Sukhwant Lota

Stats update for April 2013 for Leeds City College

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:05:00 +0000

Stats update for April 2013 for Leeds City College

Facebook 5276 Likes
Twitter 2926 Followers
Youtube 25,961 Video Views
Flickr 65,525 all time photo views
Google+ 109 followers
Instagram 32 followers

BT Infinity 3 Months on

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:15:00 +0000

Back in January BT Infinity finally launched it's long awaited Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC) service in my area, a service which I has been looking forward to for a while. Whilst I was an O2 Broadband customer with speeds of 4mb/s I jumped at the chance of having internet speeds of up to 76mb.

3 Months on and the service is still going strong, I've restarted my router once since launch day (amazing) and the speeds are consistently high (superb). The highest speed I've seen is 74mb/s and lowest of 40mb/s

iPhone apps now download lightning fast, I can now watch BBC iPlayer in HD without it skipping, Youtube is now instant in HD and I get constant download speeds of around 3mb/s.

Was it worth it? in a nutshell... Yes!

Will the snow ever end?

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:49:00 +0000

On Friday 22nd March we had an unprecedented amount of snowfall in the Yorkshire area, the news have dubbed this month as the coldest in 50 years!

As usual our staff and students flocked to the Leeds City College website and Facebook page to find out the latest news.

On a normal day the Leeds City College website gets around 3000 hits, on Friday 22bnd March we received over 12,000! with 590 Hits on the Weather Update Post alone.

Although some staff struggled to get into college, they we're checking their emails from external devices as the web mail page on the website had over 750 hits Our Facebook page also saw a huge spike in traffic with our snow posts getting over 7400 views and it also helps us to promote the college.

R.I.P. Google Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 13:38:00 +0000

Google reader has been one of those web tools which I've always taken for granted. It's so integrated into my daily life with keeping up to date with news that I was shocked to hear that Google are killing the service on 1st July as part of their Spring Clean, presumably to concentrate on their less successful applications such as Google+

As I've been using Reader since it was 1st launched back in 2005 and I had to find a replacement which had some of the features of the Google service.

Hello Feedly

As I like keeping up to date with popular and new iOS apps I had already downloaded Feedly a few weeks before Google's announcement but I initially found it to be less intuitive then my current iOS Google Reader app called Reeder

Reeder has been great, it's simple and intuitive to use and easily integrates with Google Reader so making the switch to Feedly wasn't going to be easy (until I had no choice!)

As Google had left me with no choice I persisted Feedly and I now enjoy using it, yep it's totally different to the Reeder app and an added bonus is that the Feedly Firefox plugin is very similar to the web Google Reader interface with even going to the extent of keeping the same keyboard shortcuts (j + k) brill!

Once Google switches off Reader on 1st and Feedly takes over, everything should carry on working as normal (hopefully).

I've even started to use Feedly now even though Google Reader is still active, I guess there's no point in waiting for the inevitable.

So in short,
If you use Google reader as much as I do then I would wouldn't hang around and make the switch to Feedly now.

Feedly website

Stats update for February 2013 for Leeds City College

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:32:00 +0000

Stats update for February 2013 for Leeds City College

Facebook 5166 Likes
Twitter 2742 Followers
Youtube 24,365 Video Views
Flickr 62,662 all time photo views
Google+ 81 followers
Instagram 33 followers

Leeds City College Facebook Page

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:20:00 +0000

Over the weekend the Leeds City College Facebook page has passed over 5000 likes, a huge milestone for us. When I started as the Social Media Developer last September we had 4256 likes and this number has increased significantly recently partly due to to the snow.

Here's to the next 5000!

There's no business like snow business

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:30:00 +0000

Monday 21st January 2013 has been chaos for Yorkshire, over 10 inches of snow fell over night. As most of Yorkshire ground to a halt, cyberspace was booming more than usual.

On an average Monday, the Leeds City College website usually gets around 3000 visits for the entire day, on the 21st we had just over 13000 hits! with over 300 realtime active users. most of the traffic was in the early hours of the day as staff and students wanted to know if the college was open.

It was great to watch the live stats on the site which adds the emphasis how important Real-time Analytics are to us.

The Snow hasn't just had an impact on our website analytics but our social profiles too. Our facebook page has seen an increase of 300 new likes over the past week with 200 new followers on twitter.

