Last summer we ran an article on new micro-blogging website, Twitter, and its growth in its first two years of operation.

Well, since then it seems that Twitter has gone from strength to strength. The company have just recently turned down a half billion dollar acquisition offer from Facebook and are now looking at dipping back into the venture capital market.

They’ve signed a term sheet with at least one venture fund to raise a new round at a $250 million valuation. Whilst it is unclear how much they’re raising it is widely thought to be more than the $20 million in capital they’ve taken in over two previous rounds.

Twitter’s stock has increased further in the wake of new celebrity interest. British institution, Stephen Fry, chatted to reinstated BBC host Jonathan Ross about Twitter on his prime time Friday night show last week.

With luminaries and celebrities across the globe increasingly using Twitter to engage with their audience, it would seem that the sky’s the limit for this company that blossomed from a small San Fransisco R&D project.

You can follow the adventures of HeadRed through my own garbled tweets at http://twitter.com/adrianbevan

The website for long-time HeadRed client French Selection has received a much needed makeover.

French Selection UK is a leading recruitment consultancy who specialise in the placement of multilingual professionals. Their website was originally launched by HeadRed back in 2004 and has been used to source employees for clients and jobs for candidates ever since.

Now, four years on, the site has been refreshed and brought up to date with modern web design standards. The finished version is clean and airy but also colourful and vibrant. Clear calls-to-action engage visitors at the point of entry and allow for guided routes through to relevant information.

We’re certainly very proud of it. Take a look at the new face of French Selection here: http://www.french-selection.co.uk/

HeadRed require a Web Developer proficient in either of the following languages – ASP or ASP .NET

The successful applicant will need to hit the ground running and be able to jump straight in to our existing projects.

The position requires strong team working skills, an ability to meet deadlines, good problem solving ability and a great eye for detail.

Your programming capabilities should include some, if not all, of the following:

• • ASP or ASP.NET
• • HTML / CSS (Handcoding)
• • Dreamweaver
• • Photoshop / Fireworks
• • Javascript
• • MySQL / MSSQL

Main Responsibilites:

• • E-commerce – site builds and maintenance
• • Custom Content Management Systems (CMS)

The position is easily commutable from Birmingham, Rugby, Leamington and the surrounding Midlands areas.

This is a full-time vacancy and you will be required to work from our office in Coventry. Remote working is not applicable.

ONLY APPLICANTS WITH PERMISSION TO WORK IN THE UK WILL BE CONSIDERED.

NO RECRUITMENT AGENCIES PLEASE. WE HAVE A STRICT NO AGENCY POLICY.

To apply send a CV, details of your project experience along with examples/URLs to jobs@headred.net

Wednesday 21st January 2009 marked a significant day in the history of the United States. It was the day Barack Obama became the first ever black US President as he was inaugurated in front of thousands of onlookers at Washington DC’s National Mall.

Whilst his election came as no surprise to many of us what was particularly interesting of his campaign was how he embraced the Internet and specifically Web 2.0.

Hope and Change
Unlike John McCain, Obama’s campaign made full use of the Internet to build his brand, deliver his message and build relationships with his voters and the wider world. With his team of experienced, innovative and progressive marketers he launched and executed what was to be a highly successful Internet marketing campaign.

Obama used a message of “Hope and Change” as the core of his campaign. This message was distributed across his entire Internet presence and formed the cornerstone of his web strategy. Furthermore, not only did Obama have a message of hope and change, but he positioned himself as the one to provide hope and deliver change. He branded himself as the agent for change and his message supported his brand.

Obama 2.0
Obama fully embraced the Internet and the power of Web 2.0. A large part of his Internet strategy focused on using social networks to communicate, engage and build relationships with people.

Obama had a presence on all of the top social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Eventful, and YouTube. He also participated on some niche social networking sites like BlackPlanet, Faithbase, MiGente, AsianAve, and MyBatanga. Not only that, but Obama also created his own social networking site to converse with and empower supporters.

The key to Obama’s online success was that he didn’t just have a presence on these social networking sites, but he actively participated in these online communities. He accepted friends, befriended others, added favorites, uploaded videos, and posted messages.

The Obama campaign also posted ads on Facebook, uploaded PDFs to Scribd, and shared photos on Flickr. They embraced all that Web 2.0 could offer their campaign.

The 44th President
New technology is shrinking the world we live in and Obama’s success can show us just how much of a difference utilising these technologies can make. Whilst his election can be attributed to many factors, Obama’s US Presidential Campaign leveraged the Internet, Web 2.0, and social networks to deliver his message, expose his brand, and drive traffic to his offers.

Entrepreneurs and Internet Marketers alike could learn a lot from his strategy.