Thom Shannon and Glow New Media
What is your business? Glow New Media is an award winning digital media agency. We apply internet technologies to help our clients succeed. This involves building great websites as well as direct email campaigns, search optimisation, online advertising and more.
Why did you start it?
My business partner, Phil Blything and I have both been working in this industry for over 10 years. We've watched things recover from the 2000 crash up to Google overtaking Channel 4, then ITV on UK advertising sales. We're in the greatest period of change since the industrial revolution and it's easy to forget that we used to have to go to the library to answer the sort of questions we now throw at Google. It's a time when every company can really benefit from internet-based solutions and we know we can make a difference, so there was no stopping us!
What makes you unique?
Well we make great looking websites, but there are a few others doing that quite well too. What makes us different is that we start from what clients want the website to do, not how it should look. It makes a big difference when you sit down and really examine how a website is being used and how to make it earn its keep. We hear so many people saying that they paid for a website and never got a single bit of business through it, and it's usually the same mistakes that have been made.
What did you do before?
I started building websites within a few weeks of first getting on the internet, at about 15 years old. A few years later I was making a pretty good living at it and got a job at a new start up in Liverpool just at the peak of the first dot com boom. They're now one of the UK's biggest suppliers of tourism software with offices across Europe. As the technical lead on such a large team I gained a real understanding of how to take business needs and design a software solution around them.
What are your plans to make the most of Capital of Culture?
We started the year off with the MyLiverpoolSkyline.com project with Liverpool Vision, which promoted the city's world heritage skyline around the world. We've got some similar projects in the pipeline which we hope will shout about Liverpool even louder. So watch this space!
Do you have any tips?
My top tip has to be find a business partner who compliments your skills. You'll push each other forward more than any one person could do on their own. Also you want to have a clear plan of what you're trying to achieve and stick to it.
