Why 35 days of reading Between the Lines? Well it’s been 35 days since the launch of the new LightSpeed 2.0 and it’s been the most amazing month of growth.
New business focus….
Focusing heavily on new business, we have enjoyed a flurry of enquiries. Our key objective for the month has been marketing, primarily channeling our voice through our website where we have received a fantastic response, but also in using parallel mediums like Facebook and benefiting from other social media initiatives such as the global Twitter and Flickr applications.
No more support….
LightSpeed has moved out of the IT Support arena and into a new era. We now offer a completely different service catalogue, and absolutely love the new and positive web realm that we have entered. However, as a result of running a support business for 5 years, we have a plethora of hardware lining our walls and floors. As loose computer entrails are not very becoming of a New Media Web 2.0 specialist company, we have been selling off all our old stock, again primarily using the internet as our sales medium.
Public talks….
I feel that I have been a major driving force behind the new business, giving two well-received talks at locally hosted public events. The first talk on “The End of Email” was at the Open Content Party, held on 15 September and hosted by Wikipedia co-founder, Jimmy Wales , and iCommons Executive Director, Heather Ford. Take a look at the video of the talk on Local Social Media Site, Zoopy. The second talk, held at the Geek Dinner on 27 September, covered the Channels of Communication and how these can effectively be used in the online world of today. This year we have seen the addition of South African channels being added to our arsenal, like Mail & Guardian’s Amatomu. I am pointing this out because I feel that the success of a number of South Africa Web Start-ups is a real achievement. Proudly South African.
Launch Competition….
Now what would a marketing strategy be without a competition? Not much. That’s why for the month of September we had entries pouring in for our Win-a-Website Competition which produced one lucky winner on Monday. Congratulations to Mr. Raoul R Swart of Douglas Road Primary School, who will now be able to aid his school with a whole new web presence!
Win-A-WickedWiki Competition….
Due to the competitions enormous response and positive effect, we are now running a Win-a-WickedWiki Competition for the month of October. The core prize here is a Wiki, replacing the free website, and still with the same great extras as before. The lucky winner of this competition will reap the benefits of a collaborative communication tool either for internal use or perhaps as an information portal for prospective clients.
On the homefront….
One month later, and still with a bit of home improvement to be done, our website is starting to take shape. It now boasts new functionality and extra charms. Keep watching this space, because we’re not quite done. Now you can even subscribe to our blog and feed our stream of new Social Media content into your inbox or RSS feed manager.
Dutch Interns….
During the last month we have had three new additions to the LightSpeed family. We now have three Dutch interns, Bram (Snapte) in the Web department, Rudy in the Accounts/Admin department, and finally, the most recent addition Christel who will be filling some Social Media Marketing shoes. I really enjoy the interns as they give a very interesting perspective to the work place.
Our Social Media Marketing Wiki goes live….
Bram has helped us launch a pet project of mine… It’s a Wiki, which is a fast and easy tool for creating web based content. This Social Media Marketing (SMM) Wiki is going to house the information I am developing for public speaking topics, lectures and workshops on SMM. I am doing a guest 45 minute lecture at UCT for an Honours Course in Internet Marketing next week. All the content that I am compiling is going to be submitted to portals like IOL, Bizcommunity and a few others that I am still in the process of confirming.
LightSpeed Partners….
I have been networking with various professionals in and around Cape Town for a long time. My goal has always been to collaborate with other companies. I have approached a number of other small companies and setup an alliance with them. The next step for our site is going to happen next week with the addition of our Partner Page. We have decided to achieve our goal of becoming experts in our niche focus areas. The partner page aims to shed some light on our strategic partners. We feel that these kinds of partnerships will strengthen our overall skill sets and, with no major overlaps in a vast array of services, we feel proud to be working alongside such a great span of small businesses. Each company was chosen because of their own unique charm and skill set. We have chosen two key partners to start with:
Inkfish is a graphic and web design studio based in Fish Hoek. Established by Neil and Suzan McCreadie, the company has been operating since June 2000, with each of the partners bringing in their own unique strengths and a combined 16 years of experience in the industry.
They offer a vast range of services, which include: logo development, business cards, stationery, brochures, posters, packaging, web design, web hosting, domain registration, email signatures, electronic brochures, cd’s, vehicle & shop signage, menus, banner ads, advertisements, calendars, billboards, stamps, cards & invitations, t-shirts, caps, and corporate gifts.
Traffic Brand’s collective expertise offer holistic Online Media Strategies that are tailor-made to the clients’ requirements and strategically aligned with your business goals. Traffic Brand’s Paid Search (Pay Per Click) department uses proprietary software to ensure the effectiveness of your online advertising campaigns and guarantee an excellent ROI. They use elements of PPC, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Online PR and Social Media to create Online Media Strategies that ensure your visibility on the Internet.
