I get the feeling that the Sunshine Coast economy is picking up and businesses are making the most of the “New Beginnings” that a fresh calendar year brings. A lot of my clients are bringing fresh ideas and concepts to me. It’s great!

As my web design and graphics business “Brainspace” comes into the new year, we have already started branching out into some new areas.  What I am most excited about is creating iPhone Apps.

I’ve just completed one for Pastor Steve Penny who is using the iPhone App to allow people a ‘single click’ into his life and ministry as he travels the globe speaking to churches and leaders.

From his App you can:
Read his Blog
Read his Twitter
Listen to sermons
Watch video sermons
View his Bio, Photos, Links and more

The App has been so popular that it overloaded the server that hosted the media files yesterday! (All good now)

Feel free to check it out via the link below or search for ‘Steve Penny’ on your iphone App store. Let us know if YOU or someone you know would like an App or website built as well!

They love the flexiblity and engagement that my websites bring them. They are getting great traffic and love the fact that they get to create and tweak the content as much as they want – when they want.

The great thing about working with authors and speakers is that they are proffessional communicators and there is no easier way to reach out and connect with the world than through the web.

Here’s how simple it is for authors and speakers to ‘connect  with their tribe’

They log in to the web based back-end of their site (like I’m doing right now). They write a heading, the body of their article or newsletter and even add a photo and some links if they like.  They click one PUBLISH and automatically:

• The article appears on the front page of their site/blog.
• The content they’ve written goes to Facebook and posts a note against their profile for their friends to read.
• An automatic Twitter notification is created with a link to their article.
• Anyone subscribed to receive their articles via email will get it within 24 hours.

It’s so simple and easy.

Here are some of my clients I’m blessed to work with:

Amanda Gore – The Gospel of Joy www.thegospelofjoy.com

Mary O’Dwyer – Hold it Sister www.holditsister.com

Jodie Hedley-Ward – The Motherhood Study www.motherhoodstudy.net

Steve Penny – Where’s the Miracle www.stevepenny.net

Ken Wright – The People Pill – (site coming soon)

I think it says a lot about a church’s willingness to embrace new forms of communication and stay connected.  Also, it’s important to understand that, in many cases, the medium is the message – just using this technology says a lot about an organisation – especially if they are in the ‘people’ business.

Over one thousand people call Kings Christian Church their home church. It has congregations in Buderim, Noosa and Caboolture.  Soon expanding out to Nambour and Caloundra.

All 5 of it’s Pastors have twitter accounts and actively use them.

Several of the Pastors have blogs.

I just finished building a fully integrated blog for Senior Pastor Steve Penny, which integrates automatic announcements of news, devotions and sermons to his twitter account and also posts his blog entries to his facebook profile.

The important thing here is a worldwide reach and ease of use.  Social media, wordpress blogs and web 2.0 enable that.

See Pastor Steve’s blog here