Alberta Business Marketing

LinkedIn is one of the industry leading social networks and online communities in use today across multiple businesses and industries. LinkedIn’s focus on business-to-business networking and facilitating the sharing of ideas and strategies has won the trust of business professionals globally. Not unlike many of their counterparts, LinkedIn does have privacy challenges according to many CEO level executives. Many organizations are now reviewing their policies related to LinkedIn and how information propagates through this business social network.

More and more business professionals are turning to LinkedIn because of its overall effectiveness in the marketplace. However, many are unaware of the apparent risks to corporate contacts when setting up their LinkedIn accounts. There are many settings that are on automatically allowing for browsing of contacts and also leaving a trace of who visited another profile. Many organizations as part of their social media acceptable use policy are now requiring specific changes to LinkedIn privacy settings be made ensuring business contacts and information are kept confidential.

LinkedIn is build on a community and like many other online networks; they embrace the sharing of information and contacts. How do businesses balance the foundations of LinkedIn with the compliance and confidentiality measures of business today?

Read my white paper on the two required LinkedIn security settings.

Tags: business networking, business social network, Business/Finance, CEO, collaboration, Community websites, linkedin, LinkedIn Ltd, online communities, online networks, Online social networking, Social information processing, social media, social media acceptable use policy, social networks, Technology/Internet, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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Top guns of industry can put a face on Alberta’s biggest economic engine By Paul Marck If you are a CEO in this province, you need to get out in front of the oil sands story and start telling it to the Canadian public, your customers, and the rest of the world. No more excuses, no more [...]

Tags: BizBeat - Editor's Blog, CEO, Corporate Ethics International, Empire Club, Montreal, oil sands, Vancouver
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A tip of my hat goes out to my good friend Joseph from the Power Within.  These guys pulled off another excellent event yesterday (Thursday May 20th, 2010) here in the Stampede City.  The keynote speaker was hockey legend and captain of the Canadian Women’s Hockey Gold Medal Champions Haley Wickenheiser, no wait she was the last speaker, does that make her the headlining act?  Did the 42nd President of the Free World open for a Canadian Hockey Gold Medalist?

Actually, it was William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States who most people came to see (at least the business community who left shortly after the President’s address) to a near sold out crowd during the recent Power Within stop at the Telus Convention Centre.  Mr. Clinton was purely sensational and highly engaged with every single person in the crowd during his keynote address and Question/Answer period with Salida Capital President and CEO, Ms. Courtenay Wolfe.

Bill Clinton’s stop in Calgary wasn’t his first and chances are it will not be his last.  I highly recommend next time he is in town, you get out and see him. Bill spoke on a number of topics including the importance of shutting down the coal-burning electric generators, the energy sector in North America as a whole and any discussion with a former President wouldn’t be complete without his views on the economy.

What I really grabbed onto the most was Bill Clinton’s passion for every single cause he works on and especially the importance of ending hunger worldwide.  Through the William J. Clinton Foundation, he strives daily to end things such as childhood obesity, famine, HIV/AIDs and a number of other great causes.  He even gets along with the 43rd President, George W. Bush as the two work together on some efforts.

How does Mr. Clinton’s address effect a Calgary Online Marketing person like myself?  Mr. Clinton shared some discussion points on technology and the rapid changes occurring around technology.  Especially how we can leverage these changes to do something good in the world.  It was an eye-opener that was what hit me the most and when I left the Calgary Telus Convention Centre I was thinking to myself, what can I do right now to make a change?

It is no secret that technology is crucial to business today.  It is also crucial to the very existence of us as a race today but I am shocked when I hear about the number of people worldwide without fresh drinking water or proper sanitation.  How can I make a difference here?  After all, I am just a blogger?  Can I increase awareness of the challenges facing our world today.  Bill Clinton did talk about how great of a world we have but how poor we treat it.  Interesting, once again I ask…

How can I make a difference?

Tags: 42nd President, 42nd President of the United States, 43rd President, Arkansas, Bill Clinton, Calgary, canada, Captain, CEO, childhood obesity, Clinton, Clinton Foundation, Courtenay Wolfe, energy sector, Force Majeure, George W. Bush, Haley Wickenheiser, HIV/AIDs, Joseph, keynote speaker, last speaker, North America, Online Marketing person, Politics, President, Salida Capital Corp, Stuart's ramblings, Telus, Telus Convention Centre, TELUS Corporation, The Power Within, United States, William J. Clinton Foundation, William Jefferson Clinton
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How is your business sending out relevant information to your future customers, those who don’t know about your business or your loyal customers who have the potential of becoming your next batch of raving fans?  You may have a blog, podcast or even invested in some great video about your business…but really how are you reaching these new audiences?

In the past and unfortunately an ongoing practice by many organizations is the traditional press release.  Corporations would spend thousands of dollars each year and engage with a firm who specialized in sending out or distributing your news to the media, agencies and basically anyone else who had a fax machine or a telex device.  There are many firms out there who specialize in the distribution of news for organizations.

