Derwent London plc (Derwent) is a real estate investment trust. The company is engaged in the investment design-led office properties. Derwent along with its subsidiaries provides property investment and property trading services. The company also provides lease management and development services. Some of its properties include Davidson Building & tower House, The Johnson Building, Holden House, Qube, Charlotte Building and others. Dewent is headquartered at London, the U.K. and employs 60 people.
Derwent London plc – Financial Analysis Review is an in-depth business, financial analysis of Derwent London plc. The report provides a comprehensive insight into the company, including business structure and operations, executive biographies and key competitors. The hallmark of the report is the detailed financial ratios of the company
Scope
– Provides key company information for business intelligence needs The report contains critical company information – business structure and operations, the company history, major products and services, key competitors, key employees and executive biographies, different locations and important subsidiaries. – The report provides detailed financial ratios for the past five years as well as interim ratios for the last four quarters. – Financial ratios include profitability, margins and returns, liquidity and leverage, financial position and efficiency ratios.
Key Information 1 Key Ratios 1 Performance Chart 1 Table Of Contents 2 List of Tables 2 List of Figures 2 Key Facts 3 Major Products and Services 3 Overview 3 Key Competitors 4 Key Employees 4 Locations And Subsidiaries 4 Head Office 4 Financial Ratios 5 Capital Market Ratios 5 Annual Ratios 5 Interim Ratios 6 Ratio Charts 7 Appendix 8 Methodology 8 Ratio Definitions 8 About Global Markets Direct 11 Contact Us 11 Disclaimer 11
Derwent London plc (Derwent) is a real estate investment trust. The company is engaged in the investment design-led office properties. Derwent along with its subsidiaries provides property investment and property trading services. The company also provides lease management and development services. Some of its properties include Davidson Building & tower House, The Johnson Building, Holden House, Qube, Charlotte Building and others. Dewent is headquartered at London, the U.K. and employs 60 people.
Derwent London plc – Financial Analysis Review is an in-depth business, financial analysis of Derwent London plc. The report provides a comprehensive insight into the company, including business structure and operations, executive biographies and key competitors. The hallmark of the report is the detailed financial ratios of the company
Scope
– Provides key company information for business intelligence needs The report contains critical company information – business structure and operations, the company history, major products and services, key competitors, key employees and executive biographies, different locations and important subsidiaries. – The report provides detailed financial ratios for the past five years as well as interim ratios for the last four quarters. – Financial ratios include profitability, margins and returns, liquidity and leverage, financial position and efficiency ratios.
Key Information 1 Key Ratios 1 Performance Chart 1 Table Of Contents 2 List of Tables 2 List of Figures 2 Key Facts 3 Major Products and Services 3 Overview 3 Key Competitors 4 Key Employees 4 Locations And Subsidiaries 4 Head Office 4 Financial Ratios 5 Capital Market Ratios 5 Annual Ratios 5 Interim Ratios 6 Ratio Charts 7 Appendix 8 Methodology 8 Ratio Definitions 8 About Global Markets Direct 11 Contact Us 11 Disclaimer 11
So, it’s official – Manchester is better than London. Or at least, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, it would appear that this is the case. Indeed, our capital city fails to make even the top 50 of the worlds’ most liveable cities, according to the Economists’ survey.
Manchester, on the other hand, fairs better, coming in at 46th position and was the only British city to make the top 50. London falls short in 51st place. The survey’s measuring criteria included factors such as healthcare, culture, environment and infrastructure; factors which, apparently, are rather poor in our nation’s capital city. The most liveable city was Vancouver, Canada, followed by Vienna, Austria.
So, what inhibits London’s liveability? Is it the packed tubes, trains and buses? Or running the daily gauntlet in order to commute to work? Or is it the sky-high house prices that stymie even the most eager first-time-buyer from purchasing their first grimy studio apartment with a shared bathroom? Well, of course, London is no picnic.
As a Mancunian who has lived there for a number of years, it admittedly takes a little time to adjust. However, not withstanding the city’s shortfalls, London simply has a certain ‘buzz’ about it that is absent from many other cities in the world, including, I would say, both Vancouver and Vienna. London’s huge range of restaurants, bars, museums, art galleries, theatres, music concerts, and exhibitions all add to this “buzz”.
To use Samuel Johnson’s often cited quote: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” And as much as we like to moan about the tube, oh how I miss it now I’m back in rainy Manchester, where public transport is, in my opinion, shocking! So, I guess, when it comes to London, you have to take the rough with the smooth.
