Alberta Business Marketing

The jury is out on the importance of Facebook Pages.  Are these pages important to your overall online marketing of are they simply a distraction for many small business owners?

How many Facebook Page invites do you receive in a day?  If you are like me, you ignore more than you accept.  Facebook Page SPAM is on the rise people…don’t say I didn’t warn you.

It seems this craze is impact many of my business colleagues here in Calgary and throughout the global business community.  Everyone seems to be creating pages on Facebook these days.  However, one very important question needs to be asked.  Are they being used to drive people to your marketing website or are they something that is simple “nice to have”.  An even more important question is this, is your Facebook Page increasing opportunities in your sales pipeline?

I am only addressing serious businesses right now, there are many examples where Facebook Pages are great and I am sure there are some business success examples, but just like the latest MLM craze to hit your doorstep, Facebook Pages are a FAIL for many small businesses.  Your community group, church organization or association is where I see a need for this type of online marketing or community building platform, but not your small business or least, don’t put a tremendous amount of your focus on Facebook pages.   Let’s focus on your small business and what matters the most to your survival, bringing value to the market (which a Facebook Page can do if done right) but eventually you must convert people into serious prospects which generate revenues and profits.

The jury is out on the effectiveness of Facebook Pages.  However, the nice thing about Facebook Pages are they are extremely easy to set up and once setup, if your social media consultant is on the ball require no attention at all.  Feeding your blog, RSS feeds and any other type of information directly into your page is totally doable.  Like I said “set it and forget it”.  Did you notice I said “feeding your blog posts”, your blog posts feed into your page and your fans share your posts. It can become viral.

Another good thing about Pages are as a marketer, you can send messages directly to your “fans” if you ever need to share information.  Also fans don’t have to be Facebook Friends either, they simply become a fan.

I still doubt their overall effectiveness for the average brick and mortar business.

What success have you had with a Facebook Page?  Please feel free to share your story.

Calgary  Business Facebook Pages worth mentioning:

• Calgary Entrepreneur and Business Professionals
• Stuart Crawford – Calgary Social Media consultantt (little self promotion)
• Clic Readers – Magnetic Eye Glasses
• Chestermere Real Estate

Don’t spend more than 10 minutes a week on this, if you are, you are spending too much time on Facebook Pages.

Tags: Blog software, Business/Finance, Calgary, community, Criticism of Facebook, Facebook, Facebook Inc, Human Interest, Online social networking, overall online marketing, Social information processing, social media, social media consultant, Technology/Internet, The Facebook Era, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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“Facebook is not social media” my 14-year-old son told me the other day.

“Dad, we just call it Facebook, it is only you adults who label it with that stupid term” he went on to tell me.

You know something, that son of mine is a pretty smart kid!  An old guy like me can learn lots just by spending a day with my youngest son.  You know the kid, quiet but when he says something, it is full of knowledge and intellect.

Yes, Facebook is just like my backyard BBQ on a warm summer day.  As I look around I have friends from back home, friends from my military days and yes some business friends…and even the uncle that no one speaks about publicly. You know something, it is not a complete business tool, Facebook is a tool to socialize and learn the personal side of life.

Sure, I know some of you are saying that you have had success advertising on Facebook.  Facebook does have a place, if you have a product geared to the commercial market or you are doing some market research, perhaps Facebook is somewhere you need to be.

When I consult with clients as a Calgary Online Marketing Specialist,  I offer advice on having a Facebook Page as a tool to share there daily going ons, heck, even I have one.  Here is the trick…AUTOMATION.  I rarely update my Facebook Page manually it is completely automated.  This is what I share with my clients.  Set it and forget it.

I am working on several presentations over the next few months and they will be around a topic entitled “Life After Facebook”.  Where can someone serious about building a business turn?  Well, I have some thoughts and Facebook has nothing to do with it.  It is strategy, it is prospecting….more to come.

Tags: Blog software, business tool, Calgary Online Marketing Specialist, Criticism of Facebook, Facebook, Facebook features, Facebook Inc, Human Interest, Online social networking, Social information processing, social media, success advertising, Technology/Internet, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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Be careful what you wish for eh!  Ulistic is having one crazy busy week but we are having a blast.

My blogging has been pretty light this week, some of you may actually be happy about this.  It is simply because we have an abundance of proposals and training sessions going on this week.  In the past week Ulistic has brought on two new mentoring clients in the US, working with firms in Houston and Seattle and most recently speaking to another firm in Tampa about how we can help them win new opportunities with effective online marketing strategies.  Combine this with our local obligations…well it is amazing and we are very blessed to say the least.  I simply love to serve those companies interested in learning more about how their business can prosper by leveraging online marketing.

I started a Facebook debate on Wednesday evening around the “Social Media Expert” topic.  For those who follow my blog know that I absolutely detest those who claim to be social media experts and have no business substance or experience to support their claim.  This Facebook discussion focuses around those who claim to be social media experts however lack business acumen on how social media can actually fit into their business model and the actual goals of the corporation.