Is it a good investment.  I have never used one in the past.  I remember helping many of my IT consulting clients in the past with complex software that would submit the news stories to their respective agencies.  This was long before the Internet.  Funny, I still remember working late at Petromet in the 90’s with a frustrated Admin Assistant and some PR software.  Fortunately for many, the tide is shifting and the social media news release is starting to gain momentum in the marketplace over the traditional press release.

In the past a press release would have information about your business, maybe a quote from the CEO or a flagship client and then the news that you wanted to share.  I recently stumbled upon a 2006 article from Tom Foremski entitled Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die! which shares how ineffective traditional press releases are for the average organization.  In my experience, I think many of them are full of information but no relevant information to the average reader.

Enter the Social Media world and the new way we send out information.  Social Media News Releases now focus on interesting things happening in your business or the community.  It is real news about what your organization is actually doing and perhaps a bit of humour tossed into the mix.  The nice thing about social media news releases is that the barrier to entry has been eliminated and many of these services cost little or no money to take advantage of.

Social Media News is about engaging with the community and sharing relevant information that is useful.  Not to mention as a bonus, the great SEO opportunities associated with social media news.  It is something that many non-profits, small businesses, and entrepreneurs needs to look at and take advantage of.  Did I mention you can start to use these services with little or no investment.

Members of the Ulistic Mentoring Program spend lots of time review with me one-on-one and understand how to leverage social media news into their overall social marketing strategy.  Interested in learning how your business can learn more about social media news and how to maximum this excellent strategy?  Give me a shout at 403.775.2205.

Tags: 403.775.2205, Admin Assistant, Business, Business/Finance, CEO, Die! Press, education, Entertainment/Culture, Journalism sourcing, Mass media, media coverage, media news, media news release, media news releases, mentorship, News media, News release, Social information processing, social media, Socially-responsible investing, Tom Foremski
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Does your business have a CEO? The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) many times in a small business is also the President, Salesperson, consultant, technician, bottle washer and accountant.  However, the CEO position is an essential role within many successful small and large enterprises.

My good buddy Joe who runs a number of technology blogs recently shared a great article on the topic of CEOs in the Managed IT Services business.  You can read Joe’s article from the MSPMentor.net site here.  Joe mentions he was inspired by an article that appear in Inc. magazine, I will have to track this one down.  Our new client in Tampa who focuses on back to work programs in the US also gave me a copy of Inc. this past week…so now I have to check it out.

What is a CEO? Does your business have one?  Perhaps you have it printed on your business card.  If it is you, are you acting like a CEO?

Joe’s article shares a number of key and highly valid points about what or how a CEO needs to function in their business.  I am sure there are many great examples of “how a CEO should behave” and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Over the past several years, I have worked for a number of people who have called themselves the CEO (some great and some still under development) who have inspired me one way or another in my own personal development.   The one who has inspired me the most from an overall leadership perspective has to be Pat Davis from Passion Parties.

Pat shared with me the importance of “leadership by walking around”.  I still remember discussing these points with her in Passion Parties’ Brisbane, CA office a few years ago.  During that time I was helping Passion Parties with their complete technology overall and also assisting in the move to their new Las Vegas HQ.  Pat and I would often discuss technology in the direct marketing business and how technology will enhance their overall business.  At that time I was working in the small business computer networking business and as a technology professional was very much in development of my own business acumen.

Pat and I would discuss the importance technology will play in business often, but she also told me computers are tools and tools only.  Nothing will ever beat the importance of getting off your backside and walking around the office, getting out in the community and shaking the hands of those around you.  Pat is an expert at speaking with her staff, talking with her consultants and she is the master at leveraging the media.  Just Google her and you will see what comes up.

A CEO in my opinion has to be the face of the organization, you can’t sit in the backroom, head down in your laptop sending out email after email.  A CEO has to get out of the office and meet people eyeball to eyeball.  A CEO has to speak with the media and not be shy of the camera.  A CEO needs to know everyone in their organization and their families (bigger firms will find this a challenge).  A CEO needs to do a lot of the grunt work and it is not an easy job, that is why only a handful do it successfully.

What does this have to do with social media? Social Media services now enhance the reach of a CEO, their circle of trust just got a lot bigger.  Those they can touch and inspire just exploded in size.  A CEO must be a company blogger.  A CEO needs to own the company social media services.  A CEO needs to connect with people and especially connect online.  Did I say the face of the company, yes I believe I did.  The CEO must be the voice of the company, before someone else claims that voice.

I personally work with a number of CEO’s across North America master their online appearance.  Some are getting it, some are still having a challenge.  Need to chat…call me 403.775.2205.

Tags: 403.775.2205, Brisbane, Business, business computer networking, Business/Finance, CEO, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), company social media services, consultant technician, consultant technician and accountant, Data General, Google Inc., importance technology, Joe, Las Vegas HQ, leadership, media services, MSPMentor.net, North America, online appearance, passion parties, Pat, Pat Davis, Person Communication and Meetings, President, salesperson, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, tampa, technician bottle washer and accountant, technology blogs, technology professional, Technology/Internet, United States
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