Alberta Business Marketing

This post today is not about social media consulting in Calgary or even the work we do each day helping our clients with search engines optimization. However, keep this in mind, the work we do with all of our social media efforts and investing the time and/or dollars into a search engine optimization campaign all start with understanding our businesses.

You know it is still very surprising how many business still don’t have a business plan and even more have a marketing plan that consists of the proverbial, “let’s throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks” approach.  By the way, don’t be in denial…don’t tell people you have a business plan and then have to blow the dust off it or even worse..you can produce it.  If your business and marketing plans are in your head, they are simply dreams. Get it on paper today.

During a recent Starbuck’s gathering with one of our SEO copy editors who works with Ulistic, we got chatting about business and the various stages of a small business.  I was intrigued about these various stages and thought that I should know them because I am on my second small business now.  Once I started to understand them, it was easy to share with you all.

Here are the three stages that we discussed over coffee:

• Forming – These are the early stages in a small business.  You may be here solo or have a group of two or more.  This can also be known as the “dating phase”.  You like each other, you see synergies and you elect to jump into a business with each other.  Everyone kind of knows what they need to be doing.  Usually lots of toes are stepped on but everyone is happy.
• Storming – Enter the rocky seas.  Everyone is heads down and feverishly working hard for the success of the business.  Everyone has the right intentions but lots of things are being missed, people are getting upset and this stage is where a number of the small business relationships fall apart.   Success occurs but everyone is so busy pushing forward that they fail to reward themselves, egos start to form and everyone is jockeying for position.
• Norming – If your small business can make it through the storming phase, you will start to see that the stormy seas start to calm and everyone settles into what they do best.  Your true sales experts start to emerge, your technical folks understand their roles and everyone is on the same page.

Let’s face it…egos get bruised every day in a small business and every business goes through these phases eventually.  The forming period maybe longer for others.  Storming may be short-lived and norming we all hope can go on for ever.  Let your colleagues flex their muscle and ride out the stormy times to get to the smooth sailing.  Some people just need to know they can do it and have early success.

Having run a very successful IT firm in Calgary for 9 years I can tell you that we went through all of these phases.  It wasn’t until we had some outside help that allowed us to figure out the norming phase.  The phase where roles and job descriptions are clearly defined and KPI’s are set.  Do you have KPI’s in your business? If not, how do you know if everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing?

Having someone come in to do a SWOT analysis on your business is totally awesome and well worth the exercise.  I highly recommend investing the time.

Where are you in your business today?

Tags: Business, Business intelligence, Business/Finance, Calgary, Group processes, IP, Management, market research, marketing plan, search engine, search engine optimization campaign, search engines, search engines optimization, Social groups, social media, social media efforts, Social work, Stuart's ramblings, SWOT analysis
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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 course of the past 48 hours, one continuous message was almost a centre of discussion at the SESTO show which has recently wrapped up in Toronto was the elimination of spam in search.

The other day I got to see “doorway page” spam at work. I was on a conference call and was fielding some questions about search engine optimization with a potential client of ours at Ulistic. This client has an older site laced with hundreds of links in the footer of their main corporate site and is reluctant to remove them. He believes they work and my guess is some inexperienced SEO guru told him this is what he needs to do in order to succeed online.

Well, nothing is further from the truth in today’s search world. Those links at the bottom of your page are not scoring high in the Google world and they may be flagged as spam and will potentially harm your overall page ranking. Driving off page one instead of keeping you at the top.

What works? This list is quite a lengthy one but I will touch on just a couple of examples right now:

Keyword Rich Content – I preach about then importance of balance of design and content. Your website needs to work for the reader and for Google. Balancing the design of your site with well-written and keyword rich copy is crucial to attract qualified prospects from the search engines.

Be personable – This point is very important. You need to be personable online. Blogs and social media are wonderful ways your business can “have a face” online. Using Facebook, Twitter, video and blogs are key important personable tools all business must embrace.

There is more to life than self-serving links, especially spam-filled self-serving links…this is from the horse’s mouth and was shared with us SEO professionals at the Search Engine Strategies show in Toronto. Stop the cycle of pages filled with spam.

Get personable and educated your followers. Share your insight and share your knowledge and you just may rise to the top of the table.

My company Ulistic works with business across Canada understand SEO, social media and the importance of doing business online today. Give us a ring at 403.775.2205 with any questions you may have.

Tags: 403.775.2205, canada, Computing, Doorway page, E-mail spam, google, Google Inc., Google search, important personable tools, Internet Marketing, main corporate site, search engine, search engine optimization, search engines, search world, social media, Spam, Spamming, Technology/Internet, toronto, Twitter Inc, ulistic, website, World Wide Web
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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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Thanks to the team at Varvid.com for a great video on our solutions being offered by Ulistic to the IT services and managed IT provider community.  Aaron Booker caught up with a number of the firms within the Heartland Tech Group (HTG) partner community who Ulistic is privileged to help with their social media, search engine optimization and web marketing strategies.

Do you need help with your social media marketing? Does you IT firm need help getting up on page one of Google? How about understanding the competitive landscape?

Ulistic has many services to help your technology support gain a competitive edge and help you get found on the search engines.

Interested in learning more, call Stuart at 403.775.2205

Tags: 403.775.2205, Business/Finance, Computing, google, Google Inc., Human-computer interaction, Hypertext, Mobile Payment, search engines, small business technology, social media marketing, Strategic management, technology support, Technology/Internet, World Wide Web
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