webqem blog

This post provides instructions on how to use a Polycom SoundStation 2W as a high quality omni-directional external microphone for a PC/laptop.

Required equipment:
SoundStation 2W conference phone
USB Cable – A male to mini 5-pin male (same as most digital cameras)
2.5mm to 3.5 mm stereo cable
Windows based computer

Install the Polycom firmware updater software onto PC/laptop. Do not upgrade the firmware of the soundstation. Visit Polycom download page.

Connect cable from the 2.5mm stereo jack on the Polycom to the 3.5mm Microphone jack on your PC/laptop (there is a picture of a mobile phone next to it).

Once the Polycom software has been installed, connect a USB cable from the Polycom (on the underside of the unit at the opposite end to the keypad) to your PC/laptop.

Press the button marked “IP Mode” on the Polycom.

Go into the Sound Applet in control panel and ensure that the microphone jack is enabled. You should now be in business.

Only July 11th, the staff at webqem attended the Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation Rugby Long Lunch along with a sold out crowd of over 700 others from companies supporting the cause.

It was a fantastic event held at the Hilton Sydney raising approximately $250,000 for breast cancer research. Highlights of the day included a moving account of Antony Shaw’s 245 KM Marathon des Sables run, a Q & A with Wallaby’s coach Robbie Deans and former Wallaby’s player Phil Kearns, and the chance to win an A3 Audi – lucky winner Robert Lattuca took away the grand prize.

Guests were treated to a three-course meal, champagne, and a plethora of items to bid on, all in the name of charity. Three of our very own webqem staff took home prizes from the business card draw and auction items. It was a moving and memorable event held in the name of an extraordinary cause.

Google announced on 30 June at WebmasterCentral that they had been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files, integrating the new Adobe SWF technology and are now rolling it out. This includes Flash buttons, menus and full-Flash websites, and URLS contained in Flash content. It does not include images containing text, or FLV files, such as YouTube videos.  (more…)

So you have a new business. Or you just need a new website. Here are some of the issues you should address when choosing your new domain name:

1. Brand vs Keywords

Company XYZ sells widgets. Should they choose xyz.com or widgets.com?
Consensus is to go for the brand first, xyz.com. Next best would be brand plus keywords, for example xyzwidgets.com. And finally the keyword-based option, widgets.com.

The rationale is that you always want to be found for your business name, especially when you gain a high profile. You can always use your keywords in the titles, heading and content and incoming links. You may even have your keywords in your company name, which would be very helpful from an SEO perspective.

2. Which suffix?

(more…)

CommSec’s new website has just launched. webqem were involved in redesigning the key pages of the site from a usability and design perspective. In conjunction with the new website, webqem also designed and built a slick interactive promotional microsite Better Together, aimed at educating existing and potential customers about CommSec’s new product - cash management and online trading coming together - enabling CommSec customers to manage their cash and investments in one place.

Potential and existing CommSec customers can find out about the key features of opening an account by taking the ‘Better Together Challenge’ or by reading through ‘Just the facts’, both of which display the features with the aid of an animated 3D model.

The microsite offically launched on the same day as the website, with traffic being driven to both the website and the microsite via TV commercials, print media, outdoor and online advertising.

Check out the microsite here: www.bettertogether.com.au

Allianz Australia’s new website went live on Wednesday morning. webqem was involved in the design from the start, putting forward a number of different concepts for the site before perfecting the final design. We also wrote content for a few of the key landing pages. The main aims of the new site were to present a modern and professional shopfront, to provide an optimal customer experience online and to grow Allianz Australia’s direct insurance market.

We achieved these aims by creating:

• Clean, consistently styled, site wide branding
• Interactive primary navigation, using icons to establish a visual relationship to products
• Specific product landing pages, presenting key reasons for choosing each product
• Using orange for action buttons across the site to enable customers to get a quote or find out more information easily, irrespective of the section they’re in

Allianz Australia customers are now also able to view and renew their insurance policies online.

Facebook has finally come out with a search function for Facebook Business Pages.

Until recently, you had to know the actual URL, or follow a link from a Facebook page or website. Now you can go to http://www.facebook.com/directory/pages without being logged on to Facebook, and search by business name or browse by type. Facebook says pages are automatically added to the directory, although they do have a disclaimer that only a limited set of results are available to unregistered users.

The fact that you don’t have to login means that Pages can be indexed by search engines. The usual rules apply, in that links from external websites affect whether you will rank well, regardless of whether you are included on the Facebook directory. For example http://www.facebook.com/pages/wwwcostumeboxcomau/8168104555 is indexed at Google, but not yet included in the Facebook directory.

A search at Google.com for say “Barack Obama” highlights the current importance of social networking sites in search engines. Page one at Google includes dedicated pages at Wikipedia, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube. His Facebook page is on page two of Google, with his Flickr and LinkedIn profile on page three.

So if you have not yet claimed your company name at these social networking sites, you are missing out on a boost to your search engine performance, and associated traffic. We also recommend grabbing your name at these sites before someone else does, so that you can control your public image.

The downside to social networking sites is the need to maintain the content. By nature, social networking sites interact with their audience. It can be damaging to your reputation if a malicious or false statement is posted to your page, and you haven’t logged on to respond or remove the comment. And if you don’t add fresh content to your site, people won’t come back.

In saying that, it is easy to maintain content. You can import feeds from other sites you are active on, such as your WordPress blog, or YouTube. That way it looks like you are adding fresh content, and your audience keeps up with what you are up to.

You can share the responsibility for maintaining your Facebook Business Page, with nominated Facebook personal users as administrators. The viral nature of Facebook means that when others see which Pages you are a fan of, they may also become a fan.

When people become a fan of your Business page, you have the ability to send updates to their Facebook inbox, so that you can tell them about special offers.

If you are a high profile brand, you may get a name like http://www.facebook.com/pinkfloyd if you contact Facebook directly. Otherwise you end up with the standard business page naming format http://www.facebook.com/pages/webqem/17279306527 .

Facebook Ads allow you to reach a targetted audience and bring them to your Facebook Page or external website. You can choose your audience by age, gender, geography and keywords. For example if you wanted to display your ad to people in Australia over 18 who listed “skiiing” as an interest, Facebook will tell you the number of people available, and let you craft an ad.

Although it is very easy to do, if you need help, we can setup your page at Facebook and help you setup your ads.

The Harry M Miller Group is well known in Australia for managing some of our most popular celebrities, so we were excited to be given the opportunity design them a brand new site. Their main aims were to refresh their online brand, which included both logo and website, and to communicate to their user’s that the Harry M Miller Group encompasses not only Celebrity Management, but Crisis Media Management, Speaking and Entertainment. The site is also designed to be easy to use and to allow user’s to find information quickly.

Check out the site here http://www.harrymmiller.com.au

A cardboard city appeared in Martin Place yesterday with “housing” for 250 – a stunt organised by realestate.com.au to promote their House the Homeless campaign which webqem created the digital content for, building the mini-site and banner ads.
 
 
 

Adobe Connect Meeting is giving students greater opportunities at Massey University Library to access research consultations with subject librarians.

One hour face-to-face appointments, normally required for this process, had often proved difficult in the past. Connect Meeting means that these can now be done virtually, freeing up travel time for all involved.

The ability to screen share during a Connect Meeting has enabled library staff to operate software on student’s computers remotely if required.

More information about how Massey University uses Adobe Acrobat Connect Meeting within their library can be found online at http://elearning.massey.ac.nz/connect/use/massey_university_library.html.