Alberta Business Marketing

I am back in my home office after a very busy couple of weeks which saw David and I hit the road to Los Angeles, California and then immediately flip the other way and head to Toronto, Ontario.  I love travel, I love being on the road and love to serve those who need help and it doesn’t matter where they are physically located.  Service is what matters and helping those in need of quality support is my personal number one priority.  Travel puts strains on the level of commitment I promise the clients I serve, so this week is a catch up week on my commitments.

Commitment…what a huge word.  Many say they are committed to a cause, their careers or their family.  But, even more who say they are never truly demonstrate it.

What is commitment? Is it getting up at 5 AM and getting two blog posts done for clients before 6 AM?  Is commitment ensuring your son’s sunburn is OK?  How about your spouse? Is ensuring the needs of the family are taken care of…commitment?  Of course all of the above are great examples of commitment and where we need to be committed.

I am not going to discuss spousal, family, church etc in this post…I would rather keep it on a professional level.  Your business and the success of your business.  We all know that marketing your business, starting a blog, ensuring your sales funnel is healthy and having happy customers all takes commitment but how do you manage this commitment.  Like I said earlier there are many of your peers who pay lip service to the word commitment and never truly understand or really want to know what it really means.

Since I work with small business owners across Canada and the US each day on social media marketing and online success…allow me to slip back into my own comfort zone here.  Social Media success takes 100% commitment.  Like anything in business you can’t go halfway and expect success.  It just isn’t going to happen…just like customer service, you need to commit to servicing your clients in order to truly have success in the relationship.

Here are a few tips to help you with committing to your social media success:

1. Develop a plan and stick to the plan – If it is blogging three times a week commit to it.  If it is tweeting four times a day, then do it.  You need to have a plan and then stick to the plan.
2. Schedule your time – put it in your calendar.  This is part of your business and must be scheduled and then the schedule has to stick.  How many stale blogs are out there?  Started by business owners with great intentions but no commitment?  Start it, schedule it and stick to it.
3. Find help - You need a coach when it comes to this stuff.  Social Media is much more than Twitter and Facebook…do you have someone to help you?

Commitment is a big word to many…even myself, however I am committed to sharing thoughts with you each day…or you wouldn’t get this email or read this post.

What can I do to help you…give me a shout at 403.775.2205, I would love to help you if you require some support and a person to bounce ideas off of.  If you are located in Toronto, Boston, New York or right here in Calgary…it doesn’t matter.  I am here to serve you and the needs of your business.

Tags: 403.775.2205, Boston, Calgary, California, canada, Los Angeles, media marketing, media success, New York, New York City, online success, Ontario, toronto, Uncategorized, United States
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Last evening our Calgary Business Professionals Networking Group held their monthly Beer, Wings and Networking event at the Rusty Cage in South Calgary.  What a great establishment for a social networking event where everyone can come together for some fellowship and networking.  Hats off to our great business club in Calgary.  Thanks to Ray and the entire team at the Rusty Cage/Studio 82 for another wonderful event.

The lesson learned at our Calgary Business Networking Club

Social Networking requires people to be real.  Our business networking club is social networking and we are not hiding behind some keyboard and computer screen.  We are out and about in the community, meeting up, sharing stories, exchange business cards and learning from each other.  One of the comments that we kept hearing throughout the event is how real this business club actually is.  That everyone can just be themselves and tell it like it is in a completely comfortable environment.  This is a very important and a crucial life-lesson I learned a while back.  Many tried to reach out to me, especially during my “I” focused years.  We need to be authentic, real and ourselves more than anything.

During the evening and speaking with the members at the event I ran into a Calgary Social Media self-proclaimed Guru.  It was this couple’s first time at our event and one of the people claimed they knew me but sorry I don’t recall meeting them in the past.  This guy and his partner claim to do everything in the world of social media.  They will fill your pipeline with qualified leads, your revenues will gush like Leduc Number 1 and they have an endless team.  You need feet on the street in New York City, he does that.  You need some customized coding, he does that…maybe you need someone to mop the floors at the end of the night, he does that.  Can you see the potential challenges here?

