Who should you be voting for?

With tonight's election looming I thought to write a topical blog post based on the UK General Election. We have decided to share with you how much we like the "Vote for policies, not personalities!" website. Real time graph from the site displayed above. We are especially keen on the usable interface and real time collaboration features on the site and within social networks. A job well done by the developers.

The Vote for Policies website has been developed/designed to help visitors to the site compare the policies of the six main politcal parties, enabling visitors to make informed decisions based on the policies they want to live with, helping the visitor remove any bias they may have picked up from the mainstream and newstream media.

Go and try it out here: http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/ it may change your mind !!

The site has also been well received by the media, with the Financial Times stating "The test is well worth taking" and Channel 4 news mentioned that "Vote for Policies is an interesting survey based on policies alone - allowing users to find out who they would vote for if their policies were anonymous". We found out about the site on Twitter.

Another tool you may be interested in visiting is http://www.myvoteadvisor.com/ which contains information directly uploaded by those trying to win your vote and here is another tool: http://www.votematch.org.uk/ which also helps you to determine your voting preference for the UK General Election.

Rocktime have developed their own Online Polling Tool within their bespoke Web Content Management System (Logic CMS).

The Polls module or Voting module if you prefer, allows site users to vote on particular topics / questions. After a set period of time the poll is closed and the final result displayed. The results can be displayed as a bar chart, or graph as a percentage of all those that have provided an answer. This is a good way to receive feedback on any number of topics, without the audience feeling as though they're having to give away anything. The voting module can be expanded on so once answered, the website can take the visitor through to some other 'call to action' or reward (if it's necessary to entice the visitor).

If you want to find out more about our online polling tool then pick up the phone and talk to Rocktime Sales.

Author: Sarah Griffiths @sarahgriffiths

iPhone Applications on the move

Expect over the next six months to start to see a major growth in development of iPhone applications.

The stats to support this include:

607.5 million people globally accessing social networks by 2013, which is 43% of all mobile internet users (eMarketer)

50% of mobile phone users will access the mobile internet at least monthly by 2013 (eMarketer)

Also recent studies (from America) shows the % of people accessing websites via mobile phones are increasing: in January 2010, 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook via their mobile browser, up 112% from 11.8 million mobile users in January 2009. Twitter also experienced high growth attracting 4.7 million mobile user in Jan 10, up by 347% versus previous year. (Source: ComScore, Feb 2010, Facebook and Twitter Access via Mobile Browser Grows by Triple-Digits in the Past Year).

Content on the go

If your consumers/clients would benefit from content on the go being pushed to their phone (via 3GS) then talk to Rocktime Sales about Mobile Application development. We can create mobile applications for the iPhone, Android, Windows mobile and more. A benefit of working with us is that as we develop everything in house you will also be able to have complete control of the look and the feel of the application. The main design considerations we review to in creating your application with you, is to make sure it is easy to read, easy to navigate, fun or/and extremely useful to target market.

Recent iPhone development

Rocktime recently developed an iPhone application for Local Food Advisor linking into their site database, to share 4000 award winning producers, suppliers and farmers markets in the UK & Ireland read more about the iPhone app integration here>


How to get your app noticed?

There are over 100K 3rd party applications available to download, so the big question is how to get your application noticed? As part of social media optimisation we would advise you to network with your communities on social networks before launch and during launch. If the application development was based on feedback from your community then thank them and make them feel involved, they too will then share the love of your new application. If you have employees on Twitter talk to them about the new app let them know test dates, let them spread the word too around their own networks. Join in with application developer forums, get their feedback and continue to spread awareness of your application once launched.

Location based apps growing

Tech journalists and bloggers anticipate an increasing number of iPhone applications will become location based: so as tweets, blog posts, site content are based on a specific area the content will then be delivered to the iPhone application when required. On upload of the application it will ask “would you like to use your current location”, you may have already seen this already on sites such as http://gowalla.com/ and http://foursquare.com/ (see above blog post image).

Via 3GS and interaction with the location targeted apps, local businesses are benefiting as they are able to serve up adverts that are specific to the application users location ie: a coffee shop may tweet out to Four Square members, “Why not pop in to our branch on the High Street around 3pm and have Coffee for half price”. Pretty amazing yes, indication that web technology is continuing to empower the consumer even further, as they not only check for real time offers whilst on the move but receive them automatically too (Push & Pull notifications).

Be inspired

It is worth your while exploring iPhone applications even if you don’t have an iPhone, what works well on a phone could work for your site. The application store is also a great place to help create or build on new ideas, especially if you read the feedback pages.

If you are totally new to mobile phone applications and would like a little insight into how they function. look and the benefits to the user, we would recommend you go visit this post at Mashable, who in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, shared their top 10 free iPhone applications that promote continued environmental awareness, hopefully they will be of interest to you. For extra advise and guidance in this growing market of mobile phone applications pick up the phone to talk to Rocktime Sales.


Author: Sarah Griffiths

Astronomy Picture of the Year

We ususally have the GEEK Video of the month, but as we can't find a winner this month. thought to share with you what we believe to be the "Astronomy Picture of the Year" which shows "Ash and Lightning Above an Icelandic Volcano" Credit & Copyright goes to Marco Fulle (Stromboli Online).

Pretty impressive shot !

For the geeky explanation on why the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland created so much ash? Go visit the Astronomy Picture of the Day website where we sourced the image from here.


