Cardiff, Wales -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/02/2012 -- Social media sites are all the rage now days, anyone who's anyone is on some form of social media site, The past few years have seen the launch of Facebook and Twitter, both sites have taken the world by storm, for business owners Facebook is golden as they can advertise their company all over the world, here is some advice on how to integrate these tools into the marketing and recruiting efforts of your company.

It wasn't until 1997 that the Internet reached 50 million users in the United States. Facebook gained over 100 million users in the U.S. from January 2009 to January 2010, marking a 145 percent growth rate within one year, according to research by digital marketing agency iStrategy Labs. 100 million users in the US alone, that does not including the rest of the world. If you're a business owner that hasn't embraced social media networking as a major component of your success strategy, it's advised that you start. A source for A Vision Network said "The internet has flourished in more ways than anyone really expected, it's become part of our everyday lives and many people will admit they struggle without the use of the internet, since the launch of Facebook social media sites have been in constant competition with each other with the one trying to out do the other, for business owners the internet is without a doubt the best way to spread their company news as it's a personal touch from them" Lon Safko, social media expert and co-author of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, of the site's global reach said "When you've got 300 million people on Facebook, that's a huge business watering hole, The profile is like an index to your company."

While Facebook has become the most popular social media site, there are plenty of others for your company to explore. LinkedIn, for example, houses 55 million professionals seeking jobs or basic business or networking opportunities. MySpace which allows users to tinker with music and themes is targeted toward youth and teens. All of these sites have one primary thing in common: the profile. Why?

The user profile is generally what distinguishes social networking sites from other social media sites. It helps set the stage for building relationships with people who share the same interests, activities, or personal contacts, as opposed to primarily disseminating or digesting information feeds. This also means social networks enable companies to invite audiences to get to know its brand in a way that traditional forms of marketing or advertising can't. A Source for A Vision Network has said "The outcome of the profile is a big part of a social media site as its all about making that site relatable to you and others, if the profile site was for personal use you would fill it with your interests but for a company the social media profile could enhance how people few their business, Most small businesses are seldom heard off because the word did not reach the public. Facebook is relatable to everyone and with the press of a 'like' button your company name can be worldwide"

Here are some methods businesses should use to effectively leverage the burgeoning of these sites as a tool to grow their companies? The following pages will detail what to do – and what not to do – in order to maintain a viable presence in the realm of social networking.

Managing Director from A Vision Network has said "A smart business owner will always know what to do to improve their business and using social media sites is a step in the right direction as you can never go wrong. Myself and other business owners from all over the globe have already jumped to this opportunity with Social Media, and I urge the rest to follow."

http://www.inc.com/guides/using-social-networking-sites.html

http://www.prlog.org/11828941-vision-network-comment-on-plans-for-cardiff-university-business-school.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Vision-Network/167248013372986

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Cardiff, Wales -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/26/2012 -- Cardiff is set to welcome another landmark piece of architecture to its cityscape after proposals were approved yesterday for a stylish new university teaching centre. The new state-of-the-art postgraduate centre at Colum Drive, Cathays Park, will feature an elliptical Harvard-style lecture theatre as its centrepiece. The exterior finish includes a five-colour, vertically stacked terracotta rainscreen cladding, along with buff brick, curtain walling and powder-coated aluminium doors and windows. The Cardiff Business School development will be constructed using an environmentally beneficial twin skin system, with developers aiming to reach a BREEAM rating of "excellent' for sustainability. A source at local sales and marketing company A Vision Network said, "I'm really looking forward to seeing the centre opened. It will be a beautiful addition to city, as well as a fantastic resource for business students."

A Cardiff council report on the project said, "The concept for the design of the new Cardiff Business School was for a building of landmark quality, delivering flexible teaching space with modular office allocations that could be adapted to the changing needs and requirements of the university."

Plans for the new teaching facility were unanimously approved by councillors at the Cardiff council planning committee meeting on 7th March.

The structure will comprise of four parts: a square, two-storey teaching wing; a four-storey office and administration wing; an elliptical 250-seat lecture auditorium; and a central core/breakout area.

