Before our adventure, our Blog had about a 5% share of our traffic, which is OK considering it's new and very small. Now the Blog is around 8-12% which is a nice healthy increase. We've also noticed an increase in our blog posts being shared via Twitter.

Our social interactions on Twitter (new followers, mentions, favourites and retweets) have increased to a point where we lost count so we shall consider this a great increase! According to TwitSprout some days we were seeing beyond a 35% increase in growth and gaining around 2-5 new followers a day. We didn't really find an app that helped us keep track of our interactions as much as we hoped. These were what we lost count of and what we'd have had the most interest in tracking to a really deep level.

We had a 10% increase in enquiries which is fantastic! But most importantly for us was the increase in conversation with our followers, new and old, which not only helps promote us but makes the entire social experience more fun and personal.

So what about the applications we tried?

This really focused way too heavily on single days in real time. We loved the look of the app and the information it provided us with but we don't have time to sit on it all day long so in the end we just didn't use it. You also can't go back and review past day data which sucks.

We love this so much. The perfect tool for us. Not only can you schedule your Tweets to go out at the most effective time frame for you but it does the hard work for you. You just keep buffering and have weeks worth of tweets sorted in no time. With it's Bit.ly integration this is a seriously powerful tool.

Of course a fantastic application for shortening URLs with analytic data. This was key for us in seeing the level of engagement with our user base and which topics our users have the most interest in. Which apparently is Startups/Startup founders.

This handy little social analytic tool was the best of the analytic tools we found and tried. It gave us really helpful statistics. It's just a shame it doesn't give date ranges rather than just single days. Again more focus on interactions would have been cool here rather than just % growth.

In all no analytic tool for twitter was really that helpful. They told us what we already knew from seeing the increase in activity first hand. There must be a better app for this somewhere for small businesses wanting to have a really in-depth look into their interaction statistics.

Summing up taking the time out of day to make sure we were posting, and posting well, meant we had an increase in all our social, site and blog activity as well as plenty of discussion with our followers. A win for us; but we are still looking to perfect this social experience and find that perfect set-up for us. We found the perfect time to tweet, the perfect topics to tweet about and it worked. It's now time to refine.

The main thing we are aiming for is to increase showing off the daily happenings at Simple as Milk via our Twitter with more blogging, tweeting, and perhaps even the odd instagram of James in his onesie!

Again if you have any suggestions, or ideas we would love to hear them. Tweet us at @simpleasmilk

We decided on a topic close to our heart and a key aspect of our business. Gaining and retaining customers.

Gaining Customers

We spoke about how we use social media to keep active in our community and drive traffic to our site and blog as well as how to stand out online and maintain an online presence.

Retaining Customers

We spoke about how you're not a computer so don't act like one, avoid putting up barriers between your company and the client, bring them into the process, make them part of the team, become a family.

Always make sure to educate the customer along the way. Always over achieve, always blow your client's mind and exceed their expectations.

And finally, project manage like a boss! We emphasised how we pull clients into our project management system so they can see all the team discussions, all of our to-do's and really feel like they are part of the team.

Check out our slides on SpeakerDeck. Complete with detailed notes for those who missed our talk.

Despite leaving a full 4 hours before we were due to speak we did in fact arrive 20 minutes late for our talk! A mixture of delayed trains and our own inability to navigate the underground. Using Google Maps directions took us 15 stops in the opposite direction of where we needed to be going.

It would appear that running a business is far simpler than navigating the underground. Luckily the workshop organisers and attendees where sympathetic to our plight. Either that or they took pity on our own stupidity.

The talk was well received and we got the opportunity to talk to several of the attendees afterwards to answer their questions and add some detail on the processes behind Simple as Milk. James also made good use of the free food and drink. Some things never change!

Social media, especially Twitter, has played a huge part in our success. Once upon a time, we sent out a little Tweet to a start-up called Assistly (now Desk.com) telling them how much we liked the look of their service. Less than an hour later we had a meeting scheduled with their CEO Alex. A week or so later we had started work on their new site design with their team. It really was that quick! We worked with them for a better part of a year as their external designers and still do the odd job from them even though they are big shots now. It snowballed dramatically from there. We've never had to look for another client since. They come to us for us.

We have always been very casual with our social media. No fancy tools or tricks, no link shortening or analytics, just plain old type and send. This time we are taking a different approach and we are currently working on finding the perfect social media setup for us. This is of course going to be different for each and every person. But! We are going to be testing out a few different apps and seeing how they work for us, discovering which ones we adopt naturally and which just sit there and never get used.

We shall let you guys know what we think of them and share the results of using these apps along the way. Let's see how much these tools really help. A modern day social experient!

Current apps we are looking into and testing out are:

• Chartbeat (Nice site and social analytics)
• Bit.ly
• Buffer
• TwitSprout

The apps that we have looked at but decided against so far are (most of these boiled down to price plans not suiting our needs or generally being a little on the crap side for what we needed):

• Viral heat
• Sprout Social
• HootSuite

If you have any suggestions, or ideas we would love to hear them. Tweet us at @simpleasmilk

This Cash is King workshop will focus on the importance to every business of cash flow, making profit and gaining customers especially in these tough times when money is tight. There will be some other awesome speakers eager to share their expertise including Emily Coltman of FreeAgent.