For more opinions on all things interesting, visit News Blog RC.
Developing a website alone doesn’t serve the purpose. For any website to be successful many aspects should be considered else the website will be a non-starter. If one focuses on what and who makes a website successful then the purpose of website is solved.
While many people are of the view that a website is worth single answer for a thousand questions. It’s true and there’s no denial about it. But here the question is not about having just a website but a website which really the serves the purpose for which it has been made.
Now many argue that the best looks can always pay off well. This is something which everyone takes care well off. But it’s a common knowledge that there are scores of websites in World Wide Web while many are new coming which go unnoticed. So it’s imperative that one chooses a good web design which can do the task.
So before you choose good web design london organization. It’s important to check the credentials of the designing company. But now choosing a good web design organization is just a search away from internet. This is music to many ear’s.
Internet is an ocean of information you can get lot of information that can help you accomplish the task. As such one can take the technology to their advantage to get right information from right source. One always gets first hand information about web design London companies.
Now thanks to the internet revolution you have blogs, forums, chat rooms, special bulletins you say it is there. Now one can get access to information with out even relying on some hired agencies which in some or the other way can actually manipulate things.
With blogs you always have the advantage of airing one’s personal views. This to a greater extent can provide information as there are some people who rely on word-of-mouth. Now you can post all your queries in the forums and get advices on web design london from the experts themselves.
Not only can that one even get expert advices about the best competitive prices that are available around. So now gathering information about the best web design london is absolutely a click away from internet.
So if making a website from web design london can offer the best opportunities then one might also avail the best available information from the internet. So the right web design london Company looks into your needs and objectives and translate into a website that will appeal the intended audience.
Read all about it… just not in a newspaper… or twitter… or… by: Ty Jennings Social Media Specialist @ The Halo Group www.thehalogroup.net www.twitter.com/TylerHalo www.SoMeTy.com
*Originally published on 15 July 09 @ www.SoMeTy.com – Ty Jennings’ Social Media Blog.
On Monday, Morgan Stanley caused some great ruckus when it published a research note written by 15-year-old Matthew Robson, who is currently interning at their London office.
Why the ruckus? Well, according to Matthew, teens don’t use Twitter! This, among many other findings in his 2,275-word report, which can be found here.
Among the epiphanies:
Teens don’t listen to the radio Teens are watching significantly less TV due to on-demand services (television and mobile device-based) Teens do not read newspapers (except for freebies like “The Metro”) The Wii gaming console is surely helping to balance out the gender gap in girls vs. boys gaming, and is involving a younger crowd (age 6 & up) Teens like viral marketing with a sense of humour (I love the British spelling!) Teens see a lot of movies, not just the ones they “intend” to see Teens tend to ignore outdoor advertising; but react more negatively if they are to respond to it at all
And the tech world stopped. Twitter has thousands of mentions, forwards, retweets and responses in at least a few languages that I noticed on the first few pages. Responses are varied from supportive, to appalled to hysterical. My faves are: (Full disclosure: I know none of these people, in any way, though I have now started following them – these results came from a “Matthew Robson” search on Twitter)
@elliottgalloway Matthew Robson’s comments-only relevant to the type of teenager that gets an internship at an IB instead of trying to buy beer & shag birds
@adlandsuit I think I might have to post about young Matthew Robson and the world’s LUDICROUS reaction. People should be embarrassed.
@meggo10 If this Matthew Robson kid gets to be the voice of teens, I want to be the voice of white women everywhere.
Having pointed out the more ‘humourous’ responses, it’s time to break down the report. First the BIG statement: Teens don’t Twitter. Wow, that made me nervous. “Oh no,” I thought to myself, “every CEO & CMO in the world, who is nervously dipping his and her toe into the social media pool for the first time, just recoiled, breathed a sigh of relief and ran for cover.” Uh-Oh. Please, say it ain’t so! Tell me that Morgan Stanley didn’t publish some kid’s unqualified, unsubstantiated rants! Tell me that every tech outlet in the western hemisphere hasn’t picked it up and run with it as today’s paraphrased tech gospel. But alas, it was true. Everyone ran with the teaser: “Teens Don’t Use Twitter” and unfortunately, not everyone bothered to explain the rest… This is my nightmare.
Before anyone says, “I told you so” to anyone else, defending their lack of willingness to tweet, let’s dig deeper: Matthew’s report says teens don’t twitter because it costs money on his or her mobile devices. The exact quote is: “…teenagers do not use twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). In addition, they realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their ‘tweets’ are pointless.”
