Alberta Business Marketing

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
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Social Media and Search Engines are turning the sales world on its head. Is your business attractive bait in the online ocean or is your business just a small fish in a big pond. Businesses today are looking for what you have to offer but how are they finding you?

One of the questions I get asked throughout the course of my day, as a Canadian Social Media Consultant is how small businesses across Canada can actively prospect for new business in our online world. The Internet has opened the kimono when it comes to marketing opportunities.

Is your business leveraging what the Internet has to offer?

I continue to enjoy a strong passion for sales and marketing. This passion was born in my early days as a computer tech and IT Professional in the Calgary market. As a young computer support technician I had a knack for helping those get the right IT solutions for their business and with the right mindset. These core principles I practiced 12 years ago are now very relevant today.

It started with putting service first and the need to provide the client the right solution that allowed them to achieve their crucial business goals. I loved being involved in the sales process and eventually helping build IT Matters through a strong client-first marketing focus.

Like many of you, I had a number of so-called “sales experts” try to educate me on how to sell to my customers. Some strategies worked and some flopped. That was part of the education process. The important component of any experience is that we learn from it.

In a traditional sales environment, we have always taught our sales teams to go out and prospect. Chase down potential opportunity after opportunity and shake things out. Many of us are still taught to “go out and hunt for opportunities”. We do cold calling, warm calling, selling to people in our networking groups and the list goes on from there.

The question is, does it really work in today’s world?

The market is much smarter than just a few years ago. Google, BING and the Internet have helped educate our clients on exactly what they want or need. Social Media and online communities are breeding grounds for those looking for answers. However, many of us continue to turn a blind eye to the power of social media and continue with websites that don’t perform.

Today’s consumer plays the prospector role. Educated consumers lurk amongst us and the Internet allows these knowledgeable consumers to continuous search the information and answers they want. Many will never stop until they get the answer they want. These same consumers once relied on our expertise. Today, that expertise is available with a simple Google search.

I often think in order to fill this need and to be successful in our businesses we need to flip the prospecting model on its head. The roles have to be reversed. Our sales teams and marketing professionals must become the prospect and our future clients…the prospector. I think this is how the model has to look. It is the only way it can work in today’s world where answers are at everyone’s fingertips.

What can we do online and offline that facilitates others to prospect for our services and products? How do sales professionals and business owners become attractive bait for those in need of what we have to offer? I often think about what Jeffrey Gitomer says, “customers love to buy but they hate to be sold”.

How can we become that facilitator who allows people to do what they love…BUY. Can our social media activities play an active role? I think it has to. The reality of today’s world is never before has the opportunity for many of us to become great bait and allow the prospectors out there to find us. After all, isn’t that we all love to buy? The debt crises in North America can attest to that.

The Internet allows us to be searchable. Social media and search engines are the prospector’s tools. The scary part is for many of us is we are nowhere to be found. We have little or no online presence and we wonder why the guy down the street gets all the business. Maybe it is because he is out there, helping and serving those who are looking for what he or she has to offer.

That is the reality, it doesn’t matter what market you are in, you have an opportunity to educate and make yourself the most attractive bait out there. You just need to take the first step and learn how to participate effectively.

Tags: Business, Business/Finance, Calgary, canada, Canadian Social Media, Consultant, continuous search, google, Google Inc., I T MATTERS, jeffrey gitomer, marketing plan, media activities, North America, online communities, online ocean, online presence, online world, sales, search engines, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, Stuart's ramblings, Technology/Internet, young computer support technician
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Over the past few weeks I have been studying the analytics used to track this blog amongst other sites under the careful eye of our team at Ulistic. I keep asking myself if Search is really all that important in today’s new Internet?  In the early days of the Internet, back in the days of webcrawler.com (which was my search engine of choice), searching for information was a hit and miss affair.  Sure some days you would find what you were looking for and some days maybe not.  Was that because of poor search engine optimization?  My spidey senses say no…maybe just a plain old lack of information online.

Then Google came along…and everything changed.

A new form of Snake Oil Salesmen was invented, “the search engine optimization guru”.  (Today we have social media gurus) Don’t get me wrong with every business comes which is popular attracts Snake Oil Salesmen.  Today, they are everywhere.  Someone looking to make a quick buck scaring small business people into thinking that they business will go under if they don’t do something now.  There isn’t a day that passes where I get solicited from someone who fails to truly identify themselves via email offering to put my site on the first page of the Google search engines.

Your business must have balance…you need to get out and shake hands, get some Vitamin D, go to people where the work, network, have a balanced website, effective search strategies, social media activities and much more…you can’t rest on search engine optimization alone and expect to survive.

Here is my side of the story – I am in the business and work with a number of IT firms, small businesses and others across North America and even I can’t guarantee to you that we will put you on the first page of Google.  Why?  Lots of reasons.  If you follow the best practices that professionals recommend, you have a much better chance of surfacing on the top of the search table. However, who is to say your competitors down the street isn’t after the same goal or that company on the other side of the globe who has repeatedly cut your grass over the past six months.

SEO is something that you firm must invest in.  But, like I said earlier it has to be part of the overall strategy and balanced with everything else you do.  SEO needs to be part of your overall marketing plan just like your business networking, your direct mail pieces and other marketing activities.  It must be part of the long-term vision of the organization and the management team of all organizations who wish to achieve success online must take ownership and be included in the process.

Yes, Search is crucial in today’s business world when it is balanced with all your other activities.

What about social?  Is Social Media the new search?  Will Facebook become the next big search engine?  My crystal ball says “Facebook has the potential”.  Now, search is on a whole new level.  Search enters social and social enters search.  Does it make sense?  Just looking at the web analytics I have to say I am impressed how much traffic comes from linkedin.com, twitter.com and facebook.com on a number of keysites under our watch at Ulistic.

