You’ll be responsible for designing, developing and maintaining our clients’ interactive websites and web-based applications. You’ll be undertaking assigned project work as well as completing projects according to client briefs and expectations and providing support and advice to both clients and the Mogul team.

Key skills and attributes for this role include:

• Relevant web development experience working in the industry
• The ability to ensure projects are delivered to specification, within time and budget
• Extensive knowledge of PHP, MySQL, and the LAMP architecture, HTML/CSS/Javascript, AJAX
• Experience in object orientated programming languages and design principles

We are a small highly productive team who takes personal responsibility for our tasks and great pride in our work. Our expectation is that you would also work to this high standard.

Our team is all-important, and we know that getting the right fit in an existing team is most important thing when recruiting – that means we want to make sure that you like us – and we like you.

So if you know of a talented developer with great experience keen to move to the Bay, or a gem already in the Bay who wants to join the Mogul team then get them to check out the Seek ad here.

This is a full time role based in Havelock North.

We provided Chris Webb, Hastings’ Web Editor, with a custom front-end design and he built the site to incorporate the new design elements.

Chris says:

“We were looking for a fresh new design for a large existing website. Mogul struck a great balance between keeping our site recognisable for regular users, but modernising it and making it easier for everyone to find their way around. Now we’ve got a site which looks great not only on a computer screen, but also across a range of devices like phones and tablets. The feedback from our staff and public users has been really positive. The team at Mogul are a great bunch to work with and always full of good ideas. The fact that we keep coming back to them with new web projects speaks for itself.”

We hope you had some time off over Christmas and New Year and that you’ve had a good start to the year.

Mogul has had a great start to the year, our team has been flat out on all sorts of projects and we continue to meet really switched-on people who are keen to apply some ‘Smarter Thinking Online’ to improve their businesses.

There’s been a definite change of vibe this year. All the buzz last year was about ‘social’ and ‘mobile’. So far this year, it’s all about ‘going transactional’, i.e. online shops and payment systems. And no wonder. You can spend all day updating your Facebook page and playing around on Twitter but social media alone ain’t gonna pay the bills – unless you’re Mark Zuckerberg.

Here’s a wake-up call from Price Waterhouse Coopers:

“According to new research by PwC and Frost & Sullivan, online shopping increased to NZ$2.68 billion in 2011, an increase of 12% from 2010.

Online shopping, both locally and offshore, is expected to grow at least twice as fast in comparison to the total retail market in New Zealand and Australia over the next four years.”

So we’re especially excited to be working with Redcurrent, a Hawke’s Bay-based homewares and gifts retailer with ten stores nationwide. This year we’ll be helping Rebecca, Audrey and the team at Redcurrent ‘go transactional‘  – which George thinks you ladies will be excited to hear!

Anyway back to the F-word… Facebook looks like it’s here to stay, and if your business has a page on Facebook, read on for some important news about a major change that’s about to happen this weekend.

Cheers

Matt, George, and the team at Mogul

You can read the rest of our newsletter here.

The group promotes three main touring routes through the central North Island; Pacific Coast Highway, Thermal Explorer Highway and the Volcanic Loop. They also provide a number of specific itineraries through the eight regions of eXplore Central North Island to assist both domestic and international travellers and industry members, to experience some of New Zealand’s beautiful sights and activities.

eXplore Central North Island came to Mogul with a vision for their new website. They wanted an interactive map to highlight key locations, a region gallery for media and trade operators to download high resolution images, an Eventfinder feed and easily downloadable interactive resources.

Mogul has delivered an eyecatching new site which we think incorporates their vision whilst being user-friendly for visitors. We used issuu.com to display their product manual, this displays like a magazine which is a great way for visitors to view a large document. The Eventfinder feed updates hourly to display key events across all eight regions within eXplore Central North Island.

The site also provides up to date weather information and webcam gallery for travellers.

This was a large project which included a new email newsletter system and setting up their Facebook page. We worked with one contact who was great at relaying information back to the wider eXplore Central North Island group. Communication was key and we worked through each part of the project step by step and even took a major logo and brand change towards the end of the project in our stride!

