The Official OpenRain Blog

The complete 35-slide deck from yesterdays seminar on “Best Internet Practices For Business” is now available for free download and online viewing on Slideshare via the link below. Please forward this on to those that were not able to attend the session. Thanks so much for being a great audience!

For professional implementation and consultation on these practices, check us out at http://openrain.com , email us at sales {at} openrain.com, or call us at (623) 691-7869. Thanks again and enjoy the slides.

http://www.slideshare.net/preston.lee/best-internet-practices-for-business-chandler-20090910
http://openrain.com
http://openrainapp.com
http://blog.openrain.com
http://twitter.com/openrain

preston.lee Community, Content, Events, Seminars, Slides best practices, chandler chamber, download, event, free, seminar, slides, small business

OpenRain Founder and CEO Preston Lee is delivering a lunchtime seminar on “Best Internet Practices For Business” on September 10th at the Chandler Chamber of Commerce. Topics include an overview of Internet best-practices provided to OpenRain’s Online Business Platform customers:

• Website necessities and common mistakes.
• Email marketing and newsletters.
• Pay-per-click advertising basics.
• Tracking and analyzing website visitor traffic.
• Content writing tips for search engine optimization.

Food will be provided. Seating is limited. $5 for members, $10 for non-members. Advance online registration is required.

preston.lee Community, Events, General Announcements, Media, Online Business Platform, Press Releases, Seminars advertising, business, chandler chamber, event, lunch, marketing, openrain, seminar, seo, small business, website

On Thursday, August 20, I attended the first Social Media AZ conference in Tempe. There were lots of great speakers and a good turnout for this being a first event. It’s great to see so many people talking about Social Media. This is what I took away from the event.

The Big Idea

Social Media is about having a conversation. Just remember that half of conversation is listening.

Applying the Big Idea

Put together a Social Media campaign so that you have a plan for the way you will be having conversations.

Set the goal
Awareness – are you trying to make people more aware of your business & products?
Sales – are you wanting to drive more sales?
Brand loyalty / engagement – are you interacting with your existing customers?
Innovation – are you working with a community to help your company innovate its product & services?

Who is talking?
Define your persona(s). Is the CEO talking? Is it your marketing person? Is it one of your product specialists or customer service? The campaign’s goal will help define who the right person is to speak for your company.

Know your passion
Social Media is about passion. What’s exciting about your company? How do you tell other people about it? Refine your pitch.

Who are you talking with?
Know your audience. What kind of relationship do you have today? Pick up to two on this scale, but they must be adjacent. Otherwise the message could be sent to the wrong audience.
Nothing >> Aware but no action >> Single action >> Repeat Action / Enthusiasts >> Advocates

Choose the best tool
We’ve all heard of the numerous social media tools / sites available (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, etc.). Sometimes we feel we should be using all of them, but there’s just not enough hours in the day. Do your research and pick the right tool for your audience & message.

Measure
Almost all of the speakers at this event said that ROI (return on investment) is still very hard to track in Social Media, but they all agreed you should be measuring. There are lots of different ways to measure:

• number of followers / fans
• engagement
• site traffic
• sales / leads
• sentiment – positive, neutral, or negative
• # of clicks to particular content
• net promoter score

Determine what works then do it over and over again.

Other Great Tips

• Content is king.
• Think like a publisher & reuse your content in different places.
• Don’t get so wrapped up into Social Media that you forget about your main business website. Optimize it too!
• Social Media takes time & people. Be ready to invest in it.

erica.lucci Uncategorized

http://rubyology.s3.amazonaws.com/rubyology-83-high.mp3

Roundtable discussion on Ruby IDEs and text editors. Four OpenRain developers debate the pros and cons of different IDE and editor tools for day-to-day Ruby application development.

Stream Rubyology via the web or subscribe via iTunes.

preston.lee Community, Content, Media, Rubyology, Social Media, Technologies discussion, editor, ide, openrain, podcast, rubyology

The best new business leads are referrals from happy clients, so when we recently received these great testimonial blurbs from active OpenRain web products and services clients, we just had to share the love!

“The team at OpenRain was easy to work with, took time to explain the process, handled our needs efficiently and gave us our own Project Manager…that went above and beyond to make sure we were kept in the loop on their progress and responded to our questions and additional requests with care and concern…If you’re looking for reliability, ease of use, quality production, and great people to do business with, go to OpenRain.” -Al A., Business Owner, OpenRain Client

“OpenRain has been working with us on a major undertaking for the past year and a half, on a high visibility Ruby on Rails application that interacts with the complex data model…During this time, OpenRain has come to be seen as valued and respected members of our website team who are fully integrated within the group of developers. OpenRain has also provided consultation and recommendations on our server architecture and scalability and are actively engaged in process improvements. Throughout OpenRain has been professional, knowledgeable, and an asset to our team…and come highly recommended both as software engineers and architects and particularly as Ruby on Rails developers.” -Kristen L., Business Manager, OpenRain Client

