Yes last week we had a lot of meetings.
We had Martin from World Sight Media in, Stephen from the Business & Enterprise Group in, Gary from Middlesbrough College in and Phil from our accountants M. Wasley Chapman in and when you chuck in a networking meeting all Wednesday morning and a day of hospital appointments for my failing eyesight on Thursday (it seems my Mum was right all those years ago!) then there wasn't much time for me to do any "work". It's increasingly the case now as we grow that I do more "business stuff" and less "geeky stuff". Enjoy it as well but still like to get my hands dirty with coding and databases. Luckily Peter and Steve do a grand job so all is working out well.
So what went on work-wise? A few updates on our own sites, some additional news items and pages for Seaton Spring who supply water coolers across the North East, following up some sales leads and a lot of work on new artwork for when we move - which is supposed to be 20th Feb but we have a few issues regarding the sample contract provided, so it may be a bit later. We're also continuing to tweak the Ouch, Personal Injury Solicitors mobile site and this will be an ongoing process.
Peter is enrolled in his college course with Middlesbrough College as a Social Digital Apprentice and already getting involved with our social media campaigns including blogging, Twitter and more. Peter will be playing a big part in Cleveland Hour, an hour each week on Twitter that we have set up to help local businesses connect with each other. The first Cleveland Hour is from 10:00-11:00 on Friday 25th Jan, use the hashtag #ClevelandHour and follow @ClevelandHour for more detaails.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Welcome to Peter, E-marketing Assistant
Monday saw Peter Calvert join us as a new E-marketing Assistant on a Social Digital Apprenticeship. A big part of the week was showing Peter how we would like things done which took up a fair bit of my time. Unfortunately Peter completed his first week's planned work by Wednesday, and did it very well, so I had to spend more time with him showing him some other stuff. It looks like Peter is a great addition to the team and clients will be getting some regular contact with Peter such as SEO reports, newsletters, offers and the like.
Other than a bit of networking, where Peter got a sales lead for a partner company we work with, and a few meetings it was mainly a week of SEO work with reports for clients, tweaking of content and updating content for clients to improve the performance of their websites.
There were a couple of tweaks to the OUCH! mobile site for our clients, who are personal injury claims lawyers, and we always expect our service to include minor tweaks to sites we have made in the first couple of months after deployment. We never expect a site to be perfect upon deployment (in fact we never think any website is perfect as there's always something you could add as technology improves) and feedback from our clients and their clients often leads to a couple of minor improvements in the first couple of months. This is a service that we do not charge extra for even when the project has been signed off and paid for (minor changes obviously, not complete redesigns or new major features!).
Look out for the OUCH! animation coming soon.
Well that's it - after a day of several beers and a rather poor (but cheap) Boro match with friends yesterday there's work to catch up on plus a Heineken Cup rugby match to watch. But before I go ...
... a quick plug for a local free publication, print and digital, coming soon from some fellow Redcar & Cleveland creatives (www.facebook.com/CreativeRedcar) - look out for it in Feb.
Other than a bit of networking, where Peter got a sales lead for a partner company we work with, and a few meetings it was mainly a week of SEO work with reports for clients, tweaking of content and updating content for clients to improve the performance of their websites.
There were a couple of tweaks to the OUCH! mobile site for our clients, who are personal injury claims lawyers, and we always expect our service to include minor tweaks to sites we have made in the first couple of months after deployment. We never expect a site to be perfect upon deployment (in fact we never think any website is perfect as there's always something you could add as technology improves) and feedback from our clients and their clients often leads to a couple of minor improvements in the first couple of months. This is a service that we do not charge extra for even when the project has been signed off and paid for (minor changes obviously, not complete redesigns or new major features!).
Look out for the OUCH! animation coming soon.
Well that's it - after a day of several beers and a rather poor (but cheap) Boro match with friends yesterday there's work to catch up on plus a Heineken Cup rugby match to watch. But before I go ...
... a quick plug for a local free publication, print and digital, coming soon from some fellow Redcar & Cleveland creatives (www.facebook.com/CreativeRedcar) - look out for it in Feb.
Sunday, 6 January 2013
New Year, New Staff, New Clients
The office reopened on Wed 2nd Jan with 2 new bits of work plus 2 new enquiries to quote for and we got our 1st new enquiry of the year on New Year's Day!
