Our First Digital Newsletter- June 2009
It's already the hottest Summer for the last twenty years, and according to The Met Office, it's going to be a lot warmer over the next few weeks. Here, at Vizcom, several major changes have been happening. As well as all of the windows and doors being propped open in a feeble attempt to cool the place down, and several bottles of water being ordered in daily, we've (I use the plural there as there's now more than one of us) been working even harder testing out our products and services before we offer them to you. See? We're nice like that. 
The newest kid on the social networking block is at first, a little confusing. If you're a regular subscriber to Facebook (and let's face it, who isn't?), Twitter is simply a very scaled down version; instead of photos, videos, applications and information- you exist on a minimal profile, updating a status of just 140 characters. Your status update can be read by people who are 'following' you, and you can read theirs too if you're following them back. You may be thinking- Well that's all very nice, but I'm supposed to be doing some work in my office- not sat about stalking celebrities online! Which is fair enough. So we'll cut it right down to basics. Celebrities have made Twitter take off, but bear in mind that it was invented for use on mobile phones, so it's accessibility is a big advantage.
Also, news of various kinds, from hard hitting headlines, technology updates and internet breakthroughs are often broken first on Twitter. In terms of networking, it's an excellent and informal way to stay in contact with your potential and existing clients and keep them informed of your services, products and promotions with minimal effort.
Twitter To Promote Your Business
So if you want to give Twitter a go to raise the online profile of your business, but don't know where to start, then panic not - Vizcom Design has already done all of the hard work for you through our own trial and error experiments. Firstly, you need to go to Twitter.com and register. The account is free, and we advise that you prepare a good profile picture and have a regularly used mobile phone to hand. Register the mobile phone to your Twitter account too- so you can Tweet anytime- a few small updates per week via your business pc will not have as much effect as lots of Tweets throughout the day, commenting on both business and informality. Don't forget to make sure you don't sign up for alerts when someone 'Tweets' you- otherwise the phone will be literally non-stop!
When you first register, of course there'll be nobody following you and you won't be following anybody, and it will all seem a little lonely- so the best thing to do is find us! Type in 'Ruby Vizcom' and you'll find a lovely picture of our unofficial mascot. Click to follow us, and if you want, send us a message to let us know who you are, and we'll follow you too. There! That's your first friend made on Twitter. You may then want to look up your own personal friends and work colleagues to bulk your profile out a bit. The basic rule of thumb here is that more friends equal more authenticity in a sense, and a mixture of real people and businesses are more inviting to follow.
So now you've got your Twitter account registered, linked up to your mobile phone and a group of friends, you can begin thinking about raising the profile of your business via your Tweets. There are plenty of people on Twitter who follow profiles if a certain keyword is used, so bear this in mind when you're posting a Tweet- whether formal or informal, keep things to the point and chuck in a few keywords to suit your target audience. In the words of Daniel 'Twitter is in a sense how adverts should work- instead of going to a forum or a news site for example and being bombarded with text, you can simply look at headlines- if you like it, follow them, but if not, you move onto the next Tweet.' An ideal platform for promoting any press releases or specific pages on your website- it's a great place to inform people that it's been updated.
The Blog Of The Dog
Which brings me onto one of the other Big Things that has happened here at Vizcom: The Blog Of The Dog was started way back in February, at first providing Online Meanderings and Paws For THought but more recently detailing internet trends relating to Vizcom Design's products and services, and the random activities of the Vizcom Staff through the eyes of Ruby, our unofficial mascot. 
The Master is Daniel Robinson, Owner of Vizcom Design and Guru of All Things Technical. He is Ruby's owner and organises all of the printing, graphic design, website building and SEO tasks. The Happy Man is Ross Bullock- whom some of you will know as the owner of Business Advice in Bolton. Although he does not work for Vizcom, he shares the office and can often be found on the phone in the corner drinking copious amounts of coffee. Finally there's me, Diet Girl, AKA EJ- who began working part time for Vizcom way back in January. I'm responsible for Marketing, Writing and Trying Diets That Famously Do Not Work.
As we've proved, a blog does not have to be a boring journal of the changes within your business, with a little imagination, you can attract interest by standing out from the rest and providing some entertainment as a platform to discuss your company. You may now also be thinking- well so far, everything you've told me just makes me think that you spend all day on the internet, Tweeting and writing blogs- and indeed it has. But there is a reason for this- it all helps to optimise your website. Because blogs are written in plain English, the are often recognised by search engines before other types of sites, and are a reason for people to interact with you and make return visits to your website. You can also discuss topical subjects, employing relevant keywords so that your blog will be listed in a long-tailed search engine result.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation is quite simply, making your website more accessible in many ways to both potential customers and search engines. I always say that you can pay for the most beautiful website in the world, but unless it's optimised, no-one will see it. There are lots of ways to optimise your site, but one of the best formulas we have found so far involves generating lots of organic links.
A good way of doing this is by using our Article Writing Service. Organic links produced by online articles generate more traffic in the form of potential customers interested in your services. In fact, rather than me explain SEO in a few hundred words, the best thing to do is recommend you to our video, which we produced in March this year after realising that although plenty of companies offer an SEO service, not many explain exactly what it is; so the video is in Layman's Terms for those of us (including myself) that aren't as technically advanced as perhaps The Master.
Vizcom News 
We've also created a news area on our website, to highlight what we've been upto in the press. Most recently, Daniel has been featured in The Bolton Evening News, discussing Vizcom's SEO services - but in the news area you can also find details of our fundraising events and all of our current press releases.
Recent Projects
We've recently completed the production of two major websites - the first being Care Corner, a family run business providing supplies to the caring industry, who required an e-commerce site to host their extensive online catalogue and the second being First Choice Bedrooms - the proud suppliers of fitted furniture for ITV's '60-Minute Makeover' in the North West editions of the programme.
Printing Services
Finally, the other change that has occurred here at Vizcom Design is that our prices for printing - such as corporate stationery, letterheads, business cards and the like - have recently been reduced, which is good for everybody. If you've recently changed address or run out of business cards, why not contact us for a quote? Or, if you've been brave and gone into business by yourself, get in contact for an informal chat about the best logo designs, letterheads and leaflets to suit your new venture. We're always happy to answer any questions you may have.
And finally, The Master will be leaving me, Diet Girl, at the helm whilst he goes on two short breaks this Summer - He'll be out of the office from June 25th until June 30th, and again from 13th July until the 27th July - if you have any questions for Him or need His attention, I'd advise you get in contact before then.
So that's our first montly newsletter for June 2009 - play your cards right and we'll be back in July with more news about the wonderful world of Vizcom Design. Cheers, Diet Girl, The Master, The Happy Man and, of course, Ruby