We, in the US, need to remember that, for better or worse, European mobile systems, plans and pricing are quite different than ours. Most teens that have mobile devices (99%of which do, according to Matthew) have limited text/data plans.
As for the point that “no one is viewing their profile” –well, that’s better left to the trend experts. However, if I were to take a stab at this, I’d say two things: it’s been reported that Matthew Robson’s polling demographic was aged 13-16, therefore: it would probably only take a few trendsetters within a clique to start a group using Twitter (at least from a computer, which would require no “mobile credits”). From that it would spread like wildfire. Especially when, (point #2) they realize how many free services there are (on mobile devices, as well as computers) that send a single status update to several sources (twitter, facebook, etc) and would only use one “mobile credit” and allow them to check status at the same time. If I may indulge myself one more follow-up point: when these 13-16 year-olds find themselves with more responsibility and less time and attention, they’ll find that killing two (or 5) birds with one stone is the way to go to maximize their voice. (No further harm meant to the poor old Twitter Bird logo in that reference?)
My thought: it takes a trendsetter/teacher to start the group going, just like adults. Not to take credit, but many of my friends (aged 27-50) are asking whether they should be on twitter now, simply because I added my address (@TylerHalo) to my signature line on emails. Besides, now that my retired parents are on Facebook, connecting to their grandchildren and extended family and former classmates, where are the cool kids gonna’ hang out? (I’m just joking, Mom! Sort of.)
Wrapping up, I think that the coverage of Iran’s election and breaking news of Michael Jackson’s demise has proven Twitter’s worth and people’s thirst for the micro-blogging site in the last few weeks. It may take a while for London’s elite 13-16 year olds to develop interest though, but that may be more of an issue of lifestyle, mobile plans and maturity…
As far as today’s CEO’s & CMO’s are concerned, here’s the message: twitter is valid. Twitter is necessary. Twitter is not going anywhere. As more and more people discover the language and the feel of microblogging, quick status updates and aggregators – they’re jumping on board. (And PS – this is only the beginning as Google is set to release “Wave” later this year which combines a micro-blogging feel, with IM & chat activities to completely redesign the email system. And this is an understatement of it’s potential!)
Until then, I propose we all sit back & wait to see what Matthew Robson will do next.
(PS, don’t even get me started on why a 15 year old is interning at Morgan Stanley!)
Stay Tuned…
Tyler “Ty” Jennings has served as Social Media Strategy Consultant for varying businesses and individuals and is the Social Media Specialist for The Halo Group, an award-winning New York City-based marketing and brand communication agency. His articles and posts can be found on their blog at www.thehalogroup.net/blog/ and on his own blog at www.somety.com as well as at www.twitter.com/TylerHalo
Blogs are all the rage these days and they’ve added an extra dimension to the distractions we can enjoy online. Appropriately because everyone seems to be writing one, they’re as interesting and vast in their variety as people are all over the planet. However, as a result, getting people to notice, let alone read your blog is becoming increasingly difficult. I suggest then that the ways of promoting your blog should be as interesting and unusual as people are.
The rest of this article is going to describe some ideas which you may think are inspired, ridiculous (and so crazy they just might work) and some which are actually quite sensible. At the very least, they may well inspire a few ‘wild and whacky’ ideas of your own.
Busking
If you’re a musician, I’m willing to wager you’ve already thought of this one. But how about writing a song telling the story of your blog then singing about it? If you performed every day for a month across the London Underground tube network, shopping centres and large public spaces like Leicester Square, not only would you earn a nice few quid but people would be thinking of your blogs URL as they quietly hummed your infectious tune.
If you’re not a musician, you could always ask a musical friend to write a song about your blog and perform it (they would get to keep the royalties of course –fairs fair innit?).
Organise a Student Union debate
Studying at college or university? Student Union clubs offer an excellent way to express your opinion and tell other people about yourself. Why not organise a Student Union debate on the subject of your blog (that is, not the blog itself but the stuff it rants and raves about) –and then incorporate the blogs address into the discussion? You could offer to continue the debate online and of course provide the URL where other passionate discourse could take place.
Visit writers workshops
You’ve probably heard about such events advertised in listings magazines and newspapers. Many take place in London and are staged up and down urban centres all over the country. They usually take place in a pub or at a community centre or similar venue where professional, semi-professional and amateur writers go to recite and discuss their work. You’re a writer if you’re a blogger and there’s no reason why you can’t go to one of these events in your capacity as a blog author and talk about your work as well as the blog itself. Again you could invite further discussion online by supplying the blogs website address.
