Alberta Business Marketing

One of things I miss about not being at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner conference besides not being able to see all my buddies from Microsoft and through the partner channel is all the great announcements that come from this annual pilgrimage from Microsoft Partners.

I tuned into Steve Ballmer’s keynote address on Digital WPC this morning just in time to hear the announcement of Windows 7 Slate amongst all the talk of the cloud (FY2011 is going to rock).  Microsoft is getting into the iPad type game with full force.  I kinda thought they would and no better place to announce it.  WPC I heard has over 14,000 delegates in attendance this year.

If you don’t think the cloud is for real…watch the keynote address from Steve Ballmer.

This will be my only year off from WPC.  I look forward to WPC2011 in Los Angeles.

My good friend and fellow blogger Karim from Techvibes summed up the announcement on his blog.

This year one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates.

They’ll come with keyboards, they’ll come without keyboards, they’ll be dockable, there’ll be many form factors, many price points, many sizes.  But they will all run Windows 7. They will run Windows 7 applications. They will run Office.

They’ll (the tablets or slates as Ballmer calls them) come from the people you would expect — from Asus, from Dell, from Samsung, from Toshiba, from Sony.

I can’t wait to see one and compare it to my iPad.  I do love my iPad but it has limitations when it comes to working on documents.  If the Slate will run Office, I may just switch.  After all, Office is the make or break application for me.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.

Tags: Blogger, Computing, iPad, microsoft, Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Partners, Technology/Internet, World Wide Web
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Last week our team from Ulistic met with the great folks at MSP University in Garden Grove, California.  Together, we started to carve out what will become an awesome relationship.  MSPU is one of the leading managed services firms globally and the clients they work with are market leaders and enjoy the fruits of the hard work. I have personally known Erick Simpson and Gary Beechum for a number of years, they are rock solid guys and the entire team at MSPU is built on the same core values Gary and Erick bring to the table.

During our chat last week we got looking at Facebook Marketing and how businesses can leverage Facebook to market their offerings.  It is no secret that Facebook is growing.  Their recent partnership with Microsoft BING has shot Facebook up to the 6th most popular search engine.  One in Four page views on the Internet is Facebook related and the average person spends anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour on Facebook each day.  Still many question Facebook’s effectiveness in the market place.

During our time with MSPU, a number of ideas were discussed, but it was this fact amongst all the others that kind of surprised me when I stumbled upon it.  There are almost as many Facebook users in California that what there is in the entire country of Canada.   This is no secret really, we have heard for years that there are just as many people in one state in the US than what we have in Canada.  15.4 million Facebook users in Canada and almost 15.5 in the entire state of California.  What does this mean for business?

Does marketing on Facebook now make sense to your business?

If you look at the numbers closely, the 15 million or so folks from either California or Canada represent about 50% of the population.  That represents a good portion of the Canadian or Californian landscape uses Facebook.  Pretty impressive.

Are you leveraging this to get your message out there?
How can you use Facebook to market your business?

There are many ways to do this from Pay-Per-Click or Pay-Per-Impression ads, Facebook Pages and regular interaction with people.  Engagement with folks on Facebook, talking with your community, the people in your network and simply serving the market.

Do you need to know more about how to create a Fan Page that sings?
Want to know how to engage with Facebook?

I invite you to reach out and let’s have a chat about how you can use Facebook right now.

There are a number of opportunities and Facebook can be another important channel for you to help with your marketing.  You know the old saying about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION or what Wayne Gretzky has always said “skate to where the puck is going, not where it is”.

Need a hand to figure it out…visit my Execute On Facebook or Marketing On Facebook page and take the first step in creating a marketing strategy for Facebook today.

Tags: Blog software, Business Partnership, California, canada, Criticism of Facebook, Erick Simpson, Facebook, Facebook features, Facebook Inc, Garden Grove, Gary Beechum, Human Interest, LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION, Microsoft BING, MSP University, Online social networking, search engine, Social information processing, Technology/Internet, United States, wayne gretzky, web 2.0, World Wide Web
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Join David and I as we review “Producing Your Own YouTube Videos for Business” This Ulistic webinar will explore the compelling reasons why delaying an Internet marketing video strategy online may leave you in the dust on search results.

Our team from Ulistic will discuss some of the tools necessary to produce semi-professional video and how to do basic editing for the web. Finally we will review creation of your YouTube channel and how to post your new videos.  Tune in and invest an hour on how to step up your online marketing today.

Take ownership of your online video marketing. The trend of Internet delivered video is here, are you ready?

Then finally we will briefly discuss optimization of your Video to help it perform on the Worlds second most frequented search engine – Youtube.

Register online today – Producing Your Own YouTube Videos for Business webinar.  Live Noon Eastern/9 AM Pacific on July 12, 2010.