We have 10 free tickets to give away to some lucky people so we have a little competition going on. For a chance to win FREE tickets simply Tweet this blog post using the handy Twitter icon below and tell us why we should give you a free ticket to this event. We aim to give these tickets to people who most deserve them! So tell us what you think you would gain from this educational opportunity.

Buying the guys beer is an optional extra that may get you very far in life.

Here is some important information for you:

• Tuesday 20th November
• 25 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6AY
• 09:00 - 14:00
• We are speaking at 12pm

These four apps work together to really streamline the work process with our clients. They strip out the bureaucracy and paperwork, help us bounce ideas around and get client feedback as well as making it easier to project manage. Together these apps make life easier for our clients as well as for us.

Sign now is a great little app that makes it easy for us to store documents and get them signed off. Keeping everything in one tidy little space on the internet.

It's the first app that our clients interact with. Once their estimate has been sent out, we also send them a contract to review and sign should they wish to go ahead. This app is dead easy to use and avoids any forms of email, printing and actual effort. We find it not only helps speed up the contract signing process but makes our lives easier when we need to reference said contracts.

Basecamp is 37Signals' project management tool, a great app for keeping projects organized and everything we need in one place. We live inside Basecamp every day and we love it.

This is the next application our clients come in contact with. We have been using Basecamp for about 4 years now and it does everything we need it to perfectly. Everything to run the project smoothly is stored here. We assign to-do lists to the team and mark deadlines on the calendar to make for a very organised project. It also cancels out any need to use messy email threads and makes sure everyone is up-to-date at all times. It's also great when we need to go back to reference past discussions or dig out some files later on down the line.

Dropmark is a handy tool for collecting, organizing and sharing in the cloud. It's dead simple and does exactly what it says on the tin. No more, no less.

We use Dropmark to store all inspiration for a project. It's a great collaboration tool as we can share ideas with our client as well as internally. This helps us get an immediate idea of the direction we might be heading down for each project. Should the client see we are collecting crap, they can let us know before we even get started designing so time is never wasted.

InVision is an interactive mock-up tool which allows us to make wireframes, or site designs, interactive, giving our clients a much clearer idea of the flow and navigation throughout a site or app. InVision's comment feature is just fantastic too.

We use InVision on every project for both wireframing and fleshing out design. We link up our work to produce a highly interactive version of each project. Our client can then see how their site or app would really feel to a user. The commenting feature allows the client to quickly and simply ask questions or make changes as they navigate around. One of the most effective apps out there for getting quick, concise, feedback that really helps drive a project forward.

And that's it really. Four applications that our clients use day-to-day when working with us. They love each and every one and we love the results they produce for us.

For those of you that might be interested I have also collected a list of the other applications we use day-to-day in our work that the client doesn't get to see or toy with (I left out the obvious ones).

• Typecast
• Balsamiq
• Sublime
• Teux Deux
• FeedsApp
• Tray
• Gridset
• Freeagent

To me this is a huge part of our lifestyle at Simple as Milk. We are all great friends. It's what makes work so much more fun. The Simple as Milk family. That sense of family allows us to kick ideas around, to bounce off each other, to be more creative.

We take very much the same approach with our clients. Designing is made so much simpler when you take the time to know your client. Conversations are far more open; you get a better understanding of your client, their company, their needs. So you can better represent them and project their company's personality into your design work. The best projects I've worked on are always those on which I've had the most fun with the client.

Clients put a lot of trust in us as designers. We all know that choosing the right designer is crucial; it's a big decision! At the beginning of a project, I'm sure it can be quite nerve wracking as the client needs to know he made the right choice, as soon as possible. As designers, being creative and professional at all times should be a given. If we can also make the whole project a positive, enjoyable, fun experience for the client, and for ourselves, everyone wins. A happy and satisfied customer is much more likely to come back with another exciting new project. Who knows, they may also recommend you to others.

Have fun, build relationships, love your clients!

This was a holiday with a difference. Yes we wanted some sunshine, a change of scene, to indulge our travel bugs. Of course we took our work with us but we wanted to test the waters to see if a nomadic life could work for us. We've heard a lot about designers, developers and writers going off into the sunset with nothing but hand luggage and working as they travel the globe. With great results too.

As a team of individuals that work on everything together as a unit its a little more complex for us. So we thought we'd give it a go for a week! It turns out that its really not that hard provided you have excellent communication and project management skills. It sounds obvious doesn't it? We anticipated there'd be a few issues but judging from our small test run it seems totally possible. Food for thought in the future perhaps.

Waking early and taking full advantage of a nice long day is key. In some cases we ran out of things to do during the day. At home in our seaside office, it's usually the complete opposite; we're scrambling around trying to pluck extra hours out of thin air to get everything done on time.

