Physio Solutions is run by sportsman Adrian Copeland a seasoned rugby player in the southeast and by the looks of his shinnner when he came into the office, he’s used to seeing the tough side of sports!

It’s not sports injuries that Adrian is capable of helping but many injuries including backpain, neck pain and many more.

Adrians treatments include:

• Massage Therapy
• Manual Therapy
• Mobilisation
• Manipulation
• Excercise Therapy
• Electro Therapy
• Medical Acupucture / Dry Needling
• Othotics

We have created an easy to navigate, fast downloading website that will give Adrian the ability to easily update and keep news information about his skills and expertise.  We learned during the creation of the website that his industry is always evolving and new techniques are always being learned and practiced. An interesting world, similar to our own I guess.

Services Provided:

• Domain Name Registration
• Website Hosting
• Website Design
• Consultancy
• Local Web Advertising
• Web Marketing
• Consultancy
• Training

Web: www.physiosolutions.ie

We put the word out on facebook and FAS a number of weeks ago and we have received many CV’s since then. So tomorrow See’s the start of the first round of interviews. It’s amazing to see the selection of programmers and designers who have applied already, but alas it’s admin we need.

So if you haven’t sent in your cv already, please send it in this week.

info [at] cadamedia.ie

Gonna play around with it over the weekend and see what my friends in the Sunday papers make of it as I see they have been busy little beavers all week playing around and trying to see what friends are out there and I watch and didn’t reply!

Oh the fun, if you have any news on google buzz then let me know.

Have a nice Valentines Weekend everyone.