Alberta Business Marketing

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
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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
Posted in Advertising, Communication, Marketing | | Comments Off

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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How is your business leveraging social media?
Do you know what is being said about your business?
Do you want to learn more from experienced social media business owners?

Consider signing up now for the next Ulistic workshop. A hands on workshop designed to empower the business owner understand social media.

We are going to tell you have to do this…we are going to show you how to do it.

Many business owners, entrepreneurs and managers have heard about the power of social media however struggle on where to start, what to look out for and even how does it bring in new business.

Ulistic is one of Calgary’s freshest businesses focused on empowering small business understand the power of social media. We are not hear to do it for you, our focus is to teach you what you can do online and empower you to take ownership of your entire online presence.

Register today for our next Social Media 101 workshop on April 15th at the Calgary Blackfoot Inn. Workshop runs from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. This is a hands on, bring your laptop and get started with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others.

Click here to register – Calgary Social Media Workshop by Ulistic.

Look forward to seeing you at our next workshop.

“I recently heard that in Jamaica people use the term “overstand” rather than “understand” when they mean that they see the whole picture. That’s what Ulistic’s social media course did for me. I now overstand how to use the many different forms of social media in a coherent and strategic way to deliberately maximize business marketing and name recognition. This isn’t about being overwhelmed and floundering around in new media, guessing how to make them work for you; this is about using them as daily tools to achieve business objectives. Ulistic’s instructors were obviously speaking from deep and broad experience, and their perspective was cogent, clear and very valuable, generously shared. That was great. Then, I took the search engine optimization course and found the same depth, breadth and overstanding perspective that allowed me to see how I could own a website and use it strategically as one of many interlocking online tools for marketing a business. I think anyone would find value in their courses and their services. Thank you, Ulistic!”

Marnie Schaetti, Rai-do Dynamics Communication

Tags: Aesthetics, Business/Finance, Calgary, Calgary Blackfoot Inn, Facebook Inc, Jamaica, LinkedIn Ltd, Mass media, media business owners, media course, New media, online presence, search engine, search engine optimization course, Social information processing, social media, Twitter Inc, Visual arts
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18 hours per week the average Canadian spend online.

I think I spend 18 hours or more each day online.  Since I work and own a vibrant Calgary Internet Marketing Consulting firm, well I should be online most of my day.  My word processor is online, my email sits in a data centre somewhere in the world and you want to catch up with what I am doing…tune into my online services.

My fellow Canadians are now tuning into YouTube and other online video sources to get their video entertainment, hurting the television advertising industry.  Canadians are shift their viewing to online media vs. cable television and of course fueling a heated debate about a so-called TV Tax we are facing here in Canada.  This unrest in the cable TV community and the traditional television networks such as Global, CBC or CTV are causing many Canadians to review the value of our modern-day television services.

What do you think?

Are you turning to online resources to watch video or even traditional television programs?

During CBC’s National, Peter Mansbridge reported about a family who has completely cancelled their cable service and switched completely to the Internet for their online television or video watching.  Bypassing the traditional advertisers and the parents actually claim they can even control the content being viewed in their home.

Social networking is consuming Canadians time, efforts and attention span.  We saw reports this week about Facebook, Twitter and other services are now part of people’s daily routine.  Social Media is woven into the fabric of almost every Canadians life, many checking Facebook first thing in the morning and just before they go to bed.

Why are we still trying to figure out if Social Media is something we need to get involved with?

Combine this with iPhones and other smart telephones and now…well the world is truly connected.

Tags: Blog software, Cable TV, Calgary Internet Marketing Consulting, canada, Compagnie Generale de Batiment et de Construction, CTV Inc, Facebook, Facebook Inc, Internet, Mass media, online media vs. cable television, Online social networking, online television, online video sources, Peter Mansbridge, Social information processing, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, social networking, Technology/Internet, television advertising industry, television networks, television services, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, word processor, World Wide Web, YouTube Inc
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