Leeds City College Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:29:00 +0000

After much tweeting and fiddling the Leeds City College blogs are now live. so far we currently have the Marketing blog but there will be many more to follow. leave a comment and let us know what your think.

January Leeds City College Stats

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:43:00 +0000

Another Stats update for January 2013 for Leeds City College

Facebook 4774 Likes
Twitter 2322 Followers
Youtube 26,045 Video Views
Flickr 57,940 all time photo views
Google+ 66 followers
Instagram 30 followers

as my previous post, I've decided to no longer support Pinterest for Leeds City College.

Time to deactivate Pinterest

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:27:00 +0000

Pinterest for Leeds City College has been used for a about a year now, even before I started this role. I think it's the right time to deactivate the account as I feel that's we're not really gaining much from it at the moment, not to say that this won't change in the future.

Pinterest make it very easy to deactivate your account, maybe a bit too easy with a huge deactivate button on the settings page, it's almost as if Pinterest want you to deactivate your account.

During the deactivation process they inform you that all your pins will be removed and that your username not not be freed up. This has it's good and bad points.

It means that cyber-squatters can't hog your username but it also means that I won't be able to re-register the same username in the future.

after taking this into consideration, I've decided to keep the Pinterest account active but remove any corrospondance to the fact we use pinterest from our website

Pinterest may still be useful to us in the future, maybe for our cookery or hairdressing courses, but I guess that's something we'll have to wait and see.

Goodbye 2012..... Hello 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:44:00 +0000

Goodbye 2012, it's been another brilliant year and slightly sad to see you go, but all good things must come to an end.

Here are some personal stats from the year gone by

- I've become a dad! Again!

- I've seen 135 films (1 less than last year) and been to the cinema 6 times

- LookASingh has been my most popular site this year with over 1200 followers on Twitter, over 200 likes on my Facebook page and over 250 followers on Instagram. The site has had just under 60,000 hits since January! Unbelievable!

- I've written 48 Blog Posts.

- This blog has had 75,533 total hits with over 14,500 page views from 131 countries

- I've shared over 360 news articles on my blog Reader Shared

- My Photos Blog is still growing strong, however I'm looking into switching to Flickr in the new year.

- I've taken over 3,000 Photos (12gb)

Have an awesome 2013
Sukhwant

Top 2012 Playlist

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:16:00 +0000

Has it really been another year? and what a year its been for music!

Here is my list of songs I've liked this year, some songs that I really don't know why are on this list.

01 - Yasmin - Finish Line (Original Extended Edit)
02 - Emeli Sande - Next To Me
03 - Gotye Feat Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know
04 - Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
05 - Pitbull Feat Chris Brown - International Love
06 - Flo Rida - Good Feeling
07 - Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans
08 - Rudimental Feat John Newman - Feel The Love
09 - Katy Perry - Wide Awake
10 - Rihanna - Diamonds
11 - Taio Cruz - There She Goes
12 - Usher - Scream
13 - Alex Clare - Too Close
14 - Rita Ora Feat Tinie Tempah - R.I.P
15 - Emeli Sande - My Kind Of Love
16 - Marina & The Diamonds - Primadonna
17 - Florence + The Machine - Spectrum (Say My Name)
18 - PSY - Gangnam Style
19 - Adele - Skyfall
20 - The Script Feat Will.I.Am - Hall Of Fame
21 - Of Monsters And Men - Little Talks
22 - Public Enemy - Harder Than You Think
23 - Rebecca Ferguson - Backtrack
24 - Olly Murs Feat Flo Rida - Troublemaker
25 - Willy Moon - Yeah Yeah
26 - Maroon 5 - One More Night

Apple Home Screen Icon

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:42:00 +0000

I've finally done something I've been meaning to do for a while, it's little job but one that's worth it. on an Apple device if you now add the Leeds City College too the home screen you can now see have an avatar icon rather than the college website.

Go on, add the Leeds City College website to your home screen and see the new icon!

Simple & Elegant Social Media Icons

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:11:00 +0000

I'm a huge fan of these Social Media icon, the title says it all, Simple & elegant. Feel free to give them a download and implement them into your site.

