We’ve just rolled out a new project, here at Brolly. Our client is, the Mayfair Theatre, a local independently run movie theatre in Ottawa, Ontario. The theatre recently closed down for renovations and is now under new ownership. Their web site was in serious need of an update, so we took the opportunity to do some really new and exciting things. We have been very excited about this project – it gave us great freedom to further develop our experience in social media and focus on providing meaningful interaction between our client and their customers.

Like many of our other projects, the website is built upon the WordPress platform. We built a custom plugin for them to manage their upcoming movie listings. This plugin has some great features:

IMDB Integration

The Wordpress plugin allows the Mayfair Theatre to manage their upcoming movies and showtimes. Instead of forcing the administrator to enter in details for each movie that’s playing, we interfaced with a very neat movie database api, called The Movie Database, to allow them to import upcoming movie information, YouTube trailers and high quality artwork. This feature will saves huge amounts of time.

Twitter Integration

We set up the theatre with a twitter account, @mayfairtheatre, and used the Twitter API to automatically broadcast what movies are playing on a daily basis. We are encouraging users to follow the theatre’s Twitter account with a series of giveaways including: movie passes, free concession coupons and movie posters. We believe that keeping people informed of show times on a daily basis will greatly improve attendance.

Google Calendar

Another way we are keeping users up-to-date on the movie schedule is by integrating show times with Google Calendar using the Google API. This calendar stays synchronized with the online schedule and allows users to add the calendar to their computer and mobile devices.

By leveraging existing APIs we were able to build a lot of great functionality into the site, within a limited budget and short development cycle. It seems like every day we are finding new and exciting ways to expand WordPress to accommodate the diversity of our clients. Look for more exciting plugins and services coming soon!

An Introduction to Social Networking

The term Social Network refers to a collection of individuals who share a common biological, social or ideological relation. The phrase Social Networking generalizes the current trend of emerging online applications that allow individuals to create symbolic digital connections with others. These virtual relationships allow individuals to share information in a variety of formats. Successful Social Networking services have begun around a variety of common interests. Some focus upon the sharing of photos, music or video while others focus around a common interest such as dating, wine or sports, others allow individuals to notify one another of their whereabouts, activities or upcoming events, and others attempt to encompass all of the aforementioned.

The ability of an organization to build social networks is fundamental to it’s success. Most business functions, such as the hiring of employees, strengthening of corporate culture, marketing of products to consumers, receipt of product feedback and provision of product support rely heavily upon the construction of meaningful social networks. The propagation and integration of technology into the lives of the common public facilitates the emergence of many innovative products and services that assist individuals in maintaining complex interpersonal relationships between acquaintances, colleagues, friends and family. These new technologies grant individuals an unprecedented ability to connect and influence one another instantaneously.

Organizations must recognize the relevance of these new services and learn how to utilize them in order to achieve their business objectives. The influence of globalization expands a consumer’s ability to access the goods and services of competing businesses regardless of their physical proximity. This emerging threat may prove catastrophic for organizations unable to exploit advances in social networking to meet the expectations of their potential customers, employees and affiliates.

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