Alberta Business Marketing

Our team at Ulistic coaches many small business folks and marketing teams across North America each day.  This is the part of the job that I truly enjoy, openly sharing concepts, tips and tricks and practical use of social media.    It is always such a delight when the light bulb goes off during a consulting session with one of our clients.  Business in my opinion are done with the fluff around social media, they want the hard facts, return on investment justifications, what are the opportunities and most importantly what do need to do.  Interested in learning more, just click here, drop me an email or phone call.

One Product that rocks my world – Hootsuite

One of the products we discuss at length during our Social Media Consulting engagements is Hootsuite.  Hootsuite is the cornerstone of our social media modules and it rightly deserves it place in the pecking order of must have social media management tools for any size of business or hobbyist.

I have personally tried a number of social media services out there (Tweetdeck is one).  Hootsuite is really the only true social media dashboard product out there that is easy to use and does almost anything you can imagine.  One the biggest stress factors with social media is managing the time to engage properly online and make important connections, Hootsuite solves this.  With Hootsuite, you can manage multiple Twitter accounts, LinkedIn profiles, Facebook pages, Foursquare accounts and so much more.  You can even invite members of your team and share certain online social media accounts.

It is a must have for any serious social media professional out there and it is also Canadian.

Hootsuite is based in Vancouver, BC.

Hootsuite runs online, it is a true cloud solution.  Leveraging the power of HTML5, Hootsuite requires no software to install and no widgets or browser add-ons, simply point your browser to http://www.hootsuite.com, create your account and you are off to the races.

Karim at Techvibes shared some recent news on Hootsuite the other day.  Hootsuite is cranking it up another step.  I love the fact that I can segment my Twitter account into lists, searches and much more but now I can filter these columns on keywords or Klout.  My Klout score sits at 29, it has taken a hit over the past little while since I haven’t been that active in the Twitter Universe lately.

Go and check out Hootsuite, it is awesome web-based solution that rocks!

Tags: awesome web-based solution, british columbia, cloud solution, Facebook Inc, foursquare, Hootsuite, LinkedIn Ltd, media accounts, media dashboard product, media management tools, media modules, media services, North America, Online social networking, Real-time web, social media, social media consulting, Technology/Internet, Tweetdeck Inc., Twitter, Twitter Inc, Vancouver, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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Last week our team from Ulistic met with the great folks at MSP University in Garden Grove, California.  Together, we started to carve out what will become an awesome relationship.  MSPU is one of the leading managed services firms globally and the clients they work with are market leaders and enjoy the fruits of the hard work. I have personally known Erick Simpson and Gary Beechum for a number of years, they are rock solid guys and the entire team at MSPU is built on the same core values Gary and Erick bring to the table.

During our chat last week we got looking at Facebook Marketing and how businesses can leverage Facebook to market their offerings.  It is no secret that Facebook is growing.  Their recent partnership with Microsoft BING has shot Facebook up to the 6th most popular search engine.  One in Four page views on the Internet is Facebook related and the average person spends anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour on Facebook each day.  Still many question Facebook’s effectiveness in the market place.

During our time with MSPU, a number of ideas were discussed, but it was this fact amongst all the others that kind of surprised me when I stumbled upon it.  There are almost as many Facebook users in California that what there is in the entire country of Canada.   This is no secret really, we have heard for years that there are just as many people in one state in the US than what we have in Canada.  15.4 million Facebook users in Canada and almost 15.5 in the entire state of California.  What does this mean for business?

Does marketing on Facebook now make sense to your business?

If you look at the numbers closely, the 15 million or so folks from either California or Canada represent about 50% of the population.  That represents a good portion of the Canadian or Californian landscape uses Facebook.  Pretty impressive.

Are you leveraging this to get your message out there?
How can you use Facebook to market your business?

There are many ways to do this from Pay-Per-Click or Pay-Per-Impression ads, Facebook Pages and regular interaction with people.  Engagement with folks on Facebook, talking with your community, the people in your network and simply serving the market.

Do you need to know more about how to create a Fan Page that sings?
Want to know how to engage with Facebook?

I invite you to reach out and let’s have a chat about how you can use Facebook right now.

There are a number of opportunities and Facebook can be another important channel for you to help with your marketing.  You know the old saying about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION or what Wayne Gretzky has always said “skate to where the puck is going, not where it is”.

Need a hand to figure it out…visit my Execute On Facebook or Marketing On Facebook page and take the first step in creating a marketing strategy for Facebook today.

Tags: Blog software, Business Partnership, California, canada, Criticism of Facebook, Erick Simpson, Facebook, Facebook features, Facebook Inc, Garden Grove, Gary Beechum, Human Interest, LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION, Microsoft BING, MSP University, Online social networking, search engine, Social information processing, Technology/Internet, United States, wayne gretzky, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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As the world continues to struggle with a social media definition, anxiety is building at an alarming rate on how your small business can leverage social media.  Almost everyone I speak with during my travels right here in Calgary but across our entire client base is challenged with these same thoughts.

