Alberta Business Marketing

As the world continues to struggle with a social media definition, anxiety is building at an alarming rate on how your small business can leverage social media.  Almost everyone I speak with during my travels right here in Calgary but across our entire client base is challenged with these same thoughts.

How can we really use social media and how can we profit from the use of social media?

These questions are fantastic and genuine.  We can measure some marketing and some companies are spending thousands of dollars on marketing that doesn’t work with no real measurement.  I would be better off sometimes driving down Deerfoot Trail here in Calgary and throwing my business cards out the window.  Oh yeah, and then trying to follow up with every one who picked one up off the side of the freeway.

Concern and the pursuit of figuring our social media, tough economic times and constant bombardment from gurus is causing more and more social anxiety to occur.  Leaving Small Business owners to feel like their heads are going to explode.  They won’t explode and you can always call me if it feel like it will.

It is no secret that communication strategies are evolving.  Some may see this as change while others see it is a natural evolution on how people communicate.  I believe most people are resistent to change as well.  They don’t like it, maybe they don’t accept it and it could be the alarming pace of change that may also lead to anxiety throughout Canadian business.

After all, we had telephones, fax machines, cell phones, email, cell phone with email and now social media platforms.  Change is all around us.

Is the rate of change that is fueling the anxiety or even adoption of social media in the workplace?

I am shocked every time I learn about a firm who block services like Facebook, Blogs, Twitter from their employees?  Why?  Are you position them to fail in one of most critical parts of your business.  Creating rapport and communicating with clients, customers, prospects and the community?

Recently, I learned of a friend who left his Calgary car sales job because his employer wouldn’t allow him to use these new social media tools to help build his following and use social media services to increase awareness about the cars the dealership was looking to sell into the Calgary market.  He was told that he had to do this work from home and the dealership wouldn’t allow it on their business network.  I am not sure if you are aware how car sales work?  The hours are long and you are exhausted at the end of the day. Plus it is very competitive.  Any leg up may just be the advantage they were looking for.

Did this lead to social anxiety?  You bet!  Someone who wants to take it to the next level and an organization that doesn’t back it.

Here is the way I see it.  Social Media is here to stay.  Each and every day social media services are weaving their way into the fabric of our communications.  Definitely at home and now moving into the workplace.  Don’t get hung up on the tools is something I coaching our Ulistic clients on.  The tools may change but the core philosophy doesn’t.  Look at your cell phone, it doesn’t matter if it is an iPhone, HTC, Blackberry – the core principles are in place.  Do you have anxiety over your mobile phone?  For most no, why?  It is part of the way we communicate today and so will social media…it will become part of the way we communicate.

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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: Anxiety disorders, Anxiety/Uncertainty Management, Calgary, car sales, car sales job, cell phones, cellular telephone, Facebook Inc, Health Tech Corporation Limited, Human behavior, iphone, Labor, media definition, media platforms, media services, Mobile phone, Phobias, Psychology, Social anxiety disorder, Social information processing, Social Issues, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, Social psychology, Technology/Internet, Twitter Inc
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Tags: bob burg, Business, Business Success, Business/Finance, Calgary, canada, dallas, EMMY award, Human Interest, jeffrey gitomer, Scott Schilling, Shawne Duperon, Social Media Ventures Inc, speaker, Wisconsin
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Are we at a major crossroads in business marketing?

I think we are at a critical junction in marketing, especially those focused on the online space and developing platforms.  Given all the challenges facing popular online networking services in the past week and the average Joe’s potential loss of trust towards online services, will it slow down the rapid advance that we have seen lately in the entire social media space?

Social Media is business can go one of two ways, it will either skyrocket or cave in.  The next few months will be crucial in determining the direction the social side of online marketing goes.

It does all begin with Trust

There are similarities between social media and the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland.  Eyjafjallajökull spewed ash for week and disrupted airspace over the North Atlantic and Europe.  Social Media is not so different.  There are many “Human Volcanos” spewing disruptive ash of their own and causing people to shut down or divert to other avenues. When you combine this with the recent privacy issues, does social media marketing have the potential of moving in the same direction as traditional marketing?

How will social media and business co-exist? This is something I spend most waking work moments striving to figure out and achieve here in the Canadian market.  Today, I am blessed to be speaking about “Trust Marketing” at the Alberta Association of Library Technicians 36th Annual Conference.  Trust Marketing is all about positioning yourself as a trusted business advisor who at least practices the 5 principles shared by Bob Burg and John David Mann in the Go Giver parable.

Trust Marketing is all about delivering value within your target marketing and community without being concerned if you are going to loss the deal or someone is going to steal your thoughts.  Here is a secret folks, all the knowledge you have is simply a Google search away, so we need to get over the fact that we know it all.  It is ok to give away knowledge to those seeking what you know, this is where the “law of value” kicks in.  You can read the 5 laws here.  What you will find is the more you give away in value and the better you serve folks in your business community, the higher your income will eventually be.

We all must be extremely open to sharing and this is the only way in my opinion social media marketing and business will work together. Business owners need to share and share often.  I have always been open to sharing information even with my so-called competitors (often beaten up by my co-workers as well about this) in the marketplace and especially with those looking to do business with us.  I think it is critical in the “feeling out phase” to be completely open and not hide a single thing.  Clients and prospects are not dumb, they know when you are holding back the goods and they appreciate it when you are open and serve them.

If your website, social media activities and online market are about sharing information, teaching people and offering insight you will be fine in the online world.

Can social media and business co-exist? What will it take for trust to shine through online?  What information do you trust more?  As a business owner, can you leverage “Trust Marketing”?

