Alberta Business Marketing

Last evening I was very blessed and honoured to invest a couple of quality evening hours with Calgary’s vibrant marketing community. Thursday evening, the CMA Calgary dinner was held at the beautiful and luxurious Palliser Hotel in downtown Calgary.  Our guest of honour was none other that the “Dragon Queen” herself, Ms. Arlene Dickinson.  She has to be one of my favourites on the hit CBC show “Dragon’s Den”.  I was even lucky enough to have a few words with Arlene after her talk on social media marketing and how we can play the role of influencers and master our own thought leadership.

Over the past few weeks I have been struggling with social media as a tool for business, not that I don’t see the value when you have a well executed strategy but on the validity of the entire online market.  Arlene really helped open my eyes to the real purpose on why we tweet, why we contribute to conversations in LinkedIn and why we have Facebook Pages?  Again, it is not to sell, that is never the reason but it is to inspire others and to become the thought leaders deep inside each of us.  We have to be open to reaching out and sharing news, opinions, views and also to help others we hardly know and really, it is to be a Go-Giver.

Wham, that was the advise I needed and the clarity I have been searching over the past few weeks.  I think I already had it tucked away deep in my mind…but really needed to hear it from the marketing diva herself.  One of my peers asked a very simple question that I get asked all the time “How can a small business guy like myself build a large following?”  This is a very good question, and it really comes down to have something profound to say, great advice to give and not going into a corner and hiding from the rest of the world.  ”Talent can be found anywhere, what are you putting out there” said Arlene making reference to a Maritimer she just engaged with for creative writing.  You have to engage with this guy on Twitter.  Follow Jason Sweeney on Twitter.

With Social Media and all the social networking circles out there, you need to reach out to everyone.  You must be open to speaking with or potential touching everyone, not just those you are closest with.

Thanks Arlene for a great reminders and laughes…especially at Kevin’s expense.

Tags: Arlene Dickinson, Calgary, Compagnie Generale de Batiment et de Construction, Human Interest, Jason Sweeney, media marketing, Online social networking, Palliser Hotel, Real-time web, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, social networking circles, Twitter, Twitter Inc, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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I remember way back in the day when I got my first computer.  It was a Compaq Presario 433.  It was a great computer, loaded with Windows 3.1, Tabworks and a bunch of other great software.  I remember connecting to the Calgary Freenet at 2400 bps and I was off to the races.

Viruses were small files that were attached to files on a floppy disk that spread by people passing infected disks back and forth.  Not really a big threat to the average computer user, we just had to be cautious about scanning any type of floppy disk that came our way.

Wow, lots has changed since those days…

I received an email today from my colleagues at CRN Canada about a brand new type of cyber threat to hit the social networking circles.  Yes, now the popular pastime for many is now being targeted.  CRN informed me this morning about a Facebook password scam making its way around the Internet.

Social Networking Services are an obvious and very attractive avenue for password scams, phishing sites and other malicious activities which our out there just like the old virus on the floppy was, to disrupt life for the unsuspecting computer user out there.  However, these malicious and “pain in the butt” activities are now out there to steal our personal and perhaps corporate information.

Important reminder about password requests via the Internet

If or when you get an email from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social media service or website in general asking you about your password…Don’t follow the instructions. Legit companies of any shape or size would never send you an email asking you information about your password or requesting you follow some sort of instructions about changing your password.

These types of scams are nothing new and they have been around for a while.  So all you security freaks out there, don’t go running around saying social networking is bad (the same thing happened to a number of industries out there).

I am sure the banking industry is thankful for social media because the pressure and the focus may be off them for a while.

Read more about the Facebook Password Reset Scam.

Tags: Compaq Computer Corporation, Computer virus, Facebook, Facebook Inc, LinkedIn Ltd, password, Phishing, social media, social media service, social networking, social networking circles, Technology/Internet, Twitter Inc, Windows 3.1, World Wide Web
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