Geek odyssey as 'Dragon' Rasul launches online magazine

SCOTTISH "Dragon" and technology and property entrepreneur Shaf Rasul has invested in an online magazine aimed at the growing "geek community".

Rasul, who recently became an online dragon for the BBC in a spin-off from its Dragons' Den television series is putting £150,000 into website www.geeks.co.uk. It will contain news articles, features, artwork, pictures of "geek pin-ups" and reviews and the latest gadgets, phones, MP3s, computers and games consoles.

"It's pretty much 'geek gold'," Rasul said. "The objective has been to establish a magazine that allows everyday gamers and users of gadgets to interact with each other to create a fun debate." 

www.Geeks.co.uk will be managed and edited primarily by a team of women as part of the site's strategy of appealing to both sexes. Shaf said the writers are all geeks and most of them already have a following on Twitter and Facebook as part of the site's viral and social marketing strategy.

Rasul's investment in the site comes as Scottish businesses are being urged to wake up to the marketing potential of online networks such as Twitter and Facebook or risk losing out to competition.Polly Purvis, executive director of ScotlandIS, said: "Twitter is an interesting way of both raising your business profile and keeping abreast of snippets of information from key opinion formers." 

To get the most out of Twitter, Purvis said that businesses have to invest a fair amount of time and effort into creating a community and ensuring it is tied into other social networking tools, such as Linkedin.

Andrew Grant, managing director Nation 1, a digital consultancy headquartered in Glasgow, with a second office recently opened in London, is encouraging clients to wake up to the opportunities of Twitter.

He said he has been inundated with enquiries about how to make money from the site. On 27 August he will host an event on the potential of Twitter at the Glasgow Lighthouse for the Creative Entrepreneurs Club.

He explained that a number of larger companies are already using Twitter as part of their marketing strategy. For example, price comparison site Comparethemarket.com has created the Twitter character Aleksandr and British Airways is using Twitter to sell empty seats.

He said: "Twitter can be used as part of a company's research before it launches a product. Companies not using it might miss the boat."