Stay ahead of the game with a solid focus by working on the following:

• Develop a detailed Web Strategy for the coming two years
• Find socio-centric approaches to your online strategy - that is, create online social relevance for your brand, product or business
• Think Creatively. Necessity is the mother of invention. Looking back through history, one can see that business innovation expands as the economy contracts.
• Enable your website and campaigns for Web 2.0 technologies, by harnessing Social Media and Social Networking Platform traffic
• Devise a Search Engine Optimisation Strategy to maximise your online business potential, particularly if revenue is directly or indirectly generated through your website
• Develop a Facebook App, Viral Flash Game or Viral Video to spread through Social Media and Social Networking channels
• Stay in touch with your audience - develop a strong mailing list, and work on your online marketing techniques
• Implement a Corporate Blog to communicate with your audience, grow your online presence and keep your website current
• Build site stickiness by regularly adding content, such as Videos, Podcasts or Blog Posts
• Keep your web content up-to-date - this encourages return visits from both Search Engines and customers
• Regularly review your Web Strategy - in challenging times, remaining dynamic with your online strategy will give you an edge over competitors

With some serious implications on the horizon for corporate strategy this year, it is a good time to build a strong web strategy to enable your online assets to weather the storm.

Though many companies are implementing cutbacks, and tightening the purse-strings, now is a crucial time to plan ahead. eMarketer - even in the face of recession - is still predicting an 8.9% worldwide growth in online ad spend this year, from 23.6 billion to $25.7 billion. We expect to see Facebook really tapping some of that cash this year, with its’ vamped advertising engine. Can it become a contender to Google’s stranglehold? Doubtful. But the model is a very potent one.

Our prediction for 2009 online is an increasing trend towards the trends we have seen in 2008

• Social Media and Social Networking sites (like Facebook, Friendster and LinkedIn) will increase their foothold in the online environment;
• Integrating Social Network features and Relationship Knowledge into communications is a trend in the making
• Search Engines love Blogs (particularly Google) which begs corporations to step up and set up set their Corporate Blogs up as a means of interacting with their users
• Search engine balance of power shakeup this year, as Yahoo teeters on the verge of takeover, and Google loses its’ shine as the Golden-Search-Engine-Who-Can-Do-No-Wrong, and Social Media/Networking sites vy for position
• Massive increases in location-specific internet usage, thanks to the extraordinary technology that is Google Maps for Mobile
• New Social Media sites will spring up to challenge the existing megaliths like DIGG, Technorati and del.icio.us which are increasingly becoming victims of SEO SPAM;
• 3G phone-enabled applications, sites and services will experience massive growth in 2009
• Online Video to go mainstream. Broadband speeds worldwide are increasing massively, and set to do so in Australia, as are computer CPU speeds. Finally technology is catching up to the 1997 utopian dream of ‘multimedia’. Use of video will become far more widespread.
• Google, Yahoo, MSN, Apple and Facebook APIs which companies can plug their technologies into.
• Cloud Computing technologies for SMEs and large enterprise looking to
• Emerging online ecosystems of Development APIs will become more and more integrated with each other, and with mobile technologies.

Sexy use of interactive technologies for a Viral Campaign. In this campaign for Mentos, BBH London are making use of some great filmwork, to draw the user into the viral experience.

Check out this site:

Viral videos can spread through the global consciousness with unparalleled speed. Here is a nice example of a Viral Video from Ogilvy & Mather in Toronto, for their DOVE campaign, using stop-motion photography and Photoshop retouching…

What is Android?

It’s the new operating system for mobile phones, funded by Google and set to revolutionise the phone industry.

Heard the same thing about the iPhone a few months ago? Well, let it be known that this operating system is a serious contender for best phone OS available.

What is Android?

- This exciting new mobile-phone software wasn’t created by Google and isn’t owned by it, though its development was largely funded by Google via a body known as the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). This loose confederation of tech firms includes handset makers, mobile-phone networks and Google.

- The OHA allows phone makers to run Android on a suitable handset, without charge. Several have signed up, including Samsung, LG and Motorola. T-Mobile is the first UK-based mobile network to join. Others may soon follow.

- Android is less demanding of a phone’s hardware than traditional smartphone software such as Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and runs quickly, making its rivals seem sluggish by comparison.

- As Android is open source, anyone can create programs for it. These are available to download to the phone from the online Android Market. Many are free; others must be paid for via Google’s payment. system. Innovative new programs include ShopSavvy, whereby you scan a product’s barcode with the phone’s camera and it checks for the best online price, then shows you the nearest store on a map.

- Android’s open-source approach also means that a handset maker or mobile network could hobble its version of the software by removing features such as a phone’s ability to make free calls over the internet.

- As the software is self-policed by an online community of fans, Android raises security concerns. That said, this already works well for Linux, the computer-based operating system upon which it is based, and the Firefox web browser.

- Despite Android’s multimedia pretensions, it cannot yet play videos in either Apple’s QuickTime or Adobe’s Flash format – both popular on websites. Google has at least fixed this problem for fans of YouTube, which uses Flash.

SHIFT Interactive is a Web design agency in Sydney Australia. We can engage your users through our services. These are:

• Web Design Sydney
• Content Management Systems CMS Sydney Australia
• eCommerce Web Design
• Web 2.0 Sydney Australia
• Animated Flash Banners
• Internet Marketing Sydney Australia
• Viral Marketing Sydney Australia
• Search Engine Optimisation SEO Sydney Australia

Contact us for more details

SHIFT Interactive is a Web 2.0 design agency in Sydney Australia. We specialise in harnessing what the Version 2 web technology provides including:

• Viral marketing Sydney Australia
• Flash Games Sydney Australia
• Corporate Blogging Sydney Australia
• Viral Video Campaigns Sydney Australia
• Web 2.0 Sydney Australia
• Social Media Sydney Australia
• Social Networking Sydney Australia

Viral Video is bursting onto the Australian Web 2.0 scene in Sydney with the same pace that enthusiasm for the concept of ‘multimedia’ bloomed onto the scene back in the 90’s. The difference now is that so-called multimedia is actually happening…

Use a viral video to launch a product, or a marketing campaign, and reach a massive potential target market which would remain untapped using conventional, offline marketing mechanisms. The beauty of the web is that the is no broadcast cost - if you’ve produced a viral video, you can launch that across the net with a variety of tools, and using a variety of social media and social networking sites, at no cost. Once the video is completed, load it into a number of sites using Web 2.0 tools, and it will snowball.

Web 2.0 has lots of potential. Here’s a good example of the video web 2.0 convergence which is increasing in use on a daily basis.

Kinda like youTube, but you can cue up a list of videos, which will then loop eternally, until you set up another playlist. You can also integrate the camera on your computer to host your own show, or upload your own videos…we like this tool, for sure!!

And then you can embed it back on your website. Here’s our channel using ‘Web 2.0′ as a our theme:

SHIFT Interactive, an online Web 2.0 company based in Sydney Australia have just engaged a super new product for injecting some viral marketing flavour into your online campaign. Check out VideoLove, a viral video marketing tool which allows you to easily load your video onto 20 video sites with the touch of a button.

Look at it as a way of video blogging - a way to easily spread a video across 20 networks. Think of all of those social media networks hungrily waiting for your videos…!