Month: April 2014

  • Twitter set to become more like Facebook

    Twitter is to become more and more like Facebook with its new profile redesign.  The new exciting main features of the new look are the “Best Tweets” feature, which makes tweets with the most traffic appear to be slightly larger and more prominent, “Pinned Tweets”, which allow you pin a tweet to the top of your page and “Filtered Tweets”, which allow you, when browsing other profiles, to view tweets, tweets with photos and videos, or raw tweets and replies.

    How does this affect you – you may be wondering?  For the moment, not a great deal but Twitter will be rolling out the new redesigned profile across all of their existing users over the next few weeks with new users signing up today getting the new profile automatically.  Unless you have any Twitter site placement specific images – then there is nothing you will need to fix but being aware of the new look and features will help you get significantly ahead of the popular crowd. 

     

    Using the “Pinned Tweet” feature will almost be a supplement to your initial bio or indeed it could be used to be an easy in-house advert for your company.  For example, a “Pinned Tweet” could be pinned to make sure that everyone knows about the upcoming company BBQ or that you are running an April promotion?

     

    The core essence of Twitter will of course remain the same.  Don’t think that they will replace the beloved #Hashtag just yet but as they merge closer to being flashier and including more videos and pictures – will we still be able to contain our thoughts about the new Twitter within the 140 character set limit?

  • Everyone Benefits from an Employee Portal

    Not so long ago, it was only large corporations that could even consider setting up self-service portals for their employees. But now, thanks to the outsourcing model, companies with only a handful of workers are taking full advantage of employee portal technology.

    They’re saving everyone involved – employees, the HR department, management – significant time, money, and effort.

    Perhaps best of all, by reducing paperwork and speeding access to important information, such employee portals are helping companies to boost employee satisfaction and loyalty – and, in turn, productivity. Here’s how:

    LESS WORK

    Think of the employee portal as your HR department embracing the power of e-commerce. That means eliminating the tedious filling out and shuffling of paper forms and having to decipher employees’ scrawl. And it means no re-keying of data into a computer. In addition, most follow-up phone calls are done away with, as well.

    Instead, workers can visit their company’s employee portal via any web-equipped computer or hand-held device and gain direct – and entirely secure – access to a wide range of useful work-related information all on their own, with practically no need for anyone in HR to get involved.

    INSTANT ACCESS

    Employees can view insurance benefits, 401(k) plans, company policies, you name it, all with just a few clicks of their mouse. And they can browse or print out any number of important documents, such as the employee handbook. Likewise, should their employer decide to make it possible – and many do – employees may enter and update their HR-related data all on their own. They can change their withholding status, enroll for new benefits, or update time and attendance records.

    Naturally, all of this employee portal activity is controlled with the latest in security techniques. Each employee can be assigned his or her own, unique log-in ID and password for authorizing entry to the portal. In addition, the HR department can specify exactly which data and documents are to be made available to each particular employee.

    MORE PRODUCTIVITY

    Clearly, this kind of employee portal pleases its users. They no longer have to waste time filling out form after form or waiting on hold when calling HR for, say, an explanation of their medical plan. Moreover, the people in HR are freed to devote their time and energy to productive tasks, as well. It’s win-win for everyone.

  • 10 Benefits of Using WordPress to Power Your Company’s Website

    WordPress has been around since 2003 and is the most popular blogging software on the market. Over the last few years, WordPress has also become the content management software of choice for non-blogging websites. Here are the top 10 reasons why WordPress is so popular and why you might want to consider switching to a WordPress platform for your company’s website.

    1. Ease of Use

    WordPress is very easy to use and has an intuitive interface.  Adding new pages, blog posts, images, etc. on a regular basis is a breeze and can be done quickly.  Because the technology is so simple, time spent on formatting is greatly reduced.

    2. Manage Your Website from Any Computer

    WordPress is browser-based. You can login from any Internet connected computer and manage your site.

    3. No HTML Editing or FTP Software Required

    WordPress is a self-contained system and does not require HTML editing software (such as Adobe Contribute or Dreamweaver). You can create a new page or blog post, format text, upload images (and edit them), upload documents, video files, image galleries, etc. all without the need for additional HTML or FTP software.

    4. Search Engines Love WordPress Sites

    The code behind WordPress is very clean and simple, making it easy for search engines to read and index a site’s content. In addition, each page, post, and image can have its own meta tag keywords, description, and title, and be optimized for specific keywords, allowing for very precise search engine optimization.  You can also use tags to further enhance your search engine optimization efforts.

    5. You Have Control of Your Site

    No more waiting for your web designer to make simple updates to your site. With WordPress, you have control of nearly every aspect of your site and can easily make those simple updates yourself.

    Read More (Source: Aspire Internet Design, aspireid.com)