Thursday saw Peter, our new E-marketing Assistant, pop in to sign contracts. Peter starts on Monday 7th Jan with the primary role of developing our e-marketing strategies plus some of our print design and I know he will be huge asset and make a big difference to the company. Also he's not an old fart like me and Steve (feel free to reply Steve) so will bring a much younger and brighter perspective to all we do. His services will also be available to clients, so we are expanding our e-marketing and print design services. Peter is starting via a Social Digital Apprenticeship in conjunction with Middlesbrough College (http://www.mbro.ac.uk) and the Digital Youth Academy (http://www.digitalyouthacademy.com/)
We spent part of the week tweaking the Call Ouch! mobile website. So in time honoured fashion ...
... had an accident at work? Call Ouch!
We also did a bit of template and css work for one of our neighbours at the Wilton Centre. We didn't make their site and it's a bit hacked together in places and it can be a bit chewy finding the relevant bits of code to edit but Google Chrome is a godsend for finding exact lines of code in both php and css files.
The shortened week allied to a couple of jobs to quote for means today (Sunday) has become a workday for quote, and blog, writing. Still I'm sure I'll find time to watch a bit of Premiership rugby plus a bit of American football with it being Redskins (my 2nd team) v Seahawks (Steve's team) in the NFC wild card match.
Still, a great and relaxed day yesterday. A short walk out in the morning with my lovely wife. A trip to the pub and then off to watch Boro beat the mighty Hastings Utd (who did themselves proud) in the FA Cup with Matt - a rare treat these days as he normally goes to the game with interesting people. I have to say that the beer, Mydilsburgh IPA, we drank in The Star brewed by Middlesbrough's very own brewery, Truefitt (http://www.truefittbrewing.co.uk/), was truly fantastic - give their beers a try whenever you get the chance (and no they aren't clients of ours but I do like to support great local businesses, especially if they produce great real ale).
Thursday saw Peter, our new E-marketing Assistant, pop in to sign contracts. Peter starts on Monday 7th Jan with the primary role of developing our e-marketing strategies plus some of our print design and I know he will be huge asset and make a big difference to the company. Also he's not an old fart like me and Steve (feel free to reply Steve) so will bring a much younger and brighter perspective to all we do. His services will also be available to clients, so we are expanding our e-marketing and print design services. Peter is starting via a Social Digital Apprenticeship in conjunction with Middlesbrough College (http://www.mbro.ac.uk) and the Digital Youth Academy (http://www.digitalyouthacademy.com/)
We spent part of the week tweaking the Call Ouch! mobile website. So in time honoured fashion ...
... had an accident at work? Call Ouch!
We also did a bit of template and css work for one of our neighbours at the Wilton Centre. We didn't make their site and it's a bit hacked together in places and it can be a bit chewy finding the relevant bits of code to edit but Google Chrome is a godsend for finding exact lines of code in both php and css files.
The shortened week allied to a couple of jobs to quote for means today (Sunday) has become a workday for quote, and blog, writing. Still I'm sure I'll find time to watch a bit of Premiership rugby plus a bit of American football with it being Redskins (my 2nd team) v Seahawks (Steve's team) in the NFC wild card match.
Still, a great and relaxed day yesterday. A short walk out in the morning with my lovely wife. A trip to the pub and then off to watch Boro beat the mighty Hastings Utd (who did themselves proud) in the FA Cup with Matt - a rare treat these days as he normally goes to the game with interesting people. I have to say that the beer, Mydilsburgh IPA, we drank in The Star brewed by Middlesbrough's very own brewery, Truefitt (http://www.truefittbrewing.co.uk/), was truly fantastic - give their beers a try whenever you get the chance (and no they aren't clients of ours but I do like to support great local businesses, especially if they produce great real ale).
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Business & Technology Predictions for 2013
I don't do New Year's resolutions as I've generally broken them by 2nd January. However, it is always interesting to take a look into the Crystal Meth Ball and see what I believe is going to happen in the worlds of technology and business (and then I'll look back in a year and see what rubbish I wrote).
Trust
Money will remain tight for many consumers and businesses but that doesn't mean there is no money to spend. Those with purchasing power will be careful in spending their cash and will look to spend it with companies who have a reputation of quality and customer service.
Localism
More small companies will try to source suppliers in their own region as they see that building relationships with those companies generates leads for each other and helps boost the local economy.
Getting Finance
It will be difficult for business to gain finance for new ideas and businesses will need to be creative and in many cases eschew traditional financing models and look for other sources such as crowd funding.
