Author Archives: Tim

Use Social Media to Widen Your Online Audience


One of the great things about social media is the ability to get your message, whatever it may be, to reach a huge number of people. Whether you’re promoting an event or trying to get more visits to your blog, social media can be an extremely useful platform for doing so. However, many people simply don’t know how to make the most of the access which they have to social media sites.

The first thing you can do it make sure the content which you are aiming to promote is relevant to as many people as possible. This may take some effort to tailor you existing message, but it can certainly pay off. With more and more people purchasing smartphones from sites like www.o2.co.uk, access to social media platforms like Twitter is easier than ever. Twitter has the advantage of offering an easy link to trending topics – the topics which the most people are talking about using that site. If you can make sure that your content is relevant to what is being discussed, then you are more likely to increase your number of readers.

Similarly, it is important that your content is accessible in a portable format. If your site isn’t compatible with the smartphones through which many readers may attempt to access it, then you are likely to cut a significant chunk of your potential audience.

It might seem obvious, but you should also try to make sure that your content is actually interesting. If your message might come across better on a video platform, rather than in a blog post for example, then it can be worth going the extra might in order to create something enjoyable. If your initial readers find your social media posts interesting or entertaining, then they are much more likely to share then with friends. Personal recommendations can often be more valuable than other forms of promotion, so this can also prove to be well worth the investment.

Disable quirks mode

Ever had a site that you created and works in modern versions of IE but for some reason when viewed in them it defaults to quirks mode? I have and wished that I could disable it from going to quirks mode. In my tests the following code forces IE to display in it’s native mode(for that browser), effectively disabling quirks mode. I’ve only done a few tests but, so let me know if it works for you.

<meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=9″ />

Recently I have also been working on some projects and have tested them on IE9. I have found that local/intranet sites by default will display in compatability mode for some reason. Once the site is live however this will not happen. To turn off this default behaviour in IE9, hit alt then go to tools -> compatibility view settings, then untick “display intranet sites in compatibilty view”.

If your still stuck check out the following flow chart to see how IE9 handles compatibility view.

Commonwealth Bank launches augmented reality real estate app

The Commonwealth bank has recently launched an app that will allow home buyers to easily see the sale history, median price, buying/selling conditions, property hotspots and capital growth trends. It also has videos, articles and home buying guides for first home buyers, renovators and investors. As you would expect the app is a big advertisement for the Commonwealth Bank and has tools to work out loans with them.

The main feature of this application is however the augmented reality of it, which you will need an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 to take advantage of. This feature allows you to hold up the phone and view whatever you are looking at  via the camera and overlay text and images on top. It uses this to great effect to show information about the house you are looking at, such as previous sale price.

The app itself looks and works well. It is a great way for the bank to leverage a new technology and build up some free press about themselves. Let me know in the comments below what you think of the app?

Commbank real estate iPhone app