The Meta Blog

Following Saturdays 7.1 magnitude earthquake, and there have been over 120 aftershocks (many as much as 5.4) the city centre is in a pretty bad way. It is currently on lock down and there is no power or access to many parts of the central business district – including our offices unfortunately..

I took a tour of the city yesterday to see if we can access our office. The city centre is in a pretty bad way. It is currently on lock down with army barricades and there is no access allowed due to danger of many buildings collapsing from the many frequent aftershocks.

Information to date is that our office building (Kenton Chambers) has been red-stickered due to possible imminent collapse of the neighboring Manchester Courts building - an historic building site.

Despite having no-go access to our offices, we will strive to continue operating as a business. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we can work from our homes.

We ask you to please bare with us for the next few days while we try and get everything back to normal. There may be some slight delays in us responding to questions and support requests. Please accept our apologies in advanced.

Thank you to everyone that has sent messages of support, it has been much appreciated.

As many of you will now know, in the early hours of Saturday morning 4th September, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck about 30km west of Christchurch, leaving the city extensively damaged.

The Internet and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have provided a platform for latest information and discussion – not to mention moral support. (http://twitter.com/#search?q=christchurch%20earthquake).

Some useful links for news and updates include:

Christchurch City Council: www.ccc.govt.nz/thecouncil/newsmedia/mediareleases/index.aspx
Geonet’s Recent Earthquake Map: www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html
Civil Defence: www.civildefence.govt.nz/memwebsite.nsf
The Herald’s Timeline of Events: www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10671050
Stuff’s News Coverage: www.stuff.co.nz/national/4094986/State-of-emergency-after-7-1-quake-hits-Christchurch

This is a very, very sizeable earthquake in a very populated part of New Zealand. Up to 20% of the homes in the city may be rendered uninhabitable. Damage is at least $2 billion in a city of 340,000 people.

We and our families are all safe and well which is a huge relief. Our thoughts go out to everyone who has lost their homes and businesses. This is truly a tough time for all caught in the midst of this disaster.

Coffee – seems to me that it’s truly the powering force behind almost every graphic designer, web designer and web developer I’ve ever met.. We drink gallons of the stuff in our small studio – and there’s just 3 of us!

This morning, my tribute is to my love of coffee – real coffee – it can’t be instant – and absolutely not decaf!

This mornings brew is a large takeaway Soy Latte from The Coffee Smiths www.thecoffeesmiths.co.nz – and I give this a 5 out of 5! Great friendly service too.

Dave Sewell provides expert sales training and support for retail and small businesses. We really enjoyed meeting Dave and after only a brief conversation, we got an insight to the quality of knowledge and information Dave had which could be used to build his online visibility.

This is a website development story I have been really looking forward to sharing. In many ways this typifies just what it is that makes working with Meta Solutions different.

We were first contacted by Dave Sewell by an email from our website. Dave’s request was simple – “I am looking for someone to design a website for me. It’s not a large web site and I think it will be fairly simple to create. Can someone give me a call to discuss this further. Kindest Regards Dave”…

So of course I picked up the phone to have a chat with Dave and get a feel for what he was looking for. The conversation was easy and we arranged a time to meet where he could tell me more about his requirements for a website.

Dave was looking for an online resume where he could feature his industry experience and qualifications to top-tier employers – somewhat like LinkedIn (of course I suggested he should be using this anyway).

As a long-time Sales Team Manager, Dave had a wealth of real-world experience and knowledge just waiting to be shared with the world. Dave is a gifted speaker and just listening to him was an insight. I immediately suggested he should seriously consider starting his own Sales Coaching Consultancy aimed towards small to medium businesses. All he needed was a platform to voice his ideas and insights and in doing so would attract businesses searching for answers online.

..And this is where the magic happened… Dave told me that every other web company he had seen had just sold him ‘the standard package’ – nobody took time to really listen to his requirements or even consider the potential for a new business opportunity here.

Dave went away and thought about our suggestion and came back the next day with a newfound vigor to get this thing started. Dave was in business!

A fresh new logo design and Dave Sewell – Sales Training is born!

This was one of those magic customers where the values and expectations lined up and the whole process was easy. Not only that – Dave gave us loads of creative freedom to really drive the project, and come up with his branding.

Now as we often have discussed, a key web marketing strategy is to have a Content Management System (CMS) where you can create new pages, posts, articles and case studies. In the world of search engines, “Content is King”, and the more pages and posts you can publish increases your chances to be found in search engines for related searches.

Dave Sewell is truly a natural blogger! Before we had even designed his custom wordpress theme, he had a dozen blog posts ready for us to load into the cms! It can really be an advantage if you are able communicate on the same level as your audience – build a relationship with them, write in everyday language and become someone they can identify with by discussing challenges which they may relate to (Dave certainly has this covered). This not only helps you to be found online, it also keeps you relevant, and builds a relationship with your regular followers.

We continued building on Daves’ web marketing strategy by introducing him to Twitter (ideal for micro-blogging and status updates) and creating an opportunity to grow his online Social Networks by integrating his LinkedIn and displaying his latest ‘Tweets’ from Twitter.

At Meta Solutions our expertise goes beyond simply building a website – we can help you to clarify your business goals – or even help you with that first step to starting a new business!

Client: Dave Sewell – Training and support for Retail and Small Business
Website: www.davesewell.co.nz

We were delighted to find meta solutions web design has found it’s way into printed pages of ‘The Web Designer’s Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide To Trends & Styles In Website Design’ – and the great thing is we didn’t even know it!

We ordered a copy from Amazon.com as it looked like a great publication – both as a ‘coffee table book’ and to check out the fresh website designs being featured as the cream of web design.

We were stunned to see one of our websites – Buzz Recruitment featuring inside the pages! Meta Solutions was one of only three New Zealand web design companies to have their work feature in this book so we feel this is a great achievement!

Buzz Recruitment has previously been featured in Smashing Magazines’ 60 Elegant and Visually Appealing Designs and CSS-Based Navigation Menus: Modern Solutions back in 2007 shortly after the site was launched. Recently Buzz also featured at the top of the page in 25 Inspirational Black Websites.

The Web Designer’s Idea Book‘ is a great book and a must have for web designers looking for fresh inspiration.