The Mobile Web
The growth in the use of mobile devices is huge and continuing. There will be a move to app-like mobile websites that will work on a range of devices rather than vendor-specific apps. By the end of 2103 there will have been an increase in the number of websites designed specifically for mobile devices with alternative designs for bigger screens as an extra, rather than designing for PC/laptop with a mobile design as an extra.
As more people get 4G, greater use of multimedia content for mobile web becomes possible and animators and videographers will see their output much more widely used on mobile websites.
Mobile Payments
I expect the growth of mobile payment options via smartphones using near field communication to continue but not to overtake other payment methods. I also expect there to be a few security setbacks in the year as hackers move into this growing field.
Mobile Malware
As mobile use for a wide range of services that are not from the traditional telephony package grows we will see mobile viruses and other malware increase. A trend that could have a negative impact on the mobile payments market.
E-commerce Growth
Buying on-line continues to grow and not just for the big players like Amazon. Sales in the UK over the Xmas period had a much bigger growth on-line than in the high street and as we all lead busy lives this trend will continue. The result will be more companies needing to sell on-line to compete and a growth in website integration with other, more general, on-line marketplaces.
Smartphone Wars
Not a prediction of who will become dominant but a continuation of the battle for supremacy in this market place. I do predict that Apple's market share will fall a little and RIM/Blackberry will continue with its decline. The launch of flexible screen phones will see these become more common and become standard when the price drops.
Touch-screen Interfaces
Touch-screens will become more prevalent on laptops and PCs with the growth in the number of people using Windows 8 as the operating system.
Social Media
The use of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for business will continue as will careful use of other social media such as Pinterest. Google+ will grow in the UK and become a major player in the social media market. Businesses who do not get involved in this "trivial fad" (as a business owner friend of mine calls it) will get left even further behind their competition. Businesses will become more creative and entertaining in their use of social media and we'll see more animation and video used.
3-D Printing
The price is dropping and making it viable for a small business or enthusiastic amateur to purchase a machine. Xmas next year will be full of 3-D printed decorations and nick-nacks as a result.
Trust
Money will remain tight for many consumers and businesses but that doesn't mean there is no money to spend. Those with purchasing power will be careful in spending their cash and will look to spend it with companies who have a reputation of quality and customer service.
Localism
More small companies will try to source suppliers in their own region as they see that building relationships with those companies generates leads for each other and helps boost the local economy.
Getting Finance
It will be difficult for business to gain finance for new ideas and businesses will need to be creative and in many cases eschew traditional financing models and look for other sources such as crowd funding.
The Mobile Web
The growth in the use of mobile devices is huge and continuing. There will be a move to app-like mobile websites that will work on a range of devices rather than vendor-specific apps. By the end of 2103 there will have been an increase in the number of websites designed specifically for mobile devices with alternative designs for bigger screens as an extra, rather than designing for PC/laptop with a mobile design as an extra.
As more people get 4G, greater use of multimedia content for mobile web becomes possible and animators and videographers will see their output much more widely used on mobile websites.
Mobile Payments
I expect the growth of mobile payment options via smartphones using near field communication to continue but not to overtake other payment methods. I also expect there to be a few security setbacks in the year as hackers move into this growing field.
Mobile Malware
As mobile use for a wide range of services that are not from the traditional telephony package grows we will see mobile viruses and other malware increase. A trend that could have a negative impact on the mobile payments market.
E-commerce Growth
Buying on-line continues to grow and not just for the big players like Amazon. Sales in the UK over the Xmas period had a much bigger growth on-line than in the high street and as we all lead busy lives this trend will continue. The result will be more companies needing to sell on-line to compete and a growth in website integration with other, more general, on-line marketplaces.
Smartphone Wars
Not a prediction of who will become dominant but a continuation of the battle for supremacy in this market place. I do predict that Apple's market share will fall a little and RIM/Blackberry will continue with its decline. The launch of flexible screen phones will see these become more common and become standard when the price drops.
Touch-screen Interfaces
Touch-screens will become more prevalent on laptops and PCs with the growth in the number of people using Windows 8 as the operating system.
Social Media
The use of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for business will continue as will careful use of other social media such as Pinterest. Google+ will grow in the UK and become a major player in the social media market. Businesses who do not get involved in this "trivial fad" (as a business owner friend of mine calls it) will get left even further behind their competition. Businesses will become more creative and entertaining in their use of social media and we'll see more animation and video used.
3-D Printing
The price is dropping and making it viable for a small business or enthusiastic amateur to purchase a machine. Xmas next year will be full of 3-D printed decorations and nick-nacks as a result.
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