Alberta Business Marketing

Hello from San Antonio and the CompTIA Breakaway conference at the beautiful JW Marriott Resort.

Over the past two days I have been hanging with the team at MSP University during their ongoing Bootcamp running in parallel with the CompTIA Breakaway event.

I have been very fortunate to have been invited by MSP University to speak at their boot camp on the importance of marketing for Managed Services Providers and primarily online marketing.

Over the past two days I shared some of the tips and tricks for success with social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn plus had the luxury of sitting on a panel with three other leaders in the MSP marketing world.

As the dust settles from Breakaway, I will start sharing my key learnings…like any other conference the days are long and nights short.

Tags: CompTIA, Facebook Inc, LinkedIn Ltd, Managed Service Providers, MSP University, Professional certification, San Antonio, social media tools, Twitter Inc
Posted in Online Marketing | | Comments Off

LinkedIn, Facebook and many other Social Networking sites have been suggesting friends and followers for a while now.  Do you follow these people just because the service recommends them to you.   Deep down inside where many Facebookers or LinkedIn users never get a chance to visit there is some formula or algorithm that figures out who you should know and offers suggestions based on your friends, there friends and a number of other criteria.

Twitter is now jumping of the “suggest a friend” campaign with their own “suggestions for you” program.

The Twitter blog has more information on how this will work inside Twitter.  Read the Twitter blog.

Are you the type to follow whomever is suggested to you?

What do you think about the automated suggestions?

In the LinkedIn world, I have used the suggestions to my advantage.  When I see a name pop up from someone I haven’t heard of in a while or a long-lost colleague, LinkedIn can be a great way to get back in touch with people.

But what do you think?

Tags: Blog hosting services, Facebook, Facebook Inc, Human Interest, linkedin, LinkedIn Ltd, Online social networking, Social information processing, Social Landscape, social media, Social network service, Technology/Internet, Twitter, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, World Wide Web
Posted in Alberta Business | | Comments Off

Everyday I get asked by someone who is wanting the “quick win” with their marketing.  What do I have to do today to enable the phone to ring tomorrow?  Well, that is a very good question.  I am one hundred percent sure there is some marketing guru out there who can give you some quick win success formula that will enable this happen.  A couple a tweets here, a Facebook status update there and you are off to the races.  You need to simply spend two minutes on Google and you can easily find them, there are lots of gurus and ninjas and self-proclaimed experts who can help you.  Sure get the quick win, lots of promise but they all lack real substance.

Success in marketing doesn’t come overnight, I know…I haven’t been marketing for several years and it takes blood, sweat and tears.  It takes works and it takes time.  It takes patience and most importantly, it takes commitment.  The only thing overnight about marketing is your blunders that knock you down.  Those for some reason they seem to occur overnight, but success doesn’t.

I was reading on the side of my cereal box this morning about healthy eating.  Same thing, healthy lifestyles isn’t a race it is a journey and the same thing can be said about your marketing and especially your social media activities.

Success with social media is definitely not a race.  It is a journey and a tough uphill journey at the best of times.   It takes commitment from you and your entire team.  It takes more than just opening a Twitter account, Facebook Page and throwing up a free WordPress or blogger site.  Social Media takes planning, preparation and it requires everyone in the company to play a role.  I don’t care if you have three employees, thirty-three or three thousand and three.  Everyone must play a part.

This is what we do at Ulistic, everyone plays a role in our social media activities.  David, Frank and myself (soon Melanie) all play our parts and we all have the same goal just different paths that are strategically laid out in our marketing plan.  We all blog regularly and we participate in blog commenting almost daily, we are active on Facebook, Twitter and others and most importantly, we are active in our communities and this includes online and face-to-face.  I mentioned this in my podcast with Daniel Gutierrez and Bob Burg the other night…nothing will replace a face-to-face meeting, your social media fills these gaps and helps you get to face-to-face.

Are you expecting that quick win?  You may be a tad bit disappointed with this mindset.  For those who are out there consistently adding value and enriching the lives of others you will have success and it will take time.  Success with your social media marketing is helping others but also getting paid to help these people.  Bob says’ “Give more in value than you take in payment”.  You need to provide value but don’t do it for free.  Never lose site that you are in business and you must convert visitors, fans and followers to clients.  If you don’t you have a big network.  That’s it.

Need help figuring all this out, give me a call 403.775.2205.

