This past week I have been working with a fellow Heartland Tech Group member from the Philadelphia, PA area and leader in the Philadelphia Small Business Computer Support market, Jobecca Technology Group.  Michael and I have known each other for a couple of years now and it wasn’t until this past month we decided to work together and what a pleasure it is to have Michael on board as a client with Ulistic.  Today, Ulistic is assisting Michael in taking his web marketing and overall web strategy to a new level.  So far, so good and it is awesome to have this HTG member as a client of our Calgary based Social Media Consulting and Online marketing organization, Ulistic.  Need help 403.775.2205.

See Jobecca’s new Philadelphia Business Computer Support blog today.

I learn from my clients just as much as I hope they learn from my experiences from us working together and with Jobecca, no exception to this rule occurs.  Michael and I share a very close friend

Not sure, ask Varvid’s Aaron Booker from Bellingham, Washington. This Pacific Northwest technical guru recently packed in his MSP business in Bellingham to purely focus on what he loves to do..shoot video and work with people…almost similar to my story. Aaron now focuses on his passion of helping IT consultants, computer vendors and others in the technology industry tell their story through the lense of his Varvid business.  Learn about Aaron’s Social Media Video product at http://www.varvid.com.  We can’t forget about Drew and Mike as well…critically parts of the team.

What I truly admire about Aaron is his passion for being a Go-Giver.  This guy has the energy of an ox with endless amounts of energy, drive, determination and a heart of pure gold.  He never sleeps and the smile on his face proves it.

Aaron was a founding member of HTG3 with me back in November 2006.  I still remember meeting him and the rest in Council Bluffs, Iowa when I snuck away from IT Matters for a couple of days (Tony and Rob had no idea) to get involved with an organization that would eventually change my life and the way I see the world.

This post may ruffle a few feathers especially here in our Calgary Social Media consulting world.  But what the heck, sometimes I learn from Vladville and gotta upset the apple cart from time to time.  I am only writing this because I care enough about Canadian small business to raise a flag on all the “so-called” gurus out there ready to take your money and give you nothing in return.  Buyer Beware and do your homework before giving your credit card number or writing a cheque.

How does the average Canadian small business see Social Media? What does your business think of those feverishly running around or continuous tweeting looking to pitch their services?  $100 off a strategy session here and promises to manage a company’s social media there. There is still a lot of promises about experts looking to fill the pipelines of Canadian small business with endless referrals become of their social media activities.

Being a small business owner and working in our vibrant Calgary market is truly exciting.  I can’t think of any other market that I would want to own a business in.  My friends at SOHO came through Calgary on June 2nd for their annual trade show and conference.  The Small Office, Home Office event is one of the must attends for Calgary and area small business.  Ulistic had the pleasure of sponsoring this year’s event, sharing our story as an exhibitor and also being the closing speaker.

It was great to be the closing speaker. jokingly we said that Ulistic was the headliner for the 2010 SOHO event.   I spoke on “The New CRM – Managing Your Reputation Online Is CRUCIAL“.  It was a talk on what small business can do to monitor their reputation online.  Reputation Management is very important for business especially when it is so easy for business to fall victim to a malicious person or an upset customer who turns to the web to voice their frustration or seek their attention they crave.  

I was reading a very interesting online article from my very good friend in New York state this morning.  Joe Panettieri is a trusted colleague, friend and someone I take my guidance from when it comes to blog writing, social media and online marketing.  Joe runs a few very successful blogs focused on the IT services industry where he shares news, trends, observations  and a number of other creative topics focused in the vibrant information services world.  Joe has carved out a niche.

In one of his recent blog posts, Joe asks the question “Small Business Social Media: A Noisy Waste of Time?”

This got me thinking in the very early hours about my most recent 24 hours and how my online social media has worked.  In the past 24 hours I was interviewed by “The Canadian Employer” magazine on social media in Canada plus Ulistic is very fortunate to be working with another successful REALTOR in Calgary.

Which word do you like better – Productivity or Efficiency?  I would like to make a guess, but I believe it really depends on where you sit at the boardroom table.  Owner, Manager or Employee.

Business Owners across most parts of North America are craving productivity from their employees but are also looking for efficiencies and areas to save money in the workplace.  Flip the table around to the employee and they are scared to death of the word “productivity”, especially at work.  Why?  According to many business consultants and regular joe-blow employee I have spoken with over the past few months, productivity means that they are required to work even harder.  Many people are working hard enough to pick up on the slack.   On the flip side and during the same conversion.  When the word “efficiencies” are used at work this provides an opportunity to work smarter?

Would love to hear what you think?

Hello from San Antonio and the CompTIA Breakaway conference at the beautiful JW Marriott Resort.

Over the past two days I have been hanging with the team at MSP University during their ongoing Bootcamp running in parallel with the CompTIA Breakaway event.

I have been very fortunate to have been invited by MSP University to speak at their boot camp on the importance of marketing for Managed Services Providers and primarily online marketing.

Over the past two days I shared some of the tips and tricks for success with social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn plus had the luxury of sitting on a panel with three other leaders in the MSP marketing world.

As the dust settles from Breakaway, I will start sharing my key learnings…like any other conference the days are long and nights short.

If you have not read this book yet, stop reading this blog and run down to your nearest Chapters, Indigo or Borders store and get it.

I need to thank my good friend and fan of Ulistic, Dr. Leslie Roberts from GoForth Institute for recommending this book to me.  Thanks Leslie, you haven’t seen how much it has impacted my life yet.

Over the next few days, I will be sharing some key takeaways from Seth Godin “Tribes”. I have a few pages marked and ready for commentary.

First, if you have it, turn to page 96 and about half way down the page you will find this paragraph.

“The last person to leave the current record business won’t be the smartest, and he won’t be the most successful either.  Getting out first and staking out the new territory almost always pays off.”

Wow, is all I have to say.

Now it is time to forget about those expense, complex and perhaps unreliable network servers for simply sharing information amongst members of your team!  Small Business now has a robust, easy to manage, pain-free solution to manage their day-to-day sharing of information across team members everyday.  During a recent trip to Tampa, my partner David stumbled upon a fantastic solution that solves most of our file sharing challenges and at a price that fits our business budget.

Have you heard of Dropbox?

Dropbox is a web-based file storage, online backup and synchronization platform for small business and also can scale to support larger teams.  Dropbox was easy to install and flexible enough to support our small business needs.  No complex setups, no super high IT costs for a simple service like sharing information and we have the peace of mind knowing our business information is safe and sound, accessable wherever our travels take us and our overall cost of ownership is next to nothing.