In my early days of IT Matters, we gave the perception to our clients that we were their single source for anything IT related and even to this day at Ulistic, there is value is being a single source or that CONNECTOR who knows the right people to introduce in situations.  This is why I network, to understand who does what and who I can refer business to.   I still like to believe we can be a single source of knowledge and share openly with those we care about and trust (KNOW, LIKE, TRUST).  What is different about that mindset vs. “we do that”.  We don’t do everything, however we have strong strategic alliances that are able to help you with what challenge faces your business.

Do you need a sign for your office, we know someone and we can introduce you.  How about some tricky software code, that as well…we don’t do that but we have talented business relationships that we would more than happy to connect you with.  It is about being a CONNECTOR, about looking out for the needs of others without “sticking your oar” in and claiming it is all about you.

People like to deal with humble, authentic and real people. Part of being authentic and real is knowing what you are good at, showing that you really care and forming alliances with those who can help you with the weaknesses in your business.

Tags: Calgary, Calgary Business Professionals Networking Group, Guru, Human Interest, I T MATTERS, New York City, Online social networking, Social network service, tricky software code, Uncategorized
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As a new business owner, I definitely fit into this category.  I really don’t care about the machines that make this work, the software we use or the servers that our blogs sit on.  And yes Dana, I agree with you about IT Professionals not seeing the importance of the data and I have taken to turning off the guys who try to impress with me with technical chatter.  So yes Dana, this is me…

From Dana Epp…

Business owners generally don’t really care about computer hardware. Or operating systems. Or business software. They care about what it produces. The data. The information. The information assets. And they care that their business continues to function, to drive their revenues.

Too many IT professionals forget about that. They treat information assurance as an afterthought. A line item to sell antivirus or a tape backup system. And it’s a disservice to the clients they are responsible to protect.

At Scorpion Software, we are doing something about that. Alongside our award-winning strong authentication and identity assurance solutions like AuthAnvil that help to control access to sensitive information, we help our partners to learn how to properly approach security and how to appropriately mitigate risk to acceptable levels for their own customers.

And that is what this workshop in New York is about.

Attendees will learn how to discuss business and technical risk to business owners, how to build an asset catalog, and how to build a consultative trusted advisory process to generate new revenues in response to the application of risk mitigation techniques. This will help attendees to explore and find business opportunity while protecting their clients most critical information assets.

Read more about Dana Epp’s presentation in New York at SMB Nation

My note…Dana is a great friend and a trusted colleague.  I highly recommend you link up with this guy.  He is a whiz when it comes to computer security.  I know a lot of you who read this blog are not technical people and are just like me, a business owner and someone who uses technology.  I encourage you to reach out to Dana to learn more about how Scorpion Software’s IT security systems can protect your business data.

Tags: authanvil, Business IT, business software, Business/Finance, computer hardware, Computer network security, Computer security, Data security, identity assurance solutions, Information assurance, Information security, National security, New York City, operating systems, Public safety, scorpion software, security, security systems, smb nation, Technology/Internet
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And he should be!

I still listen to news radio (only when I am not in the mood for my usual selection of 80’s hair band metal) when I am driving to our Ulistic office in Southeast Calgary.  It is only for the 15 minute drive, just enough to get the latest traffic, stock market information and news headlines.  Sometimes, I will even tune into Dave Rutherford to hear his daily rant on QR77 or listen to what Charles Adler has to say in the afternoon.  That is the extent of my news watching, listening or reading.

I read the Calgary Herald Business Section the odd Monday morning just to see what new small businesses are starting up and the odd time will I read or even glance through the entire morning paper.  When I travel in the United States, the hotels deliver USA Today or Wall Street Journal or other US Papers which usually end up in a pile in one corner of my hotel room.  Goes to show that the news in print for me is just something I am not interested in reading.

I, perhaps like many of our colleagues are electing to tune into online sources for news.  Why?  Perhaps it is the grass-roots reporting, the real story without the right or left-wing opinions attached with the story.  I will however tune into my niche blogs on the industries I work with and have Twitter alert me when something happens which requires my attention.  How about you?

This weekend I read an interesting article online on how the President of CNN is concerned about Social Media.  I am not shocked by this concern from a major US media source and I am sure others in the world share this concern.   CNN and all major news outlets should be concerned on the power of social media has for sharing of news related items.  There is an old saying, see it in the paper tomorrow, see on TV later in the day, hear about it soon on radio or get notified immediately on social media.  This is where news is now breaking and you just need to turn to the US Airways crash in New York for an example of the power of Social Media in the news world today.