Download these Beautiful & Free Social Media Icons

How to put the Firefox tabs at the bottom

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 09:59:00 +0000

In the Location bar, type about:config and press Enter.
- The about:config "This might void your warranty!" warning page may appear. Click I'll be careful, I promise!, to continue to the about:config page.
In the Search field box at the top, type browser.tabs.onTop.
Double-click the browser.tabs.onTop preference to set its value to false.

Stats Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Leeds City College Stats Update Facebook Likes - 4527
Twitter Followers - 2097
Youtube Video Views - 24,375
Flickr - 1142 Items / 8838 views
Pinterest - 39 followers
Google + - 57 Followers
Instagram - 22 followers

EU Cookies Law

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:37:00 +0000

To comply with the EU Cookie Law I've found a Wordpress plugin which shows a banner at the top of the Leeds City College site.

The banner shows on all pages until the user clicks dismiss.

I hate the fact that I have to do this, but the Law is the Law.

On a redesign the website I would look at ways to integrate this into the core of the site rather than just a plugin.

I'm working on adding the plugin to all the other microsites too.

Black Box - Fantasy [Music Monday]

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:55:00 +0000

Google+ finally have usernames

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:35:00 +0000

I received an email in the early hours this morning informing me that I've been selected to choose a username for my Leeds City College Google + Page. They informed me that LeedsCityCollege has been reserved for me.

This morning I activated this new Google+ feature and was provided with the following URL for the page http://google.com/+leedscitycollege although an improvement from https://plus.google.com/b/116830801681474716890/ but I still would have preferred it with the added + in the url.

WebApply

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:32:00 +0000

We have a system which is currently in development, it's called Web Apply and it allows students to apply directly for courses online.

The system is due to go live soon but I had one major concern with it. The look of the application is dated and old

The application is 100% width, something I've never been a fan off. The colours look dated and everything just looks squashed.

I wanted to create a fresh and pleasant environment, clear from clutter and simple after all potential students will be looking at the application.

Below is my initial draft

The application now looks fresh and clean, warm and inviting.

I've updated the Web Apply logo to coincide with the branding of the college and removed the horrible brown. Overall I'm pleased with the refresh of the application and no doubt I'll be tweaking it from time to time.

Webfont-tastic

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 20:30:00 +0000

I've started to integrate Google Webfonts into some of the Leeds City College microsites. They are really easy to integrate, it's just a case of adding a line of code to the header of the theme then calling that font in the CSS of the theme.

http://www.foodacademyleeds.co.uk
http://www.google.com/webfonts

Telephone Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:28:00 +0000

The New Leeds City College call centre has been set up and they deal with student course enquiries. I've amended the telephone numbers are the top of the Leeds City College website to reflect this.

We've also switched from a 0845 number to a 0113 number. My personal opinion is that having a local 0113 telephone number is the way forward highlighting the fact that this is Leeds.

Is it warm in here?

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:26:00 +0000

Over the weekend the server room suffererd a fault with the Air Conditioning which resulted with the Leeds City College Web server shutting down. The downtime was approximately 27 hours while engineers were fixing the air conditioning.

On a positive note, when the servers were switched back on, the Leeds City College website and all micro-sites sprung back to life which gives me confidence in bringing down the servers for maintenance and development purposes in the future.

I will do a database check of any corrupted tables, in case anyone was writing back to the database at the time of shut-down, but so far everything seems to be back to normal.

RIP MySpace

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:23:00 +0000

Today I've been working on tidying up the social networks that Leeds City College has, first on the list was MySpace the once mainstream network, now redundent had to go. The MySpace social icon on the website was taken town last week and now our MySpace account has been deactivated.

What was amusing was that I found today that Leeds City College still had an account for Hi5 - which was my first social network and I actually really did like until a certain Mr Zuckerberg decided to get creative.

On another note, I've also closed accounts for Tagged and Badoo.

Social Share Icons

noreply@blogger.com (Sukhwant Lota) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 20:18:00 +0000

Something that has been lacking from the Leeds City College website is Social Share buttons. I've always been a big fan of Share buttons but I've often found that it's difficult to find share buttons that compliment the site.

I've added a the Wordpress plug-in Sociable which is a great customisable plugin for Social Share buttons.

I've kept it quite simple for now by just added a Twitter, Google Plus and Linked in, no doubt I'll be changing these in the near future.