Wear your web address on a T shirt
This is a fairly obvious one and not particularly new but then the best ideas are tried, tested and used again. Better than simply wearing the URL yourself, you could get a number of T shirts printed up for all your friends and family to wear. Another extension of this would be to get into a deal with a local fashion store (or even a chain of fashion stores) to sell the T shirt. Perhaps you could enter into a reciprocal advertising arrangement where you promote their store or stores at your blog.
Organise pub quizzes for charity
You could try this as a good deed as well as a bit of self promotion. Stage a pub quiz on the subject of your blog for charity. Every time someone wins perhaps you could give them one of the above T shirts – or you could just buy them a drink. All of the proceeds would go to your favourite charity of course but the benefit for you would be to spread a little publicity about that special section on the web containing writing on your favourite subject. On the subject of talking about yourself in pubs, why not get some specially printed beer mats? You could give them away for free to the landlord of your local. Again, the trade off would be a little money spent but the up side would be that you also get people to know about your blog.
Another similar idea would be to print a load of mouse mats and give them away to your local internet café or a bunch of customised coffee mugs and donate them to your favourite café – all proudly displaying your blogs web address.
Put your URL on cards in phone boxes
Hey, if it works for certain types of professional, it could work for you. I guess you’d need to demonstrate a little discretion here. Do this in too small a number and it won’t generate much interest but do it too much and the telecommunications company that owns the telephone box might get a little irritated. The best thing to do would be to distribute a fair number of cards (but not too many) and spread their distribution out across a wide area. This would have the twin advantage of not making your cards too conspicuous while at the same time still spreading awareness of your blog (by phone so to speak) much further.
Spreading your blog by mobile
As I mentioned, there’s potential in promoting yourself by landline. But there’s not half as much potential as there is in promoting yourself by mobile. Using the not so humble mobile to Big Up your blog would be conspicuous by it’s absence if I didn’t mention it. Here’s a quick and fun idea. Why not create some mobile phone wallpaper featuring your blogs website address and text it to a bunch of random numbers? True, some poor hapless stranger would receive this baffling text message and go “huh?” but the other recipients might look at it and think it’s a laugh and be curious enough to see what all the fuss is about to do with this website address. Or you could just get a bunch of public mobile numbers and send messages to them.
Mobile phones again – Flash mobs
This is a crazy idea which could only have come about in the 21st century. Why not stage a flash mob? You could again utilise texting to spread the message by sending it to random or listed numbers and ask the recipient to pass it on. In the message you’d provide a time, date and location for some silly random event to take place (how about a mass pillow fight in a crowded public space – perhaps pillows printed all over with Your Name.com)? Similarly you could get on to Twitter and tell your friends to spread the word.
Wear your URL all over your car
This is another obvious one. If you felt so inclined you could permanently pimp your ride with the customised logo of your websites URL. Similarly you could put on some temporary stickers and drive all over town with your in-car stereo blaring out that song your friend wrote. Or you could just do a spoof political canvass by car telling everyone by loudspeaker to ‘vote for your blog’.
Speakers Corner
If you’ve got the conviction (and the balls) why not do a ‘live’ version of your blog at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, London? Look at it this way –if the abuse and heckling you received was especially severe, it would mean that someone’s interested in your blog (and of course they’d be more likely to get online and visit it when they arrived home – well, they would if you hadn’t upset them too much).
Wear a sandwich board
Okay, this is a bit 20th century but again, like many of the best ideas, it’s tried and tested. Wear a sandwich board (or carry around a placard like you’re on a demonstration (better still, do something cheeky and turn up at a real demo carrying not the slogan of the protest – but your URL)) and walk around town with it. You could maybe shout out something at regular intervals like ‘The End of The World Is Nigh Unless You Visit Me At So And So.Com!’ Again, everyone will think you’re crazy but that’s not the point – if everyone can’t ignore you, it means you’ve got their attention – which means they’ll remember the website address of your blog.
Give out CD’s containing information about your blog
A more staid version of the above might be to simply stand in the town / city centre and distribute free CD’s. If you’re feeling really ambitious, you could even set up a stall with a TV screen (sound turned on loud) showing a video on constant rotation promoting your blog as you give out the discs. You wouldn’t have to appear in the video, indeed you could make it quite snazzy using good editing software, adding special effects etc. You could similarly place the video on YouTube and direct people to it (maybe you could even create a different video each week, uploading different versions again and again to continue generating interest with the added novelty).