Want to the join the discussion, visit Stuart Crawford Facebook profile to join in.

Tags: blog, Blog hosting services, Business/Finance, collaboration, Criticism of Facebook, Facebook, Facebook Inc, Houston, media experts, online marketing strategies, Online social networking, Seattle, Social information processing, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, stuart crawford, Stuart's ramblings, tampa, The Facebook Era, United States, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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Who said Social Media was for teens or kids?

Well the importance of social media in the business world took a huge leap forward.  Google on their official blog announced they will be showing real-time search results for Facebook information such as your fan pages.  It appears this will only be US-based for now, however once it starts gaining some momentum I am sure it will spill across the border to us here in Canada.

Real-time search results was released in December and so far it is showing up on a number of searches.

Here is an example of Google real-time search in action.  Searching for the Canadian Hockey Team on Google today showed some very interesting search results in real-time.

Social Media services are now critically important for your business.  Especially with this integration of search results from services like Twitter and now Facebook now showing in Google search results.  What opportunities is your business missing?  If you are would like to learn more about Canadian search engine optimization for your business give me a call at 403.775.2205.

To learn more about Facebook and Google search, check out the official Google blog.

Tags: Blog hosting services, canada, Criticism of Facebook, Facebook, Facebook Inc, google, Google Inc., Google search, Google's hoaxes, Online social networking, real time search, real-time search results, search engine optimization, search results, Social information processing, social media, Technology/Internet, Twitter, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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Starting to get a clear picture on the importance of social technologies in our world today

Over the past three or four days, I have been a very busy boy, preparing lesson plans for our upcoming Ulistic Social Media Workshop in Calgary on Feb 25th. 

The entire team at Ulistic is pretty pumped about serving our community with this course.  It will be a good one, that is for sure. I’m also really looking forward to meeting the 20 or so people who have signed up for our kick off workshop; there are some old friends, and some new names, on the roster.

This is one of the first steps in what we are calling “changing website ‘havers’ into website owners”.

Helping business owners become website owners

I hear it everyday during my travels around Calgary, and the same stories hold true as I criss-cross the country.   Many small business owners admit that they simply own a website, and that it could go down for days without them noticing. This website was made by someone (maybe the kid down the street) who vanished as soon as the site was put together, and hasn’t been heard from since. The truth is, these website “havers” have no idea how this marketing investment is performing, how many visitors they get daily, or how many of those visitors are converted into leads.

Our goal with the entire team at Ulistic is simple. We are here to help business owners realize that it is time for them to take ownership of their web presence, and shoot for real and measurable objectives with their web marketing. This is the mission of our team at Ulistic for 2010.  We have a great challenge in front of us, but I know we can do it, one business at a time.

Over the next few days, I would like to share my own recent insights, as I craft the lesson plans for next week’s Social Media course. The world of Social Media, especially in my new role as a social media consultant in Canada, is a very exciting place, and it is wonderful to focus on something that I love. But what really excites me is helping my clients with their particular challenges, and introducing them to the right people.

One thing is for sure, there is still a tremendous amount of confusion around how these social technologies and services can help a business owner grow their business. This is where I stumbled for a while, until I actually figured it out, and I think I have figured it out. Over the next few days, I will share what I have learned in a series of blog posts.

Social Media is not Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn

Like the phrase says, “social media” is just another way of getting your message out to a potential audience, just like “print media”, “television media”, or “radio media”.  With some social media technologies, it is very much like television or radio — a spray and pray approach, hoping someone heard the message.  However, with some social media technologies, your messaging can be razor-sharp, and targeted.  So in my opinion, social media is the art of crafting a message, and using the services and technologies available to get the message out there.

Social Media is not about Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube. These services are simply the technology of the day, and they will change, the same way word processing software went from WordPerfect to Microsoft Word, and now to Google Apps (for some). These rapid changes in technology are the reason why you still need the computer fix-it guy. Although we will continue to write letters and emails and use a lot of what we learned some 10 years ago, some people have learned new tricks, while some have not.

When TV changed from rabbit ears to cable, it didn’t make an immediate change to the message. However, as the technologies became more advanced, bringing satellite and online TV into the spotlight, the way broadcasters targeted their audience improved. Today, even though the beer commercials are essentially the same, and the the funeral home commercials are essentially the same, new technologies have allowed them to pin-point their target audience more accurately.

Stay tuned for more…

Tags: Blog hosting services, Business/Finance, Calgary, canada, Criticism of Facebook, Facebook, Facebook Inc, Google Inc., Internet Marketing, LinkedIn Ltd, Online social networking, print media, radio media, Social information processing, social media, social media consultant, Social Media Ventures Inc, social technologies, Stuart's ramblings, Technology/Internet, television media, The Facebook Era, Twitter, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, web marketing, web presence, word processing software, World Wide Web, YouTube Inc
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