Will we be saying…and then Facebook came along…and everything changed.

Tags: business networking, Business/Finance, Computing, Facebook, Facebook Inc, google, Google Inc., Internet Marketing, Internet search engines, media activities, media gurus, North America, poor search engine optimization, search engine, search engine optimization, search engine optimization guru, search engines, search strategies, search table, Social Media Ventures Inc, Technology/Internet, Vitamin D, web analytics, World Wide Web
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There is lots of discussion in various small business communities throughout the world around the topic of Return On Investment (ROI) with Social Media? As an owner of a successful small business IT firm and now a partner with Ulistic, understanding ROI is not only important but essential for success in your business operations.  What is the ROI on a piece of software?  What is the ROI on that lunch with a prospect?  What is the ROI on hiring your first employee? But there is more!

Personally, I think simply focusing on ROI is very shortsighted.  I understand how important it is that your business is profitable and sees a return on the investments made however I think the deeper question is “what is the return on opportunity” or “How can my business capitalize on the opportunities out there”?  For me this is much deeper and really hits the core of why we do what we do.  I believe this is what makes our team at Ulistic different, we have and continue to run profitable and a successful business.  We know what it takes to be profitable, where to reach your markets and a unique approach to looking at the entire picture and the impact on your business.  Then we share this information with our consulting clients.

How does this tie into Social Media?

What is the ROO with your marketing efforts?
What is the ROO in having the talented staff member fielding support calls?
What is the ROO of being present in the online communities?

You have to understand the opportunity and what potentials exist in your target market.  I speak about casting your net and the importance of knowing where to fish for maximize effectiveness plus have nets out there which catch less fish (The Long Tail).  But you also need to know when the fish are hungry. (Thanks Bob Burg).

During our Calgary Social Media Workshops which Ulistic holds every couple of months for business owners, we focus on the importance of looking at the potential opportunities associated with simply being present online.  I remember how T. Harv Eker would open his Millionaire Mind intensive with every single time “80% of success is just showing up”.  This goes for your online marketing and social media activities as well.  You need to show up, that is the first step but of course it is not the last step. You need to have a presence, now there are tricks so it doesn’t consume all your time.

What opportunities are you missing by not having a presence on the mainstream social media services?  I shared recently online with you about how Google is now archiving tweets on Twitter.  Twitter, Facebook Pages, Digg, LinkedIn and many others are importance networks to participate in and do you play in these sandboxes?  David and I cover the importance of search and your social circle during our Calgary SEO courses and plus the importance of having effective online strategies in our Calgary social media courses.

What is the ROO for your online fishing (marketing)?  To me, it is so much more than talking about Facebook, Twitter and other online services.

Tags: Blog hosting services, bob burg, Business/Finance, Calgary, Facebook, Facebook Inc, Google Inc., importance networks, LinkedIn Ltd, media activities, media courses, media services, online communities, online fishing, Online social networking, online strategies, Social information processing, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, T. Harv Eker, Technology/Internet, Twitter, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, World Wide Web
Posted in Marketing, Online Marketing | | Comments Off

There is lots of discussion in various small business communities throughout the world around the topic of Return On Investment (ROI) with Social Media? As an owner of a successful small business IT firm and now a partner with Ulistic, understanding ROI is not only important but essential for success in your business operations.  What is the ROI on a piece of software?  What is the ROI on that lunch with a prospect?  What is the ROI on hiring your first employee? But there is more!

Personally, I think simply focusing on ROI is very shortsighted.  I understand how important it is that your business is profitable and sees a return on the investments made however I think the deeper question is “what is the return on opportunity” or “How can my business capitalize on the opportunities out there”?  For me this is much deeper and really hits the core of why we do what we do.  I believe this is what makes our team at Ulistic different, we have and continue to run profitable and a successful business.  We know what it takes to be profitable, where to reach your markets and a unique approach to looking at the entire picture and the impact on your business.  Then we share this information with our consulting clients.

How does this tie into Social Media?

What is the ROO with your marketing efforts?
What is the ROO in having the talented staff member fielding support calls?
What is the ROO of being present in the online communities?

You have to understand the opportunity and what potentials exist in your target market.  I speak about casting your net and the importance of knowing where to fish for maximize effectiveness plus have nets out there which catch less fish (The Long Tail).  But you also need to know when the fish are hungry. (Thanks Bob Burg).

During our Calgary Social Media Workshops which Ulistic holds every couple of months for business owners, we focus on the importance of looking at the potential opportunities associated with simply being present online.  I remember how T. Harv Eker would open his Millionaire Mind intensive with every single time “80% of success is just showing up”.  This goes for your online marketing and social media activities as well.  You need to show up, that is the first step but of course it is not the last step. You need to have a presence, now there are tricks so it doesn’t consume all your time.

What opportunities are you missing by not having a presence on the mainstream social media services?  I shared recently online with you about how Google is now archiving tweets on Twitter.  Twitter, Facebook Pages, Digg, LinkedIn and many others are importance networks to participate in and do you play in these sandboxes?  David and I cover the importance of search and your social circle during our Calgary SEO courses and plus the importance of having effective online strategies in our Calgary social media courses.

What is the ROO for your online fishing (marketing)?  To me, it is so much more than talking about Facebook, Twitter and other online services.

Tags: Blog hosting services, bob burg, Business/Finance, Calgary, Facebook, Facebook Inc, Google Inc., importance networks, LinkedIn Ltd, media activities, media courses, media services, online communities, online fishing, Online social networking, online strategies, Social information processing, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, T. Harv Eker, Technology/Internet, Twitter, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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