This site has got us excited about the beautiful sights we have here in New Zealand, have a look at the new eXplore Central North Island site and you’ll probably want to start planning your next holiday too!

During our initial planning meeting with St Andrews Limes the project grew to include a new website design. Designing a new website at the same time as the shop means both have the same fresh look and feel.

So at the beginning of March we launched their fantastic new one page website and online shop which uses the Big Cartel platform. The focus of the website is on the beautiful products and keeping customers in touch with the latest news and specials.

St Andrews Limes were new to the website development process, so we worked out a plan for a website and shop that they could easily manage and update, to ensure it was a positive addition to their business, rather than creating more work!

We think the final product represents their brand really well. You should check it out and perhaps do some shopping while you’re there!

Here is a list of what we’ve been able to find out so far about the changes – and what they mean for you.

• Existing pages will be flicked over to Timeline “on March 30th” (we’re assuming this is a US timezone so for NZers this would be March 31.
• Default landing pages no longer work – they are still available on the page though and can be featured fairly prominently, but we don’t expect many visitors to click on them voluntarily.
• Each static page can have a thumbnail (111px by 74px) (see  http://www.facebook.com/cocacola for how Coke is using them)
• The only “entry icon” that can’t be moved is the Photos link
• “Profile images” (the ones that used to head up the left hand column) now get scaled down to 133 pixels wide (even though they still need to be at least 180px wide when you upload them – ??) and then get cropped from the bottom up to 133px high too
• Pages have the cover photo feature. These appear to be 850px by 315px.  Facebook has reportedly warned against putting massive ads in here though (although we’re unsure what the consequences would be – maybe they will remove images that are advertising – or suspend your account – who knows?)
• You can “pin” statuses to the top of your timeline.  Redbull have used this to kick start a competiton (along with being able to post historical info about their brand).  [who knew redbull had been around since 1987??]
• Pages can now receive and reply to private messages from their fans
• You used to be able to like a page then see different content automatically (this is called “like gating”).  The page now doesn’t automatically refresh when you like the page to see the like-only content. This appears to be a body blow for marketers who would reveal discount codes or other rewards when a visitor liked their Page.

Do you use Tumblr? Or are you thinking about it? Tumblr can be a good way to share (mostly visual) content to a (largely young and edgy) audience.

If you’re running a business, we certainly wouldn’t recommend a Tumblr blog in place of a ‘proper’ website. It’s more like a Facebook/Twitter/Google+ social network.

Like any kind of marketing, you really need to know your audience and use the right tools to reach them. For what it’s worth, here’s my broad sweeping generalisations of who is using what:

• Tumblr – hip, creative young people
• LinkedIn – ambitious professionals
• Google+ – business and tech geeks
• Twitter – PR and narcissists (celebrities, of course, are included here)
• Facebook – the masses

Interestingly, the Occupy Movement’s slogan “We are the 99 percent” came from a Tumblr blog. (http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/10/we-are-the-99-percent-creators)

Some businesses have embraced Tumblr. This is a good article with some Tumblr success stories…

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/should-you-be-on-tumblr-seven-business-case-examples/

Cheers

Matt

Founded in 2006 by Josh Brown, iTOPS has clients throughout New Zealand and overseas.

Mr Brown recognises the importance of a strong online presence to promote ITOPS’ products and services and to generate enquiries. The new website provides credibility through case studies and recent projects.

Ken Parsons, Kinetic Electrical’s Business Development Manager wanted a new website that Kinetic could use as a tool for prospective clients to find out about the Kinetic Group, what services they offer and who they work with.

Ken felt that it was important to demonstrate Kinetic’s wealth of experience, their professionalism and the breadth of their experience across the whole group.

A big part of the new site would also be to showcase the franchise opportunities available with Kinetic.

We built the site on the popular WordPress platform, so Kinetic’s staff are able to manage the content of the site easily, and add images and video as new projects are completed. Each project is listed in detail using WordPress’s native blog functionality: http://www.kinetic-electric.co.nz/projects/.