While I put the finishing touches on my next article in my Aspects of Design Series I wanted to pass along a great resource for those wanting to start or impove on a business blog, especially customers we have have given the tools on your web site to do so.

Michael Martine of Remarkablogger is giving away a free e-Book called, How to start a business blog. All you have to do to receive this e-book is to sign up for his e-mail list or better yet his RSS feed. Even if you are not one of our customers I would love to see more business blogs, especially in the Upstate of South Carolina or Greenville,SC area.

Earlier today I mentioned we run our business in Greenville, SC. One of the services we offer is web design and development but we are one of many companies of various sizes who offer this service in our market. You will find web design services being performed by small one person businesses to large advertising and marketing agencies with many locations and employees. Just as you will find many different sized companies offering this service you will also discover that they are many different niches of web design.

When the technology of web design first came about you did not see many companies or individual designers/developers focusing on particular niches but the industry has been maturing and it’s better for everyone when web designers specializes in certain niches if possible. Not only do they not have to try to be an expert at “everything” put it also creates a friendlier business climate where companies who provide the same “general service” can partner and refer clients to respected designers and developers who specialize in particular niches. If at all possible I’d rather be friends and “talk shop” with fellow designers and developers out there that feel any hostility.

What are some of the web design niches out there? Some companies focus on e-commerce sites, others on blogging, some companies are experts with Adobe Flash which is great for sites that need to showcase animations, photos or product demonstrations. Some companies will specialize in the programming languages the run the databases and displaying for the pages. Some companies will only work with a select demographic of clients or design for a particular industry or group. Also a new niche developing and one we are exploring is developing optimized web sites for small portable devices like the iPhone, Palm Devices and other Internet enabled devices. They are many more niches but who is work on the ones that match you and your business?

On of the greatest temptations of any company is to get excited and cater to anyone will to pay for your services but in reality it’s better for both the client and developer to be a good match for each other. What are the niches SpinningSilk Multimedia focuses on? We believe our all our clients should access to their web sites to make updates and even our current smaller projects are using a basic content management system that helps clients add content, their customers subscribe to updates. We are big advocates of open source software and thus make use of Linux servers, programming languages like php, Ruby, Python, MySQL. As far as content we have heavily specialized in our SEO optimized writing services and well as quality photography that showcase you, your business and product line. Finally we have had experience with the following industries home improvement, Christian ministries (In particular churches within our own denomination - Associate Reformed Presbyterians) - So yes, we would love to do more work with ARP Churches, agencies and presbyteries. Finally we have done work with independent consultants and coaches who work to help individuals and companies succeed in their business.

At the close of the year you will find all kind of web site and blog tell you about the “best of” for the year closing. One of the sites I frequently visit and subscribe to is Problogger.net . One a recent post the author posed the question, What was your most popular post in 2007? I left a response myself that my most popular post (In terms of comments and visits) was one called, The Power of real conversation in marketing your business. Interestingly enough I read what some others stated as their most popular post and they seem to have a fairly similar theme to my most popular post. One was called, Top Bloggers Reveal How To Build Traffic Offline Without Spending A Dime and the other one I felt needed a mention was Top 10 Ways to Use Facebook to Promote Your Business for Free.

What free resources are you taking advantage of to promote your business or organization? SpinningSilk Multimedia has a Facebook group of which you can be a fan as well as a Twitter account we just set up. Both are not that active but I have been experimenting longer with my own personal profile at Facebook as well as my personal account on Twitter as well as linkedin.

Also don’t forget to put links to your web site, e-mail address and select social networking sites in the signature of your e-mail as well as online forums you may participate in. Don’t forget to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed and encourage your blog readers to do the same. Here’s to a more connected 2008!

As you can probably tell I am making more blog posts in one day that I have in quite a while. I’ll probably be very busy the next several days with holiday activities but as the year winds down I wanted to give a retrospective of what has been going on with SpinningSilk Multimedia over the last year. The title of this post refers to three things that we focused on in 2007 and feel sets us apart from other companies like ours in the Greenville and Upstate South Carolina market. We are known mainly for our web design, web development and small print jobs like business cards and brochures. Essentially marketing and communication services for small businesses and organizations.

We however had opportunities the the realm of photography, using the technology of RSS within our web work and 2007 was the year we became involved is networking with other businesses and made great connections online.

Photography - is certainly nothing new. Of all the “high tech” forms of communication it is one of the oldest going back over a 100 years. What have we done with photography that was unique or were great opportunities? For starters we help our web and print customers develop compelling content. We develop a lot of e-commerce sites and with that we have provided our photography services for products our customers wish to showcase. We have also developed a relationship with a media company from Atlanta, GA auditing billboards for major advertisers. We also developed a great relationship with a local magazine by photographing the individuals profiled each month.

Feeds - What are feeds? By feeds I mean the technology of RSS feeds, also known as news feeds. These special lines are what have made blogs, podcasts and innovative social networks like Twitter and Facebook popular. Not only have we been in the process of optimizing our clients web site to include the RSS option for their site visitors but we have also given presentations to local business networks explaining what a useful tool RSS is for the business person.

Friends - 2007 is also the year we became really active in networking. Yes we were involved with business and special interest groups in the past but 2007 was the year we made it a top priority. Heather and I have both taken leadership positions in a local networking group, Professional Network Connections as well as becoming very active in the Upstate Entrepreneur’s Forum, The Greenville Mac User’s Group as well as other groups and meetings associated with the Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson Technology Council.

Our prime commitment is still the use of multi forms of cost effective media so our customers can get their message out and tell their story and in turn sell their product or service. The above are aspects and tools we use in web, print and portable media and we hope to carve our special niche in our market by providing expert services our customers are seeking.

One of the greatest challenges SpinningSilk Multimedia faces as a company is being innovative in a large field of competitors in our local market, Greenville, SC and the surrounding upstate. You will find a lot of companies do the same kind of work we do from very large advertising/marketing agencies to independent freelancers. On the surface the average consumer may view web design, web development and portable media as being “innovative.” Because technology is the basis for a lot of what we do to get our clients’ message out to their target audience it often gives the false impression that those things in and of themselves are innovative.

Innovation is so important to me and our company that I’ve given myself the “fun title” of Captain Innovation on my name tag but I’m concerned that the term innovation is becoming nothing more than a cool buzzword that people like to throw around just to gain sales or funding. It’s easy for me to tell people in conversation that we are an innovative company because we constantly keep up with new technologies. Yes, it’s very important to keep up with new technologies in order to find effective tools and be aware of risks but “keeping up” is NOT innovation. Keeping up for all practical purposes is following the conversation but innovation is having the insight and vision to step in and lead the conversation and make it go somewhere.

How are we going to lead in the year ahead? First of all our goal is not to step away from what we are doing and invent something new just to stand out and “be innovative.” Our goal is to look at what we do, find opportunities for improvement in niches within those services and create value for our customers. Yes, we may create a new process, piece of software, etc. I currently see big challenges and opportunities in teaching and making RSS more user friendly, helping clients create their own compelling content from articles to photography to audio and video and finally helping clients “find the time” to create compelling content amidst their daily work and area of expertise.