Place book marks featuring your URL in the library
This is another cheeky one but it would be so much fun to do. Why not visit your local library (or a number of libraries) and surreptitiously place specially printed bookmarks featuring your blogs web page address at the back of each book, then leave it there? You could single out books on the same subject as your blog and of course avoid being caught by pretending you’re browsing through the book first (if you did get caught you could always claim that you’re conducting some clandestine love affair with a fellow book worm by leaving messages in various publications (hey, it might work, it sounds silly enough to be true)).
Put posters featuring your URL in bookshop windows
Again, you’ve had the whacky idea (above) and this is the sensible version (I try to please everyone). Similar to the fashion store and T shirt idea, you could enter into a reciprocal advertising deal with a local independent bookshop (it’s better if it’s an independent one because larger bookstores which are part of chains might not go for it or would be overly bureaucratic) and place posters in the window of the store advertising your URL. This could work for two reasons. One, usually bookstores don’t attract or receive any kind of advertising in their windows –so something in the interest of a small business like this might sway them in your favour. Two, the kind of educated, opinionated people you want to visit your blog are also the types who visit bookstores.
Create a fake news website
You may have done something like this already with your existing blog or are perhaps thinking about it. Why not use the free web space provided by your ISP (usually Internet Service Providers provide free web space to their customers) to set up a quick, cheap (but convincing) news website on the subject of your blog where every story is about your blog (and of course has a link to it)? You could tell everyone about a really scary, fascinating, funny, infuriating (delete according to preference) story you read online at this news website (if they don’t know you’re the author of the blog, chances are they’ll visit as a neutral and curious observer – or you could just try to make out you’re really upset by some ‘big news network’ that misrepresented you). Finally, you could simply be boring and set up a bunch of reciprocal links between your blog and other websites – but where’s the fun in that?
Either way, whether you’ve chosen to be sensible, wild and whacky or somewhere in between, I hope you’ve found something above which might be useful. Or at least entertaining enough to inspire you to do something you’ve never done before. Now go forth and bloggify and may the internet gods be with you (and buy the rights to your video game). I salute your brave efforts and all the best you.
Bloging is an ideal medium for sign posting the way to your particular discipline, whether it is purely for social activeness, sharing your expertise out of gratitude or for professional reasons.
It allows the masses the freedom to express their ideals without discrimination or threat.
We use bloging for all the good reasons, to sign post to our shop, share knowledge and information, offer opinions and of course learn in the process of doing these things. You can even afford to ignore the hard rules of good grammar as long as the subject matter is clear, strong and consistent.
It’s all positive as far as we’re concerned. And from a Search Engine Optimization point of view, it makes very good economic sense. Better still, an activity that can be undertaken at leisure, saved and added to as you like.
We have no qualms about identity, our philosophy is not to create smoke screens, after all the idea of blogs is to steer traffic in the direction you want. Operating from a base of sincerity we want potential drivers to know what we are about from the first point of contact, “what you see is what you get”
Google analytics confirms that our fashion blog is one of the top referring sites directing traffic to our online shop. This is the upside of social media, forget all the hype, it’s absolutely free and you can voice your opinion at will. The only way to test it is do it.
One way to contain ideas and transform them into products is by expounding in written or verbal form. Being gifted with a creative imagination has both strengths and weaknesses. We need to cover weaknesses through forming alliances with organizations that can help balance business models and develop them into something substantial.
I’m a great believer in developing models, and, testing them through practice.
It’s a bit like building an engine. No matter how much logic and research is applied during constructing you really don’t know how well it is going to work until the ignition is turned on.
We’ve built the engine, now its being put through the paces, and, lap by lap, we learn and improve. Our ideas have been contained in a powerful vehicle, which is fully gassed and set on semi automatic pilot. Every ten laps we call it in to the pits, change the tires and do a little more refining.
Now in our third year of bloging, we’ve written volumes on the advent of silk ties, the evolution of cufflinks and the progress of fashion through the ages. This simple form of communication has led to two interviews on BBC radio, most recently on “Ask the Expert”
Bloging is the ideal method of developing ideas and inviting comment from the masses, in effect it’s market research real time.
