Gap’s on-line sales website for UK customers is now up and running. At the same time the parent company, Gap Inc, launched a site for sister fashion brand, Banana Republic.

Both websites have an .eu domain and on-line customers can choose Gap, GapKids, babyGap and Banana Republic products with one shopping basket,  checkout and shipping.

Stephen Sunnucks, president of Gap Inc, Europe, is reported as saying: “We put a lot of research and time into building a dedicated UK eCommerce platform. We are delighted by both websites.” Their next step will be to expand on-line shopping to further European countries.

If you are interested in having an online shop, stop by WebCreationUK for more information on our fantastic ecommerce packages.

Employees and social media use is a hot topic for many companies. While some companies have banned staff from using social media in work time, others have wholeheartedly embraced it. To help you to make up your mind about social media, here are some top tips from a couple of experts.

The first top 10 list for employers comes from Megan C. Winter of law firm Fisher & Phillips LLP:

1.  Get familiar with Facebook, LinkedIn or other sites that are popular with your employees.
2. Update current company policies.
3. Consider whether your company environment needs a specific social media policy.
4. Prohibit use of the employee’s company e-mail address.
5. Discourage your managers from “friending” their subordinate employees.
6. Immediately get a copy of any post that is the subject of a complaint.
7. Only use social media for employment screening in a consistent way.
8. Warn managers to follow standard policies for recommendations on LinkedIn or other professional sites.
9. Be aware of possible protected, concerted activity.
10. Above all, use common sense.

Meanwhile, on-line social media giant Mashable gives their social media policies:
1. Introduce the purpose of social media
2. Be responsible for what you write
3. Be authentic
4. Consider your audience
5. Exercise good judgment
6. Understand the concept of community
7. Respect copyrights and fair use
8. Remember to protect confidential & proprietary info
9. Bring value
10. Productivity matters.

WebCreationUK can assist you in not only website design but social media. Take a look at our social media package and come speak to us for more information, you can also find us on Twitter and Facebook!

The analysis from ShareThis could prove really helpful if you’re looking to optimise your social media campaigns. One of the metrics used in ShareThis, which reaches 400 million people a month through social media share buttons across web content worldwide, is the Audience Index.

The Audience Index allows website owners and publishers to compare social audiences against 850,000 other sites and to find out what types of visitors your site attracts

The there’s the “Social Reach” metric, which measures the “true value of shared media across the web by looking at outbound sharing and inbound social traffic”.

This means that you can now get a more accurate measurement of how a piece of content circulates around the world wide web after it’s been shared across any service, rather than just the simple number of shares counted by a single service such as Facebook.

It seems that according to ShareThis, Facebook accounts for 45% of all shared content across its network, followed by email with 34% and Twitter on 12%.

You can see now why ShareThis might just be the tool you’ve been looking for to assess how your content gets around the web.

WebCreationUK can help you bring your Twitter or Facebook page up to date with one of our social media packages, come speak to us for more!

A recent study estimates that a third of all companies now use blogging for marketing purposes. This is predicted to rise to 43% in the next two years, according to eMarketer. There’s also evidence that smaller companies are becoming more enthusiastic adopters of blogs than larger companies.

Meanwhile, in the consumer market it is social media use that is growing faster than blogging.

According to eMarketer the difference between corporate and consumer social media use is that companies and businesses are finding that blogs fill a specific niche that other forms of social media can’t do so well.

Blogs are claimed to more effectively “drive site traffic, improve brand awareness, generate sales and improve customer service”.

You can speak to WebCreationUK about blog intergration on your website or any of your other web design needs.

We have come across a great new job title: Network Weaving. A social media company in Glasgow has recently announced the appointment of their first Network Weaver.

So what exactly will this job entail? It seems that a Network Weaver’s job description includes a wide range of social media actions including:

• Sharing resources, links and information about a company

• Building relationships with network members by linking to their blog posts and commenting on blogs, be-friending them on on-line social networks and celebrating their contributions.
• Working with different people on multiple channels such as e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and blogs
• Engaging with an inviting others to join conversations – as well as facilitating those conversations.

And while some of these actions and conversations will be actionable, at other times they are simply to build relationships for the future benefit of a company.

We reckon that the Network Weaver job will become more popular in the next few years as more companies aim to engage in on-line and social media marketing.

WebCreationUK have social media packages available, speak to us for more information on social media and website design.

Facebook is suing another company for the use of the word “book”. If this seems a tad outrageous to you then you’ll probably be keen to hear further explanation. The competitor that Facebook is suing is Teachbook, because Facebook claims the rival is offering a “similar service for teachers”.

The exact words from Facebook are these:

“The problem is not merely that they use the word “book”. You’ll notice that we have no complaint against Kelly Blue Book or Yellowbook or others. However, there is already a well-known online service with “book” in the brand name that helps people connect and share. Of course the Teachbook folks are free to create a similar service for teachers or whomever they like, and we wish them well in that endeavor. What they are not free to do is trade on our name, create confusion, or dilute our brand while doing so. Additionally, it’s important to note that where there is confusion or brand dilution as there is with Teachbook and Facebook, we must enforce our rights to protect the integrity of our trademark.”

Facebook is also trying to register the word “Face” as a trademark.

If you would like to know more about social media packages and web design, then speak to WebCreationUK, you can also follow us on Twitter.