Alberta Business Marketing

Telecommuting takes on a whole new meaning, thanks to my Telus Mobile Internet Stick and my iPhone.

What does my Telus Mobile Internet Stick give me – Freedom to work from whereever and whenever.  That is totally cool especially for this digital nomad!

Some of my peers escape to the mountains for hiking, mountain biking, rafting and other outdoor activities.  My perfect escape is chilling in the lounge of my favourite mountain park hotels and coffee shops – and yes it includes my laptop and cell phone.  I get my best work done when on the road travelling and being actually away from the day-to-day office distractions.

Some folks ideas of a mountain getaway includes their RV, Camping equipment or hiking boots. My Mountain escape equipment includes my hotel rewards card, MacBook and iPhone.  Having the freedom and the flexibility to escape the city is something I cherish as a Calgary Social Media Consultant and Search Engine Optimization professional.  Whenever the opportunity presents itself I pack up my MacBook, iPhone, Creative Juices and my mobile Internet and off to the Mountain Parks or Alberta badlands I go.

The mountain air is the perfect seed for creativity.

Having the tools to escape and remain connected provides this opportunity to get out of the city for the day.  I can enjoy time in the Mountains to plan and really strategize about the direction of our business and at the same time, keep in touch with my clients and continue to serve their needs when the need arises without them even knowing where I am.

What does it take to escape from the office on the perfect Canadian summer day?

Be open to an endless flow of ideas – Getting away from the rat race provides the perfect opportunity for you to escape the distractions of office life.  Leaving you completely free to focus on whatever you need to work on.  Need to tighten up your business plan, review last quarter’s sales figures or complete a project…getting away from the office facilitates the flow of great ideas and provides clarity.

Stop every once in while – Just stop and look out the window.  Be observant of everything going on around you.  Listen to the tourists speaking, the music playing in the background or the sounds of kids enjoying their family vacation.  You never know where your next great idea will come from.  Some times you need to get up and find a new spot or even just go for a walk.

Pack your own Telus Mobile Internet and Power – This is a must because you never know where you are going to set up camp.  Without your Internet  and your own power you may struggle to enjoy true freedom of working wherever you decide.  My mobile Internet stick and vehicle AC adapter provides the freedom to work from a picnic table, coffee shop or even the lobby of the hotel.  Whatever fits into your lifestyle. Don’t forget your power adapter and a spare battery as well.

What do I enjoy the most by having the ability to escape and my Telus Mobile Internet – FREEDOM!

Tags: Alberta Provincial Park, Business Success, Calgary, Calgary social media consultant, canada, Hospitality/Recreation, Internet, Internet Service, Internet stick, iphone, Mobile, mobile Internet, mobile Internet stick, mobile web, S&P/TSX 60 Index, search engine, technology, Technology/Internet, telecommuting, Telus, TELUS Corporation
Posted in Alberta Business, Communication | | Comments Off

Whenever you speak with a Calgary Social Media Consultant many of my peers in the industry will tell you about the importance of using Twitter in your business.  This is a true statement, however I look at tweeting in a very different way compared to what I once did.  One question you must ask yourself is this, are you tweeting with purpose or are you simply making or adding to the noise?

In my early days of using Twitter, I was simply about making the most noise out there.  I once thought if I made enough noise I could rise above the noise and in reality I simply added to the noise that was out there, and you know something – people will turn you off.  Picture the loud mouth at your business networking club who always boasts about how great their business is or how well his kids are doing in school, you know that person…what do you do?  Most of us avoid him or her.  You know the noise I am speaking of in the online world it could be mentioning that you are at the local Starbucks on Foursquare, tweeting useless bits of information and retweeting other people’s noise.

I do like the idea of retweeting other people’s useful information, however the question I have to ask is this.  Are my tweets enriching someone else’s life or business?  If the answer is no, I really need to think long and hard about sending out more noise into the Twitter universe.

Twitter is such a powerful tool but often abused by many small business owners because of the advice of some social media professionals out there.  How about this advice?  Instead of simply sharing a link to someone else’s article using Twitter that really has no value or broadcasting to the world something they really don’t care about.  Can you not write your opinions about what the other person’s article, blog post or link meant to you on your own blog.  Offer your own insight and opinion using your own platform.  Position yourself with your own thoughts instead of simply tweeting without any purpose.

Can you use Twitter effectively?

Tags: business networking club, Calgary social media consultant, foursquare, Human Interest, Noise, Online social networking, online world, Real-time web, social media, social media professionals, Starbucks Corporation, Twitter, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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Every once and a while in my travels as a Calgary social media consultant I run across a gem of a business or a group of business that simply impress me.  During my recent travels to Arizona I met up with a great Canadian firm who help out the busy and often stressed out IT professional by providing help desk services to managed IT services providers and the average IT professional.  I got chatting with Neil Jones as a enjoyed the beautiful Arizona sun and instantly became great friends and learned lots about what they are up to in beautiful British Columbia.

