Of late, it is hard to not notice the proliferation of “Social Networking” icons on newer websites, in email signature and on Television commercials. Hmm, I wonder if my grandchildren will know what a television was…
On September 9, it was reported by “the Channel Insider”, that Heartland Tech Groups (HTG), “the leading collaborative peer group of solution and service providers, and Channel Insider are partnering to develop community-driven guidance for VARs and MSPs on how to capitalize on emerging opportunities in cloud computing.”
It is apparent that many SMB’s are turning to cloud based solutions (a term applied to software as a service over the internet). Big players like Amazon, Google and now even Microsoft are releasing innovative cloud based solutions at extremely economic rates or in some cases completely free. Microsoft’s recent introduction of their popular office suite as an internet service as well as hosted Exchange servers as opposed to ‘in-house’ solutions, may have some VAR’s wondering what to do next. Amazon’s cloud based services “Amazon Web Services” recently launched their “Elastic Cloud” on top of their already popular Simple Storage Service and other cloud front products. Google also recently announced the “New Google Wave” that promises to change the way that people communicate using the internet.
New Players Entering the Service Market
In the past IT services closely linked operating systems, software and hardware that resides in the client offices. The trend towards minimal hardware in the office and cloud based solutions will undoubtedly bring more competition into the market place as non-traditional service providers start supporting cloud based services. I joked recently, on Twitter, that in the not too distant future a client will simply plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse into a wall jack and be instantly connected to the services that they subscribe to. Fortunately professional IT service providers like our partners over at Bulletproof Info Tech are ahead of the learning curve.
Channel Insider Reported that;
“…cloud computing is changing the way technology is delivered to businesses. Solution providers are struggling to find their place in the cloud computing world where hosting companies, telecommunications carriers and technology suppliers are competing for the same cloud-based business.”
North American companies are innovative and it seems that HTG & The Channel insider partnership to develop guidelines for the IT industry is a great initiative.
If the difference between a web design and a web developer eludes you or if the terms SEO or search engine optimization doesn’t mean anything to you… you should attend this session. David West will introduce you to 10 things every business owner can do to acheive better lead generation online. During this session David will share 10 proven concepts that you can start to employ the next day. Increased traffic to your website is great - but the right traffic will generate new leads!
One person recently commented after hearing David speak, she said,
“I thought I would send you a quick e-mail to tell you how much I enjoyed your presentation today. It was very interesting and extremely informative despite scaring the hell out of me because I know how much work we need to do on our website. Again, great job! I also really appreciated the “no B.S.” way that you speak in layman’s terms that we non I.T. people can understand.”
Cost is $30.00 for this luncheon event. Buffet Lunch included.
Zanico is a people development group focused on driving results within companies by engaging their workforce. Their niche is those companies whose people are suffering from a toxic work environment; politics, negativity, poor attitude and dysfunctional behaviours. These all combine to create an environment where relationships and results suffer. Through a combination of communication, facilitation, training and coaching they deliver solutions to close the gap between where the company currently is and where they would like to be.
Their mission is to ignite people so each day they are inspired, committed and take pleasure in reaching either personal and/or work objectives.
Who is Steve Zanini?
Steve is a home grown Calgarian with over 25 years of corporate experience in the areas of education, communication, workforce management and organizational development. He is an experienced facilitator/educator; business coach and public speaker with a focus on engaging and motivating people to excel.
Steve is a licensed practitioner for Eagle’s Flight, Franklin Covey, PowerfuLeaders and Insights Learning and Development and uses his experiences in the telecommunication, oil and gas and utilities sectors to augment a variety of learning concepts
Steve is married to a home grown girl, Michele and has two daughters, Sarah and Samantha both pursuing their own careers as a office professional and teacher. One little know fact is that Steve left the corporate environment after 25 years and at the tender age of 45 and started his own successful electrical company however age and environment drew him back into the white collar world.
Introductory Blackberry Training for Calgary Business Owners and Small Business Entrepreneurs.