Author: Paul Watmore

Google Docs Just Got Better !

On Monday last week Google introduced and previewed the Google Documents with a number of clients with regards to collaborating on content related to their website, this addition is really helpful, thanks Google we are loving your work.

If you have a Google account, go to your Google Documents page and visit the settings tab, then document settings, then the editing tab to preview the new features it is quite clear just choose “Create new text documents using the latest version of the document editor” . Alternatively watch the video above for more information.

Have fun.


Author: Sarah Griffiths

3 Tech companies on a Ski Trip / Holiday

Kieron Matthews (our Technical Director) has recently got back from a Skiing/Snowboarding trip with friends in the French Ski Resort Les Arcs (Paradiski), taking on Mike Ypes from The3rdRoom and Sean Matthews (his brother) from BlueChip Data Systems.

So the question is did they all stick to the blue runs or attempt to ski down the black runs, tackle mogels or did they simply enjoy off piste? Who was the best skier, snowboarder, did anyone attempt a 360 degree jump?

Kieron tells all (or a little as pretty pushed at the mo):

"I can’t crown anyone as a champion cook as this holiday chalet was fully catered. I can crown Mike as the best skier on the trip and Scott as the best boarder (Mike was the only skier). And I would like to crown myself as the person most likely to get lost. No comment on the 360 degree jump, I will let you decide on that. Overall the trip was a great break away, lots of activities, laughing and relaxing. Overall score 9/10, I would recommend this resort for families and groups of friends and will visit again. Find out more about Les Arcs (Paradiski) here"

Back to work:

The Technical team are steaming their way through with the upgrades to the new version 7 modules (within Rocktime CMS) and Core (the backbone to our Rocktime CMS) which are all geared to SEO and feature several developments using Web 2 controls. The version is due for release in beginning of October 2010.

It’s a very exciting time for all of us.

To find out more about our latest developments to our content management system, or to understand more about logic cms talk to Sales.

Author: Kieron Matthews

YouTube bring back the Bulletins

I have just logged into YouTube and noticed (appearing top of YouTube channel on login) that they have started to advertise the Channel Bulletins feature, it makes alot more sense than what I read back in Jan 2010 here over at the YouTube Blog.

This is excellent news for brands out there who which to increase their communication with the YouTube audience. The new tabbing structure makes the process very clear and easy to use.

Using the "Post a Bullettin" feature means you can write a message to all your subscribers and even link them to a video. You can then view the message you have written in your Recent Activity Module, so any passers by will see that activity too and possibly want to subscribe to you if the messages/bullettins are enticing enough. It also mentions that it will appear on the subscribers recent activity module too, there is however a time delay as I just ran the test from my personal channel here - note top line (Testing the new feature) and over 10hrs later the recent activity on Rocktimesocial hasn't updated yet (so sceptical - as YouTube comments are a gamble at the best of times).


Find out more about this feature by visiting this link over at Google on Channel Bulletins.

It is all very exciting indeed...

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Twitter Simplifies it's Business Model - #not

Twitter ranks as one of the most popular sites on the Internet. So we all have waited with baited breath of news on when they were going to start putting together a business model. The news broke yesterday.

They have launched what they call a simple service titled “Promoted tweets” and this morning I have been trying to get my head round what this means to the Twitter Eco System and how our clients will benefit from this service.

Twitter are classing this as the first stage and already have a number of advertising partners onboard to trial the service which include: Starbucks, Virgin America (not surprised), Red Bull, Best Buy and Sony Pictures. The premise being is that promoted tweets are just like ordinary tweets that brands may wish to use should they want to highlight their Tweet to a wider community.

We are going to begin to see promoted tweets appear at the top of some of Twitter Search result pages (see image above). Twitter will be measuring whether people like the tweets via their interaction with the message ie: marking as favourite, Re-tweeting or @replying. If no body/tweeter appears to like the promoted Tweet then it will disappear. I believe there will be a connection to the Twitter user and the promoted tweet, a little bit like “You may be interested in feature” on Amazon, ie: the more you RT tweet a tweet from a sports brand the more promoted tweets from sport brands you will see.

Also as the Tweet is promoted and Twitter seek to make money then the promoted tweets will be purchased on a CPM model and quite excitedly (for Flashlight) it will be a mix of earned versus paid media – as you need to make your Tweets work.

Having a combination or organic and paid ads will suit Rocktime’s Flashlight Team well as we have the mix of SEO expertise, Paid search expertise and Social Media Savvyness.

I am sure there is more in this development, so I went and visited Web Strategist Blog by Jeremiah Owyang to see what he has to say, quite alot as it happens.

Jeremiah has provided a summary of the promoted, explaining as I have above on how it will work, he has also developed a matrix on what Twitter’s promoted tweets business model will mean to the Eco-system. Go and view his blog post here and follow him (blog & twitter) as he regularly talks a lot of sense:

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/04/13/quicktake-analysis-what-twitters-resonation-means/

Twitter’s founder Biz Stone has let us all know that there will be more announcements soon as the project matures, they are currently finding their feet too in understanding how to measure Twitter user interaction on the Tweets. Once they have a footing this will be rolled out to other advertisers. So watch this space, as I am sure we have some very interesting times ahead.

Reputation and respect has never been more key. Power to the people ! and good luck to the brands in finding the 140 characters that resonate with their audiences.


Author: Sarah Griffiths