“…will go above the call of duty to make sure what they develop is what you are looking for. I’m looking forward to the long term benefits from all their efforts and a continued relationship with their office as my business grows.” -Ryan O., Business Owner, OpenRain Client

preston.lee Business, General Announcements

OpenRain Software is smack dab in the middle of a rapid-fire marketing event campaign, hosting three separate ribbon-cutting parties for Tempe, Chandler and Gilbert businesses over the course of several weeks to promote our small business web presence product. Tempe was last week, Chandler this week, and Gilbert next week. That’s a whole lot of wine and networking! Here’s a quick video of our Chandler Chamber ribbon cutting this past Wednesday. Also check out some great pictures courtesy of @casademora!

preston.lee Business, Content, Online Business Platform

We had a last-minute need to record a 60-second OpenRain radio ad for our small business web development/design/consulting product, and managed to coerce Flo Geck into the office this morning to record the voiceover. I’m sure you’ll agree that Flo has a wonderfully soothing voice, and the final product came out awesome! (Hopefully you’ll soon be hearing her on our phone system as well.) Flo handled the production process very professionally and had production completed in under 30 minutes. Here’s the final 60-second radio ad. Enjoy!

60 Second Ad – Final Cut

preston.lee General Announcements, Online Business Platform, Products, Social Media ad, audio, commercial, flo geck, obp, openrain, radio, voiceover

What: Geek ‘n’ Eat XV: Deja Vu Edition
When: Friday, June 26th, Noon-1pm.
Where: Chino Bandito, Chandler
Who: All hungry geeks!

[Restaurant Website] [Google Street View Map] [Aerial View] [Google Group] [GnE Website]

As a part-time Asian living in Arizona, Chino’s holds a special place in my heart for successfully blending Americanized Eastern favorites with Mexican classics. (Jerk chicken quesadillas, egg fu yung burritos.. crazy delicious stuff.) Come get your geek on with some awesome unique eats! I’m sure we’ll find some give-a-ways, too.

Note that this is at the CHANDLER location, which happens to have the worst restaurant real estate ever. It’s on the Southeast corner of Chandler and Dobson *behind* the strip mall. (See aerial pic.)

Mark your calendar now. (I’ll wait.) No reservation required, but notes appreciated on the Geek ‘n’ Eat Google Group!

preston.lee Community, Design, Events, Geek 'n' Eat, Technologies

Are you attending the Tempe Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Luncheon?

The luncheon is themed “21st Century Marketing.” OpenRain is thrilled to be a participant with this wonderful cast of speakers. The event features lunch, exhibits, networking, and thought-provoking break-out sessions.

To register, go to TempeChamber.org.

The cost is $50 for members and $65 for non-members. The Tempe Chamber will also be celebrating their successes over the past year and introduce the incoming Board of Directors. This event will be a fantastic one. We hope to see you there!

When: June 23, 2009
Where: Fiesta Resort & Conference Center – 2100 S Priest Drive Tempe, AZ (map)

Program:
11:00 Registration & Networking
12:00 Lunch
12:20 Chamber Leadership Report
12:30 Lunch Presenters

• 21st Century Marketing, presented by John DeSantiago, OpenRain Elite Web Software
• E-Sales Secrets, presented by Martin Jones, Cox
• Finding The Time, presented by Erin Jagodzinski, Express Employment Professionals

1:15 to 2:30 Break-Out Sessions

• Branding’s Amazing Race — Driving Your Brand In Online Circles
• The Social Media Craze — Using It Wisely In Your Marketing Strategy
• Image Is (still) Everything— Reaching Out To Media In a World Gone Digital
• Marketing Stimulus Plan— Resources To Stretch Your Marketing Dollar

For more information and to register, go to TempeChamber.org.

erica.lucci Events, Seminars, Uncategorized event, marketing, seminar, small business, Tempe Chamber

OpenRain silently launched the Online Business Platform at the beginning of 2009 to give small businesses a sophisticated web presence on a tight budget. The Online Business Platform takes custom web design, easy-to-use content management (CMS) capabilities and social media integration, and wraps the whole package in a fully managed, fixed-cost web presence complete with monthly consulting services and automatic software upgrades.

It’s the most valuable parts of web for your business: technology, online marketing, and business guidance boiled down to an easy to use website and predictable development process. Anyone with a web browser and small marketing budget can now build and maintain a 100% unique, professionally guided web presence that will be the center of both your online and offline marketing campaigns for years to come. This video highlights just some of the current features of OpenRain’s Online Business Platform technology.

See http://openrainapp.com for details on the Online Business Platform and to request a free custom quote!

preston.lee Content, General Announcements, Online Business Platform, Products, Social Media, Technologies awesome, demo, online business platform, product, video