Alberta Business Marketing

Sales…according who you speak with…it makes the business world go round and round.

Without sales, you have no business according to some.

My good buddy Chris Hamilton is the owner of STAD Consulting, a look sales and business development consulting firm here in Calgary.  Chris has a great site setup for helping sales professionals and Chris is a natural Go-Giver.  We love Go Givers (Chris not sure if you read the book).

Chris’ website offers daily sales tips and this is a must website to get all the information your business needs to have a successful sales funnel and pipeline.

Click here right now and sign up for Chris’ Sales Tip A Day.  Get his sales tips delivered to your inbox each day.

Tags: Business Success
Posted in Alberta Business | | Comments Off

Once again I get to work directly with my good buddy Erick Simpson and his team at MSP University.  This week Ulistic released this press release outlining how our team is expanding the reach of our Calgary Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Consulting services into the Managed Services community.

Ulistic and MSP University announce Strategic Partnership

IT VAR and Managed Services Providers win as two marketing leaders join forces to offer a comprehensive, effective online marketing solution to the channel

Ulistic, a leading Internet consulting firm based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and an organization focused on delivering valuable online marketing services and education within the IT VAR and Managed Services Community, today announced their strategic partnership with MSP University. MSP University is the largest consultancy and online resource dedicated to business transformation and improvement strategies for information technology (IT) professionals and managed services providers globally.

This strategic alliance will offer the IT VAR and Managed Services community a robust, complete and well-rounded marketing solution leveraging MSP University’s traditional and website marketing services with Ulistic’s Search Engine Optimization, Social Media and Internet Marketing and consulting programs.

Ulistic will offer in-depth search engine optimization services built on proven SEO best practices to MSP University’s channel of over 7,000 members. This will allow each member to leverage advanced web marketing and coaching services geared at positioning their businesses ahead of their competition in online search and provide a foundation to take their Internet Marketing to the next level.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for managed services providers and IT professionals globally to have a well-rounded marketing solution that balances traditional marketing techniques with today’s required and often overlooked search and social strategies,” states Ulistic Senior Partner and 15-year MSP veteran Stuart Crawford. “MSP University continues to lead the IT channel in business improvement education, strategy and fulfillment services for the technology community. It is wonderful to be part of the MSP University team going forward.”

MSP University provides IT business operations, sales and marketing and technical service delivery improvement education, training, fulfillment and consulting services to IT service organizations in over 100 countries worldwide, and trains thousands of attendees each year at its international IT Solutions and Managed Services Boot Camps.

“Adopting and integrating Ulistic’s proven approach into an IT solution or managed services provider’s marketing strategy greatly improves their results and ROI”, said Erick Simpson, Vice President, MSP University. “MSP University’s member channel looks to us to continually seek out and engage with strategic business partners whose products and services will add value to their businesses, and our alliance with Ulistic is yet another example of our meeting this expectation.”

About MSP University

MSP University (www.mspu.us) provides IT business operations, sales and marketing and technical service delivery improvement education, training, fulfillment and consulting services to Fortune 50 manufacturers, distributors, membership organizations, vendor channels, franchises and thousands of independent IT service organizations worldwide. MSP University is the ultimate resource for IT solution providers, whether preparing to transition to an annuity-based Managed Services delivery model, or who are already delivering Managed Services, and wish to increase their knowledge of IT and Managed Services vendors, services, solutions and business, technical and sales and marketing best practices to drive revenue and increase profitability. MSP University helps solution providers succeed…period.

Tags: About MSP University, Business, Business Partnership, Business/Finance, Calgary, canada, Erick Simpson, fulfillment services, in-depth search engine optimization services, information technology, International trade, Internet Marketing, IT channel, managed services, Management consulting, Master managed service provider, MSP Partners, MSP University, online marketing services, online marketing solution, online resource, online search, overlooked search, search engine, Senior Partner, social media consulting, stuart crawford, Stuart's ramblings, supply chain management, technology community, Technology/Internet, ulistic, Ulistic and MSP University, Vice President, web marketing, website marketing services, well-rounded marketing solution
Posted in Alberta Business, Marketing | | Comments Off

Once again I get to work directly with my good buddy Erick Simpson and his team at MSP University.  This week Ulistic released this press release outlining how our team is expanding the reach of our Calgary Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Consulting services into the Managed Services community.

Ulistic and MSP University announce Strategic Partnership

IT VAR and Managed Services Providers win as two marketing leaders join forces to offer a comprehensive, effective online marketing solution to the channel

Ulistic, a leading Internet consulting firm based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and an organization focused on delivering valuable online marketing services and education within the IT VAR and Managed Services Community, today announced their strategic partnership with MSP University. MSP University is the largest consultancy and online resource dedicated to business transformation and improvement strategies for information technology (IT) professionals and managed services providers globally.

This strategic alliance will offer the IT VAR and Managed Services community a robust, complete and well-rounded marketing solution leveraging MSP University’s traditional and website marketing services with Ulistic’s Search Engine Optimization, Social Media and Internet Marketing and consulting programs.