Tags: Business/Finance, Entertainment/Culture, frequented search engine, Internet, online video marketing, search engine, search results, Subtitling, Technology/Internet, Video hosting, web 2.0, World Wide Web, youtube, YouTube Inc
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Our clients at Ulistic challenge us from time to time.  Encouraging us to think outside the box when it comes to functionality with their online marketing, blogging and social media.  I would like to believe that my 15 years of experience as a Calgary IT consultant helps me understand how things work technically and then I love to put my creative layer over top and see where things go.  It is pretty cool and without great clients to push us…we would never be where Ulistic is today.  Thank You.

Blogging platforms are a dime a dozen.  Everyone has their favourite.  For me, when it comes to blogging platforms, WordPress is a hands down winner. I have used Blogger, TypePad and a wealth of other options and personally I haven’t used a platform that is as feature-rich plus offers the ease of use many small business marketing professionals are craving for with all of their online marketing solutions.

During a recent Internet Marketing Coaching call with one of our clients in Tampa, FL. I was challenged by them to add particular functionality to help with getting their message out online.  They needed to add a signature component at the end of each blog post so they don’t have to constantly type in a calls-to-action or quick blurbs about their business.  Sounded pretty simple and with my experience I knew WordPress would already have something I could recommend to my client.

The WordPress community did not disappoint.

I stumbled upon this great new plugin for WordPress which met our client’s need.  The FT Signature plugin designed by FullThrottle Development offered everything they  and we were looking for to meet this particular requirement but all now we have something we can use with all of our fully-managed online marketing clients.

The FT Signature plugin provides bloggers and clients of Ulistic, the ability to append a signature file at the end of each of their posts.  Just like you would with Microsoft Outlook.  You will see a great example of the FT Signature plugin in action at the end of this post.

It is customizable with a bit of HTML knowledge and can be turned on or off when you are composing your blog post.  This is a pretty powerful plugin for the WordPress platform.

If you haven’t heard of FullThrottle before, they provide full service web development in Raleigh, NC. Thanks to the team at FullThrottle for helping us out.

Learn more about how to automatically insert your signature on a WordPress blog today.

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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: Blog software, Business/Finance, Calgary IT consultant, Computing, Content management systems, florida, FullThrottle Development, HTML, Microsoft Corporation, North Carolina, online marketing clients, online marketing solutions, Online Solutions, PHP programming language, Raleigh, recent Internet Marketing Coaching call, social media, tampa, Technology/Internet, ulistic, web development, wordpress, World Wide Web
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At the recent Search Engine Strategies event in Toronto one of their final sessions was held at the Hyatt Regency’s bar where many of the conference attendees got together and discussed tactics around Search Engine Optimization and if they were a Black Hat or a White Hat optimizer. Intrigued I was…interested in seeing all the different opinions and approaches some optimizers take in working on search engine rankings.

Being relatively new to this industry here in Calgary I was intrigued until I finally got it.  White Hat and Black Hat SEO are tactics used to help position business in the search engine rankings.  I related this to what my friend Paul Moffatt would call, below the line or above the line prospecting.  This got me thinking, what do I stand for in business.  The Go Giver approach or the Go Taker approach.  White vs. Black in the SEO world.

At about.com they define Black Hat SEO at unethical or if I relate it to Paul’s prospecting model, perhaps “below the line’.  Is operating in this manner effective?  This is a question I keep asking myself.  Is creating doorway pages or feeding industry forums with false information appropriate tactics in SEO or promoting your business online.  I recently experienced perhaps a “so called” guru SEO consultant at work at a recent trade show who in my opinion confused many of our peers with trickery and black hat tactics.

I left their presentation wondering how long it will take for Black Hat tactics to be punished on Google?  May not to long with their recent Mayday release.

I rather focus on the “white hat approach”.  White Hat SEO tactics focus on quality content balanced across the Internet.  It is about leadership and being an authority on your area of focus.  I may even break it down to specializing, picking a niche rather than attempting to be everything to everybody.  Although it maybe slower in getting the SEO results you are looking for, it will be more effective in the long run.  This is my belief.  It is sort of like the sprinting out in the marathon just to get the TV time as the early leader and your 15 minutes of fame or pacing yourself and winning the race.  What would appeal to you?

About.com defines “White Hat SEO” as clearly defined keywords, important keywords and phrases stand out and I would even take it a step further and I tell my clients about the importance of balance.   On their website, balancing the right content with the right design…this is what matters the most online.  Google’s Mayday update may just reward those who have been focusing in the White Hat space with the changes to long tail searches and maybe punish those who demonstrate Black Hat approaches to SEO and not focused on quality content.

Deep down inside, I don’t like seeing business in Calgary and wherever we serve being taken advantage of by slick salespeople and those only out to serve their own interests (this month’s quota).  This is not the Go-Giver model I have been working hard at focusing on over the past few years.  Your business needs someone who will serve you and look after your best interests.  Your business needs someone they can call on when they need help or have a challenge.  This is what I strive for and if this approach interests you, then call me at 403.775.2205, I will be happy to serve your needs.

Tags: About.com Inc, Black hat, Calgary, Computing, Google Inc., Hat, Hyatt Regency's bar, Internet Marketing, Mayday, search engine, search engine optimization, SEO consultant, Stuart's ramblings, Technology/Internet, toronto, White hat, World Wide Web
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