How can we really use social media and how can we profit from the use of social media?

These questions are fantastic and genuine.  We can measure some marketing and some companies are spending thousands of dollars on marketing that doesn’t work with no real measurement.  I would be better off sometimes driving down Deerfoot Trail here in Calgary and throwing my business cards out the window.  Oh yeah, and then trying to follow up with every one who picked one up off the side of the freeway.

Concern and the pursuit of figuring our social media, tough economic times and constant bombardment from gurus is causing more and more social anxiety to occur.  Leaving Small Business owners to feel like their heads are going to explode.  They won’t explode and you can always call me if it feel like it will.

It is no secret that communication strategies are evolving.  Some may see this as change while others see it is a natural evolution on how people communicate.  I believe most people are resistent to change as well.  They don’t like it, maybe they don’t accept it and it could be the alarming pace of change that may also lead to anxiety throughout Canadian business.

After all, we had telephones, fax machines, cell phones, email, cell phone with email and now social media platforms.  Change is all around us.

Is the rate of change that is fueling the anxiety or even adoption of social media in the workplace?

I am shocked every time I learn about a firm who block services like Facebook, Blogs, Twitter from their employees?  Why?  Are you position them to fail in one of most critical parts of your business.  Creating rapport and communicating with clients, customers, prospects and the community?

Recently, I learned of a friend who left his Calgary car sales job because his employer wouldn’t allow him to use these new social media tools to help build his following and use social media services to increase awareness about the cars the dealership was looking to sell into the Calgary market.  He was told that he had to do this work from home and the dealership wouldn’t allow it on their business network.  I am not sure if you are aware how car sales work?  The hours are long and you are exhausted at the end of the day. Plus it is very competitive.  Any leg up may just be the advantage they were looking for.

Did this lead to social anxiety?  You bet!  Someone who wants to take it to the next level and an organization that doesn’t back it.

Here is the way I see it.  Social Media is here to stay.  Each and every day social media services are weaving their way into the fabric of our communications.  Definitely at home and now moving into the workplace.  Don’t get hung up on the tools is something I coaching our Ulistic clients on.  The tools may change but the core philosophy doesn’t.  Look at your cell phone, it doesn’t matter if it is an iPhone, HTC, Blackberry – the core principles are in place.  Do you have anxiety over your mobile phone?  For most no, why?  It is part of the way we communicate today and so will social media…it will become part of the way we communicate.

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Ulistic focuses on serving the needs of Canadian Small Business, REALTORS, and Information Technology firms across Canada and United States. Helping your business understand, deploy and leverage social media, search engine optimization and online communications to generate business opportunities and make an impact inside your community and industry.

My business partner David and I are business professionals first. We understand what it takes to run a successful small business.

I invite you to reach out to me personally at 403.775.2205 or email Stuart at scrawford@ulistic.com.

Tags: Anxiety disorders, Anxiety/Uncertainty Management, Calgary, car sales, car sales job, cell phones, cellular telephone, Facebook Inc, Health Tech Corporation Limited, Human behavior, iphone, Labor, media definition, media platforms, media services, Mobile phone, Phobias, Psychology, Social anxiety disorder, Social information processing, Social Issues, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, Social psychology, Technology/Internet, Twitter Inc
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Earlier this week I had the wonderful experience of serving my good friend Denise Deveau from the National Post and Financial Post with some information on “social media in Canadian business” for a recent article of hers which appears in the National Post and Financial Post recently.  The article “Sweeten Sales with Social Media” focused on how Canadian Small Business can use social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to improve overall sales performance.  But more importantly, the article really touched on the importance of engagement and listening.

Kim Gans from Toronto’s Sweet Flour Bake Shop was the focus on the article.  Kim shared how her business uses social media services to connect with clients and her community.  I was there as the Canadian Professional who can help other Canadian Small Businesses figure this out but the real star of the article was Kim and her business.

Kim shared in the article how her business uses social media each day to engage in the community and work with her customers.  ”For us, social media tools are incredibly useful and a huge component of our marketing. We do very, very little advertising, with the exception of a few local placements.”

Her story is just like many of the businesses we serve daily at Ulistic.  Many Canadian small business are weathering the recession OK but they have next to nothing for a marketing budget but still want to make a big splash.  Luckily for many Canadian small business owners, the barrier to entry is nice and low and the Internet is the perfect vehicle to help them succeed with their marketing.  It is almost the perfect storm for many of my peers to take advantage of the Internet to help grow their businesses.

But it takes commitment, authenticity and persistence. This is not something you can do once and say “there, I did it…business come to me now”.  It is just like business networking face-to-face, it takes work and it takes hard work to run effective online marketing campaigns.  I am sure Kim will share with you that it didn’t happen over night.  Just to repeat, it takes work and this commitment to working on the business marketing for many often dies off over time.  Just look around and you will see “stale blogs” littered all across the Internet.  When was the last time you wrote something on your blog?