“Knowledge is limiting, imagination encompasses the universe”
Our blog becomes an extension to the main source, kind of like a trickle of water that becomes a stream and then a river, eventually contained by dams or oceans. The more streams you have leading from different directions the larger the river, and the more chance you have of getting to the ocean, the source of evaporation. The cycle is constant.
The Sky News Blog is UK’s first blog site dedicated to a daily news show. Since a blog is similar to an on-line diary where the writer’s thought is posted, how effective would it be when used in relation to news? Sky News is a 24-hour television show in Europe who has for its main competitor, the BBC News-24.
History of Sky News
Sky News first began broadcasting in February 1989 and has transmitted continuous live news ever since. It quickly gained a reputation for journalistic integrity which gave it the much needed prestige despite operating on a shoe-string budget. It has likewise remained unique in an industry where presenters are rapidly hired and fired. Many of its original presenting team remains with the channel.
Other channels have tried to emulate Sky’s standards and methods but were not always successful in doing so. It was the only channel at its league until the launch of the BBC News-24 in November 1997. Sky News filed a complaint with the European Commission which argued that the publicly funded BBC News-24 was unfair and illegal under the European Union Law. However, the commission ruled in favor of BBC stating that the state aid was justified due to the public service remit of BBC.
To be competitive, the Sky Channel launched its Sky News Active which was a 24-hour service providing headlines on demand. Due to its success, the 8-screen video news service was likewise launched which was way ahead of the standard 4-screen. The Sky News Poll was also popular with its new question for each day. It has become common for questions and subjects to change throughout the day depending on news and developments.
Sky News won a 5-year contract to supply news bulletin to the British Terrestrial Channel Five in the year 2005. On the same year, Sky News was relaunched from a brand new studio in West London, replacing the one that has been used for almost 17 years in Isleworth. Along with the transfer came heavy revision of music and on-screen graphics. The station has a very recognizable line like CNN which is read every hour, giving the show name and presenters.
This renowned news broadcaster also has a forum called the Sky News Panel, which is basically an on-line research group. It lets its members express their opinions on various subjects. It makes use of short surveys which would only take minutes to complete. Some surveys are targeted at specific profiles but may be weighted to the UK population where national opinion is needed.
Anchors in the likes of Eamonn Holmes and James Rubin have been secured while experimenting on new schedule and format. Sky News aims to provide a fast moving, highly-produced program that gives everyone a chance to catch up on all the news that matters. Emphasis is given on pace, pictures and people combined with the best footage of the day and sharp reporting from field correspondents.
The Live at Five on Sky News features dedicated spots for sports, showbiz as well as its own weblog. The blog spot is Sky News’ way of taking the time out to hear the reader’s views on the news that have caught their attention. A selection of contributions to the blog is read out daily so that real opinions get on the show.
The Sky News Blog
Sky CEO Rupert Murdock has discovered the wonders of the Internet and has placed particular interest on social media and blogging. His interest brought him a step further when he bought various on-line companies including Intermix and http://IGN.com. Not one to be left out from the fun, Sky came out with its first blog in an attempt to connect with its audience. It is widely believed that Sky’s acquisition of Tim Levell, the former editor of the BBC Action Network, had a lot to do with this move. In fact, he has provided some of the posts found in the blog.
The blog is personally led by Sky News at 5 anchorman Jeremy Thompson. It thankfully looks and feels like a real blog which cannot be said for many other things that call themselves blogs. This is actually Sky’s first attempt at blogging but it seems to have succeeded in avoiding the most obvious pitfalls related to it.
This blog is designed to be identifiable and distinct from the channel’s news website offering. Whereas the news website and TV channel delivers news, blogs explain how and why such news are being delivered. This is what is usually referred to as “back channel conversational content”. However, since the launch of the blog coincides with the relaunch of Sky News as a whole, discussion on topics not necessarily thought provoking such as the show’s new set have been occupying considerable space in the blog. Conversations regarding the process of how editorial decisions are arrived at for example are probable discussion of interest to readers.
Large companies and organizations who have managed to establish web presence need to maintain strong control of their blogs. This would necessitate hosting those blogs within their own domain space. Hosting a blog on a third party might not be able to provide seamless integration with the rest of a company’s website. There are important aspects to be considered such as quality control and availability. A site that goes down or begins to bug-out necessarily affects the individual reputation of companies.
The blogosphere is quite partial to personality led blogs. This is one of the reasons why the Sky News blog works. However, it could benefit from more posts written by Jeremy Thompson.
