Social media is a great way of driving traffic, and there’s plenty of online resources to help you get started. Here’s a few useful tips I have found –

#1: So Many Networks

Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare & LinkedIn…Don’t waste time trying to master each network at once. Pick one and focus on getting that perfect!

#2: Find Your Audience

Have a strategy & determine who you are and who your clients are. Be sure you know the lingo and style that your clients are comfortable with and where they talk to each other—on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs or on social bookmarking sites.

#3: Quality Over Quantity

You don’t have to post every day to create an effective presence with your social media. Find a frequency that makes sense for your business and go with that. Making it just look pretty by adding a banner or a background isn’t always enough! Hashtags Hashtags are a great way to follow trends.

#4: Managing Your Networks

Managing your social media networks can be easy peasy by using Ping.fm, Tweetdeck or a Facebook app. I personally use Ping.fm which I have integrated with my blog. It is a simple and FREE service that makes updating your social networks easy!

#5: Crowdsourcing

Find your audience, ask questions and use the information you gather to your advantage! Crowdsourcing is one way to gain a FREE bit of market research, which will help you sell and promote the right products. Exploit the information out there to give your clients something they’re interested in. A great example of crowdsourcing is Dunkin Donuts.

Happy Social Media Day!

What do you think? If I have missed anything, share it with us in the comments.

25+ Upcoming Social Media & Tech Events

zavvi.com is giving away one iPad a day for the next 7 days! Starting from 30th June, zavvi.com has gone bonkers!

Click here to enter this amazing competition.

Just thought I would share this rather cool website with you all. Repeatxrepeaty.com showcases a collection of 200×200 repeating patterns, which you can use as wallpapers. Share your favourite pattern with us below.

New site launched to promote Peninsula Cottage Holidays. HTML/CSS, jQuery slideshow, contact form & more…

See more examples of Stacey’s work here.

There are many new exciting functions and features that come with HTML5 & CSS3. Unfortunately for now some of these lovely things are only implemented in a few browsers Firefox, Safari/Webkit and Opera. In this post, I’m hoping to give you some tips and insight into HTML5 & CSS3, Enjoy!

#1: New Structural Elements

HMTL5 introduces new structural elements, which will give you a better, simpler and more precise way of describing data in your markup. Search engines will accurately determine which content on a web page is important by recognizing the new elements such as the header, nav, footer.

#2: Webkit-transform property

Objects can be scaled, rotated, skewed and translated. This will allow you to add subtle animation to objects to interact with the user to promote yourself or a product.

-webkit-transform: rotateY(45deg);
-webkit-transform: scaleX(25deg);
-webkit-transform: translate3d(0, 0, 90deg);
-webkit-transform: perspective(500px)

#3: New CSS3 Properties

Three great CSS3 properties are Border-radius, Multiple Backgrounds, Text-shadow and Box-shadow.

Border-radius lets you apply rounded corners to a panel or a tab. There are four individual properties, one for each corner of a box element and one shorthand property.

-webkit-border-radius: 0 0 6px 6px;
-moz-border-radius: 0 0 6px 6px;
border-radius: 0 0 6px 6px

Multiple Backgrounds allows for multiple background images to be applied to one element. To do this, you can separate backgrounds with commas.

background: url(body-top.gif) top left no-repeat,
url(banner_1.jpg) top 11px no-repeat,
url(body-2.gif) bottom left no-repeat,
url(body-3.gif) left repeat-y;

Box-shadow and Text-shadow generates drop shadows on a element such as a product image or a h1. This eliminates the need for Photoshop.

-moz-box-shadow:2px 3px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);

Using CSS3′s border-radius, text-shadow, and box-shadow you can create pretty little site buttons. For an example see here

#4: Pixels for Font-size

Use pixels instead of ems or % to size fonts . When all major browsers have completely finished implementing HTML5 and CSS3 we will all have access to page zooming instead of just text resizing.

#5: Drag & Drop

I think it would be cool to drag and drop products in to the basket. HTML5 has the ability to create drag and drop events. This functionality has been recently added to Gmail.

#6: Web Forms 2.0

Forms are used all across the web, you encounter them when submitting a comment on a blog, registering for a user account, or purchasing a DVD on TheHut.com. Currently, I would use JavaScript code to validate forms but HTML 5 gives us additional element attributes, such as required and email attributes, which automatically check that the username and email fields are not left blank and that the email address’ format is valid.

A Coolest Slideshow about HTML5

5 Exciting Things in HTML5

HTML 5 & The Future Of The Web

HTML5 & CSS3 The Techniques You’ll Soon Be Using

What are you most excited about? If I have missed anything else new with HTML5 & CSS3, share it with us in the comments.

Every business should have an online presence, a website will help to increase sales and gain consumer loyalty. Capellisalonknutsford.com is now live and is a 3 page website which promotes Capelli Salon Ltd in Knutsford.

Capelli Salon’s stylist have over 25 years experience in colour and cutting…

The Hut Group enter handbag & fashion accessories market with mybag.co.uk. Another achievement for The Hut Group Fabulous Design Team.

Read more at the The Hut Group.

I find Google Chrome alot faster than Firefox but still choose to use Firefox because of my beloved Add-ons. I would be lost without Firebug, Del.ici.ous Bookmarks & the Web Developers Toolbar. But here are 5 Extensions for Google Chrome that may change you mind -

Resolution Test
Resolution Test changes the size of the browser window for developers to preview their websites in different screen resolutions. It includes a list of commonly used resolutions as well as a custom option for you to input your own.

Firebug Lite
Firebug Lite is a tool for web developers, that allows you to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

Spilt Test
Prompts the user for two URL addresses and then displays both in one window! Not only can it reduce the number of tabs that you have open, it also enables you to effortlessly compare and contrast several web pages at the same time.

MeasureIt!
Draw out a ruler that will help you get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.

Pendule
Pendule extends the already built-in developer tools of Chrome.

What Google Chrome extensions do you use? If I have missed any useful extensions, share it with us in the comments.

Applications like Farmville have got to be the most annoying thing about Facebook. Luckily Facebook now offers extensive options for fine tuning your profile. I recommend doing this not only for the sake of clarity, but also for the sake of privacy and security.

Click on Account > Application Settings, and choose Show – Authorized from the drop down menu. You’ll probably be amazed at how many apps you’ve authorized; the list can become huge over time. I was shocked to see i had 66 apps authorized!

Watch this Space…