Kim summed it up “We have added a lot of different mixes based on feedback. We’re not just asking people, we’re listening to what they have to say online. For example, we found out that a lot of customers wanted gluten-free choices so we added that. Our new ice cream and frozen yogurt sandwich cookies were their idea.”

It takes effort, it takes engagement and you must listen and listen all the time.  Social Media effectiveness is more listening than talking and most of us have this backwards.  We spend more time publishing than we do keeping our finger on the pulse of what is happening around us.  We really need to shift gears back into listening and engagement mode.  Just like Kim did when her customers shared with her about the ice cream and frozen yogurt sandwich.

What is your ice cream and frozen yogurt sandwich?

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Ulistic focuses on serving the needs of Canadian Small Business, REALTORS, and Information Technology firms across Canada and United States. Helping your business understand, deploy and leverage social media, search engine optimization and online communications to generate business opportunities and make an impact inside your community and industry.

My business partner David and I are business professionals first. We understand what it takes to run a successful small business.

I invite you to reach out to me personally at 403.775.2205 or email Stuart at scrawford@ulistic.com.

Tags: Business, Business Success, Business/Finance, Communication design, Denise Deveau, Facebook Inc, financial post, Kim Gans, LinkedIn Ltd, little advertising, Mass media, media services, media tools, social media, Technology/Internet, the National Post, toronto, Twitter Inc
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Is your head buried in the sand or does your technology organization understand and leverage the powers of online marketing, search engine optimization and social media to share information, content and advice with your community and client base?

Hello from Toronto and the 2010 Search Engine Strategies conference.  David and I are guests at this years Canadian stop and enjoying a great opportunity to share best practices and ideas with many of our peers in the online community.  It is great to actually see faces in this usual face-less world that is emerging.

It is no secret that the online search world is evolving, is your business prepared for the upcoming changes or are you still attempting to catch up with older techniques?

Today’s age of the knowledge worker empowers users and search is one of the most important ways many learn about what you have to offer and teach the market about your offerings. Search can be a complex yet adaptive strategy and the time is now businesses large and small to take control of how and where people find them online.

Interested in understand the latest on how Google’s search techniques impact the marketplace? Does Microsoft’s advertising strategy tweak your curiosity but allow prospects to find you?

The 2010 Toronto Search Engine Strategies may just have the answers for you. Now underway at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Toronto this annual event brings the sharpest minds together for 2 days of intense collaboration on search engine techniques and facilitates the sharing of best practices amongst conference delegates.

It is no secret that the Internet is evolving and the way small business across North America look at new ways to market their business challenges even the sharpest of marketing minds. SES 2010 provides a forum for online marketers to learn the latest techniques on effective link building, pay-per-click advertising, social media tactics, real-time search effectiveness and many more business and marketing strategies.

Now in it’s seventh year, SES Toronto is organized and programmed by the SES Advisory Board and SearchEngineWatch.com, the leading authority on Search Engine Marketing (SEM), including Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click.

What are some of the emerging trends? Is it Google’s recently announced “Caffeine”, which is a complete overhaul on how Google indexes websites? Will this shift from crawling the net looking for content to a real-time database of online content change the way many of our VAR businesses show up on search results?

Will Social Media continue the onslaught that has attracted the attention from experts, enthusiasts and hobbyists? Gobbling up the attention span of business professionals to casual surfers across everywhere? How important will Facebook and Twitter be in the next year? Will the “instant on” social media services play impact search results and help position business when prospects look for products and services? “We can’t continue to keep our heads in the sand.” states Ulistic Senior Advisor David West.

These questions and others will be discussed in the keynotes, breakouts and in the hallways throughout the 48-hour conference in downtown Toronto. Peter Morville, President of Michigan’s Semantic Studios kicked it all off with his morning keynote address on how search patterns influence the decisions and actions people make. “We really need to understand our users and the vocabulary and the words they use,” said Morville, talking on understanding how people search for information throughout many facets of Internet, mobile and Internet search.

Follow Search Engine Strategies on Twitter #SESTO.

Tags: advertising strategy, Advisor, Business/Finance, David West, Facebook Inc, google, Google Inc., impact search results, Internet Marketing, Internet search, knowledge worker, Michigan, Microsoft Corporation, North America, online community, online content, online marketers, online search world, pay-per-click advertising, Peter Morville, President, President of Michigan, real-time search effectiveness, Reprise Media, search engine, Search engine marketing, search engine optimization, Search Engine Strategies, search engine techniques, Search Engine Watch, search results, search techniques, SES 2010, social media, social media services, social media tactics, technology organization, Technology/Internet, toronto, Twitter Inc, Vertical search, Web search engine, World Wide Web
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