Service Network are hosting an event that will take you through the step by step process of developing a digital footprint for your business. A digital footprint is a collection of activities and behaviours recorded when an organisation interacts in a digital environment.  It includes the recording of activities such as clicks on e-newsletters, visits to a web-page, tweets and Facebook updates.

Date: Thursday 21st October 2010
Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm

Location: Wynyard Park, Wynyard Avenue, Billingham, Tees Valley, TS22 5TB view map

Mark Easby of brand agency Better will expertly guide you through the key areas you need to understand in today’s digital world:

Why you need to develop your digital footprint.

How to listen to the internet – how to find out where your audience is and what they are talking about.

How to join in – what choices you have to make, how to think strategically and why you have to be committed to the task.

What to do when your audience talks to you – you need to learn how to develop a conversation.

How to measure your channels.

How to drive your audience to your database – how e-mail marketing, search engine optimisation, campaign planning and public relations all link in to your digital footprint.

How to stay ahead of the competition.

After this event, you will go back into your business and start listening, engaging, interacting, recording, sharing and discussing digital information in a very human way.  You will come away with an understanding of how social media can work for your business and will be empowered with the energy to create a successful digital footprint for your organisation.

Better is an agency specialising in brand, design, marketing and social media campaigns.  Mark is heavily involved with clients ranging from start up businesses through to national brands.

Cost: Free to Service Network members, £35 + VAT to non members.

Please contact Sarah Willan on 0191 244 4031 or book online at http://www.service-network.co.uk/events/34

To avoid a cancellation fee of £35 + VAT please inform the Service Network team in writing at least 48 hours before the event if you register but can no longer attend.

Website: http://www.quay2media.com

Some comments from Christian Cerisola, Director.

We put the search out there for our new website on twitter and they were among the first to respond. It was important for us that our web developers had a strong understanding on the importance of social media channels for our own site plans. From there though, they were straight on the phone and keen to come and meet face to face with us.

Their ideas, creativity and ease to converse with immediately made them the immediate front runners among the developers we saw. Importantly for us, they gave us the impression they actually really wanted our business.

From the moment we then agreed terms with them, we never doubted for one second we had made the right choice. They stayed patient while pushing our comfort zone and maintained creativity and new ideas while offering a fantastic client reporting structure to us at Quay2. They’re a young, hungry team and its no surprise they are rapidly becoming a great North East success story.

We’re thrilled with the end result and genuinely hope it’s the start of a long term relationship we can develop with Better and their team.

More Screenshots.

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On Thursday 25 March 2010, people in hundreds of cities around the world, including Newcastle will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness.  Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good.

All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects. Follow @tynetwestival on Twitter or visit http://newcastle.twestival.com for updates.

About Concern Worldwide.

Concern Worldwide was founded in 1968 to meet the needs of people living in extreme poverty, for whom every day is a fight for survival. Concern is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organization dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of poverty. Their mission is to help people living in extreme poverty achieve major improvements in their lives – improvements they can sustain without ongoing support. Concern meets the needs of these people in a caring and personalized manner, respecting their human and cultural dignity. They are committed to reaching the most vulnerable, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Concern’s work is informed by a vision for change and their education programs target the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world, with particular emphasis on reaching out-of-school children such as girls, orphans, street children, working children, children affected by conflict, children affected by HIV and AIDS, and children with disabilities. Concern’s education programs currently reach over 700,000 people in 25 countries across the regions of Africa,  Asia, and the Caribbean.  Please follow @concern on Twitter to get a glimpse of their staff tweeting from around the world; including their efforts on the ground in Haiti.

Where the Twestival funds will go.

Each city and school hosting a Twestival will be given the opportunity to select an area of education to support.  This will be recognized with a special icon on their website once they have set a goal.  For as little as $28USD they can provide the uniform, books, pencils, and paper a child needs to attend one year of school.

Concern Worldwide are able to guarantee that 100% of Twestival funds will go direct to project costs.  This means that the money would be used for material purchases (curriculum, desks, pencils) as well as project activities such as construction of schools; rehabilitation of classrooms; teacher/management training; PTAs; HIV/AIDS school clubs; water and sanitation in schools; health education in schools; education advocacy; vocational/life-skills training for youth, farmers and women; and curriculum development for secondary school/university.

Money will not be used for things like administration, overhead, reporting oversight, etc. Concern Worldwide requires all fields that receive money strictly adhere to a six- and 12-month formal reporting protocol in which the field details the specific activities it has undertaken and how the funds were utilized. This system provides a very tangible case studies, evidence and updates, and other detailed information about how programs have progressed and benefited program participants; including the financial allocation in field; the GPS locations of schools in receipt of funds; digital video clips and photos from the schools; and case studies/quotes from people who have benefitted from the projects.  As cities are confirmed and fundraising goals are set, we will work with the team at Concern Worldwide to identify specific projects we will be supporting.

The web developer role requires demonstration technical ability but more importantly the passion required to forge a career in digital media that by its very nature requires continuous learning. You should have a love for all things web. You will see web projects as being not only design and functionality, but also understand the marketing and communication requirements for the project (including SEO). We are looking for a motivated self-learner, who finds code and problem solving interesting.

