Drawing on the benefits of being wise to the web
Jul 9 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal
A NORTHUMBERLAND entrepreneur is off to the US to share the secrets of using a blog and social networking to boost international business.
Helen Morris, who founded Stocksfield Hall-based company The Stencil Library 21 years ago, has been invited to deliver the opening speech at the International Decorative Artisans League (IDAL) in Memphis later this month. The organisation is a major forum for decorative arts businesses worldwide.
Helen said: “The website is enormously important because most of our customers are in America.
“They embrace websites and blogs much more than Europeans do. The website is an everyday thing now.
“We started our website about 10 or 11 years ago when it was a very rare thing to have one.
“We’re working on a brand new one at the moment.
“The blog has around 2,5000 to 3,000 readers a week. For a niche blog, that’s fantastic. I’m really amazed it’s being mentioned in places which are then rating it as an entertaining read.
“It’s primarily a business thing, but it’s personality-driven.”
She uses her Design Inspiration blog to share information about new stencils produced by the company, which has five members of staff, and tales about the Northumberland countryside.
Her own circle of friends still ask why she spends her time blogging, but Helen is convinced that social networking, including Twitter and Facebook, are becoming increasingly important business tools.
She is now about to start ‘Twittering’ to keep up with other companies that are already using status updates on the website to spread their message and those that have created Facebook groups to promote themselves.
Her blog has been an ideal springboard to show the designs that The Stencil Library creates.
“Everything we do, we show on photographs,” Helen explained. “We are a very small company, but we are a big name internationally.
“When we started out, stencilling wasn’t popular at all. My boyfriend, who is now my husband, was a stencillor. He was a graphic designer and an interior designer.
“We both gave up our day jobs and went full-time into stencilling.”
Twelve years ago, The Stencil Library was one of around 75 companies producing stencils for people to buy and use at home. But that number has dramatically reduced in the years that have followed.
Helen said: “I think there’s a maximum of three of us left in this country – the ones that were not following fashion and had their own way of doing things.
“The main staple never went out of fashion, which is why we stayed.”
This is the second time she has been invited to speak to IDAL. In 1996 she delivered the keynote speech just before her book about her stencilled home was published.
Fittingly, Helen and her husband Michael Chippendale have designed a pink skirt stencilled with pictures of Elvis for her to wear at the event in Memphis.
“If my speech is rubbish, at least they will remember my outfit,” she joked.
