It’s been a busy month here at HeadRed towers. The sales department has expanded with the addition of Vesh Taylor-Dowson, our New Business Development Manager. Vesh and I will be working together to drive the HeadRed sales effort, with his remit being focused moreon the lead generation side of the business.

The past week also saw the release of the new must-have gadget – the Apple iPhone 3GS. Not wishing to waste any time, Danny our PHP developer rushed on down to the Carphone Warehouse and took order of one for his very own. With a faster processor, improved camera and in-built GPS compass, it’s certainly caught our interest. Expect to see one of two more iPhones appear in the office in the next few weeks!

Here at HeadRed we count ourselves thankful that 2009 has seen a big increase in the demand for PHP programming. In response to these demands we take great pleasure in introducing our new PHP developer – the man with three names, Paul David Martin.

Paul’s arrival means that, with both Danny and Chris already in situ, we possess a mighty triumvirate of PHP expertise to offer our clients.
Paul has considerable experience in the world of programming and is unique in the fact he likes to use an Apple Mac to work his magic (we’re all PC boys here).

Plus, we all reckon he looks a bit like Gaz Coombes from Supergrass!

February saw the launch of the new website for Britannia Wardrobes, a subsidiary of the highly acclaimed Spaceslide.

The new site has built on the successes of its parent with a clean, crisp design supporting clear calls-to-action for potential customers. Unlike Spaceslide, there is no e-commerce functionality built in, but interested purchasers can request a free quotation by using the web forms located on the site.

Spaceslide are already one of HeadRed’s biggest clients with online sales belying our shrinking economy. We’re sure that the new site for Britannia will follow suit and become equally successful.

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.

The time was 4:24pm, the place was Wedgnock Rifle Range, the man was Danny Wade.

Yes, that’s right, our very own PHP Developer extraordinaire was crowned HeadShot Champion 2008 this past Wednesday at the inaugural CWCC Clay Pigeon Shooting Competition hitting a stunning 25 out of 30 clays.

Danny’s sterling effort wins him the admiration of his fellow co-workers, plus a princely sum of £30 from our pockets!

Full leaderboard

• 1st – Danny – 25
• 2nd – Carl – 24
• 3rd – Liam – 21
• 4th – Phil – 20
• 5th – Chris – 19
• 6th – Jim – 17
• 7th – Adrian – 16

Not the best of days at the office for yours truly. It’s going to be a long time until I live this one down!

HeadRed are proud to welcome Chris Hunt to the team.

Chris brings with him a wealth of PHP and software development experience. In his previous roles Chris has worked as the technological lead on a number of high profile projects. We are confident his skills and expertise will help to provide HeadRed’s clients with an improved level of service long into the future.