3 Secrets to Unlock the inner expert in you!
Bulletproof’s Blackberry Boot Camp, 3 Secrets to unlock the Blackberry Genius in you. This introductory course will give you three new tips to provide you with some time saving features to save you time and energy with the Research in Motion smartphone. In a one hour Lunch and Learn!
Learn how to call you voice mail, secret hot keys and one other time saving tip. This Lunch and Learn on August 5 is an event you don’t want to miss. Held from 11:30 to 1:30 at the Calgary Coast Plaza Hotel, Horizon’s Bistro Restaurant, 1316 13th Street NE.
We are in the process of preparing to launch a brand new website video service for Calgary business owners. In planning since summer of 2008 we are about to launch iAmPlace.com for the newest video product to help Calgary business owners position themselves as experts in their industry.
Last December we introduced our transparent walk-on video and talking head video product at VideoSpokes.com. The iAmPlace.com product will take it up a notch. Select Calgary business owners and internet entrepreneurs will be given the opportunity to have series of video’s produced and syndicated on the internet.
This is not just another Video commercial product – no sir. We have really been thinking outside of the video box. The fact is, to be superior and compete for attention, online business owners have to do just that… think outside of the Box. These are not one off web video TV commercials. The new iAmPlace.com website will explain it in detail soon.
We are developing iAmPlace.com and the related directory of business video’s and business profiles to do one thing… bring more traffic to your marketing website. A combined strategy can not only bring more traffic, it can bring more business.
Video Alone Is Not Enough
Simply attracting people to a 60 second box TV commercial will not necessarily bring your online marketing website more potential clients. Simply put… there is more to it than just showing people a video.
The ulitmate goal being new business means that the focus has to be on an overall approach to the use of video as one of many stepping stones towards your online conversion goal. We are refining a product that combines a team to bring our clients a combined effort of a team that brings Video Production, Search Engine Optimization, designer and programmers to the same table!
iAmPlace.com is not Calgary’s first or it’s only source for web video production, marketing & distribution. The fact is, that there are other website video service providers out there that are doing some incredibly good work. As the client you need to pick the video product that is going to bring you towards your online marketing goal.
Stay tuned for more on iAmPlace.com and our new Video Product.
To Blog or not to Blog? This is the question that many Calgary Business owners are grappling with. The simple answer to this, in my humble opinion, it YES.
Blogging is a powerful way to attract targetted traffic to your strategic messaging.
Blogware, the application that drives blogs, make it so that your blog not only syndicates your message automatically, it can alert Google to your new writing, and it will keep subscribers up to date with your new thoughts. Most importantly is that a high performance blog will bring traffic via natural search and with the right planning your blog can funnel those visitors into your sales funnel. This positions your professional online marketing efforts to convert those visitors to potential clients.
Using one or more blogs as “traffic” magnets to draw relevant visitors towards you marketing efforts is an opportunity that many entrepreneurs are not taking advantage of.
Based on your online marketing budget you could start blogging for free or invest in a fully customized design to match your corporate identity.
If you are interested in Blogging, but don’t know where to begin, here are a few things that I want you to know;
Join one of the informal “Calgary Blogging for Business” lunches held every month. Meet and chat with people who are already benefiting from their business blog.
You don’t have to be the writer. Many business bloggers avail themself of a support writer. All you have to do is come up with the theme and the ideas!
Blogging can be addictive… when you start seeing your blog surface in search results - you will be hooked!
We almost all manage email, some of us more than others. A shared calendar is critical for any business with two or more people working as a team. The ability to draft and exchange documents, spreadsheets and presentations is a must have in today’s fast pased business world.
Google Enerprise will bring your small business all of this and more. There was a time, a year or so back, when the odd thing was missing, such as a todo list… well, I’m happy to report that that isn’t the case now.
Setting up Google Enterprise apps is not difficult and simly requires that our domain’s email be redirected to Goolge servers - your clients will never know you switched… when you continue to user your own business address to correspond with them.
