In case you haven’t noticed I changed the order of the articles in this marketing series. I moved “market research” to later in the series and today I’m going to discuss one of those very general terms that is often misunderstood yet a company of any size needs to come to a firm grasp of the principle, Public Relations.

It’s interesting that after getting sidetracked by other jobs or interests I am coming back to the exact group of disciplines I studied in my college major, Mass Communication. I was a Mass Communication major at Winthrop College (now a University) in Rock Hill,SC. My areas of study within that major were journalism, advertising, communication law and public relations. I wish they would have had “new media” studies back then but that was not a part of the “mass culture” at the time.

Sadly, I can’t remember a lot of the details of my public relations class but the principles have stuck with me and it’s exciting that I am using those skills in my day to day work and helping others achieve business success.

What are you doing to manage your companies or organizations success through responsible public relations? Do you have a consistent brand? Are you communicating to your potential are current clients through blogs, print and e-mail newsletters? Do you offer yourself as an educational speaker on subjects related to your business?

For the record I hate the term “spin” when it involves leaving out negatives or “padding” the truth. That is not responsible or even “ethical” public relations. However it is important to craft words, images, etc. in such a way that people can clearly see the good services and products you provide and submit them to the right channels. “SpinningSilk” is all about turning the raw product into a thing of beauty and strength rather than trying to spin around a coin to show one side of it.

I wanted to point all my readers to an interview of Gil Gerretson of Biztrek.  I mentioned Gil and his company briefly in another post I made this morning. Gil is a marketing mentor who has years of marketing experience and teaching.  The interview was done by a Greenville,SC business newspaper called GSA Business.  The interview can be found under March 17th on their podcast page  of the GSA Business web site or you can click here for a direct link to the file.

A good part of the interview is about Gil’s company and his vision to take it nationwide. Later in the interview he mentions quite a few things about the need for web site to be dynamic and provide ways to interact with the reader. Gil also mentioned the value of social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook and linkedin.

Does your business have a marketing plan? Planning is programming or rather mapping out the steps needed in the program.  In addition to computer programs you often hear special events or a method of doing something called “a program.” The marketing aspect of a business is where a lot of businesses fail and the reason is they don’t have a plan that is suited to their business.  of course the same can be said about any aspect of business but a business succeeds by making sales and thus generating income and that can’t be done without getting the word out to those who will buy a product or service.

A large business may have the resources to dedicate to a marketing department or even a bigger budget to try out different marketing methods but they also have a marketing plan because more than likely that wouldn’t have gotten to be a “larger business”  It’s crucial that a small business develop one early on to save a lot of heartache and/or lost money because of trying things out in hopes of getting a return.

In a previous article I mentioned how apparently simple projects like a basic web site or logo can take a long time and become complicated if proper planning is not taken into consideration. I would rather work with a client who has a maketing plan instead of reacting to the latest fads or what their competition is doing.  While a new technology or method the competition is using may work their is not guarantee it will be the best course of action for your business. An article at
entrepreneur.com  about marketing plans compared a business venture without a plan to a sailing vessel without a course charted.

In the series ahead I will talk about various forms of marketing. Some of them may be appropriate to your business situation but all are worth learning. SpinningSilk Multimedia is here to help you turn a marketing plan into a reality through various forms of media with compelling content that engages customers and generates sales.  Want to learn more about marketing plans?  A couple of good online resources are the Marketing Plan entry at Wikipedia.com and the How Marketing Plans Work article at Howstuffworks.com.  You also may want to invest your time and resources with a marketing mentor.  A fellow business person and marketing expert in Greenville, SC is Gil Gerretsen who runs Biztrek. A company that trains small business super stars.  I attended one of his 12 Triggers seminars yesterday and the advice and education was wonderful. I advise any small business owner to look into opportunities to connect, network and buy into the services of an expert in the field of marketing.

If we are meeting you as a potential client for the first time we can’t stress enough the value of spending time at the beginning of the process to discuss your goals, why you want to use our services and products and  how that fits in with your overall marketing plan.

Yesterday I followed the announcement of the iPhone SDK release and we have made the decision to focus on developing for this product as our niche in the mobile market.  Last year we purchased an iPhone so we could begin exploring future uses in our business.  We feel this is where the future is headed in terms of developing web and stand-alone applications that people can access 24/7 and at any location in a rich and meaningful way.
We have a lot of innovative projects and ideas that are perfect for this device. Of course we will be developing podcasts for clients that you can listen or view on the iPhone, iTouch or other iPods. This is what we call portable media. We also want to create programs that will enable clients and customers to create compelling content and organize it in innovative ways.  We plan on developing applications for business, productivity, photography, etc. Expect to see more announcements soon.

We feel this will be an excellent way to enhance our web design and development options. We want to give our clients the tools and ability for their customers to access their information from anywhere, at anytime.  The personal computer definitely has it’s place but the ultimate goal is to give people the freedom to access information and conduct commerece where needed.  We could work at developing for other mobile platforms but we feel it’s more important to hone in our a particular niche in much the same way we are working with a specific content management program for our web site projects.

It’s our desire to be known as one of the premire iPhone/iTouch developers in the Greenville,SC as well as Upstate,SC Market.

This morning I will be in a 2 hour planning session (between 9 and 11am) with my fellow organizers and leaders of the Upstate Entrepreneur’s Forum. We will be meeting at Port City Java near Fluor Field in the West end of Downtown Greenville.  We will be setting our calendar for the next year and lining up speakers.  What topics or special speakers would you like to see at a UEF meeting? Are you an entrepreneur or thinking about taking the plunge? What’s holding you back or frustrating you? How can we help you turn your visions into profitable realities? Feel free to leave a comment as I will be checking my e-mail and posts to this blog this morning.