There are thousands of content management systems available today. So how do you choose the right CMS for your company? Well, here’s a quick overview of SilverStripe.
SilverStripe contains a flexible MVC development framework known as Sapphire. Much like Ruby on Rails, but written in PHP5, it ensures developers are capable of extending and enhancing the functionality of the CMS and the website. SilverStripe provides developers with complete control of the generated markup; allowing for higher, semantic standards of XHTML. As a consequence, building websites using SilverStripe requires technical website development competence, and is thus aimed at providing efficiency and power to experienced website developers.
The highly modular nature of SilverStripe has resulted in the creation of numerous pre-built modules that extend the core functionality of the CMS. Modules range from providing blog, ecommerce, and forum functionality, to LDAP and OpenID authentication. Modules are available from the SilverStripe modules repository.
SilverStripe Widgets are small pieces of useful functionality that can be instantly dragged and dropped into a website, for instance tag clouds, flickr photos, or word of the day.
Some key points:
- Open Source License (£free)
- Built in PHP using the Sapphire framework
- Simple content editing via WYSIWYG editor
- Complete control over the look and feel of the design
- Lots of custom modules and widgets to increase functionality
What we like about it:
- Shappire gives you the ability to easily add custom functionality to your project
- The admin interface is simple and intuitive as well as fast to load
- There is a huge developer community as well as professional services support direct from SilverStripe
- Design templates are easy to edit and modify
SilverStripe Example Websites:
The Peter Pan Club
http://www.peterpanvakantieclub.nl/
US 2008 Democratic National Convention
http://demconvention.com/
Merge Communications
http://mergecom.co.nz/
The Woman’s Conference
http://californiawomen.org/
British Potato Council
http://www.britishpotatoes.co.uk/
Season Magazine
http://www.seasonmagazine.co.uk/
The Open Source license
“It’s easy to understand why the BSD license is a great choice for our customers, but how is the BSD license good for our business? After all, we are basically giving away a huge chunk of our Intellectual Property (IP). A software company’s IP is usually held onto very tightly because traditionally, software companies believe that their IP is something to be protected and sold. We believe something different.”
“Simply put, it comes down to this: We’re not in the business of developing software; we’re in the business of helping our customers. The way we do this is by figuring out what our customers need and delivering well. What we deliver is usually a combination of business analysis, technology development, and tight working relationships with the customers.”
-The SilverStripe Team
Here’s the actual license
Visit the SIlverStripe community website here:
http://www.silverstripe.org
If you want to find out more about the people behind SIlverStripe visit:
http://www.silverstripe.com
We are using SilverStripe here at Masterpiece as a solid foundation for our online services. Along with SilverStripe we also use Drupal, WordPress and Magento, all open source and all great in their own ways. If you would like more information about selecting a CMS or you are lloing into building a website please feel free to get in touch.
SilverStripe Technical Requirements:
- Apache v1.3.19+ or Lighttpd with mod_rewrite support, or Microsoft IIS 7
- MySQL v4.1.X+
- PHP 5.2+ with MySQL, GD Graphics Library and Zlib support
Posted March 17th, 2009 by acansick | In category Online | 1 Comment »
Taken from Technology Weekly, March 2009
Twitter, a micro-blogging platform, is the new popular social networking phenomenon being featured on news programs, endorsed by celebrities and used by thousands. What is Twitter and why should businesses be excited about it?
Twitter is an instant messaging platform that started in March 2006 as a “side project” according to those who created it. The idea for Twitter came from Jack Dorsey and his desire to keep on top of what his friends were doing. This led to the building of a program that lived on the web and asked the simple question he most wanted answered.
Now Twitter presents users with a friendly message asking “What are you doing?” and a space to fill in with 140 characters about just that. People who sign up to the service can receive other peoples/businesses messages by “following” them. Following an account causes the updates they post to appear on the home page of the user following them. To be heard though, you need to have people following you.
Simplicity seems to be at the core of Twitter’s popularity. With only 140 characters to work with, messages need to express their meaning in a small space. Twitter is not profitable but it was recently announced in the press that it may charge for corporate profiles, recognition that businesses have moved on to Twitter to market to the large number of users gathered there. Twitter profiles with hundreds of followers are being auctioned on eBay. Twitter is the new “next big thing” and businesses are again trying to figure out how to market to the people gathered there.
