Recently I attended a presentation by Andrew Doutch - www.andrewdouch.com.au; let's just say that I was very impressed.

The presentation focused on how Andrew (or know to his students as Douchy) using web 2.0 technology to educate his students.

3 years ago, Douchy was approached by the Principle of Wanganui Park Secondary College, in Shepparton to research how he could use emerging technologies to connecting students and teachers.  He has come a long way since then, winning numerous awards and watching the average grade of his students increase dramatically.

His own biology podcast has a listening audience of more than 3000 students and he has inspired and helped numerous other teachers at his school and in other schools to create podcasts, vodcasts, screencasts, websites, discussion boards and blogs.

After listening to Andrew, who gave us 100's of tips on how to follow in his foot steps, I decided to start playing with the technology to better serve our customers.

For example, Design Experts have created "personalised screen-casts" or "online video support tutorials".  That way, our clients can learn first hand how to resolve their issue by watching a personalised video that we record for them and upload to their personal directory.  If it is a common question, then we upload the video the the public folder, for example "adding metadata to a webpage"

Some of the tools that were mentioned were, that you might find interesting;

www.go2web20.net - a list of the worlds web 2.0 tools and applications
www.Jingproject.com - record screencasts
www.podamatic.com - create podcasts
www.ipadio.com - use mobile phone to create audio blogs

If you are interested in exploring these technologies in your business, school or organisation, Design Experts would be more than happy to help, or I can put you in contact with Douchy who offers consulting services to get you on the right track.

Cheers for now

Tim Gentle

Twitter - www.twitter.com can be described as a ‘micro-blog’. 

Twitter is one of the more popular social media service available on the internet.  The main benefit I feel that Twitter provides is it allows you to link to individuals and networks that are interested in the same information that you are interested in.

Types of Twitter updates could include, your location, handy tips you have found online and asking questions you would like answered.

You will need to sign up and create a Twitter account before you can ‘Tweet”.  You can create a Twitter account for yourself, your business, your club etc. Once signed up, you can then update your status.  

Once you understand some of the more advanced tools Twitter has and use some of Twitter 3rd party websites you can really start to enhance your Twitter presence.

For example, you can automatically feed your Twitter status with information you have filtered off the web.  You can set up auto responders, you can be added to Twitter directories and even enhance your Twitter homepage with sexy graphics and keywords.

To maximise your Twitter presence I suggest you complete this Twitter Online Tutorial or http://bit.ly/Cp9a.  The cost is around AUD$40, but well worth it.

On the flip side, here is a comical look at Twitter - http://tinyurl.com/d32yf8 - it’s a classic!

Once you have completed the Tutorial you will be shown how to get full use out of Twitter.  Here are just a few of the Twitter Tools you’ll learn about.
 
www.mytweetspace.com  -  sex up your Twitter homepage
www.tweetlater.com  - auto response
www.twollo.com  - find and follow twitters
www.google.com/alerts  - filter news/blogs and set up feeds
www.bit.ly  – create small url
www.twitterfeed.com  – Set up RSS feeds to you twitter account
http://search.twitter.com/ - find people
www.twellow.com – Twitter Yellow Pages
www.dossy.org/twitter/karma/ - Manage your Twitter followers

At the time of writing this Design Experts BLOG I am sitting in the passenger seat driving with Kylie along the Hume Hwy returning from Sydney. My laptop is in my lap and my 3G Internet in full force. Currently in my Twitter account, I have 88 Twitter followers and I am following 71 other Twitters. Only time will tell if I set up my Twitter account correctly. You can see how successful my Twitter account has turned out by visiting http://twitter.com/timgentle
 
What I am focusing on is quality links, not just quantity; I am trying to link with other web designers and social media gurus from around the world.  I do fear however, that Twitter will turn out to be just another way we will receive SPAM if it is not managed correctly, but only time will tell.

Recently I presented on Social Media in Cairns, Australia to the Nuffield Scholarship Strategic Planning Conference.  They are interested in using tools like Twitter to tap into the younger Generation.

I wouldn’t call myself a Twitter junky; but it is hard to ignore. What I am hoping Twitter will do, is to drive more traffic to Design Experts website and help grow the business.  I have also benefitted from some of the tips I have received by following others Twitters.

Cheers

Tim Gentle
Managing Director
www.DesignExperts.com.au
Twitter Tutorial - http://bit.ly/Cp9a

Do you know what Keyword clouds are?

Keyword Clouds are a visual depiction of keywords used on a website, keywords having higher density are depicted in a larger fonts.

We suggest that you check that your website has the keywords that you are targeting in Google, Yahoo come up as ‘large fonts’.  It’s FREE and takes 1 minute.

Visit Keyword Density Checker, enter your domain name and click submit, it's that simple.

If you are unsatisfied with the results you get after checking your website, then contact Design Experts to seek assistance.
 
If you have one of Design Experts latest Content Management Solutions, you can add metadata (keywords) to your webpage yourself by clicking on the 'add meta data to web page' tab in the Action Box (right hand side) when editing your webpages, see below.



TIP - If you are adding metadata/keywords to a webpage, you must try to include these 'keyword' in your content as well!

This is just one tip to improve your ranking in search engines.

Cheers

Tim Gentle
Web Architect