The blog encourages as many people as possible to take part in the discussion of various topics. The company has adopted a light touch policy which essentially allows for any comments as long as it is not offensive, racist or irrelevant. Participants are further encouraged to be constructive, friendly and informative.
Pre-moderating of comments was done during the experimental stage. This is expected to change as the site develops well. The blog is primarily linked to the Live at 5 shows and not the whole channel thus moderation of comments is done during daytime working hours.
Contributors are requested to provide their names, physical address and e-mail address although these details do not get published on the site. It is just a way for the company to determine the intentions of those people who would like to be a part pf their blog. Anonymous postings are not published. Sky News is perceived to have made a very brave move when it plunged head-on towards the blogging world. Whether or not their blog accomplishes something over and beyond the accomplishments of its regular websites would depend on the people handling it and how much they are prepared to meet the changing needs of consumers.
You have got your blog up and running on the internet. The next obvious thing to take care of will be to devise promotional strategies that will make your blog visible to others. This requires a certain extent of planning on what kind of tools that you want to apply to the formation of promotional strategies for your blog. These strategies should be given a fair amount of consideration before applying them.
Strategies for blog promotion are many. Nonetheless, what’s listed below are proven strategies that should work effectively for your blog.
(1) Search engines and blog directories
Web directories such as Yahoo and search engines such as Google surfaced to catalog all new sites that are being created. Directories prominently used are Technorati , Blogwise , Blo.gs just to name a few. Send your newly created blog to such directories and search engines for indexing. Your blog will be made visible promptly.
(2) Apt description of your blog to your targeted audience
Write a short and apt description of your blog ; the description must fit the type of audience that you have targeted. Whatever benefits that readers can get from reading your blog must be clearly pointed out. One of the strategies for blog promotion requires you to let your readers know the real reason why they should read your blog in the first instance. What’s in your blog for them? You can support this strategy by using “tagging” which essentially is a subject or category description that you are attaching to your blog and to each individual blog post. This will make your blog more easily searchable by others. Tagging can be done with your posts on directories such as Technorati, for instance you can add tags like “London” and “shopping” to a particular post so that your blog will show up when others search for these topics in blog search engines.
(3) Make use of the “ping”
The “pinging” action will enable you to automatically alert readers that you have written a new post on your blog. This action is executed through the various blog directories and other services that do publish blog updates. Upon publishing your latest post, you will “ping” directories and search engines. The latter will search for the new content on your blog. The “pinging” action will show your blog up in a list of recently updated blogs. To save you the time of “pinging” major search engines and directories separately, you can perform this action in one huge ping , by making use of BlogExplosion , Pingoat or Ping-O-Matic . It is important to remember that you need to “ping” only once. Take note that this “ping” act is one of the more important strategies for blog promotion that should not be neglected.
(4) Two-way comments
If you want to get more traffic, one way is to post your comments on the blogs of others. You should also allow others to post their comments on your blog too. Your perceptions on your blog can be read by others. Posting your comments is in effect equivalent to your contribution to a discussion with other bloggers. Anything topic that is insightful and interesting will surely draw more readers to your blog. It is a door to the building up of your reputation as an expert in your industry. The provision and availability of good helpful resources and relevant links to the topic in question will please the readers and should help to add value to the discussion.
(5) Performing exchanging of links with others
Linking up with other blogs and getting linked back to your own blog is a proven strategy that is intrinsically perfect integration with the blogging model. Readers will be able to access more sources of information on your blog. Your blog will be able to capture more traffic as other blogs link up with your blog. Importantly, the incoming links to your blog should be absolutely relevant to the content of your blog. This is another vital strategy for blog promotion, simply because if the incoming links originate from relevant high-traffic sites, your blog’s search engine ranking will be positively affected. Links can be placed within individual posts.
(6) Put “trackback” to full use
In blogging, you can use “trackback” to the list of other blogs that have linked to particular posts on your blog. You can locate these in the comments section under each post. With this feature enabled through your blog software, each time someone makes a link to a post on blog, you will be informed via an automated message from the other blog, and in return, your blog software will automatically add a link to the other blog below the post that is being referred to. You can use Haloscan where you can find free trackback tools to manage.
(7) Good quality content
What’s needed most on your blog is content. Content must be of quality in order to attract readers. If you want to write real good content, you must ensure two things:
(a) Information that you give on your blog must be unique. Give expert content from various perspectives.
(b) Keep yourself informed and abreast of latest developments in your industry. Be the one to make the first spin of news.