One of the challenges of engaging to advertise over social media is the significant investment of time required. It is not enough to create a profile and expect users to stumble across it – businesses need to be proactive and engage. Some businesses on Twitter do just this with a combination of announcing business news while also chatting with potential and existing customers. Other businesses use Twitter as a broadcast only platform. Yet others create a profile and abandon it. Only those who engage reap any benefit.
Most social media from MySpace though Facebook to Twitter can only be used for marketing through engagement. Creating then abandoning social profiles can reflect badly on the brand and will not be as effective at communicating to customers with. Engagement needn’t take a tremendous amount of time. Understanding and managing expectations as well as engagement can result in valuable brand engagement.
To engage effectively on Twitter as a business there are several steps you should take. First step is to sign up as your business/brand name and “follow” some of the suggested people that Twitter offers. Look at what they do. Spend no more than an hour in this research phase. Understand the flow of the posts, the information communicated and the response rate to messages directed at these individuals. The research phase should give a feel for the type of communication which is most effective.
This kind of engagement is possibly more within the territory of the brand manager and marketing but be aware that your employees may already be Twittering. Utilise these existing experts within your company to help drive your understanding forward. The best brand engagement is a mix of PR and personal engagement. As Twitter only broadcasts to those who opt-in, it is essential to add value to those who choose to receive updates so previews of new releases, engaging users in consumer research or access to exclusive specials or advance ticket ordering can really drive opt-in. Additionally promoting your Twitter profile through regular mailings will help increase readership.
Twitter has become very popular and has a community of tens of thousands of users. Twitter is getting larger by the day as more and more people adopt it after hearing about it from celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross. Much like Facebook and MySpace, a company does need to engage however there is great potential to push brand awareness out through this channel and create brand fans and champions. Engagement is the key to success
Posted March 11th, 2009 by acansick | In category Masterpiece News, Online | No Comments yet
History
Pongees are one of the most highly respected silk merchants in the UK. With a heritage that dates back to the 19th Century, Pongees provide silk to meet the exacting demands of top couture designers, bridal and lingerie manufacturers, high street fashion retailers as well as supplying the world of film and stage.
Brief
Pongees’ previous website proved difficult to manage and was rarely updated because of this. Pongees wanted to raise their online brand equity by creating an elegant online solution that would reflect the essence of the Pongees brand.
Pongees supply over 1,000 styles and colours of silk. The site had to provide customers with a way of accurately identifying their fabric of choice and then order a swatch through the site.
Masterpiece - The Open Agency
Pongees selected Masterpiece to design and build their website. We not only demonstrated an understanding of the Pongees brand through our designs, but our ‘Open Agency’ approach using open source solutions reassured Pongees that they would not be tied in to expensive contracts with content management system providers.
The Delivered Solution
Masterpiece carried out a discovery phase that formed the basis of our project specification and informed the remaining phases of the project; design, delivery and deployment.
An open source content management system (Drupal) was deemed the ideal platform and was developed using e-commerce principles for the swatch ordering process.
Masterpiece also provided photography and colour matching for all 1,000 silk swatches. This ensured each product’s representation online would be accurate.
In conjunction with the website, Masterpiece were also tasked with developing a swatch book that Pongees could supply to customers. Previously, books were printed and these proved to be expensive and difficult to update.
Using the same images taken for the website, Masterpiece developed a large ring bound brochure that could be updated when new silks were developed, saving both time and money for Pongees.
Results
The new Pongees website was developed with search engine optimisation in mind. Since launch, site traffic has doubled and the number of swatch orders has increased significantly too.
Testimonials
“We were looking to re-launch our website and Masterpiece ticked all the boxes. I have to say that from the initial concept meetings and discussions about layout, content and functionality, they have been first class.
Communication throughout the project has been excellent and Masterpiece demonstrated a unique ability to understand our business, the project requirements and to deliver on time and on budget,
Taking into account the excellence of the photographic work which Masterpiece have as an in house resource we are delighted with the results. The speed with which jobs have been carried out and their overall professionalism, all delivered in a friendly manner, has been key to the success of our project.”
