The Big Tree Consultants

Mernagh Consulting’s New Website

Rowan Meade — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 01:47:54 +0000

Mernagh Consulting our proud to announce the launch of our new website. We have been hard at work creating a unique blend of design and information that full encapsulates what Mernagh Consulting has to offer our clients.

Stay tuned to our Facebook Page and Twitter feeds for all the lates information from Mernagh Consulting.

Nokia + Microsoft = ????

Rowan Meade — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 01:56:46 +0000

So Nokia and Microsoft have teamed up to form a new partnership in order to compete with Google & Apple.

NOKIA AND Microsoft are to team up to take on Google and Apple in the fast-growing smartphone market. As part of the deal, Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform, with its current operating system, Symbian, moved to a franchise platform.

The move is expected to result in significant job cuts at Nokia, as research and development spending is reduced.

Nokia will also use Microsoft’s search engine Bing to power searches, and its AdCenter platform will provide search advertising services on Nokia devices.

The Finnish mobile maker’s mapping software, meanwhile, will become a “core part” of Microsoft’s mapping services, integrated into the Bing search engine and AdCenter advertising platform to deliver local search results.

Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace.

Read the full article here

New Year and all is in gear…..

Rowan Meade — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 01:51:16 +0000

2010 was a very busy year for Big Tree and 2011 is shaping up to be even busier. Stay tuned as I’ll be chronicling all the projects that come down the pipe line and providing specific articles on the challenges faced in each project and how to overcome things like budget limitations, technical constraints and personnel upgrading.

Watch this tree space ……

NEW – Website for Rhino Shield of New England

Rowan Meade — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:33:45 +0000

In 2010 Mat and Pat of Rhino Shield of New England decided to re-invigorate the website and develop their online strategy. Their new site launched in August of 2010 is fresh, vibrant and interactive. The team at The Tank and our partners Bigrock have come up with innovative design and incorporated a social media strategy into the site along with a few special features. Go to www.gorhinoshield.com and have a look around

HOW TO: Evaluate Your Social Media Plan

Rowan Meade — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:41 +0000

Many companies, startups and well established businesses are frustrated because their social media presence isn’t larger or yet benefiting their bottom line. One of the big issues is that most companies start using social media thinking it’s the holy grail. It takes time, effort, and resources before this new media will have an impact on you brand.

http://mashable.com/2010/06/25/evaluate-social-media-plan/

Social Media Integration Drives Major Clicks for E-mail Marketers [STUDY] at Mashable

Rowan Meade — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:55:23 +0000

E-mail messages that include options to share content on social media sites drive significant increases in click-throughs according to a new study released today by GetResponse, an e-mail marketing firm.

Specifically, the study of 500 million e-mails sent using the service found that e-mails that included options like share on Facebook or Twitter generated a 30% higher click-through rate than emails without them.

http://mashable.com/2010/06/21/social-media-email-marketing-2/

Small firms urged to use website for sales

Rowan Meade — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:49:36 +0000

SMALL FIRMS still have a lot of catching up to do online, according to David Curtin, chief executive of the IE Domain Registry (IEDR) which manages Ireland’s .ie internet address space.

Mr Curtin said many companies still had a “picture postcard” website containing little more than contact details, with few using their sites for e-commerce or product promotion.

Continued at: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0604/1224271808952.html

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

Rowan Meade — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:47:00 +0000

Developed four years ago by a fast-moving online-news operation, Django was designed to handle two challenges: the intensive deadlines of a newsroom and the stringent requirements of the experienced Web developers who wrote it. It lets you build high-performing, elegant Web applications quickly.

http://www.djangoproject.com/

Building your website- Planning and Execution Part 1

Rowan Meade — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 00:27:31 +0000

So you or your company has decided to build a brand spanking new website. You’ve been handed the keys and decided to start this project with all the best intentions in the world but how do you start. You need to start with precise and clear planning and then follow through with the execution. Now you ask yourself where do I start.

When building a website for any business the most important question you must ask and more importantly answer is what do I want to achieve. Is your site a directory in which case you want to build traffic or are you building an online retail store in which case you need sales and must design a site that is not only has relatively friendly UI ( user interfaces) but you must also incorporate a secure online shop that allows you present your products in the best way possible. Defining these points in the planning stages of your project can be the make or break for a successful site. Get started by creating the following 3 documents.

1. Mission statement- You declaration of intent
2. Design Specs- Clear design specifications will assist in
achieving your goals
3. Budget- Know what you’ve got before you plan a project
beyond your budget

I will continue this post and others over the next week. Stay tuned for Part 2…

Hootsuite – The Tweeters tools for 2010

Rowan Meade — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:09:05 +0000

I came across Hootsuite recently and have been using the service ever since. For those unfamiliar with HootSuite the service started as just a navigation tool for Twitter, but quickly spread to additional social networking platforms like Facebook. The company recently announced the addition of LinkedIn and scheduling status updates to be pushed to various social platforms using Ping.fm, a quick way to push an update to all of social networking sites.

HooSuite’s upgraded platform gives users the ability to not only develop and push social messages to social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all from one location, but also allows them to gain a better understanding of the audience that the messages are reaching. The company is calling the upgraded features a “Social CRM” tool and says it is targeting marketers, news networks and music labels looking to have a better understanding of its online audience and be able to track multiple campaigns. More specifically, the tool will look at the audiences influence, reach, activity levels and what techniques work best to interact with the social influencers who might follow a company and digest its messages.

The upgraded features also give insight into which messages are resonating best through tracking URLS using Ominture and Google Analytics, analytic tools that can track link usage and give added insight into outreach. Through this, marketers might be able to tweak and update outgoing messaging as well as prep for responses to tracked customer online responses.

While HootSuite claims its differentiators are features targeted for marketing campaigns used by multiple users across several networks through desktop and mobile applications, the reality is that the majority of the competitors in the space offer the same features, including the recenlty funded companies above.

Based in Vancouver, HootSuite was founded in 2008 by Invoke Media and is used by popular companies such as Dell, Disney, the NBA and FOX, according to its website.

Hootsuite logo