Neil’s firm “Live Virtual Help Desk” provides help desk services to Manage Services Providers.  You maybe asking “what the heck is a managed services provider?  Fair question…think computer support guys, IT folks and computer professionals for us out there who are not in the IT support industry.

In chatting with Neil I learned about the struggles computer support companies have working with their clients and dealing with the simple calls for help.

Have you ever had a printer stop printing?  I am sure this particular example happens to all of us and when we try to call our IT guy we get caught in the endless abyss of voice mail or transferred from department to department often scratching our heads wondering if someone will take care of us.

Well my friends at Live Virtual Help Desk has a cure for this feeling of loneliness and your dead computer system.  They take on your calls for help by working with your IT folks to solve your basic to somewhat technical calls for help.  They are sometimes the knight in shining armour when your techy guy is swamped with a bunch of other things happening around them.

If your IT guy isn’t using these guys…they should be – maybe you can refer Neil’s firm to them.

If you are an IT guy reading this…you need to reach out to Neil and his team at 1-866-677-3256.

BTW, I am not an agent for Live Virtual Help Desk nor do I receive any payments for sending business to Neil.  I simply think he and his team have their head screwed on pretty tight and can help all IT firms succeed in customer service.

Tags: 1-866-677-3256, Arizona, british columbia, Business, Calgary, Calgary social media consultant, Customer experience management, Help desk, help desk services, Live Virtual Help Desk, Management, Neil Jones, printer stop printing, Stuart's ramblings, Technical support, Virtual help desk, Voicemail
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I stumbled upon a really neat social media service called Omegle.  In a matter of minutes I was randomly chatting with a person in Australia and a guy taking a break from an overnight cram session at Berkley.  As a business tool, I just can’t see Omegle being a resource for you to meet your next prospect. One thing though, it is another example of the power of online communications to meet new people easily.

Omegle requires no sign in, account creation and your identity is kept as stranger.  Does it put a cookie on your system?  The one thing Omegle gets is the ease of access and really no barriers to entry.

Will Omegle become another time waster for bored business people?

What do you have to say about these services?  Time waster or something you can use?

My new friend from Berkley also shared how he uses Omegle “when i get bored of studying i get on this deal”.  I can now picture all the IT techs scurrying to block Omegle on the firewalls of their customers.  I have to agree with some of their philosophies around “practical application” in business.  Omegle in my opinion is a social tool, unlike Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media services there is no real business connection at this time.  At this time is the keyword.

But hey, just doing my duty as your Calgary Social Media Consultant.

Tags: Australia, berkley, Calgary social media consultant, Facebook Inc, neat social media service, omegle, online communications, social media, social media services, social tool, Technology/Internet, Twitter Inc, Waster
Posted in Alberta Business | | Comments Off

I made my share of mistakes when I first started playing with marketing online.  I still make the odd mistake and do the odd bonehead thing.  I am learning as well.  However, learning from my mistakes is critical to my overall success as a Calgary social media consultant and my mistakes are things I can now teach my best clients.

Now today, I understand social media services are designed to share ideas, concepts, offer advice but not to aggressively sell or spam those around us.  This happened twice to meetup.com groups in Calgary which David (my partner at Ulistic) and I are members of.  One was for a “self-claimed” SEO expert in Calgary and the other a “sort of” business coach.

In my review of successful business people in Calgary, they simple don’t do this stuff.  So my only conclusion is that if Ulistic wants to be a truly successful SEO and Social Media firm we need to practice the behaviours of those who we look up too, not those who we look down on.

Meetup.com idea feature being hit by spammers in Calgary

Recently meetup.com, one of the leading social networking sites which encourage online networking with traditional face-to-face networking added some new skins, designs and functionality with the introduction of some new features.  Meetup.com is a wonderful tool to bring people together who have similar interests, share ideas and for us business-focused people learn and share our business stories.

One of these new features is called “ideas”.  Not a bad thing for group members to share ideas and concepts however when some awesome functionality is added the spammers also can take advantage of something which is meant for the overall good.  Over the past couple of days some so-called Calgary Internet Marketers have started spammy activities these new lists on meetup.com.

David and I run two very successful meetup groups in Calgary focused on the entrepreneur community and also a good group committed on bringing together information technology professionals together. The Calgary Entrepreneur and Business Professionals Group and also Tech Brew Calgary are now in full swing.  Unfortunately because of these spam activities we have been forced to restrict access by approving new members until everyone is confirmed as a legitimate businesses.

G0od thing these so-called professionals haven’t found our LinkedIn groups yet.

Tags: Business/Finance, Calgary, calgary entrepreneur, Calgary social media consultant, Computing, Entrepreneur, face-to-face networking, information technology, Internet activism, Internet Marketers, LinkedIn Ltd, Meetup.com, online networking, Online social networking, Social information processing, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, Social network service, social networking sites, Spam, Stuart's ramblings, technology, together information technology professionals, wonderful tool, World Wide Web
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