As time progresses we will look at what we do to make our business and how we market ourselves better based on customer demand and feedback as well as trends in the marketplace. We have changed some broad categories into more focused niches. We are also making the fact that we are about providing marketing services for our clients and are committed to consistent branding more obvious. We used the word, “share” to describe the final part of our 4-step work flow and now we have replaced it with the word, market or marketing. Our new motto of “Harmonious New Media” also reflects this.

We are making our photography service more prominent and instead of covering the broad category of “portable media” with are going to focus on Podcasting as a service. We will continue to explore other areas for future products and services but those will be feature and discussed in a “labs” section to be announced at a later date. You will probably see those innovative explorations at our portal site, SpinningSilk.com . One new service we are offering is an enterprise level/server based e-mail service via MXLogic. You can find what we are offering at our SpinningSilk.com Marketplace.

April 21, 2008 is Creativity and Innovation Day. Well at least according to the web site linked it is in Canada. It’s based on Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday (April 15) and culminates on Creativity & Innovation Day, April 21st. I just found out about it myself.  You’re probably reading this on Monday morning and for most people Monday is maybe a day we don’t look forward to or at least it’s a busy day in which creativity and innovation may take a back seat.

Before you get overwhelmed with the challenges of the day or start to feel down at the thought of a dreaded task, take a few moments and ask yourself, “Can I approach today with some innovative thinking? Can I take advantage of a problem or process and turn it into an innovative idea?”

I couple of books I acquired last year at a creativity seminar have help me approach challenges in my business and home life in creative ways.  Six Thinking Hats and Thinkertoys are great for helping me think different.  Another fun book that can help you think in different ways in order to solve problems is A Whack on the Side of the Head. I encourage you to check them out sometime. If not as a purchase at least check with your local library.

As I look ahead at this day and the challenges I will be facing I am going to ask myself the following questions in hopes of getting the most out of situations even though they may look interruptive at first;

• How can I take the greatest advantage of the time I will be spending in the car today?
• Can I eat differently? Focusing on what will help me think better instead of “coping with stress?”
• Can I get a message out about the products or services I provide in unique or different way?
• Can I better automate a task that is repetitive in my life?
• What one think can I do today that will make today more remarkable than this time last week?
• Can I create a process to stop myself for putting off a back burner task and in turn help me go the extra mile and exceed expectations?

I hope this reminder catches you at a good time?  What are you thinking about doing today in order to be more creative an innovative?

If you’ve been on the Internet or involved in any kind of business development I’m sure you have heard the term, Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short. This is nothing new. Ever since search engines or directories have been on the Internet companies have wanted to be at the top of the listing.

I hate to use the term “early days” but the previous mindset regarding preparing a web site to be easily found by a search engine involved some back-end technical steps which at one time made sense when search engines and portals had more of a directory approach.  The initial approach involved adding what is known as “meta tags” in the code of the web site and while some of these are still important to a degree modern search engine optimization is focused and hopefully will always be focused on the actual content in terms of text, images and other non design elements.

In terms of marketing this is actually a huge advantage in terms of competition, making updates known quicker and standing a better change at being found. Provided a web site has compelling content and is updated frequently.

What are some ways to to optimize, design and develop a web site so one can make frequent updates and provide compelling content? Here a few things to consider;

• Have a web site designed around a content management system - The makes it easier and faster for the non-designer, i.e. owner or employee of a company to update a web site without asking the web designer to make those updates.
• Incorporate a blog feature on your web site - The search engines love frequent content and writing on the topic related to your business on a frequent basis increases your search engine ratings
• Register your domain name for more than one year. The more years the better as search engines like Google rate domains with a longer registration period higher as it makes them look less, “fly by night.”
• Include words in your title tag you think people will use to search for a business like yours
• When writing, write naturally. Be sincere and don’t try to trick the system by stuffing keywords in the document.

These are just a few tips but they are ones they have helped us tremendously in the past few years to the point we rank on the first or second page of important search terms, many of which we have a lot competition.

Some SEO resources you may want to look at include;

• The Search Engine Academy of South Carolina
• The Wikipedia SEO entry
• Google’s page about working with SEO companies

Again these are just a few resources. We are constantly looking at ways to optimize web site for our clients and also our own business so we can not only get more customers but also practice what we preach and become more experienced to help others. If you are struggling with getting good search results for your web site contact us and find out what tools and resources we have that can help you be more successful. Of no one can guarantee you will be number one, that’s impossible and always changes but we can help you get achieve greater visibility amongst all the other choices out there. What are your SEO Success stories or concerns?

One of the great advantages of personal computers is the ability to store large amounts of information. One of the greatest disadvantages of personal computers is the ability to store large amounts of information. This morning I was at the hospitial with my wife and her family as my father-in-law underwent major surgery. I started organizing a few files on my laptop and soon discovered I had filed away all kinds of lists, eBooks, images and instruction manuals that I forgotten about.

It almost reminds me of household issues when we will buy things for the kitchen or home improvement tasks only to come home and discover you already had those items.

Why do we however wait till “dead times” to do organization? I’m tempted to say it’s not exciting but the funny thing is once I get started on organizing things from computer files to stuff around the house I have a hard time stopping. In the process I suddenly think of better ways to organize things.

It’s all to easy to put things off. Before I go to bed at night I could care less about putting clothes up in the closet or in the wash pile. I’ll just throw them on the chair beside my bed. I do the exact same thing with my computer files by throwing them into a catch-all folder or on the desktop. Is their really a difference between the “dump folders” and folders that are specific for the items is question? Yes, it may be a little easier to find some thing or the place may look cleaner but as Larry the Cable Guy and David Allen ask, “Are you getting it done?”

I don’t want to convert a “to-do” folder into another catch-all location where the intention of getting something done is created but the work is still put off.

How do you best convert your organizational project into action? If I create a to-do list from everything I organize I will become so overwhelmed that to be honest I’ll just sweep everything under the rug and give up except for the most critical time sensitive project.

Perhaps the key to organization is to recognize that taking action is one of the first steps in organizing. Just as you use three big boxes to clean out a garage or room in a house the same strategy could be used when it comes to computer files. An action folder, a maybe folder and a throw away or “pass along” folder.”

The final step should be the archiving, a step many of us do at the beginning because it looks and feels nice but there is no sense in organizing unless some action is going to be taken.

What do you use to aid in your organizational and action work flow?

One of the most productive aspects of marketing is developing and maintaining excellent customer relationships. It can be really easy to let strong ties to current customers slip as we go about our daily business of working on current projects and the search for new customers. However the relationships you have will your current client base can achieve greater results at a lower cost.

I’m not just saying this as a part of my own business. I know many of my readers are small business people and I’m also a customer of others who may read this blog as well.

We have made a point to actively network and attend meetings where we are in constant contact with clients and fellow business people. Not only does this give us the opportunity to meet new people but we are there to ask questions and provide a bit of in-person service to existing relationships.

In a previous post I brought up the need to remind people we know about new services or directions of the company.  I recently had a conversation with an old friend who knew we did web design work but he didn’t think to ask us about designing a logo or some photography work which we also offer.

Is customer relationship management part of your marketing plan? They are tools you may already have available like Microsoft Outlook/Exchange that has build in address books an calendar features. Macs have an intergration between the mail, Calendar and Address book programs.  More dedicate software solutions include ACT! on Windows and Daylite on the Mac.  Larger corporate environments may use other solutions as well depending on the scale of your sales and client database and the integration with other departments, etc. We use an online service called, Highrise which allows us to have better communication with customers, leads, vendors, etc. What tools have you found most helpful in increasing sales to existing clients and informing them of new or changed services?