Software knowledge and skills required:
Experience developing with PHP & MySQL
A good working knowledge of CSS, JavaScript, and XHTML, Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media Platforms
Awareness of Accessibility particularly W3C and WAI 
Web 2.0

Advantageous:
Experience in a modern version control system (SVN, Git, Hg etc)
Knowledge of Unit Testing and Continuous Integration techniques
Experience in Linux system administration

Salary/Package: Negotiable based on experience.

You must be able to join the team to support both existing projects (additional work, problem solving) but also lead on new projects using your technical understanding to help with scoping out technical website specifications. You need to be able to work comfortably on your own while maintaining close communication with the rest of the team. Having a strong attention to detail is critical.

You should have a good, working knowledge of current web standards such as W3C and WAI and be able to build sites comfortably in line with these.  An advanced understanding of Search Engine Optimisation issues and their influence on developing web functionality is important.

You must be self motivated to succeed, and of course practice clean coding techniques along with proper relevant documentation. You will be involved in face-to-face client meetings to support our clients, and good communication skills are important to us.

NO AGENCIES PLEASE.

If you are interested in applying for the position(s) available please contact us or submit your CV and Portfolio using the details below:

contact: Mark Easby, Managing Director
office: Springboard Centre, Ellerbeck Way, Stokesley Business Park, Stokesley, North Yorkshire, TS9 5JZ
telephone: 08451 222611
email: mark[at]betterbrandagency.com

For a young agency getting our first award in a category that is really important to us justifies all the hard work of the last six months. Without our socail media strategy in place we wouldn’t have made the contacts, developed the relationships with peers, suppliers and clients and been able to position our business in the North East.

For more information about the North East Digital Awards please visit the website at www.northeastdigitalawards.co.uk.

The web developer role requires demonstration technical ability but more importantly the passion required to forge a career in digital media that by its very nature requires continuous learning. You should have a love for all things web. You will see web projects as being not only design and functionality, but also understand the marketing and communication requirements for the project (including SEO). You should find code and problem solving interesting and have a genuine interest in perusing a career within a vibrant commercial studio and an environment where deadlines change daily.

Software and skills:
Expert knowledge of Object Orientated PHP/MySQL., Javascript and AJAX
Expert knowledge of building sites in CSS/XHTML
Content Management System Models
Hosting and Email Set Up and server support
Search Engine Optimisation
Aware of Accessibility particularly W3C and WAI 
Web 2.0
Design standards and technology

Salary/Package: Negotiable based on experience.

You must be able to join the team to support both existing projects (additional work, problem solving) but also lead on new projects using your technical understanding to help with scoping out technical website specifications. You needs to be able to work comfortably on your own while maintaining close communication with the rest of the team. Having a strong attention to detail is critical.

You should have excellent knowledge of current web standards such as W3C and WAI and be able to build sites comfortably in line with these.  An advanced understanding of Search Engine Optimisation issues and their influence on developing web functionality is important.

You must be self motivated to succeed, and of course practice clean coding techniques along with proper relevant documentation. You will be involved in face-to-face client meetings to support our clients, and good communication skills are important to us.

If you are interested in applying for the position(s) available please contact us or submit your CV and Portfolio using the details below:

office: Springboard Centre, Ellerbeck Way, Stokesley Business Park, Stokesley, North Yorkshire, TS9 5JZ
telephone: 08451 222611
email: mark[at]betterbrandagency.com

Submit our CV Submission Form:

We’ve entered the digital supplier – Best Social Media Optomisation Campaign category, so fingers crossed we get something. Anyone can vote in the awards so use you click and support us.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR US IN THE NORTH EAST DIGITAL AWARDS.

We have been working on some graphics and web buttons to help spread the word, and these will be online very soon. For more information the TyneTwestival please visit http://newcastle.twestival.com where you can buy tickets online, or follow @tynetwestival on Twitter.

Better Brand Agency is a brand agency offering brand, graphic design, marketing, social media and social networking, web and digital services based in Tees Valley, North East and North Yorkshire.

There are lots of Refreshing Cities around the world but only a couple here in the UK and it’s about time that changed. The drive behind digital media in the North East seems to be focused very much in Newcastle however Teesside is home to many up and coming digital media agencies and also many freelance web designers and developers.

We want to let people know that you don’t need to live down South to be considered a Web Professional in this country.

After searching for a long time it became apparent there was nowhere locally which met with point one of the Refresh Cities Manifesto – “Let’s Gather Great Minds”… so Refresh Teesside was born.

The Refresh manifesto:

* Let’s Gather Great Minds
* Let’s Share All Of Our Knowledge
* Let’s All Grow And Learn
* Let’s Promote Local Talent
* Let’s Make Our Cities Better

Great! I’m interested – whats next?

We’ve just set the ball rolling and we need your support! We are looking for people who can regularly help with organizing events, venues and anyone interested in being partners or sponsors.

At first we don’t envisage anything mind blowing, however if you like the idea of getting together and enjoying a relaxed drink and a chat then let’s get it started!

For more information please visit www.refreshteesside.org.