Tags: 403.775.2205, Behavior, Blog hosting services, blogger site, Bob Bur, Business Success, Daniel Gutierrez, Facebook, Facebook Inc, Google Inc., Learning, media activities, media marketing, Online social networking, Play, social media, social media marketing, Twitter, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, World Wide Web
Posted in Marketing | | Comments Off

What a concept, is your social media generating revenue for your business?  Directly or indirectly?  Are you making a return on your social media efforts either a return on the investment or a return on the opportunity.  We are in business to serve the community and to get paid for providing these services, correct?  Enough of the fluff.  Is your social media activities generating leads, prospects and interest from those who will buy your products and services.

When did this “group hug” thing start to over take good business decisions with social media?  Many of my colleagues in traditional marketing may never say “Go ahead and send out your postcard campaign and share information on what someone else is doing”.  So why is this acceptable behaviour in social media?

When did we lose our focus around what are business is truly here for?  Was is Napster?  Was it software piracy?  Was it this Freemium mindset? Was it illegally downloading movies?  Is it this lifestyle or behaviours that have swung our society into this mindset about not promoting our organizations or offering our products for sale.

Sure, you know what…believing others before the corporate message has been around for a long time.  It is called “word of mouth” and referrals from colleagues is nothing new, we have been doing it long before Facebook or even computers were on every desk.  But, some folks out there are telling business that social media is not for promoting your business or attempting to reach new markets.

Hey, I even drank that kool-aid until I met with my banker and he told me…great stuff Stuart but how are you going to pay your mortgage?  We don’t accept your goodwill here?  That was all I need to hear!

Your business is in business to serve the community and to get paid accordingly for these services you provide.

BTW, I am not talking about a free ticket to SPAM but we need to make sure our messages are around service, education and then “YOUR CALL TO ACTION”.

I highly recommend we focus on serving our community and also focus on the bottom line of our business.  Understand real marketing metrics and not some “social currency” that is truly worthless in the real business community.

You are in business to serve and get paid for the services you provide.

Tags: banker, Business/Finance, Computing, Facebook Inc, Napster, Social Landscape, social media, software piracy
Posted in Alberta Business | | Comments Off

This Calgary Consultant was schooled on the Art of Leadership.  It is always wonderful when I have an opportunity to learn from others in our business community.

I first met Angel Rodriguez through my good friend Shawne Duperon and then through Daniel Gutierriez.  Now, My good friend and trusted colleague from Frito Lay, Angel Rodriguez has taught me a thing or two about the art of leadership and how leadership skills for highly trained executives in business actually works.

During my short 45 minute call with Angel we discussed social media and it’s role in larger organizations. The conversation quickly woke me up a bit when Angel and I were chatting about how our colleagues in an organization such as Frito Lay where Angel served as an executive VP for a number of years use social media.  They don’t use these services the way many small businesses use social media.

It is not uncommon for a company like Frito to obtain large followings on many different social media platforms and have groups where former employees, current employees and fans of their products gather to keep in touch with each other and to continuously network.  Pepsi has over 800,000 followers and I believe Coke has something like 2 million.  Coke’s story on social media is truly unique. It is actually run by fans of Coke from what I understand during my research on Facebook Fan Pages.

Angel shared with me, true leaders, inspire and provide a platform for others to excel.  In the social media world, this translates to education and sharing.  Social Media for any type of leader provides an easy to access and readily available platform for business leaders to excel.  However, the business leader must be open to trying new things and be open to teaching others, just like Angel taught me.

I believe a number of small businesses can also use this philosophy and have success with it.  Instead of the usual messaging we see on Twitter, Facebook and others where small business are always pushing.  Maybe it is time to let the guard down and show our human side and offer to teach.

In my role as a social media consultant I have an opportunity every day to help business owners and marketing professionals around the world learn how to truly inspire those in their communities and markets.  Angel taught me a couple of things today around leadership and some of his lessons from Frito Lay.

How can I take this leadership lessons and put them into practice in my social media consulting role.  It is about leadership and making a difference.

Tags: Angel, Angel Rodriguez, business leader, Business/Finance, Calgary Consultant, Daniel Gutierriez, executive VP, Facebook Inc, Frito-Lay, guard, leadership, Mass media, media consulting role, media platforms, media world, Pepsico Inc., Shawne Duperon, social media consultant, Social Media Ventures Inc, Television, Twitter Inc, VP for a number
Posted in Alberta Business | | Comments Off