Hosting comes at the very end of your web design process and is the final step to getting your site live on the internet. Personal web pages and small, simple constructions can be hosted from home through various methods, most of which are free, but require your page to carry advertising.

Complex sites, or those who require a professional advertising-free approach, will need to link up with a web hosting provider. So what questions do you need to ask when choosing a provider?

•    What is the average downtime per month? Downtime is when your website, for whatever reason, is unavailable. Most providers aim to average 99.5% uptime per month, this means a loss of 45 minutes each month.

•    Is there 24 hour technical support? Unexpected downtime can occur when it is least welcome, so you need to know you can speak to somebody quickly and easily to ensure the issue is resolved with minimum impact on your business.

•     What type of hosting is it? Dedicated hosting allows you to retain full control over your server, whereas managed hosting allows the provider to retain administrative functions. There are several other types of hosting, and a good web host should be able to take you through the options to find the one that is right for you.

If you’re looking for a home for your website, then speak to NSDesign for flexible web hosting packages that use the latest Linux technology.

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Since the BBC announced the closure of BBC 6 Music, its home for new and upcoming bands, in March the public outcry has been immense with celebrities and citizens going online to offer their support for the station, seen as one of the few bastions of independent music in the UK.

An internet campaign using various social media sites sprang up almost instantly. This was not a coordinated effort, but started by different individuals who wanted to show their support for the station and encourage others to do the same. The Facebook campaign gathered 180,000 followers, while Twitter’s #save6music hashtag appeared to be constantly trending as several million tweets featured it.

These campaigns led supporters to online petition sites, which formalised the support and created documents that could then be handed to the BBC trust, creating a definite record of the station’s popularity amongst the public. When these petitions closed in May, they held nearly 100,000 signatures between them.

Added to this was the inundation of 50,000 online responses and 25,000 emails the BBC Trust received in support, as opposed to 250 snail mail letters, and you can truly begin to appreciate just how much difference the internet made in this highly successful internet and social media campaign.

The perfect case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of social media marketing!

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So this week, NSDesign Social Media Training has a case study to help you pinpoint what makes a successful social media campaign. It’s from a surprising source – traditional brand Marmite, first established in 1902, and now leading the way in social media marketing.

Marmite has always revelled in its ‘controversial’ status and has run several traditional advertising campaigns around the love/ hate aspect of the product. To capitalise on the 2010 general election they conceived a social media equivalent, setting up ‘Love’ and ‘Hate’ Facebook groups. Within four weeks they had 350,000 fans across the two groups, the result of a massive multi-media marketing push.

Why were they so successful? Marmite created a debate, which required people to actively think and engage with their brand; this created an online discussion between consumers and the brand, which created an excellent source of rich and original content, helping to boost the product’s online footprint.

They also used various mediums to draw attention and focus it on their social media. The main social media thrust was supported by traditional mediums such as TV and newer avenues like online forums, all of which drove traffic to the Facebook hubs. They even offered hard copy ‘electioneering’ packs to the most energetic fans.

Marmite has a lot of resources behind it, but the lessons can be applied to companies of all sizes, so that your social media campaign becomes all about the ‘Love’.

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It was created back in 2006, but Twitter has really taken off in the UK in the last year. It’s not just a way to connect socially but is also an important business tool – when used carefully, of course.

If you’re not sure about Twitter, the easiest way to think of it is as texting online, or a shorter and quicker version of Facebook. Users (tweeters) post messages of 140 characters or less and follow people who interest them – as you follow people who interest you.

For business owners, Twitter is a chance to connect directly with consumers as well as others in your industry. A chance to forge new links in an informal setting, it’s also a place where ideas can be shared and discussed. Yes, all this in 140 characters!

There are pitfalls to be wary of when using Twitter, of course. This year’s election has seen a few politicians come a crumble by posting up off the cuff yet rude comments about members of the general public – or, in the case of one politician, posting up some early postal vote election results!

NSDesign can guide you through the process to ensure that you use Twitter in a way that’s fun and productive rather than destructive. When navigating a new application, it’s handy to have some expert advice so that you can make friends, not foes, online.

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Web hosting companies range from one-man-bands through to large-scale corporations, but regardless of size, you can use the following checklist to determine whether they’re likely to provide a good service:

1)    Security is a major concern for website managers. Check whether your prospective web host houses their servers in a secure facility.

2)    The safe-guarding of your website’s files is also crucial. In the event that the server hosting your website should fail, make sure the hosting company has a system for backing up your website.

3)    Find out whether the web hosting company can offer any guarantees to give you confidence in their service levels. Also ask to see any ‘uptime’ statistics to give you confidence that your website is unlikely to crash.

4)    Locality is also something to consider, although it’s less important than the security and reliability issues outlined above. It’s usually a good idea to host your website in the country in which you do business. This is mainly for search engine optimisation purposes. When UK customers type search terms into the search engines, for example, the results will prioritise pages from UK-hosted websites.

