Web helps Wiggly Wigglers win big

They likely didn't like that, and neither did she.

Stumbling around iTunes, she discovered podcasting and had a Eureka! moment. A podcast could be her very own radio show, which she could edit however she liked.

With that idea in mind, Wiggly Wigglers devoted 250 of their advertising budget for 10 weeks into the new medium garnering press coverage just for starting the podcast.

They followed the podcast success with videos, a blog, and more recently, a group on Facebook. Wiggly Wigglers even solicited feedback for what to include in their catalogue yes, they still produce those by creating a wiki.

The podcast is more fun for the team than blogging, Gorringe noted. "The blog doesn't excite us the way the podcast does," she said. They look to make it fun for listeners too, by offering interesting new information the types of tidbits and fun facts that are great to pull out at dinner parties.

The Facebook group was started in June of last year. "It's easy to dip your toe in, if nothing happens, no matter," Gorringe noted. And once a few regulars start to get involved, the page takes care of itself. If someone leaves a question on the board, a regular customer Gorringe calls them Wigglets' will answer it. "They answer questions without us having to do the work," she said, creating a resource people come back to without her firm having to invest much time or money at all.

But all the love for social media, user-generated content and other Web 2.0 glories doesn't mean websites themselves are dead. Gorringe stressed the importance of a close working relationship with her web developer. "We've been working with the supplier form the start, so he's been wiggled'," she said.

Indeed, the most important feature of the Wiggly Wigglers website isn't a social media widget. It's that the site can easily be edited by Gorringe and her team, giving them complete content control, which is handy when they want to promote handmade brooms on Halloween, for example.

Don't need to be a digital native

Gorringe insists others can replicate her firm's success, regardless of their tech skills. "Small businesses thinking of using this tech shouldn't be put off because they're not geeks we're farmers," Gorringe said. "If a farmer or a gardener in Herefordshire can benefit, so can anyone else."

While many firms shun such tech because they aren't so-called "digital natives", Gorringe believes it's helped her. "One of our advantages is we're digital immigrants," she said. "Digital natives forget how new it is, how amazing it is and we're able to have a mature view on it."