Will Steele
Managing Director
Pongees Ltd
“It’s been a delight to work with such a wonderful client as Pongees. The project has thrown up some interesting problems that we have found elegant and creative solutions too.
I am extremely pleased with the project and am looking forward to continue to work with Pongees. We are already thinking about ways in which the site could be further developed.
I have also received a lot of positive feedback from other Masterpiece clients complementing us on the design and photography of the site.”
Richard Johnson
Head of Online
Masterpiece
Visit the Pongees website: http://www.pongees.co.uk
Contact:
Richard Johnson,
Head of Online,
Masterpiece
Tel: +44 (0) 207 729 0096
Contact us
Posted March 9th, 2009 by acansick | In category Colour Management, Design, Digital Photography, Masterpiece News, Online | 1 Comment »
Taken from Technology Weekly - March 2009
With marketing budgets being pared back to the barest minimum, where is the best place to spend the few pounds you have left? Judith Lewis argues that right now search marketing is the best place to spend that precious shrinking budget.
When consumers think about purchasing a product or engaging a service, the first place 80% of them finds a new business is a search engine (Forrester Research). This makes ranking in the search listings not only important, but effectively essential. When a customer searches for your business, without a strong call to action or even without a message at all such as this result for Gucci will not bring as many customers, or foster as much trust, in your brand as looking like this Fendi search result.
Currently in the UK search is the number 1 online activity (excluding email & instant messaging). Within the category of search activities, the largest potential audience online currently comes from Google with almost 90% of the search volume being driven by its algorithm (Hitwise, 2009). With over 20 million searches conducted on search engines everyday (NetRatings 2006) the power of search has never been greater.
News and press as well as events and seasonality all play their role in generating search traffic. Events in the media especially tend to lead to an increase in searcher activity. Around the time of the election in the US, “Google trends” was used to predict (successfully) the outcome of the election based on the volume of search queries for each candidate.
By pre-empting some of the triggers for search you can be in a position to capitalise when searchers go looking. Awareness of seasonality, natural search patterns, searcher behaviour and other factors which directly affect your business is therefore essential.
Search marketing can be split in to two distinct categories – paid search (also called PPC) and natural search (also called organic optimisation). These two marketing techniques are often approached separately but work best together. Organic optimisation can drive down the cost of paid search by increasing relevancy and quality score.
The search engine results page (SERP) often displays a number of elements including paid search, paid placement (in Yahoo) video, images, blog search, shopping comparisons, answers, news and websites. Of these most are driven to inclusion by a math formula called the algorithm. Understanding which elements on your web pages contribute to that ranking will help you capture the 80% of people who click on natural results (Google, 2007 at the B2B Debate). Of the remaining 20% who click on paid search, it is important to ensure you are delivering the right creative on the right search and landing them on the right page.
There is a high degree of trust and relevance placed on the organic search results, with people tending to trust natural search results as more relevant than paid results according to Tamar/Tickbox.net in March 2007. That said, Google, Ask, Yahoo and Live/MSN search almost always place some paid results above the natural ones. This could be the result of eye tracking studies published which show the eye is naturally drawn to the top left of the page. By placing adverts here, the searcher is more likely to notice and click on them. For business, this makes appearing in the first slot to capture traffic and attention important.
The budget split on projects involving both paid and natural search is usually 60/40 with paid search getting the greater share of the budget. This is not always the case as some projects benefit more from organic optimisation, especially when universal search elements can be incorporated. Paid search though can drive traffic while SEO (organic/natural search) changes are being made, and can continue to drive traffic through targeted messaging which is much more difficult to control in organic listings. Both paid and organic search have important roles to play in capturing clicks.
Investing a healthy portion of your marketing budget in paid and natural search can reap benefits far beyond this financial year. From increasing consumer trust through to generating online sales, search engine marketing (SEM) is an increasing trend which will benefit your business whether it is B2B or B2C.
Click here to read the article and others like it on Technology Weekly
Posted March 5th, 2009 by acansick | In category Masterpiece News, Online | No Comments yet
