Alberta Business Marketing

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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Calgary Entrepreneur Peer Group Q1 meeting = success

This past Friday, the Calgary Entrepreneur Peer Group met for our first quarter meeting, meeting number 6 for our group of talented Calgary business professionals.  Our group has been meeting now for over a year and although we have had a few members come and go, our core base is still very much intact and I am so grateful for each and every person who trusts in our group.

We are not running more groups

This week after consulting with the group I have decided not to “fight the puck” when it comes to trying to get a second group up and running.  This is something I turned towards when I was looking for distractions on what I need to be doing not what I wanted to do and feed the ego machine.  The reality is when there is enough buzz about what the eight of us are doing, we can review starting a second group.

This is not a group for those with a weak stomach

We get down and dirty about each of our businesses, peel back the skin of the onion.  Sometimes tears flow and laughter erupts, but we are a serious business group of eight who are extremely committed to the success of every member.  It just feels super safe to have a trusted group like this.  I know many of my colleagues in Calgary sit back and would never even consider joining something where they need to be real, it is not an option, it is a requirement to let it all hangout.

During the eight hours per quarter we are together we discuss many topics. One of them this time around was on Social Media.  Perfect, a topic for me and something where I can get a chance to share my expertise, but this time I was the student.  We have experts from all aspects of business in our group ranging from insurance, technology, accounting, business leadership, governance, photography and international trade.  Like I said, a great group and mixture of professionals.

We discussed the importance of blogging and social media.  I ended up being the student on this day on how many Calgary small business professionals look at Social Media.  Most of them understand that social media is important but many struggle with the why, how and when to focus on social media marketing.

One of the strongest social media tools is blogging

It is so important that David and I focus one whole session in our “website owner” program and offer a full day of Calgary business blogging training.  However, what did I learn today from our group of Calgary Entrepreneurs?  My learnings came from all the members but especially from my trusted business mentor for many years that the real strength of blogging is around focusing on addressing customer or prospect objections in your blog.

Wow, great point.  All those items prospects push back on in your business are food for your business blog.  You can use your business blog to address those reasons why someone may say no to your proposal.  What a great vehicle and awesome insight to one of the powerful reasons business in Calgary needs to have a business blog up and running.

The power of peers

This is the importance of having trusted peers around you and your business.  Where can you turn for help and a shoulder to lean on?  I recommend forming your own business peer group, if you need help, just reach out to me.

Tags: blog, Business/Finance, Calgary, Calgary Entrepreneur Peer Group, food, media marketing, media tools, Social information processing, Stuart's ramblings, technology
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This morning in my Google mail inbox and Hootsuite account was a very interesting post from Chris Brogan (I get Chris’ blog posts emailed to me each morning) entitled “When all this gets cool“.  If you don’t know who Chris is, well you need to check him out.  He is one of the thought leaders in the Social Media space worldwide and has some pretty good concepts around how to use these tools to do some cool stuff.

The article from Chris talks about social media and the cool factor, what we can do online today is amazing and yes extremely cool.  This article really nails what we can do with social media tools.  Over the past few days I have been putting together a theoretical framework for Ulsitic on the entire social media landscape, this helps.

I agree with what Chris has to say about when what you can do with Social Media tools becomes cool.

Social Media is not about the tools.  Just like when I was an IT guy in Calgary, it wasn’t about the Windows 2003 server that was cool, deep down inside it wasn’t cool at all.  What was cool was how my clients could do cool things when they used the technology I set up for that or later in my IT career sold them.  I never sold a solution that didn’t fit into their business model, that wasn’t cool at all.  At the end of the day it was about the masterpieces of design they created, the ability to find petroleum products several kilometres beneath the surface of the earth or the fact that our clients could send out a press release to thousand with a click of a button.

In the Social Media world it is exactly the same thing.  Twitter, blogging, Facebook are not cool at all (well they can be a little), it is what we can do with these tools that are cool and remarkable.  The people we meet, the ideas we share and the concepts we can leverage are very cool.  On Chris’ blog he has a pretty good list on some items we can do each day to help out our community and others.  The biggest challenge I can see is finding the time or making it a priority in my day and then just doing it.

Here are just a few of them. Again I recommend you read his post at http://www.chrisbrogan.com/.

Start a public list of Twitter accounts from local businesses. Point everyone in your community to it.

Start small mastermind groups on Google Wave (I have an incredible group going. Very small. Very useful.)

Donate four hours a week to a charity, giving them more promotion and exposure for their causes, equipping them with more ways to find what they need.

Connect to 10 people every day. Make it a blend of 5 people you’ve been in touch with, and 5 people you need to stay fresh with. Ask for nothing. Offer everything. ( Tim Sanders does this well.)

On a side note, Chris is scheduled to be our guest on Ulistic’s Social Media podcast in April, visit “The Orange Files, Social Media in Canada podcast” for additional information.

What can you do today to make a difference in your community and make what you are doing online “cool”.  I guess it is time for me to finish what I start with my SW Calgary church blog site.

Tags: BeanCast, Blog hosting services, Business/Finance, Calgary, canada, Chris Brogan, church blog site, Cool, Cultural appropriation, Facebook, Facebook Inc, Google Inc., media tools, my IT career, Online social networking, online today, petroleum products, Popular culture, Social information processing, social media, Technology/Internet, Twitter, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, Windows 2003 server, World Wide Web
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