It seemed easier to switch off from work,have a better work-life balance. We'd try new things, like kite surfing, found we were more active which, somehow, gave us even more energy for our work. Not that you couldn't do different things in the UK. Maybe it's just something about not being tied to a desk all day. Its hard to explain.

A medium sized story later. If your thinking about it. Try it. You never know; its certainly an experience.

If there is anything I've learnt over the past near three years of running Simple as Milk it's that you never find the right people; they find you. If someone is truly committed to their job, then they will work hard to make sure they find the right company to work for. For me each and every team member feels like they have been here since day one; like a family.

My advice is simple. Let them find you. I've never looked to hire, I've never had an open position, but I would have been a fool to turn down a single one of these guys.

People are the biggest investment you can ever make.

Generally I think we are rather loose with our clients. We only have one set contract for any project. At it's core all it really states is: we do the work outlined in your brief; you pay us. Simple.

Payments are split into three. 30% upfront. 30% halfway on a set date based on the estimate, 40% at a set date based on estimated finish date. That way both parties know when the money is coming/going. It's easy to budget for, easy to invoice all in one go. Should our client take ages to respond and the project way overshoots, we know we're safe for cash as we didn't say “payment on completion”.

Should the client want additional work outside the brief we estimate the cost/timing, the project is booked in at the next available date and payments are made in the usual way as stated above. Effectively turning the additional work into a second project with it's own breif and requirments.

The key for us is all projects are estimated. Not that we have ever gone over budget, but it's a safety net.

So you have your contract, your deposit, the other payments are scheduled. So the only thing left to go wrong is if the project overshoots into other projects booked in after this one; how do we handle that?

To be honest, we're suckers for hard work and we would most likely just work later hours. If that's not possible the client would have to wait until after the other booked-in projects if it's their fault the project overran. If the fault is ours we would certainly be working double time to fix our mistake.

We hope this helps those who asked. Good luck!

For more useful information like this, check out John O'Nolan's Blog. We learn't a lot from him on this front.

Not only is research the most vital part of any project it can also be the most fun as well as being extremely educational.

The usual suspects to dig your heels into:

• Analytics/data
• The company/brand
• The userbase
• The competition

But really these only scratch the surface.

Get to know your client

Without getting to know your client, and more importantly your client's customer, you can't really expect to design to a level high enough to meet the client's needs. By understanding the client, and their customers you can get a greater insight into the company, their successes as well as any weaknesses that you can help solve. Huge tip: Speak with the front-man, the guy who speaks to the customers directly. If you can get them to be the project manager, do it!

It's also essential to understand the company's personality and to bring that into your design. After all if the design reflects the personality of the service their users receive then it will be a more unified experience. A confused brand is a confused customer and a confused customer usually leaves.

I would consider us friends with pretty much all our clients; a good relationship makes for more creativity and more fun. We should all enjoy our work, love what we do! Get to know your client and before you know it you'll know exactly what they want and need like the back of your hand.

Collecting your inspiration

Inspiration is a beautiful thing, and fantastic for projects. It's great to collect, but it also has its risks when you just get that little bit too inspired.

We prefer to get our inspiration offline and to collect individual elements rather than entire pieces of work. This helps us pick out those little details that make each project unique and keeps away any urge to copy or be influenced too heavily.

We use Dropmark giving the client access so they can see what inspires us. They can add their own inspiration and collaborate with us.

Collaborate and Project Management

We love to collaborate with clients. It's vital they are kept up-to-date; it can also help you achieve your goals. Effective collaboration with clients can really assist in the project. Hot tip: Check out Client Centric design.

We use Basecamp for our project management system. We start with a little kick-off message letting our client know we are starting work, what will happen over the next few days and our goals. We update our clients regularly with screenshots of snippets of our work, rough layouts, colour options etc. Every single client gets to see our progress; they can also comment as we go so the process is a collaborative effort from start to finish. In this way we focus on what works for the client, we involve them at every stage. We find this inspires confidence in our clients as well as speeding up progress on the project. “We're in this together” is a good place to be!

We also use either Cage App or Invision depending on the project to collect comments on our artwork and to provide the client with a real world view of their future site.

Refine that concept

A client comes to you with a concept, you like it, but have you ever thought that you could take this to a completely new level? Not only should you be designing a beautiful site and achieving the client's goals, your research should also help spur suggestions and ideas beyond design to enhance the entire experience.

For example we are currently working on a space education site. We had the content, we had the brief and direction. We suggested the site should include facts, diagrams and space-based content layout to enhance the user experience. Not only does it look fabulous, it's also more educational and the site is just as interactive and engaging. More on this another time.

Summing up

So the above should give you a great starting point for any project. Your client is happy, you're educated on the project, you know what needs to be done to achieve the goals, solve the problems. It's time to hit those pads, whiteboards or whatever it is you use.

In Part 2 we shall be talking about how we take this research and start to apply it to wireframes, content layout and design.