Using Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn

May 14, 2009 – 7:48 pm by sandra
If you are interested in taking your web marketing to the next level and using social and business networking websites to help promote your brand / products / services then this is the course for you - http://www.iia.ie/events/event/217/linkedin-facebook-and-twitter-for-business-june/.   Its an excellent course and anything you need to know Krishna De will have the answer.

Posted in Search engine optimisation, Web marketing | No Comments »

sitestogo.biz is now a target keyword

May 8, 2009 – 9:01 am by sandra
You know that your company profile is strong when you see Microsoft paying for an ad in Google using your url as the keyword. I could not believe my eyes when I typed www.sitestogo.biz into Google (pages from Ireland) and a Miscrosoft ad appeared.

Posted in Search engine optimisation | 1 Comment »

Excellence through people – a broken record!

May 5, 2009 – 8:08 pm by Maggie
Got the results of our ETP evaluation through today and although I actually think our clients don't much care so long as we are there when they shout. But a one percent increase in overall score to above 94% is something to shout about. It nets us the two year award again and this time I  turned over a new leaf and delegated a lot of the systems management and paperwork ...

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Last chance to vote!

May 1, 2009 – 8:50 am by Maggie
Today is the closing day for the Irish Internet Net Visionary Awards and at the risk of seeming to repeat myself - would be great5 if all my blogfollowers could champion the champion of SMEs and  vote for John Toland of  TalkTourism

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Web marketing emails – are they scams?

April 23, 2009 – 2:21 pm by sandra
A lot of our clients have been calling and emailing us recently after being approached by web marketing companies offering them the world at a reasonable cost.  Offers include getting you to a number one position in Google - guaranteed.  Google AdWords set up and management, again promising the earth at a low cost.   The problem with this is that to start you cannot guarantee anyone a number one position in ...

Posted in Search engine optimisation, Website standards | 1 Comment »

The first 2 words rock!

April 13, 2009 – 11:25 am by Maggie
Jakob Nielsen's latest nanocontent usability study develops the theme of F pattern reading on the web further and highlights just how important the first 11 characters - or 2 words - of any link or heading are to understanding and promoting action.  Brilliant stuff and we should all go over our web content again and: Eliminate superlatives and unneccessary text Eliminate jargon Remove our company name from the front of paragraphs Replace it with ...

Posted in Great websites | No Comments »

Biting the bullet

March 30, 2009 – 5:28 pm by Maggie
Uncharacteristic quiet on the blogging front while assessing the state of the Irish dental industry (and drawing parallels to banks and economic woes) My English dentist retired last year,  so what I hear you say - so I had more years with this guy than with any other personal or business relationship to date!  25 to be precise. With a raging abscess I could put it off no longer and called ...

Posted in Politics and economy, Rants | No Comments »

Score 5 Lidl and an own goal to Dunne and Crescenzi’s l’Officina

March 15, 2009 – 9:12 pm by Maggie
After an exhausting 4 hour shop with my niece Katharine in the Kildare Outlet Centre I collapsed exhausted (and I have shopped for Ireland in my time) into L'Officina - with just about enough energy to croak 'Green Tea please'. My appetite for green tea being the stuff of legends, the slightly stiff €2.50 does not phase me - oh no I probably saved 10 times that by skipping Molton ...

Posted in Food and travel, Rants | No Comments »

National Small Business Awards 2009

March 6, 2009 – 9:23 am by Maggie
We had our moment of glory and great craic afterwards - in the SFA Small Business Awards this year it was generally agreed that all those shortlisted were winners - a great package of training, networking and publicity that still has the phones hopping. I basked in reflected glory sitting alongside the overall winners Connemara Seafoods. Category winners were:   MANUFACTURING AWARD: Ecocem FOOD & DRINK AWARD: Connemara Seafoods, Highly Commended  Cully ...

Posted in Politics and economy | No Comments »

The weekend interview

February 7, 2009 – 10:15 pm by Maggie
Heard myself on Newstalk Down to Business this weekend and actually think I might be acquiring an Irish accent, which is a concern to me as a paid up Yorkshire Nationalist.  However this weeks post has to be about THE speech and Biffo.  Call me a bit soppy but I quite like a politician with faults who confronts them. Raised as I was with the first generation of Thatcherites anything ...

Posted in Politics and economy, Rants | No Comments »