Ulistic will offer in-depth search engine optimization services built on proven SEO best practices to MSP University’s channel of over 7,000 members. This will allow each member to leverage advanced web marketing and coaching services geared at positioning their businesses ahead of their competition in online search and provide a foundation to take their Internet Marketing to the next level.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for managed services providers and IT professionals globally to have a well-rounded marketing solution that balances traditional marketing techniques with today’s required and often overlooked search and social strategies,” states Ulistic Senior Partner and 15-year MSP veteran Stuart Crawford. “MSP University continues to lead the IT channel in business improvement education, strategy and fulfillment services for the technology community. It is wonderful to be part of the MSP University team going forward.”

MSP University provides IT business operations, sales and marketing and technical service delivery improvement education, training, fulfillment and consulting services to IT service organizations in over 100 countries worldwide, and trains thousands of attendees each year at its international IT Solutions and Managed Services Boot Camps.

“Adopting and integrating Ulistic’s proven approach into an IT solution or managed services provider’s marketing strategy greatly improves their results and ROI”, said Erick Simpson, Vice President, MSP University. “MSP University’s member channel looks to us to continually seek out and engage with strategic business partners whose products and services will add value to their businesses, and our alliance with Ulistic is yet another example of our meeting this expectation.”

About MSP University

MSP University (www.mspu.us) provides IT business operations, sales and marketing and technical service delivery improvement education, training, fulfillment and consulting services to Fortune 50 manufacturers, distributors, membership organizations, vendor channels, franchises and thousands of independent IT service organizations worldwide. MSP University is the ultimate resource for IT solution providers, whether preparing to transition to an annuity-based Managed Services delivery model, or who are already delivering Managed Services, and wish to increase their knowledge of IT and Managed Services vendors, services, solutions and business, technical and sales and marketing best practices to drive revenue and increase profitability. MSP University helps solution providers succeed…period.

Tags: About MSP University, Business, Business Partnership, Business/Finance, Calgary, canada, Erick Simpson, fulfillment services, in-depth search engine optimization services, information technology, International trade, Internet Marketing, IT channel, managed services, Management consulting, Master managed service provider, MSP Partners, MSP University, online marketing services, online marketing solution, online resource, online search, overlooked search, search engine, Senior Partner, social media consulting, stuart crawford, Stuart's ramblings, supply chain management, technology community, Technology/Internet, ulistic, Ulistic and MSP University, Vice President, web marketing, website marketing services, well-rounded marketing solution
Posted in Alberta Business, Marketing | | Comments Off

For travelers, getting advice from someone who has been there, done that has become second nature with traveler advice sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp!, Google Maps and others. But most of the time, we have no idea who those people are that are giving the advice.

Social Networking should be smarter
Is it someone like me? or are they someone with different values, interests and attitudes. I know I’ve seen reviews for places I’ve stayed that in no way reflect my experience.

It’s a foggy area that can make it difficult to interpret the relevance of travel reviews for me.  I want to know how much I have in common with the person leaving the reviewbefore assigning any level of credibility, validity or relevance.

The ideal travel review site would be a little more like LinkedIn and Twitter.

LinkedIn uses business connections to help me find people who are connected to people I know and easily network with people in my industry. Folks I’m connected to there have more in common with me than most, but the nature of my work, doesn’t fully define my interests and attitudes.

Twitter probably does the best job of finding people like me:
I’ve found quite a few people on Twitter, that I’ve later met in person and hit it off with from the get-go. I could have followed almost any early adopter on twitter and I would certainly have found a kindred spirit in the tech area, but these sort of connections clearly aren’t so easy for the non-techie. Twitters new “Suggestions of Users to Follow” tool may be a step in the right direction toward finding people who are a lot like me. Until now, twitter searches, twitter lists, Follow Friday advice has given me really neat, interesting people to follow, but it can be a lot of work. I wonder if Twitters algorithm, using people you follow and the people they follow as a starting point will offer users access to more people who are a lot like themselves.

Facebook integration with Travel Reviews

Many Facebook users I’m connected with have credibility and I trust their opinions because I already know most of the folks I follow there personally.  User profiles, photos, uploads, status updates and activities give me a good overall picture of any Facebook user’s interests and attitudes.

Wouldn’t it be great to connect my trusted sources to my upcoming trips?  Having my Facebook friends, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections offer travel advice would be much more valuable than a collection of reviews whose credibility is in question.

As if in answer to this half-written blog post, along comes TripAdvisor TripFriends and Bootsnall Traveler Connect app.  Both connect with Facebook to enhance travel experiences.   TripFriends helps me connect with my Facebook friends to get advice from people I already know.  As Steve Kaufer, TripAdvisor founder says, “Get great travel advice from your friends before you go.”  Traveler Connect helps me find other travelers going to the same place I am, or connect with locals living there. According to Bootsnall founder Sean Keener, “I can ask travel questions, arrange to meet for a drink, and create some unique experiences not found in a guidebook.”

What’s Next for Travel Review sites?
I see a future where I’ll be able to get travel advice exclusively from people who share my outlook on the world.   Connecting all my social networks to travel reviews will take time, but these two projects are a great start.  Over time,  I’ll be able to quickly bring into focus the 10% of travel reviews that really mean something to me.

Have you seen any social network that comes closer to finding people like you than Twitter or LinkedIn?  Seen anything to rival the new TripAdvisor TripFriends and Bootsnall Traveler Connect projects?

Tags: bootsnall, Facebook, free web marketing stuff, social networking, traveler connect, tripadvisor, tripfriends
Posted in Social Marketing | | Comments Off