A friend of mine who is a web and graphic designer occasionally sends me amazing links.

The latest, and one I thought I would share with you, is the site of UK design consultancy Checkland Kindleysides.

It’s Flash-heavy but is still beautifully functional. The loading between sections is playful and rather soothing, and the overall design is a triumph of simplicity.

As a copywriter, I really admire their economic use of text. Everything is kept short and sweet. In this way the text serves simply to underscore the visual brilliance of the site.

I know, I know. . . we expect this kind of thing from creative agencies, but that shouldn’t stop the rest of us picking up a few lessons!

As the social media revolution gathers pace, how are you keeping track of the upheavals in communication?

What steps are you taking to ensure that your marketing department is moving with the times, and not relying on the same old techniques to generate new leads and connect with potential customers?

Many people now talk of the fragmented marketplace - the long tail. But in many ways the opposite is true. As a new generation of networked and net-savvy consumers arrive in the marketplace, it is tempting for companies to worry that it is nigh on impossible to reach mass audiences in the same way as before.

While that may be true to an extent, reaching your audience is simply a matter of understanding them - their reading habits, the nature of their media consumption. Did you know TV viewing figures are dropping drastically? The same is true of newspaper readership. Advertising revenue is moving online because that is where the consumers are - particularly those in the 18-34 age bracket.

These are uncertain times. We are at a generational intersection - every day the young shape the future of business and media a little bit more; and every day the preceding generation cede a little bit more territory.

But this isn’t the end of the world as we know it. For companies everywhere, it’s simply a matter of adjusting, and approaching this brave new world with an open mind.

Books like The New Influencers will help. As will Robert Scoble’s Naked Conversations.

I know I can sound a little evangelical at times, but big things are happening right now. Are you in the loop?

I was just trawling through some of my feeds (I use Google Reader to keep track of the dozens of interesting sites that make up the bulk of my online reading) and found an interesting piece about whether Google might be planning to buy Salesforce - the popular CRM software company.

We use Salesforce here at Eye for Image, and the point the author makes about Salesforce not having a complete email solution is valid. Imagine the time you could save if it had a fully integrated email client?!

Google helps me streamline my IT to the extent that, outside of work, I’m hardly using any paid-for software these days. I use GMail for email, Picasa for picture storage, and I’m now even beginning to use GoogleDocs instead of Word - and all in one browser!

The thought of transferring the usability and simplicity of these applications to my work IT environment is certainly an enticing one!

I’ve just come across this article about Spannerworks over at The Guardian’s Organ Grinder blog (a great source of information on all things relating to social media). I’d never heard of Spannerworks before but I’ve just spent the last half an hour engrossed in their site.

Here at Eye for Image, we think their tagline – Mapping the web for brands: Learn more about your brand’s presence in online social networks – is a masterpiece of simplicity (note to other companies, sometimes the most powerful statements are the most straightforward). 

The web, and how to utilize its vast communications power, is such a hot topic for companies at the moment. But it’s also a bewildering one. The Internet is a confusing place and there is a real scamble going on out there to make sense of it.

There’s a raft of tech companies developing mapping tools to help businesses plot a path to real value.  But Spannerworks look like they’re a few steps ahead of the competition with an array of tools to help companies find out who is talking about them and what they are saying. Armed with this information, “Spannerworks’ advanced social network analytics are then applied to help marketers build models of relationships and influence within their identified networks”. Sounds cool, doesn’t it?! 

Using crisp, clear language, Spannerworks outline who they are and what they do, touching on the issues that are so relevant to companies right now (search engine optimization, online brand-building) and generally doing a great job of subtly implanting the notion that you really need their services!

Their site is great as well, eschewing fancy Flash graphics in favor of functionality and form. Overall a big thumbs-up from us!