Today my news sources are guys like Chris Brogan, Joe Panettieri, Larry Walsh, Bob Burg – just to name a few.  These guys are now journalists in our online world. I truly trust what they have to say for the niches I follow.

Who is Stuart Crawford

“Stuart is the go-to person for anything social media. He has an in-depth knowledge of not only all the parts that make up social media, but also how to make them work together for you. He is an entrepreneur to the core and he understands that whatever is implemented: twitter, blog, rss, video, etc. it has to be streamlined so that it takes the least amount of time possible and yet still be laser sharp as far as effectiveness goes.

Stuart is great to work with and if technical roadblocks occur, he is an out of the box thinker when it comes to remedies.”

Service Category: IT Consultant
Year first hired: 2009 (hired more than once)
Top Qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity

Monica Santiago, On Page Productions

Tags: bob burg, Calgary, Calgary Herald, Charles Adler, Chris Brogan, Consultant, Entrepreneur, hair band metal, Joe Panettieri, Larry Walsh, laser, New York City, Online social networking, online sources, online world, President, Real-time web, Social Landscape, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, stuart crawford, The Wall Street Journal Online, Time Warner Inc., Twitter, Twitter Inc, United States, US Airways Group Inc., USA Today, Wall Street Journal, web 2.0, World Wide Web
Posted in Alberta Business | | Comments Off

And he should be!

I still listen to news radio (only when I am not in the mood for my usual selection of 80’s hair band metal) when I am driving to our Ulistic office in Southeast Calgary.  It is only for the 15 minute drive, just enough to get the latest traffic, stock market information and news headlines.  Sometimes, I will even tune into Dave Rutherford to hear his daily rant on QR77 or listen to what Charles Adler has to say in the afternoon.  That is the extent of my news watching, listening or reading.

I read the Calgary Herald Business Section the odd Monday morning just to see what new small businesses are starting up and the odd time will I read or even glance through the entire morning paper.  When I travel in the United States, the hotels deliver USA Today or Wall Street Journal or other US Papers which usually end up in a pile in one corner of my hotel room.  Goes to show that the news in print for me is just something I am not interested in reading.

I, perhaps like many of our colleagues are electing to tune into online sources for news.  Why?  Perhaps it is the grass-roots reporting, the real story without the right or left-wing opinions attached with the story.  I will however tune into my niche blogs on the industries I work with and have Twitter alert me when something happens which requires my attention.  How about you?

This weekend I read an interesting article online on how the President of CNN is concerned about Social Media.  I am not shocked by this concern from a major US media source and I am sure others in the world share this concern.   CNN and all major news outlets should be concerned on the power of social media has for sharing of news related items.  There is an old saying, see it in the paper tomorrow, see on TV later in the day, hear about it soon on radio or get notified immediately on social media.  This is where news is now breaking and you just need to turn to the US Airways crash in New York for an example of the power of Social Media in the news world today.

Today my news sources are guys like Chris Brogan, Joe Panettieri, Larry Walsh, Bob Burg – just to name a few.  These guys are now journalists in our online world. I truly trust what they have to say for the niches I follow.

Who is Stuart Crawford

“Stuart is the go-to person for anything social media. He has an in-depth knowledge of not only all the parts that make up social media, but also how to make them work together for you. He is an entrepreneur to the core and he understands that whatever is implemented: twitter, blog, rss, video, etc. it has to be streamlined so that it takes the least amount of time possible and yet still be laser sharp as far as effectiveness goes.

Stuart is great to work with and if technical roadblocks occur, he is an out of the box thinker when it comes to remedies.”

Service Category: IT Consultant
Year first hired: 2009 (hired more than once)
Top Qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity

Monica Santiago, On Page Productions

Tags: bob burg, Calgary, Calgary Herald, Charles Adler, Chris Brogan, Consultant, Entrepreneur, hair band metal, Joe Panettieri, Larry Walsh, laser, New York City, Online social networking, online sources, online world, President, Real-time web, Social Landscape, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, stuart crawford, The Wall Street Journal Online, Time Warner Inc., Twitter, Twitter Inc, United States, US Airways Group Inc., USA Today, Wall Street Journal, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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