Tags: Alberta Association of Library Technicians, bob burg, Business, Business Success, Business/Finance, Europe, Iceland, Internet Marketing, John David Mann, Library Technicians, Man-Made Disaster, media marketing, media space, Natural Disaster, North Atlantic, North Atlantic and Europe, online networking services, online space, social media marketing, Social Media Ventures Inc, trust, trusted business advisor
Posted in Business Marketing, Marketing, Online Marketing | | Comments Off

I am flowing a very interesting discussion on one of my LinkedIn groups which focuses on Social Media.  The question raised by one of our members was on “what makes or what qualifications does a social media administrator require?”  Interesting question since the person asking the question has a title of “Certified Social Media Strategist”.  I was shocked to hear that there is actually a program for a Certified Social Media Strategist.  It is provided by Social Media Academy.  Very interesting.

Back to the question at hand, what skills or requirements does a social media administrator need to have?

Does business acumen matter?

How about a marketing degree or equivalent career history?

What risks does your business take by having someone who doesn’t get it?

I believe that alignment with the overall marketing strategy of the business is crucial, social media doesn’t stand on its own for many companies.  It is very important but the company can’t rest everything on the modern tools of the day.  Most businesses today who are looking at or implementing social media are not dumping their existing or proven marketing or communication activities.  The successful organizations continue to send postcards, making phone calls and hosting meetings. Their social media activities play a supporting role in many of the activities of the corporation including marketing, corporate communications, customer support and forming strong business networks.

Alignment is critical to the overall success of social media into your business.  Does your social media administrator need to understand where they stand in the pecking order?

Social Media is just another spoke in the wheel of your business.

What about maturity, is this important? Would you rather have someone who has a proven track record in your industry or someone new.  Everyone has to start somewhere but when it comes to maturity I mean you don’t want to risk having someone, regardless of age, tweeting what they had for breakfast on your company Twitter account.

Is social media deeper than Facebook and Twitter? What is the depth of knowledge of your social media administrator?  Do they have press contacts or know where the industry or your clients go to research information?  Is your administrator’s depth of Social Media knowledge stop at Facebook or Twitter?

How about thinking out of the box? In other words, creativity!  Can your social media administrator come up with creative solutions to enhance your company’s reputation or ability to serve your clients better?

What about the size of their ears? Well, not physically.  Can they listen to what is going on around then.  What is happening in the marketplace?  How about understand what news Bloomberg is reporting and what it means to the organization.  Can they listen and then approach the leadership to formulate a response or plan to seize opportunities which may exist.

Lots of stuff to consider.

If you would like to engage with the Social Media group on LinkedIn and our discussion, click here.

Tags: administrator, Blog hosting services, Bloomberg L.P., Business/Finance, Certified Social Media Strategist, creative solutions, Facebook, Facebook Inc, linkedin, LinkedIn Ltd, Online social networking, Social information processing, Social Issues, social media, Social Media Academy, social media administrator, Social Media Strategist, Social Media Ventures Inc, The Facebook Era, Twitter, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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The Internet and social media is definitely the Wild West.  Actually it is worse than the wild west.

You know what it reminds me of?

If I reflect back around 2004/2005 when I first started to attend Harry Brelsford’s SMB Nation at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA.  There was a buzz back then in the early talks about Managed IT Services that continues on today.  Should I be focused on managed services?  How do I do it?

Now for my friends outside the IT industry, managed services was a way to charge a business a flat rate for providing IT tech services instead of billing by the hour or selling a small business a retainer type of service and drawing down on that retainer.  Managed Services introduced new concepts and spun a whole new industry of companies selling products and services to those of us who provided the actually service.  Some did well, while some lost focus and actually suffered and if they just kept their original business plan instead of buying into the hype…perhaps would have done well.

The introduction of Managed Services caused a tremendous amount of chaos in the technology industry that continues today. Almost five years later there are still discussions on,  what tool do you use?  How do you do this? How do you do that?  These questions were the norm and my team at IT Matters, back in the day didn’t have everything nailed down tight (nor did we really care) with regards to managed services and we actually did a pretty poor job at it compared to others…but you know something, compared to others where it mattered the most, we were profitable and continued to inch closer to that $5M in sales number before my departure in late 2008.

Is Social Media and Internet Consulting going that way and should I take what I learned with IT Matters and apply it again?

I read a thread recently on the Social Media Today LinkedIn group that brought back the nightmares or memories of 2004/2005 SMB Nation events, depending on the way you look at things.  There is an ongoing debate on how much to charge (seen this with managed services) organizations for your services.  Discussions about tools to measure success (see them as well) and how to charge clients (been there, done that).  Plus, there are new organizations out there spinning up to sell tools, products and coach social media consultants on how to do their jobs better.

What are we doing at Ulistic?  What I have always done…focus on our clients and their needs first.

True, you can fix what you don’t measure.  But don’t we have tools already to measure success online.  I read an article by my friend Denise Deveau on Google Analytics and a flower shop in Toronto where this retail store in the GTA is using something as simple as a Google tool to measure the success of their business.  What can I share with my colleagues in the social media business…focus on the needs of your clients first (they are your oxygen mask) and then put on the mask of the person beside you (your business).  Use the tools out there but don’t get hung up on them and when you decide on one, stick with it.  The other big thing about Managed IT services is how easy people changed tools and services and dropped 50K.

Tags: Business/Finance, companies selling products, Computing, Denise Deveau, google, Google Inc., Harry Brelsford, Human-computer interaction, Hypertext, I T MATTERS, Internet Consulting going, media, media consultants, Microsoft Campus, Microsoft Corporation, Mobile Payment, redmond, retail store, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, tech services, technology industry, Technology/Internet, toronto, USD, Washington, World Wide Web
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