With the core applicaitons based on Googles mail, calendar, docs and sites - collaboration is easy. The learning curve is simple enough that the average user requires little to no training past a simple orientation. An ample amount of storage space of 25 gigabytes of data storage, on my estimate, will provide about 6 years of archiving without deleting any email. Perhaps not a best practice in terms of email retention.
Using this cloud based environement also eliviates the fear and stress of losing access to your data on your own hardrive when you operating system decides to throw a “blue screen of death” or the physical harddrive rattles and burns to it’s final revolution.
We have helped clients as small as teams of two all the way up to teams of 20 convert their office environment to capitalize on the power of google Enterprise apps. While it may not be the answer for every business - at a wopping annual fee of just $50 usd per user… it is without a doubt the answer for us!
Google Enterprise Apps is a viable alternative to old fashioned desktop software that is being used by real businesses around the world - - it is our Cool Tool Pick of the Month!
I am not certain that doing something that earns you the title of “office twit” is a good thing. Over the past several weeks, after a hard debate with myself, I decided to throw caution to the wind and actually start utilizing the Twitter account that I opened in August 2008.
Twitter, it’s the simple banter of 140 character text messages, called Tweets, out to a list of other Twitter users (Tweeters) who have elected to follow you… and listen to your Tweets.
I really wanted to understand, for the sake of our clients, if there is any value in this from a business prospective.
I was sitting cautiously at around 80 followers… I started Tweeting my blog links, links to sites that were of interest and I began aggressively working to get more Followers. My account ballooned over the following weeks from the 80 follower to now over 1100 Followers.
So, what have a learned so far?
I am not trying to sell the next best bit of advice to wood-be victims of impulsive shopping via a long scrolling sales letter… so, sadly I have to report that I am not getting affiliate cheques in the mail from my Tweeting efforts.
I did effectively measure traffic increases to my blogs and marketing websites by Tweeting track-able website addresses out to my loyal followers. hmmm… loyal follows?
I did find that the VAST majority of people following me are not there because they found my mug shot attractive… nor do I believe that they find my Tweets intuitive. I believe they follow because, as I have found, to follow results in being followed. Many Tweeters will automatically follow you…if you follow them. I’ll show you mine if you…. ah, never mind.
So, who follows? The fact is that the followers are… it seems all focused on a similar goal. I think they want to sell me something. I can honestly say… I am not confident what they all sell… some of them, well, it’s pretty obvious. I think some of them want to sell me a better lifestyle, and apparently they can help me do that by taking my money in small amounts… but I sense that they will come back and eat frequently. One of them said I will earn thousands of dollars per month if I only buy their report… actually more than one of them… lots of them.
Now, as a consultant who is advising successful, real, brick and mortar type business owners how to utilize the power of the internet to market their products and services - what would I advise them…?
My jury is out on Twitter. It is early days, and like other internet marketing opportunities, the results may not be instant. We are going to continue to Tweet and continue to measure the results …then, like any effort put into marketing, we will evaluate the return on our efforts and then decide to Tweet or not to Tweet.
Calgary Entrepreneur of the Month for May 2009. High energy, engaging, dynamic - those are the words of his clients. He is a coach, a facilitator and a keynote speaker.
Having worked with Steve over the past months developing his new web presence, I can personally add, a man of integrity. Steve Zanini of Zanico’s mantra is “igniting lives daily” and I am please to announce that Zanico is our featured Calgary Entrepreneur for May 2009. Steve knows that no two challenges are exactly alike and does not offer one-size-fits-all solutions. If you can make some time for Steve, he will listen to your aspirations and immediately start to engage you…
Steve will collaborate with you to: * Create an effective team from the get-go * Align the values of an existing team * Engage and retain new employees * Re-engage disengaged employees * Minimize divisive behaviours AND * Solve office issues in a group setting Steve has successfully brought his passionate approach to medium and large organization and will immediately facilitate the development of your front-line leaders.
I look forward to the time I spend with Steve - and I know that you will too.
Visit the Zanico website to learn more about our choice for Calgary Entrepreneur of the Month.
