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 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.

I’ve been wanting to write something that is a bit off topic from the typical business talk of this site but on a subject that is of interest to me and will probably be to you as well.

One of my weekly activities is to go to my local library branch and see what movies, concerts, or TV shows are available to check out in the DVD format.  You never know what you are going to find but I will have to admit most of the offerings are either old, serious or depressing.  Yes, occasionally you will find a comedy or blockbuster film but for the most part I get the feeling they want to have things on hand that “teach us a lesson.” Yes, I know the library is not supposed to a great entertainment venue. It is supposed to be a storehouse of knowledge but many of the so called, “classics” don’t do it for me intellectually or inspire me.

Another thing that has me scratching my head is the odd assortment of choices between the different branches within my local library system.  I find it sort of odd that one branch will have nothing but Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes which yet another branch will have nothing but Star Trek: Voyager episodes on DVD.

Is their a rhyme or reason to this? Do they study the local demographics and some wise sage in a back room who determines which parts of town will have access to certain DVD’s?  I don’t know but for some reason the Berea Branch of the Greenville Library System has on Next Generation DVD’s while just a few miles to the north the Travelers Rest Branch has nothing but Star Trek: Voyager Episodes.  Why can’t the library system rotate their collections among the branches instead of making me drive to different places to find new things to watch?  Needless to say I have pretty much exhausted the offerings at the Berea Branch and I refuse to check out “serious films” especially in the winter months when I need an emotional pick up.

What are your library DVD experiences and thoughts? What do you wish the library stored more of? What do you wish the stored less of?