5)    Finally, we recommend you choose a web hosting company that gives you a control panel or a suitable alternative that enables you to administer your website 24/ 7.

This seems like an appropriate moment to mention that NSDesign offers all of these web hosting benefits and many more besides … but to avoid too blatant a plug we’ll leave it there and let you come to us if you happen to be in the market for web hosting.

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The RAR, or Recommended Agency Register, recognises the best agencies for client service and the awards are distributed to agencies that have been highly rated by their clients. In order to be listed on the register in the first place, agencies must pass a client satisfaction test and the awards are only open to registered agencies.

As the winners of the “Best Value for Money” award, us lucky folk at NSDesign get to enjoy the following:

•    A fancy certificate for the wall
•    A special RAR award winners logo for use in marketing material
•    Promotion on the awards pages of RAR
•    Promotion in awards coverage in The Drum magazine
•    An RAR Awards tag attached to our listing on the RAR site

None of the above perks would be possible, of course, without our clients, who have been kind enough to take time out of their lives to say nice things about us to the good people of RAR. Thank you! I’m glad you enjoy working with us as much as we enjoy working with you.

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It would be easy to rail against clients who can’t tell the difference between a professional design agency and the mate of the client’s cousin who’s offered to design a website for £50 – but easy is overrated! I think that ultimately it’s up to us as web designers to accept that if we want to win the business, we have to take responsibility for educating the client.

First of all, web designers have got to speak the language of business: terms like ‘ROI’, ‘brand awareness’, and ‘higher productivity’ need to appear in design proposals, because business decision makers tend to use the language of objectives. By contrast, many web designers use the language of attributes, such as ‘user friendly’, ‘clean design’, and ‘engaging’. If clients are to recognise the true value of professional web design, then the designer needs to translate attributes into objectives and demonstrate how they will deliver a return on the client’s investment.

The second key component of a winning design proposal is to spell out the process step-by-step (like on our 50 point checklist…). Web design can seem like a mysterious art to many people – in fact, to most people besides other web designers! – so it can really help to show the client where their money is being spent. Most business decision makers who want a professional result will easily understand that £50 won’t buy them a thought-out design process that covers: concept, consultation, research, wireframes, design, build, testing and launch.

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Teaming up with the Scottish Rocks Basketball team, we invited over 100 customers to the game against Cheshire Jets, enjoyed a load of on-court shenanigans, before opening up the bar with free food and drink to all..  In summary – a seriously good night.

We started the night (before the game) with our 5 competition finalists taking the court to attempt a free throw.  From the five, one made it, so congrats to Robert Scott who won an iPod:

We then picked Martyn Robertson at random, who won the chance to shoot for a brand new car…  Something we’d been promoting for the past few months, and given us a lot of publicity…  So did he make it?..  Check out this Youtube video for a full summary of all the shots!!

The Game itself wasn’t the best, and the Rocks ended up losing, but as with any Basketball game at Kelvin Hall, the excitement, cheerleaders, and genral fun and games kept everyone enjoyed until it was time to hit the bar…

After the game it was up to the “Kelvin Suite” (a very posh name for the wee bar up the stairs from the court), and everyone enjoyed some free food, drink, and birthday cake (both of them!)…  It was also our opportunity to say a few thanks for clients, like Simon Howarth – our very first customer back in Feb 99, to staff, and to everybody connected to NSDesign over the 10 years…  You can view my “Thank You” speech on You Tube.

All in all… a seriously good night, and one that marks a very special decade of NSDesign.  Here’s to the next 10!!

Check out more of the party photos at Facebook

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Their somewhat random offer was actually 62% above the “market value” of Yahoo, based on their share price at the time, a valuation most traditional businesses in the past would have jumped at.  But just how do you value a “Web Company”…  It’s certainly not an easy task, and (as MS have shown) not just down to the current stock market trends.

 So… will we see a MSNahoo?  Or will (as many as speculating) Google suddenly appear as a rival bidder.  And what will it all mean for us web users?  Less choice?  A better service?  Only time will tell…

Ps – I was only kidding about selling NSDesign for $40 billion…  I’d take less..

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Apologies in advance for the lack of effort in customising the wordpress theme, but we wanted to get this up and running before Christmas, and I promise to spend a little more time on it in January.

So why a blog?..  Well, we wanted an informal space where the team could post “non official” news, thoughts and random stuff.  Far too often we’ve had something of interest to say, but nowhere to say it – hence the birth of this blog.  If you’re a customer of NSDesign then be aware that existing support channels will not change..  you’ll still use the online helpdesk etc when you need support – this blog is not to supplement support – It’s just a chance for us to ramble on various issues (some work related, some not), and for you to get inside the heads of some of the staff.  We’re all really nice people (trust me), and I hope you get to know us all that little bit better….

 Ok…  thats enough for the first post.

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