The goal of this is two-fold; for the students, it allows them to let their friends, family, and colleagues know what they are studying, and give them an opportunity to send a word of encouragement by liking the story in the Facebook News Feed, or commenting on it with a message to encourage the student. For the school, this app acts as a viral mechanism for spreading the name of the school through the social media – when a student makes use of the Facebook Check-in app, it adds a news story to their feed and the news feeds of their friends on Facebook, drawing people’s attention to the school – with a quick and ready link to the website.

This will drive traffic to the website, and ultimately help in marketing the school to new prospective students.

How the SBS Facebook Check-in App works

Step 1: The student visits the website, and when they click the check-in button, they are asked to select the  course they are studying.

Step 2: The Facebook popup appears and requests that the user log into facebook, and confirm the message they would like to post to Facebook.

Step 3: The published story arrives in the student’s Facebook News Feed and the News Feeds of their friends.

Step 4: Friends can comment and like the status message.

If you are interested in expanding your presence in the Social Media, or creating a custom Facebook App for you company, email us today – click here.

See the Southern Business School Facebook App page here

OPS was approached to revamp the Southern Business School website.

The Southern Business School website was already built on the excellent Drupal content management system, so all that was required to do was create a completely new custom theme for the site. OPS used the newest style found in Southern Business School’s print advertising, to create a website that is warmer and more inviting. The rich brown gradient background is offset by the strong white, black and red of the rest of the theme, making the website content easy to read and easy to find.
OPS made use of latest CSS3 techniques to enhance the look of the website for users of modern browsers such as Firefox, Safari, or Google Chrome. These enhancements include subtle shadows on the site’s content block, and the 3-column formatting of the text makes reading faster and easier.

The menu system was also overhauled to be simpler to navigate – with the 6 most important links finding themselves in a strong white block at the  top of every page, with slightly less important links floating just below the main links.

The social media aspect of this project was the creation of a Twitter theme for the Twitter account.

We have also developed a Facebook Application for Southern Business School, to expand the footprint of the school’s footprint in the social media. See the story about the Facebook Check-in App we designed here.

See the website at www.sbsonline.info

The adverts will in most cases run below an editorial written by Andy. In Sales Guru, for example, Andy will discuss how sales skills and negotiation skills should be employed to get the best ‘win-win’ result.

As the adverts will run in conjunction with an article that allows for greater discussion around the various offerings of Andrew Brough Communications, the adverts themselves have the single goal of building the Brand and connecting the Brand to the writer of the article. We used the same photo of Andy in both the advert and the article to tie them together, and the style and branding of the adverts tie closely back to the website and the rest of Andy’s corporate communications.

The trade journals and publications the adverts are running in are characterized by extremely busy pages, with many of the adverts being loud, busy and chaotic. We sought to create some visual space and rest of the reader, which will allow the adverts to stand out, with their strong blue colours and plenty of open space. This visual oasis in the middle of the magazine will attract attention more than many of the ‘attention getting’ devices used in the competitor’s adverts.

OPS is currently also at work on some minor tweaks to andrewbrough.com that will make the content more accessible in more ways.

Negotiation Skills Advert

Leadership Skills Advert

Teamwork Advert

Sales Training Advert

Equipping for Excellence Brand Message

See more about Andrew Brough Communications at andrewbrough.com

The ASTD Global Network South Africa – The American Society for Training and Development – had an existing website, but without the ability to easily update content via a content management system, getting new info onto the site and preparing newsletters became a real chore.

One Part Scissors created a new website for the ASTD that used the key visual elements from the old site – with a fresher, more modern feel. Certain key pieces of content – such as a Survey Document was in high demand on the website, but was difficult to find. In the new website we created a bold icon in the right sidebar of every page to ensure this info can be easily found.

Small visual devices were used to create  a subtle layered feel – shadows, textures, and glows on certain elements make the website a more enjoyable one to read.

See the website at astd.co.za

The Resource Centre is packed with interesting information is a variety of media, and there is a Member’s Zone which allows Andy to share special content with paying clients.

We took our lead for the look and feel of the website from the previous website and the Brand Standards Guide we created for Andrew Brough in 2008, but the look has been updated with drop shadows and layered graphics that add a three dimensional feel.

See the new site at andrewbrough.com

Andrew Brough is constantly adding useful business resources to his website.

In order to assist Andy in equipping people for excellence, One Part Scissors created a blog using the blogger.com system. This powerful Google-backed system allows visitors to the blog to participate and contribute to the content, while at the same time allowing Andy the ability to quickly add new info. The system also has an excellent archiving system which keeps all the content well organised.

Visit the AndyB Blog at andrewbrough.com/blog