Alberta Business Marketing

This past week I have been working with a fellow Heartland Tech Group member from the Philadelphia, PA area and leader in the Philadelphia Small Business Computer Support market, Jobecca Technology Group.  Michael and I have known each other for a couple of years now and it wasn’t until this past month we decided to work together and what a pleasure it is to have Michael on board as a client with Ulistic.  Today, Ulistic is assisting Michael in taking his web marketing and overall web strategy to a new level.  So far, so good and it is awesome to have this HTG member as a client of our Calgary based Social Media Consulting and Online marketing organization, Ulistic.  Need help 403.775.2205.

See Jobecca’s new Philadelphia Business Computer Support blog today.

I learn from my clients just as much as I hope they learn from my experiences from us working together and with Jobecca, no exception to this rule occurs.  Michael and I share a very close friend Jeremy Epstein from Never Stop Marketing. I have been reading Michael’s blog posts and he reminded me about a focus point our friend Jeremy is talking about on his blog about Dandelin Marketing and the importance of Never Stop Marketing…sorry to the guys at TLC in Calgary…Jeremy coined this phrase long before you guys started using it (see spam emails going around Calgary).

Like Michael and I have mentioned, one of Jeremy’s new or recent discussion points is on Dandelion Marketing.  Are you asking yourself what is Dandelion Marketing? let’s think about this for a second and how dandelions spread in the wild.  Look outside your Calgary home right now, can you see a number of dandelions investing your lawn?  Being the May Long Weekend, it is more than likely that the dandelions are out in full force.  I know my front yard has many of the yellow butter cups showing their face.

In Jeremy’s blog post on Dandelion Marketing, he shares 6 basic concepts on how to share information online with your raving fans and also those who simply like what you have to offer.

• Know the Commander’s Intent
• EVERYONE is in marketing.
• Brand: Feel Over Look.
• Agile Marketing Development
• High Fault Tolerance.
• Rapid Feedback Loops.

Dandelion Marketing is in my opinion is about leverage.  Using the tools available to you, some are actually free and some have a small price tag associated with them to share relevant information with your community and also your raving fans.  Information that is relevant, information they would find interesting and information their follows find interesting and when everything aligns…well look how dandelions spread across the prairie landscape!

Download the Dandelion Marketing eBook from Jeremy Epstein today…some very good reading…I am reading it on my iPad right now!

Tags: 403.775.2205, Biology, Botany, Business Success, Business/Finance, Calgary, Dandelion, heartland tech group, Herbs, Human Interest, iPad, Jeremy Epstein, Jobecca Technology Group, leader, Medicinal plants, Michael, never stop marketing, overall web strategy, Philadelphia, philadelphia computer support, social media consulting, Social Media Consulting and Online, Taraxacum, ulistic, web marketing
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Now it is time to forget about those expense, complex and perhaps unreliable network servers for simply sharing information amongst members of your team!  Small Business now has a robust, easy to manage, pain-free solution to manage their day-to-day sharing of information across team members everyday.  During a recent trip to Tampa, my partner David stumbled upon a fantastic solution that solves most of our file sharing challenges and at a price that fits our business budget.

Have you heard of Dropbox?

Dropbox is a web-based file storage, online backup and synchronization platform for small business and also can scale to support larger teams.  Dropbox was easy to install and flexible enough to support our small business needs.  No complex setups, no super high IT costs for a simple service like sharing information and we have the peace of mind knowing our business information is safe and sound, accessable wherever our travels take us and our overall cost of ownership is next to nothing.

At Ulistic we run a number of different platforms.  David and I both run Apples Macintosh systems of some flavour, we have the odd Windows machine kicking around the office and David runs Linux when he is on the road.  For a small business we have a wide variety of business systems.  Dropbox provides us the flexibility to run our business and access our information on all of these robust platforms.  Did I mention…with no headaches and no super high IT bills each month.

In addition, with its synchronization abilities when a file stored our team Dropbox account changes we have the ability to be notified.  Great when you are working and collaborating on a project together.

Are you ready for the price?

2 GB of storage and under is FREE! That’s right, it doesn’t cost you a cent to set up your own Dropbox account and copy your critical files to your account and off of your computer system.  Dropbox once installed shows up as a resource in Finder and also in your Windows Explorer.  It was so simple, even I installed it without the help of anyone.

For those concerned about security.  Dropbox allows you to lock down who has access to what.  All access is encrypted using AES-256 encryption and they claim that Dropbox employees do not have access to your information.  That is pretty good security in my eyes and especially for the information we work with daily.

Web and Mobility is also looked after.  Dropbox has applications for the iPad, iPhone and Android operating systems plus is fully accessible via a web browser.

Give it a try.  Pricing for storage is pretty reasonable after 2 GB.  For 100 GB of storage…$20 a month.  Wow, pretty reasonable!

Tags: android, business systems, Cloud storage, Computing, Data synchronization, David, Dropbox, fantastic solution, File hosting, File sharing, iPad, iphone, Linux, Microsoft Windows, online backup, Online backup services, Online Solutions, operating systems, pain-free solution, tampa, Technology/Internet, Ubuntu One, USD, using AES-256 encryption, web browser, web-based file storage
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I was recently reading a fantastic article about failure on Facebook and Twitter.  The article published in the Boston Herald talks about how using social media services such as Facebook, Twitter and other online services to pitch your products/services can actually do more harm than good.  The journalist discusses how social media services actually hurt sales of the new Apple iPad rather than helping it.  Well, when you have a bunch of people destroying an iPad on YouTube, how does that influence you?

P.J. Lamberson, an MIT Sloan School of Management visiting assistant professor mentioned in the article that you would think the more people you talk about your products and service with would actually adopt it, this is not always the case.  As a Calgary Online Marketing professional this is a huge hurdle many business owners we consult with through our Ulistic Online Marketing program need to jump.  It is never about the product and service, it is about engaging, helping and being part of the community.

I just finished reading “Go Givers Sell More” co-written by my good friend and trusted mentor, Bob Burg.  Bob always talks about the reasons why people do business with you.  First, they need to know, like and trust you and you can not meet these critical requirements by simply pitching your business on Twitter.  There are many things to think about.  Online Marketing is not the holy grail that will save your business, but it can help if used correctly.  It can be that first step towards know, like and trust.

Deep down inside we all want to get the word out about our business (sometimes we come across very desperate), just be careful how you go about doing this and make sure it doesn’t come back to bite you in the backside.  This is how I help many business owners across North America each day, we share ideas and concepts about balance and strategize about their overall marketing, not just online.

The article from the Boston Herald goes on to speak about President Obama and how he used social media services to help connect many young voters and now using these same services to gripe about the President.  How can these networks impact your business?  Word of mouth is so powerful today and the Internet is a giant word-of-mouth network.

Tags: Blog hosting services, bob burg, Boston Herald, Business/Finance, Facebook, Facebook Inc, Internet Marketing, iPad, journalist, MIT, North America, obama, Online Marketing professional, Online Marketing program, Online social networking, President, products/services, School of Management, Social information processing, social media, social media services, Technology/Internet, the Boston Herald, The Facebook Era, Twitter, Twitter Inc, Ulistic Online, visiting assistant professor, web 2.0, Word of mouth, word-of-mouth network, World Wide Web, YouTube Inc
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