The first floor will house flexible teaching space, a separate 153-seat lecture auditorium, office space and a postgraduate common room. On the second floor, there will be a house plant space and another postgraduate common room, with roof access to an external patio and biodiversity roof. The four-storey block – the tallest part of the development, measuring 60ft (18.5m) – will also hold a further third floor of office facilities. "The auditorium element provides a dynamic feature wall comprised, primarily, of linear terracotta cladding of varying earth colours, creating a unique identity that distinguishes the auditorium from the rest of the building complex," said a council officer in the report to the planning committee.

"The building looks like it will be fantastic-looking," said our source at A Vision Network, "It will really add to the already beautiful university campus." The 5,200sq m development will include sustainable design elements, such as a solar thermal heating system, photovoltaics for renewable electricity, and rainwater harvesting. The structure will replace a 200-space car park covering about 1.4 acres, located between the Julian Hodge Building and the university's Humanities building. Cardiff council's planning officer worked closely with the university to develop the building's striking appearance, which uses a mixture of red brick, grey stone and terracotta tiling. Councillors were told a foot bridge would also be constructed across the adjacent railway line to help with pedestrian access.

"Having a great location like this for local people to study business is really important," said our source from A Vision Network, "It's paramount for our youth to be developing an interest in business. Hopefully we see some of the country's future great entrepreneurs studying here."

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2012/03/08/go-ahead-for-cardiff-university-state-of-the-art-postgraduate-centre-91466-30488418/

http://www.prlog.org/11813134-vision-network-supports-call-for-more-apprenticeships-in-wales.html

http://twitter.com/#!/AVisionNetwork

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Cardiff, Wales -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/23/2012 -- Mae Jemison has achieved more in her fifty-five years on Planet Earth than most people can hope to achieve in their entire lifetime. Not only does she hold the unique distinction of being the first African-American woman to venture into space, she is also a dancer, has appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and holds nine honorary doctorates in science, engineering and the humanities. Small wonder, then, that this former NASA astronaut has been selected to lead a foundation that is destined to take humanity to the stars.

The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA are sponsoring the project, known as the One-Hundred Year Starship – its mission: to create a foundation that will last for one hundred years to help gather the resources, research and funding required for effective interstellar travel.

"It might sound audacious," says the Managing Director of A Vision Network, a marketing firm which has been watching the project with interest, "but if we are to ever live among the stars we need to pull together to build for that future."

Which is exactly what the One-Hundred Year Starship project aims to achieve. The project will not be leaning on any single government to fund a mission into deep space, but rather will gather current technologies, and any new technology as it becomes available, while simultaneously exploiting scientific breakthroughs in order to further our understanding of space and increase the chances of the human race reaching other worlds.

Mae Jemison is clearly the perfect candidate to take the helm of the One-Hundred Year Starship. Since leaving NASA she has launched the Dorothy Jemison School of Excellence, which is partnered on the DARPA project with Icarus Interstellar (a non-profit organisation dedicated to interstellar travel), and the Foundation for Enterprise Development.

A Vision Network's MD is not surprised someone like Mae was picked to head the project; "Just look at Mrs Jemison's CV. She was born to work on something like this. It's in her blood."

Mae and her team submitted a proposal entitled 'An Inclusive Audacious Journey Transforms Life Here on Earth & Beyond', for which they were awarded a prize of $500,000, intended to get the project up and running.

According to the BBC News website, a spokesman from DARPA declined to comment on the prize fund, which at the time the story was published was yet to be publicly announced.

"The money doesn't sound like much," said A Vision Network's MD, "and to be honest, since NASA relaxed its efforts, space is a topic most people seem to have given up on. But the One-Hundred Year Starship Project is a clear way forward, and Mae Jemison may be the perfect leader to get a century of effort and innovation off to a flying start."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_Jemison
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16427876

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Cardiff, Wales -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/22/2012 -- It was supposed to be an homage to 'The City That Never Sleeps', but now it seems that Cardiff's big plans for a Big Apple makeover will have to be toned down for a more realistic, if not so exciting scheme. Cardiff's waterfront was to be lined with New York-style high rise apartment blocks and offices until plans were axed as the extent of damage done by the credit crunch became clear. Now a more modest £200m proposal will be built instead.

"It's a crying shame," said the managing director of Cardiff-based marketing firm A Vision Network. "But times are tough everywhere and we need to be a little realistic about our city's ambitions."