(8) Create repeat traffic
Readers come and go. The solution to this scenario will be for you to write new post on new topic every day. It appears to be hard work, but there isn’t much choice if traffic is to be repeated. Remember that the content must be great. This is a vital strategy for blog promotion, especially for the purpose of generating repeat traffic. Writing up a series of posts will help in getting repeat traffic as readers will come back for more revelation from the future post. You can even try to request from your readers their email addresses, so that you can notify them of your new updates. This is essentially building up an opt-in list that opens the door to numerous email marketing opportunities.
(9) Social bookmarking, blog awards, web ring
Join social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us that permits users to share their favorite web sites with one another. Just “tag” to your blog posts and readers will be able to bookmark your site in their Del.icio.us account. Another great social bookmarking is Digg. Blog awards are given out online. You can participate for the fun and traffic that it will potentially drive to your blog. You can also join a web ring where you can find many groups of like-minded people who may fall into your category of target audience. This will enable you to build your relationship with them on same platform.
To make your blog effective, you will have to work hard on your content. Using the above listed strategies for blog promotion, you will be able to drive traffic to your blog, as well as succeed in your creation of repeat traffic. So, put these strategies to good use and blow away your competition.
They’re housed in buildings which run the gamut of being among the ugliest in the world (the Barbican) to the neoclassical splendor of the National Gallery. But the most remarkable aspects of London’s art museums lies not in their exteriors, but in what lies within: vast collections of priceless artworks from every age. If your trip to London will include time at some of the city’s great art museums, these are our four top recommendations.
The Royal Academy of Arts
Dating back to 1786 and the reign of King George III, the Royal Academy, in the Burlington House, was the first British institution established for the single purpose of promoting the arts and architecture. It has eighty governing artist at a time, all of whom must be active artist and who resign as active governors at the age of 75. Each of these ‘Royal Academicians” is expected to give an original artwork to the Academy, and those gifts have become the foundation of its permanent collection. They include paintings by Gainsborough, Constable, Reynolds, and Turner.
The Royal Academy also presents remarkable visiting exhibits, one of which of was 2007’s The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings. This exhibit was the first to show that, contrary to popular belief, Monet spent considerable time doing drawn studies of his works before he ever set his paintbrush to canvas. Although he often claimed to lack drawing ability, this exhibit emphatically proved otherwise.
The Tate Modern
If ever an art museum captured the s spirit of a specific century, it would be the Tate Modern Museum capturing the spirit of the 20th century. The upheaval of two World Wars accompanied by the full blossoming of post-Industrial revolution technology created a freedom among artists who dared to work in brand-new styles and media
The Tate Modern Museum, situated on London’s South bank in full view of St. Paul’s Cathedral directly across the Thames, has also taken a new approach to displaying its treasures. They are grouped not according to artist or chronology, but according to concept, with each of the two wings of its 3rd and 5th floors containing exhibits of paintings arranged by theme.
You’ll find the works of, among others, Rothko, Monet, Dali, and Miro represented on the 3rd floor, while the 5th floor houses conceptual art and modern sculpture including pieces from the Cubist, Minimalist, and Futuristic Schools. The Tate Museum’s visiting exhibits are on the 4th floor. Works of all the great post-war modernists like Pollock, Matisse, Bacon, and Twombly are on view at the Tate, and the permanent collection can be seen at no charge.
There are special activities for children whose artistic appreciation is not fully developed, qualifying a visit to the Tate Modern as a family-friendly way to spend the day.
The Hayward
Also situated on the South bank, as part of the arts complex known as the Southbank Centre, the Hayward’s massive concrete exterior houses an art gallery which has no permanent collection of its own. The Hayward instead is the venue for between three and four major touring exhibitions each year, for which it charges entrance fees. Exhibits at the Hayward include artworks from all periods, and some of its more memorable shows have included works by da Vinci, the French Impressionists, and Edward Munch.
In more recent years, however, the exhibitions at the Hayward have been by such artists as Gormley and Flavin, whose work is more in harmony with the cavernous spaces and concrete of the structure.
The Courtauld Gallery is a relatively small art gallery located in the Courtauld Institute of Art at Somerset House. While its collection contains pieces from every period of paining, the Courtauld Gallery is best known for its Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings. Perhaps the most famous of these is Vincent Van Gogh’s self-portrait, painted after he had severed his right ear with a knife. All the collections donated to the Courtauld Gallery are exhibited intact.
London is a city rich with the culture of centuries, and these four art museums are just a handful of the cultural glories which await you during your stay!
