Great news at codegent towers this week as we learned that we had won not one, but two Silver W3 Awards for our work on 40|30 at the Gherkin!

This was in addition to the FITC award and Webby nomination that we also received for this project. Champagne corks all round :)

No sooner had the Alka-Seltzer kicked in then we heard that Tepilo had been shortlisted for The Good Web Guide Website of the Year award. Fingers crossed for that one and thanks to everyone who voted for us.

So it has finally happened… The non-tech world has realised that the way we consume news has changed irrevocably. Well maybe the Wider World is a bit of an overstatement, but just ask the Grey Suits at Carter Ruck and they will confirm what the cool kids have known for a while; Old Media is not dead but it simply cannot compete with the immediacy and the omnipotence of a million tweets when it comes to reporting events in real time. 

There was a time, not too long ago, where carrying a late edition of The Standard put you at the bleeding edge of the day’s news. Then came the evolution of mainstream media onto the web. Some (The Guardian & The Economist for example) achieved this better than others, but ultimately a lunchtime fix of the headlines moved from the Café to the desktop. As immediacy goes this was a big step forward. Allied with newsgroups and rss feeds bringing updates straight to you, with minimum effort and no cost, the thirst for immediate news was quenched if not sated. 

But we were still reliant on our chosen news providers or a limited number of bloggers to actually report on the news in a timely fashion. We were also restricted to one or, at best, a few opinions and viewpoints. Political leanings and personal agenda were present in the same way they had traditionally been with news agencies. There were also considerations such as time difference and legal restrictions that meant we weren’t receiving news on our own terms. 

Then came Twitter.

On Monday night The Guardian released the ultimate ‘anti-story’ informing their readership of an injunction that had been placed on them that was preventing them telling the world about a scandal involving an MP that they couldn’t name asking a question they couldn’t print of a Minister they were not allowed to identify. Crucially this amounted to a denial of a centuries-old and hard-fought right to report on the goings on within parliament. Quite a big deal.

The injunction was served by Carter Ruck, a law firm specialising in privacy cases in the press. They market themselves as ‘the UK’s pre-eminent media law practice’ but it turns out their expertise lies in Old Media, not Media of the New variety. 

That evening Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian’s Editor-in-Chief, fired out a single tweet linking to the piece. He had in the region of 500 ‘followers’ – a pittance in Twitter currency. By the time he returned from dinner, the Twitterverse had gone into overdrive. By the following morning #carterruck, #trafigura, the company that turned out to be at the centre of the controversy, and the #guardian were all top trending topics. The majority of Tweeters were simply outraged at the attempted blockade of an ancient journalistic right, others had taken it upon themselves to sniff out the truth and publish it, free from the binds of legal injunction. Twitter heroes such as Stephen Fry added their considerable voices to the cause (c. 850k followers) and by lunchtime on the Tuesday, an hour before the Guardian were due in court to contest the gagging order, Carter Ruck had rescinded the injunction due, almost entirely, to the weight of public opinion coming straight out of the Twitter.

What the Guardian did was crowd source the freeing of information that would otherwise have taken them days in a courtroom and enormous amounts of money to release. And it happened in the space of a few hours. 

It is for this very reason that today, if something captures my interest, my first port of call is a Twitter search. I know that on there will be countless others interested and talking about the same thing right then, at the very moment that I want to discover more. This is fundamentally changing how people consume news. Anyone with access to the internet can now legitimately broadcast information, free from the restrictions that bind traditional media in the form of legal tethering and time (time difference, editorial lag etc) and countless others can consume it and make up their own minds as to it’s legitimacy in the context of the general noise around the same topic.

But how do the powers at be, the police, lawyers, politicians – people with a vested interest in protecting certain information – deal with this new world order? It is now almost impossible for them to control information because there will always be someone, somewhere with a laptop and a cause.

The reality is they can’t control it. The only long-term option open to them is increased openness. A global broadcast network of millions cuts through the PR and the spin and when viewed collectively and objectively presents the new media news consumer with the facts.

In this age of transition between the old and the new there are those who are adapting well and those who are struggling. The channels of truth have been multiplied a millionfold and the Politicians, Companies and Celebrities have now 2 choices; voluntary honesty or involuntary discovery. Power to the Tweeple indeed.

At Codegent we love a ‘big idea’, so when The Southbank Centre came to us with a new brief it was an ideal opportunity to get creative.

The concept behind GPS (Global Poetry System) was to enable people from anywhere in the world to discover the poetry around them, record it and add it to a map so that it can be found and enjoyed by others. The poetry could be anything, from graffiti on a wall to a couple of words scratched on a park bench. 

The whole premise of the site is about making poetry available. We therefore wanted to make it as easy and intuitive as possible for people to add their finds. Offering multiple upload options including audio, webcam and mobile & iPhone gives users a variety of ways to get involved, share their experiences and create a site that has rich and varied content because an empty map is no fun at all.

A cheeky Google Maps mash-up lets users pinpoint their poem against a specific location, zoom in and even use satellite to see exactly where it is hidden away. As the content builds and the virtual streets fill up with poems, the experience is becoming even better as areas rich in poetic form fill out offering the opportunity to create mini tours of urban literary gems. The long-term plan is to use the mapping tool to build and develop local communities looking to discuss and share poetry.

So you're cruising around the map and you come across something that takes your fancy. It might be a poem that reminds you of your mum or the love of your life and you want them to see how they inspire you. Simple; we added a whole host of social media tools to enable you to spread the word.

The site was officially launched on the 8th October and it has already received some great feedback. We can’t wait to see how it grows.

Let's get back to basics. Sometimes we get so carried away with the projects we are working on or the Next Big Thing that we forget that not all of our clients are web experts. Some are new to the web and need to try to make sense of the whole thing - once we have delivered a project there is a sense of 'well now what?!' They have their website but how do they drive people there? In the digital age of search engines, social networks and blogs, how do you get your business noticed and more importantly, how do you drive relevant traffic there? We’re going to cut through the digital jungle and give the rookies out there 5 crucial things that you should focus on when launching your website:

Search Engines:

Everyone with a website needs to have search engine presence at the top of their list of priorities when developing their strategy for driving traffic. Not just because 82% of the internet population use them for finding products and services, but also because it really is the one medium where global, blue chip companies and small, local businesses can compete on a level playing field as search engines prioritise the relevancy of a website to the search query over budget.

There are 2 sides to search engines: Natural Listings and Sponsored Listings. The Natural Listings are on the left, Sponsored are on the right (and sometimes the top 2-3). Only 30% of people using search engines actually click on the Sponsored Listings so getting into the Natural Listings should be your priority.

To do this you need to understand that, in order to rank you in the search listings, search engine ‘spiders’ crawl your website looking to understand what your site does and which search queries you are relevant for. Therefore think about what you want the spiders to see when they get there, what keywords should they see in your copy? Is the structure of your site clear and methodical? Is anything obstructing the spiders? There are various ways that you can increase your presence in the natural listings, and if you think about it early on it won’t cost you a penny.

Sponsored listings (also called Pay Per Click) are the revolutionary way that search engines have developed to monetise their businesses, in a nutshell you pay every time someone clicks on your listing, how much you pay varies depending on multiple factors.

There are many benefits to PPC listings over natural, they are instantaneous (unlike natural which can take months before you see results), you can control the ad copy and change it as often as you like. You can control your budget down to the penny and track every one of those pennies back to actions on your website. Every business should try PPC safe in the knowledge that you can see the results almost in real time and pause the activity whenever you like.

Directories & Local search

If you’re a business that services a particular area you need to get into the local directories, such as Yell.com. This is where the majority of people will find you now that the Yellow Pages is a thing of the past. You can also set up your sponsored search account so that you only target specific areas, this saves money and wasted time following up irrelevant leads.

Blogs

There is no point in starting a blog unless you intend to do 2 things. 1. Update it regularly, 2. Say something useful and interesting. If you manage these two things then a blog can be a great way of giving your audience a reason to keep coming back to your site. You can choose from many of the blog publishers available, such as WordPress. For something a little more impressive, consider having your own bespoke blog built to your specific needs, like Vikki Chowney did.

Social Networks

Unlike your blog, this isn’t about what you have to say. It’s about listening to what your existing and potential customers are saying and using this information to improve their customer experience and therefore your business. The trick is to know your audience and where they spend their time. A quick search of any social networking sites will give you an idea of whether or not people are talking about your brand, if not see what people are saying about your industry and join in the conversation. You should also see what your competitors are doing in this space and what they’re saying, this is one area where you always need to be ahead of the game.

Display & content advertising

And I don’t mean flashing banners on hotmail telling people they’re the lucky one millionth customer. Display advertising has come a long way from being just an annoying distraction. Now you can be much more clever about the ways that you target people, delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. The aim here is to create interest, rather than distracting people into submission. There are various networks out there that can help you set up a campaign.

Google even helps you to design and distribute your ad creative.

The web can seem like a maze at first and trying to develop a marketing plan feels like an impossible task. The key is to experiment and learn as you go, understanding what doesn’t work is an important part of the journey to a long term and prosperous digital strategy.