Developers Greenbank Partnerships intend to build up to six-hundred residential apartments on the waterfront peninsula, adjacent to the International Sports Village (ISV) on the shoreline of Cardiff Bay. According to Welsh website walesonline.co.uk; "The centrepiece of the £200m Cardiff Pointe scheme will be two landmark towers – standing eighteen and twenty-four storeys high. Each will 'cantilever' out over the water, with a single column emerging from the water."

"That sounds impressive," said A Vision Network's managing director. "That's what I call making the best of a bad situation."

This scheme is significantly toned down from the original plans for two-thousand flats in a thirty-three storey development costing upwards of £500m. Now the biggest draw, according to walesonline.co.uk, will be "a row of five-storey detached family homes overlooking the Bay".

Developers are hopeful these homes will attract the eye of the wealthy. In fact each of the ten five-bedroom houses being built next to the Yacht Club on Cardiff Bay is expected to have a £1,000,000 asking price. Director of Greenbank Partnerships, Jonathon Smith, hopes Cardiff Pointe will "recapture" those "high-earners" who choose to commute to Cardiff City from the nearby Vale of Glamorgan.

A number of three and four storey blocks comprising around 190 townhouses and apartments will also feature in the project, centred on landscaped parks. According to architects Scott Brownrigg, as quoted on walesonline.co.uk; "The development was inspired by European urban lifestyle," and it can be expected to boast "a new public plaza with bars, cafes and possibly a water taxi station."

A Vision Network's managing director is eager to see work begin. "We'll never know if the original plans for a New York-style waterfront would have worked, but if you ask me, what we'll get instead will be a sight to behold!"

A planning application is to be submitted within the next eight weeks, and if approved should lead to work beginning this summer.

Source: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2012/02/21/cardiff-s-new-york-skyline-replaced-with-luxury-waterfront-homes-as-pre-crunch-dreams-fall-to-earth-91466-30371058/

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Cardiff, Wales -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/22/2012 -- Over the past 12 months, staff and shoppers at St David's Dewi Sant in Cardiff have raised a staggering £14,287 for Marie Curie Cancer Care, the centre's Charity of the Year. Throughout the year, numerous fundraising events were held in the shopping centre, the highlight of which was the Great Daffodil Appeal, part of Marie Curie's nationwide scheme to get everyone wearing a daffodil in March in support of the charity's nurses. Managing Director of A Vision Network, a sales and marketing company based in Cardiff said, "For one Shopping Centre in Cardiff, raising over £14,000 is amazing, especially in 12 months."

St David's staff competed with other local businesses in a corporate fundraising day on St David's Day to see who could raise the most money for Marie Curie through donations for daffodil pin badges. In addition to fundraising, volunteers from St David's also supported the charity through volunteering at the Penarth Hospice, which provides inpatient day care, outpatient care and community nurse specialist intervention.

Volunteers helped out at the hospice's annual garden party and a team of those with green fingers even gave the hospice gardens a makeover, cutting the grass, pruning the trees and by creating a planting area by the entrance of the hospice. "Marie Curie is a wonderful Charity – the work they do, day in and day out to provide support to the patients, relatives and staff is incredible and I know that St Davids fundraising money will go a long way" said the Managing Director of A Vision Network.

Steven Madeley, St David's Centre Director, and Jason Strange, Retailer Liaison Manager, also raised an impressive £2,067 with a 100-mile sponsored bike ride from St Davids in West Wales back to the St David's centre in Cardiff. Steven Madeley, Centre Director of St David's Dewi Sant, said: "The partnership with Marie Curie has been a great way to raise awareness of the charity's fantastic work and get St David's staff involved with volunteering and fundraising - we're incredibly proud to have helped raise this amazing total. We'd particularly like to thank our shoppers for their generosity and enthusiastic support throughout the year." Managing Director of A Vision Network commented saying, "With St David's raising so much, I am very proud they are based in Cardiff, and prouder knowing that I shop there a lot too.

Reflecting upon St David's dedication to raise money for Marie Curie, it is something I can see in my company too, here at A Vision Network we pride ourselves in making sure on a daily basis we are delivering outstanding results for our clients."

Source: http://www.newswales.co.uk

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm