JSI has been around since the seventies, founded by Samuel Dewey Jowers, Jr. The company as it is known today came together in 2003 when Marc Sklar (Dewey Jowers’ son-in-law) became part owner. Though their name has changed over the years, they are still located in the same location since its inception, 706 E 2nd Avenue, and still brag on high levels of customer service.

The site has many exciting features, including online quote requests, claims, and download-friendly applications,  but there’s one in particular that we’d like to highlight. We pride ourselves on not just building great websites, but building them in way that the client can continue to build it long after we finish.

Though there is already a large list of the types of insurance offered on the site, JSI has the ability to add additional products and pages with ease.  We even created some custom code to make it even easier. On every page, customers can click to know more about that particular type of insurance by clicking on an info tab on the side of the page. These change automatically from page to page depending on what product is being discussed, but we have gone a step further.  This area is also designed to automatically change when a new type of insurance page is created.  This “meta-programming” ensures that the site stays consistent, but allows our clients to grow and expand without having to worry about the finer details.

The area highlighted in green is the area that will always change, even when the business owners update the site themselves.

How to businesses get started/avoid being overwhelmed by new technology?
Can every business use social media?
What about personal privacy and negative press?

The five minute interview is available uncut below:

WRGA Interview with Tricia Steele

To download the presentation, visit us on Slideshare or contact us directly.

Cornerstone is known for transforming the ordinary, and in addition to the new website, visitors can also find Cornerstone Concrete on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flikr for project videos, updates, pictures, and more.  Every page of the new website is capable of client updates and changes on the fly and visitor comments are automatically cycled to the home page as they are accepted.

Visit CornerCrete.Com today to see if they can meet your decorative concrete needs!

Contact us at Steele Agency if we can help you with a dynamic web presence.

1. Experience, Insight and Strength

2. First in the Field and Extending Market Leadership Today

3. Easy to Use, Easy to Customize

4. Deliverability

5. Accountability

We can’t say enough about the power, flexibility, and technical dependability of this software.  We love working with customers to either build and manage a campaign or train and advise. Constant Contact users, what have you experienced with Constant Contact or email marketing in general? Feel free to share your successes or lessons below.

In an economic downturn, everybody shrinks. The budget dries up. Staffs are cut. Customers are lost. That’s why using social media sounds counterintuitive. How can a business master new technology and a new way of thinking while struggling to stay afloat?

Currently, companies respond to social media in two ways, depending on their size. Larger businesses do what they do best: create yet another department. Small businesses are already swamped: they simply ignore the new technology.

Neither approach works. Social media works best when integrated into many or all departments, particularly marketing and customer service. Within the company, unity flourishes, and from outside, new customers are found and the faithful are rewarded and empowered. All well and good in an ideal world, but what should companies do now, while social media is still developing?

Larger companies should resist the subdividing urge. By creating a new division, they must hire new staff, fill out more paperwork, and create new schisms in the company. In other words, they waste time and money.

Not only is it inefficient to create a social media division, but it hinders social media’s primary function. Applications such as Facebook and Twitter (and countless others) allow companies to know their customers, and vice-versa. Who better to have this knowledge than marketing and customer service personnel? By creating yet another go-between, companies risk distancing customers even more.

While larger companies can use social media, it’s even more useful for small business. Large corporations can’t turn on a dime: change takes time while the market passes them by. Moreover, small businesses can multitask, and learning new tasks is just part of the job.

For example, consider the famous demise of GM. Gas went up, the market responded, and GM made more SUVs. They failed to keep their finger on America’s pulse – consumers. Meanwhile, smaller companies (read: Honda and Toyota) sped ahead. What if GM had stayed in touch with consumers?

Consider your own company. What preexisting departments could use some help? Could customer service be more efficient? Do you want to reach a different audience? Need feedback on your product or service? Even if your company is doing better than most, there is always room for improvement, and social media could help fill the gaps. Ask the people already in those departments how greater contact with customers could be used, then make a social media strategy to boost your company’s position in the market – and your customers’ reach.

Google’s Android OS boasts great potential for application development and is a great tool for us multitaskers with multiple windows and fast movement between layers. At least, these are the reasons we decided to give it a try.

And thanks to one well designed app, this is the first web update made entirely from the G1.

What is “the stream”?

Depending on who you talk to, it’s the bane of business or a godsend. It’s the shift from article-writing to instant commentary, from teaching to “sharing” information via Twitter or Facebook. It’s a way of seeing information: as an ever-changing web as opposed to a simple paper trail.

It works like this. Your aunt Susan emails you a link to Liz Pulliam Weston’s financial advice on MSN Money. There, you watch a video on emergency funds. You add it to a live feed, where your co-worker hits the link and reads about credit counselors on scam alerts. He adds a link to his Facebook page, where 150 “friends” see and chase the link.

Let’s be honest: people with real jobs simply don’t have the time or patience to “jump into the stream” of social media, follow every hyperlink, or keep up with all the “real time” commentary on blogs and company websites.

But can they use it? Can you?

Take AT&T. Their Twitter updates are mostly answers to customer questions. This simple format does two jobs at once: it satisfies customer questions in real time, and it’s great PR.

Don’t fall into the trap of all or nothing. Share your successes, network, and find creative ways to do business using the stream – just don’t get swept away.

Click: Twitter CEO tells his story.

And some facts about Twitter:

Neville Hobson on the Growth of Twitter
How Much Is Twitter Worth (in 2008)
Twitter in 2009

So, the question is, how does this work in Northwest Georgia? How do we encourage lucky accidents, patient investors, techno-social savvy?
Please feel free to respond.

Look for links to current research, trends, and testimonies from “the big guys” as well as general information and opinions about various products and services.

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

And yet, business development took center stage at last night’s 98th gathering of the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, and the night’s speakers slowly swelled in a call to the same vision: “a crisis is a terrible opportunity to waste.”

As is traditional, the night began with a slate of awards and recognitions of service. Notable among them were the Ambassador of the Year, Kay Chumbler of Greater Rome Bank, who “never met a microphone she didn’t like” and exuded the sort of bubbly, contagious enthusiasm that makes it obvious why she was chosen for the honor.

Small Business of the Year was R.L Jennings & Associates, whose time in Rome has meant a growth from two to 23 employees, multiple offices, over 2,500 clients across the globe, several previous Ambassador award winners, and a managing partner’s civic accomplishments and efforts that put many to shame. Upon accepting the award, Lee Jennings, encouraged all small businesses to “go for it” even in tough times saying that when he and his partners were “looking at the door, the Good Lord simply kicked us through.” Finalists in the award were Big Time Products, Midian Roofing, and Paula’s Silver & Gold.

After a full slate of recognition for participants in committees, boards, and chamber activities, Randy Quick prefaced his passing of the gavel with remarks highlighting the year’s accomplishments in business and capacity development. “This year has indeed been a year of growth for business and the community,” he urged, noting the $22.5 million in investments pledged by several local manufacturers, the 1-75/411 expansion project, airport enhancement, and enlarging of local education options in the form of Floyd College and Career Academy’s new School of Robotic & Engineering, Berry’s capital campaign to build two new dorms, Darlington’s new middle school, and funds allocated for the new Model High School. After many a heartfelt expression of gratitude for friends, colleagues, and family, he then passed the gavel of chairmanship of the Board of Directors to David Newby, General Manager of Profile Extrusion.

David Newby, an active Kiwanian, member of the Oak Hill Church of Christ, member of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association was introduced by Quick as “the right man at the right time.” His speech began modestly, but soon crescendoed into what will more than likely become the mantra of many a business leader or perhaps the Chamber itself: “a crisis is a terrible opportunity to waste.”

Newby became active in the Chamber’s GREIA after his company transitioned from being an asset of a large corporation with limitless resources to small, privately owned manufacturer. In this group, he found a network of like-situated business leaders who encouraged him to invest even in the uncertain time his company faced.  He did so, leading a multimillion dollar investment in new technologies that is now earning Profile Extrusion new and continued business. While recognizing the uncertainty and the challenge present in the current economic climate, he urged the room to consider that “it’s times like these where managers and community leaders matter most.”

His four hopes for the coming years are to add Georgia Highlands as a four-year limited mission college, the availability of an Associates Degree at Coosa Valley Technical College (now Georgia Northwestern Technical College), the building of an Angel Investor Network connecting investors with entrepreneurs, and acquiring more property and infrastructure to build the city’s capacity for development. Already underway is the release of a marketing plan aimed at attracting retirees and a series of small business seminars and workshops.

Later questions for Mr. Newby as well as Al Hodge, Chamber CEO, revealed that the Angel Investor Network is indeed becoming a reality with the chamber facilitating the organization of local investors and training in best practices from other successful networks.  This approach to investment is one aimed to encourage entrepreneurial and technological advances locally.
>Rome Retirement
>Profile Extrusion

“Email marketing and online surveys are proven tools that help small businesses connect with their customers and build successful customer relationships,” said Len Bruskiewitz, Director, Partner Programs, Constant Contact. “We are pleased to partner with Steele Agency to provide their clients with our products and services, and we look forward to working with them to help grow their clients’ businesses.”

Steele Agency can provide clients with e-mail marketing and online survey capabilities in addition to full design, distribution and analysis services.

“Small businesses are always looking for effective ways to grow their businesses,” said owner Tricia Steele. “Constant Contact’s customer communication tools give my clients a valuable addition to core marketing strategies. The ease-of-use and affordability make the partner program a great solution to meet the marketing needs within any industry.”

Opened in August, Steele Agency offers comprehensive marketing and promotion services and specializes in Internet marketing and the use of social media for business promotion> saidigital.co.

###